Molly and Mart

Last night we trekked out to the Yarralumla Woolshed for the Handmade Market. I've been reliably informed that there were 50 retailers there last night and that there will be 150 today. 50 was probably enough for us, but if you are in Canberra and didn't go last night (which is hard to believe - it felt like all of Canberra was out there!), then you really should check it out today. Think about Christmas! (Yep, still stressed about Christmas...)

We wandered around for a little checking out the lovely handmade stuff and then followed our noses to the food. However, the line was looking a bit long and so we wandered into the shearing pens and found the lovely Nanette from Rummage. (Have you read Rummage? You really must. Nan's blog is just gorgeous and will leave you feeling all nostalgic and rosy.) It was lovely to meet Nanette since I've been reading her blog for quite a while, and it was just as lovely to see her gorgeous creations.

Lily was particularly taken with her peg people and so I told her to choose her favourite.

She chose a very dapper gentleman with flaming red hair, despite my attempts to steer her in the direction of my favourite. So, I did what any sensible person would do and bought both of them ('for Lily,' of course!).

Then Nanette gave Lily a gorgeous hair clip to match her jacket and so I had to take some photos.

Well, Molly and Mart (as they have been called) have accompanied Lily everywhere ever since. They had breakfast with her this morning and then took a tour of the house in her pushcart.

As I type this, she is holding one in each hand while watching Playschool.

I am just kicking myself that I didn't buy a few more for a certain birthday girl that Lily will be seeing today...

My creative space : Lily's dress

So I haven't actually gotten very far since last week... but at least I have cut out the pieces for one dress.

Lily chose this pink gingham and I am not really a fan and so I am trying to add a bit of detail to it to keep it interesting. I was thinking of adding some ribbon and maybe stencilling a few silver butterflies on it. What do you think?

For more lovely creative spaces, check out Kootoyoo's place.

Card making fun with 'Handmade Hellos'

I have always loved the idea of making my own cards. I have even attempted it on a number of occasions.

Sadly each time I have come hard up against the sad reality that I really didn't have a lot of inspiration. Once I moved past the age at which it was acceptable to hand draw a dodgy Santa on the front of Christmas cards I got a little stuck (although some may argue that this is always acceptable they clearly have not witnessed my lack of artistic skill firsthand). I think that a lot of this had to do with not having the right equipment on hand, but that was partly because I really didn't know what the right equipment would even look like. I had no real vision for what my handmade cards would like either.

Enter Handmade Hellos. This book contains 25 projects for making cards for (almost) every occasion. It's great. In addition to providing clear instructions and a list of all of the equipment that you will need to make them, it's packed full of inspiration. Some of the projects do require fairly special equipment, such as a gocco machine or lino blocks & tools, but most of them just rely on cardboard, scissors & glue, which is great.

Here are a couple of sample pages from the publisher's site


I like this thumbprint Humpty Dumpty. Actually , fingerprint pictures are a great idea in general.


These little accordion books are cute too. They'd be a lot of work though. You'd want them to be for someone special wouldn't you?

Anyway, I hope to make lots of these cards in the next few months in preparation for Christmas. Yep, I'm still thinking about Christmas. Mad, I know.

Loving : Alabama Stitch Book

I got this book in the mail yesterday morning and managed to wrangle enough snippets of time out of the day to read it cover to cover by nightfall. This was no easy feat, but it really was that good. Natalie Channin has put together a stunning book, filled with beautiful projects that I genuinely wanted to make immediately.

Her style is so appealing to me. She bases all of her projects on recycled t-shirts, which is cool in addition to being sustainable. But most of all I love the detailing that she incorporates into all of the projects - the beading, the stenciling and, especially, the reverse applique, which I had never seen before.


I really really want to make this skirt. In fact, I found myself dreaming about it all night last night.


These journals are gorgeous too. They would make great Christmas presents, wouldn't they?

Is anyone else starting to get worried about Christmas?

No? Just me?

Image credits: from the book, but specifically borrowed from the editor's site.

I must say, Melanie Falick has a bit of a magic touch with craft books. Every book of hers that I have seen is utterly gorgeous.

Guess who

When we got our Rudd-bucks earlier this year P and I agreed that we could each spend a bit of it on some books. We have been really good over the last couple of years at borrowing all of our books from the library instead of buying them, but there are some books that you just want to own - either because you'll use them a lot or because they aren't available at the library...

Anyway, a couple of the books that I was keen to get were due to be published this month and so I decided to wait. It was a good strategy methinks, because as I waited I noticed that my wishlist kept changing. I added a lot of titles to it, but I also found it easy to go back and delete titles that I realised I really didn't want all that much or that I would only read once.

So yesterday I finally got around to actually placing my order at the Book Depository. (Do you use this site? It's bad that we are getting books shipped from the UK, I know, but damn it is so cheap!), and I then I got P to add his titles to it and send it off last night.

When I received the confirmation order this morning I laughed. I think that the titles that we have chosen say a lot about us... Can you guess which ones belong to me?

• 	The Earthscan Reader on Adaptation to Climate Change Edited by Lisa Schipper Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£16.19 - Save £3.80 - £19.99
  	Handmade Hellos By (author) Eunice Moyle Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£10.52 - Save £1.47 - £11.99
  	Alabama Stitch Book Photographs by Robert Rausch Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£14.08 - Save £5.91 - £19.99
  	Climate Change and Global Poverty Edited by Abigail Jones Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£15.29 - Save £1.70 - £16.99
  	Bend the Rules with Fabric By (author) Amy Karol Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£12.04 - Save £1.28 - £13.32
  	Handmade Home By (author) Amanda Blake Soule Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£12.04 - Save £1.28 - £13.32

---

Oh, I am so excited to for the post to arrive this week!

Dashing Dan and Bella

I would like to introduce Lily's playdough creatures - 'Dashing Dan' and 'Bella'.

The buttons on the side are their cheeks, apparently.

I can't wait until she can control a pencil well enough to draw these things.

Sunday

On Sunday we went along to the 2nd birthday party of one of Lily's friends, E. I made a little doll (based on Emily's - Inside a Black Apple - pattern) and a batch of cinnamon scrolls (recipe below). I was feeling all proud of myself for bringing along homemade goodies, but totally undid it all by gorging myself on the scrolls. I really have no self-control around cinnamon!


Lily had such a good time. The sun was shining and so we spend the morning outside on the grass. E got a trampoline for her birthday and Lily spent most of the party jumping on it. They also had bubbles, which are always a hit.


It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning.

What did you do on the weekend?


(Bread machine) Cinnamon Scrolls*



Ingredients:
2 teaspoons yeast
3&1/3 cups flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup soymilk
3 tablespoons water
1 egg or 2 tablespoons soy yogurt
1/4 cup margarine

For the filling:
1/4 cup walnuts (ground)
1/4 cup margarine (melted)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
(You could also add 1/4 cup raisins/sultanas, or some finely chopped apple)

Icing:
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons soymilk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions:
Add of the main ingredients into your bread machine (yeast first) and put it on (pizza) dough mode. When it is done, remove the dough from the machine and knead it for about 5-10 minutes. Let it rest for another 10 minutes and then roll it out into a even rectangle (about 37x25cms). Combine the filling ingredients together in a small bowl, mixing well, and then spread it evenly across the surface of your dough.

Roll the dough starting at one of the long edges and tuck in the edges when you are done. You should have a roll that is about 30 cms long (give or take). Slice your roll into about 12 slices (of about 2.5 cms wide) and place them on a pre-greased oven tray.

Cover the tray with a tea towel and leave in a warm, dry place for about 45 minutes to rise. Then bake in a pre-heated oven at around 175 C (350 F?) for about 18-20 minutes (or longer if you have an older oven). [Remove when starting to brown on top].

Drizzle the buns with the vanilla icing and then eat while still warm and gooey.

(If you have any left over then store in an air tight container in the fridge, but be sure to warm them up a little before eating them. They are nowhere near as yummy when cold.)

*If you don't have a bread machine then you might want to try Anna's recipe over here.

My creative space : bibs for a baby

A friend of mine had a baby yesterday and so I thought that I would make him (the munchkin) a couple of bibs. Because you can never have enough bibs, can you?

The bib fabric is cut out of some cute sheets that I found in an op shop.

(In the background is some new fabric that I got from Kelani. I love it so much that I may never be able to cut into it...)

Pop over to Kirsty's place to see other creative spaces.

Lily's monster

Yesterday morning Lily asked to 'read' one of my sewing books - 'Softies'. (She calls it "Mama bear" because it has a big picture of a softie called Mama bear on the back cover and it resembles the mama bear that I made her last year before we went to Vanuatu - from the pattern in the book.) She took it over to the couch and began to flick through it. After a little while she paused on the picture of 'Lucy's Monster' and said:

"Mama, I want a monster. Can you make me a monster?"

As it happened, I could. We already had all the materials in the house and so I complied. Fortunately, it was a pretty easy pattern and didn't take too long.

Once it was finished, she gave it some very big cuddles and proceeded to carry it around everywhere.

A little goodness

How nice is it to receive a package in the mail? Especially when it is full of goodness.

I have been drooling over most of the stuff in Leslie's Etsy shop for months and months now and when she announced a 30% sale I decided that my time had come. First I got a little packet of stamps for Lily (& I) to play with and then I selected a modest little selection of cute fabric.

When it all arrived (this morning! Who knew they delivered on a Saturday?) I was so happy with what I had chosen. I just love the feel of the linen blends and those elephants are just so incredibly cute.

The only trouble that I face now is in deciding what to do with it...

P.S. Leslie is closing up her shop (to move home to Canada) and is now having a 40% off sale on most of her products. So pop over there for a look around if you like lovely fabric. (She also has a lovely blog).

Merry Christmas

I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas (or Hanuka, or other special family time...). Ours was great, but also a little intense.



In the lead-up to Christmas I set myself too much work - sewing lots of presents (like the clutches pictured above - from Bend the Rules Sewing); printing canvas for wrapping paper (also pictured); baking and wrapping gingerbread; and cooking more food than would fit in our fridge.


On Christmas Eve, we hosted drinks for 30 people (my Mum's family). The photos above are of the calm before the storm (so to speak). It was so lovely to see everyone and Lily loved having her cousins over the play with (and to exchange gifts with). Also everyone came loaded down with food and drinks, and we had many hands to help with the clean up at the end. However, this was only the beginning...


On Christmas morning we hosted breakfast for 9. We sat outside in the sun and it was a beautiful morning - lots of fresh fruit (mangoes and cherries always make me think of Christmas); mushrooms on toast, muffins, and (of course) coffee. More gifts were exchanged, but by now Lily was getting tired and said "Goodbye everyone" and lead me off to a quiet place where she could feed to sleep.
During her nap, more cleaning and cooking was done by all... and then we hosted a lunch for 11 (some of my Dad and my Sister-in-law's families). We had enough food for 20, at least, and it was a lovely long lingering lunch. Still more gifts were exchanged, more beautiful fruit, chocolates and coffee was consumed, and still more cleaning was done by many helping hands.

At 6:30pm we finished off the last load of dishes and then quickly made a couple of roast vegetables salads & a fruit platter and drove out to P's parents place for the Mega-family dinner. There were at least 50 people at P's parents' place and yet more gifts were exchanged... We asked Lily if she wanted to open her presents. "No," was her firm reply. Instead she wanted to play outside with her cousins. (We ended up having to open about half of Lily's gifts this morning - on her behalf - It was crazy-talk.)

We got home at 10:15pm, exhausted.

It was truly lovely to catch up with all of our families and to share food & gifts with the people that we love. However, it was also pretty overwhelming to see (and host) so many people in such a short space of time. If only we could spread Christmas out over a few weeks...

A smock for Lily

Here is my latest smock creation. The pocket is from a small piece of vintage fabric that I am in love with. I had to reduce the pattern to 95% in order to get a better fit on Lily.



Excuse the photos. A certain little person was in no mood for being photographed (there is a first for everything, I guess).

"Could you walk towards me, Lily?"
"No. Open sandpit."



"OK. Could you give me a smile?"
"No."



"No smile?"
"No. Sad face."



"OK. Show me another sad face."
"No. No sad face. No smile."



...

"Do you like your new smock Lily?"
"Yes."



Thank goodness for small mercies!

A smock for Maddie

I just love smocks. I think that they are one of the cutest, and most practical, items of clothing out there. So I thought that I would make a few this year as Christmas present for some of the small people in my life.

This one is for Maddie. I hope that she likes it and gets it REALLY dirty!



The pattern is from the fabulous Bend the Rules Sewing book. Oh how I love this book.

A space to sew

OK, next up is my sewing space.



This is still a bit of a work in progress. I found this great sewing organiser thing-y at the secondhand shop some time back and it was previously holding a good portion of my sewing stuff. However, it sits on the ground and it far too attractive to a certain little person - and so my thread etc ends up all over the floor and in a big tangled mess. For the moment, therefore, I have decided to remove all the tempting things from this little cabinet and to take the opportunity to fix it up a little.



In the meantime I borrowed one of Lily's little bookshelves and put it up on a chest-of-draws (out of little person reach) and arranged my stuff in there. The nice thing about this is that I have also been able to fit in some of my favourite bits of fabric (the rest of which live in the linen closet) and some of my growing collection of craft books. The 'inspiration board' was hanging on the wall behind this little shelf and so now it needs to a new home next-door...

A space to play

Lately we have been rearranging our home a little - creating better spaces for stuff and our activities. As things settle in, I thought that I would share some of our new spaces with you.

First up are a couple of Lily's spaces:

A space for crafting

A space for dressing-up

A quiet space

A space for toys