October pumpkin

October is here! And while I am enjoying glorious (warm) spring weather, I am thinking about Halloween, 'Fall' and pumpkins .... Well, it's no wonder with this top being one of my latest creations!

Yes, the picture is very bad, but I'm afraid it was the best out of very bad lot!! I made this using a 1976 Simplicity dress pattern and a thrifted old bed sheet (Bec, I actually bought the pattern from the Dorrigo 'Vinnies'!). The tie was a necessary inclusion to prevent me appearing to have the shape of a pumpkin, as well as the colour! And despite it reminding me of a Halloween costume, I rather like it!

This Sunday morning, I will be at the Blackwood St (Jan Power's) Markets in Mitchelton - if you're in the area, drop in and say hello!

Enjoy October, whether it's autumn or spring!

Etsy love

My little jellygnite etsy shop has been a bit neglected of late so I thought it was high time to give it some love! I re-photographed my Little Jellies and uploaded those - hopefully they look better now - more irresistible to potential buyers! ;)


I had a little helper while photographing too!

I also 'slaved' over the sewing machine today making a new bunch of cutie Little Jellies - I love watching their personalities emerge when I pop them the right way out!! (if you look carefully, you can see two mini Little Jellies sitting in on the shot too!)


And then I went cruising on etsy and found myself some new favourites! This is from my good friend's very new shop masalachai - it's a great idea and I really hope she does well.

And these are some great artworks I found:
This great plane image is from greentrikepress

Graceful giraffe from CitrusTree


Sweet berries at michelemaule shop. Lovely composition and sweet layout like an old Polaroid pic.


And this great bird collage - love the papers and stitching that's been used: racheltobertson

Happy etsy-ing!

Shadow Shot # 14

These shadow shots were taken on the hill overlooking Glen Innes in the Northern NSW highlands.

They were erected in 1988 to commemorate the Celtic settlers to the area. There are over 30 standing stones, all significantly positioned and representative of different things.

While they are not quite as moving as Stonehenge, the surrounding bush is beautiful and they were fun to play hide and seek around!

Head on over to Hey Harriet for more Shadow Shots.

Happy Sunday!

Re-discovery

We have just been on a lovely little family holiday for the past week. We visited many places in NSW that I have been many times before, but this time I looked at them with different eyes. It’s such a lovely feeling, rediscovering the beauty and value of a place or thing or person.

Dorrigo is one of the places I remember visiting often as a child. It is a little town in Northern NSW on a plateau in the Great Dividing Range. My childhood memories of this place are dominated by feelings of carsickness (driving through the mountains) and the “Rusty Train Museum”. And based on those memories, the trains are the reason we stopped here – my son is a mad ‘ferroequinologist’ – he loves trains! And I must admit, I have a soft spot for them too.

The train ‘museum’, unfortunately, is a long line of old carriages and locomotives from New South Wales Railways that have been sitting there rotting, rusting, falling apart, until the funds are raised and work done to make it a proper museum. The locomotives, particularly, are so grand and proud – remnants of a ‘bygone era’ … such a shame to see them as they are.

We spent the night in the ‘Hotel Dorrigo’, a pub built in the 1920s that is in fabulous condition, being Heritage listed and recently renovated. We had a room on the verandah that had two French doors opening out. The décor of the room was mostly consistent with the era – cast iron beds, carved silky oak furniture.

In the morning, the town was in fog (it’s cold in Dorrigo!!) but the main street was busy with cars early – it was lovely being on the verandah with a cup of tea watching the day unfold and rediscovering little gems.

... and as a post script to my last post to those who were wondering; Yes! we did have fish and chips in Redcliffe .... followed by icecreams :D

Shadow Shot #13

This week's SS is early (didn't want to miss out this time!) and it's another shot of a sweet little person enjoying the sun and the water.

This was taken up at Redcliffe (north of Brisbane) it's a picture of my cousin's little boy having a ball in the kids' water play area. He's such a sweetie - and cheeky too! So much fun! And such a lovely day.

Head over to Tracy's Hey Harriet blog for more sensational Shadow Shots - come and play!

Happy Sunday everyone! (in anticipation!)

Shadow Shot #12

Hey Harriet's Shadow Shots have been such a great idea - so many people are sharing their shadow shots now! Head on over to her blog to find out more about Shadow Shot Sunday.

This week I went out early in the morning, in the (quite warm) Spring sunshine and shot this spiky shadow shot. Spring mornings are so clear and fresh and lovely.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Springtime pretties

The lovely warmer Spring weather that has arrived has inspired me to some pretty Spring making.
With the warmer nights, I realised recently that my poor little girl had no summer pjs that fitted her! So, after trawling through my patterns and choosing from my stash, I made a very pretty little set of pjs for her.
I used the McCalls 8941 pattern (view D) and changed the neckline, so it now has a slit at the front closed with a button (Missy was very happy with the 'buttie' on her pjamas!) I used a lovely, soft op shop sheet which is printed in bands of different pretty pink flower designs. Because of the patterning, I was able to use different patterns for the pants and at the bottom of the top. Sweet eh?!

My second piece of Spring prettiness is a top I made for myself using the Built by Wendy Simplicity 3835 pattern. I've had this pattern for a few months and have really been looking forward to making it up after seeing all the variations on Flickr - so many great ideas! I modified it a bit as well, adding the neck to view C and closing the back with a button. Next time I think I'll make the next size up so it's more 'roomy' and I don't have to suck my tummy in (which I should've done for the 2nd shot mmm, nice!)!! We're going for a day trip to Redcliffe tomorrow, so I think this new top will be the perfect springtime attire!


Something that's not sewing - and some are not particularly pretty - are these bikkies I made with the kids yesterday.


We had so much fun! The kids loved cutting out the shapes (and Missy loved mushing them in her hands!) and then selecting the mini m&ms for decoration. Miss Em seemed to like to concentrate her decorating in the one spot ... and some of those mini m&ms really needed some pushing down (look at the poor dinosaur's head)!!

And I have to say that this is one of the ugliest gingerbread men I have ever seen!!! Hee hee!

Lastly, the BEST bookbinding etsy team is having their 4th book swap in which members make a book around a them and send it off to be swapped. My book for the swap is currently featured on the blog (I had so much fun making this one!) and you can see the books from the other participants too .. hmmm, I wonder which one will make it's way to my mail box?!

If you've made it to the end of this rather long post .... thank you ! :)

Shadow Shot #11 and other things...

Thank you to everyone for their comments on my last post. The wedding was such a lovely weekend and my two brothers-in-law liked their pictures a lot. It turned out that the recently-turned-40 brother has been collecting beach stones and creating little cairns of them in his garden! So the painting was quite apt - he liked it a lot! The wedding weekend was a lovely celebration with special clothes, lovely weather and little cousins having fun. I will post some pictures later.

The weekend wiped me out and I didn't post my Shadow Shot for the week. This made me a little bit sad as I love participating, so it's a little bit late - hope it still qualifies! The wedding was held on the glorious Gold Coast and we spent Saturday morning exploring the beach. My Shadow Shot is my little girl daintily playing in the sand (she later shoved a whole handful of sand in her mouth ... mmm gritty!) . She's wearing a new little skirt that I made from a baby pillowslip that was in my parcel from Jess from Button Beauty.


Also, thank you to Shells pixie kisses from who awarded me the Brillante Award - thank you - I'm in lovely company in her recipients list! Shells is relatively new to blogging and has already got such a readable and interesting blog! Thanks! I'm going to do a 'Hey Harriet' and pass on my award to all the Shadow Shot participants - it's not a cop out! I really enjoy exploring the shadows on Sundays!


Lastly, if you're in the Brisbane area, come along to the St Williams market, Dawson Parade, Grovely on Saturday morning. It's a lovely little community market and Em and Bel from EmBelIsh will be there too!

Pears and Pebbles

I've been busy making lots of fun things lately.
It is my brother-in-law's wedding this weekend on the beautiful Gold Coast, all of my husband's family will be there. So, I've had wedding outfits to make for myself and the 2 kidlies, a wedding present to draw and a 40th birthday present to paint (for my other brother-in-law), springtime kids clothes to make as well as a wedding reading to prepare for and time to feel excited about my boy's 'ring-bearer role'!

Here is the drawing for the new happy couple - these two pears were sitting on the kitchen bench, leaning into each other lovingly and I thought would make a lovely wedding drawing - a pair of pears in love! (not that my brother-in-law and his wife in any way resemble pears!!). It's a grafite and coloured pencil drawing - and I should have photographed it before framing!


Here is the 40th birthday present. It's a painting of a cairn of 4 beach pebbles that I collected when on holiday in Sardinia about 5 years ago. Sardinia is a special place for me, I have a dear friend who lives there and seeing as my brother-in-law likes the sea, I thought these pebbles would be a good thing to paint for him! It's painted in acrylics on canvas, and should also have been photographed before framing!

And now, after surviving a very sick Brisbane August (without falling ill), me and the kids are sick. So it's lots of sleep and cuddles to get better in time for the wedding!