from the solar dye pot

I took these pieces out of the dye jars. I couldn't wait any longer; I figure a week is a good amount of time before things start to go smelly. 

The pinks are some silk, that seems to be tearing - perhaps age. One piece was wrapped with pomegranate seeds within it, the other had moss fallen from our tree (old mans beard?) and red /pink camellia flowers. Both were in the same jar with pomegranate skin, moss and a creek rock - mainly to weigh the fabrics down. The rock went a beautiful deep almost black colour.

The purple is from avocado skin. Also wrapped within the folds of the fabric was coffee and tea discards. I also put fire ash on top. This is hemp / organic cotton fabric that I had previously (as in a year+ ago!) stitched with silk thread. There are lovely little speckles from the coffee grains within the purple shades. And little bits of brownish as well. I did put some old rusty falling apart metal sheeting - not sure if that actually made much difference or not. 

I know that I put too many different things in one pot, to get clear conclusions of what gives what colour, etc. But as it's the first dyeing I've done for a while I was excited to just be putting things in. Now that I have some lovely, pleasing results (and not just mucky brown), I'm going to start being more methodical in my process. Here goes with the journalling.... 

*note: these pieces hung in the Winter sun for a full day, and faded quite dramatically. The were not pre- or post-mordanted at all. So, I'll be doing some more experimenting with what to use to keep the colour strong and not fade so easily. I've sent Sam into town searching for some alum.

tuesdays moments

+ i'm listening to Tiny Ruins - beautiful voice, music and sounds (especially for the head space i'm in right now)

+ i'm enjoying another cup of gen mai tea
+ i'm at my dads house, in the cold afternoon air
+ i'm looking forward to going down the hill to my house and lighting the fire and curling in for the night
+ i've been doing a little rejigging on my blog - do you read this in some reader form, head on over and check out the new set-up + pretty header image
+ i'm enjoying the quiet, slow, soft moments of the past few days with my family away and just the cat and me at home
+ the weather is continuing to be gloriously beautiful with clear clear blue skies and cold nights
+ the moon is slowly moving back to full again
+ i've been doing some small starts of some solar dyeing - some pieces of fabric folded into jars with assortments of things

i'm exploring experimenting adventuring and enjoying in a quiet way. i'm feeling a creativity slowly start back again, and learning to fit that into the quiet slow (busy) of the rest of my life. to work within what i have. i'm being inspired and encouraged that i'm not the only one.
*photos are an assortment from the past few days - from the proper big camera and the phone camera (including instagram images)

::

 i still smell like campfire

in my hair and my coat and on my skin

i am breathing

barely.

today. slowly. my head in a dusty haze. in a swimming mist.

i am softly. quietly.

last night a long time old family friend..........

[i must admit i do not like the phrase past away. i prefer to say that someone died. i am again going through thoughts in my head about how our society doesn't deal with death and dying in an easy way] .............. is gone.

we saw him at the hospital.

we spoke to him

about the chana we had made - he told me to put in those big black cardamom pods - 

about the yellow breasted robin visiting our house that morning

about the pitta bird who had broken a forest snail shell on a rock outside his bedroom window the last time he was home

he laughed and joked

he held tightly onto the palm leaves we had brought

he said 

'it's not that hard'

scraps from the week

I am feeling slow, again.
Not much happening around here. I have wanted to do work on the stitching that I started last week (? the week before? days are slipping away). I was allowed to leave my stitching on the table for about a day, then the kids took over and my things were shoved to one side until I packed them up. I am hoping to have some time during the school holidays (only 2 more days of school to go), when Sam takes the kids to Brisbane and I stay here. We'll see.

You may have seen some of these images before, if you've been following me on Instagram or flickr - I'm enjoying the instantness of Instagram (hence the name, of course), and it being already up on screen and online with just a few clicks. And being so close to other people, through their photos has been lovely too. It's a different way of expressing yourself than through a blog. Short little snippets.

I hope you are all enjoying your moments and days. I am still trying to learn how to have patience with things here, and the slowness of our days (and not building, and not having power for sewing machines or much computer time - I generally charge my laptop at my dads and only have as much time until the battery runs out). My ideas and want for a house and a space to work in are jumping out of my head and my heart, and I am hoping and wishing, and living in the future - in a dream at times. One day it will be the now. For now..... I must content with now.

I am working on a new project. Something that doesn't take space in our small house. Something that I can do with my mind and to extend my creativity that seems to be pushing to do things at the moment. You'll have to wait for a while. It's a slow project. Would you expect anymore else from me, at this time of my slow living.

my mind has turned into a slow numb. No wonder I am enjoying driving along the country roads, with a teeny bit of speed under my wheels and some music in my ears - something different to the slow.

texture & colour

A small collection of some photos. making me happy at this moment {Sunday evening, 10.40pm. The whole house asleep, Ari in his bed, Mishi in our bed, Sam on the couch, Lou (the cat) beside me on the floor in front of the fire. Something or other on the radio in my background mind}.
One week left until school holidays. I am hoping that I'll get something (some work, sewing sewing sewing) done during this week and will have time during the holidays while Sam + the kids are away (visiting Grandma in Brisbane) for some more of my own work.
It is a busy last week of school term, with a dress up day for Story Dogs, an end of term party, parent-teacher meetings, and the endless last minute things I'll need to finalise for preschool.
During this time, Sam and I optimistically stupidly hope to dig and plan and start the construction of our composting toilet. Don't hold your breath about that getting done this week!

Wishing you happy moments, enjoying the colours, textures and shapes within your daily landscapes. xx
PS - if you are following me on Instrgr.am then you'll have seen some of these images before. Are you on Instagr.am too?

morphed

We've been enjoying playing with the App 'Photosynth'. Some good fun and very interesting images have resulted.















The image ends up flattened when it goes through to the photo album of my phone. When in the Photosynth album you can rotate 360 degrees. Check it out for yourself (if you happen to have one of 'those' phones).

fine, chilly morning

I am still in bed -hence it doesn't look like this at the moment. {that's our new birthday blanket from L, beautifully hand stitched from Bholu}.
The weather report says fine, chilly morning. That's true - 3degrees C outside this morn. Sam + the kids are sitting in front of the fire having their cereal (breakfast delight) with warm milk and honey from down the road.

I have a busy week ahead -this slow country life seems to be picking speed in certain areas; mostly with me having to be away from home and not here starting building our home.

I just wanted to say a big big heart felt thank you to all of you for stopping by (and baring with all this "slowness"), leaving sweet comments and sharing your life with mine. I enjoy that sharing so much more than I could ever have known when I started this blog so long ago.....

I'll leave you with a joke from my (just about to turn 5) nephew: "what do you call a fossil that doesn't work? ....... Lazy bones".

Enjoy your Sunday my friends.



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falling in love {again}

Since moving out of the city, and living here in this tiny house surrounded by all this possibility, things have changed and evolved. I mean, within me and my relationships.

I'm finding that I'm falling in love with my husband all over again. But in a new and different way. Not that I ever stopped loving him - never at all ever!

But before now we've never really had 'time' just being together. Haven't been on big adventure holidays together (not backpacking or anything else). Nor done much anything other than just doing 'regular every-day living' :: work, house work, children, shopping, etc etc. Just like any normal couple. Good and wonderful and loving times together, but always other things competing for energy, thoughts, emotions, time.

Now - with neither of us working outside the home (except for all the constant things I seem to keep volunteering for), and both children at school & preschool for five and three days each, we have time together. Living in our tiny home, and not having anywhere to escape - no extra rooms (no bedroom, study, etc) and no computers or internet to take our time away. Now we are together. Talking and working alongside each other.

We are planning and thinking, and planting new trees, or pulling weeds or discovering more ant nests around the yard. We are sitting inside watching the rain pool outside our door. We both point out the little birds flying about to each other. Or count the leaves left on the tree and marvel together for the hundredth time how much we both love that tree. And sit quietly together enjoying those moments of being part of something else.

Part of something else together.

I am falling in love with my husband all over again. In a new way.

the tree :: watching this season evolve :: Winter

 {From top. 1- Taken September last year. 2- Taken mid-May this year. 3- Taken late-May this year}

 {taken early June}

 {taken late March, when we collected the fruits. blogged here}

 {taken early February this year, when we first moved down here - look at all that over grown grass and bracken fern that Sam has steadily mowed and cut to give an almost lawn}

This tree has been a constant in our day. Watching, enjoying, being inspired by.
I've taken lots of photos of it at some times, and then none at other times. Perhaps I will document it with a weekly photo - at some stage. Maybe when the Spring new growth bursts forth; a good time to begin a new project, no?

We collected sweet persimmons from the tree earlier this year. Took some lovely shimmery images of the fruit, and the collecting people (Mishi + Sam).
We've spent the past few months sitting on our little verandah and watching the leaves first turn golden and yellow and some orange or red. Then watching them flutter off - sometimes one by one, sometimes in a big big gust of Autumn breeze that showers handfuls to the ground below. Slowly slowly. And then there were only a handful left on the branches. Like the little yellow leaf, some clung on longer than others. And slower still, until there were none left.

And then the kookaburras came to visit. Two and three at a time. Sitting in the bare branches and spying the ground, watching for worms to swoop down on.

It's been good to watch the Autumn then Winter slip into our little part of the world here, by way of the visual reference of nature around us. 

Don't be surprised if these trees feature in some new designs of ours, at some stage or other. {When we move past this phase of 'not working' - which I'm optimistically calling 'gathering, collecting inspiration' stage. Or alternatively the time of rest that every tree, plant, flower, animal, human does need at some time in their life}.

scraps, stitching, tea & the start of a dress

This morning, while driving home from dropping kids at school + preschool, I passed my dad + Sam going in the other direction. Last minute plans meant Sam was spending the day helping my dad do some building on a job my dads working on.

That meant a day at home alone, for me!

A long chat to my sister on the phone, the first of many cups of gen Mai (green tea with burnt rice - very yum). I picked up the piles of clothes those children leave everywhere, swept the floors, shook the rugs, a few other little jobs.

Then some inspirations and thoughts jumped into my mind. And here I am with fabric, scissors, needle and thread in front of me.

I'm hoping to get to my sewing machine tomorrow so I can stitch this up properly and turn it into the dress that's in my mind. Stay tuned for more.......


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stitching :: planned mistakes

I have two slow stitching projects on the go at the moment.
I'm calling them 'slow' for two reasons :: firstly they are taking me time to pick them up between stitching days and get working on them, secondly because I am working by hand on them both.

Crochet, of course, is always by hand (rather than machine) - but I think it's the process which which I'm working it, that's making it feel slower and more by hand than usual, for me. This is the piece* that I started last year, sometime. I took it with me to the Brisbane school pick-up and drop-offs, standing there waiting and stitching row upon row upon row. Straight rows, one after the other. Occasional double crochet added, but mainly single crochet stitch after stitch. I got bored with it. I love the organic wool. I love the feel, and the colours. But I got bored stitching row after row and wondering when (if) it would ever get to a suitable size to be called a blanket - rather than a big scarf. So I unraveled it. All three+ balls of it - the kids helped me to pull and then wind it all up into one big ball.
Now I am stitching in the round. It started as a spiral, then morphed into circles. It's meant to have stepping ups to the next row - but generally it doesn't. So there's a lot of mistakes. But that doesn't matter to me. It's happening. Enjoyably. Fairly quickly - slowly or not at all at some times. Of course it won't be ready for this Winter - but that's okay. Perhaps next Winter we'll have it in our new house, to snuggle under in a new room, on a new couch (or some sort of thing to sit on, depending on funds at the end of building!).

Hand stitching these pieces together is fun. Giving me the freedom to allow myself to stitch loose and big and not at all in any sense of 'perfection'. At the moment I've lost the needle somewhere within a pile of fabric, but next week (or even this afternoon) I'll find it again and pick it up and start stitching some more. These warm flannel fabrics are lovely to work with, and easy to imagine joining the crochet blanket next year in that new house of ours - despite the fact the colours won't match at all. All I did was cut the big squares (don't know the sizes, as my tape measure is packed somewhere in a box, with the spare sewing needles and extra threads) into quarters, and now am stitching them back together in different colour variations. I'm working on all reds / pinks together, all yellowy / orangey / pinks and then the blues / greens together. Once they're working into bigger squares of block colours, I'll arrange it again and see how the colours + patterns work together. I'm doing it without thinking too much, or more to the point, without overthinking it (Something I do too much, too often). It won't be perfect - but that's good. I'm aiming for not perfect. I'm even assuming and planning for the fact that I'll probably have to do repair work on my wonky, loose stitching at some stage (perhaps even in it's first year of use).

Planned mistakes, letting things evolve as they happen - stitch by stitch, row by row (either crochet wool or stitched cotton fabric). That's a good thing to do sometimes. Letting my hands work slowly, happily bit by bit by bit by moments at a time......

{I'll find the pieces I'm working on, along with the camera, and the correct sunshine lighting, and the spare moment - possibly with or without little hands in the frame - and show you the actual stitches that are happening. Rather than the before shots - before it was unraveled, and before it was cut}

*Looking back on that blog post, and seeing the drawn plans for our home. How lovely - of course, there have been at least a half dozen or more reinterpretations of the ideas since then. But always, always, with a room of my own.

patience {slow}

 {sweet pea shoots}

 {new strawberry plants - 

they now have straw on them, to keep them warm during these cold nights}

 {one garden bed at a time}

 {the blueberry leaves turning their glorious red hues}

 {our little home, viewed through the treeferns, blueberry plant, and tree waratah}

Some days around here we all wonder if we are actually living in the 21st Century. Of course, it's a silly thing, but currently we are having to learn to live within a slow time scale of life.

With :: no electricity (which means no television, limited phone charging options, short computer time) :: an outside shower (it's Winter and windy here) :: candles & torches to cook dinner (on a gas camping stove), to eat dinner and to read :: a bucket for a toilet (that needs a big hole dug every few weeks or so to empty). We do have a radio, which seems to only tune into either the country channel or mostly Triple J (which has a bit too much drum beat and such for me, but on some occasions has some good songs to listen to and also regular news updates and most importantly no adverts).

Surprisingly both children have easily fitting into having no tv. They do on rare occasions play games on our phones (if we have enough power charged up).

We are mostly happy to sit and read (endless trips to the town library, and great reads from Ari's school library). There's been lots of chapter book reading around here with the whole family involved, sitting around our fireplace - currently Milly Molly Mandy. And a big favourite with us all (Sam included) was Where the Mountain meets the Moon - highly recommended by us all!

Watching kookaburras visit our now bare persimmon trees, listening to the little fairy wrens, finches and other small birds, waiting for the call of the black cockatoos overhead, or gazing at the native pigeons circling around. Being intrigued by the call of a fox in the forest, or excited by the sighting of a powerful owl in the yard.

Slowly I am tending patches of soil, and planting seeds and seedlings. Strawberry plants were put in last week - I am dreaming of eating luscious warm fruits plucked straight from the garden in Summer. Raspberries will go in soon, and the blueberry is doing it's thing well enough on it's own (as it has been for the past few years). The sweet peas are growing steadily - I can't wait for the flowers, though I know it will be some time off yet.

Being slow, and learning to have patience for things is a good thing. Learning to settle in to where we are and enjoy the day-to-day pleasures and joys. To be excited about the seedlings springing forth, and watch their growth slowly - to imagine them in the warmer months, to think about the 60 days until harvest of the cauliflowers or broccoli, but to also just stop and watch and patiently wait for the slow passing of time. To enjoy the slow passing of time.

I know I've been talking about SLOW a lot lately, but it's where I'm at.
:: Slow stitching - by hand with a needle and crochet hook at different times
:: Slow cooking
:: Slow nights - quiet and dark by the fireside
:: Slow days in town looking through op-shops
:: Slow breathing (at times... still working on that one)
:: Slow growing

....... slow being........

right now

These photos all taken inside today. Dark inside, where I was / am. Sunshine was outside; it passed me by today.







I was sitting by the bedside of an elderly neighbour while her carer /partner went to town for food and a short time out. While it was an easy day, I am not an excellent "carer" and cannot make endless chatter with someone I barely know. The hours quietly slowly slipped by for us both. (photos are my current crochet project, I'll show you more another time and the Lino flooring at Eileen's house).











And now afternoon tea with the two little ones home from school. Gen Mai green tea. Bread, local honey and fresh ricotta cheese. On our pretty plates, saucers and cups - most of them from the local op-shops (a perk of small towns is the cheaper op-shops).

Now I am sitting by the fire. It is predicted to be another cold night tonight, down to 3C.


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better than school {sunshine, smiles, singing, sand, shells, sea}

They all start with 's', but our tiny couple of hours at the beach was better than school.
We stayed Monday night at my grandmas and were meant to head back to school and home again on Tuesday morning; but Ari had other ideas.
Me being the pushover mama meant that we ended up at the beach instead of school. In fact, I'm not totally a pushover - I just know the benefits of the beach instead of school -for all involved.

The sky was glorious. The sun was shimmering across the water in the moat wonderful way - all silvery sparkling.

Mishi sang songs the whole time. She saw so many of her mermaid friends - "my friend Mermaid Wave and Mermaid Rainbow and Mermaid Sparkle.....". A whole lot of them, though I was sad that Ari and I didn't see any.

We found a little sheltered bay part, where the waves where smaller and there were mermaid castle rocks. Those two little ones of mine could have played all day. (I had to get back to town and do boring things like vege shopping and be home in time to start the fire and cook dinner....).

We collected shells and rocks. We smiled and sang and soaked up all that sunshine, oceany goodness. Oh what a glorious thing to be able to do with my two precious ones.

It was the last day of Autumn - doesn't the sky look so Summery. How lucky we are to have our Winters mostly mild enough for some brief ocean dipping.




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about being here

The longer I stay away from this blog, the harder it seems to come back again. I'm staying away mostly because I can't easily be here - no electricity to charge my computer (except irregular walks up to my dads house for mains power). Our house is dark at night time, except for candle light and dull solar garden lamps. We all cuddle up to our fireplace, and read then fall asleep at a terribly early hour of the evening.

I am so missing being here; in blogland. With you, my blogland friends. Thank you those who are still visiting - one day {soon??!!} I'll be back again with more regularity. I do promise. 

For now it's just quiet. 

We are doing lots of yard work. While weeding gardens I am dreaming about the raspberries and strawberries I will plant, or the tomatoes we will grow - I plan on having so many that I'll be bottling them for the Winter time. We do have some little sweet peas that are growing strongly; I am watching them each day with anticipation for Spring and when they'll be big and start to sweetly bloom. Sam is mowing and cutting grass, making trails and paths and cleared area around the house and further into the bush, up to the dam, across the paddock. Finding the most marvellous mushrooms and fungi.

I am still drawing endlessly changing house plans. Ever watching where the sun is moving across the sky; wondering the best spot to build the bathroom, or a sun catching-morning coffee spot, or how to get good light into all the rooms. Soon soon, I am ever hopeful that soon we will start building. 

Working and making and drawing and sewing and designing have mostly taken a backseat to just being and enjoying and watching and weeding and collecting water from the creek. Though lots of dreaming and ideas and thinking and mulling and pondering........... Soon soon... {As long as there isn't another b****y preschool committee meeting again anytime soon! Words of warning - once you step up and offer any slight bit of 'yes, I can do that' at a community pre/school you'll be called upon to do it always....}.

Winter is here in two days. The cold has crept in, and we've been having a fire every night how. Sam is getting very good at chopping the wood and making the fire go. The kids and I go off into the forest and collect the kindling - which I am finding strangely meditative {despite the fact that my dad had the hardest time getting me and my sister to do it when we were kids. The hardest time! My kids are acting quite similar to that}.

I must admit the slow and quiet is suiting me well. I find that I am more relaxed and less anxious about things (like the silliness I sometimes bring up in myself when looking at other blogs, websites, lives, etc...). Being away from here is a good way to just be and enjoy and be happy and content with myself and with the small things I have.

{We cut Mishi's hair - too many knots and not letting us brush it or tie it up. 

The new bob cut is perfect on her, still tucks behind her ears and is easy to manage.}

{A beautiful stack of fabric that I've finally started working with. Hand stitching pieces, which I'm enjoying so so so much. Hopefully I'll have something finished to show you soon - it's actually going quite quickly, despite my messy hand stitches}.

lovely things today

it's raining again here. quiet and thoughtful mood. i have lots of things i want to post about - but no photos to share (camera isn't with me at the moment..), so instead i want to show you some beautiful images i am enjoying around the web today. {just a very small selection, mind you - there's always more over here, if you want....}

 {sweet crochet mushrooms, by Kate from Greedy For Colour.}

{glorious curtains + colours, from my collections of links - forgotten where, sorry}

{this beautiful bedroom scene, from Flora Douville}

{these peonies from House on Hill Road - they look like ballerina dresses. 

i so wish we could grow these here}

{this amazing, divine, dreamy scene from Tim Walker}

{this image from the soon-to-be released "Second Skin" by India Flint}

 {from Rummage. oh - no words to describe how this makes me feel}

*all images used with big thanks from the original sources.

{selvedge}

My dad just dropped off our mail, from the post box in town. I hadn't even realised that I was due the Selvedge magazine. A lovely surprise.
I've downed my hand stitching that I'm working on to sit and flip through the richly varied pages.
I enjoy how Selvedge has a combination of modern and current alongside history. Inspiration in each page, image, word.

It's been raining again here; overcast today and coldish. We are all still sick with the sniffles.
I am enjoying the soft quiet of the day (except Sam is mowing now; but that is necessary), and the slowness of my routines and daily happenings. I am working on a hand stitched piece, that is making me happy while I work, and to think about it being finished and being used. I do hope you are having pleasant and contented days.

some lovely wedding-ness

{don't you just love his socks pocking out....}

Here are just a few images that I took at Ben & Jo's wedding last week.

It was held at beautiful Customs, along Brisbane river, in the city. Such a spectacular location. And of course, the wedding couple were sweet and lovely together, and Jo looked very very elegant and classically beautiful in her dress. It was a perfect silhouette on her, with special princess detailing.

A big rain storm came across only half an hour before Jo was due to arrived, but thankfully it was all over before she got there. (The wedding staff were frantically mopping the red carpet outside!). It did mean there was a bit of wind and was a bit cool after the ceremony. But then, without the wind, I wouldn't have snapped these few spectacular images - clicked quickly as I came around the corner to bring the kids (flower girl + page boy), so they could all walk down the aisle together.

These ones of my two sweet little ones were taken before the wedding. On the red carpet of the front steps, and also upstairs in the little room we sat in, while quietly waiting for the bride to arrive (and not dirty the white outfit....). What sweetness, don't you think?

I love the light shinning through her dress, as she preened herself, and poufed the layers up.

And finally, one of Sam and me. There were barely any taken of us, which was a bit of a pity - the last time I saw Sam in a suit was at our wedding! The lighting isn't excellent in this one, but I am smiling... My necklace was a beautiful piece we found, at the last minute, at Beads and Beads in the city. It's rock crystal pieces, very rough and spiky. I got the lady to make an extra bit that hung down my back as well. Something I'll wear again for sure.

the sunshine and Mother's Day

This morning, after Ari went off to school, I went in search of some sunshine. Our little house sits under some big beautiful Hoop Pine trees, which cast a little bit too much morning shade. But as they are giant, and old and native and simply beautiful - the trees are staying exactly where they are. Which means that we need to move around to follow the sun.

We set up a little table, for our second morning coffee, and Mishi's teddy friends came to visit.





What a beautiful time sitting in the morning sun, soaking it into our body. Chatting and reading (Papier Mache magazine's first print issue. What lush images, styling and clothing, and sweet sweet children), and moving our chairs around as the sun moves around.

And on Mother's Day just gone, I did have a delightfully lovely day. I was sick with a head cold, and spent as much time in bed as was allowed. I kept getting jumped on by excited little creatures who wanted to tell me they loved me, and give me cuddles. And of course, I got up to sit in the sun and warm myself up. What a lizard I'm becoming.

While I was sick (still am), Sam looked after us all. He stocked up the fire and got it going again, and made breakfast and good warm drinks that sick people should drink (grated ginger and honey). And he made lunch, and dinner, and swept the floor, and did the washing up. Not sure if it was because I was sick, or due to it being Mother's Day, or simply because he loves me?






He also made a beautiful ikebana display for our table. It was my Mother's Day gift from him. Made with flowers, seedpods and leaves collected from the garden. Such a simple and beautiful work of art.

Little beautiful Ari boy presented me with a sweetly wrapped, and perfectly written card. Each year at school they have a special persons stall where the kids take along some money and buy a gift for their mother / father / grandparents / etc. They are so excited to choose something all by themselves (with some help, perhaps, by the teachers), and then give it their loved one. Ari could barely wait to give me his gift. It's a little ceramic mother birdy, that he chose so thoughtfully and with great care. Mostly it's not the gift they choose, but the excitement with which they present it; but it's so so lovely to see him growing into a person who can look at things and think through what I would like best. I do know a few mamas who received body care lotions and such.

Right now, as a Mama to two independent, inspiring, thinking, intelligent, artistic and active children, I am so happy where I am. I look around the table at our evening meal shared together, and feel joy and contentment swell within me. While there are many challenging and troublesome moments in our days, there are also so many moments of sheer happiness, giggling fun, or perfect raw contentment.





{For me, I think - I aim to be contented in life, more than happiness. While happiness really is a most delicious emotion to feel, it is fleeting, and we always seem to be searching for it. Contentment often slips up, quietly unannounced, and stays warmly in my heart for a long time. A soft ebb that flows earnestly throughout my days. It warms me more to realise I am at ease with where I am, I am content and satisfied, rather than always yearning and aching for the next high of happiness}.

This was written yesterday, Tuesday, but due to photos being on camera and me being lazy, it's only posting today.

the kids clothes challenge

Well, this is the week for Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge.

I'm not sure it's going to happen for me this week. As no cutting, planning, pinning or least of all sewing was done on Monday or Tuesday, and none is planned for Wednesday or Thursday (and then I'll be at preschool all day Friday); seems as if the weeks a bit of a write-off. Of course, I'm going to make excuses for myself, why wouldn't I!

{images are all from Elsie Marley. Top two are Mani Mina, bottom left Much Too Sweet,

bottom right from Pinterest; looking for original link!}

My big excuses :: I really do have barely any space in our tiny house for storing of fabric (it's all in the shipping container, stacked in boxes), and there's no light what-so-ever at night time to see anything, barely to read a book at all. Sewing machine is at my dads (where the electricity is), and while I know he won't at all mind me being there to sew, I do know he won't be too keen on me leaving my stuff all over the place.

I had planned on making them both a dressing gown from the Amy Butler pattern, but have searched high and low for some decent flannel fabric. I did not get enough time in Brisbane to check out the range at the dreaded Spotlight, and our local fabric shop has the more boring and uninspiring selection of any sort of fabric at all, ever. And without being able to feel the weight of a flannel I'm not sure that it will actually be warm enough for our Winter - which means barely any use buying, cutting, sewing. I do love Anna Maria's flannel fabrics, but they are awfully hard to find in Australia's stores (either online or in my local vicinity), at least not in the designs we like best. I do have the full collection stack, cut into fat quarters (purchased from AMH's shop), and I did consider getting something from there; but she seems to only do her fabrics in pre-chosen pairs. I wasn't really keen on spending $50+ per dressing gown...

One more excuse is that if I do manage to make it to the sewing machine any time in the next few weeks (months, eeekkk??), I really should be making something for Red Seed. You know, that business I'm trying to run. Well, we'll talk about that another time, maybe. {There are things being planned, planned, and over-planned, just nothing being done}.

Ari does need an apron for his Kids in the Kitchen class on Friday, and I believe that that is something I can manage. A simple apron. All I have to do is cross my fingers that I have some suitable fabric and can find it somewhere in the storage....

In the meantime there is so much delightfully wonderful inspiration over at Elsie Marley's blog, with some beautiful images that I'm adding to my 'clothes for the little ones' Pinterest collection. Oh, I'm loving the colours in these pieces - wow! Kids clothes are just the most fun.

Some time in the {near :: distant :: unknown} future I'll have my sewing machine, and my own space again to put my dreams and ideas into practice. In the meantime, while living in our little house, I am enjoying our family time, and lots of early nights to bed and reading with a torch. {I've just 'labeled' this post under sewing. I think I really should have a 'not sewing' label as well, don't you agree?}.