Happy New Year!

A little sojourn to the South Coast was in order after all the hoo-ha that goes with Christmas.

We needed to recharge the batteries and un-wind a bit. Kind of relieved it's all over.

I love Christmas, but am not so keen on all the commercial crap and hype that goes with it. We did eat and drink merrily - the best thing about the whole day I reckon!

I didn't really do the whole op-shopping thing whilst down the coast, but did pop into a Salvos Store in Kiama, which yielded some beautiful embroidery.

And so .... bye-bye 08 - Bring on 09!!

Christmas Time in the City

Chair tree is at the Rocks in Sydney - lovely!

Pre-school quilt

Little P today in Balmain!

Have a great Christmas, frock-up, get drunk, fall over ..... whatever you like,

just enjoy!

See you all next year!

xx

Making, making, making ...

A mess mostly it seems, you should see the state of my sewing room, it looks like the Craft Fairy threw-up. I've made pants for boys, a library bag for my Mum, which if you knew her, is totally appropriate, it's the only place she visits with any regularity! Oh, we also bought her a book entitled "Assassinations that changed the World". Again, if you knew her, you would realise the appropriateness. I often joke that at her 60th we are all going to play 'Name That Despot' as part of the entertainment!

Hope you are 'keeping calm/carrying on' ...

Remember Rule number 3 - 'Don't panic' ..

NB: The Tutorial I used for the pencil roll/note book holder from One Red Robin!

'Hello madam, what would you like today'?

'Oh, you'd like everything? I can do that for you!'

'... and has madam had a busy day?'

'Ooooh, I know, this time of year can be hectic!'

'Anyway you just sit back and enjoy,

I've some special hair extensions,

and lip gloss .....'

Always good to wear eye make-up on your forehead.

And in my corner of the house .......

Bag for Pre-school Teacher number 1 Bag for Pre-School Teacher number 2. Parker also wanted to buy a little star decoration, so they went in too. She gave them to her teachers this morning, and they were very pleased. Insert gooey feeling here!

Vintage Christmas Cards

Found these cards at the Oppy today, 3 for $1.00.

The colours are so vibrant, and the illustrations bring back lots of memories, I remember giving cards like these to school friends in the late 70's.

I'm getting into the Christmas vibe now that the little one has had her birthday.

I haven't quite made the same commitment to handmade as I did last year,

but doing my best to avoid the nasty, sweat shop made.

I've lots to make still, pencil rolls, aprons yadda, yadda. Photos as soon as it stops raining.

Miss P Turns 5!

Party day was on Friday - so My Little P was 5 on the 5th .... here she is at the bottom of the pile up with her arm in the air, they partied like it was 1999!

Today we went for Yum-Cha in China Town, with Nanny and Poppy, then went to look at the Christmas windows at David Jones in the City.

They were gorgeous, each window told a story, Parker was transfixed like this at each window! All the mechanics were fascinating, as were the elves, gnomes and Santa's, just lovely, if you are in Sydney and you have children, take them to see 'Santa's Factory' good fun!

That's 'Quality' Thanks Santa ..

Um, I saw this ad in the local paper. I'm not sure what disturbs me more, the semi-nude Santa or the idea of a 'TURDUCKIN' (A chicken inside a duck inside a turkey). It's just plain WEIZZARROD (weird inside bizarre inside odd)!!

Birthday Dress

It hasn't photographed all that well, but here's Parker's Birthday dress, being modeled by the ever compliant plastic thing, the only thing in the house that does what I ask! She'll be wearing it on Friday, so I'll be able to get some shots of how it looks on. A halter dress made from the sweetest, softest, vintage dressmaking cotton!

Love at First Sight!

We went to Rozelle Markets today, and I'm so glad we did. I met saffron Craig, who designs and prints THE most stunning range of fabric.

I bought these 2 quality designs, but will be buying more and more from the range for sure and for certain!

Check out Saffron's shop and blog for more beautiful designs here. I must have been under a rock, because Saffron's designs are new to me, and I've been banging on for soooo long about the lack of original fabric designers in Sydney, I know my Sydney friends are now nodding their heads!

I'm a happy camper now - and my next project will definitely incorporate these fabrics, I just don't know what that project is yet. You'll be the first to see it though!

Wrap-and-Go

Made from vintage fabric found yesterday, with Butterick's aptly named Wrap-and-Go-Skirt, mine sans pocket and a little less full than the pattern.

I was inspired by this girl to make a wrap skirt, hers are gorgeous.

I will actually wear this out of the house though, unlike some of my previous efforts!

Simple Pleasures ...

I've been making and wearing these little hair clips from buttons, so simple.

The fabric I found yesterday, love the grey and blue one, thinking a wrap skirt for me, love grey!

A finished 3 tier skirt for my little one, I'd forgotten how simple

these are to make,

I stopped making them, cause they were in

mass production at Target and Pumpkin Patch for a while,

but they seem to have moved on to copying and producing

other styles en mass these days!

A Gay Time at the Oppy

some vintage bling, to fill up the tree.

McCalls Golden Do-It-Book.

Lots of stuff to make, including some gaily decorated boxes.

Has there ever been a word that has meant so many different things?

Each generation seems to take have a different take on it.

Does the dress-up dolly look demonic to you?

In the book it says she's a 'Perky Dress-up Dolly', I've seen Perkier!

I also found some fabric at the Oppy, but the battery went on the camera,

so more of that later.

'Don't eat the Brown Mushrooms'

I've been tagged by the glamorous and talented Tam from Yakiddy Yak Yak to play along with this cute game.

Go to the closest book to you, not necessarily the book you have just read, or your favourite, but the closest. Turn to page 56 and copy out the 5th line, followed by the next 2 to 5 lines.

Closest book to me:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carol, 5th line etc:

"After a while she remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands, and she set to work very carefully, nibbling first one and then the other, and growing sometimes taller, and sometimes shorter, until she has succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height."

I'd like to see what these girls have been reading:

Loz and Dinny

Bug and Pop

Hoppo Bumpo

Miss Smith at Home

I won!

I won!

Comfy & Cosy had a giveaway, I entered, and the prize was these 2 enormous, immaculate sheets .... there was so much more that came in the package, all beautifully wrapped, it was like Christmas here today!

Thanks, thanks thanks Comfy & Cosy!

One of the best things about blogging is that people really get to know your taste.

This is a gorgeous apron, love the colours and the needle work, amazing.

.... And this gorgeous table cloth, destined to be remade into something special!

Also some very cute vintage buttons.

I am over the moon!

Now to go and work out some projects!

Folksy Wednesday

Some folksy things from around the house.

I've a bit of 'retro thing' for folksy.

Not enough that I dream of seeing Big D in a pair of pantaloons though!

We are doing our orientation up at 'Big School' at the moment,

Little P has her uniform, and loves wearing it.

Nothing illustrates 'time flying' better than children.

She will be 5 next month.

Christmas Baubles from Vintage Books

I've been making these baubles from Vintage Children's books, it's really simple, if you've got any illustrated books you want to cut up.

Just 6 circles, as big or small as you like, I glued a whole page onto some card, then cut the circles, folded them (with the right sides in) to form semi-circles, then glued them together and looped some embroidery for a hanger!

Easy!! Bob's your Uncles, Fanny's your Aunt,

vintage baubles for Christmas!

Quite addictive to make.

Here's a close-up:

This gorgeous African doll made it's way into my heart and home today via the Op-Shop. Not sure which part of Africa, I'm thinking Masai because of the neck? Seems to be made from recycled fabric, and is all hand beaded. If anyone knows anything about these dolls I'd love to know more!

For The Tree ...

I've been making some deccies for the tree, these are last night's efforts, a cute way to show off some old embroidery and make use of scraps. As you know, I'm really not into minimalist Christmas Trees, the fuller the better for me, I also don't like seeing just one or two colours on a tree - too perfect, makes me nervous! I've some great shots of Halloween, but they are on the new camera and I haven't worked out how to download them yet, I'm slow with technology, but I get there in the end. We had a great time this year, there was a sense of community and all the kids dressed up and went off with the Dad's, whilst the Mum's has wine - win, win!

Shakedown 1994

I'm having a bit of a defenestration, and I happened upon an appointment diary from 1994.

I was working as a temp, doing admin stuff, disliked it, immensely, it paid the rent.

I worked at (amongst others):

Tracey, Brumpton & Hammond Ethnic Affiars Commission

Carlson's Marketing

Coopers and Lybrand

AMP

I went to watch, and listen to (amongst others):

Died Pretty (Vic on the Park)

Louis Tillett (The Sando)

The Verys (The Vulcan)

Charlie Owen (The Annandale)

Bug (The Annandale)

1994 Big Day Out:

The Breeders - massive highlight of the year!

You Am I

Cruel Sea

Bjork

Sound Garden

Smashing Pumpkins

I went to see (amongst others):

Blue Murder at the Belvoir St Theatre

Ate at (amongst others):

The Razor's Edge (Enmore)

North Indian Diner (Newtown)

Happy Chef (Newtown)

Sumali Thai (Newtown)

Betty's Soup Kitchen (Darlinghurst)

Sloan Rangers (Darlinghurst)

Lolita's (Glebe)

A funny snippet of my life, a reminder that I DID go out once - because last night it was pre-school music night, had a great time, not sure if it was as much fun as Big Day Out in 94, just a different kind of fun! It did make me realise just how long it's been since I went to see some live music, must rectify that (if I can handle the noise that is!!)

Pinni Show

Shirl, who used to work at the Oppy, told me about 'Pinni Shows'.

When she lived in the country, every Friday a group of women would get together to have morning tea, as part of the ritual, they would do a 'Pinni Show'.

Whoever had made a pinni during the week had the opportunity to show it off to all the other women! Kind of like a fashion show, I LOVE this idea, I'm keen to start my own 'Pinni Show'.

But in the mean time, I'll have one online. Here are my most recent finds!