Let the Wild Rumpus Start .... Just 2 weeks till Miss P turns the big 3. We're having a party for her at home this year, nothing too flash, just her friends/cousins and lots of food, a big cake and of course some helium balloons! I'm going to try and stick to a colour scheme, cause I never really do, so going with lime green and orange. And going to play pass the parcel, with lots of cute trinkets from my fave shop "The 1,2,3 dollar" shop at Birkenhead - love it, they have the cutest little things, like big fat rubbers in the shape of crayons and thongs!! Will put some pics up once I've got the stash!

Posting this pic of our little minx when she was 9 months old, love looking back at old photos - in this one you can really see how orange her nose was dut to her love of carrot and pumpkin mash - I wish she still sat there opened mouthed at every meal!

busy making clothes, light on the softies at the moment - I made one the other night, on request for a carer from Miss P's Day Care, and didn't really enjoy doing it towards the end, no photo of the end result, was in such a rush to get her out the door. I've been making little swing type tops for P with contrasting band and shoulder straps, here is a pic of one of the combos, I love blue clothes (and red home furnishings!). I've been eyeing off some facric on ebay - it's getting really pricey these days, pity because I'm a cutter not a stasher, but think I should start stashing as well!!!

Halter dress for P - simple and 70's, this looks great on, but I can never get her to stand still long enough to take a photo of her wearing anything. I've made a few of these in other fabrics (none as special as this one though) an easy pattern, 3 peices, it has a thin casing of elastic at the back, which gives it a really floaty look. I've got to get my parcel off soon for beautiful use, project is complete. I'm sending it off to Canada. I will be sending goodies off to Austen from www.stripeypebble.blogspot.com I love sending and receiving real mail - and parcels are always a joy to bundle up and send.

Good old e-bay! Some hot bidding on this fabric, but I go there in the end, and it arrived in the mail in all it's gorgeous-ness today! I'm going to make a halter neck dress for Miss P and save the rest or something next summer!

I've signed up for a swap here http://beautiful-use.blogspot.com Mmmm, 3 beautiful, useful objects ..... what to make? Time to get busy, has to be posted by 7 November.

Thought I'd do a show & tell post - light on the words - heavy on the photos! Finally got round to using this fabric! I adore the pear and butterfly motif - and the colour!!

Very inspired by the old family photos posted by Marianne at applehead. Thought I would put up this one, for amusement value only - Christmas early 40's style at a Kindi/school in North Yorkshire. Look at the little boy with the hat on with his finger on balloon at the front! And the little girl with her hat to the side!! My Dad is the one 2nd from the left with the big grin on his face!

Here is the skirt for Miss P, made from the Op Shop find sheet - trimmed with polka dot orange and white - looks cute on - will try and get a photo of her wearing it today. I like the fact that when something is made at home, not only is it made out of love, but it is a true one off! You just can't get that at Pumpkin Patch!!

Hello Sunshine Op Shop Monday - Little P is at Day Care, so did my usual dig through the local O/S. It yielded some yellow today, some spu-nky fabric - a skirt for P? I think so!!! Little Italian Jug, melomine egg cups and a German tea pot. Now to get sewing!!

Some 60's glass, a couple of Jay Manby wooden block paintings, and a messy lounge room (which I know is where the eye will lead!!) this taken for flicker's corners of my home. Hardly any of the other pics on this group show mess - my place gets out of hand - though I must confess, I am much happier when everything is in it's place, and I will spend too much time nesting once Little P goes to bed!!

Received this piece of lovlelyness from Aunty Cookie - a family portrait! I'm not sure how to add link-ups, but her blog is called aunty cookie and is well worth a good rumage around! Going to make it my mission this week to work out the link-up bizzo! Love using words that make me sound like a computer iliterate old shrew!!

A List..... 10 REALLY personal things (because I don't think my blog is very personal at all!) 1) I wet the bed untill I was 13 years old (yikes!!!) 2) I don't like prawns (at all - cooked any way you like) 3) We conceived our child via IVF 4) I love my own child, but am (generally) not that keen on other peoples!! 5) I like to drink beer AND smoke (at the same time no less!!!) 6) I hide my freckles with foundation 7) I worry about my foundation making me look older than I am 8) I worry that I won't be able to drink beer and smoke when I'm old and in a nursing home 9) I worry that this whole blog business is a bit on the vain side 10) I will never let a Bratz Doll into my house - ever!!! NB: At least 4 of these items could change on any given day! (cept for #'s 1,2,3 and 6!!)

2 Paintings I'm proud to own 1) Jenny Gow's 'Persophene' 2) Paula Bannan's 'Ancestors' Both oil on canvass. We bought these both from an Art Gallery in Byron Bay, both artists are originally from Sydney (Paula Bannan was short listed for the Blake Prize 2004), for a further squizz at some really fine art, check out the website: www.byronfineart.com.au

What to do on a rainy day part 2...pinny4's three Somehting like 5 days of rain in Sydney, cleared today, I quite like the colder, rainyer weather, but don't think Miss P enjoyed it that much. I made 3 pinny's for her though, because, well, I'm not going to let mass consummerism dictate to me that I dress her like Paris Hilton! Probably only another year or so left of the pinny - shame really. Not much longer I can trim her things in rick-rack either! Showing a pic of the button detail - buttons are all retro plastic ones, ahh they don't make em like they used to!!

What to do on a rainy day... Raining 'cat-dog' (as Little P says) the only thing to do on a day like this is to keep the minx-ess well and truly amused, so Big D stuck some paper on the wall and drew a huge rocket with Miss P inside (and Kabuki the dog) she loved colouring it in, the novelty will soon wear off, and we will be back to Charlie and Lola DVD soon .... still not a bad way to spend a rainy day!!! Hopefully she will snooze so I can finish her pinni.

All Partied out... Miss P had 2 parties on top of the other on the weekend, sheer hell as far as food went, hard to stop the mass consumption of sugar (she threw up after the Sunday one, three times no less) she was dressed as a Lady-Bird, or Lady-Girdy as she says! Party on Saturday was a Circus theme, so she went as the 'Strong Girl'!!

Very much into this old embroidery - I started the collection at Christmas time, and was on a roll for a while, but haven't found any for a while. I am so amazed by the talent of the women who made these, each one is hand made - they are so intricate and beautiful. I have about 50 peices so far, including 3 aprons, which I guess are from the 1940's (juding by the patterns and colour) they are quite hard to date (apart form the Art Deco ones, true of any Art Deco object!) Aprons are harder to find, probably because they were so well used! I'm quite partial to throwing on an apron when I cook, always tempted to leave it on and do the hoovering!!!

PMT = Sewing disasters So I've been trying to sew today, but am clumsy and awkward with it. I always get like this around this time of the month, all fingers and thumbs. I've come in from my sewing-room and will argue with Big D instead. Rode the bus to Spotlight in the am with Miss P, Spring is coming and she was sitting on the bus in her skirt with her legs wide apart, hard to convey to a 2.5 yr old that this is not the way to sit on a bus. She is really into transport - lucky for me as I don't have a car!! Posting a picture of the window from my room, the japanese Maple looks a bit bare at this time of year, but I like the shadow it casts.

A work in prgress thing, going to be a floor-cushion for my neice. I've got 2 to make so will post a picture when both are finished.

We are going over to my sister's on Sunday for dinner, I've made her this paintbrush holder. Made with irish linen, lovely to work with. I rarely make patterns for straight up and down jobs, just measure up, cut then sew away, I finished this at the edges with blanket stich. I've always found genuine comfort in both doing and looking at blanket stitch.

I found this brilliant little book today: Dorothy Aldis' "looking in and other poems" so sweet!Printed in 1956. I have typed out my favourite - called Daddy! Love the last line!!

I don't think the text is readable so here is Daddy:

Our Daddy reaches up so high

We stand on chairs to say good-bye.

Every day he shaves his face

Excpet for the bristly place.

At breakfast time he eats two eggs,

He wears long trousers on his legs.

He tightens screews when they unscrew

And does things that we tell him to.

Below are some images from books that I used to make, 'old time blogging'!! The oldest one (with mona lisa on cover) was started 19 years ago.

I found this 1940's neelde book at the local OS - the good news is the needles are indeed rustproof. I love the domestic scene created in this picture - young girls learning to sew, everyone happy and smiling at the thought of that massive roast slow cooking in the oven. All in a days work! I must get off my arse and get some house work done today!

some of my fabric stash, it isn't really in order, but who has time to do that? I'm looking around for some suitable storage, this cupboard is an Ikea-in-a-hurry-job. Would like something solid that will last, and of course bigger. I'll make the time to organise this, the dream is to have enough genuine vintage fabric to fill a cupboard by iteslf!

"Venus and Bluebell Turn on the Night"! I wonder which one is 'Venus' and which one is 'Bluebell'?

Big D and I bought this as a rather ugly pine hutch on e-bay for a song. We painted it (white, obviously) and put some gorgeous rose cermaic handles on. Brilliant book/toy storage, and the underneath holds a wealth of plastic junk, which just seems to accumulate in our house!! Very happy with the outcome - and little P loves it, not as much as she loves Polly Pocket - but nearly!

Just the beginning of what I hope to be a rather sweet collection of ceramic birds, at the moment they are still very cheap to buy and easyish to find. The blue and white one with beetle is made in Germany.

The buttons in the background are all white and all plastic!!!! WOW!!!

This fella was made on request for a girlfriend, I don't use cord for the faces any more, I use felt, as i sew the faces on by hand & felt is far less labour intensive, the design of this sofite is changing all the time. I must remember to take photos of the ones that I sell, as too often they fly out the door, and sometimes - well I forget!!! The felt squares and circles in the background is something I was working on and is now finished, but I'm unsure whether to stretch it over a canvas, hang it as is, or make a cushion. hard to see the detail in such a crappy photo though! I'm going to have a go at felting tonight, from an old woolen jumper, hope it works out ok!

I really like these images of the mona lisa, i used to collect knick-knacks and tacky pictures of the mona lisa, it was really the first thing I started collecting.

I wanted to put up some of the amazing artwork from our local streets, these were taken in around Newtown/Enmore in 2005, I love graffiti it's free and constantly chainging. My two big passions in life - grafitti and sewing!

Big D and I have started to grow .... some our seeds at 3 weeks old, some culling and growing has happened since we planted, hoping to have some bumper veg soon! The rocket has been very successful - would highly recommend growing your own! I made this floor cushion for my little one to read/rummble/sleep/watch TV - made from scrap peices of fabric, it has become a fave thing in the house, we love a good snoogle.

First time blogging!

front and back view of the first softies I made - they have evolved - and so have I!! Travelling on the Zig-Zag Railway - what a fantastic name!