Sunday, August 31, 2008

Now she is nine

During the week my sweet eight turned a mighty fine nine. I am a sentimental kind of girl and usually experience a kind of heaviness with each passing birthday year. In the past I have found myself looking through photo albums and sifting through carefully packed away treasures of scuffed shoes and outgrown clothes. This year is different. I feel good about this turning of age and am looking forward rather than back. This has so much to do with her.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Of leaves and hearts

Heartfelt
Love heart ballet
Heart off sleeve
Sweethearts
Do you see what I see. I have been finding love hearts. That's the thing, if you want to find something in something then you will, especially when you collect from nature. With the hearts, sometimes they are 'authentic' representations and other times they are more abstract. I came across my first hearts years ago. Heart shaped leaf like seed pods on my street and then again with the true heart shaped leaves of violets growing in the botanical gardens. I hadn't noticed any for a while and then recently I have started to find them in all sorts of places.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Tuesday

A neat Thrifted Tuesday find picked up fresh this arvo.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Soon

First it was yellow wattle flowers and jasmin and now its fruit blossoms, 3 sure signs that spring is on its way. A potent combination that can be smelt from front door to back. Soon to say goodbye to my warmest winter cardi for another year.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Pink and blue

I was liking pinks and blues this morning. It may have all started when we were making our Sunday joint of pancakes with honey and my wee ones pink gown and our big blue mixing bowl caught my eye. I seem to be having weekly to monthly colour themes. The other week all my eyes wanted to see was red and blue and a while before that it was yellow and brown.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Random bits of nice

Feeling a little stretched this week. Just felt like positing these random pics that I enjoyed taking last weekend, when the sun was shining, and that I will continue to enjoy looking at.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Thrifted Tuesday on Wednesday

I joined the Thrifted Tuesday group on Flickr the other day. It is my first Flickr group and maybe my last (gotta get some things done around the house too). The concept is a happy marriage between two of my favourite past times - pics and thrift shopping - I am thinking I am going to have some fun with this one.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Before breakfast

For my smaller one the usual morning tummy rumbles were replaced by a menu of creativity.... One of the things I find quiet joy in is sitting back and watching the children play. On Sunday morning I had the perfect opportunity to do just this. While I sat muching on toast and sipping tea my smaller one happily went from one creative task to another. It wasn't until my plate was wiped clean and I was on my second cup that her tummy rumbles got the better of her.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Small offerings

Small offerings, modest treasures, given freely to those you are fond and fondest of, purely for the pleasure of the giving. Food, thrifty finds and found natural treasures are my favourite offerings. Often a gift can sit in waiting for the right moment to be given or for the right person to come along. It's funny (and lovely) when simple visual cues, such as these pressed summers hydrangeas and winters violet in this bowl, can stir deeper thoughts. As happened when I gently placed the flowers onto the base of the china and began to think about the art of gift giving.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Easy Pieces

After some consultation with my younger one this arrangement was deemed a winner for the 1st patchwork bedspread. With the help of small hands the sewing together began.... ....and in a pinch under 2 weeks it was completed.
I completed my first patchwork bed spread over the weekend. It really was a (mostly) enjoyable and satisfying process, from collecting, to piecing, to sewing in the last piece. I backed it with a spare polar fleece blanket which was a nervy experience, as the stretchiness made the pinning and sewing a difficult and at times colourful verbal task. Then last night when I tucked the polar fleece side under her chin, all was forgiven and forgotten.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

August pods

The seed pods I found on Friday afternoon. I am not sure what they are. Maybe from a cypress. How sealed up the pods are before they open up to expel their seeds.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Looking up

I walked home yesterday along my favoured path. I found some beautiful seed pods, I had not come across before, which had recently fallen from a native looking pine with fernish like prongs. Further along the way I passed a row of two year old wattle trees which were just beginning to flower. They had bulbous seed pods and had produced large clusters of perfect yellow flowers. A sun shower started to fall and I turned my gaze upwards. It was at that moment that I saw the rainbow, and reminded myself of the importance of looking up as much as down.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Just a flurry, not an identity crisis

I have been having a bit of fun this week with flickr and the very wysiwyg (and free) Picnik editing suite. Looking back I may have got a little bit carried away (3 header changes since last Saturday - yikes!) by the excitement of finally having the means to do simple edits and effects. I am thinking that now the initial flurry has passed I will settle down and stay with my knitting needles until spring.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Wet painting

Wet painting is an all round favourite. We use Stockmar brand paint and add enough water until the consistency is very thin, very much like water. It is one of my favourites because all preparation is shared between us and the results are beautiful, bold and colourful. The girls usually start out in a traditional fashion, using paint brushes to compose landscapes and faces, but more often than not they end up dipping the ends and middles of folded paper towel into the paints to make patterns. It is an activity that they can do from summer through to winter, rain or shine and one they do not tire of.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Sorted!

I am indeed all sorted and my patch working will soon begin. I have decided on a bedspread for each for the girls. Most of the fabric I will use is in the basket. I hope to sew in some patches from some of their treasured dresses, pants and tops as I think this will be a lovely way to prompt our memories of the past and of their own growth. My girls have enjoyed the process of sorting very much and I think this is why it has taken a while, as I have found the sorting is as much fun as the making. My older girl who is 8 cut swatches from many of the fabrics for her own sewing basket, ironing and then folding each fragment into almost perfect squares. My younger kicked my first piles of fabric around with glee. Later she ran through freshly ironed strips of fabric pretending that they were white stripes on a road.