daisy chain

Softies

I thought that Pip from Meet me at Mikes had a great idea to ask the blogging community to make Softies for Mirabel. Knowing how generous this community is I am sure she will be inundated with an eclectic collection of cuddly creatures for the kids.I am new to the Softie scene and was grateful for the  book that I bought some time ago that is full of contributions from many oh so talented crafty bloggers.

Mine were kind of a cross between Albert Monkey (pattern by Hop Skip Jump) and Hector Giraffe(pattern by Two Little Banshees) and were such fun to make.

The patterned fabric is some of the scraps that Whitney my scrap partner sent me as part of our swap earlier this year.

Thanks to that book and the easy to follow directions I now have the confidence to make some more Softies and even have a go at designing some of my own.

Frustrating!

I was lucky enough to attend an International conference in Melbourne on Monday. At the school's expense, five of us were flown over on Sunday afternoon and "put up" in a lovely  serviced apartment. After the conference (which was well worth the effort)three staff members returned to Adelaide that evening. Two of us remained behind to do some shopping for the school! How lucky was I? I had visions of quickly purchasing the resources and then being let loose in Melbourne to shop away!BUT......by the time we caught a train and a bus and picked out the school items and then caught a bus and a train back-there was only an hour and a half left until we had to head off for the airport to catch our plane home!How frustrating!!!!!!!!!!! I spent a frenzied twenty minutes in this amazing place where I am sure I could have spent several hours oooing and ahhhing over the vast collection of vintage kimonos, obis, fabric and furniture. However, I didn't come away empty handed!

I bought two Michiyuki. I intended to unpick them and use the fabric but I don't think I will be able to do so!They are so exquisitely made.

I also grabbed some scraps of kimono for a dollar each.

I rushed in and out of Meet me at Mikes(and it really is not the rushing in and out type shop!)What a lovely place for a browse!But no time for browsing for me! And keeping with the Japanese theme I came across this cute fabric.

It was a much better day for the bank balance than the one I had in mind!

Full Sun

My family wonder what on earth I am up to now when they come home to find the roses draped in netting and old curtains!

We have had a few sunny,warm spring days, which is lovely but the sun has such a "bite"to it. It is a worry that never before have I had to cover the new buds to stop them being burnt and spoiled-and it is only October!I am still getting used to watering only between 6am and 9am on Sunday morning or between 5pm and 8pm Sunday evening. Good job we have a rain water tank. And those well developed biceps and triceps are not from working out at the gym but from carrying buckets of water to thirsty plants!

There is great satisfaction to go outside with the secateurs and come back with a lovely bunch like this...

I have been quite fascinated with passionfruit flowers lately. They are so vibrant.

I came across these lovely buttons the other day and this stunning fabric.

Not as much time for crafting this week but I am working on another bag to felt.

A Bit of This and a Bit of That!

I am so enjoying the slower pace of life that holiday time brings and I having been doing a bit of this and a bit of that.

Like setting up the vege patch and working in the garden. My friend Rachel gave me these tree dahlia stick looking thingies to plant.

She assures me they are easy to grow and produce the most amazing flowers like this...

Ahhh! The wonders of nature!

I have made another bag and my favourite part is turning it all the right side out! Love this bit!

And yes Nikki and Melanie, you both warned me I know!Now I think I am an addict!!!!!

Feeling Lucky

Kobi(our family dog) and I went for our usual walk this morning along one of our favourite tracks.

The sky was SO blue.(Not a very social honey eater-turned her back on us!)

The beach was SO empty this way.........

.......and that.

I rescued this tasty morsel from Kobi to add to my collection of seaside treasure!

And found a good lot of beach combing bits and pieces.......

..including this Port Jackson shark egg that was still lodged inside of it's mother's mostly eaten body.

Then home for a spot of sewing.....

......or a snooze in the sun!

There are no complaints about my day!

Nostalgia and Another Bag

I am now on the Dick and Jane bandwagon thanks to Jodie and Annie and their wonderful patchwork shop that they regularly frequent.

I just love how one day you are looking at all this wonderful fabric and the next day a parcel arrives and there it is! You don't even need to get off your backside if you don't want too! Any shopping is good shopping! I have no idea what I am going to do with it yet but just looking at it makes me smile.... and remember. We didn't have the Dick and Jane Reading Scheme when I was a child, instead we had an extremely similiar one called the Happy Venture Readers Series.We still had Dick(obviously a popular name in those days though I never knew anyone called Dick in Primary School. I was acquainted with a Richard Allcock though in High School!!Poor fellow-whatever was his mum and dad thinking!!) We also had Dora and Nip and Fluff! Even though I still have a soft spot for Dick and Dora, Nip and Fluff, as an educator of young children, I am grateful that we now have such wonderful, interesting and inclusive reading material available to help our children learn to read.

I had a fossick and found some old Happy Venture Reading books that I used to play schools with when I was a kid. They are not in very good condition as I was one of those teachers who underlined words and signed pages! I would never dream of doing that now!

I even found a couple of these.

The school I teach at was built in 1914 and so when I went there 8 years ago there were alot of really old outdated reading material that we bundled up and donated to schools in Fiji. Among them were many of these sort of Ladybird books. It is ironic that they are now situated in poor and needy communities when they are probably worth a fortune on ebay!

On the craft front I have crocheted and felted another bag and now I am going to have a BIG sort out in the study/sewing room that has piles of things just waiting patiently for a good storage spot!Hmmm! I think we should have built a bigger house!