I've been working on my little ebook of creativity today, finding time to bake a chocolate cake which never lasts long in this house -

Amongst my work I managed to fit in a YouTube video interview with Kaffe Fassett, about whom I've waxed lyrical before - mentioning his lovely autobiography Dreaming in Colour.  The interview is about 35 minutes long and gives a good insight into what Kaffe loves about colour and knitting.  Plus you get a peek into his workoom.  There is something that really warms my heart when I see a man knitting, I don't quite know what it is but it makes me smile on the inside too :)  Imagine how chuffed I was when Little Man asked me to teach him to knit the other day - I'd already bought him his own pair of needles as he'd mentioned the desire before, and now we are working on a kingfisher blue scarf for his cat.  I'm quite impressed that he has kept the correct amount of stitches on the needles since the cast on - he loves the whole process and is intrigued by the way the stitches interlock and the scarf grows.  It's great to see one of my favourite crafts through a newcomer's eyes - sometimes you can get a bit blase about it all ...

One of the favourite parts of the interview was when Kaffe was talking about men and their egos - he admitted to being so proud of having knitted a jumper he had to go and show it to someone (in this case the 'someone' being Vogue magazine!) and he reckons men are like this about everything - if they cook a meal they have to photograph it and celebrate it, whilst women just get on with it.  (Did I say I love him even more now?)  It made me smile as I remembered the day Duncan made a cauliflower cheese dinner - and it was absolutely delicious - the camera came out and photos were proudly displayed on Facebook.

My recommendation; make a lovely cup of tea, lock yourself away and watch the video.  Look at it as time out for self-care :)

Golden memories on the Gold Coast

Hello everyone!  I've been away on a short holiday to the Gold Coast, fun with my family for a couple of days then hanging around in a hotel whilst my hubby went to his business conference.  Still it's amazing the amount of fun you can have with a small child who thinks it's heaven to be with mum 24/7, watching movies, eating and playing games.  Lots of snuggles too and bedtime reading.  These are the things memories are made of.  Now I'm going to enthrall you with my holiday snaps :)

 Our favourite family times were spent on the beach ...

collecting shells ...

and taking in the views (whilst giving thanks that we live near a beautiful forest)

 

Of course we had to take in a theme park, and Sea World won ... watching the dolphins always makes me shed a tear or two, but shhhhh .... don't tell anyone!

Being pushed along by a dolphin - this trick made Little Man declare he wants to work at Sea World when he's grown up

How do you find your car in the car park?  Look for the one with the seagull sitting on top!

Explaining symmetry with the help of pink lemonade (we were given heaps of homework and had to make it interesting somehow!)

We also visited Ripley's Museum and Odditorium and my favourite exhibit was this Pollutacuda which appealed to my steampunk aesthetics and environmental ideals ...

... and we all know that this walkway is not moving, but this knowledge was not enough to stop us staggering all over the place!  The photo looks even weirder than the real thing ...

And this picture sums up what we love about the Gold Coast - it's watery, colourful and exotic!

My post-birthday post

Hi!  It was my birthday yesterday so I was busy being spoiled by friends and family and had no time to blog.  Isn't that great!  :)

I had some lovely pressies from friends ...

Purple things!  a hippy mug, muscat wine, handmade soap made by a friend (delish and minty!), rose quartz and a beautiful handmade book in a pretty silk bag - I was like a big kid, more thrilled with the containers than the pressies almost!  (Note the matching mug and tin!)

A stunning looking plant from my hubby and the kids ... I consider my plants as pets that need lots of love and care ...

Red and green should always be seen

My new plate - for mum's use only ... with a yummy cookie made by me using a recipe from my birthday buddy in the UK - we have a tradition where my buddy finds a choccie recipe and we both make it and we both celebrate :)

These cookies are a delight for the senses ... they smell great and taste even better ... YUM!

And I just had to show my lovely felted robin (the robin is my favourite bird in the whole world!) made by my oldest friend ... in that we've known each other for aeons, rather than age-wise ... we've been friends since the age of 6 ... isn't he gorgeous.  And looking very at home with my pc screensaver snowman, which I am keeping whilst the hot weather is here to help me feel a little chilled ... I know, desperate aren't I ... I'll do anything to keep cool ... roll on winter ...

But by far my greatest pressies were Little Man coming into my room at 6 am to say happy birthday, before snuggling in beside me and falling asleep; and a dinner at our local restaurant with my lovely hubby and kids - great company and for dessert we bought a gelato and sat on a bench by the road to eat them before driving home.  A truly happy birthday day!

Busselton Sewing Retreat part 3 - more pics, less words

Here is my splice skirt as promised yesterday.  Pics are slightly better although on choosing and editing I remembered how much I hate taking photos of myself.  Never mind, it's the skirt you're looking at ...

And here are some more pics of my weekend away I found whilst perusing my photo file.  Some of my favourite images ...

 

A walk along Busselton Beach with some of the sewing ladies ...

 

 

 

True blue - the start of the 1.5 km long Busselton jetty

 

 

I like this because it's so pointy ... and marked our halfway mark along the jetty ...

 

 



A touch of olde world charm in our accommodation



One of the ladies made a cool beach coat from an old bedspread - upcycling at its best

 

 

The reason for our retreat - another look at the rack of creations - look what we made!

It's short and sweet on words and thoughts today - it's the first day of the new school year here in WA, and I think I left school this morning feeling more traumatised than the Little Man did.  Time for a rest.

Busselton Sewing Retreat Part 2 - Look what I made ...

I can't quite decide which skirt to wear today ...

I will have to save my favourite splice skirt for the next post - the picture was terrible, but I've decided to stay with the ones I'm posting today just because I can.  Apologies for the picture quality :)  It took me ages to get the poses right, those blasted shoes are heading to the op shop - they look all right in the pics, but my feet felt like they'd been tortured for half an hour. 

Anyhoo, here are my creations ...

I made the 'Change of Heart' skirt for the first time (pattern available just follow the link).  And I love, love, love it, so it won't be the last ...  such a clever idea ...

Also quite chuffed that an old sheet could make such a smart skirt - getting in the mood for recycling ... there's a much better pic of it, and more goings-on at the retreat on Jody's blog.  Go take a look, you know you want to!

Part of the retreat was to shop around the op shops in Busselton to find little treasures we could upcycle, and I found this lovely denim skirt which had been handmade by somebody else.  It had no sizing label but I bought it anyway hoping it would fit, and it did - perfectly :)   I'd also bought a quilt cover for $4 which I decided to make into some kick pleats to add a bit of movement to my skirt.

My skirt before unpicking the 4 seams

Took me ages to get the right pic so I'm sticking with it!

Kick pleat detail - my new machine has some lovely decorative stitches

The quilt cover is lovely and soft after multiple washings, so I'm going to use it to make a sleeveless summer dress - more on that as it happens.

It's amazing what can be found in the old op shop, and even more amazing how much inspiration you can get from sharing time with like-minded people.  Great fun :)