tiger in the grass

Today was the last day of Miss L's first term of school, and it finished with her performing the part of scarecrow in a short (10 mins!) version of the Wizard of Oz. Last year Miss L really struggled with any public performance duties, and this year was looking no different until several days ago. I was so proud of her today for taking such a big step, and she was obviously pretty pleased with herself. When we got home this afternoon, after seeing some friends, Miss L came to me with the idea of being a 'tiger'. "mumma can you please paint my face like a tiger?" As I was happily painting her face orange and black, she let me in on her plan for us for the rest of the afternoon. I was to be a leopard and we would be in the jungle like in one of her favourite books Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae and with wonderful pictures by David Wojtowycz. Apparently, this play would envolve not only painting my face to resemble a leopard, but we would need a waterhole and trees. After some serious discussion about trees taller than herself being difficult to make ("we just need paper and sequins mum"?!) we agreed to make a waterhole (blue paper) and some tall grass (green paper). Unfortunately we ran out of orange and black paint so Miss L decided that I could just make leopard noises (grrr). We were both very pleased with the finished ensemble....

R came home to this very serious photo shoot taking place in the lounge room, with a giggling very fierce tiger! He thought that this deserved a photo too. Please take note of the long grass sticky taped strategically to the floor by Miss L.

By dinner time the tigress and myself were quite exhausted, but what fun for an afternoon! Who said adults don't get to play?!

sharing

I have so much to share with you, but so little time today so will get what I can up.

I did make myself a designer peg bag. I made the pattern up (i.e. I winged it!!) and the fabrics (echino) are pieces I bought last year from Patchwork on Central.

I also put together the little Kimino House bag I bought as a kit last week. Our little sewing group got together on Sunday for the first time this year, and it was such a great way to spend the afternoon. It is also the first time I have gone home from one of our gatherings with a finished project!! (nothing to do with too much talking of course)

I am also playing around with some doll ideas, so please meet Penelope. She is of course a little bashful since I insisted in taking her photo nude - poor thing. I am still making up my mind about her clothes, but have been flicking through this book for inspiration.

There are new books to share, but that will have to be another post, as Amitie has me working on creating a little project with the new freshcut range.

back to the sewing, more soon.

sensory delights

The last few days have been full of pleasures for both Miss L and myself. On Thursday Miss I from Miss L's class came to play and we made cupcakes - well I baked them and the girls had a wonderful time eating the icing decorating them!

On Friday I spent the morning visiting some of my favourite shops -
Artisan books to pick up some copies of Selvedge they were holding for me, Porter's Paints to get some sample pots to paint Miss L's bed (I think weshe has decided on Loralie in Duchess Satin), then, Aesop where the lovely Joshua massaged my hands and customised my beauty routine for me (bliss!), onto,
Zakkaya where I picked up some cute cards, a little bird and some lovely trim then a visit to
Kimono House (thanks to Bianca) where I signed up for the fabric club and also purchased some thread and a handbag kit. Phew! what a morning - so full of things I love. I also spotted the Mag Nation store but ran out of time (probably a good thing for the bank balance) but-must-go-back! All this shopping has meant that projects are dawdling along, and in fact the bathmat took a dive when Wally the dog knocked red wine all over it - grrr! All those hours of hand stitching. And why hand stitched? I'm not sure, I know it would be much quicker on the machine but I love the calming effect hand sewing has. Which I guess means it will be years before that bath mat ever gets finished. Oh well!

I did however, finish a little Cinderella for Miss E which I based on Claire Garland's vintage lady pattern from embroidered treasures (I didn't enlarge the pattern so Cinderalla will fit in a pocket).

And finally a wip for Master H which was 6 months over due got finished and delivered. Master H drew a picture of a squid which I turned into a softie for him. I think it was a success!

With all this activity I'm slightly extremely behind with housework so today is washing day - blah! But that too has hit a snag as I was folding some washing and realised what I need is a peg bag, so I'm just off to find the pattern....

follow the yellow brick road...

It was a long weekend here, and our little family was looking forward to catching up with friends, a bit of day tripping and general family enjoyment. Instead Miss L woke up early Saturday morning with a fever, followed closely by vomiting. At times like these all you want is your Mum, so that meant that I wasn't allowed to be more than arm's reach away for the next 24 hours. Not the best way to spend some family time together. By Sunday afternoon Miss L was feeling on the mend, so I managed to get out with Ms J and stroll around Bridport street shops - a small but apt selection - yarn shop, book shop and boutique! We also stopped to partake of some yummy juices at Husk (a wonderful store but too, too too pricey)- the colours I just loved let alone the taste.


Then Monday morning I awoke with a sewing project in mind - no not the bath mat that has been hidden from sight for the moment. As my lovely husband said "at this rate it won't be finished until 2015" so I figured it could wait another day or two. No, my little itchy fingers wanted to make some finger puppets. Miss L is currently enjoying The Wizard of Oz at school, (the original story, not the movie) so I thought it would be great to have some finger puppets to play out the story.

I whipped these up Monday night, to be greeted by Miss L Tuesday morning with such excitement that I too beamed. The only thing now is I have been ordered to make Glinda the good witch, and the wicked witch too. Never rest as they say... I would have thought that by now Miss L would have learnt that her mother's attention span is minimal at the best of times! I have already moved on to the next project (again not the bath mat!) which hopefully I can post in the next few days. If you are looking for a good version of The Wizard of Oz for a 5 year old, I bought this one from Usborne.

the just before going to sleep genius factor

last night this post was magnificent in its lyrical meanderings, unfortunately like so many posts that I draft late at night just before going to sleep, the bright light of day has somehow transformed it into just another post - nothing magnificent - just another post. It really annoys me that in my last minutes of wakefulness each night I can seem to dream up such clever, witty and superbly interesting monologues - yet by morning the wit and cleverness is simply alluding me. I would love for someone to invent some sort of machine that could tape those thoughts and ideas. I have tried to remember to write them down, and have on the rare occasion managed to save a "genius" idea, but it has been very rare. And, why is it at this particular moment in my day that my most brilliant thoughts are thunk?! So frustrating, so slippery. If anyone hears about a thought taping machine please let me know ASAP because I am sure people are missing out on my brilliance!! (she says with tounge planted firmly in cheek).

Anyway, enough.

Those patchwork strips which were are looking like this,

have now been replaced with this.

Why? well yes, that would seem like a good question, however, I'm not really sure of the answer, except that it had something to do with a visit to my favourite fabric store to drop off a block* for the MS Quilt. Those reds and turquoise blues just seemed to need to come home with me! Which means there is still no finished projects to be seen on this poor little blog, but I am heading towards one of these, and maybe one of these for Miss L.

I also finally got my hot little hands on copy of this book, which I am loving. There is nothing like reading about a bunch of inspiring ladies to give your own crafty mojo a good quick kick up the proverbial. Now, if I could just finish something....

*somehow my block ended up slightly larger than most(??), but I wasn't the only one?! and it will still make its way into the quilt - phew!