Early spring joy

Spring is just beginning in sunny Sydney and I thought you might enjoy this spring blossoms.

Thrift alive and well in the 30's

I saw this at a museum in Gulgong and loved the simplicity of this idea in a 1930's Australian country kitchen.

Lantern love

Having endured many cold winters in London, not always with the best of grace, I now long for the feeling of being truly cold and needing to 'rug up' accordingly. Tonight is cold and crisp in Sydney and the littlest one's pre-school held a lantern festival where stories were told and songs were sung and we went for a walk in the dark with home-made lanterns to light our way. It was magical! When we got home we had a picnic dinner in front of the fire with candles and our lanterns and sang songs (mostly show tunes!) and told stories (although ghost stories were strictly banned by the middle one). Children really are so wonderful at making you appreciate the little things, even my rather dismal story telling had them begging for more.

Life's a game

My girls love playing the Memory game, I think it might be becasue it is so easy to beat mummy! We found a version of Memory on the gorgeous inchmark website and we adapted it. I decided not to use fabric as I though it might get grotty and laminating it seemed a shame. Instead we dived into my Japanese papers collection and made these treasures. Needless to say so far I haven't managed to win a game.

Cosy eggs

The Tuesday sewing girls made these today, aren't they clever.

Felt is such a great fabric for children to use as it is so easy to sew and doesn't need edging! This project idea was taken from Cath Kidston's make! it took just over an hour for ten and eight year olds to complete.

Felt fancy

All little girls love something fancy. I made this for myself and before it was even finished it was 'bagsied' by the little one. It is hard to say no to such gorgeous eyes.

This necklace will be online soon.

Tuesday sewing class

Every Tuesday I have a sewing class for a few little girls, it is so much fun and it reminds me how glad I am that my mother taught me how to sew. As a child being able to sew meant being able to make my own clothes, first for my dolls, then for me, it also meant I could sew gifts for my family. I suspect there were more failures than successes, the fun was in the process.

This week with Mother's Day fast upon us, we are making linen hand-towels with appliqued spots of them. Inspiration was taken from Cath Kidston's MAKE book which is bursting with great ideas for beginner sewers.