You know it's been a while when...

your blog doesn't even come up as a recently visited link in your browser's history! 

So another few weeks have zoomed by, and I am slowly getting used to working from home, rather than going into the shop each day.  It is actually rather gratifying to feel like I am keeping up with the laundry pile!  Whether this domestic bliss lasts, is another thing!

I have been making so many labels, and sewing kids hats for a lovely new wholesale account, but tonight I couldn't sleep and felt the urge to sew something for myself.  A half-opened jelly roll of French General fabrics (Lumiere de Noel) was calling my name, so I got out of bed and starting cutting it into 6.5" strips, and sewing them together.  I am quite pleased with the results so far, but owing to it being nearly midnight, there are no photos to show... so I will just leave you with a photo of the FG jelly roll that I have used... aren't the colours gorgeous?

Happy Mother's Day!

Sitting on the couch this evening, I said to Brad "Can you believe this is my 5th Mothers' Day?"  I still can't believe it myself. 

Five years ago I was 29 with a 3 month old baby, and living in a permanent state of exhaustion thanks to Naomi's total inability to sleep for more than 39 minutes at a time, day or night.

Now I am approaching 34, with Miss 4 and Mr 2 making life interesting at every moment.

I have so many memories of my own mother.  She was (and still is) such a strong person, who quietly supported my Dad in his ministry, and his full time work as a teacher.  Despite often having little in the way of worldly things, we children were never aware of our family lacking anything - we had all the love and support we could ever need.  She went back to work full time to pay for our University educations, and subsequently nursed my Dad with courage and love, until he joined our Lord.

I honestly hope that I can be half as good a role-model as I had.  So for Mothers' Day, I say these would be lovely....

But the smiles on these little faces are even better.

I love you Mum xx

* cough cough *

mmm hmm * cough *

You may want to put on a mask and gown to read this post.  The lady in the pathology collection put them on to take a swab from me yesterday.

Why??  Well.... it seems that things our children are immune to, such as whooping cough, are fair game for their parents, for whom immunity has worn off.

I am waiting for the test results, but our Doctor suspects that Brad and I both have whooping cough.  Not deadly, but extremely irritating, debilitating, tiring, and so not what I needed for the next few months.

Oh well, I did see my lovely friend Tonia at Malanda Sewing & Quilting today, and had some wonderful fabric chat, and a few little things might just have found their way into my bag :-)

Yours in exhaustion,

My Easter prayer

Lord, on the day when you prove to us that you are the bringer of all things - life, death, love - my small prayer is for improving health in our family....  we are really trying to take care of ourselves, but your helping hand would (as always) be gratefully appreciated.  Amen.

We took our little Easter break, for 2 nights in Cairns.  Apart from the kids being much rattier than usual, Brad has come down with a chest infection that has him coughing and gasping.  We had a trip to the medical centre, and he is on antibiotics etc, but we are all so tired, we feel like we have come home for a rest, when of course that was what the break away was supposed to be!

But the Lord is Risen today, Alleluia!

My daily 'done' list

When I start to feel like I spend all day chasing my tail and not achieving anything, I know it is time to start writing a daily 'done' list again.  Instead of an impossible 'to do' list, that never seems to get smaller, try writing a list of everything you have done that day, and be impressed by how much you did achieve....

* Snuggled with kids in bed
* Breakfast, dress, pack kids for day at Family Daycare
* Quick grocery shop with kids
* Drop kids off
* Print, cut, package and post 9 orders of labels etc
* Start sewing kids hats for large wholesale order
* Start listing new ready to go label designs
* Shop for dinner, and get kids Easter baskets & eggs sorted
* Book 2 nights away over the Easter weekend - we need a break!
* Go to Post Office
* Collect kids, admire their new artwork :-)
* Cook dinner
* Race kids to pharmacy before it closes, for emergency 'my nose hurts' cream!
* Dinner on table,
* Bath duty
* Bedtime routine
* Check and respond to work emails
* Ahhhhh... glass of wine :-)

How is your 'daily done' list going today?

When life hands you lemons....

I mope around for a while, feeling like I'm not coping with anything.... and then I make lemon slice :-)

I have been playing with a camera that is not quite new, but that I have never really taken the time to learn about.  And the fruit on the lemon tree in our backyard is just ripening.  Recipe for the lemon slice comes from the Women's Weekly 'Cook' book -  my kitchen Bible!

Tangy Lemon Squares

Base

125g butter, softened

1/4 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)

1 cup plain flour

Lemon curd

3 eggs

1/4 cup plain flour

1 cup caster sugar

2 tsps finely grated lemon rind

1/2 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to moderate (180'C). Grease circular springform pan.  Beat butter and icing sugar in small bowl with electric mixer, until smooth.  Stir in 1 cup sifted flour. Press mixture evenly over base of pan, bake, uncovered for about 15 mins or until lightly brown.

Place eggs, caster sugar, 1/4 cup plain flour, rind and juice in medium bowl; whisk until combined.  Pour egg mixture over hot base.  Bake, uncovered, about 20 minutes or until firm. Cool in pan on wire rack.  Run knife around edge of pan, then release springform to remove slice.  Dust with extra icing sugar.

I hope your lemons are turning into yummy lemon slices this week :-)

Indulgence is...

an easy childrens' bedtime

a quiet house

a handmade chocolate

a glass of dry white; and

my ultimate indulgence... home renovation shows on the Home Lifestyle channel.

..... if only the dish fairy would visit my kitchen .....

Not doing too badly...

Alright, so we women don't often give ourselves a pat on the back.  But tonight, I did.

I was cooking lamb roast for dinner, having gone to work, taken the kids to the library for new books, done the daily post office drop-off, cleaned out my car etc etc.  The phone rings.  Brad is crazy busy at work, and won't be home till late - very late.  I am able to say 'that's fine, honey - drive safely'.  Then I stopped for a moment and took stock...

I was -

* carving lamb roast

* frying hot chips (french fries)

* serving vegetables

* keeping the Busy Boy away from the hot oven

* having an email discussion with the real estate agent for our houses

* getting the Busy Boy to take his new Thomas Tank Engine fabric back to his room;

* setting the table for dinner; and

* generally maintaining total calm.....

all at the same time!  You go, girl!

I have scaled back my hours at the shop.  Next week we are closed for Busy Boy's surgery, and the week after that I am packing up and cleaning out, in preparation for The Big Move.  So today, after dropping Miss Blossom at kindergarten, Busy Boy and I came home for a while, cleaned house, I did some computer work, and we opened the shop at 11.00am.  It felt good.  I felt like I was coping with life on all the different fronts - kindy, home, shop, tags and labels - everything was in balance.

I think this is a life lesson for me.  I was drowning in work commitments, and letting all sorts of things slide on the home front.  When we  move, I think I will enjoy the time at home, and look to set up business in a way that better suits our family needs.  So much to think about.

In the meantime, check out my sweet new post signature, which I managed to do with the help of a tutorial from Life on Planet Baby. Great, huh?  You go, girl!

Holding it all together ...

I am holding it all together, just.  With a lot of help from my all-time favourite Cadbury's peppermint chocolate.  In the family block size.  One good thing about being married to a diabetic is that my chocolate is totally safe....

You want to know my favourite sound these days?  The soft, gentle, even sound of our boy breathing easily, in his sleep.  I still love the sound of the 2 kids running around and playing, but that reassuring sleepy breathing is music to my ears.

The rest of my family is in bed.  Ryan sleeping peacefully, Daddy and Naomi snuggled up together in her bed - they both fell asleep during bedtime story.  I have a few minutes to reflect, sip a cup of tea, and gather my crazy thoughts.

I am so grateful to customers of Tags and Labels, who have been so understanding about the crazy long delays in my label-making process, over the past 2 weeks.  It shouldn't surprise me - mothers across the world all feel the same, when our little ones are sick.

I have been flicking through a crochet pattern book that has been on my craft shelf for about 6 months now - Cool Crochet by Melissa Leapman. 

I am planning a crocheted jumper for myself, for winter, but am having a bit of deciding on a suitable replacement yarn, because the weights and brands listed are all American.  Can anyone recommend a chunky, soft 'bulky weight' yarn?  The pattern is in a nylon yarn, but I would prefer something natural...  Ironically, I own a shop that sells yarn. 

But I think I need something in about a 10-ply?

I have recently joined Ravelry, but am yet to come to grips with the amazing store of information and inspiration there.

In and out... of hospital

Well, this classifies as just about the worst couple of weeks we have had for a long time. 

Ryan has been in and out of hospital with chesty wheezing, suspected asthma, finally diagnosed with bronchitis.  We have been told to expect a 12 week recovery period, and he has been on steroids for a week now, and several days to go.  We are learning to cope with giving him ventolin through a mask and spacer, every 3 hours, which is traumatic for all of us.  But watching him struggle for breath is far worse...

We all had a night's sleep at home last night, but I think it will be a long time before I let Ryan sleep in his own room by himself again.  The thought of missing the signs of an impending bout of wheezing scares me.

On top of this, Brad had day surgery under general anaesthetic to have some teeth surgically removed, and Naomi had a nasty gastric bug last weekend.  Suffice to say I am buying us a new feathr duvet, because the old one took quite a beating one night.

Anyway, on happier news, I have been able to do a bit of crochet while sitting in the hospital rooms :-)

I hope your families are all healthier than ours has been!

Chocolate pudding that any mug can make!

Here it is, the recipe for chocolate pudding, also known in this house as 'the best ever use for spare mugs'....

Ingredients -

125g melted butter
125g melted chocolate (I used the cooking choc chips and melted in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water).
3 eggs
3 tablespoons plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
mixed berries and cream to serve

Preheat oven to 190 deg C (375F).  Mix the melted butter and chocolate together.  Add the flour, sugar and eggs to the mixture, stirring thoroughly.  Pour the mixture into 4 x 1 cup capacity ramekins (or spare mugs), that have been lightly greased.  Bake for 25 mins, or until cooked when tested with a skewer.  Dust with icing sugar and serve with berries and cream (optional).

These are divine when eaten warm, from the oven.  They also kept well in the fridge overnight, and were just as yummy when eaten at room temperature, or heated in the microwave, the next day!

I wish I had a lovely artsy photo of these beautiful puddings to add in here... but I don't.  My kitchen is dark, poky, and impossible to get a good photo in... and the puddings never last long enough to take outside for a decent shot!

I can't take credit for the recipe - it comes from a shopping centre calendar that my dear mother-in-law gave me for Christmas... thanks Southgate Shopping Centre!

Easy like a Sunday... afternoon

What is your favourite time of the week?  Without doubt, mine is Sunday afternoon.

The serenity ....

The domestic satisfaction of being caught up with the laundry ....

Finding what must surely be the best ever use for spare coffee mugs.... chocolate pudding!  (recipe to come)

And being so un-stressed that I can calmly deal with Naomi accidentally dumping an entire packet of flour on the kitchen floor, while helping with the cooking.

Afterglow

I am definitely basking in the afterglow of this piece of total cuteness...

It is the 'Afterglow' dress or nightie pattern by Make It Perfect.  I wasn't totally convinced by Naomi's fabric choice (hmmm.... I think something red, just for a change, Mummy...), which is Paradise Garden by Amy Butler, but I do like it a lot now!

My Miss Muffet likes to be able to get clothes on by herself, and hates the feeling that she can't just whip something off at a moment's notice, if a wardrobe change is called for.  So instead of the button and loop closure at the back, I opted for a tab with velcro closure, which she can reach back and rip open much more easily.

For some reason, I have been having visions of this very sweet, simple dress done in beautiful rich shantung silk, or duchesse satin, as a bridesmaid's dress.... what do you think?

My Creative Space - Classic reds

I am half way through making a sweet little play dress for Naomi, from a pattern by the talented Toni at Make It Perfect.  I should be finishing it off ... but as Naomi is having a nap (something which is becoming more and more rare for our 'big' 4 year old girl), I have tucked it to one side and pulled out some patchwork piecing that has been in the work basket for months.

I don't really have a firm plan for these classic red and white polka dots, other than that I am doing a courthouse steps style log cabin piecing, alternating with the reds and whites.  Using such wide strips (2.5"), means the blocks will grow very quickly, so after a couple of rounds I will probably stop and see if I can piece them into something that I like.... who knows!  But I figured crisp reds and whites, and simple polka dots, how far wrong can it go??

For more creative spaces, go and see the lovely Kirsty at kootoyoo

Dream a little dream...

I am honoured to say that tonight I am speaking to the Tablelands Business Womens' networking group, on the topic of "Following Your Dreams and Taking Chances to do what you are passionate about".

I hadn't really thought about what I am doing in those terms, until I received a phone call from the organisers, asking if I would be guest speaker, on that topic.  But I guess that I really am living my dream - self-employed, in an industry I am passionate about, and selling things that I create with love.  What more could I ask (other than some cash flow!).

So what I am going to say tonight is -

* Sort out your real dreams from your daydreams, idle thoughts, random wishes etc...
* Create a plan for how you could achieve your dream, and how you can work towards it.
* Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your dream - have a business plan, but do incorporate the 'dream' parts that make your idea uniquely yours.
* Decide if this is the right time - and if it's not, when  will be / when the kids go to school / when you have saved X amount of dollars / when the house is paid off etc.  Set a firm time frame.
* Factor in your family's lifestyle - both in terms of budget, children's needs, etc
* Be prepared to start small --- or very small!
* Is it worth it?? Hell yes!

Do you have a dream, and are you planning to follow it?

My Creative Space... Toot toot!

Do you have a project that is your long-term fall back project, for when you don't really have anything else specifically on the go?  This is mine... it is a chevron afghan blanket for Ryan (aka Boo).

He has an ongoing love of all things trains, including of course Thomas the Tank Engine.  So it was natural that his blanket for next winter had to be blue, white and red.  I started it last October, in the hope that it would be done by the coming winter.... as it is only about a third of the way there, I think the cool weather might  beat me to the finish line.

Actually, I got quite a lot done while sitting in the cramped bathroom, on a mattress, by the light of a torch, listening to the winds of Cylone Yasi whip around outside.  It was very useful to get Naomi to count my stitches - not at all useful for my crocheting, but very good for distracting her from something that she knew was scary.

For more creative spaces head over to Kirsty at http://www.kootoyoo.com/

Our First Stockist! Shop Handmade, Canberra...

Oh, I am so excited as I write this... I should be sweeping the floor under the dining table, to remove the evidence of kids eating roast dinner.... but instead I am sitting here with a glass of wine, and some choc mint biscuits (mmmm.... my favourite!).  And pinching myself.  See this here beautiful shop?

It is Shop Handmade in Canberra... and it is the first B&M shop to stock Buster Boo hats.  AND they have already sold some - oh my goodness, can it really be true?!?!

If you are in Canberra, please go and check out this beautiful shop that supports handmade designers from all over the country.  And feel free to take some photos of the Buster Boo display, and send them to me... I hope to one day be able to visit and see them for myself!

Buster Boo bucket hats

I love making girly things - there are so many fabulous girly fabrics to choose from.  But when it comes to finding things for the Busy Boy, I am struggling to find things that are cute, not the average run-of-the-mill, and will stand up to the test of a very busy boy....

So I have decided to make my own.  Fabric Fusion has given me the real pleasure of actually finding some funky boys fabrics, to play with... and as we live in North Queensland, our kids have hats surgically attached to their heads.  Well. I wish they did, then I wouldn't have to keep reminding them to put their hats on!

And so Buster Boo has been born.... another 'baby' to add to the family, so to speak!  I am starting off in a very small way, but I hope that the quality, and fun fabrics, will make these favourites for lots of little boys, and their mums.... please come and check out what is on offer at Buster Boo... www.madeit.com.au/busterboo

Disaster....

Eeek, just when I feel like the house move is finished (although, anyone who wants to unpack a box is very welcome to visit... I will supply tea and bikkies!), and I might just get back into the swing of things... my virtually brand new Fuji Finepix camera goes ka-poot.  The lens is having a 'focus error' and no amount of switching off and on helped.  So the dealer tells me that I have to send it to Brookvale (at my own cost), and to expect it to be 3 weeks or more, before it is back! 

Just to sweeten it, he said that if it had happened within the first 7 days, they would replace it immediately - but the fact that I have owned it for 8 weeks (a measly 8 weeks!) means that they have to repair, not replace.

Grrrr!  ....... Rant over .....

So I guess it will just be my words of  wisdom (ha ha ha!), and maybe some stock pics on here for a while.

First Steps - a baby quilt

I showed you the pretty girly fabrics in this quilt a couple of weeks ago. 

I had a go at quilting it myself.  Total disaster.  It is ages since I did any quilting, and couldn't even find my walking foot.  So, instead, I asked the very talented Tonia at Malanda Quilting to quilt it for me.  This was the first time I have had a quilt professionally 'styled' and I am so happy with the results!

All these swirls have been done by freehand on Tonia's long-arm quilter.

If you have fallen in love with it, the First Steps quilt is available for sale here!