gut instinct

I finished last week with a bang. A popped eye vessel from the pressure of coughing. One of those things you never hear about until it happens to you.

But im not here to whinge. I wanted to show you how chokkas it is here 

and what im tackling at the moment 

(although im secretly hoping to do a big chunk by the end of the day).

 After stocking up on winter blankets and cutting and sewing eskimos to the point of exhaustion

( that I still am yet to place in the shop eeekkk!) this is how things sit.

Overnight I had the revelation that the reason why my fabric stash is taking over every nook and cranny of the house is that I havent put away any summer stock. Normally im able to think things through, I follow my gut instinct, I have a clear out when the seasons change. It works. Normally I havent been overseas to a warm climate and arrived back to what feels like the middle of a melbourne winter. Normally im well and able to push myself, if not on adrenalin then just because I can.

Its obvious now that in order to keep my fledgling business flowing I need to get super organised, do a mini stocktake and rethink all of my storage. Summer and winter fabric simply wont fit in the two shelves I have, all at once.
Today im having to gut the whole studio, throw caution to the wind and see where it leads me.

Tonight im cooking their favourite, Shepherds pie and im hoping it will be in a nice tidy home

instead of what has become my home studio.



a quilt

Sorry ive been very absent from this space.

Life is insanely busy at the moment.

Among lots of things ive been working on the finding, designing and making of this queen sized quilt

over the last few weeks, for a market customer.

About half of its fabrics are from my stash,

then I purchased some rich velvets and vintage brocades hoping to find a balance of textures

 and give it an oriental feeling overall. 

 I did sneak a bit of linen from Amitie and a retro floral,

a bit of a 'tree' toile,

plus its very wonky and handmade. But by the end I was still in love with it which to me is a good sign.

babywatch

Sorry about the smallness but im grabbing these from Facebook.

the after

Today I want the after, not the before.

The before kind of sucks.

I didnt do anything (other than nothing) until 7pm last night.

I needed to 'do' but just couldnt summon any energy whatsoever. I didnt even see that there was dog food that I could have given our poor faithful Rustico until the Mr came home.

On the tip of my tongue were the words 'my next husband will be a drawer closerer', but I simply couldnt say that to the man who had just bought take away and arrived home to a mutant housewife.

Yep that was me sitting on the couch watching home shows, staring at the washing and trying no to cough too much into the phone when it rang. And it rang alot. I even had one of those annoying 'youve just been chosen...' and hung up hearing the words '47 inch plasma'.

That made me sooooo angry that they had interrupted my day.

Soooo.... that was yesterday but today has to be better.

I decided that since I dont have anywhere near enough energy, secretly hoping

 to do the entire house (which it needs I assure you) and am starting back to front.

 Back room first and working my way to the front instead of the other way round like usual.

Things that ill be achieving are

opeing the house up while its sunny

talking to my plants

sorting three massive bags of scraps accumulated from the eskimo cutting out

finding a home for the extra piece of furniture (see above)

shaking dead flies off of the back window seat cushions

doing a rough tidy of the studio (dont want to think about that)

folding all my washing

 prepping things for an op shop run

moving the home brew paraphernalia out of the laundry

and definitely feeding the dog early.

Why do I always feel like starting a new quilt when im like this?

Whats with the fact that im stupidly giving myself something else to do?

waiting for buttons

 

Although I had help with the eskimos over the weekend

in the lead up to the market, I was simply too sick to stay up late putting buttons on like I usually do.

Heres a preview of the shop update for this week.

I am loving the greens and Zofia yours is almost done too!

a package

Im a very lucky girl. A few months back I recieved the biggest box of vintage goodies from my friend Cherrie of WillyWagtail. I was flat out at the time as it was school holidays

so never ended up doing this post.

You know those boxes at the post office? well this was the biggest size you can get full to the brim.

Its going to take me a while to get through to using these on my makings.

I loved everything she sent me but this one here has a funny story attached now as when I was moving my fabrics the other day, because of the unusual randomness of the embroidery placement on this one, I squealed and threw it across the room thinking there was a big spider on it, of course laughing to myself once I realised my mistake.

Thanks a bunch Cherrie!

this is not about eskimos

I didnt make the market this morning.

As of this moment I dont have plans. I am taking the day off and running a bath.

Correction, ill get someone else to run the bath.

 Cant rely on the couch dweller, so looks like it will be MrTL. I want to go all pruny and refill it with hot at least three times while indulging in a good book yet to be chosen from the hallway cupboard.

To put you in the picture I had a virus which began a month before we left for our anniversary (which I coughed all the way through) and am still doing. When I get a phonecall I cough while trying to talk and sometimes have to call back, only to start up again.

Now that ive got what the teenager brought home to add to it im getting worse, even im worried about me, but most of all im sick of being sick. Im tired of being slow.

Im slow at everything and cant keep up. I mean this literally. With anything.

Not just my sewing self.

This is not about eskimos.

As mentioned we moved some furniture around last weekend to make way for our sons new family staying

while they find their feet. The deadline to sort that? Today.

my creative space - last nights edition

This is how we managed to be in our creative space last night. I know I promised a post late yesterday but that was simply not meant to be.

When Mali comes over she knows to go straight to the dining room

cupboard where her babushka is hiding.

Its her favourite thing and is now missing one piece as we took our eyes of her for a few minutes to get some more eskimos under way.  

Zja is now 30 weeks but says she feels like full term!

She enjoyed cutting out and designing while I

 enjoyed a first sewing lesson with baby. Look at her concentration, she was really trying.

Then when Poppa arrived home she was all his for the evening.

She had been saying his name all day.

He made the comment later that it was 'the best evening hes ever had'.

my creative space

An eskimo for Kaylee.

 Another boring post updating the shop but im alerting customers via this space as well as documenting for the archives. You know the drill.

Ill definitely be back in here later today with photos of my very pregnant daughter helping me with the eskimos for the market. She surprised us last night saying she was coming to stay and no doubt Mali will be 'helping' too.

The reverse side is gingham and im loving using it on these linings.

Its back to the old Singer for now.

Our creative spaces here.

shop update

An eskimo for Sarah

This one has undergone a bit of tweaking. As her little one is petite around the shoulders,

ive used a size three pattern but have done a size 5 length so it will last through a couple of years.

I hope you like the icecreamy colours. Sometimes I struggle with what to call each jacket.

This will be so easy to name in the shop!

wednesday

Things look productive from here dont they?

Dont be fooled, im surrounded by chaos. Apart from the fact that we moved almost half our furniture around over the weekend to make way for baby coming, (my winter fabrics are piled up everywhere) and our dancer moved back home last night,

there is mr16 sleeping on the couch behind me with the flu. Nevertheless the morning went rather smoothly and we all ate nice hot porridge together, no-one waited for the bathroom,

we made it in time for the train, ive already done the dishes and vacuuming,

the dogs been fed, ive blitz tidied the bedroom and all before nine o'clock.

Those empty hangers right there are supposed to be filled by todays end. That was my plan monday.

It still is, only im just not sure how to execute it right this minute.

I have a school interview this morning and will need to take the couch dweller.

 After a date with the postie ill be off to buy even more fabric for a queen random quilt im doing for a customer as well as stock up on some wrap dress pieces.

Im looking at real estate this afternoon at fiveish.

Picking MrTL up at 6.

Going out at 7 for the evening and still hoping to come home and sew!

On the upside the dancer folded all the washing last night

while I cut out some more patterns and eskimos for larger sizes.

I am getting somewhere just not very quickly.

Hope your wednesday is a wonderful warm sunny one.

the colour purple

While ive been going about my day I cant seem to concentrate on much due to the fact that all I think about is our bulging-at-the-seams family and new babies.

If its not our grand daughter Mali, then my thoughts wander to Violet, but they dont stop there, no sirree,  because we are still awaiting the birth of our grandson in the next couple of months!

I mean, how much can a woman bear?

 It all seems to be happening too quickly.

I know im gushing deeply

 but I just had to come once again and show you the photos from the first day or two. Here is a small portion of 'us'. 

Above, Violet and I having one of many first holds.

Just so you know, I couldnt post this before now cos I had to get a grip on my cleavage and try to paste over the deep gorge of a thing in 'Paint'. Ewww!

Its time to come clean and admit I am not a fan of having boobs. I love them on other people but would much rather admire them from afar thankyou very much.

Violet and her Dad the morning after the night before.

Navarh if you are reading this im giving you fair warning that I will cut your hair while youre asleep.

A new little family has begun. Adelin looks amazing and so do her ...ahem... breasts.

I would love to have attached this to Maxabella's 'grateful' posts on saturdays but Textured Leaf Central its always a bit chaotic on that day and I never seem to be able to string my sentences together in order to do my thoughts justice.

Has anyone else done a post about family today?

shop update

boys size 5-6

I realise I havent mentioned anything about our holiday away and the fun we had but it will simply have to wait as ive booked into

Mulgrave Makers market this sunday.

I hit the ground running this morning and have finished two eskimos for the shop.

If they arent snapped up by saturday ill be taking them to

market with me.

Normally I do this the other way around.

I make and make and make like a mad woman and then go off to market with my goods first, only placing the ones I bring home in my shop. I dont want to do that this time.

I sew late into saturday night, not that I want it to go this way, falling into bed at around 3AM ending up with no time and no daylight to take photos before customers come along the next morning. 

Lets say I was a bit put out with myself when I did this recently.

I needed to have something to remind me of my makings and all that effort. darn it.

I felt a bit deflated even though things sold nicely. I even caught myself wishing id snuck a photo of my 'little' customers, but thats a bit silly really.

So here is where im at today. Im placing these in the shop right now.

If they disappear ill just have to sew faster.

girls size 2

(if any of you are wondering why I have a different ornament

on the shelf when doing the shots for Etsy its because when I need to scroll through my

Photo Gallery its obvious in the thumbnail which are the latest, making uploading a lot quicker)

Just a quick note to Andrea and Angelina who won my pin-cushion giveaway.

Can you please send me your addresses via email.

I feel awful that the others have theirs and I still dont have your details.

Ive contacted you a couple of times via your emails connected to your blogs but dont seem to have heard.

If you have sent them to me im sorry for not noticing, things have been crazy in my boxes,

and I had to have a tidy up, so can you please try again. Thanks!

babywatch

I have to post these! All she does is smile

 no matter what happens to her.

Id forgotten how much her father used to smile all the time just like this.