Happy Birthday to my Mum

(Mum and me, in 1981)

It's my beautiful Mum's birthday today. I wish I could have spent the day with her, only she's on the other side of the world, in England.
But I have spent the past week or so frantically making her a present, in every spare minute that I get. (There aren't too many of them these days....Little m has decided a 45 minute sleep twice a day is all he needs, thank you very much.)
I was pretty pleased with the final result. I made the bag using the "Melly & Me" Toffee Apple pattern, which is perfect for a summertime bag. It was a little bit fiddly to make, but the instructions were really clear. And I managed to sneak in a few bits of Moma Wonderland fabrics, I'm just totally in love with that range.

And I popped in a little make-up bag too...

The parcel arrived for her today. I hope you enjoy it, have a lovely day, Happy Birthday!

My Creative Space

Not a lot happening, just making some little patchwork linen pouches....but sneaking into the photo is something very exciting indeed.
Little Snoopy.
I used to have one of these when I was little, and I adored it. We gave it away years and years ago when I was still small, and over the years I have often thought about it, I loved it so much.
Now that little m has arrived into the world, I seem to constantly be lamenting about the toys of my own childhood. They seemed so much more imaginative and beautiful than the plastic toys available now.
But yesterday afternoon, a surprise package arrived from my beautiful mum. Nestled inside was Little Snoopy. I was overcome with joy, squealing in delight, he brings so many happy memories back. Little m was watching me as if I was crazy, he couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.



But now Little Snoopy is sitting proudly in my studio, bringing a smile to my face.

Pop over to Kirsty's to see more lovely creative spaces.

Beautiful things

The long weekend is over....it was so lovely and relaxing. The days are back to normal, just me and little m. It is freezing cold here today, raining, and there has barely been any daylight. Other Australians think I am crazy, but I love these kinds of days. I love being able to wrap up warm, curl up cozily under a blanket on the sofa. I love the sound of the rain on the roof, and it gushing loudly down our pipes. I love the strange half light, it all reminds me of back home, of England. I guess I never thought when I left 6 years ago, that one of the things I would miss the most would be the English weather, all the rain, and the fog and the frost.

I popped into one of my favourite shops in Melbourne, Zakkaya, at the weekend. I only went in for a birthday card, but the shop was bursting with beautiful things, and I just couldn't help myself.
I bought these beautiful wall stickers for little m. I have been looking for a while, I wanted something non-girly, and a little bit quirky, and these Japanese ones were just perfect.


And these Shinzi Katoh postcards were just too cute.....

And a beautiful wool and wooden beaded necklace, a gift for a friend.


And I did get around to doing a little bit of crafting for myself this weekend too. I bought some beautiful Japanese fabric recently, that I couldn't wait to use...


a simple patchwork scarf,

and patched with some hand embroidery on linen, for a simple bag

So many things to do....

Oh, I have been a very bad blogger....I've just been a bit busy with my big project, which is nearly drawing to a close now. And I think.... (I really don't want to jinx myself by saying this!) it is all under control, and should be finished before the long weekend.

I've had a tiny bit of time to squeeze in a bit of crafting. I made little m a tiny patchwork blanket to clip his absolute favourite toy to, when he's in the pram. He's just discovered the joy of throwing things out of pram and leaning over the side to watch where they fall. He doesn't yet realise that I spend most of my day in a fog of tiredness, and am therefore highly unlikely to realise what he has done until it is too late, and the toy is gone forever.

He has lost a few beloved toys in this manner. But if the wooden ladybird goes, I don't know what i'd do! So this should keep it safe.
I embroidered a little bee onto it, he likes to do little buzzing sounds when he sees pictures of bees.
Other than that, I just spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to make, leafing through the pages of my craft books, piling different combinations of fabrics together, dreaming of all the projects I am going to start. I then realise there just aren't enough hours in the day. Where do they all go?
So instead I just continue to make little piles of fabric.
I can waste quite a lot of time doing this. (..I think that may be where some of the mysterious hours go....)
This may be a quilt for my lounge room to snuggle under in the winter months,


This may be a new quilt for a friends baby,Then there's the monster softie to make for little m, and many many birthday presents which need to be made in the next weeks. Thank goodness the long weekend is stretching before me!