Doc Rosie and the Pencil Cases

That, to me, gentle reader, sounds like a much more interesting title for a book than "Little Kev hides his head in the sand about Asylum Seekers", or whatever it was called, but what would I know?


Anyway, I had a lovely visit with my very good friend Doc Rosie, who just happens to be the mother of the very lovely Clare, the brains and talent behind Lulu Carter.  And said lovely Clare hadn't been to the Golightly house since we rescued it from Pinkdom, and I think she liked it.  She was taken with the small but perfectly formed room, that's for sure (well, the contents, anyway!)...


Anyway, she stayed for a drink or two and some nibbles, we had a fabulous chat about craft, fabric, the ownership of 'original' ideas, who are the evil sisters and the wicked step-mother in the Cinderella world of craft, then she whisked young Master Carter away from the Frigits, and we had a fabulous time, eating, drinking and talking, and this time, we managed to stay away from this, which is good, because the last time we got together we polished off half a bottle, and I had a nasty encounter the next morning with pineapple juice that ended up with me chucking up said pineapple juice over the lawn.  You really wanted to know that, didn't you?  


Then I had the almost obligatory Sunday afternoon nap (these ten hour working days are really starting to take a toll, y'know?), and then sat down to make pencil cases, using Spotlight's best floral cotton drill.  When the recipients are five and three, I'm not going to use my best French linen, sorry!


For Tehya:

And for Kyla:

I love the Matryoshka lining fabric, which Mr Golightly's lovely niece Emma bought home from Amsterdam. 

And now, gentle reader, the cricket calls, and it's early to bed, early to rise makes Isabella less tired and grumpy than she is now!


Ciao!

Gone, all gone

All my bits for Crafthope have gone, and I was very happy with the outcome of Sunday's efforts with the japanese linen & red spots:

The colour combo was just right, good size, zip went in beautifully... a slightly different experience to the original combo.  Obviously the god of sewing wasn't keeping her eye on the original pouch.


I have a bag of disasters, in the small but perfectly formed room, where I keep everything I've started to make but which has gone horribly wrong - I don't know why I keep them, they don't teach me anything except to perhaps be more careful... 


Other items of note in the Golightly Garden - the flowering gum is:

They're just like aliens, aren't they, waiting to burst forth from their pods... but very beautiful.

And the Crepe Myrtle, also flowering but on its last legs - it's been so pretty this year:

I was trying to be a bit artistic here and get right into the flower with my digital macro lens, but it was windy and do you think I could get the wind to stop blowing when I wanted it to?  Obviously the god of wind wasn't paying attention when she should have been either.  That's my excuse for the blur.

And we have a visitor in the garden - who is very welcome, even though I'm not that keen on them per se, and I don't like them in the house, I love seeing them in the garden because their job is to eat mosquitos, which means the mossies don't eat me, and that's got to be good!

And yesterday was my friend Deb's birthday... she's had a torrid few months, lately, what with one thing and another, so I've pushed the boat out a bit for her birthday - but still in keeping with the handmade vow, I got her this:

from the lovely DiTerra, in Minneapolis... and I didn't make her anything.  Is that good or bad?  Who knows!

Call me UnAustralian, but...

I'm beginning to wonder why we need to spend today waving the flag, wearing the flag & having the flag painted on us - the need for overt displays of patriotism always worries me as perhaps underlying something very ugly - like those cars displaying stickers saying "Australia, love us or leave us" - surely everybody has the right with disagree with aspects of the national character, or state of the nation, regardless of where you were born?


I love this piece of writing:


I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism:  "Our country, right or wrong!" They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: "Our country—when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right."  Carl Shurz, 1899.  


Interesting, isn't it, that some things do not appear to have changed in 100 years, and that the sentiments could apply to any country?


Ah, John Lennon had it so right... "Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too..."*


Ah, dreams...

And then there were three...

All of the things I donated to Craft Hope have now sold!  And now, I have to make them!  It's a bit naughty to sell something that doesn't exist, but I'm thinking its only fraudulent if you don't intend to make them - I spent this morning making one of these:

But I couldn't find any more of that pink, red, blue & white stripe (any ideas where it came from?  Nope, me neither, I'm thinking maybe Spotlight?  Ooooh, scary!) so I used Sandi Henderson's Farmers Market in this:

Which looked surprisingly good, I must say.  I hope the generous purchaser likes it!


Then I had to make a box pouch, so I thought I'd go with the nice japanese linen with the green flower on it, lined with fantastic owls:

and I cut out and appliqued one of the owls onto the front, and then, when I was sewing it up, I realised I hadn't caught the end tab in properly, and when I tried to fix it, completely screwed it up.  So, from being 99% done, it was 99% screwed.  So I had to start again, from scratch.  And I said the big F word, really loud.  I'm sure I shocked Mr Golightly, who doesn't normally comment on my swearing, of which there is often quite a lot (but of course, only when really justified, (yeah right)...) but he did check if I was OK... kind of- he yelled from the study "did you break something?".  If I'd been lying on the floor stabbed through the heart with a pin it would have been too bad, eh?

Anyway, I've given the owls up as a bad job, and gone to this combo instead:

 , 

which I must admit I quite like... so I'm cut out, pellon bonded, zip inserted, top stitched & rearing to go.  Tomorrow...  

And christ, it was hot today.  We took the 'shut up the house' option & kept the doors & windows closed, until the southerly whipped through at about 4.30 - just enough to lower the temperature by 18C, thanks, and to make us rush outside to get in the remnants of the washing in from the big fat rain drops... which lasted just until we'd got the washing in!

Ah well.  At least it wasn't humid, hey?  We'll sleep tonight, whoo hoo.  Flanellette PJ's here we come!

Nice work...

Well, good news on the Craft Hope front... two of the three items I listed have sold, which is fantastic, and sold to buyers in the US.


Thank you, whoever you are, I hope our small contribution will help MSF do some good in Haiti...


And tonight, I'm going off to make the items I've sold!

One of these, and some of these:

And I'll be putting a post on my Facebook page - if you haven't popped over to see me, please do - I feel very 'underfriended'...


Ciao! 

Hunter Valley weekend...

So, we had our first visit to the Hunter Valley since Zeb.B.Dog went off to Doggie Heaven, and I have to say it was a bit hard... I kept looking for her every where I went, and of course, the house was lot quieter without her.  Poor Zoe Dog was also a shadow of her former self, off her food, drink, off her game, slinking around looking for Zeb everywhere she went...


Next time we're up there I will go & visit the spot where she's buried, but this time I couldn't face it.... give me a month or so.


In the interim, I made a couple of cushion covers for Kaz, who was looking to cheer up her living room a little.  I used up some of my nice Joel Dewberry Deer Valley from here:

and co-incidentally, I had a piece of Amy Butler Home Dec weight from here:

and the colours were amazingly in synch - needless to say Kaz was very happy with the cushions - and they were a nice easy birthday present - Happy Birthday Kaz!

Well, this is probably a better idea anyway...

 Given that I already donate on a regular basis of MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders), I wanted to do a little more, in light of the horror that is going on in Haiti.


Anyway, I'm going to send a bunch of listings to this shop, which is doing a sterling job in raising money for Haiti by selling crafty things made by people like me... please consider making a purchase or a donation for those poor people.