Happy Australia Day!

Still feeling sick, but not so sick I couldn't enjoy my husband's damper with butter and golden syrup!

Have a fantastic day!

Cute new/old things.

Okay, so I have been doing nothing except working the past six days, and now, on my one day off for the week, I am sick.  Which should not surprise me as everyone else in the house has their turn with the same thing this past week.  Still, I am feeling quite sorry for myself.

These recent arrivals are courtesy of my aunty.  The Pippi doll she picked up in Sweden as a Christmas gift for Strawberry, who loves her and calls her 'Ippi'.

And the buttons were long stashed, awaiting some children to be able to use them- a lot are animal shapes, some are sparkly, some pearly and all are fairly small, so ideal for kid's clothes.  Some were handed down from my uncle's mother in Sweden, some were on my Mum's and aunty's clothes made by my Grandma.  I hope to use lots of them, although (despite my determination not to hoard), I too am sure to hand some down, unused, to my children one day!

Back in the loop, and more Oliver + S things.

Work this week was actually really good.  I was quickly reminded of some of the things I really like about my job, and I seemed to cope okay after a whole year off.  Nowhere near as hard as when I returned after my first maternity leave, which was a much shorter period.  And the kids are doing great, probably because they are at home with Dad, who is keeping them busy with lots of adventures.

I have done virtually nothing outside of work (lovely husband has really taken care of all the household stress) and have been quite exhausted this weekend, but I have finally got some pictures of little girl clothes I made a while ago.




This dress is actually the Oliver + S swingset tunic lengthened.  The fabric was scraps from Mum, previously used for a dress in the 70s.  It's an Australian crepe cotton (kind of like wool crepe suiting in texture) which I had never seen anything like.  Just gorgeous.  It frayed terribly though!

Back view:





In action, front:





And back:




Again, very happy with the pattern and sure to use it again.  I made the 6-12 month size, which was perfect for Strawberry- true to the measurements given.  I did french seams, which I would not repeat with this style as it ends up a bit bulky under the arms where the facing is.  This dress is really not my best sewing- done in a hurry late at night, but still the design holds up well.




Finally, yet another set of puppet show shorts.  In lightweight denim from Spotlight.  I had been putting off trying flat felled seams, then a lack of the right colour overlocker thread forced me!  I just copied the seams on some old baby bloomers and they turned out great.  The trickiest part was staggering the seam allowance down the centre (3/8" on one side and 5/8" on the other, then vice versa when topstitching), so the seam ends up perfectly in the middle.  Not tricky now I know what to do, and probably less time consuming than getting out my overlocker (let alone getting new thread).  And the inside of the shorts is completely smooth- great for a baby.



My favourite little chubby legs!

Now I'm off for my last little bit of kiddy time before the working week starts again...

This year...

My first post of 2010!  A few months ago I actually had no intention of having a blog at this time, then started it on a whim when my husband was off running the Melbourne marathon.  And it has been great.  I am clearly not the most active blogger, nor much at marketing my blog, but this is motivating me to keep being creative.  Which will be all the more important this year, as I go back to full time work at my rather serious job on Monday.  I'm half dreading it, half looking forward to getting back in the loop.

So although I'm not into New Years' resolutions, I have been thinking about how I'll keep my creative self sustained.  I'm hoping I can keep up at least weekly posting, though I doubt I will be quite as productive with my crafts.   One of the best decisions I made in 2009 was to try to keep to high-yield projects, so I get more of the satisfaction of completion.  This meant abandoning some projects on which I had already spent too much time, and making simpler things.  And letting go of the need for my work to be perfect.  I am definitely keeping up this attitude.  I will have to if I want to get anything done in between weekday work, after hours rosters, expressing milk and actually spending time with my family!

I am hoping to do some (very basic) art this year, like my calendar drawing above. Just stuff I can do very quickly to get back into it, after too long a break from doing any art regularly.  I'm not sure I am even quite the artist I was in high school when I dropped my favourite subject of Senior Art for Physics (yes, everyone else thought it a strange move too), but I would love to get back into the habit of drawing.  And I figure this will often be an easier creative thing for me to do than get out my sewing machine/s at the end of a busy day.  Again I am planning to avoid fussing and trying to make my work perfect (which should differentiate me from my high school self) and just get lots of little things done.  Sounds good in theory- we'll see what comes!