Well I have lots to tell and show. I guess I should start with the quilt I made for Rocketmans old teacher, It has a Prints charming square in the middle. It is round and has a cord around the edge so it can be used as a toy bag, floor mat or a lego satchel when the baby is older. I had lots of fun making it and was surprised at how quickly it came together when all the cutting was done! It is 100% cotton, and wool wadding, machine made, with some hand stitching.



Sweetpea is really into doing hair at the moment and Gran was the beneficiary this time. It was a great laugh and miss sweetpea was very proud.

Our latest renovation is the fire place, wall space is hard to find in this house because of all the glass. So the old 70's wall unit went and hubby started work, first we removed some floor boards and then layed a black slab of ceasr stone, so the hearth would be flush with the floor. More importantly I won't trip over the hearth and knock teeth out, late at night. Then the firebox went in, gyprock and the be loved slab of tree (it was cut down from our front yard, milled on site and has been drying for over 2 years now). The fire is great we can heat the house up quickly, it a traditional fire box, with a convection current that sucks cold air in the bottom and blows it out the top, very efficient for a standard wood heater. We have soooo much wood and summer is coming, with a bad fire season warning we are please we have gotten the fuel load down, but wish we has gotten it down alot more! The finished image is coming, I thought I had one.


This is Sweetpea's latest thing, she love Felicity Wishes, she comes each fortnight with a new set of clothes a magazine with a card centre for craft, a story, puzzles etc. I never thought one of these buy by the fortnight could be so great. Sweetpea is so funny to listen to when she talks to Felicty, they have such great adventures together, and Felicity is teching her so much now that she is going to big school next year!

Well Rocket man is seven and had a great party at Wascoe siding, we made crepe paper bunting, had rides a wascoe on the trains and then came back to our place for food and games. That was the last time he spent playing with his friends from his old school (a private school). He now is so relaxed, happy and the nervous laugh has gone. A smaller school with people like us, campers, thinkers, and not consumer driven. The kids are not trying to grow up too quickly, the games are much less violent and the resources are better, academic standing is better and Rocketman can now have some time spent on him, instead of us fighting the teacher to let the OT resources in the class room. The difference between public and private schools? The difference a particular year can have? The difference in class and school size? we don't know, but what we do know is that we are happy, finally and we have our child back, happy, fun and outgoing, with lots of self confidence.

Rocketmans new school is fantastic so many things happening, plays, book parades, craft of the messy goey sort, string trios visiting school, special sports pro grammes, sandpit, and friends who stand by you and care for you as everyone is your friend and everyone is looking out for you!

Just some images from the back yard, a picture made by Sweetpea with garden finds and a print I bought at the National art gallery to hang in my office (when i get organised).

Thought it expressed the inner frustration we all experience in our lives - the child in all of us, lurks deep within. It also makes me smile as the simplicity of it was so overwhelmed by the feelings the child expressed. The third child it is called - I guess the older two had it over her. Don't we all feel like this on one day or another?

SKIRTS
I made Sweetpea some winter skirts, although the weather has been very balmy, 25 degrees most days. I think the snow this year is going to be worse than last year. I call them green fibre pile skirt, red circus skirt & Japanese blue (as the lining is a Japanese fabric - like water, Sweetpea liked this idea).I was also going to make a beautiful red woollen a-line jacket, but there seems like there is no need. It would have been lovely to walk to the bus stop in. Found these really cool large red glossy flower buttons about 30mm in diameter, they are perfect. Frustration's with the weather - never happy with what we have got - I guess it is the human condition.

PRINT MAKING
Last weekend I did a course, print making, I had great fun, met some new people, tried out a new technique. I did a Banksia cone for the blog, eggs in an oval for our girls, little owls for the kids. They were all experimental plays with texture as I had never used this technique - nothing serious - all quite amature but that is why I was there. deffinently going to be doing some more! The last imge is the plates, they are just cutting/paper/cloth/alfoil etc stuck down and then shelacked

Easter
Another in my catchup of life - we went to the Snowie Mountains for Easter, working bee at our lodge and we had a great time. Met some nice people, did a little work, went for a couple of walks, found a square metre of snow! ..... and the Easter bunny found us, unfortunately Sweetpea has allergies which meant she was sick for the rest of the school holidays as a secondary infection kicked in. Shes fine now. Well here are the images:

JENOLAN

It has been a while since my last post - sorry - (especially to you little bug). We had some free tickets to see the new lighting in the caves and saw the new self guided tour cave, which was weird from the days my father use to do science there.


The kids loved the voice over - for the whole of 60 seconds!


On our way back up out of the Jenolan valley we were treated to a wandering Echidna, we pulled over and watched him cross the road safely. It was wonderful for the kids to see one in real life - aunatural.

CHEESE

Saturday I went to a cheese making course at the McCarthur Sustainability centre. I learnt to make feta and ricotta cheese. Who would have thought ricotta took half an hour to make, heat the milk slowly, pour in some vinegar and presto there it is! feta took a bit longer but gosh it was worth it. I am now looking into other cheeses and courses, it is a great way to use up un-wanted milk!

I quilted and bound my quilt. I think next time I might hand sew it for a better result. I will post it as soon as I have finished the hand decorating of rhyme and pattern. I am already starting to think about another baby's quilt/toy bag.

Beautifaul Day
It has been raining here, our tank overflowing with jets of water, the grass growing so fast I am mowing every week because it is ankle deep. There are brief mornings of sunshine where I can dry our clothes - we are trying not to make a dryer necessary as this would be un-ecological, so it sometimes looks like a Chinese laundry with wet washing hanging on coat hangers from the door moldings. But the great news is that El Nino has reversed and our drought may have actually started to break. The weather is starting to cool down thankfully, I love the cool wet smell of the bushland that surrounds our house, especially the acacias and the gums.

I have been making a quilt - my first. Red and cream from Amy Butler fabric. Not knowing the sex of the child I felt this was colour way was relatively safe. It is not perfect but it is my first qyuit. I have been inspired by Denyse Schmidt and her beautiful book I recently bought. The quilt is going to have the owl and the pussy cat nonsensical rhyme around the red boarder, the idea coming from the quilt pieced animals from Denyse's book. I have edited the pattern (- when don't I?) so that the tummies of the cat and owl are a little different and I have made some baby shoes from Heather's page in the same wool and and lined them with the Amy butler fabric (- flower print) to match, when I have the finished touches on all these I will show you. I love making up sets or packages.
My very beautiful sister made Sweatpea a gorgeous doll, which my daughter named My-Me at age 1. Poor My-me only had one outfit and so off we went to the sewing machine making copies of Sweatpeas clothes I had made and this is what resulted (the last being the first set of clothes My-me arrived in):

These are some of Sweat peas skirts I made for her, some are made from furnishing fabrics, they are great for preschool and wash, wear and scrub up really well. I made the skirt pattern from a rectangular loop of fabric, pleated and sewed down the tucks on the outside, rolled the top over and popped elastic in the back. The top is just a little peasant top I made, it also has a matching skirt made from the pink bird fabric on the top, similar to these skirts but the image seems to have floated away.


This skirt is cut on the cross, a sort of copy I made up of my skirts (see previous post).

I love to make useful things, that are beautiful and for other people. It gives me a purpose and a warm fuzzy feeling, especially when Sweatpea is so excited that she comes running out of her room asking for them because they are in the washing basket needing an iron or a quick flick! Who says everything must be ironed when they go straight down the back to be played on swings or with our girls the chooks. Yes we have chooks, 6 of them and they have finally backed off on their laying. We have had 6 eggs a day for the last 3 weeks and I have been running around giving eggs away. The kids have been training the chooks or girls as I call them, they are use to being picked up and come and talk to me - usually if they want some water or let back into the chook palace to lay some precious eggs. The girls arrived when they were 3 weeks old. Pets with benefits. We use a lot of eggs as my two children have issues with attention if they consume preservatives, flavors, natural and synthetic colours. They are quite normal kids if we avoid these foods so I cook a lot. We eat organics as their health and behavior is much better (a lot less snotty noses). Our house is also a allergen free house, floor boards & rugs no carpet, no mould and lots of fresh air. Life is good and aw-natural here, visiting children sometimes think we eat weird when everything doesn't come out of plastic packaging or is exactly perfect in shape and size. That soon dissapears when their taste buds kick in.