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.