Sweet Dress

We've been busy whipping up some stock for an upcoming market. Well actually my sister has.... I've been flapping about not really accomplishing much at all. After such a beautiful start to spring, the weather has turned decidedly grey and miserable and it's making me feel a bit the same, not so much miserable just a little grey. Totally unmotivated. Maybe it's sheer exhaustion from actually managing to post three times in one week!

Here's a little preview of some things Tracey has been working on......

The sweetest little pinafore dress in a mint green with a splash of vintage orange fabric for the pocket.

Here it's been teamed with a little capped sleeve singlet.

I love it.

I tried to squeeze Abi into it, I desperately wanted it to fit because really I wanted to keep it for myself! Unfortunately it didn't, but I have put an order in.

Chrysalis

Yay, finally spring is here. I love the change in seasons,

it always come around just in time, just as I'm starting to think

I can't bear another windy wintery day or sweltering summers night.

I realise we are without doubt officially the slackest bloggers in

the history of the blogosphere. While we attempt to rectify this

I thought I'd post some shots of an amazing gift my son got for his

sixth birthday(a while back now) from my sister.

It came in the post, just a plain looking parcel but as we opened it we discovered the most extraordinary surprise.

A Chrysalis

We watched in awe over the next few days as a most beautiful transformation took place.

It is the most amazing thing to see, the colours and the golden highlights, breathtaking.

You could literally watch it change.

Until finally a beautiful butterfly appeared as if by magic.

In the end we had to set our butterfly free, after a little encouragement he set off to start the process again.

It really was such a great and unique gift. I would definitely recommend it for any little nature lover you may know. Such a special thing to experience. We took plenty of photo's too which have come in handy on numerous school projects.

We're working on a few issues around here

consistency |kənˈsistənsē| (alsoconsistence |-təns|)noun ( pl. -cies)1 conformity in the application of something, typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness : the grading system is to be streamlined to ensure greater consistency.• the achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly in quality over time : his principal problem in tennis has been consistency.

Love

We are totally in love with Constance. If only we didn't live on the opposite side of the globe.....

For those of you lucky enough to live in the UK you can find Constance here. And of course the rest of us can always dream....

Lazy mans load

My sister has this saying when instead of maybe doing two trips with the shopping, you load yourself up with the entire boot load of parcels, thinking it will save your precious time, only to get half way to the door and a shopping bag bursts under the pressure spilling and smashing all your newly purchased goods down the stairs creating much more work and using up way more time than if you had of just made two trips like you knew you should have.
This can apply to a lot of different situations and I am often guilty of it. It also I discovered applies to sewing.

Lazy woman sewing

It was only meant to be a test run for a little gathered skirt for Charlotte but really, why didn't I take a few measurements, use the iron, or some pins, make at least an attempt to match the seams? Its probably big enough to fit a 5 year old and a 5 year probably would have done a better job making it themselves!! I can't get that half an hour of my life back which actually turned into an hour after all the adjustments I had to make. Aarrgghhh!

Panic has set in, random thoughts ensue.

After the last markets I knew we had two months to prepare for the next one. Whew, I remember thinking, that's plenty of time, I will definitely be prepared and promptly made a mental list of things that I would absolutely do.
We have three weeks and two days till the next Tanks markets and I honestly couldn't tell you a single thing from that mental list I made (note to self - Always put lists on paper and stick in prominent place and not on top of random paper pile on desk where it will ultimately be lost or forgotten, hmmm maybe I should write that down somewhere).
In an attempt to inspire myself I was looking through some photos my sister sent of the original markets and all her brilliant preparation. Yep, I think that's done the trick. I will be dusting off the sewing machine first thing tomorrow morning.

And this is one of my beautiful nieces holding a butterfly, I think she's in the Cairns Butterfly Sanctuary. She is such a sweet dolly, and clearly a bit of an animal whisperer.

While I was writing this I heard our cat at the door making the strangest sound. More of a groan than a meow. I rushed straight out. She is nearing her 16th birthday, poor old thing, so I assumed she was hurt or in trouble(some of the neighbourhood cats pick on her a bit). When I got there she was staring and groaning at my sons gumboots. Strange, I thought, maybe shes losing it a little. I filled up her water and food bowls and gave her a pat. She went straight back to the gumboot. Maybe a spider or a bug has crawled in I thought. So I shuffled some of the shoes around. Nothing. She persisted. So I picked up the gumboots looked inside one, nothing. Looked inside the next one, I thought I might just have seen a shadow, gave it a shake, nothing. For some reason I decided to give it one more shake before heading inside and to my complete shock an enormously chubby and petrified mouse flew out. I of course flew screeching into the air. I'm not actually afraid of mice, but I really didn't think anything so huge could possibly have been in there. This mouse looked like Ratatouille's brother (oh would that make it a rat? no I'm sure it was too cute to be a rat!) Anyway I did the whole screaming hopping from one foot to the other lunatic dance and it ran from me to Sweetie, back to me - still screaming - until finally it made it down the stairs to freedom.

I can hardly believe Sweetie still has it in her to catch such a thing. Maybe it just happened to be wandering by as she headed in. Clearly I'm rambling and need to go to bed so I can start sewing, first thing.

By the way at no point did Sweetie attemp to chase the mouse. She merely sat there and watched me, flailing and screaming and the mouse running away.

we are live.

Just a quick post to say we finally have our etsy shop up and running. We still have a lot of work to do, and we'll be adding things as we go but it's there and I even managed to link it to the blog, woohoo, a little chuffed at myself for mastering the technology.