CAR BOOT SALE!

Next Saturday 13th March, my mum and I are pooling our resources and are having a stall a CAR BOOT SALE! My parents have recently sold up their place and are moving down to Gippsland, so they are doing The Big Clean Out. That's 25 years of fabric, teddy bear fur fabrics, books, magazines and crafty stuff my mum is clearing. If you happen to the in the area, come by and say hi!

It's at East Doncaster Baptist Church
47-53 Tunstall Road
Doncaster East
9am - 1pm

You can find more details here!

Oh, cup of tea? Yes please!

It's been quite a long week this week, so I'm glad to be sitting at home sipping on a cosy cup of tea... from my new teapot! I think my tea consumption has gone up quite a bit since buying it just because I love it so much. As if I didn't drink enough tea already! I went op shopping last weekend with my mum and picked it up from one of my favourite local Salvos stores. After bringing it home and cleaning it up a little bit, I noticed that the lid was a little bit smaller than what it should be. I think the lid must have been from a matching sugar bowl at some stage. It still works fine. What I loved about it was its cute little spout and, of course, the colour.

The milk jug I picked up a few weeks ago at the Melbourne Design Market and I am totally in love with it. It makes me smile whenever I look at it for some reason. I just like the shape of it and the surface texture. It's so simple and neat.


I say it's been a long week, but it really has been quite fun and not a bad at all. It just feels like a long week (possibly because I have lots of ideas that I want to get started on over the weekend!). I had a meeting with my supervisor yesterday and everything on the PhD front seems to be on track and so I kind of lost momentum to go into work today. It's funny that - I get told I'm doing ok and instead of it spurring me on it makes me slack of the next day! But the weather was just so nice outside: how could I possibly spend the entire day in a dull office with weather like this? So I spent the afternoon weeding the garden in the sunshine.

Aprons!

I really hate washing. Well, it's not the washing I hate, it's the bit where I have to hang stuff on the line, and then unpeg them again. It's just that you have to have your arms up in the air all the time: walk over to the peg basket hanging on the line, grab some pegs, peg your clothes, walk back again... I feel like a gibbon! And my arms get tired! So I can give my arms some relief I made a peg apron with some cute fabric I picked up at the Salvos in Oakleigh today. I got the fabric free with a bunch of other stuff I bought. In the photos below, it's quite obvious just how short I am!

To make your own peg apron:

1. Cut out three rectangles of fabric for the backing, lining and pocket: 12" x 24". Cut 2 x 28" long strips of twill tape for the ties. I cut my backing from a canvas drop sheet I bought from the local hardware store.
   
2. From the pocket material, get a large dinner plate and trace around 1/4 of the plate on each side to mark the pockets. Cut the pockets out and sew bias binding along these edges.
3. Layer your fabric pieces: lining, pocket piece, canvas. Insert the twill tape 1" from the top of each side, so that they are pinned between the lining and the canvas. Pin down the rest of the sides, leaving a 10cm gap along the bottom edge, where you will turn the aprong the right way out.
4. Sew along all 4 edges, except for your 10cm gap. Clip the corners, turn your apron the right way out.
   
5. Iron your apron, particularly along the edges so that they sit flat! Sew up your 10cm gap with an invisible stitch and you're done!
   

Here is another apron I finished off a bit earlier in the week. It's for a friend's engagement present. She does karate and loves cooking (much like me!) so I thought I'd go with a bit of an oriental flavour for her apron. It's reversible too (pattern from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing book). I'm in the process of making her some matching oven mitts to go with it. The chopsticks are machine appliqued, the noodles are white ribbon with a stitch down the middle to keep them in place, and the pocket is lined with a white, light cotton fabric, and then zig-zag stitched around the side and bottom of the bowlto keep it in place.

With all of this apron making, I think I should sign up for the next sassy apron swap...

Reds and oranges

Yesterday I participated in the Run for the Kids (see sidebar) and what an exciting event it was! So many people were wearing red event tshirts! It was such a wonderful day. So many people out there supporting the Royal Children's Hospital and the terrific work that they do. It was just amazing to run with so many people around me! ~27,000 other people in fact! They raised AU$750,000 for the hospital.


And then afterwards I popped by the Oakleigh Market and found a chili plant for only $4! What a bargain. Gib has been totally hooked on chilis of late so this was a great find. A fig tree was also purchased at the same time, so hopefully I will have some delicious fresh figs to eat soon enough! I'm not really sure where I'm going to plant that one though...

I have new red shoes! They're kind of clog like, kind of elf shoe like, and a little bit Wizard of Oz. I love them to bits. They're just so cute! I got them from this place in Glen Waverley called "On a shoestring". I love their shoes - so many interesting designs that you don't see anywhere else... and they're cheap (hence the name).

I picked up this little padded orange thingy for the kitchen in an op shop. I don't actually know what you do with it because it isn't heat resistant and it's quite small but it's cute as!

And finally I have made a very small start on my doona cover that I'm going to make out of the fabrics I picked up from the vintage Japanese fabric warehouse. I just like looking at the colours, really. Reds, oranges, yellows and green. I think I need some indigo in there too. I'll pick that up on my next trip there!

What a weekend!

Sassy apron arrival!
My Sassy Apron arrived last Friday! I was absolutely delighted and it came at the best time for me as I did end up having to say goodbye to my little furry friend. I was so excited. Fiona, who created my apron, was kind enough to add some fat quarters in with the apron too! I love the apron: the fabric is so happy and the pocket is nice and deep. I only have a photo of the apron, but not what it looks like on yet. I need to find someone to take the photo! The pumpkin soup recipe she included was used for the remaining half of the pumpkin that my friend gave me the other day.

In the garden...
Saturday I introduced my mother to Kuranga Native Plant Nursery in York st, Mt Evelyn. We came home with about many plants, so Sunday afternoon was spent in the sunshine planting them. Most of the plants we bought are found along a nearby creek and nature reserve, so not only are they native to the area but should survive well in our garden:

Pomaderris prunifolia
Olearia glandulosa
Pomaderris aspera
Goodenia ovata
Bauera rubioides

Gib and my mother, with the Kuranga cafe in the background (they do they BEST coffee and food!)

Our garden is either sand or clay, and our front garden is in a lot of shade thanks to a rather large camphor laurel (a horrid weed in Australia, but my dad is quite attached to it). This one was kind of cute, coloquially known as "pussy tails", and it grows in Melbourne's western plains. I think I'll grow up in a pot. I love feeling the flowers... they're so furry! I'm really developing a thing for furry plants.

The Bauera rubioides grows dainty little pink flowers and is said to be quite a robust little plant, so that one will be planted in memory of Mobius.

Great op shop find!
On the way to Kuranga Nursery we found this great little op shop in Heathmont, of all places. I've just been introducing Gib to the joys of op shopping and after this expedition he is totally sold on them! I was astounded that I found a black tshirt that fitted me there. I'm 4'11" and can't ever find clothes in regular shops, but miraculously I have more luck in op shops. I also found this fantastic, horridly kitch picture which I know my friend Kat will adore! The colours are absolutely wonderful. I'm catching up with her on Saturday, but it's taking all my strength not to just blab to her about it now. I want to keep it as a surprise (because aren't surprises fun?!).