the gentle art of saying thank you

Posted on February 24, 2014 by jen21g

A few days ago our daughter asked me what my favourite word was. I wanted to say something like ‘sunshine’ or ‘butterflies’ to appeal to her love of all things pretty. I kind of wanted to say ‘flummoxed’, ‘bamboozled’, ‘haberdashery’ or ‘discombobulated’ because lets face it…they’re just great words. Instead I told her what my favourite word was. Plain and simply it’s ‘thank you’. Technically two words but they go together so well and when they’re said with sincerity combined with just the right amount of happiness they’re the most beautiful words to hear.

So you can imagine how my heart felt when a lovely lady went out of her way to say thank you in such a tangible, tactile and thoughtful way? Giving me the precious time it took to gift me a keepsake of her own making and attaching to it my favourite words. She didn’t need to. The little thing I did was just that…a little thing that I was more than happy to do. What she did was go that extra step that makes the art of saying thankful a gentle and caring thing to do.

Thank you Sarah.

bunny beanie…pattern on the way

Posted on February 23, 2014 by jen21g

Its been an absolute age since I’ve looked at my little blog. I feel sad and embarrassed that I’ve neglected it for so long. Again I go back to the fact that it’s never felt the same for me since it was hacked by people flogging cigarettes but I will am finding a new love of reading other people’s blogs so it seems only right to add a little bit of that love to my own.

I’ve been working on a little Easter project and have come up with a fluffy bunny beanie as sported by The Little Bush Princess above. I’ve got the pattern and pattern sheets finished and only need to sort out a snazzy photograph (that doesn’t have a model wearing a t-shirt with chocolate on the front!), finish the cover and it will be ready to roll off to the printers. Nice to have a bit of momentum back!

Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. We’re loving this beautiful mild weather.

Link

I have finally put my money where my mouth is and put some patterns out into the world.

Hatched and Patched in Bathurst was the first to stock the initial 6 patterns. Anni has been terribly encouraging and kind to me as I’ve muttered my way through the long and agonising ‘deciding if I can do it or not’ process.

Marally Craft in Orange also have a supply in store… and my little Etsy store has the little hairclips above as a PDF and will have other patterns listed as time permits.

Baby steps!

I will post photographs of the other patterns over the next few days. Now that I’ve re-learnt how to use my blog the sky is the limit!

everywhere but here…

Posted on September 4, 2013 by jen21g

A while ago my blog was…for want of a better word ‘hacked’ by someone who thought that my little sewing blog offered them a wonderful opportunity to sell Marlboro cigarettes. I know! You don’t have to tell me…you’ve aaaalllll been wondering where you could buy the cheapest ciggies for ages right?

So…to fix this Scott had to remove and reload my blog. The problem was that it could never look or be the same again. The other problem was that I quite liked it how it was.

Now I know change is a good thing and it should come to everything. I guess I would just have preferred to make the choice to have a little renovate rather than having it thrust upon me.

So…here we find ourselves in this new and I think rather boring format. It’s not his fault. This was the template I chose from the zillions there were to decide from. The thing is that I just don’t ‘love’ my blog anymore and I haven’t for a long time. I often wonder if people really read blogs anymore? Do they? Do you? I rarely seem to. I just don’t seem to have the time anymore.

So…I kind of took the things I blogged about here and I took them to Facebook. It seems to work well. It’s rather gratifying (in a shallow as a puddle kind of way) to see how many people look at the mumblings you put out into the world. It’s wonderful to read back the words that people have taken the time to write. In truth I really love Facebook…but of late I’ve been thinking of this little space. Long forgotten. Long neglected but with all the potential it had when I first started rambling here all those many years ago.

However, it all seems different and maybe even a bit wrong to share here as I can’t do it like I did before. There are no children to bake with, no play dough to make or tea parties to cater for. The children are settled in school. Heck! Harry is even in High School now! So, what to share? What to say? How to make the most of the potential this space holds and fall back in love with it again? Perhaps it was time for this space to be a little bit more about me…but that’s rather confronting to someone who tends to withdraw from the world like I do.

Well, in a few days time my next Homespun feature will be out. I will post some photos of that shall I?

I need to sort out pattern covers. They’re ‘doing my head in’ in the most abhorrent fashion at the moment. Maybe someone can point out where I’m going wrong and I will see the light and move forward?

Maybe I will take some snaps of Trinny the crazy hound or a photo or two of the hens as they sail around the yard? Surely someone would like that.

All assuming I figure out how to post a photo to a post. You will notice that there are no images in this one!

I’ll try hard to see you in a few days my little blog. Maybe we can live in this space together again and fall back in love with one another?

We’ll see shall we?

so stinking happy!

Posted on June 6, 2013 by jen21g

The June addition of Australian Homespun Magazine is now on the stands and I could not be more chuffed!

Because that little foxy loxy propped up on the front with her favourite little duckling is mine.

I love the way they have styled her feature. Far more lavish than I ever imagined.

I can’t tell you how much trouble I had finding a box that would accommodate that long snout while still holding her snug and safe for travel.

Her little tail is affixed with a button for extra ‘swing’.

I do hope they took her snaps on a warm day. I had not thought she would find herself out in the weather in the all together.

I just can’t get the smile off my face at the moment!

little golden book treasures?

Posted on May 11, 2013 by jen21g

Some days I drive past opportunity shops and never bat an eye.

Other days I KNOW that there is something in there waiting for me and I have to go in and rummage around. Yesterday was kind of one of those days but with a difference. I’d been in this store the day before and walked away from a lovely old mirror. Once home, remorse that I had left it behind set in so I decided to go back the next day and see if it was still there. Luckily it was!

Score!

….but seeing as I was already in the shop it wasn’t going to hurt if I just had another little look around would it?

So glad I did!

Because these little vintage beauties were waiting for me. Stacked in a basket full of plastic fantastic Fisher Price toys!

So beautifully kept, in a plastic sleeve with some cardboard to keep them straight and safe.

Mostly they’re un-cut and apart from some yellowing sticky tape marks (none of which are really over the illustrations), a little moth or perhaps silver fish predation around the edges are in wonderful condition!

A couple of sheets down I think I found what I had suspected from the moment I picked them up.

A link to Little Golden Books of days gone by.

So much to love about this little find. It feeds my love of dolls, childhood and children books in one little bundle.

Joy!

lala land

Posted on May 10, 2013 by jen21g

Around here Lalaloopsy dolls have never really found their place. It’s probably partially because of me. I tend to try and encourage Freya towards baby dolls or handmade dolls. Although when it comes to these little darlings…they’ve never really appealed to her either. I think it’s the eyes.

That was until yesterday when I found this little barely dressed lady at the op shop. Upon holding her Freya declared that she quite liked this dolly. She was ‘one of the nice ones’ apparently. The problem was that she had no clothes (you can’t have everything for your $2 investment) and it’s getting cold around here. No problem I thought. I’ll just go shopping tomorrow and buy her a frock or two…actually that was a problem. Turns out you can’t just buy clothes for these gals ‘down the street’ at the moment.

So with little time and no pattern but I have to admit a tad more enthusiasm than I thought I would ever muster for one of these dolls I have spent an hour dressing her.

She has a little pillow slip dress (with some questionable, didn’t think to embroider before I cut it out…now it won’t fit into a hoop words on it).

And a little frock coat.

All in all I think she’s in pretty good condition. The only real flaw I can find on her is this little orange stripe in her rosy cheek.

For the time being though…she’s going to have to be shoeless. I think they will take some thinking about!

…and just like that we have a Lalaloopsy doll in the house. Something tells me she won’t be on her own for too long.

history tells me to get in early

Posted on October 11, 2012 by admin

There is tinsel in the shops so it must be time to start thinking about Christmas.

Specifically the annual Christmas card fiasco.

So…time to draw up the image.

That takes around about a day.

It takes another day to paint it.

Then…..it takes two months to figure out how we will get it scanned?

What weight and size card to print it on?

How many do we need?

Can we get envelopes to fit?

What colour should the envelopes be?

How can we get them printed without the whole experience being too costly?

…..and so it goes.

Well…the image is drawn and painted in October so surely they will get to their destinations before Christmas eve….surely.

fallen treasure

Posted on October 7, 2012 by admin

This tiny little nest was waiting for me when I went out to hang the washing on the line this morning.

It had fallen gently down from the jasmine vine and landed on the greenery below.

Perfect in every way.

There’s even some toy stuffing that we left out for nesting material worked into the weave.

toadstool lane

Posted on October 3, 2012 by admin

It took me a full hour and twenty minutes to work up the courage to open the plastic covering this copy of Australian Homespun Magazine.

Because those little mice perched up high on top of that great little chair are mine.

And so is their Toadstool house, little bed, table and chairs, wee twin bairn tucked up in their bed and of course their red sports car.

I had imagined that Mr Mouse was having a little mid-life crisis. Hence the red sports car.

However….I don’t think this can be true. He appears to be in the passenger seat so perhaps he’s just let Mrs Mouse take it for a spin around the block.