A Masterpiece of Forever Flowers

This wonderful hand embroidered blanket was cleverly crafted by my mum over the past year as a special gift to me - something for me to remember her by.

As a child I remember mum trying unsuccessfully to teach me (a left hander) how to knit, sewing special dresses and taking over my latch hook. Mum stopped crafting when I was about 8 years old until this. A masterpiece which she has created with no plan or pattern just the idea and a blank grey canvas.

I love it - and it has even been backed with my all time favourite flannel.

There is such detail in this blanket from flowers, fish, caterpillars, bees, and bells. A textural feast.

Performers All Round

Bronte was lucky enough to have made her 2nd debut singing in the Concert Hall at The Sydney Opera House on Saturday with Australian Girls Choir along with 600 other girls.

It was fabulous and as always delightful and so special seeing Bronte up on stage singing and dancing.

Another excuse to get out the sewing machine and sew Bronte the required white dress/skirt and top outfit.Miranda proved to be a wonderful audience member and sat beautifully throughout the performance.

With the weather threatening rain all day we were grateful to enjoy a leisurely afternoon in and around Circular Quay after the performance.

Miranda gave her own personal performance to passers-by dancing for over 20minutes to the tunes played by the busker and his saxophone. At the end of each song she graciously curtsied to those who had stopped to enjoy her show.

Koalas Peacocks and Kangaroos

On Sunday we headed off to The Koala Park to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday.It was a great day out -as Miranda described "This is the best picnic ever mummy" - a nice day out after the last few weeks of mayhem.
We got to pat lots of native animals and feed some very lazy kangaroos, the peacocks were really putting on a show and Koala spotting was a test on any one's patience but we found one out of it's enclosure and not too far up a gum tree (the Koalas are able to roam free around the park and pick any tree which suits, most koalas at the park were born their naturally without any human intervention)And this one makes pregnancy look a breeze!

Colonial Style Dress

I don't often sew for Bronte my older daughter but when she reminded me (with 2 days to spare) she needed to go to school dressed in English Colonial Style clothing (Australian History Lessons), the machine was out and boxes scavenged through.

A simple tired peasant skirt and top with apron and bonnet in plain blue and some cream. The cream band on the bottom of the top was used to lengthen the top as it was a little short.

I was rather stuck on the bonnet but with a little adaption Hoppo Bumpo's Shower Cap Tutorial
fit perfectly with the theme.without the bonnet and apron it has turned into a pretty spring outfit.

Out with the Old in with the New

Well not completely new -
The last month has been rather busy with packing, moving, unpacking settling into a new community and communting to the old.


So here we say goodbye to our old house


and hello to our new house (Bronte's 5th and Miranda's 3rd)

a new school -
Bronte seems to have made 2 freinds very quickly and settled into her new school very well
a new bed in a new room Miranda has moved out of sharing a room with me in a cot, to sharing a room with her big sister in a big girls bed
a different oven I was devistated to discover that the oven door in our new house would not shut properly but after a week it was fixed and Miranda is quite keen on baking weekly.

There are still boxes to unpack, rooms to organise, activities to be reloccated and little creases to be ironed out but we are settling in slowly,

Whilst moving to a new area poses many challenges which I could name a few, here are some special things about our new community -

• A short drive up the road to the local big grocery store sees us in semi-rural areas with hobby farms and cows to look at out the window.
• We have a lovely view looking over Sydney's south west from our front door/lounge and bedroom.
• Driving home after an afternoons commute sees lovely views of The Mountains.
• Whilst we are on the fringes of Sydney we are still very close to many large shops and on a good run it only take us 15 mins back to our old community.