Calm

Calmness is not a character trait, it's simply a skill. You have to decide that it matters; that the quality of your presence would be better if you slowed yourself down and were really connected to people and to the moment you are living in. Then you practise until gradually it becomes part of you. It benefits everyone around you - they feel peaceful and happy in your presence...It's well worth cultivating.
Calmness is made up of certain actions - breathing deeper, dropping your shoulders, settling your muscles, feeling your feet strongly planted on the ground, focusing your thoughts on the job in hand in a steady, easy way... Even just counting three or four breaths, in and out, will slow your heart beat and calm your mind down...
...Everything is better - the taste of food, the scent of flowers, the feel of the shower warm on your skin. You will find that time slows down and you can think more...

From Raising Girls by Steve Biddulph page 20

I love the idea of calm. But I am not by definition a very calm person.
But in amidst the chaos that was this past week, I decided to try harder. To make a conscious effort to be a calmer person and make a calmer home.

Here's my calm list so far;

• exercise for half an hour a day
• go to bed a little earlier each night to read
• try to get organised for the next morning the night before
• be conscious of lowering my shoulders
• pick my battles carefully
• make time for each of my girls and their homework (as much as I disagree with it)
• try to clear and clean out our home space
• breath deeply
• try to stick to the to do list
• try to be organised with food and laundry
• keep an up to date calender for all to see
• fill in and send back school notes as soon as I get them
• try not to feel other people's feelings for them 

I think it will be a bit of a work in progress. Some items will be easier to stick to than others. But I am on to it and looking forward to seeing some changes around here.

I did entertain the thought of writing out my crazy list too. The list of things spinning around my head at the moment threatening to make me hyperventilate and fall over, but I decided not to. The crazy gets enough of my time and head space, I need to restrict it. I need to control my crazy and concentrate on calm. Yes I do.

How about you? Do you keep calm amidst the crazy chaos?

Is my list the same as your list? Do you have a list? Do you need one?

Do you have some extra tips for me to add to mine?

I hope you have the most wonderful weekend friends.

I hope it smells divine, tastes delicious and feels fabulous.

Bye xx

1,000 doilies

I blog for so many reasons.

I blog to record, to archive, to catalogue, to get it out of my system, to display, to tell our story, to journal, because I like to, because it's good for me and I blog to connect and be connected. I blog for community.

Blog land is made of wonderful little networks of like minded souls all connecting through our blog posts, our comments, swaps, clubs and different projects.

I've spoken before about starting my blog a few weeks too late to join in with Kirsty's quilt project all those years ago and I think I've been waiting for another big project like that to pop up ever since.

And then about a month ago, someone on instagram, I think it might have been the gorgeous Ellie Petalplum, sent me a link to Lisa Solomon's 1,000 doily project.

Lisa Solomon, a Californian mixed media artist, is working towards a piece of art made up of 1,000 (sen in Japanese) doilies.

In Lisa'a words;

1000 is a big deal in japanese culture. it's wrapped up in luck and hope and clearly excess. so... in thinking about luck and placing it into my lexicon, my vocabulary, my means of working. 1000 doilies it is. and because of my fascination with color and color theory... 100 colors of thread. 10 doilies in each color to get to my 1000. 

So Lisa put the call out and sent those 100 coloured threads to crocheters all around the world. Two of them landed here in Daylesford.

I've committed to making 20 doilies for Lisa's work. 10 peach and 10 bottle green. So far I've made 6 (one since the pics).

The thread is super fine, the hook a minute 1.5mm and the doilies themselves are about 2-3 inches wide. Tiny!

I love this project so much. I love the thought that people all around the world are joined by these tiny doilies, that it connects us, that every one of us is putting aside time in our busy lives to crochet for another. And I simply cannot wait for the big unveiling. Imagine a wall of 1,000 coloured doilies.

This project is such a big part of why I blog.

And in case you were about to ask, no I haven't sewn in the ends of The Book Blanket, but it's not book dead-line time either.


Happy, happy Wednesday to you my friends.

Are you making? Creating? Alone? With others?
Do you blog for the same reasons as me? Or for something else entirely?

Thanks heaps for being part of my community.
I really, really appreciate I do.

xx

In and Out.

Out: My FlowerPress Brooch swap.

My doily brooch, some small love heart brooches, some Australian animal chocolates, a little purse I made and a Foxs Lane card.

Out: The Green Sleeves dress,

...a little appliqued t'shirt (it's always nice to add a little surprise) and Foxs Lane card, all tied up with a vintage sheet selvage ribbon.

Out: The Second Blue Flower dress,

...a little t'shirt surprise, a Foxs Lane card, all tied up with a vintage sheet selvage ribbon.

In: The most divine doily tea towel from gorgeous Susie at Flower Press. It's a caravan prezzie. Hooray!! Thank you so much Susie, I adore it. xx

Out: A bunch of interchangeable circular knitting needles Mary lent me when I was trying to decide on a brand. How ace is blogland! Thanks Mary.

Out: A doily brooch and a couple of love heart brooches for Miss Jennie just because.

I often wonder if the post office people draw straws when they see me coming.

Have you had any fun mail lately? Hope so.

And be honest, were you hoping this post was about something a bit more exciting?

See ya! x

Brooched.

After much agonising and researching and procrastinating and planning, I am happy to report that I have finally finished my doily brooch for Susie's Flowerpress Brooch Swap.

But before you go thinking it was easy and straight forward, let me take you on a bit of a brooch journey.

First off I thought I'd make it out of bits and pieces from my Farmer Boy's shed.

When that didn't come together, I started crocheting a multi layered and petaled flower. When that looked like it was going to turn out enormous, I ditched that idea too. I hope to go back to it and finish it at some stage because it'll look great as a corsage on a bag or jacket, but not really a brooch.

Then while looking at pretty pictures on Ravelry one night I decided to make a doily brooch. And after looking at hundreds of doily patterns and not loving any of them, I made up my own.

Or at least I thought I did, but when I came home and did a Pinterest search I came up with this. It looks so similar to mine it's scary. Wow!

It seems my pattern might not have been so original after all.

I crocheted five small doilies yesterday on the train to Melbourne and back. It took me that many goes to get the size and shape and pattern I liked. But do you think I wrote it down as I went along so I knew what I had done? Nope! This silly billy had to guess and count the stitches each time.

When I had finally come up with a pattern I was happy with, I decided the cotton I had grabbed that morning was far too white, so we soaked the doilies in my Mum's tea pot and then in a salty vinegary solution to set the new colour.

Mmmmmuch better.

After that all that was left was to stitch it onto some denim, glue a circle of denim on the back to neaten it up and then the brooch pin.

Raveled here.

Woohooo, I'm mentally ticking brooch swap brooch off my mental list.

What's next? Some caravan sewing I think.

Have a fab weekend y'all.

In my...

In my shop...this new addition to the Everything But The Thread range.

This Blue Ruffle Dress is size 4-5.

It is made entirely from vintage sheets, thrifted lace, button and trim and a doily from Rie.

How cute would it look on your princess!

In my mail...over the last week I have been lucky enough to receive this awesome book from Cath. It is like an encyclopedia of needle crafts and looks like it'll be one of those books I am always pulling down from the shelf. Thanks Cath!

Thanks Rie for the package of crafty odds and ends. I only included the fabric and the flowers because the rest is either already in use or been claimed by one of the girlies. And I am embarrassed to say that I cracked one of those long, brown buttons when I thought it was a licorice bullet and took a bite. True!

Thanks Caroline for the beautiful floral fabric fat quarters. Love, love, love! A dress? A skirt? A top? A hat?

And thanks Fran for the stunning scarfette. The only good thing about the freezing weather we are having is that I'll be able to wear it lots.

In Pepper's wardrobe...this cardi Bren's clever Mum knitted. I cannot get over how perfect all the stitches are and how complex the patterns. Kind of reminds me that I've got such a long way to go and so much to learn.

In my birthday loot...Six balls of this deliciousness. Mmmmmmmm

In my mind...a huge thank you for all your wonderful birthday messages. I had a fantastic day. The kind of day when I knew it was my birthday all day long.

The celebrations continue tonight with a dinner date with my farm boy (thanks R&J XX).

So what's going on in your...

I hope its happy. XX

ps. No that kid on my right is not mine.

My creative space.

In my creative space today I am binding,

overlocking and gathering,

crocheting a trim,

and putting together surprising colour combinations.

I cannot believe that I am considering sewing with this orange trimmed table cloth but somehow this combination looks summery and fun to me today despite my dislike of the colour.

Oh, and I'm also still hooking away at my Softie for Mirabel, knitting my Tea Leaves cardi and my test for Tikki but I haven't got any recent photos of these. I also have a whole pile of projects that will realistically never be finished so I'm not even going there.

I know I should probably stop starting new projects until I finish some of these but that wouldn't be fun now would it?

Over to Kirsty's for some more creativity.

Happy Thursday y'all. XX

The patchwork dress.

I guess I've had the idea of making a quilt kicking around in the back of my head for a while now. I've got lots of bits of gorgeous vintage sheet fabric and more than enough inspiring bloggy photos. So yesterday afternoon, when I had a few hours to sew I thought it was time to get started.

I ripped (sorry) up lots of 2.5 inch strips, over locked the sides and then spent AGES sewing them back together again.

Oh my goodness you quilters are a patient lot.

At this stage it was time to pick up the girls, do dinner and bath time and bed.

This morning I looked at it and knew that it was meant to be a dress. A mixy-matchy, patchwork dress. The quilt would have to wait.

I think it is about a size 5/6.

I was planning on selling it in my online store/market stall but to be honest, the skirt took HOURS and I have no idea how much I would charge.

And oops, I sewed the Everything But The Thread bit upside down.

Thanks to Candace for the vintage bits of fabric.

Thanks to Fii for the zip.

Thanks to Gina for the doily.

Thanks to Lizzie's Mum for the pink bit of fabric.

Thanks to the op shop fairies for the bias binding and the little girl pillow case.

Oh and if by chance you wanted to have a go at my crochet ric-rac tutorial but only speak French, you'll be happy to know that Christine has translated it. Click over here for French ric-rac.

Have a happy weekend y'all. XX

Busy's skipping dress.

This is dress number three in my Everything But The Thread range.

This dress is heading up to Northern New South Wales to live with a gorgeous princess and for lots and lots of skipping and dancing and spinning.

Its made from op shopped pink and blue denim, four vintage sheets, op shopped binding and zipper and a heart doily crocheted by me.

It is a bit small on my Jazzy so hopefully it fits the little princess perfectly.

The problem now is getting it off my Jazzy and into the post. She loves it. She says its the most perfect twirly, spinney dress she's ever worn.

While we were away at the beach we celebrated a belated Mothers' Day. The girls had packed me an outfit to wear for the festivities that included my green dance party tutu. Let me tell you I had lots of fun twirling and spinning and dancing that morning. I totally get the little girl fascination with the skipping dress.

Have fun and maybe a bit of dancing and twirling out there. X

My creative space.

Yesterday morning I was digging around in the back of what feels like my very uncreative space, my wardrobe, in the hopes of discovering something new and exciting to wear. While I didn't exactly find what I was hoping for, I did come across a very soft, wine coloured wrap around top.

I was hopeful. I tried it on. And then I remembered why I had chucked it to the back of the wardrobe in the first place. It just didn't work on me. The wrap around bit was too low and the shoulders were too saggy and I probably should have tried it on in the oppy I bought it from all those years ago.

But it was so soft.

So yesterday morning instead of chucking it back, I cut it up, stitched it back together again and made a dress for Miss Pepper.

There weren't any big enough bits to get whole pattern pieces out of, so I just stitched some smaller bits together to make two pieces for the front and two for the back.

I didn't even care that I sewed the back wrong side out.

And then I pinned a doily to the front. I'll sew it on later.

I can't stop crocheting these doilies at the moment. They are strangely addictive.

Oh and the beanie.

I can't stop crocheting them either.

Since I discovered how easy they are to make when you forget about a pattern and increase until you get to the size you want and then make the sides, they are actually fitting heads around here too. Which is a good thing because it is positively arctic outside.

I hope your Thursday is a creative one.

Check out the rest at Kirsty's.

Monday mayhem.

So here we are, week three of the school year and I feel like its all getting on top of me.

It doesn't help that we work weekends. We leave for Melbourne when the girls finish school on Fridays, do farmers' markets and deliveries on Saturdays, drive home, go to bed, wake up Sundays and spend the day working in the farm shop.

Monday mornings we wake up to find school bags full of wet bathers and towels and uniforms, lunchboxes full of soggy, stale lunch left overs and tired, grumpy kids.

We'll get into a routine soon, but at the moment I feel like I'm constantly running trying to catch up. Who has swimming this week? What day is calisthenics? What colour leotard for what age? What song does who need on a cd for singing lessons?

So that being said there's not much time for making things at the moment. The crocheted trim in the above photo was crocheted in the car when Bren ran vegies into inner Melbourne restaurant kitchens and in between customers at the farm stall yesterday. Hopefully one day it will go on the neckline of a dress.

And this doily I crocheted last week isn't speaking to me as loudly as I'd hoped. Or possibly, I'm just not standing still long enough to hear.

I tried sewing the dress up to help but I'm still not sure.

Possibly sleeves,

or a collar, or maybe I'll just stitch it on whole.

I hope things are calmer and less soggy at your place and that your Monday is a funday. XX