Mandy in Oz

but I'm crafting away, nonetheless. Today I've been making soap, yesterday was sewing, applique, fabric painting, stencilling.....about to do a little more embellishment on a bag, but more on that later :) Here's some pics of what I've been working on, plus a shot of where the little guy decided to fall asleep today....very unusual for him, not to mention super cute :P

Well, it appears I may be coming down with something again *eyeroll* The aches and pains set in tonight.....how wonderful, just in time for the weekend :P Nevermind, I'm keeping myself busy *snicker* sketching a bag idea and cutting a stencil (the second time ever!) for another 'sort of' bag idea. Hopefully it works :) Will be back with details once I know.

it appears that project dye painting may be a win! woot! a couple of rinses and some hot, soapy water later - colour still looks nice and strong, lines are nice and crisp (as crisp as it gets, painting with dye, anyway) and I'm feeling pretty confident. I deliberately did this experiment with turquoise, as I've found it to be a bit of a heartbreaker when dyeing. Starts off looking good, after rinse it's a bit faded, ends up looking totally washed out. It's notorious for being difficult to set. So, the plan is to use these as appliques or pockets on some stuff for the kiddies, or maybe on bags and see how they fare after some washing and wearing......fingers crossed!

A little dye painting today......working on technique and using a new recipe. These aren't quite done, a couple more steps and I'll see if it's good or an epic fail :P Some finishing touches added to my alien landscape Twilight inspired on linen

taken at the family gathering yesterday. It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny - just perfect for going to the park :)

The tribe rose early, heading into the city for the annual extended family gathering. Much fun was had by the littles and the bigs, after which we headed bayside for the opening of a fabulous new soap store :) Pics tomorrow ;)

because I'm starting to get that awkward silence feeling, you know - when you're trying to think of something to say :P Here's a couple of pics I took this afternoon, one of baby Jack and an action shot of the elephant skirt of a couple of posts ago.

Here it is :) A dinosaur dress, for my dinosaur obsessed 4 year old. It received the Lily stamp of approval 'I want to wear it for years and years, mummy'. The pattern is a freebie from Oliver + S - very simple lines and extremely generous sizing (A size 3 probably would have been better for Miss Lily). Relatively easy to make and other than the cutting out, I whipped this one up in one afternoon/evening.

Looks like I might have missed another day - oops! I have an excuse, of course ;) Yep. Sick 4 year old strikes again .....sigh. The already pitiful amount of sleep I normally get, just got even more pitiful. Ah well, nevermind. I have coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Take pictures of baby Jackson, in his daddy's christening suit. Yup, J's mum kept it and gave it to us :P So, here is my little guy, in baby clothes that his dad wore, over 30 years ago :)

yep, it's a sick house again....sigh. Missed posting yesterday, too. Whoops! This weekend, in between tending to sickies, I did some scrapbooking! Well, really it was more updating of the kids memory books, but there was a little scrapbooking involved :P This led me down the slippery slope of searching out specific photos, which of course were stored on my *old* laptop. Enter - marathon transfer of photos to new computer, via 2gb memory stick :s Slow and painful, I tell you. But...I found some awesome pics that I'd forgotten about. Lily and Jackson at the Cherub's Kiss photoshoot... Jackson thinking he might eat the DS cord *eyeroll* Lily's 4th birthday cake - Dinosaur Island!

for someone who loves roses ;) Here's one I grew and took a picture of earlier *grin* Just for you Lesley :)

Hot off the sewing machine and currently on the wheel. The skirt was entirely impromptu, I found what appeared to be part of a calico 'practice run' skirt, dyed it up and chopped it into two pieces - this is the small part, with a cute little elephant print to finish the hem. The larger part will become a skirt for me. On the wheel is some lovely hand dyed cotton - I have a few different pastel colours to spin, I'll be spinning them all together, one colour at a time and then navajo plying, to get a gradient yarn. Should be fun!

I just saw that apparently there's a bit of a blogtober self-portrait thingy doing the rounds and thought - hey, that's great! Now I can just stuff around in Photo booth rather than thinking up something to blog about *giggle* I was going to blog about the cute little lime green/elephants skirt I whipped up for Lily this afternoon, but I simply couldn't find the motivation required to take a pic, so might leave that one for tomorrow ;) And here I am, a couple of minutes ago - FAK, as per usual.

Yep, I actually did get to taking those pictures today. So here they are.....Lily in her fabulous new top, which I *just* squeezed out of a half yard of some silky soft Alexander Henry voile. Plus, pictures of the fabric that I dyed over the weekend. My favourite is definite the limey green cotton velvet :)

Yep....as above. No pics - it's very rainy, gloomy weather, my fabric is still wet and hanging up under the house and the complete and utter lack of sunshine is sapping all the happy right out of me. Never mind - it's the sunshine state, the sun will *eventually* return.....won't it? It's all good though. Tonight is my weekly belly dancing class - we've just started to learn the use of a veil....very, very tricksy, it is too. Better go and warm up my hips :P

Home, that is ;) It's been a very big weekend, but we're all back, safe and sound (and absolutely stuffed!). Much dyeing was done at the lovely Carmen's house, my dyed bits and pieces are currently taking a spin in the washing machine, so no pics as yet. Tomorrow, I will attempt to have pics of both the dyeing and Lily's lovely new top (yes, it's completed! woohoo!). Here is a pic that I took on the way up the coast - the little man, with his usual cheeky grin ;)

with some wild and crazy girls :P There's been food, drink, merriment, singstar, tantrums and brownies.........the fabric is soaking, getting ready for a big dyeing session! Pictures (hopefully!) tomorrow.

Missed a day :S Ah well, you win some, you lose some. I'm about to start the marathon packing efforts that are required on the rare occasion that we *all* go away for the weekend. J is off to a golf weekend, the bigs are going to grandmas and the littles are coming with me, to the lovely Carmen's place, to hang with Carmen and Bek. Where we will no doubt drink copious amounts of coffee, talk endlessly and maybe even dye some stuff. Ahhhh, bliss ;)

Lookie what I caught on camera yesterday afternoon! Not just a rainbow, it was actually a double rainbow ;) So cool. And yes - I'm definitely in a better mood than I was yesterday, due not in small part to going on a huge cleaning binge today, and finishing the rather large task of mulching my gardens.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Swimming in a great sea of 'meh'. Though, I did receive a rather fabulous package from Hawthorne Threads yesterday.....that was pretty ok indeed! Might post some pics tomorrow, when I'm feeling slightly more motivated. Actually, you know what....no - I'll post some cute kiddy pics now. Because cute pics of the kidlets always make me smile :P

The cabin fever had well and truly set in by the middle of last week for the kids, so I think everyone is relieved that school is back today :P My biggest girl is also back to school, her first day at a new high school - good luck Dinie! Had an awesome opshop find today - a silk wraparound skirt to wear to my bellydancing classes, for the princely sum of $6.00. I love op shopping!

I've been doing quite a bit of spinning lately - it's incredibly addictive! I've been trying loads of different fibres, and have even managed to spin some 'not too bad' singles :) My fave so far has been spinning silk - a bit slippery and tricky, but oh so soft! I even spun some camel - super fine, soft and fluffy, but with a reasonably long staple (in comparison to cotton anyway lol) so quite nice to spin. Currently on the wheel is some hand dyed cotton top - nicely prepared and fairly long staple (for cotton), but a little frustrating to spin, after just spin some gorgeous tussah silk top :P

I believe that I've been a little *cough* slack, with updating my blog *blushes furiously and tries to think up an excuse* Nope, I've got nothing :P I've been having one of those periods of time where months pass in the blink of an eye, leaving you asking 'wtf???? It's October already?' So anyway, I've been doing *tons* of stuff - loads of arty, crafty bits and pieces and, after much reading and playing, have had that *lightbulb* moment where I get how to actually use my dslr *properly* - in full manual mode! So, in the spirit of Blogtober, I plan to post everyday. Or at least post a picture everyday. Ok.....you can stop laughing now. Really. Here are some pics of recent endeavours, and just some recent pics I've taken that I like :P