This is...outside my front door

OK, I'm cheating a little here with this week's 'This is..' theme, as chosen by Brooke. But for good reason. While the front of our house faces the street (obviously) our entrance is in a little alcove which means our front door actually looks out into our neighbours front yard and house entrance. I figured taking a photo of their yard and doorway would be just a little weird...


So these photos are taken from the door which goes out onto our front balcony. So technically it is still a 'front door', just not the front door. I love the view from this balcony. We get to look out over Mt Cootha and feel like we are living in the tree-tops. After growing up in the flat brown malley scrub of country Victoria, I have such a great appreciation and love for the hilly lushness of Brisbane.


And I couldn't help taking this photo as Matt and I were eating dinner last night. This is actually from our back deck, where we were sitting, eating, and enjoying the beautiful sunset reflections on the clouds over the valley. Of course I'm never going to be able to capture the real beauty of the sky with my little snap-happy camera, but trust me. It was beautiful. And a perfect accompaniment to our Sunday dinner. Not a bad way to end the weekend either.

Catching up (sewing and awards)

This is the catch-up post I've been meaning to do all week. Firstly, I have a very belated thank-you to give. Florence, from Flossie Teacakes very kindly awarded me the ArteyPico award for being creative and inspiring! If you have visited Florence's blog before, you will understand why I feel very humbled by this. I find her blog inspirational on so many levels. Her projects are always brilliant, she parents her children with joy and creativity, and she just has a lovely way of looking at the world.

And so I get to do some award-giving myself, which will be fun. The three people I would like to pass this award onto are:

Leah from Hyena in Petticoats - because she creates fabulous creatures called 'nongs' using gorgeous fabrics, has such an eye for great op shop finds, and because she writes so well, and with a wicked sense of humour. Reading her blog always leaves me feeling uplifted and keen to get cracking!

Vanessa from Knit too! because I love the insight into her creative life, and watching as she discovers new aspects to her craft (which is, obviously - knitting). She has an amazing knack for choosing textures and colours that are 'just right', and she constantly makes me wish I could leave the sub-tropics for a while and spend some time in the snow - just so I can wear cabled beanies and fingerless gloves! And I'm SOOOO jealous of her 'crafternoons'!

Tiel from Tsk Tsk because for one thing her art is beautiful, and she is also very generous about sharing it (you can download some gorgeous wallpapers from her website). I always enjoy reading about what is going on in Tiel's life, as it is full of all the good stuff - art, sewing, food, children.

OK, now onto a couple of meagre finished projects. I feel like I've been working away on lots of bits and pieces lately, but not actually finishing anything. So last week, in desperation, I made this:



Hardly anything to boast about I know. It took me all of 5 mins, and I was looking after four kids under 3.5yrs at the time, so 5 mins was about all I had. And of course once it was made we had to share the wearing of it around (surprisingly, there was not too many tanties!). I'm not sure what it is...I guess it's a tu-tu? Actually it's a piece of scrap tulle I found in an Op Shop for next to nothing, and I thought it would make a fun dress-up skirt. I'm trying to build up a dress-ups collection for the kids, so I'm collecting plastic jewellery, funny hats, and any interesting fabric that can be turned into princessy, ballerinary, cowboyee or piratee things (yep, now I'm just inventing my own words...)



This item is marginally better, but I can only say marginally, as I didn't do a great job on it. In my desperation to get something started and finished in the same day, I made this smock top for Kate on Sunday. It took about 40 mins total, but I think had I taken a full hour and used a bit more care it would have been great. Luckily I have two big flat sheets of this fabric (yep, more Op Shop material) so I can have another crack at this. But this one is fine for just wearing around, and it looks quite sweet on.



I just created a pattern from another smock Kate already owned, and it mostly turned out well, except for the obvious shoddy work that I'm not going to point out. Ah well, I can only say that speed demon sewing is not for me. Clearly. Ahem, next project please!!!

This is...(not) my inspiration board

This week's This is... theme (hosted by Angela from Three Buttons) comes from Pip at Meet Me At Mikes. So this week we are supposed to be showing our inspiration boards...except I don't have one. However I do have a little corner of the kids' rumpus room where I have my sewing spot set up, and I do actually find this little space inspiring.



In fact, I really like being in the kids' room, and being surrounded by lots of kid art and colour. Add to this coloured thread, fabric, buttons, and a few special photos - and I'm an inspired lady!!!





I also have one my first attempts at free-form softy making wedged in the child-locked doors of my sewing cupboard. It was supposed to be a tulip, but it turned out looking more like a devil's pitch-fork. But in spite of this, I find this little article inspiring, as I remember vividly when I first started sewing, I woke in the night with this idea to make a tulip. It was when I was first discovering the creative side of sewing, and I felt like I had a head full of ideas bursting all over the place. These ideas didn't necessarily come to fruition (especially as my sewing skills were far behind many of my big ideas) but just that feeling of being creatively inspired was just so wonderful....and yeah, anyway, this little pitch-fork reminds me of that :)

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else finds inspiring...

Ooh my god, it's, like...so RANDOM!!!!!

OK, this post has taken quite a bit of effort. I was tagged by Maggie from The Bird Bath and Kara from Fabric Fantastic to do the 7 Random Things meme. Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

And here my seven random things:

1. I have the same breakfast every morning. Peanut butter and jam on wholemeal toast, with a cup of early grey tea. For me, breakfast just doesn't get better than that. The only exception to this is Saturday mornings, when we have breakky at the markets, and then it's a pain au chocolat - otherwise known as a chocolate croissant - and a half-strength coffee. That's me lettin' loose!!

2. Sometimes I feel a little sad that I will never again have multi-coloured hair. At least, not until I am really old and can justify those funky blue and pink rinses. When I was younger I used to have VERY short hair and it would often be blue, pink, purple, spearmint....not so much bright vibrant colours, but soft pale colours reminiscent of sherbet. But now I'm a mum, and I'm 35, and I'm not going to be that sad person holding desperately onto their youth. So no more freaky spiky hair or weird colours for me....

3. I love rain. But I HATE being cold. This is why I love Brisbane so much - it rains without getting cold (yeah I know, hot, muggy etc...but I LOVE it!)

4. I feel uncomfortable on all forms of transport...except trains. I'm not phobic or anything - I drive a car every day, I travel by plane every year, and I've caught many buses, boats and taxis in my time. But I never enjoy the ride. I'm always very happy to get to where I'm going and get out. Trains however are a different story. I love being on them, I love the clickety clackety noise and gentle rocking motion, and I always feel like I'm off to somewhere very exciting when I'm on a train. I wonder if this is where Lee gets his train obsession from...hhhmmmmm....

5. I'm quite small...and I've always been tiny (except when I was pregnant, and those two times were the only brief change in size for me in 20 years. When my husband and I were first together and living in Melbourne, we rented a flat in Elsternwick with no heating, and it was so cold, that my mother-in-law gave me Matt's old snow overalls (very blue and very shiny) that he owned when he was a 12 year old boy. They fit me perfectly, and I wore them in that flat over my clothes all the time. It was a great look!

6. My name is Rebecca, but people always forget and call me 'Rachel'...I mean ALL the time. I must look more like a Rachel than a Rebecca...

7. My childhood self would be appalled to come across my present-day self and discover she was a stay-at-home mum/housewife. Until I had kids, I was very, very undomesticated (luckily my husband was the opposite!). Even when I took maternity leave from my job, I never imagined I wouldn't go back. Funnily enough, my husband never imagined he would work in an office and be the breadwinner - but life kinda led him into a job he loved, with good $$$, and I realised I was really happy doing the domestic thing. It's weird, as we are actually a very non-traditional couple doing quite traditional roles at the moment. Sometimes it cracks us up (especially when Matt comes home and sees me wearing an apron. He still cacks himself over that).

So now I need to tag seven other bloggers to see if they want to play, so I'm tagging the following blogs:
Betty Ninja
Flossie Teacakes
Great Stories
Starashan
lille-ursus
Scrapsister
Area Thrifty One

By the way, I just couldn't do a post without a photo (how boring) so the above one is a bag packaged up and ready to be sent off (the Dame Washalot bag found a new home last week). I'm currently experimenting with interesting forms of packaging. I think I quite like this one. What do you think?

This is...me taking a photo of myself in the mirror with my favourite accessory

(From Left to right, clockwise - Knit Wit bangle by Liana Kabel (birthday present from my husband), hand painted blackbird brooch by In My Backyard, glass bead necklace found in an Op Shop (another 20 cent bargain - I feel very glamourous when I wear this), and a silver ring made by a friend).

OK, so clearly this series of pics above is NOT me taking a photos of myself in the mirror. This is because when I read about this week's 'this is' theme, I somehow missed the whole 'me in the mirror' bit. So I assumed I just had to take pics of me wearing the accessories. I was even so proud of myself that I had narrowed it down to only four.

I only realised my error after I noticed a few other bloggers taking photos of themselves taking photos...and the penny dropped. Unfortunately I didn't realise this until the end of the day, hence the disheveled look (which is usually how I look by the end of the day, and the reason I tried to cover half my head with the camera) and the bad lighting. Ah well, such is life!



So my number 1 favourite accessory has to go hands down to the ring. Firstly, I just love it because it was made in friendship by a lovely person I went to Uni with. And it was one of those 'just because' gifts. It wasn't Christmas, or my birthday or anything, she just made the ring and sent it to me after she had moved away from Melbourne. It is funny because a lot of people comment on it, and once I was at an art gallery, where her works were showing (her name is Alisa Dewhurst, in case you ever come across her exhibitions) and the curator complimented me on the ring, and I felt very chuffed to be able to tell her it was made by one of the people she was currently exhibiting. Anyway, Alisa gave this to me about 12 years ago now, and I have worn it almost every day since then. The picture in the ring is actually a man's head and shoulders, and I believe the image was taken from a 1940s ad for a suit. I just love it. It is heavy and tactile and always reminds me of friendships that span distance. What better reason to love an object!

Thanks to One Red Robin for another great 'this is' theme!

Another 'Built by Wendy' mash-up!

After wearing the last linen dress I made to death, I decided I should whip up another one. This is probably the cheapest dress ever, as I found this watermelon-coloured fabric in an Op Shop and it was 20 cents. Yep - TWENTY CENTS!!!!!! Can you believe that! Actually I did pay more for it than that, because I would have just felt SO cheap, and it was worth so much more than that. It was a huge fabric remnant (I still have enough to make either a small dress for Kate, or maybe a bag). And the fabric itself is quite gorgeous. It looks like a heavy linen, but doesn't crinkle anywhere near as much as 100% linen. A friend who knows a lot about fabrics said she thinks it may be a linen/rayon blend. Anyway, it just feels kind of old-fashioned and lovely. And of course, I had to add some buttons to it...just because...



I basically did the same mash-up of the Built by Wendy Simplicity pattern #3835 that I did last time, with the exception that I cut out the back piece of the dress as one whole piece, rather than two pieces with a seam up the back. Which just made it even quicker and easier to whip up.



Next time, I am going to find some heavy winter-weight fabric, and try actually making the dress according to the pattern, with the yoke, zip and longer sleeves. I think it will make a very nice winter dress. But while summer's still here...well..this design is just hard to pass up. OK, off now to post the pic in the Built by Us Flickr group, and also check out how all the other Built By Wendy projects are turning out (a lot of other people seem to alter and embellish their patterns, so it's great for inspiration). Yee har!

This is...what makes me laugh out loud!!!

So this week's most excellent 'This is' theme, as chosen by Pollalina is '...what makes me laugh out loud'. I am really looking forward to checking out all the blogs of people who are playing this week.

My husband thinks this theme is right up my alley, as I love a bit of laughing out loud. In fact, it was really hard to narrow it down as there are just so many things that make me laugh. So I've decided to go with things that have made me laugh very recently.

Firstly, Flight of the Conchords - I am currently watching the DVD of these guys and it is just cracking me up. This clip in particular makes me cack myself every time I watch it...



Secondly, The Mighty Boosh. What can I say - I have watched both seasons of this and can barely wait for the third season to be written (apparently it's in the pipeline). I love the 'out there' fantasy element of The Mighty Boosh (see the photo at the top of this post), complete with songs, animations, and the most bizarre characters and locations. Anyway, here's a little clip of one of their intros...



And lastly, I'm pretty sure this is a really old photo that has been doing the email rounds, but it cracks me up every time I see it. I guess because I could imagine my kids doing this. And just check out how happy they look. Hehehehe - a classic kid moment. Love it!


Looking forward to having a week of chuckles. Cheers!!!