Mr. Owly

I started making him more than 12 months ago, but when he started turning out a bit wonky, he got banished to the bottom of the sewing box. Khye went into hospital to have his tonsils out recently, so I thought I would rescue Mr. Owly and sew on his big night eyes, beak and soft heart shaped belly to give to Khye when he returned home. He loves Mr. Owly (almost as much as white teddy!) and he doesn’t care that he’s a little wonky. I even like his wonkiness now!

Khye moments…

Today I asked Khye what he would like to eat for lunch and he answered with “a cow mummy”! Here is the cow: He is made of a pineapple body, banana head, sultana eyes, apricot wedge ears and cheese legs. Of course he ate the cheese and nothing else!
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The other day Khye had been chatting to white teddy in the dining room when everything became very quiet. I went to check what was happening. This is what had happened!:
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Last week Khye was playing outside on the deck and I could hear him chatting away to himself…but it was echoey. I went outside to find him inside the clothes dryer!:

Hopefully there are many, many more Khye moments to come!

Meet the new arrivals …

…giraffes!
These three are now available in the spunkee online store. www.madeit.com.au/spunkeestuff

The following two giraffes were the first ones I made and they didn’t make it to the store. Khye decided to have the green giraffe and he gave the red one to Maya. I haven’t even had a chance to embroider their eyes yet!

Callignee update

We went back to Callignee for a couple of days recently. It doesn’t look quite so black and stark now. The trees are looking fluffy, the spring flowers have popped up, the grass has grown and the weeds have come back with a vengeance. Mum and Dad still have a lot of work to do cleaning up, building the woodshed and keeping the weeds under control, along with plenty of other things too. Here are some photos from our recent visit in November and an earlier visit in July.

Mum’s garden is looking beautiful once again:

A fantastic piece of molten metal found under one of the burnt out cars (it's about 5cm wide):

One of Mum’s sculptures made from the rusty bits of scrap metal found inside the cars:

I love her boobs!

The new front gate is in:

The current woodpile:

And the beginnings of Dad's new woodshed:

Around Callignee:

It’s sad to see so much clearing going on – these poor tree ferns are the only things left in this gully:

Untouched natural regeneration in the Flora Reserve:

Seth's Garden...

... is flowering for the 2 year anniversary of his death.

We miss you Seth. xx

Latest op shop finds

This fantastic skirt…

I love the fabric!

These cute shorts for Maya…

And this squeaking zebra toy was a freebie!

Khye and I had a great day today. We made some pink and blue playdough and we made a couple of playdough elephants.
We also made cream cheese, sultana and grated apple sandwiches for lunch - yummy! We danced to music. We read lots of books. We made a batch of muesli bars - more yummy! And we watched play school together. A fun, happy, cold wet weather day at home!

Our little artist

On the weekend I bravely gave Khye some house paints and this large canvas to paint on. I had been meaning to do a painting together with him but once I saw him start painting I decided to let it be his work of art.

We didn't end up with too much of a mess - just a little paint on his Thomas smock, a streak of red paint on the cheek and some green paint handprints on my trackies!

And this is the final masterpiece:

I love it and it's going up on the wall in our bedroom!

She’s here at last!

Maya Joy

Born Thursday 10th September 2009 at 7:07pm
Weighing 7 pound 3 ounces

A little sister for our big boy Khye!

I op therefore I am...

Sean found this great blog the other day about op shopping in Melbourne. It lists and maps all the op shops in Melbourne - a fantastic resource! Here are my latest op shop bargains.

This children's wardrobe was actually spotted by Sean and it is perfect for all my wool jumpers and fabric. Hopefully it will all actually fit in the wardrobe! I also found the map in an op shop about 10 years ago and have finally framed it displayed it.

These are the latest wool jumpers I have found. Not sure what they might become yet ... maybe a pink turtle shell and a baby blue blanket...

And this knitting pattern book. I have been bitten by the knitting bug lately. I have knitted some booties (more on them another day once I have actually finished them) and have started knitting a vest for Khye using this pattern. I'm not a very fast or coordinated knitter so might take me a while to finish the vest!

Maybe the vest will be ready for baby no. 2 due in less than 2 weeks!

Spunkee store now open!

I have finally opened my online spunkee store!

With Sean, the seasoned ebayer, being home for the past couple weeks recovering from an operation, he has been able to get the store set up for me so I can list some spunkee items.

I hope to add new items regularly so please have a browse through the store and let me know what you think – I appreciate all feedback! You will find the store at www.madeit.com.au/spunkeestuff and I have added a quick link on the right.

Please support handmade at www.madeit.com.au.

New things I’ve been having fun making lately…

…a penguin softie – an order for a work collegue. I designed him from scratch and I am actually amazed at how well he turned out!
…a beautifully soft angora wool cot blanket – an order for a friend for her soon to be grandson.

…another soft wool cot blanket – available for sale.

…a fabric rocking horse for Khye. This is a sneak peek as I haven’t finished him yet. I am making him from a pattern from a 1970’s magazine that Mum collected when we were kids.

…a soft fabric portable house/garage/barn/building for Khye. Again a sneak peek as I haven’t finished it yet. Here is the tutorial from UK Lass in US.

More on the horse and the house later when they are finished.

What new things have you been making lately?

Callignee 4 months on

We visited Mum and Dad in Callignee on the Queens Birthday long weekend. It was a nice relaxing time as always. I took my sewing machine and got a bit of sewing done. Sean helped Dad get the new fence posts in for the front gate. And Khye had a great time exploring Grandma’s garden which is starting to look beautiful once again.


Dad’s cars change colour every time we visit. They are now this rusty orange colour which looks brilliant against the bright new green growth. There are some beautiful things happening amongst all this devastation.




The bush is starting to recover well now. Seedlings are popping up all over the place, trees are sprouting lots of new growth and the bracken is carpeting the ground.


Trees are shredding old burnt bark and revealing beautiful orange trunks.

And the roadsides are looking really fluffy now too.