Khye’s Birthday

Yes, yes I know his birthday was months ago (in March), but I have been meaning to show off the handmade gifts he received for his birthday. His grandfather made him this fantastic 3 piece wooden truck, trailer and bulldozer.



They have been made with love from recycled timber. The first few nights after his birthday, Khye had to take them to bed with him. There wasn’t much room left for him with all the trucks, teddies, pillows and blankets in the cot!

Khye also received for his birthday a playmat I made to go with the train set we gave him. I drew the design onto an old sheet and used remnant fabric from my stash to appliqué the hills, roads, water etc to the sheet. I then backed it and used bias binding to bind the edges.

And it folds away neatly with all the toys inside.

Nice, quick and easy pack up!

Happy birthday 2 year old!

New Life

On top of all the things that have been happening in the last crazy couple of months, I have been struggling with morning sickness. Yep I’m pregnant and due to give birth to our second child in September! Here is one of the first pics.

(Sorry its a bit of a blurry photo of a grainy ultrasound scan)

I have been starting to feel a lot better in the last couple of weeks and now have a lot more energy, time and motivation to blog and sew. I didn’t go to the March market ‘cos I wasn’t feeling well, but I did go as a visitor. It was cold and wet and a good market not to got to! The April market went well though – it was warm in the sun and no rain. I will be at the May market, the last market of the summer season and my last market till after the baby is born. But I won’t be far away as I intend to open an online store soon – so stay tuned!

Callignee is experiencing some new life now too. The birds are starting to return, Mum’s garden is looking green and I have been told there are even some flowers coming out now!

Mum and Dad kept this bank of garden really wet in the lead up to the fire and although all the plants were either burnt or cooked in the heat, the roots were kept damp in the soil which meant the plants were able to regenerate quite quickly. The mint was one of the first plants to grow back amongst the molten metal “sculptures” from the burnt out cars.

The trees around them though have been slow to reshoot. Some have a few new green shoots but there are also many that aren’t showing any signs of life yet. Eucalypts are usually pretty quick to reshoot after a bushfire –goes to show just how intense the fire must have been. Dad was outside as the fire front passed through and he recalls that as it came up over the hill it was a wall of flame from the ground to the top of the trees and the flame then curled over the top of the house by another tree length! Very scary. Here is a photo of Mount Tassie, just a few kilometres up the road from Callignee.

The TV towers you can see, supply Gippsland with TV reception and were damaged by the fire. In the foreground is a pine plantation which the fire ripped through very, very quickly.

Now I do tell a small lie when I say I haven’t been doing any sewing lately. I have done a little bit of sewing bringing new life to fabrics in my stash and creating gifts for Khye’s cousins who recently turned one. The first is a soft, pretty dolly. She is my own design with a bit of inspiration from the More Softies book.

Khye’s cousin looked at her for a bit after she was unwrapped, then gave her a big cuddle and chewed her cheek! I guess she liked her new dolly.

I made for Khye’s other cousin a Humpty Dumpty. He again is my own design with a bit of inspiration from the Play School Humpty.
Khye’s cousin was more interested in the curling ribbon around the present than in Humpty himself! Hopefully with a bit of time he will like Humpty and have some fun with him.

Just been busy...

So busy I haven’t had a chance to blog (or sew) lately. We have been busy with Sean’s Dad’s 60th birthday, spending time with the in-laws, attending a textiles course, and visiting my parents in Callignee. They are doing okay and slowly getting the place cleaned up. But the area has been absolutely devastated by the fires. Here are some before, during and after photos of the Callignee fire.

I don’t even recognise the area anymore and its going to take a long time for the community to rebuild both physically and mentally.

On other news, I won’t be at the Gisborne Market this Sunday. I need a break – it’s Sean’s birthday this weekend and we are all in need of some quality family time. But check out my friend’s stall, EcoToys, at the market on Sunday – she sells a range of fair trade and local handmade toys made from eco friendly materials. And don’t forget you can contact me anytime or I’ll see you again at the April Market.

Bushfires

For 20 years and 10 days my parents have been living in Callignee, preparing for bushfire and waiting for this very day to happen. In the evening of Saturday 7th February 2009 fire ripped through their property. They managed to save their house and the big shed but everything else has gone. The wood shed, the garden shed, the lawn mower, some cars and even more devastating 20 years of gorgeous garden all gone in a few very frightening minutes. There is no power and there's not much water left in the tanks, but at least Mum and Dad have their home. If anyone was going to survive and save their house in bushfire it was going to be my parents.

20 years and 10 days they have been preparing to battle this blaze and they won. Most of their neighbours weren't so lucky. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and with all the people across the state who have lost their homes and loved ones.

Holiday fun

Here’s a collection of images and sound from our holidays.

This was a last minute burst of sewing before christmas for Khye’s toys – it’s a bag that opens flat on the floor.

Some christmas pressies - how lucky am I?

Daddy’s little helper

The leather owl I made as a gift for mum

Khye ready to go “nunnel” (aka tunnel) hunting

nunnel hunting with Grandma

“more more nunnel”

Grandma’s garden is looking beautiful at the moment.

a fantastic op shop fabric find – a zebra just had to be made!

Sean has been very busy doing a wonderful job to transform our pink kitchen into a white kitchen.

This is the last thing I saw before leaving for work this morning.

And lastly I was going to post the most beautiful rendition of twinkle little star, but I had issues (we don’t have a USB2 port to download stuff from my mp3 player – stay tuned though, I will post it as soon as I can!)

Happy new year!

Merry Christmas!

Thank you to all for taking time to read my blog and for your support over the last 6 months. I’ve had so much fun with spunkee stuff.

Wishing you all a wonderful christmas with your families and a fantastic new year!
(I’ve been loving this little tree so much I think I’ll make another one for myself to be enjoyed next Christmas. This tree went into a hamper at Khye’s childcare which was then donated to the Salvation Army.)

mmm…yum…shortbread

I have been making batches of shortbread lately for Khye’s christmas breakup parties. It is Mum’s recipe and I though I would share it with you.

They are a little bit crunchy, a little bit crumbly, a little bit “melt in the mouth” and a whole lot yummy. We struggle to stop at one biscuit!

So here is the recipe:

250g butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup cornflour
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
2 1/3 cups plain flour

Melt butter over low heat.
Sift icing sugar and cornflour in bowl and add sugar.
Add butter and vanilla and beat until thick and creamy.
Add sifted flour and mix well.
Press mixture into a lamington tin and smooth with the back of a spoon. Cut and prick each biscuit with a fork.
For christmas we like to roll the mixture onto a board, cut out star shaped biscuits and place them on a tray.
Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes.
Cut again while warm and cool in the tin or on the tray.

Evening Light

Last night as the sun was setting, the clouds reflected gorgeous colours and shone a wonderful glow upon our world that made everything look beautiful and special. I turned off the flash on my camera so as not to destroy the softness of the evening. But I cannot control the exposure time (it is just a small point & shoot digital camera) and I could not hold the camera steady. So here are the best of the blurry images I captured from our backyard.

It doesn’t really capture it but the sky through the middle of this photo was a deep dark blue.

Even the calico on the roof of our deck looked beautiful with its purple glow against the yellow fairy lights.

And then once the light had gone grey I took photos of the christmas lights using the long exposure time to my advantage. By deliberately moving the camera while the image is being exposed you can come up with some fantastic photos.

This is the christmas tree.

And the coloured fairy lights in the garden.

Try it yourself!