Living in a shoe box!

We live in a rather small house and I often complain " oh, it's just like living in a shoe box!".

I stumbled across this little scene the other day - my children had decided to make a cosy shoe box house for their dolls, complete with en suite, lap top and phone. Note the cooker tucked away in the corner too. What joy to be children with such rich imaginations, I find it totally inspiring.

Hmm, it's food for thought, perhaps our home isn't so small after all...

Fabulous kitchen, wonderful craft cupboard...

Those of you who know me well will know I'm a huge fan of 'craft cuboards' in the home. I'm convinced that that the best way to motivate and inspire children to be creative and self motivated is to give them access to the tools they need to make things when ever the mood strikes. A really effective way to do this is to give them their own dedicated space and call it the 'craft cuboard'. It does mean you run the risk of having pencils, paper and half finished drawings everywhere you look but the plus side is your children will feel totally independent and can can make or draw whatever takes their fancy.
 

I went to a friends house the other day and was really impressed with her beautiful vintage and retro inspired kitchen (Rustic Retro? have we coined a new phrase?). Her black white and chrome colour scheme makes a striking combination. As an added touch she's featured a huge wooden dresser and other gorgeous wooden furniture all painted in white and I cheered when I noticed in the middle of her kitchen  a small cupboard stuffed full of crafty things. That's my girl!

Gigantic baby block!

My husbands cousin had a baby and I was invited to my first baby shower in Australia. I had no idea what to expect and of course had the added challenge of finding a gift to take. Whilst pondering over my options I stumbled across a pattern in a magazine for a baby block. "How sweet" I thought, I can make a little baby block and personalise it with the family name (they hadn't chosen a name and they didn't know if it was a boy or girl). I had some fabulous Sesame Street fabric I'd found in a thrift shop whilst rummaging and decided to team it together with a lilac and blue pin stripe fleece. I don't ever follow patterns as I usually come up with my own designs but on this occasion I followed the pattern to the letter. The result was very funny, half way through I realised to my amusement that the instructions were wrong and my little baby block was actually going to be gigantic. Someone had got the measurements wrong and now I was left with this huge baby block which needed masses of stuffing to make plump. The end result was a happy accident and received with great admiration and thanks. As for the baby shower it was a luxurious pampering session for ladies with great food, champagne and company. Yes I whole heartedly approve of this Australian tradition, long may it continue!

Coffee Pot, Oranges and Anxiety!

A good friend of mine is on an inspiring drawing course with the wonderful artist Melissa Becker. Having said to me privately only six weeks ago  "I can not draw anything, let's see what happens!" I was very surprised when she suggested a morning of art. Today we sat at my kitchen table and had a mini 'art class' of our own. We even went as far as challenging each other by setting up small still life compositions and just jumping right in with the drawing. At first I felt very nervous about putting anything on paper, with light strokes of my charcoal pencil I made some feeble lines. Then I thought ' blow it, lets just have fun!' suddenly the coffee pot came to life and the fears melted away. It was such a success that we're going to try it again, next time a landscape perhaps...then again maybe we'll wait for the advanced course before we tackle that!

My next market dates...

I'm at Mosman market next Saturday  (4th September). I'll be taking my newly made  Heart Hair Clip Holders amongst other goodies. If you're going to be there, you can find me in the square under the tree.

Home Sweet Home...

When we arrived at our rented house in Sydney we didn't have a stick of furniture as it was all coming over by ship from the UK. It was my son's birthday and I was really keen to make it as 'homely' as possible without spending too much particularly as we knew that our other stuff would turn up in a large container at some point (when exactly that would be was anyones guess!). It was the perfect time to tackle bunting and matching table cloth. To keep it nice and simple I used just two fabrics, a cheerful blue Birthday cake design and an old yellow sheet (to line the bunting flags). My trusty sewing machine still hadn't arrived so the whole job had to be done completely by hand. It took 3 hours but the end result was exactly what I wanted. A neighbour kindly offered to let us borrow her folding picnic table and chairs and once we decorated it with the table cloth and lovely bunting it looked very homely and didn't feel like we were missing anything. The moment of truth was my son's reaction on the morning of his birthday - as he came downstairs his eyes widened and lit up with excitement, I knew it was a success! Both the bunting and table cloth have been used again for my daughter's party so it's already becoming part of our family Birthday ritual and for me that's what makes it home no matter where you are.

I00 things...

Both of my children came bouncing home with the 'great news' that they had to collect 100 things (each!) for a school project and bring them into school displayed in an interesting way. I chuckled at the school news letter that suggested putting them in a zip lock bag as a 'quick' solution to the dilemma. The children decided themselves that they wanted to paint pasta which was great because it meant we could all sit and count out the 100 pasta pieces. Then they had the task of painting it all which involved copious amounts of paint and some very messy fingers. Once dry (and children tucked up in bed) I set about the task of stringing each pasta tube onto a cardboard hat, one centurion helmet and one princess crown. Admittedly after threading the first10 tubes of painted pasta  the harsh reality of the task dawned on me...I had another 190 tubes to go, arrgh! My enthusiasm waned (just a little). However two hours and one glass of white wine later I was finished. Phew. But the end result was well worth it, and of course the children loved wearing them to school the next day.

Here's some other great ideas I noticed other families had thought of ...(if ever you're in need of some inspiration for a school project like this)

1.  Mount 100 twigs on a piece of  round card (this looked fantastic, almost like a wicker shield)

2.  Collect 100 leaves and make into a necklace

3.  Collect 100 shells in a shoe box

4.  Bundle 100 cotton buds in sets of 10 and display on card (you could dip them in paint too for added fun!!)

5.  Collect 100 different things in sets of 10 (10 plastic spoons, 10 dry beans, 10 buttons etc)

6.  Stick 100 dried beans in a pattern on some coloured paper (this also looked fantastic)