why my home won't be winning any style & design awards this Winter

Greetings all,
A lovely mummy fresh from the gym breezed into Shop Handmade & purchased a couple of dozen ceramic dishes in all sorts of sizes & colours for her dining table - which was ready for a Housing Design Awards photo shoot.  I wish.  While i have amazing plans for the homestead we're going to build, i have a vision of organisation, storage & casual, comfortable styling . . . reality is, i live in Army housing, our house is too small for our big family & the laundry is too tiny to even house an airer for Winter washing. 

 So as my eyes rest peacefully at this part of the lounge room . . .

 this is the reality . . . i'm sure the Italians who designed these dining chairs & the Stokke folk planned them to double as flannette-sheet-dryers . . .

 or the Biggest Loser trainers would like to see a treadmill acting as a giant clothes line!!

 It's not often i lounge about in my knitted booties, but i'm letting the last of my head cold leave . . .

 & enjoy OffSpring, i ponder about life like Nina (now on twice a week, loving that) . . .

 pretending my cushions are styled nicely, not where the children let them land . . .

& like i cared that our puppy had helped himself to a blanket!!
I do love a neat & tidy home, at least one where the laundry is in . . . the laundry & puppies aren't lounging on human blankets, i also don't mind a bit of honesty in stylish blog world.  Keeping house . . . sometimes i throw up arms & consider watching the likes of OffSpring as a much better headspace than primping & preening a home which a stampede of children will dishevel again in the morning.  No, i will straighten the cushions, wash that blanket & fold the blankets, i have to wake up to a tidy house, but the washing, well, it's -1C when i drop the children at school, those sheets are only going to dry indoors.  Love Posie

from new babies & beautiful felt to hand stitching & toilet humour for boys

Greetings all,
So what do you get a second time round mummy for her new baby - something for her of course!!  I did the cute gifts for her big girl & new baby boy, but wanted to focus on mummy, the hero of the family.  Considering Rosalind of Grace Designs can do the MOST beautiful things with felt & her stock is flying out the door at Shop Handmade, i ordered the best felt i could find (from Joggles USA) & was so excited to bundle up her lot as a bouquet.  She loved!! 

A lovely repeat customer/ gal pal from school ordered yet another baby blanket for yet another niece/ nephew.  This is for Amelie, who has big brothers, & a mother who has been overwhelmed with PINK, so Kate requested something girlie but not pink . . . so white Babushka polar fleece it is, with a little bit of pink on the applique A & red Tshirt jersery to pull it all together.  I love hand stitching the edges, they can be washed & tossed in the dryer, never fail, pull or mis-shape.  Must do more . . . & yes, i do have the pink Babushka polar fleece too, all from Retro Mummy, i bought her bolts as she wasn't sure what to do with it.  I had a vision . . .

Ever have those days wandering your house calling a child's name??  Well this was my son, pretending to be asleep & apparently couldn't hear me??!!  All foiled by his giggles & i thought i was pretty hilarious!!

Have a lovely day, i have 3 girls at the dentist, this is how i spend my day off from Shop Handmade . . . love Posie

My Creative Space 'tween bedroom makeover'

Greetings all,

As promised . . . the bedroom make over for my eldest daughter while she was away on camp last week. 11 is a hard age to cater for in many aspects of mother-daughter relationships, but seeing she has grown up among fabric, design, colour & nonstop sewing, she loves my work & I know her taste.  I knew she’d love this combination of blues in a patchwork quilt, it's just simple 15cm squares - 10 rows across, 12 rows down. 
Please enjoy some before & after shots of her bed & windows . . .

All i had to add was some wall art stickers from Handmade Market, letters from Typo, blue fabrics from Posie.   

Then to pretty up the window with some Posie bunting, simple flat curtain thumb tacked above the frame made from the excess sheeting from Lincraft which was on the back of the quilt & ribbon from Tres Divin.  The pom pom curtain was from Freedom ages ago.

You might spy many Amy Butler prints, from her original Gypsy Caravan range to the latest Love series.  I've been a huge fan of Amy Butler since the beginning.

This amazing Arne Jacobsen replica chair from Little Nest, i picked it up from the gorgeous Samantha at Magnolia Square in Sydney last year.  The blankets are Ikea & Laura Ashley from 10-15 years ago, they do not die!!

After all that, i think this prawn baguette with shallots, mayo & avocado was the perfect treat for a mother's job well done. 

I do have some sewing confessions. I put up with little hitches when sewing professionally, I don’t mind 'sewing housekeeping' like spooling bobbins, breaking needles, pressing fabric – when I’m being paid. Alas, like mechanics working on their own cars . . . I get huffy when making things for family & audibly moan when my bobbin runs out of thread.  I go through kilometres of thread each week, literally, I sew A LOT & in proportion, many bobbins. So I pre-spool about 10 bobbins for each machine at a time. Only when I finish the 10th bobbin, a little piece of me dies & I surprise myself with how frustrated i get.  I'm the most patient person on earth!!
What has sparked this outcry?? After quilting this large patchwork piece for my daughter, my last bobbin ran out of thread with no more than 10cm of stitching to do. 10cm & i was finished!! I knew it was running low & watched closely through the clear lid, stitch by stitch & convinced myself the bobbin would make it, cheered it on, sigh, no.  So I sat & spooled 10 fresh bobbins in off white (my multipurpose colour of choice) while rolling my eyes. Please, someone out there, design an uber bobbin, forget about tension, size & mechanics, just humour me that it’s possible!!
I’ve tried over filling bobbins – do not try this, it ruins the top stitching & simply does not work.  You'll have to unload it onto another bobbin or two, time wasted & annoyance gained.  On my industrial machine I can spool bobbins while I continue sewing, yes really, they are separate entities. Only I get hypnotised by watching bobbins fill with thread, so my sewing goes haywire.  So good luck if you can do it simultaneously!! I bet you can also pat your head & rub your tummy at the same time?? Happy Creative Spacing this week, check out more at Kootoyoo, thanks Kirsty, a delightful hostess.  Love Posie