our creative space . . . 'secret forest bedroom makeover'

Greetings all,

We have a little elfin princess in our home.  She's ethereal, bohemian & you'll find her curled up on a toadstool.  Her soft squeaky voice & dinner plate blue eyes manage to suck me into agreeing with almost every crazy idea she has.  She's sported a chic French bob with short blunt fringe since she was 2 (after her twin sister cut the whole way around her hair) & wears feathery headbands & stripey tights to school, her spirit & style is uncrushable, until private school uniform.  

Our 3rd girl is like no other . . . humming her way through life,

 her twin sister got a bedroom makeover while they were away on camp,

 with sore hands, i only had time for one room, Sophie's choice,

 so the next weekend, while they were at a sleepover,

 i did her bedroom as a suprise too.

 She likes anything quirky & quitely soaks up praise,

 her collection of birds, owls & toadstools is growing,

 & at night time, it's quite magical, just like her.

 I have all the tissue fans, balls & hearts in my shop, they make ace decorations!!

 My son helped me hang lights (why use a stepladder when you can hoist an 8 year old boy on your shoulders??) . . . he's doing his best swivel chair "we meet at again Octopussy" impersonation.

I might not be sewing but i am fiddling around with the decorating.  For some seriously inspirational creativity, check out Our Creative Space every Thursday, love Posie

it's the long weekend of bedroom swapsies

Greetings all,

So it's the long weekend, how many households got out their cordless drills & fixed something??  Me me me.  Remember how my 3rd daugther's bed broke & Harvey Norman replaced it a couple of weeks later . . . well another couple of weeks later i put the replacement together & finally spread the children into their own 4 bedrooms!!  I wasn't too sure/ capable/ game to pull apart our eldest daughter's fancy heavy French scrolly provincial bed so . . . i left that in her old room & put the new bed in her new room/ other half of my studio.  My husband can swap the beds over to the proper owners when he comes home in a month, our hero & he won't damage anything either.

 With my 3 trusty girls keen to get drilling, it took opening 3 boxes to find all the 'bits'.  Meanwhile, i had questions fired at me like "did Mr Allen invent the Allen key" & "does he know Mr IKEA??"  Oh honestly, thank goodness for Google, as all those questions were answered, or not, i just wasn't interested in the history of the Allen key or flat packed beds today, i'd already put this exact bed together twice, as bunks!!

 As they were bunks, now seperated into two single beds, there are extra side planks & ladders, all begging to be made into something amazing, hmmm . . . i have a vision (day bed, fancy chicken house, plant boxes) it might take a couple of years but they will be repurposed!!

 I decided to put the slats this way, so the black grippy part is close to the mattress/ stress, to see if it holds better??  Thank goodness my children are light or slats might be a disaster.  We've done ensemble bases before, i loathe how you can't vacuum under them.

 Our puppy likes to lie in the hay outside this window & the lunchtime sun pours in, it was quite toasty.  He watched on the whole day, from construction to decorating.

 Then the transplanting of wall decorations from one room to the next.

 The little touches like her Frenchy calendar came too.

 I twisted soft rose fairy lights around the bed head, they look so pretty lit up tonight.

 The pillow case is a Denyse Schmidt circa 2004 & doona cover is Quaker or Shaker style (no idea of the difference, i just like it) from Country Road in 1999, still in great condition.

 This is her real bed - it's soooo heavy & held together with serious bolts.

 Et voila, le chambre is coming together nicely, just ask our puppy.  It's a huge long space & by dinner her desk was set up too, but it's still 1/3 my 'stock room' for bulky materials like batting, tulle & cushion inserts, so as i use them up she'll get 100% ownership & spread out.  When my husband moves back to Canberra late next year, he'll bring his gorgeous King Delta II lounge & our teenager will score it in THIS room, how totally cool will that be for when she has friends over??

So what a weekend - a huge Handmade Market Saturday; a day on the lounge watching movies with the children Sunday, i even dozed off mid afternoon, ahhhhh, recovery . . . then 3 bedroom swapsies today.  Phew, thank goodness long weekends aren't every weekend.  Wishing you all a lovely short week, love Posie

things i'm loving 'royals, weddings & princesses'

Greetings all,

Oh what else could i possibly be loving this week more than the Royal Wedding.  My mother is English & a huge lover of all things royal, my father was a commander in the Royal Australian Navy & has a poster of the Queen in his walk in robe!!  I think of the public duty & charity the Royals conduct, that makes them relevant.  My husband is in the Royal Australian Army & will wear crowns as his rank, not stars or bars.  I don't want a republic.
Here's to weddings . . . i loved our wedding, we had so much fun, we want to do it again & actually eat this time.  We were young, relaxed, it suited where we were in life (me - a university student & my husband - a Lance Corporal), we didn't have much money but we had plenty of stylish short cuts. 

We paid for the dress - Tour in Strand Arcade Sydney, i still love it, it was a ballgown not a wedding dress, my best friend 'Sindy' showed it to me in Vogue magazine & I said "OMG, can i wear it??" - yes, she's still my best friend even though i stole her dream wedding dress.  My daughters want to wear it too.  We paid for the flowers - simple table displays of iris & conflowers.  Great tip - the florist said to use my bouquet as a display on the main table (clever!!)  We paid for the music - string quartet from Sydney Uni & a DJ.  We paid for the photographer - a school friend's mother was a professional photographer & i wanted them all pretty candid & fun, so she was only around until food was served, i LOVED her photos, they really captured the love.  I only had a flower girl (a niece), no bridesmaids & my husband had a best man, perfect balance.  My husband wore a tuxedo, not his dress uniform which at the time, didn't have many fancy bits & pieces.  Looking at William & Harry, how fantastic are their uniforms, i love pomp & ceremony. 

We got married at my parents home 14 years ago, it poured with rain, so we had the ceremony in the marquee with everyone sitting at their table instead of in the backgarden standing around us.  We didn't require cars & as i don't drink, i drove us home.  As per tradition, my parents paid for the venue/ marquee & catering, my in-laws paid for the alcohol.  The dinner was a full buffet of seafood & every possible meat in the world.  Our wedding cake was chocolate mud cake with white chocolate ganache, two squares - one smaller square placed on top of a larger square cake, with fresh oriental lillies to match my bouquet.  So pretty, simple, elegant.
Clever tip - we had just moved in together a couple of weeks earlier & went home, cleaned up the car & slept.  The next day we went to the Hotel InterContinental (where Oprah stayed on her Sydney visit) so we could enjoy the WHOLE stay.  The next day we went to my parents, met all our immediate family again, in the same marquee & ate left overs, while we opened the presents.  That evening we went to the airport for our European Honeymoon.  Honestly, it was so well planned to do it over 3 days like that, as you can probably tell, i don't rush anything.

Now when i say i was relaxed - i was still swimming 2 hours before the ceremony & hanging ivy up the marquee poles (much to my mother's horror).  My sister did my make up & hair, i wore an Alice band of cornflowers (i'm blue to the core!!)  Sorry, i will show you my husband's face when he retires - i didn't marry a post it note.         

 I was determined to carry a bouquet of Oriental Lillies, even if my father said they were funeral flowers.  Don't get me wrong, my father had me married off to handsome soldier after their first meeting, he didn't do the "you don't have to do this" speech either, he ran me down the aisle.  Oh nice little touch - i handed my bouquet to my mummy to hold during the ceremony & gave it away to my big sister at the end, i didn't toss it.  At both these moments, i cried but during the ceremony i couldn't stop smiling.  We didn't write our own vows, just chose a sweet version our celebrant offered us & i chose to "love, honour & respect". 

 Being married is so important to me, i love having a husband & being a wife.  My husband & i are very affectionate, our children notice & have always married off their toys.  Above is Blip Robot with his wife Bun Bun.  I know, i was puzzled too when my son said "oh, i would love one of those bunny rabbits with the moustache, Blip needs a wife".  Not really sure what to say about that one other than you never know what on earth your child is thinking.

 On my way back from my Queensland holiday, i stopped by Retro Mummy & here is her middle daughter, Princess Tillie.  I have no issue at all with my girls dreaming of princesses & fairy tale endings.  What's the harm when they are confident, self assured & intelligent women??

I love my girls' bedrooms, they are a little bit modern, a little bit mid century & a little bit princess.  For more Things I'm Loving, check out Paisley Jade today.  Love Posie
PS totally loved The Beckhams ensemble at the wedding & oh wow, THE WEDDING DRESS, glorious!!  Are the Middletons all super models??  That is how my in-laws looked at our wedding, all stunningly gorgeous, tall & slim - if you were wondering where my children get their genetics from, they are true McClellands.

women on the front line & the Army

Greetings all,

I'm not joining in the politcal & military debate on the announcement this week that they are opening up the final few jobs in arms corps - to women - enabling them to fight on the front line.  I grew up with a father in the Navy who loved his daughters but wrote papers on why women shouldn't be on submarines & encouraged my brothers not to join the military.  Let me just add in that he met my mother when she was in the Women's Royal English Navy.  It was also another time, era, way of life.  Anyway, we were certainly raised to debate, at length, anything & everything in my family!!  We were all highly educated & if we had an opinion, we had to back ourselves.  
My idea of women on the front line, was & still is - we wives who are left at home to run the family.  There is a saying "if the military wanted you to have a family, they would have issued you with one".  I watched my mother change belts on broken vacuum cleaners, fix washers on dripping taps, pump or replace flat tyres on bikes or cars & clear the roof gutters (she didn't like heights).  Mum set a great example of how to "mend & make do", never complained & invested in her husband's career.  No wonder i cruised into the role of military wife so easily.     

I have to do all things engine oil, mowing lawns & fixing/ replacing/ changing too . . . like this incident which i faced on Saturday afternoon in my son's bedroom. 

 So off i went to the hardware store to purchase a tack hammer & tacks, something light to bang these planks into place.  Want female inequality, go to a hardware store, most of the men there assume all women are idiots. 

Is my son the only boy on earth who doesn't have a single piece of Lego, puzzle or stray sock under his bed?? 

 So, $11 & 30 minutes later, da dah, my son's 6 month old bed is fixed.  I was thinking, gosh, shoddy workmanship, this cost a fortune & i want this bed frame to last 10 years, how did it fall apart so easily when the girls' beds are all fine??

 I made his bed up & tucked him in.  He asked if i'd take some photos in the dark - now i know what he gets up to at night, a bit of bed trampolining, still, aged 7!! 

As for heated debates on work place relations & what women can do in the military, it requires so much more thought & discussion.  Hello, we've had 5 different pathetic, weak, male Defence Ministers in 12 months, maybe start with appointing a tenacious, strong, female Defence Minister there or at least some consistency??  Top down people.  Love Posie

my creative space 'a new creative space'

Greetings all,
My Creative Space this week is creating a NEW Creative Space!!  Do you love your children enough to give up this much of your studio??  I've dug deep, i love mine 25m square worth of floor space!!  I'm chopping my studio in half.  This empty space + pushing those racks of fabric further back (forming a faux wall/ divider) will make this room even wider . . . so the children can each have a bedroom.  My eldest will move into this space, we'll seperate the twins, the boy remains in his fabulous room.  Easy??

Just a few weeks into school this year i could really see the twins need their own bedrooms as they approach the age of 10.  So it's room swapsies & making this 4 bedroom house into a 5'er.  They didn't ask, i could just feel it - they weren't as happy as normal (i'm a drama avoider).  This space also removes the high schooler from the 3 younger siblings, to the other end of the house, for more peace & quiet.  I'll do my studio first, then move the girls - life here is a giant puzzle.

 Oh dear, that rack just couldn't be moved one more time!! I combined the two to make one non broken one so all was not lost!!

This girl found an old size 1 Marcs skirt she used to wear as a toddler. I kept it to copy, it's such a cute skirt. She's also trying on her old plain black one piece for the swimming carnival - honestly, she doesn't out grow anything that incy wincy child.

Photos in reverse . . . that mess behind her is 'the before' of what i had to sort through after taking trestle tables to the market & dumping everything on the floor, the shame of it all. 

Cool things i 'found' again in the rubble - Smiggle animal 3D cardboard calendars, favourite tiny super sharp scissors & gorgeous soap from Thea&Sami which Thea sent for Christmas, smells divine!!

 Are you the type of mother who buys gifts & puts them away, then forgets??  I picked up these French wooden blocks from Donna Hay's General Store like 2.5 years ago . . . with my helper one step ahead of me in the clean up, she discovered this box & said "please tell me these are for me".  "Yes, for Christmas 2008 i think!!"  So in the middle of all that mess, she started playing with them.

 Then i started playing.

 How gorgeous are they??

 How did i forget these were in my house??

 How did i stop playing & get back to cleaning, sorting & tossing??

 I really should set these up & create a header or logo or something??

So, i'm setting myself a deadline, Sunday morning i want to be able to wake up to a fully organised & functioning studio.  So far i've tossed 3 garbage bags worth of junk & have 3 garbage bags filled with scraps/ remnants/ can't-bring-myself-to-throw-that-tiny-piece-of-fabric-yet.  I'm going to bag up all my bits & sell them in $5 bundles at the next market, huge value, but in a 'share the love' kind of declutter.  Then i'm going to set myself new goals about how i work, in my new half sized studio.  I'm going to sell all my vintage Ts, toys & supplies on line in a huge sale. 
Next week, oh la la, i'm going to reveal my new pigeon hole world's-most-organised-craft-shelving-unit-of-all-time (well that's the image in my head) on My Creative Space.  Love Posie