hello Decorating Forum, how do you do??

Greetings all,
This week the lovely Julie-Ann is featuring my little creative blog over at her Decorating Forum.  It's a great site, take a peek, you'll find lots of familiar designers & bloggers chatting over there.

 . . . Posie.
Welcome new readers, how do you do??
I've been sewing full time in my design business for over a decade, inspired by my grandmothers, Edna & Alice + my mummy, Barbie.  I'm passing on my skills to my enthusiastic children - who share my passion for handmade.  I love old fashioned values & home baking; i decorate with vintage fabrics & restored furniture.  I blog about these craft adventures, along with my beloved handsome soldier & our 4 smart, sporty & social children + our country lifestyle plans as we settle in Canberra. 
With my husband away at war, a house filled with children & a cottage industry, i could have been born 100 years ago!! 

 How about some fake-it-until-you-make-it outdoor decorating?? 
I dream of next year when we purchase a farm & build a spacious homestead, with perfect green lawns spotted with a dozen Adirondack chairs . . . in the mean time, we live in Army housing in the suburbs with an unmanicured tiny patch of grass. 

 Gather up 8 crates from a dark alley, lay down a thick beach towel, plonk 2 large floor cushions on top & da dah, instant day bed, cost: $0!!  Just add a good book & glorious sunshine.  I cannot tell you how comfortable & pleasant this is, freshly washed puppy entertainment included. 

 Not exactly the Hamptons, but close your eyes & soak up that holiday atmosphere . . .

 my middle girls were born for comfort & relaxation, with the addition of an umbrella, it's like another version of a cubby house to them.

 I have half a dozen of these glorious Donna Hay huge floor cushions, they make a great bed for children's sleepovers too.  The towels are old Country Road ones, when they made them really thick & luxurious, always with tassels please.

 We wrapped up the school holidays in Canberra, with a massive dose of Spring sunshine, ready to tackle the final term of school for the year.

 Now the children are have resumed primary & high school today, it's back to . . .

for the next 10 weeks!!  Love Posie
PS Embroidery photographed from the Dottie Angel book, dainty, doily, stitchy & clever.

market wrap up & school holidays begin

Greetings all,

What a weekend!!  A double Handmade Market, mercifully indoors (it poured with rain) & due to weather/ football finals/ long weekend/ school holidays . . . crowds were down.  Ditto my effort, as i am still suffering from exhuastion & woke up both mornings vomiting, not a good sign for something i used to love doing!!  Bless Rosalind from Grace Designs who saved me with some drugs. 

I set up my stall on Saturday morning, with my twin girls & we had some fun meeting new designers & bloggers + selling lots of brooches, fabric, buttons & bloomers.  With my stall already set up for Sunday morning, i did some shopping.
First stop, Mookah.  I love those ladies & their stylish screen printed goodness from country Victoria.  I bought a beautiful skirt from Leisa, so happy with the colours.  I was in love with the large moose floor cushion (it's not our first Mookah floor cushion, i know they are bloody fantastic).  Let's just say my son's dimples = discount!!  Thanks Margaret. 

 On our way to Heidi's The Curious Chocolatier's macarons for brunch . . . we stopped by the uber clever Gillian at Look Mama, her cards are wet-your-pants funny with her devilish sense of humour.  I collected some badges & 6 packs of stickers. 

 My darling boy was so brilliant, ALL day, he looked around, winked at the ladies nearby like Miss Haidee (she's a twin, vintage lover, living in Tasmania) & Red Parka Designs (hi Jen, a sweet Tasmanian living in Melbourne, dreaming of home).  My son brought me hot chocolate when i could barely stand & only asked for $2 for a balloon animal.  As you know we're not an electronic gadget kind of family - he played with business cards, pencils & my cash tin.  He carried my baskets back to the car, even dragged a trestle table into the rain, muscles!!  Bless his heroic heart, i was waiting for a trolley. 

Markets are funny events.  I didn't like my neighbour.  I know that is horrible & unprofessional to mention, but i know they are too superior to read my blog.  Let's just say, if the stall next to you offers to shift over if you need extra space (i paid extra for a corner, i had room to wiggle) & they don't even look up, just mutter "no, we won't" . . . you wonder why bother to be nice at all??  Then they glared at me for the rest of market, especially when customers stood in their stall space to reach my products!!  

Thanks so much for your 80's dress up tips in my last post - so funny to think people dressed like that seriously . . . shoulder pads, high hair, fluoro & eyeshadow . . . as daily business attire, now it's 'dress ups'. I'll let you know how we go on the weekend at the 21st.
Now it's time to kick off the school holidays - i've already washed the dog, done the garden & back verandah, sorted my high schooler's room out . . . not bad seeing i was still vomiting at midnight.  Let me at that linen cupboard, love Posie

things i'm loving 'snow day' & i'm grateful for 'love'

Greetings all,

Oh finally, it's school holidays for Canberra!!  To celebrate the last day of term, my 3 primary schoolers were invited to dress for Snow Day & dress for snow they did!!

Check out the beautiful weather, it was still -1C when we dropped them at school (yes WE, my husband flew in 30 hours early, yesterday afternoon).  He was thrilled to leave warm & sunny Brisbane to arrive just in time for a -6C Canberra night.

 Very Scooby Doo outside in the thick fog.

 I had my leather gloves on & enjoyed the car heating.

 A nice surprise waiting at the post office - my on line orders from my head-cold-shopping - just in time for my husband to see.  As our fabulous post office lady said "you can't exactly hide 3 giant floor cushions & smuggle them into the house like shoes".  I say fabulous as she is equally as excited about my orders of fabric, twine & vintage wax paper stripey straws as i am!!  Ooppss, i ordered 450 straws, my head cold did last a few days, i was delirious & they have been a huge hit with the children.

 Oh why thank you Donna Hay, these DIY brownie & macaron mixes will do nicely as i perch myself on your indulgent floor cushions (FYI cushions reduced from $140 to $69.95 + $9 shipping each now - i've been told we're NOT visiting her General Store when we visit our parents in Sydney) & every order comes with a box of pencils.  I left a little note saying 'if you have any spare pencils, i have 4 big Donna Hay fans who would make good use of them' & da dah, 4 boxes of free pencils were beautifully wrapped up in blue tissue paper with the order.  What a treat!!

 Mmmm . . . for more Things I'm Loving, go visit the lovely Paisley Jade today.
Now to double up this post with I'm Grateful For with Maxabella Loves, as i have one busy weekend (looking at farms, yippee) . . .

 As i mentioned, yay, my husband is home - 2 whole weeks of fun & games with the school holidays.  To celebrate i treated myself to this beautifully embroidered heart by Plushka (hi Katia, gorgeous to see you here in windy, blustery, blizzardy Canberra this week) which will sit nicely with my heart collection (red one by Plushka, linen one by Red Stitch Designs, hi Brenda!!)

 Handsome soldier sent me flowers mid week, i've been pretty run down, exhausted & desperate for some time off the school run & homework judging, what a lovely surprise!!  Oh the joy of sharing the parenting, if only for a couple of weeks. 

What do two lovebirds do after 2 months apart - that's right, turn out the pantry, pull out the fridge & clean behind it + sort out all the bits & pieces which found their way to the top of the fridge.  We were heading to our favourite restaurant Poacher's Pantry for lunch, after a spot of shopping in the city, but handsome soldier felt a bit heady & unwell (no doubt frozen) so we picked up a movie (RED) & enjoyed crusty BBQ chicken & salad rolls, mmmm.  That my friends is how you keep 15 years of marriage alive.  Next we're changing lightglobes!!
Finally back on regular internet speed, yay, blogs here i come.  Love Posie
Thanks for the super encouraging comments on my talk to the high school girls about a career in design . . . they were a mix of nervous & shy, keen & so totally not interested.  I was teamed up with 2 former students who were studying Industrial Design & Engineering, we all had very different angles to discuss from 'the panel'.  They were impressed by different things - famous clients, glossy magazines, published books - each group of girls was completely different.  I did give away surprise prizes to the girls asking the best questions & handed around copies of Handmade Living for them to flick through, something tangible & the teachers loved that too!!