our creative space 'rhino repair'

Greetings all,

Meet Berri, he's the green rhino (or rhino-saurus as he's know in these parts) from Berrima NSW.  It's not often my 3rd girl asks for anything but she positively would not budge on the concept of living life without this knitted rhino when she spied him one school holidays on the way home from Bowral. 
As what happens with much-loved-softies, they show wear & tear, like an amputated limb, missing eye or grow threadbare.  When my sweet girl showed Kylie . . . wonder knitter, crochet queen & softie surgeon . . . Berri's injuries from too much love, Kylie too him away in her ambulance/ family ute.

My daughter sat by my mobile waiting for news when he was out of surgery.  Then magically we got the SMS saying he was fine & ready for delivery (in a mere 24 hours).

Can you believe the amazing job Kylie did??  She even delivered him home with a 'Berri Repair Kit' for future injuries due to too many hugs.

Look at those eyes, oh, doesn't he look so much happier??  Ditto for my daughter.  So yet another brilliant reason to visit Brisbane, Kylie is there at the ready, able to fix anything & everything.  Love you Kylie!!  Thanks so much, happy creating spacing on Thursday everyone, love Posie

our creative space 'hooking & knitting'

Greetings all,

Wow, what a fantastic lesson with Kylie from Mealy&i - i can officially crochet a Granny Square!!  I have a lot to master - tension, shape, consistency . . . but how exciting, it's so much fun & we made good use of my new selection of hooks & bundles of yarn.

Look at these cute 'stage' examples Kylie made for the lesson demonstration & my very first square, glee!!

 It's so darn magical how a circle becomes a square!!

 Kylie had to teach us to knit before i finished my square, so i am not 100% certain i finished it off properly, might have to consult a tutorial + it's a great excuse to catch up with Kylie again & build on my crochet skill set??

 Pretty pleased with myself, it was so much fun!!

 The purpley one is Kylie's handy work, note tension perfection & man she's speedy!!

 All the children got involved, some stopping at chain stitch & making bracelets as their current crochet lesson limit for the school holidays. 

 Then the knitting lesson commenced in the early afternoon - yes, middle daughter declared it a pyjama day & remained in her Peter Alexanders, knitting in comfort.

 My keen French knitting 3rd daughter was very excited to learn knitting too.  Children really only need those 20cm long needles, the ones i brought along were way too long, she's not knitting a blanket, just learning!!

I soon discovered, even after a good 20 years of zero knitting to my name, i picked it up like riding a bike!!  I'm just playing, i want the skills to share with my children, not to knit commercially.  I was thrilled with how quickly it came back to me, even casting on with my hands (Kylie showed me how to cast on with my thumb & 1 needle, which i excelled at, handy when i have to cast on for 4 children too!!)   
Thank you Kylie, you are a delightful teacher & dear patient friend, i'm loving my new lounge craft hobby.  No doubt there is more crochet & knitting action over at Kootoyoo & Our Creative Space this Thursday.  Special mention to Kirsty at Kootoyoo (Queen of tiny crochet perfection) - my youngest daughter wanted to start crochet with a 2mm hook & i said "oh, you're aiming at Kootoyoo dizzy heights already".  Love Posie   

i'm grateful for 'bloggie friends IN REAL LIFE'

Greetings all,
Wow, what a trip to Queensland i had.  To meet your bloggie friends for real & for true is just a blast.  First up was Thea from Thea&Sami blog screen printing in Capalaba, i love her, we had so much fun & boy is she a great teacher.

 We had a delicious lunch by the water too, oh yum, thank Thea.  Had to drag myself away, then drove back to my family in the rain & pitch black, dreaming of my boot load of remnants. 

 I took brownies & a bunch of organic goodies from Canberra.

Then off Bulimba, a lovely high end part of Brisbane on the river, to meet lovely Simone from Beach Vintage blog, at her delicious Just Plain Gorgeous store.  I had the image of Simone with her long blonde hair from her blog in my mind & found her in a stunning blue floral dress behind the counter. 

 I couldn't get all the things i didn't buy the first time out of my mind, so we went returned.

 Yes, this was my oilcloth emergency on Easter Sunday!!  Thanks Simone, gorgeous to meet you & i love your store, first place i'm going next time i'm in Brisbane.

Ah, Kylie from Mealy&i blog, a dear Army wife i've been friends with for many years, we caught up in March in Sydney at Sew It Together & again last week on ANZAC Day in South Bank Brisbane.  I forgot to take new photos of us, Kylie always looks fabulous.

True to form & just after Kylie's husband asked which child is the accident prone one . . . we glanced over to find the child in question getting medical assistance from the Life Guard.  She'd taken a chunk out of her knee.  Kylie did a great post about ANZAC day, her soldier & meeting up with us here.

 On my way back to Canberra, i took the New England Highway home & had tee'd up to meet Brenda from Hoo Are You Lookin' At blog as i'm a huge fan & collector of her gorgeous products from Red Stitch Designs.

 We met in a park in Tamworth, ha, sounds like some cyber date meeting in a public place, just in case.  We hit it off immediately & our children just ran off & played together.  So easy, ah, Brenda, i adore you.

 So glad i'm not the only one with children who have to play in water at any opportunity.  Look at the beautiful blue bird i was given, oh Brenda, you are too adorable!!

 Now the only way i could drag myself away from Brenda . . . i was off to Plain English in Scone.  I went there 6 years ago.  I did the Sydney to Brisbane round trip to spend 3 days with my husband while he had a long weekend on course, with 4 children under 6 . . . i found this divine store.  I should mention my children travel really well & long trips driving solo doesn't bother me.  I took the Pacific Highway up & allowed 5 driving days for this 3000km trip.

 OMG, a car space right out the front, how lucky!!??

 As the girls put their shoes on, my son ran ahead & delivered the bad news "Mum, the door is locked" followed up with "Mum, the sign says it's closed on Wednesdays" & the cruel blow "Mum, the shop couldn't be MORE closed". 

 So maybe next time & i'm dragging Tina Rubie from Rubies' Place blog to meet me there, as we couldn't catch up this trip but we're both totally in love with this particular country decor store.

On the final leg, from Sydney to Canberra, i caught up with my best bloggie friend Corrie from Retro Mummy.  We chatted twins, life with 4 children, schools, fabric, blogs, design, houses & living down in this part of the world (she's a Canberra girl living in Sydney wanting to move to Bowral, which is kind of in between).  Small little fact - our fathers were in the Navy together, so Corrie & i have probably known each other for more than 30 years, reunited by blogs!! 

Look at Miss Elodie, now 6 months, she's going to be tall like her Retro Daddy.
So i'm very grateful this week to be able to meet all these amazing bloggers in real life.  My handmade world of design & motherhood allows me to meet many bloggers at markets & Shop Handmade, i'm super lucky (see the list on the right side bar) & my Queensland holiday was very relaxing, only made better by meeting my favourite bloggers who are now new friends.  Love Posie

i'm grateful for 'loving & wonderful friends'

Greetings all,
You know that feeling when you've had huge highs & incredible lows, all in one week . . . this is that kind of roller coaster week.  The highs - Sew It Together & IKEA Sleepover + a visit from my beloved husband . . . then the lows - my friend, a mother of four who is fighting breast cancer, lost her young teenage son & my darling Corrie from Retro Mummy, her beautiful mother passing away.  I've been trudging through my routine of housewifery with little enthusiasm this week, i'm so sad for my heart broken friends.
My week has been busy, distracting me from the sadness.  We've had the athletics carnival; i ran the BBQ lunch; i attended a little market; 3 days at Shop Handmade.  All involved wonderful old friends & amazing new friends, who understood this underlying deep sadness i am feeling.  I laughed with Ainslee on the treadmills while our children did Zumba . . . LAUGH = pant-wetting-listening to her Saturday night adventure on Stallions Afloat.  Picture 100 women on 5 different hens' nights mixed with fully nude strippers on Sydney harbour for 5 hours & unlimited alcohol.   

 I'm grateful for my wonderful & loving friends, when i'm down, they really notice, they share, listen & cry with me!!  Most of all, it's so totally OK to be sad, flat, devestated.

An especially amazing friend is Kylie from Mealy&i/ Mealy Bug Creations.  She remembered that I support Heads Up, a cancer support Shop & group run by Navy wife Sue. Kylie is a darling long time crafty gal pal Army wife i met up with at Sew It Together & she handed over a selection of gorgeous handmade head wear for the Heads Up Shop. They sell 'head fashion' & teach the beautiful ladies who are going through chemotherapy, how to rock a new style of head wear.   

 Models were not hard to find, they love the styles.

 This gorgeous beanie will be very appreciated in Canberra Winter.

 They also sell quality handmade products for cancer patients to purchase, as getting to the shops might not be possible, or they want gifts for their children too - love this chin strap style!!

I remember my mother-in-law playing around with scarves, hats & wigs, she had the most amazing blue eyes like my 3rd daughter (above).  Sadly she didn't win her battle. 

 I bet Kylie didn't reckon on this combination??

These are going to the Heads Up Shop at Calvary Hospital in Canberra.

 Here is the lovely, sweet, kind hearted Kylie avec moi at Sew It Together last Saturday in Sydney.  She's so much fun - anyone who met their husband by running over them with their car - has plenty of funny stories to share.  I'm trying to encourage her husband to post to Canberra so we can play, craft & laugh together more often.  Love you Kylie, you're a doll.

So thank you my dear, loving & wonderful friends, you're truly appreciated.  I'm so incredibly lucky to know so many amazing, clever & thoughtful ladies in this world - they are so supportive when i'm worried about my mum's Alzheimers or my husband in a war zone, where would we be without our amazing friends, on line, bloggie & in real life??  Wishing you lovely Gratefuls this weekend.  Love Posie