our creative space 'the new generation' & paper packaging giveaway winners

Greetings all,

So many of we crafty types learned from our mummies, such is the age old way of passing on skills to the next generation.  My grandmothers Edna & Alice were amazing seamstresses making ball gowns for the rich & famous, ditto for my mummy Barbie (only with an awkward Von Trapp family twist).  We'd have matchy matchy ensembles . . . end-of-bolt-sale-fabric for a family of 6 or my brothers in cloned knitted jumpers with Dad, my sister & i in matching dresses with Mum . . . classic 60s & 70s handmade horror, technically carried through into the 80s too, i was 5 ok??!!.   

My children have been surrounded by craft, stood on pins & slept to the hum of the sewing machine since i got into nesting while pregnant with my first baby in 1998.

 Now my eldest is in high school, she has proper sewing teachers who studied textiles & design (not pharmacology) & she gets graded on her work!!

 So excited, she chose all the fabrics, applique ideas, ribbon & did all the sewing at school (no professional mummy sewing allowed) & da dah, only two As were awarded . . . 

 proud mumma moment . . . she got an A!!  Her beautiful pillow slip now sits on her bed & as she finished so quickly, she's making boxer shorts. 

 This week is Creative Clubs at primary school.  My son chose drama, age 7 he's "directing plays".  I think he picked drama as the teacher is one of those gorgeous first-year-out-of-uni enthusiastic types who can sing, dance, act & teach.  I know, taking a class because of a pretty girl out of his reach is in it, he's such a boy!!   
Anyway, daughter 3 is learning French Knitting with the professional ice hockey teacher & loving it, it's clearly addictive.  Last night she called from her room to say "can you tell me when it's 10 so i can change wool colours??"  Um no, GO TO SLEEP!!  No idea where she'd get that bad habit of crafting into the wee hours from??

 She's French knitting a rastafarian wig - only way to describe the awful dreadies coming out of her handmade toilet roll/ paddle pop stick device!!

 I showed the middle girl how to crochet chain stitch (limit to my skills so far) in the car park at school, by bed time she'd crocheted like 3m of the stuff!! 

Totally loving passing on the skills & learning new ones with them!!  Have i mentioned that Kylie from Mealy&i blog is patiently teaching me how to crochet in the holidays??
NOW for the paper packaging, twine & stickers giveaway WINNERS . . . who knew over 100 individual bloggers would enter so enthusiastically to win paper bags??  Yay, thanks so much!!  Bugger - two of the winning numbers weren't followers??  DQ to you.  Come on guys, not such a hard thing to ask is it - follow for your chance to win, my blog's nice right??  So sucks to them & yay to these faithful followers & WINNERS!! 
Randomly selected number (big time winner) . . .
69 Thea from Thea & Sami blog, congratulations!!
Randomly selected supplementary numbers, as witnessed by the official Posie Lotto panel (itty bitty winners) . . .
2 Bron from Taylor Made blog,
23 KerryAnne from Shabby Art Boutique blog,
86 Rhi from Flour Child,

79 Trish from My Little Drummer Boys blog &

24 Felicity from Gifts Of Serendipity blog!! 
Congratulations everyone, please email me your postal addresses for your parcel of fun.  For more creativity, check out Thursday's Our Creative Spaces.  Love Posie

i'm grateful for 'new adventures'

Greetings all,
Thanks for the massive love & support on my new adventure.  The Handmade Hen's Night was in a gorgeous, classy, pretty, fun, crafty, exciting & . . . a huge success.  Let me take you on a tour . . .  

early afternoon i set up a display table at Shop Handmade as a teaser to our customers . . .

 then i set up the real thing & boy did it have everyone interested!!

 I raided the children's bedrooms of trinkets & accessories . . .

 DesignABunch florist next door gave us flowers for my milk bottles . . .

 i laid the centre of the table with vintage shabby trinkets.

 We borrowed a dozen chairs from Sour Cherry cafe on City Walk . . . 

 the Bs & Js were a huge hit, they loved & appreciated the details.

 Then the coolest thing happened, we learned it was a surprise Hen's Party . . .

 there are 12 ladies hiding in the Shop, can you believe it??

 The groom staged a plethora of bizarre scenarios to time their arrival just right . . .

 the friends put on a delicious buffet of food.

 After giggles, nibbles, champagne & reunions, we started the sewing lesson . . .

 they loved it, didn't want to leave, they learned new skills & did some shopping too!!

I had a ball, it was all about the right time (my children are older), right place (Shop Handmade), right audience (Handmade lovers), right stage (experience, confidence), right theme (vintage styling), right partner (thanks to Shop Girl Rachel who stayed on until 9.30p.m. after a long day & provided the screen printed fabrics we played with).  Some people are hungry in business, always moving onto the next thing quickly.  I do what i do because i have  'obstacles' - husband always away & moving, no family support, lots of busy children - so i'm very patient & let things grow slowly so when the opportunity arises, i'm SO ready.  I think it prevents me from ever getting overwhelmed, letting quality slide & my solid plans mean i can literally pull this kind of event out of thin air (we were asked if we could do it on Monday afternoon).  I'm very proud of what we've achieved.
So i'm very grateful for my new adventure, for the opportunity to decorate, teach & share my love for Handmade - its truly a way of life for me.  I hope this is the first event of many.  For more Grateful posts, check out Maxabella Loves.  Love Posie

My Creative Space 'what's in my front door way'

Greetings all,
Don't you love peeking into people's doorways??  Well if you were nosey & walked past my front door, this is what you'd find this week . . .

cushions for baby Chloe to be collected by daddy Tom . . .

Chloe's mum Corinne requested buttons on the back . . .

it wasn't until i bought this Brother Innovis 600 sewing machine that i was ever confident with my button holes (machine recommended by Corrie from Retro Mummy - she knows her stuff, we both got them for Mother's Day last year, thanks husbands!!) 

goodies returned from Cosmo Pregnancy magazine shoot . . .

was a busy week & everything got piled up . . .

with samples spilling out onto the floor . . .

Indeed a busy week . . . i picked up two new stores/ stockists for my wholesale label Edna&AliceMay, wrote P&C reports, drafted Winter Olympic assignment x 2 for twins, hosted 3 sleep overs, as well as sewing up a storm for upcoming markets.  Does your front door way look like a mini shop too??  FYI my studio is just in the front doorway to the left!!  Must sort it all . . . tomorrow.  Was fun playing My Creative Space this week kootoyoo!!  Love Posie

be my Valentine - how are you spending the 14th February??

Greetings all,
So how are you spending Valentine's Day??  With a loved one??  Me, no, my husband is 'out field', we have an extra child for a sleep over, i have a pile of sewing for Mathilda's in 2 weeks plus orders so i'll be in the studio. 
Alas, i had forecast a dull day; so yesterday i invited the ladies over for a special morning tea with heart shaped brownies & strawberry cup cakes with whipped cream, sandwiches & fruit.  The children had 'samples' in their lunch boxes & this is what my son did with his special treat before school & mouthed the words "i love you mum".  I cried but composed myself enough to take this shot!!  Who needs their husband when he's trained his son to be so gorgeous to you??  Ahhh . . . & is the spitting image of his father too, dimples & all.  Love you boys!!

To brighten my Valentine's Day i'll be sewing with these pretty threads

& using bright colourful paints!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! 

On MARKET news: I heard Allie's Attic was great in Mosman NSW today, well done those who had stalls or went as customers, wonderful news.  Next stop Mathilda's Market - all over the country!!  Handmade Canberra's UpMarket applications are closing soon, so get in as you don't want to miss this awesome quarterly market experience with a consistent crowd of 10000 customers, fabulous ambience & handmade goodness.  Love Posie

My Creative Space 'faux screen printing & Euro style'

Greetings all,

Clearly after that last Creative Space post showing off my imported fabric collection from 10 years in the craft business, I have exposed myself to well meaning crafters & mothers who would sell their children or break & enter to feed their fabric addiction.
It has been gloomy weather since school resumed last week & my children are not as exhausted as I had hoped they would be with school filling their brains with new information & wearing out their bodies in the playground. So apart from my eldest venturing out with friends to the annual Canberra Multicultural Festival on the weekend (with her Japanese family & this time they ate Thai food) . . . well, it's just been school runs, homework, covering books & sewing like a woman possessed as markets loom near.

Well this is what I have been busy busy busy doing for the past few days. Wanting to go for a bit of a Euro meets Winter feel, with 'faux' screen printing designs & these gorgeous fabric colours mixed up. Had to prove to myself I can do a muted plain palate as well as blasts of colourful patterned fabric ensembles!!  I also find people ask for dresses with sleeves, so these can be trans-seasonal or popped over a skivvy & tights.  My range goes from size 2 to 8 for girls so there is something nice available for those approaching tween years who don't want black, vampire, mini skirt trash look.  I'll do up to size 10 shortly, just want to trial these first.

some dresses have capped sleeves, some elastic & some flat hemmed, some elastic hem (size 2-3 only)
mixing up the shapes & designs so each one is unique
my Euro colour palate
poor man's screen printing works just as well - cookie cutter shapes, fabric paint & press with iron

So these dresses will make their debut at Mathilda’s Market in Canberra, Sunday 28th February. I made 30 odd dresses from the 9 fabrics I purchased on Friday afternoon (Lincraft sale) & so far used about half of the fabric I purchased – great in case of orders & more stock for Handmade Market on Sunday 28th March. So yes, very fruitful rainy hibernation. 

Happy sewing & production for those of you already back into markets!! Love Posie

is it the death of 'the housewife' . . . i don't think so!!

Greetings all,

As i was flicking off the news on my way out the door this morning I heard some middle aged man saying something along the lines of "i don't know anyone who uses the term 'housewife' in their daily language" & then something about it being an insult to any woman.  Well that got stuck in my mind driving to school (it's 25km down country roads, i have plenty of time to think!!)  First up, since when does a middle aged man get to comment on what women want out of life; secondly, i proudly call myself a housewife!!
Shock, horror, i had choices, i was born in 1975, i went to private school, i spent 6 years at Uni, a career in the oil industry, the world was at my feet . . . yet i happily chose being a young mother & housewife above all.  Why do people have so much trouble understanding why i'd do that??   

Sure i'm the small businesswoman type of housewife, but in my situation - being married a soldier, i have to be the constant for everyone in the family as my husband is away so frequently + we need the additional income.  I don't let my business get in the way of cleaning, cooking, school runs, homework, dog walking, lawn mowing, exercise or time out for me either.  Most of the mums at school don't know or realise i 'work' as i introduce myself as a housewife & do all that P&C stuff which no one else ever seems to want to do.   
I have NEVER looked after myself better!!  Since the boy started preschool in late 2006 - i started moving from stay at home mother to housewife, with delicious lunches, a movie here & there, morning tea with friends & grown up shopping.  I don't waste my 30 hours a week child free time grocery shopping, cooking or cleaning - we can suffer that together & i mainly use a treadmill at home for exercise (Canberra weather can turn on you) & check homework or call out spelling from there. 

Today's lunch is here, this is pretty typical for me, although not usually with the wrap, it's normally just salad . . . beetroot, mint, coriander, lettuce, sprouts, beans, parsley, chives, tuna & scrape of mayonaise.   Plus a little bunch of grapes as i like something sweet afterwards.  Sorry the image of draining the tuna is so ghastly!! 

I can assure you i wasn't eating 'lunch for one' made with any love when i had lots of little children around.  I feel like this is my way of saying sometimes i can come first!!  Between 9a.m. & 3p.m. I am my first priority!!  If i was a reader & coffee drinker, wow, those housewives must really enjoy their 'moments'.  My sanctury is sewing, for work or hobby, it's all very zen for me. 
So who on earth would poo poo this life choice, whether you have kind of fallen into or just happy to be there as planned??  When are we all just going to say "each to their own" & stop insulting everyone on what they do with their days??  We might be poor, but i'm so happy & relaxed.  Love Posie

Finki Challenge 'turning Japanese' - i really think so!!

Greetings all,
I decided to join in the fun of the Finki challenges with the friendly Jay, this month her suggested theme was ‘Turning Japanese’.  I have quite the stash of Oriental fabrics, so with my eldest staying with a Japanese family in the country, I thought I might whip up a little something to say thanks to her lovely friend. Introducing ‘Samurai’, loosely based on a pattern by Fliss Dodd, with a few variations as I was under time restraint.

Samurai is waiting to go home to his new Japanese family

When my daughter was returned, looking a foot taller, a year older & dragging a trail of wet towels from swimming all afternoon . . . she handed over those Japanese food gems (packets behind Samurai) plus tiny chocolates & other quirky gifts, from her lovely hosts.  And what did my daughter eat while she was away with said fabulous Japanese family?? I was hoping it wasn’t sausages, it wasn’t. They had (& not a word of a lie) an Indian curry for dinner, Dutch pancakes for breakfast & Mexican nachos for lunch. He he he he he . . . love Posie

i'm a planner . . . check out this new product . . .

Greetings all,
Well after the really encouraging comments to the last post, i've been thinking, deeply, how to explain how i get everything done each day, without sounding up myself, spiritual or a bit wanky.  I won't bore you with a school morning & afternoon routines now, other than they are  planned, organised, we don't rush & we have a 25km country drive to & from school, topped with me refusing to be late!!  I'm no supermum, I'm just doing my job with a big smile on my face!!
When i met my husband, i was a teenager, i was working 2 part time jobs & doing a 32 hour a week science degree of lectures, tutorials & labs + about 15 hours travel time.  So his first Christmas gift to me was a Filofax, BRILLIANT!!  He thought i was disorganised (by military standards).  He knew i was a workaholic, determined & came from a high achieving family (my siblings include rocket scientist, surgeon, dentist, ballerina - everyone runs their own business!!)  Funny mix considering we were raised by a Naval officer & housewife who just encouraged us to be happy.
I'm a planner!!  I have been wanting to make my own books for ages, a mix of original vintage story pages with plain paper for children to read & draw!!  I have amassed a collection of such books, ready to be sliced up & bound.  Knowing how much my children love drawing & story writing, this seemed a fabulous mix.  So when i found this book binder (tipped off by Queen of Handmade, Julie) at Aldi for under $50, i had all my ideas in my head ready to put immediately into action.

While i work, i include my children, be it letting them play with scrap fabrics, buttons, ribbons or their own toys like puzzles.  They don't feel left out & unlike cooking, sewing doesn't spoil or burn between happy interuptions!!  They like feeling included & it's made for very creative children who aren't annoying, have great attention spans & focus. 

It never occured to me that this was what i am mean to do in life.  I always felt i had mothering down pat, in fact babies were a breeze.  I feel like no one wants to hear that, but even with twins, they were sleepers, feeders, happy & interesting.  I wasn't exhausted - i was bursting with energy.  I lost the weight, i did Yoga, i was on my own with my husband away at war, on course, an exercise, or interstate . . . we made the most of being a young growing family in our Army house.  I have never thought about going back to work outside the home, i've just kept building Posie up & even with all 4 children in school & my qualifications, i couldn't imagine not being a housewife!!  I enjoy housework, walking the dog, school holidays, making lunches - it's all part of the bigger plan, saving up for an early retirement.  

Kristen Doran said to me last year "Jennie you are a high energy person" & i guess i am.  I never stop moving or thinking or doing, i do not waste time, i plan out my day/ week/ month so every school/ sport/ market/ husband activity fits into my work.  Sure i find it hard to switch off at night, many people do.  I also get migraines which i am sure is my body saying 'stoooppp'.  But i do plan things out, i'm a strict mummy & i have high expectations, yet, i'm relaxed, quick to laugh, don't take myself too seriously & not pushy.  I think (drawing on my psych degree here) that children grow slowly for the following reason . . . so you have time to develope with them, hopefully one step ahead of them (can you tell i have 3 tweens??)  I pre-empt drama & i'm lucky they all LOVE school, so we have few issues, other than missing Daddy. 
In the end, i think my satisfaction in everything i do: school runs, business & housework, just makes my life easier - these things HAVE to be done, no one else is going to do them, i created this life, i have to live it either happily & accepting it, or in a constant state of chaos & being pissed off.  So just being happy reaps its own reward for me.  Our life is extremely simple, right down to meal planning, then it's dynamic as we constantly move from state to state & Daddy comes & goes for months at a time.  This coming month includes my 35th birthday, the children resuming school, collaborations, new ventures & my first market for the year - Mathilda's.  It's all planned & thought out, a little unexciting to some but it's how we roll, peacefully.  That makes us all happy.  Love Posie 

The Big Day Out - now in my house!! Oh & My (first) Creative Space . . .

Greetings all,

Little update on our sleepover & The Big Day Out which has been going on for almost 24 hours in my twin's bedroom.  Wow, i thought the CD in the car was loud, it's nothing when at home you have iPods on speaker bases & 'oh, you don't know the lyrics, let's google them' on WiFi laptops.  This lead to acoustic versions of Pink, Beyonce & Katy Perry, then using the iPod to sing along, as loudly as possible.  I can assure you all this technology has been self taught, they are bright girls, but it's completely different to how we used to entertain ourselves at primary school sleepovers in the 80's - you know, with board games & a video 'if' you had a VCR.
It's no wonder i woke up with a headache, they did sleep.  But with all the milk in Canberra being drunk in my kitchen last night, i had to go out to get milk!!  So i piled 5 children into the car & headed out to our local shopping centre, which is actually 4 shopping centres all in a row.  Easy, park in one spot & go for a walk.  $180 in fuel, what a bummer, could have been a nice pair of shoes.  Then equal amount spent on Tony Ferguson shakes & fibre; a book binding machine; dog food; BBQ chicken & fresh bread rolls; oh & 12L of milk.  Least exciting shopping i've done in a long time.  I did let them loose in 2 small play areas to burn some energy off, while i gathered my thoughts, shopping bags & nursed my head.
I had it buzzing in my mind that our lovely guest had never had a handmade dress, even with big sisters & considering her Mum is doing her law masters, didn't think she'd be venturing into learning how to sew, anytime soon.  So i asked our guest which fabrics she liked (nice taste, i was impressed) & she definitely wanted all blue.  Da dah - Joel, Anna Maria & Amy mixed up into this dress, detailed with vintage spot bias on the capped sleeves & diagonal stripe bias across the bottom.  She is really happy, even posed for photos & i'm thrilled, she hasn't taken off the dress since!!   

A little bit of a Maria Von Trapp moment, but her fault for coming to a house with a sewing studio.  Maybe next time my girls sleep over there, they'll get some tax tips (Daddy is an accountant).  As we bid our guest farewell with laundered swim gear & jammies, we also farewell our eldest as she trips off to the countryside with her lovely Japanese friend from school.  Dying to know how they live, gosh i hope they don't have sausages for dinner, i want to hear tales of flavour & new recipe ideas.  We all love Japanese (actually any Asian food) in this house, i love other customs & cultures, i want details on cute & quirky things they have in their home too. 
So as The Big Day Out (in my car & home) fades away, i can get some serious sewing done & cruise into our last weekend before school resumes.  Love Posie
G I V E A W A Y reminder - follow this blog & leave a comment at the G I V E A W A Y post to enter!!  Last couple of days, don't miss out, it's super cute & 5 prizes to be won.  Good luck!!
My Creative Space - just joined in the fun, seems i was already doing it.  Check out the kootoyoo post with simple outline of what is involved to join in too.  You may have noticed a thousand, ok, 50 blogs mentioning it's welcome return today!!

taking some time in the studio

Greetings all,

Well i have to get some submissions organised with deadlines, so i'm going to bury myself in the studio for a couple of days (with intermittent swimming & cooking).  I'll leave you in the capable hands of this young man.   

Ever wondered where bloggers are sending their snippets of life from??  Posie posts come from here.  We live in an Army house & share the main household laptop with the family, on an arm chair.  So this is a tiny peek at the corner of our large living area at the back of our Canberra home. 
I decorate like a serviced apartment, not too exciting but after 12 years in Army housing where you can't paint a wall & have to move into a completely different style home in a new state or territory (tropics, country, city) every 2-3 years, this style works for us.  Also easy on the cleaning & dusting, HATE DUSTING!!  Head down, bottom up, sewing & designing, have a lovely weekend!!  Love Posie

time for a new do . . .

Greetings all,

Well i do get lovely comments about my children, so thought i might dedicate an entire post about them. Being school children on school holidays, it's now the only time i get to spend with them 24/7. They don't even manage to get sick or require days off school very often, so i soak them up on holiday time. Today i took the 3 girls out for new hair cuts. I'm a cheapo Just Cuts kind of girl, it's $20 for children, choke, but they've never suffered a bad cut.

So my eldest opted for a big trim - a simple bob for low maintenance & summer ease.
This is girl child number 2. She had a beautiful trim off her waist length platinum hair. I'm rather tired of her always looking perfect, so here is a picture of her 7 days ago, after an untimely scooter-footpath-faceplant incident. Bless her academic & athletic perfection, she is clumsy. So out came her second baby front tooth in 24 hours (the first one was not so violently extracted by a bread roll). I took her to the dentist the following day who is very confident she'll have healthy adult front teeth. The Xrays showed good blood flow in the adult teeth which are still growing well inside her gums & they'll automatically fix any trauma before they cut through. Phew!! The dentist kept saying "so lucky, another month, no good, no good at all". Crikey!! Notice the bloody nose, darling child didn't put her hands out to break her fall, instead stopped on her nose, ripped 'Hitler style' skin from her upper lip & grazed up her arms. We went back to the scene of the crime the following day, incidentally on the way home from the dentist, cause we love to walk, & we found the shattered tooth on the other side of the footpath. Geesh, she sure smashed it out of there. Note: tooth fairy was very concerned & even though no tooth was offered that night, a whopping $6 was left, factoring in 'danger money'.
Now this is girl child number 3 (can you tell i spent a lot of my childhood in Asia, this is how they refered to girls back in the 80s, we were numbers, my brothers were introduced by name of course) . . . anyway, she does a good fringe, always has, since one was forced on her as a 2 year old when her twin sister cut her hair!! She looked in the mirror after having a fringe cut back into her hair today, for the first time in a few years & i said "don't you look like a lovely 8 year old" to which she quipped back "yeah, but knew i could look like i was 5 again". Sorry, since when did an 8 year old need to cut a few years of her age??!!

Finally, the boy . . . this is how i found him last night after spending a tad too long checking out other people's blogs. My husband was out at the cinema with our eldest (Avatar, again) & he had fallen asleep on the lounge. Hmmm . . . thought he was quiet (& a bit sweaty!!) He is obsessed with having his head on the orange Marimekko cushion, he does love a bit of colour.

So there you have it, my 4 little darlings. Now next post will be dedicated to new monthly persuits of cooking & sewing, as inspired by ChaletGirl. Love Posie