exciting new packaging concepts

Greetings all,
I've spent the school holidays & Christmas break checking out some new handmade packaging ideas for my smaller market products, carry bags as well as shipping from Posie.  My fabulous friend Julie from Handmade Canberra's UpMarket put me onto Divine Twine from America.  At $us15 for 240 yards of each ball of twine which is indeed, divine . . . can't go wrong!!  I made tags & paper Christmas decorations for my brown paper gift wrapping, they looked great under the tree.  I bought every colour they had & noticed the twine wrappers were sealed with the cutest round hand stamped stickers - something i've been wanting to make since Reprodepot sent me some freebies years ago with the same concept, only in a larger brown round hand stamped sticker.  THEN the Divine Twine blog did a feature on where they got their packing stickers from - BrownKraftLabels.com so i ordered tonnes & have been making some handmade stickers with the children using my extensive range of Cavallini stamps (available at Posie).  Sometimes things just line up for you don't they??

blue, purple, orange, yellow & green

The stickers were difficult to photograph with the little digital camera (small & white, always a challenge to shoot quickly) so i popped them onto brown paper bags which will be used for lunch orders when school goes back.  My guys get one lunch order a term, so it's super exciting for them, why not make it pretty too!! 
I picked a range of sizes, colours, shapes & some little pop out small folding cards to make inexpensive hand stamped gift tags for my market stall, plus precut strings.  Stay tuned, the stickers & tags will be available for sale as well as in mixed up stationey packs, all in my head at the moment.  Shipping was expensive but it's something i've wanted to do forever & never knew where to start.  Thought there might be more of you out there dreaming up the same concept & not knowing where to start.
Coincidentally, had a swim with Julie yesterday & she had bought me the boxes of thicker rope style twine from the Donna Hay General Store in Sydney on a recent trip, now i have all 3 colours - red&white, brown&white, blue&brown 50m each.  They are so lovely, perfect to tie onto a spare key & tie up packages.  Thanks Julie!!  Now i'm off to bake some cup cakes & pop them into Donna Hay wrappers, Ok Ok, i'm addicted to nice packaging for everything!! 
Combined with green friendly, recycled & biodegradable packing solutions from Greenwares Australia (Jo, a mum from school's business) it's so much fun to dream up this year's Posie bags, wrapping, note book & packaging, thanks Jo!!
Love Posie

getting my groove back

Greetings all,

After 10 exciting years of running a craft business (8 years full time) sometimes i need a little extra inspiration after a break like Christmas.  So while i have been tidying my studio, thinking up new designs, sourcing new fabrics, doing photoshoots & preparing for a massive year of stock production for new ventures . . . i just found it really difficult to get back behind my sewing machine.  What better than to make something for a friend, a gift, something not ordered, or expected but will be appreciated & well received. 

So knowing my gorgeous friend Rachel (Little Angel Little Devil) quite well & having a swimming date planned at her place today, i made this bag from two of her favourite fabrics which i stock . . . Australian screen printing designers PippiJoe & Kristen Doran - worthy of showing off the selvages don't you think??  I wanted a simple design, something Lotta Jansdotter would whip up between making a shopping list & heading out to do the shopping.  With quadruple stitched handles, an internal floating pocket edged with bias & gussetted base, this is what i ended up with.  Quite pleased. 

On the way to Rachel's i swung by the supermarket for a bread stick & some snacks for her children.   Such a bag MUST have a crusty French loaf poking out the top, i stopped short of celery!!  'twas a lovely day, lots of hugs, talking, laughing, munching on homemade Greek dips & vegetables.  Rachel is a fabulous host & her children, delightful. 
Rachel said it's going to be her year - less than 2 weeks into 2010, she already knows it's going to be an amazing year!!  Love her confidence & determination.  Well didn't she turn out to be the best muse of inspiration ever??

Hope you all love your work as much as i do!!  I feel very lucky to be able to run a business from home, be a housewife & raise 4 children, this lifestyle is not wasted on me.  I pinch myself every day that i could switch from a career in science (oil industry) to one of sewing.  I'm never going back to a lab coat, not even one made from Amy Butler florals!!  Well, no, i couldn't!!  Love Posie

step back in time . . . vintage finds (at the supermarket)

Greetings all,

Thought i might share this little beauty with you . . . i often see all these amazing vintage finds on blogs & well, can't ever find anything like it around where i'm living at the time (Sydney, Darwin, Canberra . . .)  So this is something for everyone - it's new, it's from Aldi & it's under $50!!  So it's retro styling with a current warranty, perfect.  Setting one is gale force, perfect for these ridiculously hot evenings.

Does anyone else have a child who 'dresses' for dinner.  I mean, a fascinator with her jammies (after swimming, bleary eyes) then pearls??  I know she's been watching Mad Men over my shoulder but this particular daughter has been accessorising like this since she was 2.  Anyone else have a child who teams a wonder suit with a skinny belt, long socks over the top & an evening bag, to sleep in a cot??  All i can remember as a child choosing clothes - i wouldn't have worn ANYTHING that made me stand out.  Her twin sister is more conservative, however, she did ask last year how to make her public school uniform look more 'French' & started wearing a beret to school, much to the delight of the principal & hello, next school information booklet, there was a big photo of our 'French' exchange student in her beret, scarf & Mary Janes with tights.

This child frequently wears a change of clothes under her school uniform - yikes, like she's going to get changed & wag school.  She is definitely one to watch.  Wish me luck, only 10 years until she's 18 with a license, she's counting it down!!  Gulp, love Posie

& it was one of THOSE days . . .

Greetings all,

In line with my new committment to blogging more frequently & enjoying it lots, i have to confess while i like to pretend each day is paradise, some are not. It's not the children, they have been happy, splashing about outside, playing beautifully, even dress ups in my wedding dress (a whole other post), making up new games (turning our walk in robe into a 'party booth' complete with closed doors, disco ball & iPod - the door b***h tried to charge me $1 for entry to my own bathroom this afternoon) . . . it's me. Some days i'm down with a headache, such is my brain. I do all the right things, eat well, drink plenty of water & exercise, yet headaches still find me.
So today was happily wasted lying on the lounge under a fan, watching Mad Men (oh that Don Draper, is it so hard just to love your beautiful wife Betty??!!) & drinking icey cold glasses of water (i know, shock to the system to you wellness enthusiasts, alas, it was 37C in Canberra today, i wanted ice damn it) & dinner was literally thrown together as follows - sausages browned in a casserole dish in the oven, turned, browned, toss in herbs, canellini beans & splash of apple juice, cook some more & serve. I went to the effort of making a spinach & herb salad with beetroot (yum) & the children filled up with some wholemeal bread. Easy. Another recipe from 'The Silver Spoon adapted to busy housewives who have a headache' & everyone has a fully belly. They have been informed they are having an early night!!
Now i've finished the Mad Men DVD seasons 1 & 2, well i'm at a bit of a loss of what to do next time i have a headache. I don't think i could do True Blood while unwell, maybe Desperate Housewives?? See, i have all these on DVD as i work alone, 30 hours a week in a studio & like televison company but can't stomach day time rubbish.
I have a bit more of a spring in my step since eating dinner - we eat early - but i've made my blog life easier, like simple settings & WiFi in the house. Also, i found my original small digital camera which i thought i lost at Floriade in 2008. The replacement camera was squashed in my handbag at a party. The replacement's replacement was purchased last month. All Nikon Cool Pix for those who care, we like to stick to a brand. Anyway, the original camera was found a week after the purchase of the 3rd one (by a very patient & understanding husband) so it's now back up to the latest one which is sooo easy to download & make my blog posts quick & easy. I like simple technology. I've also fiddled with my blog, I think it's running smoothly & i hope you enjoy!! I don't mind anonymous comments, but just in case i ever get a mean comment, well i am not posting it, who wants to hear mean people on line?? Get a life!!
Only on a Sunday hey, any other day, well light my tail, i have things to do & suffer that headache. Just can't quite get my font size right, maybe a tinkered too far?? Love Posie

New Recipe & Craft Project monthly challenge . . . you can do it too??

Greetings all,

Lovely Sheridan from Chalet Girl has this great One Per Month Challenge going on. So happy to be reunited with Sheridan, a fun customer from a few years ago, with a great family & excellent ideas. The simple rules are . . . to try one new recipe & one new craft project from all those cook & craft books you have on your shelves, which you may not have opened, attempted or bothered to use yet!! http://chaletgirl.wordpress.com/

First up, i'm offering this cooking effort from The Silver Spoon cookbook - not the famous Italian one from the 1950s, but their Children's adaptation for beginner cooks like me. Yes, beginner, me, after 12+ years of marriage & 4 children i'm still not a great cook, i'm a have-to type, not a want-to. So with many trips away for my husband this year, he is our enthusiastic chef who cooks with flavour, style & passion . . . i feel with an older audience now (read: judgemental children who let me know they could cook better) i should tighten my apron strings & get my act together. In the words of my grandmother Alice May, "i'd rather be sewing than stirring", but that excuse can't fly any longer. New year, new attitude & an actual inclination to cook. So yes, read between the lines, my husband bought me a children's cook book & i'm not offended in the slightest.

Ravioli, yes, first up, which requires ravioli filling, fresh pasta & a tomato sauce, effectively 3 recipes!!

After living in Darwin (tropics) for 2 postings totalling 6 years, i soon loved making my own dough for pizza & bread, the humidity makes everything rise so easily, very rewarding . . . so my pasta making came naturally & my husband insisted i did a better job by hand, than what he usually does in the KitchenAid. He taught himself & the children how to make pasta in July when i was in Sydney at Magnolia Square, thus all these fancy attachments for the mixer conveniently at my disposal.

300gm Italian 00 pizza flour & 2 happy eggs, that does a family of 6

an egg ring did the trick for good sized ravioli, however, will do smaller ones next time, these were a challenge in cutlery skills for children

simple ravioli filling of ricotta, ham, parsley, mozzarella, egg, parmesan, mixed up

hungry helpers, patting down the edges, we made about 35 from one batch

Can't actually claim the tomato sauce as my culinery work, our eldest did the lot (chopped tomatoes, sugar, garlic, basil & olive oil) don't judge me on my unpolished kettle!!

Won't you join in?? I got applause, yes really, it was delicious & remember, fresh pasta cooks so quickly - i'd actually make it from scratch than hang around waiting for dry pasta to cook, really!! When i say i am not a great cook, i am excellent at preparing, it's when heat is involved that i get distracted & things go wrong. I mean, i cook while doing spelling homework, checking emails, planning my tomorrow & starting on lunch box assembly. No i can't slow down, do you know my workload?? Multi task until i'm 45, when my 4th child leaves school and i'm taking a break!! My husband should have retired by then, oh, imagine . . . early retirement . . .

Anyway, Italian cooking with their simple fresh ingredients are so easy. All the herbs are home grown & any day now our tomatoes will ripen & we'll be cooking with them too. Now what craft project should i attempt . . . Thanks for the inspiration Sheridan, a good little nudge in the right direction. 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

things close to my heart . . . a trip to our national museum

Greetings all, welcome to 2010!!
We have kicked off the year with a list of family things to do & see around our nation's capital - Canberra. Yes Canberra is stiff & serious, everyone is very important with parliament & all the public servants, alas, it has incredible 'places of interest' & amazing weather (remember our last posting was Darwin, next posting is Brisbane, so we're enjoying Winter, ice & snow as a novelty!!). 2010 will be our 3rd & final year living here with the Army, so we're taking advantage of Daddy-on-leave & school holidays to tick things off our 'must do' list. Silly but true, when it's your own back yard, you don't appreciate your local landmarks.
So we started off with the National Museum which had a Water Exhibition for H2O (pay admission). I was recently quoted over at Australian Women on Line with my silly season tip for managing children as saying "Just Add Water" as my children love baths, swimming, sprinklers, water pistols, you get the drift - now for the science . . . this back ground is a projection onto mist you couldn't even feel. Needless to say, completley fascinating!! We also spent the afternoon swimming, of course!!
Who wouldn't love a house with genuine vintage posters on the walls?? The camera (bottom right) is the famous Damian Parer's, who took so many of those amazing images on the Kokado Track/ Trail, in PNG in WW2.
This was the sewing box & machine of a gorgeous Australian lady engaged to a boy who went off to WW1 & never returned. She had a collection of things she made 'for her marriage'. Heart breaking!! Her lace work was incredible & dainty. Apparently her family found calico bags filled with handmade goodness after she passed away.

Isn't this grand, a welcome to the Princess of Cornwall. My mother is British, but can't say she's a fan of the current Duchess of Cornwall. Just found the flags over oppulent & fancifull. I wouldn't vote for us to become a republic, i know my husband likes being part of a Royal Australian Army, not just the Australian Army, it's a tad ordinary to not fight under a crown.

Fantastic discovery - a softie, 1940's style. I'm going to covet & draw inspiration from this design!! I have so many vintage fabrics, since collecting them for over a decade, what better way to use them up. I'll leave the fancy pieced designs to One Red Robin & Allana C. I like styles young children could also design, this piggy is too sweet.

& who hasn't been caught watching a little cricket this Summer?? It's the Jane McGrath pink test in Sydney this test match & i wish them well in their fundraising. I know my late mother-in-law would have appreciated the attention breast cancer research & nurses are getting. If you pop over to the Posie website, the Art Viva Betty Jane knitting needles raise money for the Jane McGrath Foundation - if you're feeling like getting ahead of your knitting projects now - these Tasmanian Oak needles have pink boobs at the ends.

How much fun would this be, holidaying in this caravan. I actually set off alarms trying to lean over to get better snap shots on the interior. My son thought that was so cool & criminal. How fabulous is the colour & style!! Wonder how that would look behind my Landcruiser?? Somehow i don't think it would sleep 6.

So there you have it, my passions & interests, all wrapped up into one post. I have always loved cricket, i'm married to a soldier & am a tad obsessed with vintage ways, especially sewing & large families - i think i would have been just as happy living 50 years ago, except i guess i wouldn't have spent 6 years at Sydney Uni getting educated. As my children finish up at school & my P&C duties cease (in another decade) i'll switch to more charity fundraising. Love Posie