i'm grateful for 'Maxabella Loves'

Greetings all,

Exhaustion, elation & adding a bloggie friend to my real world life - that was my Handmade Market experience yesterday.  Exhausted from huge preparation for the market; elation it was it's usual amazing success with the 10 000+ strong crowd of handmade lovers; & the fabulous Maxabella Loves herself came to visit, with her gal pal (new to blogging & too embarrassed to name her blog, i'll hunt her down!!)  While their families watched the Trooping the Colour Parade around the corner (Canberra is ace for entertainment opportunities) the ladies went a shopping at the market & played with me.

My day didn't launch well, my 3rd girl woke with a migraine.  She had all the typical symptoms - headache, nausea, sensitivity to light . . . so i left for the market as late as possible after treating her with what my mummy used to do for me as a 10y.o. migraine sufferer . . . & carried her into the market in her jammies to rest while i set up.  The hero of the day is her best friend's mum who was taking the twins out anyway but insisted on caring for my unwell child at her house.  I packed her clothes just-in-case-of-instant-recovery-when-seeing-bestfriend & she did sleep, but also trampolined, ran around, ate 4 bread rolls & 2 sandwiches on top of morning & afternoon tea + milk shakes (nothing NOTHING puts her off her food).

Then the doors flung open & the crowds poured in.  A couple of hours later Bronwyn from Maxabella Loves quite literally leaped over my stall screaming "Jennie Jennie, it's me, i'm here" & we hugged, giggled & acted like old school friends.  There were 20 ladies around my stall laughing with us.  I knew we'd get along like a house on fire but she's so much larger than life, talks a million words a minute & well, is JUST LIKE ME!!  I think we actually hold back a bit on our blogs, perhaps frightened we'd scare you with our over enthusiasm for absolutely everything we embrace in our lives.  It went well, we've made another date for the school holidays, where we'll throw our children together & i get to show off my handsome soldier.  Thanks so much for coming Mrs Maxabella, it was sheer delight to meet you, cloak your jackets & share my handmade world with you. 

 I was tagging & setting up my display baskets up to the last minute & of course, forgot to take fabulous images of my pretty stall.  I took these after i had packed up half my goodies, argh!!  Check out the Handmade blog for amazing photos of the stalls by Tania McCartney.  Jealous, wish i had 'help' & could cruise around, shop, chat & take snap shots too.  Tania cleverly didn't have a stall, that's the trick!!

Oh yum, this hit the spot . . . Belgian waffles with homemade icecream & chocolate sauce, sprinkled with nuts & icing sugar.  I'll admit this was round two, round one (witnessed by Bronwyn) included a good dose of strawberries & was divine (i inhaled it); this deliciousness was just for my girls.  Mmmm.
So after the Handmade Market organiser's father (bless his sheep farmer's big heart) wheeled all my gear to my car & his granddaughter entertained my girls, who had been returned at the market end, i journeyed home.  No idea what was bouncing on my EFTPOS machine in the back of the car, but it sounded like we had a stowaway processing sales, beep beep beep, it was freaky!!  I unpacked the car, my no-so-well daughter showered & then we started on the trip to collect my son (at home of Shop Handmade owner's family, he told me i ruined his day by picking him up just as they were about to eat Chinese).  Last stop (after 7p.m.) . . . my eldest daughter, who spent the day with her friend-who-is-a-boy, after movies in city, they were at his place in Murrumbatemen - we were invited to stay for dinner, wood fired pizzas, i collapsed into a big leather chair & barely moved. 
By the time we got home, i had a huge headache (i do put pressure on myself to make the most of these amazing quarterly Handmade Markets, with 4 children & a husband away) so i went to sleep early - with 3 littles ones tucked in with me (??) & left my high schooler to do the evening rounds (lock doors, let puppy in, wipe down counters, blow out candles, tuck us in with a goodnight kiss - she's terribly reliable when she wants to be, she enjoys a bit of power!!) 

So grateful for my fabulous opportunities, children & friends, including hostess of 'I'm Grateful' Maxabella Loves.  Love Posie

things i'm loving 'baskets of happiness' & my Gifts of Serendipity 'Six Senses Tour' feature

Greetings all,

Phew, what a week of market preparation.  If you could imagine the most fantastic market, only on once a quarter, 12 000+ people come-a-shopping in a massive, highly anticipated surge of handmade & handcrafted passion . . . well you'd understand the time i invest in production for such an event. 

Playing along with Paisley Jade's Things I'm Loving this Friday . . . basically it's 'basket porn'.

Mid week i picked up some new baskets from Provincial - picture French Provincial style at affordable prices, then 30% off this basket range = shopping spree!!  You can't present handmade goodness at such an upmarket event in broken down old baskets.  Ok, i might have broken/ stepped on a few baskets to make way for new ones, shhhh.  Presentation is everything, right??

 There are bread baskets, laundry basket, fruit crates, caddies & even a bicycle basket (with actual leather & brass fixings for your bike but i saw beyond that - i saw the perfect basket for my Liberty of London brooches).  All in that French-country-living shade of grey & linen, what is not to love??  Better yet, not a single thing i wouldn't use in my home, after market use.

 The charcoal tissue had these wrapped up inside - tea light caraffes.  I lit them tonight with some of those IKEA smelly fruity tea lights, quite pretty. 

 The glass carafes remind me of the wine my mother would buy in America, it had a jam jar kind of pull off lid.  She'd bring the carafes home in our luggage, they are EXACTLY like this, only with a base - these ones are bottomless & you place them over the lit tea lights.  Clever.  Just don't hold the wire holder by the handle, it's a bit, er, drunk, unbalanced & tipsy.

 I couldn't resist checking in on Revolve at the Tip just in case they had any decent baskets for my market wares.  Et voila, check out this bundle - one is even in the shape of a heart + another wooden caddy, perfect for my badge display.

 You see correctly, $10 for the lot, ten buckers!!

 Now i can't think of a single thing my husband will like in this post, he loathes my basket obsession, yet happily tosses his keys in them, socks in another, boots in the garage one . . . he'll come around.  To him they are like Tupperware, he insists he'll bury them with me. 

Have a gorgeous long weekend if you're in Australia, celebrating the Queen's April birthday in June, because that is when it suits us.  

If you're in my 'hood, join us on Saturday for the amazing Handmade Market at the National Convention Centre 10a.m. - 4p.m., which is just a short walk from . . . ANZAC Parade where at 10a.m. the Trooping the Colour is on, open to the public for the first time (it's a wonderful historic Royal Military College Parade honouring our Queen, normally at RMC by invitation only).  Oh that's a point, watch out for road closures around ANZAC Parade & Constitution Road Saturday morning.  Community Service Announcement over.
For those of you at the Handmade Business Summit, i'll see you at lunch.
Special mention that darling Felicity Serendipity has featured my Six Senses Tour of Canberra, check the post out, check her blog out, check out how wonderful Gifts of Serendipity makes you feel about your own dollups of lovely in your own life.  Thanks Felicity!!
Have gorgeous weekends everyone, love Posie

our creative space 'climb every mountain of fabric'

Greetings all,

Another week, another creative space & another Blogger malfunction where i can't leave comments, followers come & go + i can't download images from Picasa, just a limited selection from my computer.  Anyway . . . that won't ruin the sunshine that is the Handmade Market on this Saturday & the mountain of fabric i'm chopping up to sell there.  This is me pretending i'm not in panic making mode of course!!  It's a long weekend in Canberra so i can recover (read: fix the mess that is my pre-market-madness studio & finally switch the 3 girls' bedrooms around, as you do when you need to relax!!)

I've been collecting small selections of colour to brighten up my patchwork fabric-for-sale baskets!!  Considering we're hovering around -4C to 4C at the moment in Canberra, brrr, i like my sunshine & happiness colours, even if it's only inside my cosy studio right now?? 

 I'm going to make these gorgeous Joel Dewberry bird prints into cushions for the Market & Shop.  They are so beautiful, it's an inexpensive cushiony way to bulk out my stall.  I'm thinking of having them on a card table behind my stall, so they don't hog prime grab worthy real estate.

 Such pretty designs & colourways, they'll look grogeous in my huge French baskets. 

 The cutting was the easy part, i have about 400 new FQ - my baskets are a bit empty from the last Handmade Market - restocking is a big job.  I will be very happy to relax at the Handmade Business Summit lunch on Friday, i can rest my aching hands.

My mountain of fabric . . . good thing i'm a speed-folder.  I have my routine: fold, stack & lay books on top to press them flat, then slide into cello & seal with some Japanese washi tape.  Done!!  It's not torture at all, the fabrics take me back to . . . when i bought them . . . what i've made with the same fabric . . . what collection they are from . . . it's like a photo album.  I'm slowly clearing fabrics from when i started my business over a decade ago, it's hard but i'm planning to seriously de-stash for when we move next, thus no new bolts!! 
For actual creativity, check out Our Creative Spaces this Thursday, love Posie

i can sing a rainbow, um, i can make a rainbow

Greetings all,

Well i can't sing a rainbow, i have an awful singing voice (tone deaf & fortunately i know it) but i can see all the colours of the rainbow around me right now . . . which is handy as it's ONE stressful week with major production for Handmade Market on Saturday.  An impressive list of bloggers are coming as new stall holders or visitors, including Maxabella Loves - thanks for your support!! 

Last night i picked up my girls from a sleep over at a friend's farm in Murrumbateman (thanks for all the lovely comments about the last post on twins, yes, i embrace my good fortune!!) & look what they have been busy picking . . .

crabapples in varying degrees of ripeness & . . .  

 quinces, my nightime photography not doing their greeness justice.

 Then home to finish off a rainbow of products for the market, like children's necklaces.

 Just in time, a shipment of amazing craft-enabling Tasmanian Oak knitting needles.

 Lounge craft = hand stitching penny wheels & buttons onto headbands.

 A splash of pastel, i'm thinking of doing up lucky dip jars with pom poms, bias, ric, rac, ribbon & other trim, plus buttons for a basket of fun on my stall.  Brilliant way to share the love & offer up cost price haberdashery i can finally part with.

 Today was spent making . . . 300 Liberty of London badges.  I cut the fabric sitting in the car park outside school each afternoon last week & now i've sorted them into sets, plus some singles.  I have this fabulous 1950s travel case to display all my Liberty printed goodies in, including hair clips, hair slides & buttons too.  Kind of hoping it will be a show stopper. 

 I've made 16 tulle ruffled bottom bloomers, they took ALL Saturday & i'll thread the elastic in the carpark outside school this week (you safety pin the ends together, then do a mega elastic sewing session in one hit when you're next at a machine).  Pricing these is difficult, they use expensive materials & take at least an hour a pair to create (as i restitch the tulle ruffles to the actual fabric).  I've done 3 sizes but want to try to do another dozen, especially in the larger sizes.

 Last market i didn't take headbands, new hair clips, coin purses or cosmetic purses - um, 4 of my biggest sellers, so this time i've come prepared with a tonne of each.  The Hello Kitty fabrics sell well at Shop Handmade & the new hair clips will all be in Liberty prints!!

Another no brainer product i've managed to neglect for a while are simple gift tags, i normally have them with fabric but this time i'm doing stamps - vintage, Euro & quirky - in an 8 for $5 pack, mixed up colours & styles.
Phew, yes, exhausting & a very busy week ahead, but making the most of my rainbowy outlook, or i'd crack under the pressure i put myself under.  I need to cut about 100m of fabric to feel like i have filled up my baskets from the last market.  Have a beautiful & colourful week too, love Posie
PS the winner of the Handmade Business Summit All Inclusive Pass for this Friday in Canberra is Fiona, who is just starting up a small business now, Congratulations, you were randomly selected by Julie, Queen of Handmade, thank you to everyone for entering!!

EDIT: just found this drawing on my sewing machine from my rainbow boy!!  The children were drawing & painting up a storm today.  Bliss. 

i'm grateful for 'twins'

Greetings all,

Twins literally changed my life.  I was a working mother of one, in the high flying oil industry, with a Nanny, husband overseas & extremely scheduled life.  It was my first real job out of University, i managed a dozen departments & spent my lunch hours in the ladies bathroom expressing milk; the job was a fantastic distraction from my husband away for 8 months & calling in once a fortnight + i knew no one in Darwin.

I remember the guys threw me a 25th birthday party in the board room (with a Woolworths $6 cake in domed plastic container) & one said "you're on your way to 30 now, are you freaking out!!"  My response "well, i want 4 children so i'm thinking 30 should see me as a full time mummy of 3 at home".  Career suicide??  I just never pictured myself as a working mother. 

When our eldest was 20 months, we planned another baby, kapow, it was twins!!  I immediately planned my exit strategy from the real working world to mother 3 under 2.5 years & all the homely ways i'd longed for, sewing, baking, gardening, luncheons + the new life schedule of a 4th child at age 28/29!!  Our son was born just after i turned 29, same 2 year 4 month gap as the girls.   

I always thought i'd have sons, sure i loved pretty dresses, heels & accessories as an adult, but just thought i'd have a bunch of messy boys.  Clearly not!!  I have rather girlie girls, they like fishing, mud & dream of farm life, but they love dressing up & sparkles.  Suddenly having 3 girls in the house, had me wearing more pink too.  No wonder i'm spending this weekend making tulle ruffled bloomers to share the girliness with my customers at the next Handmade Market.  7 days of panic sewing!! 

 My parents were visiting us in Darwin when we found out we were having twins.  We played them the video footage of the ultrasound & they heard my obstetrician say "congratulations, twins" just as they saw 2 babies on the screen.  Tears & champagne flowed, my mother said "you needed a challenge" as our first baby was text book perfect.   

 I had the safest kind of twins, fraternal, in their own sacs "just having 2 babies at once".  Apart from horrendous morning sickness & ending up on crutches with a harness to support my belly (my waist measured 130cm at 9 months, pretty sure they were star fishing to take up as much room as possible, they were 6kg combined at birth) it was an 'uneventful' pregnancy.  Trust me, i had an octopus in there, it was plenty eventful, especially when they turned . . . arms & legs sticking out of my belly in all directions - should have known they'd be fighting fit athletes!!

 They are such sweethearts, they are gorgeous friends, rarely clash & have very different personalities.  They have a lot of unspoken connections & share beautifully, they have different ideas, imaginations & spirits.  They have always had calm around them, maybe as they always have their best buddy with them.  Twin 1 was born perfectly, such is her nature to strive for excellence & conformity, twin 2 was breach, so she was pulled out by her feet (that was attractive, a little like delivering a calf) & still has no sense of direction, she is truly unique & quirky.  They slept 12 hours a night from 3 weeks of age, they breastfed for 18 months & just never skipped a beat - school, sports, friends, you name it, they cruise through life.  I hope this gives some mums with multiples or larger families the non horror story they might need to hear . . . they can be a dream, easy & pure joy, not a sleepless, fighting, tantrum nightmare.   

 They've never wanted to dress alike or have matching hair styles.  They have different skin tones, body shapes, eyes & hair - yet people hear 'twins' & can't tell them apart.  Teachers often don't realise they are sisters - in public, they're not often together, they save that precious connection for home.  If one falls & is escourted to sick bay, a friend will take them, i find that really strange, where's the sisterhood, but they are clearly friends at school, sisters at home & twins when they they need to be closer.  I also like it when one gets invited to a party without the other, it proves they are individuals.  As a rule, i make sure each twin gives a seperate gift to the party girl or boy also.

I absolutely can NOT wait to watch these girls grow, if only to see where their sense of style takes them.  They mix & match to create the most amazing ensembles.  When i was making their big sister's formal dress for her primary school graduation (i know, i think it's a farce too) they were drawing up all sorts of designs & ideas. 

Special mention to their big sister who never blinked an eyelid at suddenly sharing HER life & parents with two new little people.  The fact our twins were so quiet, barely cried & were so easy helped lessen the impact on her life & i've never seen any sibling rivarly.  Ditto for their little brother, he was an uber easy baby & while he's relishing the role of "annoying little brother" for the past few years, he truly worships these girls.  FYI we never refer to them as "the twins", but by their names, personal choice. 

So i'm grateful for the special experience that is parenting twins, that they jolted me out of the work force (10 years & counting, never to return thanks), it's simply wonderful.  What else are people grateful for this Saturday??  Ask Maxabella Loves, love Posie
PS last chance to win a ticket to the Small Business Summit in Canberra next Friday, here!!

things i'm loving 'high school sport'

Greetings all,

As i defrost this afternoon from a long day at a high school touch football gala, i am really loving my daughter's high school sports.  She struggles with the fact her school day has increased by an hour yet sports time has decreased (as her sports chauffeur, i assure you she is getting plenty of sports time!!) 

Today started like this . . . fog & mist & a very Scooby Doo Mystery Machine kind of road trip to the Touch Football Fields in Deakin (near the Mint & via the Prime Minister's Lodge).  We couldn't tell who was getting 'touched' down the other end of the field, it was so spooky/ creepy.  This photo was taken at 11a.m.!!

My children are sporty, but at the primary school level, i'm happy for them to stick to the school organised carnivals & not seek out extra weekend sport besides local Little Athletics.  The thought of splitting myself into 4 all over Canberra for each child & their chosen event, it just doesn't compute & car pooling is great but i'd want to watch them play - neverlone the after school practice sessions at various locations, it would kill me.  They have been very good about this, knowing high school sport is where they'll shine.  So i'm loving the sporting opportunities that high school is providing.  This touch football was a one-day-only affair, but so exciting & she'll be back next year, no doubt in an even better coordinated team (before today they didn't even know each other's names!!) 

After the state cross country finals next week we're off to try our hands at Volleyball.  

Between the 5 matches they played, we froze in the grand stand on the waterproof picnic rug & wrapped in various layers of school jackets.  I'm discovering there aren't many housewives when it comes to high school.  I find this stage of raising children is a much bigger deal - homework, sports, personal development - as teenagers, i think they need you much more than when they are in primary school.  Anyway, I have no idea why i didn't compute "football" with "mud" & wore leather ballet flats in 5C & heavy fog??  I have the prettiest gum boots, i'll know for next time, see i'm a novice too!!  I'll also tuck my jeans into those boots, look at them, i'm off to the bath - I've never returned from a gala in this condition before!!
What is everyone else loving at Paisley Jade today??  Love Posie
EDIT: her team came 3rd & she scored a great try!!

our creative space 'tulle ruffled bloomers'

Greetings all,

Having some fun making tulle ruffled bloomers for the next Handmade Market.  The actual readymade tulle ruffled material off the bolt was in such bad condition (imagine every 2nd ruffle unstitched for metres & caught under 10 random bolts of fabric) so i bargained with the girl at Lincraft for a discount.  Yahoo, knowing full well i'd only use small pieces & re-stitch it regardless (for strength) + i had already decided it was to be used on bloomers where i'd stitch the tulle ruffles to the fabric anyway . . . i took it, half price, in every colour.

This is my test run as i haven't sewn with tulle ruffles before, but it was as successful as i imagined in my head at 9a.m. yesterday morning.  Also hadn't made bloomers for ages, so got a pair of my high schooler's athletics shorts (imagine hot pants) & whipped up a pattern.  Oh i forgot the torture of threading elastic with a dodgy safety pin, elastic in general is always such springy fun NOT. 

 Then to find a model, i guess these will be size 6-12 months, now where did my 6-12 month old children go??  I managed to get my youngest, a 7 year old boy who was passing by into them . . . getting him to stop shaking his bottom was another story.  I'm surprised any images are in focus he was wiggly as furiously as Beyonce.

 Thought i'd sneak in this 'behind the scenes' shot - the real life story of the poor boy who just wanted to do his homework!!  I will do some plain fabrics with the tulle ruffled over the bottom, some in patterns & keep experimenting.  I can imagine the spots i've cut out will look extra amazing, but i like this bold floral print too.  I have black, cream & pink tulle to rescue/ recover/ restore to make lots of bloomers. 

There you have my 'our creative space' piece for the week, check out the bloggie creativity on Thursdays at Our Creative Spaces.  I'm posting early as everything else in my life is behind/ running late/ not going to happen - with only 10 days to go until Handmade Market - i have the following whole-day-events out of my studio . . . a high school touch football gala; high school state cross country finals; regional athletics at the Institute of Sport; the Business Summit & 3 days at Shop Handmade, yep 7 days of events, panic!!  I forgot a Principal's morning tea too!!  So i guess it's just the weekend i have to sew like a maniac & give up sleep altogether??  At least i can do some hand sewing between matches & races at the sports days??  I had better take a good deck chair with decent back support or i'll complete the little old crafty lady look with a hunched back too.  Love Posie
PS want to win an all inclusive pass to the Handmade Business Summit in Canberra on 10th of June, leave a message at this post, good luck!!