Halls Gap Adventures...

What a wonderful, exhilarating and exhausting adventure I have been on during the week. Five days in the beautiful Halls Gap, the heart of the Grampians, with over one hundred students and ten other teachers for a week we will remember for many years to come. I tried my hand at a high ropes course, bush walked to 'The Pinnacle', met some lovely wildlife, rock climbed and the most adrenalin pumping of all, I took the plunge and went abseiling. What an amazing experience, the closest I have ever come to flying.

A few photos from my adventures, including the cliff I abseiled off (bottom right), the amazing Pinnacle lookout (middle) and a very cheeky kookabarra (bottom middle).

After a long week it is lovely to be back home and I'm very much enjoying hanging out by the fire, reading magazines, filling my inspiration journals and working on story ideas. We spent the morning at the botanical gardens which is fast becoming one of my favourite spots here in Mildura. It has been a misty overcast day and was the perfect weather for wondering through the beautiful winter landscape full of bare maple trees and pines. It was almost like being in Narnia.

My favourite photo from our outing this morning was of these two gorgeous Rosellas in the top of the beautiful bare trees.

I hope your weekend has been as delightful and relaxing as mine, I'm off to help my lovely hubby with dinner and to settle in for the evening with a spot of sewing by the fire.

Much love and winter gardens
xxx

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Autumn is for tea and granny squares...

It has been a delightful weekend here in my little cottage, the fire is on, it has been raining for two days and I have spent the weekend merrily playing in my studio, watching films, sipping tea and crocheting granny squares.

I'm very happy fill my shop with some new 'I heart' brooches, I have lists full of lovely new things to heart so there will be many more to come. This little collection of eight was inspired by my love for rainy days, beautiful gardens and the cinema. I was very excited to use some of my beautiful fabrics from Tinniegirl and twopinkpossums in this little bunch.

They are available in my Etsy shop now and get in quick as a few have already skipped out the door.

As the cooler weather sets in I can't help but pick up my crochet hook and dream up beautiful blankets for my bed and throws for my couch. It's a shame I never quite realise just how long it will take but I'm a dreamer so I don't mind. At the moment I'm working my way though my friend's white baby blanket and warming a little more to the classic colour as my pile of square continues to go.

Yesterday's little stash of lovely white squares.

This morning however I woke up with a plan, I decided I would multitask and back two blankets at the same time. I have never crocheted a large bed size blanket before but I'm coming up to my one year crocheting anniversary so I thought I would take the plunge. So I took a trip to Lincraft with my fingers crossed to find some lovely soft, well priced, beautifully coloured acrylic yarn. After wandering the isles it was my hubby who finally found what I had been searching for...

I ended up with Panda magnum soft 8ply in brown, cream, eggplant and teal. As soon as I got home I set my new hook to work, I'm delighted with the colours together and am now totally obsessed with my new project.

The first square of many... stay tuned.

Well I'm off to finish some preparation for work tomorrow and hopefully get in a few more squares whilst watching the finale of 'So you think you can dance' tonight. But before I go I must share with you a little photo I captured with morning.

We often see these beautiful little green birds around the backyard but they are usually to fast to catch on camera. This morning I got very lucky when I managed to capture one enjoying my lavender.

Much love and happy Sunday!
xxx

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Smile on Mondays..

What a fabulous weekend it has been and now Monday has also come and gone and I am still beaming with joy! Sorry about my lack of a post last night, I was fabulously busy making a little custom order for the amazing BugandPop and a little commissioned tea cup artwork for a friend at work.

After a beautiful session of Yoga at Eleventh Street Yoga I'm all chilled out and very happy to be sharing the lovely moments of my weekend with you. My biggest accomplishment for the weekend was shifting my little cottage around to create an office space for my growing little business. The moments of sprawling all over the lounge room are now transformed into a beautiful space that my darling hubby helped me create. I'm so delighted that I now have a space to create as well as a lovely little office to pack up my goodies, write and design. It even has a chandelier!

My lovely office..

Desk complete with inspiration board and a cup holder that doubles perfectly to hold all my ribbon.

Close up of all my bit and pieces including my beautiful Hens Teeth journal, postcards from Marmee Craft and November Moon and one of my favourite creations, my tree house pin cushion.

In tray table with op shop fabric, vintage tin, garage sale tea cup and beautiful owl print, a gift from my sister.

I am loving so many things this week I just have to share them all with you!

My hubby's yummy Saturday morning pancakes.

My beautiful vintage find of the week - Italian leather gloves in their original box. How could I resist! Now I just have to wait for winter..

Finally..... My brooch back supplier called me with wonderful news, they arrived! Now I have over 200 brooch backs and many many new brooches to create.

Some very girly fabric I found in the depths of the Spotlight pile. Lovely fabric makes me smile.

My very favourite new friend Ruby.
We finally got our lovely parrot Mallee a big cage to spread his wings in, which also meant we could get him a girlfriend. Ruby is a very special Opaline Red Rump Parrot, although she is a little shy, I think she is already fond of her new boy.

I hope everyone has had a delightful start to the week. I'm off to curl up on the couch with my hubby and check out some of the lovely frocks and awards from the Oscars.

Much love and joyful moments of inspiration..
xxx

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A book making, bird watching, doll creating weekend!

Second post of the day! Plenty more in store. First of all I'm so excited that its the last week of term which means this time next week my hubby and I will be in Queensland with our families. Can't wait for a holiday, I'm surprised just how fast the term has gone, although I still have plenty of marking to do! I'm also very excited about my second wedding anniversary which is coming up on Tuesday, we are having a little romantic dinner at the new (and only) Thai restaurant in town. It's been booked out for weeks so we are lucky to finally get a table. So on with my busy weekend..

Yesterday we had our monthly Poetic Justice Publishing (PJP) meeting at Sunshine House just outside of Mildura in Redcliffs. Sunshine house is a pickers cottage on a beautiful property where we have our meetings and book making sessions. We are currently finishing making booklets from a Poetic Licence event held earlier in the year. I got the chance to take some photos of Sunshine House and the beautiful old tractors and windmill that are still on the property from its grape growing days.

Windmill and water tanks in the spring sunshine

I just love this old tractor

Welcome to Sunshine House

Our work for the day, I'm getting good at hand binding!

Finally we are having some warm weather here, its just so nice to feel the warmth on my skin and what better way then to go for a Sunday morning walk around Duck's Foot lagoon at our favourite spot, King's Billabong. The bird nerd part of me came out today as I had a ball taking photos of the fantasic array of wildlife around the lagoon.

A pair of black swans in the lagoon..

A very pretty gallah in flight on the Murray..

Somewhere between book making and bird watching I had an inspirational moment and decided to make my beautiful best friend Courtney and her little girl Lily a joint present. After creating my little character Olive I have always wanted to make her into a doll. I'm so happy with her, she is just how I imagined. So here she is, after eight hours over two days, with miss matched stockings, skirt and buttons. My very first Olive.

Olive

Close up of her cute bow and buttons...

Well I best go get ready for my busy Monday, you just have to put on a big smile and embrace a busy Monday. I will leave you with my favourite things for this week...

This delightful little box of treasures created by Lobster and Swan, I just adore it!

This amazing book I just ordered called Urgent 2nd Class by Nick Bantock. It is an inspirational handbook for making art by reusing old maps, postcards, scraps, letters and envelopes. All of my favourite things!


Wishing everyone a fab week! Embrace spring, by fresh flowers, eat strawberries and dance in the afternoon sunshine.

Much love xxx

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Hooked on Hooks!

Happy first of the month, how fast the time is flying by! Only a month until school holidays and I just can't wait. Well I have had a very productive week, especially in the crochet department. All of sudden it all made sense and now I must say I am a little obsessed (in a good way!) I just love it and had to take two trips to spotlight over the weekend to stock up on lovely supplies. And just look at my stash!

This is just yesterday's lot, I just love the green and purple bamboo cotton!

And how could I resist the 80's inspired hooks that Courtney found for me!

On the way back from Spotlight i got a little sidetracked and ended up in Target, which was lucky because they had 15% off everything. So I also stocked up on a few winter essentials.

A cute little top and lovely knitted vest and I couldn't resist these crazy coloured knee-highs! So adorable..

So when I got home, I was like a child in a candy store, I didn't know where to start with all my beautiful yarn! I have been working on a few things, I really wanted to try a really sweet flower pattern from Creative Yarn. Her website has been such an inspiration, I think she brings crochet into the modern day. So here is my result..

It's a bit big for my hair so I'm going to sew it onto a cute black and mustard tote.

One of my other projects is the perfect bed beret for my bestie Courtney, we are doing a craft swap, she is knitting me mittens and in return I'm crocheting her a sweet little red beret also from a Creative Yarn pattern. I was almost finished yesterday but ran out of wool, so hopefully I will have it looking all lovely in the next few days. Here is the work in progress.

All red and lovely like Kirsten Dunst's in Elizabethtown... see!

In other news I got a little creative in the kitchen this afternoon, I made scones! Thanks in part to dad's old recipe which he told me over the phone (with no measurements) which is where Margret Fulton came in handy. Amazingly their recipes are identical! And may I say the results went down very well, as my hubby and I sat down to high tea on our first winter's afternoon.

The recipe and the results..

The crumbs..

I will finish my post with a new photo of Mallee, he was settled in very nicely and is now singing every time a song comes on the radio or the TV. His favourite is the 20th Century Fox theme!

'Cheep Cheep'

Oh I can't forget this photo. It was a bit of a fluke, as we were outside having afternoon tea a amazing little green bird landed on our crazy Narnia Lamppost..

Look carefully.. Isn't he lovely?

I hope everyone has had a lovely relaxed weekend and is ready for a wonderful new week. Our Book Club is still reading Chocolat and I am just adoring it, lovely to go to bed with a good book.

So rug up, crank up the heater, get a glass of red and a beautiful book and enjoy..

xxx

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A chirpy weekend!

What a big week it has been, they just seem to be going by so fast. And it is already Sunday night and the week has begun again. I can't wait to fly up north in five weeks, for some shopping and fun! Although I have had a fabulous weekend in old Mildura. My most exciting bits are that we got a pet parrot and I taught myself to crochet!

First our new family member. We have been looking at birds for a while and on Saturday we decided to buy a lovely native red rumped parrot. We called him 'Mallee' after the local area. Here is a photo of him, will take some more once he settles into his cage.

'Mallee'

And now to my favourite new thing to do, Crocheting! What fun, after Courtney and I realised that all the adorable berets, beanies and mittens were all crocheted not knitted, we thought we just had to learn, so off I went to spotlight and after just two hours (of cursing) I can actually crochet! And its so much fun. I can't wait to make cute berets for Courtney and my mum and sister. Here are some of the cute things I made today as practice.

'Lavender headband with flower'

'Lollipop Brooch'

I am really enjoying learning new patterns and improvising my own. Just can't wait to go back to Spotlight and buy some more lovely yarn. I'm even thinking of trying to make something wild like a rug from old jeans. The sky is the limit!

I will leave you tonight with a picture of one of our lovely rose bushes in the front yard. It looks so pretty after the rain we have had.

As winter fast approaches I am getting into the groove of putting on a million layers of clothes and remembering to turn the heater on and off. Maybe I should crochet a hot water bottle cover. Is that too much? :)

Much love, have a wonderful week!

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