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Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

Thanks for all your lovely words about my shelves! It's only one piece of furniture - infinitesimal in the scheme of things - but it occurred to me today as I was wandering about the house picking up toys for the nth time, that it stands for a little more. Like Mae said in the comments, having a space (or even just a shelf) of your own can also represent a small slice of control. If I put something on my shelf, there's a good chance it's going to stay there. Which, at this point in my life, feels like absolute gold!

I got to play in here for a while this afternoon, and finished up these three monkeys. Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil (aka George, Chesney and Flanagan) are for a wholesale order. For now, though, there are 4 dolls, a bag of stuffing and the series 3 DVD of Black Books calling my name. Night (or morning, as the case may be), all! xo

Sorted (part one)

I finished painting these shelves over the weekend, and spent a good chunk of yesterday in my workroom sorting and throwing things out. What a satisfying process that is. As a teenager, I was a shocker for 'hanging my clothes on the floor' (as my father always put it), so I think on some level it's still sometimes a surprise to my adult self that I now like a bit of order. Everything in its place and a place for everything. Not that everything will stay in that place. Hell, no. But it will all have somewhere to go back to. And, after we fix this room, for those times when it's really messy I'll eventually have some doors to shut on it. Doors! Ahhhh....

The most enjoyable part of this clean up was going through the cottons in my stash and sorting them into colours. Nerdy and sad, but true. These are my favourites. The rest of my fabric is still in cupboards around about the house. The rest of the room is still a bit of a disaster, but this shelf is definitley a step in the right direction. Hooray for that.

Happy Australia Day!

G'day! Today we are celebrating all things Australian: listening to the hottest 100 (even though it makes us feel a bit old at times), going to the park, pottering around the house and having friends over for a beer a bit later. Audrey and I just made a banana smoothie (no, not strictly an Australian activity, but bananas were down to $2.25 a kilo at Coles yesterday, so the amnesty on all banana related food has finally lifted. Wa-hey!) I'd planned to make pavolva, but among other things, we have no passionfruit. And pavolva without passionfruit? Un-Australian.

The doll is Bea. I just searched the house for one of those brilliantly tacky toothpick flags for her to hold for the photo, but couldn't find one, so please humour me by imagining her holding one. Hope everyone here in Australia has an excellent long weekend.

Wednesday loves

Today I love:
- Planning some changes to my work room. We are finally going to make it into a room and less of a hallway. I'm painting these old shelves (note dodgy first coat).
- Swiping Matt's ipod for a brisk evening walk, music loud
- Listening to Sarah Blasko and an old Powderfinger song called The Metre that breaks my heart everytime I hear it.
- Truck Furniture (via Hoping for Happy Accidents )
- Rachel Austin's art (via whipup) Oooh, and she has an etsy shop.

And, Grant Featherston chairs like this one (and these. More of a lifetime love, this... for when I win the lottery!)

Wierd

Sooz tagged me for this meme the other day. I must say I struggled coming up with 6 weird things about myself. So, the bulk of this post comes to us thanks to Matt. He had no problems coming up with six things (and judging by the vigor with which he took to this task, I think he enjoyed it, too... hmmn).

1. I have a thing about even numbers. The digital volume on the stereo, for example, must always be set to an even number.

2. The squeaky sound that polystyrene makes when it rubs together gives me the willies.

3. I don't know how to drive a car.

4. When hanging clothes on the line, I like the pegs on each item to match.

5. As soon as I get home, I like to change into comfortable clothes. Audrey does the same.

6. I hate sleeping in an unmade bed.

I'm not tagging anyone. This was difficult and humiliating enough! Ok, that's it. Please, let's never speak of it again.

I'm plugging away on a couple of wholesale orders at the moment, so expect lots more random toy pictures over the next month or so. Just like these bunnies (Currant, Spindle and Basil). Happy weekend, peeps!

Edited to add: I've had to turn on comment authentication. Sorry about the inconvenience, but the spam has finally beaten me.

Hot, but here

Hello! I'm still here. Thanks so much for coming back. I didn't intend to go on an unannounced blog break, yet somehow a whole ten days has passed since my last post. Ten days! In that time, we've had visitors, moved furniture, cleaned out the shed, been to the beach, and - most significantly (and sadly, for me) my Dad moved interstate, so we have been spending as much time as possible with him before his departure yesterday. It's been hot here, too - the weather is forecast to be 40C here tomorrow (104F!), and I pretty much stop functioning in that kind of ridiculous heat. Cassi's incredibly beautiful snowy photos were a welcome sight this evening!

The little bunny is Alder, the first male rabbit I've made. When I was sewing him up, I thought he was going to be a complete disaster, but I've become quite attached to him and his funny little duds. It was fun to pair tweed with pattern again... no doubt there will be some brothers in his future.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I'm finding it difficult to shake off that lovely holiday lethargy. The end of last year was so busy, and like just about everyone I collapsed in a heap sometime between christmas & new year and am still unwinding. We spent a quiet new years eve with close friends, a few gin & tonics (and too many mosquitos) while the kids all miraculously slept. Ahhh...

Above are the last of my christmas baked offerings (Nigella's Granny Boyd's biscuits) sitting on some excellent fabric I found during the post christmas sales at Ikea. I'm thinking it'll make a great tablecloth.

Aside from the tablecloth, I've been thinking about new years resolutions. In addition to the goals I trot out annually (get fit/learn to drive, etc), this year I'm finally going to work my way through a backlog (er, teetering pile) of my favourite of magazines and fill a folder of inspiring tear sheets. Also on the agenda is to watch more films, listen to more new music, relax more and stress less about the small stuff.

Because of the holidays, I'm frightfully behind responding to email, but over the next week I'll be getting back on track with that. Thanks for your patience if you're waiting on me.

Lastly, the Kim family art & craft benefit auction is live, and going so, so well. One of my boys, Luigi is under the hammer here. He's in excellent company - there are so many beautiful things, so please check out the auction if you get a chance.