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Busy because...


Let's face it, I'm always busy. And if I wasn't - somehow - I would make myself busy anyway. But this last week or so has been quite full of getting this exhibition ready and this morning I had a leisurely coffee in the cafe with my sister Kell before hanging it. Cedar was quite bored of the cafe by the time we'd been there for two hours... now I'm tired and having an afternoon of not-much!

If you're local (enough), why not stop by and check it out. Their breakfasts are awesome too, and available all day :)

I'm linking up with Our Creative Spaces this week...

Tardis

In a month or so, my sister and brother-in-law will be hosting a Sci-fi TV Party and dress up and decoration plans are getting underway... I designed the invites (below) which Kell is making woodgrain-envelopes for, to match the vintage tv feel. I've taken a few details off the invite to show it here - address, phone number - but you get the general idea ;)


And here is my character inspiration... which will mean nothing to you unless you've seen episode 4 of the current Doctor Who series ;)
Our family's characters are pretty much finalised, we have characters from Firefly (Ben's favourite show EVER but he is not the one representing it...), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Jetsons and Doctor Who accounted for... now for the op-shopping and haphazard stitching to begin!

Morning time

Today I got up at quarter to 8, changed and dressed Cedar, made breakfast for Ash and Cedar, made lunch for Sienna and Ash, took my natural medicine, got Sienna up and dressed, got Ash dressed (he'd been up for hours, drawing), and got the kids to school on time while I ate a Carman's fruit-free muesli bar for breakfast. Then I tidied the house - not too hard since we had tidied it yesterday before lunch, had a shower while Cedar watched 'Little Einsteins' and put on a load of washing. Got dressed - again - and wrote an article about the creative urge for Maeve magazine* while Cedar emptied my purse all over the floor and my friend who I pay to vacuum the floor and clean the bathroom twice a week did her good work in the rest of the house.

I put on a second load of washing, finished loading and put on the dishwasher, played with Cedar, invoiced a client, organised a meeting for next week, reminded hubby to make a Dr appointment, read blogs, checked forums, put Cedar down to sleep and made myself a decaf coffee. Now it's 11 minutes past 11am and I'm going to edit photos. Here are a few I prepared earlier (photos, that is).






















 *Disclaimer - it is not usually this easy, or quick, to write, but I pretty much had this idea already in my head and something happened this morning that concreted it for me. So it just had to come out.

Daylesford treasures


As well as wandering, eating, drinking, photographing things and generally exploring, a highlight of our girls' weekend in Daylesford was shopping - especially vintage shopping! Here are some of my purchases.

This gorgeous little trinket box I got as a gift for my cousin Bec, and the frame (which is about 5" wide) I will keep to add to somewhere on my walls... Both of these little finds I got for $5 (total!) from the Daylesford Sunday Bric-a-Brac Market.
Am so in love with this little cuckoo clock - the clock bit is broken but I don't actually care about that. For awhile I've wanted a cute little German folk-art ish cuckoo clock to add to my walls, a little nod to my dear friends in Hamburg as well as a gorgeous combination of vintage and travel style. Score! This was one of the things I bought from Daylesford Bazaar, I think this piece was one of Allison's.
This pile is a combination of patterns and buttons from Daylesford Bazaar, free vintage books and a cute jar purchased from the Lark warehouse sale.
This is another one from Allison's stall at Daylesford Bazaar, the lady who served me was lovely and told me she remembered Allison buying it from them in the first place. It is going to go on my desk - when I finish rearranging this madhouse - and probably have scrapbooky fun kept in it.
I collected these frames from both Daylesford Bazaar and Mill Markets, I want to put in some family photos and fix them up. Though that front one with the birds, I really like that picture. So am not sure yet.
I bought a vintage crinoline dress for Sienna from the Mill Markets as well, it is in the background of this picture. The pink one is another vintage crinoline dress I'd bought her from a Belgrave shop called Walk in Wardrobe. We tried them on her, and they both fit! Much to my surprise, I thought they'd be too small. So these may pop up in a photo session or two in warmer months ;)

These super cute lunch bags are from Lark, I popped in for a second visit on the Sunday and bought all three - Woodland, Dolly Girl and SpaceBoy. One for each of the kids :) They are only $10.95 and 95% made from recycled products. Lark is one of my favourite shops ever... I am currently drooling over the Fawn lamp... but never mind that ;) I also bought Sienna the Ava's Tea Party melamine dinner set and Ash the Pirate Party set. The pirate set is particularly irresistible and they both LOVE them.
And lastly, this 12"x12" Bell & Boo pirate print was on my wish list for Ash's room already, and it was reduced to $30 in the warehouse sale - total SCORE. I was very happy, and even better that it looks great inside this ikea frame I had sitting around at home. Not so perfect is Sienna and Ash telling me they want to change the room decorations to a castle theme. Ahem. We'll have to see about that ;)

A little olden days





This term at school the junior classes are looking at the "olden days" and the other week had an excursion to Yarrabee Yesterday World. They were to dress up in old-fashioned attire suitable for students, and were taught about the olden days in un-powered classrooms with slate and chalk to write with, and a taste of old style discipline ;)

Before we headed off to school in the morning, Sienna and Ash let me take a few photos, they looked so cute. All of Ash's clothes are his normal semi-formal clothes that he wears to our religious meetings, and Sienna's shirt was also just out of her wardrobe (but gorgeously old-fashioned!). I picked up Ash's hat and Sienna's skirt - originally a women's skirt that I took in to fit her - from local op-shops. Sienna's vintage coat is genuine and from the 40s or 50s or something like that and was given to us by a friend a few years ago.


I'm not sure which version of this photo I like better, the colour or black and white. What do you think?

I am... and maybe a snowflake or two

The latest Scrapboxx newsletter is out, and here is my contribution this month to the DT theme 'I am...' - I cut Prima mulberry leaves in half and stapled them down one side of the page to create a custom border. It's got layering of Pink Paislee and October Afternoon with scraps of Sassafras paper and stickers... it was a fun page to make :)


And here is another photo I took yesterday in Daylesford. I read on The Age website that it will be snowing tomorrow on the Dandenong Ranges, all the way down to 500m above sea level! That is not quite down to Upwey, we are about 275 on this higher side of the town (yes, I totally had to look that up!), but it's only 5-10 mins drive to Ferny Creek from here, and they are at 500m... the kids are asking if we can head up hill after school. I'm not sure about that, but am hoping we get a smattering of snowflakes down here, if we're lucky, as it HAS happened before and is always a bit lovely :)

Time out in Daylesford

This weekend I had a gorgeous weekend away with these two lovely ladies in Daylesford...

Lots of yummy (and indulgent!) food - this is the mushrooms and hash browns at Breakfast & Beer - a few girly movies, some scrapbooking on my part, some stitching on Kell's...
Shopping the Lark warehouse sale, the Lark shop (one of my favourite shops ever) and a bunch of vintage shops, Daylesford Bazaar, Mill Markets, Koukla for dinner, the farmer's market, the maker's market...
Cafe breakfast in Hepburn Springs this morning just before Kell and Kate headed off to the Craft Experience for the day, and I spent a day pottering about, including a visit to the amazing 'A Day On Earth' - David Bromley's warehouse gallery workshop space. It is SO amazing. It deserves a separate post :)
Plus a bit of photography as I meandered the day away... I picked these yarrow wildflowers off the side of the road and they are now on my kitchen table to remind me of my travels and of nostalgia. The Yarrow Fairy was one of my favourite fairies I pretended to be when I was little (the other favourite was the Snowdrop Fairy). I also spent a lovely hour in Paradise Books. A nice break, now it's back to regular programming - i.e. washing, school, cleaning up after the kids and working ;)

Shopaholics beware...

Especially the shopaholic who owns these ;) Ooh, cheeky. My cousin Bec, as mentioned in this blog post, has been having a rough time for the last few months. One of the things I'm doing to help out is selling some of her things to help raise funds... here is the latest batch, all fashion-related, plus a couple of practical men's items. I love this red pencil skirt from Modcloth, Bettie Page skirt. Check them out on ebay...