I’ve been getting myself ready to be a stall holder at the Inspire Handmade Market, held in Deloraine (Tasmania) this Friday night.
If you want a fun night out, come and join us at Deloraine Primary School between 6pm and 9pm. There will be over 35 quality handmade stalls for you to shop at, as well as a bake sale and sausage sizzle to fuel you up!
I’ll be attending the market under my Citrus Pop umbrella…here are a few new necklaces I’ve been making in preparation:
Where are we going today Mum?…What are we doing today Mum?…Who’s coming to play today Mum?
It gets a bit like that when you have a quiet week during the school holidays and my children have really noticed that we have slowed down since coming home from our action-packed trip. They are still in “lets do stuff” mode when I just want to chill at home and catch up on things!
So, thanks to Martha for the inspiration (you can ALWAYS count on Martha to help!) we headed to the beach and collected a big bag full of rocks. Filling big tubs with water and washing all of the sand off was just as fun as the painting. Then we left the rocks to dry while we had some lunch. Be warned, rock painting is very messy. A few old towels on the deck kept things kind of clean for us. Rock painting is also very relaxing. It has been ages since I’ve made something unimportant just for fun. I love seeing the kids getting all crafty and creative. We basked in the sun and painted and chatted for two whole hours.
And I didn’t think about the dishes or the washing or other silly old jobs at all.
I promised I’d be back with my first review from the book shelf, and here it is!
THE DETAILS
Title: Oliver + S Little Things to Sew
Author: Liesl Gibson
Publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Chang
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 136
Blurb: “In Oliver + S Little Things to Sew, you’ll find whimsical yet practical accessories for children, such as a hat, scarf, vest, tutu, art smock, backpack, messenger bag, and quilt – all designed with the same style and attention to detail for which Oliver + S’s individual patterns are renowned. As an added bonus, the book comes with two cardstock paper dolls that can be dressed with “clothing” cut from the book’s jacket – a little something extra to keep young ones occupied as you stitch up new items for their wardrobes!”
Projects: Mittens Tutu No-tie scarf Messenger bag Reversible bucket hat Bias-trimmed apron Bento box carrier Play town Penguin backpack Art smock Cozy winter hood Messy kid bib Juggling balls & drawstring bag Tea party doll dress Travel quilt Red riding hood Explorer vest Bear carrier Bear puppet bath mitt Puppet theather
My thoughts: Little Things to Sew book is really lovely and I was not at all disappointed with my purchase. I like to try and judge a sewing book on the amount of projects I would actually make, if I had the time and about half of these projects get the tick. There are full-sized pattern sheets in both the front and back cover of the book – always good not to have to do any photocopying or enlarging!
For those who need a bit of extra guidance, you’ll also find a comprehensive “Basic Techniques & Glossary” section at the end of the book.
The instructions are clearly set out with accompanying diagrams. Each project is also given a “difficulty” rating and a list of skills needed (gathering, sewing a buttonhole, bias binding, etc.) to complete the project are included.
Keep in mind that the projects in this book are for accessories for children – not the usual detailed clothing sewing patterns that Oliver + S usually produce. A lot of the projects would make lovely, quick gifts for children.
I would say the projects in this book are more geared toward younger children, although most of the clothing projects go up to a size 8-10.
Overall, I am really happy with this book. If you enjoy sewing for children I think you will find enough enjoyable projects in this book to make the purchase worthwhile!
Ever since having a salted caramel macaron at the Lindt Cafe in Melbourne last year I haven’t been able to get the flavour out of my head. Before tasting the combination of caramel and salt, I would have thought it to be quite gross but it is actually delightful.
Pinterest, being full of all sorts of wonderfully tempting photographs has opened my eyes to a whole assortment of recipes of the salted caramel kind. I am desperate to dive in and start cooking up some delicious sweet treats but will refrain until I’ve finished this flamin’ diet I’m on! (I’m 3/4 of the way there and I’m desperate to get to my goal weight before we head off to NZ!)
So, while I can’t cook any of these at the moment, I’m pinning them so that I can find them easily when baking time strikes next!
Is your mouth watering? If you do try any of these recipes, please have an extra piece for me! I’ll let you know when I’m baking again 🙂
(To find recipes, click on link underneath picture, it will take you to the pinned image on my Too Cook Pinterest board. Then click on the image and you will land at the recipe.)
As you can see, my sewing book shelf is well endowed. (I have more tucked away in other places around the house too!) My collection of sewing books grew considerably when I started to write my own book. I needed to do some research and work out what I liked/didn’t like in a sewing book and see how others went about their books. So books started steadily streaming into the sewing room and, as with all of my “sewing collections” I can’t stop adding to it!!!
Previous to doing my book research, I was always a little apprehensive to purchase a sewing book without having a good look inside though. I had made some not so good purchases and forked out money for a book I thought was going to be lovely and full of lots of great things to make, only to be disappointed when it arrived when I realised that the only decent project in the book was the one featured on the front cover!!
With little ones in tow, I do most of my book shopping online…I don’t have as much time as I would like to stand in the aisles of a bookstore flicking through pages – usually I’ve got children in hand or under careful, watchful eye making sure they don’t escape/destroy anything or make a spectacle of us all!!!
Inspired by one of my Facebook followers I’m going to start a regular (but not committing to weekly!) “BOOK SHELF” feature on the blog – each Book Shelf post will give you a detailed look into a sewing book from my ever growing collection with lots of information about the kinds of projects the book holds and a little review on the book to help you make purchases that you will be happy with!
Coolies? I’ll be back later in the week with my first review! In the meantime…if you’ve got a book that you are particularly interested in (whether in my photographs here or not) let me know and I’ll pop those ones at the beginning of the list 🙂
