miracles, miracles...stock for my shop

Little Red Riding Hood carry bag so sweet for a little girl. Fully lined & in my online shop.

Hoop handled Nana bag...fully lined & reversible. Modelled by moi. In my etsy shop now.

Close up detail of Nana bag.

Blue lobster tea dress with navy & white back....size 8yrs -10yrs girls. In my shop as well can you believe it!

Thought I'd throw this photo in as I love it & feel the colours & light capture the essence of Australian summer. A gorgeous friend & terrific photographer Lisa Haymes snapped these sean-the-prawn dresses & hat out on the balcony outside Mooch Inside.

School starts back tomorrow after 6 weeks summer holidays. We have had lots of fun as a family, spending much time at the local beach with both of the kids mastering boogie boarding on the waves... even my little 3yr old daughter, loving it. I'm looking forward to getting out the sewing machine & really focusing on sean-the-prawn this year. Hmmm I hate to say it but i feel some sort of routine might be called for this year if I'm ever going to get productive....maybe I should do some exercise too.

get this blogging year off & running

Rosella cushion from all upcycled vintage bed linen & tablecloth.

Hi Everyone, Happy 2011!!
I believe it is going to be a great year for all of us, although we are not off to a great start here in Australia. A large percentage of our country has been flooded & my thoughts are with the thousands of people who's homes & businesses have been destroyed, but my heart goes out to the poor people who have lost the lives of their family & friends.
Yes, I have had a very slow start to the blogging year. It has been a super busy time, what with going away to Albury for Christmas to spend time with my husband's family & with my beautiful children being on six weeks school summer holidays. It has been great catching up with family & friends, with more friends arriving in town this friday. Blogging & making has been very much on the back burner but, Hey, it is now time to get serious!! I have been reading your postings & have really been loving seeing all your creations & hearing what you been up to.
Before I went away for for Christmas I had a mega sewing fest for a couple of days with my machine working overtime getting a few items together to go into MoochInside over the holiday period. Check out my work in the soft focus photos...really must check that the lense on my iphone is grime free before I point & shoot. Just imagine a world through cataract eyes.

Green lobster tea dress from upcycled vintage tea towel, with gingham back.

Sweet as... little girls carry bags from Japanese craft fabric, boutique screen printed fabric & yellow linen gingham with red hand stitching. Fully lined with calico & calico straps with red gingham trim.

Merry Christmas All

Wishing you all the most joyful Christmas 2010... I hope it will be all you wish for & may you have your own little Christmas miracle of some sorts.
I'm spending a week in Albury NSW with my Husband's family, the weather is beautiful, not too hot & we are looking forward to Christmas Day.

Pretty puddings

We had a Christmas Shopping Night as a fundraiser for my son's primary school, so I thought I would make a few drawstring fabric pouches that I had seen in a Japanese craft book from Lark. I had an idea that they would be great as reusable Christmas wrapping...they fit a 750gr Christmas pudding perfectly or as seen in the photo below they look great with biscuits in them...a nice Chrissy gift.

A friend took them down to Sydney to show celebrity gourmet baker Simmone Logue, she loved them & ordered 20 for her Double Bay & Cammeray stores...yippee! Yep so I have become quite quick at whipping these little guys up. I have also put some in my Etsy shop for you guys to buy if interested.

Christmas biscuits as a gift in pretty christmas pouch.

Reverse side of Christmasy pouch.

pretty florals..great to reuse after Christmas for makeup or jewellery.

How are you all surviving the lead up to Christmas? We are getting quite excited here, tree is up & decorated by the kids..we also have many solar powered Christmas lights this year.

bag lady....bird lady

My first sean-the-prawn handbags looking very Nana...I think that is a good thing ,don't you? Hoops and fabrics are all upcycled...oops except the lining of the pinky one, thats a recently purchased quilters cotton.

Little bit of surface interest, got to love some vintage embroidery.

All fully lined with pretty old worldy micro florals. The pussycat hooks on which the bags are hanging in my hallway were a purchase from Anthropologie in NYC. I bought them during a holiday there year 2000. I fell in love with NY & even more so with Anthropologie, lucky they don't have a store in my neighbourhood, I would be stone broke.

Here is a snapshot of one of my chooks this one is Yoko, she is not the sharpest tack but a good little layer none the less. We often let our chookys out in the afternoon to scratch around the fruit trees. I would love to hear if any of you have chooks & let me know what mischief they get up to at your place.

faeries in my garden

I was a busy little sew & sew leading up to our spring holiday period, snipping & stitching, mixing & matching prints & patterns...sewing machine working flat chat to build up some stock to go into Mooch inside to try to snapple sales from some happy holiday makers..... Success was had, I received a great response to my springy floral themed frocks. Yippee!

Before I rushed the dresses over to Mooch I phoned my lovely friend/photographer extraordinaire Lisa to see if by chance she was nearby with her camera on hand, & blow me down she was & coincidentally that day she was keeping an eye on a posse fashionista faeries with supermodel talents. Lisa loaded the fashion faeries into her shiny silver modern day combi van & arrived at my place in no time at all.
Lisa has just started up her very own blog..Hooray about time I say!! Lisa's blog overflowing with samples of her super photographic talents & even some beautiful photos of sean-the-prawn goodies.
Below are some of Lisa's photos capturing sean-the-prawn springiness, not to mention my visiting frolicking faeries.

Beautiful faery in blue folksy tea dress

pretty fun filled faery in brown, orange folksy tea dress

fashion faeries in petal frenzy mode

dreamiest little faery of them all in Grafton jacaranda souvenir tea dress.

Kia Ora & Bonjour

I have been in a cushion making frenzy lately & I must say that I'm absolutely loving making them. I went out & bought a stack of different sized inserts a week ago & since then I've been unstoppable. It is fun cutting up little snippets of my ever increasing stash of vintage florals & even more fun playing around with the different combinations. These little mummas have already gone to join Big Blue at Moochinside.

Kia Ora Kiwis...yep believe it or not, a New Zealand frock Bros. This little dress would be great on a 10 -12yr old, although it could possibly be worn by a teenager or as a top for a foxy mumma . I realise there is a bit of Mumma talk going on this post..must be the day for it.

Upcycled from a vintage tablecloth of the tourista kind..I thought this was kind of fun & summery...I also see it as homage to my beautiful Grandma Lily, an ever proud Kiwi who used get up & do the Hakka before watching televised football games.

Dress now retailing at Moochinside along with recent cushion extravaganzas.

School holidays start today eeeek...Not off to a good start with both kids with gastric flu..one almost recovered & the other in full throttle..gloves, antibacterial wipes loads of disinfectant..washing machine working overtime. Fingers crossed we'll be out of the danger zone within 24hrs.
Have a great fun filled weekend & enjoy School Holidays New South Welsh folk.