big blue

Hey, I have just added cushions to the sean-the-prawn repertoire & I'm loving the result.
The one pictured is a large size approx 60cm x 60cm, made from all upcycled vintage cottons & lace. On the front a gorgeous vintage hand embroidered doily..not I can not claim to have done that handiwork. Anyway it is tagged & at the lovely Mooch Inside waiting to be loved & taken to a good home.

weekend treasures

My latest pride & joy...I couldn't resist buying this gorgeous old shopping trolley at Saturday's French Market. I have always thought that these are super cool & wonderfully practical, a common site when I was a child. Grannies could be seen everywhere dragging these around town on their weekly shopping days. I will probably store my vintage fabrics in mine...one day I may even be brave enough to leave the house with it.

I found these fab aprons in a local Charity shop last Friday. Great bright 60's florals made by someone's Nana no doubt....it could have even been mine.

Here are some more of the wonderful goodies purchased at the local annual French Market on Saturday.( Although it has a moderately French atmosphere, the organiser is named Marion French, it is located at her quaint little farmhouse & surrounding gardens). Lovely vintage tablecloths, braids, Sylko threads & British made fasteners.

I had such a fun time...maybe spent a little too much money

North to Alaska

I know it is not the prettiest of shots, but I've been wanting to share this sun hat with you for a while now. In the corner of my sewing area I have a have an old 1930's kitchen dresser in which I store a lot of my fabrics, bits & bobs... on top of the dresser I display some of my ever increasing collection of vintage vases & this gorgeous 1950's straw sun hat, which belonged to a very dear old lady that I once knew. Don't know if I shall ever wear it, it looks too good on display..I would hate to damage it.

reversible vintage style bolero jacket with handmade fabric brooch.

Autumn daisy dress

Rosie Picnic dress

I have been a very industrious little sew & sew of late...busy completing these garments for a custom order for a little girl way up north in Alaska. I can't tell you how excited I am to have an order from so far away...seems quite exotic to me since I am located at the bottom of the globe...although we Aussies like to think that we really are at the top of the World, it's just that everybody else got it wrong.

3 dresses..3 bears...2 hats & a quilt

I found this picture of The Three Bears way up the top of my old wardrobe at my parents house...such a humble little thing it was, just a cheap print backed on some old boxboard....but oh so many memories from my childhood attached to that picture. I thought to do it justice & honour the part it played in my prettying up my bedroom for all those years, I have recently had it cleaned up & framed. It now takes its place in my three year old daughter's bedroom..now making new memories for her.
I dropped in at Mooch Inside last Thursday to say hello to the lovely Margie & Kath who are busy uploading oodles of photos to get their online shop up & running...I believe it is only a week or so away. Come on girls, it is such a tease knowing just how close you are. While I was over there I thought I'd snap a shot of some sean-the-prawn goodies on display, some awaiting pickup & others just waiting to be loved. I have had a few custom orders of late...it is nice to be popular.
Hoping this week ahead will be a good one for you.

sweet lime, sunfrocks & sunsets

Dresses waiting to be completed.

My little sunfrocks are totally made from upcycled fabrics & they have been selling really well of late , so I had better get a wriggle on to get these babies finished. I retail them at a fab local store named Mooch Inside which stocks gorgeous art, lifestyle items & super spunky fashion. Mooch inside is very soon to get their online shop up & running ..Yippeee!!

Sweet limes from our garden.

It has been a great year for citrus fruit...washington navels, valencias & blood oranges. We also had loads of mandarins & these Tahitian limes all picked from the trees in our back garden....Mojito anyone??

My corner view at sundown.

This is the view at the end of my street. I snapped this shot at sundown about a week ago when walking home around the Bay, I disturbed the three pelicans who were eating scraps of fish left behind by local fishermen & they took off across the water. Ahhh serenity, I love living here!

summer dress on a winter's day

It is a cold winter's day here where I live, one hours drive north of Sydney on the east coast of Australia. The temperature reached a high of 14 degrees Celsius. I know you Northern Hemisphere folk must be laughing at the notion of that being a cold day, but it has been grey & threatening to rain all day. It may sound all very bleak, but alas the wattle tree is flowering at my front door & all is screaming out golden & sunny in my view.

I just love wattle with it's cute little fluffy balls of yellow & it's tiny weenie buds ready to burst. It really does cheer me up & bring a lot of life (bees & native birds) into the garden this time of year. All that yellow provides a great backdrop on which to hang one of my latest dresses that I have designed & made. It's a little girls (size 3) summer dress in a light weight flocked voile.

I have been working on a few pieces for a handicraft project to be initiated in Afghanistan by a wonderful charity named Mahboba's Promise. They will be taking my designs & samples along with those of a couple of close friends of mine over to Afghanistan where Mahboba has set up schools, orphanages for children & refuges & a workroom for Afghan war widows. The idea is for the women to sew & embroider garments & home ware pieces to allow them to be financially self sufficient & to maintain their traditional handicraft skills. It is only early days for this project & it will be a steep learning curve for all involved.
One of the friends of which I am working with on the Mahbobas Handicraft Project is Jane of Focalpoint Home. Jane has just started her own blog Focalpoint Home & I would love you to pay her a visit & offer a little encouragement , even advice if you wish. Jane is super clever...a trained Interior designer & florist (her beautiful work above) & she now has a successful business importing gorgeous pieces from Tunisia. Go Janey!!

holidays...pumpkins..& pretty pancakes

My Son with his snow buddy.

Hi there, just when you thought I had dropped of the face of the blogging earth....I'm Back!!
We took a weeks holiday & it was such a great thing to do this time of year to break up that mid year bogged down feeling. My husband's youngest brother has become engaged to be married & finally had a party to celebrate..so we drove near 700kms to visit his family in Albury N.S.W. A lovely time was had catching up with family & looking around town. My children had so much fun with their cousins, especially the day we drove another 120kms from Albury to Falls Creek for a day in the snow. It was the first time ever seeing snow for our kids & they loved playing in it for hours. We hired some toboggans which we gave an absolute huge workout going up & down a snow covered gentle slope...I kept stealing them from the kids to do some crazy stunt tobogganing. We even built a snowman & decorated him with pebbles & my beanie...which resulted in me having a bit of a cold damp head for the rest of the afternoon..well worth it though.

Home grown pumpkin

Why am I showing you a photo of a pumpkin? Well because I grew it myself in my own backyard. It was quite an accident to be growing pumpkins as I dug a big hole in the earth to plant a banana tree & threw a heap of vegetable scraps in the ground to give it a kick start, which it did but also a few weeks later started to sprout a vigorous pumpkin vine. Delicious tasting soup & a couple of serves of yummy roast veggies came from this little baby.

The pottery dog looking thingy in the background is named Herbie & was a part of my 1970's childhood. He is from South America & is used to grow alfalfa sprouts. You fill him with water & then place seeds in the groves on his exterior. Within no time the seeds sprout & you can harvest them for salads & sandwiches..Lots of fun!!

Butterfly pancake.

Can you believe your eyes?! My husband is great at making pancakes, & being the creative soul that he is, he loves giving a bit of a twist to the traditional. He often makes spider or jellyfish shapes for the kids but I think this is one of his best... the butterfly. All done by turning the pan to run the mixture in the right directions...love it!!