moopy & me

Happy snaps

As you feared... more boring holiday snaps :: Chris + Chris + Tali + Lily making their way up stream.... such a cool relief from the muggy heat.

Lily spent most of her time in the water with Tali (who happens to be one of the most beautiful people that I know... she inspires me to be a better person...we love you Tali) because I was too chicken poop to carry Lily around myself, fearing I would drop her on the slippery rocks.... Tali had her Crocs on so that must be why she is so brave.... we won't mention how Tali also had to rescue me from the top of an underwater boulder.... the fear of the unknown I guess... I just could not get off without knowing what I might step on. Give me a swimming pool anyday!

We were fortunate enough to stay with Tali + (husband)Chris (we both have wonderful Chris' & her name rhymes seriously with mine....very tricky at a dinner party) for almost two weeks, in their delightfully cool aircond apartment on the esplanade.... Tali cooked delicious meals, drove us around, played & sang with Lily and best of all ... sat up till all hours of many a night/morning chatting with me over a glass (or more) of wine. We miss you.

One of the highlights for Lily, besides the "swimming in the rocks", was visiting the Butterfly Sanctuary... this one (Ulysses) thought Chris' orange stripes were pretty tasty.

And one more photo before I have to come crashing back down to earth...

Tali holding (maybe) a moth.... moths have their wings open and butterfly's flutter... there you go.

Sorry... just one more photo....We were high up in the rainforest looking through clouds at a magnificant waterfall.

A side note :: my beloved sewing machine is having a little holiday of it's own.... I took it over for a few days of rest and recovery at Mowers & Sewers.... I am hoping it will come home as good as new ...otherwise it's machine shopping for me ..OUCH!

Sunshine

We had 3 and a half hours to spare in the Brisbane airport on our transfere to Cairns.... so like any nutter I hauled my family onto a train, to the city and over a river to the Gallery of Modern Art ... We of course got lost... well we weren't lost we could see perfectly well where we were and where we had to go but the Brisbane river was in our way.... after 30 minutes of trying to get up to the bridge we finally got to the Gallery... and boy was it worth the effort!!! We only had time to wizz around to all of the children's installations... but I couldn't have been happier. Lily watched a little Haka performance and much to my excitment later on when we went to do the Run, run, run activity (Kwon Ki-soo) Lily made a little person with their tongue poking out (above)

And the other awesome part of the GoMA was Christy coming to meet us. It would have been crazy to fly half way across Australia. Stop. and not hang out with my bestest buddy... thanks for wizzing around with us Button.

Well we have been swimming in cascading tropical rainforest lagoons... heaven...Lily got to play with a turtle who came over to say hello and Chris whooshed down all the natural water slides... more photos coming ... I am going to bore you with holiday snaps whether you like it or not.

Joy

Lily started drawing people a couple of weeks ago..... and I have to admit I had a little tear in my eye when I first saw her draw them..... as an art teacher to children, I see wonderful, inspirational art created by children every week but nothing beats your own child's creations. right. I have been sticking them up all over the house... framing them and here I have turned her drawing of Father Christmas into a lino cut (ala Lizette) for all of my family to enjoy on Christmas cards.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your amazing support over this year... I read and treasure all of your kind words (even if I don't get a chance to thank you properly via email etc) and are so very grateful for being a part of this encouraging crafty community we have here. You may have noticed a slight break in the blogging this month.... nothing to worry about ... I am just taking some time with my family after a stressful couple of months, I am sure I will be back to normal posting after the new year.

I have a super duper exciting project to work on in 07 .... that I am itching to blab to you .... stomach churning kind of exciting..... but I am afraid of jinxing myself or putting too much pressure on if I blab before I am even started.... so I will just have to get my butt into gear so that I can share with you along the journey... I like to have a focus each year.... just one or two.. and next year I will be focusing on quality rather than quantity, this means only taking on one project at a time and definately not taking on new projects ....  I have plenty on the go as is....we will see how that goes heh.. I will consentrate on new Sprout textile designs... refining Nest Studio art classes and said super secret project... there that is it ... no more.

If I don't chat here before Christmas... have a relaxing one!

UPDATE :: There is a little craft activity for you over at Kiddley ... my gift to you  x Y x

Can you hear that!

Yes, it's rain!! thank the lord ... which ever one you like... it is raining.

Here in South Australia we apparently live in the driest state in the driest continent on earth... And we are in a serious drought at the moment.... no sprinklers for Moopy.. infact no watering the garden and talks of all sorts of water restrictions.... I am very conscious of the whole lack of water and wish that we could one day live in a sustainable home. All we can do now is carry buckets of the bath water to the lawn... it makes puddles... who doesn't love to jump in puddles.

My appologies for the worst photography and most boring post ... but I am truely excited by this thunderstorm of rain and had to share. See the lightening above our Frangapani tree. I am hoping for an all night down pour...  I love the sound of the big rain drops on our galvanised roof while I drift off to sleep, then we can wake up early and jump in the puddles... Anyone else in Adelaide bombarded with flying ants tonight? it must be summer coming...

Dress ups

Rocking it out to Sgt Pepper's...

A corner in my home

Op shop chairs that are begging for new cushions... we can't sit on them at the moment because under all that nice fabric are only bare springs.. ouch... you see getting the cushions made will cost 40 times how much I bought the chairs for so we will just have to wait.

Ebay..... hmmmm

And here are a couple of sassy pics of my beautiful talented sister, yes I have a sister... we havn't seen each other for over two years.... I am not sure why... it's just one of those things... life is like that sometimes and well... I am completely giddy with excitment to see her again. She called me up and we made immediate plans for her to come over for dinner... I cooked ... yes, don't fall over ....(some of you may think I cook but I don't..I bake.. dinner is what Chris loves to do....) a roast pork rolled with spinach, ham and lemon...very french. Anyway we talked and laughed for hours... she read Lily a bedtime story ...my heart melted...gulp, tears are welling up as I type.. I can't wait to see her again, we are going to make it a weekly thing.... I also can't wait to get out one night to watch her DJ the night away.

Sun(ny)day

Have we talked about pancakes before? Lily just loooves pancakes... but I could never make them quite right (you know the kind you can bounce off walls, I can make those..) so we had to make regular trips over to various pancake houses so that Lily could get her fix. That was until this morning, hello fluffy pancakes! I finally gave in and used self raising flour.... and it seems that is the secret to light and airy pancakes.... that and I wisked the eggs and milk till they were frothy then added the flour and only mixed till everything was wet. We of course use lashings of butter and Canadian maple syrup... Lily was so impressed she said "Yah! Mummy's Pancake Kitchen" which happens to be the name of the pancake restaurant we go to (well don't have to go to now, thank god... that place is open 24 hours and your feet stick to the floor).

More glorious sunny pics.. Lily has on a dress I wore when I was a baby (see close up of emboidery... makes me want to get our my threads) and a skirt I made for her... I thought the cotton doily looked fun and was an easy way to add a bit of vintage to the modern style denim.

MUM!and friends(Jazzy & De thanks for the having me xoxo) please enjoy this... I love how young and sweet Lily looks here... she is checking one of the last walnuts from our tree to see if there are any morsels she can eat... no luck, they are all dried up.

Happy Mothers Day

A SHOP update ... finally

Goodbye carousel

The Fringe festival closes tonight, for another two years... although our premier has suggested we might be having the festival every year? We made the most of the evening regardless and had two rides on the carousel... I did something I never thought I would do.... I woke Moopy up from her sleep at 8:30pm after I had made up my mind that we could not miss one last evening in the Garden of unearthly delights... I was relieved to see at least a dozen other kids Lily's age enjoying their late night icecreams and carousel rides. And I finally remembered my camera... although the flash makes the photos washed out so I appologies for the blurry yellow, non flash pics.

Spectacular

Opening night at the Adelaide Festival.... a performance from Italy, designed especially for our Torrens River... ballerinas floating in the sky above the river, piano's, people riding bikes over the river... just pure magic. And it was magic seeing Lily dance to the beautiful music and stick her leg up as high as she could just like a ballerina.... I always fall in love with Adelaide at this time of year, people grumble about slow little Adelaide (I am guilty here... just once) but it really is a fantastic place to be... So I have decided to share Her with you... I am going to take a weekly photo of places/things that are notibly from this lively city.. so that you get to know her and maybe when you come visit (or walk around town) I won't hear you grumble because you will know what I am on about !!

Oscar & Lily

These two are the best of friends, I love how in this photo they both have the same smile on their faces. Oscar (the family schnauzer) has so much patience with Lily and is very protective of her... of coarse I wouldn't take my eye off them but so far he has put up with endless pokes and prods and kept that exact same smile on his face. In my immediate group of friends and family, Chris and I are the only couple with a child, so Oscar has been Lily's only pal... I am one of those annoying friends who bugs everyone to hurry up and have kids already !!Sometimes I worry that Lily doesn't get to hang out with more close friends her own age.... and then I have a fleeting moment where I think about baby #2 (that is NOT a hint by the way!!)..... mmm? I remember a time where I would have sworn black and blue that I would never ever think about baby #2.

Ok, now onto the latest "Moopy bunny" softie I have been working on... (I started her last year for MOS' May flower moopy) she is still not 100% how I have her in my head ... but getting there... I popped these two girls in my shop and with in an hour they were sold! WOW! I was very excited but also hesitant to let them go as I had only spent a few hours with the repro 50's fabric moopy. I made the orange moopy two weeks ago but didn't like her face... but then when she sold and the customer thought she was adorable I saw her in a new light and have decided to show a pic.

Her face was meant to be rounder.... How bizaar is this internet world... how many times have you made something and then the next day or maybe week someone else is doing it! (and not because they are copying ....they couldn't possibly have known what you were doing) its so wonderful how we all seem to be connected... the reason I say this is because Lily and I were making aprons for lots of her toys a few weeks ago (and that's why she so urgently needed to make her own).. and Amy's theme this month for Tie One On is infact making softy aprons!! Yah! finally I can join in .. I think my sewing skills can manage this one!

I just got a call from Button, she is in town! Yah! Moopy and I are meeting her at the Gallery in an hour ... so all that thrifted fun I was going to show will have to wait... here is a tidbit..

That Villery & Boch platter is actually mine, my oma gave me a number of pieces when I was born... and I thought it looked nice with that fabric and vase...