feet in water.

i am nearing the end of the last day of work before my christmas break. as the idea of relaxing slowly seeps into my weary mind, i am sad to be moving away from my blog for a week or so. in the wonderful new year of our wedding i will return hopefully with many new designs to share and sell in my new etsy shop. i feel very fortunate that so many people have stopped by for a peek. perhaps it's the names of each item that draws them in. they did take some serious thought time :)

to all who stop by, have yourselves a wonderfully warm week and keep friends close and family closer. i'll be seeing you after my camping trip (feet in dirty water, esky full of melted ice) when the christmas tree needles are turning a little grey and my tan looks more potential than the environmental promises of kevin rudd.

putting myself out there.

*sigh* it is with bated breath that i announce my presence as a seller on etsy.com. i have been planning to open a shop there for some time now, but with traveling for work and planning our wedding, getting the 'goods' ready as proved a difficult task.

having said that, i put it off no longer. you will now find some of my newest creations gloriously on display in my shop. it's nice to think that i can create something with my bare hands and offer it up to be loved by someone else. very satisfying indeed. i plan on making at least one thing a night (when i am not out chatting nonsensically to friends and gulping red wine). this way, with some luck, my little shop with grow with all the ideas that are currently taking up much needed room in my head.

over christmas i hope to run some sweet cottons through my beloved old machine, but part of me also needs to take it easy. perhaps read a little. oh, and we really need to organise a celebrant to actually marry ben and i. i left the task to my aforementioned fiance and the only person he found and suggested was someone that looked like michael bolton! why are there never enough hours in the day? how did it get to dec o7 without me even feeling the middle of winter?

i leave now, rosy cheeked with the excitement of being a woman in business, with a motto i find fitting for all the wonderful, exciting, happy, momentous things that i know to be happening in the next year:

2008 is sure to be great!



'what colourful dreams' baby blanket, as featured in my new etsy shop :)

a sense of summer.

after braving the soft falling toronto snow, i was delighted to be tilting my face towards the strong aussie sun once more. how nice it is to be kissed by the sun. to throw on a pair of flip flops and wander through green grass with heat on your back. *sigh* i am truly happy to be home.

so, in my absence ben has turned his guitar finger into a green thumb. the quest: to grow ones own tomatoes. and i have to say, he's doing a wonderful job. we sat out in our little garden last saturday, the day of ben's 36th birthday, and had dinner together. ben slapped some steaks on the new bbq we won at elsternwick coles with our flybuys card. as they sizzled away i noticed the solid green stare of our new neighbours. they were blantantly watching us. sizing us up! sitting up there on their throne and mocking us so.

but it is we who will have the last laugh. for as soon as those neighbours redden with embarrassment, ben will pluck them from their mighty throne, cut them with a knife and toss them in a salad. don't you just love summer?

our new neighbours:

feeling a little festive.

since getting back from canada life has been a whirlwind. there has been family functions 'happy engagement liz and rob' and 'happy 36th birthday my benny'. besides all that, getting back to a heap of emails at work and feeling jet lagged and fluey, has meant that i haven't been able to write much here. sorry george!

my time overseas was great but its more than wonderful to be home. as the festive season rolls around there is no other place a person wants to be. on my return ben and i put up our Christmas tree and decorated it. to be honest, it was more 'ben lugs in tree, makes it steady, screws things together. em untangles ikea lights and hangs over already limp branches, decorates with baubles and begins the long winded process of trying to make maggie understand that the balls on the big green tree are not the same as the ones she loves to chase across wide open footy pitches'.

i had been thinking, while away, how lovely it would be to make my own decorations. something with meaning, ya know? i remember as a little one having a tree full of stuff we had made at school especially. with five kids in my family the tree had no room for glam myer colour coordination. it was 'get your work up there and be proud!'. so i wanted to make my own. i decided the theme would be something wonderful that has happened in our lives over that past year. I made two. One for last year to signify maggie coming into our lives and of course Ben and i getting engaged this year.

my dream is that over the years we will have a collection of wonderful things to be grateful for and hopefully some smart, savvy and caring kids to past them on to.

here are the designs complete with my new tags courtesy of fancyweaver.









*shop note: will be opening soon-ish. Just got to finish a few bits of sewing. expect launch in jan 08'

I must go now. onegirl has insisted on playing Christmas Songs while we work. there's only so much boney m a girl can take!