On The Wall

Dear Olive,
In between some furniture, we made the sweetest/cheekiest discovery. It's such a masterpiece I don't want to wash it off.

PS I moved your room around. I'll send our resident set decorator in to pretty it up and post some photos once he's done.

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Dear Olive,
Some things are just more fun with kids around. Easter egg hunt and home-made initial easter buns (served up on Charles and Di wedding plates!) courtesy of our dear friend Amanda. Bunny ears by me. It's been unreal so far. Happy Easter Weekend.

Just Quickly ...

Dear Olive,


This will have to be short as I'm on a bit of a roll. You're asleep, Dadda's gone out, I've got a pie in the oven and I'm having a glass of wine with a tamari almond or two. I can't believe how productive I'm being on the sewing machine - it's so good to have it set up (if only it had it's very own room - or even permanent space). Tonight, I'm making you a pair of bloomers. Here's the finished bunting for your party. The weather's still looking dubious but we've reserved the local Scout Hall and we're taking a bit of a wait and hope approach. Anyway, a little bit of rain won't dampen our party spirits. Dadda's been at home with us for two days now and you are absolutely, positively madly in love with him. You constantly point at him and say his name. It's the cutest thing.

A Bunting We Will Go

Dear Olive,


This week was meant to be all about looking back, looking back on the parts of your first year I always want to remember. The sweet, lovely things that may give me wet eye when I think of them. But today, instead of looking back, I've been looking forward. In panic. It's forecast to rain on Sunday, the day we're holding your afternoon tea birthday party. In the park. And it's forecast to rain on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday AND Monday. So even if it doesn't rain on party afternoon, the chances of the ground being too soggy for anyone to make it through the afternoon without a wet bum are very slim. Invitations are out and out of town family have travel arrangements in place so we've spent much of today contacting local girl guides halls and seeing what's available. I think we'll take the safe option and switch venues. At least this afternoon I managed to make bunting, 20 metres of it! It may not be the neatest, most even bunting that's ever lived, but it was made with love and that counts for a lot, right?

PS These photos were taken by Dadda. He finished up his job yesterday so he's home with us for a while, yippee! We had to race out to see the Scout Hall while the Scouts had the hall open, so no photo of the finished bunting. Soon, I promise.

Tying and Dyeing

Dear Olive,


Something crafty happened during your sleep today. I decided to try my hand at tie dyeing a t-shirt for you. Working in costume, I've regular-dyed many garments at work (I actually really love dyeing). But my tie dyeing experience began and ended with a pretty dismal attempt at a few nylon slips back in the grunge days of the 90's. (The slips were to wear with my doc boots, of course.) So today, I looked up a few handy hints on the interweb to help me along. (If anyone needs a laugh a quick how to tie dye google search of images brings up some hippie gold.) Unfortunately, the dye I used wasn't quite strong enough for the method I chose but I still rather like the way it looks and, besides, this is only the first attempt. Taking orders now for baby tie dyed shirts!

Knit One Purl One

Dear Olive,


When I was about 16 I got my Gran (your Great Grandma on my Mums side) to teach me how to knit. She was a prolific knitter and all of us 12 Grandkids and many Great Grandkids proudly got around in her amazing knitwear that had everything from trucks to koalas with boggly eyes knitted on them. Unfortunately, at the time she showed me how to knit and purl I was a huge disappointment (and she was none too patient with me either!). But every few years I get re-inspired and pick up some needles and knit a (usually half-completed) scarf or something basic. But recently I've been thinking about some business ideas involving children's knitwear and I've been trying to improve my own skills so I can actually make you some knitted garments. Anyway, on a recent trip up to visit your Papa, my Aunty Bev gave me Gran's knitting bag (Sadly, Gran passed away a few years ago). There was lots of wool and needles but the most amazing items were her old knitting pattern books ... they are so so great. 

You absolutely must have one of these in every size from 1 to 15:

One "Crackerjack" cardi for you and one "Crackerjack" cardi for me, thank you:

Loving this "Downtown" dress and the cute model:

Perhaps Shane would like a "Man's Helmet", as modeled by a sinister looking smoking man?

I love a good hunt in some knitwear. This ad appears in one of the books:

PS If anyone would like any of these patterns, send me a message and I'll post you a copy.