We are planing a big trip for this September/October, 6 weeks in the US, husband Rick is from the US. Anyway I have been packing up some bits and pieces because we are having a house sitter come in so anyway I was in Mia’s room and came across some old books, the first was my favourite when I was little and the second was hers, as I put them on the bed, next to each other, on her baby quilt that her Dad lovingly handstitched for her I just burst into tears, my baby turns 15 this year…it just hit me, I saw all that time, my childhood, her childhood, my motherhood, her birth, her future right there on the bed.

What I love about her book, Meg and Mog, is how worn it is, very very well read and loved! And here’s a photo of where we are at the moment…

BUT, look who is still on her bed…

This is “Brownie”. I remember when I was about Mia’s age I threw my childhood doll away, her name was Suzie, she was kind of ugly with short spikey hair and she made a gutterall cry when you turned her upside down but I wish I still had her around, so I won’t let Mia throw Brownie away, I’m just relieved he’s still on the bed! Having said that, having a teenager is not unlke having a baby again, they change and grow so quickly, they can be moody and throw tantrums, they sometimes want to do things they’re not quite big enough to do yet and for parents it’s an exhausting but amazing, beautiful time. Eventually, we have to let go…

Has anyone else kept books from childhood I would love to photo’s, it would be so cool to get a whole bunch of photo’s of childhood books together!

Well so far I have learnt that I probably need to read the intsruction manual that came with my camera, use my tripod, turn off the flash, and update my skills on photoshop. I guess it really depends on how far you want to go with this stuff and also what your product is. The thing I find most difficult is achieveing a white background, however I see that there are many ways to do this in phtoshop so I think I will use that method rather than trying to achieve it with the camera. Here is a pretty good tutorial about how to get a white background. And here are two photo’s, the second one was photoshopped following the tutorial.

Yes that looks better, still not great though. My natural preference for photo’s is soft natural light but it’s not always possible. I’ll keep looking into this one. Any comments/suggestions would be great!

More money is coming in for my Women for Women sponsorship. A few more sales has my total up to $132.00. So thanks so much again to all the girls that have purchased a Mia Henry blanket and in doing so helped me towards the goal of sponsoring a woman. A few new blankets to show you..

These are available in my Made It store, except the chicken and egg blanket which has sold, but there are more variations of this one coming in the next week. Also in the next few weeks I will be offering gift wrapping with cards so if you know someone with a new baby I will wrap the gift in gorgeous wrapping and add a card with your printed message and post it off to them, done!

Other stuff…my baking skills have taken a turn for the worse, I have a recipe going into a zine being prouced by the Made It team, available at the Stitches and Craft show, it’s a Raspberry Lemon Meringue Pie and well I just don’t know what to say…

It’s not too bad, the lemon curd melted a bit, I’ll tell you what though it tastes amazing! That’s phyllo pastry with butter and sugar sandwiched between it, obviously meringue and raspberries. I did learn how to spell meringue though so that’s made it all worth while. I do have a habit of making things difficult for myself, surely some biscuits would have been easier. Off to research the “taking photo’s of products post” that I said I would write.

I feel like it’s my birthday all year long when I get my Dust Team swap package, it’s so special and lovely. I had a crap day yesterday, really frustrating, nothing seemed to be working but when I got home a wee package was waiting for me from Kathy of Secret Jewellz and how sweet …

Aren’t those humming birds just adorable? Kathy’s jewellery is really beautiful so have a look at her etsy shop and her blog. Thanks so much Kathy.

I am on the home stretch with the winter baby blankets, I was wondering if perhaps they might end up being for next winter at this rate. However have a gander at this one, it’s the Joel Dewberry ‘Deer’ fabric mentioned previously and turned out pretty swell, don’t cha think? Available in my Made It store.

I swear my photo’s are awful lately, I’m really trying but it may be this winter light. I’ll say it again, I want a photography studio. Photo’s of products are hard, I think I need to do some research and get some knowledge about this. Next post.

I’m so happy today, I was able to add to my savings towards my Women for Women sponsorship – look at my total, it’s $82.00, that’s what I’m talkin’ bout! Who says that?! I’m 38 years old! The money came from the sale of my baby blankets, so thank you so much to the girls who purchased them! I am eagerly pacing around the house, jumping at every motor-bikey sound I hear because I’m waiting for the posty to drop off a big bundle of new fabric so I can get to it and make some more blankets. Her’s another peek at what I’m talkin’ bout…

This gorgeous fabric is designed by Erin McMorris. Here’s a wee bio,

Erin McMorris studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati and then textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She has doodled, drawn, and designed in London, San Francisco, and New York, and currently rests her laptop in Portland, Oregon.

The collection is called Wildwood and here’s a good description of it (better than I could write myself),

Wildwood wanders through a light-dappled forest of swirling vines and dotted blossoms. Both natural and contemporary, this collection mixes citrus yellows, mint greens, bold pinks and cooling grays to create a landscape that is uniquely lush.

Mmmmm..sounds yummy.

I am about to embark on a new run of baby blankets for the upcoming winter months here in Australia, here is a sample of some  brand spankin’ new Joel Dewberry fabrics I’ll be using,

It’s just gorgeous, the fabric is from his Deer Valley range and these examples are from the Azure palette. I’m loving the clean cut out quality of the deer fabric next to the vintage quality of the flowers and all in my favorite colours, red, blue and brown. It is a Spring release but I think it will be just as lovely for winter. Here is a beautiful Deer Valley quilt from Spool Sewing, who by the way have some free pdf patterns on their blog, I’m keen on the grocery tote pattern as it looks easy and well…I need a grocery tote!

How adorable is this felted wool rabbit made by Nancy Bevin of Motley Mutton? Made with wool grown on her own farm no less. You can see more great stuff from Nancy on her website,  etsy and she also sells on ebay. I swear this rabbit looks like he’s just about to say something…

and this little guy cracks me up!

check out this needle felted Conan O’Brien from Felt Alive

I had never heard of needle felting, it’s quite interesting and after watching a couple of tutorials about it on youtube I really appreciate the work that has gone into these pieces.

Here are Henrys’ first attempts on Photoshop…what a sweetie.

Today is a funny day, everyone in the house has been strangely anxious lately, maybe working too much and not resting, taking time. We have a few BIG things happening in the near future, planning an extended overseas trip and a big move to a new home when we get back. It’s exciting but kind of exhausting if you now what I mean. So today I just want to look at these flowers Rick gave me recently.

Business Week has announced their Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs! One of my all time favourite companies, Better World Books has come in at No.1. I have been buying my books from them for a few years now and they are fantastic! And cheap! Another really cool business is CraftNetwork. Their mission is to create sustainable livelihoods for disadvantaged artisans. Here is a sample of what they sell, I’m into braclets at the moment but they have a wide range of gorgeous products, great for prezzies…

And finally this is one of the best ideas I’ve ever come across, check out Academic Earth, a website that publishes thousands of video lectures from the worlds top scholars. What a resource! I’m so excited about this, it’s so cool that so many different people will have access to these amazing minds.

BTW – don’t forget to enter my giveaway, I only have one entry..it’s sad..but you will have a very good chance of winning…the cushions are great, I promise!

I’m still trying to make healthy snacks for everyone. This is a good recipe from my Edmonds Book for Bran Biscuits. It calls for a cup of wholemeal but I put in a a cup of Milo cereal that I blitzed in the blender and used wholemeal flour. I know Milo cereal isn’t very healthy however these biscuits still have less junk in them than store bought ones and my kids are slowly having their taste buds restored to a more natural state. They taste like mildly chocolate flavored digestives.

I learnt this cool way of rolling dough from the cooking show, Rachel Allen- Bake and it’s a real keeper. She uses two pieces of glad wrap, one on the bench and one over the dough, eliminating the need for that floury mess that then turns into a gluey mess when you clean it up! I extended the idea for the cookies by using the baking paper I planned to bake the biscuits on for the bottom, so I could roll it, cut the biscuits out and then just slide the whole thing onto a baking tray. I did this twice to use up all the dough. Very easy. I love cut out cookies but have found in the past that in the process of moving them from the bench to the baking tray what may have been a gingerbread man on the bench is unrecognizable on the tray,  usually missing it’s head or a limb!