Op shop Love at first sight...

The photo does not show the colour very well, but when I spotted this vintage look, pale mint green, woollen winter coat (size 12) at the op shop on Friday, I had to have it! Luckily it fits - over a t-shirt, not room for too many layers underneath. I bought my favourite grey woollen coat at the same shop last year (or maybe the year before) and just as then, it was starting to rain so I wore the coat out out of the shop! Even in close up, just can't get the colour right, it is actually quite lovely...





Had a quick visit to the Thornbury Suitcase rummage market yesterday on the way to Northland to try & find clothes for the rest of the family. Where can you buy clothes for skinny blokes? The 12 y/o has legs up to his armpits but is skinny as, too tall for kids' jeans, but too skinny for men's wear! Won't look at coloured jeans, or anything with a label/print on it. I swear I could open a shop tomorrow catering for skinny blokes & boys, & sell out straight away!

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Knitting time

Ok it is officially cold, the heater is on, washing hanging on the clothes horse, soup cooking on the stove, and the wool stash closely examined for knitting projects.


First cab off the rank- these mitts have actually been in the making for a while. (I think the wool was purchased last year!) and mostly made at Easter, with my 8 year old niece following me around begging me to teach her how to knit! We did sit down for a lesson or two, and she is still going! Full of holes, but she took to it and had added a few more rows ( and a few more holes) when I visited last weekend.
Anyway, back to the mitts. Black acrylic yarn, & a ball of black with a green fleck from the Yarn Barn. For my 11 year old nephew. Next up are mitts for his 8 year old sister (she of the knitting lessons). Knitted in about 2 nights. Mitts are a great, quick project! And a great gift for kids!


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Jaffa smasher

I know the fete was last year, but I just found this pic of the Jaffa smasher from my phone. If you google "Jaffa smasher" there are a few references to school fetes, but only a couple of pictures. It seems to be a particularly 'Victorian school fete' thing to do! Lots of fun, lots of mess,lots of jaffas!
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NZ winter woollies#1

My in-laws have just returned from a holiday in NZ where they bought me these 2 lovely balls of wool. My sister in law thought it very amusing that instead of the more usual arrangement of making a present, her mum gave me some wool to make my own present!


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It's that time of the year again in Moreland...

Hard rubbish time that is. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love the "hunt" for treasures, I often have a mental "list" of things I am looking for. But at the same time, I abhor the absolute waste of perfectly good items crushed in the collection trucks, and sent to landfill. Especially after reading the story on the front of yesterday's Age about the young couple fleeing their home country to seek asylum in Australia, now living on $6 a day for food, no furniture or belongings, and expecting a baby. I wanted to drive a truck around Coburg and fill up their house!
Why do people throw away furniture, clothes, books, blankets, kitchen goods, baby capsules, toys....??? Take them to the op shop, phone Diabetes Australia and they will come and collect, how hard is it to make a phone call & put your box of stuff on the verandah? Not much more effort than dumping it on the nature strip.
Ok, enough of my rant. I did manage to find some "treasures"... I threw out our old jogger trampoline -bought for $10 from an oppy about 10 years ago, fell apart at year- and replaced it with one from a nature strip last week. But the weird thing is that someone else took our old one from our junk pile today!
Best find- a little old fashioned foot stool- I have my feet up on it right now.The fabric was faded and the foam had turned to powder! And I completely forgot to take a "before" photo, bugger! But here is the revamped version. Foam from my friend & neighbour Holly, who offered an old cot mattress when I told her about my project, and a piece of fabric from a bag of bits from Rathdowne Remnants (so probably about $1worth). Suitably "retro" fabric really-





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Overdue sewing...

Last day of the school holidays and I finally got around to some sewing. I had promised to make the Jedikid a new pencil case for high school...and sewed it up today. Ready for term 2. Better late than never!


It is made from vinyl, and has 2 zips for 2 compartments - the main full size ( pencil case is nearly A4 in size) for coloured pencils, calculator, glue stick etc. - all the "extra stuff"; and the smaller front pocket is for the basics of writing pens, grey lead pencil, eraser etc. I think I matched up the red vinyl stripe ok! Just need to hand sew the zipper end inside - I was worried about breaking the needle when I put it together on the machine!
The J kid is quite happy with his design " it worked out better than I thought Mum, it looks really good". The only weird thing is - it kind of "inflates". You can easily push the air out, but sit it down flat & you can see it puff up again! Hopefully this won't be noticeable once it has pencils in it!

Back to school tomorrow, then hopefully I might have a couple of hours to do some sewing for me! Much easier when there is no one else home.

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Pom pom fun!

More pom poms, but bigger this time! I have seen patterns online & in craft magazines for giant paper pom poms made from tissue paper, which look great hanging outside. But what if it rains? Could you make them waterproof?


Yes you can! These are about 12/15 cm across, made from plastic tablecloths! I am going to go to school one lunchtime next term and teach the kids how to make them, so they can decorate the friendship tree with big, bright, colourful and WEATHERPROOF pom poms!

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