Pottering around...

Our side fence blew down in a big windstorm a few months back, so we finally had a the old fence removed and new one built yesterday. So in preparation, we spent Australia Day moving all the plants & pots & stuff away from the old fence (whilst listening to the Hottest 100 of course!).
When moving the pots and plants a few little pieces of succulents broke off, and we also found some new baby succulents growing.
Remember the succulent garden back around November 2014?



They kept on growing...


-and growing (can't find the most recent photo, but the tall thin cacti at the back on the left is quite tall now!
I found a couple of pots in the garden, plus some new little ones that had been in my craft cupboard for years. I got out my paints (any excuse to use the new copper metallic paint!), and voila!-




These were the brand new pots, and here is the next lot - before painting and after.






And here they are all potted up!





Except I was a bit too keen and potted ip the grey one on the left before finishing it off, so I carefully added a swirly copper line around the outside without dislodging a single pebble!

Hmmm, think I need a trip to Bunnings now to buy some more pots to paint!


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I made a dress!

First I found this great striped off cut at RR a while back, just a half metre wide & about a metre long, not enough for a tee shirt front and back... But then a rummage around in the next remnant compartment turned up a metre of lovely soft bamboo jersey in black... they were made for each other!
It seemed a shame to cut off a bit of the stripe fabric to make a tee shirt, when the length was just enough to make an above- the- knee dress/ tunic top. I was cutting out (yet another) skirt at top scoop tee, and thought - what if I just lengthen it a bit, to fit the whole piece of stripe fabric, with black for the back and neck binding? So here it is-






Only after I finished sewing it up I remembered I had been going to put some pockets in the side seams! Too late now, oh well. Maybe I will make another one one day!

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This belt was made for walking...

I have been trying to get up in the morning & go for a walk, trying to clock up at least 5000 steps per day. Easier to do it while it is school holidays, plus we are dog sitting at the moment so ofter going for two walks each day!
Although I managed to add a pocket into my exercise pants so I can carry my phone, I need an extra pocket at the moment to have quick access to the poo bags!
While looking for ideas to print on some t- shirts (next blog post for that one!) I came across a new craft blog " the sewing rabbit" ( how could I resist that title!) and found a free pattern for a "running belt" to carry stuff when exercising. I had a couple of scraps of lycra, so had a play around with some ideas.






This one has a phone pocket at the front, and zip pocket at the back. Probably should have made it a little bit smaller/ tighter as the lycra stretches so much with the weight of the phone. Can be worn over or under t shirt - not sure if I like it on top or not. But it fits ok, fairly snug, not bulky like a bum bag, just big enough for phone, keys, a couple of tissues, and of course the doggy poo bags! Not bad for a $2 scrap of lycra, and made 3 in about an hour (took a while working how best way to sew & pocket placement; not happy with the zip in the prototype but this one worked out much neater!). Will play around with pattern a bit more I think, but will need another lycra off cut first.


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Holiday reading...

I read about this wonderful new home grown craft book in The Age recently, so I asked for a copy for Christmas!




It is rather huge, full of gorgeous photos - crafts are divided by type ( eg. printing, weaving, sewing) with a gallery of photos of contemporary artists' work, and section on tools required, hints and tips, and a project with step by step instructions. Where to start?!
I have been reading through the sections on weaving and tapestry, especially since I bought myself a copy of Mollie Makes - because it came with a mini weaving loom. ( found at the newsagent in Woodend a few weeks ago, but seen in Woollies supermarket last week!).






I went to see "The Dressmaker" last night, wonderful movie, so theatrical, and the dresses!!! My friend F & I stayed to read the credits to see where it was filmed, and I saw that the train line/ station was filmed at Muckleford, on the Castlemaine/ Maldon historic rail line .
We went on a train trip there a few years ago. And the big shiny black locomotive was the same type (R class I think) as the one that used to be parked out the front of the train station in Bendigo when I was a kid, and we used to climb all over it. Then sometime in the 80's it was discovered that the loco was actually in pretty good nick, so the train was carefully removed from it's spot in the park - extra track was laid down, to roll the train out on the the road until it was almost at the front door of the appropriately named " Terminus" hotel! - before loading it onto a massive truck to be towed away and restored. I must dig through my old boxes of photos to see if I can find some photos of it.

I am planning on going to see "The Suffragette" next week, so before I do I am going to re- read these 2 books, bought over 25 years ago, rediscovered at the top of the book shelf yesterday (I though they were lost!). I loved them when I first read them, opened my eyes to a part of history I had never known about. Do you know why the colours green, white and violet are used for international womens' day events? The suffragettes picked the colours to represent their cause - Green for GIVE, white for WOMEN, violet for VOTE.


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