Grandmother

This is one of our favourite books in our house. I have adored Jeannie Baker's books since I was in primary school and "Where the Forest Meets the Sea" came out. I still remember sitting on the library floor being mesmerised by the story and the pictures as the librarian read.

The way Jeannie Baker uses collage is amazing. It doesn't matter how many times we read her books we seem to find something new on every page that we hadn't seen before. The detail and texture are incredible.

I love "Grandmother" because it encompasses the beautiful simplicity of spending a day just being with a Grandparent. It is what happy childhood memories are made of, playing the piano, learning to knit, finding treasures in the garden, having tea parties, collecting washing and picking flowers.

The Tale of the Bobbin Thief

Everyone has one don't they? A member of the family that adores an item so much that he or she will go to extreme lengths to get their hands or in this case paws on it. Oscar aka "the boss" is my two year old moggy special from the RSPCA. He runs the show in our house but of late has found that bobbins make excellent cat toys.

Oscar had waited patiently watching me sit and sew, all a while pretending to be sleeping. Then I made the mistake of leaving one lonely little empty bobbin sitting all by itself on the chair. Oscar of course was overcome and had to leap onto the chair to rescue it from the impending doom of being forced into that noisy machine. Oscar now has a consuming bobbin addiction. The crazy cat adores them. He bats them around the floor with great gusto of a miniture lion stalking its prey (instead it really is a suburban moggy looking more than a little silly). After great excitement and courage he will catch the wayward bobbin and stalk smugly with it in his mouth until of course it breaks under his unbelievable strength. The girls and I have spent many a happy moment watching him play. I now have to make sure all bobbins are secured and put away as he has also has a liking to those full of thread.

So boys and girls lock up your bobbins for Oscar is on the loose.

Oscar garding the sewing machine and all bobbins.

Little Bits of Nice

Life has been crazy busy at the moment. Running after the girls, three sports days in the last week, packing a house, rescuing stolen toys from Lily the golden retriever, etc, etc. Not too much sewing but oh well you can't have every thing.

Although I haven't had much time to list any new items in my etsy shop, I had one of the most lovely convos sent to me from a buyer. She thanked me so nicely for a small purse that I had sent her. She had brought it for her twin sister as a birthday present. Making her happy with something I made was a really a little bit of nice that I particularly needed right at the moment.

I remember hating art classes at school. I had an art teacher who only believed that those who could draw and paint well were the only ones who were entitled to artistic merit. The rest of us pathetic students were left to believe that we had no creativity or any other ways to express any artistic side. It is nice now as a semi grown up to find out that creativity isn't just being able to draw or paint and that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.