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Yesterday I received this cute little house patchwork book (ISBN 4834764427) from superbuzzy so I thought I would show you some photos:

 

Sorry, that shot of the cover is a bit out of focus.  This book is really cute and has loads of little house related patchwork projects, along with patterns and tips. 

 

It has patterns and ideas for little house wall hangings, mini quilts, tea cosies, pot holders and more.

 

Little and cute and Japanese - kawaii!

 

I have to make some of these!

 

I love it all. There’s something about house imagery that really speaks to me. It is so simple but so universal.

 

I also bought the latest (I think?) Burda WOF magazine which has some lovely shirts and dresses, not that I ever wear dresses but still, they look very nice:

 

And I cut out all the pieces to make this shirt/tunic today.  I will sew it up tomorrow.  The pattern is Burda 8516.

 

Today is ANZAC Day here in Australia.  Today I remember and thank all the men and women who lost their lives in battle and especially think of my grandfather and father who were both well-respected leaders in the Army. Lest we forget.

I’m back.  Did you miss me?  Yes, this here blog was offline for about 3 days and do you want to know why?  My domain registration expired, that’s what!  Can you believe it?  In my defence, I didn’t receive any email notification that it was about to expire - no reminders.  And living half a world away from the company in charge of these things meant that it was a hassle to get it all sorted out. 

I really missed my lil blog and I’m so very glad to be back. So what happened in the last few days?

Someone turned 40.  No, not me - my brother in law.  Did you know that you can get a cake made entirely out of donuts?  It was exactly like one of those chocolate Long Johns - complete with jam and fake cream and it even had lollies on top!  It was so good.

 

Jack has been making loads of things with Lego and Lego Technics - he gets onto the Lego site, looks at the photos, prints them and goes away and makes his version.  Genius.

 

I got a little sewing done - six placemats for my brother David.  A little while ago I recovered his dining chairs with the maroon fabric and there was some left over so now he has matching placemats.  Love the Amy Butler print.

 

I bought some cute new shoes:

 

Today Emma and I saw this lovely bed display in Target - she wanted me to buy it for her.  How pretty is this?

 

I particularly loved these cushions so I took a photo on my mobile.  I might just have to make my own version of these for Emma’s bed.

 

And finally, I was very lucky to receive three wonderful things in my mailbox today.  I will take some photos of the inside pages tomorrow.

 

Good to see you again! 

This is Rachel and Jesse.  Jesse seems like a nice young lad and Rachel is a lovely young woman.  They have recently met and have been enjoying getting to know each other.  

 

Rachel really ought to brush her hair. 

Today a photographer came to photograph me and my mess. My creative clutter, and we all know I have a lot of that. The photo is to go with a story for the SMH’s weekend lifestyle section, Essential, on creative people and their mess. I was phoned a while ago to do an interview after the journalist googled “messy desks” and came to this post on my blog, where I showed a photo of my papercraft area. In the interview, I talked about how visual people need to have things in view, to keep them inspired and to keep them in mind. I said a bunch of other stuff, but I really don’t know how much they will use.

The story they are doing is in relation to a book called A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder - How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place - “Flying utterly in the face of conventional wisdom, the authors turn the world of organization on its head to examine how messy systems can be more effective than highly organized ones. Neatness for its own sake, they say, not only has hidden costs in terms of man-hours that could be spent doing other work but it turns out that the highly touted advantages may not even exist. More loosely defined, moderately disorganized people and businesses seem to be more efficient, more robust, and more creative than the obsessively neat.” (from Amazon)

I must admit I did tidy up a little before the photographer came - I don’t mind showing my clutter to the world but it has to look good! Since my studio was looking so good, I decided to take a few photos myself.

It really is cluttered, huh!

Lots going on - it’s a constant job to clean it up and keep it organised.

You have seen my fabric before, but I’m sure you don’t mind seeing some more.

A shot of red in among the blue of the walls. My red couch where I read crafty books.

My notice board and 12 month planner.

My sewing area.

My computer desk - soon there will be a brand new computer here!

My cutting area, full of stuff, and the papercraft desk behind it.

It may not be Heather’s but it’s mine and I love it.