Hello there!

I know I have been a bit MIA of late but we are now all unpacked and settled into our new house.  The move itself went pretty well, although at the last minute we needed to order another truck as we had filled the first one to the brim!  Needless to say we have had quite a clean out as we unpacked - no junk has entered this house!  Let's not talk about the garage then...

We now live on 10 acres and I have learnt a few new things since living here - reliable internet access is a beautiful thing, using a ride on mower, living on tank water and pool maintenance!

I have also had quite a few towel orders come through since Christmas and I thought I'd share these ones with you.  They are for 2 sisters who both love pink and green so I made these for them:

 

I wanted to make them slightly different though so one has been stitched with pink thread and the other with green.  Didn't they turn out nicely?

Lou x

Another Handmade Market success!

Yesterday's market was a resouding success!  The lead up to the Christmas Handmade Market, launch of handmade living., preparing my own stall for the market, and keeping everything up to date with Shop Handmade has left me little time for...well...anything really!

Canberra has experienced it's greatest rainfall in many years and for the first time in 12 years our dams are at 100%.  The week leading up to the market has seen localised flooding and power outages all over the Nations Capital and it's surrounds but it all stopped in time for the market.  So after all of this rain what should I wear?  Gumboots of course!

My gorgeous gumboots!

"Farmer" Tania McCartney stepping out in style!

I was in the handmade living. marquee with the greatest bunch of designers who feature in the book who had travelled from near and far to be a part of this exciting event.  Tanya from Seven Blueberries, Kirsten from Forget-Me-Not Paperware, Kathy from Studio Amara, Katie from MissChief Maker, Wynona from ivy designs, Catalina Voroneneau,  Rachel from Ricochet Art, Sarah from winterdesigns, Caleena from littlepeopleclothing, Hilary from Hilary Wardaugh Photography and the amazing Tania McCartney - author and creator of handmade living.  At several times throughout the day we had a line up of eager customers trying to get into the marquee to meet all of us and we all soon got used to signing copies!

And here is my feature!  So exciting!

No time to relax for me just yet!  I have 3 days left of work, 2 Christmas parties, 40 orders to finish, book signing and selling on Saturday, another market on Sunday and then the mammoth task of moving house on Tuesday.

Lou x

Young...Here we Come!

I know...it's been a while - sorry.

They say buying a house is one of the most stressful things you can do.  I think in our case it has been the most stressful thing we have EVER done.  I should add here that we have bought and sold houses before so we knew what we were in for, but this particular house takes the proverbial cake!

Like I said in my last post the vendors of the house we were buying needed to sort out some things and we were stuck in the middle.  My dream house is now just that - a dream.

Our decision was made to move anyway - especially as I have already enrolled the children into their new schools, so the next hurdle was to find a place to rent until we can sort out what to do:
a) wait for the dream house to come back on the market
b) find another suitable house
c) build

Today I was told that we have been approved to rent a 4 bedroom place - with a pool and spa! on 10 acres just 5 minutes out of town.  I am feeling the tension being released from my shoulders already!

So in less than an hour I have booked the removalist, given notice to the current estate agent here, organised garden clean up, booked in carpet cleaners and end of lease cleaners. 

Now all I need to do is get through the next 4 weeks!

Lou x

Moving to the country...gonna eat me a lot of...cherries!

Well hello blogworld!  Long time no post!

Things are, of course, very busy here - preparing for the Handmade Market on December 4th, making stock for Shop Handmade, psyching myself up for the dreaded end of year school reports, and the biggest of all moving!  I can finally reveal that we are moving to Young, NSW (the cherry capital of Australia) which is a really pretty town about 2 hours away from Canberra. 

We found THE house in July, negotiated the price and agreed on all the terms and conditions.  Since then it has been a waiting game to exchange contracts.  We enrolled the children in their new schools, I have taken long service leave from my teaching job, organised (and paid for!) solicitors and inspections on the house and other general moving business.

And then last Monday it all came to a crunching halt.  After more than 4 months the people we are buying the house from have withdrawn from the sale.  I won't go into too much detail as it is not a nice story but we will hopefully have better news on Friday.  However, we have made up our mind to move there.

Fingers crossed for more positive news on Friday!

Lou x

Eight Years Ago Today I Was Busy Doing This...

Apparently the traditional gift for eight years of wedlock is Bronze or Pottery.  Hmmmm I think I'll pass.  The modern gift is Linens or Lace - still not fussed. 

I'll take a nice weekend away in Sydney for the NRL Grand Final thanks!

Lou x
(and an extra one for Brendan who is away working today X)

Wishlist Wednesday

More from the ever increasing list...

Kitchen canisters - Set of 3 $19.95 K-Mart 

(I know - who would believe that K-Mart was kinda cool!)

Types of tea...teapot! Madeit seller heyemmaline $35.00 (+p&h)

And to round off this tea-inspired list...

Vintage Revivals Teacup Clock (this is on the to-do list!)

Lou x

How To Make Your Six Year Old Daughter Love You...Even More! (Part One)

Miss M loves to play with her make-up.  She loves to do make-overs on her unsuspecting Nan and her little brother.  She loves looking at herself in the mirror.  She loves brushing her hair whilst watching herself in the mirror.  So what does this six-year old need?  A dressing table of course!  She was so excited when I told her what we were going to do and she said many times throughout this process "Oh, I love you Mum"  awwwww :)

So the challenge began looking for one for her.  After fruitlessly searching the net I started scouring the second hand shops to no avail.  I also went to Revolve at Pialligo - no glory there either.  So on our way home we stopped at the other Revolve near our house at Hume and found this...

It cost all of $20 and it seemed perfect.  But Miss M is quite a tall girl and she couldn't fit comfortably under the low middle section and there were too many drawers (read: too many spaces for junk to accumulate).  A lot of the paint was flaking off at the bottom already so I took to it with this...

Pretty good stuff this.  But soon I realised I was trying to strip about 6 layers of paint off plywood - argh!  I needed to move the mid section up anyway so I ripped off the top 3 sections of ply and filed them in the rubbish.



Then I removed the mid section to make it level with the other two sides...

I am planning on putting a sheet of mdf along the top.  But this was as far as I got today.  Project is now on hold for at least another 4 days - when I start 2 glorious weeks of holidays!

Lou x