wednesday colour...

A little colour to brighten your week.

It seems it's been almost six months since I've done a colour post. Let's fix that right here and now.
Our lovely passionfruit vines have been gifting us with pretty flowers and lots of sweet fruit lately. Not a single passionfruit has made it to the kitchen yet, all have been enjoyed out in the yard. I must snaffle some without the husband noticing so I can make passionfruit curd. Yum!
I hope your week is full of good things.

a new look...

I've been feeling a little wiped out today. Sore and tired. So while procrastinating about all of the jobs that need doing this afternoon, I gave my blog a face lift instead. A totally rational and excusable (ahem) way to spend an afternoon. 

I used a little design I've been playing around with lately. I like it. It's fresh and airy.

What are your thoughts? Do you think it's fresh and airy too? Or is it a little cool and empty?

lately...

There's a lot going on up here on the hill. Life feels very busy and we may be chasing our tails for a little while yet. I've rescued my crafting mojo from the brink of extinction (two odd months in Qld) and I'm feeling quite well and balanced now that it's back.

It also helps that Huckle can keep himself entertained while I sew in the studio. He has a little fenced yard that is attached to the studio, where he can dig in the sandbox and explore. I leave the door open and he pops in to see me and bring me some sand. He's quite content to do this for an hour or so, which is fantastic.

With all this time to sew, I've finally finished the giant strawberry I started so long ago. It's a Purl Bee free pattern, found over here. I lost my pattern piece for the top, so I winged it with a bit of felt. It's cushy and cuddly, but no you can't eat it. Sorry.

I've also finished the top of the Parisian Garden teeny quilt. Now I must finish this and the Autumn Squirrel top and get them in the shop.

We've been slowly making our way through the birthday cheese, with sneaky cheese plates for lunch or after tea. So good. I am a crazy cheese lady. I love it.

We've been spending the weekends uptown in our new Ironwood and Eaglesmith Headquarters. More on this in another post, I promise.

And while the bump grows bigger, so too does the ripple blankie. I'll be sure to post a proper bump photo this week (for the likes of my mama and Melly).

Is it busy where you are? 
Have you been making and eating and living the good life? 
I sure hope so.
Have a lovely week!

what we've been up to...

It feels like the past few days have all rolled into one big blur. But as I looked through my phone pics, it appears that we've done quite a lot! I do like documenting the little parts of our days. It makes them feel not so blurry and gives them a little more importance. Does that make sense? 

This is what we've been up to ...

Friday I attended Jess's opening at Outre Gallery. So many gorgeous bears! I could have taken every one of them home. There were lots of red dots too. Hooray for red dots.

Saturday Huckle and I picked up his new (old) chairs from a lovely ebay seller. We got them for an absolute steal. Aren't they super cute. Needless to say, he loves them (as do I) and has been rearranging them in his little space constantly since we brought them home. All he needs now is Dada to build him a lovely little table.

We also started moving into our new Ironwood and Eaglesmith headquarters! So very exciting. We'll be sharing this warehouse space in Richmond with a friend and hope to be open for business soon. We plan on being open on weekends for furniture viewing and hopefully we'll branch out into some other exciting things as well. I'll keep you updated for an opening date.

On the drive home we stopped off at Tooradin for dinner in the park. We all went tramping through the sticky mud searching for crabs. Huckle was a little more adventurous than I and ended up with mud all over his sneakers. They're nice and clean now.

Sunday was spent lounging about. Huckle watched a spot of Totoro...

whilst Mama hooked away at the ripple blankie for number two. Two years ago I was doing the same for Huckle. You can see his ripple blankie way back here (How good are blogs for archiving!).

Samuel was back in the studio on Monday. There's two new pieces that are almost finished. They should be ready to hitch a ride uptown on Saturday. I fall in love with every new piece, one day our house will be full of our furniture. First up will be my lovely big dining table.

Huckle and I spent Monday playing in the sandbox, we took Samuel some morning tea and lunch, I squeezed in a spot of sewing and we did some chores. 

Today between cleaning and a drive into town, I managed to steal some more time in the studio. I finished the Autumn Squirrel quilt top and started playing around with a backing and binding. 

But before I got very far, I started on the next quilt top! I think I'll call this one the Parisian Garden quilt. Said with your best french accent, of course. Hee hee.

So tell me. What have you been up to these past few days?


I know that Tania has been making and baking. I would have loved to have been in her kitchen this past weekend!
Cathy opened her first solo exhibition. Congratulations Cathy!
And Dee gave birth to a most gorgeous little boy! So, so sweet.

my creative space...

Today has been a crazy busy day, but we still managed to squeeze in a few moments of craftiness. Straight after brekkie this morning we did a spot of potato stamping. I carved the potatoes yesterday, but we ran out of time to play with them. They aged a little overnight and the shapes weren't as crisp as intended. But lots of fun nonetheless. Huckle thoroughly enjoyed the messiness of it all and soon had paint up his arms, on his face and in his hair.

I couldn't help but do a bit of stamping too. My paint stayed on the potato and the page, I don't like getting dirty.

I snuck in a bit of sewing this afternoon too. I think I was in the studio for about half an hour and managed to get a good start on another teeny quilt. I am yet to finish the other one I started, but all in good time I say. You can't rush these things, can you.

I hope you're fitting in a spot of craftiness too. It keeps me sane. How about you?
We're off uptown tomorrow. I'm off to Jess's opening, maybe I'll see you there.


Joining in at our creative spaces.

belly...

27 weeks. Feeling a tad lopsided (or lopfronted, as I like to say). 

A lady in the bakery today told me I was going to have a monster. Thanks lady in the bakery. For your information, it won't be a monster. It will be a baby. I managed to birth Huckle naturally at 8 pound 15 ounces, I shan't be scared into this monster talk you speak of.

Samuel tells me I'm not allowed to run, or make any movement faster than a walk. After what happened when I was six months pregnant with Huckle (badly broken collar bone (still broken) & a shoulder blade fractured in 2 places), I guess he has reason to be worried.

So all is well and apart from a few minor niggles, everything is coming along swimmingly. Three more months to go until we meet our sweet bubba. Very exciting.

What exciting things are happening in your neck of the woods? I know one dear lady who is very excited about her exhibition opening this friday night! I'm trying desperately to figure out a way to be there.

a special visitor...

The morning of my birthday was misty and drizzling with rain. We peered through the window to see this beautiful creature upon our clothes line. We often see Peregrine Falcons flying in the gully down the road, but never one so close to the house. It sat there for a good fifteen minutes before flying off to join it's friend.

I felt very lucky to witness such an amazing creature so close. It sure beat the Brown Snake encounter we had a few days earlier, just five metres from our back door! Needless to say, I didn't get a photo of the Brown Snake.

What creatures visit your place? Are they furry, feathery or scaly? I hope there's not too much of the scaly variety.

Wishing you a happy LOVE day too. 
May we all count our blessings to have peeps to love and peeps who love us.

the week long celebration of the three-oh...

This past week has been a lovely celebration, for last Tuesday I turned thirty. We celebrated lots and most of it (not surprisingly) involved delicious food. Here's a snapshot of our week. 

Birthday eve we ate homemade pizza and sipped on some lovely Bordeaux. 

Birthday morning was all about the crepes. I like a variety of toppings, we had Nutella and banana, lemon and sugar and don't forget the simple jam crepe. Are you a crepe fan? What's your favourite topping? Maybe there's something missing from my line-up.

Birthday afternoon, I snuck off to the city to buy myself a lovely Bison gift. Of course I had to stop into Journal for some Pumpkin Bruschetta. And who can go by Degraves Lane without indulging in a Belgian Waffle or two? Yum.

For birthday dinner, my love took me to Union Dining. This place is heaven. Nikki creates such beautiful food and Adam is a right charmer front of house. We feasted on Ortiz anchovies, mussels, prawns, snapper, crab risotto and finished off with some most delicious ice creams. It was a truly indulgent night out, one I shall remember for years to come. My favourite part of the evening was sitting on the banquette beside my beloved, sharing dessert and being lovers.

Wednesday morning, I had breakfast with my boys and bestie at Milton. Marty makes the best breakfasts, but sadly it was one of his last shifts. 

On Wednesday afternoon we popped into the salvage yard to buy some timber for our next piece. Samuel is building me a big dining table for my present, so we did some research for that too.

Huckle loves the salvage yard. The owner lets him borrow a car to play with when he visits, so he's always very busy. The car drives on timber, in the dirt, gets buried under gum leaves and dipped in buckets of water. Hours of fun really.

On Saturday we went to Melbourne again, under the guise of catching up with Samuel's cousin. When we turned up at their house, I was also greeted by my two best friends preparing food in the kitchen. That was just the start of the surprise. Over the next hour, all of my close friends walked through the door! I was so surprised, how on earth did they manage to keep such a secret from the girl who hates surprises? We laughed and drank (me mineral water) the night away. Such a beautiful present. Thank you to all my wonderful friends.

Sunday morning Huckle and I trotted off to Camberwell market. I scored some delightful vintage cottons, Huckle scored some old cars and we both soaked up the atmoshpere of the Salvation Army Brass Band. Huckle was speechless throughout their performance (see the below photo).

The rest of Sunday was spent chilling out and grazing constantly on leftovers. We also made a start on my box of Calendar cheeses from my gorgeous friends Marty and Selma. Thanks guys! I dare say it will take us a while to get through these.

So, it was a very busy week indeed. I'm looking forward to a quiet one this week. 
I don't have any anecdotes on turning thirty. It wasn't scary and I don't feel any older. I do feel truly blessed to have such a gorgeous husband and Huckle and wonderful family and friends who are all on this precious journey of life with me. 
Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes last week, you really made my day.


Phew, that was a long post! If you've made it this far and aren't family, you've done exceptionally well. 
Have a happy week. x 

a quilt for Clover...

I recently finished this quilt, if you follow me on Instagram you may have seen a sneak peek or two. It was a custom order for a friend of ours, who is gifting it to her sweet niece Clover. I am so pleased she was happy with how it turned out. 

Trying to keep it a little muted, my inspiration was the gorgeous Liberty floral which I paired with the more modern designs. The backing is a vintage sheet from the stash and the binding is old stock from spotlight. I really wanted it to have that handmade, heirloom appeal, so I hand quilted along both sides of the seams and hand stitched the binding too. A lot of hours and love have gone into this quilt. I hope it will be treasured forever.

There's a few teeny quilts in the line up, so they're next on the list. I'm having a lot of fun picking the fabric combinations.

I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead of you.

Ironwood and Eaglesmith...

There's been a little change in the air and we've decided to re-brand our furniture. Our new name is Ironwood and Eaglesmith and there's some secret squirrel developments on the horizon, which we're a little excited about too. I'll let you know as they begin to unfold. 
But for now, here's our latest piece to be added to the website, the Jacksonville Side Table. We're also very happy to see our "sold" page growing in numbers, with the sale of our Butcher's Block Coffee Table last week.
Slowly, but surely we're progressing forward doing something that we both love - creating unique pieces of furniture. And best of all, we get together from our home studio. It's hard work, but it feels right and that's enough to keep us pushing on.
I'd love to hear from anyone else that runs their own business from home. How you make it work and how you got through the initial start-up period.
There's an awful lot to catch up on since I last posted. So I'm collating a flurry of posts to get myself all up to date. Got to keep the family happy. x