More mail

I have been getting the best things in the mail lately! Just a few days ago, I got this beautiful dress in the mail from my mom. She knows how much I love anything from Anthropologie, so she ordered this for me online and then sent it to me. I have such a nice mom. I absolutely adore it and I've hardly taken it off since I got it. I was just thinking last week that I wanted another maxi dress and voila, the perfect addition to my summer wardrobe arrives by post. As husband would say, "you are one lucky chica." And he's right, I am.

Flea market finds: a little tin

Today I thought I'd play along with Sophie from Her Library Adventures. She's hosting a little giveaway of two of her sweet brooches, and all you have to do is blog about your flea market finds! I found this tin a little while ago in a shop in the Blue Mountains and I just had to have it. I brought it home, gave it a bit of a clean and put pencils and other odds and ends in it. It sits on my desk and every time I see it I smile.

Sydney love: Waverley Cemetery

my mom strolling through

I realize that this is going to sound totally bizarre, but I think that one of the most beautiful and interesting places in Sydney is this cemetery. It's called Waverley Cemetery and it's in Sydney's eastern suburbs, near the beaches. My pictures don't really show the scale of the place, but it is huge and very sprawling. It is just such a beautiful and unique place; I've never seen anything like it.

p.s. To find out why I'm writing this series, Sydney love, see here.

Today was a very French day

Today was a very French day. I...

• went for lunch at the French patisserie where my friend works
• she gave me the yummy macarons you see above
• they got a bit squished and melty from the heat, but they were delicious!
• drank way too much coffee, I may still be a bit jittery
• scored a new sun hat for $5
• joined the Alliance Française
• helped husband's cousin with her French
• am now relaxing until I go for dinner at husband's aunt's house
• have had a very nice day, and you?

My creative space

This week, I'm playing along with Kirsty at kootoyoo's "my creative space." Today you can find me working on finishing a little something I started last week, and showed a peak of in this post. It's binding time today, and seeing as how I've only done this once before, I'm a bit nervous. I'd like to try to miter the corners, but I can't for the life of me figure out how that works. Anyone have any good tutorials to share? In any case, wish me luck! And be sure to check out more creative spaces at kootoyoo.

Puppy fever

me smothering my dad's dog, Scout, when I still lived in Vancouver

You know how some people have baby fever? Well, I have puppy fever and it's bad. Almost everyday I try to convince husband that we should get a dog, and everyday the answer is the same: "No yard, no dice." I know he's right for that reason and a million other ones. But it just doesn't change the fact that I want a puppy and I want one now. And it doesn't help that my favourite dog in the whole wide world, Scout, still lives in Canada. Boo.

I miss her so much!

And here I am trying to steal my friend's new puppy, Jezebel.

Max the beagle, who we recently took care of for a few weeks. I miss him a lot.

And look at him spooning with the sick cat. I mean, c'mon!

In a last ditch effort to convince husband, I've been trying to tell him that we could get a small dog (even though neither of us is particularly fond of small dogs). I do have a soft spot for daschunds though, especially this one. Photo found here.

p.s. HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

p.p.s. Please excuse me while I go stick my head in the freezer.

Gifts for a babe

A few months ago, when my friend Caroline's babe was still in her belly, I set to making he/she some gifts. Luckily, I knew just where to turn. I had bought Anna Maria Horner's newest book Handmade Beginnings last year, much to the dismay of husband. I didn't want a baby or anything, I just happen to think that anything Anna Maria Horner touches is gold. So anyway, the first thing I made were these Cute-as-a-Button Booties. I made them with a tiny scrap of Prints Charming fabric and was so, so pleased with the result. The only advice I would give to someone about to make these, is not to rely on interfacing to fuse the inner soles to the booties. I added a few stitches to keep them in place, and in retrospect, I would slipstitch all the way around.

I wanted to make the baby a couple of gender neutral outfits that matched with the booties, so I appliqueed these tiny singlets to match the pants.

Here you can see the front and back of each side of the Quick Change Trousers, also from Handmade Beginnings. These were super easy to sew, and they're reversible! How cool is that?

And finally, now that baby is out of belly, muma Caroline let me share these shots with you. Below he is wearing one of the singlets I made. Isn't he so cute?

This weekend I...

... went for a swim,

filled up my favourite corona tray with yummy fruit from the market, I love all of the fruits that are in season right now,

put out my new tea set that my friends Dan and Céline sent me from Vietnam (thanks guys!),

did some stitching on a little project that I hope to have finished this week,

and ended the weekend with a trip to the beach with my love, though this time it wasn't quite warm enough to get me into the water. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, wherever you are and whatever season it is!

Sydney love: Sculpture by the Sea

If you had told me a few years ago that my little jaunt to Australia with my best friend would lead to a marriage and a move, I would’ve laughed in your face. I’ve been here for two and a half years. Life’s funny like that. Most of the time, I love living here, but there are also times when I miss home so much it hurts. At those times, I forget how lucky I am to have the opportunity to live in this amazing city. This got me thinking that I should start a little series here called Sydney love. My hope is that by focusing on one thing each week that I love about Sydney, I’ll be more present and more grateful. So without further ado, week 1...

The first thing I love about Sydney is Sculpture by the Sea. This actually happened in November, but I'm going to blog about it anyway. I love everything about Sculpture by the Sea. I love that we went on a sunny day but didn't get burnt because there was a tent set up giving away free sunblock and another one to give people water. Sydney is so organized and efficient when it comes to public events, it's great. And of course the sculptures were pretty nice too.

My mom and I. She was here visiting and she loved Sculpture by the Sea too.

A Sew Liberated pillow

I love how you can see my hideously ugly carpet in this one, yay for candid shots!

Yesterday I mentioned that I would share what came of my little tea drinking, gingerbread eating perusal of Meg McElwee's book, Sew Liberated. What immediately caught my eye while I was flipping through the pages was the Tie-back floor pillow cover. It did take me a little while to make as the applique process is labour intensive, but it was so worth it. The pattern is well written and super easy to follow (thank you illustrations). I did make one change; instead of free-forming stitching the trunks I just appliqued them. I couldn't figure out how to lower my feed dogs, and it all seemed a bit complicated so I went for an easier route. In any case, I love it and it has been proudly gracing my oddly coloured couch ever since.

My favourite gingerbread cookies

For Christmas this year (well I guess it's technically last year) I decided to make gingerbread cookies (aka biscuits) to gift to family. Edible gifts really are the best, aren't they? Although I typically associate gingerbread with Christmas and therefore winter, I was spending this Christmas in sunny Sydney. Nevertheless, the cookies won out and I made a big batch. They were a bit harder to make in the heat, but still doable. I figured it was too hot to ice them, so once they came out of the oven I simply wrapped them up in coloured cellophane and tied pretty ribbons around them. I also kept a few for myself, of course, and enjoyed them while drinking tea and reading Sew Liberated. Perhaps tomorrow I'll share a project I ended up making from that book... But for now, I'll share the recipe for these, my favourite, gingerbread bikkies.

Gingerbread

125 g unsalted butter

1/3 cup soft brown sugar

1/4 cup golden syrup

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup self-raising flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit). Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Cream butter, sugar and golden syrup with electric beaters. Add egg gradually. Sift the dry ingredients in and mix with a knife (or your hands) until just combined. Knead for 1-2 minutes. Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper to 5 mm (1/4 inch) thick. Refrigerate for 15 minutes (this will make it easier to cut the shapes out).

Cut the dough into shapes. I used my favourite Ikea cookie cutters. Love those forest critters! Bake for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. I like to slightly under bake mine so they remain soft. Let cool completely.

Wrap up nicely and give away, but don't forget to save some for yourself!

A sunset swim

handsome husband

me

On Sunday night, after a long day of staying inside to avoid the heat, husband and I headed to the beach for a sunset swim. It really is the best time of day to go to the beach, in my humble opinion. I'm sure all of you morning people would object, saying that mornings are obviously superior, but I don't get out of bed before 8 a.m. unless it's an emergency. So, with mornings out, nighttime is the next best thing. It's not as crowded, it's easy to find a park, and you get to watch the sun set as you swim. Glorious.

My too cute tunic

Remember that sneak peak I showed you in my last post? Well, this is what it turned into. It's the Too Cute Tunic from Pip Lincolne's new book, Sew La Tea Do. My husband brought it back for me as a gift the last time he went away for work (he's sweet like that), and I've been dying to dive in and make something. I had bookmarked this dress, and once I finally had enough fabric I got down to business.

Now, it didn't come together without a struggle. You see, I decided to make the size small/medium (there's also a medium/large). Once I had sewed together the top and tried it on I realized that my arms were much too big for the sleeves. So then I cut out a size medium/large top and sewed that together. It fit in the arms but was too big everywhere else. And then I had to attach it to the size small skirt, which was a wee bit frustrating. I'm not going to lie to you; without a belt, it kind of looks like a sack. But with a belt... I love it! It was my go to outfit this weekend. Speaking of weekends, it was a wonderful one. Friday night we went to see one of my favourite hometown musicians, and Saturday night we saw Mike Berbiglia. Good times all around. And then I forced my husband to take these photos of my new dress, he was thrilled.....

Sewing swag

So, about that shopping trip... This year, all of my birthday/Christmas presents had to do with sewing or rock climbing. My mother in law focused on sewing, and got me a gift certificate to a fabric store that I had heard of, but never actually been to: the Remnants Warehouse. Dear Remnants Warehouse, where have you been all my life? I went there this week and I was like a kid in a candy store. I picked up the fabric you see above, as well as lots of other notions. The shop is amazing! They have beautiful fabric, and it is so much cheaper than anywhere else in Sydney. They also have cute jelly rolls, sewing books, classes and all kinds of tools and notions. Oh, and the book, that was a birthday gift from my husband's sweet cousin. Itching to make something, I grabbed that red fabric and got sewing. Here's a sneak peek...