My creative space: Morris

Meet Morris. He's a sensitive panda, or so the pattern for him says. I made this little guy a while ago for no other reason than I felt like crocheting. I barely know how to crochet, but somehow he came together with two arms and two legs. Huzzah! If you want your very own Morris, then get yourself a copy of Pip's brilliant book Meet me at Mike's, and turn to page 20.

I'm back!

So strange

I just want to point out that this submarine is in a town that's about 500 miles inland. Riddle me that.

Melbourne! We had lunch at this cute cafe in St Kilda, and then wandered down to the beach where we passed this cute community garden.

me on a Melbourne beach

koalas at a "zoo" somewhere, can you tell that I lOVED them?

We're home! Husband and I stumbled back into our freezing cold flat (which will happen if you accidentally leave on the a/c on all friggin week, bah!) late last night. We had a wonderful time away, which was slightly more spontaneous than initially planned. We had thought that we would drive to Victoria and spend a whole week camping and climbing at Mt Arapiles, but the weather had different plans in store. Being the flexible (read, disorganized) people that we are, we opted for a road trip and descended upon various friends and family along the way. First we celebrated a family birthday in Canberra, then it was off to Melbourne for a couple of days of shopping and hanging with family and friends. Finally, we did make it to Mt Arapiles but I'll post about that later.

These photos are all from the driving/Melbourne portion of our trip. Believe me when I tell you that driving through Australia is an interesting experience. Just check out all the giant things we saw: giant Ned Kelly, giant Koala, dog on tuckerbox (weird, so weird). We also saw a sign for "infamous pies" in country NSW; I have a feeling they don't know what "infamous" means. We also had a funny encounter at a pub in Holbrook when I asked the bartender about an item in the vegetarian section of their menu. "These 'veggie patties,' is it just a veggie burger?" I asked. "No," answered the bartender, "they're just patties. But you can have them with chicken salad." Um, ok... Man oh man, I love road tripping.

The top end

Back in December when my mom was here visiting us, my mother in law let us know that she would be giving us some of her air miles so that we could go and explore another part of Australia. Excited and very grateful, we started thinking about and researching potential destinations. For a while there we were stuck between the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru, the two must-sees of Australia. And then one day my mom was flipping through a coffee table book we have called Australia: 42 great landscape experiences. She found a photo of Kakadu National Park and said, "I want to go there." And that was that. We booked our tickets, our hotels, our rental car and off we went. Neither my husband nor I had ever been to the Northern Territory, or "the top end" as it's more commonly known, so it was a pretty big adventure for all of us. Here are some of my favourite photos from our trip...

Warning - image heavy post!

Botanic Gardens. First impressions of Darwin: it's hot. So very hot. Did I mention that it's hot? No seriously, the heat was a serious impediment to our touristing activities.

my mom and I

On our second day up north we drove to Litchfield Park. It was absolutely beautiful up there, but even hotter than Darwin because it's inland. This made it pretty hard to go for the walks and hikes that I had thought we could do. Instead, we went for really slow meanders with lots of stops.

The "town."

the magnetic termite mounds

Florence Falls. Although Litchfield has several swimming holes and waterfalls, every single one of them except for Florence Falls was closed due to crocodiles. You see, we went in wet season and this had all sorts of repercussions we didn't anticipate. Wet season is the hottest time of the year, and the wettest (go figure). This abundance of rain means that the saltwater crocodiles have a field day and the areas that they usually don't/can't enter they now can. As my friend Kellie, who lived in Kakadu National Park for a year, explained: "It's the salties [saltwater crocodiles] that you have to worry about. The freshwater crocs are pretty much vegetarian." Me: "What do you mean pretty much?" As you will see in the sign below, even freshwater crocodiles can become aggressive, but most people ignore this. Anyway, although visiting in wet season did limit our swimming options it did make for some spectacular vistas.

That's me in the front waving to my mom.

Kakadu National Park

At the end of this really well laid out loop that takes you by some of the area's art, you can climb up to the top of Ubirr rock for a bird's eye view of the park. This was definitely the highlight of my trip.

Dingo!

* I'm away camping right now, but I hope you enjoyed this pre-scheduled post. xx

Guest post: Life is Sweet

* Hey everyone! Today I am so excited to have Anna from Life is Sweet guest posting. She was one of the first people to find my little blog, and I instantly fell in love with hers. She posts about all kinds of wonderful things from travel and music, to everyday life with her hubs. Right now she's doing 30 days of lists, which is super cute and a great way to learn more about her. Be sure to check out her blog!

Hi everyone!

I'm Anna from Life is Sweet*! Gaby was nice enough to let me come over and chat with you while she is away on an awesome rock climbing and camping adventure! Here's to hoping the weather is perfect for her and her husband.

I fell in love with Gaby's blog when I realized that we have so much in common: love for the outdoors, traveling, crafting, the list could go on. But today, I thought I'd share with you a little travel snippet from my honeymoon. My husband Brett and I spent 11 glorious days in sunny California for our honeymoon. We flew into San Francisco, rented a car, and went on a little California road trip. One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was the first two nights, when we stayed on a houseboat in Sausalito. It.was.magical.

To get into the houseboat, you literally had to step from the dock onto the boat. And if you looked down as you were crossing, you could see the water beneath you. The only thing keeping it from sailing away into the sunset are a couple ropes tied to the dock. The tiny little houseboat rocked back and forth with every little step we took. It was literally a boat turned into a tiny studio on the water. The bed was tucked away in the back of the boat in a tiny cubbyhole and the shower was barely taller than myself (5'2"!). Laying in bed, you could look out and see the San Francisco Bay. And you only had to take about 15 steps to walk out onto the "floating garden" to see the San Francisco skyline. It was the coziest, most romantic, secluded little place we have ever stayed. We made coffee in the tiny kitchen in the mornings, took afternoon naps, and indulged in wine, cheese, and crackers on the floating garden while watching the sea lions swim by. It was literally the perfect way to start our life together as husband and wife.

Thanks again Anna! p.s. Aren't her photos amazing? I love that second one, makes me want to live on a houseboat.

Sewing smocks

excuse the tape, my physio put it there to fix my wrists

I love to sew (in case you hadn't noticed) but I rarely make clothes for myself. There's just so much more room for error when something has to fit you, and it's very disappointing to realize that something isn't quite right after you've spent hours making it, not to mention the cost of fabric. So I mostly stick to sewing bags and house stuff, but I'm hoping to change that. One of the first pieces of clothing that I attempted was this Smashing Smock from Anna Maria Horner's book Seams to Me. I first made the grey version you see above with fabric from Ikea. It was slightly too big but I still wear it. Then I made the blue version in the top 2 photos with some Anna Maria Horner fabric (Little Folks line) and I over corrected and made it slightly too small. But I still wear it. See what I mean? It's so hard to get it just so. Maybe a third version is in order...

* I'm away camping right now, but I hope you enjoyed this pre-scheduled post. xx

Guest post: Her Library Adventures

* Today I am thrilled to have my first ever guest blogger! Sophie's blog, Her Library Adventures, is a fellow Australian blog about design, crafting, thrifting and more. Be sure to head on over and say hi. And while you're there, check out her new studio. I am so jealous!

Hi there This Little Port readers, it’s Sophie from Her Library Adventures, dropping by today to share a little guest post with you. I’m so excited to be able to share a ‘how to’ about two of my favourite pastimes, styling and thrifting. I just love all things second hand and but sometimes I would get home after a thrifting adventure and wonder where I’m going to store my latest finds.

My solution is to create ever changing vignettes in my little cottage, curated with love, to display my finds. So today I thought I’d share with you, how you can create your own little vignette from almost any bits and pieces you have around your home.

First begin with a space, I like to use a white chair I found second hand. It’s easy to move around my cottage and provides a neutral space to work with. A mantel place, sideboard or bookshelf are lovely spots too.

Second, search your home for inspiring bits and pieces, sometimes I incorporate new or found objects, but like today’s vignette I love to create displays from my thrifted finds. I often work with a colour palette or theme; in the case I’ve done both. I’ve chosen a vintage sewing theme and worked in colourful tones, including yellow, pink and green. Choosing a theme makes it easier to bring the vignette together and also creates a lovely display for things you love. My tips here are to choose a variety of objects based on colour and texture and to be a little adventurous. It’s amazing what the unusual items that can work together.

I like to lay out the pieces I’ve chosen to see how they will work together. My sweet cat Olive always loves to check out what I’m up to.

Next comes my favourite part, styling. Here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way. Try to work in odd numbers and differing heights. It often helps to have a tall item and a few smaller ones clustered together. It’s a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle, just play round until you are happy. One of my favourite highlights, is to add a vintage image in the background. The one I’ve chosen for this vignette is from a 1970’s tapestry pattern book. Having an image or text can bring your vignette together and also be a bit of fun. I also love to add a few small items, like buttons, keys or stones, they may not be seen from a distance but they are sure to be noticed by curious passers-by.

So there you have it, a thrifted vignette. Changed it weekly, daily or whenever you find something wonderful at your local thrift store. For more inspiration check out some wonderful design blogs like Decor8 and Design*Sponge.

I do hope you are having a lovely creative week! Thanks so much to Gaby for having me over at her lovely blog.

xxx

My reading list

I'm a bit of a bookworm, always have been. So it happens to me quite often that I get over zealous and end up with a huge pile of books to read next to my bed. Then I spend the next few months reading at least two books at a time. Well, I've done it again. Wanna see what's on my nightstand right now?

I'm hoping to get through at least a couple of these on my camping trip. I'm starting with the book that I'm most excited about: The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant. My mom gave it to husband for Christmas, and he said it was one of the best books he's read in a very long time. And speaking of good books, I recently finished Barbara Kingsolver's latest book The Lacuna. I loved it. She is such a wonderful writer and I find all of her books tell the kind of stories that stay with you long after you've finished reading. Tell me, what have you been reading lately?

* I'm away camping right now, but I hope you enjoyed this pre-scheduled post. xx

Sydney love: architecture

One of my favourite things about Sydney is the architecture. And I don't mean the opera house, the QVB etc. I mean the beautiful homes that make up Sydney's suburbs (a.k.a. neighbourhoods). When I first moved here, I fell in love with these homes because they were so different from back home. The sandstone and terrace homes blew my mind. And they still do. In fact, one of my favourite things to do is take my camera and go for a slow meander through Sydney's little neighbourhoods. I never fail to find something that inspires me; it is such a pretty city. Here are some of my favourite shots from various suburbs.