Melly & me

Cabin Fever...

That title encompasses exactly how I feel!!!  Those of you in Melbourne or Adelaide can probably sympathise with me as we have all been experiencing this horribly hot heat wave.  The temperature has been around 43 degrees celsius (for those of you in the US - that is 110 degrees!!) for 4 days straight now. My whole flossy family (except for DH who gets to escape to a cool office) has been stuck in our lounge room trying to stay cool with our one overworked air-conditioner. The kids are having fun in the mornings and are pretending it is a gymnastics centre with all of our beds on the floor but by about 1:00 in the afternoon when the air-conditioning doesn't seem to cope anymore against the heat we all become couch potatoes.  I want to sew and create but my studio is the hottest room of the house and it is impossible to even walk in there for longer than 2 seconds let alone work. 

So I officially have cabin fever!  I am bored silly and just wish I could go work in my studio, go for a long walk or a picnic or just have anything interesting to do.

I am glad that before the heat wave started I was able to create a new critter for my book so that I don't feel quite as guilty reading the week away.  I just love this little fella and it set off a desire to make more but that will just have to wait for a cooler day.  Here is another tease peek..

 

The weather is supposed to be a little cooler tomorrow (although still a hot day) so maybe there will be some chance to do something productive then.

On Sunday I am really looking forward to heading to the Loch Quilt Hanging in the gorgeous village of Loch.  Is anyone else going??  Rosie and I will be there at one of the stalls (not a toilet!) in the hall so please come and say g'day if you are about.  It is always so lovely down there and I cant wait to see the streets full of beautiful quilts again. I think this will be the perfect remedy for that cabin fever!

Hope to see some of you there!

Melly.

Aussie Day!

G'day and happy Australia day everybody!!  For those of you on other ends of the globe, today (the 26th January) is the day us Aussies celebrate Australia day, our national holiday.  It is tradition to have a big BBQ on Australia day but since we already had one last night we are just enjoying a nice day off of perfect summer weather.  The rest of the week is set to be scorching so we are enjoying this gorgeous day.

 

I decided to do a little bit of sewing this morning and since it was a holiday I decided to actually sew something for those around me.  It is funny how it works when you do something for a living.  You know what they say about the state of a painter's own walls or a mechanic's own car? etc etc.  It seems that when you do something as a vocation you tend to neglect that task at home.  This sometimes gives me a big of guilt when I neglect to take up my hubby's pants, never make that toy for Little floss or that dress for Baby Floss!!  So today was a day to remedy that, even if just a little.

In celebration of Australia day I decided to make this gorgeous "green and gold" dress for Baby Floss which I am in love with!  

And then I had to avoid my pride being dented by making Little Floss a Library bag for school.  You see, last year when I received the book order list for his first year at school, I saw that they had an option to buy a Library bag or they had requirements for making one yourself.  At the time, despite my guilt, I decided to just order one as I know how bad I am at time management and thought that I didn't need another thing to add to my sewing list.  

Late last year I picked up all of the books and saw the library bag!!!  Now I certainly do not intend to say that there is anything wrong with using this bag as I am sure that it is completely practical and perfect for it's intended use, but it was an impossibility for me as a sewer and lover of colour to send Little Floss to school with it.

The bag did have to meet certain requirements in size, use, etc so I could not go wild as I would have liked but certainly a bit of fun and colour could not hurt??!!  So here is a little before and after. 

Phew, I feel so much better now!!!  

So off I go to enjoy the rest of this perfect day!  I think it is time to get back outdoors.

Hoo Roo (Aussie slang for goodbye!)

Introducing.......

What a wonderful response with so many amazing names to decide between!  What a job!!  The hardest part was picking between the top 3 choices but finally the cute little monster has found the perfect name.....  She is officially "Peppermint" Thanks so much Bree for your great idea and don't forget to email us with your favorite colour combination so that your own Peppermint can be born. Congrats!!

While Rosie was wowing you with her gorgeous new "Peppermint" I have been spending the last few days working on writing the next few patterns for the book.  After my little slump I have had plenty of great new ideas and I am hoping the next week will be full of new creativity.

Another reason why I hope the next week will be full of creativity is that maybe it will help me forget what next week is!  Yes, next week is officially the last week of Little Floss being my at home, pre-schooler!!  He starts his first week of school in about a week and I just know I am going to be a complete mess!  The first of my flossies to head into the big wide world and have so many more outside influences and "separate from mum" experiences!!  I will miss him so much - Yikes, it nearly makes me cry just thinking about it!

I am sure that Baby Floss will miss him terribly too, they have been inseparable over the holidays.

So, now that I have teased you with some more sneak peeks I think I best be off to buy some tissues - I think I may be needing them soon!

Melly

Cute Little Monster needs a name!

Firstly we would like to congratulate the following three lucky pattern winners.  Jan, Corinna and Robyn (Jan 17 02:07pm) please contact us with your snail mail addresses and we will send out your Rudy pattern.

This poor, cute little monster needs a name...

 

She showed up on our doorstep and we don't know too much about her.  We know that she is very cute, very young...

 

...and she absolutely loves pink lollipops!

 

Can you please help us out?  Please help us name our cute little monster by leaving a comment between now and Friday.  We will pick our favorite name and the winner will be sent their own little monster, handmade by us especially for you in your favorite colour.  Good luck!!  Rosie.

A valley, kids stuff and a Giveaway!

Ok, so on my last blog I gloated about how productive I was being and as always, I talked too soon!! Why is it that after a huge burst of energy or huge peak there is always a big valley? This last week has been a huge valley and there has been no inspiration forthcoming!!  But it was great to be able to use the time helping our parents' business while they are away and taking the time to do some sewing with the kids today.

A few weeks ago I bought some "Kooky Kritters" kits from Meredith at Threadneedle Craft Daylesford to do with the kiddies on the holidays.  I had been putting it off to work on the book but today it seemed like the perfect day.

We opened up the kits and started working but Little Floss lost interest fairly quickly and said "you can do the other half mum!" of course he had only stitched the eyes and mouth!! Baby Floss was probably a bit young for the project which is for 5 years and over but her determination was huge and she just would not give up. I tried to help her along many times and would sneak in some stitches before she adamantly told me that she wanted to do it herself!! So we got there eventually, and here are their new little friends!

We also had a big laugh when we saw this little fella outside while stitching.  Although it is obvious on this photo that the Kookaburra is sitting on the tree the kiddies were sure it was sitting on the electricity wire (it did look like it from our distance) and were laughing and singing their favorite song. For those of you from overseas we have a song here that young kids learn and the first bit goes...

"Kookaburra sits on the electric wire,

Jumping up and down with his pants on fire"

Which of course is a point of great amusement to a 5 and 3 year old!!

The good side to all of this unproductive time is that I am not teasing you today with the usual sneak peeks which is hopefully a nice change =]

On my Christmas post a few weeks ago I showed you all a picture of my Reindeer Flossy "Rudy".  Well this pattern has now been released so for any of you people who like the idea of a Christmas pattern in January (maybe you want to be VERY organised and get started early???!!!) I am now having our usual pattern release giveaway!!

Leave a comment on this post if you want to be in the running to win the pattern for "Rudy" and I will draw three winners' names on Monday.

Good luck and enjoy the rest of you week!

Melly

Week of work - yay!

Man, I feel great!  Don't you just love it when you get so many things done and feel so productive and can give yourself a bit of a pat on the back?  This has been one of those weeks. Nothing like a break to make you feel fresh and full of energy.

I managed to complete a number of time consuming, boring business tasks that have been making me feel guilty for the last few weeks, I wrote the patterns for the first two book projects and caught up with my taxes.  Phew!  So today I woke up with a clean slate and was ready to create.  At first the inspiration just would not come so I thought I may have a day off but as I sat down to take a load off the lightning bolt came, oooh I just love it!!!  

I rushed to the shop to grab a couple of extra fabrics, straight to the studio, and what resulted was my third book project.  I hope I have some more of these days!!

Another thing I wanted to share with you were these gorgeous fabrics that I received from Suzanne at Phatsheep Textiles. Suzanne designs and prints her own fabrics which are just adorable!  She makes them up into home-wares, accessories and kiddies gear and everything she does is just so lovely. Recently Suzanne started to sell her fabrics through etsy and I received a little bundle from her.

Aren't they so cute?  The quality is simply lovely and I hope to find a project for these cuties really soon!  Who knows, maybe some will appear in the book!

Off I go now to enjoy a weekend of beautiful weather with a clear mind!  I hope some more of those lightning bolts come!! 

Enjoy your weekend,

Melly.

Welcome 2009!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!  I cannot believe that we are already in 2009 and that a new year is well and truly in swing.

We had a fabulous Christmas and New Year celebration but today hubby has headed back to work which also heralds the end of my break.  The end of my break is also something to be happy about, one of the perks of loving your job so much!  

It was a glorious 3 weeks and I enjoyed every moment.  I read books, went to the movies 4 times in one week (that is more that I have been there in 2 years!!), had a number of lovely lunches and dinners eating way too much, spent time in the garden, played with the flossies (played way too much with Little Floss' new DS!!!), and created wonderful new memories with family and friends.  

Wow, it goes so quick and now I am trying to start facing the devastating fact that Little Floss will have his first day ever at school in four weeks.   Between school drop offs for Little Floss and Kinder drop offs for Baby Floss I think I may be spending a lot of time in the car in 2009 but there will also be a few little mummy breaks to enjoy which will be a nice change of pace.

During my break I did very little work but did manage, when the mood struck, to design and sew my first 2 completed projects for the book!

I can only provide you with peeks for now which is so hard for me when I want to show you the lot!  I am a little concerned that this blog is going to be too full of peaks for the next few months but I hope the end result will be worth all of the teasing (for you) and restraint (for me!!)

I hope to spend the next couple of days writing up the patterns and getting them off for testing to free my mind for the next two projects which are already designed but just need the right fabric combos to get underway.

I am having so much fun already with the book and am so happy to have a new focus to start the new year with.  I have been pondering what 2009 will hold and I have a feeling in my belly that there is going to be some big changes without any idea what they may be - personal? or work?, who knows but I feel an excitement and anticipation.  I love the feeling of a new year with new dreams, goals and exciting new journeys to take.  I hope you are dreaming and planning too and have the same burst of excitement and anticipation that I am feeling.  

So exciting!!!!

May the floss be with you,

Melly