flowerpress

social

2013-05-20T10:07:00.000+10:00

When I am working on something I tend to lock myself away and retreat into my thoughts. I like the quiet and being able to give single minded attention to the project I'm obsessed with.

Other times I love the social. I love to chat and gossip and laugh and natter and share. I think it feeds me and keeps me sane and happy.

I need both sides and luckily they seem to find their own rhythm.

This past week has been a social one, three lunches out, a workshop to teach, two functions Saturday night and a soccer game yesterday. I've loved every minute of it.

I caught up with bloggers this week, and it confirmed my belief that they are as wonderful in real life as they are on their blogs. I love being able to have those particular bloggy conversations where you talk about shared inspiration, community, blogging, design, fabric, craft, magazines, life and the internet! And never have to explain what you're talking about or who's who!

It always proves to me what other non bloggy people doubt, that you can have online friendships that are as strong and true as those you share with people in your everyday. And that there are some amazing, clever, funny, talented people doing their thing in blogland.

Thank you Kidspot for inviting me to the Voices of 2013 launch. It was fun to get frocked up and celebrate the amazing local bloggers we have. I just wish I could have made the masterclass and had more time to catch up with the out of town peeps who were here.

Thank you to my workshop students and Melissa at SewMakeCreate for a fun couple of weeks. I've really enjoyed teaching, and sharing the art of stamp carving with others. We printed on fabric yesterday and I was so delighted when all the students turned up with new pieces carved and all inspired to make. If you're interested there is another class starting next month.

Thank you to our soccer and netball families, you make me laugh with your one eyed enthusiasm. Its nice to share the sidelines with the old faces and the new, shouting our teams on to greater heights and discussing tactics from the security of the non players section!

Thank you too to all my lunch pals, especially Tuyen for whipping up home made pho, and Jo (bubala) for gifting me one of your beautiful neon print pouches.

I love my social weeks, I don't get anything done, but it fuels me for the more introspective weeks where I wouldn't leave the house at all if I could wangle it!

Are you a socialite? Or do you like the quiet one on one and getting things done?

the week that was

2013-05-15T14:15:00.000+10:00

I've been meaning to get back here all week to blog, but you know how it is. Here is some of what's been distracting me, fun stuff!

• Taught the first of my Stamp Carving workshops at SewMakeCreate on Saturday. It was fun! I gathered all my stamps together in preparation the other day and loved how they looked together. My students were so sweet, and it was great inspiring others to creative pursuits.

Before the class I bought some new stamp pads to play with (any excuse!) And then I couldn't resist personalising the cutting tools with a bit of my new washi tape. Don't they look sweet.

• The weekend before that I sewed this big batch of new marble bags. It is great to have Marble Kits back in the shop. These make such sweet handmade gifts.

• On Sunday I was especially spoilt for Mother's Day. Each of my cards was lovingly handmade and I was given some really thoughtful presents, including these new serious, big scissors for fabric cutting, researched and bought by my lovely Mr with help from the ladies at Spotlight. Master J said he loves me more than the size of Jupiter (they are studying the solar system this term) and provided a helpful diagram on the back of his card!

basecloth

2013-05-10T19:15:00.001+10:00

Did I tell you my ambition this year is to make more fabric!!

I want to design and produce more Flower Press fabric designs. In particular I want to screenprint more designs, and if I've been a bit absent, a bit distracted that's why. I've been working behind the scenes to make this happen.

As you know from my recent Sewing with Flower Press post I get a big kick out of seeing what people make with my fabric. Up till now that has mostly meant digital quilting cottons. I love the way with digital I can create multicolour quilting fabrics like my Bricks and Marble prints and print them on quality Kona cotton. What fun! With digital design you can do anything - if you want to combine a hundred colours into one design you can. Swatch or yardage? No problem. Its a designer's dream.

Screenprinted fabric comes with more design limitations. There's more preparation in producing it. But handprinted fabric has its own quality which make us love it. Personally I love the vibrancy and texture and the graphic quality of screenprinting. I love the feel of it, the strong printed designs and the way they sit on the basecloth.

To me basecloth is all important to screenprinted textiles so part of my journey towards producing more has been finding the perfect basecloths.

I'm always on the lookout for good fabric, and over the years have amassed samples from all over the place. My first criteria is they must be natural fibres which narrows the search to linen, cotton and hemp.

I love 100% linen for tea towels, its hard wearing qualities and substantial feel make this sustainable fibre a star.

For fabric panels that are going to be sewn I prefer linen/cotton blends to straight linen. I think they combine the great strength and character of linen with the better drape and usability of cotton. I find them easier to iron and a finer texture.

Cotton in all its guises is another favourite. There's something about the feel of freshly laundered cotton, its strength and durability and ease of care that make this versatile fabric so very popular. No wonder that quilts are made almost exclusively with cotton.

I was so happy when I sourced the perfect white cotton fabric recently. I love the weight and drape and feel of it. I also found some fabulous coloured cottons to play around with. I can't wait to print some of these neutrals.

And lastly, hemp is a new fibre to me. While I've seen this fabric around I hadn't had much to do with it up close until recently when I got some unused yardage when buying some secondhand screens.

Wow, I was really impressed. Its a really nice fibre and it has a real radiance to it. It sort of glows. Its also smooth and strong and has great eco credentials. I snapped up a big batch of different weight hemp fabrics a couple of months ago when a local wholesaler had a sale, some of it a hemp/organic cotton mix. This will be fun to print on too.

As for the printing, I'm getting there. It is taking a while to get my setup perfect. The good news is that with my such a great range of fabrics bought I am a few steps closer to my goal. Expect some scrap packs made up of test prints to go up soon. I'm a big fan of the scrap pack myself (remind me to show you my collection some time!) so it will be fun to share some of my own.

p.s. yes, I know, I've messed up my blog template recently experimenting with tabs! I need to restore my saved template but life has been too busy. Time for a complete overhaul methinks!

exhale

2013-05-03T18:48:00.002+10:00

I've been meaning to come back and post these extra photos of our trip down south. It seems a long time ago now, but I wanted to have a record here on my blog of our week in that magic place.

I love Ms A's collage of the corners of this sweet house, trapped in time, just the way we like it! Check out too the amazing queen sized flannelette doona cover and pillowslips I thrifted. They were virtually unused. I'm just worried now that I won't be able to get out of bed when they're on!

Happy weekend peoples. I am back next week with some new things (about time I hear you say!). Some stuff I have been working towards for a while now. I'm really looking forward to sharing it with you.

sewing with flower press - part 2

2013-04-29T11:07:00.002+10:00

One of the most wonderful parts of making fabric is seeing what people transform it into. While I love my stash of crisp folded fabrics, it really comes to life for me when it is taken and sewn by clever people. And I have been spoilt recently with all the clever people who have been sewing Flower Press fabrics into inspired projects.

A while back I got an order for some of my fabrics from the talented and lovely Anna Graham of Noodlehead blog fame. Anna is well known for her wonderful quilting and pattern making skills and so it was really exciting to send her some Flower Press prints.

Imagine my delight when I arrived back from holidays this week and catching up on my blogs came across her post showing these wonderful bike bags she made for her (beautiful) girls. The patterns used are my Triangle Twist, Marble print, and Hundreds and Thousands designs. Anna provides the pattern for these as well as many other wonderful tutorials on her blog.

Here are some more great projects which some of my customers have been generous enough to share with me, and now with you. And if you missed it, Sewing with Flower Press Part 1 is here.

From top:

Mel covered her stools with my Filigree tea towels in different colours, an inspired idea which is also really practical.

Deb's amazing applique marble bag mini quilt made as part of her ongoing Stitching the Ditch project. She was inspired by my treasure bags photos here.

Melanie from Enchanting Crafts made this ipad cover with the Bricks fabric. So neat I want one for our iPad!

Megan from the mousehouse blog is making the most amazing handcrafted 'busy book'. I was so delighted when she made this wonderful marble run using my marble print.What a great idea even used on its own for a littlies activity. Megan shows how to make it on her post.

Kristy from Creative Corner made these peekaboo project sacks for her block loving boy. What a great idea. There is a link to the tutorial on her blog.

Becky in France's treasure bags made with her kids. This simple drawstring pattern makes an easy beginner's sewing project with lots of straight lines and simple cutting. Kids always have a use for little bags like this and I think it makes it more special if you have been involved in its making. I shared the tutorial here.

The wonderful Jodie (of RicRac fame) made this amazing laminated bunting to brighten up the school libary where she works. Check out her post to see how she used this iron on vinyl.

If you have any projects you've made with Flower Press fabrics or tutorials, I always love to see them. Send me a photo, my email address is up there on the right.

I'm hoping to introduce some new patterns soon too, so keep an eye on this space.

While I'm here I must apologise for the absence of both Show & Tell and pattern Friday this month. I think I'm going to have to just go with the flow regarding both these projects while I catch up with other things.

Bloom cheater quilt fabrics

2013-04-25T16:10:00.002+10:00

A million years ago now I designed a Cheater print for a Spoonflower competition. I was delighted when the resulting Bloom Cheater Quilt design made the top ten. Since then though it has sat in my Spoonflower design library, getting no no attention from me, but prompting quite regular emails asking me to release it for sale.

I love the idea of a cheater print, for the less quiltily inclined of us. This one was made with great care and I had such fun designing each of the repeats which go into it. A couple of these I have printed - Chicken Spots and Bloom, both of which are favourites in my stash. Such clean crisp girl patterns that aren't too pink, for me the colour palette is another success of this design.

Anyway, at last, after a few tweaks to the repeat, I am proud to say the Bloom Cheater panels are (finally) for sale in my Spoonflower shop. The repeat is designed to sit perfectly across the generous 42 inch width of the cotton quilting fabrics. A yard would make a lovely baby size quilt. I love the Kona cotton for its weight and quality, but the basic cotton is a nice fabric too. Match it with some yardage of the coordinating prints and you have a quick and easy baby project.

There are some other of my prints available in the shop too so why not visit.

chorizo & olive pasta

2013-04-24T15:39:00.000+10:00

This Chorizo & Olive pasta isn't very complicated, my homemade recipe cooks up from ingredients we generally always have in our pantry and fridge.

That said it is a firm favourite round here and one that is on our regular rotation. So I thought I'd share it here. I know I'm always looking for inspiration for those quick and easy family dinners. This is a good one for late soccer practice, or if we are eating at different times, and its great made in bulk and reheated.

We buy our cans of tomato in a slab these days from the local Italian greengrocers and usually choose the ones that are prechopped. I find the texture more to my liking than passata and the can size is usually perfect for our needs.

With growing kids I seem to be making larger and larger quantities, in the (vain) hope that there will be a bowl of leftover pasta/curry/pie for my lunch the next day. So this is quite a bit. You could cut down to one can of tomatoes and just use slightly less of everything else and it would be as delicious. So adjust the quantities to suit your gang, or make this as a double batch and freeze some.

Chorizo & Olive pasta

1Tbsp olive oil
1 brown or purple onion chopped finely
1 chorizo sausage sliced (woollies and coles have these in their deli section)
2 cans chopped Italian tomatoes
1 can water
1.5 cups frozen peas
1 cup kalamata olives (I buy big jars of these already depipped, great for salads, stews and nibblies)
1 dessert spoon raw sugar
1 bag pasta 500g (or less but it matches this much sauce) (I like penne with this)
salt, black pepper to taste
shaved parmesan to serve

Put saucepan on high heat, add olive oil.
Add onion, cook 2 minutes, add chorizo and cook till onion translucent, abt 5 minutes.
Add two cans tomato. Add one can of water and about a dessertspoon of sugar.
cook on low for 45 minutes until tomatoes reduce.
Cook pasta.
Five minutes before serving add peas and olives to sauce.
Strain pasta and mix through sauce.
Top with shaved parmesan.

Do you have a favourite pasta sauce recipe? We have pasta at least once a week so it would be nice to try out some new recipes. I've already shared a couple of mine here, Marcella Hazan's simple ricotta, bacon and pea pasta and Hugh Grants macaroni. Both very popular with us.

nature study

2013-04-23T15:12:00.001+10:00

We snuck away this past week, to a little house down the coast we have been going to for over ten years now, wow. I was reminded the other day of one of our first trips and when I used to snorkel and swim off the beach. The boys, just toddlers, used to weep and wail on the beach (with their Dad looking after them) till I came safely back. We were a sight! These days they are swimming happily alongside me.

I do miss my babies, but its so wonderful having older children and bushwalking and exploring together. On the last morning I snuck in a quick bushwalk with camera in hand, up the hill directly behind the house. My boys came with me, taking photos of the lizards and birds, coming across the skeleton of an old 20s car chassis, leeches in the wetland pools, a beehive in an old tree, frogs and birds and insects. It was fun discovering and exploring this new trail with them.

It makes me so happy that they share our love for the natural world, for walking and swimming and fishing and exploring. I was tickled when we ran into an older local man on our walk, in the middle of nowhere, carrying fuzzy boom mikes and other bags of paraphernalia. He greeted us with the words 'loving the planet?'. When I asked him about his equipment he told me he was going to record the sounds of a nearby creek in flood. Apparently every creek has a slightly different soundscape of tinkles and trills and he likes to record them. A kindred spirit. I only wish I'd had the time to come and sit quietly in the sun and listen with him!

We encountered a couple of my favourite birds while we were away, the blue crane and the black cockatoo, and luckily I had my 'bird lens' at hand. I also captured this little Eastern Spinebill through the kitchen window one day.

I have some more photos of our time away but I'll save them for another post.

gocco in spectrum

2013-04-13T09:03:00.002+10:00

I'm really sad about the demise of the Gocco printer, this little Japanese system got me into screenprinting way back in 2007. It was actually the simultaneous discovery of Gocco and Etsy that set me on the road to my Flower Press business, and blogging, and all the wonderful rest of it, way back then.

My twin boys had gone off to preschool that year, and I suddenly had time to get back into some creative work. I'd finished the horticulture studies I'd been doing while they were little (my little spot of brain space after having three kids in three years!) And I was feeling the need to make again. So when I saw the Gocco it was love.

I'm a big fan of printing in its many forms, and the idea of being able to produce and print my own screens at home was, and is, a revelation. These days I'm still working on making my own screens and printing them, but its a much bigger more complex production than with the Gocco!

Riso the company that make Goccos shut down ink and bulb production in 2008, and while there are stockpiles of materials still available, it doesn't look like an alternative supply will come along any time soon. It seems like the end of Gocco style printing.

In today's Sydney Morning Herald there's an article in the Design section of Spectrum (with a picture of me!) about the Gocco story with comments from Karena Colquhoun (Magic Jelly), ghostpatrol and me. Its a nice acknowledgement of the Gocco phenomenon, and I'm pleased to have helped celebrate it before its gone.You can read it here.

That's me with my little PG-11 printer in the photo. I still have some supplies, hidden away, but I'm loathe to use them, and sad to think about the end of this much loved art.

I still sell some Gocco prints and digital copies of Goccos like my well loved Ruby Slippers and Teapot prints above in my shop, which I have finally updated. I'm hoping to have some new products and designs in there soon too, and maybe a giveaway so watch this space!

pattern friday - autumn

2013-04-12T19:17:00.002+10:00

Friday again already, time for another pattern. Another oldie, this autumn pattern, but tweaked, recoloured and repeated. You may recognise these leaves from a block print pattern I made a couple of years ago. I'm a big fan of leaves and their wonderful shapes and designs which come in infinite variety!

I got my precious boys back from camp this afternoon. Its been quiet around here for the last few days, which has seen me very busy screenprinting and playing with screens and colours but also missing them dreadfully and wondering about what they're doing every minute!

I'll be back tomorrow with an exciting feature, you might know about it already if you follow me on instagram. See you then.

My Creative Space - swap

2013-04-11T21:42:00.001+10:00

A couple of weeks ago I went to a screenprinting sun exposure workshop which I blogged about here.

It was perfect timing for the Handprinted Swap which I joined in with for the third time this month. What could be more handprinted than a home exposed silkscreen with my own design, printed by me!

This new design Field will be in the shop soon. I've reshot the screen and I'm printing, but I'm away next week so listing it will have to wait. If you want to reserve a piece, in this blue on linen/cotton base though just email me :-)

I have some more designs coming through too, which I'm really excited about.

As usual I was spoilt with lovely handprinted fabrics in return. I love the way that all of our fabrics complement each other. Each have a round symbol somewhere in the design. Spots for Jane and Suz's fabrics top, circular designs and spotty blossom on Kirsty and Micala.

Make sure you go and see what the other creatives are doing over here.

pattern friday - rocket

2013-04-05T23:12:00.003+11:00

Another Friday pattern. I'm enjoying posting here, its been fun looking through my designs and sharing some favourites.

I've had this pattern doodle as my phone screensaver for a few weeks, and I still love it, always a good test. You can see my process here, I drew it in pencil, outlined it with pen and then scanned it in to the computer. I then had a play around colouring the sketch.

The next step is fix the linework and do a proper repeat. These flowers remind me of rocket (arugula/rucola) flowers, which are very simple, but very beautiful.

penny's quilt

2013-04-02T13:32:00.000+11:00

Aaaah, thank you Easter, I needed that break. How lovely to have four whole days of sleeping in, planting seeds, playing with screen making, wrapping presents, baking sweets, sharing easter eggs, watching a daytime movie, playing tennis, having tea, slow cooking. Credit to Autumn too for pitching in with the weather, I'm loving these cool nights and warm days, the beautiful autumn light slanting across the garden and making inside cosy without having to shut the doors and windows in the evenings.

Today it is my darling boys' birthday (two for one!) and they are turning 12! OMG! Its slightly bittersweet, as all their birthdays are. If I could put bricks on their heads now and keep them as my babies forever, well... I would be very tempted!

They opened one present each this morning but have to wait all day for the rest. Then we have a sleepover tent party on Friday for seven boys. Phew, they will be bouncy! We are going to take them out for pizza and then come home for homemade icecream sundaes.

On the crafty front, I sneaked a little project in last month, which I want to share before I forget. Its another little baby quilt/playmat, using my baby quilt tutorial with larger squares. Its for little baby Penny who was born last month.

One of my favourite features is the checkerboard backing which I pieced together because I didn't have a large enough piece to back the whole quilt. It gives the back some interest. Like Poppy's quilt I used the self binding method and sewed it by machine, so quick and easy. Best of all not only did all fabrics and batting come from the stash, but there are a few of my flowerpress designs in there too. Makes it feel even more personal.

Miss Penny is the little sister to two big brothers, so I enjoyed making it a little girly colourwise, though not too pink. If you haven't tried a quilt before, check out the tutorial. I actually referred to it myself this time, to remind me of the steps :-)

pattern friday - cut peonies

2013-03-29T19:33:00.000+11:00

Whoops, I nearly forgot my new resolution today to join in with Melissa's pattern friday. Too busy making another bee hotel for my garden I was.

I have been working today on patterns though, to make into screens with my new sun exposure techniques, and thus revisiting a few old favourites. There are a few to choose from.

This is an old design which I first blogged way back here in 2008! Its always been a favourite but one that wasn't drawn well enough to reproduce.

I've just spent some time redrawing it and making it into a proper repeat, easy to do in illustrator, and very satisfying.

I've kept the old colours, I remember these were some of my favourite colours back then, red and turquoise blue! I've also made it in some new colours. So fun to see how it changes with the hue.

Its a simple repeat, a simple pattern, but there's something I love about the simple ones! Which is your favourite colour? I like that smoky mushroom grey and the way the flowers stand out like cutouts!

my creative space - busy bee

2013-03-28T18:13:00.000+11:00

Before Mr F left on his annual fishing trip with his brother and brothers in law last week (five days on the hawkesbury lucky duck) I got him to help me finish this project I've been dreaming of for a while. I've wanted to make one since seeing some online. This funny little house of home grown bamboo and recycled wood is actually a bee house!

If you are interested in the whys behind this idea there is a lovely pdf I found here (the 'attract bees' one). Its full of great information and tells you everything you wanted to know about our native bees, including the solitary bees. These natives are actually important pollinators of native flora, garden and agricultural crops so the perfect residents for an organic garden.

Some of the solitary native bees we have already in our garden are leaf cutter bees (top above, see their handiwork here), blue banded bees (the second bee pic) and teddy bear bees (as cute as their name suggests!). Each year about this time the blue banded bees start searching out the loose mortar between our bricks and the teddy bear bees start buzzing the clay at the base of our house looking for nesting sites. The occasional one gets lost on the way and ends up buzzing round the house while I try to herd them out the door again. The bee population has grown with our garden and we want to keep them happy, hence the nesting house.

The idea behind the house is to provide solitary native bees somewhere to lay their eggs. This one is mostly set up for leaf cutters. The others prefer different types which we intend to make this weekend, by drilling holes in blocks of wood and making clay bricks.

The bee house is a quick easy project but it makes me smile every time I see it, and I'm just crossing my fingers that someone will want to call it home!

I am as always, joining in my creative space over here.

Happy Easter to everyone, I for one can't think of anything nicer than four quiet days at home, pootling in the garden making bee homes and planting my autumn crops!

show & tell - ellie beck

2013-03-26T13:57:00.003+11:00

I'm so pleased to have another north coast nsw blogger this week for you in Show & Tell. I've known Ellie Beck who writes as petalplum for a few years now, in fact looking back, ever since she won a giveaway on flowerpress way back in 2009!

Over the years we've continued to cross paths on the interwebs and these days she is also one of my favourite instagrammers. I love her tranquil still life photos and covet the crocheted stones she makes, so I was delighted to see her open a new shop recently selling these stones along with her beautiful screenprinted fabrics.

There is a lot of talk online about living simply. While not making a big deal about it, since a tree change a few years ago Ellie lives in a small 6 x 4m house with her partner and two children, but without electricity! They are slowly and carefully building their new house and studio themselves. And yet those restrictions are never what I remember after reading her posts or seeing her photos. Rather it is her delight in her surroundings and her love of creativity, the art and beauty of the everyday.

Ellie is also a community minded artist who helps promote art and craft in her local area, she recently helped set up the Hey Maker collective which reinvigorated empty shops around her local town with art and craft and workshops. She also runs a local craft market at the wonderful Tweed River gallery.

While choosing photos for the post I was again taken with with all the beautiful images on Ellie's blog. If you haven't seen them, or don't follow her instagram stream, do go and spend some time with her in her simple, but beautiful and creative life. You will be inspired.

name
Ellie Beck
location
Crystal Creek, in the rainforest outside of Murwillumbah
blog
petalplum
shop
elliebeck.com.au
flickr
petalplum
instagram
@petalplum
pinterest
petalplum

1. Can you give us a short description of your blog/style/work.
My blog is about my daily life, my family, the things I do and things that catch my fancy along the way. It's ever evolving, but always somehow me. My style is personal and quiet and thoughtful. I like handcrafted pieces that have mistakes, and a story, and meaning; an impression of the maker. Also, very experimental.

2. Why blog? How did you start?
I started my blog many years ago, I think 2006 or so. When my kids were little.

At the start it was about connecting with other young mothers, and having an outlet for showing/sharing my creativeness. The connections are the best part, and why I still blog today. And having a record of things I've done, and occasionally remembering to write about milestones in my children's growing up!

I also like the accountability of having a blog - wanting to keep my blog updated with new things, and things that I've made/making. I know I'm not the only one who'll make and then photograph something for my blog; I sometimes wonder if some things wouldn't get finished if it weren't for my blog.

3. Family taught/Self-taught/Trained?
Oh, family taught and self-trained. I grew up in a very creative and nurturing family; everybody was always making something or doing something in a creative way. I was very lucky to go to a Steiner school for primary, where being creative was part of every day schooling. I also had excellent high school art and drama teachers.

Apart from a short time at TAFE a million years ago ("graphic design" then was not what it is now), everything I currently do/make is an experimental journey. Continual practice and persistence and enjoying the process - it's still about the process for me. {Also, blogs and the plethora of crafty books available have helped me to learn little skills along the way!}

4. Workspace - studio or kitchen table?
Mainly kitchen table. Anywhere really. Crochet and embroidery are so portable (at the creek, at a party, in the car). Screen printing on the kitchen table around life. (Wet fabric hanging everywhere waiting for the prints to dry!). We are currently building our home, and studio - so one day I'll have a real printing table. Oh, I can't wait!!

5. Blog/Shop name, where does it come from?
My blog name, Petalplum, comes from the name my mama used to call us when we were children. One day I heard my Grandma call my nephew Petalplum, and it made my heart sing!

6. Favourite media/style/medium to work in?
I love fabric and texture. Screen printing will always be a favourite, and important to me. I love the fact that all the dirty ink and rambling of my image/design making produces something so crisp and clear. Seeing your own design printed onto fabric is really just one of the best feelings. I also love thread - stitch work, simple lines along textural fabrics, embroidery.

Over the past few years I've come back to crochet (my mama taught me when I was young), and I'm loving it so much. Small projects normally, that are quick and easy to finish.

I'm also really loving the experiments of natural plant dyeing. Unlike the crisp marks of the screen printing, this produces unexpected, often glorious results - shapes and colours and patterns that really make my heart sing. It's a bit magic, a bit witch like (bubbling pots and such), and also a connection to past skills and crafts; a remembering of how things used to be. Enjoying the ephemeral marks of life.

I'd let to get back into drawing and watercolouring again more this year.

7. Ambitions/future directions/future projects you'd like to try?
At the moment finishing building our house, and having a studio space are big in my life. I'd love to host workshops and gatherings at my home, one day down the track.

Connecting people is important in my life at the moment. Getting together with like-minded creatives; even just for a cup of tea and some inspiration, but making things together is wonderful too. Sharing skills and learning (or relearning) new skills. I have a few big projects in mind for this year that relate to this making, and being creative, and connecting together.

Also, continuing on with my natural plant dyeing experiments is exciting. And a new online shop has giving me a creative burst to fill it with things that represent me, things that make me happy, and bring me joy to create.

8. Are you neat and organised or, ahem, creatively messy?
Just plain messy. As much as I try (and as much as my husband wishes) for the neatness it never happens. At present we are living in a teeny 6m x 4m teahouse/shack with the four of us; so storage and space for spreading out my creative wips and thinking space is super tight. We're all four (my two children and my husband) building creative piles on any spare surface! Thankfully my husband mostly puts up with it, and eventually cleans it all up.

9. Favourite handmade, handcrafted item you own not made by you.
Two things. The tea cup that my mama made, that I am lucky to own. I remember her making it / painting it. It makes me happy to use it. The other thing is a little felt needle case my 8yr old son made me, with the sweetest stitches. He made it to swap with something I'd made that he wanted.

10. Favourite food/recipe?
We make subzi a lot in our family. Subzi (or subji) is the Hindi word for vegetable. So, really it's the meal that most Australian's would call curry. I grew up eating it most every night, and despite whinging as a child, we make now make it at home, and I love my dad making it when we visit him.

We make our own spice mixture, rather than using a bottle thing. Also chai is being drunk a bit around here lately - I gave up coffee a while ago, so needed a replacement (I love green tea, but it's not the same as a milky drink). I never ever use syrup, only ever make our own mixture up.
I'm also getting into raw chocolate - somehow I feel like it's better for me, so we can eat a bit more. Only ever dark chocolate.

11. Favourite colour?
I think a deep indigo inky blue. Something that might come out of a dye pot (but I also have a screen printing ink colour I mix up that's pretty close). The golden sparkling yellow I dyed this week onto vintage Kimono silk, using turmeric powder is also very amazing!

12. Star sign?
Gemini - hence the fact that I'm so indecisive.

13. Favourite place, landscape (not necessarily Australian)?
I think here where I live. It's pretty magical - in the forest, amongst ancient trees and moss and ferns.
I haven't done a lot of traveling in my life - New Zealand was quite magical. I'd like to visit Morocco.
Actually - standing on the headland at Fingal Head at sunrise is a favourite place.

14. Any tricks for juggling life/work/family with creative pursuits?
Oh, I'm not excellent at this - some days are easy and lots gets happily achieved. On other days, when I see I'm not going to get my own making happening, it's best for me to stop having those expectations. To give into the joy of being in the moment with my children, rather than be annoyed that I can't do what I want. It's better that way as I'm more peaceful, and more connected with them.

We often all end up crafting/painting/making together. If I sit down to stitch or crochet one or the other of them wants to join in. Having little projects to pick up whenever I can (a stitch here or there) is a good technique too.
I do stay up later than everyone, in that quiet time of night where I can think and be and make (or blog - which is creative too). And other times I simply skip off from duties and have a half day of being with other creatives.
My house isn't tidy, though I try to do whatever little bits I can around other things. Multi-tasking.

15. Favourite designers/artists/crafters/writers etc?
Again with the choosing favourites thing... Writers: Lily Brett makes me laugh, Helen Garner makes me nostalgic for a time I didn't even live through, Roald Dahl... Artists: Joseph Cornell, Eva Hesse, Georgia O'Keeffe, Fred Williams, Frank Lloyd Wright. UK stylist Twig Hutchinson (she does all the Toast styling). Photographer Tim Walker. Fabric designer Nani Iro (Naomi Ito).
Crafters / makers - I endlessly love the Ink & Spindle girls for more than their designs. The quilts and little dolls and artwork of Tiel Sievl-Keevers (tsktsk). Everything that my friend, Jo Olive (of Olive and the Volcano) makes. The fine delicate work of (local to me) ceramicist Pinky & Maurice. Kate of Greedy for Colour blog, and Kate of Foxs Lane blog are injections of colour and beauty into my life.
I'll stop there!

16. Your favourite thing you've made/written/done.
A simple tiny painting I made when I was young. It's a purple iris - it's perfect. Still now all these years later it's pinned to the wall in my dad's house upstairs. Also, I'm pretty proud of this skirt that I made a couple of years ago using all the scraps of my screen printed fabric. I loved wearing it, and got so many wonderful comments.

17. Three words to describe yourself?
Muchness, impulsive, dedicated

18. What do you like to do besides creating?
Reading - curled up in bed quietly. Standing in my yard dreaming and talking to the birds. Planning new crazy ideas. Wishing my garden looked beautiful again. Cooking (which is a different sort of creative). Playing at the beach with my family, and my sisters and their children. (and let's be honest here - instagram....)

pattern friday - weave

2013-03-22T19:55:00.001+11:00

Thanks to all you lovelies who commented yesterday and wished me well in my new craft workshops. How lucky I am to have all of you to cheer me on! Very lucky.

I was reading Melissa's tiny happy blog today and she posted a beautiful pattern, I do love her work! And she intends to post one each week for 'pattern friday'.

What lovely inspiration to make and share more patterns. I'm inspired and I'm going to try playing along. I have quite a few patterns tucked away that I've been working on and haven't done anything with yet. I see patterns everywhere and often sketch them up while they're still fresh in my mind. I'm going to share some of those here. And the new ones that come to me too, in fact I was making one just today!

And I'm going to share some colour inspiration with them too.

To start with here's one I prepared earlier! I call it Weave. I have such a fascination with simple geometric repeats and tiled patterns, and while this is a simple one I love how graphic it is. It's a design I made intending one day to print it using the stencil screenprint technique I shared in this tutorial. In fact it would be a good one for Leslie's handprinted swap.

Are you swapping? This is my third time and while its alway a challenge I find it so inspiring!

Happy Weekend everyone, I hope you have a good one planned. Mine will be quiet, and I can't wait! And next week there's a new Show & Tell on Tuesday so I'll see you back here then.

my creative space - teach

2013-03-21T10:21:00.006+11:00

There's a secret I've been keeping for a little while now, a plan I've been hatching with my new friend Melissa. I've been dying to share it but I wanted to wait until it was all organised and unveiled.

Melissa Tan opened her new craft classroom space and shop SewMakeCreate at the end of last year in Sydney's Inner West, my part of town! SewMakeCreate is a wonderful little crafting and sewing space and shop close to Broadway Shopping Centre, tucked away down a closed off leafy street in Chippendale.

Melissa has come to her new venture from the fashion world. She's a maker too and has an Etsy shop. Introduced by mutual friend Sue (my first friend on Etsy) we hit it off at our first meeting and bonded over a love of craft and sewing and our desire to share that with others.

I also fell in love with her too cute sidekick Pepper above (a 'puginese') who helps her run her creative space. What a sweetie!

I'm very excited that I'm going to be part of SewMakeCreate, hosting my first ever craft classes at SewMakeCreate next month! The class I'll be teaching is a two part workshop on something dear to my heart, Eraser Carving for Paper and Fabric printing. (Other classes include crochet, sewing, watercolour painting.)

If you've followed my blog for any length of time you'll know that block printing is one of my favourite things. I love the simplicity and speed of the process. I love the way you can experiment easily and make unlimited different designs with just a few stamps. How you can print or combine those stamps in many different ways to make new designs. Or the many and varied applications, from envelopes to bags that you can print with them.

And you don't need to be a great artist, some of the most beautiful designs are made with simple shapes.

I can't wait to share this style of printing with others. I've loved the recent workshops I've been part of, there's something really inspiring about being part of a group learning and crafting together. So it will be great to host my own.

If that sounds like fun to you head over to the SewMakeCreate website and see more details about the two part workshop. All materials will be supplied, you just have to show up. Part one deals with carving your block and printing on all sorts of paper. Part two will see us printing on fabric, and in particular a tea towel and a tote bag. I'm going to bring some of my stamps to play with too.

The best thing about this simple and inexpensive craft is that you can take your stamps and what you've learnt and keep experimenting with it at home. Once you learn to stamp there are so many ways you can use the prints in your life.

p.s. I'm still weighing up options for an alternative to Google Reader, but I know a lot of you have moved across already to Bloglovin. If so you can follow my blog with Bloglovin here.

my creative space - field

2013-03-14T15:49:00.001+11:00

As promised some photos of my new textile print Field. I really love it printed and can't wait to sew with it. The artwork for this screen was done in a rush for my exposure workshop and I want to tweak it before I list it in the shop but it will be there soon.

What colours to print though? Here's an early design doodle with some colour ideas. I like them all, but what do you think? Opinions welcome.

Other creative things happening around here - a custom version of my Ruby Slippers in someone else's colours, orange and pink, you guessed it its the Curly Pops edition! To celebrate Cam's big adventure. I printed this one for Cam but I might just do a small edition for the shop some time.

I've also started cutting squares for a baby quilt for a new girl round here, who arrived a couple of weeks ago. I realised when I was posting them that the colours are similar to my field colours. I really do love aqua blue with pink, yellow, white and limey green as you can see. There is something very clean and soft about that combination. The nice thing is I think my field print would slip into that quilt quite happily. Which makes me very happy :-)

Its nice to be posting for My Creative Space this week. I have so many ideas bubbling that its good to have something to show for some of them!

(By the way, I logged into my Google Reader today only to read they are discontinuing it in July. Wah! I found this article on CNet which speaks of alternatives but I need someone clever to come along and tell me which I should choose. Any ideas? Do you use another service?)

march

2013-03-12T10:36:00.000+11:00

I'm feeling pretty blessed this week. Lots of great things happening round here. Well actually I must qualify that by saying I had a shocker yesterday! but overall there's been some really great stuff to overshadow that.

Wednesday I had my photo taken. That was exciting if a bit nerve wracking. Hopefully when it appears some of you might see it and I will post about it here.

Later in the day we went to the big school open night and saw our girl and her friends in all their wonderfulness, and felt our boys start to get excited about their journey to high school next year.

Then on Saturday I spent the day at Peter Leis, a local screenprinting workshop run by brother and sister combo Shivaun and Amon Leis. The siblings grew up learning the trade from their dad Peter Leis, a legend of screenprinting in these parts. I didn't know it but Shivaun mentioned on Saturday that Peter worked with Florence Broadhurst amongst others!

Lamina and I, along with fellow student Sam, learned from Shivaun how to prepare and expose our own screens using the sun, so we can make our own screens at home. It was lots of fun and we learnt so much! Thanks again Lamina for signing me up, and for your photo of me coating the screen.

I'm so excited I'll be able to prepare my own screens. I'm hoping it will mean more of my designs making it onto fabric, and into the shop. On Saturday we each brought a design to expose. You can see my screen in the photos above. I chose to expose a new textile design with the working name Field. (I just checked and this design has been brewing since way back in August 2011! So its great to see it finally in print.)

Sunday I did just that, had a morning of printing with my new screen. I posted some pics on instagram (@flowerpress) and thanks to everyone for the lovely feedback there. I plan to show pics of it on fabric on the blog later this week, on Thursday for 'my creative space'.

To finish this wonderful week, and while I was still covered in ink, Mr F found out we'd been given last minute comps for the Neil Finn and Paul Kelly concert at the Opera House!! Like many we tried to buy tickets for this when they came out but missed out, so we were over the moon!

The concert was amazing, we had such a wonderful night seeing these two amazing singer songwriters together, singing some of their beautiful songs. I must admit to a tear or two at the start, it was so beautiful. If you missed out I just read they are streaming the last concert on Monday March 18, 9pm on YouTube.

the side

2013-03-06T09:21:00.002+11:00

We've been in the house for nearly eight years now. Wow! For much of that time the side of the house has been paved in concrete. Under that concrete was a fill of fly ash, dating back many years (this house is 100 this year). Fly ash is alkaline and rocky and impossible to grow plants in. So we only got as far as removing a few patches of concrete, filling them with soil and growing climbers, some perennials and an espaliered lemon. Later Mr F made me a fabulous wooden planter and we tried to grow vegies along here but it faces west and with the concrete was too hot in midsummer.

Last year we pulled it all up, layed drainage, added garden soil, put in pavers and planted a garden. Most of the plants were scattered as seeds, moved from other parts of the garden or bought as seedlings. I wanted to fill the space quickly with green to kickstart an ecosystem in this area. A pot of gerberas went in, some vietnamese mint, some dichondra around the pavers. I moved some red hot pokers, a couple of grasses and that lemon tree. I sowed fennel, red orach and poppy seed from a seed swap. I put in cuttings of hydrangeas I'd taken from a friend's garden and some small perennial divisions. A dying potted blueberry and a little birdbath came too.

Its been so rewarding watching the garden take off and grow. Sadly despite our care the moved lemon tree slowly died, so when I noticed a small self sown tomato take off and thrive along here I used the lemon as a support for some yellow pear tomato plants I'd grown from seed. They have just had a second wind with all this rain and you can see their triffid like growth in the first picture. You can also see those poppies, which turned out to be cornflowers! flowering away a few months ago, along with many other plants.

show & tell - megan kinninment

2013-02-26T18:00:00.001+11:00

Megan Kinninment lives on the north coast of NSW, where my parents live. Its a place where I spent time growing up and where we spend Christmas holidays every year. So one of the first things that attracted me to Megan's blog were her beautiful photos of the landscapes around Byron and beyond.

This part of the world has a strong hold on my heart and her pictures immediately conjure for me all that is wonderful about it, the green, green hills and small village halls, the rattly wooden bridges and expansive views of ocean and coast. It speaks to the wonderful mix of farm and new age, tradition and innovation, the markets, the beaches... it's no coincidence that Megan also works as a journalist and digital producer on the local paper. She manages to show the best and most inspiring parts of this beautiful area.

Like many of my other favourite blogs, Megan's also chronicles a creative and loving family life, lived simply and close to the earth. She shares her ideas and practice for natural and creative living, her successes and challenges alike. Megan is a gardener and a maker as well as a writer. A recent rainbow party was full of wonderful ideas for a colourful, handmade birthday.

There is much to love about The Byron Life and it has a permanent place on my reader, so if you haven't spent time there do go and visit, it's the next best thing to being there!

Thanks again Megan for being part of Show & Tell, especially this week when the local floods kept you so busy at work!

name
Megan Kinninment
location
Byron Bay
blog
The Byron Life
facebook
http://www.facebook.com/TheByronLife
twitter
theByronLife
instagram
@TheByronLife

1. Can you give us a short description of your blog/style/work
The Byron life is a personal blog about living life simply and creatively as a mum to three girls. It’s heavy on photography, a passion I rediscovered through blogging. I make stuff, grow stuff, photograph stuff then write about it. I’m a journalist who has had to unpick her training in objective reporting to writing as “me” on the blog. Liberating, if a bit scary sometimes.

2. Why blog? How did you start?
I started blogging when I was on maternity leave from my job as a regional news reporter. There was never anything strategic about the blogging, I just started for the love of writing and photographing and the ease of being able to publish my own work and connect with other creative women and mothers. Interestingly though, everything I’ve learned through blogging I now apply to my work as journalist/digital producer, so maybe it was a strategic and clever move after all!

What has been amazing about blogging for me is the way it has connected me into a community of creative people and motivated me to do something creative in my life every single week.

3. Family taught/Self-taught/Trained?
Journalism: Uni, then did a traditional newspaper cadetship; Photography: self taught; Craft: mostly self taught, but I also studied fine arts/ceramics at East Sydney Tech (as it used to be known); Gardening: my mum.

4. Workspace - studio or kitchen table?
I have a “special” writing desk that is never used for writing. Instead I write from the living room, with my kids playing and yahooing around me and I sew/craft on the kitchen table because the “studio” aka garage is currently a shambles. Like many mums, I’ve learned to create from the centre of the action while still cooking, talking, rousing on yahooing children etc.

My kids will automatically start making stuff next to me, or else hassle me to get off my own computer so they can watch Peppa Pig and totally not get that I have a deadline… and yet somehow it all comes together, despite the chaos. I also stay up late some nights, when the house is quiet, to get that “me” space for creating away from busy little hands and yahooing kiddos.

5. Blog/Shop name, where does it come from?
My blog is about my life in Byron Bay, so I wasn’t terribly imaginative there!

6. Favourite writing/ photography style?
I love realism; non-fiction; reportage and photo-journalism. Blogging was very hard to get my head around at first because I was trained to write in the objective third person. Now many of my paid published pieces are written in a similar style to blogging - first person accounts.

Photographically, again journalism informs my photos. My photos move between being published on my blog, to being published in the print or online edition of the paper. Sometimes I have a go at something more abstract and atmospheric, but I always come back to a photo-journalism style.

7. Ambitions/future directions/future projects you'd like to try?
I would love to have a book published (non-fiction) and I dream of having some photographs exhibited. I’m ever-so-slowly working towards those dreams.

8. Are you neat and organised or, ahem, creatively messy?
Ahem, creatively messy! (I like the way you phrase that, Susie. “Creatively messy”. So guilt-free. Thank you.)

9. Favourite handmade, handcrafted item you own not made by you
My girls all have crocheted blankets made by my mum and given to each girl when they were babies. I treasure those blankets so much, knowing the hours and hours of work/love that went into each one.

10. Favourite food/recipe?
I love spicy, Asian food and I am trying my hand at growing as many of the ingredients for those recipes myself. I blogged this chilli and lemon grass salsa recipe a year ago and since that time I’ve got to the stage where I can nearly pick all of the fresh ingredients from my own garden: chillis, lemongrass, basil, coriander and ginger. I live in an environment where the Asian-style plants grow well, so I want to keep expanding this aspect of my garden.

11. Favourite colour?
Green

12. Star sign?
Leo

13. Favourite place, landscape (not necessarily Australian)?
I can’t go past my beautiful Byron Bay, but Kakadu also has a special place in my heart. I love the intensity of these places; the sometimes maddening heat and relentless rain of the tropics and the fact that everything grows like crazy in these environments.

14. Any tricks for juggling life/work/family with creative pursuits?
I don’t know the trick for how to juggle these things; I’m still tweaking it. My only advice is to keep on with your creative life, no matter what. Even if it is in small ways, five minutes here or there; an idea written down on a piece of scrap paper; a project that sits on the table waiting for you to come back to it over a period of weeks… it’s important to carve out that time for yourself. And, embrace the mess! Creative work wins over housework at my place.

15. Favourite designers/artists/crafters/writers etc?
Kim Wallace is a new discovery to me (I found her work through Instagram) and I really love what she is creating – very delicate, subtle ceramics using lace textures. I love her IG feed too.
The other artists listed are all women whose work I have long-admired. They are all strong, passionate women; ahead of the game in their fields.

Favourite writer: Helen Garner; Favourite photographer: Gemma-Rose Turnbull; Favourite designer: Rachel Bending from Bird Textiles; Favourite crafter: ceramist Kim Wallace, from Udessi.

16. Your favourite thing you've made/written/done?
I was happy with this interview I did with Julian Assange’s mother, Christine and my favourite ‘thing’ would be a simple stoneware bowl I made 20 years ago on the wheel at college. I still use it every day in my kitchen for fruit.

17. Three words to describe yourself?
Creative, determined, sensitive.

18. What do you like to do besides creating?
Sleeping is fun and quite novel these days, so I do that whenever I get the chance! Gardening is also my thing. Spending time in my garden, just pottering around, is one of the ways I unwind.

these days

2013-02-25T15:22:00.003+11:00

Phew, life has hit the ground running since the holidays finished. Suddenly everything is happening at once, carnivals, assemblies, music lessons, sport teams, bills to pay, paperwork, meetings, camp...

In between the busyness though I've squeezed in some time to catch up with friends, so good for the brain! A week or two ago I had lunch with blog friend Lamina (doabit) and also got to meet Jo from Bubala at last too. It was so nice to talk 'shop' with these lovely, talented girls and we followed it up last Thursday with the abcd meetup at trade show Life InStyle at the Hordern Pavilion.

What an interesting night, the first part was free entry to the show and wandering the aisles of makers with their beautiful wares. Then at dinner afterwards we heard from crafty business owners who were attending the show about the wholesale thing, and the nuts and bolts of that.

It was my first abcd (Artists + Bloggers + Crafters + Designers) meetup, but definitely not my last. Many thanks to Steph and Lisa for organising these events. It is so nice to catch up with like minds and share ideas and it was such an interesting night. And thanks to Sophie from Scoops Design who was so generous with her knowledge in our little group.

I've had lunch out a couple more times since then, one a belated birthday yum cha where I scored this great Anna Laura brooch and then last Friday after the Mr and I watched our girl speak at the Sydney Town Hall at school presentation day (so proud!). I may have wiped away a tear or two, it was so great to see her up on stage in this amazing space. Afterwards we bought lunch and walked down to Circular Quay to see the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the MCA (which was wow!).

I have managed a small amount of making in between, I cooked these delicious sticky date cupcakes with salted caramel icing one day and I made a batch of homemade laundry liquid over the weekend. I've also been making quite a few batches of yoghurt - I think I've got the hang of it now.

There's been some good mail, I bought some of this great Julia Rothman print Type to make something with (must use stash!) and my Society6 tshirt print came, modelled here (under sufferance) by Miss A. I like it and the quality's great, must print some more of these.

So there, that's what I've been doing, what about you? What have you been doing? How is the new year treating you?

Hey and guess what!? I have a lovely surprise for you all (a surprise for me too!). Tomorrow I'm posting the first of this year's Show & Tell interviews, number 31 in fact!

To tell the truth I wasn't sure I'd keep the series going this year, its a bit of work on top of everything else and I was thinking maybe I needed a break. But when it came to it, I'm really proud of the series and I love all the wonderful bloggers I've featured, so I'm not quite ready to quit. So come back tomorrow and meet another inspiring blogger!

And if you have any ideas about other bloggers you'd like to see in this space, I'd love some suggestions, tell me and I'll see what I can do.

my creative space - shibori

2013-02-13T12:59:00.002+11:00

I'm early with my creative space this week, I couldn't wait to share. On Saturday I finally got to a Shibori workshop which is something that I've been wanting to do for ages. Somehow though the workshops always clashed with other commitments. Even better it was held at Koskela, a great new creative showroom space in Rosebery which shares digs with a big cafe called Kitchen by Mike and Megan Morton's The School.

This great workshop was run by professional textile artists Karen and Pepa of Shibori. They took time to talk about the history of shibori and explain some different methods of resist techniques, made up the vat of indigo dye and then turned us loose on the fabric!

The three techniques we got to play with were:
Arashi - pole wrapping shibori
Kumo - spiderweb (the circles)
Itajime - shape resist

Shibori is a surface dye which means that only the parts on the outside, in contact with the dye solution will dye at full strength. So the pattern is composed of different shades of blue against white depending on which areas are covered.

Here are some photos from the day, one of my lovely friends Janet and Marg holding up their kumo shibori, and even a (rare) photo of me with mine. I loved Marg's square itajime print which she made at the last minute, the square pattern up top. The effect of the dye on the dry fabric was wonderful. I also loved the pole wrapped singlet top that one of the girls made, the picture below mine. Actually there were lots of great results on the day, and lots of oohing and aahing as some of the prettier effects were revealed.

At the end of the lesson the three of us bought a dye kit to make up our own vat. I can't wait to play more with this fascinating technique. The great thing about Shibori is the random way the different variables come together for a unique result. Unwrapping each fabric parcel is a wonderful surprise.

After the workshop we queued up to have lunch at Kitchen by Mike. Luckily this slow cooked Lamb Tagine with couscous was worth the wait. Add in a little stop at Remnants Warehouse (just around the corner) on the way home and you have a perfect day!

Thank you to everyone who entered the Planner Giveaway, and Personal Planners for giving us such a great prize. The winner chosen by the old reliable random number peeps is Carly from the Crafted by Carly blog. In a nice coincidence I see she has a Donna Hay giveaway going on now, so if you missed out why not try your luck over there.

my creative space - yellow

2013-02-07T15:37:00.003+11:00

This week has been about yellow and I've been seeing it everywhere. D and J are house captains this year for their school house which is imaginatively called Yellow! I used the excuse to get a bit of crafting on with a big painted banner, and then even managed to slip in a bit of bunting which made it along to the carnival too (yes, I somehow resisted floral patterns).

Who knew bunting was so easy, and so addictive. Well most of the internet is the answer to that! Somehow though I had never managed to get round to making it. Fear not, I'm sure there is more in my future.

I am proud to say that all materials for the banner and bunting came from the stash. The fabric was recycled from an old cotton curtain and painted with acrylic paints from the craft box. The boys helped me fill in the lettering and paint the rays which we traced from large print outs.

I'm not sure how the paint would survive any rain, but luckily the day was perfect, sunny and bright, but not too hot. Fingers crossed the Athletics day is equally fine.

It was most rewarding when Yellow house got six extra points for their cheering which the teacher said was because she liked their banner! Three cheers for crafting!

I am joining in for the first time this year with My Creative Space which lives over here.

And don't forget to enter the Planner Giveaway which is open till Monday. I meant to say that the planner comes as a gift voucher so you could always gift it to someone if you don't need a planner yourself.

p.s. the fishy there on the right is the surprise visitor from last year, who surprised me again last week when I found he'd changed from his boring brown to this lovely orangey yellow colour. His sister is still drab so I will be watching closely to see if she changes too. Its funny because when I first discovered them I was checking often to see if they would change but they waited till I was away to do it!

p.p.s. Like many of you I am sending some special love today to our friend Cam, a lover of bright colours like these yellows!