the holidays are here

Despite the fact that the weather is very much Winter-like in Melbourne today, the holidays are officially here!  I am very excited!  I am not very excited about our 15 hr drive home though.

But I have now finished every Christmas present!  Hooray!  They are all wrapped and ready to go.  I'll share some pictures of the finished products a bit later, but for today I just want to show you (finally) the finished quilt. How relieving it was to sew the last few stitches last night and know that it was finally done.  I just hope that my parents like it!

the power of the consumer

By Ole Houen

I have been thinking alot lately about the power that we have as consumers (thanks mostly to an amazing talk by Tim Costello from World Vision at Fair @ Square this past weekend).  Power that we mostly take for granted, and probably don't give too much thought to.  I've recently started paying closer to attention to the things that I buy - reading the labels of food products, thinking about organic produce, wondering where and how those clothes that are on sale are made.  I'm not being crazy about it, just curious.  And since I have started doing that I have discovered so many new things - good and bad.  I've found out that lots of organisations (particularly those big multi billion dollar producers) hide lots of things from us.  They can because we don't really think to go looking for who uses child labour or genetically modified food or underpay their staff.  It's really quite scary.

I've started to realise that I may just be one person, but that I can make a difference in this world just by choosing which company, which brand, which business gets MY business.

I don't want to get all preachy, but I do think that it's something we should all be thinking about.  Especially during this crazy season of gift buying.  We have immense power and we should use it.

If you're interested in more info, check out the Ethical Consumer Guide

music is good for the soul

Last night (for the first time in a long time) I went and saw some amazing live music.  We headed to the Northcote Social Club (on a school night no less) to see two of my all time favourite musicians - Carus and Loren.  Carus has spent most of the year overseas so it was the first time we'd seen him play for a while!  I have been following this guy around the country (not in a stalkerish way, just because we've moved alot!) for almost 10 years now.  Can you believe that?  I first came across him when he supported the John Butler Trio all those years ago.  We've seen him play in bars with only a few of us actually paying attention to now packing out the Northcote Social Club where everyone seems to know all the lyrics to all the songs.  I couldn't even guess at how many times I've seen him play.  LOTS!  It's been great watching the transition!

Going to a Carus gig is one of my most favourite things to do (and you can tell because I couldn't stop smiling all night, and because today I am bouncing around like a giddy schoolgirl).  We danced, we drank, we sung - we just generally had a good time!  It also brings back a lot of happy memories of doing just that over the years with my friends and my husband.  Such good memories!

Last night, we were doubly blessed to also have Loren playing as well.  This guy is also amazing and well worth a look!  This song is my favourite Loren song :)



It's funny how I had temporarily forgotten how much I love music, and how I didn't realise just how much I missed live music until I was there again.

Live music is definitely therapeutic and you should seek some out this weekend.   If you can't, then watch these great video clips and dance around in your living room :)

the envelope project

Do you remember the Meet Me at Mike's envelope project?  I had lots of fun putting together an envelope full of cute things and sending them off to Pip, and encouraged my little sisters to join in the fun too.

My little sister Libby (15) was one of the lucky winners (yay for Libby!) who received a big parcel full of those cute and lovely things.  She was so excited about winning.  This last weekend was the first weekend I had been back to my hometown this year so I finally got to check out Libby's stash.  And it is amazing!  I was just totally blown away by how generous people had been with their items, and also how incredibly creative people can be with items small enough to fit inside an envelope!  My sister and I had such fun looking through all of the things together and saying nothing but, "this is so cute" and "look how great this is!" and "oh I love this!" all afternoon.  We had a great idea to make up a bit of inspiration/mood board with the items and this is how it turned out:



We had so much fun doing this!  It looks so great that Libby is going to make another couple of boards to display around her room (yes, there was that much stuff!).  She's also busy making christmas cards and gift tags with some of the items too.

So I just wanted to say a big thank you to Pip for organising such a fun project and also a big thank you to all of the people who contributed such creative, inspiring, thoughtful and generous items.  You guys are awesome!

my creative space

I am in the final throes of Christmas present making and keeping my fingers well and truly crossed that I have left myself enough time.  Why did I choose projects that require so much hand sewing?!  Why?!

This is the almost completed table runner  and you can see my almost completed quilt in the background there too.  At the moment I am handstitching the binding on both projects. I tell you what, I am a slip stitching queen!  I still need to make the making napkins and then I believe I am done.  Phew!



I can't wait to start making some things for me again!

Happy Christmas crafting everyone, and be sure to visit kootoyoo for plenty of creative inspiration!

let's all be merry and bright

I have one of those weeks that doesn't need to be spoken about.  Ever.  Again.

So...let's talk about happy things, shall we?

After a week long wait I finally received my TOMS order and am so so happy with them.  Check out my black sparkles which have already become one of my favourite pairs of shoes:



Aren't they lovely?  They are comfy too!  If you haven't heard about TOMS and the amazing work they do, I strongly urge you to visit their website and check out their awesome range of shoes.  Their one for one philosophy surely makes for guilt-free shoe purchasing! I think a voucher would make a lovely Christmas present too, don't you think?

Tonight I am going to wave goodbye to this crappy week by putting up our Christmas tree and decorations. A little bit of Christmas spirit has to be good for the soul!