A match made in Clem-heaven

When your favourite thing to cook is gingerbread bikkies, and your favourite toy is Miffy, does it get any better than Miffy gingerbreads?

Excuse the dry lips

I bought the cutters last year and meant to give them to Clem for Christmas, but put them away 'safely' and forgot. But when he asked to make 'gingers' today I remembered and I wish I had captured the look on his face when he first saw them. Anyway, a success! They are nifty little cutters (that I bought for a ridiculously - like crazily - small amount of money on Amazon or something) where there's a second piece that both makes the print on top and pushes the dough out of the cutter.

Actually, it did get better than just making Miffy Gingers. He 'made a shop' and sold a bunch of them up on the street corner and made five dollars! (Thank you, lovely neighbours.)

- Jane x

Factory Dresses, horses and smiling coffee

Do you ever look back over your recent photos and wonder how to cobble together some sort of cohesive blog post about it all? Well, as the title above suggests I have pretty much given up on the cohesiveness. Moving right along.

This is my second version of the Merchant & Mills Factory Dress pattern. I do love me a good sack dress, and this one is quite possibly a little unflatteringly sack-ish but I rather like in anyhow and will probably wear it lots and lots. And lots. It feels so practical, yet neat.

 It's made in the most fabulous hemp/organic cotton/wool fabric that I had stashed from last year but we have just managed to get in again at The Drapery. I had 1.5m of it and had just enough for all pieces except the in-seam pockets. So I took the opportunity to use a bit of Oakshott 'Magic Pink'... ooh. Magic pockets!

You may have seen my first version of the Factory Dress, below, on The Drapery blog. I left the second version at full length, it just seemed to suit it better.

Blue Steel

This weekend past we went on a little horse ride up in the hills at Four Oaks, which was a bit completely idyllic. It was a trial run for our upcoming holiday in New Zealand (eep, yes, a holiday, and even one requiring passports!). We're booked on a trail ride into some stunning Lord of the Rings scenery and wanted to make sure the boys (Clem in particular) would be okay with it. Fortunately Clem handled it with great confidence and even got to brush his pony down and feed it a carrot at the end. Now for the other ten thousand things to tick off the list before we go!

There's the smiling coffee, as promised. Completely unintentional. I am the worst coffee 'artist' in the world.

I add in these photos because they make me laugh - oh just look at our three kids on a handmade rug outdoors enjoying a book together! I just had to capture this few seconds of wholesome harmony before it inevitably disintegrated. Isn't it funny how images of a couple of moments can give you an entirely inaccurate idea of how someone's life is? But actually, it was a nice few moments and I'll take what I can get.

- Jane x

Skywhale

Warning: ridiculously picture-heavy post! Also, giant inflatable whale boobs.

Artist Patricia Piccinini's Skywhale came to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens for the Adelaide Festival - it was about a month ago now and I'm only just getting around to posting about this beautiful day.

The Skywhale was a massive, gorgeous, peaceful presence and the weather seemed to embrace her with mild sun and stillness. When we could tear ourselves away from the giant air-mammal, we set off to explore the new wetlands that have been built in a reclaimed piece of land right next to the gardens. Here, stormwater is being collected and filtered and stored as a resource to supply the water needs of the gardens; it is hoped that within a few years, it will be enough to water the whole gardens.

These are the kinds of things that make me hopeful for my children's future. Heaven knows there's enough to feel sad and angry about in our country right now. Sorry to wax political. I Marched in March. But I want to keep my eyes, and my heart, on the positive things, too.

Hmm... that ended up being a bit more than pretty pictures and hot-air boobies, didn't it?

- Jane x