Kangaroo

Garments are the main reason I sew. They can be both creative and practical. So satisfying. But sometimes a completely impractical project comes along that makes me all
I AM SO HAPPY I CAN SEW!
SEWING ROCKS!
FABRIC IS AWESOME!
I LOVE MY STASH!
and so on.

This Sunday morning just past found me pottering around at the sewing machine, when Clem approached.
"Mama, I want to make something with you."
"Mmmhmm... what?"
"A toy."
"Okay, well you go and design something and we'll see." (Put ball in his court and be non-committal.)
And then he came back with this.

"It's a mummy kangaroo, and those are the two babies sliding down her back, and that's her patch (pouch)."
And if, as his indulgent mother, I may say aaagh! CUTE! you will understand I was rendered helpless, and it looked like I was helping make a toy.

YAY SEWING! etc.

I cut and sewed and Clem stuffed. We agreed that the pouch and babies might be a little difficult for now. And, voila. Corduroy-and-felt kangaroo.

(I'm afraid Clem's panda hoodie is a bit small on him now, but he still loves it. 

Might have to make a new one.)

He might stay there if I tie these leaves really tightly around his neck....

Kangaroo had a nice day outside.

- Jane x

plans to reality

There's been a lot of making going on so far these school holidays!

We watched a fabulous documentary called 'Being Elmo', about Kevin Clash who is Elmo's, you know, very close friend. He was devoted to puppetry from a young age and eventually went to work with his hero Jim Henson.

Charlie and Jasper were inspired to make their own puppets. Charlie's fox was 99.9% made by himself. I helped him unpick something at one point and he said to me "don't do too much!" so I made sure to step back and let him go!

While Jasper needed a bit more help, I prodded him to just give it a try and he gained more confidence. As I write, one octopus leg has just fallen off, so he's learning more about patience and hand sewing technique right now, heheh.

It's exciting watching them now at an age when they have accomplished basic skills and can now use them to make their visions come to life.

Hmm, what with all this facilitation of boy-creativity, there hasn't been a lot of room for my own. I did make some shorts for Jasper though. To my scaled-up Oliver + S Sketchbook Shorts pattern, in hemp & organic cotton left over from my Poppy Tunic, with a bit of topstitching interest.

Oh yes and here's another little puppet Jasper made before the more ambitious ones began. It's a dragon called Alistair:

Those little sticks to work his arms are sparklers! I'm not too sure about the toxicity of handling those a lot. Hmm.

One week of school holidays down, one to go. Then I will have three boys at school!

- Jane x

things we did not invite

That's a chicken louse being identified under a microscope. I realised the chooks had mites (red poultry mites) after seeing some on my hands after reaching into nests, and on eggs. And after cleaning out the chookyard and beginning treatments, I found this uninvited guest almost down my cleavage. Ack! Double parasitic whammy!

The girls are fortunately still looking in fine heath, although one has been laying on the ground rather than in the nest which is probably because the mites lie there in waiting. Little creeps.

I've started with a big cleanout of the yard and chookhouse. It's not very thorough however because the floors are just the earth. One reason the bugs have taken hold may be that it's been so wet and muddy, it has been hard for the girls to find a place to dust-bath.

Treatment so far has been:

• Spraying nest boxes and all timber inside chookhouse, with special attention to the perches, with a mixture of water with cedarwood, peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils. Smells great!
• Put wood ash from our fire in the yard for them to dust-bath in (they haven't touched it so far - it's meant to suffocate the mites - but at least I know what to do with our wood ash now).
• Dusting of nest boxes with Pestene, which doesn't sound too completely evil.
• Dusting a patch of chookhouse floor where the girls were dust-bathing with Pestene.
• When the girls go to sleep tonight we will creep in and give them a dusting too.

I have ordered some Diatomaceous Earth which could well be 'the new coconut oil' if its many claims are to be believed. I aim to dust that around judiciously - and not inhale - too.

This is something else uninvited. It's chickweed and it's everywhere in our garden at this time of year. But thanks to Tricia at Little Eco Footprints, I view it with new appreciation because it's quite a tasty delicate little green and meant to be very nutritious too. I've been munching little pieces here and there and even tried this recipe for chickweed pesto.

The verdict? Not bad, very 'grassy' which I quite like although I don't think the kids would go for it. Feeling very River Cottage with this little wild harvest!

The garden feels like it's beginning to 'wake up' from winter.

Charlie helped me with some pruning (climbing a tree and chopping at it? fun!). He's keen to cook more and made some Anzac biscuits with almost no assistance.

And I've done a wee bit of sewing. Clem wanted to make a pillowcase for his new big bed. His choice of fabric made my eyes cringe and my heart melt simultaneously. And he insisted on the buttons, which he selected with great care. He sat on my lap while I sewed.

He loves it. Therefore, so do I.

- Jane x

unintentional bonsai

One of the things I was drawn to when we bought our house twelve years ago was the number of large, mature eucalypts in the vicinity. The native birds love them and they provide good shade.

But... one of the things I love the least about our property these days is the number of large, mature eucalypts in the vicinity. They suck the moisture and nutrients out of the soil, overshadow our yards and make it very difficult to grow fruit and veggies in our garden.
Exhibit A: Blood orange tree, planted at least three years ago and fed continually with chook manure, compost and occasional conventional fruit tree fertiliser. Approximately 30cm high... more or less bonsai-ed by the effect of the neighbours' two massive eucalypts.

Exhibit B: Broccoli, grown from seed three to four months ago. And in our garden I'd kind of class this as 'vigorous':

It's a little disheartening. And wouldn't you know, I campaigned some years back to keep our large eucalypt street trees when the council wanted to replace them all with something smaller. This was before I twigged to the bonsai effect. So they are now replacing them in (very, very slow) stages and I guess the one out the front of our house will be the last to go. My own fault!

Anyway, enough on the sad garden front. I haven't sewn anything in the last week but Charlie has very quickly picked up the idea of making log cabin quilt squares.

I thought he might like to make a cushion cover out of the scraps from his quilt. With just a little basic instruction he was off and running. The idea is to make four 12-inch squares for a large cushion cover.

He's on the second square. How proud am I?

School had a 'pupil free day' yesterday (second one in three weeks right after school holidays? harumph) so I offered the boys extra pocket money to clean our car. They did an excellent job of the inside and to be fair, the outside was extremely dusty after a trip into the mallee scrub. This is after washing:

I'm choosing to regard it affectionately. That mess was made with a lot of effort and enthusiasm (and cost me $14).

- Jane x

in our neck of the woods (have you ever seen woods with a neck?)

Bits and pieces going on around here.

Clem finally, at four-and-a-half, moved into a big bed. I actually made him this quilt cover for Christmas. The bed, which was Charlie's, was waiting on the verandah for ages. It was just so hard to get excited about spending money on a mattress, but worth it for an excited 'big' little boy.

Goldie, one of our chicks that we hatched last December, laid her first egg! In fact she's the only one of the chicks we have left. That's her at the front, below.

We tried to keep our 'Blue Roo', at the back there, but he crowed all day, every day. Even if it wasn't annoying the neighbours it was driving me insane. So he's gone to a lovely home in the hills with a new flock of girls to crow for. I'm so glad we didn't have to eat him.

We've been celebrating 'Miffy's Birthday' intermittently for over a week, but no-one's really complaining about extra cake.

We also humoured Clem's desire to make 'soup' which involved him peeling and cutting up carrot and apple, which I cooked in a bit of water and he said we should blend with the "whisker".

We all had to taste it then it quietly went to the chickens. Sorry, carrot and apple.

On a grey day I spent $7 on pretties at an op-shop, which I kinda didn't need but the next day one of the boys broke a favourite plate and I contentedly thought of these new additions.

There's been a bit of snot in the house (hooray for hankies!) but today, Charlie had a productive sick-day working on the quilt that I started for him about a year ago. How massive is his hair?

And don't cats just love a work in progress?

At the rate Charlie's going we should have a quilt to show off very soon!

- Jane x

a little creepy but seasonally appropriate

Is there something a little more Halloween than Valentine about this bunny?

Today Clem said "I want to make something with you". After Jasper offered a couple of his 'making' books for inspiration, he decided on a pink bunny. Never mind that the instructions were for creating a little paint-and-ink picture out of fingerprints. He wanted a soft toy. Honestly it could be a full-time job facilitating all the making that goes on here these days. Not that I'm complaining.

We took a walk to the fabric-shop-around-the-corner because guess what, with three boys I don't have much pink in my stash. Clem tried to talk me into some expensive-looking hot pink silk embroidered with flowers. While I was looking for alternatives, he found the red heart buttons and decided they would be a heart, and the eyes. We agreed upon some pink linen and escaped before he could find any more garish embellishments. Bless his little red plastic heart.

He told me the size he wanted, gave his approval of the design, did some cutting of paper pattern pieces and stuffed the limbs and ears. I simply could not (gently) talk him out of the heart eyes on their button shank stalks so there it is.

He called this funny, wonky thing Isla, after a sweet little friend from Kindy. He's a bit fixated on her so I guess it's all fairly appropriate around Valentine's Day. Not that we really celebrate it or Clem would have any idea about it but, anyway. Maybe it's just in the air.

And then he hung it on a string of bells. Hmm.

There has been more making by the big boys from their Microcrafts book.

dog reads bedtime story to cat from micro-book

Charlie made his tiny cat a bed from a matchbox and actually knitted it a miniature blanket without any help except some instructions in a book. Then he followed some very intricate instructions to make a micro-book, traditionally bound with thread, end papers and hard cover, and very little help. He's really becoming confident of his own abilities and it's marvellous to watch.

Jasper made the little dog (Clem called it a 'little cow') and wants to make it a bowl and bone that are in the book, too. One of the best things about these Microcrafts is they use tiny scraps that we already have. They make my fingers feel all big and fumbly though!

Happy weekend.

- Jane x