{ Happy Friday }

Lovely weekend ahead.

Above photo via MadeByGirl

{ First sign of Spring }

It's nearly August and the first daffodils are starting to bloom here at Ythanbrae.

In Autumn I planted a hundred daffodil bulbs all down our driveway and along the front fence, after some heavy frosts about 2/3's have survived and are now poking their little heads out to say hello! Bring on spring, I'm sick of foggy mornings and chilly nights.

{ Crafty Workings }

What my life looked like on the weekend...fabric, minky, canvas, unpainted letters.

New black minky dot fresh off the bolt! Yay!

The 'Ethan' canvas is one I've been working on for awhile in a bid to have more canvas's for boys - and I am loving the Michael Miller Silly Circles fabric! Very bright and pops right off the black background. As usual all these creations will soon be in my etsy shop if not already.

{ Tuesday's Object of Desire }

This week's object of desire is from Sydney girl's Dandi - and dandi indeed they are! Very cool ironing board covers, table linen and homewares. Aussie domestic goddesses at their best. Their bamboo range I am particularly fond of - this chopping board has a cute bird on it, I'm a sucker for a cute bird motif!

Check out their website here or their blog here.

And yes, I know it's Wednesday not Tuesday - blame Little Miss Emma's dreaded day job, boo hiss day job!

{ Meet Tessa }

I thought it about time I introduce my little 'ruff ruff' Tessa. Isn't she cute? She spends most of her time asleep in her little kennel Matt made her, running around with Matt's working dogs thinking she can round up cattle or asleep in front of the fire. Ah it's a dogs life...

{ Happy Friday }

An image to end the week on.

This ad from Bianca Lorenne pretty much sums up the style I want the cottage to be...this week anyway!

{ Bathroom Beauty }

This bathroom is pretty much my dream bathroom, it is from the beautiful home of Tracey Leigh. Her whole house is amazingly gorgeous, have a look at it on the inspiring blog decor8 as well as Tracey's blog for her interior design company Homeleigh Vintage. I love artwork in a bathroom, and don't even get me started on my obsession with claw foot baths.

I am having a bit of a bathroom obsession in general at the moment actually. As I am trying to re-invent our little cottage, I am going to try and go room by room, but as we don't own it there is a fine line between spending too much money on somewhere we won't be forever, and making it feel our own. I've got my eye on our little bathroom and ways I can spruce it up. We don't have a bath, just a shower and big vanity with ugly blue tiles I can't change. Any tips on renter decorations for bathrooms would be much appreciated!

I would love to have double sinks but obviously not a reality at the moment - but what about double mirrors? I like the idea of me having a feminine mirror and Matt having his own, but not sure if this will work with the vanity only having one sink. Would that look funny? Or asymetrically okay? The double mirror inspiration above is from blogger extraordinaire Anna Spiro's beautiful bathroom.

{ Ava turns one }

My little niece Ava Josephine turns one today. Happy birthday!

{ Tuesday's Object of Desire }

Every Tuesday I will be posting an 'object of desire' that I find inspiring, beautifully made, creative or am just generally drooling over! I hope not to feature an etsy item each week, as I find so many other inspiring bits and pieces all over the web and through other blogs and I think etsy sometimes gets enough airtime, but you know how it is - easily get lost on etsy and hard to find your way out the other side!

So the first cab off the rank is this delightful tea-cup pincushion. How cute is it? I love the combination of all the different colours and prints, a mish-mash of gorgeousness. It is from the very talented tozieandteal, stop by the etsy shop for a black and white version if you're not a pink kind of girl, or if you're not the sewing kind of girl it's a great way to hold earrings and whatnot - AND the best part is it's made from recycled scrap fabrics - I love it!

I plan to feature mostly little trinkets in Tuesday's Object of Desire, but who knows what will take my fancy...

{ Hessian Obsession }

Perhaps a throw back to my potato farming roots (I grew up on a potato farm) but I am having a bit of an afinity with all things hessian or burlap of late. I really want to get one of these gorgeous burlap French-inspired cushions when we - eventually - get a new couch. And how cute are the hessian cuffs? I love the combination of something so rustic with the elegant pearls - a great marriage.

A lot of the grain, coffee, peanut or potato sack creations on etsy that are made into bags, cushions, placemats or table runners are vintage American though. I would love to get a retro Australian burlap to make something, but need it to be not too harsh or bristly as I know modern-day hessian bags are. Something worn, softer, thinner and lighter would be great, if only I could find it...
And the bunting, from coastline. Who doesn't love bunting - let alone when it's this pretty? Lovely.

Top photo via Heather Bullard for Rose Carey

{ Lacy Delights }

Some new creations that came out of this Sunday afternoon. All are listed (or soon will be) in my etsy shop. The little romper onesie I made ages ago and found amongst other things in my crazy clean-up of all my craft things.

P.S. What a difference a few days can make...turns out my 'rapport' with Archie is not so great after all - I came off badly on Saturday and now have a big gash on my head and sore muscles everywhere! Back to the drawing board I think, although I have to get back on the horse!

{ Our cottage... }

Just some images from around our cottage from this weekend...

I will be posting some new creations soon!

{ Happy Friday }

This weekend will have me (hopefully) doing a lot of sewing, a lot of cleaning and a lot of wading through fabric and what-not to try and get organised - my new-financial-year-resolution. All of this inbetween babysitting the boys, Monty and Oscar, who I look after every now and then, and finding time to ride my poor neglected horse, Archie, who in winter I just can't find the daylight hours to ride.

Archie was my present from Matt last year for my 22nd birthday - he was literally on his way to the knackery when we got him! He had the worst feet anyone had ever seen on a horse, he was so emotionally drained from his two previous owners, but he so very eager to please me. After a few sessions with a horse trainer, countless hours getting to know me on the ground before on his back, and not to mention getting his feet back on track which involved taking his shoes off, going on a special diet and have regular trims from the 'barefoot blacksmith' - Archie has turned out to be a great little noble steed. He is part-Arab so is very smart, very tough and nice and slight for me to ride. All of this sounds like a lot of work and I've had a lot of people tell me to give up on him, but it has been so rewarding rehabilitating him and now he is so very affectionate towards me, we have a great rapport and is a real little spunk!

Tally-ho!

{ Front page! }

I was ECSTATIC to hear that my blue minky/red polka dots blanket made the front page of Etsy! How exciting! Although it is yet to sell...I didn't think I would make it to the front page for a long time so this is definitely the highlight of my week. Go me!

{ Tag, you're it! }

My littlest niece Ava turns one soon (awwww). Seems like only yesterday Matt and I were making the montruous pilgrimage to Brisbane in anticipation of her birth, then quickly met her and her poor drained mother in hospital before dashing home again to start our first calving at Ythanbrae, babies of our own!

But oh what to get a second-child, second-daughter for that matter, for their first birthday? She already has all the toys under the sun, and any beautiful wooden toys, books etc. I have already given to her big sister Scarlett for birthday's, so Ava will no doubt play with them soon. So I settled on the boring clothes option. Boring you say? Oh no - I found the CUTEST little denim pinafore on etsy (where else?) from Squirt Baby. My mum used to dress me and my sister Louise in identical denim pinafores she made with red skivvies, red tights and shiny black patent Mary-Janes when we were little. We of course thought this was horrendous, but this little creation from the talented Fiona was SO reminiscent of that for me that I couldn't resist. Albeit minus the 80's acidwash denim that we had to endure...

To make to whole experience even greater, Fiona is a Melbournian etsian! What a pleasurable find, and yes I do believe that any purchase/sale on etsy is absolutley an experience, that's what makes it such a great outlet/concept.

P.S. I will post a photo hopefully of Ava in her pinafore, although I don't think it will fit her for awhile yet...she is a huge baby so I figured I couldn't buy her a size 1 but size 2 might not fit until summer. Perhaps Scarlett just scored herself a tunic top to wear until little sister Ava grows a bit?

{ They all come home to roost... }

I got to work Monday morning to open up a facebook message from my sister's boyfriend in London. My sister Louise was due to fly back to London from a six month stint working in the jungles of Madagascar (she is a research scientist of sorts). Due to visa stipulations she was turned around at Heathrow and promptly put on the next flight back to Melbourne! Thank heavens she wasn't sent back to where she came from (Nairobi, Kenya) where the Australian consulate would have had to sort the whole mess out, and she would have been detained in a Kenyan jail no doubt.

I haven't seen Lou in almost two years - the last time she was home was for my 21st bithday as a surprise guest appearance, and since then I have graduated from uni, moved to Ythanbrae with Matt and have a whole new life she's not used to. We both used to be uni students in Melbourne, she half expects me to be at the ready for an impromtu coffee break or midnight burger run but alas I now live a few hours away. She is also yet to meet two of our four nieces who have been born since she was last on Oz soil!

This photo is of us and Matt at Wilsons Prom in October 2007, the last time I saw her. I am going home to Thorpdale this Friday to see her - can't wait!

{ Minky blankets and other things on the go... }

Today had me sewing up a storm and covering canvas with my new arrival of fabrics. This minky blanket I made (and is for sale on my etsy shop ), I love the combination of red and sky blue, and not just for boys, although it is conjuring up a pirate/nautical boys nursery for me...

The red polka dots I have used before for a peg board I made for my friend Ange's little baby girl, Saskia. I think it's a great print for funky little girls whose mothers are so sick of pink, pink and more pink! I did make Ange a lovely hot pink and black minky blanket as well for Sassy but didn't take a photo of it I'm afraid. Will definately be making more though! The peg boards like Saskia's are in the works to go up in my etsy shop for sale, under construction at the moment. Story of my life!

I did however make this personalised canvas (not a peg board one though) this weekend. It's also for sale in my etsy shop, and can be made with any name up to six letters, and can be painted blue or red or any colour really! I just am having a slight black, white and hot pink obsession at the moment.

{ Back to reality... }

The holiday is over...after an unexpected extension to visit friends of friends who run a 120,000 acre station in south west NSW. From tropical paradise to outback adventures - and now back to the daily grind.

I haven't had much time to update etsy listings or do much about anything really, but this weekend I am hoping to get stuck into some minky blankets after my highly anticipated packages arrived with new minky! I am getting inspired to make some little denim or cord pinafores for my nieces or to sell on etsy also after finding some old patterns. I will put photos up of whatever comes out of this weekend!