Friday, September 25, 2009

With The Kids

Fabric memory game using the cardboard from a cruskets box
with squares of fabric slipped between the two layers, one with a circle cutout.
Plenty of PVA. Plenty of fun. Plenty more of these ahead of us I think.
And some fabric effergies, dolls, voodoo. For the big Misters Birthday.
So when he's at work he has us all there with him in 3d form and if i've been naughty he can stick a pin in my bottom! Simple collage cut and paste from photos, magazines, material and hand drawn and printed onto ink jet fabric paper thru an ordinary home printer. Inspiration found here.


Rainy Day

Today we woke to droplets of rain rolling down our windows.
Mushrooms abound from our own bucket growing someplace dark and warm.
One boy loves his raw, freshly twisted from its spores.

Homemade muesli made different every time depending on what is at hand.
Reminding me of the muesli my mother in law made for her father. And how after he died she gave what he had left in his home to us. It was generously packed with brazil nuts, cashews, molasses and cranberries. She dotted on him all the time in these small ways and that batch of muesli was the best version I ever had. 
And home haircuts. I lure them with lollies. They suck them too fast. I end up eating more hair than they do lolly. They've had the same old scarecrow style since they were six months and surely too young to be needing haircuts in the first instance.
They looked as if they had been fertilized from their tops, or like fluffy eagle chicks or those pantyhose faces sprouting grass. I usually end up chasing them around the house during the next day or two making subtle corrections where their patience allows. Its a kind of how-to-pretend-you-live-on-the-prairie-even-tho-you-don't- sufficiency that has had me cutting their collective heads about 32 times at an equivalent salon cost of $15 per cut (conservative) with an approximate salon saving total of around $480. That's makes me feel really good ...because I want new shoes.




mamaG Winter 09 (a retrospective round up)


Full of Beans Beanie ...a winter staple with my very own jumping Bean babies
The Srumpers Scarf ...dont get caught in the midst of a sneaky harvest without one!
Merino Fruit Picking Dress ...don't forget your basket and a ladder!
Corduroy Donkey Pants ...originally crafted for donkey riding at the Governors Bay fete. Hard wearing and soften with age just like the donkey!

Seed Box


We needed something a little bit creative and prettier to store our growing collection of seeds in. So we rustled this up, collage style with lots of  modge podge glue smeared over the top. We file the seeds in their packets (if they are bought) or old envelopes if they are gathered by hand.
The cut outs are mostly from old gardening mags we had kept for just this kind of thing. 

We've also been busy getting our seedings started off inside all manner of recyclables. specifically toilet rolls, milk cartons and takeaway coffee cups, not to mention ice block sticks used for identification. The coffee cups look really smart en masse. The repetition  brings me joy. The upside of cafes that wont pour into reusable takeaway cups. 

Speaking of which Starbucks (i know) have really cool ones that you can insert your own template into. I used a sweet picture that Noah drew for mine. 

Friday, September 18, 2009

Big Up's...





Go to these three special stores run by their passionate proprietors and I promise you will come away with wide eyes and a happy heart. Brimming with delicious goodies and divine presents for those in need of a treat, they all support the work of local craftspeople including ah hem.. mamaG!  lets play our part and show our support to help keep their beautiful businesses up and running. It would be a sad old scene without them.

Dusk is situated down poplar lane just off High St in Christchurch city central and Portico and Pocket are a leisurely stroll apart along London St in our favourite little town of Lyttleton. Get on up and get on down.