Handmade delights for giving

Are you by any chance looking for some delightful handmades to give to a loved one this Christmas? If you are, I may just have something for you, but you'll have to order this week, especially if you want something custom made to arrive in time for Christmas. 

Here's what I've got for you:

P&E gift certificates - these are handmade by me (of course!) using reclaimed kids' books and cereal boxes (lovingly saved for me by my nana). You give them to your friend/lover/mum/sister/daughter, they feel happy, email me, and we have a chat about fabric and colour choices then I make them a skirt. Just for them. They feel good in it, it fits them perfectly, because it was custom made, and it's special, I tell you. $70 (this includes postage of the card and the finished skirt)

If you want to buy someone a ready made skirt all I have left at present is this beautiful turquoise Birds  of Tasmania wrap 'n go. It's about a 12-14, and it's awesome. $50

Crocheted stubby holders are crazy good, handy and pretty unique. I'm into granny-ing them at the moment but I can do whatever. $12 each

Crocheted heart hair clips. Sweet as! $10/pair

Crocheted flower bangles. These are made using the rings that come off yoghurt and Vegemite jars and 100% hand-spun, hand-dyed wool. And they look awesome with some redpeg ecostudio recycled silver bangles too! (Dirty gardening hands optional). $15 for a set of 3

That's what I've got in stock, which I can send out tomorrow. If you email a custom order to me this week I could probably get it to you in time for Christmas, but you'll have to act fast! 

I hope your Christmas/holiday/gift-giving time is a handmade extravaganza!!!

For the love of Niki and David

Last weekend I had the absolute honour of being present at the wedding of my beautiful friend Niki and her beloved David. As you may know, I'm quite partial to the old wedding celebration, but this one was extra-super-special and extra-super-loved-up, partly because Niki's one of the most beautiful people I've ever met, and partly because Niki and David have waded through a ton of heartbreak and tragedy this year, so a celebration of their enduring love was a pretty special thing to be a part of.

David in classic tux, Annie in brand-new hair and Niki in vintage pink

But what to make for such an amazing occasion? To be honest, I actually suffered from quite extreme crafter's block on this one. It seemed like there was nothing I could possibly make that could convey my feelings about their wedding and about them as individuals and how much I love them. I was stumped.

But I kept coming back to an image I had from a story Niki had told me about how much Lucien loved watching birds and leaves moving in the sunlight. While Niki and David's wedding was obviously about Niki and David, it was also beautifully and oh so poignantly about their little Lucien, so my wedding gift to them needed to honour him in some way.

And so I set to work crocheting them a little Lucien-love-bird, and I thought of him, and them, with every stitch I made and yes, many tears were shed.

The yarn was bought from an awesome "one-woman, one-cat" yarn and fibre studio based in Melbourne called Yarn vs Zombies and is hand-dyed in a colour scheme called 'outback rainbow', which just totally reminded me of Niki.

The lichen twig is from our land, and the heart was cut from a piece of wool felt which was shorn, dyed and felted by our friend Tabitha, using wool from her sheep.

It was important for me to not only hand make them a gift, but to include lots of things that had a personal connection to us and our land. I don't see Niki nearly as much as I'd like to, on account of the combined tyranny of distance and busy lives, so I like to give her little bits and pieces of 'me'. Also, Niki and I spent some super-fun and super-treasured times camping on the land (and hanging farm-gates in the rain with nothing more than a bush-saw and a ton of determination) long before we'd even moved to Bega.

I also made them a little crochet-monogram-wedding-cushion, like Jemima and Bhavani's (to be honest, I think this is going to be a wedding gift tradition from me from here on in) but I strangely forgot to take a photo of it before I gave it to them. 

But let's face it: the bird is really the main event, though it's only a teeny-tiny and, quite frankly, profoundly inadequate representation of the immense love and admiration I have for Niki and David: YOU. GUYS. ROCK. And I love you to bits.

And happy happy birthday crochet

There's been a bit of a flurry of birthdays of late, and, in celebration, I've been crocheting up a storm. 

The first crocheted gifts to emerge from the bonanza were these 2 little dragons for 2 of the sweetest little boys I know, Max and Evan, who recently turned 7. It's hard to get a sense of the size of them (the dragons, not the boys. The boys are normal 7 year old size) from the picture (when I found the pattern online I thought they'd turn out to be quite big), so I should say that these little fellas pretty much fit in the palm of your hand, which is pretty darn cute. I was really happy with how they turned out, and was relieved to hear that there was no issue with the fact that the green dragon was a little smaller, on account of me using different yarn. They were both 8 ply, made form the same pattern, using the same hook, but I guess the fluffiness of the blue mohair made it a bit bigger. The boys love their dragons, and have been sleeping with them every night. Success.

Next up was this giraffe for a little person called Iris, who, according to Olive has "sensational hair". Iris loves soft toys and giraffes, and has named this crocheted friend Gingerbread. Awesome. The pattern for this giraffe is pretty simple (good for a beginner), and turns out a pretty cute, cuddly little gift, though someone really needs to tell the lady who wrote it how to use apostrophes correctly.

 Last, but definitely not least, I made a frog dissection model for my brother.

When I found this pattern, I was super excited. What's not to love about a crocheted frog that you can open up and take the guts out of?? But I knew that not just any old person would appreciate such a gift, so I chose my target carefully, knowing full well that my bro is as much of a sicko as me when it comes to this stuff, so would give the frog the reverence it deserved.

The frog, and  its innards, were a little more complex than the giraffe and the dragons, but I believe the result was well worth it. I even labeled all the guts so my bro could properly identify everything when he 'dissected' the frog. It's true that a crocheted spleen may not be immediately recognisable, even to the most seasoned biological scientist.

As I said in my card to him "if spending hours crocheting tiny frog innards doesn't say 'I love you', I don't know what does".

But even if it's not frog innards you're inclined to crochet, spending hours making anything for someone always says 'I love you' in a way a bought present just can't. Go forth and create, people!

Happy happy wedding day

One of the things I love love love about this blogging bizzo is the connections that can be made with people from all over the place. Sometimes, what may seem like 'random' connections, then turn out to be kind of crazy coincidence types, as in the case of Jemima and Bhavani. Turns out Bhavani had been quietly reading our blog for quite some time from the comfort of their babe lair in Melbourne. Then, when we started writing about our chickens, she realised that her partner Jemima's dad actually helped set up our little abattoir! Kooky and cool!

So we started a little email back and forth friendship, and when I was sick, they made and sent the most beautiful apron, lovingly hand-embroidered with the words 'get well' on the inside of the waist band. 

It is seriously the best apron - sunshiny, giant ric-rac, cute buttons, looks great with legwarmers and dogs - and with the most massive big pocket in front. When I wear it, which is often, it's filled with all kinds of things - scissors, bits of yarn and thread, things I've harvested from the garden (banana passionfruits make an excellent snack for keeping in the apron pocket, let me tell you). It makes me SO HAPPY to wear it because it's beautiful, practical, and was made for me, by hand, with love, by 2 people I'd never even met before. Restores a bit of the faith in human kindness, that kind of thing...

When Jemima and Bhavani contacted us to see if we'd supply chickens for their wedding feast, we were thrilled! I love weddings! And I especially love weddings for people who care enough about the providence of their food that they'll get their wedding-feast-chook from our little farm. Go girls!

So we grew the chickens nice and fat for them, and then Jemima came up to visit the chickens and we finally met, and she brought me the most amazing hat (immediately a firm favourite), which had been knitted for me by her mum. Wow! And yay for making friends through blog-world!

The chickens, just so you know, were processed and portioned at the abattoir, with Jemima's dad watching over the proceedings. When they'd been portioned (cut into drumsticks, breasts etc) they were vac-bagged with some of Jemima's special marinade, so when the day came, they could just be squeezed out onto the barbecque. Neat idea, eh?

Because I love craft, and I love weddings, I of course had to make these lovely girls a little something for their day. The answer, (as always, these days) came in the form of some crochet. A Moogly Alphabet monogrammed cushion with pom-pom trim, to be precise. (Though less than one minute after this photo was taken, Violet Tiny-Dog Von Hungry-Face pulled off 2 of the pom-poms. Grrr...)

And I can tell you now there's likely to be a whole lot more crochet monogramming going on - those little guys are SO FUN to make! The little love heart came from Meet Me at Mike's.

I also made them a mix CD of (in my opinion) super-cool love songs, also monogrammed with pink glitter letters. Why not?

So here's to you Jemima and Bhavani - I hope your day today and your life forever is magical and special and ridiculously loved-up.

Craft really is the answer to everything

The day I found out I was going to have to have a mastectomy, I came straight home and started googling crochet patterns for prosthetic breasts. When I told our dear and beautiful friend Ruth this story, she laughed and said: "I love the way you think Annie - craft really is the answer to everything". This phrase has now become something of an ongoing in-joke around these parts, mostly because it's just kind of partly true! Craft (if you're craftily inclined), in times of crisis, can be soothing, mind-centring, distracting, pro-actively-taking-control-of-an-otherwise-crap-situation, beautiful, calming, fun, satisfying and (maybe my favourite) productive. Is that not COOL???

In the midst of all the medicalised insane-ness going on in our own family's lives at the moment, Ruth's beautiful family has also been wading through some pretty crazy intense medicalised crap of their own, involving her 7 year old daughter Edie. Now let's just say right here that Edie is a trooper. She's a friggin cool, smart, sassy kid, and we miss her. Because of the fact that she is cool, smart and sassy (and has pretty much the BEST parents in the world EVER) I know that she's going to learn from and grow with her particular situation, and come out tougher and cooler. She just will. Coz she's awesome.

But we wanted to send her a love package in the mail to cheer her up, distract her, and let her know we're thinking of her and we love her.

 In case you didn't realise, love packages are THE BEST and I strongly encourage you to send one to someone you love TOMORROW. We usually include: something handmade in the craft category, something handmade in the food category, some reading material, some music, and whatever else we find lying around at time of parcel assembly that we believe will tickle the recipient. Package carefully and well, and decorate the box nicely, then send it on its way.

Edie's a reader, like our Olive, so her love package is full of books she (hopefully) hasn't read yet, recommended by Olive. And I also made her a pair of reading gloves.

Reading gloves are my crocheted take on driving gloves. For some reason, in my mind, driving gloves are very sophisticated, glamorous things, fingerless, made from soft stuff like 'kid leather', and held together with little buckles and neat buttons. If you're very fancy, your driving gloves are monogrammed or personalised in some other nifty way. I'm vaguely attracted to them for the same reason I love sailing ships: I'm a highly imaginative person who has read way too many novels, resulting in romantic attachments to ideas, concepts and objects I actually know nothing about. 

Given that Edie is a reader, not a driver, I wanted to make her some reading gloves, which she could wear while sitting up in bed devouring novels, to keep her hands warm while also allowing her to turn the page with ease. And I wanted them to have all the (possibly made-up) things I love about (my idea of) driving gloves. 

The answer? Crocheted fingerless mitts, made appropriately in Edie's favourite colours, adorned with neat little buttons and personalised with a Scrabble 'E'.

I didn't have a pattern for the gloves, so made it up, embellishing with scalloped edges. While everything started relatively well (I remembered to count the stitches in my initial chain so that the gloves would be the same size) I forgot to write down several other things I did on the first glove, so the second glove is a little bit different. But I was still pretty happy with how they came out. They're basically just tubes, with little thumb holes and scalloped edges. If you're a beginner crocheter, I reckon they'd be an excellent first (or second) project - I'm sure you could find a pattern for some online, though I'm more into improvisation myself...

So Edie, lovely girl, here's to you and your amazing awesomeness. While the reality of being thrust into scary and potentially overwhelming medical situations is not so great, you will be OK. You are so so loved. I hope you like your gloves. May your warm-handed novel-reading lead to a rich and fulfilling life full of highly-romanticised and possibly not very accurate ideas about things. Always better than the real thing. 

As modeled by Miss Olive

Number nine

Yesterday, the day after my first chemo treatment, was Pearl's and my ninth wedding anniversary.

I wasn't much up for celebrating, having been intravenously poisoned for 6 hours on Tuesday, so we didn't mark the occasion, other than to happily, though wearily, acknowledge the day and how happy we are to be together. Oh and of course, there was a little gift-giving of the RedPeg variety.

The thing about having an eminently talented jewellery-crafter as a good friend is that pretty much every single gift-giving opportunity calls for a glorious visit to a glorious shop. After much deliberation, I selected one of Gab's perfectly imperfect recycled silver bangles, and brainstormed how to personalise it for the anniversary occasion. We decided on stamped letters - A's and G's - randomly scattered on one side of the bangle, with two O's hidden in there for good measure. And Gab even let me stamp them myself, as Olive pottered away at Gab's work bench, which was kind of fun and exciting as I'd never done anything like that before.

It was nice to be chatting away there in the beauty of the studio, working and just thinking about the event being commemorated by the piece, admiring all of Gab's amazing trinkets and artworks, distracting myself from the terror that was chemo-eve.

Pearl and I had our wedding party at the Bundanoon Youth Hostel in 2005. It was a beautiful, fun, joyful day of emotion and deep love and happiness (a little bit more on this, and some pics, here). I love remembering that day - what it meant and continues to mean for us, how each year's passing, and each acknowledgement and remembrance of the day allows us (yes, even amidst the tumult of cancer scariness) a moment to pause and consider and be thankful for the life we have together which has grown, at least in part, from the words we said and the commitment we made on that day.

We had no "sickness and in health" in our vows, but we didn't need to. We've both seen each other at our lowest ebbs, and we've both pulled each other through with tenderness and love and as much strength as we can muster. I'm hoping that this experience of mine - a mastectomy and months of chemo - will mark a low point that we don't have to return to. But even if we do, I know it'll be OK. Because when you find someone who you can get through the shit with, and not just survive but also end up more in love than before the shit, you know you're on a good thing.

A few weeks ago, my grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Here I am, so elated at celebrating number nine, I can't even imagine how rewarding and satisfying it must be to look back over 60 years of joy and love and sadness and brilliance and big downs and utter crappiness and super-unmatched-awesomeness, all with the chosen person by your side. Something to look forward to, I say.

And in the mean time, all I can do is (literally) sit back and watch in wonder and awe as this lady I chose soldiers on through the shittiness of our current situation, tending chickens and dogs and ducks from dawn til dusk, feeding our family, loving our kids, and looking after me in all my bald, one-boobed messiness with a big smile on her face and so much love in her heart. I have to try hard not to wonder: How did I get to be so lucky?

A handmade wedding ring, a handmade anniversary bangle and a bunch of nasturtiums.

** For those of you not lucky enough to be living in the gorgeous Bega Valley with close proximity to RedPeg ecostudio, you can purchase Gab's creations online, or visit her at the upcoming Finder's Keepers Market in Sydney on the 6th and 7th of June. Make no mistake, RedPeg jewellery is the real deal - recycled silver, handcrafted, one-of-a-kind jewellery, which is TOTALLY beautiful and lovely to wear, and makes the most EXCELLENT gift for loved ones of all shapes and sizes.

A good lookin' chook, some artichokes and a champion champers...

About a week ago, our preparations for the Bega Show began. We'd gotten the show schedules a few weeks ago, and spent hours poring over them, circling the categories we thought we'd enter: Crochet, patchwork, papier mache, dinosaur garden, flower arrangement in an egg cup, preserving of all varieties, beer, wine, yoghurt, eggs, decorated arrowroots, photography, drawing, a useful item made from baling twine (yes - it's a real category) and, of course, junior soft feather bantam.

We'd resolved that we'd enter in order to contribute to the beautiful display in the pavilion, and that it wasn't about winning... But that didn't stop me from jumping up and down when I saw that my rhubarb and raspberry champagne had won champion wine of the show!!!! 

Wooohooooo!!! I got a ribbon!!!! If it hadn't been locked in the cabinet in the pavilion, I would have worn it like a sash as I walked around the show.

It's true we did have some successes - Pearl got a first for her preserved (home-grown!) globe artichokes, second for her plum jam and yoghurt. I got first for my lager, baling-twine shopping bag, and champagne, and second for my crocheted stubby holder (yesssssss!). 

Fluffy rainbow stubby holder takes the cake in the novice crochet section

Olive's 'baby' Errol, got second in the junior soft feather bantam category, and Olive's papier mache and photography also got some second prizes. 

Olive and Errol in the poultry pavilion. In the words of the judge: "Yeeaaah... He's a good lookin' chook this one". What more is there to say?

Olive's award-winning photo of Oscar, taken on a late-evening roadside raspberry-foraging expedition

Not that it was all winning - we did have some entries that didn't get a mention, but it was really great to see them all there in the display. It's really exciting to walk the pavilion and look at the entries, and check out which friends have won in different categories. 

While it does make an unusual, fetching, sturdy and award-winning shopping bag, crocheting baling twine is not an easy project.

The kids got a real kick out of  seeing their entries, and didn't seem bothered at all when they didn't win anything. They were just excited to be on display, for all the community to see. And one of my favourite things about the show is that it really is pretty much all of the community who get involved. The old farming families, the newbies, like us, the kids from all walks of life all get out and about on show weekend, checking it all out.

But even more than seeing our entries, we all just loved being at the show, meeting up with friends and generally hanging out. The kids made their own fun, running off in a pack and sliding down a grass bank on pieces of cardboard for (literally) hours on end, while we all waited for the grand finale - the smash up derby. We ate (thanks Vickie!) and drank and chatted and laughed and people-watched. It felt like half of Bega was there that night - all the different worlds of Bega, coming together for a very unlikely spectacle. We felt very happy to be a part of it, ribbons or no ribbons.

The kids were super-serious about decorating their arrowroots, and even more serious about eating them after the show.

Hilary's growing frock and spiced mandarins

Yesterday was a beautiful day. It was sunny, but not too hot, and I spent the morning sewing and preserving. What fun!

Preserved mandarin segments in spiced syrup

First up was a dress for Hilary, who needed something to see her through all the gigs she has booked in the lead-up to the birth of her second child.

She was after a simple A-line dress with capped sleeves that she could wear on stage, sometimes over jeans, and then layer up as the weather gets cooler. Oh, and of course the dress needed pockets, as all the best frocks have.

vintage floral pockets

The result is a bias-cut A-line dress, cut extra wide in the front, but with a tie at the back so that it can grow as required, and then be pulled back in once the bubba is born. The brown spotty is the last of a queen size quilt cover I picked up at some stage, that has seen me through quite a lot of sewing projects. I love the irregular polka-dot! The dress has doily cap sleeves (thanks Zara!) and pockets from a vintage floral print. 

doily sleeves and stripey bias binding

Turns out that Hilary and I are exactly the same size, so I got to try the dress on to make sure it was alright. I checked I could fit a pretty big bump in the front (yes!) and then contemplated keeping it for myself, as I very often do when I make something I particularly like for a similar-sized lady. 

Tie at the back to make it just the right size, all through the growing

Once the dress was all done, I set to work preserving some mandarins that came our way recently. Last week sometime we came home to a big bag full of mandarins sitting on our outside table. We had no idea where they came from - there was no note or signal of any kind - but we were grateful nonetheless and immediately ate several each. A few days ago Oscar and I were across the road picking native raspberries (yes! It's that time of year!! I love that we can tell the date by what we're picking and eating off the side of the road) and our neighbour's dad came up and asked us if we'd like more mandarins. Mystery solved and yes please! But what to do with them all? While they are tiny and delicious, there's only so many a family of four can put away. I thought some preserved segments in some kind of sugar syrup would make a pretty great winter dessert teamed with Tilba Jersey cream, so here's what I did:

First up, I sterilised my jars in boiling water. 

While they were boiling away, I peeled the mandarins, getting rid of all the white stuff. That stuff is the pits, though I did force myself to eat it when I was pregnant because apparently it has something good in it... 

Then, I made my sugar syrup, which was about 2 parts sugar to 5 parts water. I added to this a couple of cloves, a star anise and half a cinnamon stick, which I fished out of our chai mix for extra tastiness. 

When the sugar was dissolved I packed the mandarin segments into the jars, poured over the syrup, then closed up the jars and boiled them in a water bath for 20 minutes. 

I haven't tasted any yet (gonna wait 'til fresh mandarins are all gone and I'm hankering for some sweet citrus) but they sure do look purdy.

A jacaranda skirt

Almost a year ago, I made the inaugural Bothy skirt for a lady called Siggy. I liked it. She liked it. All was happy times.

When Siggy read about the teatowel-a-thon, she thought she'd like another P&E, so emailed me requesting a skirt from a still life, or a 'place' Australiana souvenir, featuring the colours purple, pink, teal or green, and a patch pocket. How lovely!

Of course, when I read 'purple', I though 'jacaranda'. Don't you? I knew I had a jacaranda teatowel in my collection and had (foolishly, it seems) assumed that it would have been a souvenir of Grafton. Not so. It's actually from that other well known jacaranda hub - Surfer's Paradise. Who woulda thunk it?

Either way, it was perfect for Siggy's skirt, teamed with a hand-embroidered black swan (with babies!!!) serviette as a pocket.

I don't know about you, but I love the colours. I love the flowers. I love the swans. 

Siggy, how about you?

Number 7

Today our Olive turned 7. Amazing. 

While I love making birthday crafts for all my loved ones, making birthday craft for my kids is extra-special. 

As always, I made Olive a scrapbook of the past year, made from a vintage kids' book. As I stuck the 7's on the front, I thought "is this right? Can she really be 7 already??" It was almost surreal. I've written about the ritual of these books here and here, so I won't repeat myself. I'll just say that these books are treasures in our family, and I feel (I hope!) that as the kids get older, the books will be even more treasured.

But the favourite books of the day were the 2 new Ottoline books. If you have an avid reader around the 6-7 years mark, you may be interested to check them out. Olive has been obsessed with Ottoline since Pearl bought Ottoline and the Yellow Cat for her. Olive estimates she's read the book "about a hundred times". She could be right.

Even this morning, with crumpets and honey or jam on offer for a birthday breakfast treat, Ottoline Goes to School took priority.

Olive's propensity for reading also inspired another of her gifts: a quilted reading cushion.

When Oski was in utero, I made him a baby quilt, which now has pride of place on his bed. Olive's always been a bit miffed that she doesn't have a quilt of her own, and I had thought of making her one for her birthday, but her inclination for reading for hours before bed each night made me think that a special, quilted, reading-in-bed pillow might be better. 

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Olive seemed pretty chuffed with it as well. In addition to being a sweet reading cushion, she and Oscar decided it also made an excellent space-travel chair.

I also crocheted her a little toadstool, for use in fairy-gardens and other creative pursuits. 

But probably my favourite gift we gave to Olive this morning was something that was made for her by someone else. 

This super-sweet personalised O.M.R bangle was hand-made for Olive by the super-talented Gab of RedPeg, who I have already raved about here. The little round seedpod-like ball is a bell, so Olive now tinkles when she moves. The other charm is imprinted with the skin of a seed pod, and stamped with Olive's initials.  As Olive says, "it's sort of about me". She loves it, of course.

And what else is a gift for but to fill a heart with love and joy? Our work here is done. Happy birthday baby girl.

 

The great July vintage teatowel-a-thon

Some time in the last 10 years - I'm not exactly sure when - I got really into collecting teatowels from op-shops. In particular, souvenir teatowels, and in particular particular, Australiana teatowels. I couldn't say exactly what it is about vintage souvenir/Australiana teatowels that attracts me so, but I can say that it has something to do with 1. colourfulness of design, and 2. kitschness of design. Sometimes I make them into things (skirts/pillows/patches/pockets/boleros/serviettes/etc etc), sometimes I don't. Hey, sometimes I even just use them as teatowels! Radical!

'1978' (my year of birth) and 'South Coast of NSW' (our new home-land) teatowel cushions snuggled up on the bothy couch

Recently, I've received some super-awesome teatowel donations from extremo-generous friends. As a result of said donations, ye olde teatowel suitcase is fairly groaning with abundance. It's a beautiful thing, let me tell you, but it makes me want to share.

Just some of the delightful teatowels that could soon be adorning your body and/or house

So, for all of July, I'm going to be posting some photos of a selection of teatowels for perusal by you, dear reader. I won't be selling them as teatowels, as I would love to make things for you - skirts, boleros, sets of cloth serviettes, cushions, etc. Basically, if one of the teatowels you see here tickles your fancy in some way, give me a hoy and I'll make it into something for you.

Calendar teatowels like these make excellent cushions, of the birthday-gift variety. If you're after a particular year, let me know. I have a ton of them...

Examples of some things I've made with teatowels can be seen here, here, and here. Though to be honest, the blog's covered in them so you wouldn't really need to look too far.

Pearl's pick of the week. She's a sucker for a still life involving fruit and/or veg

The money raised during this July-teatowel-a-thon will go towards buying sausage-making and smoking equipment for the pig we have coming in August. The pig, now happily grazing and snouting around a farm in Wyndham, will, in August, be coming to our place to be made into bacon, prosciutto, sausages etc. Sale of teatowel items will fund said pig-processing operation, and will contribute valuable self-sufficiency infrastructure to our little farm. You get vintage teatowel wares, we get homemade nitrate-free bacon and sausages. It's as simple (and good) as that. Think of it as paypal-facilitated bartering.

A pair of never-been-used Great Barrier Reef numbers. I'm thinking boleros...

So if you like the looks of something I post in the next month, send me an email - pearlandelspeth@gmail.com - and we can work something out. I'm looking forward to sewing for y'all!

An anniversary

When we open iphoto, it defaults to the 'last 12 months' folder. I kinda like it, because every time I open the program, I get a little look at what we were up to exactly 12 months ago.

March 2012 - Moonie chops up our land to make way for home-building and driveway-making

March 2013 - home and driveway complete. Well.. almost...

Last time I opened it, I saw the pictures of our excavations and home-building. These photos - especially the ones from our workshop, especially the muddy ones - make me feel kinda funny inside. There's a big bit of pride at what we've achieved in only 12 months since breaking ground here, but there's also a bit of residual anxiety (it was stressful!!), lots of love (all those people helping us!!), relief (thank goodness we're not building load-bearing again!!) and joy that we're now living our dream, and that our relationship and family love has grown so much as a result of this adventure we're on.

April 2012 - mixing render by hand with my little 'helper'. I could barely keep my footing in that crazy mud...

March 2013 - Ahhh... gravel.

As I'm a results-driven kinda lady, I get immense pleasure from looking at what we've made here, and looking back on these photos is a big part of that feeling. When you're in it every day, it's hard to realise the progress you're making. These photos remind me that yeah - it's only been a year. We've achieved a lot. They help me to slow down a little and take it in (I can be impatient), and enjoy what we've built rather than rushing on to the next project. Anniversaries and birthdays are good like that - they're the most perfect opportunity to reflect on what you've got, where you've been, how you've grown, and where you'd like to go next.

April 2012 - final days of the strawbale building workshop, and the roof's finally going on, providing much-needed protection for our little house

March 2013 - and now she's got solar panels and a pergola and a garden!!!

When the earthworks started, 12 months ago, I felt so nervous to be disrupting the earth and all the things living on and in it. I felt nervous to be really, physically embarking on this building thing with, I realise now, very little knowledge. Sure, we had guts and determination to spare, but real, hands-on building knowledge was quite thin on the ground, though I felt, at that time, like we could do anything we wanted. And I suppose these photos show that you can, with love and determination and help from friends and family, and a willingness to ask questions of everyone, everywhere you go, and books, and helpful people who are happy to share knowledge, skills and experience. You can do it.

June 2012 - building detritus a-go-go and still plenty of mud

March 2013 - nasturtuims: the speedy gardening solution 

The objectives of building this little house were always to 'see if we can' (just like David Byrne wrote Psycho Killer just to "see if he could write a song"... I think that worked out OK for him), to provide somewhere to live while we saved up to build something else, so we wouldn't be enslaved by a mortgage for our whole lives, and to learn from our mistakes. 

And it has been an amazing learning experience. We've learned so much about building, about our land, about ourselves, about each other, about the resilience of kids, about the fun-ness of lofts and fire-baths, about the differences between wants and needs, about the seasons, about living on the land and working with it and learning from it, about happiness and tiredness, about plants and animals... the list goes on.

We feel really really lucky.

June 2012 - what the hell do we do with this???

March 2013 - steps, veggies, flowers, native shrubs, a barbecue, trampoline and cubby house - of course!