A Very Cute Shop!

Hi there!  How has your day been?  Good I hope!  

It's been a nice day here too, a bit of crochet, a bit of shopkeeping, a bit of cooking, and a bit of housekeeping, fairly cruisey after a busy day of wool orders yesterday. 

Over the weekend we went on a little road trip to Ballarat and I had a look round some very cute shops.  I thought I'd show you some pictures of The Crafty Squirrel, a super cute shop filled with crafty bit and pieces and so many things to look at.  I had a nice crafty chat with the lovely owner Morgan, and really admired her patchwork curtain doors. I think I might have to make some patchwork curtains for my studio, something colourful and crafty, just what I've been looking for! 

Needless to say I found a few things (quite  a few!) that came home with me!  I always like to buy a few souvenirs to bring home and remind me of our road trips. :) 

We also visited Playing in The Attic, Trudy's lovely stationery shop that used to be in Meeniyan but is now in Ballarat. I bought a few things there too, but I forgot to take pictures of all the pretty things while I was there! :( 

So, what did you get up to on the weekend, or is it already too far away now that it is Tuesday night!

Have a great night/dayeveryone, I'm off to watch some mindless telly and do a bit of hooky! 

Talk soon! xxxxxxxxxxx

Finders Keepers Market Melbourne 2015

 Hello! 

Last night on a whim Gary and I went to the Finders Keepers Market at the old Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne.  We got into the city early and had a couple of drinks at a pub across the road and did some people watching, which is always interesting. 

We were there for the opening of the doors, along with a huge lot of other people, I tried to take a few photos before it got too busy ( about 10 minutes later!!).  I love these type of markets, I am always blown away with the amount of creative people having a go at making stuff a career, very cool! 

It was a very high quality market and there were heaps of stalls, lots of little ones and some larger ones that were a bit more spread out.  The stalls looked fantastic, so much effort was put into their set ups, it was very impressive as a whole experience.  I didn't get to really see everything, there was just too much to take in and too many people.   But what I did see was lovely! 

....cute coffee caravan.....

.....I loved the artwork at Nowhere Creek......

....and look, lots of crochet goodness at Habitue Design! :) 

... the exhibition buildings are very spectacular, last time I was here was for the Chocolate Ball of 1991 I think,  quite different circumstances! :) 

...it filled up really quickly and there were people everywhere, I saw so many cute things that I could have bought, but Gary was with me and he is trying to be more of a minimalist at the moment, so I felt a bit guilty bringing more 'things' into the house! 

I did manage to buy these cute his and her pillow cases ( and a tea towel) from Nowhere Creek, very practical of me!  

I love them! :) 

It is Grand Final day here for the AFL, it was quite one sided in the first half, Hawthorn have been too good for the Eagles so far, but I hope they make a come back! 

We are off to a 40th tonight, should be a fun night if I can get rid of this Spring cold that has made my head feel like a balloon!  I'm sure a few champagnes will take care of that!  :) 

Have a great weekend! 

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Wool Show 2015

Hello! 

On the weekend we had a great day out at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo, it was a bit like yarny heaven, so many gorgeous yarns and fibres on display and for sale, and lots of fabulous sheep too! 

The boys dropped me off for a couple of hours of wool immersion, while they had a wander around Bendigo, everyone was happy! 

I bought some lovely wool, a couple of skeins of Madeleine Tosh Vintage in the best colour called 'Molly Ringwood', some hand dyed skeins by Little Plum Yarn (the candy pink and the purple/pink speckled skeins in the photo above), and some of the last remaining wool from Pear Tree Yarns.

I have a few plans for some of this, and am open to ideas for the rest! 

.....So. Much. Wool! .........

.....lots of lovely things for spinners too, don't these plaits of dyed fleece ready for spinning look so inviting, almost enough for me to try a new craft! I really don't need anymore hobbies though! 

.....isn't that super chunky, bobbly, pile of hand spun wool in the middle of this photo awesome! 

....this is a beautiful stall of natural indigo dyed yarns, very nice indeed! .....

 It was very busy when I was there on Saturday, I think the yarny crafts are definitely having a bit of a revival.  I felt there was a better, bigger and more varied selection of stall this year compared to last year.  People seemed very enthusiastic and were enjoying all the wooly sights. 

I had a very nice chat to the machine knitters too, and finally got the time on Sunday to sit down with my knitting machine and learn to use it!  I learnt how to thread the machine, cast on, and do basic stocking stitch.  So pleased to get this going, and to see that my machine works fine, I am going have another go soon and see if I can make a piece from the punchcard patterns.  The ladies of the Machine Knitters Club made it look easy, so we will see! 

Have a great day! 

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weekend road trip...

beautiful cards at Playing in The Attic

Hello there!  I hope you all had lovely weekends and got to do something fun.  

I had a little weekend away with Gary, well it was really only 24 hours away from home, but sometimes that's all you need to feel like you've had break.  My husband is partial to the road trip and enjoys driving, which is fine by me, I enjoy watching the scenery change and doing a bit of car crochet, so we are a perfect match really! :)  

We went down the South Gippsland coast and stopped in the town of Meeniyan for lunch. I also got to visit Playing in the Attic, the lovely shop owned by Trudy.  I have been following Trudy's blog and Instagram accounts for a while now, so it was lovely to meet her in person and indulge in a bit of retail therapy in her gorgeous shop!  So many beautiful things, stationery, magazines, washi tapes, art supplies and so many other cute things, it is a really lovely space!  I ended up bringing quite a few things home with me!  

Actually, there were several beautiful shops in Meeniyan that I couldn't resist, I added to my cute crockery collection with some very special floral cups from another shop ( I can't remember what it was called now :(  ) 

Here's a  few photos of Trudy's shop. 

.......I got a fair bit of this blanket made as well, so bonus there! 

.......we stayed the night in Inverloch on the South Gippsland coast, this was the view from our room's verandah, it was a chilly day and sea was quite wild, I love how the wind has made the gums grow twisted and spindly, a typically coastal landscape.....

.....I went for a nice dusk walk, it was getting very cold by then, so I didn't venture too far, but the sky was quite beautiful.  It was great to get away from the routines of our normal life and we had a lovely dinner and some good chatting over a few relaxing drinks. Noice.

......I tend to go a bit of a magazine binge when we do road trips, don't really know why!  Here are a few of the mags I bought over the weekend! ( Also found a newish copy of Simply Crochet in a newsagency, we don't get that locally so I had to buy it! :) )  Lots of good reading here, and I guess the colouring book isn't really a magazine, so that doesn't count. :) 

Now it's time to get on with this new week, I have quite a busy one planned, although my car is playing up so I might be more house bound than I intended.  I have a newsletter to get out, a yarn club to plan (exciting!!), a blanket to finish, crochet classes to run, and new stock to source and order!  

Lots of fun work to be done. :) 

What's on your plate this week? 

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Summer Sunday

Hello there!  How are you? 

How has the week started for you? Mine is looking good! 

I like to do the odd post about other non crafty things we have been doing, and thought it would be nice to share the  sunny and happy Sunday we just had......

This last week we have been having some lovely Summery warm weather, almost hot actually, which is nice, as I don't feel we have had a real Melbourne Summer this year, it has been far too cool.   On Sunday we had a little road trip down the West Coast looking for 'real' surf beaches. (Apparently the surf beaches we have locally don't rate!).   My middle son Andre likes a bit of a surf, so we took his board and went looking for waves.   

Max at Torquay

Our first stop was Torquay where I did some people watching while the boys had a swim.......

......I thought it was funny how these people looked ready for a walk in the snow while the water was full of swimmers :) .........

......this little plane flew over a few times, it looked good against the blue sky......

.....there were loads of learner surfers at this beach, it was very choppy though, so not a lot of wave catching was happening, but every one was trying hard and having fun! :)

Then we drove on to Anglesea where the beach was a little less crowded and the waves were better....

....I love the cliffs around this beach, this is my husbands hometown so we have spent a lot of time here when we were younger and it's always nice to go back for a visit.......

.....Andre took his board out and had some fun catching a few waves, he is getting quite enthused about surfing so we might come down here again soon......it 's a nice change from gaming! 

.....he was very happy with his new wetsuit, he stayed completely dry inside it and said he was not cold at all.......

It was a lovely day out, and I got a lot of crochet done on the drive! Bonus! :)  We used to do day trips much more often when the boys were younger, but as they have gotten older doing their own thing more, it has become a rare treat to have them with us. Even though we were without Jesse who had to work, it felt a bit like old times, so nice!  

Do your children still do day trips with you?  

Or are there becoming rare family days, like for me? 

It does make me nostalgic for the time when my family where little, but then again it is great seeing my boys grow up and become more independent.  I think I will just really enjoy spending fun days with them when they happen, and maybe plan them a bit more often!!

I'll show you my crochet progress tomorrow, I think I am still on track to have this blanket finished for the market :) 

Have a lovely day everyone! 

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last week....

Last week...

1. ...I was hooking up washers for the market. I love choosing the colour combos for these, there are so many nice possibilities.

2. ...the rosellas found the apple trees.  They are really beautiful birds, but they will probably strip all the fruit from the trees well before they are ready for us to eat.

3. ... this gaudy, gorgeous dahlia flowered! Yay! 

4 +5  ... I had a stall at the twilight market at Emu Plains, it was packed with people and I really enjoyed meeting some peeps who knew of this blog!!

6. ... hooked up a colour swatch for a customer.

7 ... I started a new 'wheels within wheels' blanket, this time in blues and greens, I think it will look good. :)

8. ...the apricots started to ripen! yay! I love a tree ripened apricot, so much better than anything you can buy from the shops.  My parents tree is laden this year, so much so that branches are breaking under all the weight! I am thinking a couple of batches of jam and a big pot of stewed apricots are going to be made soon! 

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That's a few bits of my last week, I had an unintentional bloggy break as well, I just couldn't find time to sit at the computer or take many photos.  I have a heap of emails to respond to and they didn't get touched either.  Sorry for being a bad communicator!  I am hoping to get back into a rhythm soon and find the blogging routine again.  Do you find your blogging mojo ebbs and flows? 

What did you get up to last week?  

Got any big plans for this one?

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Winter beach walk on Philip Island

Hello. 

Last weekend we went to Philip Island for the night, which meant we got to have an early morning beach walk on Sunday, ( well ok, it was around 8.30am, so not really that early).  This is the beach at the end of the street. It was a beautiful winter day complete with a washed out sunlight that is so typical of the winter sunlight here.

I took a some shots of our walk and thought you might like to come along for a stroll, it was lovely and peaceful with only a handful of people on the whole beach, quite idyllic.  Who doesn't love a beach walk on the winter sun?

look at that sky!! 

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