I’ve fallen for this lovely Park Slope fabric. The navy blue print simply whispered “little girl’s pinafore” to me and I had to leave the shop with some. I toyed with the idea of making a quilt but in reality, the dress was all I could reliably finish at the moment.

This thrifted Tri-ang bike has recently been rechristened scoot bike. At first it was for sitting on and being pushed. Now, she can scoot to her heart’s content. She has even perfected the scoot dance move. It consists of holding your hands up, like they are on the handle bars, and scooting with one leg.

The pattern is the Ollie + S pop-over dress from April’s Sew Hip magazine. The pattern was superbly quick to make. I was able to cut the dress out using only half of the printed fabric requirement. This leaves me with some extra to make a quilt, but that will have to be next weeks Sunday stash.

edit: I have just found a link to the dress pattern via whip up. How cool is that?

AS my blog break grew and grew, I was wondering if I’d ever feel like writing again. It wasn’t that I was feeling blue. Quite the opposite. I’m having a wonderful time with Miss H and E. Wonderful to the point that I didn’t want give up a moment to sit and write.

I mentioned to my dearest that I was thinking about giving it away. “But you love it” he replied. I thought about it and have to admit he was right.

I love reading about people living different lives. Lives I’d envy, admire and especially those in similar positions and predicaments as myself. Others who are finding the creativity and wonder in bringing up small children, while striving for the ever elusive creative moment for yourself.

I love to write. I find myself marvelling at everyday moments and wondering how I could ever write it down. My mind fills with mental notes of moments to the point of overflowing. Sometimes I am lucky enough to list them out and on the rare occasion, I will even get around to writing about it here.

Then there are the comments. They are all read and like the mental notes, I have every intention to reply, but so often life gets in the way. I do love them. They make my day. It can be wonderful to get a comment from a blogger I admire. But my all time favourite would have to be one of the first I received from Applique Today. It turns out her dad, back home in NZ, used to make similar contraptions to those my father fashions. We tried to work out if it was because they were both electricians. Then we realised it could be that they are both kiwi blokes. It’s the commonalities that bind.

I love to read about what others are up to. The project, the tutorials and giveaways are wonderful, but I read for the feelings. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who hoards like crazy (do you have IT too?), rarely takes photos of the OTHER side of the sewing space, or could eat a whole lemon meringue pie in one sitting. The differences count too. While we rarely write about the grittier moments we are going through, it helps to know that they too pass and can be survived.


To sum up, I decided to keep writing but to take more time. More time with my daughters, my dearest and my family. More time to have adventures and possibly catch a few of them in writing to share as well.

When I talk she coos and smiles, but when I sing, she just beams.