alice adorable

when i awoke this morning to this

i knew it was going to be a good day. more than one sunflower per stem? while i'm sure it happens, it's never happened in my garden and i am feeling very blessed for it. let's take a closer look to soak that sunshine-y sunflower-iness in, yes?

i came inside, did the morning do, then when all was quiet, I made these new headbands. i had my small girl in my mind when I made them and when she got home from school she told me they were adorable. as is she.

to market

i'm off to market on friday to sell some wares. some treasure bags, some velvet headbands and some other random pieces still being made. i'm enjoying the process of making the same piece in different colors with different trinkets. it's making my studio all rainbow-like, which is an extra lovely bonus.

the few hours of making i had today were well and truly helped along by the 'shuffle' button on my ipod. there was dylan, there was ron sexsmith, there was rufus wainwright, there was those acapelicans, there was bjork, but the stand out was definitely clare bowditch and lanie lane. i sang as loud as a girl at home alone in the country can sing. i implore you to do the same.

 

first....

...of the season

on dads

Me and my dad have a thing going on. I understand him and he gets me. That special father daughter thing that people write books about? We have it. I treasure it.

He is a journeyman, my dad. He heads off places, experiences them fully, writes about them, then returns and shares them with us. Sometimes mum goes with him. Sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes he flies for 30 hours away and sometimes he drives 90 minutes away. Regardless, he is as inspired and eloquent about the sunrise and birdsong in rural Victoria as he is about the ancient back alleys of Italy.

He's about to head off again. A short, tropical journey this time. I made him a bag to put his shoes. A small stretch of time, 2 pieces of calico, a little thread, and some ribbon and he has a utilitarian gift (which he loves) I finished it off with a stamp of the Buddha's feet on the front corner.

And these feet
They will take your weight, my love
These feet will drive your dream engine
Feet, baby, this is where the road begins
Roadmaker, Red Raku

My small girl and her dad have a thing going on, too. Theirs is a love so powerful and fertile that I can see them growing within it. Strong and bouyant. She, the vine and he, the sturdy wooden fence. She, green and fresh, unfurling and fruiting as years pass. He, as strength and stability, with pockets to rest in when dormant and to unravel from with the sun's warmth. She makes him gifts, regularly. But this gift? This was a little bit special, this one. This was a breathtaking beauty, this one. I heard his big heart give a little 'boom' when he opened it.

 I love the dads in my life.

 


     

truancy

sometimes we skip school, appointments, responsibilities and shopping lists

and just play and breathe and wander 

bless these days

the special bag

i've mentioned before that i've been dyeing fabric with plants and leaves and flowers of late. a windfall (i.e. small ones picking flowers from the backyard garden of a holiday house we recently stayed in) saw me dyeing with marigolds. an oceanside walk bush saw me dyeing with another windfall - seaside banksia from aforementioned holiday. it was very windy in this holiday town!

the marigolds were forthcoming with their golden goodness but the banksia? not so forthcoming, shall we say. i'm not the 'stick it in a book and document the plant and date and mordant and fabric' type of girl. i'm more of a 'let's cook it up and see what color we get' type of girl. i'm planning on using these little pieces of hand-dyed-with-love-and-windfalls fabric. but they do command a very special project. don't they?

well, one of those special projects came along recently for me. a special little treasure bag for a very special little lady of a very VERY special friend of mine. these two womenfolk bring so much happiness to me it seemed only right to use a piece of sunshine-y marigold-y goodness to make a little treasure pouch. i'm calling it the special bag. creative, hey?

if you want your own piece of special, comment below and we can work together to make a little something special for you too! i can custom make your own piece, just for you, from marigolds or whatever windfall i happen to find that day. or perhaps you'd just prefer to win one? if you like guildmaker on facebook then you're in the draw to win a little piece of special. i'll pull a random name (out of a hand dyed linen hat) on the full moon in august. free stuff! it's everywhere   

honey joy

i wash my face with honey.

it's one of my 'do less' approaches. bring less packaging into the house, use less chemicals in and around my home and beyond, less fuss in the mornings and evenings.

and the 'more' aspects? more support for the humble honeybee, more nourishing for my face, more fun watching my small girl wash her face with honey like mama.

crunch betty is hosting a little honey challenge at the moment. wash your face with honey for 2 weeks and enjoy the honey joy! as i already do wash my face with honey, and so does my small girl, i'll get the lads in my house on the honey train too. what about you?

infirm

small people are ill around here at the moment. some of the wintery bugs are lingering a little too long for my liking, one in particular settling in quite nicely to my son's lungs.

home is quiet and calm and there is space for healing to happen. we've been reading, making soup and daytime sleeping. our favorite chapter books are on high rotation.

we're particularly enjoying these two at the moment - the original J. M. Barrie Peter Pan and Dinotopia The World Beneath by James Gurney.

both wondrous stories and beautiful illustrations. we spend as much time reading the story together as we do looking at the illustrations.  

homespun a-plenty

our favorite local opshop has a blackboard out front, announcing its latest wares. recently it had  'homespun, plenty' written in pink chalk. 'great name for a band', i thought, as i went in to check out the plenty. there was another interested party at the homespun table, also checking out the offerings with a keen eye. he was dressed in a leather jacket with a helmet in one hand a skeins of wool in the other. i couldn't help remarking at what a beautifully ironic picture he made. he told me he knitted hats and entered them in the alice springs beanie competition every year. i decided he was ace.

we came home with a few bags of small skeins of various colors. upon opening them i realised they were not only homespun by a local lovely lady, but she had also naturally dyed them. only one has a label 'peach leaves copper mordant' which is a beautiful shade of green. there are other shades of green and some yellows and blues. i like wondering what they have been dyed with? perhaps this mob could tell me. or this amazing woman could shed some light? i've been dabbling with dyeing naturally of late, boiling up leaves and flowers and the like in small copper pots and leaving them in the sunshine. so far only resulting in various shades of brown. ho hum.

i'm no knitter, although my 5 year old son recently showed me how to double fingerknit. a revelation, i tells ya. we've been making ropes, necklaces and snakes ever since. i made a sailboat necklace one evening, strung it on some naturally dyed, double fingerknitted homespun and wore it with glee the next day. a friend shared my glee, so i made her one too. my daughter also glee-ed when she saw it, so i made her one as well, sewing her sailboat onto the front of a little blue upcycled dress. i had so much glee for my new sailboat necklace that i made a brooch as well. it's quickie crafting. my favorite kind. and her's too, so it seems.

countdown

we're off to melbourne soon to meet our newest family member. my youngest sister is bringing another being into the world sometime next week (or so we are hoping cause that's when we've booked flights!). we're counting down the days here, one autumn leaf at a time. a little bit inspired by little eco. one leaf a day comes off and the smalls get a little more excited each day.

 

early morning antidote

a girl i know has taken to the woods as an antidote. it's her quiet protest against a disconnected society. this red-haired beauty takes me wandering through her weeping gum forest. she shows me her rock stash and her collection of flower wands she uses to keep the skywalkers away as the sun rises.

billy and bear

i met a shaggy flopsy blonde headed kid called billy the other day. you know the one? we all know one, don't we? he asked me if i knew bear grylls. yeah, i know the guy, says i. he's awesome, says billy, who then continues on in conversation with me for a spell about how much he loves the man, bear.

me thinks billy would like one of these made for him:

from here

and he will be needing one of these

from here

and his mama might want to make him one of these

from here

i daresay billy will accumulate a few of these in his time

from here

and just cause it's so damn beautiful (and sort of on topic) a set of these for inside bear-time

from here

 but when it's all said and done, billy, can bear do this?


 

gifting, by request

i received and delivered on a custom order recently. 

a hat and bag in red for a 4 year old and in blue for his 2 year old brother.

i made a little felt mouse finger puppet as well to thank them (and their mama) for their custom.

i hope they like their wares. 

on becoming a milliner

among other things, i make hats. they are concentric and a little buckety and embellished with loveliness. they are for small people. but i am no milliner (although, give me time)
seems other people make hats too. real life milliners. strikingly similar to the ones i make. concentric and a little buckety, although with much more striking fabric than i (in this instance, anyway).

maybe, by default, i have fulfilled that life long dream of becoming a milliner?

later that day.....
seems the direct to the anthropologie site links to their home page rather than the specific hat i was referring to. if you search 'jewelry and accessories' then 'shop hats' you'll find the Mail Kaleidoscope Hat by 'acclaimed milliner Albertus Swanepoel' on the first page. 

dear universe

thankyou.
for listening.
and for delivering.
may i be so bold as to ask if you could, alongside delivering on all the requests of late, also provide me with a detailed plan of how to balance all that i have with all that i need and all the new that you offer me, that would be equally appreciated.

if you could also send me an address for correspondence, i will be sure to fashion you the appropriate thankyou card, from all-natural materials of course, for your efforts of late.

image from here

grey skies are gonna clear up

or are they?

 we can only watch and wait.

but mostly we accept it and play.

my heart is with those who are suffering through this force of mama nature. cause while it may be soggy around here, we still have a home, a livelihood and our lives. feeling very blessed.