pretend sewing

another

very sweet 'toy' sewing machine

pintrested an age ago

but love it & after the post on friday about fp

had to follow up with this

there is even a tutorial
about how to make it
it does require a few special pieces
cute huh!
so yep ...
i have a heap of smocks to make
should have had them made 3 weeks ago ...
they are all cut out
just haven't made a start with the sewing bit!
mmm .... today is the day!
that way i might be able to
actually blog about something
i've um ..... yeah ... made!

little people

got to get myself back on a machine

adore this vintage little people person

must get back & sew something
 soon

 i have quite a collection of little people

well of course its Oscar's but you know

it's mine also ... but none of it is real vintage

except the very cool airport we have

do have some fp anniversary reproduced vintage

.... that amazing collection is at my parents house

do you remember playing with these?

mmm .... might 'need' to find one of these cute

sewing girls ...

 

cute poster hey?

can't find its original source

think it may have been a seller on etsy

but .... spotted here

blogtober ...ooops?

 so on the surface

it does look like i've dropped the blogtober ball

kind of yes .... as in this makes post number 11 out of 24

mmmm not good stats huh!?

 i'm not one for excusing away all my life choices

can't stand that

but i have my reasons

i do write two blogs these days

right here and over here at little smARTy's

so 11 posts here plus another 5 over there 

makes the stats slightly better for blogtober

 oh & i've been starting up a small business

just mentioning that in case you missed it!?

teaching art in some form everyday!

loving it

meet the rainbow jelly babies

 and then there's social media

on which i now manage 4 pages

little smARTy's

hARTylittlepeaces

full circle

& the playful market

& i've picked up my pintrest-ing

& have been told that instagram is it @littlesmartysstudio

oh & i've created a little smARTy's studio web page

& been sprouking myself where its the right fit

so yep .... think i'm doing just fine

 add to the list

our days for girls sew-a-thon

a market visit

exhibition dreaming

our playful market organising

our girls weekend away

being mum & wife & friend ....

there's a yard sale looming

a fair to bake for

i love having a full enriched life

no lemons on me right now!

my cup runneth over

so maybe my blogtober is more of flogtober or what-tober?

bad pun i know but its kinda true

forgive me .... who else will tell them if i don't hey!?

spring thrifting

weekend just past

went to our riBer

with a couple of girls

with whom i have shared the journey

of what is motherhood thus far

lovely time lisa & cassy & we missed you naden
 saturday morning just 'had' to be
an op shop hop

yes that would be quite the haul hey

included here is a new-to-me 1980's

heavy metail janome sewing machine

that no ... was not found in an op shop

but my 'personal shopper' found it for me

on buy-swap-sell

lucky me hey ....

oh & there's an embriodery hoop in there as well

might come in handy  ..... for something circle-y

thanks for an awesome weekend girls

full circle - Hope: in unlikely places

 so here is all the info

if you are remotely creative

or crafty

or arty

this is for YOU ....

the theme for this full circle is:

HOPE: in unlikely places

.... now this of course could lead into the idea

that this exhibition will be hung over advent but

really its all up to the individual's interpretation

so a circle

of some form

its really that simple

we've had plants & text & music

& collage & patchwork

& stencil printing & painting

& drawing & silk inks

& screen printing
& plaster & stitching
& photography & felting

& construction & crochet

..... anything goes

I keep saying ...

"its really not about talent

its about joining in"

so come on & join in!!

the below piece was made by the lovely Maryanne

who lives in Sydney ..... see you do not need to be local!

titled: "Paper weights"

this is a personal favourite of mine

& i thought it might suggest something of 

the theme this time ....

perfectly timed so that from right now you have 

5 weeks

now that is plenty of time

so go on & get those creative juices flowing

if you'd like more info

or to have me email you this flyer

as a PDF i'm happy to oblige

if you'd like to join in & help us tell the world then go for it

blog chat write

join us on facebook too!! & share ...

https://www.facebook.com/abcfullcircle

full circle .... around again

last year's huge success

of our first

full circle 

project
left me in awe of the way as humans
sometimes we just need the prompt or the avenue
to express ourselves
& really ..... we should have the confidence to do this always

visual statements

in the form of a ... yes .... a circle

the theme was simple

"full circle"

we had 67 entries

multi aged & a good mix of gender

from all over, including interstate

many were for sale

it was wonderful to walk through
a delight to be part of

every full circle art work was carefully photographed
& keren created a book of memories & prayers
every full circle piece .... a stunning collection

here it is ... some of my favourite pages
and guess what!??
its happening again & you can be part of it
do join in ....  

colourful crafty hijinks

weeks have sailed by

and i haven't mentioned

some crafty hijinks

hosted by Jodie & Gilly

in the sweet victorian country town

of ballarat ....

day trip with Karen & Bron

met up with a host of bloggers

lots of whom are quickly becoming great friends

that's the thing about blogging & reading blogs

there may not be a lot of time spent face to face

but when you do catch up you feel like

you're 'up with' what's been going on

most especially what's been in the 'making'
it feels a bit odd at first actually
but its good, very good

was the most excellent adventure

for a spot of indoor picnic-ing ....

chatted with Lara & Bec & Nicole & Breanna & Cam

& Cathie & met lots of lovely new faces

& we missed you Anna!

there were door prizes & raffles 

& all the performance of a stage-full of pass-it-on-crafty-goodies

took stuff

came home with new stuff

good stuff too!

thank you for sharing people

oh & there were some quick little workshops too

Jodie chatted about rag rug making

Bec ran us through hexies

& me .... little hands on workshop & chat

about using colour 

& being
brave
with colour on colour

tried to encourage everyone to choose the interesting road

suggested 3 colour combo 'recipes'

1 - choose any three colours all in a row 

from the colour wheel

2 - choose opposite colour on the colour wheel

complementary colours

3 - look at nature

the world we live in just never gets it 'wrong'

.... and of course

i always like to 'tweak it' 

.... add a little colour on a small scale that's subtle 

yet powerful to contrast it all

some
other
crafty
hijink-sters

thanks for a fabulous day everyone
looking forward to another

always a great day when you connect with other crafty/arty types
speaking of connecting
if you're reading here
i always love your comments
its just 'nice' to know who you are & ...
well .... connect! xo

global sew-in for Days for Girls

friday just gone was the

international day of the girl child

so we're talking about about half our world's

population that either is one or was one once .... a girl child
 

about Days for Girls

you 'need' to go & browse on this web site

if you haven't already?

 sew .... on friday

and-so-i-sew & i got a whole lot 

of sewing & non-sewing friends together

& we sewed, turned, traced, pressed, stitched,

over locked, trimmed, basted, flipped etc

& ate chocolate cake!

it was our goal to make

40 kits

in each washable Days for Girls kit there are:

2 shields (x40=80), 8 liners (x40=320), a pair of under pants (sizes 10,12,14or 16)

a face washer, a hotel sized soap bar, 2 one gallon Ziploc freezer bags,

pictorial instructions .... all in a drawstring bag

these kits are designed to last up to 3 years with proper care

Every girl. Everywhere. Period.

a liner is tucked into a shield, which is 'snapped' around the under pants

hope no one is shy here? ... 

guess those people have stopped reading this post before now!?

.... all about providing girls with re-useable hygiene kits for their period 

.... which in turn will mean they attend more school 

that hopefully means they stay in school longer 

& understand their value to not be exploited 

& how to maintain better feminine hygiene 

why do i feel strongly about this being a 'great need' & a 'worthy cause'

probably because of that proverb about a fish

... mentioned back here

 but there's more to it than that even

i'm the mother of a boy whom within i am aiming

to foster a deep empathy for others

a world view of the great divide between have & have-nots

an attitude of equality

respect for all peoples

and a great respect for women & girls

that he might grow to become a well-rounded young man

who might just move his own mountains

i believe that many of our world's 'issues' lie

in the greed & addictions of humans

if i can teach my own son & encourage others to do the same

then maybe just maybe we might get somewhere?

that's not to say that there aren't plenty of 'good eggs' out there

when we come to consider our current adult male population

not saying that but for all of history  ..... well, its been

in most cases the guys who have been the oppressors ...
i'd like to see more women & girls standing up for themselves
& their companions on this journey of life
stand up ladies (&men too!).... it may just be the case that if you do
someone else will stand beside you & when you turn around
suddenly there will be a whole host standing with you
lets be brave
we all have a mountain to move
& it starts with us .... & a little help from above

i know these are vast sweeping generalizations

& some simplistic views but ... 

well this is my blog & i can say what i wish to ...

you may not agree but well .... i hope you do!?

lots of the people who came on friday to sew

are the mothers of girls ....

and-so-i-sew & i have been thinking that

we'd like to teach & inspire lots and lots more

people to help Days for Girls reach their goal

the goal that by 2022 every girl worldwide will have

access to safe & affordable sanitary options

this is so simple but i can see the impact that it would have

on just one girl so imagine????

would you like to help?

let me know ....

over the threshold

its happening

art classes for kids

small groups

my ideas & my own terms

giving children the chance to explore

 perfectly raw first experiences

to know that there are no mistakes, but happy accidents

that there is a language of the visual

making my mark on the minds of little people

what a huge honor

thankyou to the parents who are letting me

'in' on the worlds of their little people

its been a dream come true

pinch pinch .... it really is true

thank you also for all the amazing feed-back

so wonderful to hear there has been an impact made already

 not sewn or painted anything for me lately

but i'll get back to that soon

its been a fabulous first week

enJOYing my journey

shape up

yes its been about 'shape'

& 'colour' is always there too

mmm dropped my bundle with Blogtober

oh well ... i'm here & i've been busy

you can check some of it out over here

yep its term 4 & my classes started this week yay!

had a spare chunk of time on saturday just gone

so headed into Finders Keepers

with a crafty mate .... do you know i'd actually never been

now how is that possible?? & neither had she

really did think i'd just peruse & enjoy the visual feast

but i found gold that just 'had' to come home with

clearly these were earings made specially for the art teacher!

made by melbourne girls stacey & sarah

of Flock: Curiosity Assembly

after a good look & walking by

we walked by again & i couldn't go on past

love your work girls

 oh & because my 'little smARTy's studio' is

completely & utterly top-of-mind ... in case you hadn't noticed!?

a cute little gilcee print from printspace

going in the studio of course

because yes - it may well have been all about

'shape' this week but 

that sneaky passion for colour is always there!

and oh yes

how something so sweet does make me smile

thankyou lovely creative people!

even better that it's made in melbourne hey!!

open doors::2

 i'd like to just say ditto

but really 12 months on & i have been brave

& had the opportunity to open that studio door

& i've not only walked on in but have got busy

you've probably noticed!

 but there are some other doors

that are opening simultaneously

& its a bit confusing as to what is the 'right' fit

there will be some clarity

& i will work out how it all fits together

 but in the meantime my mind is a-buzz

with ideas & possibilities

what doors are you knocking on right now?

go on be brave ....

all the above pics were taken on our recent

travels in ireland & england