I get by with a little help

Two and three-quarters.  What an enchanting age.  We spent a few hours with our youngest grandchild today and with his two older siblings off at school, it was delightful to observe how he has grown and matured over the past couple of years.

He's my little helper, somehow turning the mundane into the beautiful.  You may call this hanging out the washing, but to me it's an art installation.  What a boy.  His dramatic entrance into the world two months early had us all sitting up and taking notice.  However, he thrived and has never looked back.  Now he happily chats away, tumbling over the words as his brain races ahead so much faster than his tongue can keep up.

I love having one on one time with each of our grandchildren, when they have your full attention and there are no siblings around to share in the spotlight. All seven of them are an absolute joy and delight.
 

Heritage

I was reminded of my heritage today when I read the latest post from one of my favourite blogs, Sew Tessuti.  Since early childhood I had known that my great-great grandfather who arrived in Australia in the early 1840s was an actor and playwright.  It was not until many years later that I learned to my surprise that he was also a tailor, and that several of his sons followed in his footsteps, setting up their businesses in the heart of Sydney.

In old age, I believe that one of his sons, my great-grandfather, would turn the collars and lapels of my great-grandmother's blouses and suits so that they would see out another season.  They lived to their early eighties and died within a year of each other.  This is a tribute to those men in my family who passed their love of fabric down to the present generation.


O'MAST from Kid Dandy on Vimeo.

The Plan 1

There was a large cardboard envelope waiting at our post office box this morning.

It was the first of the two fabric parcels I have been anxiously waiting to arrive.  Aren't they stunning?  Fourteen delicious Kaffe Fassett fabrics all lined up and waiting for the main fabric so that I can get started on The Plan.  With any luck the other parcel will arrive tomorrow.

My only problem now is that I don't know how I can bear to cut into such beautiful pieces of fabric.  At least for the moment I can sip my coffee and take in the rich colours and designs.  Bliss.

By the way, don't touch the figs

So says Livia in I Claudius.  Pity she didn't tell Augustus.  

However, when you come across figs like these, not to mention fresh blackberries, by all means touch them.  Our local fruit market had these delectable fruits selling at $10 for three punnets, so we chose two of the figs and one of the blackberries.

 
Combined with shortcrust pastry and frangipane cream, it all went down rather well last night with Mr Fudge.  Mind you, with Livia and her poisoned figs firmly in mind, he did wait until I bit into my figs before he took the plunge.

Valentine's Day is not far away and today these heart wreaths were posted off to a customer in Western Australia.  

Tomorrow I am planning on getting back to creating some new children's clothing for my Etsy and MadeIt shops.  And finishing off that tart.

First Saturday of the Month

2012 is racing along at a nice pace and I am struggling to keep up with it.  We celebrated our 42nd (eek!) wedding anniversary on Friday and before I knew it the next day was the first Saturday of the month.

Ah, how I love first Saturdays - it means a short drive to the local pub to meet up with the Sydney SCQuilters. This was my second visit to this local quilting group since returning to Sydney and they are such a friendly and welcoming lot of quilters.

Show & Tell produced some wonderful works in progress,

including this glorious piece of knitted patchwork.  

The beauty of meeting at a pub is that packed lunches are a thing of the past.  This delicious pumpkin salad with candied walnuts and fresh figs was perfect - so much better than a peanut butter sandwich.

Hopefully by next month my Plan will have sprung into action, as by then the Kaffe Fassett fabric which I ordered on line will have arrived (fingers crossed) and my first block will be well under way.

I have made a tentative start, but can't progress any further until the background fabric arrives.  So far all is going to Plan - what can possibly go wrong?