Last minute projects

Sydney is bursting with beautiful hydrangeas and I can only assume they love their summers cold, unlike me.  As a small child I hated hydrangeas, mainly because they were growing in the garden of family friends where I stayed while my mother was in hospital.  I was desperately homesick for my parents and took out my frustrations on the hapless hydrangeas.  I didn't harm them, I simply hated them.  However, time heals and now I love them.

With the frantic rush to fill Etsy and MadeIt orders finally winding down, I can think about making something for my summer wardrobe - ever the optimist.  This hydrangea blue fabric has been languishing in my fabric stash for far too long, so I quickly ran up a skirt (well, the hem has to be hand sewn, but there's always tonight in front of the TV).

I bought this pretty Liberty fabric in London a couple of years back and it was time to stop wringing my hands and declaring it was too precious to cut.  The skirt was in need of a blouse and there is just the right touch of blue in it, so now it is sitting in front of the machine waiting to be sewn together.  If I am not wearing it on Christmas Day, please avoid the subject.

Now that I am over screaming every time I look at it, I have put the last of the Christmas tree garlands up in our own living room.  This is Garland Number 52 made this season, so you can understand my temporary aversion to anything with branches.

My only concern now is that I will forget to take the turkey out of the freezer and will end up tossing it into the bathtub full of hot water on Christmas morning.  But that's not going to happen ...

Shadow Shot Sunday # 75

Where did the week go? Here we are again with Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday. The first image I have chosen is of a poor lost soul sitting in the fading afternoon sun in St Stephen's Green, Dublin. My heart went out to him and I wondered what hardships he had to face in his life.

The second image is of another lost soul - Mr Fudge consulting a map in Edinburgh - a scene that was to be repeated on more than one occasion over the coming weeks.

There was a gathering today of some of the BrisStyle girls, all very upbeat at the prospect of our coming Christmas market on 5 December.

Star of the day was the super charming Helen of Ruby 2 Go Go who in her other life is an air stewardess. She had been up since 2.30 this morning and had flown from Brisbane to Melbourne and back again - and she managed to arrive at the gathering before me. Well, I had to travel across town!

The other star of the day was young Xavier, the handsome son of committee member, Bel, one half of the of the EmBelISH team. He was keeping a firm eye on Mum while Katie of Kitty Boo Boo did a wonderful job keeping him amused.

There were lots items on show, but I can't reveal them here ... sorry. You will have to come along to our Christmas market to see what all the excitement is about.

But I can show you what I have been working on this week - I really don't want to see another skirt for a while, so next week it's dresses.

A Mystery Unlocked

We were puzzled while strolling through the streets of Florence a few weeks back when we came across these padlocks in various locations.

Could they have been used to lock bicycles? No - far too many to be practical. It wasn't until we returned home and were visiting my brother in Sydney that the mystery was solved. We were flicking through our trip images on his computer when we came to these. He told us that they were left by young lovers as a public display of their affection. Ah, mystery solved ... but how my brother knew is another mystery!

Reality shot home yesterday when I picked up the local news magazine, Brisbane News from the driveway and discovered a two page spread on local markets. There featured among the top Brisbane markets was our own BrisStyle Indie Designers Market. If you go here:

http://www.brisbanenews.com.au/issues/currentwk/index.html

and flick over to pages 18-19, you can read the article. The eye-catching clutch bag featured is the creation of one of our BrisStyle designers, Megan Forsyth, while the cute little vintage dolls are the work of Mel of Retro Bird.

The realisation of how quickly the next few weeks will pass has finally hit me. I am going to have to lock myself in my sewing room and diligently stick to my unrealistic schedule, or I will be seriously under-stocked come 5 December.

I've managed to make a couple of skirts in the last couple of days, sandwiched between meetings with various craft groups, which took place every day this week. They are up in my Etsy shop and I plan to have a large stock of them for sale at the BrisStyle Indie Market. I know I will have to cull my social activities in order to achieve this target, but it's coming up to that busy part of the year ... ooo ... I will have to be so strong!