It begins

Hum, I didn’t post anything for a little while. I’m sure there’s a good reason, and it’s probably relating to something awesome.

Meanwhile, Littletree has gotten intensely excited about Hallowe’en coming up. It’s all a bit baffling to me, as it’s a new import to Australia; we never had Hallowe’en when I was a wee sproglet.

But it’s catching on fast here now, and Littletree is gearing up for a big event. Her current project is designing and sewing herself a costume. She’s been working on it for a couple of weeks now, collecting fabrics, working on sketches and designs, making lists of props and suchness…

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I’m actually incredibly impressed with her designs – here’s her costume design, which will be a werecat

And the completed design, complete with background

And an extra design that she made for a friend

Of course, I’m talking with her about All Hallows Eve, and Beltane and history and traditions, and Littletree is all, “yeah, yeah, you told me about that last year, I just wanna design my costume”.

The First Sewing Project

Since Littletree got a sewing machine two weeks ago, her awesome goddessmother Lady Demelza has been teaching her how to use it.

They started on a simple project – I’d let Littletree loose in my box of fabric scraps and remnants and she was instantly drawn to a brightly-patterned green fabric and she decided to make a bag out of it for me…

I thought it was interesting that she was so drawn to that particular fabric, I asked her if she recognised it at all and she said she didn’t – it was an off-cut from an old sling I’d made back when she was about two years old, and carried her around in it almost every day until it was replaced when she was about four!

Anyway, Littletree quickly got the hang of using the machine, and she designed the shape and pattern entirely on her own

Finally, the finished product!

I love it, of course!

Surprise Machine

Since Littletree is incredibly fashion conscious – not in the sense that she’s a fashion victim who follows all the trends, but she has a very strong sense of her own style and is constantly altering clothes to suit exactly how she wants them – the goddessmother of awesomeness Lady Demelza decided that Littletree should have her own sewing machine, and set about finding one that was very basic, simple, easy to use, and cheap.

Lady Demelza was clever enough to find the perfect one online, and ordered it as a surprise, so Littletree was amazed to come home one afternoon to find a large package with her name on it…

She eagerly ripped the package open to discover…

Bubble wrap!!!

Oh, and a sewing machine :-)

Littletree is very much impressed and excited, and Lady Demelza is giving her lessons on how to use it, and they’re embarking on major fashion design projects. More on that to come…

A Great Day

At the local home school group this week Littletree made a new friend:

All the kids were quite fascinated with him for a while, which led to a long discussion about what kinds of caterpillars are okay to touch and which ones might make you itchy, as well as butterflies, chrysalis, and other assorted insect related stuff that naturally led to fairies. (Doesn't every conversation?)

(There's not really any purpose behind that photo I just wanted to include it because it's so freakin cute! Littletree has been really getting in to wearing pigtails lately - her hair has grown back so fast)

On the way home we were blessed to walk through a flock of lorikeets settling down to roost.

They are such beautiful birds

When we got home there was a surprise package waiting in the mail:

A new penfriend of Littletree's sent her this amazing hand-made skirt.

She's been wearing it pretty much constantly since she got it, always twirling, twirling...

After the Fire Storm Comes the Rainbow Clothes

No doubt you all heard about the horrific bush fires that have wreaked devastation over a massive area in Victoria, in south-eastern Australia. The fires broke out the day before we left for Tasmania, and are still burning in some places, over 2 weeks later. 210 people (at the last count) have lost their lives, thousands of homes and businesses were lost and countless millions of dollars in damage.

I managed to miss most of the hullabaloo, by dint of being at the rainbow gathering, and mostly incommunicado, but a tragedy of this magnitude affects us all.

Several of my good friends lost everything, one family I know barely managed to escape the fire by jumping out the window with their new baby. The extent of the devastation leaves me breathless and astounded.

Naturally, the nation is banding together to support the survivors, donations can be made through the Red Cross.

Anyway, our good friends, with whom we stayed in Hobart, Mellow and Nemo, with their little baby, Nature, went above and beyond, donating a massive pile of boxes full of new stock from their clothing store.

Their clothes are all hand made in India, Mellow designs all the clothes herself, and then goes over to ensure everything is made under ethical working conditions and with fair trade practices.

Seriously, they make gorgeous clothes. I was blessed enough to get this awesome winter dress:

And Littletree got some cute outfits too. Their store is called Keshet, which means Rainbow in Hebrew. Check out their website HERE, or go to their stall at Salamanca Market.

Bellydance

Littletree is really into belly dancing lately, and since one of her friends has a belly dancing costume in her dress-ups, Littletree wanted one too.

We decided to sew one, using some scraps from my sewing bag. Littletree had her first real go on the sewing machine, and had a load of fun.

Here she is modelling the finished product:

She's been wearing it just about every day, and freestyle belly dancing all the time. We're so loving having this great big expanse of wooden flooring :)

I think next time we get a package from her family in Israel we'll ask for some more belly dancing paraphernalia, like a scarf with coins on it.

Sew; A Needle Pulling Thread

I got a Sewing machine!

Quite a few people went into giving me this wonderful gift. It all started with Purple's mother wanting to give me her old sewing machine for my birthday. I was happy to have it, but to be honest, bringing a sewing machine home from Israel was pretty unrealistic, and the shipping would have cost more than it was worth. So she suggested that I buy a second-hand machine here and send her the bill.

After spending a few days on the internet trying to find a good, old machine to buy, I gave up, feeling that there was no way I could buy a machine I've never seen before and know nothing about.

I decided to post a notice wishing for a sewing machine on our local community notice board, and trust that if I'm meant to have a machine, it will come to me.

Just a couple of days later, I called Autumn and Earth Mama to check in with them, and Autumn told me my sewing machine was there for me to pick up!

Turns out someone they know had seen my notice, and somehow knew that I was their midwife, so left the machine at their place for me to collect! I was so excited to get it. It's an old Singer; after much internettery, I found out it's from 1967, and a really great model. I put it in for a service, and bought some new bobbins and needles, and bang! instant sewing machine :)

I took it for the first test drive today; whipped up an outrageous pink spinning dress for Littletree, copying the pattern from another dress she has.

Clearly Littletree loves the dress to bits, and spent the rest of the day twirling around in it.