Vintage Barbie

When I was a little girl, my great Aunt and Uncle lived across the road from us. Sometimes, they would look after me.

I loved being allowed to play in their tiny spare bedroom at the back of the house. In the bottom of an old musty cupboard was a pile of boxes, and in one of them were Dad's cousin's old barbie dolls. With the barbie's owners, grown up and long gone, I brought them back to life during my playtime. I loved their hair and their gidget-style daywear. I adored their cocktail evening dresses. Some had painted faces and surly glances, while others had freckles and innocent smiles.

There was no Ken doll (I don't think) and no cheerleader outfits. But this picture brought back those memories. It's a pity that those dolls are long gone now...but not forgotten.

I found this bookmarked on my computer. I'm loving going through and rediscovering things I have bookmarked ages ago.

Valentino wisdom

I have started the mammoth and daunting task of sorting our our walk-in-robe. As I pile clothes into boxes of: to keep, to give away, to bin. I keeping thinking of a quote by Valentino.



"If it doesn't make you feel beautiful, then don't wear it"

....or words to that effect. I am remembering the line from an interview, that I had seen with him, many years ago.

I'm a little worried, as so far that is leaving me with one skirt and two pairs of shoes!



Why the red? I have been inspired by Astrid and her 'my life in red' project, this month.

My creative space....

The thought of taking a child to the store to purchase a birthday present for their sibling fills me with dread. Spunky Monkey's birthday is on Monday, so I took the same approach as I did for Miss Moo Moo's birthday last year, and asked Miss Moo Moo to a draw a picture for her brother. I am embroidering it to hang on his wall.

I will finish it off tonight. I am party planning today, for some reason his birthday celebrations are stretching over 4 days!

If you want to see some more creative spaces, go over to kootoyoo and be inspired.

AND.....

Perhaps you would like to make a doll or softie for the Queensland Flood Appeal Dolly Drive. There is still plenty of time. The close date is the 18th of March. We would love you to join us. Please read more on my original post.

If you need more time, the close date is flexible, please let me know. I now intend to send some dolls to North Queensland if I get enough. Please read more about this here. Go here, here and here to see some of the dolls/softies that I have already received.

And if that is not inspiration enough. This week I have been contacted by a sewing group in Spain and a seven year old in New Zealand, all are going to be making dolls for the families in Queensland who have lost everything.

Thank you so much to those special people.

A whole lot of lovin'

This Valentine's Day, I had grand plans. I had intended to bake a heart shaped cake for home and heart shaped biscuits to share at school. I had a long list of valentine crafts to make with the kids. But with a few on going projects taking up my time this week and a head cold that just won't seem to go away, we did what we could.



We made a painted heart garland to decorate the family room.



We ate dinner by candlelight. The valentine tea lights were made on the weekend.



I made these love heart decorations to hang on our celebration tree. Please note, that the fabric was not chosen by me.

Blue sequins, how did you get into my fabric stash?



After dinner I settled down to watch "Sleepless in Seattle". This is my ultimate Valentine's Day movie, for mushy, sentimental reasons, I'm sure you don't want to hear about here.

Mr Moo came home from work at 9:30pm and found me asleep on the couch. Very romantic indeed.

I know Valentines Day is really for young lovers. But for us old lovers of love (over thirty-five) I think you realise what real love is, you understand that it comes in so many different forms and you realise just how powerful it can be.

I'll leave you with some Baci chocolate wisdom.



"why use words when a kiss says it all?" - Anonymous

and...

"day by day and night by night we were together, all else has long been forgotten by me" - W. Whitman

Happy Valentine's Day

Large bunches of ruby red roses, handmade Belgian chocolates, fine French lingere and candlelit dinners are all so very lovely.

But so is waking up to the sound of gentle rain on our tin roof, lost in a sea of arms. Everyone was in our bed this morning, cuddling, snuggling, showering each other with tiny kisses.

I hope you have a wonderful Valentines Day.

Flea market finds...

I am wanting to make a quilt (yes, my first quilt) from vintage sheets. I probably already have enough to make it, but I am always on the lookout. This week I found these sheets at a local op shop. I didn't realise until I had got them home that they were both sets. It seems a waste to cut them up, so I have decided that Miss Moo Moo can have them for her bed - for now anyway.



She was thrilled and as soon as I washed them, I made up her bed. Here is Betty, testing them out.

Go here, to see what other treasures have been found this week.

A mangrove walk

Last Saturday, it was threatening rain, but we just needed to get out of the house for a walk in nature. I'm glad I took these photos, I can appreciate the beauty of what we saw. On the day however, much was missed, as we were literally, carried away by mosquito's. It ended up being a very quick walk.

Spunky Monkey lead us through the rainforest.



And then up onto the boardwalk.



We loved looking at the twisted roots of the mangrove trees



We listened to the wind roar through the paperbark trees.



We spotted tiny birds and enjoyed their song.



We sat and watched the tiny crabs busy in the mud.



Next time we will remember the insect spray.