clutterpunk

Vests.

2011-11-16T21:08:00.001+11:00

These photos have been sitting around on my computer gathering cyber-dust. Time to put them up on the blog. I don't really have much to say, just 'hey look, I made some vests'.

The brown Milo (no cable, I opted to leave it out for my attempt) is for a little fellow who will be entering the world in the dead of Northern Hemispheric Winter.

The navy tweedy vest was given to a little chap named Arthur on the occasion of his baptism. It struck me as a very 'Arthur' type of vest (though the pattern, found on Ravelry, is called Colin).

Susannah, sick of modelling vests for other infants, finally claimed her own version of the Colin, made from a delicious possum merino blend.

That's that really. Made vests. Dressed poor daughter in vests to take happy snaps. Gave vests away.

So there you go. Vests.

Time: a few thoughts.

2011-10-30T17:18:00.000+11:00

Hello blog.

It's been a while. I've been lurking around the blogosphere, but not really engaging. My time and energy has been better spent elsewhere. Maybe I'll get back to some type of regularity soon, but no promises. I certainly have lots of parenting-living-making-cooking stuff in my head that I'd love to think through and talk out. Not to mention a backlog of made objects that I could show-and-tell. But I'm feeling a bit aimless, a bit unsure of where clutterpunk fits into the wacky world of blogging these days, and particularly unsure of where it fits into daily life. I do sometimes scratch my head and wonder how I used to make the time to hang out over here so often.

Funny thing is, I'm not absent because I'm busy. Quite the opposite. I'm very, very unbusy, and deliberately so. I've been on the s-l-o-w bandwagon ever since the monotasking revelation, and the slowness is continuing to seep into the corners of our way of life.

But wait - don't I have three kids at home? Isn't life busy? "You must be busy!" is the constant remark that all mothers of young ones are familiar with.

Not really. Yes, there is a certain amount of relentlessness and perpetual motion to the whole thing, the waking-playing-eating-messing-fighting-dressing-eating-packing-unpacking-talking-walking-fighting-scooting-biking-fighting-talking-reading-painting-cleaning-holding-washing-cooking-eating-bathing-reading-cuddling-sleeping that goes on between the hours of 6am and 8pm (and the feeding-holding-rocking-cuddling overnight). The boys in particular are constantly moving; they do what they do with vigour. But our time is our own, and in the spirit of idle parenting we have not scheduled much in during the week apart from kindergarten, which leaves us flexible with time and able to spend it as we please.

And as a family we like to spend our time on relationships. We're people people, and we've been spending a lot of time with each other, and with friends old and new, and with our Creator, and out and about in our neighbourhood. As an 'unwaged' person, time is my commodity, and I've been really grateful about that choice during the last six months, which for a variety of reasons has been a relationally intense time. People have needed me and I've needed people. Relationships thrive on time and I've had time to give (if little else!).

Blogging to me is also primarily about the relationships, which is why I don't like posting if I can't also give time to reading and replying and interacting. I probably need to figure out whether I want to 'make time' to reinvest in the blog and the blogging world, and what that looks like.

Meanwhile, time passes. From my current vantage point, it feels like it is passing slowly, and that's a good thing.

Susannah at six months.

Angry Spoons

2011-08-05T23:03:00.002+10:00

I've been in default gloomy mode this week.

Some difficult stuff going on for close friends is weighing heavy on my heart.

I've felt cynical and jaded.

The babe has been favouring night-feeds.

My eldest has been sick and whiny.

My middlest has been constantly contrarian, rough and ear-splittingly loud.

I'm told I have symphysis pubis dysfunction which a right-royal pain in the... pelvis.

I can't get back to running for at least six months.

We've watched too much television.

There is a vague but persistent poo smell in the living room which we can't locate.

Someone ate all the chocolate.

(Oh wait, that was me. Great, now I'm fat too).

I think my 2-year-old really managed to capture my mood in yesterday's defiant graffito:

Angry Spoons (2011)

by Charlie

Permanent marker on stainless steel

HOLD IT!

If I take the gloom-filters off, there has been so much good in our week this week. I just need to go back through it, to see it all again without the storm cloud.

The arrival of awesomely retro hand-knits from Great Great Aunty Audrey:

Glorious sunshine and a burgeoning veggie patch:

Our first radish harvest:

And a new favourite, rocket-radish-carrot-apple-mint-parsley-lemon salad:

A finished knitting project in deliciously soft, saturated yarn:

Finally being able to dress the girl in the sweetest of cardigans:

Nudists and slave labour:

A few hours of fun with coloured rice (inspired by Emma):

Leaf tea enjoyed in my beautiful birthday cup (c/o Melski):

Some baking and yarning (both kinds) with a good pal:

And a lovely project that's spanking along:

So many enjoyable moments. So much to be grateful for. I guess it wasn't all Angry Spoons over here.

How has your week been?

Can't blog. Knitting.

2011-08-02T09:03:00.000+10:00

Can't blog... can't take photos... can't finish sewing projects... can't cook decent meals... can't pay attention to the kids...

Must. Knit.

Oh yes, I've been whacked with knit-fever. I know, I'm so five years ago. Apparently the whole world has been on ravelry forever. And yes, I've read about this around the craft blog traps, but have always had my sewing, baking, home-making blinkers on and have largely avoided all yarn-speak.

Now the filters have changed. It was my birthday on the weekend, and to celebrate I was granted a boy-free day. I spent the morning at the Craft & Quilt Fair, walking disinterestedly past stalls of fabric and sewing tools and making a beeline for anything smelling vaguely of lanolin. I barely glanced at the spectacular quilts on display, yet I chatted at length to the lovely women at the handknitters' guild table. Not quite sated, I then spent the afternoon in Morris & Sons stocking up on needles.

Meanwhile the clutterpunk boys, having somehow clued into my new obsession, were off arguing over which knitting books their nutty mother/wife might appreciate for her birthday. Apparently consensus could not be reached:

Interestingly, the children were insistent on the more practical knitting guides, while the husband clearly has more subversive intentions for my newfound passion.

Of course there is no spectacular finished object to show for all my knitty obsession. I have taken the unusual (for me) approach of tackling things appropriate to skill level and not taking shortcuts. I've made washcloth which is lovely but not photogenic. And I've almost finished a two-tone ribbed scarflet for myself. In doing so I've discovered the joy of knitting with beautiful yarn and needles, even with large amounts of ripping out and re-knitting involved.

(Note to self, work on joggless joining!)

I have also been coming to terms with the infuriating aspects of knitting. For example, the beautiful yarn that looks perfect for a little girl's vest but feels like knitting with chalk:

And the three attempts to obtain correct gauge with said yarn before giving up and finding a different yarn...

which happens to be a hank...

which happens to get in a terrible tangle...

which requires a long-suffering husband and a frustrating hour to get sorted out...

Nonetheless, I'm all in. Knitting, I know its going to be a lifelong affair.

Although I suspect that life may be shortened somewhat by a tragic knitting-needle-related 'accident' if I continue to infuriate my family with the refrain "just let me finish this row".

Back on the bike

2011-07-23T10:35:00.002+10:00

Team clutterpunk are back on the bike!

Well, most of them are IN the bike. Can you believe there are three kidlets in there?

I stopped riding in February when I hit the seven-months-pregnant mark. We were asked to car-sit for a friend for 5 months, which was a wonderfully-timed provision: we had been discussing hiring a car for a few months to ease our transition to five, to make sure I could get to hospital quickly during a blink-and-you'll-miss-it type labour and to give me a bit of postnatal recovery time. We gratefully accepted the car and sent Hudson to be bike-sat by a local family who were keen to try him out.

So in these last months we've had time to test out whether it's time for us to buy a car.

The answer? Not yet!

We appreciated many things about driving again, particularly the ability to be more spontaneous about visiting people and places further afield. But there was so much NOT to love, beyond the obvious environmental issues. The stress of getting three kids in and out of a small car; the parking difficulties and time-limits; the car-sick-prone child; the money-haemorrhaging. We've decided to opt for the mild inconvenience of having to plan ahead with public transport or car hire for a few more years, while the kids are still small and life continues to be slow and locally-oriented.

Anyway, Hudson is home! And set up for riding.

Here's how it works: the two boys on the bench seat, and the baby in a car seat which we've fixed securely in the front section.

Everyone is snug-as-a-bug. Susannah seems comfortable enough in her car seat and it certainly provides a good amount of restraint and shock-absorption.

I love being able to put one kid at a time in the bike and leave them there while I fetch other things. I love that I can park right next to our front door in bad weather. I love parking right next to kindergarten, or church, or a friend's house, rather than three road-crossings away. I love that I can pull up outside the bakery and duck in while 'leaving the kids in the car' without breaking the law. I love being able to stop quickly and comfort the baby, break up a fight or fetch a dropped book. I love the Melbourne mizzle on my face and the bracing air while my kids are toasty and dry under the prairie hood. I love hearing the boys chatting and singing and calling out to passers-by.

I love being back on the bike.

Knitting? Knitting!

2011-07-16T11:08:00.000+10:00

Until two weeks ago, I was a fabric girl. Not at all your yarny type. No skeins or sticks lying around, no k2p2 bizzo going on around chez clutterpunk, no thank you very much. I was Not A Knitter.

Well, that's changed. And about time.

See that there? That's a SCARF. Made it myself! A ribbed scarf with a keyhole opening in it, no less. And there was even unknitting and reknitting involved, and yet I finished it.

I AM KNITTER, HEAR ME ROAR.

I know it's ridiculous to be so pleased. It was, of course, quite basic. But you see, I'd come over all perfectionist again without even realising. I'd told myself and numerous others that 'I don't knit'. What I thought I meant by this statement was 'I don't care to knit'. What I actually meant was 'I can't knit', which is perfectionist-speak for 'I would really like to knit, but when I pick up a ball of yarn and some needles for the first time I am not instantly, effortlessly brilliant at knitting and therefore I really should just leave it to the experts and stick to what I know, which is nothing much of anything and why am I so crap at everything and blah, blah, blah.... oh look, a cupcake."

So anyway, down with perfectionism and up with knitting!

As it happens, I don't think I could have held off much longer. The yarn-obsessed world was conspiring against me.

The arrival of a most stunning dusky pink in threes cardigan by that almighty stick-wielder, Tania;

A visit to my dear friend Anna, clutterpunk's preferred providore of finely knat washcloths and beanies, who introduced me to Ravelry;

The constant sighting of gorgeous milo vests made or in making, and the fact that I keep returning to oggle at them;

The revelation that my mother, whom I have never accused of doing anything craft-related, is KNITTING a gorgeous garter-stitch jacket for Susannah ('oh yes, I knit' she announced breezily, producing a perfectly-tensioned work in progress as I picked my jaw up off the floor - where have you been these past 35 years, knitting mother?!);

And finally, the sudden remembering that the very first therapeutic act of craft I committed four years ago, after emerging from the PND haze, was the knitting of a beanie for my newborn son. How could I have forgotten that? Knitting was the first step towards the unravelling of perfectionism. It's well and truly time to recommence.

the mending mentality

2011-06-28T10:06:00.000+10:00

Do you mend stuff?

What do you keep? What do you throw out? How do you decide?

I don't think I'd ever mended a thing until about three years ago, when I first started sewing. I didn't grow up sewing or making or mending, so it just didn't occur to me to try it.

Pretty shocking really, to think that until that point in time, it did not register that I could, and should, try to salvage my clothing. I have no doubt I threw things away for want of a new button, or altered hemline. I guess I really did think of clothing as essentially disposable.

Now I have a dedicated basket for clothes which could use a patch, a stitch or a potential refashion. Some things sit in there for long periods of time. At the moment I'm finding myself delving in more frequently, when I have a spare ten minutes, because it's great to do something a little productive, a little resourceful, a little achievable; something that feels a little bit like creativity even though it isn't.

I confess my mending is not neat, or pretty, or clever. Sometimes it doesn't work very well. Many clothes are too 'past it' to make them salvageable. Still, it's become important to me to try to give my family's clothing that second, third or fourth chance. Not because we are short of clothes or need to be frugal per se, but because we're working to build more of a make do and mend mentality. Respecting what we own, taking better care of it, avoiding the desire to toss things out or 'upgrade' just because.

While I was stitching away at this rip in my husband's shirt, I felt a renewed determination to keep working at our ethical clothing pledge. I'll save an update on that for another time, but I've certainly been less consistent in the last year. The mending pile betrays some poor clothing choices on my part - next to the third-hand toddler jeans and the accidentally-ripped work shirts, there are items that were just ill-fitting, bad-quality, 'disposable' choices in the first place. They sit there awaiting some refashioning inspiration, reminding me to think harder next time.

Do you have any mending tales to inspire me with?

This Just In: Bonnets are BACK!

2011-06-20T19:33:00.000+10:00

Move over beanies and bucket hats. It's all about the bonnet now.

What a charming way to protect a precious little head from the elements.

Until last week I was slapping hand-me-down beanies on Susannah when we went outdoors. Then Christy of little betty asked me to try out her sweet, reversible little bonnet pattern.

What, get to try a new pattern?
Complete a sewing project?
Make something pretty and functional?
Take gratuitous shots of my daughter?

I was so happy to oblige.

Susuannah herself was slightly less obliging in the modelling department...

Amore enthusiastic model was found in my friend's delightful girl, Baby V, who wears the little bonnet for you in both its forms below:

I think Christy's PDF pattern for her little betty little bonnet is first class. It comes with three pattern sizes (0-6 months, 6-12 months and 1-2 years), each of which can be made from two fat quarters of fabric. As you can see, the 0-6 month size I made fits newborn Susannah (loosely) and also 9-month-old Baby V. It looks adorable on both, if I do say so myself!

Christy's step-by-step instructions are clear, concise and easy to follow. I find sewing small, curved things a bit tricky but Christy included helpful photos, tips and explanations which guided me through the finer points to produce a well-structured, well-finished little bonnet.

I'd like to add that I think the pattern is quite a bargain at $6 USD from Christy's little betty etsy store.

Of course you could just cut out the work and buy one of her gorgeous bonnets already made up - but then you'd miss out on the fun of choosing the fabrics out.

Speaking of which, I'm off to look through my stash to find fabrics to make another bonnet for a 1-year-old, and perhaps another one for Susannah lined with flannel, and maybe a softer one using some reclaimed embroidery... yes, bonnet-mania has struck!

Mystery sewing

2011-06-10T23:25:00.000+10:00

A month ago I started having recurring dreams. Each night I found myself transported back half a lifetime to high school. Each night I would bumble around innocently reliving my youth, until the inevitable horror struck. And each night, it was the same horror: I would find myself in a classroom, only to discover that I was about to sit an examination, in a course that I had apparently signed up for but failed to attend for the entire year.

I'm no interpreter of dreams, but for me that one is a no-brainer. It's a classic procrastination dream. Clearly there was something I was avoiding that I knew was going to catch up with me if I didn't acknowledge it pronto. Only I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was trying to tell myself. Outstanding bills? Nope. Work deadline? Oh, that's right, I haven't had one of those for about two years now. Event horizon which is causing me stress? Come on, the only major event of the year was birthing a child, and that's done and dusted!

Finally, last week, I got it. It was about the sewing machine.

The poor sewing machine. It's been packed up in a box since well before we moved. We parted on bad terms - it had lower thread tension issues, I had unpicking fatigue. I was waiting for the perfect time, the perfect project, the perfect motivation to get back on the horse. Of course there wasn't one, so last week I plucked up the necessary courage and just did a spot of mystery sewing.

Here's what came of it... and it remains a mystery!

When I started foundation-piecing these kimono offcuts together, I think I was envisioning a scarf. Initially, I cut my patchwork into three long strips and tried them around my neck. But no, it wasn't quite right. So I sewed the strips back into one piece, but in a different order.

Then I thought maybe I'd go for an Obi. I added wadding, and backing, and two waist ties. And then I put it on my waist and realised that THAT IS THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH I would like to draw attention to at the moment. Particularly with a big, bright, thickly padded belt.

Now I'm flicking between 'table runner' and 'fancy baby change mat'. Except in either case, it's really not practical, as vintage silks and brocades are not the most washable of fabrics...

Perhaps you have a thought about where this mystery sewing could end up?

The sewing might not be going anywhere obvious, but the sewing machine is back in action and you'll be pleased to know that I'm not waking up in a cold sweat screaming 'what's the square root of Shakespeare?' anymore.

Self sufficiency? Not so much.

2011-06-07T15:54:00.000+10:00

Let me present to you the pride and joy of the clutterpunk garden, the cream of the harvest so far this year:

Yes, that's it all right. A stumpy, warty-looking zucchini.

Anyone want a bite?

We have a way to go before we are dining out on homegrown food here. Since moving out of our two-bedroom, no-garden flat six months ago, team clutterpunk have harboured lofty ideals of 'living off the land'.

Actually, our ideals aren't that lofty. We're not planning to become survivalists, but we do want to gain some gardening skills, spend time outdoors as a family and grow at least some of our own edibles. And given that my previous record with plants reads 'herbicide by neglect', I figure it's going to take some time to get the hang of things.

Our garden has an inner-urban Mediterranean heritage, with an 'Italian Lawn' (otherwise known as cement). So we've gone with a raised no-dig veggie garden. Ours came from the lovely guys at the Little Veggie Patch Co. Sadly, our first plant-out was disastrous (so sorry, Jon and Mat - our fault entirely). We've replanted for winter and have higher hopes for our garlic, leeks, onions, beets and swedes.

I guess, when you tend towards learning by intuition or feel as I do, mistakes are the way you learn. We inherited these lovely old laundry tubs, but have since learned about the necessity of adequate drainage - hence the mildewed zucchini.

So we punched a heap of holes into the bucket o' rocket, and that seems to be thriving. Drainage... check! And now we need to learn about planting in succession rather than tipping the whole bunch of seeds in at once.

Well, it's going to be one fine week of rocket when it happens!

But the failures are hardly failures. There is much pleasure to be had just in the process of creating and tending a garden. With the little bits of learning and activity and beauty it provides, the actual productivity is fairly secondary to us. A few months back the boys spent an afternoon with their Grandma exuberantly planting beans willy nilly throughout our containers. Who knows what they will produce, but it's a delight to see them climbing up the fence and spilling out of the herb pots.

And if nothing else ever takes off, we do have this glorious, heavily-laden lemon tree, poking through its hole in the cement. God bless the Italian migrant population.

Even with just the lemons and a handful of productive herb plants, I feel almost giddy with the potential of it all. I can dress salads! I can flavour pasta dishes and garnish pizza! I can make lemon cordial and lemon curd and put zest into everything! Imagine what I might feel like if anything else takes? Positively self-sufficient!

And now I might go and julienne that zucchini. Or grate it directly into the compost. Either way, I think my thumb is definitely looking just that little bit greener.

Creative Space

2011-06-02T08:43:00.000+10:00

I don't know what this is yet. I'm just making for the heck of it. This is the first bit of machine sewing I've attempted in over six months, and it was simply time to stop procrastinating and start sewing - just anything, anything to break the drought. Sew first, think later.

So I'm playing with kimono off-cuts and foundation-piecing, much like I did for last year's muff. I'm not sure what it will become or who it will be for, but I do like a bit of mystery sewing - I think it's how I operate best. Otherwise I would have stayed stuck in the thinking, choosing, tracing, cutting, measuring, and still not have cracked the machine out. Now it's done and the drought is broken.

I'm getting this bit of sewing and blogging in because it's been an early start to the day. The boys got up at 4:30am - FOUR THIRTY!! And on our busiest day of the week. I stayed in bed until the babe called for me at 6am, but when the Beloved left for work I switched on the TV without guilt or reserve and shut myself in my new craft room. (Yes, my own room - so novel, so fun, I can barely get my head around it!). Soon we leave for the day, and I can just leave this sew-your-own-adventure project out for later.

Creative spaces now meeting over here - hope to see you there!

The perfect Friday night in

2011-05-27T21:27:00.000+10:00

3 children quiet in their beds (for now)
a tired but happy husband home from his long day
West Wing season 4
warm apple and rhubarb crumble
cold ice cream
and
some satisfying hand-sewing
(one pentagon patchwork ball completed, another on the way)

I just had to take a break in between episodes
to take a photo, remember a lovely moment
and make some tea.

Easy as 1-2-3

2011-05-24T13:13:00.000+10:00

We're really enjoying these early weeks with our fifth family member. Far more than I predicted. Not that I was anticipating a world of pain, but I like to keep those expectations low!

And it's not all down to my little lass being a dream-baby or anything. She's a fairly typical baby I suspect. Some sleeping, some not-sleeping, some gooing, some crying. She's not quite five weeks, so I'm not planning to pigeon-hole her just yet! All I can say is that we're really enjoying her and the sense of cohesion I feel like she's brought to our little gang. Watching my firstborn, William, delighting in his little sister is truly gratifying.

When I say 'we', perhaps I shouldn't try to speak for all of us. Quite predictably, I can feel Charlie, my now-middle child, struggling. He's two and half and has just been usurped as the baby, so it's completely natural. I don't think it helps that the eldest and youngest share so many similarities as newborns, and that we probably keep drawing comparisons to their physique, alertness, and distinctive mannerisms within earshot of our not-quite-cookie-cut kid.

Charlie, we adore you no less now than before - you're the perfect middle kid for our family!

So here we are, five weeks in, finding our new rhythm as a family.
Funnily enough, it looks largely like the old rhythm, apart from one thing:

There's a lot more PINK.

She arrived.

2011-05-14T12:16:00.000+10:00

That's right - she!

Susannah came into the world three and a half weeks ago. Chez clutterpunk is besotted.

Our family has been enjoying a quiet 'babymoon' with the help of my wonderful parents and sister. Justin has been home, the boys have been eased into the new reality, and we've been well fed and rested!

I've enjoyed a great gift - the space to sit around drinking cups of tea, cuddling my delicious newborn girl and working with her on the breastfeeding (which was a bit bumpy to start with but is now well-established).

Tomorrow, we are heading into our first week alone as a family of five. And although I'll miss all the adult company and spare hands, I'm more excited than nervous.

But first, S and I are enjoying our first 'girly day' alone. Sensibly, she's spent most of it sleeping so far. As for me, I've finally cracked out the craft... wheeeeeee!

Life has resumed. It feels good.

The Awkward Half-Year Silence

2011-04-16T19:10:00.000+10:00

So.

How are you doing?

Just a peek at my hideously overstuffed blog reader tells me you're doing well. I can see you've been productive, creative, thoughtful, engaging, funny and communicative these last 6 months.

As for me, you ask?

Well...

I'm fine is all.

No disasters, no strange turns-of-events, no fabulous tales of adventure and daring, no freak accidents that have rendered me incapable of human interaction.

Just a big ol' tummy full of baby - which, apparently, has been enough to drain all the crafty, thinky, bloggy energy out of me completely.

But...

I feel like the end is in sight.

What has felt like the world's longest gestation has just hit its 39th week.

The craft room has finally been unpacked.

The computer has finally been set up.

The camera has (almost) been relocated. (It's gotta be in here somewhere...)

The brain has been ticking over.

The urge to sew is rising.

Of course this is laughable, given that some time in the next 3 weeks I will be reentering the world of The Newborn. Where, in between the feeding, the changing and the other-child-wrangling am I planning to reconnect with the world of clutterpunk?

Nonetheless, I'm determined to. It's time.

To all those dear, dear blogging friends who have left comments and emails of the 'have you dropped off the face of the earth' variety - thank you. Especially the ones I have yet to reply to. I've really missed our interactions.

And even if I make nothing for show and tell in the next six months,

even if I have no revelations about life, sustainability and everything,

even if I don't find my camera...

I'm back in the conversation!

And I'll try to make my pauses just a little less long and awkward from now on :)

Time to move.

2010-10-27T09:28:00.000+11:00

With a new babe on the way, it's time for chez clutterpunk to relocate. In less than two months, we will be packing up our lovely little two-bedroom flat and re-entering the Big Bad World of the Rental Property.

In truth, we've actually got it very easy. Friends have offered us a house two blocks away; an old, unrenovated house with a lots of quirks but lots of space. We know their intentions for the property and therefore know that it will be a secure space for us for 5-10 years if we want, in the local community we're already entrenched in. We're essentially 'staying put', except for our actual living space.

And unlike most rental options, we will have lots of freedom. Freedom to bang pictures into the walls, to make 'improvements', to negotiate directly with the owners, to plant vegies - freedom to put down roots.

I'm feeling a great sense of possibility, mostly to do with space. There will be:

space to sleep - perhaps with more bedroom options we will iron out some sleeping issues? (ha!)

space to eat - room for a real kitchen table, now time to teach the boys how to sit at one

space to host - a guest room for interstate-dwelling parents, families and friends

space to play - the large backyard is concreted, in true inner-city Mediterranean style, but that's perfect for boys, bikes, chalk and people who hate mowing lawn!

space to hang - with plenty of room for stringing out clothes indoors I can avoid the dryer

space to grow - I'm already planning my above-ground vegie plots, compost and worm farm...

space to create - a room in which the sewing machine and iron can be left out, works-in-progress left undisturbed, and threads, pins and scissors left in reach without ramification.

But I'm a bit apprehensive too. Our family has learned so much from living in a small space together. We've learned to say no to stuff, both by buying less and by letting things go when they are no longer necessary to us. We've learned to be unpretentious hosts, sharing meals with friends sitting on the floor around the coffee table. We've learned to coexist in and negotiate the use of shared space in the dining-living-sewing-guest-TV-playroom. We've learned greater material contentment, and just how rich we are in this world.

But I know my inner aspirational, consumerist self is still lurking under the surface. And I suspect that with the move, and the potential for more accumulation, and the desire to make a new space homely, and the pregnancy nesting syndrome starting to kick in, I've got some big challenges and temptations ahead of me. Can I hold onto sustainable ideals? Will I keep my clutter and consumerism under control? I'd better stay tuned...

My creative space... from frog to prince?

2010-10-21T09:20:00.000+11:00

I feel like a bit of a fraud joining in with kootoyoo's creative spaces today, as I've made a big, fat nothing in the last month.

Nonetheless, I can now reveal to you the finished Green Monstrosity, which I finished binding and then delivered to my sister during a visit to QLD last month.

And frankly, after all my concern, I think it's looking pretty darn good, in its home environment.

Once again, check out the glorious quilting work of Karen from Quilts on Bastings:

And here's the backdrop, the rather verdant feature wall that my sister wanted the quilt to blend with.

Still not 100% my cup of ~~slime~~ tea, but for the recipient it seems to work just fine.

And now, I'm going to cruise the webs and see what inspiration for a new project I can find. How about you?

Something in the oven.

2010-10-18T14:36:00.000+11:00

Almost 3 months ago, the double glazed door of our two-year-old, just-out-of-warranty Whirlpool oven decided to explode.

From what I could see, the oven just needed some new front glass, or at most a new door, which I figured would not be an impossible ask of the manufacturer. Our oven was two years old, only just out of warranty, and in perfect working order, apart from the old lack-of-door issue.

Ha.

Apparently, ovens are a disposable item these days. I get it, I really do. I mean, it's been two years, and that oven technology, whoah, it's moved on people - who wants to be caught dead with a slow-moving two year old oven? Plus, it looked so 2008. Of course there would be no replacement glass or door for our (clearly defunct) model available in Australia. Of course we would most likely prefer to just 'upgrade' to the next model, the newer, sexier, shinier version. Almost the same cost really, because if we did want to take the distasteful approach of repairing our oven, then we'd have to wait ten years for the parts to arrive by goat from Uzbekistan, and then scalp a kidney to pay for installation.

Anyway, {insert rant about the state of the world today and why I think free-market economies are stupid here}. As of last week, we have a functioning oven again. Unfortunately, it is a new one, but it comes with a five-year warranty, accessible parts and servicing, and is definitely NOT Whirlpool.

Which means I can BAKE!

Bread.

Pizza.

Cake.

Pizza.

Did I mention pizza?

Going almost three months without our Sunday night neighbourly pizza-fest has been a killer. Last night, with much celebration, we resumed. Multiple delicious homemade pizzas followed by a lemon and rhubarb cake (thanks Lauren for the recipe!).

But now I have a confession.

If our oven DID have to explode and be out of action for a few months, then these few have been the time to do it. Because until just about yesterday, I had absolutely no stomach, energy or enthusiasm for baking anything.

Because, well... I have *something in the oven*.

I may have mentioned on this post back in July being in two minds about having more children. Dating suggests that I pretty much made up my mind as I pressed 'publish post'. Anyway, we are happy and grateful to be carrying a little one, and look forward to meeting him or her in early autumn next year.

Meanwhile, I'm just thrilled to have a baking stomach back. And a baby to hide all that pizza behind.

A 'hi', a 'bye' and a thought or two on binding.

2010-09-15T12:00:00.000+10:00

Last night my Beloved made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

"You haven't blogged in weeks! I'm taking the day off work, taking the boys out of your hair, and I'd like you to squander the day on blogging and sewing."

Oh. OK then!

To put things in perspective, Justin knows that I am about to take the boys out of his hair and have another hiatus from the computer as we travel interstate to visit family for a few weeks. He also knows that the horrible crotch hole in his jeans is not going to mend itself before my departure if I don't get a bit of toddler-free time!

So this is a bit of a 'hi' and 'bye' post. But I will be back in early October, oh yes I will.

Meanwhile, I have actually been doing stuff. I've also been not doing lots of stuff, in line with my Slow Project, and have many thoughts to share down the track on the matter. About Slow Parenting, redefining productivity, the Time/Money relationship, embracing my inner Feminist Housewife, that sort of thing. But there's no hurry, now, is there?

On the craft front, it's all been about Quilt Binding.

I've made three lengths of straight-cut binding in the last few weeks, and I've loved the process. This, in spite of the fact that each and every time I managed to sew my strips together in the wrong way and had to unpick. It seems that Slow Learning is another of my Slow skills at present!

I like to bind a quilt by machine-sewing the first side (as detailed in Heather Bailey's tutorial) and then hand-sewing the other side to finish. Slow, yes. Beautiful, you bet.

I definitely don't like to pin the binding down though. So to keep the roll of binding tape under control as I attach it, rather than unfurling in my lap or all over the floor as I sew, I've come up with this method:

Binding tape wrapped around a spool of thread and placed on the bobbin winder. This way it just unfurls as I go and I can concentrate on lining it up with the quilt edge.

And here is another preview of the Green Monstrosity, which is on its way to being fully-bound, having been recently quilted by the superbly-talented Karen of Quilts on Bastings. Her work is so polished, and has lifted the quality of this quilt remarkably.

This weekend the Green Monstrosity will make its way with us to its natural habitat, my sister's place, where I'm hoping it will slot organically into its surrounds and look, somehow, more subtle. (Why yes, my sister DOES live in a swamp).

Well my friends, the lure of crotch-reparation is just too strong... to the sewing machine I go!

Keep going slow,
x Gina

My creative space...

2010-09-02T08:11:00.000+10:00

We're taking our Slow Project very seriously over here at chez clutterpunk. I'm becoming quite the monotasking expert, almost to the point of stagnation. What, breathe and think at the same time? Dear me no, that would be multitasking!

OK, it hasn't been quite that bad. I have been pootling away on my quilts when time permits, and enjoying it all. The ugly hexes are almost hand-quilted. The green monstrosity has been beautifully machine-quilted by Karen and now requires binding (and banishing to my sister in Queensland, where it shall plague me no more with its greenness). A baby quilt 'commissioned' by a friend is ready for straight-line quilting. The chemo comforter now has a border and is ready for basting.

(Note to Self: think about naming quilts more tastefully.)

Meanwhile, I've been contemplating the Next Quilt:

The Liberty-obsessed Danielle of Itchin to get Stitchin sent me a huge bag of Liberty scraps to play with. (Thank you Danielle. You must have quite a stash!).

They are sitting in a large basket in the lounge room, and when my boys are sufficiently engaged in an activity I've been running my fingers through the silky scraps and dreaming of projects.

A lot of these scraps are tiny and thin but if used carefully they could make something beautiful. I'd love your suggestions! String quilt? Spiderweb quilt? Liberty crazy quilt?!

Meanwhile, back to the reality of sharing my slow creative space with two little guys. Recently we've been bead sorting (and snorting, occasionally). It has kept them occupied for more minutes that I could have anticipated, and given me time to dream of Liberty.

Who else is sharing their creative space today? Check them all out at Kirsty's place...

My creative space...taking shape.

2010-08-19T16:24:00.000+10:00

It feels like I've been doing a refresher in primary school geometry in my creative space recently.

This week I've completed the piecing of these half-square-triangles for a small lap quilt on its way to a sick friend.

So far, my short patchwork career has consisted of the scrappy, the imprecise and the mismatched. I like it like that. Nonetheless I'm really digging this classical approach to piecing, using a charm pack of French General Rural Jardin fabric and some hankie linen. Matching fabrics - gasp! I even toyed with a symmetrical design, but that was all a bit staid so I've come up with this asymmetrical suggestion-of-concentric-square thing.

Alongside the triangles-in-squares, my circles-in-hexagons are coming along:

I'm half-way through the hand quilting of my ugly hexagons and enjoying the process a whole lot more since I switched my thread from sashiko thread to Perle 8 cotton, which is gliding through the layers far more easily. Thanks go especially to Mary for the helpful suggestions on how to mark the design and reduce thread friction.

Tune in next week for rhomboids, isosceles triangles and dodecahedrons.

What's shaping up in your creative space?

Finding peace in the piecework.

2010-08-16T21:02:00.000+10:00

I started a new quilt top on the weekend.

This one will be for a friend who has a long six months of chemotherapy ahead of her. I hope that a small lap quilt, while not the most practical offering, is something that will bring a bit of comfort, beauty and a reminder that she is loved and prayed for.

I've wanted to try playing with triangles since the first issue of Fat Quarterly came out. So this weekend I chose the fabric from my stash and made a stack of half-square triangles. I decided to cut first, design later. It's just how I roll.

I surprised myself by enjoying the process. Usually my head is racing ahead to the next step and the next, impatiently wishing I was done with the 'preliminary' steps, wanting to see the whole thing come together. Instead, I got into the rhythm of cutting, marking, pinning, sewing, pressing. Perhaps the spirit of monotasking is really beginning to sink in.

I especially loved the pressing. I must have spent an hour last night lovingly ironing imperfectly-aligned points into the appearance of almost-perfection. It was weird. And then I spent a good while gazing affectionately at my little stack of raw-edged half-square triangles. As though they were my children.

Hmmm. It could be the monotasking. It could be the frontal lobotomy. You decide.

Check out my muff!

2010-08-12T20:29:00.000+10:00

Now for those of you snickering into your cup of tea, I'll remind you that the word 'muff' remains the term for a handwarmer or hand cosy, whatever other tawdry meanings it may have acquired in modern usage. Thank you very much.

A few weeks ago I received the best request ever. A dear friend of mine, Melski, owner of cold hands and warm heart, asked if I'd make her a muff.

As soon as it was requested, I knew in my minds' eye just what I wanted my hand cosy to look like. There is in fact a patchwork muff project in the book Denyse Schmidt Quilts,which I own and love. I followed the pattern, which gave clear dimensions and construction tips, but encouraged a very free and approximate approach to laying out the fabrics and designing the outer layer.

Just my type of project.

It was a joy to riffle through my fabrics and find what I was looking for. The bulk of the fabrics are kimono offcuts, which I offset with scraps of brown linen and suiting fabrics. I played a bit with layout and then foundation-pieced the strips onto some muslin - a useful new technique to learn.

I went for a lining of red fleece and four layers of wadding, which hopefully will keep dear Melski's hands just that bit more snug.

Of course it wouldn't be a handmade gift without the label hand-stitched on as an afterthought!

Dear Melski, who said bad circulation couldn't be stylish?

The Slow Project: monotasking

2010-08-08T16:18:00.001+10:00

{Credit where it is due - I'm hijacking Ellie of petalplum and her Slow Project here}

When I wrote about my attraction to the Slow Food movement a few weeks ago, I came away with a sense of cognitive dissonance.

I pay plenty of lip service to the slow life - slow food, slow cloth, slow fashion, slow transport. I have chosen to be 'slow' at this stage of life by refusing to juggle multiple roles and responsibilities with the main gig - parenting.

But I'm still an adrenaline junkie, and I love to multitask.

I guess the adrenaline habit is hard to kick. Particularly because our mainstream culture is all about thriving on adrenaline. We're addicted to:

efficiency

productivity

streamlining

multitasking

instant gratification

convenience

I feel that I ought to be 'using my time well' (which means doing more than one thing at a time). I parent, cook, craft, ride the bike, have 'me time', socialise and blog with a sense of urgency, as though I'm lagging behind somehow or going to miss a deadline. I try to do them all simultaneously. I'm always looking for ways to get a bit of blog-post-reading done whilst paying bills via iPhone whilst pushing the boys on the swings whilst chatting to my mother whilst jotting down the shopping list and designing the next quilt. WHY?

There is. No. Deadline.

Furthermore, it seems that multitasking may well be a flawed concept altogether. I like this quote from Carl Honore, author of In Praise Of Slow:

"The latest neuro-scientific research suggests what most of us already suspect: that the human brain is not very good at multitasking. Sure there are a few simple or routine tasks we can perform at the same time, but as soon as you have to engage the brain, you really need to focus on one activity at a time. Much of what passes for multitasking is nothing of the sort: it is sequential toggling between activities.

Changing attitudes is hard because our culture is marinated in the notion that doing more things at once is somehow deeply modern, efficient and fulfilling. But change is possible."

Anyway, I'm taking action. Well, inaction, more precisely. For the past few weeks I've been monotasking.

I've stopped checking the phone incessantly. I've stopped switching the TV on for the kids so I can 'get something done', and trying to either get them involved or accept the fact that it is just not going to get done right now (and does it really matter?). I've opted to either read, OR blog, OR sew of an evening, instead of trying to do all three in front of the telly. In fact, it has taken ten days to write this blog post, because I've let myself be interrupted and let go of the artificial, self-imposed deadlines. Does anyone care? No. I'm attempting to redefine my ideas of a successful day... did we get some sun and air? Get appropriately fed and watered? Do something creative? Hang out with some other people? Have a good cuddle? Relate well or at least give it a red-hot go?

That might all sound a bit sickly-sweet and like I should go and polish my earth-mother halo (in a mindful, meditative, living-in-the-present, enjoying-the-journey kind of way).

And frankly, I'm feeling so darned good right now, I just might.

(Insert gratuitous shots of kidlets in 'Hudson', wearing their Dillpickle Beanies)

My creative space... circling.

2010-08-05T13:42:00.000+10:00

It has begun. The quilting of the ugly hexes.

I've opted for hand quilting, and decided on a simple design of intersecting circles.

Simple in theory, anyway. I'm finding it slow going, but not really in that pleasant, lulling, meditative way I had hoped. It's taking a while to get a hang of lots of things: marking out my design; burying knots; holding an unwieldy quilt on my lap; working the needle through those layers.

And then there is the stitching itself. I started out quilting with thin cotton quilting thread and trying to do small, even stitches. After realising that I wasn't catching the backing with stitches smaller than, oh, about a metre, I decided to embrace the large stitch and go for more of a sashiko look. This looks much better to my eye, and doing a better job of actually quilting the layers together.

But boy, am I finding it hard work. Physically hard. There is a large amount of friction going on. There must be something weird going on with my particular concoction of fabrics, batting (can't remember what sort) and sashiko thread. The three circles I've completed in sashiko-style took around half an hour each!

Thoughts? Suggestions? Is this just part-and-parcel of doing something new?

Anyway, with all the effort being expended, I've decided I need to keep the energy levels up. This morning I made a rather large batch of cinnamon scrolls, using brioche dough from my no-knead artisan bread book.

Heavenly. What do you think - do I get one for every sashiko circle-of-pain I complete?

More creative spaces to be seen at Kirsty's place.

When is a quilt not a quilt?

2010-08-01T18:14:00.000+10:00

No, it's not a riddle. I'm just curious. Precisely how many lines must you sew through layers of fabric in order to call something a quilt rather than, say, a several-layered blanket? And how big should it be?

Crucial questions I know, and one I've been pondering with my delightful new friend* Clementine as she's watched me sewing this weekend.

I decided to make a little bunting quilt this weekend, guided by the simple tutorial at a pretty cool life which I checked out after being inspired by Caroline last week.

There are approximately seventeen million and three newborn babies due to land in my immediate vicinity by mid-October (all via different wombs, I'm pleased to report). I have grand, if stupid, intentions of making a little something for each of them. Now that I'm a quilting wannabe, the first idea that pops into my mind is to make a wee little baby quilt for each. This is of course a ludicrous idea. Nonetheless, when I saw this tutorial I thought I may as well knock one down:

I haven't done much appliqué, but I really enjoyed doing this (all without any fancy-pants fixatives). The little bunting flags will fray a bit once washed which I think will look sweet.

I backed mine with flannel, so it's soft, warm and not so precious that it can't be chucked on the floor as a play rug.

Actually, mine has three layers of flannel. One in the middle, one on the outside, quilted together... and then another one on the outside when I decided that I didn't want to bind the quilt, and instead used the 'pillowcase' method of bagging, turning and top-stitching to finish.

This is why I don't think it's a legitimate quilt. The top and bottom layers are not sewn together at all through the middle - gasp! - but merely around the edge. And there is no patchwork. Maybe it's a SHAM!

Whatever. It works. The whole project was quick, fun and very much repeatable. Clementine has given it a 5-carrot rating.

One down, seventeen million and two to go...

*Clementine is, of course, a Dandelion creation, lovingly made (replete with apron!) by Beck.

My creative space... random acts of patchwork

2010-07-22T14:30:00.000+10:00

After my little whine last week about my lack of space for quilting, I did actually get around to basting my ugly hexagon quilt. And then I stopped. It seems that I only like to think about one step ahead, and I have not yet decided on the pattern, or the method, of quilting (let alone whether I will straighten the edges, give it a border, bin it in disgust or what have you).

Meanwhile, having finished last week's little filler project, I had to find a new filler project to help me procrastinate. I opted for a bit of patchwork and quilting practice. I raided the scrap piles and decided to make a tea cosy, inspired by a design in this darling Japanese patchwork book, the design of which I approximated. Very approximately.

Perhaps it was my approximating... perhaps it was the design... but it's one HUGE cosy. I'm afraid it won't keep my poor little tea pot very toasty at all:

It certainly holds far more potential as a husband-cosy....

After fitting it on various objects, both animate and inanimate, I've opted for the toaster-cosy. It fits perfectly. I'm not sure that my toaster really needs a thickly padded, quilted cover... I guess I'll think of it as an elaborate dust-cover instead.

In terms of quilting practice, it was excellent, because it reminded me of the importance of accurate cutting, accurate seam allowances, accurate basting, using the walking foot, accurate quilt design drawing and slow, careful stitching. None of which I did. That's why I've cheekily blurred those photographs!

I think I might be hand-quilting those hexagons....

But first, I'm off to visit some creative spaces via the lovely kootoyoo.

7 things that will fascinate your socks off.

2010-07-20T22:46:00.000+10:00

In the last week, Sonia from a Light Shade of Green and LJ from With My Own Two Hands have told me seven interesting things about themselves, and in the process passed on the Sunshine Award to me.

I'm such a sticky beak. I love reading about the details of other bloggers' everyday lives, whether they are fascinating, embarrassing, thought-provoking or down-right mundane. Blog awards drive me a bit barmy, but I do like the ones that afford the writer an opportunity to reveal something new about themselves to blog readers. So I'm graciously (if a bit cynically) accepting my award this time and divulging seven (fascinating!) details of my life to youse all:

1. The night that I met my Beloved, Justin, I went home to my flat-mates and declared that I'd met the guy I was going to marry (even though we hadn't so much as exchanged phone numbers). 4 years of long-distance relationship later, I did. I'm definitely a victim of 'love at first sight'.

2. If I still ate M&Ms (which I don't, sadly, given that they are not Fairtrade, although I may occasionally indulge when they are offered as I hate to see wasteage!), I would eat them in strict colour order. Brown-Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue. I really, REALLY wish they'd brought out purple M&Ms. It would complete me.

3. I'm a Jesus nerd. After some soul-searching in my early 20s, I decided that I believed in the historical person of Jesus, and found the evidence for his resurrection compelling, so I chucked my lot in with the Bible Bashers. It's a crazy life... but I'm still 100% sold.

4. My middle name is Clare. No 'i'. One 'e'. Get it RIGHT, electoral roll!

5. In past employed lives, I have been an orchestral musician (cello), an administrative assistant, a pastoral worker, a librarian assistant and an editor. I think the last one is the best fit. Meanwhile, I find mothering a hard-enough occupation and will probably leave thinking about other stuff until I'm at least 40, thank you very much!

6. I'm still not sure, given my history of PND, and my desire to live a sustainable life, that I should have any more kids. But I feel like our family isn't yet complete. It's complicated.

7. Until 2.5 years ago, I thought craft was for repressed losers.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!

Oh.

OK, so now I'm passing the baton to 7 more blogs, some of my regular reads. Don't feel like you have to join in, but at least I would love to know even more about you guys...

Bolstered.

2010-07-17T14:59:00.001+10:00

A little finished project goes a long way in terms of helping creative and domestic frustration subside.

This lovely little bolster cushion was made from an Anette Eriksson kit. It is destined for chez Dillpickle, because as I made it I could visualize it living on Anna's couch. Plus, she just made my boys some lovely beanies. Hope you like it, Dilly.

I met Anette at the recent Daylesford Craft Experience and fell in love with her stylish designs. This one is a half cross stitch design, very easy to execute. I've never done any cross-stitching but it's pleasantly simple, especially on the lovely open weave of hessian fabric. It's also easy to backtrack if you make mistakes.

Having said that, I did manage to overlook a major error early on, resulting in a need to drop an entire letter from the text in order to keep the symmetry. Can you spot it?

Do I care? Non. It's well-hidden by the cursive text, still aesthetically pleasing, and hopefully not too many Francophiles will be visiting Anna to hurl croissants at her in disgust.

I can highly recommend such a project for anyone else experiencing the work-in-progress blues.

My creative space...

2010-07-15T08:59:00.000+10:00

Thank goodness for small, hand-held projects.

This one* is helping me to stem the tide of creative frustration as I am denied the space to get on with the 'real' projects - the quilts. The ones that require head space for design-tweaking, floor space for basting, table space for cutting, space in the day for machine-sewing, space away from practical demands, household routines, small children, outings, social gatherings. None of these spaces are available to me right now.

But this little blue hoop with lovely tactile hessian and wool thread are. So they are my creative space this week.

More spaces via kootoyoo.

*A lovely cushion kit from Annette Ericksson, the doyenne of stitching on hessian.

Decluttering the groceries, 2010: Slow Food

2010-07-12T13:40:00.000+10:00

Back in March, I boldly declared my meal planning intentions as a way of helping my family to nurture sustainable, responsible eating habits. With two small children, one extremely fussy and limited in his food choices, I was seeking a way to streamline our meals, our shopping, and our time. My hope was to avoid food waste, minimize time in the kitchen, and eat seasonally. I subsequently trialled the Table Tucker method of meal planning, which advocates bulk shopping, fortnightly menus, and only cooking three nights a week.

Errr... it didn't last.

There were a few practical reasons why. Shopping and storing in bulk makes sense, but for a family living in a small flat without a car, it was a challenge. Cooking in advance and freezing or refrigerating meals sounded great for freeing up time, but space again is an issue and I found it hard to get into a rhythm with it. I appreciated having the decisions made about what to cook, but found myself feeling a bit creatively stifled. I'm not sure we really wasted less food either. I've learnt that food waste is as much about figuring out what to do with left-over bits and pieces as it is about controlling what I buy in the first place.

The big nail in the coffin, however, was this. Trying to streamline and minimize the place of food and food preparation actually goes against my ideals about how food fits into family life. Just as I've embraced slow fashion, slow transport and slow cloth, I am at heart a Slow Foodie. Slow food is about embracing time-honoured processes, cooking from scratch and avoiding commercially-produced foods, respecting seasonal produce, taking an interest in how things are grown and harvested.

Although I find cooking around my boys frustrating, and I find the constant rejection of my meals wearying, minimizing time in the kitchen is not the answer. If I want my children to one day appreciate fresh, local, seasonal, fair produce, have some skills and intuition in the kitchen, and enjoy the nurturing and celebratory aspects of sharing meals, I need to persist in enjoying the process, instead of trying to relegate cooking to yet another annoying chore.

And so, I'm embracing my inner Slow Foodie, and with it, going back to my fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants style of not-really-planning. We're back to making trips every few days to the local shops for a few items at a time - pasta, flour, a bit of bio-dynamic meat. To help take some of the decision making away, we're back to getting seasonal 'mystery box' of fruit and vegetables delivered weekly, and using this as the basis for what goes on the table. Sometimes I figure the week's menus out in advance, sometimes I go day by day, and either is OK. I'm trying to use up every last bit of the box before the next delivery, which has meant caramelizing onions, stewing fruits and making random 'stock' with whatever is lying around. We're getting better at using stuff up and being creative with the odds and ends. Most of the time, my kids hate it... sigh. But they always have, so what's the difference?!

organic chicken carcass and withered vegetable stock...a house specialty!

We're also getting into the baking... lots of biscuits and cakes, and going strong so far with the artisan bread.

Letting the boys help does, of course, have its downsides...

*3#!*&%^

I have many grand plans for making lots of stuff from scratch. I'm inspired by so many of the wonderful, resourceful, home-cooks I see in blog land... particular favourites include Apron Strings, Bountifully, Dillpickle, ecoMILF, Frog Goose and Bear, With My Own Two Hands, and new-to-me CityHippyFarmGirl and Slow Living Essentials.

Meanwhile, I gotta run. I have rhubarb to stew, pesto to pound, parsnip to stare at uncomprehendingly, cauliflower curry to simmer and a meal to figure out for our plain-eating visitor tonight. Ahhh, inconvenient food... how I've missed you!

My creative space...where to from here?

2010-07-08T14:33:00.000+10:00

It's been a little while since I've managed to join in with kootoyoo's creative spaces round-up. But I really, really wanted to get amongst it today, because I need your thoughts on my hexagon charm quilt.

I've pieced all the hexagons I'm going to piece, leaving me with a small cot-sized patchwork top. I either love it or hate it, but I'm not sure which it is yet!

Now I was thinking about backing the top without a border and leaving the edges tessellated. But as I've been looking at it (kind of in horror) I've realised that there is nowhere for the eye to rest. Because there is no dominant colour, no repeated pattern, no focal point to draw the eye, I've found my eyes bouncing around the quilt top. I like the effect, but I wonder if it might be better to add a plain border to tone it down a bit.

What do you think?

Can you see this with a border?
Do you think a border would tone down the quilt? Should it be toned down?
What about the edges, straight or as they are?
Do you find this quilt horrendous or fabulous? (I can't decide...)

Opinions much appreciated (although of course I will disregard them and do my own thing :))

More creative spaces at Kirsty's house.

Weekend re:cap.

2010-07-05T14:52:00.000+10:00

I just spent a weekend away from all three of my boys - a first since I became a mother.

It was a great thing to do for my health, physical and mental. Far from being a weird experience, it felt very normal to be 'unencumbered'. Clearly I have retained some sense of self in this whole parenting caper. I didn't feel lost, fraudulent or naked without a toddler attached to my leg or someone calling me 'mummy'. I didn't go giddy with freedom either. But I did take a while to adjust to making decisions without consultation, and performing routine tasks without explanation; apologies to Sonia, my travelling companion, for my running commentary on my every thought and movement!

Of course, I didn't take photos. It was nice to be in the moment rather than observing the moment from behind a camera lens, searching for the blog-worthy. Therefore I have nothing to show you:

...of breathtakingly beautiful Daylesford
...of meeting two of its most fabulous inhabitants, Beck and Kate
...of trudging about town in my gumboots
...of breathing in fresh air at the lake
...of running into numerous Northside Makers
...of good coffees and conversations with my travelling companion
...of saving Tania's bladder from self-combustion at the Maker's Market
...of stitching, reading and reflecting in front of an open fire
...of delicious shared plates and laughter
...of a Sunday full of stitching and fun at the Daylesford Craft Experience.

I do however have three mementos of my weekend escape:
a finished hexie quilt top
a nice warm handmade cap
and a smile.

Beating the backyard blues.

2010-06-29T22:05:00.000+10:00

We don't have a backyard. And I'm beginning to notice.

Now, first I need to qualify a few things. This is NOT a 'poor me' post. My family and I choose to live where we do, in a flat in an inner-city suburb. There are other potential scenarios and options available to us, but when we examined our priorities after the birth of our first son a few years ago, we opted for proximity to support networks, friends, work and facilities over 'space'. It's absolutely been the best decision. And in worldwide terms, it's quite normal not to have your own backyard, let alone more than one or two rooms to your dwelling.

Because I know this to be true, part of me really wants to stick at this two-bedroom, no-backyard thing forever, just to prove that it's possible, even preferable, and of course the most sustainable option. Kids growing bigger? Stunt their growth! Another baby? It can sleep in the bath! Visitors? They can have our bed, we'll sleep on the dining table. Oh that's right... we don't have a dining table. Top-and-tail, anyone?

But reality has a way of interrupting my idealism with plenty of 'yeah buts', mostly in the form of two rambunctious children. My kids don't know what they are missing... but I can see that they thrive in the great outdoors. We have so many parks and facilities nearby... but it would be great if sometimes I could chuck them out of the house and let them play free-range in the dirt without constant supervision. We can buy lovely fresh local produce just up the street... but perhaps my food-phobic William would try something new if he helped to grow it himself.

Revving up the Christiania on a sunny Winter's day

Anyway, while these issues are up for debate at chez clutterpunk, we're getting on with the business of having a Claytons* backyard. I have a loose deal with myself that we have to get out at least twice a day, rain or shine.

Mostly, we visit local parks, walk to the fruit shop or post office, or head to the train station (and sometimes even catch a train for fun!). When it's cold and rainy this requires some preparation:

The $15 waterproof overalls from Aussie Disposals, while outside my ethical clothing pledge, have been a real hit this winter.

We also spend a fair bit of time befriending unsuspecting people with backyards and taking them over. On Monday and Wednesday mornings we often drop in on friends in the area, and in the late afternoon, we have a bit of a rhythm going with a new family nearby, in which we come and tear up their turf in exchange for, um, company?

And late afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can find us giving the next-door-neighbours' trampoline a workout. I've recently struck a little deal with the lovely, intrepid single-mother-of-three-primary-schoolers next door. She heads out for a run while I let my kids fight hers for the best trampoline-related injuries.

In all of this, one thing is for certain. If I'd never gone without a backyard, I know I wouldn't know how to appreciate one. If and when we do have the privilege, I promise you, it will be cherished.

And now I'm curious. Do YOU have a backyard? Is it big or small? Do you wish you had more or less? Do you use it or neglect it? Do you think owning or renting makes a difference to how you use your outdoor space?

And most importantly... do you have a trampoline and are you home on Friday?

*Aussie slang for a poor substitute or imitation

Reluctant homage to the granny square.

2010-06-28T22:00:00.000+10:00

All the cool kids can crochet. But me, well, I'm just not that into it. Personally I find hexagon paper-piecing just as portable, meditative, satisfying, life-changing etc etc as all that tying-knots-in-yarn business that everyone is on about. Plus it helps you lose weight.* Yeah, cop that, crochet-lover!

Meanwhile, just to prove that I am not at all bitter-and-twisted about my apparent inability to do anything with hook-and-yarn, and just to assure you that any sarcastic comments I've made about crochet on other blogs are really only light-hearted, I would like to point out that I'm quite pro-granny. So much so that I've been wearing THIS around my neck almost daily for months:

Of course, I didn't make the granny square. But I DID turn it en pointe and hang it on a neck band. Astonishing! Do you need a tutorial?

*Downright lie.

I might like it.

2010-06-21T13:44:00.000+10:00

Might, I said. Don't hold me to it.

I think the best description I have for how this quilt is starting to look is... compelling. The sort of thing you are drawn to, the sort of thing you want to look at.

But of course many ugly, horrible things compel us to stare at them - like car wrecks, and hairy warts on peoples' faces.

(And looking at that segment above, all I can think is WOW, there are some bad fabric designs around. You should see the ones that didn't make the cut!).

I think perhaps this kind of clashery should really be reserved in the future for a 1" hexagon quilt or smaller. As my hexagon-mad friend Anne recently said to me, 'if you think a fabric is ugly you're just not cutting it small enough'. There is wisdom to be had from Anne (not to mention lovely hexagonal eye-candy on her craft blog). I guess the smaller the pieces, the more blending you can do, the more the eye can be drawn elsewhere.With this large hexagon, any individual ugliness is exhibited in all its glory.

Nonetheless. I might like it.

...and so she baked.

2010-06-18T10:52:00.000+10:00

Next time I write a somewhat heavy, warts-and-all post (and don't worry, it won't be any time soon!), I will try to time it NOT to coincide with two weeks of travelling-husband/sick-smalls/defunct-sewing-machine/torrential-rain-induced blogging coma. I'm now experiencing that kind of awkward-pause, lull-in-conversation feeling, and wondering what to say next. Quite apart from having nothing much to show and tell, I'm also still processing the massive response I received in writing about my post-natal depression.

To the numerous people who shared their warm, wise, empathetic, thoughtful, insightful, and funny responses, and to those who emailed with personal stories and encouraging words, thank you so much. I'm still working my way through the comments and emails. Spilling my guts on the issues was of course an exercise in catharsis, but I also hoped to connect with others who have had similar experiences, so we can all remember that we are not alone. I'm not. You're not. And doesn't it feel better to know it.

Meanwhile, signs that creativity may yet exist at chez clutterpunk can be spotted, in between the nose- blowing, puddle-jumping and Daddy-shaped-hole-filling.

I've been carrying around these items hopefully:

And lo! Results!

I have completed my towers of ugly, ugly hexagons, with hearty thanks to scrap donations from blogging legends, Cam of CurlyPops and Jodie of RicRac. Now the fun begins, designing the layout of my cot-sized 2" hexagon charm quilt. I've totally embraced the concept of an quilty eyesore that will be loathed by my family for generations, and am eager to get those horrendous scraps pieced side-by-side in the most aesthetically distressing way possible.

Bringing me far more pride is my first loaf of artisan bread from these gurus (spied first at Bountifully). So, so tasty, and satisfying to make. And did you see the bit about FIVE MINUTES?

Anyway. Awkward silence broken. Blogging resumed. Children improving. Beloved's return approaching. Hexagons towering. Grandparents visiting. Bread baking. New sewing machine awaiting.

Life is GOOD.

On being a Medicated Mother

2010-06-08T22:01:00.000+10:00

It's strange. Not usually one to be lost for words, I have found myself over the last few months writing numerous posts around what I guess I would call 'domestic' themes - parenting issues, meal planning, sustainability, trying to find balance, ethical eating, blah blah blah - and not being able to follow through on any of them. I've been drawn to some thought-provoking posts along similar themes on other blogs, and wanted to join in the conversations, but my own thoughts are still sitting there in Blogger draft, fragmented and incoherent, much like the piles of hexagons awaiting me on the craft table.

Well I think I've identified the cause of my writer's block. It's my desire to be genuine, and my need to make clear (before I spout any opinions about being a stay-at-home mother) that there is something I haven't mentioned here much which nonetheless exerts a large influence over how I think and act.

You see, I'm a Medicated Mother.

It was only a matter of weeks after the birth of my first child that we started wondering about post-natal depression. It was hard to identify, given that we were in the throes of new parenthood with a babe who wasn't feeding or sleeping at all well. How could we differentiate depression from a 'normal' reaction to the universally massive paradigm shift that is first-time parenthood?

But as the weeks went by, it became increasingly clear. Never a clucky woman, I'd expected to find motherhood challenging on all sorts of levels. I'd assumed that in having a child, I would be forced to grapple with my inherent selfishness and desire for independence, and that I would at times feel stifled, resentful, bored. Perhaps I would even struggle to love my child. I was not expecting to embrace motherhood with ease or be a natural, earth-mother type. I had therefore given myself permission to go slowly, to feel the tensions, to learn to adapt, and thought in doing so that I was depression-proofing myself.

I think this is partly why I was blindsided by PND. Because for me PND had nothing to do with these things.

I adored my baby boy, absolutely and utterly. I was ready to do anything for him. And yet, I was in the grip of what felt like a physical and mental breakdown. An overwhelming sense of fear and doom. Physical waves of panic. Inability to do the most simple daily tasks - I couldn't understand how I could possibly feed myself or wash the dishes AND look after this child. Constant negative thoughts, ruminations and obsessions, particularly about my baby boy's feeding and sleeping patterns. Extreme lack of confidence in my abilities (would I ever find it easy to change a nappy? Put my babe down for a nap? Breastfeed in public? Dress myself again?). Insomnia, lying in bed with my heart pounding and mind racing even when my baby was actually sleeping. Paranoia that my husband would leave me.

William, 4 weeks old

We tried to find the right help but hit brick walls all over the place. It was about eight weeks in when an acquaintance, a kind, firm, ex-maternal health nurse, visited. After listening to everything that I had been thinking, feeling and doing, she said 'my dear, you're really not well. And you don't have to feel this way.' It was then that I started to accept the possibility that what I was experiencing was not just some personal weakness and failing that I had to overcome by myself, but an illness that needed intervention.

The good news? I got intervention in the form of a month-long hospital stay with my baby boy. During our time I settled onto anti-anxiety medication, worked on our mother-baby routines and relationship, and learned many useful strategies - including crafting! - for counteracting and dissipating anxious thoughts and feelings. I responded incredibly well, and incredibly quickly, to medication and care.

My husband will testify that I left that hospital a different person, and barely looked back. The person who came out was far more optimistic, open to new things, and lighter-of-spirit than the one who had gone in. We have often reflected that my PND has been something of a blessing in disguise for our family, forcing us to face head-on some of the big issues surrounding parenthood and its effects on the marriage relationship. Much personal growth came out of the horror - I learned to enjoy my own company, to lower expectations, to be adaptable, to find and create meaning in the small things. I continued on the medication through the gestation and birth of our second son, and experienced no traces of PND.

Justin, Charlie (1 week old), William, Gina

A few months ago I made the mistake of stopping my anti-anxiety medication for a while. I had been taking it for three years straight, and wondered whether it was necessary any more. I guess for a long time I have felt so very normal, and quite distant from that labelled woman of three years ago, the one with PND, the one who went loopy. It was a heavy disappointment to recognise after a month of 'normalcy' that the signs of anxiety were beginning to manifest and spiral all over again, albeit in a more gradual way.

Although it brought back some feelings of shame and inadequacy, I have chosen to embrace the medication once again. I have certainly grown a heck of a lot in self-understanding and new ways of thinking these last three years, but clearly not enough to dig myself up from the mire of depression without assistance. Whatever broke three years back remains, to some degree, broken. And while this is a blow to my pride, that I cannot cure myself, life with small children is no time to be letting pride get in the way of feeling well.

Medication does not make me the mother that I am. It does not manipulate my actions or predetermine my reactions. Instead, it gives me the ability to choose; to choose a life-affirming, problem-solving, less self-critical approach to motherhood. Without it, I am swamped by uncontrollable sensations and feel incapable of those choices. In choosing medication, I choose Choice.

I am a Medicated Mother. And I'm ok.

My creative space... all good things come to an end.

2010-06-03T09:06:00.000+10:00

My Scrap Management Quilt is finished.

I'm thrilled, because it can now embrace its function as the go-to snuggle quilt on the family couch. But I'm sad, because I really enjoyed each process of making it (apart from the basting). And I'm thrilled, because the Beloved thoroughly approves of this sort of quilty aesthetic and can see that there was method in my madness, as well as madness in my method. But I'm sad, because in my enthusiasm I seem to have stuffed the thread tension on my (newly serviced!) sewing machine beyond redemption and cannot therefore get on with any of the other machine quilting, apron-making and so forth that I'm itching to do. But mostly, I'm thrilled.

Here are some pictures (taken in the glamourous car park behind our unit!).
From a distance:

The front (I ditched the border idea and just made some brown binding to finish):

The back (red-striped ticking, shows the puckers up really well!):

A closer look:

A collage of my favourite little clashy places on the quilt:

Yes, this quilt is certainly 'differnt'. And yet just how I imagined it.

Thank you, creative spacers, for encouraging me along the way with this quilt over these last few months. It's the type of quilt that could've been designed, cut, pieced and finished in a weekend, but instead I've averaged an hour per week on it, because machine-sewing just isn't fitting easily into my world - time, space or technique-wise. Perhaps my sewing machine is telling me something? Oh well, nothing for it but to snuggle up under my new quilt and get on with those ugly hexagons!

Now go and drop by Kirsty's house and let her know how spunky she looks in her slashy vest before you join in with your creative space for the week...

Hexagon dysphoria

2010-05-29T20:04:00.001+10:00

There is a fair amount of hexagon goodness being flashed about the interwebs at present.

You may have seen Christina's lovely grandmother's flower garden in progress, with its gorgeous subtle hues, or Jo's bright flowers which pop against their white background, or Katy's fabulous retro-looking version.

Now I'm hexing along too, but in a different way. I'm working on a 2" hexagon charm quilt, in which every hexagon is from a completely different fabric design. In doing so I've snipped a hexie from almost every fabric in my scrap bin and stash, and from some scraps others have given me.

And what a disparate bunch of fabrics they are! Some of them are fabulous, but alas, many scraps that I have in my possession (through thrifting, gifts or just plain bad purchasing choices) are butt-ugly, wouldn't-force-your-dog-to-wear-it kind of fabrics.

Then there's the weird combination of bright, modern prints and bland country hues that are making a horrible clash in my hexagon piles. The more hexies I make, the more nervous I get. Nervous about how this quilt is going to pan out. Nervous that all the scraps are actually going to look, well, DISGUSTING together.

I've noticed over on the hexagon charm quilt piece-along Flickr group that many participants' scrap piles are really quite beautifully matched. They may all be different fabrics, but perhaps they are all of a similar vibe (or value, or tone, or whatever the actual quilting term is I'm probably supposed to be using). I guess this happens when you have a large stash, or a consistence sense of style, or patience for fabric-matching!

I'm beginning to get cold feet, because I can't visualise this quilt at all. Part of my desire in this challenge was to work with the randomness of my scraps and somehow create a beautiful cohesion out of chaos. I didn't want to be prescriptive or selective about the fabrics I used. I didn't want to over-think it. I was hoping for the 'quirky but funky' kind of aesthetic. Instead, I think I'm producing something which will only ever turn up at a bad taste 80s party.

I guess there is nothing for it but to press on, because I'm not going to know how it will look until I've basted all my hexagons and started piecing them together.

Now's your chance to make me feel better. Have you ever spent a lot of time making something really butt-ugly? Tell me, was it character-developing? Worth it for the learning curve? Or just a big, fat waste of creative energy?

My creative space... some actual quilting!

2010-05-27T09:10:00.000+10:00

Things have been a bit insane around chez clutterpunk of late, with a toilet-training older child, a non-sleeping younger child, a few weeks in north Queensland, a malfunctioning sewing machine, pantry moths and a bit too much television - all amounting to a big, fat, craft-shaped hole in my universe.

So nothing speaks of a return to normality more than THIS picture:

The basting of my Scrap Management Quilt. I jumped to it on Monday evening, having heard that my sewing machine, replete with new walking foot, would be coming home on Tuesday.

Having heard on the blogvine that basting pins must be inserted at the terrifying interval of every two inches, I set about dutifully sandwiching my layers on the lounge room floor. Man, that was a tedious process! How do you regular quilty types not go insane? It got better as I moved outward, swapped my silly small pins for much larger ones, and... ahem... extended the 2" gaps to slightly larger ones. Like 2 feet.

Anyway, the pain in my knees and thumbs and the boredom in my head was worth it, as on Tuesday, I was able to get to the quilting!

This was my first time using a walking foot, but in my enthusiasm to get this thing quilted I didn't do any practising on a test-piece. Thus, I adjusted and learnt as I went. My stitch lengths are very uneven - the machine seemed to want to slow down and do tight stitches in random places. Any thoughts? I had visions of lovely, evenly-spaced stitch lengths like Rita's... ha! In time, perhaps.

No matter... it is still looking just smashing and I can't wait to make some binding and finish it off so I can get snuggling under it, and of course show it off in next week's space!

I'm off for a cuppa-for-a-cause now, but will be back to see what's in your creative space this afternoon - thanks Kirsty for hosting.

Join me for a cuppa on Thursday? Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

2010-05-25T09:15:00.000+10:00

I meet regularly with a group of women on a Thursday morning from my church community in Carlton, and each year we like to host a Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser. Cancer is such a prevalent part of peoples lives these days. It seems now that most of us have had first-hand experience of walking with someone who has endured some form of cancer - or been taken away from us because of it. So we like to join in with the Australia-wide fundraiser, not just to raise money but to talk and share the burden of the devastation of cancer together.

Our morning tea is this Thursday May 28, from 10-11:30am at St Jude's Carlton - full details HERE on the Cancer Council Website. There will be a chance to donate money towards medical research, lots of delicious morning tea, and a short talk from someone who has been caring for a cancer sufferer, and the interplay between her experience of cancer and her faith. For those of us who have kids, there is a great creche provided with lots of space and activities for little ones (or they are welcome at the morning tea).

Personally, I am still grieving the death of my mate Ben, a year and a half ago. A strange lump on his leg was found to be cancerous... and all of a sudden, in a short space of time, he was gone from among us. It still guts me that someone so young, vibrant, talented and with so much to give the world could be felled by a lump on his leg. It's not the way it's supposed to be.

If you're around and interested in joining me at this event, please let me know. I'd be so happy to meet you and share a cuppa with you for this cause. If not, see if there is a fundraiser happening in your neck of the woods and try to get along to it.

Meanwhile, I've found the camera lead and I'll be back tomorrow with some CRAFT. Shock, horror!

Normal programming is scheduled to resume...

2010-05-23T15:46:00.000+10:00

Any day now. But perhaps not quite yet.

Maybe when I've found the camera cable
or when I've picked up the sewing machine from the 'doctor'
or when we stop dining on meals from the freezer
or when we've all had more than 5 broken hours of sleep per night
or when I remember where it was that I left off
or when the words come back and the creative juices start flowing again.

Meanwhile here's a cheesy photo
taken on the mobile phone -
a little snippet of our time in the sun.

I'm outta here...

2010-04-30T09:15:00.000+10:00

Just for a few weeks.

Following the (working) beloved to far North QLD for a bit of sun and sand.

I've packed pretty lightly...

(just the essentials)

And even though I'm still full-time parenting, I am optimistic that I'll get some more reading in.

(Not a fiction girl...)

Well folks, it's a funny time of year to be taking a break, what with all that's happening (particularly in Melbourne) during May: stitches & craft, Sew It Together, and various other things that I'm a bit sad to be missing.

Oh well, I'm embracing the opportunity and in many ways this is the perfect time for me to go and stick my ~~head~~ toes in the sand!

See you on the flip side...

How do you manage your scraps?

2010-04-26T17:14:00.004+10:00

For those of you who like crafting with fabrics, I have some questions.

Do you intentionally manage your scraps?
What do you keep and how do you keep it?
When do you throw something away?

With my growing interest in patchwork and quilting, I'm realising that even the smallest of fabric scraps can be used to great effect in projects big and small, and that I should use up every last bit of fabric or preserve it for further projects down the track.

The reuser/recycler in me is in absolute agreement. The romantic/creative in me thinks of all the Depression-era women making stunning quilts out of discarded undergarments and nods her head.

The lazy, disorganised crafter in me thinks 'too hard, just bin it!' and 'I'm SO over that fabric I can't use another jot of it' and 'I could always buy scrap bundles or charm packs if I need them'. Particularly when I see something like this scrap below, which is a fabric I've never liked (I didn't buy it!), has already been hacked into and is a horrid mess:

(See below for its fate... it has not gone to waste).

SO... what am I doing about my scrap issues? Taking a challenge or two, of course, and setting myself some scrap-management ground rules which will hopefully serve me and my patchwork obsession well for the long term.

Well, here are the ground rules I'm setting myself:

1. Thou shalt not hoard. Buy fabric for specific projects and use it up with pleasure! Fabric will always be available: if I like something particular I can probably chase it down when I need it or if not, find something else I like. There is no fabric shortage at present. I will not miss out.

2. Keep anything from a fat eighth or bigger neatly folded in your cupboard, in size piles. Ha ha ha.

3. Cut and sort smaller pieces into the following categories:

a. 5" or 6" squares and rectangles

b. Strips (any length but no thinner than 2.5")

c. Scraps that could be used to make 1" hexagons or 2" squares (e.g. pieces approx. 3" high and wide)

d. Scraps that can be used for 1/2" hexagons (e.g. pieces at least 1.5" high and wide)

Everything else that is left is allowed to go into the bin with a clean conscience.

My scrap sorting is pretty specific, isn't it? That's because I'm joining in with this:

This piece-along gives me a real motivation to carefully look after my scraps. In fact, I'm kind of joining in twice.

I'm committing to a 2" hexagon charm quilt, which will require 297 hexagons in unique fabrics (if I want to make a 50" x 60" throw). I'd like to see this pieced by the end of 2010. A 2" hex can be cut from a 5" square, and I've cut 30 so far - Kate, most of these are from the scrap pack you sent me, thanks SO much!

I've also opted to cut 1" hexagons while I'm at it. I prefer the look of 1" hexagons in a quilt, but after cutting out the 60 pieces below, I realised that I might struggle to cut, baste, piece and quilt 1,173 hexagons in unique fabrics within, say, the next decade. So I'll just add to this lot slowly. Maybe I'll end up with a charm cushion, maybe I'll throw a few on a skirt, maybe they'll be discovered by a great-granddaughter who will lovingly make them into a dolly-quilt.

And - just because I'm going a bit mad with all the scrap possibilities at this point - I'm cutting up those really little, annoying scraps of just over an inch in width and adding them to my 1/2" hexagon scrap bucket.

Here are the scraps from that horrid pink fabric... I know they'll look great once they're blended in with other tiny hexagons in some form or other.

Maybe even in another cute Dear Fii brooch:

OK. So I have a bit of a hexagon thing going on.

You might not be hexagon obsessed. But how do you manage your scraps? I'd love to know.

My creative space... brickwork

2010-04-22T13:52:00.000+10:00

I've been into the manual labour this week, laying me some bricks:

Actually, it hasn't been labourious at all. This is the pieced top of the 'scrap management quilt' I mentioned in my creative space a few weeks ago. I'm really excited by the way it has come together and am itching to quilt it down to a backing, add a border and bind. (Yes, in that order... I'll explain when the process happens!)

I wish I could get a better picture, but here's a bit more detail anyway. There are some really fun fabrics in there. Some fabrics make it in over and over again... others only have one small guest appearance.

It has passed inspection from my ultra-critical woolly-headed ruffian William, who has found various pops of boy-themed fabrics.

The man of the house is rather approving too. This is a good thing as I intend the quilt to be our lounge-room lap quilt. I suspect the frequent occurrence of Moda's Authentic In The News newsprint fabric, which has become something of a 'neutral' in the quilt, may have been an accidental stroke of genius on my part. I could see Justin's thought process... Boy that's an ugly quilt... oooh, look, a bit of newspaper print. I love reading the newspaper... If I could I'd sit around all Saturday morning reading the newspaper, but Gina hates how they take over the whole living room. And render me incapable of conversation or parenting for hours on end. Maybe if we have a quilt which camouflages the newspaper, Gina won't notice I'm reading it and avoiding reality... hmmm... "Hey honey I love that quilt!".

What's happening in your creative space today?

A bit of pea-green clutter

2010-04-20T21:59:00.000+10:00

I think I may have recovered from the green quilt of death* because I've been noticing quite a bit of pea-green popping up around my house recently.

For example my M* jug cover, which I purchased out of adoration for both M* herself and her gorgeous crochet. (Currently NOT covering, but complementing perfectly, the little jug I found in a pile of hard 'rubbish' on the kerbside yesterday.)

Another kerbside 'rubbish' find, these pea-green 'I heart Billy' shoes which are in perfect condition, my size and everything. (Note: I do not go combing the hard rubbish. Apparently it's, um, illegal. Both of these items were found within a block of my house, sitting among the mounds of old TVs and broken flower pots... what is wrong with people?!)

My new pea-green lemon squeezer, not a thrift find but when my plastic one broke this week I decided to get something a bit more industrial. Especially now that I've made friends with the neighbour over the fence, who has a very, very healthy lemon tree. These bad boys are going to be pulverised tomorrow and made into lemon curd... yum.

*And where IS the quilt of death, I hear you ask? (Well, I hear Meg my sister ask. You've probably forgotten!). It's still sitting around, seams ironed flat, backing made up, waiting for me to take notice of it. I've been busy working on less lurid projects... but perhaps, just perhaps, I'm ready for a spot of greenery again.

What a beauty...

2010-04-18T18:43:00.000+10:00

This is my new pincushion. Isn't she perfect?

I was just a little thrilled when I received my swap package on late Friday afternoon and saw the sender's address: the textured leaf. Wendy's blog drew me in a little while back with her beautiful op-shop-chic, and the pincushion she has made for me - yes, for ME, hurrah!! - is sublime. (You can find some more detailed pictures on her blog here) .

My pincushion has already been employed this weekend, distracting me with its gorgeousness - oh, and doing a fine job of holding pins of course - while I've been sewing up a little stash of coffee-sack 'clutter buckets' for swaps and gifts.

I love that this pincushion has a pleasingly functional chunkiness, meaning that I'm no longer being lacerated the long pins which used to poke through the bottom of my last one.

However, it is a triumph of function AND beauty, which is important in my flat as I basically make my sewing notions earn their keep as objets d'art among the books, in our dining/lounge/sewing/living/room:

Thanks Wendy.

Thanks Kate.

I hope my pincushion (sent a few weeks ago) is received with as much enthusiasm - but if not, oh well, I got my dream version!!!

Ethical clothing pledge: a review.

2010-04-14T19:24:00.002+10:00

Six months ago I started reading isismade, became interested in Isis's ethical clothing pledge and

decided to join in on behalf of my family.

It's time for a review... so here goes.

The GOOD.

The best thing about taking the pledge is the motivation it provides to stop. and. think. about wants, needs, and who might be affected by my consumer choices. There is much I can be happy about.

For six months I've clothed and shod my weight-fluctuating body and my growing boys almost solely in second-hand items (the beloved has just kept going in all his normal clothes, apart from one op-shopped sweater and a starashan t-shirt).

I've put some mending, resizing and refashioning skills to good use.

I'm emerging with a flexible, trans-seasonal, and rather eclectic wardrobe, which I plan to have a very long-term relationship with!

I haven't saved lots of money, but I have put my money where my mouth is, and that if far more important to me. I've made some expensive choices by opting to buy vintage, handmade and quality items, and not hunting around or trying to make things myself. I could've saved money, and in the long term I will, but more by learning not to buy rather than by bargain-hunting I suspect.

The BAD.

Yep, I've broken the pledge on a number of occasions, mostly in a premeditated fashion, but at other times out of laziness and poor planning.

These are my sweatshop confessions: several non-maternity bras for my ample bosom (after 3 years of breastfeeding and daggy-bra wearing... BUT I added in some rather unnecessary matching underwear), bathers (for the boys and I), socks (for my beloved), and my running gear.

I also went into a really horrid chain store after Christmas and purchased a $10 drapey vest thing, which I seriously could've made in ten seconds, even with my paltry sewing skills. I don't even love it, and haven't worn it much. Really, that purchase was a moment of rebellion, a binge. What a shame I didn't binge on something classy or good-quality instead!

The UGLY?

There have been some interesting side-effects in taking this pledge which potentially straddle both good AND bad categories for me.

The first is my newfound fearlessness with wearing what I would have previously considered to be strange outfits:

Whose granny did I mug for that cardigan? WHY am I wearing skinny jeans when I swore I never, ever would? Because they were $5, fitted, and tuck nicely into my thrifted COWGIRL BOOTS, another fashion faux pas I knew I would never touch. Oh well, I'll just throw some Suffolk puffs around the neck, that'll make me fade into the background.

I just asked the beloved if he could sum up my 'fashion style' in a few words, and his verdict was 'Betty White meets Snoop Dogg'.

Ouch. But fair call.

The second grey area is my growing penchant for vintage clothing:

For example, my new favourite outfit. The dress is vintage and cost $45, the cardigan I bought for $3, and trimmed the pockets with old lace. (In fact I'm very much into trimming stuff with lace and doilies at the moment. I call it granny-punking. Justin prefers granny-pimping. Both sound just a LITTLE dodgy, no?)

This is partly good, because I think it's healthy to wear good flattering clothing in good condition and to find creative expression in clothing oneself, to a degree. But it's partly bad, too, because I can see that too much interest in fashion, whether sweat-shop or op-shop, encourages consumption by creating a dissatisfaction with what I have and a desire to replace it with something new, different, better.

And SO...

I'm going to keep at it! Permanent, like.

As expected, it's been a learning curve. I've struggled, but as we know, these are not *failures* but *opportunities for growth* (thanks, pop psychology!).

Here's what I'm going to work on:

1. Shopping in my wardrobe: Enough is enough. I think I've run out of excuses (post-pregnancy, weight gain, weight loss, wedding to attend etc etc) for buying new clothes. I have plenty. I hereby declare that I am going on a clothes-buying-fast for the next 3 months. I will not buy any new item or accessory for myself from anywhere for 3 months. It's not very long, but that's ok, I need to be gentle and start small. I'll push it out to six if I'm feeling brave in July.

2. Upping those sewing skills: If I want to be in this for the long-haul I must learn to install a zipper, make a button hole and NOT just randomly hack a hole in some fabric and call it a skirt. I have a Thread Den voucher, now I need to make the time to use it.

3. Stay aware of reality: I heard the other day at my church that if you own more than three changes of clothing, you are in the top 5% of the world's richest people. Hmmm.

Let me not complain about 'having nothing to wear' ever, ever again.

It's scarf weather

2010-04-13T09:19:00.000+10:00

... and very conveniently, I have just finished hand-stitching 26 yo-yos onto a piece of felted woolen jumper.

I decided the fate of my floral yo-yo collection on Sunday night after realising that my recent haircut has left a bit of a gap twixt collarbone and ears, a growingly noticeable gap given the recent chilly Melbourne winds.

Of course, I do have many lovely scarves already. But this scrap of felted jumper was looking so lonely, and was definitely asking for a bit of floral-pimping.

So today, I leave the house with a cosy neck.

The truth about clutterpunk... and giveaway winners.

2010-04-10T13:50:00.000+10:00

OK guys. Thanks for amusing me much with your giveaway comments and your theories on why I named my blog clutterpunk.

Without further ado, the at-random winners are:

#1 Patch Andi - first comment, first prize. Huh. And she made a good fist of articulating what clutterpunk is, so yay. Andi, the bag is yours, and will come with some bits and bobs to add to your groaning stash.

#4 James - harrumph, not happy. James, friend and neighbour who joins us for pizza and mocks my offspring every Sunday night, succinctly summed up my blog as 'Cluttered, punk'. And he would know. So anyway James, I'm not really going to count you. I already take up your trousers for you. OK, I will grudgingly make you an item of your choice, but I'm drawing two other winners anyway.

#62 Cathie (m.e) - lovely! I'm already making you stuff in my head as I write this post. And dreaming of eating your cupcakes.

#57 apronstringz - oooh, an international entrant wins a prize! And from one of my favourite new blog reads. Clearly, it is going to be very tempting to send you an apron... let's talk first though.

So there you have it. Now for the truth about clutterpunk...

Of course I'm struggling now to be able to explain, in a pithy sentence, this choice of
name for my blog. It is a name which has many layers of meaning for me, all rather pretentious! Here's a bit of insight:

My beloved and I. Yes, I do have a grey-tipped right eyebrow, and no, I did NOT bleach it to be that way. But I do flaunt it proudly.

The clutter: I was the messiest child ever. The year-old-moldy-sandwich-under-the-bed type. Once I hit my twenties I started figuring out the connection between my state of mind and my floor, and got working on the mind bit. The floor is gradually improving.

Creatively, I quite like the cluttered, eclectic look and the cosy vibe it evokes. I think it's healthy to cope with a bit of mess, and I'm not terribly interested in keeping a neat house for the sake of appearances. But I just can't get away with the moldy-sandwich-as-art bit now that I'm all growed up, you know what I'm saying?

The punk: Who is Sid Vicious?!!! I'm a classically-trained cellist. So not punk. But I have played with various bands (try-hard punk) and now also play bass guitar (punk that!). Err, mainly at my church though (punk fail!!!).

But... insofar as being a punk suggests rebelling against the established order, I'm certainly finding my inner punk when it comes to consuming, fashion, homemaking and all that. Not to mention my preference for rebelling and punking things up when it comes to following any type of sewing pattern :)

And clutterpunk? Well, apart from combining the above ideas, I did just like the sound of it. As Nic said, it sounds like clunking away on an old typewriter. Lovely... particularly because the font I chose for my labels and stamp is called mom's typewriter.

Thanks for playing!

My creative space... scrap management

2010-04-08T09:58:00.000+10:00

I'm making a little progress on my 'scrap management quilt' and hoping to let it dominate my creative space today.

Over the last month I've gathered four paper bags' worth of rectangular scraps cut into four different widths. The scrap lengths are quite varied, depending largely on how much of the fabric I've had. Yesterday I started sewing the scraps together into strips (columns), ironing the seams flat and slinging them over my ladder. I'd like to finish that today.

I'm not thinking about placement too hard. I figure that once all the columns are roughly the same size, I can lay them out together and start casting a critical eye over the balance of colours, textures and sizes. I'm already sensing that I might need to add a few more pops of bright red to this quilt. But we'll see...

I'm really liking what I see so far - it's so fun looking at these very disparate scraps which have made it into my stash in lots of interesting ways. A jelly-bean for you if you can identify a fellow-creative-spacer's fabric design in there ...?

Looking forward to visiting some more of Kirsty's creative spaces a bit later today with my afternoon cuppa...

A bean bag chair (of the not-so-beany-baggy-OR-chairy variety)

2010-04-06T10:25:00.000+10:00

OK, so what I'm trying to tell you is that yesterday I made what is in essence a large floor cushion, only I can't call it a floor cushion because I used this (very excellent, helpful, easy, FREE) pattern, which quite specifically calls the end product a Bean Bag Chair.

Actually, it's kind of tuffet-esque, or at least what I imagine a tuffet would look like.

I'm on a big stash-busting bender this year. I don't have a massive stash, but in fact I've decided that 'stashing' is not the approach I want to work with any more. It just feeds my consumer mentality at both the op shop and the fabric store. So recently I've been pulling out the fabrics that I already have and seeking out projects that will suit them. I'm very happy to buy fabrics, new and old, but in future I will try to gather materials for specific projects rather than 'just because'.

Anway, these half-yards of Echino (Etsuko Furuya's Flower Bed) were originally purchased (from here) with the intention of making a bird-themed quilt. I've since decided the prints are too big and bold and look best in big pieces, so I hunted around for a project which would use them well. Given the weight of the fabric, a home-dec project was the way to go.

I think the Echino looks great teamed with the large piece of dark denim I scored from Savers.

I chose not to stuff mine with beans - apart from being environmentally disastrous, those little balls would find their way out of the inner bag and into my boys' nostrils faster than you could say 'death by polystyrene'. See, William was already checking out potential hidey-holes...

Instead, I've stuffed my cover with several old pillows, cushions, an eiderdown quilt and our sleeping bags, so it's actually doubling as storage. BONUS!

Turns out it's a great place for a kip, after the hard work of tackling one's younger brother.

PS Giveaway is now closed, I will draw a winner tonight. Thanks for playing!

A Very Significant Refashion

2010-04-04T10:12:00.000+10:00

I love a good refashion.

Of all the projects that I've done in my year of blogging, its the ones that take old stuff and give it new life that I feel most thrilled about. And in spite of the fact that I have lovely new materials to play with, and various from-scratch projects planned, I continue to find myself distracted by the large pile of unloved clothing and discarded fabrics that are sitting patiently in the corner of my bedroom, waiting to be renewed.

Today my family and I are celebrating something that is at the absolute heart of who we are: the resurrection of Jesus. Or, as I have taken to calling it around this household - no doubt offending Christians AND Refashionistas around the world - The Great Refashion.

You might wonder how the rumours of a dead preacher guy coming alive in the Middle East two millenia ago can have any bearing on our lives today. I'm not here to convince you that it happened - that's for you to weigh up for yourself. Over a decade ago, I (rather reluctantly) decided that the evidence was compelling enough, and chucked my lot in with the disciples. I believe.

But what I believe is about so much more than just Jesus getting a shiny refashioned body (bully for him, you might think). According to Jesus' own teachings, his resurrection is to give the rest of us hope, proof, a down-payment if you will, of the reality that one day his Father, the Creator, is going to take this broken world that he loves and give the whole thing new life.

Imagine... a renewed earth. One with restored beauty, harmony, peace, meaning, creativity. One where injustice, pollution, illness, even death, have no place any more.

Sounds pretty good to me. My husband jokes that his big question about this refashioned world is whether I'll finally have time to complete my pile of refashioning projects... or whether they'll be made redundant! I prefer the theory that there will just be even more time to amass works-in-progress...and no deadlines :)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away...

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

One year of clutterpunk... a 'thank-you' giveaway

2010-04-01T09:53:00.001+11:00

I started this blog one year ago today. (April 1st - foolish, no?!).

I just went back to read my first post, in order to remember why I started this blog. And, unbelievably, I discovered that my core aims for blogging have indeed been the ones I have focussed on! These were:

1. To live more creatively

2. To live more sustainably

3. To create more sustainably.

Now the ways in which I have been exploring, and fulfilling, these aims during the past year are many and varied, and I will save for further posts a more detailed round-up of my growth (or not) as a crafter and a sustainable homemaker.

The main point of this post is to say thank you! I did not at all expect to have so many readers join me on this blog, nor did I at all expect the astounding level of interaction, community, and real life friendship that has come from blogging.

So here's a little thank you giveaway for you. It's open to readers of this blog from anywhere.

The main prize will be this coffee-sack market bag, which I had great fun making last week:

This bag will come to you with some goodies included, but these goodies will be tailored to the winner and will depend on who you are, what you like and where you live.

There will be two other prizes as well, but you'll just have to wait in suspense to see what those are!!

To enter, leave a comment, and answer me this: why do you think I called my blog 'clutterpunk'? Do I like clutter or hate it? Am I a punk? Do you care? This post might give you some clues. Don't worry, I will not choose the winner on the basis of accuracy...most likely I will employ random.org. But I DO want something interesting to read in the comments!

Anyway, thanks again... without you guys, the journey so far would've been a whole lot less satisfying.

Oh happy day... Cadbury goes (partially) fairtrade!

2010-03-31T21:31:00.000+11:00

I heard this morning that Cadbury^® had finally got their long-awaited (by me, anyway) Fairtrade certification through on their plain Dairy Milk range of chocolate blocks and bars. Of course, I had to swing by the local consumer-mart to verify the rumours, and was delighted to return with... ahem... five blocks of the stuff.

Make that four.

For me, this is thrilling news. Not because I'm passionate about Cadbury, but because I'm passionate about Fairtrade.

You probably already know what 'Fairtrade' is all about, but here's the wrap from the Australia/New Zealand Website:

Fairtrade is about better prices,
decent working conditions,
local sustainability,
and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.
By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices,
Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade,
which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers.
It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

This is PARTICULARLY important in the cocoa industry, where child trafficking and slavery continues to be rife.

Cadbury could, and should, still go a lot further in its efforts to source ethically-produced cocoa. However, it is still very exciting to see this move. Partly because the gauntlet has now been thrown down to other major companies to get onto the ethical bandwagon. But mostly because this means that the average Joe Consumer, for whom Fairtrade is an unknown or irrelevant concept, will still end up buying ethically-sourced chocolate.

And furthermore, the many many people who ARE educated about the importance of choosing Fairtrade - the people who understand and grieve the horrible injustices that young children suffer for the sake of a measly bit of chocolate, yet who continue to be swayed more by their wallets than their conscience - will now also have a cheaper, more readily-available source of Fairtrade chocolate.

I know how hard it is to value the living conditions of an unknown person in a far-off land over the lure of a cheaper and more readily available chocolate bar. In the last few years I've struggled with this temptation many times and failed. Hopefully, this move by Cadbury will make choosing the right option just a little easier for everyone.

Pincushion dilemmas

2010-03-28T09:41:00.000+11:00

My name is Gina, and I have Creative Attention Deficit Dissorder.

After signing up to Kate's pincushion swap and getting my creative brief, I made up my mind to do some English paper piecing with tiny precious scraps.

And, according to plan, my Cookie Hexagons are coming along very nicely:

But then, last night, after a few hours of creative playing with gingham and coffee sacks (for an upcoming giveaway) I cobbled THIS together from my scraps:

Now, I love this pincushion. I love the textured hessian, I love the colours, I love the chunky feel (it's quilted as well as stuffed), and I love the text.

I also love that it's finished.

Do I:

a) Accept that I am prone to changing my design ideas mid-stream, rejoice that I've finished something, send it to my pincushion recipient, and stick the Cookie Hex on a skirt?
b) Persist with my original hexagon pincushion idea so that I feel like I have some ability to follow through, and keep this one for myself?!
c) Pretend that it was all part of the plan to make another pincushion for my upcoming 'blogversary' giveaway, send it off to one of you guys, and get on with my Cookie Hex?

Over to you...

My creative space... all in pieces

2010-03-25T13:18:00.000+11:00

Pieces, pieces are dominating every available (and unavailable) creative space at chez clutterpunk.

Pincushion pieces (about to be packed up to take to the Northern Craft Bonanza tonight):

Kaleidoscope pieces (slowly sashiko-ing my way around the circles):

Rectangular scrap pieces sitting in my newly pieced scrap-gatherer, which are being cut into varying widths and sorted into paper bags:

(They are being amassed for what I am calling my 'scrap management quilt', which will hopefully look something like the quilt below, found in THIS book):

Let's not forget the yo-yos:

And these pieces, lying around waiting to become something pretty to be given away in a few weeks... maybe to you.

Really, don't you think it's high time I started putting the pieces together?

Please drop into Kirsty's place if you'd like to play along with My Creative Space this week.

A bag of sunshine

2010-03-22T21:33:00.001+11:00

The glorious weather of the last week had me thinking about Spring rather than Autumn... I felt like getting all Northern-Hemispherical, frolicking in fields of daisies with a gathering basket on my arm, skipping around in swishy romantic clothing, and sitting down to a picnic high-tea. None of which I did, obviously, except for fleetingly, in my head, during a particularly dire episode of Postman Pat.

So instead, I riffled through my fabric cupboard and spied some very Spring-y vintage pillowcases and sheeting, which I proceeded to butcher thusly:

Of course, I started butchering well prior to knowing what I wanted to make with it. I just knew that I wanted to do some patchwork, because, well, it's becoming an obsession, and surely it is the favoured indoors pursuit of breezy, romantic Spring girls?

OK, it's true, I have been gazing far too frequently at THIS picture:

(front cover of Daily Patchwork Goods, a Japanese crafting book I obtained from here)

Now I realised after cutting out and sewing back together a bunch of 4-inch squares that I should have been working in hexagons, because what I really really wanted to make myself was that very basket, the one on the cover, the frolicking-in-fields, dressed-in-flouncy-frock, flower-gathering-basket (perhaps not the actual title, but who knows? It's Japanese, and I wouldn't put it past them!)

So I went ahead anyway, and here's my interpretation:

The instructions for making the bag were all in Japanese, but were fairly easy to interpret visually. Given that I'm usually rather too impatient with patterns anyway, it is my cup of tea to just 'catch the drift' and see what happens. And it happened, and apart from a mostly-salvaged handle diasaster, I'm pretty chuffed with the outcome.

Serendipitously, when I was looking for something sturdy to line the bag with, I came across a denim skirt in my refashioning/mending pile. It had been cast there by my neighbour a year ago, for the unforgiveable sins of being both a daggy length and impossibly small at the waist. But Lo, when I inverted the skirt, the waistband matched the circumference of the bag base perfectly, and then flared out at the same width as the outer bag. So all I had to do was turn the skirt upside-down, lop it off at the appropriate height, add a base, and voila, I had a bag lining! I even left the side-zipper in and turned the bag back through it to right-side-out once I'd finished sewing it together. Ahhhh... slack short-cutting disguised as refashioning. Perfect.

Now I'm using my lovely bag of sunshine to go a-gathering... picking up the scraps of fabric in my house which seem to be multiplying at an alarming rate. Oh well, I guess it's breeding season right, being Spring and all?

Putting a hex on your pincushion

2010-03-20T22:22:00.000+11:00

No, I'm not referring back to this brilliant act of crafty voodoo. I'm playing with some hexagons for Kate's mammoth pincushion swap.

I have so many ideas in my head for making a little pincushion... As usual I'm jumping in without a clear design, but after checking out the 'creative vibe' of my (to-remain-anonymous) swap partner, these last precious scraps of Aunty Cookie are speaking to me:

I've played with hexagon paper piecing before and hope to do a fair bit more, so I treated myself to a little product which might just cut out my least favourite part, the initial shape basting.

Now I just need to think about size, shape, design, filling and so forth, and I'll be able to get making!

Everything other craft project I have on the go is turning out to be a bit of a slow burn, so my intention is to make this one a project of the more short-and-sweet variety.

So please, no hexing my pincushion, ok?

Running For The Kids

2010-03-16T14:24:00.001+11:00

On Sunday, along with around 30,000 other people, I participated in the Run for the Kids, a fun-run held in order to raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. Affectionately known in my household as the 'run from the kids', I've been gleefully dashing out the door 2 or 3 mornings a week for the past four months in order to ready myself for this race.

I opted to run the long course, which took us on a 14.38km route around the Docklands precinct in Melbourne, including going through the Burnley Tunnel and up over the Bolte Bridge.

I'm thrilled that I ran the whole way. My focus was on endurance, on making the distance comfortably, not on speed. I'll never be about speed.

That said, I was happily surprised by my time. I kept a very cautious, slow pace throughout the race, constantly dropped myself down a notch in the exertion department, and tried to ignore the speedy demons rushing past (as well as the runners dropping off like flies as we approached the long inclines).

I can't say that I was in the 'Zone' while I ran. It was hot. People were smelly. It got boring. In fact I had to give myself a good talking-to at various points along the way to stay motivated and keep going. It was more of a mental than a physical battle, somehow.

However, the euphoria I felt as I ran over the finish line was unbeatable. So is the euphoria I continue to feel in knowing that I set myself a goal, I kept to it, and even I exceeded my own expectations.

Five months ago I could run for one minute. Now I can run for 1.5 hours.

If you're interested in running, but think you have absolutely no chance of ever getting off the couch, I really recommend reading the very motivating John Bingham's No Need For Speed.

The rhythm of life

2010-03-15T12:55:00.000+11:00

I love the sense of possibility that Monday morning brings. Today, for the first time in a while, the clutterpunk household is starting the week fresh and sparkly, with a tidy home, sunny weather and no illness. I'm looking at the week ahead and feeling alive with possibility and optimism.

It helps, when staring down the barrel of a new week, that we're getting into a bit of a rhythm with our days. For the small boys and I, our week days are now defined by a predictable morning activity, a time of 'rest' (ha!) in the middle of the day, and then a home-based afternoon period while we all wait eagerly for the man of the house to return.

Monday is home day. After a busy and often very sociable weekend, it's good to have nothing scheduled and to focus on domestic life a bit. We hang around at home, wander up to our local shops for any needed supplies, perhaps visit the library, and generally enjoy the neighbourhood.

This was us this morning, riding up to get some fruit. Do you like my Curlypops teatowel tote?

Eating blueberries together... best treat ever!

Tuesday is care day. The boys spend three hours at the local neighbourhood house in 'occasional care', and I use the occasion to care for myself! During this time I avoid all responsible activity, taking time to savour a coffee, ride home to an empty house to do some sewing, or browsing my favourite op-shops at leisure.

Wednesday is adventure day. On Wednesday mornings I try to get the gang a bit further afield, which means a trip to the zoo, the Melbourne museum, CERES, or visiting with friends (aka trashing someone else's house). In recent weeks, my gorgeous God-daughter has come adventuring with us to give her lovely mum (my friend and fellow crafter Anna of Dillpickle) some time to study. She spends her time watching my boys in a bemused fashion and being delightfully placid.

Last Wednesday we visited my dear friend Kirsty. I made little aprons for her three little girls, and together with my kids they decorated cupcakes, ate too much sugar and generally ran amok, while Kirsty and I enjoyed the solidarity of parenting side-by-side, and ignored all the crumbs being ground into the floor around us.

Thursday is creche day. We ride over to my church, where the boys spend a wonderful hour and a half playing with friends while I get a chance to chat, pray and study the bible with friends. Win-win - soul food of the most important kind.

Friday is playgroup day at our local kindergarten. It's great to be going along to a playgroup which gives us access to interesting activities, outdoor equipment, and an opportunity to watch my boys interacting (or not!) with other children.

So, that is our week. But before you start thinking that it's all so very peachy... I confess that afternoons are still a bit of a struggle. I don't quite know how to ride them out. Our days begin around 5am, and only my younger boy naps (sporadically) during the day now. After a morning out and about, I run out of puff, and all I want to do is read blogs and craft books. If the boys' 'free play' is not going well, it is tempting at this time to resort to endless hours of ABC television to get myself some space. I happily employ the TV for an hour or two in our long long day, but when it's more I feel rotten about it.

So I'm trying hard to make the late afternoon our time for visiting the park and wandering the neighbourhood. This works really well, if the weather is decent and dinner is organised already! When we start heading for winter I'll need to be more ideas for ways to engage my energetic, attention-deficit little toddler-aged boys. Suggestions are so very welcome.

How's the rhythm of your life?

My creative space... portable therapy

2010-03-11T09:07:00.000+11:00

My creative space today needs to be portable, therapeutic and able to accomodate a distracted mind.

Today, I will be sitting for a few hours in hospital while my wee Charlie boy undergoes a small procedure to open his blocked tear ducts. It's very unclomplicated and very painless - we've been through it before for William - but it does require a general anaesthetic. Now I'm the type of (relaxed? overly casual?!) mama who applauds or rolls her eyes when her boys take a tumble, who says 'pick yourself up sweetie' when they fall, and who made inappropriate jokes with the anaesthetist about finally getting some peace when we went through this last time. But oh, there will be something so heart-stopping about holding my baby while he breathes in the gas and watching that little body go limp and be wheeled away for his "big adventure". I know he'll be fine, but there will be an appropriate lump in my throat all the same.

I have a variety of hand-sewing projects on the go, which are both portable and therapeutic but require some measure of concentration and accuracy, which I know I won't possess. Thankfully, a recent addition to my works-in-progress list has been my floral scrap yo-yo project.

So today, I'm grateful for

my large Clover yo-yo maker

the stack of Japanese craft books that arrived in yesterday's mail, just in time

my basket of wonderful floral scraps

and craft that helps the time go by.

More spaces at Kirsty's house...

decluttering the grocery shopping, 2010: menu planning

2010-03-06T22:42:00.002+11:00

It's been a month since I first posted about the main clutterpunk household goal for 2010, 'decluttering the grocery shopping'. The brief: I want to move our household into a pattern of general food consumption that is low on waste, in line with the espoused social and environmental ethics of my family, and good for the family's health, wealth and use of time.

Easy, no?!

Well, there are lots of things I'd like to implement in our household. But in the spirit of eating the elephant one bite at a time, I've been trying to focus on better meal planning as the first thing to really work on. Many people who commented on my first post stressed the importance of planning their shops and menus in order to stick to a budget and cut back on waste and excess packaging. From the little I've done, I agree.

I can also see that planning the shopping in particular will help me to stick to certain ideals I have but don't always follow through on, such as
- buying only fairtrade coffee and chocolate products
- avoiding exploitative brands
- supporting Aussie-owned and made
- Eating less meat
- (eventually) moving entirely to organic meat/poultry
to name a few.

But... I find that I have a big problem with meal planning. You have to, um, PLAN. Not only does it take me hours to decide on a balanced array of family meals (without including all my favourite expensive ingredients), but also hours to figure out quantities, make sure that ingredients are seasonal and available, account for left-over bits and pieces, remember the regular items AND try to fit it into a budget... yuk! It takes a mere mortal like me half a day. Or it would, if I didn't just chuck in the towel and resort to the default on-the-fly-5pm-shop-visit-with-two-screaming-children style of 'meal planning'.

So, instead, I'm trialling something which actually does all of that hard work for me:

Webiste HERE.

The Table Tucker meal planning and recipe book is quite something. The deal is that the author, Penina Petersen, decided to plan a full year of dinner menus, with the aim of reducing cooking to three nights per week whilst still enjoying varied, balanced, seasonally-appropriate and frugal dinners. The book includes menus for 6 dinners per week, 52 weeks in the year, as well as annual, seasonal, monthly and weekly shopping lists so that you can choose to buy in bulk and be prepared.

Now before you think this is some paid promotion, and before you head off and buy it, let me say that we're still in our early stages of trying out the Table Tucker system. Prior to our recent travels and illnesses, we decided to use it strictly for two weeks. We don't have any dietary restrictions in our house so we felt free to try each recipe as it came.

There were some amazing benefits. These included:
- Shopping purposefully and quickly for specific items (I definitely spent less than usual)
- The great sense of time and freedom I found in cooking only 3 nights (even though I cooked two meals on those nights)
- Far better mental space for my boys in the hours before dinner, as well as time for them (we went for adventure walks around the neighbourhood)
- Far less food waste.

That said, I do have some reservations:
- It is so planned that I didn't want to think about deviating, which felt a bit restrictive
- It only plans dinners, no other meals
- Some of the meals we've tried are a bit odd to my taste
- There is a reliance on certain prepackaged foods like 'quick rice' which I dislike for lots of reasons
- Some meals are for 4-6 people, others are for 2 people, which is confusing

However, I think that my reservations will probably be overcome if we keep working with the system but learn to play around with the ingredients and flavours a bit.

So, this week we're getting back into the swing of it! Tomorrow I'll be checking our supplies and stocking up on the month's non-perishables, then getting this week's fruit, veg, meat and dairy. Where I get all of these and how, I will leave for another post...

Do YOU meal plan? How does it work in your house?

My creative space...

2010-03-04T13:13:00.000+11:00

...is not going to be defeated by what seems to be a second wave of gastro, darn it! I have a deadline and I'm going to make it.

Behold: ten tea-towels, ready and waiting to be folded, packed and posted, once they've had their final threads snipped. Most of my swap-mates are not regulars here at clutterpunk so I don't think I'm spoiling anything by showing you:

Yes, some of you will recognise that this is an old idea of mine from creative spaces past. I knew when I signed up for this tea-towel swap that I was not going to try reinventing the wheel or trying out new techniques. And of course, then there were all those little green offcuts lying around from the dreaded green quilt.

This time I was keen to add some text but unsure how to do so. The plan was to 'write' it on with the sewing machine, but after a few trial runs it became clear that the lack of ability to truly 'free motion' on my sewing machine was going to make it a painfully slow, and potentially needle-snapping process. (For sewing nerds... my ancient Brother's feed-dogs cannot be lowered, and my attempts to do the next best thing and find a compatible darning foot/plate option have been sadly... fruitless). So I was going to hand-embroider, when I came across some printable fabric out of the blue...

I've added a label, which handily doubles as a loop for hanging on a hook or nail.

Over the green yet? I might give you a break from it next week :-)

Thanks Kirsty for hosting once again... add your creative space link over here.

Just a minute... in February (ish)

2010-03-01T09:55:00.000+11:00

I'm sorry Jenaveve, if you're still out there reading. I just can't move on from this meme. It's always provided the best opportunity to clear my head.

Celebrating... the launch (today!) of the book I co-edited, a centenary history of the theological college where I spent some years studying, 'back in the day'. It was such a great project to work on, and I hope more editing opportunities present themselves in the future. But I'm not going to go out looking for them... I have too much sewing to do!

Sewing... Aprons, the green quilt top (now fully pieced), and some applique/thread-sketchery on tea towels for the great Tea Towel Swap-o-rama!

Reading (in hardcopy)... various books to help me sort out my sustainable ethical family-friendly grocery shopping priorities. I'll save the details for another post, but I'm gaining clarity and have a plan of attack!

Reading online... these newish blogs:

Light Shade of Green: Sonia is on about lots of things close to my heart sustainability-wise, and she articulates them so well. I've been enjoying reading back through her posts.

Apron Strings: 'Calamity Jane' is a self-professed cow-girl, renegade and cookie baker who is reclaiming housewifery! I've found her posts provocative, amusing, sometimes a little close to the bone. She's currently got me thinking about radical homemaking and feminism...

Running... like a trouper. Yes, yet another blogger outs herself as a running junkie. The year before I first got pregnant, I got the running bug and was a frequent (short-distance) pavement-pounder. In November last year, after a 3-and-a-half-year hiatus, it was finally the right time to get back out there. I started getting out three times a week, mostly walking but adding in spurts of jogging (I like to call this combination 'woggling'). I've continued building up gradually, getting out no more than three times a week, often less depending on how the family is situation.

Yesterday, I ran 15km. The longest I've ever run in one burst. For me, Ms Stumpy-legged 'No Good At Sport' girl, a big achievement. I'm still on a high.

Obessessing over...

Coffee and coffee sacks. I have both in my possession :-)

Thinking... that I'm going to try posting more frequently in March, because I have so much that I wish to document and process and workshop and all that, and 2-3 posts a week isn't enough right now. But don't feel obligated to read :-)

What has your February been full of? What does March hold?

My creative space... apron therapy

2010-02-25T10:17:00.000+11:00

Happy Thursday, Creative Spacers!

Well, between a lovely 'holidayette' with my family and then a very unlovely rotavirus chaser that hit the whole clan simultaneously, I haven't blogged or read emails since last Thursday. Thanks for all the shoe love - I bought those quirky shoes about 4 years ago at a small local shoe shop and for those interested I can just make out the brand as 'neo', if that means anything to anyone (I'm not a shoe afficionado). They're wonderfully comfortable, and I hope to keep them in good nick for years to come, in line with my ethical clothing pledge.

Anyway, let's move onto the craft. No shoes to see here this week... but there are aprons aplenty!

Poser! The dress is 100% polyester tartan - DElightful - bought for a tenner at my favourite shop Green Collective.

The first one above is a lovely soft apron with deep pockets made from a thrifted pillowcase and deocrated with lots of ric-rac. It's gone to its new owner, who is a hard-working home-based mama. Hopefully this will help brighten up some of the tough days.

The second one I made for another hard-working mama, who spends much of the day creating with her three little girls. I figured a cover-all pinnie would be the ticket, so I traced around my own favourite apron. The recipient is expecting her fourth bub later in the year so it's also a good choice for expanding bellies.

The part I love most about sewing for friends is adding my tag. I don't sell stuff, nor do I plan to, but when I started the blog my Beloved thought it would be fun for me to have my own label. It is! To all you other 'amateurs', I highly recommend it.

And one more apron for me - a peg-pocket apron.

OK, this is a total cheater. It's a pre-made garden apron, and I have sewn a fantastic vintage placemat over the top as a deep pocket. Both items were found for $1 at the local charity shop, where I often browse the bedding section for interesting bits and pieces to sew with. The best bit - both the apron and the placemat came in sets of four, so I have three more I can make. I plan to do a bit of embroidery on the empty space first, I think it needs some (I'm sure our hostess Kirsty will approve). Then I think I'll give them away to, well, who knows?! Maybe YOU.

What's happening at your place? I will be over to visit this week, ohhhhh yes!

My creative space... embracing the green

2010-02-18T13:17:00.000+11:00

Time for a quilting update in my creative space today. The greener-than-green quilt from a few weeks ago is regressing nicely. Yes, that's a seam-ripper... and yes, that's me sticking my feet up defiantly on the pile of green blocks, meaning that I will have to press them YET AGAIN but, given that I have to remeasure and re-sash them anyway, why not?

There are about half a dozen other quilting ideas sitting around in my head, and I'm just itching to begin one. I keep pulling out scraps and lengths of fabric, doodling on paper, browsing the web for ideas... but I have decided that I must. not. start. any other machine-sewn quilt until I have followed through on this one.

So I'm trying to embrace the green. Truth be told, I've always maintained that green is my favourite colour. How that can be true when I rarely wear it and don't surround myself with it, I don't know, but it is. Green is so... err... verdant, I guess!

A bonus from all the unpickery that's going on is that one little not-square-enough square was set free from quilting doom and transformed into a pocket on a new pinny I made for myself:

Rachel, you may recognise this fruity material as one of the thrifted tablecloths you so sweetly sent me last year! It's gorgeous, soft and already liberally spattered, like a good apron should be. And just green enough.

More spaces here.

Dressing my kids up like freaks is AWESOME!!!!!

2010-02-16T23:06:00.000+11:00

Karen from Urban Craft is one hip craftster. She likes to poke her tongue out at lots of things and make funny felty craft while she's at it. She's also totally on top of kiddy programming trends. And she's generous. She sent these shirts over for the boys.

What, you don't know who these creatures are? Muno and Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba! It's retro, it's disco, it's education-via-beatboxing. Have you been hiding under a ROCK people?! Or just watching highbrow kiddy television like, um, err, that one with the books and real people in it?

Suffice to say that these t shirts have gone down an absolute treat. The 3-year-old, whose preference right now is for nudity at all times, demanded to wear his as soon as the parcel was opened, and has barely taken it off since. The 1-year-old said 'car', which in his special dialect denotes approval.

Karen, you're so hot right now in the clutterpunk household. You've almost made my children feel like normal toddlers, a feeling they are mostly robbed of whilst I parade them around the inner city in our Christiania bike. Thanks for bringing a sense of normalcy (even if it is flourescent, 70s, alien-creature normalcy) to my little brood.

True love at last

2010-02-14T08:39:00.005+11:00

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Mundial Serra Sharp™
I love you

Sure, you can be steely
And cutting, and cold
But you’re straight to the point
On a quadruple fold

No fraying or straying

Will you entertain
And you handle my curves

Like a true gentleman

I thought you were merely
A glorified knife
And I doubted your claim
To stay with me for life

But you’ve cut through my bias

I now see perfection
In your fully-forged blades

(or is that my reflection?)

Tell my other shears

I’m all done…

Mundial Serra Sharp™
You’re THE ONE!