Sunday 26 February 2012

FAMILY TRADITIONS

Every Sunday my Mum, her best friend and my beautiful Aunty set out at 5am to go shopping.  They start with a local market that has local produce and 2nd hand gear.  My mum takes her time to make sure she doesn’t miss anything good, so she never makes it from the 2nd hand bit to the fruit & veg bit before her partner’s in crime hunt her down and tell her it is time to move on to the next activity. 

The next activity is garage saleing.  It is a very carefully planned event where mum’s friend, Carole, sits down the night before to plan out what is the most logical order to hit them and puts big stars on the ‘best’ ones (no bric-a-brac – very bad word!).  Before the days of the GPS, she would also look up the UBD to get all the navigation from one to the next as write it all down as well.  Now there is a GPS, they take great pride in going different ways to the poor navigator and listening to her say “wrong way, do a u-turn, GO BACK”.  In addition to completely ignoring the navigator, they usually debate over the best way to get to the next destination.  On the way home, they hit any fete’s that might be on, which usually results in a couple of yummy home made cakes or biscuits.  I know all this because I used to go, before the kids and before the sewing, but now I get to sleep in til 6am instead!  I could usually be found in the backseat of the car with a sandpit, matress, trampoline or similar on my head.
You would think that all sounded like a pretty big day, but when they get home, the real party starts.  Mum and Dad’s place is a hive of activity on a Sunday.  The extended family and friends all come for a visit to see what garage sale find they can fight over.  Dad cooks up a Sunday brunch of scrambled eggs, pizza, frittatas or sausages on the BBQ for all to enjoy.  There can be anywhere between 5 and 35 people show up throughout the day.  I take the kids and give my husband some ‘alone time’ and usually take any sewing I have got done that week to show off before it gets listed and sent off to new homes.

Sadly this week, Mum and Dad are on holiday’s, which is very inconsiderate of them, there was no Sunday get together and everyone was responsible for arranging their own breakfast... oh well, there is always next week!

Wednesday 15 February 2012

A VALENTINE'S TO REMEMBER...

Last night my friend Fiona and had dinner together and then went to the Roxette concert who were more than adequately supported by 1927.  With the audience basically screaming the first few songs, I started to wonder whether we would actually get to hear Roxette themselves sing at all!  The atmosphere was awesome.  Lots of singing, lots of standing and dancing (which I don't normally do, but it is a little hard not to when everyone in the entire place is doing exactly that)!  A big fat boo goes out to the party poopers who grabbed onto the beach balls that were intended to be hit around and kept them as collectables.   Today I had the Roxette album in the car and the kids were dancing on the way to kindy.  Jesse didn't even mind Aaron and I singing or dancing when normally we get told very clearly "STOP that, I don't like it!".


I couldn't help but admire the europeaness of Per's outfit and started daydreaming about a new euro style dress and by the end of the concert had a lovely little image of a dress in my head which I really need to sketch before I forget it... might even get time to make it one day... if you see a 'concert dress' sometime, that is where it comes from! ha!!
I had planned to release my Splash of Colour Collection before now, which will be my 2nd official collection, but the handmade market has been a bit inundated with market nights around Valentine's Day, so I thought I would hold off for a few weeks and try to get a few rainbow dresses made to pop in the collection as well.  I have had a lot of requests for matching shirts, so the collection includes some lovely mix and match separates and so far 13 pairs of frequently requested shorts!

I have been working on a new little mission with a friend too, so keep your eyes peeled for some clues to that soon!  So exciting!