Being averse to putting myself under undue pressure and stress, the fact that she called it a “friendly sewing competition” really sold it to me. The word “prizes” helped a little too

So, what do you think? Will you enter too? I’d love to see you there. And if you don’t refashion or even sew, this will be something really fun to follow along and vote on. If I don’t get selected, I can’t wait to join in the audience participation and maybe even garner some inspiration.

Thanks for hosting this competition Beth! What a great idea. I’m hoping this goes on to become an annual thing ’cause who doesn’t love a gallery of refashion photos mixed with some friendly competition.

This refashion was more like a total rebuild. After thinking I could just alter the hem, I still wasn’t happy and I eventually unpicked all the seams and made a whole new skirt from the pieces.

I love this fabric! The mint is so versatile to wear and it’s a nice pop of colour.

It was made using the pattern for the Marie skirt on Burdastyle but without the tapered hem. I had hoped for feminine and casual, but the fabric is like denim, so it’s quite heavy and stiff.

To be honest, I’m not totally sold on the end result. It could still grow on me, so I’ll give it time, but if I don’t wear it much, you could see it reappear sometime as a pencil skirt!

I’m learning to appreciate Autumn for all its’ beauty, rather than my default tendency to despise it for chasing away summer.

There are the stunning colours of nature, the mild temperatures without intense heat or chill and, of course, toasty fires to snuggle beside in the evening. Each season has its’ own joy and while I still count down the months until summer returns, I can see there is beauty to be had in the “now”.

I’ve just sowed some seeds for the vege garden in anticipation of warming mid winter soups. I found this handy tip for using toilet rolls in the book “Whole Larder Love” by Rohan Anderson. Actually, the whole book has inspired me to get into vege gardening in a whole new way.

When the seedlings are ready to plant in the garden, I’ll just pop the entire roll in the garden and it’ll happily break down there.

Having previously had the “gardening hand of death”, it seems all I needed was an automatic watering system. For the first time ever, the garden is thriving! I could get the hang of this vege growing lark after all.

I originally tried this after being inspired by a post on Striking Keys about Green Smoothies. I wanted to get more iron into me and, thankfully, a daily blend gives me enough that I can skip any supplements. Yay!

Little Guy is hugely vege averse, but he will thankfully devour this smoothie like nothing else. Yippee! I even gave it to Poppet when she was starting on solids and it was nice making something we could both enjoy when I was short on time.

Of course, you can mix in whatever you like, but this is my favorite combo so far.

Ingredients:
handful of fresh or frozen berries
Banana
spinach, beetroot leaves or lettuce (about 15 leaves in total, or whatever my garden can spare)
Optional extras: orange juice, mint, parsley and a teaspoon of honey.

Blend it all up and add extra water or juice as you go until you have a drinkable consistency.

Delicious and oh so good for you! Don’t let the greenery put you off. If my uber-picky eaters can’t detect it, it’s safe to say the flavour is good.

Note: my blender isn’t real powerful, so checking teeth afterwards for spinach is a must!

The internet is swimming with tutorials for No Sew Tutu’s exactly like this one. Maybe it’s because they are just so ridiculously easy, fast and fun to make.

What? You haven’t seen it 23 times elsewhere yet? Fantastic! Because I’ve also written a tutorial here just for you.

This easily fits both my almost four year old and two year old alike. Being super stretchy, it’ll get a lot more wear yet before it’s outgrown. Sadly, though, it IS too small for me Yes, I tried.

You’ll need:

• Stretchy headband (mine was 50c at a local market. Hence the rad orange colour)
• 1.5m tulle (make sure you get the softer, slightly more pricey stuff. Kids won’t thank you for anything scratchy)

Simply cut your tulle into a gazillion strips measuring 50cm x 12cm. Rough enough is good enough here. Your perfectionist side can take a break for the time being.

Fold a strip in half and, choosing a hole in the lower portion of the headband, thread it through the hole from front to back (loop first, facing downwards).

Pull the remaining length down through the loop and tighten so that it’s now fastened onto the headband.

Continue all the way around with the remaining tulle.

The more tulle you use, the more full the skirt will be. I looped some excess tulle into holes a little farther up the headband so don’t be afraid to claim more territory there if you need it.

Very cute!

Adult sizes, anyone??

Angela at Striking Keys and I have arranged a skill swap and I must say, I’m quite a fan of this concept! She has given my blog a much needed update and she will, in return, get a snuggly rhino made for her soon-to-arrive little one.

I was so excited to hear that Angela was interested in working with me on this. I’ve been a fan of her blog for a long time time and her bullet point posts always make me giggle. She often has a good story or experience to share and through her book reviews, also introduced me to the writing prowess of Laini Taylor. I’m not usually a fantasy fan, but Laini is really something else.

Thanks Angela for your hard work! Hoping Rhino becomes a much loved family member in due course

Fortunately, our house has remained flood free and Poppet loved watching the lightening flashes with us. Little Guy just tolerated it.

The torrents of water served to get me motivated though. After getting drenched through while doing groceries, I was inspired to attempt this jacket refashion. Again.

I’d thrifted this about a year ago, but stuffed it in a cupboard when I thought I had botched the alterations. It seems that time gifted me some fresh perspective because it was actually fine!

The original jacket was in great condition and and all it needed was a little style update and some tailoring.

The length was chopped.

The armhole seams were opened up. I left the lining as is here and just worked on the outer shell.

Sleeve seams and side seams were taken in before being handsewn closed again. Easing those babies back into place on the machine did my head in!

I added a few stitches at the back to gather in some excess fabric. I like a bit of gather falling from the waist there anyway.

Love my Singer Featherweight!

A belt was made using the chopped hem and the addition of two D-rings.

Then I hemmed the jacket and lining separately (blind hem on jacket outer and standard straight stitch on the lining).

I really should see what else is in the back of that cupboard! I’m liking this fresh perspective.

When big events like this hit the news, we often don’t get any follow up reports a year or two on about how the recovery is going. For instance, I haven’t seen how the east coast of Japan is doing now. I can only hope that people there are doing ok.

So I thought some if you may like to see pics of the Christchurch CBD about two years on.

Along with the areas that display such somber scars, there are also many areas that give no indication of damage at all, so please don’t think that the entire city is like this! If you had travel plans to go there, you should keep them. It’s a beautiful place that is functioning well (albeit with road works).

A memorial to those that perished

“Restart Mall”. Refitted shipping containers now house retail stores in the CBD.

The people here love their city and all of this has brought them so much closer. Everyone has a story to share. Some heartbreaking and some miraculous. They are resilient and beautiful people. I love their tenacity.

It’s a lovely reminder that when life knocks you down, you don’t have to stay there. You made it through. You’re a survivor. Now it’s time to rebuild.

Dare to dream of a community based store where fabric is beautifully displayed, you can hire sewing machines (akin to an internet cafe) and there are workshops to learn new skills.

The cute cafe oozes crafty inspiration to help get you in the sewing mood. Or you can just buy something that makes you look crafty without the effort.

In a spacious room by the cafe, you’ll find a workspace with sewing machines you can use for a nominal fee. There are also various workshops held here.

I’m in a bit of a daze today. It’s a nice daze though. One of those blissfully contented ones.

Arriving home from the Bloggers Conference yesterday, I sat on the couch staring absently with a stupid smile on my face. I’m trying to process everything that has just happened and all that I saw, but my head is still in holiday mode. It’s actually awesome.

Not only was it my first holiday without kids in four years (and I got some quality time with my three sisters), but I met some truly inspiring people. They gave me some fresh vision, opened up a world of possibilities and poured out their love by making this event happen.

There are a couple of things in particular that I really want to share with you, but they very much deserve their own posts, so I’ll cover those over the next few days.

Maybe by then my blissful daze will have lifted a little, but I really hope it lingers longer. It seems this mama needed the break more than she realised.

Thank you all who worked so hard to make the weekend so darn amazing xoxo