Big Ideas for Little People (and big people too!)

Last week in the crazy heat, we made confetti Christmas cards!

First, Hannah, Tully and I punched lots of holes in white and coloured paper.

We cut cardboard down to greeting card size,

used cookie cutters and glue to create a template for the confetti,

sprinkled the confetti in the cutter

And put it aside to dry while we went on to the next one!

And here they are! What do you think? They are a bit more 'handmade by a three yr old' that I envisaged but he did have a lot of fun making them and it's so nice to find a craft that you can leave a toddler to do on his own.

And when left to his own, this is what creative little Tully came up with. I think I'd almost prefer to receive this on Christmas Day! 

Tuesday Night.

It's Tuesday night and I'm feeling tired. Too tired to get up and turn that freshly boiled kettle into a hot cup of tea. Too tired to talk myself up or sell my wares. It's a content kind of tired. The well-earned kind. The quiet kind. Not the "Please Evie will you please go to bed so I can rest, kind." The kind that has no idea what tomorrow brings but has learnt to rest in the unknown. The kind that knows I can't do everything but rests in my own limitations.
Tim found out on the weekend that the cafe he was working at no longer has enough work for him. Here we are in unemployed land again. Where there are always more applications to write, emails to send, people to call. When one has work, one can use his free time as he chooses. But when there is no work, there is no rest.

And when there is no work, I want to launch into action. I don my super hero cape, sit at my sewing machine and nothing can stop me. I will provide for my little family. I will sell like there is a tomorrow, and we will enjoy it. And cries of boredom or hunger or attention ("Look at me Mum! I'm Firemam Sam!") will have to wait just another five minutes...or twenty. And slowly (maybe not so slowly?), we plunge into chaos. I don't have time for new teeth or high temperatures or just sitting while you tell me about your latest adventures with Lighting McQueen.
And when there is no work, we split things down the middle. Even Steven. Because you are home now. And I cooked last night. And everything needs to be negotiated and we are accountable for our time. And we ask permission to head out for a bit or sit down at the computer.

Last night, while Eve was growing one of her teeth, and Tim was out at a friend's house, I stood there in her room, rocking back and forth, cranky for the interruption to my plans for the evening. Cranky at Tim for having all the fun. Cranky at the universe because her teeth always come a week before a market. And something prompted me to stop and listen.
This is my job, I thought.
I don't know if it sounds impersonal to you, or unfeeling, calling my sad baby 'my job'. But for some reason it was incredibly significant for me.
No one else could do this right now. And all over the world there were people doing things they'd prefer not to. It's just part of life. Part of what we choose. And what is chosen for us. Cuddling Evie was the right thing to be doing, right now, for me. And that might mean I get less sleep than Tim (or others) and have less freedom to choose the course of my day, or don't get thanked or affirmed with pay or promotion. But it also comes with the blessing of that knowing, scrunched-up-nose smile in the morning or being the one to understand Tully's 3 year old language or discover with Evie the new games she can play, new words, new dance moves.
So tonight I rest, while the kids sleep. Because what else could be the right thing to do on a Tuesday night? I will turn up to market in less than two weeks with whatever I happen to have, I will plod away surely, yet interruptably at my work. I will set it aside sometimes when a very unimportant and unpaid game of soccer is called in the back yard. And other times, I will make it a priority and let them watch Sesame Street. I'll cook dinner because I like them, and sometimes peanut butter cookies because they're fun (not for dinner!). And occasionally, we'll order pizza.
And hopefully in there we'll find some kind of rhythm that allows for interruption and rest, even though the future is uncertain.

A Custom Quilt for Kate

I finished a custom drawstring quilt today. A nice tick off the list after a week without sewing. After the market last weekend, the kids have been sick and the weather hot and I haven't been able to bring myself to order the post-market chaos in my studio. But today, the weather cooled and Tim took Tully for a ride down to the beach while Evie slept and I braved the mess, tidied up and dusted off the sewing machine.

I always enjoy a custom order when the customer asks for a certain colour palette and sets me to work. Pink, red and beige are not colours I would naturally think to put together, but don't they look beautiful?!

I can't tell you how much I love this one! I might have to make a few more to put in the shop. They are just so warm! Like a good coffee with raspberry slice! Hmmm...

To Market, to Market!

Whew! What a big weekend! Old friends, new kids. It's so strange going back to where you grew up and recognising  nearly every second person who walked past. People I was in Sunday School with, now with their own little ones.

I set up stall with my friend Caitlin of Cloudberry (find her on Facebook!) and I tell you, I think one of the most fun things was playing with the camera and her CUTE little clips, earing and brooches. You can see here she's raided my scrap box!

 

 

Evie was the perfect little model, chatting to everyone, drawing them to my table, giving us things to talk about.

And my poor, poor Tully. He found it so hard to get to sleep the night before, such was his excitement. Then his shoes gave him blisters, there were prickles in the grass, he discovered the jumping castle was not just there for him and he got face paint in his eyes. My heart just broke for him. He'd been looking so forward to this day (he'd woken us all up at 5:30 announcing it was day time!) Thankfully, he likes this photo and is very impressed (in hindsight!) at what a great tiger he was!

This was the drawstring quilt I donated to the charity auction which went for a very good price, and then the person who was outbid, came and bought one at my stall! Win-win! I sold quite a few dresses, and the quilt, which, combined with the rush of sales last night after I put all the new dresses up (thanks everyone!!), gives us $100 towards our Christmas hampers for Poland! And we're only a week into November! Woo!

Thank you new and old friends who have wished me well and said such encouraging things about my work! All these lovelies are now in store for your enjoyment!

Mum, are we ready to go YET???

Ok. I think I'm ready. At least there's no more to sew. I'm not packed because I've been too busy arranging and hanging clothes for pretty photos. But after 10 days straight of sewing every sleep time, happy time, TV time, all you want to do is hang your clothes up to admire, right?

In a couple of hours, Mum and Dad will arrive (Tully: Oh, why does it take a long, long time for Nana and Pa to come to our house?? He's been waiting since 6 o'clock this morning!), pack me and the kids in the car and we'll head to my old stomping ground, Taree, (4 hours north of Sydney), for the weekend. An old friend of mine from school (who also went on that first trip to Poland with me all those years ago) is so generously raising money for Watoto, an organisation supporting orphans and vulnerable women in Uganda. Aiming to raise $10,000, Louise is riding from Taree to Rockhampton (1300kms, 800miles) this January! Tomorrow she's holding a huge Spring Fair to raise money and awareness for her cause.

When I told Tully there would be markets and toys and face painting and a jumping castle and a concert, he could hardly believe all those fun things could possibly be in the one place. Hence the extreme impatience for Nana and Pa to arrive!
I'm more excited about the possibility of seeing people I went to school with, old teachers, old friends' new babies. If you're in the area, come and say hello!

I'll be closing the shop this afternoon and opening it back up Saturday night. Then next week, I'll be busy taking photos of everything that's left to put in the store! Woohoo! Have a great weekend!
Jodi xx

Small Blog Meet!

Hello! I'm linking up with Lynne from Lily's Quilts for her Small Blog Meet for my second time. I had such a great time last month getting to know new people and having some conversations which lasted days over email! So I've been looking forward to this one.

To those who are stopping by for the first time, welcome! My name is Jodi, I'm a mum with a 3 year old boy, Tully and 11 month old baby girl, Eve Lily. Earlier this year, I decided to take up blogging mostly to take photos of all the wonderful and beautiful things in my world, to remind myself I'm exactly where I want to be and to challenge myself to take risks, grow, try new things. I was sleep deprived, I'd taken time off from studying history (my other love) and a second baby kept me me at home much more than I was used to. It's been a journey I didn't really expect, one of getting to know myself better, challenging some old ways of thinking about things, and, my biggest surprise, starting a little store on Etsy.
I'd love you to have a look around, meet my family, let me show off some of my creations. November is a big month for me. I'm giving 20% of my sales to my dear friends in Poland who, at Christmas, make sure even their poorest neighbours have a beautiful, warm Christmas celebration. You can read more about that story here. And I'm busily getting ready for market this weekend. Oooh! I can't wait!
Thanks again for coming and saying hi! I'm looking forward to seeing your beautiful work too!

Jodi. xx

Number Crunching

Do you ever feel like your identity is made up of an overwhelming array of numbers?
I have 45 followers on my blog, 4707 total views, an average of 80 views per post, and a total of 186 comments.
I have 408 friends on Facebook. 116 likes on my Tickle & Hide page. 30 of my friends like my page. Likes are down 2 from last month and I have 700 less news feed impressions but 500 more active monthly users (I don't even know what that means!?)
On Etsy, I have 150 people who either like my store or an item. I've had 4500 views. 26 sold orders.
I've had 422 views of my Flickr photostream. That's the only numbers Flickr will give me, but if I pay $24.95 a year, they promise:

1. Be enthralled by graphs and charts!
2. Learn which of your photos are popular today, this week, or over all time
3. Discover where your visitors are coming from
4. See how they found you
5. Thrill at a helpful breakdown of your photos

...more numbers.

Thankfully, my scales still don't work (you can read that story here) so I have no idea how much I weigh!)

After my last blog post, a recipe and fun photos for Christmas decorations, I set the lap top open on the couch and continued on my way, looking after the kids, hanging out the washing. Every so often, as I'm in the habit of doing, I'd walk past and hit 'refresh' on my stats page to watch the views come in.
But this time, even three hours later, there was nothing. No one was clicking on my link. No one was interested.
I actually discovered later that my stats counter has gone on an early holiday. But it still bothered me that I couldn't measure the response to my post. I checked Facebook. People weren't commenting, weren't liking, reposting.
ugh.
I took a little while (I'm ashamed to admit) to realise that I don't want to be doing what I do for your approval. I don't want to spend my day informing myself of my personal worth with the selection of numbers available. And so, instead, I went and had a picnic on the lawn with the kids. (Tully, who was told he could choose one thing from the fridge to bring out to share with us, very excitedly emptied a whole bag of shredded cheese onto a plate and presented it to us proudly. It was just too cute and funny to refuse, so we had shredded cheese, carrots and mandarins for lunch.)

I wrote here about my disappointment last month at not being chosen as a finalist for Stitched in Color's Autumn sewing competition. While outside, munching on cheese, I remembered that I wanted my creations to be an expression of me, not what raises the numbers, or gets chosen.

Then, yesterday morning while drinking my coffee, I was scanning through my blog reader and saw my name. I doubled back. I had been chosen as a finalist in the next round of the Celebrate Color comp! I kept reading. I have TWO items chosen! I couldn't believe it! I quickly posted on Facebook to tell everyone to vote for me. Then I went back to check out the competition. One finalist, who had made a beautiful autumn quilt, had over 500 followers on her blog. And she had already written a blog post asking people to vote for her. Another had over 1000. Why did they need to ask for votes? They have blog sponsors, don't they get free fabric all the time? (The prize includes loads of beautiful fabric) I could feel that ugly, black creeping feeling I get when I start to compare, start to feel ripped off. Added to that was my frustration that I couldn't even see how many people were coming to look at my blog as a result of the announcement!

I couple of weeks ago a friend of mine was driving home from my place and her car broke down. It was another break down after a long expensive string of them over the last 12 months. She went home, made herself a cuppa, went outside, and accidently locked herself out of the house. She called a friend. During the conversation, she said to her friend, "I'm think I'm going to have to just spend the afternoon chilling out on the green grass."
"Just think!" her friend replied, laughing "You are on the green grass!"

It is not on the other side.

So I wanted to write this post to share my experience of the last few days, let you know my exciting news, being chosen as a finalist, let you know where you can vote, if you want to, (HERE!) and then close the laptop and build a train track with Tully. Then this afternoon, my friend Rossi is coming over to sew with me. We've decided to order pizza for dinner and then stay up into the night to create up a storm for my up coming market.

Yep. The grass is pretty green on this side.