What's Your Best Side?

Just mucking around today while my baby has an usual naptime of 4pm - 5.30pm (he's got 2 molars on the way - ouch) and remembering the time (yes, I'm old) when digital photography first came in, so we all started taking a million photos to finally find out our 'best side', and which poses suited our face sizes. Of course it took several years to finally get it right! Whatever did we do before digital photography (I always had my eyes closed, or I was looking around at everyone else in the photo instead of the camera)

Yes, this was before the selfies of instagram and probably around 2005 was my peak as I discovered 'Up and To the Side' (BELOW) instead of just 'To The Side' (ABOVE). You see I have a R-O-U-N-D face, and it was advised to me (LOL - we were drunk at the time, so can't remember who) that Up & To The Side was best for round faces... check out the angles:

The other best 'look' at the time (oh maybe it was 2006?) was 'Cooling The Soup' (BELOW) where you pretend you are blowing a bowl of soup cool... (see I'm holding an imaginary bowl of soup below, so you can see!) (LOL) and this was quite a good look too for me... as you can see, RIGHT? BUT, I actually prefer 'Up & To The Side' the best (so that's why you see that all the time in my Outfit Poses, yeh?). I've also heard 'Cooling The Soup' described as 'The Trout Pout' ala the Olsen Twins.

Ha ha!

Anyways, hi to you from me, the ever time poor blogger! This is my sewing room though, and it'll be spruced up soon (well, as soon as those little sewing room cleaning fairies swing by!) and as the electrician came this week to fix the lighting... I might even sew something soon. How awful does bad lighting make for sewing? I have had trouble sewing in this room since we've moved in (too dark for nighttime sewing) so hooray for finally getting better lights in here.

Hope you're having a great week!

Love Veronica "Up & To The Side" Darling.

xoxo

The Backyard is Blooming

Last year, I was very loud in saying 'No To Pink' in my garden and again, here they are... all the pinky pinks have bloomed again... and instead of being a pink hater, I'm embracing it... because what the hell. I'm not a gardener, and I can't fix it in a hurry even if I was due to my toddler!

You have to be quick! Luckily this massive long stemmed rose (from my garden, I had no control over it!) had no rose thorns, so after BD grabbed it, and used it as a walking stick, he wasn't injured. I once had to get a tetanus needle because of a rose thorn once!

Hope you've had a great weekend! I visited Spotlight today! Yes, dreaming of sewing with buying fabrics... let's see how we go with the creating part! I'm spotting some sewing time on my calendar this week! Maybe I'll have to actually make 'appointments to sew' in my calendar?!

xoxo

Non Stop Bunting Factory!

I can't stop making bunting! I guess it's the quickest, and easiest, sewing project for me right now!

Here's our garden playgroup this week, as BD's little friend turned 3 and his mama had a birthday the day before. I had to add a splash of bunting to the already gorgeous undercover area for their bdays!

All scraps of course... so this took 2 minutes to sew, with the overlocker the same as my tutorial (still proud I made a tutorial)... Whenever I've sewn or made a garment with woven fabric, I've cut the scraps into bunting flags JUST IN CASE a moment like this came along... and that moment came along before garden playgroup this week!

Hope you've been having a great week! BD and I have been cycling around in the warmer-warmish weather and loving life as usual. And I got my hair done again, champagne blond, so I'm loving myself sick today too.

xoxo

Voila: A Toddler Sunhat

Yay, I made a hat for my little itty bitty toddler.

When I was back in Gippsland recently (my folks live there!) I hunted through some of mum's fabric... and had sudden pangs to make something very quick. When there are more people around to care for BD, it's GREAT! Mum or Dad show him the garden, go on walks and play with him and I've crept away to Mum's little Husqvarna sewing machine!

After a lot of googling, the Reversible Bucket Hat by Oliver + S looked the quickest, the easiest... plus reversible? YES!

I used some straightforward cotton (with a lovely repeated pattern, see below) from Mum's stash for the under-fabric and visited Spotlight for this gorgeous vintage inspired cotton. I knew Husbie would love seeing BD with little space boys and girls (um, the little girl is shooting stars from her raygun - cute) so spent a bit extra on the fabric (and hardly used a foot of it)... as this was in the quilting section.

Guys, did you know that the quilting section fabric can be used for things OTHER than quilts? I had an inkling after visiting fabric shops with my unreal Aunty a few months back... but I decided I'd test it out! YES, I made a hat, and not a quilt!

The pdf of the Oliver + S fabric is FREE and such a great pattern to follow, cut and sew! I made two hats in about the length of a naptime. For BD's version I wanted to include the "under the chin" strap (which I quickly try to tie in a bow when I stick the hat on him), and it wasn't too tricky to do a spaghetti strap and add that in when I was sewing it all together.

Have you made any more Oliver + S patterns? I'm quite keen on them now! It's hard sometimes, because kids clothes can be so fiddly, and wovens aren't really the best for little bodies (or my babe doesn't really fit into them, just shorts!)... but I find it hard to find interesting knit fabrics to whizz up leggings or tshirts/singlets... hence my red leopard pair for my darling friend.

BD is a little bruiser sometimes, he's into everything, loves playing in our backyard and is just a delightful friend to hang with. These photos were taken when we had a week of just gorgeous weather, but this week in Melbourne has been just yukky... poor little toddling BD, so wet everywhere. We're hopefully seeing the sunshine again on Friday... when I'm at work! DRATS!

xoxox to you guys!

Unabashed: Part Three in a Series

In an effort to show some real life in this blogging world, here's part 3 of my unabashed series! Just random photos of my life (usually my messy home) that I've not messed with, or set up, so to speak. I've taken the idea of 'Part NUMBER in a Series' from some inspirational women who make up the lovely Women of Letters events. Gosh they are amazing!

My loungeroom is far from magazine perfect, but I do love my Mark Tuckey/Jardin (is it? I think) couch (one you may see occasionally in catalogues or magazines, but I don't really know as I don't read such things) and all the little Baby Bits and Bobs that are around these days.

I love how random things pop up in our house, and they change so often because of little hands ... and I know I'm going to LOVE looking at these windows into our day to day life in years to come... so these Unabashed Photos are more for me than you... thanks for looking though!

xoxoxoxoxoxo