Birthday Bunting

My little nephew turned 1 on Monday, and I was determined to be a little DIY last week during my first week of maternity leave. Using my mum's machine (I stayed in the country for a while as our kitchen is being renovated - of course - what else would you do at 36 weeks pregnant?) I created some dreamy birthday bunting... but made the circus colours so he and his mum can use them anytime as well!

For his name bunting, I took a little more care, curved the edges (using a soup bowl for the pattern) of the bunting, and backed each with cotton drill...  and zig zag stitched his name to each 'flag'... but I also used thicker ribbon and top stitched the ribbon *between* the top fabric and the backing drill, so his name bunting can be washed up on and used again and again (OF COURSE you'd love your name hung around the house, or is that just me?)...

The normal bunting I just cut into triangles, and zig zag stitched it to a 4 metre ribbon (if you look in Spotlight the cheapest stuff is actually 3m or 4m of satin-esque 3mm or 4mm ribbon, heaps of colours, for maybe 99 cents... instead of the normal cotton bias binding which is 69 cents a metre)... cheap and nasty, but fine for kids bunting...

I have heaps of triangles left over, so will make more for any OTHER BABIES that come along and need some circus colour n cheer.

How gorgeous is his birthday cake too?

(The Smarties were my sewing snack food last week! I *still* can't get enough chocolate and ice cream!)

xoxo

Memories! From the Corner of My Mind

FACT: 'The Way We Were' by Barbra Streisand was the first song I ever sang solo at a concert when I was maybe 15 or 16? I'd had a couple weeks of singing classes, and I had to choose a song that my teacher could accompany me on the piano... everything was 90s pop on her first list of choices... but I just hated singing Mariah or Celine, so I pushed for her vintage collection of songs. A boy from school told me after my song that it was his mother's favourite song ever, and that I'd performed it really well according to her. It was enough to keep going for me, and thus began a small career in extremely non-professional but hilarious musical theatre productions.

I've sifted through my old laptop today, with some 'memories' for you, as we had sudden rain storms this week that threatened my computer space AND sewing room space, so we unplugged EVERY thing just in case, because hey fellow seamstresses: WHO WANTS A SHORT CIRCUITED COMPUTER OR SEWING MACHINE, AMIRITE? So I'm here on my old laptop, and may set up the sewing room as it's now a beautiful clear day... let's hope the rain stays away and OUT of my house!

Oh the joys of home owning, we just got the gutter cleaned, and now we may need to get new gutters! Yay time to prioritise the budget AGAIN!

But, here's a few photos on this old laptop that I thought would be a bit of memory lane for us! My old 'Crafty Adventures' banner from this blog circa 2008 or 2009? I ditched the 'crafty' when I just started posting about anything from my life.

And here's a photo from my Husband's hipstermatic collection, photoshopped of course:

SUCH white hair. We stayed in a creepy hotel, but I have no idea/can't remember why.

My brother and I before Husbie and I got married... my friend Claire emailed a whole bunch of photos and I must have saved them on this laptop... One day I'll get a photo album/book organised! Have any of you used Blurb before? I got a book last year printed up (I didn't show you because it was filled with photos of Doggie Darling, and I was too sad when it arrived) and I was really happy with the quality... and my friend Inner West Mum got a few books printed too, and they look AMAZING. Anyways, I was thinking of making a Blurb book of my wedding photos, once I get them all together in the one spot! 5 years of marriage people!

Anyways, here's the first granny square I ever crocheted too! I did end up making a blankie out of heaps more and gave it to a baby friend!

Here's some bunting I made for work, that still is spread across my office and radio studios:

And my last Sew Weekly dress from 2011... seems like forever ago already:

SUCH orange hair. That didn't last long! It just didn't stay in my hair longer than 2 weeks, I think she used a tint and it looked great initially, but I had to use copper shampoo to maintain it, and it just warped in colour... so that's why I'm back to blonde, less white and more goldie BUT NOT TOO GOLDIE. I'm fine when my hair stays the same colour for at least 5 weeks (and then back for an update on the regrowth)... but I only wash it once a week, so extra special shampoos (I don't even use it) or conditioners are a pain in the arse ... just can't keep with the upkeep of it!

Anyways, back to the memories... it's weird thinking how fast the time goes... being married 5 years, blogging for around 5 years here, living in Sydney, now Melbourne... buying my house in Sydney ... then buying my house in Melbourne... loving Doggie Darling as a pup and missing her greatly, she would be 3 years old now... so many things happen and there's so many swings and roundabouts and ups and downs...

My wistfulness is actually stopping me from getting up and hanging the washing out and getting on with my day, so I wish I could wist away forever... I love looking at old photos and wanna show you more more more now! BUT, better say goodbye for now...

xoxo

Introducing: My Husbie's New Website

Hey cuties, happy Monday!

Today I'm very excited to let you know about my Husbie's new adventure! As you know, we've gone through a lot of changes in the past few months. Our dear Doggie Darling passed away, we bought a house in Melbourne, I holiday-ed in Cambodia. We renovated parts of the new house, and then finally moved in. And all on a very tight budget, because... my Husbie was unfortunately on the bad side of a restructure at his work. There have been a few nail-biting moments for us, but (as always) we're Positina Turners in my family and have turned this into a career opportunity for him...

And so, I'd love to introduce you to my Husbie & his brand new website! Vincent (AKA Husbie) Taylor is a film colourist, cinematographer and stills photographer, and will be freelancing his mad skills from January next year!

The site has it's own domain: vincenttaylor.com.au but directs to a blogspot for now (using the new template 'Snapshot' which suits the photo heavy nature of his work, I reckon) and I learnt how to compress video (thanks to my animation friend!) for Vimeo, so there are lots of his showreels and short films up there. He's very keen on twitter, but not so keen on blogging (maybe I'm bad inspiration!) so the blog template above makes it look more like a website.

Husbie has worked in the Australian & New Zealand film industry for 15 years or so, firstly as a cinematographer and then as a film colourist. A colourist does a bunch of post film production detail that you probably don't even notice while watching tv or a film, and if you don't notice it, the better job the colourist has done! You already know Husbie can take great photos, as most of my photos this year (the good ones!) are his, but he also has another website devoted to his photography.

My role, as I hinted at earlier, in Husbie's new career move is to balance the books and generally be awesome & supportive - easy! I've decided that since I'm a producer at work in my radio job, I can totally adapt and be a producer in the new freelance business as well! Husbie's already got 2 weddings booked for next year, and I'll also lend a hand with my trusty little stills camera to be his assistant! If you're on the look out for wedding photography, or any photography, get in touch!

It's going to be a busy 2012 for us, and it hasn't even begun!

Thanks for all your lovely notes over the past crazy few months... I really appreciate your support and love and gush! If you wanna get in touch, (maybe you find the blogger comment form annoying & sometimes not working?) always feel free to send me an email veronicadarling@gmail.com or tweet me @veronicadarling .

xoxo

My Dad: DIY Extraordinaire

My Dad makes a LOT of stuff, currently he's building a plane (!) but he'd also just made my Mum a studio table for her artwork! Last week the box I'd been using as a footstool at work gave up the ghost, and I thought instead of requesting a new plastic one from workie, perhaps I could find some recycled stuffs! AND, voila! Dad to the rescue!

His friend helped him with the little 'keyhole' and it's made of leftover wood from my Mum's studio, and is probably as sturdy as a chopping block in the kitchen!

How gorgeous! All ready for me to rest my toots at work!

Best Day EVER!

I had the best day (but am really full of my dins now) EVER today, and I'm going to be vague and brief, only because I have to dive into bed for my early start tomorrow!

A quick rundown in dot point form of my best day ever!

- We had a big working day yesterday (Australia Day) and my team and I woke again super early for another fantastic day at work. TICK! Great success all round! Yippee!

- It's my wedding anniversary today and Husbie dropped into work at 9.30am for a quick pash, out the front. Yippee! A darling work colleague saw us and said 'Awww Young Love' ... CUTE

- I was asked to go 'on tour' with the biggest UK band in Australia at the moment, as their TOUR MANAGER. They are the loveliest guys, and I had to turn them down because I already have a job. SAD but CUTE because I felt very good at my organisational skillz and that young musicians noted this. LOLZ

- One of my dresses that I've made recently (the red one) appeared over several 'fun' websites and the owner had a BALL and even went down a slip'n'slide whilst wearing it. VERSATILE!

- Husbie and I went and ate out for a HOT DATE and gushed and drank really nice wine in Balmain for our wedding anniversary! It's been 3 years of marriage, but maybe 8 years of togetherness? Maybe 9 years. We can't remember because LOVE wins in the end anyways. GUSH LOLZ SPEW

- BUT, also, we bought Husbie a flash for his darling camera for his birthday in December AND IT ARRIVED IN THE POST TODAY, and here's a fun phots of us trying it out:

 That's me!

What a great day, best day evs, and terribly exhausting. Yay.

xoxo

Best of 2009 - Top Ten (part three)

Oops! Got a little busy last night talking and didn't get home til later!

Happiest Happy to you, and hope you enjoyed a wonderful and safe evening last night.

So! Back to the Top Ten (of my creations this year), with my last two favourites of the year:

Two - Stash Stretch and designing beginnings

This tshirt dress was a little different to all the other ones, as I made the cap sleeves inbuilt with the front and back pattern pieces, so I ACTUALLY cut out my first pattern piece. I've been sewing for about 8 years now, following commercial patterns, sometimes making things up (cutting around other dresses and things I like) but I've never cut out a pattern (so I used old wrapping paper) before, and feel really proud that my sewing skillz have reached a point that my brain can work out dimensions and seams (before they are joined) etc. VERY PROUD seamstress over here!

Yay! I have bought some good books to help with pattern drafting (I'll post about them soon! Promise!) so feel like I'm well on the way with my sewing skillz!

And so:

One - The Frock for the Awards Night!

Here's my lovely friend and I on the red carpet, she wearing Marc Jacobs and myself Veronica Darling. (I think that's Daniel Merriweather in the background!) What I love about this dress is ... EVERYthing... the material was from the Remnants Warehouse (a designer fabric that the shopkeeper couldn't remember who designed) and the pattern was a Vogue vintage one from *maybe* 1980s, but I changed everything apart from the v neckline and the waistband. Of course I had to make it shorter, and put on some really great kimono style short sleeves (or cuffs) that I kinda have seen around, but made up (designer in the making here!) myself.

And who can forget the big fuck off bow? There was a bit of to and fro-ing going on about that one... but in the end I went there and it was great. It was a lot of learning along the way, constructing it bit by bit to make it fit right, and feel right. The material is very scratchy overall, so the lining totally helped. After wearing it the side seams (down near the hem) have started to go, because the material is pretty fragile on the hem lines, and I did make it pretty fitting, so I guess my walking and sitting down and standing up kinda stretched the fabric from the seams there. Oh well!

But mostly this was a total deadline dress, cause I was also making my friend's dress too for the awards night! Busy bee!

Phew! It was a very busy year all round for me and my friends and family, but I'm happy 2009 is finished now. It was way too full to begin with!

We don't really talk about resolutions at all in my house, but what I've really liked thinking about is how new traditions can begin in a family. As it's now my Husbie, Doggie Darling and myself in our family (we only got the little pup in April) for this year, and a lot of our friends are having babies, it's a really sweet feeling thinking that I'm getting older and can take responsibility for things in not just my life anymore. I take care of Husbie and Doggie Darling whole heartedly (and it sounds silly but totally great to say that) so I'm thinking a lot about family in 2010 already! Gush!

Anyways, I know I've got heaps of gush up my sleeve for later, so won't gush over you too much now, but all the best for your hangovers (Husbie's in bed again now!) or your full tummy's and wishing you good times in 2010!