The birth of the Bowling Pin Bunny

Ah, the fruits of today's labours. They look like they're enjoying hanging out together, too.

On the right is a new variation on the Hoot theme. This one's made from sublimely soft paisley flannelette, in this bright pink and yellow pattern. I think I got this fabric off eBay last year, and I made myself a pair of pajama pants out of it for winter. These are just the leftover scraps, and don't they work well as a Hoot?

The wings, ears and feet are made out of an old flannelette pillowcase I found on that great anniversary weekend to Mildura - my, that was a productive weekend!

On the left is a new creature, made freehand today out of a few scraps I've had for a while. The warm furry bottom half is really textural and lovely, like a soft chenille robe. It's a colour my mother has always called Elephant's Breath.

The top half is a gorgeous pale pink Warwick upholstery fabric - again, it's got a lovely texture. The ears are backed in the same fabric but lined at the front with a Liberty print in chocolate and pink.

I stuffed him with cotton wadding, so he's really firm and good to hold. He'd be a good toy for a really little kid, because there's nothing on him that could be a choking hazard - his eyes and mouth are embroidered - and he's just the right size to grab with one hand.

I freely admit he looks a bit like a bowling pin with ears, but I think he's pretty cute regardless! I'm going to call him the Bowling Pin Bunny.

My creative space

Today I'm playing My Creative Space courtesy of Kootoyoo - hop on over to her blog and check out what other people's creative spaces look like too. Her space is always so much tidier than mine!

As you can see in the photo though, my creative space is also often occupied by a cat of some kind (insert resigned sigh here).

On this occasion it's Grimth, our third puss and second British Shorthair. That is, he's the same brand as Fatpuss, but a different colour - Grimth is technically known as a lilac, but he actually looks like a deep cream or very pale chocolate. It's because he's the product of a chocolate shorthair crossed with a blue shorthair, it produces a very interesting colour. And he's got stripes, too, though they're very faint.

Anyway, enough about the pussin. I'm actually here to talk about what's under him!

You can see a collection of printed fabrics underneath his growing bulk. These are a bunch of tea-towels I picked up in Mildura on the weekend. I'm going to make them into something ... I'm just not quite sure what yet.

But I think there's definitely an opportunity to capitalise on the Australiana kitsch embodied by these souvenir tea towels. What do you think ... tote bags? Cushion covers? Laptop cases? Skirts?

I particularly like the ones that have flowers and birds on them, though I also got a few with native animals - kangaroos, koalas, echidnas and wombats - as there's always a desire for that kind of stuff overseas. I think I like the bright, vibrant colours as well; they're so attention-grabbing, and they just scream SOUVENIR!!!!!!

Whatever I end up making, it's going to go in my new Etsy shop (which is currently under construction) - watch this space ......

Drying for a drink

Ah, the joys of a country weekend!

Here is a photo of My One True Love and I standing on the docks of Mildura Wharf, looking out across the wide expanse of water.

It’s rather disturbing that for such a dry and arid region, Mildura produces so many fruit and vegetable crops. There are acres and acres of citrus and grapes; some of them drying on long wooden racks to become raisins. Don’t they look wonderful?

And of course we had to visit Orange World, which was just as touristy as the name would imply. Something about that nose disturbs me. Gorgeous fresh orange juice though, mm.
As well as our visit to the antique shops and Wentworth Gaol, we also saw the confluence of the Lachlan and Murray Rivers, and we visited the dried-up bowl of Lake Mungo, made famous for the remains of Mungo Woman and Mungo Man found there thirty-odd years ago, and which proved the existence of Aborigines on the shores of the once verdant lake, over 30,000 years ago.

Lake Mungo dried up around 15,000 years in the past, and now the area supports only has saltbush and the odd scrappy tree.

In some parts it looks like the desert, with enormous sand dunes riding up on the hills, and eroding lunettes poking through, where you can see ancient Aboriginal middens, and petrified charcoal from fires, and the skeletons of fish and wombats protruding through the dirt.

We also saw lots of kangaroos, and a baby sand goanna, and dozens of iridescent blue/green parrots.

But it’s the whole place that is dry, not just the lake bed, which was once 27 feet deep.

Lake Eildon, the usual lake that feeds Mildura, hasn’t any water in it either. The rivers are green, and not in a good way.

How long can we keep draining them to support agriculture, when it seems that we shouldn’t be trying to farm in these areas?

A day in the country

My word. Whoever knew that Mildura was going to be such a fabric mecca?

It's certainly not something I expected. Over the past 24 hours, I've bought 2 queen size vintage 70s sheets in orange and red flowers ($2), 2 metres of pink and white candycane striped cotton ($1.50), the previously mentioned coral and white polka dots, 2 metres of peppermint and pink argyle drill cotton ($4), 3.5 metres of fantastically flowered canvas ($4), a purple and white drapery snippet (50c), a handbag patterned aqua cotton (50c), a madras pintucked rainbow stripe (50c), furry art deco patterned flannel ($3.50), a pretty peony cotton ($2), a pink and green Chanel-ish tweed (50c), and what looks like a Kaffe Fassett floral in pink, salmon and chocolate ($5.50).

Yes that's right. All of those fabrics cost me a little under $25. Hoo-bloody-ray!!!

I have also found some lovely vintage tins in secondhanderies and op shops - there are a little clutch of them in Merbein, all on Commercial Street: Clairgate's PreLoved has wonderful tins, as does Garland Antiques, Merbein Buy and Sell and the one next door whose name I can't remember. Absolutely fabulous stuff! I love trawling through antiqueries, poking through the rubbish and extracting the treasures.

And the antique shops out here are stuffed to the gills with fantastic trinkets and china and bottles, and oddly, one shop seemed to have over a hundred rolling pins. It also had a beautiful big green glass jar which I am currently cooing over in my mind, trying to justify the price of, because it's beautiful and I love it and it's my anniversary weekend after all, isn't it?

And I can't begin to go into detail about the immense amounts of vintage and antique furniture, which - if we'd driven here instead of flown - I would have stuffed the car full of. We'd have driven back to Melbourne with me cackling manically all the way home!

Mildura, your time starts now

Today I'm hooked on Fridays, totally and completely - because today My One True Love and I are on holiday!

It's our first wedding anniversary, and we have celebrated by flying to Mildura, in far western Victoria. What's in Mildura, you might ask? Well, first of all it's the Mildura Grand Hotel, which is a grand old dame on the banks of the Murray river - I quite feel like I should be wearing a crinoline and My One True Love should be in a top hat and spats, to do our sweeping staircase and grand architecture justice.

And secondly it's a restaurant called Stefano's, which has two hats (under a measure of three hats being the most prestigious) and so I decided I'd surprise him with a long weekend away featuring dinner at said restaurant, for tomorrow night. I even went to the trouble of getting his day off secretly approved by his boss.

I booked the flights, and booked the hotel, and booked the restaurant, and tucked everything away in my Secret Present file inside my head. Everything was going swimmingly until a few months ago, when he logged into his Frequent Flyer account a few months ago and noticed the flight to Mildura listed there. And then I had to confess - which spoiled the surprise somewhat, but at least it had the benefit of giving him something unusual and interesting to look forward to!

But here we are and it's splendid so far. The weather is wonderful - 37 degrees celsius today and the heat has wrapped itself around me like a blanket - I love it! I'm in a sleeveless top and a short skirt, and the feeling is liberating.

So far we've been to the local op shop, where I picked up some wonderful polka dotted fabric for $3.50, and we've seen a movie, and we've had dinner at the restaurant that purports to be the best steakhouse in Victoria. I've had some steaks in my time, and I have to say that the one I ate tonight definitely tops the list. It even beat the wagyu I had in Dubai, which is saying something. We couldn't even squeeze in dessert, and for those who know me, they will realise just how much significance this carries.

However the internet connection in the hotel is as slow as a wet week, so I'm afraid I'm unable to upload any of the photos I've taken so far. I suppose there are some things which can't be helped though, especially in the wide brown country.

I promise to rectify the situation once normal service is resumed.