Next Project

Ok I have decided my next project will be creating an 1880's dress. I'm very excited about this, I've found some fabulous material. I'm all about recycling so i make a lot of my dresses etc. out of doona covers as they can be picked up pretty cheap and you get a lot of fabric. I will down load some photos as i progress in my sewing :)I may also be having a workshop!

Camping Trip to Lake Somerset

We have been planning this trip for ages! Finally the September school holidays arrived and we were ready or so we thought lol. A friend of Fitzpatrick was letting us use his boat and so the day before we were to leave Fitzpatrick decided to just try the motor and give it a run and guess what? it didn't go! Typical Brown adventure.. But luckily our neighbor is a (Magician) mechanic and fixed it for us! So the next morning off we went on our camping trip with our road tripper friends, Edward,Elanor and Brandon. Also my mum was meeting us there and Fitzpatrick's parents as well. We just get to Kilcoy and i get a phone call from Fitzpatrick that he had done a wheel bearing on the trailer and he was just waiting for some help.(We usually travel in 2 cars when we go camping as all the camp gear goes in the ute and i take mine with the food and kids ) Fitzpatrick's parents were behind him so picked up the boys, who were riding with dad in his ute, and continued on to the camp site. When they arrived they had also picked up the tent and big tarp that goes over the camp site so we could get started putting up the camp site. We ATTEMPTED to put the huge tarp up without Fitzpatrick's help. Very sad job i must say lol but it was the best we could do. So we set up camp and waited for Fitzpatrick to arrive.. waiting...waiting...waiting... finally he arrived, we all cheered and shouted!

The big boys took the boat down to the water and put it in.. the motor didn't work..lucky they had a second motor, but then they got the big one working again but as with all our adventures nothing goes to plan,they discovered that the forward and reverse were around the wrong way lol. As our niece pointed out as she was watching them " How embarrassing " So funny! but typical, Fitzpatrick didn't care and off the boys went!

They spent most days out on the boat but we only caught one yabby which we gave to Fitzpatrick's dad for his birthday lunch.

On Tuesday my sister came out and visited us for the day and we took the kids swimming and when we came back they all went and played in the boat for a while and played make believe. It was fun to watch the kids play.

We packed up on the Wednesday and it took us two days to recover from our relaxing week camping lol

18 th century shoes to die for!!

I would just like to show everyone what elegant foot wear is absolutely beautiful. These shoes would go with practically any costume or evening outfit.

Medieval Costume

A good friend of mine is having a "Princess Bride" costume themed party for her 40th birthday, so i have been costume making again. I'll post photos shortly. I love finding clothes to turn into costumes! And i'm in the process of making a dread pirate Roberts costume for Fitzpatrick :)

more photos will be added as i finish making the rest of the costumes...

Fitzpatrick's birthday cake

I thought i would do a camping theme this year for hubby's birthday cake i think it turned out fairly good ( as i'm no where near as good a cake decorator as my sister)

There is a chocolate lobby net in the pond full of gummi lobbies ready for the fire lol
I used after dinner mint sticks for the fire and firewood stack, tent poles and log seats. I thought I'd taken more photos of the cake but obviously i didn't!

Regency Tea Party

Arrrh my love of Regency!! I used to live in Canberra but was unaware of the Jane Austen group down there until after i had moved away from the area "Bummer" So i decided that since i couldn't go down there for the events i would do something at my place.. So that is where the adventure began..I called my sister and told her that i wanted to have a Regency Tea party, costume required :)I enlisted her to do the invites and they turned out fabulous, everyone loved them. My mother in law who is an op shop addict like me also helped me find all my fab crockery and silverware and of coarse costume hunting (which i must say turned into a bit of an obsession lol)And lots of sewing and bonnet making. My sister rang and told me that she was going to make a regency corset so i decided that i would give one of those a go too. and i must say i am happy with how it turned out. I actually made two with a third cut out ready to go, i made one but made the bust too big but it was able to fit my mother in law so i gave that one to her, then i made one for myself with adjusted bust and then i started making a short stay corset which i ran out of time making for my party but will make at a later stage.. as i have decided to make it an annual event. I took the corset pattern from http://www.koshka-the-cat.com/1830_pattern.html and tweaked it a bit and got my lovely Mr Fitzpatrick to carve me a busk and it was done.

Regency corset Front

Regency Corset Back

My busk nicely carved


I also made a chemise and petticoat..

petticoat and hem

and my dress

And my Bonnet, i took the pattern off the "Elizabeth Bennett" bonnet on the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice".

i also made out fits for all the kids here is a family shot

I made Fitzpatricks Breeches as well which he went on and on about but i think they looked fantastic and he was happy to wear them on the day so that was nice :)

i really like this one of my hubby

Morning tea spread:

i forgot to get photos of the morning tea table set up but i did get photos of the evening tables:

I really had a great time and am looking forward to doing it again and making more gowns and bonnets !!

my next project is a medieval party so I'll shall be costuming again soon

xx

Camping trips

I thought i'd better do a bit of an update before i added my latest post. We have become campers! We got all kitted out and have been a few times now and our next lot of camping is September so we are very excited. The kids love it and it is so relaxing! Our goal is to go somewhere different every holidays :)