The Adventures of Mama-san Ace

Hectic is the word......

2011-03-21T11:13:00.000+11:00

Gosh it's been well over 12 months since I visited here to post, and it's been a bit of a wild ride. Madame Tess who is now 2, was diagnosed with developmental delays, we've been in and out of specialists and hospitals to try and figure out why she can't walk. Then I fell preggers, had the world's worst pregnancy and now I have 4 month old twin girls!! So for a wee while there we had three bubbas under the age of two! Hectic is the word. Tess is making great progress with physio, swimming and speech therapy and is an absolute delight, and the twinlettes are just divine, divine, divine.

So all is good in the land of the Mama-san. Fingers crossed I can come back and share things a little more frequently.

Vintage fun..

2009-11-18T20:05:00.001+11:00

Twice a year all a lot of antique and vintage sellers get together and host a Vintage Fair out at Cantebury Racecourse. I love looking at all of the beautiful fashions, art and jewellery from bygone eras. There was a fashion parade this year and all the 30 plus contestants really went all out. There was even a drag queen in an immaculate 195o's ensemble who look straight out of a Miss Marple movie. My sister and I had much fun trawling each booth and I found the following gems.

Patterns for dressmaking... gorgous shirts from 1945, a dress pattern form the early 1970's for me. A cute a-line dress for the bub and the most gorgeous swimmers/beach outfit with a frilly-frill bottom as well. All 70's a go-go.

and knitting.....(not got me but for grandmama)....Just look at the photography in the pattern books. So funny and endearing! Only 50 cents each!!

and awesome kids books from the 1950s! I love the girls journal and the tiny tots bedtime story one.

There's always room for another book on the shelf.

Sew-a-long Skirt No. 2

2009-10-16T15:22:00.001+11:00

Just a quick post to show you skirt number 2 for my sew-a-long that I made yesterday. It's from the very sweet 'Wonderland' collection by Momo for Moda Fabrics. The trim is a really lovely apple green and white pinstripe.

This skirt I've made for our little friend Maddy B who is turning 8 next month and I thought this with a Haigh's super-size chocolate frog would be the perfect pressie. I'll be giving it to her on her special day when we all go and see the musical 'Wicked'. I can't wait!

The webside for Moda fabrics is here: MOMO at Moda and it's a lovely website and has lovely free patterns under the 'funstuff' button on the homepage if anyone is interested.

Fingers crossed I have enough time for one last skirt!

Her Favourite Things....

2009-10-15T11:13:00.000+11:00

At 8 months old, baby Tess is quite the lady of style. She's a very relaxed little being and is not very advanced in the way of motoring around as yet (quite a relief really!). One of her favourite things to do is sit on her beautiful quilt made by her doting aunt, and play with all of the lovely scarves that mama bought in Japan on her last trip there. OF COURSE being from Japan they are all by designers such as Anna Sui, Lulu Guinness and Vivienne Westwood! She loves to play peek-a-boo with them, run her fingers through them, scrunch them up and wave them about.

She has been given the most beautiful toys, however it really seems that sometimes it's the most simple of things that make her the happiest. A cuddle and some gorgeous fabric prints to look at is all it takes most days.

Lazy Days-a-long

2009-10-14T09:16:00.004+11:00

When one of my twitter buddies One Crafty Mumma decided to have a five day online sew-a-long making the Oliver + S 'Lazy Days' skirt, how could I refuse? It would make me attack that pile of fabric that's been haunting me for a while now. So all this week for five days there are about 70 lovely ladies making skirts all over the place!

I'm a bit of a procrastinator and I like to do things properly so it took me a day to get organised. Cleaning the house, (can you honestly do crafty stuff when the house is a mess?) setting up my sewing station (kitchen table - no craft room in a 1 bedroom apartment - booo!), and making ginger bikkies to get me through.

So we're all set up....

The tea has brewed (in my favourite Charles and Camilla commemorative wedding mug) and the bikkies ready to munch.......

And we're ready to sew the first skirt!

Using the other panel of 'La Vie Jolie' fabric from my favourite Japanese fabric house Kokka, and some gorgeous brown velvet ribbon, we rustled it up in less than half an hour. It's not as 'twirly' as the skirt is supposed to be as it's not selvedge to selvedge, but I just love it. The fabric just makes me so happy. Now these skirts won't fit my darling girl for another two years, but they'll hang in her room as a decoration. The other half of the fabric was used a couple of weeks ago and the post is my very first one.

Here's a detail of the fabric below. LOVING pretty french ladies walking by the library and pastry shop!

I can't wait to make my next skirt this afternoon. Thanks for the inspiration Mel!

The Divine Miss Dahl

2009-10-06T10:34:00.003+11:00

Most kids who love reading would have read some of Roald Dahl's books. My favourite was "The Witches" which was deliciously scary to me.

Fast forward a couple of generations, and his grandaughter Sophie is also making her way in the literary field. I enjoyed her first novel "Playing with the Grownups" very much indeed. Whimsical and fairytale-ish, it has everything I love in a holiday read. Now I know that you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but the cover is just so lovely, I will confess it's why I bought it in the first place!

She has recently launched a new cookbook full of gorgeous food and stories to go with them : "Miss Dahl's Voluptous Delights" and it is truly spectacular. I really love that it's about the art of good eating, and in her anecdotes about the recipes her love of food, family and the seasons just shine through. She's a total girls' girl, and I love that there is a book out there enabling us to go and make our cakes and eat them too!

Put it on your Christmas wish list and celebrate!

Rainy Days and Sundays.....?

2009-10-05T12:40:00.001+11:00

Taking advantage of the fact that papa was home and keen to finish the book he's been reading for the past month whilst mother nature kindly cleaned the dust off our car outside, I handed over the darling bud so they could hang out together on the couch for a mama free afternoon of tickles and giggles.

Rainy days mean time to finish those half done projects. Luckily for me, they were super easy and I was able to speedily finish some glamorous fashion items for the bairn.

Rainy Day Project 1 : Bedtime Story Pyjamas (Oliver + S pattern) - super cute!

Rainy Day Project 2 : Lazy Days Skirt (Oliver + S FREE pattern)

The fabric is Kokka's "La Vie Jolie" in natural and has a river scene from Paris on it. Just delicious!

All finished in time to pop the tiny lady into her bath and bed, have a lovely gin and tonic and start reading the much anticipated "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger.
La Vie Jolie indeed!