Some lucky person

Someone will win this linen apron at my kids' school's Spring Fair this Saturday. I am going to donate this pure linen apron with a cotton kimono fabric pocket as a raffle prize. After having made this one, I am making one for myself as I don't have a linen apron! I am so tired today after working at the school all day for the Fair, but it's all good fun.

Gingerbread Man

It is nearly the end of the school holidays and we decided to have a home day today to give the kids the rest that school holidays are meant for. I took the cook book out and asked the kids to pick whatever they wanted to bake today. To my surprise, they chose Gingerbread Man. I didn't have some of the ingredients so I had to search the internet for other recipes and I still didn't have some ingredients so I had to modify the recipe a bit. It is so delicious that I have to share the recipe.

Gingerbread Man

100g butter
8 tbsp honey
100g brown sugar
350g self-raising flour
3 tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven for 190C.
Melt butter, honey and sugar together in a saucepan and cool slightly.
Sift flour and ground ginger into the sugar mixture and mix well.
Roll out the dough and cut out with cookie cutter. Place them onto lined baking tray.
Bake for 15 to 20 mins or until golden brown.

We used black and white sesame for its eyes and buttons instead of currants...but I think their nutty taste is better.

Plums

I love plum flowers. In fact, my logo is inspired by plum flowers. I finally finished this bag after it was cut into a shape of a bag long time ago...

My first introduction to leather!

This is my latest shoulder bag that I made for my friend. It is made with corduroy, woollen kimono fabric and a piece of suede at the bottom. Sewing this with my poor Janome proves to me how leather is thick and tough and strong. For a long time, I kind of avoided using leather for handbags for the sake of vegetarian people. However, I just wanted to see if my sewing machine could cope with leather. It did. Hooray!

My favourite incense

I know you can't smell this lovely incense, but I wanted to share this with you. This is my favourite one at the moment. It is called "Goddess" by Moondance. I usually love Japanese incense, but I discovered this brand at my local health food shop recently and I am hooked! I intend to try all the fragrances eventually but I like this one most so far. It has subtle sweetness and the fragrance stays in the house all day long. I tend to light the incense when I make my coffee. As my espresso maker hisses on the stove, I light the incense and just look at the beautiful twirls. Serene....

Tin Tin Costume

My children's school hosts a book character dress-up day once a year and it's that time again this year. My son knew what he wanted to be straight away so I thought I would have enough time to search op-shops...but couldn't find the right coloured top and pants, so I decided to make them for him. He is a big fan of Tin Tin and he showed me in his Tin Tin book to tell me what type of clothes Tin Tin wears. He already had a white shirt so I got the fabrics to make a turquoise blue top and a pair of brown trousers as shown in the photo above. In Prep year, he didn't want to become anything as he was too shy to do dress-ups, but now he is 9 years old, and so grown up, he is willing to dress up as his favourite book character. It is so nice to see this transition in him. By the way, my daughter didn't know what she wanted to become until the day before but we found a nice dress to make her look like Laura from "The Little House on the Prairie"...

Mounted fabric

I really love old fabrics. I love the stories behind them. I am not an artist so I cannot paint a picture but I mounted a beautiful old fabric on to a frame, and, voila, it has become an instant artwork. These frames are on my bedroom wall. I fell in love with these delicate Shibori(tie-dye) silk kimono fabrics as soon as I saw them. They were very old and some of them still had stitches from its original garment or some had small stains. I feel I own a piece of history...