Mummy Bragging!

I'm so proud of my eldest daughter today (and every day!) - she won the Adelaide Magazine Annual Youth Cover design competition. She was the youngest entrant ever. We went to the announcement do last night and the room was full of all these hipster 20 something artists and designers. I  think some of them were a bit shocked when a fifteen year old beat them! The Editor said some really cool things about Bel's style of art. She's pretty busy with year 11, but she is planning on getting some of her designs printed up on cards and gift tags very soon. The photo below was taken at E for Ethel who stock her bookmarks and gift tags (and my cushions and zip up pouches).

Picture: SIMON CROSS Source: adelaidenow

New Logo

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Facebook Logo

Etsy Header

I love the new logos my daughter Bel has designed for me. She's only 15 and wants to be a graphic designer/illustrator when she grows up. You'll be seeing a bit more of her illustration work here very soon!

New Cushions

These Love-ly cushions are available at E for Ethel in Melbourne Street, North Adelaide. It's a really special little place - a cafe and shop, stocking locally made loveliness! Amanda and Dan are the nicest people and they're doing a great job supporting local makers... If you live in Adelaide you should definitely drop by some time.

These cushions were made for a customer who went in to Council of Objects and asked if I could do something for her beach house in French blue and dove grey. The appliques and backs are made from an organic cotton I found at The Drapery. It is my new favourite fabric shop! I still have plenty of this fabric left, so if anyone else wants some, let me know. I think I'll do some grey on yellow as well - bring some sunshine inside on wintery days.

New in the All At Sea Shop

Bel, my lovely talented 15 year old who wants to be a graphic designer when she grows up, has designed and made some gift tags which we've put in the online shop. They're also available at E for Ethel. They have a new online shop too - it's got loads of cute locally made lovely things check it out here. Bel is working on a range of bookmarks too, which I'll show you very soon.

There's a Teepee in My Garden!

 

I went out to hang some washing on the line today and found a teepee under the pine trees at the back of the garden. My 13 year old had been looking at the copy of Recycled Home by Rebecca Proctor, that I'd borrowed from the library, and decided to make herself a teepee using some sticks and an old sail. What a gorgeous place to curl up and read!

 How's your school holiday going?

Easter Monday & The Celebrity Dog

Rocket the Dog is now officially a celebrity. He is this month's Sailing Dog in Australian Sailing Magazine. He now feels entitled to sleep wherever he wishes, such as on my bed - previously a no go zone!

On Easter Monday we took the celebrity fur ball for a walk on Brighton Beach, although he was most annoyed about being tied up outside Royal Copenhagen Icecream shop - his favourite is Old English Toffee.

The water in the Gulf St Vincent has something badly wrong with it at the moment. Lots of fish as well as several dolphins and penguins have washed up dead on the beaches. We saw loads of dead fish all along Brighton and Seacliff beach, including these two which were quite beautiful. I didn't know we had such tropical looking fish in our waters.

Today at the Stirling East Country Fair

 

Despite the gusty breeze that threatened to blow everyone's stalls away, today was a great day. The number of stalls and the the size of the crowd was bigger than last year and our dinghy full of cushions was a big hit. We sold quite a few cushions as well as handing out lots of brochures about learn to sail lessons. My daughter Bel was pleased that people liked her Milly Molly Mandy notebooks and hand painted gift tags and she made a bit of pocket money.

Here's our table of goodies - the Milly Molly Mandy pictures are from a book I had as a child. When it fell apart, we recycled it. I hand painted the people in each image and Bel has used lots of pages for making notebooks and Origami boat garlands. The purses and pencil cases sold well, but even though a lot of people were attracted to the framed pics none of them sold. Maybe they'll end up on my wall after all!

Some of the other lovely things on offer were vintage pictures turned into jewellery at By Booth, I bought one of her necklaces. Millbrook Valley Farm were next to us and we came home with some delicious extra virgin olive oil, olive oil hand cream which smells divine and two free bags of basil which went into a pasta sauce for dinner. Trovare had a table full of gorgeous vintage finds. The cake stall was irresistible and of course there was a children's petting farm with very hungry sheep and goats!

The primary school had a stall run by each class and my favourites were the garden stall and the plate smashing.

 

The dinghy proved to be very useful at packing up time :)