SOLD!

new button ring!, originally uploaded by summer pickles.

This button ring just sold in record time!

Thankyou to my UK etsy shopper - I will be taking this over to the post office today.

More summerpickles items - rings, necklaces, toys and mobiles will be coming to my etsy soon, so stay tuned...

xo

time for a pickles update

hooray for holidays at home

Okay, so it is time. Long past time in fact for an update on the goings on in the pickles household.

The Gherkin is turning into a big boy, right in front of our very eyes, with new words popping out each day (he now would have at least 30 words, but probably more - ex-speechie mum is quite proud!). He sings songs - twinkle twinkle and baa baa black sheep, and can ride his push-along bike. And tonight (very exciting!) he said wee-wee and wee-ed on the bathroom floor, then stopped, said it again, wee-ed again. Our baby boy is growing up! He knows exactly what he wants, is throwing big tanties, full face down on the floor, trying to jump on the kitchen chairs, and loves rubbing noses (nose kisses) with his mum. And I am convinced he thinks I am his special girlfriend - heaven knows we have had enough kisses involving tongue (his, not mine, obviously!) for him to start to think this might be the case!

Hooray for babies, but hooray hooray hooray for seeing little people becoming themselves.

Poor little Gherkin, we had such a big long list for him over our three week tourists-in-our-own-town holidays... moving to a big boy bed (well, a mattress on the floor), and toilet training. And even more plans afoot for the doggie-child of the household.... in the end we got the boy onto a single mattress in his new ginormous bedroom... and gave up on the toilet training. But the dog will lie down on the floor (all the way down) as long as you are holding food. Oh well. Later.

xo

Oh! and for those of you who are wondering... Mr Pickles and Bump Pickles are also doing spendidly... x

sold! and a question for those of you with the skills to refashion....

Hi there!

Thanks for popping by!

This past couple of weeks have been rather exciting and eventful on the summerpickles front, with the first pickles stock ever (a bunch of vintage button rings) going into a real live shop - Retrospections in Cammeray in NSW! And the first ever summerpickles stock actually selling in a real live shop! Very exciting indeed! The very lovely Justine from Retrospections is going to take some pics of the stock in the shop, and once she has done that, I will post them here... Thanks Justine for giving summerpickles a go!

On another front, I have been crafting up a storm - something about not having to study during the week (hooray for uni break!) has left my evenings all, well, relaxed! I have been making summer shorts for the gherkin like a woman possessed, crocheting like mad, and getting back in touch with my vintage button collection, which has been sitting unloved for some time.

I have even gotten to the point where I may brave making some clothes for me! Yep, happy to be a sporadic amateur all-rounder-type crafter, but making clothes for me has always completely freaked me out - perhaps it goes back to the days of failing term after term of Home Economics in years 7 & 8 with (I kid you not) a very stern teacher, Mrs Button (her real name, truly!). Now for some advice please, from all of you crafty peoples...

This shirt/dress/something? (apologies for the quality of the photo - a mobile phone photo taken in an opshop change room!) I found last time I was pregnant - I was going to a flashback fashion party, and as a woman recently knocked up it worked - it was stretchy, it was comfy, it was perfect. I found it in the stash the other day, and discovered that I love the fabric. I would like to make it into a skirt.... As a skirt (or, as a shirt pulled down around my hips!) it fits, it looks okay, but my fashion sewing skills stretch only to the idea of just chopping it across the body under the armpits and making a casing for some elastic... Is this horrific, a crime against thrifting, or would it be ok?

Thanks everyone, hope to hear from you all with fine advice soon! In the meantime, have fun everyone! (only three more work days for me til Christmas break - yippee!)

xo

crochet for beginners

crochet for beginners, originally uploaded by summer pickles.

I'm trying out a new craft!!

Thanks Mum for the lessons and thanks Readers Digest Complete Guide to Needlework (thrifted, and fabulous!) for helping the lessons "stick"!

I intend to have this ready, and proper blanket size, by the time baby pickles the second arrives... too ambitious for a new craft??? I have til May....?

I am soooo incredibly proud of this effort, but, please, please don't look too closely!

things have been quiet...

Okay, so I promised I would be back very soon and then I disappeared again.

Since I've been gone though, I've been busy, I promise! I have finished (well, nearly), two UFOs - one dress for a little girl born in the same week as the gherkin - just need to work out how to do buttonholes! and one doll, who now just needs hair, eyes and a tutu (very important that she get the tutu!). I have also sacrifices another spectacular 1980s teatowel, this time to become a fabulous sunhat. Photos will come soon....

And sleeping.

I have been taking absolutely every opportunity to grab some zzzz's. I have been exhausted!

And, well, I really thought perhaps it had something to do with dusting myself off, picking myself up and climbing back onto the roundabout that is fertility treatment again(hurrah), but, well, after just two cycles, we are expecting another little pickle. We feel extremely fortunate - it took us two years to have our little gherkin, and this little pickle has decided to join us quickly. Now fifteen weeks along, and all going swimmingly.

So I hope you'll forgive the silence?

On another very exciting note, someone very lovely wants to stock summerpickles rings in her real live shop! More news on this next time.

And, another gorgeous bloggy friend has launched her new website, which features photos of our gorgeous little gherkin Check our the site - her photos are just beautiful - we are so happy we took the gherkin out for a day with her and will be doing it all again very soon.

Chat soon, and take care,
xo

a vintage find... and brooches, brooches, brooches

What does one do with a one year old who has been told to rest? (after two weeks of resting already)

YouTube of course, searching for music & pictures to keep the gherkin occupied on mummy's lap (there are only so many times one can read I Can Fly!). And look what I found....



Oh, and when he's dozing on my lap, mummy looks at brooches on flickr....



1. brooch - miss h, 2. felt bird brooch, 3. PLAYFUL fabric brooch corsage pin 31 Jul 2008, 4. fabric flower with beads #1, 5. happy brooch, 6. shades of pink, 7. Fabric Corsage - side view, 8. Some new work, 9. flower pod?

Chat soon xo

other things i should be doing right now...

* doing a uni assignment
* writing a report for barb
* cleaning the house
* washing clothes
* sewing?
* training the dog ... etc etc

But instead, I am sitting here, typing an extremely overdue hello post after a long time away, whilst the boy and I split a devon and sauce sandwich. (I know, not an entirely balanced and nutritious meal!) Not nutritious perhaps, but exciting.... devon is hard to find when you're living in victoria...

So... our news?

The boy is one (already), walking (albeit tentatively), talking (about 8-10 words), singing and being generally gorgeous.

The spare room is in the midst of a re-do, with piles of fabric now sorted into project piles, so when I do get a few spare minutes I can go straight to the, eg. pants pile and whip up a pair of pants for the boy. Likewise, collections of buttons await assembly into rings/brooches/clips etc for the shop

Being back in the paid workforce part-time is mad... a great time for my brain (and yes, I feel guilty confessing to this!) , but I do (like so many others) feel that I am not actually completing or doing a whole job of anything. But I am adjusting... and the gherkin seems to have settled beautifully into our new routine, bless him.

Otherwise my life has been fairly quiet, not counting some great visits with family & friends, being completely addicted to project runway australia and justine clarke's albums for kids, and the list of all the things I could be doing now, which I am not, so will have to do later....

Take care, I will aim to be back soon, especially now I have dipped my toe back into the bloggy waters again... xo