The First of Many…

Last night we headed down to the park for our first barbeque of the season. It was warm, relaxed & fun… park barbeques always are. We’ll be back again. And again. And again…

I never used to be much of a fan of daylight saving – I’d have to get up in the dark to go to work, mumbling & fumbling all the while, at what was essentially an hour earlier… yuck!

Now though I definitely appreciate the extra sun, the extra time The Boy has after work to potter in the garden or kick a ball with Punk & the fact that even though “really” Miss Punk is still getting up at the same time everyday, when I look at the clock I feel as though I’ve had a nice lie-in.

Reality Bites.

  

Mud, rain, puddles, cold… THIS is the first day of Spring.

Welcome Spring…

…I have been waiting for you!

 

(click pics for links)

Sunspiration.

For those of you joining in with the Here Comes The Sun! Craft Swap, I thought I’d share some inspiration & springtime goodness!

I think I might assign partners on Monday, so if you’re procrastinating, you’ve still got a couple of days to decide.

It’s set to be a rainy, miserable weekend here, so I need all the fake brightness I can muster…

Some wonderful “Spring” tutorials;

Bags, ‘spring chickens’ & more via Sew! Mama! Sew!

‘Buttercup’ bag pattern, free from Made by Rae

Tattered flower embellishments from Sew 4 Home

Crochet flower necklace from Creative Yarn

Tonnes of Spring craft ideas from Country Living

Summer tweets mobile (we’ll just ignore the ‘summer’ part…) from The Red Thread

Petal Pillow via V and Co.

Crafter’s apron from The Magic Bean

Heaps of ideas from good ol’ Martha

Sunshine in fabric form;

 

Proper inspiration, via;

I’m itching to get started myself, but I have to wait, I ordered some special fabric online & it is sure to take it’s time arriving. Hope I’ve helped a little in the inspirations stakes, have fun dreaming of the sun!

My Creative Space.

I wasn't going to post "My Creative Space" today, as apart from the start of the week I've not been creating all that much at all, the sun has finally come out & it has been so hard to force myself inside for any reason (hence why my last couple of posts could barely be called "posts", sitting in front of the computer seems the least inviting place of all...), even playing with buttons & fabric & bias binding... but surely my creative space can be a place that inspires, refreshes & renews? Surely it can be a place that makes me happy & gets my creative juices flowing?

I think it can be, so I am sharing it with you; "Outside".

We've been to the beach, to waterfalls (...where *bursts with pride* Le Punk climbed almost 200 stairs by herself.... going up...!!! It was incredibly cute & pretty amazing, since The Boy & I were struggling (I still have sore calves), & she made a tennis-worthy grunt with every step.....!), having bbqs, playing in the park & just generally stooging around outside in the sun.

Punky has been waking up crazy happy as opposed to regular happy & every body's mood has lifted to dizzying heights - you don't realise how much you miss the sun until it makes you feel like this!

....and, just because I am really not a rule breaker at heart, a picture of what I was playing with before the sun decided to shine upon us, buttons a plenty. I made the bracelet for my giveaway & decided I needed one for myself, but the needle/candle method I was using to put holes in the buttons for the jump rings came unstuck when several needles' points bent in weird & wonderful ways... is there a better way crafty peeps?! Do share!

Also on the button front, I was dismayed to find yesterday that one of my Oppies is now charging $5 for what used to be a $3 jar of buttons.... *sigh* I know it's only $2 more but I can't bring myself to pay that much for a (not all that big) jar of old buttons!

This would have looked much more impressive...

...if I had a better camera. Or lens. Or something.

To you I mean. To us it DID look pretty spectacular - a rainbow that seemed to arch right over our backyard. :)

Finally...

It's SUNNY!! I know it sounds crazy... but it's true! Two days in a row now.... TWO DAYS!!!

Now, in the interest of honesty, I have to say that it DID rain yesterday, twice, and the wind was rather... gusty, but all the same, there was a fair bit of sun in there too.

Unfortunately for me, this means lots & lots of washing - we don't have a dryer so the never ending rain has taken us perilously close to wearing paper bags a few times... ;)

I have some cute company at the clothes line though - I don't know why, but Punky is obsessed with it - right now there are 6 or so of her toys strewn around it, and she heads straight there first whenever we go outside... odd child.

Chookies like the sun too... and pecking about on the overgrown lawn....!

Might it be too much to hope that Spring is finally here?!