Blogtoberfest day 10: Warming up my bedroom

It's late and I need to go to bed but I want to keep up my commitment to write a blog post for as many days as I can in October, in the spirit of Blogtoberfest, so I thought I would show you my bedroom transformation.  For a long time I have loved all white in my bedroom. I find it peaceful. In the new house the walls are not white but cream and the light in the room makes the white feel cold and grey.  I wanted to do something to bring some warmth to the room but still have it feeling clear and calming.  Painting the walls white might have helped but I've done my quota of painting for this year.  Also, it may make the room look colder - just more white to be turned grey in the room's light. I spent a few hours Googling quilt covers and found some I liked which I thought would create the desired effect but decided I couldnt really afford to be spending any money on linen for the bedroom.  So off to my fabric stash I went.  I found a lovely gauzy piece of warm toned blue cotton fabric with streaks in it - kind of like how denim gets.  A hand printed square of flax linen also caught my eye.  I had bought this at a market. It was just enough to make a cushion front. For the back of the cushion I used a cotton fabric that has little white dots on the same natural coloured background.  As you can see I have made the blue into a throw.  I'm happy with the finished result.  The two simple additions do add the warmth I was looking for.  I also jazzed up some sheets and made some pillowcases, using linen and lace from my stash. I might show you them another day .

The hand printed cushion fabric is made by Leslie from Maze and Vale

Blogtoberfest Day 9: Haikubes

After Kat's post yesterday about a word tool box and Alana's today about sharing a poem I thought of the box of word dice in the Haikubes set sitting in my study.  Perfect time to get them out, I thought.
There are two dice with red printing. These set the direction for the haiku.  The phrase I rolled was 'a dream about my work life'.  It was a bit limiting working with just the words that are showing.  I pictured fabric, cloth, colour, making something beautiful and in no time at all came up with my haiku. No doubt a bit more time and I might have come up with something much more poetic. But hey, this was just a lunch time activity, and time was something I didnt have much of.  It was a bit of fun.  But the image of moving in and out of glorious floaty lengths of beautiful fabrics pleased me and has stayed with me for the rest of the day

glorious tangle
a gorgeous swimming journey
woman touches grace

Blogtoberfest day 8: The texture of my day

Tex·ture  (tkschr)

n.

1. A structure of interwoven fibers or other elements.

2. The distinctive physical composition or structure of something, especially with respect to the size, shape, and arrangement of its parts

3.

      a. The appearance and feel of a surface

      b. A rough or grainy surface quality

4. Distinctive or identifying quality or character

5. The quality given to a piece of art, literature, or music by the interrelationship of its elements

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin textra, from textus, past participle of texere, to weave; see text.]

Blogtoberfest Day 6 & 7: Sunday Snippets

Images all from the Murrumbeena Community Market  
click on pictures for more information
Linking in with Tinniegirl and everyone else playing along this week

Blogtoberfest Day 5: Kitchen Art

Yesterday's Blogtoberfest creative prompt from Paula over at Kat's was a suggestion to write about favourite works of art we own.  I thought I'd show you my framed tea towels in my kitchen.  I bought the frames from Ikea and am really pleased with how they came up.  For tea towels, I mean.  Both have meaning for me.  The first is a Leunig print, titled "Be Brave...life is joyous". The second is a replica of a 1960's tram blind with destinations from my current locale.  There is a lightness to them that helps to create a space I love to cook (and clean) in.  So here they are in situ, giving some idea of size and perspective

Blogtoberfest Day 4: My Creative Space

Today I am joining in with all these creative folk here  who are posting about wonderful things they have made, grown, baked, done. I feel a bit of a fraud, I have to say, as right now thinking about my creative space just makes me realize how uncreative I feel at the moment.  Oh, I am sewing each day, making things. I'm just like on automatic pilot. And thinking about October I feel overwhelmed by all that has to get done this month.  So today my creative space is about SPACE rather than the creative.  I've spent a bit of time planning so that I can better manage what is ahead but I have also done some planning about making room so that some new fresh things just might emerge.  I have been reading Twyla Tharp's book 'The Creative Habit' which has been emphasizing to me that creativity is like a muscle - you work for it, train, build it, practice it.  I used to follow a plan that Julia Cameron sets out in her books: a daily walk, writing three pages each morning and an artist's date each week.  I am planning to re-institute these.  I've tried them before and I know they work for me. I get pleasure from doing them, mostly. And the weekly date to go somewhere or do something out of the ordinary I always look forward to. 
What about you? What helps you to keep a creative fire burning?  What fuels your creative space?

Blogtoberfest Day 3: Where have all the (fragrant) flowers gone?

I can still remember the moment when I smelt stocks for the first time.  I was nineteen and walking home from Uni.  The sweet smell caught me by surprise one warm spring day. It was not a smell I remembered smelling before and I was curious to find the source, which didnt take long to locate.  At the moment, we have a magnificent gifted bouquet in our kitchen.  It includes some purple stocks but they dont have any perfume. None of the flowers in this bouquet have any scent I can detect. A few weeks ago I had a bunch of sweet peas - and they didnt smell either.
On Saturday, visiting friends I noticed their little Daphne bush and commented how well it looked.  I've had several attempts at getting one of these to grow - simply for the beautiful scent they give off, but haven't yet managed to get one to survive. I was surprised to be told that the plant in question was a modern version which didnt seem to have any smell - at least not the classic heady perfume usually associated with Daphne.  We've got used to not expecting modern roses to have perfumes like the old fashioned ones.  Why is this so?  Why dont modern versions of beautiful flowers have the wonderful scents their traditional counterparts had?  I asked Google this but didnt really find an answer.   Maybe it has to do with breeding flowers that are bigger,  stronger and last longer or plants that are hardier and easier to grow.  Who knows? But I for one, miss smelling flowers.
There is something in my garden that does have a scent I enjoy.  It's a hedge of Thryptomene, an Australian native that has little flowers. Ours are pink and white.  It is not the flowers that have the scent but the ferny leaves.  I probably wouldnt have noticed it's perfume if it hadnt been for my pup. She loves to run through this hedge.  Playing in, around and under it, she comes inside smelling lovely. Kind of fresh, almost minty, almost like a eucalyptus scent but softer and more subtle.  I love it.