Grand Opening

When people who look alike procreate...

This is what happens:

Elias 4 months 2007

Violet at 3 months 2012

We can't get over how similar these 2 are, both in looks and personality. I saved a few of Elias'outfits so it will be funny to do this again as Violet grows.

We have a shop!

We are thrilled beyond belief to announce we have been accepted as part of the renew Port Adelaide project and we have one (well 2 actually) of the shops! Here is an image of the beautifully restored building we will be moving into.

We've had a chance to chat with a few of the local galleries and businesses and have received very positive feedback. There seems to be a lovely community spirit at The Port and everyone has been very welcoming and supportive. Now to get cracking getting ready for our opening of My modern nest.

The building also houses a fantastic community project called Ladder, which provides independent living accommodation for kids at risk of homelessness. There are some amazing images of the finished building on the architects website here.

We have a busy and exciting few weeks ahead. Hooray!

Babies and sewing

Wow, there seems to have been a major baby explosion around us lately. Two of my cousins have just had baby girls in the last few weeks, and other cousin earlier in the year, and several friends have also just had babies.

My go to gift in the last year has been a hand made baby blanket. They are super easy to make, but I still feel some self satisfaction that I have made some effort to give a handmade personal gift. They are basically two pieces sandwiched together and bagged out with a border stitched around the edge.

Here are a few recent ones:

Cute Forrest friends fabric from Spotlight

Another cute Spotlight patchwork fabric. I'm not normally into pink but I love this patchwork print. I have made one for baby Hannah and one for Violet, and I also have enough to make a single bed quilt cover for when she is bigger.

Super cute Elmer the Elephant fabric bought from Yuzawaya on my last trip to Japan. The store is amazing! I went a bit crazy and remember a large excess baggage bill on that trip. I lined this with soft minky dots fabric for Violet.

Another great find from Yuzawaya This one is for Violet, bit I made one in Pink for baby Caitlin and in Navy for baby Archie.

Another cute Forrest friends print from Spotlight. One for Violet and one for baby Summer. I have lined most of the blankets with Merino wool fleece left over from my previous job in Textile sales. I also made a few bibs with this print.

Kokka elephant print. I used the reverse colourway on the Toy box cushion.

And a little cushion for Hannah with left over fabric. I stitched over the lines to make it look a bit more patchworky.

And here are the very proud Grand Ma's and Pa's with their respective new Grand kiddies

Pops and Violet are on the far right. So nice to be able to see all these gorgeous little ones grow up together.

Sarah xo

Clever Husband

My clever Husband Ben worked on this project "Fractured Soul" last year, and the game has finally been released. Take a look at the youtube trailer below.

If you are into games check it out. It's getting some very positive reviews so hopefully it does really well.

The Australian games industry, and most industries in general have been suffering these last few years with the high Australian dollar and shite economic conditions worldwide, so get out there, buy it and support Australian locally made talent.

Lately on ebay

Ben and I have been selling furniture and collectables on ebay over the last year or so.We have always dreamed of opening a shop and have taken the plunge and applied to be part of the Renew Adelaide program. Renew Adelaide is based on the very successful Renew Newcastle program which aims to revitalise unused retail spaces to create vibrant cities. The program is now moving to Port Adelaide, a fantastic historic port city, fingers crossed we will be a part of it.

Here are some images of recently sold items:

TH Brown Bentwood Armchairs

Namco Egg chair and vintage dressmakers form

Noblett coffee table

Noblett extension table and Featherston Scape chairs

Sigurd Ressell Falcon chair

Fler Holme sofa

Noblett Sideboard

Th Brown dining table and Featherston Scape chairs

We are thinking positive thoughts and hope to have some exciting news to share very soon!

Meet Violet Sadie Trotter

Here she is!

Our lovely little girl arrived on the 24th of June. She looks just like her big brother Elias as a newborn, it is quite uncanny how similar they are.

The last month has flown by, and we are slowly settling into our new life with a newborn in the house.
Sleep is a distant memory but we couldn't be happier.

Toybox mini makeover

There's nothing like a Baby on the way to get motivated to get organised! The new bub will be bunking in with Elias, so there is quite a bit of decluttering, organising and rearranging to do.

We bought this little toybox when Elias was little. Like most things we had plans to fix this up years ago, but apart from a quick coat of paint and  some cushions popped on top it remained as is for the last 5 years.

This is how it looked in the harsh light of day sans cushions. Yikes!

We had some high density latex cut to size, and I sewed up a quick box style cushion cover on the old Janome. I attached the fabric to the underside of the box lid with this fantastic electric Ozito Staple and Nail gun. I have to admit I keep making up excuses for new projects so I can use it again. I love power tools.

I bought the super cute Elephant print fabric by Kokka on my last trip to Japan. They have the cutest prints. I also bought the reverse colourway in the same print which I've sewn into a cute baby blanket.

It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy (yes, I know the elephants are not in a straight line which kills me a little), but not bad for a first attempt and certainly more practical.

Angry Birds 5th Birthday

A few weeks ago our Elias turned 5! It is a complete cliche, but I really don't know how the last 5 years has gone by so quickly. One minute a baby, the next a School Kid, Crazy stuff!

We had his party at the SA Aviation Museum, a fantastic venue with loads of planes for the kids to climb on and explore. It's run completely by volunteers who are all very knowledgeable, and were very keen to tell the kids about all of the different planes.

Our Iphone obsessed boy wanted an Angry Birds theme which ended up being pretty easy. A bit hard to see from this pic, but we downloaded the balloon templates here. We also printed a smaller version of the red bird template for the goodie bags (but forgot to take photos).The fans are from Morning Glory, super cheap at 7 for $5. They came in very handy as it was about 36 degrees that day.

Doing a strange Monkey dance.

Rebellious Angry Bird ignoring the rules 

I found this great Cupcake idea on this The crafting Chicks blog. They were pretty easy to make and went down a treat, the kids loved them.

As usual we were too busy running around to get too many photos, but we had one very happy birthday Boy at the end of the day.

Hello again and some lovely news

My poor neglected little blog has not seen any love since late last year. Wow, how the time flies. So much has happened in the last few months, but the main and most important thing I have been doing is baking this little one.

We are almost 20 weeks along and just found out today that we are having a little Girl. I am beyond excited that Elias will have a little sister, though he will take a bit of convincing. He is coming up with all sorts of hilarious crazy names like Bassy, Poopoo and Boston Terrier to name a few. It's all looking good so far, so we are crossing fingers and toes for a happy, healthy little bundle to arrive at the end of June.

Pregnancy and I are not the best of friends, I get hyperemesis pretty much up until delivery, so I have been laying pretty low and trying to get as much rest as possible. 

Exciting times are ahead!