Townmouse

Where I sew

Do you love peeking into other people's sewing spaces?  I definitely do.  Pink Chalk Studio is sharing the eye candy you crave, with a month long look at people's sewing spaces.

Kathy is profiling different well known bloggers and giving you a tour of their sewing studios.  You can join in by adding a link to your sewing space.  Pop on over and take a peek.  There are some lovely creative spaces featured there.

Most readers of this blog have probably seen the photos of my sewing studio.  But for the fun of it, I'll share them again here.

I was lucky enough to score one of the two largest rooms in our house for my sewing space.  The other large room, on the sunny side of the house, is our master bedroom.

If I didn't sew, this room would make the perfect formal dining room I suppose.  Which means it would never get used, as no-one entertains formally these days.  I love this space.  As you would expect, it's my favourite room in the house, and where I spend of lot of time (when I can).

You can't quite see the full setup in the photo above, but I have three tables laid out in a "U" shape that contain my laptop, my industrial sewing machine, and my domestic machine and overlocker on the third side.  This makes sewing efficient.  I can check orders as they come in, and move from sewing buttonholes or applique stitch on my domestic machine to straight stitch on my industrial machine. Ideally I'd have another surface with a mini ironing board and iron setup so I wouldn't have to leave my chair to press seams. Then I'd really be humming along.

This is my favourite piece of furniture in our house.  It's an old oak shop counter from France.  I was told it was from a Parisian haberdashery shop.  It provides fabulous storage space for my stock - 16 drawers in total!

When you stand outside our front door, this is what you see through the sewing room window.  I had this armoire custom made many years ago to store my quilt collection.  It has proven to be perfect for this space, and for displaying the current Townmouse range.  Again, it offers wonderful storage. The top drawer contains t-shirts and bodysuits ready for applique, and the bottom drawer stores my stock of pyjamas. This means I'm not always running to the garage to pull stock to fill orders.

This set of pigeon holes is the perfect height to sit under the sash windows on the south side of the room.  At the moment it stores my fabric stash.  My favourite craft books sit on top.

So there you have it, that's my sewing studio.  I consider myself very lucky to have the space to spread out my craft mess, and to be able to leave it there until the next sewing session.  It's one of the reasons I don't want to move house in a hurry.  I know I won't be so lucky in our next house.  There are more photos of my sewing studio on flickr.

Winter fun

Taking me skiing in March earlier this year was all part of Will's cunning plan. He wanted to get me hooked on skiing so we could have family skiing holidays.  Skiing was not part of my childhood.  Give me a Queensland beach over a snow covered mountain in Victoria any day.

Well, his cunning plan worked and I am now happily embracing a ski holiday here and there.  Well more than here or there. We have committed to a whole season of skiing.  The three boys have enrolled in a seasonal program called "Team Extreme" which means they ski with the same group and instructor for the entire season.  That's every weekend and the school holidays.

So we have just enjoyed two weeks at the snow, where the boys skied from 9am to 3pm, 16 days in a row. Yes, that's a lot of skiing, isn't it.  Max and Tom now scoff at my skiing, the fact that I don't like black runs, and that I go at a more moderate pace than them.

Even Adelaide has embraced the sport.  Here she is about to head off on skis for the first time.  (She looks so much older in this photo.)  I'm not sure how to read her expression.  It looks like she's thinking, "Are you really going to make me do this?" In reality, she had the wind in her face and was probably just damn cold.  But it didn't deter her. She went straight down an intermediate run between Daddy's legs, and later did the same with big brother Tom leading the way.  Some friends leant us a little pair of 2 year old skis and boots.  She thinks they're fabulous (she's a typical girl and loves shoes) and keeps dragging them out and trying to put them on.  If I don't look out she too will be better than me soon. Fun and games.

Blogging from the snow, or lack thereof

As usual last week got away from me and I only got one of the 4 dressing gowns made.

Paired with a pair each of these slipper socks (a marvellous invention), the children are now equipped for indoor lounging at the snow; even if in some cases their clothes are a little on the small side.

I also managed to finish the above hot water bottle cover, which is now conveniently resting under my feet as I sit here and type.

Our first family snow holiday is proving to be very relaxing indeed.  The three boys are doing a skiing program which keeps them occupied every day from 9 til 3.  They are loving it.  There's not enough snow for us to venture out.  Will commented that we haven't had this much downtime since before the children were born.  Afternoon snoozes, a bit of lazy baking and cooking, reading, hand sewing and early nights.  This is what holidays are all about.