We had dinner on the verandah last night… and felt that we were being watched… and so we were… there was a baby Powerful Owl sitting in the branches of the Angophra tree – for aaages! I rang my boss quickly – she lives nearby and is an ‘owl monitor’. Boy, she was impressed!
Pride is coming out, go watch it, treat yourself to an amazing comedy. How do I know it’s amazing? Well, it is based on a real story my London friend Jonathan was involved in. And I saw the trailer. And I know the cast is great… so – can’t wait to go asap!
I have been so exhausted. I had a huge week at work, I am trying to see my father in law as often as I can, the fridge forever needs re-stocking (although – now that it is warmer, we don’t seem to go through quite as much nosh). And my answer to exhaustion is… creating something beautiful, quickly! So I took Esther to Lincraft to get a pattern for a pretty dress and some fabric. They did have the fabric, but none of the patterns we wanted. Pooh. So we thought “BLAST THIS” and we went on to Kinokunya and got some pattern books. While we were there, we found of course all sorts of other interesting reading and carried back to the car an armful of literature… something for everybody.
And then I just got started. I drafted a block for the bodice while Esther was shooting hoops at her basketball game, adapted it, cut the lining, fitted the lining upon her return… cut, sew finish and voila – there is is. Pretty as a picture! 
In hindsight – I should have made the waist much smaller, but I thought she might have thought of the shape being ‘too feminine’… but I was wrong. There is still plenty of fabric in my boxes and now I have got the pattern, so no worries, we will make another one soon.
We moved the kids bedrooms around. Last week all of us helped shift, clean and paint. This weekend we lugged the furniture back and forth and we are nearly there. Lena and Jo are sharing the room downstairs. It’s so tiny, it’s so cute. Snow white’s seven dwarf’s cave comes to mind…
textileshed 
Swantje, thanks for the plug for Pride; I’m just back from the National Italian Premiere during an amazing gender bender festival in Bologna ( Northern Italy) curtesy of Teodara Film who are distributing Pride in Italy,having previously been taken to the Toronto Film Festival in Canada then New York, San Francisco & Los Angeles by CBS Film who are distributing Pride in North America. You are so amazingly talented the quintessential Renaissance woman & mother . xxxxJB
Jonathan – we are going to have a Pride event here for you in Sydney! I am so looking forward to watching the movie. I will be thinking “oh THIS is what he was talking about for all those years…”. Glad you got taken to all those amazing premieres and treated like the star you are! X Swantje