Mio's Skateboard Dress

I usually find it really hard to find a pattern I like for a particular fabric I have so I just end up making what's in my head. As I'm totally amateur in my fashion design skills it almost always doesn't turn out perfectly. This is one of those not quite perfect designs but I'm pretty happy with how quickly it came together. 

Mio LOVED the skateboard fabric in the shop and insisted I make her a dress out of it. I made a skirt first because it's pretty hard for a rectangle of fabric and some elastic to go wrong.

Her happy little face just makes my day, what an absolute delight!

I'm going to try get my head around the improvements I need to make because I really like this simple, practical dress.

Slow Living

Bread rising, calendula drying. This is what makes me happy. Slow living, cooking from scratch, growing and harvesting my food and medicine.

Drying and Storing Wild Nettle

Wild harvesting this nettle was such a beautiful experience of getting back to nature in our urban neighborhood. After washing and hanging our plentiful nettle harvest in the spare room I forgot about it for a few weeks while it dried. Mio was keen (briefly!) to help me to pull the leaves off the stems for storing.

It was messy but such a big harvest, countless cups of tea right there!

The stalks didn't go to waste as I boiled them in a pot of water and made a hair rinse. I poured the warm tea over my head as I leaned over my newly planted tomatoes. The cooked stalks then made it to the compost, so all in all it was a successful multi use harvest with many months of stored nettle leaves to use in tea and soups. 

Wild Nettle Harvest

Spring has just begun here in Melbourne, winter seemed to fly by this year. On one of our walks around the neighborhood Mio and I discovered a patch of nettle growing. We came back with India equipped with gloves, a bag and secateurs so we could harvest some of this amazing wild food. Urban living at it's finest!