Sunday mornings

My favourite thing to do on a Sunday morning, is to get up as early as I can (preferably before the children so that I don't feel as guilty for ditching them), and head out to the Discovery markets in Rocklea.

This is generally how my morning goes: Arrive at the markets around 6.30.  Have a quick chat about how cold it is with the ladies at the front gate and then give them my dollar. Head to the coffee van and order a flat white - extra hot (I like to hold onto my coffees for a while :). Go to the furtherest aisle from the entry and start the treasure hunt :)

There are my favourite regular stalls that I always look for: There's a lady who puts aside ponies for me (after we bought a bag off her about 2 months ago) and there's the kettle corn van where I have to buy popcorn for Simon.  And this morning, I found a cool old fella selling these awesome old Twinings tins for only a dollar each.

I also picked up a princess costume for only $5 (will blog about it another day), a bunch of beautiful, vintage needlework pieces for only $5, a 50c pony, a $6 raggy mat (to keep my feet warm while I stand at the sink), and a tray of freshly laid eggs (2 and a half dozen for $8).

I think it was a very successful morning, and better still - Si and the kids were in a great mood when I got home.  Sometimes it's nice for everyone when Daddy's in charge for a time.

Reversible Pinafores - Lola's wardrobe is now complete..

Lola and I got up early this morning and headed off to Ipswich to visit the Handmade Expo markets at the Ipswich Turf club. I really wanted to get there before anyone else arrived so Lola and I could wander and see what was available (she wants to walk everywhere now as well, so that was another reason I wanted to avoid big crowds).

So, did we enjoy ourselves? Yeah - I'm really glad we went. There were a LOT of stalls, and I'd say there were a handful of ones I really liked.

First thing we bought was a little hand whittled-wooden puppy dog for only $3! I couldn't believe it was only that much considering the work that must have gone into it? so Lola held onto that while we wandered around.

Then I found this gorgeous reversible Pinafore from Rod n Lil (etsy store here).

The hardest part was choosing which fabrics I liked the best (there was a lot of "I like the front of this one.. but the back on that one..) For only $20 - I can see Lola getting so much wear out of it this summer (and even next summer - it looks to be one of those items of clothing that will grow with her..)

And lastly we picked up a Sandwich wrap from Mumatopia (her madeit.com store is here).
We bought it for Si actually - he's the 'sandwich king', and I've hidden it away and we'll wrap it up for him for Christmas. It's lined with PVC table liner on the inside, and has velcro so you can wrap your food up nice and snug. And the lady had an awesome 'felt sandwich' which she used a to demonstrate her product, which was cool too.

So, that was our visit to the Handmade expo. Definitely worth the drive to Ipswich.. It even got me motivated to do some sewing this afternoon. More on that next week :)