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Sophie's Woodland fairy party

It's been a while I know. Life is sure full at the moment. But a really good full!

Today is my little fairy's birthday and on Saturday we had a few other fairies over for a wee celebration. Our back garden is a perfect woodland backdrop, and apart from a quick trip to the $2 shop I stuck to my theme of making do with what you have at home.

I'm as tempted as the next person by beautiful styled birthday parties, but am not sure it sends the right message to my squidgets....and I like it when everyone pitches in. The big brother made the welcome signs and the other big kids drew the fairy for the obligatory 'pin the wings on' the fairy game.

Our little fairy had a wonderful time which is the whole point really isn't it?

suzy xoxo

suzy pops up

Things have certainly been popping over at my pop up shop. Tomorrow is the last day and it's going to be sad to pack all of the lush goodies away in their usual bags and tubs and take down all of the displays.

I absolutely adored meeting so many of my regular customers, and introducing my yarns to new ones. Big hugs and thank you to everyone who has popped into the pop up. It has been very humbling.

Here are some random shots from my Instagram feed over the last couple of days.

Happy days,
suzy xoxo

Somewhere

I'm still here somewhere...amongst the pop up shops, gorgeous new yarns arriving, lack of internet and life. And I'm somehow finding time to stop and look at the beauty around me.

Back tomorrow with my creative space,
suzy xoxo

3 days only: Baby Alpaca $19.95

Did you get one of these in your inboxes this morning? Fear not, click here for more info.

...and here to sign up to my newsletter so you'll never miss out again.

Have a great weekend,
suzy xoxo

That time of day

Some people are just on the same wavelength, light beam, whatever. 

I took these photos Monday evening as we were outside enjoying all that daylight saving and warm spring evenings have to offer. It seems that Kate from Foxs Lane was doing the same. 

Tell me, were you making the most of it too?

Announcing suzy hausfrau Christmas Classes

So excited to be offering TWO exciting classes in November during the week of 21-25 November in my pop-up SHOP at the very new Lonsdale Street Traders, Braddon ACT.

The first class on Saturday 24th November will be learning how to make Christmas Baubles from  Julekuler the book by Norwegian knitwear designers, Arne & Carlos.

The cost of this 3 hour class is $45 plus materials and more information can be found on the website here.


Not to forget the crochet folk, Lucy from Attic24 has given me the thumbs up to teach a class of her gorgeous Christmas Snowflake pattern. This will be held on Sunday 25th November (one month out from Chrismas...eep!)

The cost of this 2hour class is $30 plus materials and more information can be found on the website here.

Both of these classes will be limited to 6 participants each, with light refreshments provided.

You can keep up with the latest news on classes and the pop-up shop via my newsletter, FACEBOOK page or follow me on twitter.

Have a great day,
suzy xoxo

My creative space (a diversion)

I suspect that I like most of you, wake up in the morning compiling a mental list of what I have to do each day. Like, who I have to contact, bills I have to pay, school notes that are due, those sort of thrilling life tasks, oh and fit in a bit of knitting here and there.

High up on my list today was to pick up the vouchers for the two school fetes/events that I am sponsoring this weekend. Turner Primary are having their annual fete and BlueGum are hosting an art sale. I was honoured to be asked to help out, so I've donated some yarn and suzy cash! So if you are in the area...drop on in.

There was various other, and much less exciting tasks to do...then I got the WORD, and my to-do list is so forgotten. I've been searching for a suitable space for pop-up shops and classes for AGES. A few weeks ago I heard about an exciting new concept in Canberra, Lonsdale Street Traders. I immediately checked it out, and was smitten. Lucky for me CraftACT has a space there which they have sub-let out to yours truly for a whole WEEK starring from 20th November!   A lot more details to come, but I will be teaching Christmas knitting and crochet classes, and running a pop-up shop.  I couldn't be more excited.

But now my creative space has been diverted from finishing the last measly three and a half rows of my In-Threes so I could share it on MCS today. I'm too busy planning and dreaming, actually mostly doing happy dances and dreaming.  Yep, you heard that right - too excited to knit three and a half rows!

Happy, happy days,

suzy xoxo

PS Much more productive creative folk can be found over here sharing today.

The word on MadTosh

We are all going a bit Mad here today. I've just had the word overnight that the next order of MadTosh will ship very shortly. It's a large order of Tosh Merino light - 20 glorious colours across the spectrum!

My advice, start planning your projects now...because this stuff sells out super-fast!

Happy, happy days,
suzy xoxo

PS: No yarn was harmed in the making of this blog post...Miss Sophie has yarn from my personal stash ;)

Orange inspiration

Orange poppy at Floriade Canberra, ACT 2012.

I'm a late convert to orange...really I mean what took me so long?
It's stunning, and very worthy of the top-secret project that I'm working on.
Hands up orange fans!

Have a great day,
suzy xoxo

This is how we roll

This is how we roll here at suzy hausfrau. Another day, another give-away!

This time super-lovely Retro Mummy who has been a long time supporter of suzy hausfrau is hosting a giveaway of MillaMia's new pattern book, Little Rascals.  Click here to enter.

You can also check out some of the images from the book in my Spring Catalogue (which can now be read on your iPad or other mobile device).

Get on it

Super-quick post this morning to remind you about TWO exciting suzy hausfrau happenings that you need to get on.

Do you want to win some of the sublime Swans Island organic yarn? Then head on over to the equally sublime blog Foxs Lane for a chance. Gorgeous Kate is hosting it and she is smitten with the yarn, which I can totally understand, biased though I know I am!

....and don't forget if you 'like me', yes 'really like me' over on Facebook there is a special offer of suzy cash available until THIS Friday.

So get on it!

suzy xoxo

White

"White is not a mere absence of colour, it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black."

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

British journalist, author, poet.

Floriade 2012.
Canberra, ACT Australia

Thanks for liking me

A special treat awaits my Facebook friends over on my page.

Thanks for liking me,
suzy xoxo

Long weekend sale: LAST DAY!

It's a long weekend here in Canberra and I thought I'd give my newsletter subscribers a little surprise. This was delivered right into their inboxes, bright and early Saturday morning:

Double discount: 20% off orders $60 or more until midnight (AEST) Monday 1st October.

So in case you missed it, here is the newsletter....and if you would like to subscribe to future editions so you can be surprised too, click here.

The sale ends midnight tonight, so there is still time.

Happy knitting (or crochet!),

suzy xoxo

ask suzy

I get dozens of emails each week asking for help. I enjoy receiving them and I'm MORE than happy to help out where I can. I LOVE offering advice and helping people negotiate all of the yarns that I have on offer. I realise that buying online can be daunting, and nothing beats good old fashioned customer service.

Thinking about this the other day I decided that I am going to start posting the answers to some of these questions. I  am sure that for every email I receive, there are at least 10 other people that would like to ask the same thing.

I would also love to hear from you, my blog readers. Do you have any questions for suzy? Go on, be brave...leave a comment or email me.

Have a great weekend,
suzy xoxo

My creative space...In Threes

Last Friday night I liberated this Tosh DK from the shop and cast on the gorgeous In Threes by Kelly Herdich. It felt soooo good to be starting a new project, and even better to be doing so in the glorious MadTosh. 

My girl loves the colour, and the mama is enjoying the new project...so it's smiles all round!

You can see what other creative types are up to today by clicking here.

suzy xoxo

No regrets

A timely reminder for me on the weekend when I read this article about regrets and parenthood. Reminding myself of why I ditched the corporate world for this life, these children and being part of their world.

No regrets!

suzy xoxo

PS Thanks for the advice on yesterday's post. I think keep a few and selectively hand the rest down.

Handmade hand-me-downs

Help! A question. What to do with handmade goodies once they've been outgrown?

Handmade hand-me-downs...keep, put in the charity bin, or selectively re-assign?

Mr Ball Mason...I'm a fan

As the weather begins to warm up and the gaps in the larder appear, I start to think, plot and plan how to preserve the best of summer. Boozy fruit, jams, compote you name it..I LOVE, seriously *LOVE* putting food in jars. As much as I enjoy the process, nothing beats opening a jar of summer's bounty in the depths of a cold, cold winter.  Nothing.

Last week I opened the last jar of Blackberry jam...mwaah and the surprise favourite of last summer, Blueberries and Bay from the River Cottage Preserves Handbook. Divine over ice-cream - double, triple mwaah!

I'm also a huge, huge fan of Ball Mason jars. I was so lucky to buy these when I started out on my preserving journey. I know that some of you are into buying plain jars, which are I admit are substantially cheaper. But Ball Mason jars are the gift that keep on giving...and they can be absolutely punished. We use ours for jam, immersing in hot water baths when preserving low-acid fruit/veg, as general storage in the fridge and the wide mouth jars I freeze our home-made stock in. Yes you read that right, I freeze glass jars!

All of those crafty boards, and repurposing of these jars on Pinterest can't be wrong!  You can get them in Australia from Red Back Trading - great service and quick delivery. (BTW - they have no idea I'm bragging about them!)

The only negative is that they are seriously hard to part with, and when you give away jam or something as a gift (which I love doing) I feel very mean when I ask for them back. Maybe I should just see it as spreading the Ball Mason love around???

suzy xoxo