Mothers and Days
Mother's Day is charging at us again with its expectations of a lovely day with family. Every year since Australian Masterchef first started in 2010, Damian and the boys have cooked dinner for me. Thats 16 years of Mothers Day dinners this year! Over the years the meals have evolved but they are always three course, and all three boys get into the kitchen and cook together. Now that they're grown up, its become a competition - each of them draws a course from a hat, and then I have to judge who won. (Carefully!! 😂) It's a lot of fun, but my favourite thing about it having them with me, and watching the three of them joke around and judge each others recipes and techniques. It's just about my favourite thing in the world.
This year Charlie won't be with us, and I'm very sad about it. I am not publicly sad (and I can say things to you, Smites, because they won't read it!), but I'm sad in the secret inside part of my heart that we hide from our loved ones, that I won't get to watch them all together this year. In the outside part of my heart I am absolutely thrilled for Charlie and Lizzie, as they're not here because they have bought a house! And they are moving into it this weekend. Sooooooo exciting, but they are soooo far away from me (well, OK, Melbourne, not that far but far enough!). I will have Oscar though, and Alyssa, which will be absolutely lovely. And yes they are cooking for me.
I know Mothers Day isn't a happy day for everyone, and while I love my Mother's Day its always bittersweet one for me. I lost my own beautiful Mum when she was only 54, and I was 28. We were very close, and I miss her every day but most especially on the days when I watch my beautiful boys and wish she was here to watch them too.
Anyhow this has wandered into melancholy, so I shall say what I meant to say - that Mother's Day can be for everyone, even if you have a Mum you don't like, or you don't have kids, or your Mum is gone. Because we're all a "mother" somehow, to something! Maybe it's the dog or the cat, your houseplants, the neighbourhood kids that some in for cake, your friends, your husband (OK but if you're mothering your husband stop right now and tell him to pick up his own socks). Take the melancholy out of it and treat yo'self peeps. Nothing like a great excuse for a day for YOU.
However, If your Mum is a stitcher like me, there’s nothing so wonderful as a new project to plot. When my boys were growing up (and still even now!) if I'm cranky or sad or having a bad day, one of them will quietly (or cautiously) suggest… Mum, why don’t you go and sew? My youngest especially was an absolute rascal for suggesting often that his being in trouble for something may actually be a symptom of not enough sewing time. Little shit. 😂
And so if you need a new project for your Mum, or from your kids to you, or for you because the cat was thinking of you, on this your special day - we have a 25% off sale on PDF patterns and online classes from now until Sunday. And because you're special and I luffs you, you get your Smites discount too so that's a whopping 30% off.
Gee that was a long winded way to say we re having a Mother's Day sale. Phew.
Anyway now that's done, I wanted to drop some links to a few really interesting things I've found here and there over the last couple of weeks. I keep saving them up and thinking that I must share them with you, so maybe on that Day of Mothers you're going to take for yourself, you can sit with a quiet cup of something hot, or a martini, and read some interesting things. I hope you do, and if you do let me know which one you found the most interesting, because I was spellbound by quite a few.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is having an exhibition called WORN. It showcases historical fashion garments that have been worn, altered and then worn again - extending their lives and their histories. I think thats such a cool story behind a museum exhibit, and so unusual! There are garments ranging from 1640 to 1930!! I would love to see this! You can find out a bit about if even if you can't go, at this link
and also at their Instagram account @rijksmuseum
Here is a quilt that stopped me in my tracks on Instagram the other day and I had to find out more about it. Once I did, I realised I have the book about the quiltmaker in my library - No Time on My Hands, by Grace Snyder. Grace was the daughter of the maker, Nellie Synder Yost. The book is the story of Nellie's life. This quilt contains 87,000 triangles. Just going to type that right out because EIGHTY. SEVEN. THOUSAND. TRIANGLES. And you guys all complain when I have 87 leaves on a BOM!! hahahaha
The quilt is around 91" x 93", which makes each one of those half square triangle units about half an inch.
Anyway this thing is INCREDIBLE and you can see it right now if you're in Washington DC, because it's part of an exhibition called The State Fair that is on until September.
Here's another one from Insta to blow your mind. This gown in the Victoria and Albert Museum looks as though it was embroidered with gold thread, but it's actually embroidered with STRAW. How you would even go about that and the skill and patience it must have taken is mind blowing. This is a fascinating Instagram account - Dr Serena Dyer is a fashion historian and I always find her posts so interesting.
Here's a link to the listing at the V&A, but the Insta post has video that is great.
I hope those little titbits keep you interested peeps and I hope you take a moment for yourself on Sunday. And don't forget the sale, and I promise to let you know what they cooked up for me too! Happy Day, and Mothers Day too
Sarah x
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