Great time at Whittlesea

We had a wonderful suprise at the show when we were awarded a Highly Commended Ribbon and prize for our Tradespace. We didn't even know their were awards for tradespace. We were really chuffed and as you can see from the photo I proudly presented the ribbon on our Blue Mallee sign.

Whittlesea was such a lovely show. We were in a perfect position with a great view of the arena. It was wonderful watching the pony club competition, grand parade and the incredibly highly skilled horse jumpers.

The weather held out and was perfect until only the last half hour when the rain came along.

If you live in Melbourne, you should definitely try to make it next year.

Upcoming Whittlesea Show

I'm looking forward to the Whittlesea Show this weekend. It's been a while since I was in Victoria ... I'm not really looking forward to the drive that much though. My lovely Mum is coming down from Queensland to help me man the stall and allow me toilet break time (it's a bit tricky when you're on your own).

Two very wet weekends

Wow, the weekdays have been glorious but my goodness haven't we made up for it on the weekends. On the 16th and 17th we were at Murrumbateman Field Days - we had snow, sleet, hail, rain, wind and the occasional stream of sunlight. I was so impressed by the number of people who did manage to come out ... there were lots of dry-as-a-bones and gumboots to be seen!

On the 24th I went to Moss Vale for the Spring into the Southern Highlands Community Festival ... it would have been fantastic with stalls and rides and activities for all. Unfortunately the rain was cause for cancellation.

I love the rain, everything is looking so fabulous with so much green in gardens and paddock, and the water in Lake George - I just wish something would coordinate to rain during the week and be sunny when we have an outdoor stall on the weekend ... hmmm, too much to ask?

Never mind, I've managed to build up more stock and 'onward and upward' from here on.

Oops, so close to October

October is going to be the start of the incredibly busy silly season of markets, field days and shows - production has started in full swing ... I know I'll be tired but I'm really looking forward to it.

After school holidays, the first cab off the rank is Murrumbateman Field Days, we had a great time last year ... including the kids who spent much of their time at the rides and petting paddock!

So close to Christmas

Oh my goodness, I've been at markets over the last three weekends and I think I've had that sudden lightbulb moment of how close Christmas is! Two Old Bus Depot Markets and one Handmade Market. They've all been really great - I feel like I've missed so many markets this winter with sick kids and partner in the house so that three weekends in a row was a reality hit.

Best get sewing ... ooooh and I've finally managed to get my pictures taken to add my Tool - Peg Roll and Knife Roll to the website ... so, if you want one, you know where to find me.

4wd countdown

Well in less that two weeks we'll be at the inaugural 4WD Adventure Show in Sydney at the Eastern Creek Dragway. I'm sewing madly and hoping for great weather ... fingers crossed.

How cool is Tim Minchin!

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. I'm so slack. But here's something I couldn't resist sharing. When cruising YouTube the other day we discovered this fabulous song by the ever talented Tim Minchin. What do you think?

Tim Minchin's Canvas Bags Song

Fabbo Nappy Bag!!!!

I got the most gorgeous Purple Ripstop Canvas for my Nappy Bags. I'm also making them up in my Ripstop Green and Ripstop Red canvas ('cause I just love 'em). I'm pretty chuffed and they've turned out really well.

Cool things that I love about the Nappy Bag

• a groovy clip to hold your keys, so you always know where to find them.
• a comfy change mat made from cotton fleece (for padding) and PUL* (for waterproofness), and it can be washed and dried in the drier (if you need to)
• a PUL* 'wet bag', great for wet nappies, clothes, swimmers, etc (with a baby the list is endless)

* PUL - Polyurethane Laminate, the absolute bees neez of modern cloth nappies .... Emma Davidson, the Canberra guru of all things cloth nappy, fair trade and sustainable kids at Brindabella Baby gave me all the vital info so that I was able to source the best to match my bags.

I've got babies on the brain!

My gorgeous brother and his beautiful wife have recently had, an equally gorgeous and beautiful , little baby called Felix.

It's got me moving. I've had a Nappy Bag in the pipeline for some time now but Felix has motivated me to get a wriggle on and get it happening.

So, today I've been on Nappy Bag production. It's a modification of the Satchel, with a few extra 'parent features'. Lets face it, a Nappy Bag is for the parents not the baby!

I'll keep you posted.

Handy Bags and a New Deck

Goodness, what a crazy couple of weeks since Easter began. As with just about everyone at Easter, people either go away (relax) or work on their house (not relax ... but satisfying). We did the latter! For two weeks we slaved and hammered ( I got what I refer to as 'hammer arm' - a very sore forearm from hammering so much). Now we have an almost finished fabulous deck that measures approximately 10m x 5m ... plenty of room to swing a cat!

Here's a pick of the deck so far with my 6 year old Henry as perspective. I've even finished off the last couple of rows of board that are unfinished in the pic, I had to house them around the posts so I pottered away on that yesterday.

Needless to say, I've had trouble catching up with Handy Bag winners at the gym - those wonderful folk who have lost the greatest percentage body weight each week in the 12 Week Challenge.

Julie Robinson chose a green Handy Bag and Jan Pianella I'll be catching up with today ... let's see if I can convince her to have a photo with her chosen Handy Bag that I can post tomorrow!

Easter business - hop to it!

Well, Easter is that time of year that you either go for a little get away ... or you do work on the house. My blogging ceased over this time because we are doing the latter.

So, appologies to David Lole, who last week won the SCHC Weight Loss Challenge Handy Bag - guess what, he didn't choose RED ... he went for black!

Our challenge this Easter has been the construction of a 10m x 5m deck - whew, I have muscles that I didn't know existed, even my PT Josh couldn't have found them to make them hurt. Thank goodness for the rain today (wednesday) we're taking a break from the deck to avoid the mud and we'll get back onto the bearers again tomorrow. My lucky husband Peter had the excuse of going to work so has avoided the drilling of posts and bearers in place. Where would I be without my Mum's lovely partner Lachlan who's been helping the last couple of days.

Handmade Market - Another Fabulous Success

What an absolutely gorgeous day for Handmade Market to move to it's wonderful new location at the Kamberra Wine Company. We were outside under the oak trees, visitors could meander through and see what was on offer, it was just delightful.

The oaks provided the loveliest dappled shade and come next handmade on 5 June, they'll have lost their leaves and the sun will stream through. What a great location.

Before the official opening time of 10am I managed a quick wizz through the inside of the venue - it was gorgeous. The quality of products were, as usual, spectacular ... it always amazes me that there is so much talent out there in the community producing these wonderful things.

I had a great day with lots of people checking out my bags which was lovely. One of my favourite things about going to markets is when people go out of their way to tell me they've previously bought one of my bags and how much they enjoy using it ... it really makes my day.

Anyway if you want to see some photos of the day, check out the Handmade Blog ... and don't forget Shop Handmade is opening on the 16 April.

Red, Red, RED!

Once again Red is proving to be the most popular Handy Bag colour amongst the 12 Week Weight Loss Challenge participants at Woden's Southern Cross Health Club.

This week's winner is from the Wednesday 5.30pm circuit group ... a big hand from Leanne Monte. Leanne had an absolutely fabulous week losing 2.5% of her body weight. Congratulations Leanne, I hope you get heaps of use from your Handy Bag, and yes as you pointed out it makes a fabulous travel bag to keep all your travel bits and pieces and your drink handy.

Here is Leanne, her circuit trainer Alex - and that fabulous red Handy Bag!

Also, don't forget that this Sunday, 28 March, is the first Handmade Market for the year. The market has moved - yes, once again but this will be it, if you check out the Handmade website all the dates for this year have been organised ... the perfect opportunity to plan for your fabulous shopping adventures. Don't forget, when you visit Handmade, come and visit me to check out all my products in person, I'll be outside (so you'll know where to look for me).

Cubs and Joeys are Cool!

What a fabulous weekend. I missed the scheduled walk around the 'bridge to bridge' on Lake Burley Griffin because I was on camp. My eight year old is in Cubs and my six year old is a Joey. Did you know, Joey's HOP (Help Other People)? It comes in handy when he's not keen to help with things at home, we remind him that Joey's HOP!

I loaded up all my last minute bits and pieces in my Stuff Bags, so they got a good workout. And, we weren't able to help with shopping and packing the trailer before the camp but we dragged along a heap of firewood we had at home that was great for the fire pit. Needless to say the Firewood Sling got a workout!

If you're ever looking for a great camping spot close to Canberra, with toilets and showers, try Woods Reserve. It's on the way up to Corin Forest and was just lovely - and obviously well maintained.

Stay tuned, on Wednesday I'll be giving away another Handy Bag to this week's biggest loser in the Southern Cross Health Club's 12 Week Challenge. This week's winner had shed 2.5% of her body weight in the last week!

Revamped website

I'm pretty chuffed because I've spent the day lookind at gobbledy gook (html script) to revamp the Blue Mallee website. I discovered how to link pics together in Gimp and made a great banner for the top of my page - I don't know if it will look much good on the blog because of it's width but I'll give it a go so you can have a look.... don't forget you can always go to check out the website itself - Blue Mallee

I didn't quite spend all day on it. I dragged myself away from the computer for an hour to spend it with Lou at the gym. She works us hard in the circuit but it's for the greater good!

Two winners so far...

Well, the great Handy Bag give away at the Southern Cross Health Club is well and truly underway. The winner with the greatest weight loss percentage in week 1 was Karen from the Tuesday morning (6am) circuit group. She chose the racy red Handy Bag - probably because red makes you go faster!

Guess what, out of the five circuit groups, the second week's winner was also from the Tuesday morning group - come on guys, these early mornings aren't good for me!

Cate Miller was the well deserved winner this week. Also choosing the Racy Red to help her go faster, the Handy Bags are especially good because they are tall enough to fit a 750ml water bottle (in an upright position) and have a special divider to separate your water bottle ... so, no more excuses for not carrying water with you and not drinking enough.

I actually originally made the Handy Bag for me after my children (toddlers at the time) discovered the joy of chewing on the rubber nipple on the top of the bottles - I don't think there was one water bottle in my house that didn't leak. I'd think I would get a non leaking bottle only to discover the inside of my bag or backpack was soon dripping. So, the Handy Bag was created to fulfil that need.

All the other bags I make have been designed and made through need (or sometime wants).

• The Stuff Bag is a replacement for the 'forever breaking, bottom loosing, essentially plastic green bags'.
• The Work Bag makes a great laptop/courier bag although this shouldn't restrict your imagination to the ways in which it can be used.
• The Satchel is an extra large Work Bag - made after numerous requests by interested customers.
• The Firewood Sling - well it is just jolly useful!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to who wins next week ... keep watching!

3 staff, 5 dogs and the others ...

Well, the rain, drizzle, moisture from the sky kept away for our weekly bridge to bridge around the lake. I must say, there weren't as many people lining up for the walk this week ... maybe the rain was just an excuse to stay in bed a little longer on a saturday morning!

We huffed and puffed our way around, my dogs were delighted but Lucy 'the wonderdog' was so pooped at the end of it all I had to lift her into the back of the 4WD, she wasn't up to the jump ... she is 11, poor thing (and it's a bit sad when your puppies are unfit - because it really all comes back to me and that I haven't been taking them on enough walks).

I spent time in the afternoon getting ready for the Old Bus Depot Markets on Sunday - don't forget to come and visit me if you're heading out to the markets.

Actually the next flash bang market that you must put in your diaries in the Handmade Market on 28 March up at the Kamberra Wine Company. Previously the market has been held at Albert Hall - then the renovations got in the way. The next move was to the Yarralumla Woolshed - it was a great rustic venue but there was no escaping the elements and did cause some challenges. It seems that this fabulous market has found it's permanent home. Julie Nichols who organises the market is just wonderful and so organised. It's definitely a market worth a visit, they only have the best quality items (of course I take my Blue Mallee products, so I'm not at all biased)! Anyway, check it out for yourselves at http://www.handmademarket.com.au

Ciao for now

Vivienne

PS. Socialising on the weekend (or any day) creates challenges for this 12 Week Weight Loss Challenge.

The 12 Week Weight Loss Challenge is well underway

I've been liasing with Danny and Mark and we figured it was a great idea to start this blog so that people can have their say on the Southern Cross Health Club 12 Week Weight Loss Challenge.

I have a personal investment in the Challenge on two counts.

1 - I'm participating and yeah to me, I had my weigh in today and lost 1.7kg in the last week ... I'm rather pleased about that too because I've been doing a lot more excercise (as my Mum always said - Horses sweat, Men perspire and Women glow. Well boy have I been 'glowing' lately although my mother did conceed when we were kids that in this time of equal opportunity, we were allowed to perspire) and eating well. So, all in all it a good week.

2 - I also decided that my very small home based business Blue Mallee Outdoor Products should sponsor the Challenge. I make canvas bags (and a few other things like Firewood Slings), I work from home and sell my wares online and at the Old Bus Depot Market, the Handmade Market and soon in Shop Handmade - a great offshoot of the Handmade Market opening in City Walk on the 16 April. I make a great little bag which I call the Handy Bag - it's tall enough to fit an upright 750ml water bottle. So, I'm providing a little more incentive for all you Weight Loss Challengers. Each week the person who looses the highest weight loss percentage will receive a Handy Bag, so you'll have no excuses for not drinking enough water. No doubt you'll decide you Handy Bag is so fabulous, you'll tell all your friends ... well, I hope so.

I'm going to keep you all updated on how I'm going. I look forward to posting photos of Handy Bag winners. And, I look forward to hearing how you are going too.

If you want to check out some photos and info on the Handy Bag go to http://www.bluemallee.com.au/BM_handy.html