show & tell - nanette louchart-fletcher

I'm a little late posting this morning because of Grandparents Day at school. The school bands played in the music hall and then my friend's Dad who is 85 (and played with some of the greats in 60s London) got up and played some Blues piano. Very cool.

I know my Show & Tell interviewee Nanette Louchart-Fletcher would have enjoyed the concert. Nanette writes one of my very favourite blogs - Rummage - a mix of stunning photography, food, craft, life, interiors, gardening, thrifting and more. I love the way Nanette writes. To me she celebrates and shows the beauty in the everyday, the people, the food, the seasons. And I adore her beautiful interiors - even her mess is photogenic! On top of that her stories of life with The Frenchman, the kids and her dog Kipper often make me laugh, think and see.

I hope you all enjoy reading her interview answers. If you haven't seen all her work, check out her links below. Pop over to her gardening blog, explore her guide to Melbourne, cook some of the recipes from her Christmas offering and dream over her beautiful photos. Thanks Nanette :-)

name
Nanette Louchart-Fletcher

location
Canberra

blogs
http://rummage.typepad.com
http://rummage.typepad.com/acacia_et_coquelicot

tumblrs
http://chutzpahrummage.tumblr.com/
http://hauteurrummage.tumblr.com/
http://motifrummage.tumblr.com/

Short description of your blog/style/work
I suppose Rummage falls into the craft blog genre although I'd like to think it oozes out at the seams and is about different things too. I like to write first and foremost but I also enjoy photography, sewing, cooking and gardening as well as mooching about with the small people in my life.

1. Why blog? How did you start?
I have written Rummage for about three years now which is endlessly surprising being someone with a short attention span. I think the reason that I keep writing it is because I write largely for myself. It's great that people sometimes read Rummage but I write what's in my head at the moment that I sit at the keyboard which is most often of very little interest to anyone but occasionally cathartic. Put it this way it's a lot cheaper than a shrink.

2. Family taught/Self-taught/Trained?
Self-taught

3. Workspace - studio or kitchen table?
Hell yes, I have a workspace that is of cathedral proportions. The Frenchman agreed to forego a lounge room and now has an office in the walk-in-wardrobe. Despite all this I'll be damned if I can find my seam ripper.

4. Blog/Shop name, where does it come from?
The name Rummage comes from my propensity to be heads down bum up in a box of old tatt in the op shop.

5. Favourite medium to work in?
Favourite medium to work in? It depends what day you catch me on. At the moment I am at one with my sewing machine and I quite fancy the odd bit of patchwork by hand.

6. Ambitions/future directions/future projects/medium you'd like to try?
Ambitions? If someone would just give me a damn book deal I would retire and live in ugg boots, polar fleece and make the occasional dash to the shops for some cooking chocolate.

7. Are you neat and organised  or, ahem, creatively messy?
I just checked with the Frenchman and he gave a gallic snort and said I am 'verrrrry messy', but who'd believe a man who resides in the walk-in-wardrobe.

8. Favourite handmade item you own?
The small people give me all sorts of excellent handmade items. The other day the littlest presented me with a colour pencil picture of a poo. It's hanging on my noticeboard.

9.  Favourite food/recipe?
I would be a complete liar if I didn't say that my favourite food is chocolate.

10. Favourite colour?
Green

11. Star sign?
Leo (no eye rolling)

12. Favourite place, landscape (not necessarily Australian)?
Tricky question, I used to live in the Hebridean islands of Scotland which are swoon inducing.

13. Any tricks for juggling life/work/family with creative pursuits?
THERE ARE NO TRICKS AND ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU OTHERWISE IS FIBBING.

14. Favourite post?
I don't really have a favourite post or thing that I've made.

15. Three words to describe you?
impulsive, absent-minded, adorable (ahem)

16. What do you like to do besides creating?
I like to hang with intellectually precocious teenagers and engage in a bit of radical pedagogy.