Cartwheeling

Last weekend my small girl asked me to sew some shorts.

I'm told they are the perfect cartwheeling and cricket playing variety of shorts.

I just thought they were super cute - especially with the red bows on the side hem.

When did she get so big and grown up?

Life as we know it

I love Jodie's blog.

 

I could spend many hours reading blogs but sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming looking at perfect spaces from super creative people who are so productive. Sigh!

 

Yeah for Jodie being messy - I only wish I could maintain the tidy spaces others seem to manage.

 

 

No blog posts for ages from me as we've been away having lovely family time -

and it was wonderful.

My sweet husband decided to have a mad year by working his normal job,

taking on some sessional uni lecturing and completing his honours thesis.

Reading that makes me feel exhausted!!

We hadn't seen him much, so time away together was overdue.

Vanuatu was spot on. 4 islands in 3 weeks. 

 

Magnificent.

I have even managed some sewing since we've been back as our small reno is finally

complete so I no longer have huge amounts of stuff in the way

of my sewing machine.

Pics coming.

The kind of craft you can eat

The small girl had her school concert this week.

Evie's year level did a great job of Seussical.
The baby elephant bird was excellent
(and I may be am definitely very biased with my review)

3 cheers for school.

It was another grand performance - thanks BNPS.

 

To congratulate the kids in Evie's class,

 I made them a book...... 

out of cake!!

What is there not to love about an edible book?

Epic pattern fail

So, it's been ages since I last posted. I have officially been in a "craft funk". 

I'm blaming the slippers. 

Have you ever tried a pattern and known deep down that it wasn't going to work....

however, you push on, using up precious crafting time, fabric and brain cells and think 

somehow, miraculously, it will be ok, surely they'll work - the pattern is in a book after all.

They weren't. 

I completely had a spaz - and that was only after the left foot!!!

So now I find myself in August and the only thing I have made in the last 7 weeks

has been Evie's school concert costume (and that is a baby elephant bird).

I went out and bought some slippers so now I can put the whole episode out of mind

and get on with some more sewing. Phew!

Crap - I've done it again!!

So, I decided to surprise my Mum for her birthday.

Cue lots of last minute sewing: 1 hour bag for Mum courtesy of Jodie's pattern,
Squirrel tea pot cosy for my lovely Aunty Carlene from the Zakka sewing book
along with an upcycled tea pot rest and some coasters.
Finally, the cutest hairclip holder for my cousin Lydia (found here) which I thought was going to be really tricky but sewed up in no time.

And what did I do - you guessed it.......Not one photo. 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

I am officially an idiot!

Slacker

Yes it's true - I have been a complete slacker.

Here are the pics from last weekends craft outing.

Just don't look to closely at my wonky binding.

Or the very wonky flowers on the blue centre.

Look at who that is - my small girl when she was much smaller (about 6 years ago)!!
Gotta love that concentration - one of my favourite pics.

Still, I'm very happy overall with my sewing efforts.
Now just to make a couple more - and master the art of binding.

Bliss and bubbles

So I must confess - I had a marvelous day yesterday and discovered that many 

glasses of bubbly while sewing is not conducive to good binding.

But as you can imagine, it was fun testing the theory and finding that out.

I was lucky enough to nab a spot at the Mill Rose Bernina launch day yesterday - 

and it was fantastic. I had a ball making a wonderful photo album/clutch 

(which I don't have any photos of yet but coming soon)

Mill Rose is THE loveliest spot to visit. The fabric is inspirational,

the food at the cafe is sublime and Sue and her team are simply wonderful 

(thank you very much for the gorgeous fabric selection for our project yesterday).

A big thank you to my sweet husband for the leave pass and kid wrangling duty.

Time flies by...

So, nearly 2 weeks have vanished and being very social is killing my crafting.

Two weekends in a row that I didn't even see the little laundry for some craft time.

Week 1: Went off to Queenscliff to eat and drink way to much with Zoe and Ben.

It was lovely but the hangover was something I could have done without.

Week 2: Stayed home and played taxi for a small girl whose social life is very impressive

and invited wonderful new friends over for a delightful morning tea, who I must say 

make magnificent ginger kisses.

Thank goodness normality will hit this weekend when I disappear off 

to Mill Rose. Can't wait.

So excitement (x2)

Pretty things came in the post today and I managed to wait all day to open them.
(those who know me well would know how difficult that is for me)

But, once opened......hmmmm. Applied less than 10 mins later. Looks fab.

Something to make the little craft spot even lovelier and as Evie says "It's got a bird on it!"

(Gotta love a great Portlandia quote from a 9 yr old)

In other exciting nessienoo news, I scored a spot for the Mill Rose Bernina launch day.
I get to hang out with Sue A and it includes champers, nibbles and tuition for nix. What a day!!!

Winging it

So, any ideas about what I used this for?

It's something for the small girl and it's for our holidays later in the year.

 

This has the same purpose but is for the sweet husband.

Confused?

 Well, I have two self confessed read-a-holics.....

would you believe it if I told you that both my husband and daughter even 

read while brushing their teeth!!!!

 

So, there would be one major problem with going away for 3 weeks on holiday - 

namely that all our luggage allowance would be taken up by books.

Aren't e-readers the best thing ever?? Now we even have personalised protective cases.

No pattern, I just made them up. All fabric has come from my new favourite place -

Mill Rose Cottage.

**And guess what - I'm am just as bad as them (apart from the teeth brushing thing).

I just haven't made my cover yet - but here's my piece of gorgeous fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

Have you spotted my lion?

We have had a very busy weekend but somehow I did manage to find time

to make this lovely gent - his name is Leonardo.

He will be making his way to Perth to be gifted by my mate Schmoe 

to her friend's newly hatched baby boy.

 

Making a lion's mane is tricky - but he's turned out ok, i think.

Leonardo is a pattern by Valori Wells. I purchased the sewing card

at Ballarat Patchwork last week along with the very lovely fabric.

Over run with mice

So I thought I would show you my little laundry- it is only 1.8 x 3.5 metres and unfortunately has to contain  hideous items like the washing machine and the vacuum cleaner.

I am very lucky as it is a lovely room - just perfect for hiding out and creating bits and pieces. 

So in the big clean up over easter I did this ...

and discovered that my little sewing room is over run with mice.

Living organically - it's not what you think!

So sweet husband and the small girl were watching Heston's feasts tonight. The guest on the show described the chocolate dish as "totally orgasmic".

The small girl heard that as "totally organic".

I'm thinking of trying to live my life organically for a while - how about you???

The loveliness of presents

2 little girls who couldn't be happier.

 

Isn't it wonderful when your presents are loved.

Sweet things for Miss Tess

A little while ago an idea popped into my head to make a book for our friend's adorable little girl Tess.

 It was going to be a fairly time intensive project to tackle as I had to get the small person in my life to write a story suitable for an 18 month old. - why you might ask was I undertaking this madness??

 Well, it has to do with teaching Evie to sew/craft/take time to finish a project and as she completely loves books and reading, I thought this might spark her interest.

 So, after finding the perfect piece of fabric at Spotlight, the book just seemed to come together. 

It really didn't take as long as I expected and I must say, the finished project is amazing. 

 Evie has accomplished a beautiful  piece of art that is treasured by Tess.  

It makes me tickled pink to have made  it with her and to see how proud she was of all her efforts.

Trial and error

Well, I thought I had this blog looking pretty slick until my husband told me it was half chopped off on his monitor. Fingers crossed I've fixed it now - although I can't understand why I have such a huge gap under my pics before the post. Any ideas??

My main motivation for having a blog is to keep track of all the little craft things I achieve - namely because of  my Mum's birthday present last year. Get comfy - it's kind of a long story.

I had decided to tackle an enormous craft mission - a completely over the top tea cosy with different crocheted flowers complete with leaves. A couple of things had to happen for this project - 1) learn to crochet, 2) crochet 20 flowers and 3) make 50 leaves. I spent hours and hours making all the little flowers and sewing them onto the cosy. I had actually managed to finish it in time instead of once again popping a happy "belated" birthday present in the post. Sorry Mum. 

But, in my rush to get it into the post to make sure it wasn't late..... I didn't take a single photo of the finished product.

Then horror of all horrors - no parcel arrives. We wait. Still no parcel. Contact postal service here and in NZ - nothing. Seems the cosy has gone astray. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

So, all I hope to achieve is that should I ever have this misfortune again, at least I can show the recipient what their present was supposed to be and how much they would have liked it.

Our girly day out

 

Today, Evie and I had a marvellous day crafting at Mill Rose Cottage. The lovely Jodie from Ric Rac patiently guided us through the making of a Sally dog - with a finished product in 6 hours. Whew!! 

Evie made a wonderful dog, aptly named Spottie. She is lovely and is currently tucked up in bed with her new owner dishing out well deserved snuggles.

I also decided to follow Jodie's advice and start a blog so I can now tick two things off my list for the day. 

A fab day out - tick.

Very happy kid - definitely a double tick as I even have proof! 

My new badge says so.

 Now for a cup of tea and a lie down.