Friends

The week has continued to be a busy one. We've Hooked In2 Hockey, caught up with sewing friends (I made Ingrid a kind of baby bag but forgot to take photos so hopefully she will blog it) and had a school friends park play day and I'm ready to go back to work!

I consider myself very lucky as I have made some wonderful friends through craft. Some I have had the pleasure of meeting, some I catch up with often, some I have never met but I feel blessed that these women have come into my life.

A week or so ago I got an email about a sale at Belsize Square which of course I could not attend but I passed the details on to two lovely Melbourne ladies. The sale was last Saturday and Karen very kindly offered to buy me some fabrics while she was there. This involved me emailing my selection and of course a phone call at the shop. Funnily enough I was at Charlotte's soccer game and everyone on the sideline was giving me funny looks but it was great to have a fabric personal shopper.

Yesterday I received a large parcel from Karen containing these great fabrics.

Now I'm off to have a nice cup of tea and read the new Donna Hay Kids Magazine

Oh and I've been a bit silly with the comments. I enabled the settings so they go directly to my email box but didn't realise until yesterday that it email addresses are just a generic "do not reply" one. So I have been busying thanking everyone for comments and the emails haven't been going anywhere. So thanks everyone for your comments and hopefully I'll be doing it properly from now on.

School Holidays

It's day 2 of the school holidays here and so far so good. Yesterday I took Charlotte and a friend to see Hannah Montana which we all enjoyed.

Today Charlotte and I went Ten Pin Bowling, it's 1 game all so we need a decider some time soon.

When we got home we did some baking - banana bread and chocolate cake.

At Mathildas Market I got Charlotte an Owl Softie Kit from Claire and we decided to have a go at that this afternoon before Lucy got home from child care.

For anyone out there contemplating a craft activity for the kids this is a good one. Charlotte is 6 and pretty much managed most of it herself. I did sew the feet on as they were a bit tricky for her. Charlotte used the sewing machine to sew the seams but you could easily sew these by hand. She did all the cutting of the wings and eyes herself (so they are a bit wonky), sewed the wings together, the eyes on and most of the wings to the body. I forgot to look at the time when we started but it would have taken less than 1 hour. So catch her at the Stitches and Craft in Sydney and get a pattern or a kit.

Tick Tock

I can't believe we are halfway through the year already, time is just flying. I've been thinking about things to do with the covers of the damaged vintage books I use for tags, cards and envelopes. I did do some wall hangings but they really needed something more.

So I decided to do a clock.

This is the test one so there are a couple of things I would change and I was possibly thinking of not doing the numbers either but overall I'm pretty happy with it. When I showed Jeff he was very impressed and even said "wow that is great". He's not usually that impressed with bags!

Lucy's decided she is going to be a fire fighter when she grows up as we went to the local station today with playgroup, all the kids had a ball.

School holidays start here next week so I'm hoping for a relaxing week and then I'm back to work and the kids will be shuttled around to various people.

Craft Room Goodies

I've finally been at home when the sun is out to take a photo of the lovely goodies I got from Suzy last weekend.


She gave me this gorgeous fabric, some ribbon and some fantastic buttons. The fabric is great, I think I have a thing for apples at the moment.
How cute at those apple cores.

I done a small version of the Traveller too for big people, with notepad, shopping list and pen. I actually like this one better than the larger size I think.

This one will be in the mail this week to Marie as part of her prize.

Craft Room

Today was the first Sunday get together of the Craft Room ladies. I had the most fantastic time although I got nothing done, there was way too much chatting. I made the new larger size Traveller which was picked out by Kate.

I actually changed it after I realised I had stuffed up the allignment. It ended up with a pen and a pencil pocket, a shopping list pocket (not in photo) and the notebook pocket.

I used some new Hambly Rub Ons I got this week for the front cover and I am so in love with them. I can't wait to try out the cute little animal ones I got

A vintage illustration keyring. I think I am going to add this to the market goods as a little cheap item

I got a lovely package from Suzy (which I will post pics of tomorrow) it included a great piece of fabric.

Corrie has done a great post and I am sure more will be popping up over the next few days.

Australian Homesewn

I saw this magazine over at Melissa's blog the other day and have been keeping an eye out at various newsagents and yesterday one came through.

I was a bit shocked at the $15 price tag but then I don't usually buy crafty mags so maybe this is the normal price. There are some lovely projects in here including this one which I think I might get Charlotte to do in the holidays.

I noticed an error in the materials required for this project last night and have emailed Melissa so check her blog if you want to make this project

There is also a section in the middle for organising your sewing space which I certainly need at the moment. I am going to be reading this one closely.

There is also an error in the fabric baskets. See here for the correct measurements

The Craft Room

It's the first Sunday get together of the Craft Room and I'm very excited to have a whole day of crafting fun, although I'm not quite sure what I'll be taking yet or how much actual crafting will get done.

We all have to take a little gift to swap. Here's a sneak peek of what I'm taking.

Catching up again

Ingrid gave me some lovely vintage fabric while we were away so I decided to make a new bag for Lucy to take to child care. She decided she wanted to model it on the way to play group last week.
I love the fabric the colours are so vibrant.

I also made this skirt for Charlotte last week. It's a little long I think but she seems happy with it.And one for Corrie of Lucy in her hat

And the winner is...................

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:29
Timestamp: 2009-06-15 00:28:02 UTC

So the winner was Marie. Congratualtions I will have something out to you soon.

Thank you to everyone who offered their thoughts on this. It seemed like Option 2 and 4 were the most popular so I might actually do some of each.

Market Research

IMG_3132
Originally uploaded by Snailblazer

Hello lovely blog readers I need your help. I am thinking of making an adult version of the Traveller for the next market.

I have a couple of ideas and would love to hear your views. Now of course I don't expect you to give me this valuable information for nothing there will be a prize random prize awarded but only for those that have an opinion.

OK
Option 1 - same as the kids version but with pens
Option 2 - same size as the kids with the small moleskin, a notepad shopping list and space for 1 pen
Option 3 - larger size moleskin and a couple of pens
Option 4 - larger moleskin, shopping list and pen
Option 5 - any other ideas?????

Let me know what you think by Sunday night and I'll draw a winner on Monday and let you know what the prize will be. It will probably include something handmade and some fabric.

Thanks for your help

Finished Projects

I've recently had lots of projects on the go which had been put aside and picked up again depending on what I was doing with the swap.

First up were these quilts for Charlotte and Lucy. I got this fabric at The Remnant Warehouse sale last year. It's the Denise Schmidt County Fair cheater printer. I backed them both with Wonderland. One has pink dot binding and the other green dot. I made them just wide enough to go across a double bed not hand over the sides. They are not the best quilting but they love them.Secondly was this bag I finished while on the craft weekend. I had been carrying around a Amy Butler Swing Bag for ages and definitely needed something new. I absolutely love this bag. I made the strap longer so it would go across the body as I find it much easier to carry that way. It's roomy enough to fit everything in but not be huge.

I used a dark grey fabric from my favourite store which I teamed with some gorgeous Aunty Cookie fabric. I really loved the words "take my hand and off we stride" so wanted to feature that although in hindsight I wouldn't have made this piece a pocket. I did the flap which I love and lined the bag in the same grey fabric and used more of the Aunty Cookie for the inside pockets. I'm thinking of making a few similar ones for Mathilda's in November as I think they would make a good baby bag.
Finally a skirt for Lucy (there is one for Charlotte too but it's not quite finished). I got some lovely soft denim here and teamed it with one of the vintage hankies I picked up at this garage sale. I just used binding on the hem because I wasn't sure it would be long enough if I hemmed it. I can't wait to team it with some leggings I think she will look very cute.

Gordon, Donna, Jamie, Nigella, Cass.......................

I've been cooking up a storm for the last 2 days. It was Year 1 cake day at school today so I last night I made some ice cream cone cupcakes.

I used this recipe but made some changes. I didn't add the apple cider vinegar because I didn't have any (and it didn't seem to make any difference), also I used water not coffee as it was for the kids. She also mentions in the recipe that she builds up the top with marshmallows then ices over the top. I just used those small square cones, filled about 2/3 and the rose enough for me to ice straight on top. They didn't look quite as tall as the Cookie Madness ones because of this but for the kids at school they were fine.

I borrowed Bianca's book on the weekend and decided to make up a batch of dough last night. It was super easy and with Jeff out tonight we decided to do home made pizzas. Well they were awesome according to Charlotte - "the best pizza's ever". They were just like pizza bases from the pizza shop. I just broke off smaller pieces of dough so the girls had their own individual pizza. Then they added their ingredients. This is Charlotte's in the oven.

Last night I also decided to make some of the Maple Berry Crunch Fiona made for breakfast last weekend. It's a Donna Hay recipe and is very yummy. I forgot to take a photo before I mixed the strawberries, crunch and King Island Yogurt together but here is the after shot.

Needless to say after being out all day today I am exhusted and off to get the kiddies in bed so I can relax in front of the tv hand sewing some binding on a quilt

Crafty Weekend

What a fantastic weekend I just had with these lovely crafty ladies.

There was lots of stitching, learning, sewing, laughing and eating. Some may have thought it was actually a gourmet food weekend, there were yummy breakfasts, a warming lunch, trashy dips, a tasty dinner and a too rich dessert.

Here's something you didn't know about me, I hate steep hills. I have a great fear of the car rolling backwards so a big thanks must go to my driving partner Bianca for helping me navigate that road in the dark, especially when I thought the road marker was a star!

You can view all the photos here thanks to Belinda because I can't work out how to get them over here.

Thanks girls and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Edited to add photos because I just realised I also had a couple of my own

Here's a great giveaway. I really need to win this at the moment

Swap Bootie

I'm back from my lovely craft weekend but more on that later. I didn't post my swap goodies before as I was waiting for most people to receive theirs but this is what I got.

Card wallet from Ingrid (photo taken at work which is why it is by itself)

Wristlet from Cindy, Hat from Meika, Owl from Claire (I think I will need to commission Claire to make 2 more as I haven't been game enough to show the girls as I am sure there will be a fight over it and I'll never see it again)

Soap from Allison, Fabric Basket from Adds, Project bag from Carolyn, Apron from Clare, Hair Clip and Brooch from Karen, Knitted cloth from Kylie

I made a patchwork mini-scarf. I forgot to take photos though but this is the one I made for myself (that's not me in the photo either it's the head at work that displays the chef's hats)


I love everything, but then I loved everything that was sent. Thanks again to everyone who participated.

Charlotte got another Kids Mail Swap package today. I came all the way from England and Estella also included a 10 pence coin.

And last but not least here are the two wonderful hats Corrie made for Charlotte and Lucy. They really love them and have been wearing them all the time.