Off to see the Wizard

A lovely friend of ours had her 40th on Saturday night. Her husband and her always have theme parties, you may remember I mentioned his 40th rsvp here, way back in my early blogging days. They also hosted another friend's 40th just after we had Lucy and we went as The Wiggles.

Last nights theme was a character from a movie with a great soundtrack. We decided to go as characters from The Wizard of Oz. Charlotte was Dorothy, Jeff was the Tin Man, Lucy was the Lion, I was the Scarecrow and my brother, Ash, was the Wicked Witch.

I did have a hat but by the time this photo was taken I'd gotten sick of it

I didn't get as many photos as I normally would because I didn't have any pockets. Steve and Maria are great hosts, the kids always love parties at their house because they always have a jumping castle and a pinata bursting with lollies.

I'm in Love

I'm probably the last person on earth to convert to Google Reader but I am so happy I've done it. I love the Next button as I love being in the actual blog reading the posts and not having to open another window to leave a comment. I will probably be leaving more comments now as I was often too lazy to open the extra window. It took a bit of effort to get all my blogs over there from Bloglines but if you haven't already converted go over an check it out, it's well worth it.

The shop has now been updated too with new travellers.

Holidays

We are back from a lovely short break here. It was lovely and relaxing, even though Jeff couldn't make it. The girls had a great time enjoying the pool even though I thought the water was a bit cold.

Lucy, Ash and Charlotte

We also managed to get to the Royal Easter Show over the weekend and luckily only got rain as we were leaving.
Today we popped in to our local club as they had an open day and David Foster, wood chopping champ was their. My brother and Lucy got their photo taken with him.

Lucy also met Alvin.I just looked over and this is what greated me.

The swap has now closed and I am just waiting on a couple of people who commented on the post but haven't emailed me. An email will be going out to everyone tonight so if you don't get something from me please drop me an email back.

Also I managed to get all my blogs onto Google Reader from Bloglines. I installed the next tool in my favourites but can anyone tell me do I need to keep going to that to go to the next unread blog or is there something else I can do to go from one blog to the next

Short Break

I'm off with the kids for a short break, we'll be back on Friday. In the meantime don't forget to sign up for the swap. All the details are here.

Easter Bunnies

I have finally gotten around to making Charlotte and Lucy one of my rabbits I've made as gifts. Every time I make them Charlotte asks for one so hopefully she likes it. I was toying with changing the pattern and making it more of a sit down type bunny with longer legs and I think I've worked out how to do it but then I looked around and there are quite a few of the type I was looking at so I think I'll just leave mine alone.

I did make a few changes this time, ear attachment, different eyes, button attached arms and a pom pom tail, which I love.
These two little rabbits will be minding the Easter eggs on Sunday.

It's Swap Time

PLEASE NOTE - a couple of people have asked if it needs to be a sewn item. No it does not as long as the item is handmade that is fine. Also when you email me can you include a link to your blog as I will do a blog list when sign up closes. *****

MORE ANSWERS - there have been a few questions about posting in the large satchel. If what you are making will fit into a small one that is fine as long as you include a large satchel for the return items as not everyone is doing small things. ******

Thanks for all the suggestions and agreement with the swap so here goes:

WHAT - make and send 10 of the same item in a large satchel (3kg one around $10.50) along with an empty addressed satchel in the same size.

HOW - send me an email at cassandra_ward(at)telstra(dot)com letting me know you want to participate and also give me an indication of what you are making.

CLOSES - swap sign-ups close on 18th April

WHEN - items must be received by 15th May. This gives you 4 weeks to make the items.

WHAT YOU GET - you get your empty satchel back filled with 10 wonderful handmade goodies. Items will be posted back week commencing 25th May.

OTHER INFO - please make sure that the 10 items fit easily into the bag. If everyone squeezes their 10 items in then I may not be able to fit the 10 different things back in the satchel.

If we get more than 11 people I will divide everyone into groups so if there are double ups on items we can put them in separate groups.

I was thinking of keeping it all secret so when you open the satchel it is a surprise. If everyone is happy with that I will post sneak peaks of items as they arrive and ask you not to blog your sent item until the end.

This swap is only open to Australian residents this time, sorry.

I'm a bit technically challenged so if anyone would like to make a button that would be great and also please advertise this on your blogs.

I Just Can't Help Myself

I popped over to The Remnant Warehouse sale yesterday and picked up some fabric. I didn't really have anything in mind so I was wandering around in a bit of a daze but still managed to get plenty of fabric. I bumped into Amy and a blogless seller from Bondi markets so we had a nice chat about crafting, markets and of course fabric.

I got a couple of boy fabrics, because I never have those.

Some Wonderland by Moda. Some of this is going to back a quilt for Charlotte.

I also got some dots, more denim and finally some cord.

I love the Remnant Warehouse, the customer service is fantastic, good old-fashioned service like you used to get, very friendly staff and of course wonderful fabric.

Looks like there is interest in the swap so I will write up some guidelines and post them this week.

Swap Idea

I've been thinking about another swap. Ingrid and I chatted about this idea last year when I did the box swap so I thought I might put it out there and see what everyone thinks.

Basically there would be 11 people in the swap (if there was more we could do 2 or more groups). You would make 10 items of the same thing that will fit in a large pre-paid satchel (I think they are around $10) and send them to me as well as an empty satchel. Each person would then get back a satchel with 10 different items in it.

Thoughts, ideas, comments!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shop Update

These are now all for sale here

While theseare available here

New Shop

I've decided to dip my toes into Big Cartel so I have a new online store here. I am still also listing stuff in Made It because I still have some credit there. There are only a couple of things listed at the moment because my brother has taken my camera on holidays and Jeff is never home while it is light enough to use the iPhone. If you see anything from the market you like let me know in case I have it still available. For those that have been asking I will have some travellers to list soon.

Also today I got a lovely package from Jodie as a thank you for testing one of her patterns. Unfortunately, for reasons explained above, I can't take pictures but head over to Jodie's shop and buy yourself a pattern or two or three or all of them. They are all fantastic and very reasonably priced.

Market Wrap-up

We had a lovely time yesterday at the market. Ingrid and I didn't think it was as busy as the last one but that was just before Christmas so it makes sense. I was still very happy with the day and sold out of some things and only have a few others left so I will be updating a shop somewhere soon (more on that later).

We had lovely neighbours Belinda and Marina on one side and Ivy Designs on the other. We had a visit from another blogger Xena and I've got another post of something cute I bought too.


Yes they are little Easter eggs you can spy there. Ingrid bought them to entice people to the stall, which they did, but they also enticed us. So for me it was Easter eggs for breakfast and lunch, I was actually over chocolate by the end of the day and that is saying something!

More Market Stuff

I'm actually hoping these bags don't sell because I love them all.

Don't forget

Mathilda's Market Sunday 22nd March 9am - 2pm St Ignatius College Lane Cove

Pop in an say hello Ingrid and I would love to see any of our blog readers

Oh and I got my copy of Mixtape today and it's a great full colour edition so if you haven't already got it, get it.

Goodies

I got three lovely packages in the mail today.

The first was some Heather Ross fabric my good friend Helen picked up for me from Textile Traders. Why oh why don't they expend to the east coast. I'd be more than happy to manage the store for them.Secondly was a lovely package from A Little Goodness. I saw this fabric on another blog and fell in love with it and it is even nicer in real life. It's a beautiful linen and the words going across are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Leslie also included some cute little printed brown paper bags.

And the third package was this book from the Book Depository. All the talk about it by the girls at the Stitches and Craft Show made me decide to get it.

Once again I am still taking photos with the iphone. I think my brother has taken a liking to my camera.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been extremely busy getting ready for Mathilda's Market next Sunday. Here's a sneak peak at what I'll be selling.

A posse of Space Monsters

A pile of S-cargo's

Travellers

Bags

There are also some other items that I haven't finished yet, hopefully I'll get time to show those to you later in the week.

Once again I'll be sharing the stall with Ingrid. So if you are in Sydney come on down and say hello.

And a big THANK YOU to everyone who placed a bid on my items in the Silly Gilly Ebay Auctions and of course a huge congratulations to the winners.

Toy Society Bush Fire Appeal

This guy is on his way to Mike's as part of The Toy Society Bushfire Appeal. He's a space monster.
Smaller versions will be available at Mathilda's Market next weekend

Garage Sale

In our old suburb we used to get a really good local paper that always had good garage sales listed. When moved 10 years ago but only a few suburbs so I still try and pick up that paper when I can. I managed to get copy last Thursday and a garage sale notice took my fancy.

"Garage sale Sunday 8th March 8am, linen, retro items ....................." I didn't really need to read any further. The kids had a late night last night as we were out for their cousin's 18th for dinner but I knew I wanted to be up early to get there. 7.30am arrived and I jumped out of bed, Lucy decided she wanted to come so we left Charlotte watching cartoons and Jeff snoring his head off.

We arrived at 7.45am and the street was packed with cars and people waiting to get in. They had 2 tables of linen out the front and there were women and men just throwing stuff onto big piles on the grass. I swear one woman's pile was up to my hip. I started plucking stuff off the table and putting it in my bag. There were things never used still in the packaging.

Then we ventured into the garage. It was full of dealers carrying out anything they could lay their hands on and making piles all over the place. I had to pick Lucy up because there was so much stuff everywhere it was a hazard. I did manage to get some gorgeous hankies (never used, still with the price on), some cute serviettes, some paper dolls all intact, 3 Holly Hobbie placemats and over mits.

There was more stuff on a little veradah and in a little room off that housed some kids books. There were piles everywhere and Lucy was a bit over it by now but I did manage to score some Little Golden books, some to add to the collection and some to use for crafting.

On the way out there was a lady sorting through a box of tins and I was really hoping she was going to put them back but alas there was only 1 she didn't want, a cute Lucy Atwell one which Lucy has been carrying around everywhere.

As we were leaving a neighbour was walking out and she said that the lady who lived there has gone into a nursing home and that she used to just buy everything and hoard it. She said they had already had 3 skips, 1 other garage sale and that there was still more. So looks like I will be scanning the paper every week now.

Not sure how these pictures will turn out as I had to use Jeff's iphone