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.

Kid's Mail Swap

The girls took part in the Kid's Mail Swap over at Pigeon Pair.

They started receiving letters yesterday. They were both very excited. Lucy received 4 yesterday and Charlotte got 1 yesterday and 1 today.

It is really great to see their faces light up when they see their mail. Lucy was so excited and had to have a photo taken with every card.

On another note all swap packages have been posted and some have even been received.

I'm off for a lovely crafty weekend with some lovely crafty ladies. Have a great weekend.

I'm under seige

I think the postman hates me! He has been delivering packages for the swap for the last 2 weeks and I think he will be glad when they all arrive. Here they all piled up (except for 3 I am still waiting on, but I had to take the photos without the kids around).

This photo doesn't really show it that well but the pile is up to my knee. I must it is going to be very hard not to keep one of everything as everyone has been done to such a high standard. Hopefully the last few packages will be here today and I should be able to start posting on Monday or Tuesday.

Here's a sneak peek of mine

Edited to add: Mine isn't a traveller I decided to make something totally new - a surprise!

Vintage Sheet Swap

I took part in the Vintage Sheet Swap run by the lovely Sheridan and my FQ's arrived this morning. I received a lovely selection with lots of greens which I am in love with at the moment.

A big thanks to Sheridan for running this swap it was lots of fun.

Finders Keepers

I had a lovely night last night when I popped in to Finders Keepers Market . It was absolutely packed so it was quite hard to see some stalls. I finally got to meet Shannon from Aunty Cookie which was great. I bought a sample pack and some appliques from her. The sample pack is fantastic value and I wish now I had gotten another one.

I also caught up with Kristen and I got 2 pieces from her, cuckoo clock and little birds which I have never been able to get before.

Even though it was packed I did manage to run into a few other crafty ladies, so all up a great night.

You may notice some changes

I stuffed around with the layout template on my blog thinking I would use anew one but then I didn't like it. Luckily I saved my old template and it is now back in place but lots of things are missing. I need to fix everything when I get home tonight, my Craft Room link, my Toy Society link, my Mixtape link, my Made It link, so if I need to bug you for the code again sorry! I painstakingly went through and re-did the swap links, luckily for me we have network problems at work today so I can't get into any of my files, although that's what got me into this prediciment in the first place.

Tweetie

Charlotte has been waiting for what seems like ages for her canary to be ready to leave the nest and finally the day came yesterday. Introducing the newest member of the Snailblazer household

Tweetie

He's not very photogenic

Last week I also received a package from Toni from Make it Perfect. She recently offered to buy some wood from her woodman for anyone reading her blog. I took her up on the offer and ordered some wood blocks. I am planning to use some of them to make these.

Toni is also having a giveaway at the moment but I really want to win this pattern so go over and have a look but don't enter

Who's a Bad Swap Organiser

Yes it's me! We had lots of people sign up for the swap and originally we were 2 short (or so I thought) so I let two late comers in. Unfortunately maths isn't my strong suit and on Saturday night I realised we had 1 person too many. I felt sick to my stomach when I realised and couldn't concentrate on The Bill at all.

I finally summoned the courage to let the last person who signed up know. It was the lovely Anthea from Spinning Pretty, who will be the first person in next time, if she ever trusts me again. She was very lovely about it and after finally cajoling an address out of her this package is currently in the hands of Aussie Post and hopefully should be there mid-week.

Once again I'm very sorry and needless to say I will not be helping the girls with their maths homework EVER!

Missing mail and received mail

I received a lovely little package from Amitie yesterday and I think I am planning to use them on some birdie appliques on tshirts for the girls.

On a more disappointing note I am still waiting on an order from Fishpond from 11th April. Apparently something happened at the warehouse with the batch of orders mine was in. I'm waiting on Weekend Sewing and Artisian Bread in 5 Minutes. Needless to say I won't be ordering from them in future, I think I'll stick with the Book Depository. I've also noticed another book that looks good Sewing Green so I might do a big hint for Mother's Day.

I don't think I've posted a photo of this dress/top I made Lucy a while ago. I used some lovely Amy Butler I got at the Remnant Warehouse before Christmas and the reverse side is a lovely grey cord. I teamed it with a light grey long sleeve tee and tights today and lots of mums at school were commenting on it.

Just a quick edit: I am loving Google Reader but I just noticed tonight that I am getting updates from Wednesday tonight. I normally check everyday so I just wondered if that had happened to anyone else.

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.