Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Handmade Dress Patterns GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Handmade Dress Patterns GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Awww! I love these patterns. What a great giveaway!

Kindy Costumes - finally finished!

I have posted previously about my wonderful Auntie and how she gave me her Enid Gilchrist magazines. I love them. And I love her!! Here are a few pics of the latest (and last) of the Kindy dressups I made for them. Yes, I know it's near the end of the year and Oscar will be leaving in a month (!!) but I said I'd make them so I had to follow through. That will teach me for being enthusiastic and saying, "Yes sure I’ll make you six aprons, six oven mitts, 4 vests, 2 mechanics outfits, two doctors' coats and two pairs of chaps as well as sew up 6 kindy sheet sets." Easy!


Here’s a pic of O in the Mechanic’s outfit. I used an Enid Gilchrist pattern and modified it by adding length to the jumpsuit. I think the legs turned out a bit funny because I trimmed them before sewing the inner seam – shouldn’t have done that! So now the legs aren’t even length. Hmmmmm – in the photo from behind you can see how it rides up a bit. Not sure if that’s just the fact that O’s wearing shorts and t-shirt underneath or my bad sewing!



And here is a pic just of the outfit – without the boy :)


Thanks again Auntie Robin for your precious Enids.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Christmas Bling


Look at all these lovelies! I had a beading night with my beading buddy the other night and made these! 20 pairs of Christmas sparkliness - 10 each in gold an silver finishes. I'm thinking $8AUD per pair plus postage. What do you think?
Here are a few closeups for you.
They are my versions of stylised Christmas Trees and little piles of Presents. I really enjoyed making them. Let me know if you'd like some :)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

I won I won!!

this!!

Sam, from Jetta's Nest, won the competition to have her design printed on the BrisStylettes bag and I won a bag when they're printed!

I am so excited!

Thanks BrisStylettes :) hope to see you all at the market on Dec 4th.

Go and check out the awesome women on the BrisStylettes blog - amazingly wonderful crafty creative women! And then come to the market and buy lots of stuff!


Woooooooo hooooooooo!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Friday, October 16, 2009

17 years ago today . . .

. . . my mother died.

I was 17 when she died, so it is now half my life that she has been gone. Well, if I were going to be *really* accurate I would say that it isn't actually exactly half my life because I'd already turned 17 when she died. So half my life will be in another couple of months, but who's counting, right?

One of my sisters and her children came over today and we all went to the cemetery, which is very close to my house. Despite the proximity of the cemetery where Mum is buried, I rarely go there. I don't suppose it's something that I'm keen to do although it was kind of nice (if I might use that word) to take my children there.

Since having children I've been a bit caught up in them to really remember my grief for my mother. I think because this year's anniversary is quite important, being the halfway point as it were, it seems to have come back and hit me at full force. Grief's funny like that. Sometimes I wonder whether I set myself up for it or whether Grief really has a mind of its own and comes and goes as it pleases. Quite probably it is a combination of both. I have been reading some books about Grief lately as I have been a bit apprehensive about this anniversary. I'm getting old enough to say that something happened "half my life" ago and I can remember the details :).

It is significant that this past year I have felt the need to move through to the next stage of my Grief. I was cocky enough to think that I was "over it" and that I had "moved on". Don't you love how we like to think of Grief as being "over" or "through"? I am reading Grieving Mindfully at the moment. It comes from a Buddhist perspective and as I'm learning some Mindfulness exercises and meditation at the moment it seems to really hit the spot for me.

I am quite surprised and a little perturbed at how distressed I was this morning. Possibly the anticipation of going to the cemetery, not wanting to be upset around my children/sister/ children/husband/anyone! Possibly not wanting to feel the anger and hurt and sadness that I feel when I remember my loss. I was quite surprised by the amount of anger and hurt. I think out of all the emotions, as I get older, Anger is predominant. And I mean that capital A. Just as I'm giving Grief a capital G. These emotions are becoming more than just acquaintances to me, and I think that's because they've been around for so long! So perhaps instead of dreading them I should welcome them with open arms and live with them. We have known each other for half a lifetime after all :)
I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from our trip to the cemetery this morning. Perhaps it's morbid to take photos at a cemetery? I don't know. It is what it is.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Kindy costumes

Have had these on my to do list for awhile. Thought I'd post some pics. I volunteered to make up some kindy dress-ups that weren't ballet skirts or fairy-related :) I've already made a mechanics jumpsuit and some cowboy chaps - but I forgot to take pics of them! I'm making another mechanic's jumpsuit so I'll take pics of that when I'm done.

Here are a few doctors' coats and some vests - both from a Butterick kids' costume pattern that I got from Lesley when she had a clean-out :) The coats came from an old bed sheet so they are quite stiff and sturdy like medical coats are. I don't think they would have worked very well if they were from polycotton.
The coat is a size 5 - the biggest the pattern went up to. I don't know that I'd bother making it smaller ever. Here is Miss E in the same coat. Now, she is a tall 2-year-old but still - she'd grow out of it quickly enough!



The red crosses are painted on with really cool fabric textas that I got from Crafty Mamas - my favourite shop :)
These are the vests, from the same costume pattern as the coats - one out of fluoro fabric and the other of a cow print. Master O wouldn't wear the cow print so Baby Girl obliged. They're both size 5 as well - again I would never bother making a smaller one for E.
These were so quick to whip up - love fast, satisfying jobs, especially ones that don't cost a whole lot.
Pattern - free
Material - old bed sheet that was given to us
Fluoro - about $1
Cow - about $2
Now to make some for the kids to keep.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Some sewing for me :)

I finally made myself the wallet I've always wanted! I bought this pattern in a co-op and it sat on my desk for a couple of months while I became more and more irritated with the coins falling out of my falling-apart wallet down to the depths of my handbag.

The only good thing about having a wallet with a hole in the coin compartment is that you always find a treasure when you're digging around in your handbag looking for a tissue or a pen :) Bonus!
Here are some pics. I was very happy with how it turned out - although sewing through that many layers is tricky when you don't have a denim needle and are impatient to get the sewing done. so I only managed to break 4 universal size 80 needles on this one project :) Blasted Zips!


This is the outside zip compartment - there is one on the other side too. I am using one side to hold all my membership/loyalty cards. I don't know how I have so many! The other side I've got stamps and business cards and doc appointment cards. I love this - in my old wallet the cards would always make my wallet bulge and get out of shape. I can't see this happening here.


This is the outside of the wallet.


This is the wallet open and you can see from left to right there is a zipper compartment for coins, space for cards, more cards with the notes compartment behind it and then a pen loop although you can't see it well in this photo.


Here's the open coin compartment.

And the notes compartment looking very sad and empty:)



And here's my lovely pen loop. I love this - no more digging around to find a pen.

Thanks for looking and please leave a comment if you like - I like to know that I'm not just blogging to myself :)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

More Party Photos

Thought I might share some more Pics from the Big Boy's birthday party from last weekend. As it was apirate party we decided to do a treasure hunt. With the help from a lovely friend who is an art teacher, I made this treasure chest.


It's a box that the kids' new sleeping bags came in - perfect size. I just covered it in the wood-grain contact that costs about $2 a roll at the $2 shop and put some stickers on that we also found at the $2 for around $4 I think. The contents of the treasure chest for the kindy party was a whole heap of plastic gold coins, some pirate hooks (styrofoam cups with pipe-cleaner hooks and a folded straw to hold onto inside the cup) and the alfoil covered paper towel tubes were the makeshift telescopes. There were also some eyepatches in there as well but I bought them as well. Also for the jewels we had some bead necklaces and big chunky palstic rings, 6 of each for $4. The little boys loved it! It is looking a bit the worse for wear in these photos.

For the family party the following weekend there was a heap of chocolate coins, some party blowers and some party hats. The kids loved finding the clues and traipsing around the house and yard to find the next clue.

The cake is from the Women's Weekly Kids' party cakes book. The Ghostly Galleon.



Here you can see my attempt at writing with icing. Not toooo bad. I'm sure I'll get lots of practise over the years.


And here is my little pirate showing his tough pirate tatts :)
I was also happy with how the decorations turned out. I made a whole heap os black flag shapes and stuck each with a round white circle of white contact paper - I was trying to find circular printing labels which I have seen before but could not find anywhere! I trimmed the circles to look like skull shapes - just a small trim on each side - and drew the bones on with liquid paper. Then drew eyes and teeth on with black sharpie pen. They look good from far away :) This is the best picture I have as I forgot to take any photos of them when they were up. And now they are at Kindy ready for the last day of term's Pirate Day.
Thanks for looking.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Big Boy Birthday!

Well the day came yesterday . . . my little baby turned five! I can still remember the day he was born five years ago. I was 32 weeks pregnant and my waters broke! So the first five weeks of his life he lived in the hospital. They took such good care of him - and now he's five!

Here he is at 3 days old - so tiny!



And here he is only last weekend getting ready for a cowboy birthday party for a kindy friend. This is him galloping :)





And my two little chickens in front of our fishtank. I think I'll take a photo of them in front of the tank at each birthday from now on to see their growth - something to compare them with.



And another photo of my big boy just because he is so darn cute!



This was the most popular present - a bowling set from National Geographic shop. The pins and ball are really nicely weighted so you actually feel like you are bowling. Plus there is a pin template made of plastic which you lay on the floor so an adult is not needed to set up the pins repeatedly :) Everyone's a winner!







And of course . . . . Mousetrap!




Happy Birthday my big fella! Love you!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Prizes for my SEWN giveaway

I can finally put the photos up here as I've finished and posted the loveliness off to the winners :)
Here are some pics of the two cuffs I made recently - the green one is going to Digital Misfit.


Digital Misfit got to choose between the blue with copper and the green with copper - and she chose the green :)
They are both made with 18 guage copper wire as the frame and 24 guage for attaching all the beads. the blue cuff has czech glass 8mm faceted rounds, some Chinese crystals and some little seed beads.
They Green has two MOP donuts witha selection of green Indian glass beads and clear/silver and silver/purple czech glass.
I hope Heidi likes her prize when it gets to her over in Canada. Thanks for entering Heidi!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Finally finished my monkey men

So I finally finished the two monkey-men who have already found their way to their new home. Here is the navy blue one - his mouth is a little crooked but I do love the way it makes him look. He's a cutie. I hand sewed him entirely - He seems very strong so hopefully he will be able to stand up to the punishments of a little boy :)

And this one is the black one - he's going to the brother of the blue monkey. His body is all machine-stitched but it seemed to work this time - the stitches weren't breaking. So I must have been doing something wrong last time.



And here's all three together, hanging out.




These guys are so much fun to make.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Fly me to the moon . . .

Having saved all these boxes, I decided to use some of them. I got a slow cooker for my birthday (yay!) and the Styrofoam packing seemed to be a good size to form some structural support for a cardboard car - the last one we made was very sad and droopy :-)

So we started with this frame . . .


. . . and this fruit box . . .


I trimmed the inner circle of the Styrofoam so it was a touch bigger and then pushed it into the bottom of the fruit box - and it fit perfectly!



A quick check for size . . . all good!



Next we added some wings (yes, by now we had changed from a car to a plane!) and I thought we were finished! But Master O reminded me that planes have nose cones. So we added that too.


Here's a close up of how we added the wings and nose cone - just a simple tongue and groove arrangement. Works quite well!



Next was a coat of paint and we were done for the day. Had to let it dry overnight.


Some headlights and . . . . . it was ready for take off!!


Enjoy!