Lessons for today

Carefully check the pattern on the fabric before you cut out the pieces for the shorts!

Today is a great day for.....

I'm off to the market, are you?

Love Fridays

I had to go and pay my car registration today, and Vicroads just happens to be a few doors away from Spotlight so I decided to take Amy's advice and headed off to spend my discount voucher.

I stocked up on some good quality thread.....

....and a stack of fabric.

Now I get to go and play with it all..... and that's a perfect reason to Love Friday.
Don't forget to head on over to Big Cat's Emporium to check out who else is playing along.

Drawstrings

I'm making a start on some Christmas pressies.
Trying to get things ready now so that I'm not frazzled in December

I don't actually know who these little drawstrings bags are going to yet

But I just thought that I would whip them up anyway!

The room formerly known as....

...the kitchen (slightly blurry photo from real estate agent).


I was chuckling about this post from Jess yesterday, so I decided to play show and tell.

We've had a contract signed on the house (but no celebrating just yet as it's not a completely done deal until the 28th November). The good news is that it means no more inspections for the time being...yippee!

So this is what the kitchen now looks like. I've relegated myself to eating meals sitting on the couch as there's no room on the table anymore. The middle bench has now become the fabric cutting bench instead. I'm hoping to get lots of christmas pressies whipped up while I have lots of room to spread out.

But first, I need to make some tags to attach to my fete goodies....

Tag-ging and Shop-ping

I've been tagged by SewFunky to take on The Book Tag....

Here's how it works:

Go to the closest book to you, not necessarily the book you have just read, or your favourite, but the closest. Turn to page 56 and copy out the 5th line, followed by the next 2 to 5 lines.

The book closest to me just happens to be the one that I'm half way through at the moment; No I Don't Want To Join a Bookclub, by Virginia Ironside.

Page 56
....Not even $50.00....You are going to receive the entire life changing course for only $29.95.
For this you will receive:
1. 8-inch by 10-inch certificate in colour, with gold seal (Certificate professionally printed by an ink press).
2. Proof of Minister Certification in your name
3. Shipping is free

How about getting a certificate and then, during the christening of the little person, suddenly bursting out with: 'Welcome to the World! I am your minister and grandmother!'
Perhaps not.

This book is rather amusing so far and I'm really enjoying reading it.
Thanks for the tag Dione!

I've added the bookmarks in the mosaic above to The CurlyPops Shop.

On My Desk.....on a Wednesday

It's a bit of dreary day in Melbourne today, so no lovely light filled photos.

On my desk today are some more bookmarks that I finished lastnight. I'm going to put some in The CurlyPops Shop later today. I must thank Stacey for giving me the idea in the first place too!

Visit more lovely desks over at Kirsty's!

Numb

So I got my huuuuuge filling replaced, and half my face and tongue were numb all afternoon. I was even talking with a lisp...it was rather amusing!
The only thing I could find in the house to eat for lunch was shortbread biscuits (hot tip: these are from Aldi and they are delicious), and a cup of tea through a straw so I wouldn't dribble it all out...

After making the first lot of bookmarks, Julia commented that they would also make great wristbands....
I might try a skinnier version next.

More bookmarks

I whipped up some more bookmarks yesterday......
A bit of bookmark modelling...

Pretty fabrics.....

....and sweet clouds.

I'm off to the dentist to get a filling replaced...not happy Jan!

Off to the fete

It's that time of the year again..... the primary school fete!

My nephews' school is looking for donations of homewares this year, so it was the perfect opportunity to donate some handmade goodies. I don't have a photographer in the house anymore, so the pool fence had been relegated back to modelling duty.


I whipped up a floral apron, with red spotty bias trim.....

....and finally, I have actually managed to make a not quite so wonky potholder.

I have to say that the potholder is a team effort. I received the fabulous Janome Walking Foot from Sarah and Liesl sent me a huge piece of Insul-bright to make it properly heat proof (you still need to add a layer of padding in the middle as well).

Insul-Bright: Ideal for Pot Holders, Table Pads, Oven MitsConsists of hollow Polyester fibers needlepunched through Mylar. The hollow fibers resist conductive heat while the Mylar resists radiant heat.

The walking foot is amazing.... no more slipping and sliding of the layers, and it made it much easier to machine sew the binding too.

I can see more non-wonky pot holders in the future.

This is....my favourite thing from nature

Beth chose a fantastic This is theme this week and a couple of things came to mind immediately....

Number 1: Fresh air, blue skies and sunshine....

Number 2: Gum trees

Thankyou Beth!

A Kootoyoo Mystery

This lovely bobbin pendant and fabric pouch was made by the super talented Kirsty.
To reveal the answer to the mystery.....I'm going to say the answer is CurlyPops because I am absolutely swooning over this one! I can't go past a vintage floral and two of my favourite colours in the whole wide world...

Love Fridays

Today I'm lovin' Friday just because it's not 34 degrees and humid!

I'm also lovin' all these Golden Hands magazines that Belinda gave me on Wednesday. They finally made it out of the car today!


My mum has been down to the country this week to help my sister out with some gardening.
The stash above is what she bought back from the oppy for me....

I popped into an oppy on the way home from pulmonary rehab today to find my myself some shorts for summer. I've lost a bit of weight so everything I own is falling down and I'm getting really sick and tired of hitching up my pants.

I found the peacock pillowcase above, all of the fabric below, a pair of shorts, and a skirt for $10.
So much for decluttering the house and the fabric stash.

Now that's definitely a reason to Love Friday....

.....and if you haven't been over to visit Big Cat today, then you definitely should, because there's a fantastic suprise in store!

Mirakitty

Inspired by this post, I quickly whipped up another Softie for Mirabel yesterday afternoon. If you haven't read Pip's post, then please do....

Mirakitty will be living in the high chair until I have time to drop him off at Meet Me at Mikes...

Resting

I'm having a rest day at home today. I've been out and about all over the place in the last week and it's been so much fun...

I ventured back into the city again yesterday (three times in a week is an absolute record for me). I met up with Cathy and Belinda and we tootled off to have a lovely lunch at one of the cafes in Degraves St. We also had a chuckle about our internet / blog dating....

Belinda had to head back to work after lunch so Cathy and I headed to Magnation to drool over the wall of craft magazines. But then we realised that it was only 2pm and there would be op shops still open until 4pm, so we zoomed off in the car to go bargain spotting.

On the way home, we were about to drive past GJ's discount fabrics, so we made a little pitstop as I had never been there. I picked up these sweet little fat quarters for $2 each.

Then it was time for a delicious home cooked dinner and a trip to the ice cream shop to finish off a wonderful day / night!

I also borrowed this past issue of Frankie from Cathy on the way out as I've never read it before. Now it's time for a cup of tea and a biccie with Frankie.

Oops! I forgot to mention that the beautiful collage at the top was my prize in the Big Cat Blogtoberfest giveaway. Florence is going to look lovely on my wall....

On my desk....on a Wednesday

On my desk today are some fabric bookmarks for a custom order, and the usual mess and paraphernalia that ends up on my desk when I make anything!

My 9 year old nephew really liked the bookmarks so I need to make one for him now too....

For more lovely desks, head on over to visit Kirsty.

As I promised

Tin can fashion shoot...

Work it canney!

Canniness....

Canniness Definition - can·ni·ness (kan′ē nis) - noun - the quality of being canny


It was tin can pencil cup night at Brown Owls lastnight.......


There were lots of prizes from the magic barrel....

....and I'm officially the slowest at embroidery. It took me three full hours to embroider my pencils. Cindy and I were neck and neck on the embroidery speed most of the night, but she won in the end!

.....and Steph managed to finish her pencils, add some text, and a running stitch top and bottom and glue it on and varnish it!
I've promised that I will definitely finish mine off today...more photos later.

A little crafty shopping...

Luckily Steph reminded me that I'd forgotten to show my crafty purchases from Sundays expedition....

I've been looking for one of these woollen hats with the dangly bits for a while now...... I know it's summer soon but by next winter I would still be searching, so I just had to buy it!


I also bought myself these lovely handpainted socks.... I just like them because they were happy and colourful....

.....and I thought I'd try a self portrait of me and my new hat just for a laugh....
Looking at those wrinkles, I think it might just be time for a little botox or much more sleep!