a work in progress

I'm still using a cardboard box for a bedside table..... but at least there's now some progress to report

The op-shopped drawers have been stripped and are now ready for a slightly darker stain and then a clear coat of sealer. I'm going for an imperfect / old / shabby look because all the furniture is mismatched.

This little cupboard has been in the shed for at least six years. I originally found it at a church garage sale.

It's getting the same treatment, and then I think I'll use it as a lamp table on the opposite side of my bed.

I can't wait to have somewhere to put all of my worldly bedside treasures....

A Good Friday

Good number 1 - A little Lindt bunny arrived on my doorstep thismorning.... very similar to this little bunny above. I don't think he'll last the day somehow!

Good number 2 - My sister sent over some homemade Salmon Patties for my dinner, so now I don't have to cook.

Good number 3 - I hemmed and then hung my new curtains, so now my bedroom is nice and dark, which means I can sleep in tomorrow. Yippee!

Good number 4 - I spent the entire day today pottering around, and working on some new prototypes for the next market. They weren't all entirely successful.... but it was still lots of fun.

Did you do anything good today?

My creative space

I picked up my new (second-hand) sewing tables on Tuesday, so the craft space is now undergoing it's millionth re-arrangement in four weeks. Well ,that number may be just a little over-dramatic, but it certainly feels like the millionth time to me!

In the meantime, I have this little hand quilting stash beside the couch, and the quilt is laying over the couch, so I can pick it up whenever I sit down to watch some telly.

More magical creative spaces right here at Kootoyoo....

A belated birthday pressie

It was my younger sisters birthday on Sunday, and she'd requested a Ray's Tent City voucher as a pressie.

I'd been meaning to make her a purse since I did Nikki's purse frame class last year, but I just never got around to it..... until last night.

I was just hammering the frame to finish it off at around 8 PM when there was a knock at the door.... and she walked in. Talk about perfect timing!

A completed project

I've finally finished the City Bag for my aunt. I'm quite impressed at just how professional it looks and I'm hoping that she will love it.


I picked up the supplies that I needed from Nikki to make an adjustable strap. I was quite excited by the adjustable strap, and of course now I want to chop all my handbag straps off and replace them...agggghhhh

I still had lots of fabric left so I quickly whipped up a few extra goodies to go with the handbag.
A zippered pouch....


A coin purse....

.... and a passport holder based on this tutorial from A Spoonful of Sugar.
I didn't have any clear PVC so I've just substituted fabric instead to make the pockets, and I used my 18mm bias tape maker to make a little button loop.

... and then finished off with a vintage button from my late Nana's stash (who is my aunts mum) so hopefully she'll really love that bit.

Now back to the 'to do' list.

Make Mend and Do

Welcome to Make Mend and Do - The CurlyPops Make It Up As You Go Along Creative Version....

It seems that certain family members actually believe that I know how to repair various items of clothing. I'm always happy to oblige. I don't have any training in the right way to make clothing repairs, but I'll always have a think about it, and try to have a go.

Take object 1 (above photo) - ripped lining inside nephews parka (raincoat if you prefer).

How do you fix that strange synthetic slippery frayed lining stuff?

I had absolutely no idea - I couldn't use anything that was iron on as I was afraid that I would just melt the entire lining onto the iron, so my best and most creative solution, was to cover all of the frayed edges with some homemade bias binding......

.... and then handstitch the bias binding together to close the gap.

At least he can now easily identify which parka is his, just by looking inside!

Eye Spy..... a new development

Yesterday was another lovely day out at Amitie Upstairs for the Thornbury Craft Bonanza. I didn't really have anything crafty planned to do for the day, so I put my hand up to help Bev with some quilts that she was putting together for Handmade Help.

I have never ever tried to make a proper quilt, and I've never ever tried hand quilting.


This is as far as I got....... but, my new development is that I actually enjoyed it. I'm usually the queen of the quick (less than two hours) and easy (meaning machine sewing) project, but in the last week or so, I've actually been craving for some sort of craft where I can snuggle up on the couch and relax and watch telly. The best bit about hand quilting is that you can snuggle up with the quilt while you're stitching. Who knew it could be so relaxing? Ok, so you probably all knew that already, but I didn't.... I'm such a duffa!


Here are all the girls hard at work


and Anabel modelling her quilt

Bev made delicious Zucchini and Cinnamon cake...

and Sharon made delicious Carrot and Walnut cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (so I bet you can guess what I had instead of lunch)!

We finished off with a lovely dinner (albeit a bit noisy) in Black Rock.

For those that know me, no I don't eat seafood.... I actually forgot to take a photo of my own dinner!

Thankyou Christina for this weeks Eye Spy theme and to our lovely hostess Cindy.

Envelopes Ready

The glue is dry and the artworks are ready to be stuffed into envelopes for the great mail swap.

My nephews and I had great fun after school on Thursday night chopping up bits of paper, hole punching, stamping, and glueing feathers, pom poms, icy pole sticks, and jewels to create beautiful pieces of artwork.

We made a fantastic mess, someone accidentally leaned on a stamp pad and ended up with a red palm, we spilled glue and paper and goodness know what else.... all in the name of fun.

Wouldn't it be fun to be a kid again!

Some well deserved thankyous

I've been a little bit slack lately with showing and telling about all of the lovely things that arrived in the mail lately.

I'm still in that 'grey fuzzy not quite homely' state - which when translated, means that I keep moving furniture around because I haven't worked out the perfect home for every piece just yet.

To facilitate the constant moving of furniture, I completely stopped unpacking boxes (figuring that the less I put away, the less heavy the abovementioned pieces of furniture will be when I move them).

Yesterday, I actually managed to take some photos to play show and tell.

To begin - the lovely Miriam from BubbaChenille sent me some gorgeous teatowels. They've been washed and ironed and ready to be transformed. This is just one of them.

I won a giveaway over on Kat's Creations last week. I have a bit of a beret obsession, and now that it's coming up to colder months, this will be absolutely perfect! Thanks Kat. It's more grey in real life but I don't have the good camera at the moment so everything is being washed out by the flash.

I received some more lovely tea towels in the mail from Jodie at Ric Rac with some sweet little selvedge key rings and a gorgeous card.

I have made myself a new little spot in the craft space for the selvedge collection just for Jodie!

Now onto some craft shopping - I couldn't resist this gorgeous bag from Cass at Snailblazer.

I have two boxes of handbags that are yet to be unpacked but I just had to have this one too!

I'm trying to stick with handmade for birthday pressies this year so I picked up these cute little ribbon streamers from Silly Gilly. These are for a friends daughter who will be turning three in May. I actually want to put them on and run around the garden myself (you'll be happy to know that I resisted the urge).

My creative space

My creative space is still a huge mess. I moved the furniture around again yesterday (with some helpers) so I'm testing out the new layout today.


I've started work on my Aunts handbag. I didn't even know where to begin to create a handbag with a zipped closure so I've taken the sensible route (very unusual for me) and used a pattern. This is my work in progress City Bag by Nicole Mallalieu.

Would you believe that this is only the fourth zipper that I've sewn in my entire life and it's on a curve and it worked! Just so you know, that's because of the instructions, not because of me.... he he he

My Aunt requested a red white and blue colour scheme but I couldn't find anything that I liked so I've opted for using navy blue cotton drill with a cotton print that I found in the quilting section at Spotlight. I've used interfacing on the bag outer to give it some more weight.

I'm going to make an adjustable strap using this tutorial, but I forgot to buy the supplies so I need to order some oblong rings and a slide adjuster in shiny silver. I think the shiny silver will look really pretty against the navy blue.

.... and on my fridge space - gorgeous artwork!

Head on over to visit Kirsty and sign up to play along.

Shameless Self Promotion Alert

I've added a couple of teatowel aprons to The CurlyPops Shop

You may remember the lovely Guide Dog teatowel that I received from Silly Gilly. It's now been re-incarnated as an apron (this one is size 16 upwards).

Watcha Wearing Wednesday

Today I'm wearing one of my gorgeous purchases from the market on Saturday. It's a button ring by Buttons by Lou Lou. While on the subject of markets, I'm going to play show and tell with all of the lovely goodies that came home with me.


Buttons by Lou Lou hair ties for a friends daughters birthday in May.


Luckie by Tinniegirl.
I joined my nephews up for the Pigeon Pair Kids Mail Swap and we're going to use the Luckie to make collage cards for the swap.

Scented soap in fabric pouch by Troischats. This smells absolutely divine.

Funky doorstop also by Troischats - this has been put to good use already replacing the oxygen bottle that I was using as a doorstop!

Glass pendant by Finki. I'm going to string this onto a piece of leather today (once I find my jewellery supplies) ...yippee!

Hand stitched bowl also by Finki.

For lots more of watcha wearing, head on over and say hi to Fii

Just a minute..... in March

I nearly forgot again until I saw Jess's Post.

March 2009 will have to go down as one of the craziest months of my entire life!

• I moved out of my old house
• I moved in with my younger sister and brother in law
• My brother got married
• I moved out from my sisters house and into my new house
• I went to the Stitches and Craft show
• I had my very first stall at a craft market

All of that, on top of my normal everyday life was completely exhausting but also enjoyable (except for the moving house bit because that just sucked big time).

Watching

• Sadly, I no longer have Foxtel. I really miss all of my favourite shows, and not being able to just tape them and watch them whenever I feel like it. At the moment, the only must see tv is Brothers and Sisters, and I try to catch The Bold and the Beautiful at least twice a week (that's always enough to know what's happening). Channel 10 have now moved Dexter to some ridiculous ever changing time on a Sunday night. I'll have to just buy the DVD.

Reading

• I finally finished Knit Two. I don't want to give anything away but it seems to me that there may just be a third book in the wings

Eating

• I had a lovely piece of cake for afternoon tea today. I have some old bananas, so Flo's banana cake may be on the menu tomorrow.... or I could make fried bananas in toffee sauce and have it with ice-cream - yum!

Making

• A handbag for my Auntie. She's going overseas in May and she's requested a new handbag for the trip. I really want to make her a handbag with a zip closure as it's more secure for a trip like that.

Head on over to see Jen at August Street for much more of Just a Minute....

PS - I think she may still be on holidays!

Greenolive Goodies

I've been meaning to show and tell this lovely mixed pack of Greenolive fabric that I received from Martine at the Stitches and Craft Show earlier this month.

I've been dreaming about little projects that I'm going to make with it.....

My little nephews would love some appliqued t-shirts with the bike print. I've run out of vliesofix, so a trip to Spotlight is on the list for today.

I want to make something for myself with the butterfly print... but I'm not quite sure what. I'm thinking a zippered purse, a handbag panel, a cushion cover, a covered canvas for the wall.... so many options!

All of these lovely fabrics are now available in the Greenolive Textiles Etsy Shop.

Eye Spy..... a discovery

Eye Spy is a little bit late this week, but I have an extremely good reason. I was busy discovering a new toy on the side of the road.

It's hard rubbish collection time once again in outer suburbia and I had absolutely no intentions of going anywhere to look for anything yesterday..... but then my sister came over to help me unload my car.

On the way to my house, she happened to spy a perfectly good portacot on the side of the road. I have a portacot already, but now I need another one for my house, so that the twins can be separated when they come to visit and it's time for a little baby nap.

Anyway, she wanted me to drive the car so that she could jump out and inconspicously pick it up in broad daylight. That trip took less than 5 minutes, so with the portacot in the car, we decided to scout around some of my local streets.

About three blocks from my house, out of the corner of my eye, I spyed a wooden box on the side of the road amongst a pile of rubbish. I immediately said to my sister that I thought that it might just be an old sewing machine. I reversed back, and she jumped out and picked it up and shoved it in the back of the car.

We arrived back home and opened up the case and found a 1950's Singer 201K sewing machine.

Thanks to Silly Gilly providing me with some links, I've been able to determine from the series register number (EJ653360) that it is definitely is a 201K. There were 30000 allotted from May 11, 1954, and it was manufactured in Clydebank, Scotland.

It still had the the sewing cotton and the bobbin threaded in the machine, so I plugged it in and switched it on and it sews like a dream!

There is a little opening on the right hand side of the case which opens up, and inside was the original instructions for the machine (sadly soaked in sewing machine oil which had spilled).....

It also contained all of these different feet and bobbins and even spare needles.

I can't believe that someone had actually put this out for the hard rubbish collection. Thank goodness I rescued it. I've found a copy of the original sewing instructions online so that I can have a proper play with it sometime during the week.

Thankyou so much to Megan for choosing this weeks theme... maybe that was the reason that I made the discovery before the garbage collectors. Head on over to visit Cindy to play along!

To market, to market, to buy a.....

Wowee, my first ever craft market was sooooo much fun!

It was much better than I could have ever expected. The weather was beautiful, the location was fantastic, the stallholders were happy and friendly, there was a steady stream of customers all day long, and the five hours were over in a flash.

The kids craft table and the face painting was a huge hit with the little ones.

It was just like a huge crafty blogmeet - it was lovely to see Cindy, Bec, Liesl, Bev, Nikki, Leah, Ann-Marie, Liz, and Lara. I hope I didn't miss anyone (I have a terrible memory these days)!
We ate lovely cupcakes and drank coffee and chatted about crafty things all day long....

I made some lovely purchases and swaps with Buttons by Lou Lou, Finki and Troischats. I haven't taken any photos yet, but I'll post them later in the week.

An extra special thanks goes to Sel, Cathy and Ms L for helping me out with the packing, unpacking, and set up etc, and to Rach for helping me unload everything today..... and to everyone who came along to visit or bought a little crafty something from me!

I'm definitely going to book in for the next one.

In the nick of time

My market apron is ready to go. It matches this one that I made for Tinniegirl a couple of weeks ago.

Beautiful birdie placemat used as front pocket courtesy of Lynsey.... tropical print from the oppy, and spotty trim from Spotty!

Sunshine - check
Blue Skies - check
Kruddie's Bonus - soon to be check

What a perfect day to go to the market.