It's the final countdown....

Photo taken at the real Oktoberfest in Germany last week (I have no idea why it starts in September)

It's only one more sleep 'til Blogtoberfest.... the annual bloggy festival filled with daily posting frivolity and crafty giveaways galore!

Have you joined up yet?

I'll be maintaining the giveaway list on my sidebar to give Tinniegirl a bit of assistance. If you have a giveaway that you would like to add to the list, please send me an email: mscurlypops (at) gmail (dot) com - with the link to your giveaway.

Let the games begin (insert evil laugh here)!

The Loz and Dinny Challenge: Meet SuperPops

Frances is not a very good model for this challenge as she's headless and armless!

You know how I just love a crafty challenge right?

Gemma from Loz and Dinny put out the call a little while back.
The challenge was to take a piece of this very lovely vintage gold fringing and create a 'one of a kind' masterpiece.

I joined up for the challenge very late and was racking my brain trying to work out what I could create. I had the idea for a brooch, but the fringing had other ideas when I tried it out.

I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't think of anything, when someone came to the rescue with a fabulous idea......

Tania had christened me SuperPops a couple of weeks ago.... and so it stuck


A quick Wonder Woman google search, some sketching, and some measuring.... and I ended up with an outfit.


* I'm probably going to regret posting this photo tomorrow

** I really hope that the neighbours weren't watching me through the window while I was partaking in my photo shoot

*** There were originally plans for boob tassels on the bra thingy but that was taking it a little bit too far - even for me!

**** A huge thankyou to Tania from Myrtle and Eunice for the SuperPops inspiration.

To check out the other players, head on over to Loz and Dinny and check it out!

What Katy Did

My What Katy Did Design wall decal arrived in the post last week - I haven't managed to put it on the sliding door just yet, as I'm thinking that I should probably clean the glass first, but isn't it just stunning. I love the combination of the birds and the blossoms.

Inside the package were also some gorgeous suprises!

A beautiful piece of fabric with CurlyPops printed with Katy's Yudu. She must have been reading my mind because I need to make a fabric banner to attach to my tablecloth for the markets. Now I can just add a border to this piece and voila - done.

...and also inside was this beautiful beaded necklace which I've been wearing ever since.

Thanks so much Katy!

Just a Minute..... in September

Watching:

I thought the best way to work out what I'm watching is to check what I've been taping on my IQ lately:

The Real Housewives of New York
Wife Swap USA
Dexter
NCIS (new episodes from this week finally)
Sarah's Summer House
The Unsellables
Design Star
Property Ladder
Build a New Life
Grand Designs

I'm sensing a theme with my tv watching antics.....

.... and I've added a couplef newbies - Glee and Nurse Jackie - so far so good.


Eating:

Chocolate chocolate chocolate - there hasn't been much healthy eating this month. I'm sitting on the couch at the moment with a bowl of white chocolate and macadamia nut biccies. Need I say more?


Listening:

I made some new CD purchases this month. I'm still old school when it comes to music. I want to be able to actually buy something tangible (the cd), I don't want to download it. So, I'm one of the not very many people that still trundles down to the cd shop!

Kate Miller-Heidke - Curiouser
Lisa Mitchell - Wonder
Newton Faulkner - Rebuilt by Humans


Preparing:

I have three markets coming up before christmas so I'm bunkering down and trying to get lots of stock ready. I also have a secret which I can't spill just yet.....


Making:

I entered the Loz and Dinny challenge at a really late stage, so I spent a few hours this weekend making my entry. You'll have to come back on Tuesday for the big reveal......and I'm blaming someone else for my entry and regretting a photo that may end up on the blog!


Reading:

I'm halfway through Watch Me Disappear by Jill Dawson. It's a really enjoyable read.... I should be finished in a couple of weeks hopefully. I only have about 3 hours of reading time pencilled into the schedule every three weeks which is why I'm so slow at finishing novels.


Time to go and eat some of those biccies - make sure to visit Jen at August Street and check out who else is playing along. You might just discover a new favourite blog!

Market Treasure Number Two

Another find from the Maryborough Market last weekend.

The manual that I found with my side of the road Singer is covered in machine oil.....this one is a perfect replacement.

The box of goodies was $15 and it has a few different sewing machine feet and other bits and pieces. An absolute bargain! There are some doubles in the box so I need to go through all of my accessories and sort them out (one of these days).

Have a happy Sunday wherever you are!

The Birtskag

Liesl came up with the name Birtskag earlier this week..... and I haven't been able to get it out of my head ever since, just like those rascally robots that have been singing Stayin' Alive on high rotation inside my brain.

This was a longer skirt with a sheer embroidered overlay.....

I love the combination of purple and red together....

So I decided on red stitching on the purple strap.

More birtskags are on the horizon....

My creative space

Todays creative space has been a whirlwind crafty day....

Bec came to visit and we spent the entire day crafting, eating and op shopping with her little Miss, and my nephew Mr X.

I was putting together some new flower brooches.... lots of colour co-ordinating and cutting and stitching and glueing, while Bec was working on a Baguette Bag and the binding for her current quilt.

We took the kiddies out for lunch, and we just happened to be in the vicinity of the local Salvos, which meant that a pitstop was completly unavoidable!

Bec picked up these lovely cross stitched birdies, a bright yellow crochet tablecloth and a lovely turquoise blue chenille bedspread.


I bought this draftsmans chair which is going to be perfect for my craft bench. Mr X put it to good use while working on his painting. Little Miss made some lovely collaged pieces with different types of papers and some glue.

The day absolutely flew and before we knew it, it was time to pack and say goodbye.

Gotta love a day full of craft!

Roo Mail

Do you remember the little giveaway that I had last week for 'Guess the quilt square theme'?

The winner was Sandi from Embroideroo. I sent her a red crochet doily brooch which matched my ferris wheel quilt square..... and then Sandi sent me back the most gorgeous pressie!

Sandi works in a chocolate shop (my idea of heaven), and so she sent me my favourite type of chocolate (peppermint). I've never even seen Junior Mints before (you'll have to just pretend that the box is still full.... I may have already polished those off).

The sweet little covered tape measure has already been put to good use as I had to take a trip out to my garage to measure my trestle table for an upcoming market. I have a habit of losing tape measures so I'm going to be very careful to keep this one safe and sound.

Underneath all the pressies is a microfibre cleaning cloth from Sarah Smith. Sandi was absolutely correct in thinking that I would love it!

Thanks so much Sandi - I'm off to have a cup of tea and that lovely Fry's Peppermint Cream chocolate bar while watching The Bold and the Beautiful.

PS - If you haven't visited Sandi's blog before - head on over and check out her very cool studio.

Market Treasure Number One

Everyone seemed to think that I bought myself a chook or a ute!
I couldn't possibly bring home a chook to my tiny little backyard full of weeds.... and I don't think the cat would be impressed either.

I did actually buy myself this very beautiful fire screen made from recycled corrugated iron. All of the flower petals have been individually cut and riveted together to form the flowers. I just couldn't leave it behind....

No I don't actually have an open fire requiring a fire screen - I'm going to remove the legs and use it as an outdoor piece of hanging art in my little (currently completely souless) outdoor alcove area. My outdoor setting has been made using a silver metal frame and recycled black plastic fake wood looking stuff that lasts forever, so the black and silver corrugated iron will match perfectly.

For now, my little fire screen is on holidays. I'll take a better photo when it finally arrives!

Sunday in the country

Talbot

Sunday was a perfect day for a road trip to the country to catch up with my younger sister and BIL, and my dad.

My older sister has a Hyundai I-Max, so we had her and her hubby in the front, Moo and the twins in the next row in three baby seats, and Mr X and myself in the back. It was just like being a little kid again.... Mr X had his Nintendo DS, and I had my old school brick game (a Tetris rip off) which I remember buying from Dick Smith Electronics in about 1994. Mr X also offered me his Gameboy to play Super Mario Brothers, but it was some new fangled version of Super Mario that I couldn't work out. I only know how to play the original Super Mario Brothers from the 1980's.....

To make it even worse, I was playing Mr X's DS and I was pressing buttons but nothing was happening. I asked him what was wrong, and he explained that it has a touch screen - you don't press buttons for everything anymore. Now that made me feel like a really old fuddy duddy.

We made it to Clunes, and met up with my younger sister and BIL, then we formed a convoy and continued on our road trip until we reached Talbot.


Talbot has a fantastic farmers market on the third Sunday of every month.



All of the main streets in the town are blocked off and filled with stalls ranging from fresh fruit and veg, jams, sauces, nuts, olives, handcrafts, woodwork, lollies, antiques and collectibles, books, chooks, pigs, goats (yes - you can seriously buy a chook, pig, or goat at the market), wine, sauces....etc etc.


We walked around the streets and checked out all of the stalls, made some purchases, listened to some buskers, chatted with some of the stallholders, and then we finished off by letting the kiddies run around at the local park in the centre of town.


We loaded everyone back up into the bus (no mean feat with three babies and the associated paraphernalia), and headed to Maryborough for the Antiques and Collectibles Market at the historic Railway Station.

There was a great range of stalls and plenty of things to look at. The prices were also good which is always a bonus!


There's also a cafe and antiques emporium which is open every day except Tuesday.

So of course, we just had to sample some of the local delicacies on offer..... Devonshire Tea

Banana and Toffee Cream Pie

I haven't managed to take any photos of my goodies yet, and I also had to leave a rather large purchase with my sister in Clunes as it wouldn't fit back in the bus to Melbourne.
It's pretty special and I can't wait to show it off when it finally arrives (although there is a sneak peek of it in one of the photos above)!

Is it a skirt...... is it a bag....... it's a skirt bag

Warning: Long post ahead - a cup of tea and a tim tam may be a necessary requirement

It all started a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...... way before Tinniegirl and I had actually met in person. In fact, it was way back in the olden days, where Tinniegirl was still blogging in her previous home over at Big Cats Emporium.

It was right there that I first set on my eyes on this fabulous skirt.

Of course, my first suggestion (and yes you can even check the comments to confirm), was that it would make a fabulous handbag.

Fast forward a few months or so, and I finally got my hands on the skirt and bought it home with me to transform into a new creation.

There it sat, staring at me from the WIP stash, just begging to be transformed.


The problem was that I really didn't want to cut the skirt at all. Yes, I realise that I constantly dismember perfectly good pieces of clothing, crochet tablecloths, vintage tea towels, doilies etc without a second thought, but this time it was different.


It was only a few weeks ago, that an idea suddenly popped into my head while I was lying in bed one night... when of course, I should have been sleeping.

I've found that all my best ideas happen this way. Sometimes, I'll sit up and grab the notepad from the drawer next to my bed, sometimes not. I need to actually make a habit of it.

Anyhow, my bright idea was to make a gusseted bottom, and then attach it underneath the bottom of the skirt, without it being visible on the skirt.


The red corduroy is a mens shirt from the op-shop that I found on the $1 rack. It matched perfectly with the red binding on the skirt.

I managed to unpick the stitching holding the facing to the outer of the skirt to attach the strap. I wanted to keep the integrity of the original skirt, and I've even managed to keep the side zip in place.


I created the inner bag by attaching it to the original skirt facing. I love the stripey inner fabric too.

I managed to insert the magnetic snaps up underneath the facing while keeping the original skirt tags in place.

I think this is one of my best transformations yet!

I guess you'll know what I'll be searching for at the op shop in the future.....

Where for art thou ferris wheel?

My little ferris wheel is winging its way over to the other side of Melbourne right now....

The postie had better deliver it on time.....

I had to drive past the other ferris wheel earlier in the week......
It was supposed to be the 'apple of docklands eye'

I snapped some shots on my mobile phone....

I was stuck in traffic - I promise I wasn't driving and taking photos at the same time!

After watching it being slowly put together over a couple of years, it's really quite sad to see it being taken to pieces again.

Shopping.... who me???

To cheer myself up the other day, I decided to a little bit of online shopping therapy.

I bought this lovely vinyl wall decal from What Katy Did. The same lovely Katy who designed my fabulous new blog header.

I'm going to install it on my glass sliding door so that I have a nice view of cherry blossoms from the kitchen, instead of a fence, and the neighbours clothesline (one of the many joys of suburbia)!

If you read my blog, then you've probaby noticed that I have a bit of an obsession with adding snaps to many of my projects (I've even managed to incorporate some into my quilt square).

Carmel from Solomon Sewing alerted me to the fact that Snaps Australia is having a huge 40% off sale, and there's also a free shipping deal, so I bought myself a snap press, both sizes of dies and hundreds of snaps!

Oh and I also bought myself one of these extremely funky Finki Art Pendant / Brooches at the Made'n'Thornbury Market a couple of weeks ago. I just couldn't resist the flying ducks. There's plenty more in the Finki Shop.

Now I'm all shopped out!

Moo-tylicious

I spotted this seriously cute cow print fabric over at Nikki's blog last week.
Lucky for me, Nikki very generously gifted me some so that I could whip up a new outfit for Moo Moo.

Target t-shirt - Shorts made using the denim from a $1 pair of jeans from the oppy. It took me longer to change the thread colour on the overlocker, than it did to whip up the shorts.

I haven't stitched around the bulls head on the shorts. I used Applifix to fuse it to the shorts, and I'm very interested in how it's going to wash and wear in comparison to vliesofix.

This is the strong muscle man pose apparently!

He really liked his new outfit - the shorts are not going to last long..... they're looking a little bit too small. Luckily he has little twin brothers to take the hand-me downs. I think I'm going to have to quickly make a larger version.


....and just to make absolutely sure - they also passed the trampoline test!

Northside Makers

Check out my Meet the Northside Crafters interview right here!

The very first Northside Makers Market is scheduled for October 10th.... I'm counting down the days.

....and the Op Shop Gods were smiling

Dress $25

I stumbled onto a little goldmine earlier this week.... I've lost about ten kilos over the last twelve months, and so most of my clothes don't actually fit me properly anymore.

Top $10 Shorts $10

I've been partaking in some regular op shopping trying to find some bargain clothes, and then this week I found that my local Salvos shop had received a couple of truckloads of Myer sample stock. On Tuesday my sister and I picked up about 10 tops and a skirt for the princely sum of $75.

Jacket $20

Today we returned for some more bargains, to find that they'd increased the prices, but there were still some more beauties on offer.

I now have an entire new summer wardrobe of brand new clothes for about $150. Now that's what I call a bargain!

My creative space

There's nothing creative going on today, so instead, I'm sharing some last minute pics of my quilt project square.

A huge thanks to each and every person who left me a message yesterday. I don't usually share things of a very personal nature on the blog, but sharing certainly made me feel better.

I ended up spending a couple of hours on the couch, finishing off the last minute details, adding some special bling.

I think that the thing that I've loved the most about this project, is that I haven't had to specifically buy anything. Every single thing I've used was already in the stash - red fabric paint, red cotton, red floss, red snaps, red sequins, dismembered crochet tablecloths, and I've even used the red string that Kirsty had tied around the original envelope.... waste not want not.

Now the time has come to pack it all up and send it on a journey to a new destination. I can't wait to see how the story ends......

Be sure to check out all the creative spaces and the quilt project over at Kootoyoo.