Why timing is everything

I arrived home late last Monday night, tired, cranky, and even a little bit teary (over *emotional much)?

It was cold and wet and dark but as I checked the letterbox, there was an unexpected package inside. A beautiful floral tea towel from the Paris Flea Market.

Uhuh! The PARIS Flea Market.... in FRANCE

While Selina was off enjoying her holiday in Paris, she spotted this and thought I would love it (as of course I do).

There will be no sharp implements allowed anywhere near this tea towel. I'm going to get my brother to make me a stretcher frame in the right size, so that I can make it into a piece of wall art....

Oh, and the chocolate, well I'm sure you can work out the fate of that after a week at my place?

Thankyou so much Selina - you absolutely turned my day around (more than you know)!


*after a visit to the Specialist last week, he thinks that it's time to go forward with the pre-testing for a lung transplant to determine whether I can be added to the waiting list. I'm still absorbing the news..... but I have started a new blog..... because what else would I do at a time like this?

Featured Hottie Number 3

Introducing.....Lady of the Night

Isn't she absolutely stunning!


I was lucky enough to meet Leonie in person on Friday night, and she's just as lovely in real life as she is on her Cuppa and Cake blog. Well actually, she was even more lovely to tell you the truth.

She bought along her fabulous hottie to add to the collection, all packed up and ready to go..... but I couldn't resist, so I had to unwrap her and play show and tell.

Thankyou so much Leonie.

A Ship in a (Hottie) Bottle

My little sister has joined in with the Hottie Challenge..... but she's working flat out at the moment with her day job as a Chef, and also at Big House Collective, so she asked me if I would assist (ahem... make her Hottie).

So this is the idea that I'm working on for her - A Ship in a (Hottie) Bottle.

It's time to get out the inkjet printable fabric and let the fun begin!

An Edna to call my own

When I spotted a photo of Jodie wearing a lovely pair of Edna's a while back, I was totally jealous.


I mean, seriously, who doesn't want to own a pair of bright yellow plastic sunnies with diamantes?

I had big plans for a self-portrait.... but I'm having a totally lazy Saturday (and I'm still in my pyjamas), so pop on over and check out Jodie's self portrait instead. Its much cooler!

Featured Hottie Number 2

I have another lovely Hottie for you today.

This super cute Budgie Hottie brooch is by Liz from Betty Jo.... I wonder if it's part of her finished Hottie Challenge piece?

Oh, and the postie delivered the very first finished hottie to my house yesterday. Thankyou Trudi!

My Creative Space

After seeing the gorgeous (finished) Hotties being added to the Flickr Group, I decided that yesterdays forced day off due to tyre problems (for which I ended up having to fork out $148 for a new tyre to fix) was the perfect opportunity to make a start on my own.

There was a lot of procrastinating, and placing of bits and bobs all over the place, before I actually started stitching anything into place.

So this is the beginning..... now for the next bright idea!

The home of our creative spaces....

Changing of Plans

I decided to do a good deed yesterday afternoon, by picking up my nephew after school.

But, somehow while performing that good deed, I managed to drive my car over a very big nail and ended up stuck right outside the school, in a bustop, with a flat tyre....... wearing moccasins (oh the humiliation).

All I can say is thank goodness for the RACV (and thank goodness Mr RACV didn't laugh at my choice of footwear).

So instead of heading to work today (with no spare tyre), I'll be getting the tyre fixed, and packing up my brand new Colour Your Own Fabric Panel Kits.

I've added them to The CurlyPops Shop and also my Made It Shop - go silly!

Featured Hottie Number 1

I don't know whether I should admit that I haven't actually started my Hottie, when some other lovely crafty peeps have already finished!

This gorgeous crocheted hottie, was created by Trudi from Maude and Me.... and would be perfect for the licorice lovers out there! Does it remind you of anything by chance?

Thanks for being number 1 Trudi!

PS - I have a dedicated Hottie Page up on the top right of the blog to make it a little easier

Melissa's Treasures

As well as the yummy jam, last week, Melissa from Melissa's Treasures also sent me this beautiful giveaway gift.

It has a beautiful Thea & Sami Linen Screen printed teatowel, some lovely beeds, two gorgeous zines (written by Melissa), and some cards.

Thankyou so much Melissa..... I have plans for that lovely teatowel already!

Jammin'

Did you know that I love jam?

Well I do. But it has to be homemade jam. None of that fake fruit conserve stuff that you buy at the supermarket.

I've been known to specially request jam purchases to anyone who is going anywhere in the vicinity of a Farmers Market (I'm quite annoying like that).

I may have performed a happy dance when this arrived in the letterbox last week.


Thankyou Katrina....and thankyou Windsor Deli Jam for being so darn delicious (especially on multigrain toast)!

Last Call for The Hottie Challenge

Tonight is the last chance to join in with my Hottie Challenge Group Entry.... if you haven't signed up, then quickly head on over to this post before 8PM Melbourne time.

I have some ideas and some sketches, but haven't made a start just yet. Let's hope that I get some free time this week to begin. So many things to do.... so little time!

Well Hung

My little brother came to visit today, and so my Tinniegirl masterpiece is finally hanging on the wall.

I'll certainly Dream Sweetly tonight....

Now thats bunting lovely

Today it's a sneaky little pre-planned and pre-scheduled post...

.... because I had to make sure that the birthday girl didn't see her pressie on the blog

Before she actually received it in person!

Happy 40th Birthday Tinniegirl

My Creative Space

I finally plonked myself down on the couch Monday night (while watching Offspring) with the intention of stitching the lovely curved frame onto my Glam Purse.

It seems that it's been in the WIP pile for a quite a while now, but I desperately want to finish it so that I can use it!

But then, I got a little distracted by  Jay Ryan...... ummm yes that's a bead that I've stitched on the inside.

The home of our creative spaces

Psssssst...... a birthday wish

Photo blatantly stolen from Tinniegirl

Hello there crafty peeps... today is a very special day because my wonderful friend Cathy (aka Tinniegirl) is celebrating her 40th birthday.

She's currently out having dinner at Helenic Republic (while we just have to make do watching George Calombaris on Masterchef).


I'd love it if you could pop on over and leave her a secret birthday wish so that she has a wonderful surprise when she gets home?

Open Drawer

Photo courtesty of Open Drawer

I finished earlier than I'd expected on Monday, so with a free afternoon on my hands, I thought I'd take a little chance and head off on a road trip to Camberwell.

I'd been intrigued about Open Drawer ever since I found out about the Hottie Challenge.

It was lovely to meet Prue and Robyn who own the business, and find out a little bit more about why they chose to support The Margaret Pratt Foundation. They're both extremely passionate artists/crafters, and you can tell from the very first minute that they love what they do.

Photo courtesty of Open Drawer

I had a grand tour of the shop - the front section contains all of the beautiful handmade goodies (shoppers heaven), and the rear section contains the supplies (crafters heaven). There's also a lovely room where they run groups and classes, and another separate workroom with all of the sewing equipment.

Upstairs is the beautiful gallery space. I wandered around the exhibition for a while, chose some favourites, and lingered (as you do of course)....

The current exhibition named Transparency finishes at the end of this month. I wish that I'd noted down the artists name, but I fell in love with quite a few pieces that were made using textile techniques including cut up embroidered tablecloths and doilies.

Photo courtesty of Open Drawer

If you're in Camberwell, you most definitely should check it out at 1158 Toorak Rd ... there's also a great coffee shop just a couple of doors down, so you can make it a whole afternoon of fun!

Skirting Around

I have a birthday party to go along to this coming weekend, and it's fancy dress (for the kiddies thankfully - not for me)!

I bought the birthday girl some gorgeous red stockings from My Poppet last month, so I just wanted to make a little skirt that she could wear with them.

With exactly zero size 6 models on hand and available, I winged it, and then put out a call for help on twitter regarding the length (I wanted it to be just sitting at the knee).

Kate came to the rescue, as fortunately she had two little size 6 models playing in the yard.

I've forgotten to take photos of the side seams, but I did a lovely flat felled (at least I think that's what it's called) seam with two lines of red top stitiching down either side.

I think it's super cute, so I hope the birthday girl does too!

Hot Wheels

I actually sat down at the sewing machine yesterday and sewed for most of the afternoon (after the entire morning was spent lazing around on the couch).

It had been two whole weeks since I'd even switched the sewing machine on. I was surprised that it wasn't covered in cobwebs. It seems so silly, but I'd really missed it.

First job on the list - a custom order for tie up headbands for some Roller-Derby girls.

What fun!

The First Twenty

The first twenty Hottie Challenge kits are all packaged up and ready to go in the mail first thing tomorrow morning.

Thankyou so much to everyone who is playing along!

Keep an eye on your letterbox if you were one of the early sign ups. Fingers crossed the next batch of kits arrives super speedily so that I can send out them out. Craft On Hotties!

The Hottie Challenge - Update Number 1

Although Blogger tried to sabotage my attempts at getting the Hottie Challenge up and running, it's now All Systems Go!

I also have some wonderful news - I've had some very generous donations from Liesl, Sel, and Bron so that I can offer more free entries (the entry fee is donated directly to the Margaret Pratt Foundation) to anyone who would like to sign up.

I've packed up the first lot of kits to pop in the mail Monday morning..... so keep your eyes peeled for the postie if you've already signed up.

Please feel free to spread the word, and grab the button for your blog..... I'm excited!

The Hottie Challenge

The mystery envelope arrived yesterday morning and now I can finally reveal what I've been waiting for....

I really believe that sometimes things just happen for a reason..... so when Nic from Yardage Design put a little link to Open Drawer - Art Textiles and Learning Centre over on her Facebook Page, I was meant to click on that link.

Now normally I would have had a quick peruse of the front page of a website, and then be off on my merry way. But, on the front page of the Open Drawer website, on the bottom right side, I noticed that it stated:

Open Drawer supports The Margaret Pratt Foundation.

So you've probably never heard of The Margaret Pratt Foundation, but I certainly have.

From their website:

The Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust is a registered charity whose aim is to encourage, develop and maintain Australia’s world class expertise in the field of organ transplantation by supporting research that addresses the problems faced by children and adults after heart and lung transplant.

The aim of the research must be to improve the outcomes for heart and lung transplant recipients. 

The Margaret Pratt Foundation has donated $700,000 to date in 2011 to promote research into the causes and prevention of chronic lung rejection.

The foundation donates to provide funds for the researchers working at the Alfred Hospital, right here in Melbourne.

So if you've read this far, then I'm sure you want to know about the challenge, right???

The challenge is to create a Hottie Cover using any art or textile technique that takes your fancy.

It doesn't need to be a functional cover!

The rules and regulations taken from here :

Join the Hottie Challenge – it is a way that you can donate your time and a little money to a very worthy cause while having fun using your creative skills however great or small they may be.

The Hottie Challenge is Opendrawer’s first project to help raise money for the Margaret Pratt Foundation (Research for heart and Lung Transplants) our chosen charity.
www.mprattfoundation.com.au

• Entry fee: $5.00 – Opendrawer will not keep any monies raised from the Entry Fee, any surplus will go to MPF.
• The photocopied template should be used as a guide for size. We will not be measuring so close enough will be good enough.
• Group entries will be accepted and encouraged.
• Age is no barrier.
• The Only Rule: The cardboard cutout must be used, it can be covered and/or coloured but should be within your cover, the neck hole must be kept open as this is how your cover is to be displayed.
• The finished entry is to be donated to the MPF for sale.
• All entries will be displayed in Opendrawer’s Gallery from Friday July 1 to Sunday July 24, 2011
• Finished entries must be with Opendrawer by ***Friday June 24^th 2011. Please make sure your entry is clearly marked with your name and a short description of your masterpiece.
• There will be a public vote for the best Cover and the winner will receive an awesome trophy and much adulation.
• We will have a gala opening on Friday July 1st between 6 – 8pm

*** I will need to receive the Hotties by Thursday June 23rd, so that I can deliver them in person on the 24th.

I'm going to co-ordinate a group entry via the blog so we can all raise some funds together.

I've already donated $100 to cover the entry fee for the first twenty people who would like to play along (the $100 goes straight to the foundation), and have 20 kits ready to send out. After twenty, you can just paypal or direct deposit the $5 and I will pay for more kits to be sent out.

*Please note: the first 20 places have been filled now, so when you join and email me your address, I will send you the details on the $5 donation for your entry fee.

I've created a Flickr Group for everyone to add their pics, and will feature all of our lovely Hottie creations on the blog!

Of course, please take the button and pop it on your blog too (feel free to save the image above), or use this html code:

<a href="http://curlypops.blogspot.com/2011/05/hottie-challenge.html"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2650/5712038721_f886d4765d_m.jpg" />

If you would like to play along, all you need to do is add your name to this linky list, and then email me your snail mail address mscurlypops (at) gmail (dot) com and I will pop a kit in the mail for you.

My Creative Space....

I didn't think that I was going to play along with my creative space today.

Yesterday was a very emotional day. I don't know whether its something I'm willing to blog about or not. At times like this, I always feel the need to just DO something, and that's what I'm planning on.

Suffice to say, that lastnights creativity on the couch (the little scanned doodle above), is the begnnings of that something..... spurred on by an email convo with Megan (thankyou Megan).

I'm just waiting on a little envelope to arrive before I can spill the beans on my plans.....

The home of my creative space

Think Happy Thoughts - A Recipe for Pumpkin Bread

Last week, I popped into Leonie's on the way home, and picked a beautiful big home grown (in the backyard) pumpkin.

I'm sure everyone is quite well aware of my aversion to anything vegetable, but surprisingly, I actually LIKE pumpkin.

I made Pumpkin Risotto on Sunday night, and then lastnight I made Pumpkin Bread.

I didn't have chilli powder so I added a smoky spice blend, but I really think that it actually needs more spice. You could also delete the chilli powder and add your own blend of spices (think nutmeg, cinnamon etc).

Here's the recipe from Taste.com.au

Preparation Time

10 minutes

Cooking Time

40 minutes

Makes

1 loaf

Ingredients

• Melted butter, to grease
• 300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp mild chilli powder
• 450g (1 cup) mashed
• cooked pumpkin
• 125ml (1/2 cup) milk
• 60g butter, melted, cooled
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 2 tbs pepitas (pumpkin seed kernels)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush an 11 x 21cm (base measurement) loaf pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Sift the flour, salt and chilli powder into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.
2. Place the pumpkin, milk, butter and egg in a jug, and use a whisk to stir until well combined. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture, and stir with a large metal spoon until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Sprinkle evenly with pepitas.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven. Set aside in the pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool

Notes

• You'll need to steam about 500g peeled, deseeded, chopped pumpkin for this recipe. This bread is great for sandwiches and as an accompaniment to a chargrilled lamb salad.

So guess what I'm having for lunch today with slatherings of butter?

Anyone for some red tape? Anyone? Bueller? or Acetylcysteine - Part 4

Image

Introduction
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I received another update on the status of Acetylcysteine being listed on the PBS thisafternoon.

Although I would dearly love to be able to share the documents regarding the decision right here, I can't as it may jeopardise the appeals process.

So here's the current outcome in point form:

In April 2010, the PBAC recommended that acetylcysteine be listed on the PBS as a replacement for mucomyst which was no longer being manufactured.

On 28th Feb 2011, the TGA granted approval for the registration of acetylcysteine

The PBS Listing section advised that acetylcysteine would be listed on the PBS from May 1st

The next day, the Federal Goverment (under Nicola Roxon as the Health Minister) decided to change the rules and now Federal Cabinet reviews all PBAC recommendations under $10 million turnover (because the politicians REALLY ARE qualified to make medical decisions).... or so they think.

The latest news is that acetylcysteine has been knocked back the PBAC for a PBS listing due to 'lack of recent clinical evidence' and 'cost effective data'.

It would cost the government approximately $8000 per year for my treatment. The treatment allows me to stay out of hospital (saving them money), it allows me to keep working part-time (saving them money), and keeps me off the lung transplant list (also saving them money). Not only that, it also allows me to still have a quality of life.

Why does a beauracrat in Canberra get to decide whether my life is worth a measly $8000 per year?

Especially considering that its Budget night in Canberra tonight.... here's a few figures

I don't want to get all political, and I know every sector is important but here's just two where I could maybe get the $8000 from:

The government is going to spend $4.84 billion on Foreign Aid
They will also be spending $300 million to boost sports to an elite level

At this stage, I am still getting a specially authorised and funded supply from one of the major hospitals, upon the understanding that it would soon be on the PBS.

So now, I just wait.... again.

Getting Stitchy

It's definitely been couch weather this week.... which means that I've been sitting in front of the heater in the evenings hand stitching a few new brooches.

They're not quite finished yet, but certainly getting there.

In other news, voting in the first round of the Cosmo Fun Fearless Female Awards has finished.
There were over 218,000 votes in total!

I want to say a huge thankyou to each and every person who took the time to vote for me.
Finalists are announced on June 6th, so I have a nailbiting month to wait and wonder!

The Birthday Loot - Part 2

Part 2 of the birthday loot went on a little country detour before it made its way to my house.

You may remember that I visited The Big House a couple of weeks ago in Ballarat, and I was drooling over the selection of vintage dresses.

There was a particular vintage housecoat that took my fancy.... you can see from the photo where I've taken it from the rack and looked at it, and it put it back rather messily!

Well, my little sister very sneakily bought it for me after I left!

It's very large and very shapeless, but the fabric (and the buttons) are beautiful. In the interests of my sanity, I'm not going to try to convert into a shapely dress that I can wear. I think I shall make an a-line skirt or a wrap skirt instead.

She also included a beautiful vintage tablecloth and teatowel.

My mum went to Ballarat on Friday, so she took my pressie home to Beeac with her.

So, on Saturday, my older sister and I packed up all the kiddies (six of them in total) in her people mover, and headed off to visit Beeac for an early Mothers Day celebration.

There was lots of collecting firewood...

Feeding the ducks and chooks..

Feasting....

... and dancing while the band played 'Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car', 'Incy Wincy Spider', and 'If You're Happy and You Know It' a thousand times!

Little Zaney even skipped the visit to the lolly shop with everyone else because he wanted to stay behind and play his guitar. I think my sister may have a future rock star on her hands!

The Birthday Loot - Part 1

Gorgeous bundle of fabric from Ms Hoppo Bumpo (do you think she knows my favourite colours?)

Wonderful handmade Lavender Eye Pillow and Fragrant Lavender Sachet from the Wee Girl

I've been totally slack in showing off the lovely birthday pressies that I received last week.

I've been so busy every day that there hasn't been much time (or daylight) left for gathering things and taking photos.

I've been totally and completely spoiled yet again.

I've been coveting one of these ever since I first saw them on Christina's blog, but I thought that it was the sort of gift that deserved a special occassion.

So I waited a reeeeeeeeeeeally long time for my birthday to arrive, and my sister bought it for me.

It's beeeewdiful ....