Almost 40

 

Photo courtesy of Lara

I don't usually make a fuss of my birthday, but this year I have lots to celebrate.

 I forgot my camera - thank goodness for iPhones!

I decided to have an Almost 40 celebration with a group of gorgeous friends (sheesh I'm getting old)!

Photo courtesy Carly

Carly suggested The Tea Room at NGV - and I must say it was a brilliant suggestion!

 Photo courtesy Carly

The scones were absolutely delicious!

Photo courtesy of my sister

We had a beautiful table overlooking the waterwall. The food and the service was excellent. I would highly recommend it for a fun afternoon.
 

How do you know when you have a table full of bloggers? They all whip out their iPhones when the food arrives for a bit of synchronised instagramming... 

I received some gorgeous pressies... will have to blog them tomorrow. Thanks so much for coming along to ladies - it was the perfect birthday celebration!

Hearty

Mini Heart Brooch - Tangerine

There seems to be a bit of a theme happening around these parts...

Necklace - You Stitched Up My Heart

I'm still trying out some new things and seeing if they work.

Mini Heart Brooch - Fuschia

I've kept some of these for myself, and also popped some in the shop.

Have a happy Sunday!

I Ride My Bicycle - Part 2

I've been making the most of this beautiful Autumn weather that we're having, by getting out and about to ride my new bike.

My Physiotherapist recommended an APP named Runkeeper, to track exercise progress. I really like it! You can set it to give updates along the way, so I have mine set for every five minutes. It tells me how many minutes I've been riding for, how far I've travelled, and my average speed.

This fantastic bike path along the river is only about two blocks from my house, and for all these years, I haven't been able to use it. I'm now trying to make up for lost time.

My two eldest nephews joined me yesterday morning. Luckily they rode slow enough that I could keep up!

I have a little route that I've set myself along the path. It's just over five kilometres. I might try to increase the distance next week, except that I'm at the hospital four days out of five so I'm not sure how much time or energy I'll have left for riding.

Spotted these guys along the way yesterday - perfect weather for a bit of kayaking!

Shop News

Just in time for Mothers Day, I've whipped up a new batch of Heart Brooches - cut from beautiful Tassie Blackwood, and featuring some of my original designs.

They all include free shipping!

I've also added new Un-Reel Pendant Necklaces - there are plenty of colours to choose from.

... including a Rainbow version!

They're all in the shop.

I Ride My Bicycle

So many amazing and wonderful things have happened this year. I never could have guessed that there was more to come!

Yesterday I went over to Cathy's house. We'd planned to go out for lunch, and I'd asked if I could take her bike for a test ride before I began looking at bike shops myself.

When I arrived, she said that she had a surprise for me..... and OMG what a surprise it was!

A big group of beautiful friends had all contributed to buy me a new bike!  UNBELIEVABLE!

I took it for a test spin straight away.

I haven't been able to ride a bike for well over ten years. I was a little bit wobbly at first, but I managed to stay upright.

We went to the bike shop so that I could choose a helmet and a bike lock.

I came home and rode laps of the park with the nephews.

It was soooooo much fun!

There was a huge envelope full of gorgeous birthday cards too.

Thankyou so much to Cathy for pulling off such an amazing feat and keeping it a secret, and thankyou one and all to my beautiful friends.

Best early birthday pressie ever!!!

New - iPad Cases and Laptop Skins

 I've been playing around in Illustrator again...

Society 6 now has these nifty iPad Cases - I've added four new designs.
They're hard cases that are very similar to the iPhone Cases.

They're also available as Laptop and iPad Skins if you just want to add a bit of pretty without the protection.

Now... I just need someone to buy me an iPad!

My Creative Space

I've been masquerading as a quilter this week, sitting on the couch each night, hand stitching this lovely gingham binding.

I've never handstitched a binding before, and I really didn't think I'd enjoy it. I'm usually the queen of quick and easy sewing (which definitely means sewing by machine - not by hand). But, I really surprised myself because it was enjoyable and satisfying to see every little stitch in the process.

After seeing all of Michelle's beautiful Autumn Leaf photos on Instagram, I thought it was high time that I changed my header from Summer to Autumn. I'm only about 6 weeks late...

Maybe I'd better get started on Winter now?

More Creative Spaces

Adding some colour

I have the day off today - yippee!

So, I'm trying really hard to be productive and start ticking things off the mighty big list.

The first job was to get the cushion covers re-listed in the shop - TICK.

Next up - stocktake... wish me luck!

Kidspot Village Voices - Voices of 2013

I received a lovely surprise recently when I was one of 700 bloggers nominated in the Kidspot Voices of 2013 (thankyou so much to the lovely person / persons who nominated me).

This all happened while I was in hospital, so I had no idea what was going on in blogland!

My Profile Page

In even more exciting news, I made it into the Top 100 (wow) in the Creative and Home Category.


I think I'll have a nice hot Milo to celebrate!

The FilmLife Festival Screening Night

Lastnight I went along to the Screening Night for the FilmLife Project at Footscray Community Arts Centre. It was my first big social outing since my transplant (very exciting)!

'The FilmLife Project provides an opportunity for new and budding filmmakers to submit a three minute film around organ and tissue donation, specifically to help raise awareness around ‘knowing your loved ones wishes’ in conjunction with DonateLife Week 2013'

This year Sydney and Melbourne both had screening nights, and we watched the short films in unison between each city.

With Carly Findlay (Blog Judge) and Dr Sally Cockburn (Film Judge and Melbourne Screening MC)

Once again this year, there was also a FilmLife Blogging Competition. I was supposed to be on the judging panel, but I suggested that I may need a backup just in case I received a call....

I must have had a sixth sense, because that call came, and thank goodness, Carly stepped in for me on the Blog judging panel.

Carly and Tash

The short films were brilliant. It was great to be able to find out more about the process of making them from the filmmakers themselves, and the facilitators who ran the workshops.

The Melbourne crew with the Sydney crew on screen

The winning film was Somebody That I'll Never Know produced by Brooke Huuskes.




You can watch all of the films here - and you can vote for your favourite to win the peoples choice award. Each film is less than than three minutes long.

 
The winning blog was One Life by Alysha Hermann.

The full list of blogs:

Patricia Scheetz – Wishing for one more chance 
Rosemary Hughes – Yellow Eyes
Alysha Hermann - One Life
Alison Austin – Donate Life
Lauren Sherritt – Make Your Wish Count
Deb Robertson – Make Your Wish Count (a chat about something that is difficult to talk about)
Beth Green – Seeing Organ and Tissue Donation in a different light
Paul Mclean – The Twilight Zone
Gary from Being Gawee – DonateLife Week
Julie Green – Organ Donation and the Dog: Starting the Conversation
Amanda Smyth – A letter to my babies about organ donation
Stacey McKee - Suddenly I see


 The winning filmmaker Brooke Huuskes will be on Dr Sally Cockburn's radio program on 3AW at 6.30 tonight, so listen in!

The Quilt for Cam

Photos via Instagram #quiltforcam

I've been trying to write this blog post for the last week.  But, I've been back at the Alfred four days out of five this week, plus a trip to RMH, so I've been a bit too tired and completely lost for words.

I'm going to try the best I can, but I'm not quite sure that any words I write, will do the story justice.

This is one of those stories that seems like a fairytale. Things like this don't really happen in this day and age... do they?

Last year, purely by chance, I was lucky enough to meet Deb in real life. I didn't realise it at the time, but she'd travelled from NZ to Melbourne for a family wedding. She had posted photos on Instagram and I noticed that she was actually visiting my suburb! We met for coffee and cake, and chatted so much that we had to leave the cafe as it was closing.

Not long after my transplant call, Deb hatched an ingenious idea to collect fabrics and start making me a quilt. I was in ICU for the first eight days, so I was completely oblivious to the happenings in crafty instagram world!

You can imagine the shock, surprise and delight when I finally checked my instagram and worked out what was happening behind the scenes.

I've been watching in wonder while the photos have been popping up with the #quiltforcam hashtag.

Deb also wrote the most beautiful post for the FilmLife Project Blog challenge.

The winner is going to be announced at tonights FilmLife screening. I'm very excited to be going along as it'll be my first major social outing since transplant.

There's a part two to this story...

I was already overwhelmed that this amazing quilt was being put together just for me. But then there was the logistics of getting it all the way from Christchurch to Melbourne in one piece.

Deb really wanted to deliver the quilt in person and put the call out for help. An amazing lady named Sophie answered the call, and with the help of The Sisterhood, they raised enough money for an airfare in one afternoon.

It was completely unbelievable!

Last Friday night, Deb flew all the way to Melbourne with my beautiful quilt, and then Deb and Michelle came to visit on Saturday to hand deliver it.

We had a lovely afternoon of non-stop chatting and quilt fondling.

The light isn't great in this photo but I had to hang it on the wall for a while just so I could marvel in the beautiful colours. I adore the random fabric placement.

Photo courtesy - Deb Robertson Works In Progress

The backing is a beautiful vintage sheet (totally my style and colours).

I really have to thank everyone who contributed to the beautiful quilt, and everyone who helped to get Deb to Melbourne to deliver it.

It's one of those things that I'll be able to keep forever, and it will always have such an amazing story to go with it.

To the wonderful ladies from The Sisterhood - thankyou so much for the extra surprise. I'll have my new bicycle very soon!

More Hottie Challenge Buttons

Thanks to everyone who has signed up to The Hottie Challenge so far!

It seems that I neglected to remember that smaller sized buttons were necessary to fit into blog sidebars. Whoops!

So here are the codes you'll need:

200px

<a href="http://curlypops.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/2013-hottie-challenge.html"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8260/8640736811_349cb011e9_o.jpg" />

250px 

<a href="http://curlypops.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/2013-hottie-challenge.html"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8264/8641839808_2bc18db6da.jpg" />

 

 

If you need some ideas or inspiration, make sure to check out the Flickr pool 

 

Shop News

The time has come to re-open my little online shop for business!

I don't yet have my full handmade range available, but there are plenty of You Sew Girl patterns and CurlyPops Fabrics.

I also have a couple of cushion covers still available - perfect to add a bit of colour to your couch!

The 2013 Hottie Challenge

The Hottie Challenge is back for 2013!

In case you may not remember it from 2011...

The aim of the challenge is to make a hottie cover, which will be exhibited in the gallery space at Open Drawer Art Textiles and Learning Centre from Friday July 5th, with a grand opening on Sunday July 7th from 2-4PM.

The finished hotties are donated to the Margaret Pratt Foundation, so that they may be sold to raise funds.

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 $850,000 to date to promote research into the causes and prevention of chronic lung rejection. 

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

You can 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:

• Entry fee: $5.00 – this covers hottie template, postage & advertising costs, with any surplus going to MPF.
• The photocopied template enclosed in your kit should be used as a guide for size. We will not be measuring so near enough will be good enough.
• Group entries will be accepted and encouraged.
• Age is no barrier.
• The Only Rule: The cardboard template 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 Hottie will 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 5th to Sunday July 28th, 2013
• Finished entries must arrive at Opendrawer no later than Friday June 23rd 2013. Please makesure your entry is clearly marked with your name and a short description of your masterpiece.
• There will be a public vote for the best Hottie Cover and the winner will receive an awesome trophy and much adulation.
• We will have a gala opening on Sunday July 7th from 2 - 4PM

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

*** I will need to receive the Hotties by Friday June 21st, so that I can deliver them in person on the 22nd.

There's a Flickr Group for everyone to add their pics, and I 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:



400px

<a href="http://curlypops.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/2013-hottie-challenge.html"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8099/8620336109_46f791e51c_o.jpg" />

500px

<a href="http://curlypops.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/2013-hottie-challenge.html"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8123/8620339247_d5e7d6cc6b_o.jpg" />

600px

<a href="http://curlypops.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/2013-hottie-challenge.html"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8535/8621439154_52f35b1fd0_o.jpg" />

1000px

<a href="http://curlypops.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/2013-hottie-challenge.html"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8520/8621442296_f20e84efc8_o.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 . I will email you a Paypal invoice for the $5 entry fee and pop a kit in the mail for you.

Last time we had 63 entries via the blog, and I'm really hoping that we can beat that record this year!