And the joy never stops

Unless your the poor postman who has to deliver parcels to my house.....



Picture this if you will..... I'm lying in bed fast asleep (even though it's already sometime after 9 AM and I really should be out of bed).



There's a loud knock at the door.



I wake up and think that maybe someone is knocking on the door, but maybe I'm just dreaming.

There's another loud knock, so I yell out - "WHO IS IT?"

No answer, so I get out of bed, stagger to the door and open it.....

I'm wearing pink flannelette pyjamas with printed green frogs wearing crowns, I have crazy bed hair, sleepy eyes, and possibly drool....

.....and I'm greeted by my postman

I'm squinting because the daylight is so bright. He smiles at me and hands over a huge parcel. I apologise for still being in my pyjamas... what else could I say, as I embarrassingly slink back inside and close the door?

I won this amazing box of goodies from Jemma's 100th post giveaway over at Amityville Boronia. Every single piece inside the box was separately wrapped so it was like 20 pressies in 1!

Did you notice that one of the parcels is clearly marked OPEN ME LAST?

There's a craft book, vintage patterns, vintage fabrics, buttons, trims, my favourite chocolate,

some beautiful quilted coasters, embroidery floss, and embroidered doiley....

But, the mystery of the OPEN ME LAST parcel and the piece de resistance, is this amazing handcarved CurlyPops stamp!

It completely matches the font that I use on my header and my business cards. I'll be stamping everything in sight.... don't stand still for too long if you happen to come over!

Thanks so much Jemma!

Sweet parcels in the mail

I arrived home lastnight to find two parcels waiting for me squeezed into my little mailbox (I might need to do something about that).

I was the super lucky winner of the Selina's Vintage mystery giveaway. Well, the mystery parcel included vintage fabrics, vintage pillowcases, chenille, beautiful trims and buttons, and the cutest magnetic postcard for my fridge.

Thankyou so much Selina.... I'm imagining some gorgeous creations as I type!

.... and in the other parcel was the fabulous 1983 teatowel in brand new pristine condition from Jannimary, who won my embroidered doiley giveaway.

Thanks so much Janice!

I'd better get back to working on my Snailblazer swap goodies.... I'm running late (and blaming the horrible lurgy).

For Sarah

While I was at the market the other weekend, I was next to a lovely stallholder named Sarah who was selling the most gorgeous shower caps (there's a photo here at Finki).


Sarah had a teatowel at home that was calling out to be transformed into an apron..... so she popped it into the post and it arrived at my house. The only rules were to stick to blue and black tones and definitely no floral!


Although 90% of my stash could probably be classified as floral, I did actually have some fabric in the stash that matched perfectly.


The moral of the story is - just because you don't cook, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't look stylish in the kitchen!

The most useless fabric shop in the world

Everyone in Australia knows exactly which shop I'm talking about...

I drove to Spotlight today to pick up some water soluble stabiliser so that I could do a bit more crazy stitching. I have a project in mind that I'm going to make, but it just won't work without using stabiliser, and I don't have enough in the stash.

I'm apologising in advance for the excruciatingly bad grammar but I'm too angry to add any!

I arrive at the haberdashery counter and take a number and wait......

15 year old girl calls my number
I ask for water soluble stabiliser
She asks me to repeat what I want
I ask for water soluble stabiliser
She says she doesn't know what it is.... and asks how to pronounce it
WATER SOLUBLE STABILISER
She asks the other 15 year old girl behind the counter and she has no clue either
She then says that they probably don't stock it
I say I bought some here less than 2 weeks ago, so you do stock it
She says I should try the dress counter
I say I bought it at the haberdashery counter less than 2 weeks ago, and tell her to ask a supervisor
She finds and asks a supervisor who also has no clue....
They then proceed to tell me that I should just come back during the week when the full timers are working, because they'll know what I'm talking about!

WHAT THE????

Can somebody please (pretty please) open a proper fabric / haberdashery shop in the Western suburbs? I promise I'll be your best customer.

The Wonky K and the Loot Glorious Loot Grand Finale

I suddenly remembered yesterday morning that I hadn't organised a mothers day pressie for my mum, so a quick flick through the ever mounting stash, and I found that I still had some of this lovely kitchen themed fabric that I received from Ingrid, and insulbright from Liesl.

So I whipped up a quick potholder and quilted (very haphazardly) a very wonky K.

I hope she likes it!

Then yesterday afternoon, all of the lovely Thornbury Craft Bonanza ladies came over to visit.

Liesl arrived bearing Loot! This beautiful tealight candle housewarming pressie with a battery operated candle (perfect for me because then I can't burn the house down)!

There was a bit of sketching, cutting, collaging, sewing, quilting, brooch making, crochet... I think we ended up convering nearly every category of craft over the afternoon - all washed down with lovely crafty conversation and yummy food. There was also planning for our upcoming crafty weekend away at Sewjourn!

PS - I'm not sure who left behind an entire packet of unopened tim tams but thankyou!

Serena took Charles and Di off to their new home in her kitchen, where I'm sure they'll be very happy...

Now, I'm off to have a cup of tea and one of Liesl's leftover cupcakes...

I promised a giveaway!

I'm a week late on my giveaway promise, but better late than never!

I saw this post over at Quilting Mick during the week, and got all inspired to whip out the mens shirt that had been hiding in the stash (my BIL didn't like the colour of the stripes so it ended up in my chop up pile)

I haven't seen the Betz White book, so I just split the shirt at the seams, and reconstructed it to create a half apron.

Frances is a bit too skinny to show the proper proportions, but the apron body goes all the way around to her back, and the straps are extra long. This apron will fit any size.

If you would like to win it for yourself, just leave a comment by Wednesday night - 8 PM Melbourne time..... simple as that!

Loot Glorious Loot - Day 6

Onto day 6, and the Lootfest continues....

Jess from Button Beauty popped this gorgeous old teatowel in the mail for me this week. My little sister was born in 1976, so I might have to whip something up for her with this beauty!

I'm very excited today because the Thornbury Craft Bonanza girls are coming to visit for our monthly craft-a-palooza. I made a quick trip to the shops yesterday to pick up the required chocolate supplies, so everybody should be happy.... now I should probably try to clean up some of the mess in my craft space to make room for everyone....

PS - More looters here

Loot Glorious Loot - Day 5

Today's Loot Glorious Loot is sitting on the ironing board.... although it's pretty easy to see now that the iron hasn't been anywhere near it yet!

It's a beautiful Australian Birds tablecloth that I recieved in the mail from Stacey last week.

I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for just yet. It's in fabulous condition - I would love to try to incorporate the birds into a large handbag... just need to think about it a bit more first.

Thankyou so much Stacey

More looters to be found at Tinniegirl

Loot Glorious Loot - Day 4

Well, the pendant love continues with another piece of loot from the market....

I did a swap with Finki for this gorgeous glass pendant. I picked up another of her pendants at the last market in a lighter colour, but I also needed one (yes - I truly did need) in a darker colour.

This one will be perfect to wear with my Melbourne winter woollies!

More looters here...

My creative space

The only thing that I've managed to create this week is a dent on one side of the couch, where I've been perching myself each day and night staring into the tv, waiting for the lurgy to go away.

I was extremely bored yesterday afternoon.... there's only so much daytime tv a person can manage to sit in front of before they lose it! I headed over to my actual creative space for a little bit of crazy stitching. There's an idea brewing in my brain..... I just don't know if it will translate to craftiness just yet....

More creativity here

Shop Update and a giveaway

I've just updated The CurlyPops Shop with some leftover items from the market....

I promised a giveaway last week but I got a bit snowed under with the market preparations, and I've been sick this week so I still haven't organised anything!

In the meantime, head on over and visit Missie Krissie for this fabulous giveaway

I'll definitely be having a giveaway this weekend!

Loot Glorious Loot - Day 3

Todays Loot includes some of my purchases from Saturdays Made'n'Thornbury Market


I resisted purchasing one of these fabulous Flickettysplits cushions at the first market in February, but I just couldn't resist this time around. It's lovely and soft and squishy and I can curl up with it on the couch. Now I just need to make that couch quilt that I've been promising since last winter.

I also bought a pink facewasher with a sweet little crochet edge... and a little frog to keep Missy company on the bookshelf....

....this little Pepperberry mini tote bag

...another pendant (anyone noticing a pattern by any chance) - this one by Konstant Kaos

....and this cute little Barbie Fashion Pack from Vestal Vagrant. I don't have barbies, but I can't wait to play around with the scraps and ribbons and lace to create my own little masterpiece!

There was one more thing.... I just need to find it to take a photo.

More Looters over here.

Loot Glorious & Amazing Loot - Day 2

After an wonderful day out on Saturday, I headed back to Tinniegirls house for a lovely cup of tea...


...only to find, that apparently, my birthday celebrations were yet to end.

I needed some artworks for my new house...

....and I received these amazing Tinniegirl collages for my birthday

...with beautiful details
This one is my 'determined angel'

Thankyou so much Cathy - I'm flabbergasted at how much more special it is to receive a gift that has been handmade by a wonderful friend who has put so much time and effort into making something just for me, and that completely matches my style and taste.

I can't wait to find a special place for my new artworks in my new home (it's no longer just a house)....

More Loot Glorious Loot!

Loot Glorious Loot - Day 1

I'm joining in with Tinniegirl's week of Loot Glorious Loot where we all get to show off things we've swapped / bought / made.... not that I need any more encouragement to show off!

Anyway, last week was my birthday, and I had a little bit of money in my paypal account that was burning a hole in my virtual pocket, so I had a little bit of a click around Made It to see what I could find just for me....

I settled on a lovely glass pendant from What Katy Did (I'm becoming even more seriously addicted to handmade jewellery).....


When I opened the package, I found this lovely padded fabric bucket (in my favourite colour combination), and a fabric wrapped package.

Inside the fabric wrapped package was this beautiful hand stitched felt pouch and a handmade card....

Inside the pouch was this gorgeous pendant!

I loved the little fabric bucket so much that I took it along to the market on Saturday and used it on my stall for my business cards.

Katy has some more gorgeous pendants in her Made It Shop and also some wall and window decals. My favourite is the Cherry Blossom.

In Print

If you could hear squeals of delight coming from way out west Friday night, don't worry, it was just me opening the current issue of Patchwork and Stitching Magazine.

Click on picture to enlarge


There's a wonderful heartwarming story about The Toy Society, featuring one of my softies - Fuzzy Bear
I was so excited, I rushed straight over to visit all of my family members to show them. Fuzzy Bear was dropped here. I hope he found a lovely new home to live in.

Bianca has created an amazing place to join with other people who just want to share the love.

Thankyou Bianca for making us all smile....

PS - There's also a feature on Miss Muggins in the current issue

It's a wrap

My second Made'n'Thornbury market was just as exciting as the first, and even busier!

This is the before shot, as I was setting up.....


The sweet little donkey apron found a new home...

It was lovely to see so many bloggers - Bev, Nikki, Bec, Fiona, Jacinta, Anna, Melanie, (I hope I didn't miss anyone) and to put faces to names....

JasperBoy Jen (blogless) came to visit and bought me a heart biccie....isn't that sweet!

....and Liz came to visit and not only bought me some vintage linens, but this amazing Betty Jo vintage lino brooch for my birthday! Sorry about the blurry photo, I was trying to take a photo of myself wearing it yesterday. Thankyou so much Liz!

If you love Aunty Mabels Handbag as much as me, there's a similar one here on Georgielove, and Liz is also having an amazing Mothers Day giveaway.

As per usual, I had to have my own little shopping spree at the market, but I haven't unpacked my goodies yet, so I'll save them for later on this week.

A huge thankyou to sister, Mrs T, my nephew Mr X, and Tinniegirl for helping me out yesterday. I couldn't of participated without your help, and I'm very grateful!

A bit of gratuitous advertising

The Made'n'Thornbury market is on again this Saturday. I'll be there selling my wares, and Tinniegirl will be helping me out too, so come and say hello!

The address is 99 Leinster Grove, Thornbury and it runs from 10AM - 3PM. All of the stalls are inside a hall, so no need to worry about inclement weather. Bring the kiddies along to have some fun at the kids craft table, and to pick up some Mothers Day pressies.

There'll be lots of other lovely stalls too - these are just some of them:

Pepperberry and Co.

Konstant Kaos

Finki

Vestal Vagrant

Flicketty Splits

Melbourne Epicure (head on over and check out the gingerbread men - you won't be sorry)!

Buttons by Lou Lou

Come along for a lovely day out and support handmade.....