Courting Fame

My PR Manager (errrr that would be my Mum, by the way) has been hard at work on the Cosmo Fun Fearless Female Campaign trail.

When she came to visit last weekend, she brought along the current issue of the Beeac Advocate.

Just in case you've never heard of Beeac, it's a beautiful little country town in Western Victoria, only around one hours drive from Geelong, and only 20 kilometres from Colac.

The Advocate is put together by a group of volunteers to provide information to the local community, so I'm honoured that they've included a little story about my Cosmo nomination.

Voting closes at noon on Monday (9th May)..... I'm getting very nervous!

Swooning

I really do like to keep up to date on what real estate is on offer in my local neighbourhood...

....you know, just in case I become an overnight millionaire.

I'm swooning over those real hardwood polished floors, the door frames and matching pelmets... and those lovely original cornices.

I'm wondering how it was originally furnished.

But this is the best bit.....

I know Carmel will love this one.

Photos blatantly borrowed from realestate.com.au

Animation Friday - Dream Sweetly

I'm still completely amazed by my beautiful birthday gift from Cathy..... so just in case you missed the process of  it being painted in various layers over at Tinniegirl, I thought it would make the perfect little slideshow for Animation Friday.

Pop on over to My Poppet to play along...

My Creative Space

A little bit of purple in my creative space today....

These were made using some of the lovely offcuts from Anna's Wendy Dresses.

I think the fabric may be this one from the Love collection by Amy Butler? I'm sure all of you Amy afficionados can confirm/deny!

The home of my creative space

A new crafty kit for the kiddies (or the kiddies at heart)

There seems to a distinct lack of making stuff at CurlyPops HQ at the moment, but I sincerely promise that the cogs are still slowly turning back here, behind the scenes.

Frocked (iPhone photo) - Testing by Brianna (or B-Fab as we like to call her)

When I have a little brainwave and come up with a new product, there's lots of testing and waiting and thinking......

 Owlie - Testing by Little Miss

and tweeking and testing and always the last little bit more waiting involved...

....and making sure that it really is suitable for the kiddies (of course).... (or just the kiddies at heart)

Kombi - Testing by Little Miss

.... and more importantly that they love it so much that they immediately want to colour in another one.

So, this is my brand new product - the CurlyPops Colour Your Own Fabric Panel Kit.

You can choose your favourite from the sweet little Owlie or the Kombi Van.

Kit Contains:

Black and White Owl or Kombi Van Fabric Panel measuring approximately 20cm x 20cm.
Design measures approximately 13cm x 13cm.
Fabric is a 55% linen 45% combed cotton blend.
Machine wash warm or cool using phosphate-free detergent.

Directions for Use:
Use appropriate fabric markers to colour in your fabric panel (Crayola brand fabric markers are recommended).
Follow the directions for heat setting and washing contained on the fabric marker packet to ensure that the colour will not run.
Use the panel in your favourite crafty project – frame as a piece of wall art, appliqué onto a t-shirt, stitch up as a cushion panel…. The possibilities are endless!

Little Miss took her completed Owlie panel home to stretch over a canvas.

I took the Kombi panel that she coloured in, heat set it, and appliqued it onto a little tee for a friends son.

It's super cute!

Cosmo Fun Fearless Female - The Final Week

There's only one week left in the first round of voting for the Cosmo Fun Fearless Female Awards.

I have my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed!

Apparently there have been over 150,000 votes so far in all the categories.... thats one big giant huge bucketload of votes.... I just hope that there's at least a trickle of them for my little blog.

I blog just because I love blogging. It's so much a part of my daily routine that I wouldn't know what to do without it any more.

To be recognised for blogging is just like a little dream come true..

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - blogging has changed my life for the better in countless ways, and making it through to the final of the Fun Fearless Female Awards would just be the cherry on top (or maybe the milo sprinkled on top because thay would be yummier).

You can vote for me here.

Dream Sweetly

Dream Sweetly

Acrylics on canvas

78 x 60 inch

I'm completely lost for words at the moment.... which is quite unusual for me!

Actually, words cannot even explain how much I absolutely love this painting. It's just ME. It's exactly what I wanted. It's better than I'd ever dreamed of.

Quite a long time ago, Tinniegirl and I had a conversation about the big boring expanse of white wall above my bed.

I have quite high ceilings for a modern built house, so I needed something that was going to make a statement. My only wish was that it contained pink and orange and had some sort of floral motif.

In the meantime, I'd completely forgotten all about it, but Tinniegirl was secretly working on it for my birthday.

She'd even been blogging about the different layers of the painting, and posting a little sneaky peek. The entire time, I just thought she was busily working away on paintings for her upcoming exhibition!

It wasn't until my birthday on Friday that I spotted a gift wrapped surprise...

So when I arrived at Cathy's house yesterday, this is what was waiting for me.

.....and when I unwrapped it...

....and to get an idea of the huge size of it...

I drive an SUV, and it took up the entire length of the car from the glove box to the back hatch with all the seats laying down to get it home.

I cannot wait to actually get it hung on the wall (hint hint little brother if you're reading this)!

Liesl also came over for the afternoon with a lovely pressie of fabric in pink and orange tones, which will make beautiful new pillowcases for my bed. Thankyou so much Liesl.

Oh and course, there was birthday cake.... a delicious chocolate cake baked by Cathy and Ms L (from this months Delicious Magazine), filled with an extremely yummy chocolate cream cheese filling (which I desperately need to get the recipe for).

I had such a wonderful day, and I've had such an amazing birthday weekend, well actually, I started celebrating last Tuesday, so I actually made the celebration last for nearly a week.

It's times like this when I love the fact that I have such wonderful family and friends, who make such an effort to make my birthday special.

Until next year.....

You Sew Girl - The Winner

Todays the day!!!

It's the official realease date of You Sew Girl by Nicole Mallalieu.

Not only can you find it in all good book shops, but you can also buy it direct from Nikki (which may be the perfect opportunity to get your hands on an autographed by the author copy)

Without further ado (and a little bit late).... it's time to draw the winner of my giveaway.

There were 234 official entries, after I deleted a double up and a spambot (I've never ever had anything remotely close to that many entries for anything - clearly everyone would LOVE to win a copy of this fabulous book).

The random number generator says that the winner is number 5.....  Carla from More Than Tuesdays

Thanks so much to everyone for playing along!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...

Your mum is most definitely the fairest of them all.....

....and I'm quite sure that she would love a little pocket mirror for Mothers Day next Sunday?

These ones are in the shop and there's also a little package heading down to Big House Collective today.

Let there be cake

...and lots of it.

Chocolate, of course.

Oh, and if you're looking for a lovely outing today, why not visit the Made'n'Thornbury Market. I know a couple of lovely ladies will be there!

I'm Ready...

I spent lastnight sitting on the couch creating this lovely weddingy (not sure if that's actually a word) wire and plastic bead tiara...

Now I'm all frocked up in my op-shopped dress, and ready to go.

Just where did I leave my invitation?

It's the biggest event of the year!

Supermarket Cake, Betty Crocker Frosting, and Hundreds & Thousands

It's my birthday..... and apparently there's some other event happening today which has transfixed the attention of the entire world.

Did someone say Royal Wedding???

Prince Moo Moo (after cake) and Princess CurlyPops

I had a little early birthday celebration on Tuesday while my mum was visiting (not that I actually need an excuse to eat chocolate cake)!

The Royal Subjects

The Royal Subjects were disinterested in the pomp and ceremony of the occassion. They were only there for the cake.

The Royal kiss was thwarted by a rascally Prince Moo Moo.... he was more interested in a second helping of the chocolate cake too.

Let's hope Wills and Kate are more successful tonight!

*The crown partyhats were actually completely unintentional - they just happened to be the only ones in the supermarket on Tuesday!

Making a tablecloth out of an errrrrrrr..... tablecloth?

I had a major dilemma over the long weekend (because craft is really truly important you know)....

I needed to whip up a super-quick no fuss fitted tablecloth, to fit over the coffee table that sits under my cabinet at Big House Collective.

I stood in front of my fabric stash for a while, and then glanced at the stack of vintage tablecloths and had one of those AHA moments (with apologies to all the Oprah fans in the audience).

Why not use a tablecloth to make a tablecloth... intelligent yes?

It's currently being modelled by a table which is completely the wrong size, but I hope you get the basic idea.

After I was all finished, I was then hit with a second dilemma, initiated by my hoarding gene.

There were small offcuts.... of vintage tablecloth.... I couldn't possibly throw them away....

So the coffee table now has a matching sunnies case.... just in case it's sunny?

Here's Humphrey

Lauren sent me a request last week, to see whether I could put a little tie applique on a t-shirt for her bubba who has just turned one!



He's having a birthday party this coming weekend with a The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme.

In the absence of any humans (or mannequins of the correct size) to model the finished product, Humphrey B Bear volunteered to step in.

After all, he gets a bit chilly sometimes..... considering that he has no pants.

Humphrey B Bear has been with me since the 1970's (as you can probably tell from the state that he's in). That rock hard plastic yellow hat caused many injuries over the years. His little pocket hankie is hanging on for dear life.

I suppose it's inevitable considering that he's moved house with me at least twenty times over the years.

I made a little cardboard template for the tie, so I thought I'd share it just in case anyone else wanted to whip up a quick appliqued tee.

If you right click and save the image above - it's an A4 landscape scan. So basically, the tie is the height of an A4 sheet of paper.

Or you can use this one that has measurements.

My template suited a Size 1 tee. If you'd like a smaller applique, just reduce the size, or for larger increase the size.

Have fun!

A visit to the Big House

On Saturday, I took a quick day trip to Ballarat to visit my little sister and check out the new business that she has joined - Big House Collective.

The front counter - the pigeon holes are amazing!

It's a beautiful big 100 year old double storey house on Sturt St, filled to the brim with vintage goods, collectibles, furniture, bric-a-brac, clothing, and handmade goodies.

This is my sisters business banner (designed by me)!

These shelves were originally in my garage. Now that they're painted white, I think I want them back....

My little cabinet in the front room. My mission today is to make a little tablecloth to cover the coffee table at the bottom.

I love this groovy table and chairs (if only I had a bigger house).

Be still my beating heart..... upstairs are the vintage dresses

I was very restrained, but I did make a couple of purchases, including this lovely wooden paper sorter above (sorry about the blurry pic).

The Big House is at 614 Sturt St. They're open every day from 10AM (except today from 12PM).

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