Fairy Wings

Every girl has to spend their first day as a fairy at some point in their lives and today was the day for our little Boo. Hee!

PVC Mayhem

I am so excited about this little project. I got the inspiration from dearfii's website. (Unfortunately I cannot remember how I linked there to begin with) I've had the Pooh print for a little while and I thought it would make a good pencil case. I've used interfacing on the Pooh fabric, then lined the inside of the pencil case. I love the added dimension of using PVC because the final product looks so incredibly professional. This item is something that I would easily buy in a shop. I am very happy with it :)





Kisses to my darling for going to bed early again tonight so that I could get some sewing time.

Santa Sack

Oooh Oooh.. I can do that! I was at a friend's place today who had a Santa bag monogrammed with her son's name. I thought it looked great and felt I could have a go at that myself. I sat down tonight at the drawing board and worked out what I would do. I haven't done much applique before so I kept it very simple. I was surprised at how easy it was to sew around the shapes. I am definitely getting better at it! So here is Boo's first Santa sack:

Christmas Dress

I whipped up a Christmas dress for Sarah last Friday for her childcare Christmas party. Whipped??? LOL.. It had been sitting around cut for a while and I finally sewed it together in the morning on the day. Working under pressure is clearly a good thing for me. I've used the same pattern as another dress I've made for Boo - I've realised what a simple and easy pattern this is and everything else I've looked at has got 20-odd steps to do while this one has approximately 4! Can't beat that.





And because I love Christmas and toys and love the collection of toys I've amassed as Christmas presents, I present, my Christmas Cupboard!

Dress Teaser

Ahhh, bliss...

Bliss is carrying a sleeping youngster from her pram to her bed and watching her sleepily snuggle up with her teddy bear.. This is a *moment* I have been waiting a long time for! Its so different knowing she is exhausted and not going to wake up, so different to when she was a baby and asleep in my arms but where the slightest jolt could un-do it all. Exhausted toddler is GOOD! :)

Stash it away

I went fabric shopping today! :)

Fat quarters:


A bag of zips:


Pretty purple drill fabric:


I also bought some denim and some terry towelling as I want to make some pencil cases and some baby bibs sometime in the near future.

Happy Cards

Tonight I have been making cards for a birthday celebration we are going to tomorrow.

Pretty Notebook Cover

I have made up a reversible notebook cover by following a free pattern from the Kirin Notebook website


It was very easy to make so a pretty simple project (still took me all evening though!). The final product is really cute! What a nice way to fancy up a notebook :)

Notebook cover:


Inside pocket:


Side view:


Reversible side:

More cakes

Of course, it wasn't just one birthday party that little miss had - there were THREE all up! I made up a batch of cupcakes which I divided between a dinner with our immediate family and one for a celebration with friends.

Birthday Party!

It has been a little quiet here on this blog partly to do with returning to work and because we've all been very sick lately (I blame childcare bugs!!). My little girl has now turned one and we threw a big party to celebrate. It was a great excuse to catch up with all our friends and family, some of whom we haven't seen as much this year! It was a wonderful day and well worth all the effort we went to in organising things. I "decorated" the cake myself and wouldn't have it any other way despite my husband urging me to just buy one to save us the stress.. Time was getting short but I soldiered on, I cut corners (pre-bought sponge) and I re-used a design that I'd made earlier in the year for Sarah's cousin (see earlier in blog) but I got there in the end and her cake was made by ME!! Yay!!! I think making party cakes is a super special bonus of being a Mum!! :)

Boo wore her special dress on her party day. It was the perfect dress for the day and it suited the weather really well.

Lots of love to my little girl who is now ONE!!

The party girl:


The cake:


The aftermath:

Great Granny

This entry is a tribute to Sarah's Great Granny who passed away recently. She made it to the grand old age of 93 and she had a truly wonderful life surrounded by people who loved her and she made the best of every opportunity. We will miss her terribly. The funeral was a lovely tribute to Granny and I only wish we'd known earlier about a few of the wonderful things that she did with her life. If you've still got grandparents, next time you see them, ask them about what they did at this same stage in life - were they working, were they raising the kids etc etc. I'm sure they'd love to tell stories, they just need their memories jogged!

Vanilla cupcakes

This is my first batch of vanilla cupcakes. The recipe says 24 and I've made 30 with my patty pans! I wound up using our biggest cooking pot to do the final mixing in - these are real catering quantities! I was only doing a test run and I didn't need 24 and I am not sure what I'm going to do with 6 extra! Terrible of me to complain really :) I'm hoping to freeze half of them if I can fit them into the freezer and we'll eat them next week :)


These are the 6 left to go:

Beading Angels

Angel earrings:


I came across these angels while sorting through my craft supplies and thought I would show them here. I absolutely love beading. I've never really gotten into making necklaces so much and have preferred to make creatures and do bead weaving.

Off to the shed with you..

Packed away:


Both myself and DD have been sick with various things and I've returned to work which means there just hasn't been any time to do any sewing. I finally feel better and DD was in bed by 7pm tonight (whoopie!!) and the house is in order, so there was some time to sew! I've been working on these twin dolls and I am getting so annoyed with them :( They are incredibly fiddly, the instructions are a nightmare and I just sewed one of the dolls together wrong and I'm so over them :( I just had a bit of a rant in front of the sewing machine and DH suggested a break.. I've packed the dolls up and am not going to do anything with them for a LONG TIME and I am going to go back to sewing dresses for my DD. I'd prefer projects that can be completed in a night! I'd like to get the dolls completed one day but I just can't stand them at the moment :(

Anyways, I have a stack of new fabrics, a few new dress patterns and I want to start making THEM!





TO DO LIST:
* Dress in cherry white fabric
* Dress in buzzy fabric
* Applique tshirts - duck, pear & hobby horse
* Simple teddy family
* Amy Butler bag

Tag

I have been tagged by the wonderful Karen who has been sewing up a storm and making some truly gorgeous clothes for her kids which you can see on her blog.

Tag Rules:
A. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.
B. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog...

My responses:
1. My favourite place in the world is Italy. I did an Italian immersion course in Italy for 2 weeks and it was the best two weeks of my life! The best part was meeting up with my husband at the end of it (he had been working in the UK) and using my newly acquired Italian skills to speak to hotel staff and bus drivers and to see how impressed he was! :) We visited Italy a lot and I absolutely adore the countryside and small towns.

2. My favourite movie is My Best Friend's Wedding - I LOVE the singing!! I, however, only ever watch it up to a certain point and then the movie goes downhill. The exact moment is when Julia and her kindred are on a boat going down a river and I think they go under a bridge and some schmultzy stuff gets said and I cannot bear to watch any longer. So its my favourite movie up until about 3/4 of the way. :D Luckily all the best songs are done by then :D

3. I love Burt Bacharach songs and have a CD of all the songs he's written (A lot of the MBFW songs are BB).

4. I can be a bit nutty with hand washing.. my daughter has just had gastro so my hands are in need of some intensive moisturising treatment!

5. My favourite sandwich is the American Reuben sandwich - layers of corned beef, swiss cheese and sauerkraut on sour dough toasted bread - divine..

6. I climbed an ice glacier (a little ways.. with special shoes (crampons?) and a pick in Norway).

7. When I have a hamburger, I must drink a Coke with it. It adds to the taste sensation - only ever for hamburgers though.

8. When I was younger, I used to make my own Barbie clothes and Barbie accessories - things like tables and chairs out of ice-cream sticks, houses out of cardboard boxes. I made accessories for my Cabbage Patch Kids and I even made my own Cabbage Patch doll so mine would have a friend (yes, it was a sight to see). I could manipulate anything out of bits of cardboard and fabric and I look forward to crafting with my daughter as she grows up.

I am tagging Emma as she is the only blogger I know who hasn't been tagged yet. :)

Wah-lah!

Guess what I did????????????????????

Hint:


I did a Crabapple Cupcake Bakery Cupcake decorating course!! It was awesome!! See the fab cupcakes I made!

Welcome to the world

Impatiently waiting for clothes...

Black or Blue?

I am being very indecisive tonight! I am going to continue with a felt face for the learning dolls but I am definitely changing the girls face as she could do with a better smile. So now I'm wondering whether to do black eyes or blue.





I have been tagged by Karen -- I will get some answers posted soon!

Fabric Shopping Again (Already!)

I am the naughtiest person in the world and have not been working on the dolls! When I did get some spare time, I went fabric shopping! I don't really need some more fabric just yet as I have enough for all my current projects. Anyways, there is this fab shop that has some great priced quilting fabrics and I had to go there and see if they had anything new. I also came across another shop with well priced fabrics and joy of joys, I found that they had a second level which was packed to the rafters with quilting materials. I have never seen such a large selection of quilting fabrics before - it was absolutely awesome. Initially I thought the quilting fabrics were at bargain prices like the rest of the store but sadly the gorgeous fabrics were priced around $22-24 a metre which is not a bargain at all.. but at least you can buy the stuff by the metre which is one good thing. There were some gorgeous colours and fancy retro patterns -- I will definitely go back at one point and invest the money to make a really, really nice bag.

So here are some piccies of fabrics I bought. I should not be buying more fabrics but it is actually cheaper then if I went to the big shopping centres and bought up on clothes for Sarah. Aye.. there's always a rainbow.. :)

Rose and pink knit fabrics. Some of the EB girls have mentioned working with knit fabrics of late, so I want to have a go with using this type of fabric for some clothes for Sarah. Really good price of $5 a metre although the rose print is dirty and hopefully cleans up OK.



Fat quarters - at $2 each, I thought this was a good price for getting some basic colours to use for some applique designs. I also got this gorgeous "Pooh" fabric and the piggies.







Studio Bambini magazine for children's clothing inspiration and ideas. I bought the purple fabric today.



ETA: I've been working on the dolls tonight and I've run into some trouble. I cannot bear to give the dolls the face that is suggested in the book.. should I go against the book suggestion and try to find a face of my own? The biggest problem with that, is that it will delay this project and I'd just like to see it finished.

Future projects

I like the idea of sharing these projects and kits and eventually making them up to prove I could do it! I have gone with the idea of making a few cot quilts as they seem more achieveable then larger projects.

Pastel Cot Quilt - I absolutely adore these pretty pastel colours.



Fabrics I've picked for a cot quilt and a simple design I've seen. I love the martian fabric - the little creatures are absolutely adorable! It would be a good idea to make one of them up as a softie.



Dolls House pattern and fabric that my Mum bought for me. I absolutely love the idea of this dolls house which is made from fabric and uses applique to embellish the rooms. The house folds up to book-size and is easy to transport. I actually think this would take forever to make so isn't on my current to-do list.

Learning Doll Progress 2

I have been working away on the learning dolls - two trips to Spotlight to pick up various notions (buttons, zippers, fabric, elastic, bias binding), a change in wardrobe for the girl doll and cutting out here and there. See progress so far:

Short note

I am returning to work next week and currently settling Sarah into childcare so have no time at all. I was going to post about some previous crafts but cannot find my old craft boxes in the quagmire that is our shed! I was down at Spotlight today buying some trims for the dolls clothes so I am definitely planning on completing that project as soon as possible. I will endeavour to be back soon.

Dolls Progress & Softie Finds

I have started out on the fun part - making the clothes! This is the boy's shirt and the photo also shows braces that I have cut out for him. I purchased a bag full of furnishing offcuts and have used some microsuede for the braces and will also use it for his shoes.



This is a softie I found at Mum's place. Mum used to make these for school fetes as they are very quick and easy to turn out.



This is my darling playing with my old teddy which I found at Mum's place. There was a Mum and Dad bear and a little baby bear. They came in a little basket and I carried them around everywhere!

Love my Mum!

I visited my Mum on Friday and I helped her clean out some of her cupboards. A great big bag of craft stuff came home with me and another big bag went into the garbage (success!). I came across some fantastic stuff - a "scrapbook" of my mums filled with knitting cuttings from magazines and these were OLD, like 1968 stuff. I was so in awe of it. She even had a picture of Johnny O'Keefe taped to the last page.. hehehe.. very cute :)

Mum found this book with two dolls that she made us as kids. They are called learning dolls and they have buttons and zippers and various articles of clothing with the aim of teaching children how to dress themselves. She made them for us and we absolutely loved them. They are very cute. Mum is still looking for them - she's not sure where they've gotten to. Anyways, I've just spent the past hour (I'm slow!) photocopying and enlarging the doll patterns so that I can make a set of them as well.

I love that Mum is able to share these patterns and craft books with me. Its amazing to go back over what she has done in the past and recreate some of it for my daughter.

Here are some pics which are faves from the magazines and books.

The learning dolls


Kindie dolls (and cute applique on bags)



Very cute little daisy biscuits which might be on my wishlist for Sarah's birthday

Dress in Action

New dress:



I noticed in this photo that you can now see Sarah's first top tooth! No. 3 has arrived!