A quick house dress

I HATE throwing away Miss Lucy's clothes just because she has had another growth spurt. Especially because she is growing so fast lately that everything is becoming so short but she is not wide so even if I was to buy her new stuff it wouldn't fit nicely.

So I thought I'd have a go at a little house dress with and old purple tee of hers and some cheap gingham.

There is no close of photo simply because my sewing skills seemed to have slipped a bit recently, and that is the other reason why this will be a house dress and not an "out in public" dress.

Still with summer on our doorstep I think she will get at least another 3 months out of this.

I really do need to get back onto the brother sewing machine and keep the skill alive. Maybe in the middle of the night I can find some time on my schedule?

As promised even though you had to wait.

So after a month of waiting my fabric finally arrived from Spoonflower. I waited that long not because they are slow, but more because I am too tight to pay too much for postage. In the end it was worth the wait and the fabric is just as lovely as I had imagined.
This time I took advantage of other peoples fabric designs.


http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/potbellybears



http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/weavingmajor

 I am planning to make a cool globe cushion with the world map one and am still tossing some ideas around my head for the circus people. Maybe a cool satchel?
But this one following has already been put to use

http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/amy_lou_who

I bought some fab pale grey denim, a red zipper and made some piping with red bias. I had originally only planned one cushion, however in my spirit of trying not to throw out any good fabric I managed to patchwork a second cushion with the leftovers.

I love that we have some more original touches to our decor. Plus the fabric has such great colours in it that they really add some interest and life to our "neutral coloured lives"

Even this little dude approves.

Hope this inpsires you to make something fun too.

"PEACE" out for now.

cheap and cheerful

The kids playroom has had some framed posters in it that were purchased by my hubby back in his bachelor days. They are pictures of Muhammed Ali and while not aggressive, they just didn't suit the mood of the room they are in. But we also don't have the cash to allocate to anything expensive or flashy as a replacement.Clint had made the frames and they were perfect for the decor in the rest of the house and in good nick so really we just need to re fill them with something more suitable. This is what I came up with for under $16 buckeroos!

Technically it was under $12, however I had to purchase an embroidery hoop, but luckily I will use it some time in the future no doubt so it will pay for itself 10 fold. All it is is 2 metres of ikea fabric at $AUD3.95 a meter, and 4 lots of embroidery thread in different colours at $AUD0.99 each. I followed the lettering on the first fabric for each of our birthdays, and on the little house fabric we each picked a house and I copied part of the outline and gave them house numbers - again the numbers of our birthdays. It is not over the top colourful so hopefully it will be acceptable for that room for many years to come.

One for the boy........

As a crafty mum with the "pigeon pair" of kids (one girl one boy) I quickly realised how easy it was to make and create beautiful stuff for girls and the boys get a little bit left behind. Thankful because of a great group of people i stumbled across an amazing tutorial to make something for Master F.

I went throught the blogs of http://www.made-by-rae.com/2010/01/celebrate-boy-in-february-2010.html and http://www.dana-made-it.com/ and discovered this awesome tutorial from http://punkinpattern.blogspot.com/2011/02/connors-messenger-bag.html

Honestly, if you are at all crafty or have even the smallest sewing bone in your body you need to check out this blog. Totally inspiring http://punkinpattern.blogspot.com/

So with that I made this. It is perfect him. It can hold 2 nappies + wipes + a jumper and even still has room for some cars or other toys. Plus as he grows and no longer needs nappies etc it will fit his water bottle and snacks etc too.

He looks so grown up with his satchel. Dang, I hoped he stay a bubba forever.

7months on

I know it has been forever since I visited here last. Everything and nothing has been happening around here lately. But I'm here know and armed with some updates. Firstly my rescue mission on some discarded chairs is complete:I'm pretty proud of them. They fit into every room in our house so we are never short a chair when needed. Also this year my marvelous started kindy. She loves going, even though some mornings it feels like we'll never get out the door in time. I am using tricks like premaking lunches and filling the freezer with them. It has been so hot here his year that they are definitely defrosted by the time she eats them. Also a ban on telly and computer games on school mornings mean there is a few less distractions. She has been bringing SO MANY of her creations home. At least 1 large painting every school day. My fridge door was overflowing so I have come up with something I like to call the "table of Honour". Our dinner table has a clear plastic protector mat on it. The plastic itself is getting pretty beat up due to the fact that I seem to think that means I can go to town with all my arts and crafts on it as the table won't get wrecked. So I have started sliding all of her and the cheeky boys artwork under it so we can admire it at dinner times etc. I think it looks really cool and we can fit a lot under plus be able to open the fridge door. What do you think?

busy getting creative

I am still in doubt about whether I will do the Spring fair again. Maybe I will do another market. Or maybe even none. However I have still been getting as creative as I possibly can in whatever spare time I manage to get. I figure that if I can clean out my fabric drawer and sell it off then I can fill it again with new fabrics and THAT sounds like something that will make my soul sing with glee. Perhaps I will even design them all on Spoonflower. My Ozzy Dog design is already a hit and Oz loves his special place. Oh the possibilties.

Any way I have already made and sold a few items so With any luck I'll get to pre sell everything thru facebook and save myself the price of the stall. Here are some pics...

Ps. I know the resolution etc sucks but hopefully you get the drift