.: Craft for the Soul :.

When you write a blog that pretty much includes only sewing + other makery-related goodness, the blog can be a little desolate and tumble-weedy when you don't have much time to sew.

So - I thought I'd share a little book-review with you - I've toyed with the idea of crafty-book reviews in the past, but have never put the dream into action (did that make you think of Howard Jones' song from the 80s? - did I just show my age there? - click here for a look-see - and also click here if you'd rather see my favourite Howard song, 'Life in One Day').

OK enough of Howard, let's talk about the wonderful Pip Lincolne's 'Craft for the Soul'!

I knew I'd buy Pip's new book as soon as I could - I have all her other books and love them - and in fact, it was Pip's first book, "Meet Me at Mike's" that was one of the things to start me off on my crafty path. 

This 'Craft for the Soul' book however is a little different - I was hunting for it in the Craft section at my local bookstore, but it was actually in their Motivation section! - I thought 'huh, interesting, what's it doing there'.  But now that I have read it cover to cover, I can tell you that it totally belongs in both Craft and Motivation sections - and there are some great recipes as well (so maybe there should also be a few copies in the Food section too).

I've been in a bit of a creative doldrums these past few months - perhaps the wonderful high of QuiltCon has sent me veering off track a little and I've been having trouble finding my feet and making plans - there's so very much I would like to make and do, but I have trouble prioritising time for it while the rest of life bubbles away and rolls on.

Pip's book has helped me turn the corner at last, it really has.  She talks about setting goals, making time to exercise, doing new stuff, getting ideas, writing your own mission statement, being yourself and lots of other inspiring and also practical things that really make so much sense.  

Pip gives great practical suggestions for working out what's holding you back in your creative life, and also for moving onwards in your own awesome way - I don't want to quote any bits of the book as I haven't asked Pip's permission to do that - but I promise you, it's such a positive, helpful, inspiring read, PLUS it has recipes and crafty things - so please pop to your local bookstore and check the Motivation and Craft sections (and maybe even Food too) to see if they have it.  Our local shop sold out, so had to order more in, wahoo!

Thanks Pip, for writing such a wonderful book that encompasses so many important things.  You are the best.

And in Mothers' Day news, I thought I'd sign off with a pic of Ted enjoying our Mothers' Day picnic in the backyard.  Hope you have all had a lovely Mothers' Day and weekend, and are looking forward to a fun week.

xoxo cat

.: teeny tiny Ohio Stars times two :.

Happy end-of-weekend to everyone.  I'm just popping in to share the second tiny Ohio Star for Elizabeth, for her month/s in The Wee Bee.  The first star is here. 

The stars measure around 4 1/2" square - here's a handy ruler for scale.  Gee I wish I could remember where I got the ruler ;-)

The teeny tiny stars are now packaged up with a few little goodies, ready to pop in the post - all the way to Florida! - tomorrow.

And in other weekend-news, Ted had a haircut and came away - as always - with a sequinned bow in his pom-pom hair.  Purple.  Not even a boy-colour.  Though as my husband did say - sequins tend to turn all the colours into girl-colours.  There's a thought to ponder.

Hope your weekend was a good one, whether it involved sewing, sequins or neither.  xoxo cat

.: feel good Friday - the grandmother of all totes! :.

In a couple of weeks I'm very fortunate + very happy to be going to one of Camille Roskelley's trunk shows AND a Red Letter Day class - so very excited!  The odds are very high - when you gather a gaggle of fabric-and-quilt-lovin' ladies in one room with someone as awesome as Camille - that there will be many, many, many gorgeous hand-made creations featuring Camille's beautiful fabrics - I really can't wait to see everyone's bags, zip-pouches and whatever else they have made!  

So.  I thought "I'll make a tote bag to take along.  I'll use a couple of our panels, some gorgeous Bonnie+Camille fabrics, and some other favourite fabrics.  Yes.  That's a plan".  I also had sleepovers vaguely at the back of my mind - the overnight bag is never big enough to hold the pillow and sleeping bag too - so the two panels I chose also serve as messages to our girls for when they are away from home - Be Kind Be Smart Be Brave and Love You Like Crazy.  

I was happily pulling fabrics and sewing away, and the tote-panels were getting bigger and bigger, when I got an email yesterday about the class, saying we need to get our machines tagged and tested!  After a mini panic, I picked up the pace so I could finish the tote and put my machine in for a service tomorrow. 

For these pics, I've filled the tote with a pillow, sleeping-bag, little quilt and our girls' much-loved Winnies.  It's quite hysterically-huge, it's like the grandmother of all tote bags.  

I shared a couple of pics here of the front and back panels - before I added the Parson Gray 'Rain' to the bottom - so you can see all the gorgeous fabrics a little better there. 

For the lining, I used a cute animal print, a gorgeous Lisa Congdon flags print, and the Bonnie+Camille Bliss spots in pale aqua/white.  And I made a pocket! - from some Miss Kate candy squares, trimmed with some Happy Go Lucky, and then sewed one of our fab new labels on the front. 

Here's the inside:

 And the inside of the pocket:

And now here is the grandmother-tote flattened out on the table.  Can I just say too - the handles - they're my favourite-ever Bonnie+Camille design - the red/cream flowers on aqua blue from Bliss.  I'm still hoarding a couple of yards of it ... though I'm planning on using some in the Red Letter Day quilt. 

I'm so very happy it's finished and ready for action.  I'm going to fill it with all my fabrics and goodies for Camille's class, and then start waiting impatiently for my machine to come home again next week - tagged, tested and ready for Red Letter Day. 

{the Winnies say bye}

Here's to a happy Friday and great weekend everyone.  xoxo cat

.: the Leaning Tower of Rainbow Cake :.

We had a birthday in our house recently.  

On top of the two brownies I made for my oldest daughter to take into school (brownies made with Lindt chocolate are her absolute favourite), I thought I'd surprise her by making a rainbow layer cake for a family dinner.  I've seen a few different versions on Pinterest and loved them - so this is officially my first-ever baking-from-Pinterest effort.

Here's a peek at the moment of rainbow-emerging-Pinterest-nailed-it triumph ... and then we'll go back to the start.

{{wahooooo, we have rainbow!!}}

I initially planned to make a ginormous butter cake mix - but figured it would be quicker and easier to make packet mixes.  So I went with three Green's butter cake mixes + Queen's food colouring + the Vienna Cream icing recipe in the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book.  

So we started with this ...

And then went to this ... SIX bowls for washing up ... I used blue, green, yellow, rose pink, pillar box red and mixed the blue and pink to make a fairly dodgy looking purple.  I baked two cakes at a time, making sure to match up the two that came from the same packet-mix, just in case that happened to be important in a cake-y kind of way.

Next came this ... I had to do a bit of trimming to level off the cake-tops ... and in fact as it turned out, I should have done MORE trimming ...

... because we had the Leaning Tower of Rainbow Cake sitting in my kitchen.  Any fears of a cake-slide were solved by five skewers being inserted right down through the cake.  They of course poked out the top of the cake by a good inch, so I had to hide them ...

{{it's a thing of beauty isn't it - goes to show how much can be hidden with icing}}

... with a whole lot of little flags!  I love little cake-topper flags, and have a whole heap I've bought online from Lark.  Next came the Smartie + Malteser oh-so-artful decorating frenzy ...

The icing alone has 375 grams of butter in it.  I couldn't bring myself to push it to 500 grams by making another batch, so there were a few random uncovered bits of cake - which was a shame, as the cake was a surprise, and by the time dinner was over, the girls had totally guessed there was a rainbow looming ...

And done!!  The slices are so BIG!  It's like six pieces of cake in every slice.

Total nailed-it-Pinterest moment (let's forget about those fortifying skewers that were definitely holding back a cake-slide disaster), and absolutely worth the hours spent in the kitchen.  There will be more rainbow cakes in our future.  Hope your weekend is a good one so far.  xoxo cat

.: Noosa :.

So it's been two weeks since we last posted ... 

The first week of the school hols we were at home - movies + pottering around + the usual holiday tidying-frenzy.

Then the second week - we went to Noosa!!  We had lunch with Vee + her family on the first day - at the superb Bistro C.  In a twist of awesome-timing, Vee + her family were at Noosa for a few of the same days that we were.  

I'll leave it to a whole heap of pics to tell the story of the rest of the week ... every single pic is from my phone - I didn't use my camera once!

{{oh hai ... Vee + me!!}}

{{love Bistro C}}

{{loved this sign ... it's for Lamington, on Hastings Street}}

{{Gelatissimo gelato ... every.day.}}

{{had to buy this Third Drawer Down teatowel from Lamington}}

{{view from our front deck}}

{{last week I read ... Not Quite Nigella, Me + Rory MacBeath, The Rosie Project, Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots and Burial Rites.  Now I'm on to The Astronaut Wives Club ... we went to Berkelouw Books at Eumundi, Written Dimension at Noosa Junction (awesome bookshop) and Mary Ryan's on Hastings Street}}

{{lots of swimming between the flags}}

{{the beach again}}

{{slinky potato chips from the Eumundi Markets}}

{{oh, and the beach once again}}

{{sitting at the pool, looking at the beach}}

{{we saw some rugby Lions, and a lot of their fans}}

{{sunset on our last night}}

{{and sunrise on our last day}}

We had a fabulous week, loved it so much.  Home again now and ready for school tomorrow.  Hope you've had a great holiday - or are about to start!   xoxo cat

.: a quick pop in :.

Quick one today.  

We posted off two e-n-o-r-m-o-u-s post-bags to the lovely Elissa from Kelani Fabric Obsession today, full of our panels and cushion covers - if you are headed to the Craft + Quilt Fair in Sydney next week, please do go say hello to them.

So now I am back to my Hottie Challenge - I don't think I've posted any progress pics yet - so here's a little peek.  I'm hoping to finish my Hottie over the weekend and post it to the gorgeous Cam next week. 

And I wanted to share this super-cute package that arrived in the post box yesterday.  The gorgeous Ros put together a sweet little surprise package of goodies from her local Japanese dollar shop - I'm thinking maybe Daiso?  I would sooooo love there to be a Daiso in Brisbane ... 

Did you work out the yellow rabbit and pink bear?! - they are boiled egg moulds!!  Will definitely post a pic when we make them.  And how cuuuuuute are the teeny tiny stamps and the little note-paper?!   Thank you so much lovely Ros, it was such a sweet surprise and so kind of you. 

Only one more day til the weekend - a long weekend too!!  Hope you have some nice things planned.  xoxo cat

.: Mother's Day + birthdays :.

Hi hi hi, a few days away from this space.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums who pop by, hope you're having a relaxing day.

We nipped down to NSW overnight, to celebrate my Dad's 70th + Mother's Day.  It was a really lovely afternoon - we saw a lot of family and friends I've not seen in years and years - and the girls got to race around and spend time with their cousins.  Mum and Dad had a fab time and really appreciated everyone making the time to travel from near and far to share in the celebration.

I also got to have a quick coffee with the lovely Kirsten, who is in our AusModBee - in fact it's her month right now, so I'll soon be sharing AMH feathers made with the gorgeous Denyse Schmidt Chicopee range.  

I can finally share these cushions I made for Mum and Dad.

{{Dad used to be an eye surgeon, so I couldn't go past the Echino specs}}

 And here they are just this morning.

Hope you've all had a great weekend.   xoxo cat

.: Beautiful Sonia :.

Just popping in to share with you the beautiful family portrait that the gorgeous + amazing Sonia from Dandelyne has made for us.  

I 'met' Sonia through the magic of Etsy + instagram and now emails.  Her designs and creations are so beautiful, heartfelt and fun.  I've been reeeeeeally wanting one of Son's family portraits for a while, so finally bought one through her fabulous Etsy shop - an early Mothers' Day pressie to me!  

There is so much meaning in this gorgeous little stitched piece of perfection.  I can't put into words how beautiful it is, how much meaning it has, and how absolutely thrilled, touched and happy I am to have it. 

The gorgeous Son even included some little sweet gifts for me and the girls.  She is a beautiful + generous soul, and I wish you all had your own little Dandelyne family portrait.  Thank you so much Beautiful Sonia.    xoxo cat