Flea Market Finds

It's been a little while since I've had the chance to visit the oppy, but after my visit to Sparkle Heaven earlier in the week, I also managed to pop into the oppy in the same street.

There were four sweet nanas sitting around a table drinking cups of tea and chatting away. It was really lovely to be able to browse the store and listen to their conversation. One of the nanas even commented on my flower brooch (and noticed that it was handmade).... she has good taste obviously!

I was in a little bit of a hurry so after a quick browse, I came away with a brand new in packet vintage tablecloth, some embroidered napkins, and a photo frame so that I can finally hang Liesl's SuperPops on my wall.

I'm not sure whether to use the tablecloth on my table, or chop it up....but first, I'm off to transform that frame into something worthy of SuperPops!

PS - Visit Sophie at the home of Flea Market Finds to play along.

Win a $30 Made It Voucher

MadeIt has introduced a swanky brand new shopping cart which allows you to buy multiple items from one or more sellers. You can add and remove items easily and you can now send a message to the seller on checkout (size, colour or just a lovely note). Payments to the sellers must be made within 3 days of confirming your purchase. 

To celebrate the new MadeIt shopping cart, they are giving away five $30 madeit gift vouchers to five buyers who use the shopping cart & buy item(s) over the weekend.
All purchases on Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 February 2010 will go into the draw. Winners will be notified on Monday 1st March.

I've just updated  The CurlyPops Shop with some brand new Gadget Pouches and Sunnies / Specs Pouches, plus a couple of Handbags.

Pop on over for a look right here and good luck with the giveaway!

About Last Week

In all the busy-ness and excitement of this week, I'd completely forgotten to blog about the concert that I went along to last Saturday night.

The local council has been providing free concerts in some of the local residential parks.... along with the obligatory kids face painting, jumping castle, and ice cream van.

The music was great - the feature band for the night was a Robbie Williams tribute band named The Ego has Landed. They were absolutely fabulous - the singer acted, spoke, and sang just like Robbie all night. 

The back up singer even ripped her skirt off to reveal gold hotpants to sing Kids....


It was about 35 degrees when the concert began, and about 30 degrees by the time it finished, so the poor man in the coffee van was looking very forlorn all night.

Now if I could just find something as exciting to do tonight?

Razzamatazz

Liz tipped me off the other day, about a little shop that I'd never visited....


Trimmings and Remnants is jam packed with all things bright and sparkly - fabrics, sequins, trims, ribbon etc etc etc. If you needed to make a costume for Mardi Gras, then this would definitely be the place to visit!

I just couldn't resist picking up a couple of sparkly remnants, and some sparkly thread to play with. Now... what to make???

My Creative Space

It's been busy busy busy at CurlyPops HQ, and now I'm adding family kitchen designer to my repertoire (with my humble apologies to real kitchen designers). My creative space is all about quantities and dimensions and kit codes and legs and kick boards and pencil round edges and face routings and hinges and so on ........today.

My mum is moving to a little cottage in the country very soon. To say that the kitchen has seen better days, is a slight understatement. It currently consists of a wood burning stove, a sink, and a bench.....

.....and lots and lots of yellowy pine on the walls and the ceiling!

I designed my old kitchen using basic flatpacks, so I'm using my tried and tested method again here. I've measured all of the existing spaces and designed the kitchen around them.

You have to use a little bit of imagination here:

Imagine lovely polished hardwood floors, the entire kitchen painted in Dulux Chalk USA (except for the beautiful wooden mantelpiece surrounding the wood stove), antique white cabinets, and a benchtop in soft browns and neutral tones.

There are three doorways, two windows, and the wood stove to deal with, so the best option was to create a cleaning zone - where the sink will be located (at the top of pic above), a pantry and cooking zone - with proper underbench oven and cooktop above (left side of pic above), and a storage zone (over on the right).

We're going to search for an old worn kitchen table and chairs for the centre of the room to create some rustic country charm..... but first, there's lots and lots of work to do!

The home of My Creative Space....

I love a Fairytale

I don't know what it is about these beautiful Kokka fabrics, but I absolutely adore a teeny tiny fairytale print.

Usually when I buy new fabric, it sits in the stash for months on end before I actually get around to making anything with it..... but not this one.

I was itching to start cutting and stitching.

There's just something magical about a pair of shiny red shoes..... clicketty click

Sunshine and Blooms

The sun is streaming through the windows thismorning, and it's going to be a beautiful day!

I finished off some more flower brooches lastnight, and I've had a little mini update over at The CurlyPops Shop.....  I'm hoping to pop some things in the shop thisafternoon.

Organ Donor Awareness Week 2010

 

This week is Organ Donor Awareness Week in Australia.

 

This is an extremely important issue and I hope everyone can take 15 minutes of their precious time this week to have a discussion with their loved ones regarding this issue. If you would like to be an organ donor, it is extremely important to be placed on the national register. It is even more important that your family and other loved ones are aware of your wishes as they will make the final decision.

 

I don't often preach about anything on this blog, but I have a chronic lung disease and will require a lung transplant at some time in the future. I have friends who have had transplants in the last couple of years (after waiting more than five years), and I have another friend who is currently on the waiting list.

There are some wonderful family resources on the Donate Life website, and some very interesting facts and statistics.

 

If you would like to sign up online as an Organ Donor, you can do so right here at the Medicare website.

Sunny Sunday

Bec and her Little Miss popped in for a crafty playdate thisafternoon.

We had a wonderful time drinking cups of tea and eating home made (by Little Miss) raspberry bundt cake with double cream.... mmmmm


I dragged out all of my vintage self covering buttons kits and Bec made these cute little animal buttons for me.

 
I gave Little Miss her new brooch which she loved, and then decided to make a few more in random colours.

I also managed to do quite a bit of cutting to whip up some Gadget Pouches and Sunnies/Specs Pouches...

including some beautiful new Kokka fabrics that I bought at The Retromummy Shop last week.

....and in super exciting breaking news, Liz emailed to let me know that she spotted one of my brooches in The Age - M Magazine today in an article about Dear Gladys. I didn't buy The Age today - did anyone else see it?

A mini roll

Thanks for all of the lovely messages yesterday.... they warmed the cockles for sure.
In fact, they even motivated me to keep making while I was sitting on the couch watching Tori and Dean lastnight.

I've been promising a certain Little Miss that I would make her a very special one of a kind flower brooch.
I hope she likes it!

Taking Advice

Nikki reminded me earlier this week that it's important to just make something beautiful for oneself.

It's something that I don't seem to do very often. I usually only keep dodgy test pieces and prototypes for me...... then Steph double dared me to actually use one of the sparkly things that I bought this week.

I needed to make this thisafternoon. Some days start out OK, and then something crappy happens. I'm so glad that I can distract myself by just making something.

My Creative Space

I'm having a bit of a creative slump this week

There are plenty of projects on the list..... I just need to get cracking!

Yesterday, I had to take some parcels down to the post office, and of course, there was no parking... so while doing blockies, I ended up taking a little detour further down the street to the bead shop, where I bought myself some little trinkets to play with, and a new pair of flat edge tweezers.

Funnily enough, I still haven't started work on using the last lot of pretty things that I bought from the bead shop... but I'm a bit of a magpie when it comes to all things shiny and new and crafty!

Watch this space - I might actually make something with this lot.

The home of My Creative Space

Seasonal

 My old kitchen

My hands are all wrinkly today as I've been Spring Summer Re-arranging and Cleaning...

I'm suffering from a severe lack of storage / preparation space in my kitchen, after going from the beautiful big kitchen at my old house, to a seriously small kitchen with hidden corners, and hardly any bench space.


I don't use the kitchen much anymore, except for making lots of cups of tea and coffee, and quite a bit of toast with vegemite or jam, so I decided that I needed a little space just dedicated to this.

I ordered myself a small appliance pantry to sit on top of the cupboard where I used to have the microwave. I was able to find the perfect match for the existing kitchen, but I wasn't able to order the doors until I'd decided the heights of the adjustable shelves inside.

I think I'll probably live with it for a month or so before I finally make a decision.... in the meantime, I'm thinking that I should probably find somewhere a little bit less visible for the tins of cat food!

Move Over SuperPops

There's a new Superhero in town...

He's faster than a speeding bullet...

....and as cute as can be

They call him SuperMooMoo

Picky Picky

I love a giveaway.... and it's come to the time to pick a winner of the gorgeous 100% polyester baby vintage dress.

I could try to refashion it, but I really don't want to ruin it, which is why I'm very sadly giving it away for a new life with someone who can actually wear it (and be able to breathe and sit down without splitting a seam).

So without further ado, the random number generator dictates that the winner must be.....

Number 14 - which was Mookah who commented 'Oh yeah....I was a slim size 10....about 20 years ago! Not for me baby.'

Redraw.... and the winner is Drewzel who commented: Gorgeous honey! Sorry it didn't work for you :(
Don't count me in the draw though, I'm only size 10 in my dreams!

This is harder than it seems..... maybe the dress is trying to tell me something

Redraw.... and the winner is Susan who commented: I think it might fit me ... we're a pretty similar size. I'm sure it will got to a good home in any event.

Yah! We finally have a winner.


For the Mookah girls and Steph, I'll pop a little consolation prize in the mail if you would like to email me your snail mail addresses.

Thanks so much to everyone who played along.

Flying Away

No....not me, my mini laptop.

It's heading off all the way to San Francisco to an art retreat, so I thought it deserved to travel in a little bit of style.

I made a very simple padded (iron-on wadding) envelope with snap closures, and then added some handles. It's a little bit wonky, but I was in a big hurry to get it finished.

Bec picked up the gorgeous Ikea fabric for me a few weeks ago - the thought of actually visiting Ikea myself fills me with dread.

Farewell little laptop.... I hope you have fun - and you'd better send me a bloody postcard!

Devastated

 
I went on a little op shopping mission with Beccasaurus last week, where she spotted this magnificent vintage dress. We're both a similar size, but I have quite narrow shoulders so it was more likely to fit me (OK, I admit that I might have been doing a happy dance in my head that it was more likely to fit me - sorry Bec).

It's been sitting on my kitchen bench ever since, so I thought it was about time to try it on (with the intention of wearing it to the market today).....

....and now I want to cry

It fits my shouders and my hips, but it's too tight around the boobs and the belly region.

So what to do???

I know that there are plenty of vintage dress lovers out there in blogland, so I'm giving it away.

It's labelled a size 10.5, so when comparing to my current size, I'm thinking that it will fit a slim size 10 or smaller. Frances is approximately a size 8 and it fits her quite easily.

It's 100% polyester baby and in great condition except for a small seam on the front which needs a little bit of re-stitiching. I haven't tried to wash it yet, so it's in the exact condition that I found it at the oppy.

If you think it will fit, leave a comment and I'll draw a random winner Monday night (Melbourne time).

Busy Busy

Phew!

Between leaving home for work yesterday morning and then arriving back home after the Northern Craft Bonanza lastnight, blogland had been super busy. I quickly read through the more than one hundred posts in my google reader (sorry I didn't stop to say hi anywhere, but I had to get to bed at a reasonable hour).

Today I'll be packing my bags for my final market of the month. I'm sharing a stall with Annmarie from Map 29 at the Made'n'Thornbury Market tomorrow, so it should be a lovely fun day out.

It's a bit different this month. The hall is being renovated, so the market is actually at the Thornbury Women's Neighbourhood House in Shaftesbury Parade.

Here's a little of what I was working on lastnight (photo courtesy of Susan). I'll be adding some more photos over here... and there are also more here.

My creative space

Today it's creativity in a basket...

I've packed my goodies to take along to the Northern Craft Bonanza tonight.

I'm working on a cape for SuperMoo that needs a little embroidery as a finishing touch, and an embroidered hankie as well.

I need to do a quick run around the house and grab some things for tonights crafty swap. One persons crafty junk just might be anothers crafty treasure.

The home of My Creative Space.

A bit of Australiana (must be pronounced with an accent)

I've been sorting through the tea towel stash, looking for a little bit of Australiana....

.... and whipping up some totes using my tutorial.

I'm very glad that I don't have to actually cut the tea towels......... just in case I change my mind

Some of them are just way too pretty