Whats a Name - part 2

Look what I found in the letterbox when I got home lastnight! My swippity-swappity name tag.

I'd spied this over at Snailblazer last week, and of course I loved the fact that it was made using a crocheted doily. I even got an extra little pressie too.

Thanks so much Cass - I can't wait to wear it at Sew It Together.

Watcha Wearin' Wednesday

Jeez, this one's a bit serious!

Errrr that should actually be Tuesday!

For those who asked for a photo, here are a couple I snapped when I arrived home from work lastnight. It was after 6PM so the light was already fading away.....

I tried again without the sunnies this time... Frances was trying to nudge her way back into the shot. She doesn't like being shoved in the corner.

Cathie was completely correct - I also wore my new shiny red shoes!

I'll be wearing this again at the Daylesford Makers Market on Saturday.

Banishing Boring Beige

The BEFORE photo - as in before dyeing, and before I could find the matching belt

I've been following along and watching all of Jess's bear dyeing adventures lately, and it suddenly reminded me that I had my own little dyeing project hanging around in my wardrobe, just waiting for some inspiration to hit.

It's been yonks and years since I've tried it. In fact the last thing that I dyed, was a rather unfortunate pair of high waisted jeans while I was as Uni.  Does anyone else remember when coloured denim was cool...ahem? Those jeans met an unfortunate end after my foot was run over by a taxi outside a nightclub (but that's a story for another day)...where was I?

Oh yes the beige dress!

I picked this lovely dress up at a factory outlet on Smith St many moons ago. At the time, I didn't bother to try it on, I just took it home.
It wasn't until I saw this photo of me wearing it a BBQ in 2007, that I realised that beige is a very very very very bad colour against my pasty white skin tone.

The poor dress was banished to the back of the wardrobe, never to see the light of day again.... until 2010.

Jess emailed me through all of her pot dyeing on the stove top secrets (I really didn't want to ruin my nice white and shiny front loader), but I still chickened out and asked Bec if she would help me out for the first go.

My original intention was to go to with a nice dark browny grey colour, but when I got to Becs house, she had a huge selection of dyes to choose from, and I just couldn't go past the ruby red!

The slip that is worn under the dress took the dye really well and is a nice bright red....

The dress is a blend of cotton and synthetics, and I love how the dye has actually given the stripes a much greater effect in the way that the dye has taken to the fabric.

I had to include an action shot of Bec doing all the hard work while I sat at the kitchen bench drinking coffee and snapping photos...hee hee

I think I'm going to have to wear my newly dyed dress today (over a pair of pants - its only going to be 23 degrees).

Thanks Jess and Bec for all your help!

The Finki Challenge - European Travels

If only I could brag that I've had real European Travels....... sadly I cannot, so I'm making up for it with my entry for the Finki Challenge.

I had this lovely Eiffel Tower fabric on hand so I whipped up a little Gadget Pouch.
You can find this one in The CurlyPops Shop!

I also had a custom ordered Sunnies / Specs Pouch last week which I really loved - it's a combination of Joel Dewberry and a lovely chocolate brown denim..... yum.

A breath of fresh air

I headed down to the country yesterday to check on the progress of my mums reno project.

Mr X and Moo Moo decided to come too, along with one of Mr X's friends.... so there was lots of chattering, and laughing, and talking about silly boy things like farts, all the way there and back!

The boys had a great time checking out the sheep, the cantankerous goats (Crackle and Pop), and the chooks of course.

They were also quite fascinated by the bloke up the tree cutting down the dead branches with a chainsaw.

 Before photo - taken with a camera

After photo - taken with a mobile phone

The re-painting of the entire interior of the house is nearly finished - the kitchen looks so much lighter and brighter than before - even on a such a dreary and rainy afternoon. Now the beautiful old wood burning stove and mantelpiece is a feature against the white walls.

The boys kept me entertained all the way home. We cranked up the dance music (Ministry of Sound) and sang along. Even Moo Moo joined in bopping along in his car seat..... hilarious!

Ungladwrapped

The puddle finally dried out.....

.... and the finished creation has been taken home.

I'm hoping it'll be filled with easter eggs next time I go and visit!

Lights Camera Action!

Kylie from Chasing Purple Dreams put in a request a little while back for a custom made camera bag.
I've never tried to make anything like this before, but I'm always ready for a challenge.

She emailed through a sketch of the bag, and the dimensions that she needed to fit her camera accessories...

.....which I then used to sketch out my cutting / construction plan from.

The most important thing was to make sure that it had a really good structure, but also soft cushioning for the equipment.... and now I know why Nikki was gushing over the S320 interfacing!

The shot above is the work in progress bag outer - denim interfaced with S320 and then iron-on wadding over the top - the structure it gives is amazing.

The inner of the bag needed to have separate sections for each piece of equipment, so after a few days of thinking, and a chat with Nikki, I decided to make removable inserts.

The bag lining has two strips of velcro running along either side. The removable padded inserts just slot in and attach to the velcro.

Kylie requested an adjustable strap, so I used some nice antique brass hardware.

The front of the bag has a zippered pocket (I think I've finally lost my fear of sewing zips), and a side release buckle closure. I couldn't use a magnetic closure as I don't think it would be safe for camera equipment.

It's on the way to Kylie's house now, so I hope she likes it!

My Creative Space

The felty circles from last week are progressing along slowly...

...and I completed and mailed off a couple of custom orders (above scribble is the construction plan for one of them).

The puddle of glue is still drying, and I have nine days left until the Easter Daylesford Makers Market. I'm hoping to have something new on my stall. Keep your fingers crossed!

Make sure to check out this weeks Creative Spaces with the Hostess with the Mostest Kirsty.

Jumping in Puddles

Yep, that's a big puddle of glue and fabric and yarn on my kitchen table.....sitting on a garbage bag.

My eldest nephew stays over on Tuesday nights.
We usually spend about an hour getting all of his weekly homework out of the way in one big session, but this week there's no homework as school finishes for Easter holidays on Friday (didn't they just start back)?

So to pass the normal homework time, we decided to make an Easter Basket.

I didn't have an art smock and he only had his school uniform, so we fashioned a smock out of a plastic shopping bag (just cut two armholes and a neckhole if you're wondering.... but I'm sure you're probably not).

He had a great time swirling all the bits around in the glue, and then plopping them on top, and all the way around the bowl*.

Let's just hope that that the puddle actually dries out by the time Easter rolls around!

* I used a pyrex bowl covered in gladwrap - I've never tried this before so I'm really hoping that it works.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle....

 
.... just a little warning

If you come to visit, I can't guarantee that there are no sleeping lions hiding in my backyard!

Gung Ho

It's the way that I approach most things day to day.

I don't think about things too much.
I don't plan very far in advance.
I live in the moment.
I go with the flow.
I just DO.

Of course GUNG HO is not always the most successful way to do things. Case in point above.

In between some other projects, I decided that I would make a start on my pincushion swap. I'm not a patchworker or a quilter, but I thought it would be a fun project to make up a little patchwork of fabric scraps, to then use as the basis of my pincushion.

But then I remembered that I was supposed be creating something in a style that my swap partner would like..... and so I skidded to a complete HALT!

Whoops - it looks like I'm starting over.

Op Shop Sunday / Fleamarket Finds

I find it a bit weird to use the word fleamarket (sorry if I'm offending anyone but we don't have fleamarkets in Australia) and I just don't like fleas......

What I do like is Op Shops!

I could only manage a teeny tiny quick visit to one oppy this week, where I found a very lovely cross stitched tablecloth - with absolutely no stains (a  minor miracle) for the princely sum of $1.

I also found myself a very nice skirt, and nearly fell over when I saw that it was priced at $20! It went straight back on the rack.

Visit Sophie to see many more gorgeous oppy finds this week.

Whats a name?

I finally finished stitching my Swippity Swap Name Tag for Sew It Together lastnight.

I thought a little bit outside the square (literally) and created an aqua and red flower brooch (measuring 9cm x 9cm), with a piece of felt stitched in underneath. I've embroidered my recipients name onto the felt.... (which of course, has magically been erased for these photos).

Note to recipient: please forgive my crappy embroidery skills!

At the end of Sew It Together, the felt can be snipped away with a pair of scissors leaving a brooch which can be kept.

I'm not going to pop it in the post just yet.... I'm going to wait until we get closer to the deadline.

The one where I finally say thankyou

Lauren Williams Button Necklace and Betty Jo Lino Flower Brooch

Life suddenly got a whole lot busier this year, so I've been a little slack with keeping up to date with the thankyous!

Lovely Lauren gifted me this gorgeous button necklace at the market on Saturday (it features one of my favourite Ume Komachi fabrics) and lovely Liz gifted me a gorgeous (extremely limited edition) floral lino brooch.

In the mail last week, I received these fabulously funky retro tea towels and a gorgeous scrappy brooch from lovely Steph at Moo Bear. She stumbled across them at a garage sale....the floral motifs and the colours are absolutely amazing.

...and last but certainly not least is this absolutely beautiful tea towel from lovely Mandapanda at Krafty Panda.

 I desperately need to make myself a new tote bag (the grubby penguins need a wash), so this will be the perfect size and print!

Thank you so so much to all of you for the super special pressies!

My creative space

It's all about the circles at the moment.......  I'm spying them everywhere.

I'd decided earlier in the year that I really wanted to take some time to work on some textile art, so when the February Finki challenge was announced, I was completely inspired (just not inspired quite enough to get it all done in February)..

I took along my new pen roll to the market on Saturday, and spent the quiet times doodling circles, and cutting out vinyl circles.

The textile piece is going to have a chocolate brown linen blend fabric as the background, with lots of circle embellishments. I picked up this very beautiful hand dyed wool felt from Trudi a few weeks ago. Trudi has a brand new blog - Me & Ewe, and Etsy shop . The colours are truly amazing (I'm also loving the bright purple, bright leaf green, and jade green. I can't wait to cut out lots of different sized pink and orange circles and lay them out all together....

With any luck, I may even make some progress before next weeks My Creative Space rolls around!

The home of My Creative Space.

A Wacing Car Twack

I whipped this one up quickly today for Moo Moo, and took it over to him thisafternoon. The best thing about making a second version of anything, is that you can modify the design to make the construction quicker and better.

I found a tiny bit of car fabric in the stash.... only enough for the top pockets, so I had to substitute some green and blue spots for the bottom pockets.

Moo Moo was very excited, and was finding it very difficult to close his eyes and put out his hands (something that myself and all my siblings were taught as kids.... passed on to the next generation - scary) to wait for the big suprise!

He even gave his daddy a quick demonstration of how it worked when he arrived home from work.... except that he got a bit confused and was trying to roll it longways!

Predictable

Predictions.... they can come true.

Nikki Cardigan predicted that Moo Moo would want one too. I got a phone call at 8PM Monday night.... and a little voice on the other end said "Hello Cam, can you please make me a car roll up too?".

How could I say no?

So this mornings job is to search the stash for some cute boy friendly fabrics.

In other boy news, I received a very nice email from Spotlight Customer Service on Monday. Although my local store currently has nothing in stock for boys, I'm assured that they do have three new ranges which are being released in early April. There's one named Bot Camp (think robots) which looks pretty cute. I appreciated their very quick response.

Sometimes my budget just can't stretch to expensive designer fabrics, and I need something cheap and cheerful to fall back on (especially when it comes to birthday pressies for three year olds)!

The Goodies

I always love to come home with a gorgeous handmade goodie after each market....   and Saturday was no exception.

I'd spied these lovely needle felted brooches on Holly's blog last month, so I couldn't resist bringing one home!

I also bought this lovely Squirrel cushion from Flickettysplits with the intention of giving it as a gift..... but I think it's feeling right at home on my couch, and might need to stay.

If you'd like to find out a little bit more about little ol' me, there's a featured blogger interview over at Handmade News today!