A very late engagement

Sometimes handmade gifts don't quite get made in time for an occasion...

The fabric panels arrived on Tuesday and I madly scrambled to get this cushion finished so that I could take it along to NCB lastnight for B-Fab (please forgive the hastily taken blurry iPhone snaps as I was running out the door).

Just in case the design doesn't make any sense to you.... that's the happy couples first initials.

....and here it is in its new home - on Boyance's couch!

A backwards step

Now that the whole Christmas/New Year shebang is over for another year, I can take a step backwards with some handmade christmas pressies.

I had these little square panels printed aaaaaages ago and they've been sitting in the stash just waiting for a project.

All printed from from my original hand drawn illustrations......  as you can tell from the wonkiness of Pacman.

I just overlocked the edges and made them into simple unlined zippers pouches. One for each of my older nephews (to hold their iTunes vouchers), and the Owl for Little Miss (in her favourite colour).

The funniest thing about the Pacman pouch, was watching the boys on Christmas Eve and waiting to see how long it took for them to work out what it was. First guess was Space Invaders......

Oh Galaga, Pacman, Donkey Kong and Frogger. How I miss thee.

Are we there yet?

Only two more sleeps peeps!

Unfortunately the dreaded lurgy has decided to visit and ruined my motivation and energy to do anything much.... but I forced myself back to the sewing machine yesterday afternoon to finish the Christmas pressies.

I'm giving my little nephews a Lego type gift each.

I really struggled to find an appropriate Lego for the twins who are 3 1/2. There seems to be a real gap in the market between babyish type Lego and the 5-12 age group.

Of course, what I love more than the Lego, is the Lego bag!

Nice bright durable cotton drill with a panel of gorgeous Lego fabric by Susie from Flowerpress.... and in different colours so that there are no arguments.

I hope they're a hit!

The one where Christmas came early

Packages, packages, packages....

So many beautiful things have landed on my doorstep lately, that it seriously feels like Santa has already been to visit.

This one arrived last week all the way from the UK. Lynsey from Cuteable and Swirly Arts sent me all these amazing treats.

Whoops! One of the Tunnocks Tea Cakes is already missing in this shot, and those Thorntons Chocolate Chunk Cookies are TDF. I've been limiting myself to two per day to make them last.... and vintage fabric and gorgeous tags and my BIL's favourite - Wagon Wheels!

My lovely friend Carly popped in to visit last weekend with a pressie for me - check out the specs cleaning cloth. So much prettier than the ugly grey ones that came with my new specs.

Speaking of specs... did I show you my new specs from Zenni?

One last package for today.

This was on my doorstep when I arrived home on Sunday.

Did you count???

That is a stack of thirty teatowels and one pillowcase from Amanda at Krafty Panda. Amazing. Speechless....Love.

Sigh... I'm so lucky!

Three

The bubbas little boys turned three yesterday!

They had a dress-up party with their friends at kinder, and then we just had a small family afternoon/dinner lastnight.

All they wanted for their birthday was a guitar each..... oh, and a pony (they didn't get the pony).

The Chef's Outfits were a hit.....

......as were the noisy horns!

Happy Birthday Bubbas!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Chef's Hats

It's birthday time again round yonder these parts....

The twins turn three on Friday.  

Three.... already! It really doesn't seem that long ago that they were such tiny little bubbas.

It's actually quite amusing to look back at the blog and see how much they've changed from 1st birthday (wearing the outfits that I made), to 2nd birthday (playing with their scarflettes and manbags) to now.

But somehow, the twins have made it three without me ever making them a custom Chef's Hat!

In fact, it's been so long since I made one that I had to actually refer back to my own tutorial for the measurements....

I've used velcro for the closure - easy for little hands

I've been holding on to the lovely Mookah screenprinted denim that I bought at the Finders Keepers Market, just waiting for the right project to come along. This was the perfect opportunity to show it off.

Hmmm I really should have ironed it before taking photos...

I've also made them each a matching kiddie apron (in a nice dark colour to hide the stains). I'm sure my sister will appreciate that!

Skirting Around

I have a birthday party to go along to this coming weekend, and it's fancy dress (for the kiddies thankfully - not for me)!

I bought the birthday girl some gorgeous red stockings from My Poppet last month, so I just wanted to make a little skirt that she could wear with them.

With exactly zero size 6 models on hand and available, I winged it, and then put out a call for help on twitter regarding the length (I wanted it to be just sitting at the knee).

Kate came to the rescue, as fortunately she had two little size 6 models playing in the yard.

I've forgotten to take photos of the side seams, but I did a lovely flat felled (at least I think that's what it's called) seam with two lines of red top stitiching down either side.

I think it's super cute, so I hope the birthday girl does too!

The Birthday Loot - Part 2

Part 2 of the birthday loot went on a little country detour before it made its way to my house.

You may remember that I visited The Big House a couple of weeks ago in Ballarat, and I was drooling over the selection of vintage dresses.

There was a particular vintage housecoat that took my fancy.... you can see from the photo where I've taken it from the rack and looked at it, and it put it back rather messily!

Well, my little sister very sneakily bought it for me after I left!

It's very large and very shapeless, but the fabric (and the buttons) are beautiful. In the interests of my sanity, I'm not going to try to convert into a shapely dress that I can wear. I think I shall make an a-line skirt or a wrap skirt instead.

She also included a beautiful vintage tablecloth and teatowel.

My mum went to Ballarat on Friday, so she took my pressie home to Beeac with her.

So, on Saturday, my older sister and I packed up all the kiddies (six of them in total) in her people mover, and headed off to visit Beeac for an early Mothers Day celebration.

There was lots of collecting firewood...

Feeding the ducks and chooks..

Feasting....

... and dancing while the band played 'Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car', 'Incy Wincy Spider', and 'If You're Happy and You Know It' a thousand times!

Little Zaney even skipped the visit to the lolly shop with everyone else because he wanted to stay behind and play his guitar. I think my sister may have a future rock star on her hands!

The Birthday Loot - Part 1

Gorgeous bundle of fabric from Ms Hoppo Bumpo (do you think she knows my favourite colours?)

Wonderful handmade Lavender Eye Pillow and Fragrant Lavender Sachet from the Wee Girl

I've been totally slack in showing off the lovely birthday pressies that I received last week.

I've been so busy every day that there hasn't been much time (or daylight) left for gathering things and taking photos.

I've been totally and completely spoiled yet again.

I've been coveting one of these ever since I first saw them on Christina's blog, but I thought that it was the sort of gift that deserved a special occassion.

So I waited a reeeeeeeeeeeally long time for my birthday to arrive, and my sister bought it for me.

It's beeeewdiful ....

Dream Sweetly

Dream Sweetly

Acrylics on canvas

78 x 60 inch

I'm completely lost for words at the moment.... which is quite unusual for me!

Actually, words cannot even explain how much I absolutely love this painting. It's just ME. It's exactly what I wanted. It's better than I'd ever dreamed of.

Quite a long time ago, Tinniegirl and I had a conversation about the big boring expanse of white wall above my bed.

I have quite high ceilings for a modern built house, so I needed something that was going to make a statement. My only wish was that it contained pink and orange and had some sort of floral motif.

In the meantime, I'd completely forgotten all about it, but Tinniegirl was secretly working on it for my birthday.

She'd even been blogging about the different layers of the painting, and posting a little sneaky peek. The entire time, I just thought she was busily working away on paintings for her upcoming exhibition!

It wasn't until my birthday on Friday that I spotted a gift wrapped surprise...

So when I arrived at Cathy's house yesterday, this is what was waiting for me.

.....and when I unwrapped it...

....and to get an idea of the huge size of it...

I drive an SUV, and it took up the entire length of the car from the glove box to the back hatch with all the seats laying down to get it home.

I cannot wait to actually get it hung on the wall (hint hint little brother if you're reading this)!

Liesl also came over for the afternoon with a lovely pressie of fabric in pink and orange tones, which will make beautiful new pillowcases for my bed. Thankyou so much Liesl.

Oh and course, there was birthday cake.... a delicious chocolate cake baked by Cathy and Ms L (from this months Delicious Magazine), filled with an extremely yummy chocolate cream cheese filling (which I desperately need to get the recipe for).

I had such a wonderful day, and I've had such an amazing birthday weekend, well actually, I started celebrating last Tuesday, so I actually made the celebration last for nearly a week.

It's times like this when I love the fact that I have such wonderful family and friends, who make such an effort to make my birthday special.

Until next year.....

Belting

Another belated birthday present..... I'm really not doing well with the handmade birthday present planning so far this year!

I was a little bit lost for ideas, so I asked Jack's mum what he would like. She said that he absolutely loved the belt that I made him for christmas, and so could I please make him another.

The most difficult thing about it was finding a fabric in the stash with a small enough print to use as a feature, but this one ended up being perfect!

The Owls Have It

Things have been so crazy busy around here that I completely missed a 2nd birthday a couple of weeks ago...

So I whipped up a super simple and super quick little skirt.

It's just two rectangles - the front one appliqued with a lovely row of owls, then overlocked and sewn together, hemmed, and elasticised.

The applique is a strip cut from my Owlie Oracle fabric.

It's hard to see in this photo, but I pressed and topstitched the side seams in pink thread, just for fun!

I'm off to deliver it today, with fingers crossed that it fits... here's hoping.

Suave - Part Three

So today was the big day - Moo Moo's 4th Birthday.

When I arrived, he was busy riding his brand new Ben 10 bike, so little Zaney helped me to carry the pressie (and my handbag).

There was a flurry of excitement to open the pressie (note to self: tissue paper is a really bad idea as it tears up into tiny little pieces that end up everywhere).

The birthday boy was far too engrossed in his new Nano Bug game to do any modelling shots for me. I'm not so sure that a fedora, vest, and boardies are a good look anyway!

Noah wanted to join in with the modelling action too.

There was a yummy barbecue dinner and bithday cake of course.

Storybook - Where's Chicken

I'd forgotten to make a birthday card, so luckily the wee girl came to the rescue yesterday. She designed all of her pieces for Moo Moo with a chicken theme - there was a chicken birthday card, a chicken jigsaw, an illustrated storybook, and a huge Pin the Beak on the Chicken game (including detachable beaks and blu-tack).

He has another birthday party on Saturday with all of his little kinder friends.... if only all our birthday parties could last for a week!