I made baskets!

Finally, after years of saying that I wanted to learn, I went and did a full day workshop on basket making. Our teacher, the lovely Weva Deva, uses materials foraged in the bush, to keep the costs down, and uses traditional techniques taught to her by indigenous ladies. We used materials such as vines, banana tree, palm flower fronds and the brown fronds of the bangalow palm, and traditional basket cane. It made me look totally differently at plants and vines that are considered pests, and I learnt so much in just 1 day. We made a large market basket, and we used a mixture of materials.

When I got home, I searched the garden here, and foraged some vine, banana plant, palm frond flowers, and made a smaller basket. At the moment, some of the vines are still green, so the whole basket should dry up brown. This one is a very rustic basket, and the shape is not perfect, but that is something that I will concentrate more on with more practice.

All in all, it was a really nice day, and I met some lovely people, and learnt a new skill, which I will hone with more practice. I am very happy with the results, and plan to use the large basket as my vege garden collection basket.

A bit more craft studio progress

We moved the craft studio today to its' final position. It is now located up on top of the hill, with easy access to the shower and toilet up there, so it will be good for anyone staying in there in the sofa bed.  Once up there, I started on staining the benchtops. I decided on a walnut stain by British Paints.

 The end result, I am really happy with it.

The old cupboard has also been finished. It has come up beautifully, and the black fittings really finish it off beautifully.

I have also put in the first decor item....a lovely set of sewing machine bookends I received for Xmas from Ann....

I will set them up with my craft magazines once I start moving my craft supplies in there. Toni got a bit crafty up here today, helping to make some baskets out of boxes for the shelving units under the benches.

I'll post some pics once they're done. Toni heads home tomorrow, but we should catch up again soon once Michael and Kacey have their bub.

Craft studio progress

Well, after the last few months of establishing the business, Christmas etc, we have gotten back in to getting the craft studio finished off. The painting and floor has been done. So, on the weekend, we started the building of the benches.

We have also pulled out the sofa bed mechanism from a sofa bed I picked up for free last year, and we have built a box for it to go in to. I am going to upholster the box with textured fabric, and then cover the cushion and make it all look good. This way we will be able to use it as guest accomodation as well.

I also have a beautiful cupboard that I was given by Mum and Dad, and I am going to use that in the craft room, but it needed renovating. So I have started painting it.

 I have been painting the hinges and handles as well, in black, as they are all quite fancy and original.

I am hoping to finish putting it all back together today and move it in. So then we still need to stain the timber bench tops, install some shelving, then install the blind and  do the cladding on the outside to make it look nice, and I will be able to start moving things in and doing the decor...yay...can't wait. Toni has arrived up here to visit for a couple of days, so looking forward to spending some quality time with her while she is here.

Rocking chair makeover

Our first grandchild is due this month, and I bought Kacey a gliding rocking chair for her baby shower in November. The covers on it weren't really in keeping with her nursery theme, so I said I would recover it for her. This is how it looked originally.

We went to spotlight on New Years eve and purchased some fabric that she liked, so I could make up some new covers. I took the padded footstool off the stool, and recovered it as well. I love how it has come up, it looks brand new, and perfect for the nursery, and for Kacey to feed bub in, and it is sooo comfy.

I just took the original covers off, and then traced around them for the new ones, and bought some self covering buttons so I could replace the buttons as well. They have a bit of a jungle animal theme going on, with monkeys, elephants and giraffes, so the giraffe print will go well, and will suit either a boy or girl themed nursery, even though we know we are expecting a grand daughter. It was quite easy, and very quick to recover, and the end result has come up really nicely.

Cheap fabric for the upcoming sewing retreat...

The twice yearly sewing retreat is coming up for Mum and I this weekend.  Luckily, I had prepaid this before Damian was out of work, otherwise I probably wouldn't go this year.  I want to start to do some weekend markets with my handmade products, so it is a good chance to sit down in peace and focus on getting my samples and some stock done. There are a few specific items I want to make all with a French inspired theme, and all involving ruffles of some sort :) Good cotton fabric is quite expensive at the quilting stores and at Spotlight, so I called in to the op shop in town and picked up everything I needed for $40. While I was at it, I bought a lovely cotton thermal blanket for Kasey's bed as it's getting rather chilly here at the minute, she does have an electric blanket as well, but we're trying not to use those unless we really need to.

 Anyway, in my $40 stash was a really nice, excellent quality comforter style bedspread which I am going to embellish with ruffles,

2 cushion covers for 40c each, which I am also going to embellish to match, and there are another couple of quilt covers and a few queen and double sheets all in the type of fabrics I was looking for, that will set off the vintage, french, rustic theme that I am going for.

I am going to use all of these as fabric, instead of as sheets and quilt covers. I think I have saved at least $200-$300 by going this way, and I think the end results are going to be amazing....

 Do you shop the op shops for your supplies?

Chook sagas...oh...and other stuff...

It's been an eventful few days around here as usual. Kasey was taking Max for a walk yesterday afternoon and came across a large carpet python on the driveway, about a metre and a half long. Damian went out to move it on with the broom, but it climbed up behind the grill of his car, over the engine bay and along the chassis rail, where we lost sight of it. We are hoping it came out overnight, otherwise it will be travelling around a bit. One of the plymouth rock chickens came down really sick late yesterday afternoon. She was all limp and had her eyes shut and was dribbling, we thought she was dead, but she wasn't. I put her in a box to see if she would start to recover but she showed no improvement overnight and seemed to be getting worse, so we had to give her the chop...first one we have done...not nice, but it had to be done, as she was suffering too much, at least it was quick. It was so sudden as she was totally fine yesterday morning, I would say she has been poisoned, either by a snake or spider, possibly even a toad?? Otherwise we have had some mushrooms pop up over the last few days, she may have eaten one and perhaps it was toxic...really don't know, it's all just guessing really. Such a shame as she was quite tame and would sit with me. That's 3 chooks we have lost over the last couple of weeks, Kasey's little pet chook was found dead one morning under their feeder, again a total mystery, we think her head may have got caught in the feeder? Then we lost Bertha the day before yesterday, but she died of old age, she was a good 10 years old!

(Bertha is the black Australorp chicken pictured here)

Damian spent today putting a couple of farm gates on the ends of the verandah in front of the shed to keep the horse and cattle out. Once the area in front of the shed is fenced off it will give us a house yard to keep animals out, and keep the dogs etc in when we need them to be.

He also installed the door at the top of the stairs a couple of days ago to keep the dogs out from upstairs, Max kept sneaking in while we weren't looking, and I found him curled up on our bed all wet and muddy, and that was the straw that broke the camels back, and the door went on. Still needs to be finished off, but it is keeping the dogs out which is the main thing for now.

I went and had my hair done today, I needed a change, and it was getting too long, so I went shorter and a little curly...I'm liking it a lot...

I'm off to a sewing retreat this weekend so I am leaving Daddy at home to look after Kasey and I will go and visit Michael and Toni while I am down there, it's Toni's 20th Birthday on Sunday, and I need to give her her present. So I will have 2 full days of sewing and socialising to do...yay...

Potato Planting day

Today was time to plant the potatoes. I ordered mine in from Green Harvest, and I got 6 different varieties to try, and I have decided this year to try the potato tower method. The varieties I am trying are Sebago, Nicola, Dutch Cream, Desiree, Toolangi Delight and Ruby Lou. I have purchased 12 kilograms all up, so I would like to get a 5:1 yield back at least to make it worthwhile. I used chicken wire as the frames, and put sugar can mulch in around the base and sides and filled the towers up with home made compost, alternating layers of potatoes all the way up the towers, then watered them in...crossing my fingers for a good harvest in a few months time.

                                     

The sewing retreat on the weekend was very productive. I made quite a few items, and I also repaired a skirt that I needed to replace the zipper on. This is a bag I made for Kasey for school, but I think it is probably a little small for a school bag, but she loves it anyway. I just need to finish it off with a couple of clip studs to join the top on to the bag properly.

I also made her a new lunch bag, as her other one was getting a bit past it. 

 A new sun hat for me...might make a couple more of these I think...it has a nice wide brim, so is really great for the garden.

 There is always a project that the retreat ladies give us to do, and this time it was this table runner using a special flip ruler to do the shapes, I loved the colours of this one, and it is on the table taking pride of place.

 The last couple of days have been pretty busy, I had a bit of time spare before picking Kasey up from school on Monday, so I called in to the op shop and picked up this lovely picnic basket. I've always wanted one like this, but wasn't prepared to pay the high price of a brand new one. I picked this one up for $15, so was happy with that.

 Yesterday I spent some time in the kitchen, I made these lemon honey yoghurt muffins from Linda's blog for lunches, they are very yummy, for the extra sweet tooth's around here,  I made up some lemon butter in the Thermomix (very, very quick and easy, 10 mins from start to finish) to spread in the middle to keep them happy until they get a bit more used to less sugar, which is a big focus around here right now, and Linda has heaps of healthy recipes on her blog, so I will be trying quite a few for lunch box treats. I added some Chia seeds to them as well, they look just like poppy seeds, and no-one has even asked what they are, so a bonus.

I also made up a batch of mayonnaise in the Thermomix last night as Toni wanted some to put on her chicken sandwiches for lunches, very quick and easy to make, and yummy. I was looking at the prices of whole egg mayo in the supermarkets and they charge nearly $6 a jar, so it got left on the shelf! To make this batch would have cost me about $1.00 I would think, and I know exactly what is in it, no numbers in this jar.

I also made up a batch of yoghurt, and a big batch of dough from the Artisan 5 minutes a day for fresh bread book, so it has been resting in the fridge, and I will probably bake my first loaf from that tomorrow. I used a mix of organic white flour, as well as a soy and linseed mix, and I also added chia seeds, so it should be a nice filling, healthy loaf. I also baked up a batch of pikelets for the lunch boxes as well. I have flowers coming in tomorrow to be made up for the weekend, and an embroidery workshop in the morning, and scrapbooking Friday, so still a busy week ahead.

Pretty French inspired craft

Went to a workshop yesterday with Mum. Mum wanted to do a cushion and another lampshade in keeping with the Whimsical workshop we did last year. I was going to do my dress form, but after decoupaging it in vintage sewing paper, I liked it very simple, which will allow me to change the displays on the dress form to suit my mood at the time. So, after much deliberating at the last minute on what I would make, I decided on a hat box. I am still going to paint the base white and use a computerised cutter to put some french sayings on the box, which will finish it off nicely.

While I was waiting for the paint to dry on the lid, I cut out a heart shape from some thin fabric I had in my toolbox, and stuffed it with wadding, and then embellished the heart in some stretchy rose trim I had, along with some pearl accents in the centre

I also made up a large corsage of velvet roses and lovely trims, which I will use in various displays, for the moment I will temporarily attach it to the dress form on her hips

I also changed my toolbox embellishments slightly, I incorporated more greens in to the design, and thinned some areas down, I am happier with it, but now need to touch up a couple of painted areas, which I will hopefully do tomorrow, I will then upload the updated photos. So the display of the items I finished yesterday ties together one corner of the bedroom nicely. I still want to add in some rustic features just so it is not quite so feminine, and more in keeping with the overall style I am wanting to finish off the decorating with.

We had a lovely, relaxing fun day of crafting...looking forward to doing it again some time soon.

My Craft Toolbox

I have had my craft toolbox for about 10 years at least, and it has always been a very boring dark green with beige lid, absolutely no personality. So, it has been on my mind to decorate it, so that it is more crafty and pretty...so I have gone a little crazy and repainted it purple and pink, and had fun embellishing it. It has come up very feminine, and looks much better than plain old dark green and beige.

 So, a nice relaxing way to spend a couple of hours on a Friday night, instead of watching tv..much more enjoyable that's for sure.

A few more finishing touches

Been doing a little bit of shopping for some finishing touches to renovating the house. I purchased a couple of french inspired pieces, a lovely big wall clock, about 700mm in diameter

I also purchased this lovely Eiffel Tower decoration

And last night I made this fabric wreath, while watching Offspring on TV. All of these items are going in to our bedroom.

Today I also purchased a lovely timber roller blind for the window behind our bed, which will go in well with the design. I like the french provincial, vintage look, but I don't want it cluttered or too feminine. I am going to go to the recycling shop tomorrow and see what I can find over there, as I have it in my head how I want it all to look, but just need to find the right pieces. I have found some beautiful design ideas and craft projects on pinterest, which is inspiring me to get my act together and start putting the finishing touches on things. I am off to a workshop with Mum on Monday, I am going to work on my dress form mannequin that I purchased last year with the intention of giving it a facelift, which will go in well with how all the designs are coming along. Anywho...off to hang a roller blind....

Update: I have now installed the blind, and put up some fabric as a finishing touch on the top and sides of it, it's starting to come together...