FABRIC FOR SALE!!!!!!!!

I have some great news on the fabric front!!!!! I've stumbled across a supplier who can get me some fantastic Japanese prints direct from Japan. If anybody would be interested in buying some off me at cost leave me a comment or send me an email. Just state which fabrics out of the ones pictured below you'd be interested in and how much of each you'd be wanting. I have to buy them in rolls of 9-12 metres so hopefully at least 1/2 a dozen people out there would be interested in at least a metre of something each. I don't mind if I end up with half of the roll I'm sure that I could and will put it to some good use.

The first 2 pics have 2 different fabric in each of them, one with dragonfly's and the other with flowers. These 4 fabrics are 100% cotton and only cost $10.00 a metre. They measure 115cm wide.
The next 4 fabrics are a little bit dearer at $12 a metre. They are also 100% cotton and measure 115cm wide.

Sorry about the next 3 pictures, they aren't very clear, (edit... I've up loaded clearer pictures now!!!) hopefully you get the idea. The 2 directly below are little bow peep and nursery rhymes (like humpty dumpty etc).... This one is a little boy playing with his dog with houses and trees in the back ground.

If the pics above aren't clear enough for your liking, let me know and I'll try and get some better one's to post. edit..... I've uploaded clearer pictures now!!!!

Also.... my supplier emailed me through these fabrics this morning.....

The one above is russian dolls on black orburgandy and the one below is little bears on black or pink.....

They are both $12 per metre, 100% cotton and measure 115cm wide.

I hope you are all as impressed at these fabric and their prices as I was, like I said before I'm selling these at cost and am not out to make any profit what so ever.

As for freight, I think that I could probably fit 1 maybe 2 metres into an A4 envelope for $1. I'll inform you all of definite freight prices later on.

Take Care & Happy Crafting...... ;)

On A Roll.....

I'm still sewing like crazy getting ready for Xmas. I've made 3 of these little crayon/pencil rolls for some of the kids in our extended family....
I got the pattern/tutorial link off the Sew Mama Sew Blog. The very talented Skip To My Lou created the tutorial and it's just soooo super easy to follow. Here's another one in red...Sew Mama Sew is dedicating a whole month to handmade holiday gift ideas. If you haven't already checked it out I suggest you get over there right away, there's some amazing tutorials listed with great ideas for all of the family, there's even gift ideas for the hard to sew for men in our families.... I also got the link to this tutorial for a cute little bib which was designed by Nested....With all of the babies in my family this year these are sure to be put to good use. I'm planning on making up about 1/2 a dozen, a couple each for all of the little-uns.

I've made my mother in-law this little journal cover. I was thinking of putting one of these little note pads inside with a little pocket crossword book. She's always doodling down little notes and just loves the challenge of crosswords while she's in the car or waiting room at the doctors....The fabric that I used for the pockets on the inside was the gorgeous fabric that the very sweet and generous Corrie over at Retro Mummy sent me for my comment on this post.... Once again, THANKS CORRIE!!!!!

Speaking of wonderful ladies..... The extremely talented Jodie from Ric-Rac put together this fantastic tutorial for a vinyl pencil case. As soon as I saw it I couldn't resist but to purchase some vinyl and sew up a couple for Xmas pressies.....

Here's a picture of the inside of one all loaded up with pencils ready for some little hands to create some master pieces.....
Now I stumbled across this unique blog/shop while looking through Angry Chickens past posts. It's The Small Object and I just love it, Sarah is so creative and original with all of her designs and the stuff that she has for sale in her shop is amazing, I'm eyeing off some stamps that are similar to the little boys head screen printed on the body suit below. I got the idea for the picture on this body suit from these free printable's that she has on her blog...
I drew it free hand on to some freezer paper, cut out the sections that I wanted to be painted on the body suit in black, ironed the paper on and painted... Hey Presto!!! A cute little outfit for one of my nephews, for Xmas of coarse....

Once again I hope you're all full of inspiration after looking thought all of the links I've listed above. I can't wait to see what everybody is crafting up for Xmas this year. Take Care..... ;)

So Inspired!!!!!

I just love blog land!!!! Full of so many generous people sharing there vast knowledge of craftiness through wonderful tutorials. I've been busy sewing up a storm over the last week using some of the fantastic tutorials on offer out there. I got these frog's from Purl Bee.Aren't they just the cutest??? I filled them with rice and lavender. They're going to be pressie's for some very special ladies this Xmas, hopefully they like them. I thought they'd be great for your delicates/knickers draw. I got this bunny pattern from Purl Bee too...I've filled this one with polyester fibre fill and put a little rattle inside of it. It will be part of an Xmas gift for one of my new born nephews.

Weewonderfuls has had this free pattern for a little bunny up on her blog for quite a while and I've been dying to make it!!! I've used one of the embroidered pillow cases I bought from Vinnie's back in this post, what do you think???
I stuffed this one the same way that I stuffed the Purl Bee bunny. I cut a heap of different sized pieces of flannel for the tail and sewed them to the back of the bunny with a button in the centre. This bunny is also destined for the loving arms of one of my newborn nephews. Now that I'm on the softies roll I designed my own little pattern over the weekend for these two treasures.....

Eddy and Dotty.... Dotty is for my little princess this Xmas even though she would love to have her NOW!!! She dragged her around the house all day Sunday and it was so heartbreaking when I eventually had to take Dotty back off her and put her up in the present cupboard. Eddy is for another one of my nephews Charlie. This little crayon bag is to go with Eddy for Charlie....

He's just turned 2 so hopefully this present will be right down his alley. I made this little card purse for his mummy Kylie.It's the perfect size for a key card, lip gloss and a couple of dollars change. I made a similar purse to this for the markets last month and they were really popular. Hopefully this one is just as popular with Kylie.

So as you can all see I've been busy crafting up a storm for my hand made Xmas pledge this year. I still have a long way to go but at least all of the kids are just about out of the way. I hope you all get as inspired as I have by the tutorials in this post... ;)

Loads of Goodies.....

I have heaps and heaps of pictures to show everyone so I won't bore you with too many words this post..... I promise!!! First up are some pics of the goodies that I picked up at the Vinnie's I visited in Cootamundra last Friday while I was at Mums. The embroidered stuff in the top pic cost 10cents each and the zippers and buttons cost $1.50. I just love Vinnie's, such great bargains to be found every time. Here's some of the fabric that I scored at Spotlight in Wagga Wagga.....It's not a very good pic, I know.... Spotlight is getting in some really fantastic Japanese prints at the moment which makes it such a pleasure to shop there even though it's a pig sty at the best of times. This is a pic of the crochet monkey that I'm making for one of my nephews for Xmas.....I only have 1 leg, 2 shoes, a mouth, an applique on his shirt and a seam in his shorts and his all done. I've got 5 nephews and have decided to make them all a toy similar to this one, each individual in some way or another to suit each of the boys personalities, with an applique of their initial on the them. I'll team it up with a cute little homemade bag filled with books. I think that they'll be pretty happy little boys, don't you?? They are all under 3 so teddies are still such a big part of their lives...LOL!!!!

My next project is some fabric softies..... I'll be trying to make the pattern up so wish me luck!!! I'll keep you posted on my progress. :)

My What Big Eyes You Have Granny....

Lots of things have been going on in my little world (or should I say my little head) over the past couple of weeks. I can't even begin to explain.... So I decided to take a couple of days off work to give myself a time-out!!!! I packed up the car yesterday morning and my princess and I hit the road bound for Granny's house.

I didn't tell Mum we were coming, I left it all as a big surprise. When I arrived she was so excited I think her eyes nearly popped out of her head. You see its been about 2 months since she's seen us and as most of you know young children just grow SO fast, too fast in fact. The last time that she saw my little princess she was just starting to crawl, now she's practically running every where, keeping us all on our toes.

I love coming home, as usual I walked into the sweet smell of baking, choc chip cookies, date and nut roll and a honey cake this trip. Don't you just love that?? My Mum lives on a farm about 7km North of a little town in the Riverina called Cootamundra. It's such a sweet little town with heaps of old fashioned country hospitality on offer. This is where I met my husband just over 6 years ago. Every time I come back here it all feels like only yesterday, I just love that feeling!

As always Mum and I love to shop and I've just come back from visiting the 2 local Op-Shops, boy-o-boy did I get some goodies!! I picked up a couple of cane baskets, some buttons, and some funky fabric. No photos yet as I left my camera at home, grrrrr, isn't that always the way, you'll just have to wait until I get back home on Monday...... You always leave at least 1 important thing behind when ever you plan a trip away. Mum and are are hitting the rest of the local shops this afternoon after the princess has her nap and then tomorrow we might even venture over to Wagga Wagga to do a bit of shopping there too... Just what the doctor ordered.

I hope everyone has a fantastic and relaxing weekend. Take Care ;)

My New Creation!!!!

O.K... It really is hard to take a picture of yourself!!!! This one is the best of a really, really bad bunch.....
It's the new shirt that I told you all about in my previous post. I made it out of some gorgeous blue and white stripe seersucker fabric. It only took me 1/2 an hour at the sewing machine and about the same amount of time to cut it out.... Isn't that Amazing!!! I'm definitely going to make some more, maybe in a funky print next time... It's a great shirt for summer, really light weight.

We've had some beautiful much need rain here over the last couple of days, 67mm to be exact!!! The wet weather has given me the crocheting bug again and I've started crocheting up some pressies for Xmas. A blanket and a plush toy is what I have on the go so far.... I'll post some progress pics of them tomorrow.

Take Care ;)

And the WINNERS are.....

After thinking really hard about all of the lovely comments that everybody left me I've finally decided on the 3 winners. We have......

JODIE from Ric-Rac,

JADE from My art is my outlet, &

BIANCA from Hollabee

Thankyou all so very much for your wonderful advice!!!!!

Good karma has definately come my way after my blog giveaway.... I recieved this gorgeous bundle of fabric for the very generous Corrie over at Retromummy. Isn't she just a doll??? I love it all, especially the sweet strawberry one!!

I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! Christmas is literally just around the corner and I really do need to get my AR#@ into gear. I've joined the 'Pledge to buy Handmade' this year which I'm really excited about. I read all about it on this post at Ric-Rac. Thanks Jodie!!! Just like Jodie, I will include a note in each present explaining why I've opted for handmade this year and as much info about the crafter/artist as possible.

I bought a beautiful shirt on Tuesday with some of the money I made at the markets. It's such a simple design I decided to have a go at reproducing it myself. I've got it all cut out and ready to sew up so hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have some pics to share with everyone. It hasn't even used 1/2 a metre of fabric, that means if the top turns out it will only cost me a 10th of what it did to buy the original, now that's pretty good!! Wish me luck......

Surprise, Surprise...

Where do I start..... Well firstly I'd like to thank everybody for their fantastic words of advice for setting up for the markets. I had the most amazing time and can't wait to do it again!!!

I was so surprised at what did and didn't sell on the day. The things that I thought would just walk out the door in the first hour where still sitting on the table at the end of the day and the things that I had on the table as 'bulk' items, to make my table not look so bare, sold like hot cakes within the first couple of hours. At least I now know for next time what to have more of....

My bibs were a really big hit, next time I need to make double. Posie Patchwork was right when she said 'Stock sells Stock'. I only came home with 3 bibs out of 20 and they were the 3 that I made in boys colours. I guess mums don't want bibs for their sons, only their daughters... Purple was a big hit so that's a definite must for next time.

My tomato relish was also a big hit as were the homemade cookies. I didn't have any of either of these at the end of the day. I made 30 little coin purses and sold 75% of them. Next time I need to make more in pastel colours as they seem to be the flavour of the season at the moment.

Some things that didn't sell well were my felt needles and pins books and my crochet brooches. I made 10 felt books and only sold 3 and didn't sell 1 of the brooches, people looked at them a lot and asked if I had any other colours and thought that they were just gorgeous but still no sales.... I think that once again I need to rethink the colours and use more pastel colours as several ladies asked if I had any in pink.

There's definitely a lot of things I learnt from these markets but all in all for my first time I think everything went really, really well. Our town is only a small one and the profits that I made from the day were much bigger then I ever hoped or imagined I'd make.

Here's a sneak peak of the table an hour in to the markets. By the time we set up people were busy looking and buying so I didn't get a chance to take a snap shot of it at the start... All of the tomato relish had sold out in this pic, almost all of the bibs and half of the coin purses but you get the picture...
As for the winner of the clips from my previous post now that's a hard one..... Everybody had such helpful advice that I've decided to have 3 winners. 1 will get the clips and the other 2 will get a mystery prize that was left over from the markets. I'll post the winners tomorrow so stay tuned til then.

My sister shared my table on the day and also had a fantastic time. I left her half of the table out of my pic so that she could post it on her blog. Next time we definitely need a BIGGER table. The one that we had was 1.8 metres long and we thought that would be huge but boy were we wrong!!! 2 metres minimum next time with a skirt for sure.

Oh yeah... Another note for next time.... Aprons!! Matching aprons would look just fantastic on Abby and I. Some aprons for sale would be a big hit too. People asked if we had any for sale on the day so next time we need at least 1/2 a dozen....

Anyway.... I'm sure you've all heard enough about the markets. Take Care ;)

To Market We Go....And a FREEBIE for 1 lucky reader!!!!

Yes.... You read it right!! I'm packing up all of the goodies that I've made over the last month and heading off to my very first local market day. It's this Saturday from 10am to 3pm so if your in the area pop on down to Drumond Park. I'm SO NERVOUS!!!! But as I keep telling myself 'everything will be just fine and everybody will just love my stuff.... I hope'.

Here's a pic of my latest creation...

It's a hair clip, obviously, with a crochet flower sewn to it. I'm was thinking of selling them as a pair on a little card for either $2.50 or $3.00.... What do you all think????? I think that I've looked at them too long, as you do when you create something new, and now I can't decide. What would you pay???My sister and I are doing the stall together which is great. We're baking buiscuits on Friday to sell and I've also made some big jars of tomato relish which is always a big hit!! I will definitely post a pic of our table all set up at the markets for everybody next week.

Anyone out there that might have some pointers for a pair of first time market goers please do leave me a comment as any kind of advice would be greatly appreciated, that greatly appreciated that I might even have to give the best comment a freebie!!!! To the most helpful comment that I receive about the markets I'll mail out the very pair of clips that feature in this post... So everybody put those thinking caps on and give a nervous girl some help (LOL)...

Quality Time

Here's my attempt at the cookies from this book. I would just love to do up a teapot to go with them. If anyone knows of where I can get a pattern from it would be great if you could leave me a comment.

My little princess spent some quality time with her dad on Sunday afternoon fixing an old tractor that he bought from a clearing sale a couple of months ago. I just love this pic of her....trying to help dad drive. How cute is her little pony tail? You can only just see it as she only just has one. Unfortunately she's inherited my hair, very fine. I never had a pony tail until I was 2.

I really must make a mention of the wonderful day I had over at Dubbo on the weekend. I went over for the Central West Quilt and Needlework Expo and to do a bit of shopping. I met some beautiful crafty women from blog land and it's just been so great to put real life faces to the names/blogs. I had the pleasure of meeting Fiona, Donna and Patch.

I wasn't at the expo for long but by luck of a fluke I ran into Donna and Patch at the local shopping centre. We then decided to catch up for some lunch, Fiona joined us too. I had such a wonderful day, it was so great to meet these 3 terrific ladies.

Blog Action Day

(as copied from here) Today, October 15th, bloggers around the web have united to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger is posting about the environment in their own way and relating it to their own topic. The aim of this is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

I'm going to focus on water conservation.......

I live in a part of the country that is in the middle of one of, if not the, worst drought's in it's recorded history (150 years)... I try hard everyday to conserve water. I know that there is so much more that I could & should be doing but at least I'm doing something as so many people out there still aren't doing anything at all!!!

I recycle all of my washing water & use it to water, what is left of, my lawn. I also use this water on my vegie patch even though it isn't recommended to do so, I'm yet to be shown why... I know that the vegie's that you buy at the local supermarket take a lot more water to produce then the humble home grow variety, so by growing my own vegies I'm saving water in more ways then one. I put a big bucket in the shower with me & 1 in the kitchen sink while I wait for the hot water to warm up. This is then used to water my herb garden & the plants I have in pots.

I have 2x20,000litre rain water tanks fully plumbed up to my house to catch what ever rain I can, not that it ever rains anymore but just in case it does at least I'm prepared. When it does rain I just turn off my town water & the rain water will service my whole house, washing machine, toilet, shower & kitchen.

Our town is currently on Level 5 water restrictions which means limited watering times by bucket only. This is absolutely disgusting for this time of year, spring, when everything is supposed to be lovely & green. What can you expect though when we haven't had any kind of decent rain since God only knows when.

As I drive through the central west I too can feel the heart break & devastation that the local farmers must be feeling. My husband coming from a farming back ground is also devastated at what he sees... The paddocks are dry & what crops have been sown have that little moisture in them that they have turned purple, I don't even think that any of it will be harvested. Canola crops that would normally stand 4ft high are barely 3' off the ground.

There isn't much that I can do to help the poor farmers that are suffering from this horrible drought except to not take what water I do have for granted. There are so many ways that everyone can help to conserve what little water we do have such as using a hose with a trigger sprayer on it to control water flow, putting a bucket in your shower, growing your own veg, putting a 600ml bottle of water in your cistern to reduce the amount of water in your toilets flush, and so so much more...

I hope that this post inspires at least 1 more person out there to be a bit more water wise. Even if it's something as little as putting a bucket in the shower. If you only catch 10Litres and used it to water some plants or flush the toilet that's 10L that you saved, every little bit counts!!!

Check out my sisters blog she too has joined this very worthy cause, actually she's the one who told me all about it...