A Tale of Two bloggers

Some of you may remember when the floods first hit Ipswich and Brisbane, I blogged about those who had been affected and I mentioned one of our fellow bloggers, Erin. Erin's house went under. Like completely under. Over the roof. Her and her family pretty much lost everything. After the initial clean up they sorted through the ruins of their possessions and picked out what they thought they could save, and what meant the most to them to try and save. I put my hand up for laundry duty (of course) and when Erin called me one morning finally asking for help, I was thrilled. She needed help with some antique furniture she desperately wanted to save, so my Mum took a friend over to her and he got started on the task at hand. While Mum was there she grabbed some costumes, some fabric, and Erin's mothers chenille bedspread, all in need of some laundry loving. Mum set about washing and scrubbing and soaking and got almost all of her precious items looking like new. I took the chenille. I wish now I had taken a before shot. I'll be honest, when I pulled it out of the bag I thought there was no way I could save it. To say it was filthy would be an understatement. It had been tossed out with so many other things and had been lying in the mud for a week, under the rubble, before it was found. And it smelt. After several days of cleaning, this is how it came up. You would never know what this beauty had been through. There are 2 very small rust marks on it, and that is it. Maybe she should wear those rust marks as a badge of honour? The funny thing is, I had never actually even met Erin until yesterday when I got to return the bedspread to her. Thank you for trusting me with this Erin, it was my absolute pleasure to bring this back to you.

Flea Market finds

My first Flea Market finds of the year. And, it's a goodie. Headed out to meet my chenille dealer (hehe) for a coffee on Friday. Stopped in at an op shop I don't normally frequent because of location and price (they charge ridiculous amounts, especially for chenille). Obviously they didn't know what they had in this little beauty. Though technically only the band of fringe around it is chenille, the rest is a woven bedspread, it works very well mixed with chenille in quilts etc. And in one of my favourite colours to work with.



Made by Bates too, a very well known and respected chenille bedspread manufacturer from the States, and something I have never seen in any op shop here in Australia. Only $12.95. It was a great day!

Stylin'

So, that gorgeous Italian, Blandina, has honoured me with the Stylish Blogger award. Now normally I'm not into these kinds of things, but for Blandina, I'll make an exception. She's one of those blog readers every blogger needs to have. Always encouraging, always thoughtful, sends emails with links to things that she thinks you'll be interested in, you know the type. Just gorgeous. And with this award you need to reveal 7 things about yourself. Which I thought would be fun, if I added my own "style" to it.

So 7 things about myself that reveal why I am not really in fact stylish;

1: I bite my nails. Not just like little nibbling, like really, really, bite my nails.

2: I am actually a fairly untidy person. Organisation and style, not my thing.

3: I am a gleek. Can't help it. Just love it.

4: I love singing really loud in my car when I am driving by myself. Kind of like Jerry Maguire. And when Bohemian Rhapsody comes on, I have even been known to rock out like these guys, even with a very disapproving 13 year old in the car with me.

5: Ummm, it's actually harder than I thought trying to come up with 7 un-stylish things about myself. There, I'm counting that as one.

6: When I was 14 I loved Corey Feldman soooo much that I had dreamed up a big scheme where I would stow away on a ship (??) to L.A and meet him, and then he would see me and fall in love with me too, and we would live happily ever after.

7: I actually secretly love working in retail. But shhhh, don't tell anyone!

Thanks for the award Blandina, this one was actually quite fun! I hope you don't mind I took some liberties with it!

One year ago today...

I said goodbye to my old girl. Boy, do I miss that smile. Can't believe it's been a whole year.

XX

On Saturday.....

Mum and I headed out to The Handmade Expo. I was mainly headed there to deliver something to Janie, but couldn't resist making a few purchases! Of course first up were these fabulous little notebooks made by Janie (with added stitcheries by her bestie I was told!). I just love Janie's stuff, made with such love.


Next up, I had seen on Kellie's blog her new Animal Crackers range and could not resist one of her brooches. I really shouldn't be spending any money at the moment, but these are items I just could not live without!


Miss 13 had some money burning a hole in her pocket too and dug her way through Kellie's bargain box to come up with these supercute rings. Got to love bargain boxes!


In all, it was a great morning, but now I really have to stop spending money!

Maxi immortalised

Those of you who have been reading my little blog for awhile may remember last year when I lost my little man, Maxi. It's been really tough without him and I have wanted for quite some time a painted piece of him. I've got a heap of photos (of course) but wanted something just that little bit more special. Enter a very talented lady that volunteers along with my Mum at Wolston House. She specialises in animal portraits and was more than happy to have a go at painting my little Maxi. And what a marvellous job she has done. It brought me to tears.

Thank you Roslyn, I just love it.

And a quilt

I just happened to pop a quilt on ebay too. If you're interested!

Oh, and what do you think of my new header? You like?

Bears

Hi all! Starting to feel a little more normal around here, though that cyclone had me on my toes for a bit! Not that we are anywhere near where it was going to hit, but still worrying all the same.

Anyway, just popping in quickly to say that in the next few days I will be listing some things on ebay to raise some much needed spending money for my trip. For the time being I have taken my stuff out of Handmade Heaven and I won't be taking anymore custom orders until May. Check out the bears I've got on ebay here, more to come soon. I'll probably be taking a bit of a break from the blogging for a little while too, I've got so many things to organise before I go to France, including lots of yucky hospital stuff! So once again, bear with me (hehe, hehe), there will be some crafting coming soon!