Today is hot and the sun seems to burn within minutes. So of course, I'm making snowflakes.

We have spent the morning out and about, a little bit of gardening, a little bit of sport and 4 new gold fish, but this afternoon we are hiding indoors.




Craft is the order of the day it seems.

George and the kids are making images with small beads that get ironed once finished. The children are quiet, engrossed and happy to be next to dad (who finds that his fingers are too large for this delicate work!)

I've made some more snowflakes using the Crayola Model Magic recommended, and although I like it, it seems a little fragile for my liking, I love how it is rounded and soft.

I prefer the silver glitter, but as it's for Christmas, thought these might also be popular.

Hope you are having a lovely day in or out of the sun :)

Gearing up for Christmas

This long weekend I am spending time on getting some practise with Christmas thank you gifts.



I was inspired by Jill Dubien from Meet the Dubiens, who made some gorgeous snowflakes with her children.











I thought they would be lovely thank you gifts for teachers and carers who give so much to my children during the year.
After some fun moments with Eva making the decorations and then making cookies I started decorating them. I'm not sure which one works best, although I really like the silver on the outside snowflake.

 
I am using a fantastic cookie recipe that I found on Cake Journal. Louise makes beautiful cookies and decorates them to perfection. I am learning lots from her. The cookie recipe that I am using is this one - Vanilla sugar cookies. They are crunchy, not too sweet, stay crispy and are easy to decorate. The children have enjoyed my efforts here!

A great tip to make sure the cutter slides out of the cookie dough easily is dipping it into cornflour before cutting with it. Works a treat!

So help me out here, which decoration is your favourite?

My creative Space: Brooch Swap 2011 Take 2

Unhappy with my other two brooches that I made for the Flowerpress Brooch Swap, I searched and searched within myself thinking again about what I could make that I would be happy to receive, and after searching through some online amigurumi patterns, I came across a gorgeous little Geisha girl that would make the perfect brooch.

Here is my Geisha Girl Brooch.

I so hope that my swap partner likes her.

and now, I'm off to make one for me!
Take a look at what the other swappers have been making here

My Creative space - Booch Swap

This week has seen me thinking a lot about brooches and has had me trawling through the net looking at all sorts of brooches out there.










I've joined Flower Press in her brooch swap, though the only brooches I've ever made where when I was making silver and gold jewellery, so it's taken a while to get my head around making one of of my current hobby of fabric and wool.


After hours of think time, visualising different approaches and discounting most of them as either too hard, too juvenile, or too easy, I have made a couple that are visually striking and that I hope are wearable for an adult woman, one will be for my swap partner and the other will be used as a present during the year for a special lady.


I have used scrap pieces of fabric that I have been collecting this past year, and although simple, I  like the striking contrast between the white cotton and red felt.
The back is a simple blanket stitched pouch filled slightly to give it a more 3D effect.

All I have to do now, I buy some brooch clasps and post!

There are more lovely creative spaces for you to view here - it's a new site too

Cushion Swap 2011

I entered the 2011 Cushion Swap hosted by Vic at Punky & Me and was very excited to be a part of another swap. It's been sooo long!

Although my original idea for this cushion was going to be a little different, I decided when I mocked it up that it looked too "shop" bought style, so I had to rethink my original idea.

I wanted to use my new crocheting skills of making flowers, and I wanted it to be something original and bright. So I used Spring as an inspiration and came up with this using denim, ribbon and wool with insect buttons.

I just have to finish off the back of it, and send it!!

I hope the receiver likes it and enjoys it.....

My creative space - Cushions

I'm making cushions this week, some for my caravan and one special one for the 2011 Cushion Swap.

They are both very different to each other and I can't wait to see the finished results.

Here is a little teaser for the cushion swap hosted by Vic













 
And here are the caravan seat cushions.


The outdated and poor condition original ones seat cushions



I unpicked them to get fabric measurements, and found the original foam was a bit on the dead side.



And the new ones currently on the machine.

Our bed side will be denim













and the other side is a cream vinyl with red border (to match the curtains).

I wasn't sure how my sewing machine would cope, but it's done really well.

Stay tuned for the finished product, and take a look here for more crafty people

Caravan gets the once over

I went to the block again the other day with the intention of going for a walk with the kids.
I also wanted to give the caravan a bit of a clean just in case it needed it....



IT WAS A MESS!!

As you can see the floors were filthy with baked on dust and mud - euwww!
















After some hard core cleaning and some wishing that we had power and I had a vacuum,  I finally was able to see the floor again.


Some tlc, lots of bleach and elbow grease and finally i feel comfortable in letting the kids enter and sit down.

















Doh... have to sew the cushions now!

And then some curtains.







There were a few gems to be found and although I won't use them for cooking, these pots are really cute

All ours! Finally a dream is realised

At long last a dream of 20 years is realised with the purchase of a block in Flowerdale, Victoria.


My Dear Hubby has wanted to move to the country for as long as I have been his partner - Waaaaay back in the early 90's, and although we have never made the move to the country, we are now proud owners of a little block in the bush an hour from home. It's small, bushy and quiet. It smells like eucalyptus and the sounds of birds and insects fill our ears.




I hope that this is the start of many memories that we will make here.

I would like my children to know about bush walking, camping under the stars, fishing and relaxing away from noise, traffic and technology. Something they will never find out about in suburbia.

Congratulations George on the dream

My Creative Space - Rocket

These last few days Lucho has been sick and either flopped on my bed or on the couch.  His fever has gone up and down for two days, so today when he asked if we could make a rocket, I knew that he was on the mend.

Today's creative space is about putting a smile on his face.

 for more creative people, head over here

My creative space - Curtain call

I've been wanting to put curtains up in the lounge room for a while, but have not done anything about it... until now.

The time has come for me to make curtains.


I went along to Spotlight and quickly ran out when I saw the prices on pleated curtains. I then made my way to Rathdown Remnants and fell in lust with a double sided curtain fabric.  As you can see, it has a beige floral thing happening on one side with cafe / laté stripes on the reverse. The stripes will be visible from the outside.



It is an interesting project as I have never made them before, however, how hard can they be?

Well, the answer is - they can be quite hard if you buy a fabric with a pattern on it and you want the pattern to match up on the curtain once it's hanging!.....


It has been joined, finished and the pencil pleat strip stitched and now they need to be hung for a couple of days before I hem them (on advice from the lady at RR).

I am pretty nervous, having never made curtains and then having chosen a fabric with so much happening on it. I just hope they look good!!!!!








Oh, and now that my creative space is nice and tidy, I am managing to make some other things that have been on the to do list, like this small shoulder purse :) 

 The original one was looking a bit tired and abused






Others on a creative journey can be found here

My creative space - Big cleanup

Ohhh, my poor neglected creative space!
Lately it has been used as a holding spot for the "to do later" stuff, but as our lives are busy busy, the pile just grew and grew!
And every time I walked past it I would try to blur the edges of my vision so I wouldn't notice it begging for my attention...




Today, as the children are both out for the day, I decided to give my creative space some loving and change things around while I was at it.


I have had the rolls of wraping paper and contact and drawing paper in an upright box next to my table, but I decided to pack it all away and slide it under.








 

And after quite a while.... ahhhhhh, space to create and make :)

Happy at last.

Here are other possibly more productive spaces to visit







Ohh, and before I go, did you see the post about the owl that came to visit over the weekend?

It roosted in the tree all day and then left at night fall. Was great to have him spend the day with us.

Owl at our window

This morning as I was going about my usual Saturday routine, I noticed a fluffy visitor out my kitchen window.

It's one of the owls that lives in a nearby tree filled walking track.
I have posted about them before.

I had thought they had gone, as I hadn't seen them since the storms earlier this year when the nest and little babies fell out of the tree.

Seeing this little one is a welcome surprise, and I am glad they have survived.

He / she is so close I could almost stretch out my hand and touch him through the window, and I resist the urge to find a mouse for him to eat!