My new favourite gifts to give

The artsy clutch was my old favourite go-to girly gift, but I made 2 of these "Cute as a button vintage clutch" (es) in a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. I love this pattern. It's sooo easy to make, and so quick!

These are presents, and I want to keep them, but I always take that as a good sign!

I also bought some jewelry making supplies from Supplies You Need and have made up some rose earrings, using my trusty glue gun. I'd seen these done at Grosgrain and Trey and Lucy. Green rose earrings modeled here by Old MacDonald (from a falling apart Golden Book I bought yesterday at the Oppy).

Edited to add: In my haste to post I didn't mention that the clutch pattern was from the Meet me at mikes book!

Quick fix craft

A colouring in competition at the new local library (a library within walking distance from my house! So cool!) has inspired my 2 kidlets to do lots of colouring in the last couple of days. I keep steering them towards the lovely art from Small magazine in the "Small Draw" section, but Caleb is much more interested in colouring in Ben 10, and therefore, so is Jemima. But whether it is Catherine Campbell or Cartoon Network, I truly don't mind, I love watching them sit at the table and indulge in some artsiness.

I have been indulging in a lot of quick fix craftsiness of late, procrastination is sometimes a most effective motivator. Here is exhibit A. A milo tin covered in fabric. I even went no-sew for this one. There may or may not have been some glue gun action, and I am not going to say if masking tape was also involved...

It was not good for Ralph to be alone

So I made him a companion.

They enjoy pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.

And taking walks around the garden that we have managed to keep alive for about a month now. Perhaps we have found our inner Don Burke?

In over my crafty head?

So... I have left this...

won't see this on Apartment Therapy.. hahaha

To work on this...

Which is supposed to work out like this. There is absolutely nothing at all wrong with the tutorial. It is a great idea and I love it, which is why I set to work on one (a single bed size or thereabouts) for my brother and his wife-to-be.

But right now I am feeling a bit out of my depth.

I ran out of quilting pins about a third of the way into basting- and they were $20 a pack or something, so I didn't fancy buying another couple of packets, especially when it is highly unlikely I will ever quilt anything of this size again (based on current enjoyment levels). So my regular pins are scratching viciously at my arms like a nasty cat whenever I turn the quilt around in the machine... and my lines look ridiculous as I am pushing more fabric through my machine than I ever have before making them all wonky like.

Exhale.

I feel a bit better now. Thanks.

Craft Schmaft

So, I didn't take much convincing to not do the vacuuming! Meet Ralph Blue the baby sock owl!

I bought the "Toot sock owl pattern" from Claire of Craft Schmaft yesterday at the show. I hadn't ever been across her blog before, but I spent a lot of time there when I got home last night. So much fun over there. The little round owls captured my heart and I had to have the pattern so I could fill my life with them. He is, actually my first owl ever. A bit slow on the whole owl uptake over here.

I love him and been carrying him around the house with me all day (a little strange, yes). He is a very satisfying little hand sewing project and fits in the palm of my hand all soft and plump-like.

I will never look at a pair of socks in the same way again.

My first Stitches and Craft Show thing

With kid wrangler in tow (aka my lovely mum), Caleb, Jemima and I went along to the Stitches and Craft show. I had a little stash of cash and went along not knowing what to expect. I had checked out the website last night to come up with a plan of attack, but became immediately overwhelmed so decided to wing it.

I quite enjoyed it there, I have to say. Lots of cool supplies and handicrafts in the one spot. Which I suppose is the point! Not everything there was my cup of tea, but there is a lot of different crafty types in crafty land I guess! I didn't intend to do any of the craft labs and so on as I had the kids with me, so I was really there just to shop and have a look about.

Pictured is my little stash... (do you see that I really need to vacuum?). Not pictured is a paper punch that I couldn't wait to play with. The book I used is actually a fallen apart and incomplete "The Von Trapp Family on Wheels" (the sequel to "The Sound of Music" that I picked up a long time ago for about 20c from an oppy.

I confessed to 2 lovely bloggers that I follow their blogs, Nanette from Rummage and Lisa from The Red Thread, which was fun! Both very talented ladies. It was nice to have a little chat.

So much crafty stuff to go on with. What shall I do next? Vacuum? ...

Repeat

I made this little dress last year, and Jemima wore it once or twice maybe, but the fit just wasn't right. I was very pleased to discover yesterday that it fits beautifully now and looks kinda cute with cropped black leggings.

She is playing with her pink silk which was a present she got for her birthday from here back in March. We gave her 3 (pink, dark blue and dark green). They get quite a workout, especially the pink one.