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.

Singlet + Skirt = Singlirt

When not DIY-ing, we were at the Reptile Park. Caleb catching flies.

What a week! Chris and I are officially DIY-ers and officially don't think much of it. Our place is in need of a fresh coat of paint. It is not TERRIBLE, but it is cream throughout, and our home is about 7 years old, and it would seem that the trend in newer homes is for the original paintwork to be the cheapest quality around. I have tried washing the walls, and the paint comes off!

So a week of leave for Chris later, we have painted... our bedroom. That's it! We did everything though, the ceiling, the door frames, everything. It looks much fresher and less creamy which is lovely. We painted in Dulux Antique White USA which is apparently the most popular interior colour in Australia. So clearly we are not-so-innovative, but happy nonetheless.

Anyway, onto sewing! I have been looking at these sorts of dresses and really like them. They are a dress without being too dressy and look so comfy. They also look mighty easy to make oneself. Even for me. So I used a singlet that I never wear anymore and an ankle length elasticized waist skirt that needed updating and came up with this little number.

There is nothing to say really, except that I sewed them together with a zig zag stitch. Then I cut about 30cm off the hem and made a tie out of it.

Overall I am fairly pleased, but the reason I didn't wear the singlet was it was a little small for me these days, so making it into a dress doesn't change that- I am really sucking in my gut for this picture. Also, the skirt is quite see-through, so I need to wear my slip. Not a bad thing, but makes the outfit a bit more fussy to wear. I can see another one or two of these in the works for summer.

Oh, and a shout out to Gina for her generous giveaway that I was the lucky recipient of! A little bag filled with surprises. Hopefully I will be a-blogging some craftiness done with the contents soon!

It's Party Time, Excellent.

Twas le grande 5th Birthday Party on Saturday. A "SPACE" party to be exact.

Was a bit of an old school do with pass the parcel and some craft, as well as beating the snot out of a pinata.

Was a whole bunch of fun.

5 year olds are different from 4 year olds. En masse, 5 year olds make their own fun a bit more it would seem to me- must be something to do with social development. No sooner had the children arrived had the party started rocking. The first (unplanned) activity was to run around like crazy and make a whole lot of noise with no real purpose. My 27 year old brother ran around with them for about 5 minutes and completely exhausted himself.

We made a "rocket" out of boxes and masking tape. Which repeatedly fell over throughout the rest of the party. Sometimes on purpose. Good times.

Pass the parcel went on a bit long really. (I had lost count of how many layers I had done, and had kept on doing "one more for luck"). Chris danced to keep the kidlets entertained throughout.

Later we made light sabers out of moldable balloons and toilet rolls like they did over at this great blog, Zakka Life. And like Jessica suggested, we used a bubble machine to have a bubble battle with our new weapons. Unfortunately the bubble machine was having issues, but the kids thought it hilarious to all crowd around it and flail their light sabers madly at it before the bubbles ever had a chance at freedom. The scene was not unlike a fish feeding frenzy with balloons flapping about in the place of the frothing water, and grinning 5 year olds in the place of the hungry sea creatures below.

While they were in a frenzy we thought it a good time to bring out our astronaut pinata. A few moments of hilarity ensued while the little jedis turned their aggression onto the hapless astronaut who bopped madly about, without so much as a dent. A few good whacks with a small baseball bat sent the goodies flying.

Behold, the cake! Caleb and I designed it. Let me talk you through it. It is an alien with 3 eyes wearing "undiewears", arm warmers and pants- but no shirt. The original had nipples too, but I censored them so as not to offend any delicate sensibilities at the party.

The extravagance of our little old school party was a helium tank. Chris enjoyed what helium joy he could with me around spoiling his fun by being responsible.

I made up a little bag for the kids for their pinata loot and also put together a little take home craft activity involving green playdough, pom poms, feathers, googley eyes, and coloured matchsticks.

Caleb had a ball. And that's what it was all about. Five is well worth the celebration.

Happy Birthday Caleb!

One thing I am enjoying about being a parent is having more birthdays. Sure, it is not my birthday today, but it is just as fun! He is enjoying himself so much today, and I am enjoying his joy.

My little man is 5 years old today. In some ways I vividly remember him being a tiny babe in my arms, in other ways, it feels like he was never that little.

I have no words to describe how much we love him. He is a great little guy.

Happy Birthday monk!

Tutu skirt. Again.

Another tutu experiment. I am resisting buying one of these sorts of things, but nothing I make is quite as cute as shop bought... yet. So I keep trying. This one inspired by here.

The main problem with this one is the tulle again. It is that really stiff netting stuff that I keep using only because I have a bunch of it at home. It doesn't look that bad in the photo. In RL it really does stick out at all weird angles. I really need to go get some bridal tulle. Later. I'm over tutus for the time being.

I'm sure I'll get the urge again. Especially since Jemima is becoming a ballerina before my eyes.

Eye Spy... a collection

(Image from here)

I keep dropping the eye spy ball, but here I am this week, ready to play.

I used to collect stamps. I'm not sure why exactly. Some adult got me into it and got me started, but I can't remember who it was. I used to get given scraps of envelopes with the stamps affixed and I would soak them in hot water and peel them off. Does that still work for the modern "sticker" stamp? I could try it out, but I don't think I will.

I also used to collect rocks. Not your everyday rocks, semi-precious stones and so on. My favourite lump of mineral was my "snowflake obsidian". Not sure where that is now.

Yes I was (am) a nerd.

Many thanks to Hoppo Bumpo for this week's theme! More Eye Spy here (thanks to Cindy!)