Day to Day

Early Christmas sewing.

 

I received the yummiest parcel of goodness from Retro Mummy yesterday.  Two of the fabrics were Christmas ones, but not just any old Christmas fabrics.....two of the cutest prints that I've seen in a long time.  Can you see the teeny gold reindeers on the top print?  And the little festive Babushka decorations on the second? 

I set to work cutting out a bed sized pillowcase using the red/gold fabric.  I thought I'd have it finished in time to share today, but time got away from me and it's still sitting on the floor waiting to be sewn up.  I'm not sure what to make with the second print, but thinking perhaps a special bag to carry Christmas treasures?

If you'd like some sweet fabric for yourself, you can find it HERE.  Be quick before it sells out though!  If you mention that you came from my blog (in the comments section at checkout) the lovely Corrie is throwing in a FREE fat 1/8th or a fat 1/4 of fabric!! 

P.S. If you would like to win a pattern to create this beautiful fairy house below...then go HERE to enter.  But be SUPER quick - only 4 hours left until the give away closes!! 

Last lazy days.

Finally....my last sharing of some lazy days skirts from the sew-a-long:

 

Skirt by Leanna.

Another one by Yael.

Skirt by Ace.

 

I love how Leeanne turned her lazy days skirt into shorts!
 

 

 

Rebecca Woods emailed me through these two gorgeous skirts (with equally gorgeous girls to model them).

Skirt by Ruth.  Click HERE to see the lovely embellishment that Ruth added to the skirt.

 

Skirt by the divine Jaki.

 

Skirt by Leonie - I'm sure Leonie has a blog now, but I can't find the link :-(

 

Two skirts from Cassie.

 

Skirt by Libby and more photos HERE.

 

Skirt by Cheri and there is another cute one by Cheri on this post HERE.

 

And the last one is by Rach - so lovely for Christmas!

I wonder how many skirts we sewed all up - I know it would be a HUGE figure if we added them all together.  Thanks so much to everyone that joined in.

P.S.  Don't forget to check out the Oliver + S Clickr Pool HERE for more lazy days skirts!!

P.P.S. Thankyou to Quilt Fabric Delights for sponsoring this sew-a-long.

The falling down of the gingerbread house.

Today was our baking day for the gingerbread house using Bella's new kit.  Somewhere in-between eating breakfast and going to school, James and Bella talked me into baking the gingerbread for them during the day so that after school they could ice and decorate.  So, I did.  The gingerbread slipped out of the mould like butter - super impressive!  There were a few teeny holes where I didn't pack the mixture down quite firmly enough, so I'll remember that for next time.

 

 

After school pick up we stopped off for decorations.  They were allowed 4 sweet treats for the house decorating.  When we make our Christmas version we'll grab a bigger variety, but this was just a practice run, so I didn't really want to come home with copious amounts of sugar.

Then it was house constructing time.  We had a discussion where to place the sides of the house - behind the main beams or on the side - and as it turns out we chose the wrong area to place them (we'll know for next time though).

 

Because they were in the wrong position, the roof really didn't fit on top properly.  Yep, we could have stopped and started over, but decided to wing it and keep going.  There was already a slight land slide happening here with the roof!

 

 

Whoosh...and down it went, much to Bella's amusement.  Honestly they were both so excited that it collapsed, because it meant getting to eat the gingerbread straight away!!

There's nothing quite like munching on a super large piece of gingerbread :-)

We can't wait to make another...next time we'll construct it around the other way to ensure the roof stays on! 

Sponsor give away - free fabric!

Would you like to win 12 FREE fat quarters of fabric from the Retro Mummy store ??

 

 

Go HERE and post your most embarrassing moment to win - go on, it will be totally worth it when you receive 12 fat quarters in the post!!

Retro Mummy has also just received a new shipment of fabrics, so there are oodles of divine fabric in store too - check them out HERE.  To celebrate the new shipment, Corrie has reduced all new fabrics by $2 a metre - PLUS if you mention that you came from my blog (in the comments section at checkout) you'll also receive a fat 1/8th or a fat 1/4 of fabric!! 

Happy shopping :)

The birthday badge.

Bella's best friend turns 8 tomorrow and I thought I'd make her a cute little birthday badge to wear or pin on her bag for her special day.  I used felt scraps and cut out a quick design by hand. 

I popped a small safety pin on the back and all up the badge took about 15 minutes to make.   I could have added more hand stitching, but I thought I'd keep it simple.  I can see myself making more of these!

 

And pinned on me for a photo :-)  How good would it be to be 8 years old again?  The flower is slightly off centre in this pic - I hadn't sewed it down yet.

 

P.S. I'm making this pizza from scratch for an upcoming meal - base and paste! How good does it look.  Mmmm.

Photo source: Real Living magazine, March 2009.

Bella blogging - The gingerbread house kit

Hello, it's Bella here.  On Monday I got a parcel in the mail from Tamar Bostock.  She is a Tarisota person and she is the owner of Poppy the Blythe doll and she is fabulous.  She is fabulous because she just is and because before she sent me a vintage knitting book and a bookmark that I still use in my books.

Inside the parcel there was a big box with a gingerbread house on it and on the back it has about 8 other gingerbread designs.  It is a kit for making gingerbread houses and other gingerbread stuff.  It is AWESOME!

 

This is me opening my present.

 

This is me being excited because I figured out what was in the box.

This is me smiling at my Nanny who was here when I opened it.

 

These are the designs on the back of the box that you can make.  On Friday after school Mum said that we can make a gingerbread house and we might make one on the 11th November too because it's the day before Dad's birthday and he might like one. 

 

These are the moulds that you put the gingerbread in and then you bake it and you take it out and you stick everything together with icing. 

I can't wait until we make one and thankyou Tamar for my awesome gingerbread kit!

Introducing Retro Mummy.

Introducing one of my November sponsors,  Retro Mummy!  Long time readers would have heard me mention Retro Mummy before on my blog...I've bought lots of fabric and gorgeous Japanese craft books from there over the past couple of years.  Orders are always mailed out super fast and fabric often arrives with extra cuteness (sweet packaging or Japanes tape on the parcel).

For the month of November, Retro Mummy is offering a very special offer for all of my readers.  If you mention that you came from my blog (in the comments section at checkout) the super lovely Corrie is going to throw in either a fat 1/8th or a fat 1/4 of fabric!!  How yummy is that!?

Here's a peek at just a few of the fabrics, books and goodies that you will find in store:

 


 

  

 

 

 

 

Start shopping HERE.                                                                                                                                                     

Babushka.

This afternoon I popped into town to do a bit of Christmas shopping and stumbled across these sweet babushka measuring cups.  After much oohing and ahhing I decided to buy myself a set.......seriously, are they not the cutest thing you've ever seen??!!

 

 

Each piece has a measure written inside, so all up there are 6 measures.  Pretty cool hey. 

They make me want to bake and acquire a shelf in my kitchen so I can sit them up to admire.  The store only had white ones, but how pretty would they be in different colours?

 

Oh and I have new fabric too!  I'm not quite sure what to sew with it yet (a bag perhaps?) but it was so pretty that I really needed it to grow my tiny stash a little.

P.S. Fabric available HERE (Love, by Amy Butler).

**Edited to add** I bought my measuring cups locally, but after some googling, the cups (M-Cups, matryoshkas made to measure) are availabe HERE in Australia or check HERE on their website to find an overseas stockist.

Filling in the hours.

Rich is away on an 11 day dirt bike trip with some friends, so we're trying to keep busy.  To start off the day we created a photo wall in Bella's room:

 

 

Then Bella requested that she bake something, so using her cookbook that Nanny Joan gave her last Christmas she finally settled on cinnamon scrolls.  Once they were cooked she didn't like them - but James made fast work of the lot!

 

We've had lino print supplies in the cupboard for several months now, ever since we worked on our rubber stamps way back in May.  James has been asking to get them out for a few weeks and today seemed like a good day to do so.  He googled a zebra image off the internet, traced it from the computer screen with tracing paper and then transferred it onto the lino.  The actual lino carving then took him a few hours to do, but it was so worth it!  We're not sure what to do with image now it's done - perhaps a framed pic in his room or somehow transfer it onto fabric??

 

 

 

Since the craft table all set up, Bella asked to make some stamps and using THESE divine stamps for inspiration she started carving.  I had to help her with a few, but they turned out pretty neat!

 

So, that was our day.  Bella has a sleep over tonight at her best friend's house, while James and I watch old episodes of 'V' on dvd.   Do you remember that show?

Popping in.

Although I've been busy posting our camping adventures on my other blog, I thought I'd pop in over here today and share a few of things I've been up too:

 

Sewing the straps on my new craft bag.  My Mum started crocheting it for herself using scraps, got half way through and loathed the colours.  She was going to throw it in the bin...until I begged her to finish it for meeeee.  I'll share another pic soon when it's completely finished.

 

Reading the Christmas issue of Real Living magazine.

 

 

 

Drooling over my two new Amy Butler patterns that arrived last week.  The shirt really looks like something that I would wear, totally love it and hope to make it for myself this summer using some light weight fabric.  I'm pretty besotted with the bag too (in the tote size especially) and have also added that to my *sewing* list.  Thankyou so much for the patterns Amy!  If you're in Australia the patterns are available from HERE and HERE.

Lastly I crocheted this little bird.  I used Lucy's birdie for inspiration, but replaced the crocheted beak and wings with felt.  There's an actual tutorial for the birdie now, you can find it HERE.  I might add some sweet legs to the next one I make.

More Lazy Days skirts coming soon :)  Have a lovely weekend xoxo.