Pictures

I have no camera!
but it is not lost, just borrowed until the 10 January.
My son Jonno and his girlfriend have borrowed it for their first overseas holiday in Vanuatu. My hubby has a camera but i don't know how to use it so i may not be posting until then.
I will however be reading your posts, and i will be posting step by step pics once as soon as i understand how to use his camera.

The handmade paper and the wedding table decorations are coming along a treat.
In the meantime,
Let me wish you ALL a Happy New Year.

Making Paper

One of the things i am going to make for the wedding for each guest is a hand made paper seeded scroll. This is the first part of the paper i have put away to make them with. (first i will have to look for a cheap/secondhand blender. You cannot use one that you are using for food). I will be adding shredded gold/bronze ribbon. and the idea is for the guest to plant it into a pot as a reminder of the day.
However, this is where i need your help! I have one herb so far, Thyme, I have chosen it because it is a small herb and a play on words. I want the paper to have a love and wisdom theme, the plants must be able to grow in a pot and the seeds small. Any gardeners out there with suggestions? I will be reading them all.

Val Zdero Art

Val Zdero has posted this lovely giveaway. I can vouch for her work, I have ordered from her recently so if you would like to own a piece of beautiful hand made jewellery then go check out her blog. Lovely stuff!

Tree Of Life

The washing is already on the line, the vacuuming is done, the meat is out of the freezer being defrosted (spag bol tonight) and so it is time to play. These are the Tree of Life symbols being made as part of the wedding decorations using what i have at home. I did buy the silver coloured bangles, 6 for $4 I need to make 8.
Currently i am stripping down some cabling for the copper wire, acquired from a nearby skip (with permission).
I am going to go for a walk later to look for some pine cones and gum nuts, going to my friends house and saw up a fallen tree limb into slices, sand them to make bases for these decorations leaving the outer edge natural and decorate the candles.
I have no idea how they are going to be assembled together yet, but that is all part of the fun.
I hope your day is as much fun as mine.

Presents

This is what i got for Christmas.
Modelling clay, When i grew up i knew it as plasticine, this basket full of purple goodies, and some green and red balls for the tree.
We had a lovely quiet day, watched movies, phoned family and friends,

Prezzies All Finished

I have been finishing off making Christmas Prezzies today, took a break this afternoon and went out with my son delivering some gifts to my friends, came home and finished doing these toys. They have no embroidery on them because i need to practice embroidery before i put them onto toys, but i still think they look cute. The time now is 5pm, Christmas Eve, just have to wrap them up. I have enjoyed this year of crafting. I feel satisfied that i have achieved all that i set out to do this year and more, Looking forward to putting it all away, (hubby in the back ground thinking Yay!) for a couple of days at least. Looking forward to 2010.
Now does anyone have a cure for hot flushes?

Christmas Present for Dad

For Christmas Mark and Jonno are going to make us a new post box to go with the new fence. How lovely is that!
I will be posting pics of that when it is done, Lovely idea.

Last Minute Quickie Gifts.

Last minute girly gifts, hairbands. not my pattern, i got this one from Heather Bailey http://www.heatherbaileydesign.com/HoorayforHeadbands.pdf
I love it! it is super quick and easy and is in 3 sizes, baby, child and adult.
Make them in the favourite colours of the recipient and you have a cute gift.

Last Minute gifts

Before i went to bed last night i realised, I needed to make 1 more gift! I had forgotten my friends grandson, It is amazing how time flies, When new little lives come on the scene and you have a whole new generation to make for so i went to my book case, picked this book, Making Soft Toys by Alan Dart, that i picked up for $4 a couple of years ago thinking, I may want to try something from it one day, well that day is here.
It has some really lovely things in it. Long out of print it was published in 1994 by Coombe books. ISBN 1-85833-253-2 for anyone wanting to do a book search you maybe able to pick one up second hand.
This is what i will be making today, It is a sitting non jointed bear, and the best part is that it is all machine sewing, doable in the time i have left to do it in. i think my pure wool op shop coat fabrics will be just perfect for this. The bear in the book is the small one, the larger bear is the same pattern enlarged, I don't have time to do enlarging, just going to trace the pattern onto cardboard and get started.
I hope you all manage to get your last minute shopping/crafting/cooking done just the way you want, If not then just ring/e-mail/write to those you love, Hug the ones you see and tell them you love them.

Christmas Round Up.

From Tilli
From Meg.
To Jonno, and Renee (my youngest, and his girlfriend, Without them i would not be having a tree and decorations :) for my daughter Steph and her hubby to be Michael, whom i love and are so very proud of this year in their milestones. My husband who is very shy and is my utmost support in all that i do, even for putting up with my mess when i am creating just because he loves me, To Mark, my middle son, who is shy but is an awesome person and is doing just great in his own life, happy, strong and very very patient with me in all the computer questions, who set up my blog for me amongst other things.
To Jodie Of Vintage Ric-Rac, To Vikki of Sew Useful Designs for her kindness and generosity, To All my followers, You have all enriched my life with all your positive e-mails etc, and to all my family who keep track on what i am doing and how i am getting on.
I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Toy Drop

My son had changed his mind about going out so i thought i would do my things local.
The first one was dropped off at Mimosa Park, Mill Park.
The second was dropped off at Jacaranda Park, Mill Park.
The third was dropped off at a bus stop in Roycroft Avenue, Mill Park.
That was so much fun! and i also got in a bit of exercise, an added bonus!

3 Toy Drop

1). Soft Cat Pillow Pet.
2). Painted Angel Doll
3). Jointed Knee Frog

The Toy Society

All these will be bagged and labeled and dropped today at various places,
(Taking advantage of my son who is going Christmas Shopping) and traveling with him in his car.
I will be taking my camera photograph and post where the toys are dropped off.
Just in time for Christmas.
I have not done this before so i am very excited.

Both Have Passed!

Sydney was just wonderful, we went to watch my future Son In Law graduate from the N.S.W. Police academy. I was so proud and happy to see him, that i did not take pictures, (i let my hubby do that,) nor use the video camera, (my daughter did that) cos i could not keep my emotions under control, tears of joy just streaming down my cheeks.
Michael said he could not look at me because if it and had to keep himself just concentrating on his task.
The weather was very hot that day, and the speeches were just wonderful, made me very very proud.

The next day my daughter got her results from her course, She has passed! she is now an accountant! Double Celebration.

Day 3 and the move to their new home in the beautiful place called Bathurst. They are currently renting an old house in Bathurst that has all the lovely features of the wide hallway, wooden paneling, high ceilings, lovely garden with herbs and mature trees, just lovely. The roads are wide and quiet too.
I know they will be happy there with nice fresh air away from the hustle and bustle of City life.

ACDA Meeting

When i came back i had a delightful postal package waiting for me, these wonderful hand made paper cards with dried flowers on them. To give you an idea on the size, they are 7cm by 10 cm each.
This was from a member of the ACDA our cloth doll club, and she sent them to me with a lovely card thanking me for the Santa Pins i had made. (I had enough left by the way, with 1 left over).
They are truly works of art and i love them.

Gifts

I have been away for a couple of days in Sydney helping my daughter move to Bathurst. (My job, primarily was to make sure that her two cats were comfortable on the two and a half hour drive). They are safe, happy and comfortable now in their new home. Cats do not like to be in a car in cat carriers. They did have a prescription from the vet but this unfortunately did not take effect until almost there, so i was more than happy to indulge in my job of keeping them happy with eye contact, my hands on them and talking to them the whole time.

Letters To Santa

Dear Santa,
This L'Amore Quilt Kit from The Jolly Jabber is just what i would like to start me quilting. My plans next year is to indeed do quilting for charity and make toys for boys for charity. (this year i concentrated on girls and made 100 toys for the K Mart Christmas Tree) This however, i would Love to make for my daughter Stephanie who is getting married in March 2010.
This goes just perfect with her theme of Tree of Life and my daughter and her partner will be moving into their new home at the end of the month, and something handmade with love will fit in perfectly.

Christmas Gifts

This purse pattern and tutorial by Nichole Mallalieu inspired me to make these.

Just by putting the zips on the longer side you have a pencil or make-up case.

Cat of the Day

If you like cats and kittens, then do go here, a delightful little footage of a kitten drinking milk from a bottle.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/cheezburger/videos/241/

Swap

I made this for the Christmas Tree Decoration Swap.
I also made 5 of my Thumb Pincushions for the Pincushion Swap (no picture) but you have seen them before.
It was great fun and one i will be happy to do again, All the swaps were different, all were great to see.

Christmas Swaps

At out Christmas Party at ACDA we had our Christmas Party, and two swaps happening.
The first one was a pin cushion swap, and the other was a Christmas tree Decoration swap.
How we did this was by having your name (if you entered of course!) into a plastic tub, then when your name was called out you took a package from the table and opened it. When all of it was done everyone stood up one at a time and showed off their new gift and the maker stood up as well, we all clapped and it was so much fun to do.

Love this!

http://www.richcreations.com.au/
I Love this! They are not for eating though, they are made of fabric.
Do check out the amazing talent of this lady here. http://www.richcreations.com.au/

Shopping in Melbourne

Just posting another alternative shopping idea.

Cat of the Day

Meet Cyan, My friends new cat, How Purrfectly lovely.

Daughters Visit

My daughter went home last night after a quick, mad, action packed, whirlwind 3 day visit.
Our plan was to go dress shopping and perhaps narrow down the search for the dress style she liked.
In this time we concentrated on the wedding.
Made the invitations, Looked at the glasses we had bought, Went to deliver the Softies For Mirabel and the first wedding dress store we went to and trying them on, was dress number 3. In her words, I LOVE IT!!!
So Dress Is Bought! The rest of That day was spent in a daze, after looking only for just under 1 hour, in a place we would not have been too if we did not drop off these toys we had found the perfect dress, She looks just stunning in it.
Yesterday we took her to see where we had booked her wedding to be, Wellers. As we were driving up the road, she started to realise she had been here before, This is the place where she and her partner first met his mum and they had dinner there. How spooky and wonderful is that!
Well I Did Good!! She Loves the place and more pictures were taken, the menu and wine list organised.
More on this another time.
My daughter went home last night, happy that so much had been achieved.

Wedding Gifts

Tree of Life Pendants.
These are handmade by Val Zdero and this is her blog page, http://valzderoart.blogspot.com/
I was on her blog one day, reading the posts as you do when she had posted this wonderful wire wrapped tree pendant. One of the things we are doing for my daughters wedding is making many parts of the wedding handmade. ( gifts, accessories, decorations etc.) This was just perfect and i e-mailed her and asked if we could commission her for this set. ordered them and Then told my daughter, She then saw them and agreed with me, They are for the females in the Bridal party. The one in the centre is my daughters, in sterling silver and the others are in copper. The stones are my future Son in Laws favourite stone called peridot.
They are absolutely perfect, just what we ordered and her service and responses to our e-mails was just lovely.
If you have a loved one and would like to have a lovely piece of handmade jewellery, Look here on her Etsy page and log onto her blog, then i can honestly vouch for her. Just PURRFECT.

I Won!

Just look at this! I have just won it from http://theneedleblog.blogspot.com/ a fabulous blog called Needle.org the Art of Plush.

Award

I have been sent an award for honest blogging from http://annarosadesigns.blogspot.com/




thank you for that! Now i have to tell you 10 things about myself,
this is harder than i thought.
1. I Love sewing on the machine, and in particular making toys.
2. I love to make to give away, just because.
3. I have a saint of a husband because he puts up with my mess and he supports me in every way.
4. I have 3 beautiful grown up children that i am very proud of who they have turned out to be.
5. I have 2 house cats, (they are thoroughly spoilt).
6. I admit it! I AM a crazy old cat lady.
7. I cannot cook, no exaggeration here, ask my kids!
8. I love reading blogs and blogging myself, it gives me the link to the world i was so needing and a feeling of community.
9. I don't read newspapers or watch the news on T.V. ever.
10. I am absolutely hopeless with numbers, dates, time etc. Mention a sentence with numbers in it and my mind goes, blerrrrr.

Now comes the fun and the hard part. The fun part is nominating the fellow honest bloggers, and the hard part is only picking 10.

http://annarosadesigns.blogspot.com/
http://valzderoart.blogspot.com/
http://oldsweetwatercottage.blogspot.com/
http://lurlineg.blogspot.com/
http://moncherrycraft.blogspot.com/
http://vintagericrac.blogspot.com/
http://sewusefuldesigns.blogspot.com/
http://sweetp-paulette.blogspot.com/
http://cottonandcloud.com/blog/
http://stitchesonmars.blogspot.com/

Actually this was much harder than i thought, Only 10? There is So many more blogs i admire.

The Black Sea Gentlemen

This is a brand new topic i have not blogged about at all, but i feel is an intrinsic part of me is music.
A few years ago i went to a Port Fairy Festival with a brand new friend (a friend now of about 6 years!) We met at the line in Spotlight!!! and i absolutely fell in love with this band Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen and loved the lyrics and the theatrics of their performance. 6 years later i am still lusting over seeing them again.
This was my first live performance and they affected me deeply.
What has made a profound influence on you?

Daughter Is Coming!

I know my daughter will be embarrassed at this but i just have to spill,
My daughter is coming for a quick visit tomorrow and i will have her here for only a couple of days and we will spend it Wedding Dress Shopping, Making Invitations, Talking and Making Decorations!!! I am so happy i am beside myself!!!
So Just remember to give your loved ones a call every now and then, don't wait for a special reason to call them, do it " Just Because".
I do have something to post about the celebrations but it will wait until she comes!

Disco-bots

These are my two bots in the making, the fabric i am using is second hand wool coats, I love the textures and the colours and if you do what i do, and buy them from op shops when they have sales then you can get a myriad of lovely rich colours.
I did not have template plastic for the soles of the legs so like a lot of us we look at what we do have. I now have a folder that has holes in it! (another good thing to use is the plastic bottom on the green bags you can buy in the grocery stores).
For this pair of bots i will be using teddy bear joints and eyes for child safety But (a very rare thing for me, i will be making one with button joints to keep for myself!).
If you click on the picture and enlarge it you will find that the red one has a band going across it. This is because i have had to make a strip if fabric large enough to fit the pattern. Being a robot i am sure he won't mind!

Shopping in Melbourne

Saw this flyer and thought, Need to share it and get out the news, I cannot go, but if i could i would!

Disco-bots

Look at what arrived in the post today, Jodie Carleton's new pattern Disco-bots 14" of robotty goodness. She had done it again! her patterns are right on the money for cuteness. I am just busting to get making and i have just the people to make them for, My two youngest nephews.
If you do not know Jodie then do check out her blog, you will soon become a fan.

Brooches and Babies

I just thought i would share this with you,
I have given away so many Santa Pins that i am now short for the Christmas Party that was making them for in the first place, and having been to several Spotlight stores only to find they have ran out of the fabric to make some more i needed a quick solution.
So here it is. Pack of Christmas Tree Decorations 9 for $2.00 + pin backs and hot glue gun = instant pins. I bought 3 packs and now have 27 more pins to give away for Christmas.
What i will need do first is put away those i need for the party and just use the rest to give away, I learned my lesson.
Prezzies for friends and family.
Not another doll, you might say, I made this one yesterday for a friend of mines grand daughter, My friend has been to my house several times and always likes to see the things i have made. Her grand daughter is almost 2 years old, i think she will like it. She is Mauritian/African mix and very beautiful, i wanted to replicate her lovely hair and so i used sound speaker felt. it is thick and slightly knobbly. My friend Will be very surprised cos i told her i was only making them for charity this year. Her dress is from one of the fabrics i was sent and if you look closely you will see that it has french words all over it. Creole is spoken in Mauritius a french dialect.
Now what do I make next?

Wreath Finished

The wreath is now finished and up on my front door, I like it!
Close up of the flowers from my garden.

Softies For Mirabel

Softies For Mirabel They have their window display up and Look how lovely it is! Click on the picture to see and read more on it. Must get my toys down there pronto.

Zart Art

Not a lot on the Sales stuff, BUT the Art upstairs from school kids was astounding, I LOVED the gallery. Well worth going to to have a look at the lovely work alone. So I can honestly say i had a great time.

New Project

Using materials at hand i am making a wreath for the front door. Scissors, black strong thread, branches from the very large trees in the front yard and an embroidery hoop.

Tying the branches to the hoop overlapping the branches.
The hoop is covered. Leaving it for now, soon about to go to Zart Art. I will finish decorating it when i get back.

Softies For Mirabel

Softies For Mirabel, finished and ready to go. Now all i need is one of my boys to take me there before the 10th December.