Some Christmas Crafting...

Finally I can reveal the fruits of my hard work over the last month or so... here is an overview of a few things I made for family/friends for Christmas this year:

Masterchef aprons for my Dad & Brother...

Pillowcases for my nephews...

Cushion for Hannah's little friend Thomas:

Softie for Abbie's little friend Zack (it matches the baby quilt I made him)...

Scrapbook photos for friends of ours...

Apron for Neil's Gran...

Lots of firsts in this lot!!
Looking forward to many more projects in 2011!! Happy New Year everybody.

xxx

A lighting we will go... (and Merry Christmas!!)

Earlier on in the week we had a special evening out with our eldest daughter to go Christmas lighting. We don't often get to go out just the 3 of us any more, so we made great use of having a grandmother staying with us for Christmas (live in babysitter ;D) and off we trekked... She absolutely loved every minute of it, despite suffering from the beginnings of Tonsilitis (discovered later...).

Our recipe for the perfect Aussie Christmas lighting experience is as follows:

Take 1 balmy December evening, 1 cloudless starry sky, 1 full moon, 1 long street full of beautifully decorated houses, 1 ride on Daddy's shoulders -  & mix well. Then add in the following ingredients....

A couple of reindeer and Santa & Mother Clause stealing a moment...

a set of Kangaroos hiding in the bushes...

a decorated boat...

A couple of glow sticks..

... and wallah - you have a recipe for a delightful summer Christmas family evening.

So Merry Christmas from our neck of the woods. Wishing you and yours a very blessed Christmas wherever you are in the world. And last but not least - Happy Birthday Jesus!! :)

Goodies for my modern swap partner...

Yipee my modern swap partner has received her package. Now I can stop stressing that it will get lost in the mail (or that she won't like what I did for her...).

Here are some of the goodies I sent her... I can't believe that I didn't take a photo of the whole lot unwrapped!! Duh!!
Cushion cover front...

Cushion cover back...

Detail of quilting...

Buntings for her sewing room windows...

 

(hard to take a photo of buntings!!)

1.5 yards of fabric - Hooty hoot kangaroo....

(thought it was appropriately Australian to send to the USA)

Goodies all wrapped up... "Brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things..." was my theme...

Also sent some little sewing goodies e.g. a retractable tape and I can't remember the others. And some chocolate of course!! Little red love hearts and lady birds :) 

Hopefully she enjoyed the fruit of my labour. I enjoyed making it for her!

Now it feels like Christmas...

It's our first Aussie Christmas this year, so it was all feeling a bit too strange to me (and hot!). But over the weekend that has all turned around... firstly Neil's mum has arrived - so we have a grandparent to share in the Christmas celebrations. So along with my brother & his fiance, my mother-in-law & an uncle & cousin, I will have a surprising amount of family to share in the occasion with.
But mostly - what has made me feel like it's Christmas is this...

Our church put on "Christmas on the Boardwalk" last night. It was awesome!! This is how we looked at the beginning - enjoying our fish n chips by the beach with family and friends. Very southern hemisphere Christmassy... but still... something was missing...

Ahhh.... there it was:

 

... Down came the drizzle... I'm always telling my family back home how lovely the weather is here - it truly is sunny about 80% of the time. Unfortunately for our lovely beachy carols evening, last night was not part of that 80%...    (those are our good friends Debbie and Richard - sorry Debbie :) This photo was too good not to include heh heh heh.... Debbie couldn't get her hair wet - and rightly so LOL...)

(that's Abbie having a drink in the rain :)


Despite the rain we toughed it out and had an Awesome time (it was still in the late 20's and humid - so the rain was a bit refreshing really). There were probably about 7,000 people there singing along to Christmas carols in the rain with us. Great times. The kids had an awesome time especially - and that it what it was all about.

It's still drizzling as I write this the morning after... VERY unusual Perth weather. Now I truly feel at home here in Perth. Much more like a Wellington, NZ Christmas after all LOL.... :D

The prettiest...

... babyfood around... Atleast that's what I think. I went into my cupboard a few weeks ago all pumped (well ok... more like dragging my feet "do I really have to do this ALLREADY" if I'm honest!! ) to drag out some ice cube trays and make Abbie some baby food. These were all I could find. I had planned to buy some plain, bigger ones "next time" I did the shopping... but so far it's been about 4 weeks and I've never quite got around to it.

So shaped food it is...

 

As well as these flowers, hearts and fish: we also have numbers whirly gigs and 2 different kinds of hearts. Gotta love Ikea!! If only the held more...

In the meantime my new Happy Place is a whirlwind of activity. Hannah & I have been making present after present. I'm incredibly pleased to report that I am nearly at the end of my Christmas present list!! Wooo hooo only a couple to go.

Yesterday was madness as I realised that I'd left Neil's til last and he finished work for the year yesterday EEEK. And to add to the stress I was having a neighbour come over during the girls naptime to watch them so I could have my hairdone and buy a new outfit for Neil's work party last night. So I had to craft while they were awake - something I almost never do unless Neil's home. But I got there... almost. The finishing touches will be done this afternoon when he goes to collect his mum from the airport this afternoon.

2 1/2 weeks with my mother-in-law visiting. Excited and nervous all at the same time... :)

A pic of Hannah working her magic in the Happy place. Great to share it with her and have some creative time together!! (but great to have it back once she's gone to bed too if ya know what I mean!! :) )

Anyway off to do the housework that I should have been doing yesterday!! Can't have Neil's mum arriving to this chaos. 

xxx

Giveaway Winner...

Thanks everyone who stopped by to enter my giveaway and a special thank you to all my new followers!! It's great to make contact with some more Aussie crafty sewer types!!

The winner of the giveaway is:

Number 4 was Caroline who commented on "My Happy Place"...

Caroline said...

I love, love your room. I hope you don't mind that I'm going to use it for inspiration...and your fabric storage...Oh my... PS My husband has organised the same present for me! http://www.sewtogether.com.au/1/post/2010/11/a-room-of-ones-own.html

December 13, 2010 4:44 PM 

So congrats Caroline! I will be in touch shortly to grab your address. 

Another house block....

This morning I was very blessed to have the opportunity to have a playdate with one of my flickr virtual bee members and her children (from Sew & Bee-Happy). It must be about 10 years since I met up with someone in real life who I originally met on the internet, so it was a bit of a strange feeling at first. It was so great to put a face to a flickr name. Our children played very nicely this morning too - which speaking for my own children here - isn't always the case when new people come over... But Hannah was very good and shared all of her toys without a fight. Good girl!!

One of the reasons Allie came over (as well as just because) was to present to me another house block for my quilt. HOW COOL IS THIS??!!

A Christmas addition to the quilt. I didn't get to properly ogle over this until after Allie left - she has done such an incredible job I'm sure you'll agree - the detailing in real life of this block is amazing! So thanks so much again Allie!!

Allie was also kind enough to give me some fabrics for my stash:

These are because I've volunteered to make her block for her one month next year, because she's about to move back over to Europe. So needless to say her machine and stash will be out of action for a wee while during the move. I do not have any Kaffe Fasset in my collection - so these are most welcome to come and hang out at our house :)

How are you going with your Christmas sewing? I'm dying to post some of the projects I've been working on. But January it'll have to be...


PS. if you are looking for my Giveaway then Hi, - it's over HERE...

Modern Swap Goodies received...

If you are here for my Giveaway it's over HERE....

EEEEEKKKKK when I went to check out PO Box yesterday afternoon there was a little slip saying that I had a package... My modern swap partner package had arrived - wooo hoooo....
I'm pretty sure that the lady behind the counter thought I was on crack when I started jumping up and down like my 2 year old does when she's excited... I'm sure you can imagine how silly I looked at 28 reacting the same!! (She probably would have thought I was even more strange if I told her what was in that package!! LOL...)

I still had some Christmas shopping to quickly do before the shops shut so I couldn't even open it right away. HOW frustrating!!

My swap partner Kelly did so well!! All the colours are perfectly coordinated with our living room & my little sewing nook (which is part of the living room). (If you don't know what modern swap is you can click here for more details... - it's kind of like secret santa but for sewers on Flickr).

Here was the contents of the package:

 "These are presents for Hannah..." say these little hands.... "Noooo.... these are presents for M.U.M.M.Y..." say I !

The haul after unwrapping....

Close up of the pin cushion, thread catcher & essentials holder. I LOVE THIS!!! I was so nervous to hope for this when I saw this and a few others go up in the photo pool. Sooooo NEEDed one - and this is the perfect colour scheme to match my lounge.

Close up of the pattern & tool travel case. Hello yummy Amy Butler dots!!

Close up of one of the reversible quilted coasters on the arm of my lounge suite. Don't they coordinate so perfectly?! The colour of my curtains in that green in the flower. The other side is the yummy Amy Butler dots again - but forgot to take a photo of that. There are 4 arms of my couch and 4 coasters = perfect!!

The cutest little covered tape measure that you ever did see!! Unfortunately Hannah loves it as well and has a thing for tape measures (I mean they pull and retract - how fun). So I fear this little tool may go "missing" a bit too often - I shall have to be tidy ;)

What an exciting parcel to receive!! It was my first time being involved with a swap so I had no idea what to expect. So cool. (Made up for my other mail - which was my first speeding fine - booo hoooo!!!)

I'm dying to post pics of what I made for my swap parter - but she hasn't received her parcel yet - so stay tuned....

Advents Away...

I went to link up my blog about my advent calendar yesterday - and shock horror... realised I hadn't even blogged about it yet -doh!!

So here is this years advent calendar. One of the blogs I follow Homemade by Jill was doing a sew-a-long making an advent calendar out of felt. Just in the process of formulating a plan for an advent calendar myself at the time - I decided to jump on board and sew along. Also one of my friends asked me to teach her to sew - so I thought this might be a nice easy project and could kill 2 birds with 1 stone...
NOT really!! It was pretty easy - but F.U.S.S.Y. Of course I had to choose the most fussy, time consuming way of making the little decorations. So my poor friend Mandy - I really dipped her in the deep end - it was like the blind leading the blind.

Anyway here is the end result:

This is a very wonky photo - of a very wonky project. I'm not very pleased with how it turned out. Primarily because when I went to buy the felt, my local shop had this teensy bit of white left - and it is a really stretchy, pilling type of felt. It really is ICK felt but it was all they had. So I'm really disappointed because half way through making it I could see it starting to pill and turn horrible. At that point I think I kind of gave up - sad but true...

Hannah on the other hand adores it. Adored it so much in fact that she kept climbing up and taking things out of the pockets. So unfortunately our 24 day advent calendar turned into a 2 day calendar - because that's how long the chocolate lasted before I took it out of the way of little hands.
So I had to go to Plan B (which was how it was designed anyway). So instead of getting a chocolate AND a decoration to hang on the tree each day - she just got to hang a decoration up instead. As my mother would say "much better for her teeth..."  So I think to myself "great, got that one sorted - we'll just decorate the tree instead"...

Enter December the 3rd.... I am busy rushing around getting ready to take Miss Hannah to "pre-kindy" and I think to myself "boy Hannah is quiet - uh oh, what is she up to..."  - Standing on the arm of the couch on her tippy toes hanging every single decoration up on the tree of course....

- Oh well... there's always next year. LOL...

If you are here for my giveaway - thanks for stopping by and hop over to here....

My First Giveaway....

It's Monday the 13th - that means it's Sew Mama Sew!'s Giveaway day...

So in order to celebrate this festive season, and well - just because really... here is my giveaway to one lucky reader...

1 x Fat quarter of this gorgeous Eiffel Tower print
1 x Fat quarter of Amy Butler dots
1 x Guttermann Thread in White Cotton

Entry is open to Australian Residents only. To enter you simply need to make a new comment on one of my previous posts (and mention that you are entering for the giveaway at the end of your comment). Of course I'd love for you to follow me too - but that is voluntary ;)

The winner will be drawn this Friday the 17th December.

Good luck :)

Giveaway Day

Give Away....

Ok I got sucked in.... thanks to my Bee friend Felicity I found out about this Giveaway Day. I cannot resist getting involved in the virtual community and making new friends so... here goes....

I will be participating in my first give away. You'll have to stop by on the 13th to find out what, how and where...

giveaway Day

As IF I needed another thing to do. Ohhh well :)

A new day....

I have been struggling and on a go slow over the last month.
We've had a house full of tummy bugs, international visitors, grumpy, overtired children, and a not sleeping baby. So it's been hard at times to remain inspired.
... When Neil's alarm went off with this morning with a song by David Crowder Band, "The Glory of it all", and I was already lying there awake - I told him to leave it and let it play...


Just the reminder I needed of why we're here....

THE GLORY OF IT ALL....

At the start
He was there
He was there
In the end
He’ll be there
He’ll be there
And after all
Our hands have wrought
He forgives

Oh, the glory of it all
Is He came here
For the rescue of us all
That we may live
For the glory of it all
Oh, the glory of it all

All is lost
Find Him there
Find Him there
After night
Dawn is there
Dawn is there
And after all
Falls apart
He repairs
He repairs

Oh, He is here
With redemption from the fall
That we may live
For the glory of it all
Oh, the glory of it all

After night
Comes a light
Dawn is here
Dawn is here
It’s a new day, a new day
Oh, everything will change
Things will never be the same
We will never be the same
Oh, everything will change
Things will never be the same
We will never be the same

Today is a new day. Thanks to this song I have adopted a new attitude. It is helping. It is not perfect. But it is helping... So far I feel like I'm winning. The first time in too long!!

EXCITING MAIL WEEK!!!!

Don't you love receiving exciting mail??!! I do - I LOVE it!!

November was my month for Sew & Bee-Happy  and my blocks are starting to arrive - Woo Hooo!!! I asked everyone to make wonky eye-spy house blocks for a playmat that I'm planning for my girls (with parks and roads and stuff). Here was my example that I gave them to give them some ideas of what I was going for.
Here is a peak of what I've been sent so far.

Emma's block(s):

Emma did the day block first, but "didn't think it had enough contrast" in her words... so made the second night block.But she very kindly sent both blocks along. I love them both and think it will be great to encorporate both of them as a good lesson on night and day and the world for my girls. I'm thinking that I might put the day block on the front and the night block on the back - so I can talk about it being night on one side of the world at a time etc... We'll see...

Sabah's House:

Very cool! I love the princesses and my girls will too!! and hand embroidery - LOVE!!

Hannah's House:

Very cute house! My Princess Hannah will think it's pretty cool to have the same name as the maker too I bet!

Felicity's house:

An apartment building to represent hers. Very cool & plenty to eye-spy.

Thanks heaps guys!! A few more to arrive and then I get the challenge of putting them all together. Fun!!

Another exciting package that arrived in the mail last week was one containing these:

I had absolutely no stash books. So when I received a very generous birthday gift last month, I had no problem choosing a few great books to start my collection. There are SO many projects within those covers that I'm just itching to make... so watch this space! :)

My happy place....

I have the most wonderful husband!! Check out the Christmas present he organised for me this year....

New big work desk(s)...

From another angle...

He organised all the essentials - sounds (this was courtesy of insurance I might add - but he picked it up and set it up for me), organised storage, lighting, sparkly new design board & magnetic white board...

Yummy Fabric Tidiness....

The pictures speak for themselves really!! Now I finally have my diecut machine out after it's year sabbatical because now I have room for my sewing AND my papercraft- YAY!!! 
And did I mention I have the most awesome husband in the world?

(I know it's a bit early for Christmas presents... Lucky me I guess!!)

More Busy Beeing....

My latest bee block for Tracy from my Sew & Bee-Happy bee....

I had fun making this block. It was nice and simple and I enjoyed being creative with the fabric choices. I don't work much in Black & White - so it is lucky that I had ordered a few cool scrap packs from Hawthornes which had some Black & White fabrics in. I just love this cute couple - don't you?!! Shame that I've got absolutely no idea what the fabric that it's from is called. It was all newspaper prints and articlues. Tracy is going to have one gorgeous quilt by the looks of things. You can see the other blocks for it here in our photo pool.

I am also super excited to announce that this Friday is the first Rockingham "Sew Bee-Inspired". Yes that's right - I'm starting a sewing bee with some other yummy sewing mummies from my church - YIPEE!! So if you are in Perth and would love to come along to join us then feel free to send me an email for the details. Next year in February we will be kicking off with a bang - with a teaching programme and everything. Exciting times!!

Ode to Claire....

During November I was lucky enough to have one of my very besties visit me from NZ for 2 weeks. It's the second year in a row that she's visited me for my birthday so I'm totally spoilt rotten!!  Since I have 2 wee ones and Miss Abbie does not a happy traveller make (she has a favourite habit of screaming in the car all the way from A to B) there was a lot of time spent at home this year during Claire's visit. So what did this mean? Lots of sewing of course!!

My initial intention was to sew Claire a lap quilt to match my Quilt as you go quilt I finished for myself before she got here. Unfortunately this just didn't quite get to happen. So instead I taught her to sew while she stayed and we sewed her quilt "together". I say together loosely - because really Claire sewed probably 80% of it while I ran around after my children. I do have 2 sewing machines but unfortunately the old "donkey" didn't quite cut the mustard for either of us, so that meant only one of us really sewed at a time - and usually Claire won. Here is the fabulous result:

Not a great pic but it will give you the idea of it's awesomeness. Perfect for snuggling up under and so coold that we have 2 quilts the same. She did a great job!! I reckon I should do this with my presents more often = Self service present giving - what a great idea!! :)
I guess the main thing is that Claire really enjoyed learning to sew and I think I have now introduced her to a new obsession. She was even talking about buying a sewing machine on the WAY HOME from the airport!! So I didn't get a look in to my sewing machine the whole time she visited (not that I minded at all) because she was on it. Here is the other project she quilted up all by herself:

I have encouraged her that she really needs to keep this for herself. There is something so special about your first quilt don't you think? So this quilt is a great cot size and is made for Baby XX whenever Baby XX decides to introduce itself to the world. Miss Abbie thinks it works just fine as a baby quilt :)
What a pleasure to have gotten to spend so much time enjoying one of my favourite things with one of my favourite friends. Lucky lucky me!!