Whoops! I almost forgot...

Tagxedo - found via The Crafty Librarian

...to draw a winner of this weeks Blogtoberfest giveaway!

I usually have a handy dandy screenshot of the random number generator, but my photoshop trial has expired so I can't do it.




Anyhow, there were a total of 35 entries overall, and the winner is:


NUMBER 15 - It's Cass from Snailblazer - yippee!

Whats a Name - part 2

Look what I found in the letterbox when I got home lastnight! My swippity-swappity name tag.

I'd spied this over at Snailblazer last week, and of course I loved the fact that it was made using a crocheted doily. I even got an extra little pressie too.

Thanks so much Cass - I can't wait to wear it at Sew It Together.

Snailblazer Swap Goodies

It's been a bit of a crazy week, but I'm finally sending out a huge thankyou to all the lovely girls who participated in the Snailblazer Swap.



I received such an amazing array of goodies - there are some extremely talented crafters out there in blogland!

• Mini Tote Bag from Xena
• Hair Accessories from Anna
• Pen and Pen Holder from Vickie

• Tissue Holder from Sandra
• Frog Magnet from Nikki
• Necklace from Amanda

• Sunglasses case from Fran
• Zippered Purse from Aimee
• Felt Flower Brooch from Michelle

• Handmade Cards from Tania

Every single item is going to be put to very good use and I'm keeping them all for me (selfish but true)!

I'm even going to keep Tania's beautiful handmade cards - they're far too gorgeous to write on and give away, so I'm thinking about some type of multiple frame where I can display them all together, maybe with a dark coloured matting so that they really pop.

Oh, and this is what I made (and forgot to take a photo of) - A mixed fibre and bead brooch, and a crazy stitched keyring. Thanks to Tania for emailing me a photo - doh!

A huge huge thankyou to Cass for your magnificent organising and distributing skills.

Sweet parcels in the mail

I arrived home lastnight to find two parcels waiting for me squeezed into my little mailbox (I might need to do something about that).

I was the super lucky winner of the Selina's Vintage mystery giveaway. Well, the mystery parcel included vintage fabrics, vintage pillowcases, chenille, beautiful trims and buttons, and the cutest magnetic postcard for my fridge.

Thankyou so much Selina.... I'm imagining some gorgeous creations as I type!

.... and in the other parcel was the fabulous 1983 teatowel in brand new pristine condition from Jannimary, who won my embroidered doiley giveaway.

Thanks so much Janice!

I'd better get back to working on my Snailblazer swap goodies.... I'm running late (and blaming the horrible lurgy).

The shorter one

The ideas woman has been encouraging me to make a shorter styled handbag for quite a while now........ and I finally got around to it!

It's the same design as this one but with a shorter bottom section.
I used a panel of lovely Hollabee fabric that I bought way back in June last year, teamed with some thrifted brown velour type fabric, so it's lovely and soft and snuggly. The perfect winter handbag.

The interior is a vintage pilowcase that I received from Cass. The muted colours work perfectly together.

I think there'll be more of these to come....

Some well deserved thankyous

I've been a little bit slack lately with showing and telling about all of the lovely things that arrived in the mail lately.

I'm still in that 'grey fuzzy not quite homely' state - which when translated, means that I keep moving furniture around because I haven't worked out the perfect home for every piece just yet.

To facilitate the constant moving of furniture, I completely stopped unpacking boxes (figuring that the less I put away, the less heavy the abovementioned pieces of furniture will be when I move them).

Yesterday, I actually managed to take some photos to play show and tell.

To begin - the lovely Miriam from BubbaChenille sent me some gorgeous teatowels. They've been washed and ironed and ready to be transformed. This is just one of them.

I won a giveaway over on Kat's Creations last week. I have a bit of a beret obsession, and now that it's coming up to colder months, this will be absolutely perfect! Thanks Kat. It's more grey in real life but I don't have the good camera at the moment so everything is being washed out by the flash.

I received some more lovely tea towels in the mail from Jodie at Ric Rac with some sweet little selvedge key rings and a gorgeous card.

I have made myself a new little spot in the craft space for the selvedge collection just for Jodie!

Now onto some craft shopping - I couldn't resist this gorgeous bag from Cass at Snailblazer.

I have two boxes of handbags that are yet to be unpacked but I just had to have this one too!

I'm trying to stick with handmade for birthday pressies this year so I picked up these cute little ribbon streamers from Silly Gilly. These are for a friends daughter who will be turning three in May. I actually want to put them on and run around the garden myself (you'll be happy to know that I resisted the urge).

Cheery

I was having a bit of a crisis of confidence yesterday, which completely killed off my sewing mojo, so today, my mission is to spend the day being happy and cheerful.

These are some things that make me happy:


Gorgeous housewarming flowers (in my favourite colour combination) from Tinniegirl

A package of beautiful vintage fabric that arrived in the mail from Snailblazer....

......with a teatowel!

What makes you happy?

I heart Snails and Gnomes

I arrived home yesterday to find that the postie had jammed three packages into my little letterbox. I squeeled with delight and then rushed inside to open them up....to discover that one of them wasn't for me...drats...I threw that one in the corner and went back to the two that were for me!

The first was gorgeous vintage fabrics from Cass over at Snailblazer. I commented that I really loved a piece of fabric that was still in the box from the Box Swap, and Cass was so generous, that she sent it to me in the mail along with three other gorgeous pieces. Thankyou so much Cass!
In the second package was this sweet little towel from Nomes over at Hanging With My Nomies. I've christened her Princess Piggy Towel and she is now hanging in my kitchen. Thanks so much Nomes!

It makes me so happy to arrive home and receive such wonderful suprises in the mail.....

The Snailblazer Box Swap

A little while ago, I signed up to join in Cass's Snailblazer Box Swap.



Cass put all of these lovely things in the box and then sent it off on it's merry way for a journey all over the place....

When I arrived home Friday afternoon, the box was happily sitting on my doorstep, and this is what I found when I opened it up!

I had to choose 3 items from the box to keep for myself, so I chose a vintage pillowcase, some pretty buttons & trim, and some nice bright red bias binding.

Now I have to search for 3 things to put back into the box. My house was the last stop on the whistlestop tour, so the box will finally be heading home to Cass.

A big thanks to Cass for organising the swap...such a fabulous idea!