Oh Miranda!

If you squint through the fog you might spot Hanging Rock in the distance

I decided to check Where Is to get directions before I headed off on my day trip to Sewjourn yesterday.  I have a vague memory of taking a wrong turn last year, so I was trying to be diligent and organised this time.

I  plugged in my start address and my end address, and asked it to provide me with the shortest route to my destination (thinking that surely it would mean decent, sealed, dual carriage roads).

 It got worse than this - but this is a spot where I felt safe enough to stop for a photo.

The answer to that question is a big fat HELL NO!

I was absolutely scared witless, driving through mud and potholes in the middle of the bush during a windstorm and in the pouring rain, thinking the whole time that I was going to get swallowed up into the abyss just like poor Miranda. Either that, or a big gum tree was going to fall right on top of my car!

The only saving grace was that I knew I had a packet on mint slice biccies and some jelly snakes, and boiled lollies for sustenance....phew.

So the moral of the story is - the shortest route is not always the smartest (oh, and don't trust Where Is)!

Sew Not Fair

I was supposed to be having a relaxing, girly, crafty time at Sewjourn this weekend, but alas, my best laid plans went ever so slightly awry.

I refuse to miss out completely so I'm heading down for a day trip instead.... I just hope all those girls haven't cleaned out the Lancefield oppy before I get there!

You've gotta be quick!

If you cast your mind back to Blogtoberfest last year, you would remember that I was lucky enough to win a lovely crafty day out at Sewjourn.

Well, if you're really quick, you can celebrate Sewjourn's 1st Birthday by entering the latest giveaway for a crafty day out in January 2010.

You've gotta be quick, entries close Sunday at 8PM.

Watcha Wearin' Wednesday

You really don't want to see what I'm wearing today. Thismorning I'm off to visit my sister-in-law to have my eyebrows waxed, and then it's off to Pulmonary Rehabilitation for some walking, bike riding, step-ups, squats, wall push-ups and weights (in other words - TORTURE).

So, I'm cheating yet again, and showing you something that I prepared earlier (Monday to be exact). I found this dress at the Lancefield Oppy during my weekend at Sewjourn. It's originally from Myer Miss Shop (and yes I realise that I'm definitely not in the appropriate target age range for Myer Miss Shop anymore). The tag had $4, but lucky me, it ended up being half price!
The brown pants are from one of the local oppies - can't remember whether it was Vinnies or the Salvos. Brooch by me!

Sewjourn Show and Tell

Today I have a little show and tell of projects made on the weekend at Sewjourn. This is not a fully inclusive list - I was far too busy eating and sewing to take many photos, and of the photos that I did take, half are blurry!

Liesl finished off this lovely coat for her mum, and I finished off my Day Bag for me. I'll take some photos of all of the extra features that I included later in the week.

I whipped up this Seekers apron for Ms L. She bought the tea towel at the Seekers Concert a few years ago. I bought the black fabric with stars from the local patchwork shop in Lancefield. It wasn't exactly the print that I was looking for, but it works perfectly with a tea towel for a musical act.

I also whipped up a little drawstring bag from a scrap of zoo fabric. I forgot to take drawstring cord with me, but luckily Liesl had some on hand to finish it off.

Cathy whipped up a sweet little pink Burrito... he just needs a bit of stuffing

Bev finished off her quilt top (sorry about the blurry photo) - the applique is beautiful when it's not blurry.

Bec made this quilt top from scratch using her favourite chenille (or channeeeeeeeal in an aussie twang)

She even thought she deserved a halo after finishing off this little zippered purse...

Annabel whipped up this quilt top from scratch in lovely soothing blue and greens

The one thing that we forgot to do, was to tape our ad for Janome - once we'd all unpacked our machines Friday night, we realised that there were 6 Janome sewing machines and 2 Janome overlockers on the table.
Serena arrived on Saturday with an Elna which was obviously upset with the balance of the universe in the room, as it proceeded to break down..... poor little Elna!

The Rules...

What happens at Sewjourn stays at Sewjourn....

There was a lot of eating and drinking and merriment..... and even some sewing in-between

I think we all really liked Tinniegirls dessert

A huge thankyou to all of the lovely ladies for making it such an enjoyable weekend away, and to Cathy for organising, and especially for schlepping my ten tonnes of luggage and sewing supplies in and out of the car!

I'm outta here!

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend - I know I will!

It's Tuesday and I can't wait.....

......to pack my bags and head to Sewjourn for the weekend with some of the lovely Thornbury Craft Bonanza ladies.

With only 3 sleeps to go, the excitement is mounting. I'm making lots of lists so that I don't forget any of the necessary items (especially a chocolate stash).

The hardest thing is trying to decide with crafty projects to take. I'm the queen of the quick and easy project - I get bored with anything that takes too long, so I need to make sure that I have plenty of things to chop and change with.

Head on over to Buttons by Lou Lou for more Tuesday can't wait!

I'm having problems with my Telstra Wireless internet at the moment - especially at night. I couldn't comment on any blogs lastnight - I just kept getting page load errors, so sorry if I haven't said hello!

Quilting Bee Reminder

Just a reminder that this coming Saturday, there is a quilting bee to assist survivors of the bushfires.

The following information is from Sewjourn....

It’s almost impossible to imagine how it must feel to face the task of rebuilding after losing your home in the Bushfires. But we are hoping to contribute in a small way by making and donating quilts for people who have lost their homes. So please come along to our Quilting Bee. There are lots of ways you can contribute:

• Come along for all or part of the day to sew
• Donate fabric, batting or backings for use
  
• Make any 12 inch block and send it in and we will make them up into quilts on the day
  
• Make a Scrappy Log Cabin block - Emma has a good tutorial here
  
• Offer to machine quilt one or two quilts for us
  
• Offer to hand quilt a quilt
  
• Offer to hand sew a binding or two
  
• Come along to make calico bags for the quilts
  
• You might have a half-done quilt top you are happy to donate to be finished off
  
• Spread the word - please pass on to all of your crafty friends

We particularly need backings and offers of machine quilting or hand quilting (either on the day or afterwards) though and are happy to list down the businesses that support us so if you think of anyone you can ask please let me know.

When: Saturday 21st March 9.30am - 4.30pm
Where: LightHouse, Ashburton Uniting Church, 7 Ashburn Grove, Ashburton, 3147
What to bring: Your sewing supplies, fabric, lunch. Morning and afternoon tea provided.
Contact: Jan Joseland on 0409 964 755 or info@sewjourn.net.au

It would be great to see as many people come along as possible so if you are free please consider joining in…..and the bonus is not only are we helping out in some little way but it’s sure to be a really fun day!

There are appoximately 20 quilt tops that are ready to be transformed into lovely warm quilts, so please go along and help if you can.

Handmade Help - Quilting Bee

Quilt on bed at Sewjourn - handmade by Jan

I received a lovely email thismorning from Jan at Sewjourn.

Jan is organising a quilting bee next month to make handmade quilts for the bushfire survivors. Even if you're not a quilter, there are many ways that you can contribute:

Quilting Bee

It’s almost impossible to imagine how it must feel to face the task of rebuilding after losing your home in the Bushfires. But we are hoping to contribute in a small way by making and donating quilts for people who have lost their homes. So please come along to our Quilting Bee. There are lots of ways you can contribute:

• Come along for all or part of the day to sew
• Donate fabric, batting or backings for use
• Make any 12 inch block and send it in and we will make them up into quilts on the day
• Make a Scrappy Log Cabin block - Emma has a good tutorial here
• Offer to machine quilt one or two quilts for us
• Offer to hand quilt a quilt
• Offer to hand sew a binding or two
• Come along to make calico bags for the quilts
• You might have a half-done quilt top you are happy to donate to be finished off
• Spread the word - please pass on to all of your crafty friends
• We particularly need more batting and backings though and are happy to list down the businesses that support us so if you think of anyone you can ask please let me know.

When: Saturday 21st March 9.30am - 4.30pm
Where: LightHouse, Ashburton Uniting Church, 7 Ashburn Grove, Ashburton, 3147

What to bring: Your sewing supplies, fabric, lunch. Morning and afternoon tea provided.
Contact: Jan Joseland on 0409 964 755 or info@sewjourn.net.au

It would be great to see as many people come along as possible so if you are free please consider joining in.....and the bonus is not only are we helping out in some little way but it's sure to be a really fun day!

You can also find the information right here on the Sewjourn blog. Please pass on the link to all of your friends who may be able to help out.

Pay It Forward Update - Updated

Thanks so much to the six lovely bloggers who signed up for my Pay It Forward:

Amity Ville Boronia
Prue - Citrus Daisy
Dee - Dee in Da Light
Sharon Y - Roman Young
Jan - Sewjourn
Michelle - The Super Monkey Blog

When you have a chance can you please email me your postal addresses so that I know where to send your suprise parcels sometime in the next 365 days! My email - mscurlypops (at) gmail (dot) com

If anyone else would like to sign up for a Pay It Forward, there's another one right here and right here too: and another one here

Saturday at Sewjourn

After the power blackout Friday night, Tinniegirl and I packed up our crafty baskets, and headed to Lancefield to spend the day in air conditioned comfort at Sewjourn.


Everything was absolutely beautiful....


There are handmade quilts...


Gorgeous chandeliers...


Craft tables in the studio made from reclaimed timbers....


....and personalised crafty touches

There were a huge range of crafty works in progress, from a bit of quilting,

to a bit of softie making and felt work,

photo albums and collage,

more quilting,

pinboards,
embroidery
more quilting
The day was filled with lots of fun and amazingly delicious home cooked treats. A huge thankyou must go out to Jan for her generousity and hard work in making the day so special for all of us.

We're definitely heading back for a full weekend later on this year. If you're looking for a weekend getaway or somewhere for your craft group to meet, then Sewjourn has everything a crafty girl could ever possibly need!

Just a minute.....in January (just made it)!

January is about to end, so I've just made it in time for Just A Minute........

I had a lovely day out at Sewjourn today (photos haven't been downloaded yet), so tomorrow I'm going to sleep in, and then read lots of blog posts that I've missed during the heatwave, and just generally relax!


Reading:

I'm halfway through the follow up to Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs - Knit Two.
I've just borrowed some magazines and books from Tinniegirl - I'm really looking forward to reading 'Organising Your Craft Space'.... just what I need before I move house.

Watching:

I loved watching Jalena Dokic in the Aussie Open. There's something about the fighting spirit from the underdog which I find amazing.
I'm also extremely happy that The Bold & The Beautiful has returned to its traditional time slot of 4.30PM. I always have a cup of tea at 4.30 and watch Bold.... I was very upset when channel 10 put my routine out of kilter!

Eating:

Lots and lots and lots of chocolate..... vanilla slice, pavlova. There was also some real food during the month although not as memorable.

Making:

Stock for a market stall!
Valentines themed softie for a Toy Society Valentines drop next month.

Join in Just a Minute by visiting Jen over at August Street

Love Fridays..... and melting

Today I don't love the fact that it's going to be 43 degrees again...... enough already. Bah humbug to global warming.

I do love the fact that I have a pool in the backyard for another 5 weeks. I've just noticed that there's an inflatable pirate sword in the water (just in case you were wondering what on earth that was in the photo..... nephew droppings).

I also love the fact that I have an exciting weekend planned. Tinniegirl and I are heading off for the lovely day out at Sewjourn that we won during Blogtoberfest. We're going to sit in the lovely air-conditioned studio and craft away to our hearts delight!

My computer is not happy about being kept in a room that's 35 degrees and it keeps beeping at me to tell me that it's melting too...... so I haven't been visiting as many lovely blogs as usual but I'm hoping to catch up once the meltdown has subsided!

Hope you have a happy Friday too..... more Love Fridays here

Love Fridays & Blogtoberfest Finale

Well it's the end of the working week and the end of Blogtoberfest..........

I've finished Nico's brithday present. I made an appliqued t-shirt using the fabulous cowboy fabric from Stacey, and a pair of jeans (recycled from an old pair of Mr CP's jeans).


The cowboy t-shirt also matches the cords that I whipped up earlier in the week. Both the cords and the jeans were made using the pattern that I won from Silly Gilly. Can you tell that I love that pattern much?


I'm actually a bit sad that Blogtoberfest has to end....it's been so much fun! I've been introduced to so many new blogs (which hasn't helped my procrastination problems) but has definitely kept me entertained for hours on end. I could tell exactly how much time I'd been using and how many blogs I'd been reading when my internet virtually slowed to a halt with about 7 days until the end of month...aaaagggghhh! Surely 5 Gb per month is enough for a blogger? Anyhow, I'm hoping it will reset very early tomorrow morning.



Fantastic Blogtoberfest Fact:

There have been 49 giveaways listed on my sidebar. At least 4 giveaways were newly listed today so make sure you head on over and visit them all to enter.


Thankyou so much to Big Cat for hosting such a wonderful event....she's an ideas woman you know... you just wouldn't believe how many fantastic ideas she still has to come!
Thankyou to everyone who played along this month. Thankyou to everyone who hosted a giveaway. Thankyou to everyone who left a comment. I hope everyone had the chance to make some new bloggy friends.


.....and now on to a very good reason to Love Friday today.

On the 31st January 2009, I will be heading down to Lancefield for a lovely crafty day at Sewjourn. I've been hoping and wishing for this one all week long..... and I even checked the Sewjourn blog about 5 times today to see whether the winners had been drawn (am I pathetic?).

Lo and behold, I checked after dinner and found that I was one of the winners...yippee!

Sometimes, even though some really crappy things have happened lately, I really am the luckiest blog girl in the world.

Hope everyone has a lovely long (in Melbourne) weekend.....

Giveaway Goodness.....

Don't forget to head on over and check out the sidebar for the latest Blogtoberfest giveaways...

I just added one for Sewjourn which you will not believe when you see the prize on offer (please don't enter...I want to win...he he he)!