The one where Christmas came early

Packages, packages, packages....

So many beautiful things have landed on my doorstep lately, that it seriously feels like Santa has already been to visit.

This one arrived last week all the way from the UK. Lynsey from Cuteable and Swirly Arts sent me all these amazing treats.

Whoops! One of the Tunnocks Tea Cakes is already missing in this shot, and those Thorntons Chocolate Chunk Cookies are TDF. I've been limiting myself to two per day to make them last.... and vintage fabric and gorgeous tags and my BIL's favourite - Wagon Wheels!

My lovely friend Carly popped in to visit last weekend with a pressie for me - check out the specs cleaning cloth. So much prettier than the ugly grey ones that came with my new specs.

Speaking of specs... did I show you my new specs from Zenni?

One last package for today.

This was on my doorstep when I arrived home on Sunday.

Did you count???

That is a stack of thirty teatowels and one pillowcase from Amanda at Krafty Panda. Amazing. Speechless....Love.

Sigh... I'm so lucky!

The travelling adventures of Flat Ted

 The view from the gold mining monument in Clunes

A little visitor arrived in my mailbox last week. I think his real name is Travelling Teddy Bear, but I like to call him Flat Ted.

Flat Ted originated in a primary school class in the US, but he's been having some wonderful adventures all over the world, and sending postcards back home.

So after visiting Disneyland in Paris on his most recent worldwide adventure.......

..... I took him to Clunes for the weekend!

Okay, so Widow Twankeys probably doesn't rate very highly when compared to Frontierland.

But, he did get to indulge in a little Devonshire Tea.

Flat Ted is heading off to visit a lovely family in the Land of the Long White Cloud this week.

Farewell Flat Ted, it was fun while it lasted!

A Teatowel Tale

A long looooong time ago, a pretty little teatowel began it's maiden voyage...

It was designed and printed somewhere in Australia, but then managed to find itself sad and unloved in a charity shop (that's Op Shop to us Aussies) somewhere around Lancashire in England.

In an amazing twist of fate, a lovely lady named Lynsey spied the poor unloved teatowel, and took it home, before packing it up and sending it all the way back to it's birth country, to a lover of tea towels (ie. my place).

There the tea towel sat, in the stash for a whole twenty-one months.... until it was time.

Jess had spied the Quince teatowel bag on my blog, and enquired about it at Pip's book launch, but alas, that bag had already been snapped up.

I was quite sure that I had something else suitable in the stash, and Jess said that she'd like something Vintage Australiana with Echidnas or Wombats.

The next day I started searching..... and as I was getting closer to the bottom of the teatowel stack, I was starting to panic that I hadn't found anything with an echidna or a wombat!

But serendipitously, right near the bottom of the stack came a shining light (ok, well that might have just been my imagination, or lack of oxygen to the brain).... but it was the PERFECT teatowel - Echidnas, Wombats, Koalas, Kangaroos, Cockatoos, Possums, Kookaburras, and Platypusses (forgive me but I don't know the correct plural for platypus).

So now Jess has her very own unique OOAK bag with nice dark handles to carry about all her bits and bobs and widgets and squidgies.... and the teatowel is going to live happily ever after.

THE END

Serendipitous

A few weeks ago, myself and Lynsey from Swirly Thoughts organised to do a little international swap, taking some of our favourite biccies and choccies and sending them over the wild blue yonder to the other side of the world.

 

We both got a little delayed at the start, but serendipitously ended up sending our packages on the exact same day.

We then thought that it would be really interesting to see whether Australia Post or the Royal Mail would be quicker in getting our parcels to the other side of the world.

Well as a matter of fact, when I woke up Friday morning, I had an email from Lynsey telling me that her parcel from me had arrived...... and when I opened my front door to leave the house Friday morning, my parcel from her was sitting on the doorstep.

What are the odds?????

Thanks so much Lynsey, I am super chuffed with all my gorgeous goodies (did you notice that the chook card totally matches my doorchook)? I had to totally resist opening everything yesterday until I managed to take photos today.... it was very difficult!

Blogtoberfest Day 25: Chooktober

I treated myself to another little pressie last week.

I spotted this sweet little chicken doorstop (made with a lovely vintage floral) over at Swirly Thoughts, and I just couldn't resist. I currently have one of those ugly plastic doorstops for the front door so this is a much better replacement.

Mr Chicken has a little zip at the bottom, so he arrives empty and you just fill him up with rice. I had brown or arborio to choose from, so I thought Mr Chicken would probably prefer brown rice.

When my package arrived, Lynsey had also included some of her gorgeous vintage storybook tags (perfect for the upcoming christmas pressies), little recycled notebooks, and a koala teatowel all the way from the UK!

Thankyou Lynsey for the extra sweet suprises. If you'd like your own doorchook, you can find one right here.

Cuteable Guest Host

I'm the guest host over at Cuteable today - the Monday to Friday treasure trove of cute stuff for you and your home.


I picked my favourite Australian vintage/recycled/upcycled cute things. Head on over and check it out!

Thanks Lynsey.

In the nick of time

My market apron is ready to go. It matches this one that I made for Tinniegirl a couple of weeks ago.

Beautiful birdie placemat used as front pocket courtesy of Lynsey.... tropical print from the oppy, and spotty trim from Spotty!

Sunshine - check
Blue Skies - check
Kruddie's Bonus - soon to be check

What a perfect day to go to the market.

All the way from the UK

An amazing parcel landed on my doorstep yesterday, all the way from the UK! It was huge, and jam packed with crafty goodness.

Lynsey from Swirly Thoughts and Cuteable had a stash of lovely touristy tea towels in her cupboard which she most generously offered to send me. It was a bit difficult to fit them all in for a photo but here's a list:

London
Poole Quay
Christchurch NZ
Fleet Air Arm (which I'm assuming is the British Forces)
Blackpool
Corfu
Operations Ovelord Commemorative (British Forces)
Lancashire
Cornwall
Vancouver Canada

.....and the piece de resistance


...this one which was actually designed and printed in Australia! It's been around the world and returned home again.

There were also some beautiful buttons and trims.....

....and this set of bird napkins. I've fallen in love with the blackbird in the orange blossom tree so I'm going to make myself something special with that one.

Thankyou so much Lynsey....keep an eye out for all of these beauties to be transformed into funky aprons! I just wish you could have included a bit of your weather....it's faaaaar toooooo hooooooot today.