The best bit about crafty blogging...

...is most definitely the people that you meet.

Red Brick Gallery

Where else can you find so many likeminded souls who'll spend an entire day chatting about craft and fabric and blogging and op shopping?

Thankyou so much to Brianna (my personal navigator), Vic & Punky, Bianca, Abbe & Harvey, Jodie, and Sel for coming along for a slightly forgetful and disorganised day out in Ballarat.

Ballarat Patchwork

PS - I'll be back tomorrow with some photos from the fabulous Group Exhibition at Red Brick Gallery. Can't wait to show you my favourite piece!

Reconnaissance

Mr X managed to leave his laptop in Clunes during the school holidays, so yesterday I headed off on a reconnaissance mission to retrieve it in time for school to re-start on Monday.

Yes, there is something green on this plate, which means that this was definitely not mine!

We decided to meet half way for a rendevous in Ballan..... so, of course, I made the strategic decision to meet at The Mill Cottage for brunch.

Sadly, there wasn't enough time for fabric shopping at Mill Rose Quilting and Gallery. Just a quick five minute wander around.  I spotted Jodie's gorgeous softies and patterns on display (and forgot to take a photo in the rush)....

Oh well, next time!

One of those days...

I was expecting to have a nice quiet weekend at home.... no real plans, just a bit of sewing.

But the stars were not aligned somewhere along the line, and things started to mysteriously go haywire.
It all began on Saturday when Bec ran out of petrol in my driveway and had to wait two hours for the RACV.
I did at least take advantage of the situation by letting her sort out my big tub of tangled up ric-rac!

Then on Sunday, we decided to have a little crafternoon. For some reason, everything I did, or was trying to do just went horribly wrong. I made an error with my calculations for the camera bag flap and made it too large. So I unpicked it all, and made it smaller... problem fixed. Then it was time to sew the clip onto the flap, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I searched and searched and searched - then after half an hour, I remembered that I'd clipped it onto the body of the bag so I wouldn't lose it...deeeerrrrrrr!

The final straw came when I was using my lovely covered tape measure to find the centre point to attach the flap. One minute I was using the tape measure.... the next minute it had disappeared!

By this time, I thought Bec was playing tricks on me by hiding things on purpose..... only to finally find the tape measure inside the bag body.

I think somedays we all should just give up and go back to bed!

Home Again

Watching the lawn bowls...

I'm home again after a lovely weekend away in the country.

I had my market stall at the Daylesford Makers Market on Saturday. The weather was perfect, and the stallholders and customer were lovely, which makes it a wonderful day out . I met Jocelyn from Bye Bye Birdie, Dana from Twiglet, Michelle from Kids with Crayons, Sonya from Sago on Tuesdays and Rachelle from Rachelle and Co.

My stall was next to Amber from UB Design. She had the most gorgeous resin bangles, but my abnormally skinny wrists meant that I couldn't buy one...drats.

There were bloggy visitors too - Jodie, Annie, Jacinta, and Abbe all popped by and said hello (I hope I didn't miss anyone).

I only managed to snap a couple of quick photos of my own stall before the market started, but there are some great photos over at the market blog.

 

I came home with some more bike fabric (still in my suitcase) from Martine at Greenolive , some home made yo yo biccies (since consumed of course), and this lovely hanmade embroidered lavender sachet envelope from Rachelle.... how sweet!

After the market, we all headed into Ballarat for a yummy dinner on Saturday night, and then visited my dad before heading back to Clunes for an early night.

My nephews had a great time playing at the park, and riding their scooters down the street to Widow Twankeys to buy lollies.

The twins climbed everything they could find!

Thismorning it was pancakes with maple syrup and cream at home, before we headed down to the main street for coffee and a light lunch.......

The weekend sailed by far too quickly, and it was time to head home...... I'll be making the same road trip again in April - yippee!

The Op Hopping Adventures of SupaSel and CurlyPops - Day 1

After all of the excitement this week, I hardly know where to begin!

I've been meaning to head down to Ballarat for an op shopping adventure for the longest time, but just never seemed to get around to it, so the summer holidays seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I was a little late arriving in Ballarat Monday morning due to misplacing my prescription sunnies. I couldn't possibly drive all that way without them... so after a 20 minute delay where I realised that I'd left them at my older sisters house, I was on my way....

I met up with SupaSel and we both decided that it was high time for a cuppa before we began our adventures. The Queen of Craft came to the rescue, and provided cups of tea, and muffins too (not baked in her oven). We even got to have a tour of the craft room, which is filled with the most amazing creations you've ever seen..... and we met Grocer too!

It's amazing how you can just pop around to a bloggers house and have a cuppa and feel completely at home..... just like you'd been friends for years, yet we only met last year.

After lots of chatting and laughing, it was time to make a move and begin the search for bargains. We visited around six oppies in Ballarat and a couple of second hand dealers too. My best find for the day was little zip lock bags with 5 rolls of Gutterman thread in each, for $1.99. Hence, I bought 4 bags full!

My next best find for the day was this spool holder for $6.... I'll eventually put it on the wall (these things take lots of time and pondering at my place).

By that time, it was getting close to closing time so we headed back to Clunes to plan our next days adventure.  Tune in tomorrow for the next installment!

PS - I forgot to give a huge thankyou to Jodie for yesterday!

I promised LOOT

Softies by Ric Rac

The sign of a great weekend away is when you arrive home with lots of loot that makes you happy.

Date Planner and Stitching Kit by Kootoyoo

It's really nice to be able to see handmade goodies up close, when you've only seen them in photos previously.

Clockwise from top left - Thaw Magazine, Stitched Card by Pepperberry & Co, Lavender Heart and Hairclip by Dandelion (there is another hairclip but I'm wearing it in my hair already), Acoustic CD by Geoffrey Williams

I really tried to restrain myself..... but it seems that resistance was futile.

 

Vintage placemat set, and jingle bells from Blonde Vintage, Knitting Nancy from Lark

I did use the excuse that some of my purchases were Christmas pressies.

Cushion and Vintage Biscuit Tin from Dear Prudence

But, to tell you the truth..... most of it was for me!

It seems that I even have my dad collecting for me now. He picked up these old flour sacks at the Sunday Market at the Ballarat Racecourse.....score!

Quality Control Testing

 

Moo Moo came over to visit with his mum yesterday, so I took the opportunity to test out the sizing of the birthday present.... (don't tell his dad that I dressed him in a pink floral cape).

He accessorised it with Jodie's little birdie in a cage that he found on the softie shelf in my bookcase

Apparently it has very good swooshing effects - perfect for a superhero in the making.

Can you guess what Moo Moo is getting for Christmas (just maybe not in pink floral)?

The Birtskag

Liesl came up with the name Birtskag earlier this week..... and I haven't been able to get it out of my head ever since, just like those rascally robots that have been singing Stayin' Alive on high rotation inside my brain.

This was a longer skirt with a sheer embroidered overlay.....

I love the combination of purple and red together....

So I decided on red stitching on the purple strap.

More birtskags are on the horizon....

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).

Eye Spy.... a small object

The theme was a bit challenging for my frazzled brain today. I couldn't seem to SPY anything small, as most of the little fancy things have been packed away for the move.


But then I remembered that I hadn't packed up my little inspiration shelves in the spare room. I have these little objects sitting side by side.... Mini Collage by Tinniegirl and Walter the Birdy by Ric-Rac

As you can see, the shelves were not really installed to the appropriate measurements.... postcards only fit sideways! I'll be making myself a wonderful inspirational wall when I move (where my inspirations can live right way up)..... I get a bit dizzy looking at them sideways.

Thanks to the Crafty Librarian for this weeks theme and head on over to Bug and Pop to play along.

Answering the call

Forget the world financial crisis..... there's a selvedge crisis going on!

On My Desk....on a Wednesday and Blogtoberfestin'

Lots of mess On My Desk today. I'm really struggling to keep it contained to one area, which is why I end up with a huge pile of mess like this!

Left to right....Babushkas pencilcase with all of my snapsetting supplies inside (made by this lovely chick), some Michael Miller clown fabric and co-ordinating prints that a girlfriend gave me on the weekend (she bought it but never used it), some trim that my mum found at the oppy, some selvedge that I'm collecting (for this lovely chick), bizzare Elvis fabric that my sister bought over on Monday, some vintage tablecloth and sheeting cut up to make some more bags. and there's even a bib cut out peeking through on the far right! I always tend to have lots and lots of projects cut out....just not many sewn back together again.

Head on over to visit Kirsty for lots more On My Desk action....

Gotta run today....I have Banana Bread in the oven and Cathy's on her way over for a Blogtoberfestin' crafty day out...yippee!

Cheep Cheep.....what's that little birdy?

For anyone who missed it, I won a lovely little nameless birdy in a cage from Jodie last week.......

This list of fabulous names has been entered to choose from:

Flyaway
Bertha

Blythe (means happy)

Betsy

Beauregard (beautiful, handsome)

Bonnibel (good and beautiful)

Budgie (obvious there)

Beatrice

birdy num num
Michael
dog
Fred
Mr. Harriman the Second
Flossy
Freda
Harvey
Captain Barnaby
Miss Curly
Monsier Oiseau
poppy
Mr Henry Ford

Miss Sunday Roast

Miss Green Budgie

Errol
Ribbon the Robin

Cotton Canary

Button the Budgie

Walter
Spunk
Tweety Bird
Drumsticks
Millet
beak
Eggy
Eggins
Brad
Robin
Bruce

and Mr CurlyPops has picked a winner...... Congratulations to Sherrin, the little birdy is now a boy named Walter!

I have to award a consolation prize to Jess's 2 year old daughter who suggested Dog because that got the biggest laugh (he nearly took my eardrum out, he laughed so loud)....

A big congratulations to everyone who entered, there were so many fabulous names to choose from!

Name That Birdy

This sweet little birdy in a cage arrived in my mailbox yesterday all the way from chilly Ballarat!

I won him / her in Jodies retrospective been away giveaway earlier this week.....so to celebrate, I'm having a Name That Birdy giveaway.....

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment with a name for the Birdy..... I have no gender bias, the birdy could be a boy or a girl (if anyone knows how to tell the sex of the birdy then please let me know). I will get Mr CurlyPops to pick his favourite name so there is no bias from me.

The winner will receive an apron and a potholder made by me, and some chocolate not made by me. The winner will be chosen Monday night.

There are lots of other bloggy giveaways happening at the moment too so make sure to check out: Lino Forest and Silly Gilly especially if you like vintage items.....

The luckiest girl in the world

I've been chuckling away all morning reading all the comments from my Getting Old post yesterday.....
It's so nice to know that I'm in good company (hehe).....

Anyway, I'm feeling like the luckiest girl in the world today, and here's why:

1. I slept in until 10.00 AM

2. My kitchen smells beautiful today because my sister bought me these beautiful flowers yesterday and a really sweet card as a thankyou for helping out with the new babies and the older boys.....

3. This beautiful pressie arrived in yesterday mail from Fi over at Dear Fii.....

It's a floral wrist pincushion.....it's gorgeous and very comfy to wear. This will be fab when I'm flitting between the cutting bench, the ironing board, and the sewing machine (all I need now is something to stop me from stabbing myself all the time while I'm pinning things)!

4. I won a retrospective been away giveaway over on Jodie's Ric-Rac blog so one of these sweet little birdies is coming to live at my house! Even though I didn't officially enter, and there was no official giveaway going on, I still won! How lucky can I be?

Brown Owls

Lastnight was another fun crafty night at Brown Owls and I learned something new and fabulous! I took my little sewing kit along......my scissors, needles, thread, pins, and my gorgeous little red pincushion handmade by Libby.....


Pip bought along Peaches the Piggy and Mirabel (Belle for short) so that we could wonder in amazement at the extraordinary talents of the two creative ladies that made them.....

I wore my gorgeous Betty Jo Owl Brooch to get into the owlie spirit.
I learned how to hand piece, and I actually managed to finish this sweet little pincushion (admittedly I was still sewing on buttons while everyone else was cleaning up)!

My nest is getting a little squishy so I'll have to start searching for a new home for my little owlie friends before my next meeting in the clubhouse.....