Twas a Bonanza indeed!

The Thornbury Craft Bonanza returned to my house yesterday (not really in Thornbury I know).

Bev bought over these delicious cupcakes that she made using the Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe from Homemade - The Handmade Help Recipe Book.

Liesl bought over her soon to be prize winning scones - good luck with getting the scones to the showgrounds today Liesl!

I spent the afternoon whipping up a couple of adult sized crazy chefs hats.

Bev and Anna are going to wear them at the official launch of Homemade - The Handmade Help Recipe Book.

But first, we had to test them out, just to make sure that they could withstand the pressure in the kitchen.....

Serena doing an impression of the Swedish Chef from The Muppets!

Me - all chef hatted out (can you see my new curtains in the background)?

Bev selling the Cookbook
Bec looking like she's disco dancing....

....and Annabel who managed to colour co-ordinate the chefs hat with her t-shirt...clever girl!

Now why didn't we get a silly photo of Liesl in a crazy chefs hat????

We all missed Cathy who was sick in bed today..... can't wait 'til the next one girls.

Another market wrap

Well it was another lovely day at the Made'n'Thornbury market yesterday. I only managed to take a couple of happy snaps before my camera started beeping to let me know that my battery was flat...drats!

Looking at the photo, I can now see that I had far too much stock on my table - a good lesson for the next one.

It's always great to meet up with the rest of the stallholders for a chat, and we also had lots of other lovely visitors come to say hello too.

We missed Cathie.... we were dreaming of her red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting all afternoon.

I've spent all day today sitting on the couch eating (tim tams, vegemite toast, and cupcakes) and drinking cups of tea, and generally just veging out which has been wonderful.

Hmmm I think I have just enough time for one more tim tam without spoiling my dinner!

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!

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!

The Wonky K and the Loot Glorious Loot Grand Finale

I suddenly remembered yesterday morning that I hadn't organised a mothers day pressie for my mum, so a quick flick through the ever mounting stash, and I found that I still had some of this lovely kitchen themed fabric that I received from Ingrid, and insulbright from Liesl.

So I whipped up a quick potholder and quilted (very haphazardly) a very wonky K.

I hope she likes it!

Then yesterday afternoon, all of the lovely Thornbury Craft Bonanza ladies came over to visit.

Liesl arrived bearing Loot! This beautiful tealight candle housewarming pressie with a battery operated candle (perfect for me because then I can't burn the house down)!

There was a bit of sketching, cutting, collaging, sewing, quilting, brooch making, crochet... I think we ended up convering nearly every category of craft over the afternoon - all washed down with lovely crafty conversation and yummy food. There was also planning for our upcoming crafty weekend away at Sewjourn!

PS - I'm not sure who left behind an entire packet of unopened tim tams but thankyou!

Serena took Charles and Di off to their new home in her kitchen, where I'm sure they'll be very happy...

Now, I'm off to have a cup of tea and one of Liesl's leftover cupcakes...

It's a wrap

My second Made'n'Thornbury market was just as exciting as the first, and even busier!

This is the before shot, as I was setting up.....


The sweet little donkey apron found a new home...

It was lovely to see so many bloggers - Bev, Nikki, Bec, Fiona, Jacinta, Anna, Melanie, (I hope I didn't miss anyone) and to put faces to names....

JasperBoy Jen (blogless) came to visit and bought me a heart biccie....isn't that sweet!

....and Liz came to visit and not only bought me some vintage linens, but this amazing Betty Jo vintage lino brooch for my birthday! Sorry about the blurry photo, I was trying to take a photo of myself wearing it yesterday. Thankyou so much Liz!

If you love Aunty Mabels Handbag as much as me, there's a similar one here on Georgielove, and Liz is also having an amazing Mothers Day giveaway.

As per usual, I had to have my own little shopping spree at the market, but I haven't unpacked my goodies yet, so I'll save them for later on this week.

A huge thankyou to sister, Mrs T, my nephew Mr X, and Tinniegirl for helping me out yesterday. I couldn't of participated without your help, and I'm very grateful!

Swapsies

The fabulous thing about selling at a craft market is that you get to meet lots of other amazing crafters.... and you even get to swap your wares!

I was lucky enough to come home with some gorgeous Flickettysplits creations from the Made'n'Thornbury market, while Troischats went home with an IOU a Burnt Pumpkin Orange Corduroy Handbag from me.

We've been on the lookout for the perfect shade of burnt pumpkin orange corduroy ever since, but with no luck...... until she found this burnt pumpkin orange fuzzy fabric instead.

It arrived in the mail yesterday, and as today is Troischat's birthday, I went straight to work to whip up the handbag so that we could meet up at the Sisters Market thisafternoon.

The strap folds wouldn't even fit under the presser foot of my poor old Janome, so it was the trusty Vintage Singer to the rescue (after I printed out the instructions to try to work out how to change the bobbin, and then broke three needles).

Look..... no floppy bottom on this one!

I finished in the nick of time, and took a few quick snapshots in the morning light before I headed out to meet up with the ladies who lunch for a long relaxing brunch (I really didn't mean for that to rhyme)!

Then it was off to the market to check out all the gorgeous crafty wares on offer. It was crafty blog central with Bec, Fi, Justine, and Jay.

Such a perfect day....

Eye Spy..... a new development

Yesterday was another lovely day out at Amitie Upstairs for the Thornbury Craft Bonanza. I didn't really have anything crafty planned to do for the day, so I put my hand up to help Bev with some quilts that she was putting together for Handmade Help.

I have never ever tried to make a proper quilt, and I've never ever tried hand quilting.


This is as far as I got....... but, my new development is that I actually enjoyed it. I'm usually the queen of the quick (less than two hours) and easy (meaning machine sewing) project, but in the last week or so, I've actually been craving for some sort of craft where I can snuggle up on the couch and relax and watch telly. The best bit about hand quilting is that you can snuggle up with the quilt while you're stitching. Who knew it could be so relaxing? Ok, so you probably all knew that already, but I didn't.... I'm such a duffa!


Here are all the girls hard at work


and Anabel modelling her quilt

Bev made delicious Zucchini and Cinnamon cake...

and Sharon made delicious Carrot and Walnut cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (so I bet you can guess what I had instead of lunch)!

We finished off with a lovely dinner (albeit a bit noisy) in Black Rock.

For those that know me, no I don't eat seafood.... I actually forgot to take a photo of my own dinner!

Thankyou Christina for this weeks Eye Spy theme and to our lovely hostess Cindy.

To market, to market, to buy a.....

Wowee, my first ever craft market was sooooo much fun!

It was much better than I could have ever expected. The weather was beautiful, the location was fantastic, the stallholders were happy and friendly, there was a steady stream of customers all day long, and the five hours were over in a flash.

The kids craft table and the face painting was a huge hit with the little ones.

It was just like a huge crafty blogmeet - it was lovely to see Cindy, Bec, Liesl, Bev, Nikki, Leah, Ann-Marie, Liz, and Lara. I hope I didn't miss anyone (I have a terrible memory these days)!
We ate lovely cupcakes and drank coffee and chatted about crafty things all day long....

I made some lovely purchases and swaps with Buttons by Lou Lou, Finki and Troischats. I haven't taken any photos yet, but I'll post them later in the week.

An extra special thanks goes to Sel, Cathy and Ms L for helping me out with the packing, unpacking, and set up etc, and to Rach for helping me unload everything today..... and to everyone who came along to visit or bought a little crafty something from me!

I'm definitely going to book in for the next one.

Watcha Wearing Wednesday

I'm heading into the city for lunch with Tinniegirl, Handmaiden and Taccolina today so I thought I'd test out the gorgeous earrings that Sharon made for me.
It's really quite difficult to take a clear photo of one's ear!

I've teamed the earrings with my Tiffany pendant..... again blurry.... Whoops!

Head on over to Dear Fii to play along.

Pretty Purses

I had a lovely day at Nikki's Purse Making Class yesterday. It's always fabulous to come home with a finished project after a class. I couldn't resist making a pink purse for all for me!

A WIP shot of some hammering action....

It's always great to combine lovely people, lovely crafts, and lovely food and drink too.

Belinda couldn't make it but we ended up with five gorgeous purses.

Left to right - Cathy, Annabel, Serena, Bev, Moi

Thanks for a great day Nikki and thankyou Cathy for organising everything for us!