thank you's given, mysteries revealed

Well it is long over due for me to post a very large thank you to Julie for my wonderful parcel. This was what I received for the may Craft & Candy swap, with a yellow and blue theme.
Miss L had to be held at a distance so photo's could be taken intact!
On Friday I managed to finish a parcel for the superb Shannon of Aunty Cookie fame. So what was this,

I can now reveal became a scarf.
Inspiration for this project cam from this great book.

And on the weekend we managed a flying visit to Adelaide (less than 24 hours - just crazy) and met Miss Abigail.
I knitted her my own version of a Debbie Bliss cardigan,
and the t-shirt is for her brother.

(Abigail's mum also received one of the bags from so many posts ago).

why bother?

This is the question bugging my brain at the moment, so you can tell my state of mind at the moment! I have been struggling with finding inspiration to post. Not that there hasn't been any craftiness happening, or that I haven't recieved any fantastic packages - because I have. But I've been feeling a bit out of it all, and when I am browsing all the blogs I subscribe to in blogline I start to feel, well simply, like I'm just not supplying quality to the blogging world. I have seen other's go through this dilemma, have read how they have got through this obstacle, and have seen how many individual reasons for blogging there are. So ultimately I guess I will keep posting, and hope that someone (other than mum and my sis!) are reading - although really, does it matter? In the meantime, I am going to focus my efforts on setting up my etsy shop - so much stock to finish! and putting my mind back in inspirational, upbeat mode I prefer it to be in.

belated thank you in a crazy crafty week

Well Mum and I have been so busy crafting (or witch-crafting as R calls it - so funny!) that I have been remiss in saying thank you's. And tonight I can only make one, as it has been quite dark here for any decent photos, so hopefully tomorrow. However, I will say a big thank you to Ellia for the wonderful swap parcel that arrived recently.
I couldn't fit everything in the photo, but it was crammed with wonderful paper, and fantastic surprises, like buttons, a retro apron and scarf. Ellia does wonderful collages that I love, so go check out her blog, and try to get into her next sweetpea swap - that is I'm hoping there will be another!

Mum goes home tomorrow, which seems way too fast. But she has been wonderful and managed to do just a few things here, like knitting Miss L a jacket, ironing softie transfer patterns onto fabric ready for embroidery, cutting out my bag pattern from a large range of fabrics and (something I hate) our ironing. I have let her rest occassionally! With a belated mother's day outing to High Tea at the Windsor hotel, where Miss L tried everything chocolate in sight,
and we managed to visit just a few op shops, but no major scores. So Mum - THANK YOU.
(picture taken by Miss L)
More pictures of our outings can be seen here...


Now I just have to get busy sewing, so you can see some bags and kanga's up on etsy soon. I'll keep you posted.

another crafty weekend

It has been another jam-packed weekend of craftiness, and I will show you some, but not all - some are still in the "shh secret squirrel" category. We had to say goodbye to our aussie Canadian friends on Saturday as the set off for their new home in the UK, and I think Mosey the beautiful dog we are looking after for them realised as she moped for the rest of the day! :(
But I made this for Ben, to mark the short part of his life that has been in Australia. He was very taken with it, and I can see it will be cuddled a lot - always a good test!

Otherwise, I have spent the weekend trying to finish things for swaps and presents for friends. These photo's show some of this work, but other than that I can not say yet!

However, in between crafty spurts, Miss L, Nanna and I went to the Sunday markets at Southbank, and strolled in the art gallery for a bit. It was nice to get out while the sun was still trying to shine.


There are big plans for more craftiness this week, so I'll be back with more. Till then, hope you had a good weekend.

illustration friday

angels and demons
I struggled with inspiration for this theme, so I used Miss L as my muse! My second attempt at using Illustrator....

more thrifting goodness

I have been thrifting again and finding more wonderful items, that I come home all excited. But then I see all the other goodies sitting ont the dining table because I've run out of room in my fabric cupboard! So I think I need to stop thrifting and start making!! But before then, here are the latest finds,

the fabrics are actually all from the remnants box at spotlight. But the big bag of ribbons, buttons and little iron motif plus all the little golden books are from the salvos.

Then I also scored this amazing piece
Here is a close up of the fabric as it is hard to describe.
I currently have it over the back of one of the couches to admire each day, until I decide what to do with it.

Yesterday I treated myself to a sortie to a new fabric shop (new to me anyway), and came home with these wonderful items

And just when it was coming to an end, I just picked mum up from the airport as she is staying with us for a week, and these wonderful fabrics came out of her case! Thanks Mum!

Now about the fabric stash....

pipkin and franny

Okay it is now way too late, and I have wasted too much time trying to make a photo collage in Photoshop. Why won't it let me place my jpeg photo's?! So frustrating. Anyway it didn't happen, so back to the usual upload of photo's.

Miss L and I have been reading the following book, which is all about a young girl facing her fears. For Miss L the book is about a girl called Selina, who has a pet mouse called Pipkin. On the weekend, it was suggested (by Miss L of course) that 'we' could make a Pipkin. (I really love her use of the royal we in these suggestions!!). Now as it happens, Mrs Davey and I were only recently discussing how difficult it is to sew a 3D softie from scratch. So here I was with that very dilemma, when the next blog entry I read was this one! I kid you not!! I figure all my stars and planets must have been aligned just at that moment. So of course, I quickly downloaded the pattern and got to work. Please let me introduce to you Franny and Pipkin.

I made Pipkin out of a felted sweater sleeve that came in my Bara+design magic parcel, with a scrap of Amy butler fabric. The fabrics are not quite what the pattern suggests, so a little tweaking was done. I liked Pipkin's attire that I decided Franny {Note: you must always have a friend according to Miss L, who suggested the second mouse and name, and the colour!} would also look good from a felted sweater, and some retro scrap fabric, although this time I made her a little more finished with the hand sewing. (yes I hand sewed these. - why? Not really sure, but very therapeutic!). Thus, once again I managed to 'use what I have', which is cool, and makes me feel better about tomorrow's post which will be all about more thrifted fabrics!!

Miss L was also very pleased with my mice and decided to 'style' them for my blog this morning. These are her photos.


You should also check out the other mice at the flickr site here.

playing catch up

I have received a few swap parcels lately, and I need to say thank you for such wonderful goodies.

This wonderful selection of things came from Gabriela. The little orange buttons she made! and I love little buttons. The fabrics are fantastic - and at least one will be a bag!

Then Sylvie (apologies Sylvie for mis-spelling and the wrong link - should have gone to bed!) and I swapped for this fabulous apple print fabric that I loved. There is so much of it, that I am even tempted to recover are dining chairs with it - but R isn't so sure!

Sylvie also sent some wonderful things for Lucy, but by the time the battery was charged in the camera this was all that was left on show! Thanks so much Sylvie and Marcel we had a wonderful time on Friday unwrapping and oohing over our gifts. Lucy has in fact hidden her presents in her room as her 'treasure' which I am not allowed to touch!

And to top off such a wonderful week from the mail, below is all the great thrifty finds that were purchased this week.



I am one happy hoarder!!

liberty twirl

Miss L is all about 'twirl' these days. Skirts and dresses will not be looked at unless they have a decent 'twirl' factor. Who knew 4 year olds could be so critical of a twirl fullness or lack thereof! So in efforts to provide Miss L with the perfect winter twirl skirt, I purchased some beautiful liberty pin cord off ebay. It arrived recently and was so gorgeous I nearly lost my nerve to cut it, but I had promised, so scissors came out. There hasn't been a whole lot of time for crafting recently as Miss L has been preciously demanding recently, which can make a crafty mother rather irritable! So this morning, after been given a beautiful pair of earrings and necklace chosen by Miss L and purchased by Dad, I finished the twirl skirt. I was happy to find that it perfectly matched a piece of cherry grosgrain thrifted recently, so that provided a finish that I adore. So here it is

the twirl skirt. (posing on the swing was Miss L's idea! worked beautifully)

What am I wearing? My fantastic denim Akira skirt that apparently shows the right amount of twirl! (sorry no photo) and an alannah hill jumper that I accidently shrunk last year, and is now a little cardi/bolero thingy. (sorry for the crappy photo)


So in our finery we are off to have a scrumptious lunch at the Carisle Wine Bar.


Hope you all have a wonderful mother's day too.

P.S. very behind with posting about swaps etc. so will try to get that done in next few days....

cyril the squirrel's sewing lesson

Tonight I had a lot of fun putting together a sewing tutorial for a friend. She has no real sewing experience but wants to make little 2D elephants for her girls. So, Cyril the Squirrel and I got together and made a little pdf file. It starts like this

and ends with little Cyril. (apologies to Maisy but I love that name for a squirrel!)

R said it was his favourite softie I've made yet!! so there might be a few more of these - they are rather cute!
Cyril is going to sit in Miss L's fairy tree where he will have lots of friends to natter with. You can see a picture of the fairy tree here if your interested.
So happy sewing Mrs Davey. If anyone else is interested in the tutorial just send me a note to: whizzme (at) bigpond (dot) net (dot) au. It is in a pdf or word format.

Otherwise I am still on the pincushion them, with more parcels arriving today too- hopefully pic's tomorrow.

the postman calls often at our house!

If we don't get a package each day now I get really glum, which is the great thing about swapping! Yesterday I received this cute little box of goodies from
rita
and my sampler parcel arrived from Black Apple

which is fantastic-(R's not so sure about the revolver ear rings!)

Then today my good friend J sent me three items of clothing from her Nana because she thought I might like the fabric - I do!


With all this parcel opening you might be surprised to learn that I also whipped up a new little bag today. I used two thrifted pillowcases which I've had for a while. I drew up the pattern based on a old bag that I used to love. I added the pocket (handy for phone & keys) and made sure it is reversible to cater to my whim on any given day! as you can see from the photo's it holds quite a bit (water bottle, note book, wallet, little emergency kit, snacks for Miss L, phone and keys) and turned out pretty well (especially considering how quick I whipped it up). so I have plans for more with the fabrics I've been collecting - maybe even an etsy foray?!


P.s. also got to the post office, so keep your eye on the mail box, ellia, ange & suse.

a weekend of craftiness

So the past weekend saw me achieve so many things that my head is still spinning. And I didn't get pictures of everthing, not even one of the mess that was our dining room table and lounge room all weekend! However, I spent a good few hours reorganising and cleaning ready for my next burst of craftiness tomorrow. So what did I do? well as the photo's show, a lot of pincushions! why? i'm not really sure - they seem to be my fetish at the moment. First i started with the bottlecap pincushion tutorial found here and then moved onto the flower pincushion that was featured in whipup and then I decided to make some of my own versions (top right photo). I also made a new little doorstop for Miss L, because the Misses L & V in a moment of mischief destroyed her old one - we won't get into it! Miss L enjoyed the pincushion making and helped me stuff them. She then decided a little pink one was going to be her fairy cushion so alas no photo to be had of that one! I also started a new winter skirt for Lucy, but then got side tracked by some thrifting. I managed to score so many 'finds' that only a couple are included above. A plastic bag of stamps (top left photo), little chinese lantern and, some spacemen summer kid's pj's. I also brought home a pile of fabrics, a new wicker thingy for my knitting stuff, lots of wrapping paper, plate hangers, hair clips and ties for Miss L, and a new top. Phew! And then to finish off this galore of craftiness i finished a beanie for a friend (top photo, second in from left) and I started a new knitting project, which is a surprise - can you guess what it is? (see below)

So now I'm off to replinsh my glass of wine and enjoy desperate housewives....

Oh, and nearly forgot, if you didn't know already, you can now purchase your very own gorgeous aunty cookie. what are you waiting for? get over there!

Illustration Friday

under the sea

my first illustration friday entry

birds - but you may not know it!

Well today I had a quick lesson from the very talented aunty cookie on how to do some stuff in Illustrator. (This was play after discussing our secret project - shh!) It was so exciting I came home, put on playschool for Miss L and her friend Miss M and sat down to start. Well let's just say that the poor specimen you see below is my third attempt - I can't show the other two attempts - although you would have a good laugh. Shannon made it look dead easy and let me tell you IT IS NOT!
But I have had fun trying and will have to do a lot more practice....
This post was going to be about all the craftiness I did yesterday, but I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow now....

Bambi loves a tee

Bambi loves a tee
Originally uploaded by whizzme.

One of my things this year (I usually have a thing or two that I pursue - bambi, superhero t-shirts etc.) is putting bambi onto hoodie's. I did this for Miss L and Miss V for their birthdays. However, I really wanted one of my own, so today I pulled out the t-shirt that I got from the op shop a few months ago. The fabric is some I ordered from Kitty Craft several months ago too, and I've been dying to use it. I love how it turned out. I tried doing the aunty cookie photo in the mirror shot - but I couldn't get it to work. So Miss L kindly took this one for me- I think she's got more photographic talent at 4 than I'll ever have!!

swap from christine

swap from christine
Originally uploaded by whizzme.

One of the mulitude of swaps I was part of in April arrived today. I sent Christine some fabric and stuff and she made me one of her wonderful stamps. Just love it - thanks Christine.