Wandering ’round my local ‘hood today, I saw this delightful display out the front of a florist called Troubadour Flowers and had to photograph it. It’s so English looking, with the berries and white roses and little green things (I’m very botanical!) in the shape of a Christmas Tree. It would make the most wonderful table centrepiece.

There were also these wonderful white centrepiece displays with candles in them…

… and these hysterically funny posies of hebs and veggies (which are right up my alley, ’cause they’re funny and quirky and cute!)

 I love the idea of giving a herb posey as a little Christmas gift. Or better still, receiving one!

It’s times like this (Christmastime, that is) that I wish I lived in the Nortern Hemisphere. I’ve just been ogling Anna Maria Horner’s blog, which is always so beautiful to look at. Look how pretty her tree is!!!

We have a two foot tall fake one this year, because having a wee one is like having a puppy, he can’t be trusted with it- maybe next year I’ll have a glorious, ceiling skimming real pine tree I can hang my extra special glass baubles on, with twinkly lights. A lovely pine-y infused living room, how blissful.

I think I’ll go spohisticated and European-ey next year, like this one, I just love her shining star on top. We currently have fake flower lights that look like an Hawaiian lei with one of those dashboard Hula girls as our angel. It’s super kitsch!

I came across these Keep Calm rugs last night while surfing about and how much do I want one???

A LOT. I’d stock them in the shop but for the fact they’re so pricey and kind of tricky to post. You’ll have to make do with a tea towel, poster, tote or apron I’m afraid.

Pumpkin went to a pirate party today and I just have to give my totally nuts friend an honourable mention in the birthday cake department. This is a birthday cake par excellence, as was the fabulously hand painted invitation with singed “treasure map” inside  and the bespoke, totally realistic with flashing lights Ghostbusters outfit she made Pumpkin for his birthday . She is incredibly talented and creative. Yay Annabelle!

One more shout out for creative excellence goes to our lovely customer Kristy, who made this Birdie Sling and then took the time to share it with us.

What a clever girl! Thanks Kirsty, it looks great with the martini and the poppy fabrics. 

It’s just so lovely to see the finished creations our customers make and hear snippets of your lives. We’ve only been around a little while, but you are all so generous with your time,  giving us feedback and keeping in touch that I’m getting to know some of you already.

We had Pumpkin’s Christmas concert this week.

My little shepherd…

ooooh, our earnest little tea towel head, what a sweetie! We’ve also been doing a spot of Christmas giftwrap in the shop. It’s actually tres chic if I do say so myself- and free! All you have to do is ask.

Tick tock though, we’re fast running out of shopping days before Christmas!

Pumpkin and I also really enjoyed reading/ singing “The 12 days of Christmas”, which was my copy from when I was about six. I had drawn all over the pages and he thought it was hysterical how naughty I had been. I it’s quite a new concept for him to think of me as being his age- in fact, he asked me the other day if I was the first mummy. Kind of cool if you think about it, he thinks I am the creator from which all other life was born! Of course I tried to set him straight and ended up trying to explain the theory of evolution to him! Big mistake, the next night he wanted to know why some monkeys turn into people and others don’t- like a whole Gremlins type thing I think, where they turn into people if you get them wet?

I don’t know, now I’m confused and it’s going to take years of schooling for the teachers to iron out all of this well intentioned misguidedness on my part. It’s all downhill from here, tonight I was asked what was the name of certain girl’s body parts.

!

I think this is the place I love most. It’s one of the few places I go that lives up to expectations every time. Where I feel relaxed and happy. Even when I’m not.

Can you guess where?

I have something I think I need to clarify. Ummm… not my tennis court. They’re spoilt, but not that spoilt!

Anyway, we’re starting to get a little festive in the shop and I found some super cute kitschy Christmas photos (have a look at the front page). If you have some to share, I’d love to see them. Nothing like a bit of retro Christmas to make you all whimsy and nostalgic.

I also came across this one.

Soooo beautiful and quiet and muted and soft and lovely and American Shaker Quilty…. thought I’d share.

Here are some things that make me smile… 

Fijoa blooms, my spoilt bubbas, peaches ripening on the tree.

my herb garden, thriving on neglect. It gives me a little Jamie Oliver rush every time I make a roast chicken and cut herbs from the garden to stuff it with.

Hydrangeas picked from my garden in a beautiful hand thrown vessel I bought myself as a little self birthday pressie. These hydrangeas grew from a cutting my father-in-law gave me.

They are my favourite, favourite flower. Hope your weekend was a good one.

Finally made some time to make my free pincushion courtesy of Mixtape (oh how I love you so).

Look how lovely the fabric was and so easy to make too, all the materials provided and I traced the template onto the fabric and shoved the whole lot in my handbag with some polyfill. Made it in the doctor’s waiting room in about 20 mins! How ace is that?

Lovely Ruthie was married yesterday in Ocean Grove. She looked just lovely in her red dress.

I made the cake and was quite proud of the way it turned out (although I must say that you can’t go too wrong as far as decoration goes if you use real flowers.

After the wedding we stopped in Geelong and had a look at the waterfront.

Life in a Northern town (I know it’s not, it just feels like Manchester or Liverpool or somewhere, quite cool and industrial)…

More from the trade show. This is me with the lovely Melanie, from Melly and Me.   

And here are Melly & Me’s two new patterns, available in store soon…  

Bonzer & Beaut. How cure are they?

and Pippi the pony.

We’ve added another new pattern designer to our collection.

Janelle Wind with her oh, so sweet “Journal Secrets”.

I’m also really, really excited about these new softie patterns by one of my favourite designer/ bloggers Jhoanna Monte Aranez of One Red Robin. They will be instore shortly.

Plus you can shortly expect to see new patterns from Amy Butler and have you checked out these beauties in the shop?

Patterns by Heather Bailey. There you go, that’s enough to digest for now!

Today was my birthday, and a pretty good one too, even though I didn’t get to see husband!

Got lots of lovely birthday wishes and some lovely gifties including an ace camera for making blogging, shop, etsy shop and flickr prettier (now I just have to learn how to use it- it is very complicated!)

Also, check out these fab-u-lous Dorothy ruby slippers. Actual slippers too, super comfy from a much loved girlfriend.

I was also spoilt with flowers and a gorgeous soy candle in a teacup from another lovely girlfriend. I’m so lucky! Hope your day was equally good.

What an exciting weekend! We went to the quilting trade show on Saturday and have ordered all sorts of exciting new fabrics, patterns, books and notions for the fabric shop. This is me looking all professional (hahaha).

Lovely, lovely fabric.

And look who I met! I was so star struck, but Amy Butler is the lovliest, most generous person. We had a chat and she graciously signed some copies of Midwest Modern and Little Stitches for Little Ones for our shop.

Here’s some gorgeous new Japanese fabrics arriving early next year.

 That’s just the beginning, more next time.

Here’s a cute Christmas wreath I made. It was the second crafty thing that I did after the wee one was born. The first was to take a quilting class and make wee one a quilt for his first birthday. This used all the scraps from the quilt that I couldn’t bear to be parted with.

The best things about this is that it doesn’t involve any sewing.

How to Make a Christmas Wreath:

You will need:

• A foam wreath (you can get these from Spotlight).
• All your old leftover scrappy bits of fabric (the more, the better).
• Fabric scissors.
• Short pins (I used the ones with little metal heads) but the glass headed ones might be even prettier and make a feature.
• A length of ribbon to make a big bow- this ribbon is wired, so you can make it all rippley and sticky outy

I added some of my birdies as you can see, but this year I think I might jazz it up a bit with something brighter.

To make:

There are no hard and fast rules for this wreath.

• I cut my scraps to be really rough square shapes approx the same size (about an inch square).
• Then you just pin pin pin pin pin little scraps of fabric all over the wreath until the entire surface is covered and you get a fluttery, fuzzy edged appearance.
• I think another really nice idea would be to shape the fabric scraps into something pleasing to you, like flowers, bows, hearts or holly leaf shapes (I think this would work well if you ironed some interfacing to the back to give the piece some body).

Original inspiration for this wreath came from this rather moving prayer tree (at least I’m pretty sure that’s what it was) I saw once in Cyprus. I love how the Greek culture is so tied up in this very rigid, ceremonial Orthodox Christianity and their very superstitious ancient Greek pagan heritage with evil eyes and such. Anyway, I digress. This tree, more like a big scrubby shrub, was near Aphrodite’s Falls (the birthplace of Aphrodite) and was covered with prayers written on scraps of paper and tied onto the scratchy little branches. There again, the ancient pagan and the religious.

Another idea (stemming from this) would be to tie your fabric up into little knots and pin the centre to the wreath.

I would love to see any of your finished wreathes and post pictures of them here on the site.

Happy Creating!

Quick fabric store update.

Its been 2 months since we launched our online fabric store, and what better way to celebrate than with a Fabric Sale. We’ve got fabric collections by Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry, Sandi Henderson, Kaffe Fassett, Moda, Valori Wells and many more…

The sale runs for 5 days, with discounts of 10%, 20% and 30%.

Visit the Fabric Sale here.

I’ve decided I want a sewing group. And a flapper bob. Like this…

I’m thinking freestyle here, but who would be interested in a shopping and craft night (Melbourne bloggsters)?

Tea & coffee and cupcakes. Music and crafting and craft shopping. Leave me a comment if you have any thoughts.

Here’s some pics of my ace new sewing box… much prettier in dutch blue and white with pink spots than spew yellow and mission brown…

… and the great vintage fabrics I bought…

And I just threw this in for cuteness factor. An early morning baby cino date at my local.

Hope your Monday was similarly chilled.

A super quick one with pics to follow.

Bought this great sewing box today. Was spew yellow and mission brown though- too hideous to photograph even for a ‘before’ pic. Spent the arvo painting it a beautiful scandinavian blue with white trim (shonky workmanship on my part, but great colours). Lined the drawers with pink polka dot paper.

The best part was it came with ll the original junk in it. So much great thread- I’m in heaven!

Oh no, I’m falling of the wagon! I have not posted for a couple of days- I am so sorry, sob!  On the plus side, I have been super dooper crafty! Forgive me?

I made this tea towel (not totally finished yet as I still need to embellish it). Take a look at my work in progress. I think the Kokka aeroplane fabric (which is a linen cotton blend) should be a good one for a tea towel (absorbency wise). Haven’t tried it in action yet. It is simply on display.

I also made this handbag (which I am most proud of). Loving the Heather Bailey “PoP” fabric.