Happy New Year

Goodness me, I’ve been a bit slack, haven’t I? I can’t believe it’s been so long between posts, but life has kind of got in the way. Here’s a little of what we’ve been up to.

We made cupcakes for Owen’s birthday…

Had a lovely family weekend away staying in this gorgeous little cottage in Daylesford.

Visited the mineral springs.

Made some cute appliqued napkins for my boys (really trying to cut down on the amount of paper serviettes and tissues that we use by using cloth napkins and hankies).

Took evil spiderman and his pirate friend trick-or-treating.

Had a weekend at the beach.

Made a birdie softie and birdie mobile as a special order (isn’t she sweet)?

And THEN we went on an ace holiday, but more about that another day. I hope your festive period was as much fun!

Creations and Inspiration

I have had lots of inspiration of late- from all over.

Of boiled sweeties (methinks pink grapefruit) in vintage jars.

Cakes on plates, with their exquisite chalky pastelness. Craft projects from some of my favourite books for sale in the shop:

Little Pup from More Softies. Made with our exciting new Organic Chocolate Cotton Canvas and some of the Aunt Grace collection (happy birthday little O).

Wheat bag from Meet me at Mike’s book. Made with Matryoshka Stripe fabric.

More Matryoshka, this time for cushions for some spring nesting.

Beautiful basket liners with troops of teeny tiny ants and apples (sorting my stash in style!)

Fabric for Spring!

Here is another wondeful new Moda Fabric range that has just arrived – perfect for sewing on a lovely spring day!

“Eva” by Basic Grey is reminiscent of the French court, a mix of the exotic and the dignified, the gracious and the gallant. Eva is a collection of fanciful flourishes, exotic birds and quaint, finial patterns Gloriously deep, rich jewel tones impart an air nobility to this crowning medley of extravagant designs.

You can find this fabric collection and more in the Belsize Square Fabric store.

More crafty inspiration.

It must be the spring air, something about this time of year really inspires me to get crafty.

I’ve been promising kinder some new art smocks for over a term now (I was going to get them done last school holidays, oops!) I made the first two fine and they are much loved and paint spattered by now. Well, finally here are the last two.

Plus, I have two quilts on the go (yes, now I know I’m just bragging, or rather confessing as I often start these things and then they don’t really get finished very quickly).

I hope all this creativity inspires you to begin a new project (or finish an old one!)

New season craftiness.

So much to share. I’ve been particularly crafty of late and doing my best to complete projects and not just start them and get distracted by making cups of tea, demands from the kiddies or distractions of little bits of fluff on my sleeve… oh sorry, now where was I?

I wish I was more organised and managed to ever take some before shots. If I had, this would be much more impressive.

These were little home made chairs that were sitting around my grandparents-in-law’s house. They were originally stained (a very pine-y yellow gloss) and had mustard yellow vinyl covers with these strange high backs. The new upholstery is a Moda Home fabric we sell in the shop, very durable heavy weave. I just love how they turned out (the kids are pretty happy too!)

As weak as it is- I do believe this constitutes an Ikea hack. Some Dulux spray paint in Volcano Orange and I’m very impressed with my glossy little kitchen accessory/ extra chair.

This one I did quite a white back, I just don’t think I ever got around to blogging it. I found the lamp base at Mill Markets in Geelong -oh how I love that place! The shade was a plain white one I bought for $2 (super bargain basement price) from Kmart which I recovered in some yummy Amy Butler Wildflowers fabric from the Daisy Chain range. It now graces the sideboard in my dining room.

It appears that I’m not the only one. The little guy has been painting to his heart’s content and is super keen to practise his newly acquired skill of turning one’s painting into a stamp (where you turn your painting face down and rub the back so that you get a mirror image). Only thing is, he doesn’t always have the paper lined up underneath.

Needless to say we did end up with some lovely reverse paintings directly transfered onto the table top.

Hot Blossom Fabric by Josephine Kimberling

 Hot Blossoms in hot hues of pink, orange, aqua and chocolate and sharp shades of black and white. Vibrant, dramatic and fun!

Visit the fabric store for this and many other great new fabric ranges.

New Fat Quarters

We’ve put together some new Fat Quarter Bundles - a fat free way to have your cake and eat it too!

Our Fat Quarter Bundles  are a quick and easy way to purchase a co-ordinated selection of fabric.

Apple Fabric by Alice Kennedy

…even more great new fabric to tell you about.

Apple by Alice Kennedy. Stylised apples, apple trees and quirky owls in a thoroughly seventies palette of browns, greens and red. I’d love to see this one in a toddler pinafore.

Find it now in the fabric store

New fabric and cake!

New fabric about to hit the shop. Lovely yarn dyed mini plaids in pink and chocolate are part of the Charleston V range by Judie Rothermel. Mix them with the rest of the Charleston range or use them on their own to make up some of our children’s wear patterns.

Wee one turned three last week. Now not wee so much- maybe more midi. I think I’ll keep working on a new nickname.

We had a lovely party for him on the weekend to celebrate. Bouncy castle, helium balloons, gourmet Greek food as far as the eye could see (courtesy of my mother in law) and a Makka Pakka cake (as requested by the wee one himself) and lovingly- if not skillfully- made by me.

As always, it’s not a proper party without my Nigella cupcakes…

We were so busy with the party we didn’t take many pictures. Luckily a special friend deployed her husband to be our event photographer.

Fabric, quilts & birthdays.

Oh, it’s been too long between posts. Crazy, crazy sale, thank you to all the lovely customers who shopped ’till they dropped. We now have loads more room for the next round of goodies. Can’t wait (she says, rubbing her hands together in glee).

Super sale stash.

Also recently decided that the new Red Letter Days and David Walker Rockets ranges were far too yum to disappear without hacking into them for my own stash. The result?

A cute kinder nap time binkee for my pumpkin…

Tomorrow my wee one turns three- full of attitude, sleeping in a bed and giving up his dummy all by himself.

No more babies.

Sigh.

Reproduction Quilt Fabric

Here are some lovely “new” fabric ranges especially for the quilters out there. These are reproduction fabrics from Judie Rothermel.

Here is a sample… you can find many more in the fabric store.

Indigo, Pewter and Honey

Charleston V

Aunt Grace Backgrounds

I’m interested to know what people think about these collections. Drop me a comment.

New Fabric Range

We’ve got a fabulous new fabric range to tell you about. Its called Red Letter Day by talented designer Lizzy House.

What do you think? The Red Letter Day fabric collection is some of the cutest, most vibrant fabric I’ve seen in a long while. Its perfect for quilting and kids clothing (duck pajamas anyone?).

If you want to see how crafty peeps are using this fabulous fabric range, visit the Red Letter Day flickr pool. There are some amazingly talented people out there!

Lastly there is a FREE pattern using the Red Letter Day Fabric here.