Black Apple Dolls

A favourite doll that I like to make and gift to little people in my life is the Black Apple Doll.  It's a free pattern by the very talented Emily Martin of A Black Apple.

Here are a couple of photo's of my interpretation that have all gone to loving homes :)

Isn't she the cutest!  I adore these dolls and would have to say that I've probably made at least a dozen by now.

A pink monster

A couple of weeks ago Big Sister did a drawing of a 4 eyed monster with lots of stripes.  I thought it was a pretty good effort for a 2.5 year old (biased mummy!).  I loved it so much that I whipped up a "real" version for her.

She loved him and was very surprised that I could make her drawing come to life :)

Star Wreath with felt flowers

I had a strong call from the universe telling me that I needed to try and craft a wreath for Christmas.  The only problem is that I have been passed on an aversion to round wreaths from my family, from whom they are reminded of funerals every time they see a round wreath.  So we never had them at home growing up.  I was also strongly advised never to give my mum Chrysanthemums for Mothers Day, which are the flower of choice here in Australia as they're plentiful at that time of year.  I was told that in Italy it's a flower commonly used at funerals and I wasn't to be giving flowers of "death" to people.  It's funny how these things stick with you.  So now I would never dream of gifting a bunch of Chrysanthemums and I would never have a round wreath in the house.

So - what's a girl to do???  I headed to my local Spotlight store to see what else they had.  A foam star was calling my name.

It was a damn tricky shape to cover as the points of the star didn't really cover easily.  Plenty of hot glue later and I had it covered in fabric strips.  Being that I've placed myself on a "nothing new" ban for crafting, and already broke my own rule by buying the star, I had to work with the fabric I had on hand.  It took far more fabric that you'd think, so I used one that I had a large supply of.

Then to embellish it I taught myself how to make felt flowers and hot glued them on.  Finished.  I was so proud of my crafty skills, that I showed hubby.... only to be told that it's far too shabby chic for our house and what on earth are those colours???  Well, I had to match the flowers to the fabric, and one thing lead to another....

So my star sits on a shelf in my craft room waiting for me to find something to do with it.  Damn universe.  Now I have another thing that is going to clutter my world.  Grrrr....

The Crafty Bug

I often get bitten by the crafty bug. I have a love / hate relationship with craftiness at the moment. On one hand I love making things, learning new techniques, and using or giving my end product. On the other, I have hardly any time to do it (my 2 little ones are super cute time wasters), sometimes I don't even know which project to work on, and I'm seriously trying to not buy any more supplies.

But the bug has hit, so I've pulled out an old project that I started before Big Sister was born. She's now two and a half. It's a cot quilt. She's almost outgrown her cot.  I've never quilted before. Ever. I'm not even really using a pattern. I was inspired by a quilt I saw at a craft fair, so bought the pattern for it, and then modified it to fit a cot. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'm lucky I'm pretty good at maths! What a task. I'm still not sure if it will fit. Not to mention that I am quilting it in a completely different way to the way the pattern says to do it. I'm kinda making it all up as I go. Here's a pic of the pattern I bought...

Moonshine Quilt - Sea Spray

I chose to make it green and purple. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Starting my new blog...

I have started so many blogs in the past. One was dedicated to my love of interior design, one to my crafty pursuits, one about my kids and their amazing shenanigans etc... Unfortunately I have the attention span of a flee and never manage to keep it going for too long. Then it hit me... no one reads my blog anyway, so why can't it be about all these things? So here goes - my attempt to not only blog about all the above and more, but to try to keep it going for as long as I can. Yowza - this is going to be a challenge. So if someone is reading this, please bare with me and wish me luck!