Salt and pepper reunited (nearly!)

A HUGE thanks to Barossoan Mum who located the pair on an American antiques site! Aren't they cute together?!

Fabric stash coming your way Barossoan Mum!! Congratulations!

Great bag tutorial

Jodie posted this bag tutorial here, and I must say I loved making this! Just finished so putting my things in it now, as soon as I find where Miss 2 put my keys..... All she says when quizzed is "gone!"


Button choice for detail was hard... May change it to a larger red one. Thanks Jodie!

Lost - reward (fabric stash)

This is vintage Disneyland. I think the stunned blonde on the teapot is meant to be Cinderella. I love it despite its kitsch gold paint. It's tres petite (see the 50c piece there for scaling), and actually a salt/pepper pot. It needs its partner. Do let me know if you find the lost partner in your travels. A reward is offered! Ummm, a fabric stash for the winner!

Mr Postman, is there a letter in your bag for me?

Actually, a parcel! I had written-off a purchase from Ebay that seemed to have been 'lost', until it turned up out of the blue today!

Look what treasures were unearthed, vintage sewing notions! Yummy. They'll go straight to the sewing space to make me smile.




This is a book of monogram stencils. Page, upon page of unused initials. Makes me want to grab the embroidery circle and start monogramming my linen!

Applique Monday

Only a child of mine would go through both the knees and the 'seat' of a pair of jeans in one day...

Only I would patch them rather than replace them (they still fit, and check out the gorgeous ruffle detail on the cuff!)

Dragon fly print to the rescue!! Heat and seal, reinforced stitching, and some thrifted denim, voila! New life to old threads.

Fabric that is delicious!

This first one wants to be a bag. I will use Jodie's 1 hour bag tutorial, here.

These are cheeky little bag linings I think... The one on the left is part of the handle of the fabulous peg bag

I just love Little Red Riding Hood's chubby legs!

This final one was made for me! Button Love!!! Let's have a closer look...

Is it true that she who dies with the most fabric, wins??!

Button lessons

I belong to a womens' group here in Canberra, and was recently asked to run a session on making my button necklaces. I was inspired by the creativity of the women, and although I didn't manage to photograph all the finished works, here are the 3 I caught!

Well done ladies!!

Beautifully sorted button stash Ruth!! Thanks to you and Rose for the supplies.

Here are the ones you will soon see created into stock for the market stall by me:

This is.....me with my favourite accessory

I have not been keeping up with This is..... and was determined to do this week's.


This handbag belonged to my great grandmother. I love it. I am going to have to replace the silk lining though as it has worn away almost entirely. I treasure it (thanks Mum!!)

As an aside, as you can see, my camera is a little basic one, hence my photos are not as crisp and fab as some of yours!

Pegs, pegs, pegs...

I am easily entertained, and find it interesting that some of us like to keep our pegs in bags on the line, others in the laundry, whilst some lassies I know like to keep them on the line.

One such Seinfeld-esque friend got rid of a housemate who didn't comply with the house rules regarding pegs (!!). Anyway, I received a commission last week from She Who Loves A Peg Bag, and I was happy to comply.


So a visit to the previously blogged fave fabric store (unnamed as they are impolite), and I found the PERFECT fabric for the bag. I now love it so much I may have to keep it for myself...


35cm deep is perfect for her to rummage in whilst wearing the 75cm long strap over her shoulder. However, big pegs (for pegging jeans, heavy things, etc), need to be kept separate from the smaller ones. (Some of you people don't think about pegs like she and I do!!!)


Calico for the main bag, pockets from a thrifted tablecloth, handle reinforced with waist-band interfacing, trimmed with vintage ric rac, binding and buttons from my Nan's sewing basket.

What do you think?!

Papier mache for the birthday-boy

Master 5 wants a pinata for the birthday party next week. I am refusing to pay $30 for an unfilled one that looks ugly, so we are making our own for zero cost. I am officially "the best mum in Canberra!" as I said YES, and we are doing it together. It's a good 30 years however since I did any papier mache, so I have been scratching my head to remember...

We ripped up lots of newspaper and also butcher's paper (unprinted newspaper) into strips. This was so therapeutic! He and I were looking for other stuff to rip up! It reminded me of the best part of mosaic for me - the smashing of the tiles!!

We diluted some clag that was drying up in the bottom of the bottle, and made some paste from cornflour and water (see earlier post here).

Next we blew up two balloons, and sticky-taped the smaller one onto the big one (a head and a body).

Layer, upon layer, upon sloppy and heavy layer we went until there was no more glue (still a mountain of paper though!). This step was left to me, as it was too tactile for Master 5 (People with Aspergers Syndrome often avoid textural activities).

So now we are waiting another day for that to dry, before we , do another couple of layers.


We will paint it and fill it over the weekend, and I can't wait to see it finished!!!

I am however yet to work out how to hang it... Any hints?!

Treasure Trove

The BEST thing about Canberra thrifting, is the joy to be had at Aussie Junk. There were political issues ahoy last year when it changed hands that I will not go into that but all you Canberrans will be familiar with this. After a respectable period of "I'm not going there!!", we have all trickled back...

ANYWAY - this week was even better than ever, and I just HAD to share.

This buffet/bookshelf was from a week ago but it is perfect for the kids, and spends some time in the lounge with toys residing on it, and some time in the cubby.

Too cute. A steal at $5.

The chalk-board broke the bank at $4. Great item, and paintings can be clipped onto the top.

The piece-de-resistance is this rocking chair, which at $5 was a must-have. It will be cleaned and wobbly bits glued, and it will form a big part of Master 5's birthday present next week.

I also opened a few drawers of dressers and dressing tables of an art deco genre and found this gorgeous, maiden-hair-fern style, vintage wall-paper lining them (20 cents!).

Miss 2 will get a wee wooden, purple little doll's bed for her birthday (no photo) - I will make a selvedge quilt for it to swish it up a bit after seeing how cute Jodie's turned out (check it out!).

Also, I have just finished cleaning up this old friend, $5 from a garage sale...
This is the item I would grab to take to a desert island, together with my teapot and mug.

VERY happy woman here, with recycled wooden treasures that will light up the kids' faces and be worth every tiny penny.

Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens...

These are a few of my favourite things this week! (If Oprah can do it, so can I!! (ha ha))


Number One: Earrings from a talented woman (must find her card) at Gorman House markets in Canberra. She has made them from origami paper, lacquered them and hung them as earrings. They are so delicate and stunning. A bargain at $22 given the work involved! Green of course...

Number Two is: The inside of my knitting needle holder (posted earlier without the inner view!!). I love this, and it comes with me whenever I knit! The gaps are for the needles that are otherwise occupied at the moment (socks, scarf, dishcloth, toys), and there are gaps for inevitable purchases in the future! LOVE bamboo - don't you?!

And my darling friend's baby Rufus...
adorable, adorable, adorable. He wants to wear mumma's shoes!! (Or is he hiding them from his sister Millie?) So cute.

This is......what makes me laugh out loud

This is... is a 'game' many of us are playing in cyber space. It is brought to us by Three Buttons, and has included collections, mugs, Sunday lunch, and other things to share with one another.

What makes me laugh out loud is clever humour, generally British. From Fawlty Towers to Little Britain, Catherine Tate, the Royle Family, Blackadder, and many more, I can be known to cry with laughter at the dry jokes and hilarious takes on characters. Hubby and I share this, which makes it even better!

I too am sorry.

I just wanted to say that I am sorry that it has taken so long and that it took a change of government, for today to happen.

The events of today were moving, and it was emotional to watch. Eleven years ago the report regarding the Stolen Generation which had been commissioned by Keating, was received by Howard. It took until today for the Federal Government to take a stand.

A Rainbow Of Buttons

No creations as yet, but I couldn't sleep with excitement about the stash I just (very gratefully) received!


Dear Tank Girl (another blog mention!!!) has a very community-minded neighbour who has donated a mass of buttons to the crafty girls I create with, and we pored over them tonight. I could visualise the creations already. So many Feature buttons that will be front and centre in the next batch of stock.

The best thing about buttons is looking through tins of them. I wonder what their history is, what item of clothing did they grace? Who wore them? My Nan was a super stylish lady who appears in a multitude of photos in shoes, dresses, and buttons that amaze me and take my breath away. I love looking at these photos, and Mum recalls the outfits in detail. The colours, fabrics, occasions. I Love looking through them with her when the kids let me have a moment with her!

I recently cam upon a book called the Button Box, by Margarette S. Reid, published 1990 by Puffin. It has superbly evocative illustrations by Sarah Chamberlain. It tells of a little boy who loves going through his Grandma's button box, imagining, sorting, learning history, and best of all, spending time with her. Highly recommended!

As an aside: I wonder what the collective noun is for a group of buttons??!! A clatter of buttons? Any ideas? I may have a competition with a give-away as the prize! Who wants to join in? Add a comment with your suggestion to win! Drawn in one week.

From Jeans to Skirt in an afternoon

This is far from an original idea, but making a pair of jeans into a skirt has appealed to me for a while. Ruth the incredible sewer sports a couple of these, which look tremendous. I have had a pair of jeans in the stash for a while for the purpose, and this morning took the seam ripper to them.

That was a whole lot of fun once I had got started. I was in a ripping mood. Good stress release!

I have some rather lovely fabric I bought with a skirt in mind, which is from the Japanese selection at my local material store. (I won't do a plug for them, as they are RUDE and hate Kids in the store, but they DO have beautiful fabrics!) ;-)

So with some help from tutorials on line such as these summarised at One Hour Craft,

And from Reconstructing Clothes for Dummies,

And from Me Who Knows Best (!! that means I read it, I don't get it, and I Do It Myself)

This is the outcome!

I know the photo would look better if it was actually ON, but I have chosen to do it this way!

How do I do a list of links?

I love that fellow bloggers have lists of links on their sites so you can 'publicise' like-minded blogs. I just bumped into the lark and want to add it as it is a visual of all I want to do when I grow up! Check it out here.


Also check out the downloadable pdf of valentine images here at Inside A Black Apple.

I'm also going to join in the 'game' of This Is... being played at the moment through Three Buttons.

Looks like fun! You should too!

Chocolat

I was reminded by lesley ann in a comment about the fabulous movie Chocolat starring Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche. I must dig that up from wherever my DVDs are now (way behind Dora, Wiggles, and Hi-5 at the back of the cupboard...)

Anyway, I love the passion of this film, the way the atmosphere builds, and the concoctions they brew.

Thanks for the reminder lesley ann!

In the rainbow, after red is ORANGE!

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet!

Red was the colour of berries in the crumble (yum..!)

Orange is My Friend Ruth's favourite colour, and here she is wearing the Orange Fancy necklace that needed to be made! Thanks for wearing it Ruth!


I should have taken a second photo of the top Ruth was wearing, as she made it from a pillowcase! It's stunning, and is a wrap top/kimono top, made exquisitely. I am hoping for a step by step lesson (ooh - a tutorial in the making!) ;-)

That was a quick rest!

I got some lovely comments thanks ladies, and have decided that the blog thing IS ok. I'm not really just blowing my own trumpet or anything, I am quite happy with the way it's going, and my self-conscious moment was just that. A moment.

So now I am back and will post a tutorial or two of things I am doing. I love tutorials, as I can see how things are constructed. It often inspires me to do more as when I see a good tutorial I think: I CAN do that!!

So a few days ago I was on about the Tetra-type juice packs. This has opened my eyes to just how much packaging there is in kids' lunch box snacks as well! Each box or bag contains all those individually-wrapped bags or packets, and so many of them are silver-lined to keep them "fresh", but this impacts on their recyclability. Eilleen at Consumption Rebellion has again wowed me with talk of constructing a solar oven and stove, and this HAS made me see silver everywhere E! Check out her pic here of a reusable sandwich pouch rather than using zip-lock bags. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of the fruit and vege bags, which I will be making from tuille that I have heaps of. They weigh nothing and are reusable!

So now I am looking now at 3 of the 1 litre juice packs, and 2 of the small lunch-box ones, and have decided to have a go at making a tote to take to the supermarket to keep cold things cool until we get home. All have been washed in warm water with soap and dried thoroughly in the sun to kill any bugs.

A tute of this is a bit tricky, as I have no idea how this will come about...

First I cut all the boxes so they were even.
I then cut one of the large ones in half to use as the sides of the bag. The small ones would be the base.
I zig-zagged the pieces together end to end so I had one really long piece of cardboard.
Sewing in the base was fiddly, as my machine has knobs and handles that got in the way.

After breaking a needle, jamming the bobbin, and sewing through my finger AGAIN ("no honey I don't need stitches - I already have them...) and FORGETTING TO TAKE PHOTOS (so no tute huh?),

We got to this:

Pinking shears evened up the top section which doesn't need a seam as it won't fray!
A hole puncher and some old cord from a pair of pants knotted through the holes, and I am off to market!