Wordless Wednesday - Ski Lessons

Play along with Wordless Wednesday at Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Wordless Wednesday

Play along with Faith, Hope and a whole lotta Love

Shadow Shot Sunday

Dont you just wish you were a little kid again? I know I do when I see things like this.
Nothing beats a whizzy from Dad.

Play along with your shadow shot here with Hey Harriet

A Day of Extremes

Well today has certainly earnt its title. Either absolute success of abject failure and nothing in between.
First of all  were my Easter baskets for Mum and Caroline. It was obvious this morning that I had been working on them quite late last night as some of my 'logic' had gone astray and there was quite a bit of unpicking to be done before they were finished this morning. BUT, I am very happy with the way they turned out and would be very happy to receive one myself (especially if it is filled with chocolate eggs).

I put these down to absolute success #1.

Absolute success #2 is the easter tree. After searching our dying maple tree for the right branch, this is how you are now greeted as you enter our house.

Our house is white, not pale pink like the photos show but I could not get the white balance right today for some reason. Absolutely no chance on the little automatic (pic1) but getting a little closer (still not good) with the DSLR (pic 2). I will put it down to the funny light today and the fact that our front door is bright orange and alters the colours in the hallway.

Absolute success #3. All my market stock is made ( including a large pile of teaspoon bookmarks which were not actually planned for thoday) and packed in the car before 6pm. This may not sound like a big deal but I could count on one hand the number of times I have been ready for a market before midnight the night prior , and I have been doing markets for 7 years now. I can always find something to do, a sign to remake etc, designing a new stall layout. You maket goers know what I mean - well I hope you do, and I am not the only one who does this.

All these successes had made for too good a day and the failures were about to begin.

Abject failure #1. Beer battered fish and chips for dinner. Hard to muck this up I hear you say-  well maybe, but not if you are me - I can stuff anything up - just ask anyone who has attmepted to eat my scones!!!
I had borrowed MIL's fryer to cook the fish, but all it did was stick the batter to the bottom of the basket so that when it was time to dish up my beautiful orange roughy, it came out in a multitude of pieces followed by crushed/smashed batter. It tasted alright but looked pre-digested. I changed the way I placed the fish in the oil each time but as the basket rotates and lifts the item being cooked out of the oil for short periods, the batter or just plain fish with no batter still stuck and ended up looking the same. A  good night to be a blind dinner guest in our house tonight.


Abject failure #2. Attempting to put royal icing on marie biscuits so that the girls can draw on them with the new food pens. We ( or mainly I ) decided that pre-made biscuits should be easier to ice than home made ones but try as I might I could not get the icing to stay in the desired shape or for that matter not stick to the bench when I rolled it out. I muddled my way through 6 biscuits and gave up. There has to be an easier way amd will be a task for another day. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Failure #3. Hot cross buns were not even attempted today. Maybe tomorrow, when I get home from the market so we can take them for lunch on Sunday, but then again, if I am as tired as I normally am after a market ( and it does go for an extra hour tomorrow), then it will just be dinner and bed for me tomorrow before the Easter Bunny hops his way into our house.

Here's hoping your day was full of success and sunshine and have a Happy Easter.

P.S.  If you are looking for something to do tomorrow and are near the Mornington Peninsula, pop along to the special Easter Market at Mornington Racecourse.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week finds me enjoying Easter fun with the girls.
We have blown eggs ( free range of course - no cage eggs here - Sarah's attempting to get the whole school  to boycott cage eggs by the time she leaves grade 6 in Dec), drawn on them with crayon and then died them and many little fingers along with them.
Here are some of my favourites

I know there are flash spots on them but it is such a miserable wet night here in Melbourne that I cannot get enough light without the flash.

Now comes the assembly of the tree for a centrepiece on Sunday. This was going to be done today but with a shuffle of work days and me working today, it will have to become a Good Friday activity.

Hopefully it will end up looking something like this.....

As my family are not big chocolate eaters , I usually find/make a small present for them with some chocolate ginger etc hidden inside. With a hankering for scones, which I absolutely cannot make, even with no-fail recipes ( mine could be sold to the army as ammunition), I thought this years present to mum and  'lil sis could be something to give them a nudge in the scone making direction.
A long time ago I saw some lovely scone baskets by Mud Tea  and thought that I might be able to make something similar from my ever growing fabric stash. I think Kate has come up with a wonderful idea and it is not as simple to put together as it first appears. My version does not look nearly as pretty/neat but heck - it was made with love and a lot of experimentation and I am still rather happy with the outcome.

Next on the family easter/holiday craft plan is bajing some of these...

with this excellent recipe from none other than the Womens Weekly ,

and, also baking ( my oven wont know what's hit it - poor thing) some biscuits decorated with my new food pens.
After reading a lovely post on Christen's blog Twirling Betty about her children decorating biscuits, I spent the night scouring the internet for food pens that would not cost the earth and I could get before the Good Friday holiday. Baking Pleasures in Brisbane came to the rescue and the pens arrived today - YAY!
Still haven't decided whether we will make bunny biscuits or just plain round ones and let them create their own designs. - Maybe some of both.......

The rest of today ( after work that is  and probably into the mystery hours of tonight) will be spent finishing the other  scone basket, sewing some hats for the market on Saturday and if possible before it gets too late - bashing spoons, especially lots more bookmarks for Saturday too.

I hope your week and holidays have been creative  and you have a lovely Easter

Wordless Watchful Wednesday

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Watchful Wednessdays at Flower Photography.

Elephants in Easter Bonnets

Not your ordinary title but then Mia's first Easter bonnet parade  deserves someting special. Its not every day there is an Easter Elephant!
The 3yr old ECC group at Sarah's school doesn't normally get to participate in many of the 'big'school activities as they are only attend on a Friday ( 4yr old group does 4 days) and most whole school activities take place on a Thuesday. BUT, end of term is end of term and always falls on a Friday. Our house was a veritable buzz of excitement this morning - Mia 'cos she got to dress up as an elephant ( even though the day was going to be 26'C) and Sarah because nearly 3 weeks holiday were starting. Gotta love Easter and Anzac day bumping into each other.
Here is how our fleece elephant set out this morning....

Mia had cooler clothes on underneath  but when I arrived after lunch for the parade, she was still in the costume, trunked hood and all, admitting she was a little hot but this would not stop being Mali, an Easter Elephant. After a lot of begging, cajoling, requests, Mia finally relinquished the hood in exchange for her Easter bonnet she made earlier this morning  just in time for the Easter Bonnet Parade.

With a 7 year age difference there will not be many activities that both girls will get to do at school together, so it was great that Sarah was also part of Mia's first foray into the world of parades

A very proud bonnet maker...

My Big and Little with their creations demonstrating summer and winter fashions all on the one day.

We are now looking forward to a busy school holdays filled with visits to the Tutankhamun exhibition at the museum, beach romps, exploring new parks, sleepovers and taking full advantage of all the beautiful autum days that will hopefully grace us with their presence.
On that note my coasters are now dry and ready for their next coat of modge podge before the waterproof sealant tomorrow so, I will leave you hoping that your weekend is full of fun, laughs and sunshine.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week is a little late but this week has been so hectic that it is lucky to have happened at all.
With ' real' work amping up this year to more days per week I am finding it harder and harder to get the energy to craft. The desire is still there and many a blank moment at work is spent pondering and devising new ideas but by the time I get home and have cooked dinner, cleaned up the hurricane that decends on our house each afternoon, I am buggered exhausted.
Hence this clean washing  pile is ever growing while it waits to be sorted, ironed and put away.

Any crafting that has been done this week has been restricted to dabbling in projects and finishing none. The glorious autumn weather that we have been having lately has meant that I can set myself up on a trestle table on the back deck and leave my work in whatever state I wish. At the moment the tea cup garden lights/bird feeders are drying, my new from old mirror is waiting for a top coat of gloss paint before being hung in the hall
and the plants I was hoping to keep alive to sell with my spoons at Mornington market on Sunday are well and truly dead. - all of this on one table - I love it.

I have however been luckier in the 'keepeing plants alive' department with my little money plants that I have propagated from the large bush in out garden. According to Chinese superstition, these plants correctly placed in you house will bring monetry wealth to the household. I must have read the book wrong as we are still waiting for the wealth to roll in.

Maybe with a couple more .....who knows.....

My creative mojo has to kick in tonight and tomorrow so that I can have some stock for my market. Coasters are on the agenda for tonight so they dry and be sealed tomorrow, and since flattening and stamping spoons is a little too noisy to be done at night, that will be this afternoon and tomorrows task as well as repotting clivia's to take to the market to put my teacups in, buying more garden stakes for the teacups and the everlasting Saturday basketball games for Sarah that are at the most annoying time of 4:30pm.

School holidays kick in as of today so I hope my next few weeks will be a little less stressful even if they are just as hectic. It is times like this I wish I worked at a school so that I could have the same holidays as the girls. Getting up and going to work whilst everyone else has pyjama mornings is very hard.

Here's to a creative week to you all and check out other creative spaces here.

Wordless Watchful Wednesday

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Watchful Wednesdays with Flower Photography

@my house - Mondays post done in the wee (mystery) hours of Tuesday morning

This Monday finds me both loving and hating the end of daylight savings.
Love it because my body still hasn't clicked in to the extra hours sleep so everything is done and ready for school so early in the morning and there is no problem getting everyone out of bed.
Hate it because it really does mean the end of summer ( not that we really had one this year) and that it is really dark by 6:30 and it will only get earlier and earlier in the months to come.
So I look back on a wonderful weekend the girls and I shared at Torquay while Brett was away hiking in the snowy mountains.

Climbing the sand dunes at Torquay

Rock Pools at Pt Addis

Evening at Pt Lonsdale front beach on the journey home. You can tell I have spent the day in the sun without a hat ( naughty, naughty) by the sheer number of freckles taking over my face. Oh the skin of a redhead!

I am also still amazed at how popular my silverware garden markers continue to be. I really thought they would be an item that would  be a cute Christmas gift and that sales would drop off and ultimatley die after Christmas/New Year but people continue to amaze me with a repeat customer returning today to order another 41 spoons and forks.
Another plus for the day -  my second order from Xenotees  - a fantastic store on etsy, arrived today - super speedy. I already have an animal collective t-shirt but as the cooler days are coming I thought a longer sleeve was in order and since I love cutlery I thought this fork shirt very fitting. ( hahaha Yes I meant the double pun)
With a day like this I have found it very hard to wipe the smile off my face.
I hope your week has started as well as mine.

Wordless Wednesday

Play along with your WW here at Faith Hope and a whole lotta Love.

Wordless Wednesday

play along here with  Faith Hope and a whole lotta Love

. . . Hiatus Over . . .

Big and Little has been on a hiatus for the last 4 months due mostly to the fact that I cannot do everything. Now however due to so many email and  other requests I will attempt to get it back up and going.
Just before the hiatus last year I started my Hand Stamped Silver Spoons and Forks. I thought these might be a cute little gift  for Christmas and that I might sell a couple or three. Over 500 spoons later I am still amazed how successful they have been and continue to be. With this, Christmas, school holidays, work and wanting to spend as much time as possible with the family in the small glimpses of summer that we had, it was necessary to sleep at night and take a break from blogging.
Over the next little while I will show you what I have been up to creatively over the last few months. To do it all now would be too much for anyone to handle - including me.
Lets just start with the fact that it is work tomorrow and my vow this year is to me more varied in the jewellery I wear ( and the wardrobe for that matter). Normally I have one necklace and wear it to death - not this year - this is the year of change!
On this note, tonight, I have been inspired by all the dandelion (or fairy clocks as they are called in our house) craft there is around at the moment and have made/stamped myself a pair of brass earings to wear tomorrow.
Not quite how I imagined them but pleased all the same. No one at the office tomorrow will notice ( a downside of all male co-workers) but I will know they are new and different.
Judge for yourself.......

I will change the jump rings and hooks for brass coloured when I have a chance to get to Spotlight etc but to be able to wear them tomorrow silver will have to do. I am a perfectionist when it comes to selling my products but for my family and myself, many shortcuts or 'modifications' are made - all in the name of experimentation of course.
'till next time - happy autumn

Wordless Wednesday

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Waiting.........

Today was one of the hardest days I think Mia has lived though. Big sister Sarah has been away on camp this week and has been sorely missed by Mia. (She has never been an only child before).  Each morning Mia would ask if Sarah was coming home today and when the answer this morning was 'yes', I don't think I have ever seen a smile as big.
The only problem was, Mia found it very hard to understand that she had to wait until 3pm for Sarah to come home.
To try and take her mind of it, she tried chalk drawing on the kitchen concrete step while I belted the living daylights out of many, many spoons.
This lasted for only one rainbow, but it was a beautiful one.....

Then  we headed off to Bunnings to return my original vice and come home with one with a bigger, deeper grippy bit ( love the technical speak!). I am hoping that the woodworking vice I bought will work wonders for evenly bending the spoons (and maybe forks?). Mia loves going to Bunnings because they have the little kids trolleys and she feels very proud pushing our purchases around like a grown up
While there, we had to have a hot chocolate , to fill in a little more time, but the waiting was getting harder.....

Finally, it was time to go to school and collect Sarah. Mia spotted her first and became a limpit on her sister while Sarah struggled to gather her bags etc.
Mia was so happy to have her Sarah home, there was no wiping the smile from her face  - even from under Sarah's somewhat smelly camp hat....

But alas....., although Sarah swore she wasn't tired, half and hour after getting home and having a shower, this is what Mia found.....

More waiting. This didn't worry Mia though as she knew Sarah would wake up soon and then she would play with her. At least she was home.

Wordless Wednesday

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@my house

The week started early at my house today with Sarah heading off on a 5 day camp to a wilderness village. Last night she was counting down the hours and was up by 6am this morning, ready and rearing to go. Going back to being a single child household is very quiet and easy.
The rest of the day was spent finsishing off this little guy ( why a red cat with pink spots is a boy I don't know but it is). He was made from a pattern by Wee Wonderfuls and you can download it here.

Mia has named him 'Cat'

When I had Mia, a lovely lady by the name of Jenny, would sew my baby slings for me as there was no way I would have been able to keep up the supply for shops, markets and internet sales with a new baby.
When  I was back in the swing of things I bit the bullet and outsourced a lot of my sewing to a commercial sewing company, which just left the finishing touches - ie 50 studs per sling for the adjustable version and the final sewing that could only be completed after all the studs were done.
With time on her hands and now back in the swing of sewing Jenny came up with these gorgeous heirloom dolls. They have painted feet, tea stained socks for the vintage look, designer heirloom fabric for their bloomers and dresses and high quality wool for their hair. Each of their faces are hand stiched and as every one is different they all have their own unique personality.
Anyway, Jenny attended a few markets and received a huge order for the dolls only to find out when they were all finished ,that the person renegged on the deal and only took half the initial number ordered.  I hate these people, and may Karma come and bite them in the bum!
Anyway, unsure on how to list things on madeit and also how to get good photos of her stock, I agreed to set up her shop and get a few of the dolls listed. If sales take off then I will pass it back to her to manage. To check out these dolls and prehaps have them join your family check out her shop, 'The Dolls House'  here.

The lovely weather today provided the perfect opportunity for photographing the dolls and Mia loved posing with them and introducing them to 'Cat'

 What's happeining at your house? Play along with here with Buttons by Lou Lou

Wordless Wednesday

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@my house

At my house today - the creativity is back - but in a tidy way and we have been busy, busy, busy - in the good way.
After a Saturday that was filled with a  nail biting Basketball final with 2 extra time periods, ....
  

and then the breakup/presentation party at night ,

a slightly slower paced Sunday morning saw both girls painting many a masterpiece that now adorn the noticeboards followed by playdough creations. I have only ever made cooked playdough, but when I came across this post by Danielle on Hello Owl, I thought it was worth a try. Although it was successful, and incredibly quick to make, I think I like the feel of the cooked version better.

It was then off for a ride on the local tourist Steam train, aka Thomas the Tank Engine, for our train obsessed Mia, but unfortunately the steam engine was in for repair, so, as Mia phrased it, a Dirty Diesel, (this is meant as a term of endearment for a diesel engine), was pulling the train.

Brett, Mia and Sarah all piled on; Mia loving it because it was a train, Sarah loving it because the carriage was just like the Hogwarts Express with everyone in their separate compartments and Brett loving it because it was only a one way trip.

When I met them at the end of the line, there was just time to race home for a quick bite of lunch before heading off to Casey Fields (aka the coldest and windiest place on earth) for 2 hrs of Sarah's HPV training.

Today, saw me trying to get rid of , I mean hide from view, some of the clutter in our house.
My craft area has been a sore point for a long time as eveything was stored on an open bookcase, so eveyone who visited always saw everything.
Well now it is all hidden away behind closed doors. After a bit of wardrobe renovation, I have removed several shelves from Mia's semi built in wardrobe and created a hanging space. I was very proud to throw out much of the 'stuff' I had stored on those shelves and have bags out by the bins as proof of my de-cluttering efforts.
Mia's old wardrobe then made it out into the top living room and is now my craft cupboard to hold all the equipment and sundries that I accumulate. I have decided to take a photo now, when it looks nice, before the rest of the stuff in squeezed in and the lovely neat look totally disappears.

Now you see it....

now you dont .......

No doubt wihtin a couple of days the inside will be a total clutter like the bookshelves used to be, but at least it started off well.

What's happening at your place? Play along here.