My Creative Space

My creative space this week finds me battling the dreary, cold, wet Melbourne winter with all too many days like this...

.... to find enough good natural light to photograph my lovely Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange present from Keera at Live.Love.Sew.
Today however wet, miseable and cold it may be, it is the brightest day we have had all week. So here are some shots of the lovely creative journal I received.
Keera came across one of my posts moaning about how I wish I had more time to let creative ideas percolate etc and she came up with the lovely idea of a journal to draw, doodle and work ideas out in.
The cover for the journal is exquisite. Not only has she created a lovely patchwork front but she has also hand stiched some inspiring wording that winds its way around the entire cover. (I feel Keera has far more patience in her little finger than I have in my whole body)

Right down to my initials in the corner. ( Having the initials ME got me into a lot of trouble with teachers at school who thought I was being smart when asked to mark our initials in the corner of our work, but I digress)

I also received some lovely hair ties and clips for my girls in my package, but I cannot photograph them as they have gone away in the girls hair to their Grandparents for a sleepover while it is school holidays.

School holidays have been non stop to say the least around here but I have managed to get a few more of the cupcake pincushions made and out to new homes.Oh those wonderful wee hours of the morning!
When friends and family saw the one I made for Keera, the requests started pouring in.


The next lot aren't quite as large as Keera's but still just as cute.


This is the only one still to go to its new home....

I hope your week is full of sunshine and warmth and lots of creative space.
Play along at Our Creative Spaces

My Creative Space - with just a 2 month hiatus

Well I know  I said a while ago that I was going to attempt to be a little more regular at posting this year but once again one thing led to another and life got in the way. Even though I have not been posting and updates/ creative persuits etc, I have been keeping up with what all the other lovely people out there in blogland are up to.

Last year I took part in my first ever gift exchange run by the very talented Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous and received a wonderful surpise in the mail, so when it was anounced again this year there was no hesitation in signing up. My swap partner this year was a lovely lady in Outback QLD who is leading a life I thought would have been mine when I first started University.

Reading through her blog, Live.Love.Sew I discovered a very talented and patient Keera ( anyone who quilts is extremely patient in my book) who loves both crafting and cooking - especially guided by the amazing Donna Hay.

So with my thinking cap on I tried to come up with a gift that would bring both of these together.
I immediately thought of one of my upcycled Silverware Cookbook Clip's personalised for Keera as the cooking part , and a project that I had been wanting to try for a long time as the other part.

And after deciding that fleting was not my thing, this is what was born....

... a cupcake pincushion ( I hope it was obvious)

I hoped that with the cotton cupcake wrapper it would have more of a Donna Hay look to it.

So overall I was very happy when I packaged my gift up and sent it on its way to Qld.

I dont think I have spoilt the surprise for Keera either by posting these pictures, as she left for her honeymoon yesterday and reading blogs will not be one of the planned activities for the next week or so.

Well this is just the start of quite a few updates of things that have been happening around here.
I hope to be a little more regular in posting from now on,  but no promises. ;)

To see what other creative types have been up to, check out and play along with  'Our Creative Spaces'

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

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.

My Creative Space

 I Wish.....

My first creative space for a while finds me wishing....
Wishing for more time  -  my mind is working a million miles an hour with new ideas and there is is not enough hours left in the day after normal work and after school activities to get them all done.
I have new ideas for the silver cutlery that I hope will be a winner for Easter, and, I also want to have time to play around , just experimenting with spoons like the one above - nothing for sale,  just feel good stuff around the house for me.
I also have a grand new idea for fleece this winter. I am calling it B.L.I.S.S. ( but you will have to wait for the great unveiling to see what it stands for.) BUT, and this is a big BUT , BLISS is still in my mind and has yet to have any prototypes made.
The plus side however it that sewing can be done late at night. Bashing spoons flat and then stamping them is a little noisey to be done after dark.

As for all the other ideas, eg  the clothes that I would like to make,  learning  to crochet/knit , free form stiching, being creative with coffee sacks, the list goes on -   well, they will just have percolate in the brain a little longer.

I hope you find time for your creative persuits and play along at Kootoyoo

@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

My Creative Space

My Creative space this week is very uncreative due to a rather persistant fever that is leaving me blurgh and cold. Even though this week needs to be one of my busiest creatively, as craft markets have approved all my new products for sale, and so therefore I have to build up to market stock levels rather that just one or two on hand for madeit sales, all I have been able to manage is the bird present for my sisters birthday the other day.
These are not very good photos as I did not  realise I had not taken any photos of the finished product until I was running late on Sunday  and was desperately trying to wrap everything before we left for lunch. So the photos were taken on my phone and the focus is not very good when inside or when under pressure.

So rushed was I that I didn't even think of moving the unused fabric from behind the cage.

This one, not so bad

And this one please excuse the birght orange bag that sort of grabs all the attention and something I didn't even notice till I was posting the photo to this page.

Oh well, I will claim that I was starting to get sick when they were taken and I am definately sick now, so therefore the design part of the brain was and is severely out of whack.

Play along with your better photographed creative space at Lou's.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week finds me totally rethinking my market stall.
7 years ago no-one was selling pouch style baby slings anywhere much in Aus and baby wearing was just starting to take off. As such my business boomed and I easily replaced my old full time job income plus more with one day at the market 3 out of every 4 weeks and sewing at night and while Sarah was at kinder etc. Today you find slings everywhere and add to this the ecconomic climate of the past couple of years and the fact that there are free patterns for slings all over the internet,  sales have dropped dramatically and it is now my 'supplemental' products that are bringing in the money. I have also lost the desire to keep thinking of new baby products.

Since my upcycled spoons have been so popular I am moving more toward this line of upcycling thinking and are hoping to have completed samples of the new product range in the next couple of days so they can either be approved or rejected by the market committee.

My new mini butane torch arrived today so the small spoon bending can begin. Now all those souvenir teaspoons that people discard will soon have a new lease of life.
So too will this map from a 1996 version of the Brisbane UBD ( this is where we lived way back then)

These maps, but for the Melbourne markets from vintage Melways, as well as nautical charts will be turned into these....

I have several other coasters that are undergoing the waterproofing test, that are of a rounded square shape, which I think I like better, but since they are only tests they have very ugly advertising maps from the font section of the UBD on them and are not photo worthy. - not to mention the wrinkles from learning how to use modge podge. Everyone raves about this stuff but I must admit I am having some serious wrinkle problems. Any tips???
Also on the list of to do's are upcycling tea light candles, recycled sheet music, christmas carols and coffee sacks. ( A lot of these will require the mastering of modge podging) I have a very busy few days ahead but I love the inventing/design stage of new products.



I am also glad that there will be no more birthday cake baking after the efforts of the last couple of weeks have left me considerable heavier than I started out. I wish I didn't like cake so much.
Here are a couple of shots of the finished Thomas Cake for Mia last weekend ( actually a James cake as he is the favourite engine).

I hope your week is as creative as it can be. If so, play along here at Kootoyoo

As a footnote.........I am also committing to attend the Perle8 group next week (Sept 23rd). Now I have said that I will go and everyone has read it I cannot not turn up. ( What do you bet that the group stops during the holidays - hehehe, this would be just my luck)

My Creative Space

Todays creative space finds me making costumes for my nephew's book parade at school next Tuesday.
He wants to go as 'Will Solvit' who, until yesterday, I didn't know existed let alone know what he looked like but how can you say no when these big eyes look at you and ask 'Can you make my costume for me, Aunty Mel?'
On doing a bit of research it is actually a very easy one to make - much easier than the lion costume for the Wizard of Oz - and should  be able to be made tonight. Little bit of modification to a couple of t-shirts and some cargo shorts should do the trick and then his little time travelling morph.
I do so like the easy ones!

Will Solvit in all his glory

Hope your week has been creatively simple and check out some other clever folks at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space

Today's creative space finds me flat out, whacking, stamping, cutting, sewing, polishing and lacing - Spoons, bubba boots and drums that is, trying to get all the orders finished and posted/delivered.
It never rains but pours. For weeks I have been wanting business to pick up and get back to what it used to be but with the current ecconomic climate I gave up and found myself a part time job to pick up the slack. No sooner did I do this than the work has just kept coming.
Mumasupial has picked up again at the markets and online sales, new shops are approaching me to sell my toys and slings and after last weekends worry about my spoons, the orders have just kept coming sometimes within 1/2 hour of listing the item- to the point that I am now on a mad search for silver plated spoons to be able to keep up.
Hence there are no new photos ready.
I have taken pics of all the spoons before they go out so I can create a catalogue and will take some of all the boots and drums before they get sent to the shop tomorrow but for now a demo version collage of photos taken on nice sunny days (not like today) will have to suffice. Maybe tomorrow I can update the photos as I do like to have fresh new pics for a post.

 

Check out what other crazy crafty weeks people are having over at Kootoyoo.

The Highs and Low of a Sunday

After being on a high tonight after a very successful Mornington Market, 2 more internet orders, new outlet opportunities for my spoons coming to me without any prompting, enquiries for purchasing my train and car caddies and both my stores being featured on the madeit front page at the same time, I was disappointed when perusing madeit that I found someone, who within 3 days of my spoons being listed, had flooded the market with exactly the same thing, only instead of using vintage sliver spoons, they use old stainless steel spoons.
Before I listed  there was no-one doing anything like this on madeit. I know and understand I cant expect to be the only one selling garden spoons but it was still a bummer on such a good day.
With the day giving both highs and lows on the crafting front I am choosing to stick with the positives as they certainly outweigh the negative and as I continually tell Sarah to look for the good in something, focus on that and try to find something good in a so-called negative, I have to lead by example and remind myself that 'imitation is the best form of flattery'.


So lets go out on a positive - Mumasupial and me2 on the front page at once.

I hope you have had a lovely weekend and if in Melbourne, enjoyed the rain-free, almost hinting at spring, couple of days.

Ho Hum, once again a post will appear on the following day as I forgot the time and finished it after midnight.

Toot, Toot, Chugga Chugga

Well it, the Train Cozy that is, is finished and I must say that although I would change a few things if I made it again, I am extremely happy with how it turned out. So I might say is Mia and Molly Engine.
See for yourself.......

 

As I said there are a few changes I would make as I learnt that Wonder Under does not work all that successfully under 3mm ribbon, it is very easy to stick said ribbon to your ironing board when trying to attach Wonder Under and stitching all the track cross rails individually takes a lot of time.
BUT...
I already have plans to make more but this time for racing cars with a racetrack going all the way around with a pit lane in the middle and possibly a train one but with the track done a far simpler way.
Hmmmm, possiblities, possibilities. Now if only some of my friends had young boys instead of girls.

My Creative Space

My creative space for this week is not quite as advanced as I had hoped it would be. Delayed by life, work and happily the sale of my first spoon on madeit within 2 days of listing them, yay - so excited, and an unexpected order from a new retail outlet  for my kids drums and bubba boots, my train caddy has not evolved very far.
Last night when everyone was tucked up in bed the first drafting stage began, complete with 1/2 size mockup, and then the full size trial and series of adjustments as I found out that just doubling everything did not work,

This photo was taken at about 1:30am when I finally decided that
1. no more could be done without fabric and it was too late to start searching through the stash
and
2.the fact that I needed to be up and awake in under 6 hours
.....  so excuse the bad lighting etc.

I would have thought that as I only had to choose the fabric today I would have made a start and even got it finished but my true libran indecisiveness kicked in to its fullest and I think it took me over 5 hours to finally decide on the colour combination. So as a result this is as far as I got.

Hopefully tomorrow will see it completed and I can post some pictures of it in all its glory. I have a good feeling that this will be a winner with Mia when it is finished as we had to take the paper version out today with us so she could play with with her trains.

Hope your creative space has been a little more productive.
Pop on over to kootoyoo to see what is going on in the crafting world.

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You can now see the finished track in all its glory here. 

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Tower building on a Rainy Sunday

Last week while browsing the blogosphere, Annabel from Bellgirl, challenged us to figure out what she was working on. I guessed it , a drawstring play mat,  but only because I had made one for my daughter.

My sister and I had a mat similar to this when we were little to hold all our lego so when I needed somewhere to keep all of Mia's blocks, it was time to raid the fabric stash and recreate a relic from the past.
So on this very miserable, wet and cold Sunday morning I thought I would show you our toy mat in action. What better thing to do when you cant go outside than build towers.

Now we know where all the blocks are at all times

Ready to go

Let the building commence

Now to sit down and plan the next project for my train loving daughter - a variation of My Little Gems' Car Cozie tutorial  to accomodate some trains with a loop of track running around the outside. Hopefully I will have something to show later this week.
That is unless the weather clears and we ride the trains at the Diamond Valley Miniature Railway.