Soft & Sweet :: The Groupies

Just finished off these little rocker dudes... ready for their trip to Melbourne for some Kiss Army convention. And just in time too. I'm moving house. We are in sea of boxes, sticky tape & bubble wrap...and I can't sleep as lists of things "To Do" are swimming around in my brain. But I'm excited! I'm going to have my very own office/ crafty room... and a little garden. It seems like a dream come true!

Unfortunately the Internet will be turned off soon... so it might be a bit quiet around here for a wee while. Hopefully not too long as I have got to make use of that new room! ...suppose I better pull the gloves back on and do some cleaning. T

P.S Yes my husband went to Fashion School... and is a fashion designer. I have been given his sewing machine, fabric scraps and sewing books. He buys my clothes and doesn't say my butt looks big in anything... just that I should consider my silhouette!!!! For all this he still had the boxing on the telly last night despite my objections!

Sew Sweet :: The Bound & the Beautiful

Avert your eyes Nicky!... this is the hassle of sharing a blog, maybe you are making something for the other contributor and they might just find out what you have been up to!



And I have been up to binding! Binding used to be such a mystery to me... When I sew I just jump on the sewing machine and hope for the best. It might take me longer than the average josie/ joe, as I just usually figure things our for myself. Don't get me wrong, this is not my general behaviour... I do read maps and ask for directions! But as a result of this particular sewing philosophy my binding creations have been a disaster!



Making this little padded jacket spurred me to rely on the wisdom of others and read a book ! My husband handed his mint condition tome that got him through fashion school. It is brilliant! It opened the door to more binding possibilities than I thought were possible... turning tatty to bound & beautiful.

As my skills improved I started to dislike the first bits I had sewn. Isn't this always the way? But after 8 hours of binding I can say I am now over it... but it is good not to have to lie to Nicky anymore with stories of making oven mitts! T

P.S The baby hasn't arrived yet... and Nicky has cleaned everything and is telling me she is bored. I believe this is called the calm before the storm!

Sew Sweet :: Nursery Tales (Part 3)

Nicky has gone into serious nesting mode... and apparently this means scrubbing everything within an inch of its being. So I have been given the task of posting about our 2 day crafty challenge. As you can't predict when the bub will arrive everything seems to be urgent... we dropped all other tasks (sorry business) to make this nursery crafty centerpiece before the little one's arrival! And boy did we have a lot of fun- forgot how fun it is to craft with a friend.



We used inspiration from everywhere... Nicky really wanted to feature a tree. It was all about the tree. After searching on the web and books the inspiration was right on her desk calendar... the fabric for the trunk is some thrifted tweedy wool. We adhered it to some Ikea linen with Visofix - an amazing fusible web. I had never heard of this iron on product before, but it is safe to say I am in love. Oh, the instant gratification! No sewing required!



The little critters were inspired by shoes, the amazing felt book and from prints on fabric...

Once we had attached everything to the background linen it was staple gunned to a board of Caneite (I think this is called Homasote in other countries). Caneite is another great discovery, light weight and can be used as a bulletin board. It can be a bit fibrous though and it was a real challenge trying to find a hook that would stay in, so it could be hung on the wall. I think this is a trial and error thing. I want to make another hanging crafty work but this time I might talk to hardware store peeps about the best way! Hope the little bubba likes it! T

Sweet Inspiration :: Forest Finds

Every morning and every evening I walk my dog in one of the biggest parks in Sydney... it has lakes, running tracks, picnic areas and my favourite, the forest.... I guess it isn't really strictly a forest, more like a wooded area with a stream running through and lots of dogs playing hide n' seek. It is lovely... nice to be in touch with nature in the big bad city!

In the "forest" is lots of pine trees... a few of them have been cut down recently and I have scampered off with a few twigs and a whole lotta pine cones... And in a particularly rushed weekend I was able to find 30 minutes to throw together this ode to Autumn, or Fall.

There is a slight chill in the air and I am thinking about baked apples, warm soups and making the house cozy! T

P.S These cutie postcards are a tokyo find... of course.

Sweet Eats :: All the fun of the fair!

When Easter hits Sydney so does the fever of the Royal Easter show... the country comes to the city. Think... sticky fingers, zillions of people, show bags, hay, cute animals & related smells... and for Nicky & I the most important destination is the Country Women's Association's (CWA) Tearoom.

We have been engrossed in "Not just Tea and Scones" a documentary all about the CWA... the ladies, their baking and community exploits. So despite Nicky's 8 and a half months preggas belly we headed out to try some of their famous scones with cream & jam... and so did everyone else! The line curled around 50 people deep. But is was worth the wait as they were straight out of the oven... warm and delicious. We each bought a 1/2 dozen to take home, fruit cake and some jam... best show bag around we reckoned!


With our tummies full we moved onto the cake judging area.... can you see the three guys in the background? They were earnestly discussing the Sultana Cakes... the judging criteria includes even distribution of fruit, the absence of rack marks and even colour. They had obviously been watching the documentary too!


Amazing gigantic Sushi cake and Dr Seuss Cake...


If you would like a CWA recipe for a Sultana cake, fruit cake, scones or even a chocolate cake they have some on their site. And the best news is that they don't look hard at all.... so maybe Nicky & I might enter next year! Just for a giggle!

And some other highlights...
The three pigs...

Their cousins the Wessex Saddleback three pigs...

Goats in polkadot coats...


And the amazing display made from fruit and seeds by the Northern District... By the way, all the scones are gone now, so we will just have to wait til next year. T

Sweet & Soft :: We made the press!

Having a little market stall has been fantastic for our little business... not only have we made some sales and some fantastic creative friends... but a recent added bonus has been a wee bit of press interest from Cosmopolitan Pregnancy. After all the years of Cosmo giving "relationships" advice it seems it has been so successful with a resulting baby boom in Sydney!


Our market days are over for a while as Nicky is on maternity leave and I will be working on something new... but that will have to wait for another post when everything has congealed in my brain! T

Sweet Inspiration :: Nursery tales (Part 2)

I have been bitten by the international on-line shopping bug. I'm loving the anticipation of receiving a package from the other side of the world. Can I use little bubba as an excuse for this behaviour? Well....too late, I have. And so some new additions have been made to the nursery including this lovely boxart collage of a spotty baby giraffe by artist Kate George. I purchased it from the gorgeous Papa Stour...a treasure trove of beautiful things designed and made by Scottish artists. Sweet.

Whilst shopping for Tiff's pincushion on Maminka (see previous post)...I couldn't resist these little handpainted boy & girl ornaments. I think they're meant to be Christmas ornaments, but they're too sweet to put away for the rest of the year!

And finally....this package of yummy fabrics arrived from Reprodepot this morning. Some cutie Japanese hedgehog fabric which we've spied in Tokyo before...and some lovely Westfalenstoffe fabric from Germany:

Tiff has mentioned her fear of online shopping...but I am trying to convince her otherwise! I keep telling her it's totally safe and it's so easy to click on "Add to shopping cart". Ok, who am I kidding...maybe it's a little TOO easy once you start! N