Flea Market Fancy!!!!!!

Mine all Mine Hahahahahahah (thats supposed to be a witchy cackle!)

On a spontaneous drop in to Just Patchwork in Tuncurry (we were passing through) I discovered a layer cake and charm pack of Flea Market Fancy, just sitting there on the counter! Obviously I snapped them up straight away! each has 40 pieces with lots of double ups, around 20 different fabrics all up, Im stoked! This fabric is so beautiful and I can't believe my luck! My favorites are probably these two below.

Yummy!!

Counting to Four.

Zero.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Happy Birthday my gorgeous girl! I love you so much!!

Making.....

Charlotte made "Milly", from a kit she got for her birthday way back in July

I made a Mixed Berry Clafoutis from Seasons by Donna Hay.

And I made another Keyka Lou "Charm School Handbag" using Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks, I love these colours!! Unfortunately this bag isn't for me, It is going to be the first item of I hope many to put into my yet to be opened etsy shop.  I'm hoping it will be open by the end of next month, I will be selling mostly bags and pouches from Keyka Lou's patterns, and maybe some other bits and pieces, Just enough to use up some of my gorgeous stash, to make room for more of course! First things first though, I need to take better Photo's!!

Now for some Quilting talk! (I know it's been a while!) I have joined a new bee with  Jo from Sparkly Green Knickers, there is still room left so if your interested go over and join! It will be my first bee, I'm excited and nervous all at the same time!!

So two posts in one day and I think I'm nearly caught up, unfortunately Im snowed under in my blog reader, 418 unread posts as I type this! ah well there is always tomorrow!! Im off to watch Big Love and work on my granny square cushion, which I will post about later, Have a great week!

Our Holiday at Home!

Beautiful Peacock, just wandering around the grounds, This photo was taken as is, no playing, no zooming!

It's been a very chaotic few weeks around here,  trying to keep everyone happy and busy isn't easy, we have also been saving up the fun stuff for this week while Mark is off work for a break, We have been playing "Tourists"! In other words checking out all the things to do locally, that we really don't do very often if at all usually!

First up was Timbertown Heritage park, in the next town over Wauchope, I forgot to take my camera and there website seems to be down, but basically its a great little town, with a bullocks team and some horses, little cottages and a sawmill etc, They also have blacksmiths and the local woodworking guild. Timbertown will always be very very special to us, Mark and I married there! We had Ice creams, and a good wander, unfortunately the Train wasn't running, hopefully later this year it will be going again!

Today we went over to the Billabong Koala and Wildlife Park we had an absolute blast! As well as the Peacock above were these guys in an enclosure, there were some females too.

This Pheasant, (True Silver Pheasant) was gorgeous, I absolutely loved the feathers, the outer white ones had black patterned through, reminded me of a pinstripe, and the under ones were a really dark bluey-black very shiny and bright when they caught the sunlight! This topped with the beautiful red, really had me thinking fabric!

Next up was the spotted Quoll, very cute, those teeth though were super sharp!

There are a lot of ponds full of Carp and Lily's, very beautiful, the fish were huge, but I didn't get a good photo.

This guy was very cheeky, and yep no zooming, he was that close!!

A gorgeous little Joey peeking out of mama's pouch!

I backed right off for this photo, me and snakes just.... nope!
but the girls and Mark thought it was pretty cool!

This guy's name is Clancy, The girls were pretty chuffed to be patting a Koala!

Miss Jocie and I were pretty excited too!!

And I got to feed and pat this little fella, he was holding on to my hand for a bit too, soo darn cute!!!!!

You know I've always wondered why Emu's are often portrayed with a kinda loopy/crazy personality in chilidren's books and Animations, Now I know why, they really give off that vibe LOL!

Happy New Year!!

A shocking photo of me on Christmas morning wearing another Anda dress I made, and my Christmas jewelery!

Ok quick Christmas round up. We had a great day, Santa was kind to the girls, they loved all of there presents, nothing handmade this year, except a cute pair of bloomers for Jocie, which I bought at our local Artist Markets off my friend Melissa of Honey beez Designs, They are very cute bright green with a tie dye ruffle on the back. I will post a pic when I get one! I also received a beautiful handmade gift from Mark, a gorgeous necklace and pair of earings from Earlybird Creations also purchased at our local Artist Markets, and I will say that Kylie is lovely, and her resin jewelery is gorgeous! (and I could easily spend a fortune in her shop!)
Anyway between all of us we got a lot of very lovely gifts, and thankfully I think most of the ones we gave were liked too! We had  a lovely cold lunch at my parents house, then spent the evening just chilling out. All in all probably the most stress free Christmas day you can imagine!
We spent New Year at home, just like any other night, (babysitting for 4? huh in my dreams lol!) and yeah thats us for the last couple of weeks!

So I don't have too many New Year resolutions, I kicked one in the backside last year, that had been hanging over me for more years then I'd like to count, so 2010 is the year that I *don't* have "quit smoking" in first position!! However now it is:

• Get Fit and Lose 10kg's
• Spend some one on one time with the kidlets regularly or at least two on one!
• Get this blasted house looking half decent, and keep on top of the housework.
• Figure out what I really want and love to make and focus on that, or at least pick one thing and focus on it for 3 months and then switch if I feel like it......

So with that Happy New Year (6 days late!) I hope 2010 is a wonderful year for each and everyone of us!

Merry Christmas!!

From my Family to yours, Merry Christmas!!

It has been hectic, in the most fantastic way, best Christmas EVER!!

Despite the fact that this is the only photo that isn't too blurry to look at, of any or all of the girls, and it was taken on Christmas Eve lol!.

See? totally hectic!!

Things have been too much around here this last week or so, but I will be back in a few days to do a proper post with actual craft type things, even if they aren't all my own ; )

 Drive safely and have a wonderful weekend!

I made this......

Mini table top ironing board, it is around 16" square, and is made from MDF, with a layer each of aluminium foil, ironing board felt, and topped off with some cotton drill from my stash.

Another Phone case, This one is Mark's. Black linen inside and out and velcro instead of button closure.

A coin purse for me, whipped up really quickly.

Another Handbag for me, this time the Small Satchel  from Keyka Lou, I used Grey linen for the outer and a bright green polka dot for the lining.

Stuffed full of my other Keyka Lou accessories!

Pinwheels for Imee's quilt are coming along nicely, I've started joining them together now.

And a "Anda" dress for me! It was quick and really easy, I can see a few more of these in different fabrics, getting made before the summer is out!

My new profile pic, I thought I'd pop it in here too. I'm pretty sure this is the only photo I have with me and all   the kidlets, grubby bunch, love 'em to bits!

Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree....

Christmas wouldn't be the same without our tree. So many memories, in these ornaments....

One Christmas in the very late 80's, my Nan made this, My cousin got one too, Not sure if she still has hers, but I love my Peg Doll ornament, and it makes me feel like a little piece of Nanna and Poppa are celebrating right along side us!

My wonderful Mum gave me this angel, for my first Christmas after I moved out.

This beautiful lady, was another gift from my Mum, a few years back, my cheap and nasty tree was looking, well nasty, I was pretty upset about it. This ornament and some paper crafts with the kids gave me back my Christmas spirit that year!

Our 1st Christmas, another gift from my Mum! I love these guys!

Charlotte's Ornament , Which was actually purchased for her 2nd Christmas, because I was too broke for her 1st, I had the guy engrave "2001" anyway!

Imogene's Ornament, She adores her Booty, and is so careful with it each year.

Laura's, from 2006. She thinks the Teddy looks funny!

An Angel for our Abigail May, My 4th daughter, At the top of the tree, closest to the stars, One of only a handful of things that were her's. 2007 was a hard year.

 

Jocelyn's 2008 Ornament, I Loved the idea of sleep when I bought this one!

and Last but not least, Charlotte made this last year, I really love it!

The Baubles have come off already, Miss Jocie was playing with one, and popped the whole thing in her mouth!! Luckily she spat it straight out, then Mark held her while I quickly stripped the tree of the rest of them, Hopefully the year after next, we will be able to put things down low again and put the baubles on!

I'm almost finished my Christmas Shopping, but I still have to wrap everything, eek!

How are your Christmas preps going? Do you have special ornaments?

Miss Jocie is One!!

It was Miss Jocie's first birthday yesterday! Here she is pleased as punch, covered in Vegemite in her p'j's, and yep her present is wrapped in Christmas paper!!

She got this trike, it is supposed to grow with her till she is 3 or so, I hope so!! It has one of those parent's handles at the back, hoping to use it on our walks/bike rides. (excuse the mess in the background, that you probably didn't notice until I pointed out!)

I decided at 5pm the day before that the trike wasn't "enough". So I stayed up until 11:30 or so sewing up this dress and a pair of matching bloomers, Despite her face in this photo she really did love her dress! She was a bit worn out at this stage! The dress is the "flower girl dress" from Weekend Sewing, The bloomers were the "ruby bloomers" from the same book. The dress has a lot of modifications to make it wearable.

                                      

She was a little wary of the flame!

But didn't hesitate at all to chow down on her mud cake!

I have a feeling that she really liked it!

And yep, it was store  bought, unfortunately we have had a bug doing the rounds, so we didn't have as much fun as we normally would have. I would have done a post on how much I love her, and how special she is too us, and how much I enjoy watching her grow and change, but I'm in tears just thinking about it.

Needless to say, Jocie my darling you are loved!