Cupcakes to Cupcake

I signed up for a Pay It Forward a while ago and knew from the start I had 365 days to send a little handmade gift to 3 others . 365 days , a whole year , easy ! Well not so easy for me . I tend to get just a little distracted and then panic when deadlines loom . I have surprised myself and have managed to plan , finish and send 2 of my PIFs already , early and all ! Kylie from A BITE OF COUNTRY CUPCAKES was the first to sign up with me and Kylie makes the most gorgeous faux cupcakes and so I thought I'd make something to fit her . Kylie and I have been friends for a while in "blogland" and it was a pleasure to make something just for her . I'm also pretty pleased that she likes it !

The Lady of the Lamp .

A friend of mine was clearing out her mother's shed when she came across this treasure . She told me she thought it was so tacky that I would love it . She was right I do ! The cover of the shade was so old and brittle ,pieces would fall off when it was touched . It needed a good clean and a new cover and now it's back to it's former glory and as a bonus it works ! In the top photo I think the lady even looks happier with her new cover she may even be as happy as me with it !

You are so sweet !

Thankyou to all the kind bloggers that stopped in here the other day and left supportive comments for me as I was having my dummy spit . I am slowly getting on top of things and if this soothing blue and white combination doesn't calm me nothing will . Thanks again xxx

It's snowing in the Craftroom !

It feels like it anyway as I'm a little snowed under this week and feeling a bit overwhelmed at having too much to do and too little time , the same as most of you . I can't even show you much craftiness this week as I'm finally getting on top of my PIFs and I don't want to spoil anyones surprise , mind you it's probably going to be a bigger surprise that they receive something from me this year ! The other things I've been frantically trying to complete are magazine projects and you'll see those soon enough .

So you don't think this is a really boring post I thought I'd show you Christy from Sweet Tidings version of my pattern Frances Frog . Christy has a fantastic blog and she really is so talented .

The pattern for Frances is available from my blog shop or from My Ebay shop.

And it was worth the wait !

The secret that has been whispered about lately is finally out ! There is a great new Aussie blog featuring 9 designers . Giveaways , free patterns , what more could we ask for ! Obviously I am a big fan of gum trees as I have been painting them for years so I can tell this is going to be favourite blog of mine . Go and check it out there is going to be so much stuff going on there .

The return of Daisy (naughty doll )

Do you remember not long ago I told you about the magazine that wanted to publish my doll Daisy and she had vanished , poof ! I searched high and low for her and had to inform the magazine editor in my most professional manner "der , sorry I've lost her !"
Well guess who has turned up and guess where she's been ? Little Miss Daisy has been sitting in the offices at Express Publications , the same magazine that wanted to publish her ! She popped out of the box quite happily yesterday along with other items returned from the magazine . That's it for her , now she's grounded !

I was in the Vinnies at a nearby town yesterday when I came across this mountain of upholstery fabric, there was about 12m for $5!!! Grinning all the way to the counter I went to pay for it when the lady told me she thought there may be some more of it out the back . She returned with another even bigger mountain of it , again $5!!! I now have 30m of fabric for the princely sum of $10. This fabric is just perfect for curtains for The Craftroom . Now here's where I need to be honest with you ...I have had the fabric for my bedroom curtains for almost 5 years draped over the rods in my bedroom , no not sewn just draped . I really hate making curtains (so boring) and because I don't like the fabric for my bedroom ones I really couldn't be bothered doing them so now I've had to promise myself I'll finish the bedroom ones before I start on the important ones , sigh......

Because I saved so much on my curtain fabric I can now justify my latest Ebay purchase , can't I ?

Warning ! Spring cleaning is bad for the environment!

Yes you read that right ! I do have proof .

As Spring has sprung I keep hearing about everyone getting a burst of enthusiasm to clean their homes . I don't like to be left out of anything so I began with my front loungeroom window .

I cleaned it so beautifully it shined . Of course I needed (praise) to show my family so before school this morning I sat the children down for the grand reveal . As you may have gathered if you read my blog , I am a real pain in the neck to my kids , I know I see all their eye rolling !

Anyway with lots of fanfare, a bit of a flourish and a bit of a ta da I whipped the curtains back ....

CRASH !!! Just as I pulled back the curtains one of our beautiful Australian native birds came smacking into the window ! The poor thing bounced back into the tree outside and before I had a chance to check if it left dirt on my clean glass my son had jumped out the window to rescue it .

It was fine and flew off happily not long after .(probably smirking cause it stole my thunder)

So that's it then , no more cleaning for me . Maybe I should just stick to craft !

Happy Father's Day

1922 - 1972

Dad xxx

Mrs Miller's New Bag

Even though it's Micheal Miller fabric I don't think he'd be carrying this little number around .

How much fun it was working with "proper" fabric . There was no agonising over the colour selections and all the testing and fiddling with different fabrics to see if they really go together .

I did not hassle one family member with the usual thrusting of bits of fabric into their faces demanding to know what they thought of the combination . Not once did I abruptly bolt from my chair at teatime and run from the room mumbling about maybe this colour might be better . I even sat in the loungeroom without fabric draped over the side of the chair to compare in different lights .

I sort of missed all that stuff though .......

I love my new bag it was fun to make and I think it's a great size . Not really sure whether it will become a pattern , what do you think ?

Happy Spring !