feeling.......

extremely grateful ~ for your support

sad ~ to find out it is happening to so many others

embarrassed ~ that I carried on like a spoilt brat

and involved all of you.

humbled ~ by your loyalty

silly ~ that I let the matter affect not just me

but my family also .

sorry ~ I cut the comments on the last post too soon

and then people had to email me with their support.

grateful ~ again

free ~ strange maybe but I feel free !

I feel as though a huge weight has been taken from shoulders

and now I am able to reclaim my blog and because I am

 so very melodramatic my life .

Free as a bird .

The little bird in the photos is just symbolic

because this little bird is not normally free it is usually

blue tacked to my kitchen shelf .

I thank you all from the bottom of my free heart.

spitting the dummy

This , I hope , is my only dummy spit for the year.

I don't know about anyone else but I love to read comments on my blog , I really do .

I don't take any for granted and appreciate the time that people take to stop and say hello.
For some time I have gotten hardly any comments despite the fact that my stats tell me I still have 100s of visitors especially to my tutorials that I love to do .
Then I look at pinterest and see they have been pinned a zillion times so someone likes them .

So I adjusted my settings so that anyone could leave a comment , big mistake.

Anonymous thought this a great opportunity to rip into me .
 Anonymous is such a nasty piece that at times I have even considered shutting my whole blog down .
It has gotten to the point where instead of being disappointed at no comments I have been relieved that they haven't been there because it feels like they have stained my cheerful blog .
This may sound a bit silly but it was beginning to feel uncomfortable .
Anonymous is so petty so far they have said ~
 they won't be visiting anymore because I don't do enough giveaways ,
or because I said shit in one of my posts .
 I am irresponsible for posting the chocolate cake recipe .
 Excuse me I didn't know the health of the whole world rested on my blog.
I am also irresponsible for doing the previous post with the pencil tin as some child might hurt themselves getting a pencil out .
These comments from anonymous are the kinder ones it is actually a bit upsetting to think about let alone repeat the personal attacks that have been screeched at me .

Then there are the emails ...... these come into my home , my family could even read them .
I recently had the nerve to reply to a particulary horrible email and was then accused of stalking them.
I'm not up myself but I think I'm a pretty decent person and I don't deserve this.

I had thought about shutting my blog down but ,
 stuff you anonymous this is my blog so I won't !

I will be closing comments after this post so anonymous comment away, be your mean self , I won't be deleting your comment .

Give it your best shot because this is your last .

I would like to go back to blogging for the joy of it instead of worrying that no one is interested or they are a little too interested .

To the genuine people that stop and visit , thanks xxx

back to school

Pencils +

glue +

                                                    
                                          tin

= pencil tin !

Wishing your kids a year full of learning

and lots of laughter .

are you lucky ?

Were you lucky enough to win the Tilda book ?

Thank you all so very much for taking the time

to visit my new shop and giving your opinions .

I really appreciate it and believe honest feedback

and constructive critisism

is very important and useful .

(Nasty old anonymous didn't make an appearance

on the last post either which is always a good thing)

Anyway were you lucky ?

Well guess what Lucky was lucky !

Yes Lucky wins the Tilda book .

Please send me an email with your address please .

I'll be back with a back to school project very soon

but in the meantime you can find me pinning at pinterest.

Or facing books at facebook.

Thanks again , have a great day x

tilda book giveaway

It's a bit odd that someone who crafts for a living

has nothing crafty to blog about .

I've been busy streamlining my business and

trying to make it a bit more manageable .

I have opened a bigcartel shop to sell my patterns from.

What an easy set up , it's clean and tidy and I hope

to add some one off handmade things this year .

So why am I boring you with all this ?

I would like you to visit my new shop and

have a look and maybe tell me what you like

or what new design you would like to see there .

You won't need to take a cut lunch or anything

just click here and then come back here with your

wisdom and enter by leaving a comment

and you just may be the winner of this Tilda book .

It is open to everyone .

PS There is free post on all patterns in Australia

until Thursday in my shop

Thanks very much xxx .

Thanks for your interest but

this giveaway is now closed .

The Rug . Much more than just rags.

Jodie from Ric Rac is having a rag rug-a-long .

I read about it and thought

"why yes Miss Clare you can manage that"

Jodie very clearly states it is not a challenge

but just for people to join in and support each other .

Pffft !

Damn right this is a challenge and I am in !

In fact I was so in I started ripping a vintage sheet

there and then .

I ripped and ripped because I was in .

I then rolled and rolled because I was in .

I got myself a fat , chunky hook and went for it .

Hook , pull , yank .

 I was on a mission , the rag crown would be mine .

The whole time I felt I'm in and I'm going to win !

Not only would my rag rug be the best and the biggest

I was also going to finish first .

Blogger was going to give me my own space

because so many people would want to see The Rug .

Pinterest would inform me that everyone loved 

The Rug more than my carrots . 

Martha Stewart would want to fly me over for an interview

and 60 Minutes wanted to schedule a whole program

just about The Rug .

As I hooked , pulled and yanked I thought about

how I was going to photograph The Rug .

I really wanted this for a bathroom rug but no

photo editing program could fix my bathroom

and I couldn't retile the bathroom just for these

photos because I had already priced having The Rug

insured for the trip to visit Martha .

So I thought I would photograph The Rug with my darling

children rolling around on it and smiling.

OK This is my fantasy I know they'd be fighting.

Then I thought about a beautiful photo beside

the river with a lot of vintage crockery

and me looking all glamorous and willowy.

Still my fantasy ok !

I hooked and pulled and yanked until my arms were sore.

 Surely , surely I would win a Punky award as

there could never be anything better than The Rug.

It was finally finished I was in !

My awards speeches were all rehearsed , I notified facebook

to expect lots and lots of new people to my page .

and then I had a really good look at The Rug .

Sorry Jodie , I'm out .

hearty xx

I'm sure you've seen these hanging hearts in paper.

I thought maybe you'd like to try some in fabric.

They are fairly quick to make and the more

you make the better they look.

Cut a heart template to the size you want from cardboard.

Trace around the template onto the paper

 side of applique paper.

Cut roughly around the traced lines .

Following the manufactures instructions for the paper

press the paper to the wrong side of your fabric.

You need four heart shapes to make one complete heart

and they don't all need to be the same .

Cut your heart shapes neatly on the traced lines.

Before removing the paper fold your hearts

in half and finger press to make a centre crease.

Remove the paper and start pressing your hearts

carefully to join them.

Make sure you are only pressing two halves at a time.

Work your way around using all four heart shapes.

When your heart is all done you can then thread some

invisible thread through with some buttons and beads .

Please forgive the dodgy photos and I really

wish Booger would stop putting those silly frames

around everything.

Please let me know if you make some hearts

I'd love to see yours x

chocolate

I knew that title would get your attention .

I don't usually do the cooking bit here because

honestly I am a terrible  hopeless horrible

 let's just say I'm not much of a cook .

But I thought I would make an exception with this

as it is absolutely the easiest thing ever .

All you need is a bought pastry shell 

1/2 cup of cream and 200g block of chocolate.

I just used normal chocolate not cooking chocolate .

Slowly melt the chocolate and cream until smooth.

Pour into pie shell and refridgerate for an hour .

That's it !

It actually looks like I made an effort too .

Yes I know you could make your own biscuit base

but when I said this was easy I really meant lazy .

Enjoy .....

so you can get hopping

I thought it might be helpful to if you

could find my Easter tutorials all in one place

and get an early start on the Easter Bunny .

Just a little bit of trivia ~

did you know my Fabric Carrots tutorial

has been viewed 17,540 times !

So if you would like that number to go up again

click here for the tutorial .

Daffodils are for anytime but especially nice for Easter.

Tutorial here .

maybe you'd like to try placemats and coasters

tutorial here.

Fabric tulips here.

 Easy Easter craft for kids here.

Or something for the Easter Bunny to carry his eggs in here.

There will be a Valentine's Day tutorial next week

and another Easter tutorial is coming up .

This lot should keep you out of trouble .

Thanks for hopping in , see you soon !

lounging about

Summer holidays , kids are home and the cricket is on .

Lots of lounging about has been done .

I feel a little more justified lounging about now

that I have made myself some lounging pants.

These were made from a vintage sheet and

are so very soft and light.

How are you spending the holidays ?