My Place & Yours: Blog HQ

I am playing along on this fine Sat morning with Pip's meme My Place & Yours. The theme 'Blog Headquarters' was decided by Ninon.

This is where I sit, put my feet up, drink my tea in my fave cup and blog my life away. I heart my lappie (her name is 'Shiba. What does it say about someone when you give technological devices a name?). Off to a BBQ now, this anti-social butterfly is actually quite excited to be venturing out into civilization. x

W.H & W.N

Joining Claire of Loobylu's meme today -'Whats Hot & What's Not Wednesdays'. Yes, i do know it's not Wednesday today but ....it will be in 5 days time right :)

What's Hot?

* floral surprises in a teapot

* super juicy breakfast oranges

* my enthusiasm for slowly learning to draw and paint {thank goodness for erasers!}

* the boy's ranga beard

Whats not:

* the ridiculous amount of dishes on the sink this morning! A pile x5 high. Yuk!

* cheap drawing paper that goes lumpy, bumpy and horrid when watercolours touch it :(

* my favourite bread (Lawsons in that nice brown paper bag) which doesn't fit into the toaster, which therefore must go into the grill, which I seem to leave under for 20 seconds too long way too often

* heros burning rubber in front of our house. No. We don't think they are hot AT ALL!!!!

Have a delicious weekend x

Just some things...

Nothing special today sorry.... just a photo of my new bag from Country Road (when I couldnt afford the scarf the other day it was because I bought this bag -oops! I love it. its massive) and my entryway organiser thrifted for $5 from "smelly mans" secondhand shop (some intrigued readers have been asking about it).

Brown Owls tonight, yip-pea! xX

Lucy's love affair with catnip...

I made a scarf...

I didn't want to pay $49.95 for the Country Road version, so tried to sew my own red gingham and white cotton scarf for under $5. Not nearly as nice, mine has way too many raw unsightly edges, but i still like it. I used bits of this easy scarf tutorial by Spool Sewing. x

Nasturtiums: a love-hate relationship

Love...

* their magnificent orange, red and yellowey brightness

* their ediblity

* their burger shaped greenery

* the quantity of flowers from 1 plant {I can pick 30 flowers for the kitchen and the next day they seem to have magically re-grown outside!}

Hate...

* their vine-like growth.

* their invasiveness.

= They have completly taken over our back garden. In spite of this i cannot pull them out. In the meantime the backyard will be completly unreachable by mankind! :D

Holiday Snaps: Part III

My Place & Yours: Bedside

I am playing along with Pip's meme again this week! Plz excuse the night time photos of the bedside - mood lighting at its best :P
:
** Some old suitcases from various oppies (old train and cruise stickers still on).
** My fave book.
** A little dog named Light Bulb i made last year from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Amigurumi.
** On the wall, does this count? I finally got around to hanging these vintage childrens book pictures.

Thanks for stopping by xx

Holiday Snaps: Part II

I heart Picnik.

I discovered PICNIK through lovely & helpful blogger Punky & Me - her blog photographs always look brilliant! Picnik is a very easy and *free* photo editing program. In the next week or so I'll be sharing some of my fave Vietnam & Laos holiday snaps :P I hope you enjoy them....

Thanks & Mr. Bird

I just wanted to say thanks for the crazy number of visitors who took a look at My Shelves and left the sweetest comments. THANK-YOU!!! x

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Thought I would share some funny things Mr. Bird is up to these days. I do so love his adventures, he is even blog-savvy.
...

Mr. Bird and the giant toothpicks run out of things to talk about...

Mr. Bird does interpretive dance in order to pay for his medical degree...

Mr. Bird sometimes gets tired legs, so he carries them and floats about instead...

Blogtober: On My Shelf...

I'm playing a new game Pip has whipped up - My Place and Yours. I think I'm gonna like it. Thanks Pip. It's different each week. I like variety. I get bored quickly. Should be good!

. . .
This week's theme: On My Shelf

Location: Our front entryway

. . .

This area was gross last week.... until I thrifted the stepped shelving unit for $10 from Salvos, and wooden apple bowls from a church oppie for $1 ea. and I now enjoy entering our home more than ever! x

Blogtober: Green + White Clutch

Just sharing a nice clutch made by ETSY seller BrianaEdelmanDesigns.

x

Rice - nice

Rice has so much beautiful brightness throughout their entire catalogue!!!! Quite simply I need to doze in that bed, read on that chair, bake in that kitchen, eat at that dining table, sit on those cushions... and even ....wash up in that sink - gasp. Take a look at their online catalogues for some jolly all-round niceness. Xx

I wonder...

I like the fact that antiques and thrifted wares have a past. I wish I knew more about this brooch which came home with me from a teeny tiny Antique shop in Old Noarlunga a month ago. I wonder what its story is...all I know is that its made from bone and was made in the 1930s ...making it 80-ish yrs old - what a Nanna of a brooch!! x

Blogtober: Finished baby quilt *yay*

Binding and quilt completo!

Blogtober: So sleepy..

Well, that's it. School holidays have come to an abrupt close. I feel really tired. Not looking forward to the early mornings for the next 9 weeks. Photocopying homework sheets again... uuuggghhh....term 4-itis has hit ...a whole week of swimming lessons... beach camp in November... only 3 months and then lovely 6 week Christmas holidays. I can do this. Yes, i can!

On the kawaii front here's Lucy dozing on an unfinished baby quilt I made last night for my friend who's about to pop at any given moment. I'm getting quicker at the whole quilting business, I made the binding myself (who does that!) and hand stitched it on. Me.. ha! What would one do without a rotary cutter, self-healing cutting mat and quilters ruler? Xx

Blogtober: Bowerbird Bazaar

I went to the Bowerbird Bazaar in the city this morning with Sherry, Cherry and Pippa, and bumped into fellow Brown Owl Donna and her son - it was quite the Adelaide Brown Owls love in to be honest :) I had such a nice day out girls x

We caught up with Linda of Deliah Devine and couldn't resist her beautiful teacup brooch. Thank you Linda. Your stall was lovely, as was your button necklace :P

I was so impressed with the awesome wares made by Adelaide artists - brooches (Oh dear -more to add to the collection), fabric mirrors, necklaces, quilts, fabrics and lots of lovely bits and bobs! It revived my hope that Adelaide can be an exciting little city (being a Melb. girl I cannot help but compare....I know I shouldn't do this)!!!

Blogtober: Cotton reels and new fabric

Being on school holidays means as many op-shop trips as I can possibly muster. Thanks to Cavan Rd Goodwill's Craft Room (floor to ceiling colour blocked fabrics - pure heaven...) I came away with these great retro fabrics. Lucky!

After collecting these and keeping them in an ice-cream container for the last 12 months and shoving that to the back of the craft cupboard... they finally have a home *sigh*... a couple of thrifted glass jars @ $2 each did the trick (I can't recall where I found this storage idea for cotton reels - some clever crafter - when I find I will credit). It's odd I know, but I do like their dull silky loveliness.

Blogtober: Giant human nest!

Who doesn't want to curl up with a good book in here?!
Image: A Green Garden

Blogtober: Free art prints 4 all xxx

Real Living Nov p.89 promoted this free art project at indiefixx.com today. Nice!

I especially like this print by Sarah Golden. Now I just need to get my hands on a decent printer....

Fruitober

Pondering....What will this new little furry fruit become?
Nectarine? Peach? Apricot? hmmm... Any guesses?

Blogtober: Vintage book pages framed

I was lucky enough to scoop up a full pristine collection of "I Want to Know About" children's encyclopedias 1955 edition. The illustrations are just fantastic and they couldn't stay bound up forever. So I carefully ripped a few out and framed them. The frames were from Big W (white border matting included) only $5 - cheaper and nicer than the ones I nearly got from Ikea :) I love a good find!

Blogtober: Crochet Gloves...

Finally I finished these really simple crochet fingerless gloves last week.

I don't like the style (I made up the pattern as I went along - badly) but I have been wearing them nevertheless.

I do like the colour alot, mustard is great.

They do feel nice and soft (Spotlight 'Fuzzy Wuzzy' wool).

They are warm.

Thank u Cherry (crochet fingerless glove extraordinaire!) for inspiring me to try such a thing x

Blogtober: Trespassing!

On Thursday morning Hanna and I decided to take a long walk through some random green pastures. We stumbled across this vast flowery yellow carpet [oh i stress -tartan Volleys are not a good choice of walking shoe... no matter how stylish they are] :)

Blogtober - Quilt inspiration...

Thank you to these clever bloggers whos tutorials and photos are inspiring me to complete my most recent project...

• Film In The Fridge - her quilts, colour combos and photos are so so beautiful and contemporary (my diamond top stiching pattern is from here)
• Aunty Cookie - I found her baby quilts in Little Bird @ Pt. Elliot. Gorgeous fabrics, so coordinated and reeeealy soft chenille bits!
• Pins & Thimbles - has a great vintage sheet quilt tutorial - love love love!
• Amy A La Mode - interesting smaller squared quilt
• Stitches in Play - lazy girl's machine binding tute
• Just Something I Made - awesome vintage quilt projects, just look at her card holder

In the future I would like to collect enough sheets/pillowcases to make a 100% vintage sheet/pillowcase quilt ...something like this by Sew Chic. Vintage fabrics are so cheery, summery and bright but pale and mellow at the same time.

A quilt in the making...

Last month I posted about my patchwork cushion problems. I just couldn't adjust to the colours - they didn't grow on me as some proposed and I hoped. What to do? What to do?

I've wanted to make a nice quilt for a long time now, a practical one the family would use and their family, and their family... plus I really needed to use up piles of collected fabric. It's taken hours and hours over the past 2 weeks and I have been absolutely LOVING every minute of the learning process (All hail YouTube quilt godesses and a multitude of awesome bloggy quilters) will post inspiration soon. x

The sewing and ironing stage (I was not aware how many hours of ironing would be required).

The "quilt sandwich" and first round of diagonal top stitching.

And tonight while completing the top stitched diamond pattern - the bunny-kitten Lucy decided it would be a great snuggly thing to sit on while spending time with mum. How could I move her? So I gave her an alternative ...

... and she gladly accepted. X