Love this vintage...

Mid-century child's stool.  So cute with the hand painted butterfly.  I love it.

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From Vintage Modern Design

Guardian.

On Tuesday night I had a go at this.

And I found out a lot about myself.  It was like reading my mind on paper!

Turns out I'm an IFSJ.

And a Protector Guardian.

Interesting.

Free Stuff I love: Easter

One week to go people!  I've been thinking about what I might be able to make Ellie for Easter - something little for her to keep and remember the weekend, rather than just a whole heap of chocolate.

On my travels around the web I've shortlisted.  Here are my five favourite Easter freebie tutorials....still yet to decide...


1.  A Spring Chick from Making Ends Meet!

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2.  Bunny Finger puppets from The Purl Bee  (I also love the little lamb pillows!)

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3.  Easter Birdy at Mollychicken  

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4.  Cashmere Bunny tutorial by Betz White

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5. Fabric Easter Eggs at Retro Mama

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I must say I do like the chicken tutorials because they're a great celebration of new life and so darn cute!  Hmmm, which one would you do?

Love this vintage...

70's stackable mugs from Rust Belt Threads.  I miss mugs like these!!

Good one.

OK.  This is perhaps the cutest and most accessible tutorial for baby clothes I have seen in a while.  I just had to share it.  Please, if you have a little person to sew for, head over to Made by Rae now, and bookmark it!

Good one Rae!!!

Poppy

Well, I can finally reveal what I've been working on for the last few weeks.  The wearer of those tiny clothes is finished, and she now lives at her new home with a young lady who deserves her very much.

What a delightful pattern.  I was fortunate enough to receive the Poppy doll pattern by the beautiful hop skip jump for Christmas, and I've been itching to give it a try.  As always, there were some mistakes made and things to do differently next time, but I'm very please with how she turned out over all.  The nice thing is that she has been named Poppy by her new family.  Sweet.

The main changes I made were to use velcro on the clothing instead of buttons (as her owner is very young) and I also made a faux button from felt in her hair to pretty her up a bit.  

Poppy looks nice in green, but when she's feeling a bit retro she can reverse her shirt and change to wearing her brighter, cheerier outfit made from vintage linens and bright red corduroy.

The only bad thing was trying to explain to Ellie that she wasn't staying with us.   

Have a lovely weekend and don't forget to check out the many cool creative spaces at Kootoyoo!

Wednesday

Wow, it's Wednesday and today feels like the first day in ages that I've had in sometime where I am able to catch up.  It's been a big week of appointments and parties, and looking at our calendar, it's not likely to ease up until May.  

Last weekend was hectic.  Multiple events and engagements, one of which was a fun day at a park overlooking the beach for my niece's first birthday party.  We really didn't expect it to be as chilly as it was, but in true Australian cool weather style, we were rugged up and still got sunburned despite cream and hats (you can see Ellie's gorgeous hat with hoodie fashion below).  I should have known...those windy overcast days are always the worst for sunburn. Oh well, it was a great day anyhow, teaching the youngster to play frisbee and enjoying great company.

Today I've finally found an hour or two to start cutting out a bag pattern - I'm trialling some heavyweight IKEA fabric using this pattern, so we'll see how we go.  Any thoughts on IKEA fabrics?  I haven't used them much.

Anyway, off I trot, thanks some guests last night, there's not much cleaning  or cooking to do.  We'll be having slow cooked Massaman beef leftovers tonight.  Yum.

Love this vintage..

1960's Tapestry clutch from mod cloth.  Nice, very nice.

My creative space.

Tiny clothes this week for a special project.  It's so satisfying making clothing this little, because it's relatively simple, doesn't take long, and is great for using up fabric scraps.  Can't wait to try them on the wearer.

More lovely creative spaces as always at Kirsty's.

Free Stuff I love: Aprons

Hi friends.  How's your week going?  We've been OK here, just recovering from our big week of travel last week, and trying to catch up on the never ending housework in this place.  I'm also chasing my tail trying to get some sewing done for this weekend.

Today I wanted to share some of my favourite apron tutorials from around blogland. There really are so many out there I don't know where to start, except to say that these ones look like fun and also like great gift ideas. .  If you feel like it, make one too.

For the grown ups:

A very clever pleated apron with hot pad inserts (genius!) from The Mother Huddle

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A Bakers Apron from Martha.  (This one's my absolute fave)

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And a cute and chic cooking apron at Grosgrain (this girl can really sew.)

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If you're a patchworky quilty kind of person, try this nice idea from Denyse Schmidt at Craftzine. I love the shape of this apron.

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And for your little people who love to be just like the grown ups...

A very sweet apron tutorial from Skip to my Lou

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The sweetest little apron, and all you need is a teatowel, thread and some binding.  Found at I have to say. (this is my favourite kid apron.  And  I love lemons too.)

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A lovely lined child's apron from lulu lolly legs

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Also:

•  Martha also has a gardeners apron, crafter's apron, chef's apron and kids oilcloth aprons.
• One of my favourite aprons is the paris apron from living creatively, but unfortunately they're updating their website.  Try it again soon.

So many lovelies here, I hope you have some inspiration.  

My creative space.

High folks, I'm back from a flying visit to Country NSW for a funeral this week, where there wasn't much time for anything crafty.  However, here are a few pictures of what I got up to last weekend , where I attended my very first ever crafty/sewing/making stuff day with some of my lovely crafty family - it was so much fun and I highly recommend it.

We had some very clever people quilting, pattern drafting, sewing, and stitching.  There was even a little bit of photography in there.  And good food of course.

I can't tell you how nice it was to have a break from crafting amongst toddler, chores and other responsibilities.  It was such a release, and I do think it's a healthy thing for me to do every so often.

Overall, it was a fantastic time, and the day just flew!  Thanks to the beautiful Yana for hosting the day!

Wow, there are some amazing creative spaces today over at Kirsty's.  I particularly love this one and this one.

Love this vintage...

Engagement ring from lonestar sales.

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Mmmm.  I likey.  But I have mine :-)