What's in the box?

How lovely are these clay decorations my friend Vicki made me? She presented me with this gorgeous box full of hand made Christmas tags and decorations.

A special one for each of my children....

some tiny hugs and kisses to tie onto pressies or sew onto clothing or wire onto wine glasses. (she tells me they are quite dishwasher proof)

and some tags for pressies or the tree.....one in every reindeer!

How lucky am I?.......thanks Vick, a Christmas cake is coming your way soon, I promise!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I haven't been sewing much lately, it's one of those weeks where I start something and things get in the way or I run out of black thread and interfacing. Our nearest spotlight is nearly half an hour away and I just can't contemplate taking a pram and two kids in there with all of the crazy's out shopping at Christmas. I'm just going to have to forget about it this week and get over it.


What I did manage to send off last week is this little polka dot swap for Maxine in the UK. She received it yesterday so I can safely blog it. She said she loved it and that we have similar taste so I can't wait to receive mine.........thanks Stacey for hosting the Xmas swap.



For my swap partner I made some rounded spotty Christmas bunting, some button hair ties, covered buttons in my fave fabric, some spotty fats from spotlight, a handmade Prints Charming linen decoration for the tree and an eco friendly shopping bag secretly disguised as a strawberry (ahhh the things people think of??)




And here is one of Harvey's very best creations, it is our whole family standing under the Christmas tree that we just set up. He is spending lots of time drawing at the moment which I just love, he has also done a couple of red fat santas on paper which I hope to do something special with. Don't you just love Rosa down the bottom?

It was Charlie's turn this year to put the star on the tree (or so he tells me).

And Charlie's Christmas concert at school where he proudly donned a hand made tree covering the perfectly cut wide legged green pants I made him and his green k-mart t shirt......why do we stress so much about these outfits???? most of the other kids wore their green school pants and here is me up til midnight the night before stressing about the perfect coloured green to match his beautifully painted tree......

This and That

This is a dress I started in class and finished last week. The fabric is Amy Butler and Heather Bailey. The sleeves are a bit stiff but have softened in the wash. SO simple and quick to make. Rosa insists on wearing this and everything else with her black patent winter shoes which is so not attractive but you get that!

And that is a dolly quilt for a Christmas present. I have made a few pressies so far but obviously cannot show yet for fear of spoiling a suprise.

SUNDAY STASH # 15

I'm loving this weeks SS. I was in Vinnies yesterday buying an orange cross stitch table cloth that I had seen earlier in the week when this little beauty was sitting right at the counter still in it's plastic. It's vintage and brand new. It still had the $6.59 price sticker on it from Venture...does anyone remember that store?? I do. It is a light flannelette so I probably wont put it into a quilt but I'm thinking of some large cushions for the boys beds. What's even better is that it is made in Australia, I'm pretty sure most commercial sheeting and bedding is made in China these days.

grandmother's flower garden giveaway

This giveaway is just gorgeous, check out retro mummy. It's a beautiful blog with an online store. Very generous indeed!........my fingers are crossed.

Meg's blocks for The Beehive

This month's blocks are for Meg in the US. She wanted a mosaic beachy feel with squares and rectangles and a little wonk.........well she certainly got wonk with these. I had lots of fun creating these blocks, the fabrics are really calming. This was my first attempt, it's a 10.5" square block.

This one is a tiny 5.5" square


And 10.5 x 5.5" it actually goes horizontal but I couldn't work out how to rotate my pic.

I love the idea that just a little bit of my craftiness will be sewn into a quilt along with lots of others and used all the way over in the US........Can't wait to see it finished.

SUNDAY STASH # 15

This weeks stash piece is one of Sandi Hendersons Farmers Market range.