Right Now

I took Master O to school in the pouring rain. As you can see he looked very happy about it.

Now 2 hours later the sun is shinning and my washing is on the line. 

The weather here is so up and down at the moment.

 Right now I am reading some great books.

"The Handmade Market Place" by Kari Chapman. 

This book is a great guide for setting up your own crafting business, so far I have found it invaluable.

"Rip the Page" by Karen Benke. 

Since I started this blog I have realised that I need a bit of help on the creative writing front.

"Super Natural Everyday" by Heidi Swanson

This book I have just got and I am so excited by it.

I love following Heidi's blog "101 Cook books"

Here is the link:

http://www.101cookbooks.com

I am looking forward to creating some yummy meals.

On the sewing front I finished two more Hottie Bottle Covers, here's Mr Camel

I

Plus I have just started another bag:

Right Now I am so happy I decided to give my crafting venture a go as I am finding it very fulfilling.

More Bags

I woke on Sunday and checked my emails only to find out that my ABC bag had sold.

It truly made my  day. 

Master O was off to his friend Gingers 8th Birthday party so I made her a bag and a hair clip.

My two nieces who are 8 and 6 are all about the accessories at the moment, so I figured we could not go wrong.

I used some left over fabric in pinks and greens that I had bought in the past from a lovely shop in Onehunga called "Patchwork Passion".

I am off to make more Hottie bottle covers now as joy of  joys they keep selling as well.

Have a lovely day.

This Moment

[this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

S for Strawberrys, P for Pears , G for Grapes, L for Limes

My two favourite colours are shades of red and green together. 

I cannot help myself I am just drawn to these two colours. 

I bought this beautiful vintage table cloth at a school fair a couple of years ago.

It has just been waiting for me to give it a new life.

The ABC Bag came together yesterday

The flowers were inspired by a tutorial by Maize Hutton on Frayed Flowers here is the link:

http://www.maizehutton.com/frayedflower.html

 I will load the bag on my Etsy and Felt sites some time today who knows maybe I will become a bag designer. Either way I had a lot of fun and I have enough fabric left over to create one more.

Have a happy day.

Bags

I am feeling the urge to make a bag. 

I have in my stash some lovely vintage material in reds and greens so I am thinking to create something new with this, I will keep you posted..................

Over the past few years I have made a number of bags, from little girls bags,

 to big girls bags,

To a little boys school bag,

and chair bag

I do enjoy creating bags.

This Moment

[this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Harpergrace Designs

I found a lovely Etsy Shop yesterday called "Harpergrace Designs".

They have a great logo 

"Helping you to remember the little things that make life sweet".

This one for boys really hit the spot for me:

They have several other beautiful art works. 

Its worth a peak at there Etsy shop. 

Here is the link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/HarperGrace?ref=seller_info

Have a wonderful weekend.

Busy Day

I had a busy day today. 

I renamed my Felt Shop and reopened it after a lapse of a year or so.

I have spent the week making Hottie Bottle Covers.

I took two covers into Snapdragon last Friday and they sold within 20 minutes , which was just wonderful.

My blanket supply is slowly going down..........Yippee!

You can see the link to my Felt shop on my side bar.

Tea Towel #2

I recently got a lovely book out of the library called

"Every Tea Towel Tells a Story" by Richard Tills

It is a little book that has tea towels from all round New Zealand 

and the stories that go with them

On Friday while I was doing the food shop for my girls weekend away

I quickly pooped into the local hospice shop.

There I spied a lovely tea towel that I just had to have. It was made by the 

New Zealand Red Cross Society. 

It is pure linen and never used.

I love the little Kiwi's and the words of wisdom on what to do for Nose Bleeds, Bee Stings, Broken Bones and so on.

I am debating do I use it or frame it and put it in my bathroom.

What do you think?

Good Deed

A lovely lady called Marie did me a good Deed last week.

She kindly offered to showcase some of my work on her blog.

It was a really lovely thing for her to do.

Marie has a blog called " Soft Earth's World" here is the link to her blog, it is well worth a peak at:

http://softearthart.blogspot.com/

Marie is a very talented Needle Felter who sells her beautiful creations all over the world.

I am lucky enough to own a few of her creations.

 Take a peak and enjoy, I am sure you wont be disappointed. 

If anything takes your fancy she has an online shop that you can link to from her blog.

This Moment

[this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Just one more.................

I am on a role with the Hottie Bottle covers so I had to make just one more (or maybe not............) for a little girl this time. With a little bit of pink and a little bit of lace.

Little Elephant with an ear that moves up and down.

Well I must run now. I am off to the hairdressers for my quarterly visit. 

For mothers day I got a beautiful card that read" Happy Mothers Day, You mummy have amazing hair and I love you very much. Lots of Love Master O.

It's funny what children tell you. 

Now the pressures on to keep that amazing hair looking good!

Hottie Bottle's

I am off on a girls weekend this weekend to a friends new batch.

As I feel the cold more so than most I have been given a lot of grief by
my girlfriends about taking my Electric blanket and heat pump with me.

 On Monday I went out and bought myself a Hottie Bottle and I decided to make it a lovely blanket cover. 

I used some of the huge blanket supply I am working my way through in my cupboard.

I googled and found this wonderful online tutorial  from "Made of Cloth".

Here is the link:

http://made-of-cloth.blogspot.com/2010/06/easy-hottie-cover-tutorial.html

Here's the one I made for me :

Here's the one I made a friend:

Here's the one I made to sell in Snapdragon:

And here are the three back sides:

I had a lot of fun with this  pattern. Lets hope it keeps me nice and warm!

Owls

Every so often I get an urge to make Owls.

There is something about Owls, everyone always loves them and they always sell.

The Wise Owl
The wise old owl
Sat in an oak.
The more he saw,
The less he spoke.
The less he spoke,
The more he heard.
Why can't we be like
That wise old bird?

Here is Mr Owl he was bought for a Kindy teacher as a Welcome Present by her Class.

Here is Mrs Owl she was bought by a lady as a Christmas present for a friend.

This is Master O's Owl that he got in one of his Advent Bags two Christmas's ago.

These Owls I made last week to sell on Etsy and in Snapdragon.
I hope they sell as I cannot seem to stop making them at the moment!

Present

A good friend of mine had a birthday last week.

I promised her many months ago that I would make her a bag.

I struggled to find the right material for her.

Then back in December she was showing me the goodies in her 

jewellery making box.

In it she had a lovely Russian Doll that she wanted to make into a necklace.

Not long after I went to one of my favourite fabric shops " All Things Patchwork" and found the perfect print :

Here is the finished bag 

The flowers were inspired by a tutorial  from Heather Bailey's blog
"Hello my name is Heather"

Here is the link: http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/2009/09/pa.html

This Moment

[this moment} - A Sunday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Elephants

My friend had a baby girl called Betsy so I decided to make her a little pink Elephant.

To celebrate her arrival.

This inspired me to make a couple more to put in Snapdragon.

The elephants are made from felt that I dye myself.
Depending on what colours I want I either use Ashfords Dyes:

http://www.ashford.co.nz/newsite/dyeing/79/dyeing/wool-dye-collection/moredetail.html

or I use food colouring mixed with soap, white vinegar and hot water.
The vintage lace on the ears was a present from my mother in-law in Ireland who cleaned out her sewing cupboard and sent me lots of wonderful bits and pieces.

I also found an old picture of an Elephant I made several years ago

and I have had some greeting cards made up using this picture.

The cards should arrive any day now so I will put them in Snapdragon too.

Wrapping for Presents

Recently a new friend gave me a beautiful present wrapped in some funky wallpaper.

Here it is:

At the time I thought what a great idea on so many levels. 

The paper was cool and unique, it could have been left over wallpaper that you recycled for wrapping paper who knows!.

Several weeks later I was at a school fair and at the white Elephant stall I stumbled across several boxes of funky wallpaper. 

My eyes lighted up and I asked the seller "How much?"

I think the seller thought I was going to make his day, he wanted me to take the whole lot (about 30 rolls) for $15.00. I could just see Mr O's face when I turned up at home with 30 rolls of vintage wallpaper.

In the end I settled on just two.

A lady next to me was also buying some to line her shelves (she was going for the calmer colours).

This week is a week of presents a friend has had a little baby girl, another friend is celebrating a birthday and its Mothers Day on the weekend. 

So today I wrapped up all the presents in my new wrapping paper.

I was really pleased with the end result.