Sweet Sorry...

What's the best way to to say sorry to Mummy when you've been just a little bit naughty? Present her with a gorgeous little pin cushion you made all by yourself of course...

Oh how lovely! All is forgiven.

Fish for supper

Our local fish and chip shop recently offered to make it's customers a special bouillabaisse stock. I can hear you foodies out there gasp in shock! Yes, we're extremely lucky to live in an area with a fish and chip shop run by a French man who offers the most delicious chips plus lightly grilled fish and cos cous on the menu. This is definitely not your regular battered sausage and curry dip joint! No, no, no, this is very much fish and chips for the connoisseur! Of course we loved this creative twist on the norm, and where very quick indeed to place our order. Later that week my husband came back laden with the rich golden bouillabaisse stock which made the most superb fish soup imaginable. The best part is we still had enough left to freeze, so next time I need to really impress someone I know what I'm cooking!

Another Giant Baby Block

This time the theme was Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and fortunately baby was born as I was in the middle of making it so I quickly changed the design to incorporate a classic pink check.

Living in a shoe box!

We live in a rather small house and I often complain " oh, it's just like living in a shoe box!".

I stumbled across this little scene the other day - my children had decided to make a cosy shoe box house for their dolls, complete with en suite, lap top and phone. Note the cooker tucked away in the corner too. What joy to be children with such rich imaginations, I find it totally inspiring.

Hmm, it's food for thought, perhaps our home isn't so small after all...

Fabulous kitchen, wonderful craft cupboard...

Those of you who know me well will know I'm a huge fan of 'craft cuboards' in the home. I'm convinced that that the best way to motivate and inspire children to be creative and self motivated is to give them access to the tools they need to make things when ever the mood strikes. A really effective way to do this is to give them their own dedicated space and call it the 'craft cuboard'. It does mean you run the risk of having pencils, paper and half finished drawings everywhere you look but the plus side is your children will feel totally independent and can can make or draw whatever takes their fancy.
 

I went to a friends house the other day and was really impressed with her beautiful vintage and retro inspired kitchen (Rustic Retro? have we coined a new phrase?). Her black white and chrome colour scheme makes a striking combination. As an added touch she's featured a huge wooden dresser and other gorgeous wooden furniture all painted in white and I cheered when I noticed in the middle of her kitchen  a small cupboard stuffed full of crafty things. That's my girl!

Gigantic baby block!

My husbands cousin had a baby and I was invited to my first baby shower in Australia. I had no idea what to expect and of course had the added challenge of finding a gift to take. Whilst pondering over my options I stumbled across a pattern in a magazine for a baby block. "How sweet" I thought, I can make a little baby block and personalise it with the family name (they hadn't chosen a name and they didn't know if it was a boy or girl). I had some fabulous Sesame Street fabric I'd found in a thrift shop whilst rummaging and decided to team it together with a lilac and blue pin stripe fleece. I don't ever follow patterns as I usually come up with my own designs but on this occasion I followed the pattern to the letter. The result was very funny, half way through I realised to my amusement that the instructions were wrong and my little baby block was actually going to be gigantic. Someone had got the measurements wrong and now I was left with this huge baby block which needed masses of stuffing to make plump. The end result was a happy accident and received with great admiration and thanks. As for the baby shower it was a luxurious pampering session for ladies with great food, champagne and company. Yes I whole heartedly approve of this Australian tradition, long may it continue!

Coffee Pot, Oranges and Anxiety!

A good friend of mine is on an inspiring drawing course with the wonderful artist Melissa Becker. Having said to me privately only six weeks ago  "I can not draw anything, let's see what happens!" I was very surprised when she suggested a morning of art. Today we sat at my kitchen table and had a mini 'art class' of our own. We even went as far as challenging each other by setting up small still life compositions and just jumping right in with the drawing. At first I felt very nervous about putting anything on paper, with light strokes of my charcoal pencil I made some feeble lines. Then I thought ' blow it, lets just have fun!' suddenly the coffee pot came to life and the fears melted away. It was such a success that we're going to try it again, next time a landscape perhaps...then again maybe we'll wait for the advanced course before we tackle that!

My next market dates...

I'm at Mosman market next Saturday  (4th September). I'll be taking my newly made  Heart Hair Clip Holders amongst other goodies. If you're going to be there, you can find me in the square under the tree.

Home Sweet Home...

When we arrived at our rented house in Sydney we didn't have a stick of furniture as it was all coming over by ship from the UK. It was my son's birthday and I was really keen to make it as 'homely' as possible without spending too much particularly as we knew that our other stuff would turn up in a large container at some point (when exactly that would be was anyones guess!). It was the perfect time to tackle bunting and matching table cloth. To keep it nice and simple I used just two fabrics, a cheerful blue Birthday cake design and an old yellow sheet (to line the bunting flags). My trusty sewing machine still hadn't arrived so the whole job had to be done completely by hand. It took 3 hours but the end result was exactly what I wanted. A neighbour kindly offered to let us borrow her folding picnic table and chairs and once we decorated it with the table cloth and lovely bunting it looked very homely and didn't feel like we were missing anything. The moment of truth was my son's reaction on the morning of his birthday - as he came downstairs his eyes widened and lit up with excitement, I knew it was a success! Both the bunting and table cloth have been used again for my daughter's party so it's already becoming part of our family Birthday ritual and for me that's what makes it home no matter where you are.

I00 things...

Both of my children came bouncing home with the 'great news' that they had to collect 100 things (each!) for a school project and bring them into school displayed in an interesting way. I chuckled at the school news letter that suggested putting them in a zip lock bag as a 'quick' solution to the dilemma. The children decided themselves that they wanted to paint pasta which was great because it meant we could all sit and count out the 100 pasta pieces. Then they had the task of painting it all which involved copious amounts of paint and some very messy fingers. Once dry (and children tucked up in bed) I set about the task of stringing each pasta tube onto a cardboard hat, one centurion helmet and one princess crown. Admittedly after threading the first10 tubes of painted pasta  the harsh reality of the task dawned on me...I had another 190 tubes to go, arrgh! My enthusiasm waned (just a little). However two hours and one glass of white wine later I was finished. Phew. But the end result was well worth it, and of course the children loved wearing them to school the next day.

Here's some other great ideas I noticed other families had thought of ...(if ever you're in need of some inspiration for a school project like this)

1.  Mount 100 twigs on a piece of  round card (this looked fantastic, almost like a wicker shield)

2.  Collect 100 leaves and make into a necklace

3.  Collect 100 shells in a shoe box

4.  Bundle 100 cotton buds in sets of 10 and display on card (you could dip them in paint too for added fun!!)

5.  Collect 100 different things in sets of 10 (10 plastic spoons, 10 dry beans, 10 buttons etc)

6.  Stick 100 dried beans in a pattern on some coloured paper (this also looked fantastic)

'Fruit Face' gets a make over...

I've had a request from a local pre-school to come up with a version of 'Fruit Face' that's suitable for using with lots of children at once. This means it's not necessary to hand sew the felt fruits and vegetables so painstakingly as the folder is unlikely to become a family heirloom! 

I needed to come up with a cheaper more robust version of the original 'Fruit Face' that could be used in a busy learning environment. Here it is, a 'book style' felt and fabric folder, with one large integral pocket to store everything in plus plate, knife, fork and machined fruit and veg. What do you think?

Cup cake hair clip

Here's a close up shot of the cup cake hair clip.

Family Reward Chart

I'm in the middle of a commission for a 'Family Reward Chart' big enough to accommodate enough stars for 3 children plus one adult, so that's an amazing 48 golden stars! I love the idea of of a chart which gets the whole family involved so I've made one for our family too which includes a column each for 'Mummy' and 'Daddy'...I'll let you know how it works

Felt Phonics

Recently I've had the great pleasure of making a Felt Phonics Folder (great tongue twister) for Kristin, a speech pathologist who I met through Kids Spot. Kristin asked me to make the folder in wipe clean fabric so she could use it with the children she works with without worrying about sticky fingers! (good thinking). She provided me with a list of the most high frequency letters/sounds and I came up with some felt 'scenes' for her to use to encourage the children to use the sounds like 'sh', 's', and 'th'. I added a wipe clean bag to the set to help keep things together, although I think it would be more useful if the folder fitted into the bag too, I'll try that out next time. It's definitely a work in progress and I'll keep you posted, it's such an exciting project.

Mosman Market

I will be selling my Felt Story Folders, Craft Kit Bags and Reward Charts at the Mosman Village Art & Craft Market on Saturday 3rd of July. Please have a look at the Mosman Council web site here for opening times and directions. I would love to see you there!

Saving...

Little Fish Hair Clip

I needed a small Birthday gift to send to a friends daughter overseas and thought my newly created 'Little Fish Hair Clip' was just right to pop in the post. My daughter immediately pleaded with me to make her a felt 'cup cake clip' which she loves and has worn every were including to the beach whilst she was collecting shells.

Tooth Fairy Bag

A tiny bag for a tiny tooth, yet big enough for a shiny $1 coin to be left behind too. My daughter has used her bag for every single tooth fairy visit so far, she just loves popping it under the pillow at bed time. It can be made in any colours. Boys love the idea of a tooth bag just as much as girls!

2 x small oblongs of felt (for the bag)
1 x small bit of contrasting colour felt (for the decoration on the front of the bag)
1 x small length of ribbon (bag strap)
Needle
Thread
Fabric glue

Start by sewing sequins onto your contrasting colour felt in any design you like. Cut around your design leaving a border, glue your little sequin design onto one of the felt oblongs. Sew together both felt oblong shapes using a small overstitch, leaving one long side open. Sew the ribbon ends to the corners of your bag top to create your bag strap. Now all your gorgeous bag needs is a little tooth and it's ready to be slipped under the pillow...now the question is, will the Tooth Fairy remember to come tonight?

Mummy says "eat your fruit & veggies please!"

This fruit and Veggies 'Felt Story Folder' was such fun to make - I definitely got carried away with the detail. The cauliflower set the standard as it was the first item I made, so the other felt pieces had to follow suit. I was thrilled to sell the folder to a lovely mum of twin boys that I met on Colette's sewing course at the Bronte Sewing Room. It's always good when I know that my products are being used by boys as well as girls (redressing the 'gorgeous gifts for girls' versus 'plastic toys for boys' balance). As the Mum of a five year old boy myself I know they often get the short straw when it comes to handmade products, it's why I insist on making a boys version of everything I make...