little bird in a beehive

two otekah birds in an autumn tree

2011-09-10T19:12:00.003+10:00

While holidaying in Tasmania, and wandering through five of its many markets, one stall I really enjoyed perusing was otekah.. beautiful wood craft.. cards, earrings, ornaments, buttons, and more.. all carved out of wood.. and some quite fine and intricate.. I spent my time browsing their button bowl until i had chosen the five single nicest buttons available :D

No, at the time I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them exactly.. i did have broochy things in mind, but no concrete plans

It wasn't until i attended an IT presentation on different ways to engage middle years students using Google and its friends that i was inspired to make this...

can't wait to wear it on monday!!

what do you think??

I am also loving the card mum bought me which i have framed in my lobby.. sorry no photo

labcoats and test tubes

2011-08-07T16:25:00.009+10:00

Its science week at school, which means something sciencey each day, plus a whole lot of competitions.. one of which is decorating a labcoat. Conditions are that it must still be wearable and must have a mixture of painting and sewing (cannot only be drawn/painted on). Lab coats aren't due for a while, but I got excited about my design and couldn't wait to get to done, but seeing as no one from school reads my blog, I figure its safe to post my designs here early..
so this is my labcoat!

front

and the back..

love this little dude stiring and bubbling away..

and the school crew :)
notice that the puzzled one who just can't figure it out is also the emptiest test tube on the coat.. and the teacher has so many hearts.. because teachers need them!

pockets are always a drama for test tubes.. got to watch you don't trip and fall head first into one, and then when you do, there is always the trouble of how to get out!! and its such a long way down.. and so many chemical beakers to fall into..
glad you're not a test tube??

I love this mischievious one too! i don't think he's meant to be throwing things like that!!

look at the trouble he's causing.. all that splashing..

look at that thermometer! little temperature increments and all!!

ahh being a test tube.. its a hard life!!

well actually, when things like this happen.. it actually can be hard being a test tube.. poor fella, look at him kicking around, trying to keep his feet out or those nasty chemicals..

but then again, it can also be pretty fun..

as a little test tube, there's always time for a bit of fooling around..

As a big test tube, you're still small in comparison, so the day to day tasks involved in running a chemistry lab can be pretty challenging, you can really work up a sweat!!

but look at him getting the job done!!
sometimes you've just got to chill out and warm your hands over a bunsen burner.. be careful your stomach doesn't boil though.. there are always dangers in enjoying life too much when you're a test tube, boiling issues, dramas over spillage, etc..

sometimes you've just got to stop and smell the flowers.. or maybe I'm the only one who thinks test tubes would make good vases..

and thats it this week from the test tube family!

the market skirt.. and another jj blouse

2011-08-06T20:18:00.003+10:00

So I finally managed to get a copy of this beautiful lisette pattern :) at a reasonable price with reasonable shipping!!

firstly, the market skirt.. made in grey japanese linen fabric, and yes there are a number of things I learned making it the first time that I will change for next time!! but even with a few slip ups, I still think it looks cute :)

excuse the grainy photos.. it is 11.30 pm

I love the tabs at the waist!

this blouse is my fifth JJ blouse.. I love that pattern!!

next up are the view B skirt, and the e blouse..sometimes I wish we had joann's too!

blueberry larkspur..

2011-07-30T22:26:00.003+10:00

I managed to find some of this BEAUTIFUL fabric and it has FINALLY arrived..

aren't those birds lovely!!!

I can't wait to make this dress..

cherry apron

2011-07-30T17:17:00.002+10:00

I'm always sewing and going multiple times between the ironing board in the loungeroom, and my sewing machine in the sewing room, and the floor (my cutting space) and I'm always leaving pins, scissors, the tape measure etc in one of those places and realising that its somewhere else AFTER I've just sat down at my sewing machine.. so then I end up getting up and walking around to get the tools I need about 10 times per item of clothing I make.. at least..

well no more!!

I decided to make me a cute carry everything I need apron!!

it comes with fancy stitching, cherries, big pockets, plenty of wraparound tie, little loops for 3 pairs of scissors (material scissors, paper scissors, and little thread scissors), a little metal loop for things like my tape measure, a cute little tag, and its all fully lined.

perfect no? -it actually looks better in real life..

bloom

2011-07-24T18:41:00.006+10:00

GUESS WHAT!?!
there is ANOTHER one!! another stitched postcard swap!!!

Beth from Do What You Love is hosting another postcard swap

Basically you make a post card, get an address somewhere in the world to post it to and then you wait eagerly for a beautiful postcard in return.. you can use anykind of mixed media to create your postcard, and this time the theme is... bloom. How perfect is that! AND I actually founf this blog in time to JOIN IN, which you can do too.. signing up is open until JULY 27th!

so of course I got to making right away..

YES, I went for poppies, because they are always the first flower that comes to mind with words like, bright, flower, spring, bloom, etc

so this is the postcard my partner will receive..

watercolour poppoes drawn and painted onto an old book page..

skeleton leaves pressed into the wet paint.. stitched poppy stems..

feather stitch around the edges..

So i decided to go with the option of wrapping the postcard and posting it in an envelope rather than just sending it as is, because I REALLY want it to get there with all its poppies and skeleton leaves intact and beautiful, so I wrapped it in bubble wrap and skewers to prevent it from being bend or damaged, and then made it look pretty before SQUEEZING it into an envelope

don't you just love those poppies :D

butterfly papercloth journals

2011-07-24T18:21:00.005+10:00

you may recall a few weeks ago I made some more papercloth..

and a number of you asked what i was going to do with it..

well, I've used about a third of it.. maybe less actually, to make up some little journals..

here are a few of them..

the weather is STILL horrible here, so please excuse that bright shiny flash spot on each of the covers..

to make these journals cheaper for people, I've not put a whole lot of sewing etc into them this time

just some pages like this with flowers at the side, to inspire you..

some start with stamped words, like 'i hope' etc there are birds and leaves and bits of garden around the edges of about 60% of the pages.

I'm pretty happy with them overall!!

colouring rainy days

2011-07-24T18:05:00.004+10:00

while my street is largely closed off and this goes on outside

and its so cold and wet and grey and rainy out there

I'm brightening things up inside :)
one layer of paint on news paper, applied with a brush..

another layer of contrasting paint applied with a credit card or similar..

another contrasting colour used to add texture.. applied with bubble wrap :)

colourful, bright and cheap :D

now what to use them for..

he LOVES blue

2011-07-17T20:36:00.002+10:00

they really do exist!!

and they're really every bit as amazing as they look in documentaries, books, etc.. especially when they dance..

and their nests!!
oh! and their eyes!! SO BLUE :D
I've always wanted to see a real live bower bird..

more red berries

2011-07-16T13:23:00.001+10:00

just thought I'd share some more red berry goodness with you..

to speak the name of the dead is to make him live again

2011-07-16T12:36:00.007+10:00

Did you know that Tutankhamun's father tried to revolutionise the way his people thought by removing ALL their Gods and replacing them with one god? Which is pretty ambitious.. I wonder why he didn't believe what his father taught him and his father before that? Tutankhamun's name at birth was also Tutankhaten because his father was naming him after the god -aten, the sun, but when he began restoring all the old gods he changed his name to Tutankhamun to show his devotion to Amun Re and he moved back to Thebes.

The 'ankh' part of his name means life, but that didn't work out so well for him as he died after only 10 years of ruling when he was 19 years old, leaving no heirs, and no-one to protect his memory..

Kings largely had two names, their birth name and their throne name which is given to them on their coronation. This car-touche is of Tutankhamun's name.
It is composed of a sun, a beetle, three lines and a basket.
I added the lilies because apparently he liked flowers and board games -he was even buried with a lot of games because that was how he planned to spend his time in the afterlife

Ramesses the Great is known to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC and he believed that people lived as long as others remembered them, and really, he did an amazing job in terms of securing his immortality. Especially for someone who lived SO long ago, because we still remember him, and talk about him and still visit the temples and monuments he created.. He was also the first known ruler to have created a peace treaty, as well as the Pharaoh to have erected the most temples along the Nile.

below are some of the artifacts found with Tutankhamun when his mummy was discovered, you can see them at the exhibition..

this one was actually worn by Tutankhamun when he was ruling..

the very last one is Tutankhamun's name again -on a pendant you would wear around your neck..

larkspur..

2011-07-12T19:29:00.003+10:00

isn't it beautiful!!!
I am so in love with this fabric at the moment..
Its about $7.50 - $11 a yard in America, but shipping prices are ridiculous.. but then again to buy it in Australia its about $25 a meter, making it almost worth paying $15 to get it shipped from America.. sad really.

don't you think it would make a LOVELY dress?
I'm thinking this one:

What do you think? would it be too much??

lemons and the strutting hen

2011-07-12T15:40:00.005+10:00

In the end of financial year sales I bought some fabric paint that I'd been eyeing off for a while but did not really want to spend $21 on in case it was shiny, or hard or sticky, or just not what I wanted in some other way.. anyway, for $3.50 I figured it was more worth the risk..

Today I decided to give it a shot with some of my stamps :D
The first test item was of course my little strutting hen, which I LOVE!! I bought here here -if you haven't visited Sarah's hueofduckeggblue, then I totally recommend it! Cute stamps on olive blocks and you can even design your own stamp and she'll make it for you.

So I thought I'd start with something tiny in case it didn't work out so well..
and it didn't! I had to stamp this little hen FOUR, yes FOUR times before I got one I was happy with.. but on a positive note.. this paint does COMPLETELY wash out if you wash it quickly after you put it on, so if you stuff up you CAN start again..

Anyway I couldn't stop after one so I made another.. a new pencil case for my at school..

and it even has my name on it in case I leave it in a classroom by mistake :)

Then I decided to make some more to give away, because I hadn't had enough..
so this one happened:

then I remembered that a girl in my staffroom has just moved out of home this week so i started thinking of housey things I could make her that would fit in a little bag..

and i remembered this post and decided to make her some citrus coasters.. only not quite so many.. i couldn't find that many different colours, so I just made four, but I think they're cute :D and I hope she likes them!

I thought about hand stitching them, like Molly did, but I didn't like how mine were looking so I unpicked and machined it instead.. which has the added advantage of me getting warm feet (heater vent right under my sewing machine -LOVE IT)
On her bag I decided a hen however cute was probably not the most appropriate, so I made a lemon stamp -a triangle cut from an earaser and half of the rim of a plastic cup. The dots I did with a pin head and point.

THEN after I'd finished them all I had this idea that they'd look cuter with little tags, so I went back and added tags to all of them!

and now I'm off to put a zipper in an almost finished coffee date dress -wish me luck, because i HATE putting invisible zippers.. they are never invisible for me!

adventures with JayJay and Peter Pan

2011-07-08T17:18:00.007+10:00

once upon a time there was a girl

She wanted to make a new blouse, it would be her first blouse.. she had previously bought fabric with good intentions but it was BEAUTIFUL fabric and too expensive if a stuffup occurred, so she has been putting that project on hold for over a year now.
Anyway, said girl found on one of her late night perusals of the internet a pattern called the JJ blouse, and thought she would try it out..

She didn't like the lack of a real collar, and did n't like the ruffles all down the front so after some alterations she had a slightly changed pattern, one she was happier about making. A day and a half later she had two new shirts and a perfect shirt pattern which had been tweaked a few times since it was first cut out.

Click on the images to make them bigger :)
What do you think???
I LOVE them, especially the red one on which I finally got the collar right, well right-er..

SO here is a review of the JJ blouse pattern if you're thinking of downloading it too..

How long did it take you to complete the pattern?
It took me about 5-6 hours to make it the first time, but the second shirt came together a LOT quicker, so I got two made in a day.

Does it look like the picture on the pattern?
Largely yes, although I did make some alterations

Oh really? how did you change the pattern and why?
Well I added a Peter Pan collar because I didn't like the basically non-collar on the existing blouse.. i wanted a cute collar and I thought Peter Pan would do that for me. I also am not really big on rows and rows of ruffles, so I took them out. The second blouse I made I also took in the back pieces at the seams to make it more fitted.

Did you like the pattern?
The instructions SUCKED, they would have been more use in Japanese! The pictures were minuscule even blown up to 150%, and the directions were not at all clear, so I largely did my own thing.. I don't know it the sleeves are how the pattern intended or not, but they're pretty cute so I don't care really :) The actual pattern pieces fitted together BEAUTIFULLY -all the seams matched perfectly, so especially the second top, when I knew what I was doing, went together really well and quickly. As a finished blouse, I think its really cute and I can't wait to wear it out!

Likes/dislikes
I like the fit, the sleeves with their little keyhole bit, i like the buttons being made out of my fabric (ie not bought buttons but diy buttons!) I like that I finally learned how to do a button hole and managed to put a whole row of them into not one but two shirts without any stuffups.. i was pretty nervous with the first shirt!! I disliked the instructions -but once you get past that its a great pattern.

Would you make it again?
Well, I've got two jj blouses already, but I wouldn't mind trying it in a chiffon or something a bit different, maybe even with some small half ruffles or something and a different collar. Having said that, I will probably make some more exactly like the two I already have.. especially in white.. you can never have too many white blouses.. i might even make some to go with some of my skirts..

Anything else?
Yep, a big thankyou to the designer of the pattern!! and for keeping it free :D otherwise I would never have given it a go!

You will notice that this shirt only has two buttons.. there are actually 3 button holes, but the button set I bought came with a faulty button (lasdhaksudhadaiwuhdaliushd) yes I was a little annoyed when I discovered that!! So tomorrow I will go and get another pack so I can finish this little shirt PROPERLY

maybe I'll pick up some blue cotton and make a blue shirt.. now that I'm going to have so many extra buttons.. I could also make another white one.. perhaps with a fully patterned collar.. I like the idea of a white blouse that has a little bit of room for something else, because many of the cute vintagy fabrics I have from mum are either not big enough to make me a whole blouse, or they're the kind of fabric that you wouldn't want a whole top from even thought they're cute, so being able to add just a little bit is great :) makes the blouse a lot more unique than just a plain white top too!

I think the red was brave, but I'm so glad I tried it out!!

butterfly papercloth

2011-07-05T15:55:00.004+10:00

comission

2011-07-04T15:20:00.009+10:00

this morning was spent making up 40 small cards for a commission..
they had to involve birds, flowers and hearts -I couldn't get the sun theme working, so I left them out..
got to try out my new stamps, which I LOVE by the way!!
what do you think?
cute 50c cards?

please excuse the horrible quality of some of these photos.. its an awful day outside, so it was hard to get good light.. they do look so much better in real life.. so colourful!

sewing..

2011-07-03T22:51:00.006+10:00

a girl in my staffroom is having a baby.. well not until december, but we're all getting excited with her!

I thought I'd make her a bib or two as a gift.. HOW CUTE IS THIS CHIRPY BIRD FABRIC!!! I just love it :D I'm not sure whether to use it for lots of little things like this.. it would make a CUTE pencil case too! although I currently have 3 of those going at work at the moment, or whether to make a skirt for me.. what do you think??

this bib isn't perfect, but I think its cute.. do you like the little mushroom tag?

She doesn't know if its a boy or a girl yet, so I chose fabrics that either could wear.. I LOVE the chirpy birds, although I think she'll probably prefer the chickens.

I found this pattern here and thought it might be good to have a bib that covers a bit more :) I accidentally got really narrow binding, the pattern suggests using considerably wider tape than I used! So it was really fidly getting the flannel and the connon into the binding and there are many sections i re-sewed about 4-5 times!! The only other issue I had with the pattern was that the amount of bais tape each section asked for was a good 4-5 inches short every time. But otherwise, its a great pattern.

I hope she likes them!!

but then something happened..

sweet fabric..

cute easy looking pattern...

how could I resist..

lets hope she has a girl!! even though being Chinese she would prefer a boy first.. well if that happens it won't be the end of the world..

I like the fact that the top ties up..

and before you tie it it looks like a little rabbit dress :)
Not particularly hard or time consuming to make, it probably took me an hour from tracing the pattern off my computer screen to photographing the final product, even with making my own bias tape for the hem..
It is a pretty cute dress though.. I kind of can't wait to have a little girl of my own, although 'so I can sew for them' isn't really a good reason to have kids today.. or even this year.. there will be plenty of time :)
but kids clothes are FUN to make.. quick, cute, so many ways to make them cuter :D
think its time for bed now or I'll make ANOTHER dress..

rose hips

2011-06-28T23:32:00.005+10:00

i'm so addicted to red berries of any type lately

I just can't get enough..

mmm red berries!

and winter makes the leaves kexy

2011-06-28T21:16:00.005+10:00

So I decided to put my magazine skills to a bit more use and do some more creating,

and what I've put together are some English teacher bookmarks -my year seven classes have also had some fun creating bookmarks of their own which I just finished laminating for them today.

something tragic is happening, WORDS ARE DYING OUT!!

visit this website to help out by adopting a word (and if you do it with your volume on, how can you resist those cries)
don't you feel like you're at one of those old fashioned orphanages?

anyway, my first word was kexy, so that is probably my favourite bookmark, and the word I've really been concentrating on using in conversations, but who can stop at just one??

so yes I made three..
want some of these for YOUR book?

leave me a comment and I'll post some pdf files for you to print out and laminate if there are people out there who would actually like one or other of them..

huddled rows of coloured houses

2011-04-10T14:40:00.006+10:00

Some of the latest cards for my stall..

what makes you smile..

2011-04-09T19:55:00.005+10:00

while in your garden?

(don't forget you can click on any of those for a much bigger image!)
PS. I love cosmos daisies :D

and i fish out the long red-gold strands

2011-04-03T12:08:00.010+10:00

So I've been really busy over the last month stocking up for my market stall.. and I thought I'd give you a peek at some of the cards I've got ready.. you can tell me what you think! i did have to take the pictures on a chopping board in my garage because it was so grey and rainy outside! - despite that.. i think they worked out ok (i also didn't want to take them out of their packaging because of the dirt in our garage, and the rain, so you'll have to cope with the occasional reflection.. i took thousands of photos and really tried to position things so there was as little reflection and glare as possible)

I had so much fun choosing the sentences I'd steal from this book for these cards.. I've got so many more sentences that didn't at all relate to my reflections pictures but that gave me other ideas of things to paint.. you can click any of the pictures to see them bigger if you can't read the words - do click on them!! they look SO MUCH NICER all big and clear :D

these cards were a lot of fun actually.. when they were being created all of the reflections were one long image made up of all the little 11 1 inch squares.. they looked pretty cool lined up along the table

and I'm not sure which i prefer..

the spring poplars, or the autumn poplars..

and yes, i know poplars go yellow in autumn, not red, but i wanted really red autumny colours and I liked the shape of the trees.. maybe I should try out some yellow ones though

Now, my little running chicken arrived and i couldn't stop henning things that night.. i made gift tags, cards, all sorts of things! I even ripped up a shirt which I'd worn so much bits of it were worn right through, and i stamped it too

which is actually what the centers of these cards are..

that little hen is SO COOL!!! many more ideas around her..

oh yes.. and my tree cards.. I made the trees a long time ago, when I started making the felt tree brooches, but i didnt know how to use these trees..

well, i just found a way!

and some more reverse appliqué coasters.. i thought I'd try something a little simpler and quicker than yesterday's birds,

and i needed something I'd be less attached to honestly :)
i love the birds.. even if i have THOUSANDS of coasters and barely use a single set.. think I'm still going to keep the birds.. you never know!

these cards are made from some more little stamps that i made out of rubbers.. i had always used faber castel erasers, but these were made from derwent erasers and they're so much easier to work with! - i'm going with derwent erasers from now on!!
I also made some gift tags and little tiny gift cards using these stamps..

there are so many little birds around our house lately, they're hard to see but sitting inside you can not help but smile at the noise they make!

so hearing them i made these little cards..

- I'm really liking the book page thing!!

what would you do with a trumpety trunk?

2011-04-03T09:33:00.003+10:00

you'd use it of course!!! (don't you just LOVE his trunk??)

For christmas i was given this ball of multi coloured wool and this elephant pattern from 'twins' and today was the day..

my little giraffe finally has a friend!

I think this was probably the hardest knitting project I've done, and I learnt to knit a round shape using 4 needles, and increase and decrease stitches,
and the result was this little elephant :D
I'm so happy with him now that he's finished, although during the whole process, I was a little confused by the ears as mine look quite different to the pattern, and I was quite worried they were going to be WAY to big, but now that he's done, he's pretty cute.. think i might start on a friend for him soon..

little whimsical birds

2011-04-02T18:35:00.002+11:00

thought I'd try out a bit of reverse appliqué today.. its something I've been wanting to have a go at for a while, but have always been a little skeptical about how well it would actually work in practice

so I thought I'd give it a go on some coasters so if it didn't work out I wouldn't have wasted too much fabric..
I got my idea from here but obviously modified it a little :)

I actually love this little coaster set and its hard to know whether to keep them or sell them..

well thats the little bird for today.. if I get a chance tomorrow I might show you a glimpse of the cards I've been working on for my market stall :D

spring in a lemon

2011-03-26T16:58:00.004+11:00

Today has been busy preparing for my market stall.. building up my inventory :D
I've got a whole lot of fabric tree cards, some new eraser stamped cards and gift tags, some running hen cards and tags now that my lovely new hen stamp has arrived (the night I got her I just couldn't stop henning things! even my students essays had a whole farm of hens strutting and running around their words if they did a good job)

I also thought I'd make some more basil pesto seeing as the first two bottles were such a hit! So I picked a whole skirtful of basil and mint, grapped a handful of chillies and went back out for a lemon..
only to find...

THIS is what our lemon tree is producing!!
these HUGE yellow fruits

I thought that was amazing enough to take a photograph of.. then i cut it open..
did you know that sometimes little lemon trees get impatient?
they cant do what they're told,
they can't wait until the lemon falls off the tree and they eventually get burried
sometimes they decide to sprout and grow leaves and put out roots,

while the lemon is still on the tree!!

its NOT just my year sevens that get impatient, lemon pips do too!

Can you see all the little swirly green bits deep down in the flesh.. half of this lemon was made up of leaves!! and roots, and the other half was lemon flesh..
I guess lemon trees don't need sunlight to make their leaves go green!

GIVEAWAY!!!

2011-03-23T16:41:00.002+11:00

Want to win a set of 3 beautiful hand drawn watercolour cards??? Valued at $10.50 -for a closer look check out the listing in my shop

well visit Heather's blog, read her interview with me and leave a comment about what you love most in my shop.. its that easy!

Entries close 28th March.

Thanks Heather!!

I've been featured!

2011-03-20T16:36:00.003+11:00

Hi all,
this is just a quick post to let you all know that I've been featured on Irene's blog.
You can visit here and read the interview while imagining all the other pictures I also sent her :)

Please leave a comment on the post on her blog!! because if you do and I get the most comments I get to stay another week :D

chirrup,

the little bird

enjoying ideas insects and the sun

2011-03-14T16:39:00.005+11:00

today i:

watched 2 praying mantis having a tiff

stood in a leaf shower and laughed

photographed a bee

created some little journals

made basil pesto with basil, mint, lemons and chili from my garden..
what did you do?

the pesto recipe is really yum and very easy.
Its a whole lot of basil leaves -2 cupsish
27 mint leaves
a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
some chillies
a clove of garlic
the same of ginger
a tablespoon of fish sauce
2 table spoons of oil

blend it all up and ENJOY!!!
its so full of flavour :D

if you want to see some of my journal pages (the journals are unbound as yet) check out my facebook page with images here

how to make papercloth..

2011-03-12T19:09:00.008+11:00

so here it is.. the how to.. and its heaps of fun, trust me :)

ok, what you need is...

glue -PVA works beautifully, mix it with water, about 1 part water 1 part glue or a bit more water than glue.. the more PVA you have the stiffer and more plasticy your product will be and we'll be using lots of this glue mix so more water is better than more glue.

a backing piece of material, cut to the size you want to work with.

a paintbrush to brush on the glue

tissue paper -white for the very top layer - good if its the same size as your base material but if you've only got smaller, you can layer it, if its got holes because you're recycling like me, thats ok too!!

a plastic tablecloth as a working surface

a boyfriend/husband who doesn't mind you spreading out and making much mess in hallways, on tables, lounge-room floors, etc

other things to add in to your papercloth
you could use.. confetti, cellophane, napkins/serviettes, book pages, newspaper, wrapping paper, string, wool, pressed flowers or leaves, stamps, any little scraps of nice paper or material, glitter, sequins, die cut shapes, pretty much anything flatish!.

What to do...

1. lay your base material down on the tablecloth, it needs to be a waterproof table cloth because things can get pretty wet :)

2. cover your base material with the glue mix so it is damp all over.

3. tear up your book pages, wrapping paper, cellophane, serviettes, etc and start gluing them down onto your base material randomly.. if they overlap of have gaps between them thats cool :)

If you're really messy with your glue and it drips all over your material that doesn't matter in the slightest! You might also notice my orange paper is running and bleeding orange everywhere, this doesn't matter either, thats the beauty of this project.. its very hard to ruin it!!

4. Keep adding layers including strings of thread or wool -you want to dip your wool in the bowl of glue first because it is thick, but for cotton thread like you would use on a sewing machine, you don't need to worry

5. Add your paint last because its very easy to get it on your brush and get paint everywhere. I should mention that you can paint onto your papercloth later when its dry as well, although i wanted the paint to bleed into the cloth and having tried it i actually really like the effect it gives :)

6. Once you are happy with your papercloth and all its layers, spread your white tissue paper over the top of everything. You want the entire project to be covered, so if this means you need a few pieces that overlap eachother a bit thats ok. In fact you can cover the whole thing in a few layers, but because i had some very fine and delicate things like the skeleton petals i wanted only one layer so these were still very visible.

You will notice when you first lay down the tissue paper you can't see through it but as you paint it with the glue mix it will become translucent and you will be able to see everything through it.. can you see in the pic below where i've glued and where i haven't?

7. if you have things like wool or petals/flowers you haven't pressed and they are a bit fat or stick-up-y you need to put more glue mix over the tissue paper here. You also need to really press down the tissue paper so there are no air bubbles under it or when the tissue dries it will be white and you won't see what is beneath it. If you need to make a little hole in the tissue with your brush to let air bubbles out thats ok. If it dries and there are bits you can't see very well, you can always make up some more glue mix and paint those bits again.. thats what i had to do the first time to make sure you could see everything right up to my wool, especially where it was curled and swirled around a bit. The more you dap on swirls of wool with your paintbrush the more the tissue will mold to their shape.

8. Now let it dry!! either on the clothesline -but be carefull if its windy.. your papercloth will be very fragile at first. I left mine to dry on the floor :)
Good thing we don't get many visitors because as you can see I've taken up the lobby and largely blocked off the front door!

oh, and once its dry you can do so many many things with it!! And the beauty of this project is it really can't go wrong, you can use up anything to make it and whatever you do it looks beautiful. you can also embroider onto it when its dry if you want!

with the pieces i made to create this tutorial, i am going to make covers for journals!! Not sure yet whether i will make my own by binding a whole lot of blank pages together, or just covering some lined exercise books.. what do you think??

the strutting hen

2011-03-12T12:49:00.003+11:00

ok so I love this shop.. they have some lovely stamps!! and one of their newer stamps really has me hooked.. I lOVE this strutting hen!!!! advice.. should i get him?

papercloth..

2011-03-12T12:17:00.007+11:00

Sooo, things have been really busy lately.. getting ready for my market stall in June –need to build up a lot of stock still! And plan my display.. getting height has been the biggest challenge, I wan’t people to see my stall when they walk into the room and think ‘ooo! I want to have a closer look over there!’ rather than not knowing what I sell until they get to my table top.. working on that.. fold up sewing boards are going to be great I think!

Anyway, So my latest projects have been some little bird earrings, which are so cute and made from recycled food containers, you know those little round plastic containers they give you olives or sundried tomatoes in at the deli? Yeh them.. but I’m still waiting for the posts to arrive though.. so you’ll have to wait to see them :)

I’ve also made some little quilted bird cards, and just last night/thismorning I tried out paper cloth making which I’m so happy with.. its lovely, easy, fun and you can do so many different things and use everything and anything..

here are some images of two pieces of papercloth I've just made..
they've got tissue paper, thread, wool, skeleton petals from a hydrangea bush, book pages, wrapping paper, stamps, toilet paper, paint, serviettes, and material scraps in them, but pretty much you can include anything!!

don't forget you can click on these images for a larger image.. they're so lovely i think!! especially when you see them up close!

I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do with them yet.. cards? postcards? something else? any ideas? they're each about A3 size atm but i am very happy to cut them up to use on multiple projects.. suggestions? comments?

I think my favourite is the orangy red one with the butterflies and flowers.. its just that bit more complex..

Simple Crafter

2011-02-02T23:15:00.004+11:00

Hi all,
just a very quick post to say that I have survived the first two days of a studentless school.. just! only one more to go.. ok no, the real reason for this post (even though its true that I'm still alive and creating) is to let you know that a fantastic site Simple Crafter has just opened up!!! AND if that wasn't exciting enough, they are holding a big giveaway :D Go check out the new site for details of how to win some beautiful tags from my shop -YOU GET TO CHOOSE YOUR FAVOURITES!! or 4 other wonderful things, so go have a browse, comment to win, and even learn a bit about me if you didn't know a whole pile already :D You have until Saturday if you want to win!!

a well deserved apology..

2011-01-31T19:41:00.008+11:00

Once upon a time there was a girl who bought a house.

She was very happy with this new house especially because now she would have her very own garden with which she could do whatever she chose.. she could unpot all her thousand pots for this garden was HERS!!

She was also excited about the many fruits growing in her garden already.. a huge plum tree, an extensive grape vine, a large and happy lemon tree, and a number of passion fruit vines. There was also a second rather diseased looking plum tree which she didn't really pay much attention to.

When the girl had moved into the house and unpacked most of her things, setting rooms up just how she wanted them,

excitedly hanging pictures on the wall WITH NAILS!!

Then she began to do some work on the garden..

She dug a vegetable garden under the sick plum tree and thought about removing the diseased plum tree as it would clearly never have plums. It had large plate shaped, bright orange fungi growing out of many branches and when you poked any of the branches your finger went right through.. there clearly wasn't much holding up this tree.

However removing trees is hard work, so the plum tree continued to rot casting shade across the vegie patch.

The healthy looking plum tree while covered in flowers in spring never had a single plum. The rotten Plum tree however loaded it self up so full with plums that the girl had enough plums to make herself sick all holidays, as well as filling her fridge AND freezer with plums, and they were so delicious. She even had enough plums to share at least HALF of them with the possum families that live in her spruce trees that line the drive way.

That little girl would like to sincerely apologise to the poor plum tree which will always have a place in her garden as long as it remains standing.. she wonders how on earth it managed to produce such an amazing quantity of such delicious plums and remain standing under their weight with so many orange plates and finger holes, but she will never question its worth again! She is writing it a letter.

Dear Plum tree,
You are fantastic and I am privileged to share your garden.
I am very sorry I judged you by your looks and colourful orange jewellery.
You will always have a place in my garden and I will never doubt you again.
Thank you so much for all the plums you have shared with me and our possums,
Lots of love,

me

ONE batch of the THREE batches of stewed plums, made from 8 dressfulls of plums!!

stewed plums are SOOO good!
on cereal for breakfast.. with cream or ice cream for dessert.. for lunch alone if in a hurry, WHENEVER!! they're the best.

thankyou plum tree!!

and now the little girl is going to eat some stewed plums!!

the last day..

2011-01-31T16:52:00.009+11:00

So instead of spending the whole day making things for other people to browse and buy in the beehive and photographing them and then promoting and advertising them in various places, I left the beehive to survive on its own for a day, and i did some drawing for me :D

Remember that goal I set earlier of spending 30 mins/drawing one page of something in that little sketchbook? well it lasted a grand total of 4 days!

So I thought I'd get back to it and I spent a few hours doing some scribbles of plants in our garden.. i got 3 sketches done and two of them painted before I decided it was absolutely too hot to continue.. so the plums are going to have to wait for their paint.. (its 39 degrees C -102.2 F) so we've been cooking a little bit today..

thought I'd share 2 of the scribbles with you

wow if you click on this ^ ^ ^ image ^ ^ ^ you can see it really clearly!! -and any other image actually..

The colours aren't exactly right.. I'm still learning how to use these water colours :) these are my second real attempt besides painting flowers and beach houses for my shop, but thats more like colouring in than painting..
I have to say I'm quite happy with the grevillea :D His name is Robyn Gordon, and he's really quite pretty.. and the wattle birds LOVE him!
I think I'll paint him again :D

Stylish Blogger award winners!!

2011-01-31T12:41:00.006+11:00

Ok, so after much browsing I have come up with my 15 winners!!
I have chosen each of these blogs because I think they're creative, inspiring, and fun to read and I think the creaters, whether successful artists with many followers or newly started blogs of people who create on the side. Some I have followed for a long time, some are newly discovered!!

For those who have won the requirements of accepting this award are as follows:
I had to:
1. Put the picture url in the post of the Stylish Blogger Award in the blog: check -see my other stylish blogger award post
2. Thank and link back to the person who awarded me this award: check again -see my other stylish blogger award post
3. Share 7 things about myself: check -also in 1st award post :D
4. Pass this award on to 15 deserving and creative bloggers.

And here they are!! - not in any particular order..

1. http://mountaincreekblog.blogspot.com/
2. http://blog.creativekismet.com/
3. http://urbancraft.wordpress.com/
4. http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/
5. http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/
6. http://alittleredribbon.blogspot.com/
7. http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com
8. http://dragonflyexpression.blogspot.com/
9. http://arabbitaday.blogspot.com/
10. http://stitchywitch.wordpress.com/
11. http://karamatdesigns.blogspot.com/
12. http://madebyjoel.blogspot.com/
13. http://www.purlbee.com/
14. http://www.grannyfunk.com.au/
15. There is a blog I also want to include but I can’t find it.. can you help me?? Its very colourful around the edges, lots of green.. and its written by a man who is just a dad and he makes things for his kids.. and at the top of each post it tells you how many days ago he made it. Mostly the things he makes are from everyday objects, like sticks, or paperclips or matchboxes, but they’re pretty cool. I remember a post where he made all these insects, caterpillars, wasp, beetle etc from pencils and either nails or staples.. they were awesome! I thought it was called “I made it today” or “today I made” or something, but searching for this didn’t get me anywhere.. so if you have seen this blog, or find it, PLEASE let me know so I can include it here and let him know I’ve awarded him with this priveledge :D

But incase we can't find him I want to include another great blog that I love:
http://verypurpleperson.com/

Congratulations to my winners!!

In other news I have been very busy filling and emptying my Etsy shop
and have made many cards and tags :D

I am also participating in a giveaway with 'simple crafter' so have been making things with this in mind.. details to come..

just some of the items you COULD win in this giveaway..

Sadly school goes back tomorrow, so the beehive will most likely go into slow motion rather than the full speed ahead crafting that has been going on for the past few weeks, although i have to say that i am actually rather excited about meeting all my new students.. i really do love my job, so going back to work isn't going to be that hard :D just the first 4 days of it when we don't have any students.. schools aren't meant to exist without kids, and when they do, its awfully boring, trust me! But hopefully these 4 days will give me a chance to get ready for having 5 classes fulltime next week as i haven't done a drop of school work these holidays! which has been wonderful!! Absolutely wonderful.. i think this is how holidays are meant to be.. perhaps I need to cut down on collecting homework before holidays during the year.. oh, and holiday homework.. that would make for nicer holidays during the year..

Anyway, I've got brooches to make for Regina's brooch exchange, and gift tags to make for the simple crafter, and blogs to notify of their newly bestowed award, so I'm going to leave you here.. and hopefully get back to you with some maria Island goodness later today!

Chirrup,

-the little bird.

fields of flowers

2011-01-26T02:51:00.001+11:00

this is just going to be a quickie..

Spent most of today making card sets and little tags
I'm a little hooked on this new design.. i love it and its so much fun to make..
and so portable.. i just took the book and my pens outside and sat in the sun drawing on hundreds of pages and then i came in again to cut them up and actually turn them into things :D

I love these flowers :D they remind me of walking with mum through places like Tarradale and picking wildflowers although the billy-buttons there are yellow not red, but the pink flowers did exist.. they were also covering the grassy areas of Maria Island -yes that post is still to come!

and the tags..

ok, off to make more now!!

I also spent a bit of time making a new banner for my ESTY shop. I like my old one

i like the simplicity of it..

but I wanted somehting a little more professional looking that would also show people what I sell.. this is what I've come up with so far.. and i like it although I'm not sure if i've got too many pics and its all a bit small.. I might edit it a bit more tomorrow..

you can click to see the real size or just visit my shop :D

Happy Australia day to all of you Australians reading this :D
And whether you're Australian or not, I hope you're having a lovely day :)
What are you going to do with the rest of it??

Chirrup,

-the little bird

a whole mountain of things

2011-01-23T22:38:00.013+11:00

yep a whole mountain.. that is how many things have happened since my colourful day post..
Firstly, Tasmaina where we were for about a week, which was great.
some images from the beach and mum's garden:

these are the painted cliffs on the beach just outside mum's property. they're really amazing! and so fragile, they're made of sandstone i think, and when you touch them the sand just crumbles off under your fingers, but the patterns are beautiful.. i've tryed to limit the pictures to just a few :)

and these are mum's bees!
I love them, they're so much bigger than the bees we have in Melbourne.. they're huge! and when they land on her californian poppies the poppies actually fall over they're so heavy!

I also have to share some beautiful new little birds with you, but I haven't any photos at the moment..

We also went on an amazing bushwalk which was a gift from Mum and John which I don't think we'll ever forget. They sent us to Maria Island (pronounced mar-eye-ah eye lnd) which I am going to save for a separate post, because it was fantastic and deserving of its very own post!

Another reason for the huge gap in posts is that we've been staying in Beechworth with a friend and his family (wife and two kids -1 and 3 yrs old) helping them build a house.. which has made me decide a few things about houses and children. The most prominent of which are 1. I never want to build my own house, and 2. when I have kids I will loose ALL my free time! need to prepare myself for that..
During our stay we achieved the building on ONE WHOLE FENCE from start to finish, and the erection of the entire first floor frame of the house.. and believe me when I tell you that a 6m piece of frame is DAMN HEAVY!! so much for the two man job they claimed it was.. Anyway, it was a very productive four days!

I also learned that small cars like our 2 door Toyota do not have a real spare tyre, they have a wheel-barrow tyre instead! and ours is bright yellow! and a wheel-barrow tyre comes with MANY restrictions!!

A hugely exciting piece of news is that I MADE MY FIRST SALE!!!! which was very exciting, after the initial confusion of whether I had really sold something or not..
so I have just shipped this little package of to California :D

^ ^ ^ you can click for a clearer picture ^ ^ ^

Since I got home yesterday night I have been very busy making all sorts of things for my little shop.. this is just a peek.. go visit it or my facebook page for more pics :D

Inspiration: mum, but she knows that! :D

this little one was made using one of my hand cut and polished wattle tree buttons :D

I've also joined my first swap exchange which closes jan 26th -hosted by Regina Lord -see her blog post here for details.

As I said, I've never done one of these before but I'm pretty excited about it :D
basically you make a number of things within set guidelines -this time it is handmade brooches max 4 inches, and I have to make 5 of them, when I'm done I have to post them to Regina along with everyone else playing and then she'll send out 5 different brooches to each person, so I should end up with 5 beautiful handmade brooches in a few months in exchange for mine, from people who could live anywhere in the world :D what a great deal! -yes I got excited and I've started already.. but I'm not posting pics yet...

I think that is enough news for one post, so its off to bed, but I'll be back again soon!!

chirrup,

-the little bird.

stylish blogger award

2011-01-23T22:06:00.004+11:00

Its all happening!!!
Manymanymany things have happened since my last post, but I'm going to share all of them in the next post. except this one thing.. I WON A STYLISH BLOGGER'S AWARD!!!
This award was bestowed to me by fellow Etsy artists, their shop 3princessesengraving was so named because of their three kids, and contains many laser cut and engraved pieces. You can also visit their blog here.
THANKYOU!!!
Now, there are a few things I have to do in order to claim this award.
1. Put the picture url in the post of the Stylish Blogger Award in the blog: check
2. Thank and link back to the person who awarded me this award: check
3. Share 7 things about myself: check -see below
4. Pass this award on to 15 deserving and creative bloggers. -I need to spend some time browsing blogs to do this one.

So 7 things about me:

1. I love gardening and anything creative, and when i get an idea of something i want to try out i often find it hard to think about anything else until i've tried it out.
2. I have a newfound appreciation for large piles of dirt.
3. I prefer light coloured wood for furniture, woodwork etc in my house.
4. I cannot live in a dark house or spend much time at all in a room with no windows, once i attempted to move in with some friends and my room only had a tiny window and the lounge room was really dark. I even hung pictures on the walls, but no good.. i was gone after 2 days.. i just couldn't do it! I also need a light space to do any kind of good work.
5. I get very obsessed with things and really latch onto them for a while until i finally get over them, cds, people, a brand/flavour of chips, blogs, a computer game, etc -I'm trying to say that i have a bit of an addictive personality.
6. I'm an English teacher and I always correct my students on the incorrect use of 'brought' and 'bought' but when using them myself I ALWAYS use the wrong one!!!
7. I am often lured by gimmicks.
8. -this one is a bonus :D I would really LOVE to learn to screen print, but the thing I most want is a kiln in my backgarden!! -I'm allowed to dream right?

As for the 15 blogs I'm passing this award on to, I will post these later in the week

the colour of my day

2011-01-10T23:49:00.004+11:00

I do actually have a number of things to include here, but I'm so tired, so it is going to have to wait for another day, of which there will be one tomorrow surprisingly enough :)

Instead i am going to share with you the colours of today

and tonight

aren't they amazing.. beautiful.. a gift..

my new Etsy shop :D and ideas from the woodpile..

2011-01-07T01:41:00.014+11:00

well, as it is holidays, the little bird has been keeping busy, as well as enjoying lovely sleep-ins and playing all night.. probably the biggest piece of news is that I have finally taken my leap!! I've opened my ETSY SHOP :D and I think it looks quite cute.. and its gradually filling up, collecting hearts, waiting for a sale, I'm not worried yet :) Please go have a look around it! I've also made a facebook page to keep people updated on whats going into the shop or going on with the little bird, but i really need to collect a few more fans there... feel free to go have a squiz!

So this has kept me busy and excited and constantly checking my computer, as well as making little clippies and paper -its so lovely to be able to do this outside in the sun under the patio which is now covered -like dripping-covered in almost ripe grapes.

these grape pics are about a week old.. they're SO MUCH bigger now, but i didn't have a newer pic... and its a bit dark atm..

clippies

I especially LOVE these ones (below) .. I've got some hair clips in this fabric as well. This little one was the first I made and absolutely MINE!

and more paper :D

So we've been doing a LOT of gardening lately.. like chopping down a few housesized trees type gardening.. you should see our ex-garden all bundled up in the drive waiting for greenbin day! So while chainsawing down this dying ant home of a wattle tree I started getting all these ideas.. (which started with the photos of my hairclips among the 'kindling' and sawdust) -i was going to make coasters.. and desk organisers.. i could see them in the bits of wood, -what can you see?

and buttons that wouldn't split, and earings, and then i began having ideas about the beautiful hakea pods that litter our back garden that I've been wondering how i could use creatively..
this was my work bench today.. i got SO burnt and was trying to work in the shade.. well it kind of worked..

and this is my stash..
haha ok I'm kidding, me and my saw aren't THAT friendly..
we had an incident.. i was sawing -one of those little fold out hand saws that take quite a bit of work to get through even small branches nicely -you can do a pretty fast hack job if all you want to do is remove a branch.. SO, i was sawing away and a dragonfly landed on my knee, one of those blue ones.. lesson to be learned: dont' watch dragonflies on your knee AND keep sawing, because you'll scare the dragonfly away prematurely when you pull your thumb out from under the saw that jumped because it saw an opportunity under a straying eye..
Oo! these are some of my freshly sawn buttons :D

And these are those same buttons once they've been drilled and oiled :D don't they look cute?? ok so i got a bit obsessed when i realised how well they were coming up and i just kept sawing! this isn't even all of them!

these are my un-sanded un-polished un-dried coasters.. well some of them.. i pan on making MORE.. i have stashed away many pieces of wood -well chunks really of wood for coaster use when dry.. i was just impatient with these!

And these... are some of the finished products.. didn't i say i could see earrings?

How cool are they? and very Australian :) wattle and hakea! I love the hakea pods.. the colours.. ooo! ok i just love all this wood stuff..

when I drilled the holes in the hakea's they looked so much like little birds :) although they don't so much now that they have jump rings through their 'eyes'
I just love how nicely everything comes up when its all finished and polished!
I will definitely be working on more of these tomorrow.. can't wait until the bigger hunks of wood are dry enough to begin using!
some of my buttons

trying to keep them nice and thin! -dragonfly forgiven, sunburn hurts more than sawbite on thumb

(Below) lovely buttons not at all of uniform height :) useful for craft projects, card making, scrapbooking, or things like purses, scarves, etc that you don't have to wash much -not sure how these would go in the wash.. i mean they're weather proof, but if they were sewn on something white I'm not wanting to promise they wouldn't stain it.. might have to do a test at somestage..

more buttons!

wow, is that enough to keep you going for another day or so? enough to inspire you to cut down a tree or two? -ok don't do that! enough to keep you wondering?

Enjoy the sun, -and DON'T get burnt :D
goodnight from a little bird in a cosy sawdusty beehive

will you dare to

2011-01-03T14:03:00.003+11:00

a town built on words and colour

2010-12-30T00:19:00.003+11:00

morning!

today i spent all day drawing, painting, cutting, sticking and imagining the lives of the people in this little town..

its a built up collage so sadly, but like many towns, there are many houses hidden from view behind larger houses, churches, clock towers, factories or schools.

If you wish to move in to my town there is still room, houever there are many rooms which are no longer vacant. there is a new rule in town, no one is to live in the clock tower and Pablo's room is already occupied. The reverend however says there is some room in the church if you would like to stay and nose out your perfect nook :)
He's pretty cool. Oh and did you see the house with all the washing on the line? thats Mrs McKray, she's the biggest gossip in town so if you've got something to sell, she's the one to spread the word for you!

Its a very cute and colourful little town, although as i was exploring my new medium in a different way I'm not sure this town is as much me as other things I've made.. and while it took ages to make, i'd like to do a giveaway and give it to someone who would really love it, but i don't think enough people read my blog for that :) so me and my little town are going to be together for a bit longer.. Pablo's room is still occupied! the town is sitting on the windowsill by my sewing machine :)

and thats it for another day!

on wednesday..

2010-12-29T19:29:00.007+11:00

Once upon a time there was a very hungry caterpillar...

On wednesday he ate through SIX tomatoes, but he was STILL hungry!

I used to love the hungry caterpillar story when I was a kid (what am I talking about, i am still a kid and i still love it) but meeting the very hungry caterpillar in real life i do not like him at all!!!

the very hungry caterpillar did not like tomato leaves, instead he left the leaves beautiful and whole and carved out some beautiful whole tomatoes so only the skins were left hanging on the vine..

coming out of his tomato he thought wow, this tomato seems to have moved somewhat hasn't it? then he saw the other tomatoes he had already eaten and remembered that he was STILL hungry..

and he began to make his way out to find a new tomato.

However the hungry caterpillar isn't hungry anymore and wont eat anymore tomatoes.
I would set my garden up like Grug, but i don't think the very hungry caterpillar would keep his half of the bargain and only eat from HIS side of the garden.

and while we're on a caterpillar note...

and i made the mistake of thinking i owned this grapevine and these grapes were mine...

this is not a fairytale or a kids story
** caterpillars were harmed tonight. -so were tomatoes!!

2011 calendar

2010-12-29T05:31:00.006+11:00

I've done two things today :D
you know all those printable calendars you see for sale on etsy or the internet.. well i've made one of my own!! which will i think be the first item in my etsy shop :D
the only issue i'm having is that because its 12mb because i wanted high quality images that you could print out at a printers if you wanted, some emails -like my work email, don't recieve the attachment.. can't have that happening if I want to sell it.. would also like to see a printed out version.. will have to wait until i get to mums i think for that.. free calendar mum? its cute!! I'm also worried that by the time i get my shop figured out people wont want to buy calendars anymore because it will be feburary already..
anyway, here is a quick peek at my calendar...
i LOVE it i just hope some other people do also!!

i knew those InDesign skills from doing the magazine would come in handy!!

I love it because its so bright and colourful like the cards used to make it, but also because it contains all my favourite things.. books/reading, flowers/gardening/nature, painting/drawing, making cards, sewing, and as i mentioned already, colour.. :D perfect! oh yeh, and its not perfect, the lines are not all straight.. and I like that about it too!!

the second thing i've done is learned for good the correct order and quantity of a's and e's in the word 'calendar' -a word i've always previously misspelled.

flowers in the sun

2010-12-28T13:19:00.008+11:00

ok so i had to take more photos because they look so much better in the daylight, and because i love these cards..
so here you go!

remember you can click on the images to enlarge them :)

and don't they look pretty!!

**also note peg usefulness :)

EDIT:
ok so I made some more and have to show you a few of them!!

joy :D

2010-12-28T03:01:00.005+11:00

so while drawing my Hakea leaves after browsing Alisa's blog i thought that i could make hakea leaf cards with green felt or material and stitching the veins on in red.. but i couldn't find any white paper.. but there was an old broken book rescued from one of mums chuck out boxes when we moved house years ago, so i decided to use it.. ok so they are not hakea like at all, but that was where the inspiration came from..

sorry about the grainy pics, but it is 3 am so I've tried to find the best light I could.. i was too excited about these to wait til morning!! but you can't really see the stitching on the leaves.. sorry -they look so cute in real life!

then i got out my water colours and black pen and kept going and this is what came out.. I LOVE THEM!!!! i think they're so pretty :D -as you can see i found a few sheets of white printer paper.. but only a few which is why i stopped at only 3 big cards -i have 6 more flowers painted up, oh and its 3am.. tomorrow will be soon enough to find something else to add in to the mix to keep these cards coming..

Really need to learn how to do free motion stitching so i don't have to wind my machine by hand and lift the foot, twist the paper, wind another stitch, lift the foot, twist the paper etc because it makes these cards a little more time consuming than they could be :)

but i still love them!

oh, i wish you could see all the stitching on the leaves.. maybe I'll just have to send some out to people so you can see them properly :D

ok, think it might be bedtime even for little birds who live in beehives now..
see you tomorrow.. well later today really!

through a different lens

2010-12-27T21:45:00.009+11:00

Today has been as happy as these wet marigolds :D
And as happy as the chillies and basil they are protecting from aphids!
and that has got to be pretty happy...

So, after finding a wonderful new blog which has inspired me to make a goal for this year -well next year, that is about me instead of about school, like creating an amazing 50 yrs school magazine, or co-ordinating and trying to 'fix' the ESL faculty, this year my goal is to spend 30 mins filling a page of a visual diary a day. one page every day for the rest of the year. no pencil, no rubouts, no tearouts, no cheating -i can be good at cheating. And I want to try and draw stuff i actually have in front of me rather than from photos etc.. SO, I started with the best posible subject, my new hakea which I received for Christmas! I have wanted a hakea Laurina for as long as I can remember.. i absolutely LOVE their flowers.. they're wonderful!! so anyway, i figured this was a good starting point.. i learnt a few things.. (sorry about the graininess of the pic.. its night and i'm trying not to use the flash because it makes green look blue etc)

on boxing day i shopped and painted the house and did other things like that and it was midnight before i started drawing at which point there wasn't much time to go looking for inspirational things to draw so I settled for some flowers that had been given to me for producing such a wonderful magazine, but i really didn't like the kind of flowers they were and the drawing just didn't work. The pen that was wonderful the day before ran when i painted over it, which it didn't do yesterday, and things looked awful.. I wanted to tear out the page and do something else instead but i couldn't go back on my rules so soon, and i realised, you can't draw things you don't like. Lesson #1 choose something fun to draw or don't bother!

I bought some watercolour paints today and have been playing with them.. they're harder to use than i expected and i definitely need a little more practice, but here is a peek at the first 2 scribbles.. and with this page a day, they're sure to improve!

last scribble..

lots of things wrong with them.. colours, angles, shadows in the wrong places, but you've got to start somewhere!

And a last happy wet marigold for you all is this tasty easy recipe idea, which I just had for dinner tonight and it was so good.. in fact i want the leftovers now as a snack before bed!! The only real change I made was to use beef instead of prawns because on a public holiday, there was nowhere to get fresh prawns, and i didn't want the pre-cooked ones.. and i added capsicum because we had some :) oh and we ate it hot because we couldn't wait for it to cool for 30 mins!! It also comes from Alisa's crazy, colourful, fun yummy blog, and is definitely worth sharing!! so check it out here and stay and have a little look around her blog, there is lots of fun, colour and inspiration there..

chirrup

dear sir

2010-12-27T16:35:00.005+11:00

Dear Sir,
thankyou for stopping to visit my front garden
i don't think I've ever seen a dragonfly so big, or so still for so long even in such wind!
you've got such clear distinctive markings and even when i put my ear really close i can feel your wings on the side of my face, but i can't hear them!
enjoy the rest of your day, don't worry, I'll be sure to enjoy mine

love from a little bird

awoken.. with pegs on top!

2010-12-24T15:41:00.011+11:00

OMG the little bird has awoken from her hibernation!!! and yes birds do hibernate at times and when they do there is no better place for said hibernation than in a nice cosy beehive.

So i went shopping yesterday at midnight to chadstone which is open all night just before christmas and yes it was pretty crazy, but also a successful shopping trip.. i spent little and brought home much. But i think the best things i brought home were the ideas... and as soon as we got home i got to work... what do you think?

aren't they cute? and they're not fake like the ones in kikki k, AND they didn't cost $6.50 a peg, in fact i bought 100 pegs for $2! they are so addictive to make :D

as you can see

Love these red ones!!

and they're so useful.. look for pegging on christmas cards/gift tags.. (note the cute, easy sewn bunting gift tags)

and for making bills look exciting, and clipping things together etc.. and everyone has many things that need clipping together right?? thought I might attach some magnets to a few cute ones so I could peg thinks to my fridge.. and of course you could use them for the obvious -pegging up clothes! I also use pegs a lot in the kitchen for pegging closed bags of coconut, flour, choc chips, nuts etc..
But the coolest thing I've done with them is my new clothesline in the kitchen

which I'm quite happy with :) -how awesome is it!!

to peg photos and stuff on :D

just have to choose some! and print some.. and laminate them so they don't curl! oo its going to look so good all loaded up.. might just have to use it as a christmas card display in the mean time..

I also whipped up my first cookies in a jar present :D
i've been wanting to make some of these for a while!
I found this recipe at launder, fold, repeat

ooo they look so yummy!!
Hope she likes them!
We also bought some extra cranberries just for us for our own batch of christmas cookies :D :D :D and we'll be trying them out pretty soon!!

there was a certain other person who I REALLY wanted to make these for but i'm not sure customs would allow it :C

and now i suppose the little bird had better go do some cleaning up from all that super-fun-peg-making mess!!

Happy Christmas for tomorrow :D
I'm going to wear the dresss i made last week..
preview? ok here it is...

chirrup!

spring is in the plum tree..

2010-08-22T22:03:00.016+10:00

more yellow :D

2010-07-31T12:49:00.007+10:00

Hello!!
I'm back :) for this weekend anyway..

and this is my wattle tree..

doesn't he look pretty.. and happy..

don't all those little furry yellow balls make you want to laugh and clap your hands? (don't be surprised if the man next to you gives you a 'you-are-just-a-little-bit-strange look though) -do it anyway!! -he'll be smiling on the inside (i wonder how that makes your stomach feel, if i was a stomach i think it would make me giggle!)

this is the view we have from our front window :)

Yes, I love colourful trees :) our camellia tree is making me happy too.. but I really love the wattle tree :D :D :D and its been SOOOOOOOOOOO rainy but still the wattle survives!!

This is my new glitter lamp.. isn't it pretty? I get sparkly purplish pinkins swirls dancing on my walls :) My year seven girls bought it for me for my birthday, which really made it feel like it was going to be a birthday weekend.. before that it was starting to feel like it was going to be just another work filled weekend.. but its hard not to get excited with purple sparkles dancing on your walls, knowing that being in or on the bed beside it that they're dancing on your face too..
I love my year sevens! They wrote me such a sweet card too and then when I got home there was a string of lovely emails waiting for me. Apparently I'm a great person, wonderful amazing teacher and perfect role model! -don't be fooled, I have my failings too :p
oh! i almost forgot.. i also made...

frog in a pond for my birthday, because I don't think I've ever had them, and they're such party food :D Ooo! look at them all!!! also, there's green jelly involved.. how out of character! (I shall let you in on a little secret if you promise not to tell more than 3 other people. Secret: i've already eaten one whole frog pond!! and he was so good :DDD)

the humming machine that sews.. and sews.. and doesn't have a muffin alarm!

2010-07-05T01:20:00.006+10:00

hello fellow bird watchers :)
I did it!! i washed the material AND made the dress
and I'm very happy with it :D
while it looks better on me than on the floor, at least these will give you an idea..

well sort of.. I think its really cute, but it doesn't actually look that great in these pictures.. i'll have to take some real ones with me in it later (maybe tomorrow?) its actually quite purple as well.. not that you can tell here!

Also made a skirt WITHOUT A PATTERN! I think it would look good in winter with stockings and boots, although i don't yet own any boots.. and not for want of trying.. but everything that fits foot wise feels like falling down socks around my ankles :(

like the button? i was feeling zip lazy :)

but to make up for that i did also make a little wallet.. yes another one.. (pattern from noodlehead, here) which i have used :) very cool.. the cards and money even stays in the right places no matter how much you shake it up and turn it around and make it all seasick!

you can't really tell that its gathered from the top pic.. but it is!
How cute is the material!!! thanks mum :D not much of these two at all, but just enough..

do you like my little patches on the pockets?

lots of compartmenty sectiony goodness :D

As well as all these good things, I also did something really bad :C i made beautiful muffins, bursting full of choc chips and berry goodness, and i cooked them to perfection, (take a pause to say mmmmm!) ... and then i left them in the oven for another HALF AN HOUR!!! yes they were very brown by that time
:C :C :C
very sad

despite this very sad moment, I have to say I am very much enjoying my holidays and all these days filled with TIME!!! its been so good, being able to do whatever I want whenever I want to, and keep staying up to finish something, or get up at 2.30am to make something because I've just had a crazy idea.. ahh the freedom!

I did do a bit of planning for year 12 next semester today, but even that was fun, because I didn't HAVE to do it by tomorrow, and I could do as much and as detailed or not as i wanted.. and i picked out the fun bits.. like how i'm going to teach the construction features of the text we're studying (things like how colour is used, and metaphors, and language, and chapter title significance, and links to the bible and Greek mythology, and the structure of the text, and the perspective its told from,and how different voices are captured, etc) I haven't marked the paragraphs they've written me.. well half of them have written me.. but i've got TIME :D it will happen.. probably..

well, there are bees in this beehive that need chasing,
So i will return in a day or two with more news.

Chirrup!

looking forward

2010-07-04T13:57:00.004+10:00

So in the week ahead, and the last week of the holidays, there are a few things happening..
1. I have just ordered some material!!!
Its some of my favourite fabric designers (Alexander Henry and Micheal Miller) who's fabric sadly doesn't seem to make it to Australian shops, but even with Shipping, it is about $15 a metre, which seems reasonable.. especially when you see my prints
TA-DA!

I can already see a skirt here with a red border around the bottom..

This one also i think will become a skirt, maybe with red trim also..

Really like this one as well although not exactly sure what I'll do with it yet.. i have a shoulder bag pattern which uses this exact material, but I'm not sure I want to turn it into a bag, even though it did look cute.. any ideas??

anyway, number TWO on the list, is printing my new patterns at school tomorrow and starting to make one from the purple fabric i bought at lincraft on friday and am going to wash today (note to self: go wash fabrics after posting blog)

3. make a winter dress and belt with burgandy fabric from lincraft once it is dry today :)

4. do some school work.. marking and planning etc.

5. continue started crocheted scarf!

ok going to wash material now.. hope you're all having a good weekend too!
back with pics when they come :D

sorry this post is a bit boring

care package

2010-07-04T13:36:00.000+10:00

So this package and post were created on the 16th of may, but i couldn't post it til now because.. well really?

So i'm putting together a little care package for my mother because she's pretty special, and she's my key reader :) and as a bonus, she seems to like the things being produced over here in the beehive..

So this is the pink section of the package..

and of course the package also had to include some happy daisies :D

so i made a whole lot more

after getting further paper supplies

Hope she enjoys them!!!

ta-da! doesn't it look cute :D

reaching.. stretching.. looking carefully..

2010-07-01T09:28:00.012+10:00

Hello again from the beehive :)
so AGES ago.. think back into the dim darkness stalking at the edges of your memory, and you might find a memory of me trying to brighten up my kitchen.. and discovering wordle.. well I FINALLY got my worldes printed out and framed up.. i'm very happy with them!!
So this one is in my kitchen above the microwave.. a great kitchen addition :)

and i re-did the sea one because after printing the black one I decided it was too dark in my little lobby area and I did it again in light blue

which i think works much better :) At the moment its on the shelf in the entrance way, under my etching (thanks Mr Rudd!) along with these other fishy collections..

However i have plans to make a coat rack (in my head its got fish carved into it, but i'm not sure my carpentry skills are that good in real life) anyway, i want to hang this wordle above the coat rack, but for now.. and probably until the end of the year holidays, its very happy here.

While we're in the lobby.. I'm going to share my etching with you all.. without really telling you the whole story right now because I've got me a whole beehive of buttons to go make (keep reading, you'll get to what i mean) but i bought it from a beautiful woman (her name is Janet Ayliffe) who's website you can visit here -go have an explore, she's got some wonderful etchings!! anyway, this one is the one i chose :)

Its called song of the sheoaks.. I'll take you through it a little..

There are lots of bubbly bits, like foam bubbles on the sea, and in each of these white bubbles there is a close up of an animal or insect that you would find living in that part of the image

i like how she's used white here to highlight the grasses and almost camouflage the birds

lots of birds.. different kinds of birds..

the etching is divided up by strips of white (broken up by the bubbles) and along these strips are etched all kinds of insects, minute little water creatures, birds or whatever life you would find in the section of the image it separates. these creatures are quite detailed and named in most places but you have to look carefully to see this detail, as it isn't apparent upon walking in the door and glancing at the etching in a 'oh thats lovely keep moving' kind of glance that most people give it upon entering my house.. i kind of like that though.. that only a few people really see all the secrets it holds :)

See the water-boatman? and all those fish!! you couldn't see them by just glancing at the water, you have to wait, and watch and be quiet and look really carefully

So me!

so.. I am thinking that my project this afternoon will be two things.
1. LEARN HOW TO MAKE BUTTON HOLES!!! i'm sure it can't be that hard, and i know my machine even has about 6 settings for different kinds of holes for different kinds of buttons, so it will probably even do most of the work for me, but for some reason I've been putting it off and off and off! Anyway, task 1: make a button hole and then finish the first shirt i ever made :D
2. i found this dress the other day on one of those sites you HAVE to order over the internet because they don't have a physical shop..

although its a bit expensive and the reviews aren't particularly good, and returning it sounds difficult if it doesn't work out between us..
anyway, so my plan is to use one of my shirt patterns for the top part, and the skirt off a dress for the bottom part and make my own version of this dress :D and the bonus is... i get to make it in any colour other than grey!!!
maybe I'll save it for tomorrow and stop off at lincraft before having coffee with John.. they have 30% off right now..

ok, got to go fill this beehive with button holes!!!

See you in a day or two :D

bees, lemons, owls cats and the like

2010-06-29T13:00:00.016+10:00

I'm back!! did you miss me?
School got really busy and for the first few days of the holidays i was recovering and curled up in the corner of the lounge room in a beanbag with my mohair and Henry, working on the magazine..

who is Henry?
Oh!
I haven't introduced you guys yet??
wow.. how rude!

ok, Henry, these are the bird watchers, Bird watchers, this is Henry!

oh Henry.. -he's not usually this shy, hang on I'll get out some milk.

there we go, thats better isn't it.
Henry is my harddrive cat and he makes sure all my files are asfe and warm in his stomach so if my computer dies again.. my files dont!! ESPECIALLY VITAL with magazine and magazine deadlines!!

ahh, look at him purring away..

But today despite the fact that its STILL raining and hasn't really stopped for the last week.. i am going to do some crafting.. i have a little project in mind.

I am also planning on doing some cooking.. its lemon meringue pie for dessert tonight!
Our lemon tree has just started producing YELLOW lemons in large quantities :) YAY our first lemons from a tree that is REALLY ours.. and in honour of that, I am going to share a story with you of some lemons from another tree I shared a house with for a few years..

enjoy!!

Once upon a time there was a little gang of lemons

they would sit on the windowsill laughing and telling jokes and stories

their names were Leo, Laura, Larry, Leonard and Lisa

they enjoyed the jovialities

and lived such a happy jolly life

until one day they were told the story of how lemon meringue pies were made

some laughed while they bided their time before they were up for the juicer.. trying to downplay their fear..

but in reality..

they were terrified!

It was a traumatic experience

for all involved

It is hard work making a pie! Some were very exhausted by the end

And some were awed.. and proud to have been part of something so good

hehe :) definitely making lemon meringue now!!

oh yes, and while I'm still here, i'll also show you my newest creation!
this little owl was inspired by pammy dawn, who I found on Etsy she makes all sorts of felt hair clips like this one..

(this pic comes straight from her etsy site:http://www.etsy.com/shop/pammydawn)

this is my wise school owl.. i wore him to school a few days last week, and he received many cuteness comments :)

I'm quite happy with him, he's rather friendly.. and wise :) -see it was him whooo told me to bring home the school mag camera WITH the battery charger just in case, and guess what.. there'd be no pictures in this post if it wasn't for that wise idea!

do you like the red background? -thats my beanbag!!

He's also rather photographically deceptive.. in reality his body is purple, and his wings and feet are dark blue, although in these pictures he looks like he's all just blue..

Oo, going to show you one little peek at the magazine seeing as I've been working on it so much lately!!

this is one of those really boring pages that you have to include with pictures of every year 12 kid, or year 8 kid etc :) this is one of the five year 12 form photo pages..

{image removed for privacy and confidentiality reasons. apologies for any inconvenience caused}

yep.. i'm having fun and putting me into that magazine!!

think i'm going to have to leave you all here if i'm going to get my pie made,
but now that i'm on holidays don't worry, you'll be seeing more of me :)

the little bird is going to get busy again!
(does the little bird ever stop??)

anyway, bees are buzzing, got to go!

formal sidetracking

2010-06-08T20:50:00.003+10:00

so yes report deadlines are coming up this friday, but so too is the year 12 formal. I decided what dress i was going to wear but didn't really have a whole lot of jewelery that went with it, so i went of a bit of an internet perusal and found this necklace: $58.. hmm.. nup

after not too much more looking i found something even better...
a tutorial, with an end result of:
inspired by the same necklace..
***bing***
yes i was going to make one.. and although while the pictured tutorial necklace sells for $35 on etsy, mine only cost $15, and $12 of that was for the pearls.

My dress is purple and blue, so i modified the necklace a little because I'm not really that much of a white person anyway. Making the flowers was heaps of fun.. and SO EASY.. (good tutorial btw)anyway, here's what mine looks like:

i'm so happy with it.. such a productive tuesday night :D

see i got so carried away with the little flowers i even made a spare one for my hair..

little blue and purple organza flower anyone??

ok, so i suppose i should do some marking now :C

see you on the weekend for more fun :D
xx
from the little bird

what.. more??!?

2010-06-06T00:02:00.005+10:00

you must be thinking omg she's gone blog crazy!! five posts on one day.. what is going on?? well yes.. i'm a little blog crazy and a little craft crazy and a whole lot of other things :D
so, after my beaded boookmark post that turned out a lot shorter than i'd planned, mum sent me some ribbon to make more..
so tonight i set to work, and i made absolutely SURE they weren't going to be too short. IF YOU WANT TO MAKE THESE YOU NEED MORE THAN HALF A METRE OF RIBBON! (unless you read tiny pocket sized books) Anyway, this is what came out his time :D i love them both!! The burgundy one is the same on both ends, while the blue one is different and can be used either way up

and i chose one of my slightly taller than most books (but not huge-huge) so the bookmark would be the right length for the majority of books people read :)

you can use it with the beads out either end, or you can have them both out the top -which is what looks better if you're putting your book back half read into your bookshelf anyway

The only thing that is a bit different between the photos and real life is the red beads around the flower aren't as fluro or bright as they look in the picture, they're actually quite a deep dark red, but they have a reflective core and its setting off the flash (yes its 1am so i'm using a flash)

So mother dear.. what do you think.. which one do you prefer??
i hope you find the decision as hard as i am!!

xx
the little bird.

musings on stitches and days filled with time

2010-06-05T20:49:00.010+10:00

that makes it sound like most days aren't filled with time, which sounds strange when you put it like that, but its so true.. ahead of me i have 5 weekdays.. none of which have very much time in them at all, maybe an hour or two between the five of them if i'm lucky.. can't wait til the holidays when i'll have whole strings of days ACTUALLY filled with time, that i can use however i want :D

so I've spent a bit of time tonight and lately thinking about what i want to make over the holidays in terms of clothes and otherwise, but tonight i've become a little clothes focussed.. looking at other blogs and the dresses etc people are making and getting ideas of what i want to do.. oo, i quite like this one actually! (just discovered her blog tonight)
And i've been looking back over everything I've made.. i think my favourites are...

definitely these two dresses!!! I absolutely love this pattern! -and have made 4 dresses from it so far, and despite being more expensive that i would usually want to pay for a pattern, i think it was definitely worth it :D

I also quite like this pattern.. very easy to whip up a dress in a few hours.. in fact i think it takes longer to cut out the pattern pieces than it takes to make the dress (i own about 4 dresses from this pattern too) -sorry about the bad quality picture.. its from the days before the camera

While in Tassie, i bought some beautiful fabrics, like the black and green moon shaped one on the dress at the very top, and this red gingko one.. i really like this skirt :D And again, this is a favourite pattern! Although this is my variation on it, the original pattern doesn't have buttons and open down the centre, its got a zip in the side
the bees are of course a favourite (and i've made about 15 skirts from this pattern.. its so easy and addictive)
back above and front below and this one which took me forever to embroider, but its so me, and it makes me happy wearing it

lastly, is my pink skirt, which sadly i don't have a good photo of, but as it was the first skirt i made (with help from mum) i'm always going to be fond of it.. it was the beginning of something thats just kept growing! (thanks mum!!!)

So, i think what i want to make next are some more dresses (think i've got a goodly number of skirts) and some more that i can wear with stockings and maybe even some kind of top so i've got colder weather dresses as well as dresses for summer, because its getting pretty cold here and i don't want to stop wearing stuff i've made!!

more bees

2010-06-05T18:59:00.003+10:00

So i made them!!!
little sewn envelopes for my bees :) i had wanted to sew on the cards, but it took too long, so i decided to sew the envelopes instead.. i think it adds a bit of flavour!

I also made some little bee stamps for sealing the envelope..

I had wanted to attach these with a circle of clear contact, but couldn't find any, so had to use two strips of sticky tape.. this worked ok although there is a join line across the bees which wouldn't be there with contact.. need to go shopping again!

one little bee as a seal and one little bee on the front :D

sew now i think thats enough from the beehive for one day..
and plus.. its tea time!!

xx
the little bird

on a rainy day

2010-06-05T18:08:00.004+10:00

so its really wet today, its been raining pretty heavily for about half of the day.. hmm very happy veggie garden me thinks.. anyway, perfect day for MARKING! *meeeerp* also a perfect day for sewing!!!

so i walked to the shops and got me a good supply of cheap boring teatowels (7 for $5 at safeway). and got to work with some material scrappies..

and 10 minutes later... tada!
TWO FANCY NEW TEATOWELS :D

Yes i know.. i haven't made bee envelopes yet.. thats coming next

alright alright i'm going!

bees in the beehive

2010-06-05T12:58:00.008+10:00

On wednesday i think it was, we received a game in the mail that we'd ordered a little while ago. its called 'steam' and basically you lay hexagonal railway tiles to build track and transport goods to earn money. we've only played it once so far but its a good game.. however while punching out the rail tiles from their cardboard sheeting, an idea began to buzz...

What great stencils!! So first thing this weekend i set to work creating some cards..

I had this idea that a mix of ink and stitches would work really well, so i hand sewed the bee trails onto the first card.. which took about 15 mins..

so i decided on red pen for the rest.. much faster bees!

don't they look happy!!

I also tried out the smaller beehive stencils, and while still cute, i think i prefer the bigger ones which is great because they're much easier to use!

next for some envelopes..

yellow leaves

2010-05-30T23:35:00.006+10:00

so sadly its that time of year when reports and essays and exams and a thousand pieces of marking are all rushing and tumbling and falling upon you that you barely have time to notice the leaves turning red..
and i have to say, i saw a beautiful red tree the other day on the way to school and it made me realise that it was autumn, and almost winter in fact and i'd hardly seen an autumn tree, which made me rather sad, but i figured that autumn would be back again next year and maybe it was just the fact that its been a dry year that the autumn trees weren't really colouring up.. then i realised what it actually was. i've moved house!! i'm living in a suburb of pine trees and gum trees! i'm never going to see autumn here! my garden is green, my street is green, the walk to the shops is all green, even my drive to school is mostly green.. as are the gardens at school.
And this is what i will miss most about living in the liquid amber and oak suburbs of Ashburton and Camberwell.. have to go fro a few drives next autumn :)

Anyway, the only colour in my garden is where my grape vine is starting to turn yellow, but its not really a pretty yellos thats differentiated with reds and greens and browns like oak leaves can get, all the leaves are the same colour yellow all over, no difference at all. The shape of them IS pretty though, and it inspired me in the 20 mins i had to spare on free time to do a bit of leaf capturing :) to bring some autumn into my house..

you'll have to wait a little while to see what i'm going to do with them though.. because i haven't really had the time to create or even think about being very creative lately.. only FIVE MORE WEEKS TO THE HOLIDAYS and 8 weeks of work to cram into them!!

anyway, enjoy the last of autumn,
seek out some blushing leaves,

and fly past the beehive again sometime :)

string of beads

2010-05-26T21:35:00.000+10:00

so i decided i needed a new bookmark.. well i don't really, i have plenty of beautiful bookmarks.. more than you could use at one time and actually know what was going on in each book you were marking if you were really reading them all, but i felt like making a simple bookmark..

and such is how it turned out.. simple, but i like it :)

the only sad thing is, that by the time i had added all the knots, which i hadn't planned on doing when i cut the ribbon, the bookmark ended up quite a big bit shorter than i had hoped for.. and the only books it fits in properly (beads out each end) are my little pocket sized beatrix potter set..

so if i want to read anything else i have to fold it in half and have the beads all coming out the top like such..

ahh well, i'll know for next time!

Queen Anne's smiling

2010-05-25T20:37:00.004+10:00

so, as promised here are a few pictures of my very first lino prints, all printed up properly using all the professional equipment :D

that red one is the very first print i made.. remembering the anticipation of peeling the paper back.. wondering if the last hour was a waste or if the image would make me smile.. hoping it would have worked.. pressure of others watching.. waiting.. doubts..

and while not as fine as i'd originally hoped, i still love it and am seeing so many ways i could use it.. can't wait for the holidays.. so many things to make with Queen Anne :) i don't think you could have made it any finer anyway..

as you can see, it didn't take me long to get into other sorts of papers
i quite like he effect this yellow and red wavy tissue paper has

i think it works so well because its fine like the flower

well i think Queen Anne would be smiling! (are those flowers even named after her?? might have do a little checking on that!)

five weeks, 3 SACs and a few hundred reports until school holidays!! See, we're nearly there already!!