Psssssst ? need a quick fix??

I am back at work tomorrow so thought I'd get in some absolute last minute crafting and these are the easiest and funnest things to make.

You will need some ring findings

Some embroidery thread or dental floss (dental floss is great stuff to sew with- super strong)

and a few buttons.

If you choose to stack your buttons, sew them together first but not too much or the holes will get to small for you to pass your needle through.

Then you just sew them to the mesh plate and voila..................fashion awesomeness !!!

They won't last forever and your finger may turn green but who cares, they're buttons.

Edited to add: Thanks for the sweet comments this is where I got my ring findings ,

Bead it beads

Post 94 - tagged

I was tagged a little while ago by the lovely Linda of two pink possums with the crafting meme.
here goes:

1. When did you start to create and make craft?
I grew up on a farm so I think there is an essential sort of resourcefulness that comes from that kind of childhood –a sense of making-do. When I went to university to study welfare I really envied the art students. I loved the way they carried those big portfolio folders on the bus and all the exciting stuff in the art building. I lived with an art student and she was always drawing funny little pictures. One day for no real reason I made a softie of one of her characters and she loved it.


2. Why did you start creating?
I guess I started to craft during that university time because I had no money to buy gifts. I made rag dolls for my nieces out of chopped up clothes. I remember writing stories about each doll. They were called Pavlova and Asparagus! I developed a deep and binding love of the spotlight remnant bin, which I now extended to include all remnant bins.




3. Why do you create?
Wow ! What a question. Without being melodramatic I know that I need to create. It is a bit like having a secret identity , On the surface I do all the normal things, go to work, hang out with the kids but all the while some part of me is thinking of the project (or projects) that I have on the go or am constructing in my brain. Crafting slows me down and cheers me up.


4. What do you create?
These days I mostly sew and I joke with my friends that I am a novelty sewer, I have a lot of different projects on the go at a time. I have done so many things, paper making, dyeing, wire work, mosaic, raffia -hat making.............Right at this moment I get the most enjoyment from softies and dolls but that can change week to week or month to month. I often start something like the dolls and then get stuck on one element so I go back to bags or something else until I get an idea of how to proceed.

5. Has this changed since you began crafting?
The biggest change for me has probably been in my attitude to my craft. I know how important it is to me so I schedule it in as a priority. I have a sewing room that I love (way too small and always messy) and I no longer apologise for spending time in there. I am out and proud !!!!The change to my actual craft is that I don’t tend to feel I have to make useful things – even though my kids are big I love to make toys so I just make them and give them away.


Thanks Linda - this was really interesting, well for me at least. I guess I have never really stopped and thought about why I do this stuff, it is just so much a part of who I am. I really enjoyed this and will tag Annie of course - even if she has been dobbing on me lately !!!!!
and anyone else who would like to join in - I'm not very good at tagging am I?

Now I am about to take my not quite very well computer in to the computer doctor so it may be a very quiet weekend for me. Hope you all have a great weekend ........hmmmm no computer for a whole weekend, no blogs to read....................ok, I can cope -just don't do anything exciting till I get back !!!!

smell-o-blog

Aha, Miss organisation strikes again.
This week I made my little buckets as part of the whiplash challenge, using the spy fabric.
Blah !! My photos for the tutorial were shocking !!! So if you want to pop back tomorrow I will have a do-over on the buckets

Of course when I say tomorrow I use the term loosely. Tomorrow I am going to work. We are a week and a half out from school concert and there is still heaps to do.
Have I told you about the puppets?
I have been making eight Giant puppets for the concert - they are footballers and they are about 2.7m tall HUGE !!! Anyway depending on that.......... the bucket tutorial may be a bit later than tomorrow.


Check out these little mouse-trap buttons I grabbed today . It was the end of the tube type sale.

Today I cut some Daphne from a bush in the garden - it is such a lovely smell and now the house smells like spring. Then later I had to chop fresh coriander for dinner - another favourite smell. I was wishing I had smell-o -blog so you could all share. Then I got to thinking about smells and how they can transport you back.

I remember the smell of green apple shampoo when I was about 10. When I was pregnant I was addicted to the smell of Aloe Vera soap . I have no idea why but I wanted to shower ten times a day just so I could smell it.

The smell of old style freesias is the smell of my Nanna's house and the little vase she kept in the bathroom. Her bath was so old the enamel had worn off one end and it was all scritchy scratchy if you had to sit at that end. I could go on forever with this !
Ok so if you had a smell-o-blog what would we be smelling ???

Thrifting paradise.

This is why I work part-time........... This morning I was able to pop in to a local op-shop and BINGO !!!! Check this out.

All the buttons from a $5 jar - I opened it and right there on the top was this gorgeous vintage diamante buckle.......as well as all these treasures, little glass buttons and lovely old metal ones......

A separate $2.50 bag revealed these - they are all glass...I love the cameos...I really wish I knew more about buttons. Can anyone recommend a good button book?

the second bag was full of all these pretties.......

and a bag of vintage British snaps for $1 (some of these will go in my Cottage charm Giveaway Pack)

I also grabbed a very soft almost musliny embroidered apron, and some beautiful vintage fabrics ...........

Then, as I went to pay the person serving me asked me if I sewed (I think all the buttons were a dead giveaway). She said they had a bag of sewing stuff out the back I could have if I wanted it. It turned out to be a bag of unfinished Granny squares destined for the bin as they though no-one would want them.

Now, I am sooooo not a knitter or a crocheter so this bag is free to a good home. If you have a use for this and live in Australia, let me know and I will pop it all in a prepaid satchel and send it off to you. I mean, I just couldn't leave it there ready to be tossed away ...could I ?

Cottage Charm Giveaway

ALL DONE!!
I have decided to try and join the blogosphere a little (I know I fluffed up the whole apron thing) by joining in on the "cottage charm giveaway".

I have taken a fairly loose definition of the term cottage I think, but hope that people might like some of what I have to offer.

My cottage charm giveaway is for:

1. Bright yellow and pink BoBo made of vintage chenille




2. card of vintage buttons




3. 1m each of two of my favourite tape measure twill tapes




4. 1 strand of strawberries made of vintage chenille with vintage buttons




5. vintage chenille gingerbread man for the Christmas tree




6. 2 patterns for chenille cakes and cupcakes




7. 10 squares of beautiful vintage chenille measuring six and a half inches each.

If you would like to win this little pack of goodness all you need to do is leave me a comment on this post.

Please please make sure I can contact you via your comment so if you don't have a blog please include your email address in your comment. I will draw the winner on May 26th. I'll cover postage etc. so what have you got to lose? Thats it - No tricks just a little freebie.....

If you go and have a look at Kim's site you will of course be able to see everyone else participating and find some great new blogs in the process. (Thanks Kim- Great idea).

Thrifting / op-shopping saturday

Hi .

Well my love affair with blogger is being tested ! Everything went well for about a week but love is fickle and now blogger hates my photos -.

Hopefully it will work this time

Saturday involved a little op shop excursion - I notice all the US blogs call it "thrifting" which sounds kinda nice. Anyway, see the frame ? At my house we call these ballerina frames and I love them. I always imagine them with pictures of ballerina's inside but this one is empty so I will have to find something to put inside. Some vintage fabrics, a funky tin (already claimed by Miss 15) and a cheery day all round.

and buttons -aren't they gorgeous. I just can't go past a bag or jar of buttons in an op shop without having a look.... and these are gorgeous. Some pretty glass ones and I came home and sorted them into the collection ! (button therapy)