Rockin' the handmade Christmas

Whilst Miss Grace took center blog-stage last week, I worked away on little gifts so this is a bit of a catch up post.

Firstly Connor's room is done ! The carpet is in but the door needs to be trimmed and rehung. This was the design he chose for above his fireplace.

I have made some Gocco stationary for some friends at work- It is great that more than one person has the same first initial.

Other people are getting little PVC toiletry bags (still unlined but getting there).

And I made these cute little decorations from the Softies book. They are so easy and I have cut out heaps, they are so quick and heaps of fun- a great way to use up scraps. I have some more owls on the way as well, for those people who may turn up their nose at a little girly frock on a tiny wee hanger....

This is part of my gift for my Kris kringle ( secret santa) at work. A vinyl pencil-case for the school nurse. I have her name on the back in vinyl letters. Her favourite colour is mauve and purple and she will probably get the little mauve dress as well.

This is not to suggest I haven't flopped one or two gifts as well - I have...... but funnily enough I didn't bother to take photos of those!

Post 97 - the weekend went where?

The weekend was filled with painting again.
This room has been a bit of a struggle - the wallpaper was a cow to remove and of course then we had the "great wait" for the plasterer. The walls are the same colour as Jem's but the difference in the light made it look very yellowy. I had to keep lightening it until I got something I was happy with. The fireplace is not finished , and the window isn't started but we are getting there. The picture rail is the same grey as the mantle and the carpet (when it gets here) is a dark charcoal grey. I am thinking of red curtains.

The rest of the weekend passed like this !

These are some of the pics we are using in the snapfish book I am making for Mr Ric-Rac's grandmother for Christmas , she's a very sprightly 99 who has everything (as you would by the time you are 99 I guess).
This was hysterically funny to do and I could easily make another book of all the blooper shots. Connor's moustache changes design every few photos because he kept smudging it. Jemma's dress is held together with bull-dog clips . There are lots of shots of the dog's bum or a pushbike, or pieces of garden junk in the background.
This took two days over two weekends but I think she'll love it. Even though I am not actually manually making the book - maybe this can squeeze in as handmade Christmas?????

Insert title here.....

After that rather long-winded previous post , I figured I had best add the pictures of the week as well.

I apologise in advance for these bad photos- mostly taken in the evenings.

The last few weeks I have been working on Jemma's room (Connor's has been abandoned for the time being).

Her room had pale blue green sponged walls with a hand painted cornice at the top. As I have previously mentioned this room has been a big compromise!!! Like a typical (I hope) 16 yr old Miss Jem would have loved to have had black walls...mmm nice.

The compromise is cream walls with Knock-your-socks-off red trim and "The Tree"

The tree took the best part of three days to paint - This room now needs one more coat of paint on the skirting boards and then the carpet can go in (oh and a door to paint too). The tree was quite easy we just used an overhead projector to project the tree image on the wall , drew it and then painted it. Of course new curtains etc need to follow so I am planning a trip to Ikea to check out some fabric. (Inspired by Lara who always makes great stuff from Ikea fabric)

Of course one cannot paint all the time , one must find time to pursue the gentler arts as well - like making wee dolly clothes,

Little cardi made from a felted big jumper with a bit of needlefelting on the front !

and the promised wallets.........................

as well as a little experiment with Mr Gocco and fabric.

This is Murphy ! - You can expect to see more of him soonish.

Doctor...Doctor... Is there a Doctor in the Hallway

Yesterday a few of the fats ( and one of their mothers) came over with their machines and we embarked on some cute little kitties ! Another cute Melly and Me pattern.



I made a dress from the huge vintage fabric haul of last week.





The hallway is now all but finished (We have one door to paint).

Before

After

What do you think? Of course we will put something on the table, we stole this from another room to see if we liked it and I love it - so much better than before (and the old hatboxes cover up the wonky floorboard that you can't walk on). I am not sure what to put on it yet - I have tried a few things but they weren't quite right. It does look a little cold in this photo but with things on the table and some new things on the wall I think it will warm up!

The two quilts are both old beauties that I have rescued from second shops - they are slightly shabby but still beautiful. And even though Master 12 says I am turning the whole house into a craft room- they will be staying !

More things will be put on the walls (I would love to hang my Lark Tea towel there but Mr Ric-Rac is yet to be convinced.) I keep saying it would nice to have some red in there somewhere and when I looked at the before shot I saw the huge red bin - that was not what I had in mind!

Tomorrow is the last day of holidays and I have still not made myself a new bag to start back at work - I have unfinished dollies (and another kitty) a very unhappy Mr Gocco (he was promised lots of attention this holidays - oops!) , wallets cut out but not sewn, the bag of fabric still unsorted sitting in the corner and what feels like a zillion un-finished, un-started and un-figured out just yet projects on the go at once.

Just the way I like it!

Just doing stuff.....

So the last few days have involved a bit of this..................

and a teensy bit of op-shopping

Today we went and looked at carpets for the kids rooms. Miss 16 chose "strawberry crush" - a gorgeous red . Master 12 chose evil-skull-death-depression or something along that line but I think it will work...and if not, we'll just keep the door shut for a few years.

Lights on but nobody"s home

No post yesterday, busy all day and by the time I was ready the teenager boy-girl - pizza-lollies-horror movies- musicals- more lollies- sleep in the tent even though it is only 4 degrees had kicked in.

They were great though and kept the noise to a minimum but I still had that crazy wake-up every hour to see if I could hear them thing going on. So a little tired and zombied today (hence the title)

Yesterday involved some more painting, I got the final coat on the blackboard wardrobe and another coat on the grey /green of the hallway. Here is where it stands today.

The right hand side needs one more coat in the morning and then I will start on all the trim !

I am not usually a talk about the weather kind of person but seriously what is going on? We have had huge flurries of hail today and the outside temp is currently a gnats whisker over 4 degrees.

In crafting news - all is not lost ! I am still in awe of the bag of fabric I was given and slightly disturbed by my mothers rather pushy request to iron it - ALL. ( My mother and her ironing is a post or two all of her own so we might leave that)

Yesterdays bit of craft was finishing off some sock-critter type presents for two little girls

and todays craft (and no it was not ironing all that fabric ). .......well lets just say something exciting is afoot !

How many hours in the day

Today was the start of the reno's.

This involved myself and Mr Ric-Rac trying to remove the wallpaper from Master 12's room.

My plan was to clear the room yesterday and get the steamer first thing this morning but Mr Ric-Rac arrived home with it yesterday unannounced so it was all a bit of rush.

You can understand why Master 12 (he of the Wolfmother concert, recent Silverchair powder finger adventure, owner of 3 guitars, 2 amps and a bongo drum) would not be pleased with this wallpaper.

Things went swimmingly for about two walls and then the cracks began to appear (literally).

Plasterer brother-in-law can soon expect to invited over for a few beers (and bring your tools with you). I believe we may have to replace a few walls (this is a five walled room) as they are at least 80 years old, maybe more.

Gone are the days when I expect any renovation type plans to actually go to plan. We have always lived in old houses. Tomorrow I am starting on the hallway ( I took down the ugliest weird flower type wallpaper frieze today).

Once the steamer was returned to the hire place I got to work on something that had been eating away at me since I cut it out last night.

Oh yes!!!! another little doll sized quilt. I have been thinking of the practicalities of chenille jelly-rolls for a while and have a very old project stashed away in this style (only much larger) so I gave it a whirl today - super quick, easy, cute and no disgusting bits of wallpaper paste in my hair either !!!

Stay tuned guys - tomorrow is paint and blackboards and all sorts of stuff !!!!

Holidays !!!!!!!!

Holiday !Celebrate !

Holiday ! Celebrate !

If we took a holiday

Took some time to celebrate

Just one day out of life

It would be,

it would be so nice.

Ok, so after that the song becomes a bit of an anthem for saving the whole world and completely irrelevant for this post which is just me saying Hi and telling you that at last , through the concert and the flu and the poopin'....it is school holidays. Before you all hate me for being so happy about not going to work,(and the fact that it means all your school kids are home for two weeks) , don't forget my kids are home with me now for two weeks as well -Its the good the bad and the ugly of school holidays really.

Because today was the last day of term I had to work and do all the fussing and backing- up and things so I had a swap and stayed home yesterday ( I work 4 days a week).

So this is what I did:

This is made with some great fabric from spotlight - of course they got ONE ROLL and no they can't get anymore ! I think they called is slicker or something, it is a plastic coated cotton - if you have some at your spotlight please please let me know !!!

Did you see the gorgeous little (very Japanese looking) mushroom fabrics in the catalogue (Homemaker page 20) Well no they don't actually have those either!

They don't know when they'll arrive and no they won't ring to let me know "because...like...they might not even come...you know. The catalogue is kinda..like...more of an idea...of ...like the range...but it doesn't mean it'll...be....like...actually in the store."

Oh silly me I thought it was an advertising catalogue of stuff you could actually go an buy. What was I thinking........

But you know it doesn't really matter because ........I.........am.........on......holidays !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for some more regular blogging and the beginning of some reno's on the house. (I have convinced Miss 16 she will not be having black walls !)