Election Stalls

Here in Queensland we have just has two elections within a month, which means fund raising opportunities for the school! I think running a little stall is superb I love playing shop.  At the first election I was involved in the plant stall.  A month before the election we brought punnets of seedling for our local nursery, repotted them into larger pots, nurtured them and watched them grow.

             My washing line area was turned into a mini nursery, look at all these little babies...
We offered Veggie Patch plants, mainly herbs and tomatoes and a few beneficial insect attracting flowers.  Our most popular plant was coriander followed by basil and marigolds.

 For the second Election we organized a cake stall, I think cake stalls are my favourite.  School families donated their home baked goods, we packaged them up and sold them off to passing votes.

Whole home made cakes sold quickly, followed by pretty cup cakes, then mixed plates with a few slices of different cakes, also anything with coconut on top looked beautiful and was popular.

Thank-you to everyone that helped us raise valuable funds and show the public what a great cakes our school can make.

How to Make a Terrarium (scroll down for Sophie's movie)

There are so many beautiful Terrariums around at the moment, I just love what Squiggily Rainbow has been doing with hers.  So Miss S and I thought we would have a go.  I found this yucky set of jars at an op shop, a bit nasty for a kitchen bench but fantastic for a Terrarium.  Miss S loves hers so much I keep finding it in odd spots around the house as she moves around to play with it, hmmm.

Before - Yucky old glass jars

Ingredients - clean jars, gravel, bark, soil and plants

Give it a good water and clean off any dirt,
carefully tip out any excess water and Finished

Sitting it its new home.

This is Miss S's latest movie

Coincidentally I just discovered that Squiggily Rainbow is having a Terrarium give away, click here to enter.

Tea Parties and Crazy Cakes

My children have always been quite partial to a tea party but as the girls are now nearly 8 and 10 I can't say I can remember the last time we had one.  Miss S had a friend over the other day and the children decorated cupcakes for morning tea.  They were so proud they thought they could sell them.  I was a bit worried they were going to set up a street stall in our street with three houses.  Instead they decided on a cafe.  So a Tea Party Cafe was set up and everyone had a turn at being the waitress (or waiter as in Master B's case.)

I love this tea set it is all so pretty.

The said cup cakes.

Pure art 

Just be careful which ones you choose to eat,
 it looks suspiciously as though that orange jelly bean and
white button have been bitten in half. 

Childrens Curtains

It is new curtain time for Miss S who has been waking up at the crack of dawn for weeks now. We need heavy 100% block out with as much block out as possible, but I don't want to make them myself.  I just find curtains so stressful, all those unforgiving straight lines.

We have been traipsing everywhere looking for something great.... nothing, anywhere. I have however found this on-line fabric store (very local to us bayside people.) Fabric Traders, they have exactly the fabrics I want curtains in.  The down side is that I will have to make them. So this is what I am thinking...

Ozborne Girly Pink

West Indies

Suzani Candy Pink

Ozborne Girly Pink I think is the way to go, Ms S likes Suzani the most, but how pretty are the colours in the West Indies print.  Thoughts?

Vintage Tapestry Cushion

It was Aunty L's B'day the other day, I love finding the perfect present for her as she has a great taste for vintage mixed with a little funk.  I found this old tapestry in our local collectable centre for $20.  You know the type of tapestry masterpiece that comes in a kit, with all the cottons so you can sew by numbers?  I just find it so sad to see these so often in charity shops - all professionally framed and unloved.  The finished product doesn't seem hold much value other to the person who made it.   Some of these anonymous sewers are so talented, I don't imagine I will ever be able to sew that neatly or consistently. 

 I recently met an older woman at a market trying to sell 6 80x120 cm framed tapestries that she had impeccably sewn but was downsizing and unable to fit them in the new place.  She was wanting over $400 each!  She said they were very expensive kits and I am sure they were.  Unfortunately they were also Darcy Doyle type Bushmen on horses outback scenes that just didn't lend themselves to needlepoint.  I hope she found someone to treasure them.   

Anyway this little cottage is so sweet, the frame was yuck and not in great condition so perfect,  I thought to make into a cushion for Aunty L.

Before

After 

A side

B - Side.  Bit of left over Ikea fabric. I know the ikea fabric
it doesn't quite do the A side justice but it was the only heavy weight fabric I had.
How nice would a vintage rose have looked?   

Aunty L was very happy with her birthday cushion and it looks great on her grey lounge.

Machine Covers

I have finally and I mean finally got around to making covers for my sewing machines.   For years my overlocker has been covered by the plastic shopping bag cover it came with, how dreadful is that.   The sewing machine I use is actually Mum's (thanks Mum for the what seems to have turned into a permeant loan,) and would have to be at least 20 years old.  It does have a fantastic hard covered plastic case that it came with but the plastic is perishing and it the case takes up as much space as the machine when the machine is in use.

Before - can you see how ripped and filthy the overlocker case is?
How have I let it get that bad???

During

After - how much nicer is that?


I just made a simple rectangular slip case and then cut off and sewed up the inside corners, to create a gusset so it sits well on top.  Great way to use up all that ever growing pile of scraps and fat quarters.

Covers from the Top

A side 

B side

Lisette Passport Dress

It was my birthday recently and Mr Daddy got me some special things from Spotty (of course, I buy them for him to give to me.)

Have you seen the Lisette range by Simplicity?   In case you haven't already discovered, Lisette is the Mummy label to the simply stunning childrens range Oliver + S.   I have been checking in regularly at the Lisette blog for some time now and coveting the patterns I just couldn't decided which one to get.   Anyway one of the blog posts just happened to mention that Spotty was going to be the official Australia stockist.  So off I dashed and in true spotty style I dug amongst piles of horrid fabrics until I found what I was looking for.. rolls and rolls of beautiful Lisette fabrics, so hard to choose from.  The patterns were a mess and no one knew where they were so I managed to hunt down a junior staff member and manipulate them into letting me riffle through the pattern stock draws until I found what I was looking for.   I have such a love hate relationship with you Spotlight.

The sizing is American, I am usually an Australian 10 or 12 so I made a 16 American.

I settled on the "Passport" Dress and Jacket  pattern
and a couple of meters each of this funky blue and pretty red.

The fabric is beautiful to sew and the pattern was easy to follow.
I added an extra one inch band of fabric between the bodice and the skirt as
I am long waisted and look a bit peculiar without an extra panel in the middle.

I really like it, very comfy and sits quite well despite my dodgy zip.  I can't wait to make the blue one now.

Us as a Wooden Peg Family

 It's holidays in our neck of the woods and by jeepers it is so good!!!!!  Holidays means that the children like a quality craft project to get their little teeth into.  They can be a hard crowd to please. they are no longer satisfied by having free rein with all my paper craft stuff.  They demand facilitated activities with materials preferably sourced via Etsy.  This is the results of our latest project...

From this ------

To this --------

I love Mummies flattering curves and Daddies big bug eye.

Not quite sure if I should read too much into this representation - I don't have blond hair.

You can buy a raw wooden family ready to personalise from Etsy, click here for cool shop .

A Huge Purple Thank-you

Thank-you so much to all the purple crafters who swapped purple.  There were about 30 of us in the end and some amazing things were made.   Here are a few more pictures of all things purple....

Gorgeous girls necklaces by Kelly

Munty the marvelous bear by Tracey 

Even some computer art - by Claudia

What an amazing  selection of purple hair accessories by Jennifer.   ( I happen to know that this bundle arrived at a house with two little red haired girls, how cute are they going to look.)


An enormous thank-you to all those kind people who donated money to our Every Day Hero Fundraising Account for Epilepsy QLD .  I am blown away that we raised over $1000.00.   I was seriously bought to tears many a time by peoples generosity and kind messages.  Thank-you everyone who helped raise awareness and made Epilepsy a topic of conversation.  

Purple day/night in Brisbane City.  Many of the city light turned purple and the local news was filmed with the purple  kids as a back drop.