Purple Cards

Aunty Emy is a very talented paper lady, who hosts card making nights where we make four set cards. This is fantastic for me as I never seem to get around to making cards on my own.  

These are the four cards we made.

These are the Card Makers with their purple cards,
 not the best photo of any of us, it was getting late.
  And don't think we can't see you hiding behind 
your card down there!

* Appologies for the blue wash over the next few photos for some reason they loaded up with a blueish tinge.

This is the Purple card we made for Epilepsy Awareness.

This is my favourite.

Really quick and easy.

This is one of those so simple but amazing things.

School Fete Time

Our School is having its first Fete for a long long time in a few weeks time.  So heaps of fete-ish things going on at our house.

Jars for the Tom-bola Stall

How great are these colours for Body Art Stall, rainbow hands.

Crochet

Crochet does not come naturally to me, I am completely unable to follow all the ch, dc, tr codes and I don't really enjoy it much either.  However there is just some amazing crochet floating around at the moment and every week I am inspired by the other crafters and their work over at Our Creative Spaces.

So I picked up Nanas old hook again.  When Master B was a tiny baby I dabbled a bit with crochet and had started to make a little hat for him, but life took over and it was never finished.  I found it again the other day and thought I'd have another go.  I don't know what I am making, just a big doily at the moment.

I love the colours in the Bamboo/wool

I undid a the rows that made it into a beanie shape
and added the purple ( I also undid quite a few messy
rows.)  I love Purple and green together.

Big Doily

P.s. I picked up this awsome little
branch at the florist yesterday I don't know
what it is, but I just love it.

Op Shop Finds

Now that we are out of the baby/toddler years I am reintroducing house plants.  It just didn't work when every one was younger, many a plant was dug up and much dirt was strewn.  We have found some great plant holders in our recent  Op/Charity Shop outings.  We love treasure hunting in our house, sometimes I think I buy more than I donate but that's another post.

We have some great Op shops around us but as Heather Nette King  blogged about the other day, Op shops are a changing.  Heather was saying some of the shops around her were glamming up, we don't have that so much but the prices ARE going up.  What gets me so cross is when sometimes the ticketed price is more that it would have cost new.  My pet hates are over priced Kmart/Millars/Target and Ikea stuff,  horrible clothes in bad condition at $12 plus a piece,  Mcdonalds toys over $1.  Cruddy Barbies for $10 - you can buy a new one for $7.

I was in one shop the other day (and  I have a witness) I asked the price for an old piece of nylon kitchen window netting (about 1 m x 45 cm,) you could see the woman crunching figures in her head as she calculated my capacity to pay, then said "$8.00"  rip off - $3 tops!  Needless to say I didn't buy it.  Turn over is good ladies.

Sorry, I promise that is my rant over, I was supposed to be writing about indoor plants.  Here are some fantastic things I found for putting my pot plants in ....

70's Brass work, perfect for Maiden Hair.

How cool is this swan, I haven't found just the right plant
yet but she has been put to good use as a dolly boat by the girls.

And this dinky little clay pot made in a plaster mold
 - remember making them Mum and Aunty L?

Dress A as a Maxi Dress

Following my success with Dress A from The Stylish Dress Book I thought I would have another go, this time as a maxi dress.  I know should push myself to move through the book but my sewing competencies sit very comfortably at Dress A and I am a bit scared to go to B.  I found this fantastic Voile at The Bargain Box,   I can't remember exactly but I think it was around $10 a meter - how good is that!  So this is Dress A as a maxi long dress I think I could have done with being a bit longer but I didn't buy enough fabric... next time.

As other sewers have found this dress can be a bit sackish without a belt.

I just love this fabric, it is very thin so I do wear a
Body Sock  underneath. 

Very cool and comfortable for balmy Brisbane days.

Close up of the fabric, I love it.

Purple Pin Cushion Jam/Mason Jar

I made this mini sewing kit complete with it's own pin cushion as a gift for Aunty Emy.  It's not really ment to be used, just to sit and look pretty what could be better than that.  They are really easy, I picked up the jam/preserve or Mason jar from our local Cooks supply shop, stuffed a ball of fabric with wading, bunched it together with an elastic band and hot glue gunned it to the lid.  The fun part is being a bower bird and filling the jar with pretty sewing things, a colour theme pulls it all together, its all purple for me.

Purple Pin Cushion Sewing Kit

Lots of lovely things inside

The top needed  bit more some felt flower shapes did the trick.

More things inside, the felt is a needle holder.

Glue the pin cushion puff to the large flat part of lid.

Position flat part on jar rim and pull the
screw ring over the cushion puff.

 Come and make purple things with me and other crafters at Craft Purple

Purple

It's all about purple at my house, getting ready for some serious purple craft.

The ideas are flying around in my head, fabrics, wool & buttons

Inks

Even the garden is getting into it.

Please join in too and Craft Purple

Craft Purple for Epilepsy

This is Sophie's Story - based on a book we made for Sophie 2 years ago when she was first diagnosed.

Our daughter Sophie was officially diagnosed with Epilepsy at five and a half years old.   Sophie has  Panayiotopoulos Syndrome and Absence Seizures.   Sophie had her first big seizure at kindy when she was four and a half, this seizure was put down to a febrile convulsion.   The following year she had two more big events in a month, one in a swimming pool during a swimming lesson and one at home playing in the garden.    Sophie had an EEG that confirmed abnormal firing in the brain and the Doctor also confirmed that Sophie's frequent daydreams were absence seizures.   I remember watching Sophie when she was about two and wondering was there something unusual going on, by the way she would stare off into the distance and daydream.   With hindsight these daydreams were the same sort of absence seizures Sophie still has now.

Getting the medication balance right for Sophie has been tricky to say the least and she has experienced some extreme side effects.   I am happy to say that we now have a much better understanding of her seizure type, what works for her and what doesn't.   Sophie still has many absence seizures a day but has been able to return to school and hasn't has Panayioyopoulos seizure for over a month.

Epilepsy affects over 50 million people worldwide, which is about 1 in 100 people.  That’s more that multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease combined.  It can affect anybody at any time of their lives so why isn’t anybody talking about it…?

               You can help by Crafting Purple.  What ever you make, make it in PURPLE.

                                              Click this button to craft

                   

                               Or you can make a donation by clicking here.  

Really useful Epilepsy links, click on a logo:

Or Google Epilepsy to find an organization near you.

O'craft room O'craft room how I yearn for thee...

For some time now I have been trying to work out how I can get a craft room.  I have tried to get the children to share rooms, I have tried to reclaim the garage and Mr Daddy even consented to having some extension plans drawn up.  But none of it quite works.  At the moment I have a nook in the laundry for sewing...

All the paper craft, drawing things have been in Miss M's room.  Poor Miss M, this room is such a mish mosh.  (This is technically the spare room and has had a turn of being everything - a library/reading room when we just had one the child, home to international students when it was just the four of us, a nursery when Master B's came along, then back to a spare/craft room and most recently Miss M's room.)

The paper craft gear Miss M kindly shares her 

desk and shelf space with. 

Fabric canvases left over from Baby B's days.

 And then there is the down stairs study that has the computer and all the other bits and pieces I need access to.  Imagine if they could all come together in the one place!!!  I am open to suggestions.

  

Homework station

Organic Veggie Patch Cake

The youngest in our cousin clan has just turned one, so today we had a little beach party for her.  I have to say as gorgeous as Baby I is, the cake her Mummy made stole quite a bit of attention.

Baby I's big brother J, thought she would like a garden for a birthday cake.
  Lots of Chocolate cake and homemade marzipan later this is what Auntie L made.
It's modeled on their real organic garden and the cake is made with pureed 
beetroot - don't tell the kids.  I think she is very clever.

Sneaky chickens,

Great variety of root veggies,

How special are the little sprouts coming up.

Cabbages and peas,

How fresh do those tomatoes look?

It was delicious,

After the sub division. 

New Cushions

It has been a bit crazy here at our house over the last week, getting back into the swing of school.  I haven't been able to see where craft time fits in yet but hopefully I can squeeze some in somewhere...  I did finish off the last cushion for some new cushion covers that were hideously overdue.

I bought this fabulous bundle of mixed home decor fat quarters for US $28 from Etsy store Imagine Fabric.   I had been needing to do cushions for months but couldn't get the vision for what fabrics I wanted so when I found this random bundle on Etsy I knew it was perfect.  I love the challenge of making what you have got work, it limits the decision making process.  The really surprising thing is that some of the fabrics that first jumped out at me as special are no longer my favourites and ones I was quite non-plused about are!

7 Little cushions and one patched big cushion.

Being fat quarters there was enough for one cushion face
 per piece of fabric and scraps left over to sew together for one big cushion.

These are two of my favourites 

My other two favourites, I nearly ditched the grey
fabric but I love it against the dark chair.

Needless to say the children (and I) are
having lots of fun choosing which way to arrange them.

Side A 

Side B

For anybody who may be interested in the more technical details; I kept the cushion inserts in their old covers so they would act as liners, save me making more.  Also the new fabric is home decor weight so shouldn't stretch or change shape too much.  I used a hidden zip but I am still not quite sure how I did it I just know it worked on the day.  I looked at a few tutorials on line but none really worked for me so I winged it a bit.  The first was a bit a dodgy but by the last it was pretty good.  The big cushion is just a big envelope.