Christmas 2010

From us to you, Merry Christmas

sorry about the dodgy video work, we're getting better at it, i promise!

Owl Pillow, is called snuggly owl and I found him on oneprettything.com, and on Make it, Love it, its a downloadable pattern and instruction set, I found him pretty easy to make, he is pretty big and takes a fair bit of stuffing. Emily loves him, she quite likes birds, her room its getting a make over based on the little blue birds quilt im making her, that i have been making her for a long time, its so almost finished its not funny! I can't wait to see all the little things i have altogether. Matts for the floor, bunting for the shelves, art work based on her quilt and a few table runners and things, very cute. Right now thinking about adding curtains as well. Don't know yet. But the nursery feel her room has had is on the way out, welcome the girl room..:) Sigh, no more babies here..:(

I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas, and has an even better new year.

A gingerbread house!

well it started out like this. i got excited then. lol. i had expected it to fall apart before this point. but it didn't. ARGH on the windows, i read the instructions last night, and wasn't really thinking about what they said, and i really should of listened to the voice in my brain that didn't understand the instruction because when it was cooked i couldn't get the windows out, of course! now i knew that, but followed the stupid box anyway! i won't next year. i bought a box with all the cutters, which wasn't expensive at all, and took the guess work out of it all. but i did find heaps of templates on the net, the kids enjoyed using the cutters though.

And the complete details. there was a tense moment when i took away the roof supports, but the icing so far is holding..:) The recipe in the box of cutters for the gingerbread is very nice to eat and work with, it was all pretty hard so i had no issues with collapse.
The chimney, its three chimney cut outs stuck together with icing. Works a treat.
THe roof, sliced allsorts, hanging royal icing loops, easier than it sounds, i swear but effective too.
And our complete 2010 gingerbread house. I LOVE IT. let hope its still standing saturday for the centre of the table.

right now i feel like one big piece of royal icing, its everywhere, im covered in it! Going for a shower

jacqui

its been a kitchen sort of day

The best thing to do with fresh bread?

Cut it for lunch while its still hot! YUM

still bread making here, though we have changed a little. Does anyone watch River Cottage? British show, on lifestyle channel. I got quite the few tips from the Bread making ep.

Attic 24

how i love thee...:) hehe

i have been sent to this blog a few times

heres my bag, and the link to the pattern

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/crochet-bag.html

Its very easy and quick, this is lillys. She wants to learn to crochet, so i bought her some wool and a hook for christmas and this is her bag to put it all in. God help me when I have to teach her christmas day, cause you know she will want to get into it right away!

any tips for teaching a seven year old appreciated, she can finger knit like a pro, its this years tinsel on our tree.

christmas present glore

More sewing from Janelle winds book. It really is fantastic. I love this bag, it is so very cute. I made one for lillys friend earlier in the year and the girls totally fell in love with it, so here is emilys for christmas. Hers has a magnetic clasp. It will be good for the plane when we go and visit my mum after christmas.

I found this quilt on moda bake shop. (Picture frame or frame it or something of that nature, i would share the link but its stuck on my out of commission lap top) It was very easy, though i found the squares didn't quite match up, but within the overall effect you can't really pick it out. As said, it was easy and quite quick. Its also rather large! it should of had another round of large squares, but it was getting out of control for me. But i can so see it bigger and on a bed. Anyone this ones intention is for a picnic blanket. the owner of this quilt would of no need for warmth from it..:)

details, im still learning about free motion quilting. But i have discovered the lumpier the better for me..:) A wise lady also told me that it can't be wrong if i like it. Im going with that theory!...:)

The shopping tote from Janelle wind again, gotta use these pattern books up as much as possible..:) it goes with the picnic quilt.

five sleeps till the man in red....eeeek, we are so not organised, the only thing stashed in my cupboard is an xbox and kinect kit, dear me

updating the pillows

i shared the link to this quilt ages ago, heres my quilt. i first found this blog of janelle winds blog and let me just tell you cluck cluck sew is a fantastic blog full of tutorials to create things, all sorts of things. its all easy to follow. i loved the scrappy ness of this quilt. we use this mainly at little athletics on a friday night. its our picnic blanket. it gets quite the few comments too, i've led many to the tutorial. i knocked it all up over a few days. i did add an additional boarder to mine.
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2008/09/petal-pillow-tutorial.html

heres the pillow tutorial. i've been looking in a few stores at pillows, ours were in desperate need of replacing. I saw very very similar pillows to this one in designer stores starting at thirty dollars. just between you and me this didn't cost me that at all, and it was quick and very easy to sew and has given me all sorts of ideas for the other pillows. The felt is by the metre and it was very nice to work with, softer than the craft variety. Lincraft i found by the metre felt, but i bet its in spot light as well, somewhere. I used a demin for the base of the pillow.
My girls are totally in love with it, so i can see a few more of these in my future, i would probably make a slightly smaller base next time, esp for the girls beds.

Currently working on an xmas present quilt, i finished the quilting part yesterday, just the binding to go, will share shortly..:)

sewing sewing

so its been a week of sewing, of finishing things off and in some cases starting things. Much of my sewing came from Janelle winds book. Its fantastic, everything is funky and easy to follow and a pleasure to sew. The iphone pouch is for Jen Emilys hand therapist, emily and jen play with her iphone while Jen does her stretches. A part of therapy emily hates, so we found this to be a fitting present..:)

Lilly has two teachers this year, and this is what they got. I also followed a pattern from Janelles book, however there should be eight stars and I went for four as a middle of the table runner. I love these stars. I want one for my house too..:)

in the middle of a bag and quilt and some other bits, will share later

Merry Christmas to me..:)

This is my new baby..:)

I LOVE IT!

also got the ipad pictured..:)

its a happy little apple family...hehe

we always do something for the house at christmas

last year i got a fly screen for my front door so we could have it open, we get an excellent breeze right through the house when its open.

this year i got a toilet, yes you read that right, i nice white one.

i mean really who has an apricot toilet? I did heh.

and well because that present sucked nuts and we had been basically sharing a laptop for months after the kids fought over dans and broke it we splashed out and bought the mac. its

fantastic. so fast. I LOVE IT, did i mention that..:)

And just to prove im still kind of scrapbooking heres some art I made for our hallway.

Lilly took one look at it and went thats our family tree. YEs yes it is...;)

I made this for Lillys room. Its above her fireplace., its an apple tree.

and the bunting, well once i saw Mel Goodsells I just had to have some, its pretty cool and very easy

i just googled How to Crochet a three sided motif.

The snowmen

well here they are a little snowman army for emilys preschool christmas party tomorrowthey were very easy. Much easier than you would think.
I rolled two balls of white icing and stuck them together using water. The scarf was rolled icing that i coloured with wilton christmas red, i used the very expensive tool of a butter knife...good for everything hehe. and wrapped it around the snowman neck, i used water to stick it together again.

the hats i used a small circle cutter and stuck to it a cylinder shape, and a hat was born. The icing was colour with wilton black. The nose is just a little icing shaped as a carrot. kind of..:)
I gave them a little glitter, its an eatable powder and the eyes and mouth were made using a pen for writing on cakes.

I used orchard icing, bought from any supermarket. If I was actually making something like this for someone esle i would of used an icing modelling paste....but quite frankly kids couldn't give a rats about it.

i buy alot of my cake supplies from

the raspberry butterfly http://www.theraspberrybutterfly.com.au/store/pc/Simply-Sugarcraft-c2.htm

postage is ok, and the store is very fast, turnaround was just a few days. all the cutters, colours, glitter dusts, paints, you name it and its in this store....lots of great ideas as well.

I also use my local kitchen shop in Ballarat, LeKitchen.

i have a more detailed look at how I craft with sugar for cakes coming, just had to get all this out of the way....the end of the year is coming at frightening speed huh