One of my favourite things..

For those of you who love pink glass and roses this is for you!!

This is one of my favourite things and I thought I'd share it with you. I have a little collection, on my dressing table, of depression glass and in particular dressing table sets. I love them. I have a pink one, a blue one and a green one (because you cannot have pink without green!).

I think it is the colour, the pleasure of just looking at how beautiful they are and often wondering who owned them previously and what were they like???

This little bowl is made by Walther and Sohne in Germany and it is the prettiest shade of pink. The photos show it as being rather orange but it was hard to photograph. I love the rose relief pattern around the edges and the little knob on the top.

Sigh.....

Gorgeous isn't it??

I have been working on some lavender strawberries today. I think I will send some to my Grandmother (87 years old). She loves lavender so I hope it will make her day!

Guess who arrived in the mail two days ago? Yep, my little migraine kid all the way form the UK. Thanks Shadow Cat! He has pride of place on my bedside table.
Oh, what a comfort!

Kathryn

Finished Yesterday!!!

What a dreary old weekend. Stuck indoors with two boys going crazy with cabin fever! No outings to the park to play "footy", no Auskick - only pretend "footy" inside with a balloon (that's the only thing I let them kick, handball, mark, bounce, and tackle with, inside. Can you pick up the fact that my boys love "footy"? Yep, crazy about it....

Anyway, suprisingly enough, I had a very productive day yesterday. We bribed the boys to watch "Harry Potter" once again so I was able to finish off some priojects.

I have this pile of stuff - either cut out ready to sew, half sewn and just about finished but never seem to get around to it - I call it "My can't be bothered pile". You can see the pile in the last photo on the front of the table. It has decreased in size a bit since my crazy whirl wind sewing bonanza yesterday but I still have loads to finish off.

Does anyone else have this problem???

I managed to finish off the girls. I have called them "Katiya".

Mischief in a bag!!! Finished yesterday.... Find them in my website shop

Barkcloth Roses Tote bag - finished yesterday! Find it on Ebay soon..

Ballet bag - finished yesterday!! Find it in my Website shop

"The Princess Cushion - Emma" finished yesterday! Find it in my website shop

Not wanting to brag, but I finished another "Princess Cushion" ("Isabelle") too, along with two girls aprons and a wristlet! Bear in mind that these had been started and then neglected! So, I'm not the whizz you may think. :)

The mess where I "work"

See the big pile of unfinished business??? Mmm, can't be bothered...

Kathryn

Barkcloth and lavender

Well, I thought I had better do some "Shabby" stuff today.

I have all this lavender so I have made a beautiful barkcloth lavender pillow which I shall put on ebay soon...

Here it is finished and it smells divine! I wish you were here to smell it. I used nearly two cups of lavender so it is very smelly - in a good way!

And this is how far I have come with the girls. I have hand painted their faces and hair so far.. I'm not very happy with the bottom girls with the brown hair. What do you think? I think I prefer them blonde.

Maybe over the weekend I shall get them finished or change them again....

This darling little creature turned up in my letter box this morning. Isn't she just the sweetest thing you have seen. And she is in my favourite colours - pink and green.

Thanks to Rosemary4Rememberance on Etsy. Check her out - she makes the greatest needle felt items.

Are you sick of cat hair/fur everywhere? Well one of these might just be the ticket. I have made a little quilt for my cat.
My parcel post lady, who I always love the sight of, suggested that "Coco" might be a little spoilt! "No" I said. Well, thinking about it now, I think she might be...



I think she likes it....



Woh, I'd better go and pick the "kids" up from school.
Anyone else looking forward to the holidays? This term has been way too long I say...
Kathryn

Mother and Baby Penguin done!

Voila!

One is in my Etsy shop now..

Kathryn.

Hubby had a bright idea!

After I made my little HOOT HOOT owl a few weeks ago for my Etsy shop, my husband came home and suggested I make a penguin.....

So, after some thought and searching some images in Google I found this photo of a mother and baby and couldn't resist.

It's always nice to have an idea, try to follow it through and hopefully have it turn out alright.

Well this is how far I have come...

The photo from Google...

Some sketches....

Transforming the sketches to a pattern then cutting out....

I have sewn most of the front, now I have to make some feet and sew on some yellow....

Then last night at about 9.30 I had an idea.. I would make a set of three Matryoshkas to match one another in different sizes, just like a real Russian set. I have only cut them out. So today I shall attempt to have them finsihed so I can show you tomorrow..

Kathryn.

Trip Goodies...

Well, even though I don't like it when Mum and Dad go away (I miss them), I do like it when they come home bearing gifts. Let's face it who doesn't like recieving a gift when it's not your birthday or Christmas? Yep, thought so.... :)

As promised, yesterday, I shall show you my goodies.. I like to collect red telephone boxes so they bought home a tin of teabags in a red telephone money box!

I also requested a few tea towels of the London Underground Map. I am going to transform two of them into cushion covers!

And finally, my parents know me so well, they bought me some "Opal" earrings. Shh... don't tell anyone but those Americans are so clever they have learnt how to create the Cubic Zirconia of Opals! Yes, they are similated opal but they look so real don't you think?

I'm not telling if you aren't!

Well, I'm off to dream up something new to make... bye for now,

Kathryn.

Mum and Dad

Today was spent with my Mum and Dad. They have been away on their "last trip" overseas and had been gone for 6 weeks. They are world travellers and have just about conquered every continent. This time they went to Croatia, Hungry, Austria, Belgium, England and the USA. They have only been home a few days and only just recovering from jet lag. it was great to see them and they brought some lovely goodies with them. I shall show you tomorrow....

Here is Mai. She is my lateset Kimono Kokeshi doll. She will be added to my Etsy shop soon...

Lovely KIKI is packaged and ready to fly off to California in a few days time. I hope she enjoys

her new home...

Here are some more girls for my Etsy shop.

Kathryn.

I have succumbed to the pressure...

Have you ever succumbed to the pressure of loving something so much that you just had to have regardless of the cost? Well, Friday night I did. I just had to have "The Migraine Kid" so off to Etsy I toddled to "The Shadow Cat" and now he is packaged and on his long journey, to me, from the UK.

I have been busy this weekend making some gift cards......I bought a whole pack of 50 cards and envelopes from Spotlight for an absolute bargain! I think they have turned out really well and I will offer them in my Etsy shop soon...

Here is "Coco". She was the one who inspired my "Pussikins" softies and the faces on the cards below...

I love the one with the patch.. I wonder what sort of bird he has caught?

Here is my second purchase from Etsy. It arrived on Friday and I love them - I should have bought one for myself. I can't show you the animals I purchased because they are Christmas presents. I know, I have started very early this year! Thanks Laurie from "woolpets".

Yeah! The website is live..

Yeah, I am so happy about the website being finished! We finished everything yesterday up to the point where we could upload it all to Google and amazingly there were no hitches! I just hope that people will begin to find me again..... I have had a few emails already to congratulate me on getting it this far. Thank you to those people - you know who you are!!

I still have loads of things I still want to make and add to the site so stay tuned for more exciting goodies.....

Now, you have got to have a look at one of my favourite things at the moment. It's called "The Migraine Kid" by "The shadow Cat".

For anyone that suffers from migraines you will know how this kid feels. Have a look at his handpainted face. Oh, you just want to give him a hug don't you? I love her work and she does every little stitch by hand. How patient she must be!! Make sure you check out her other works of art on Etsy via her blogspot.

I'm rostered on in the canteen at school this morning so I had better do some housework before I go and hand out pies and sausage rolls. Suprise, suprise it has fallen by the wayside in the last few weeks. I wonder why.....?

Rings and more rings!

I have been making some fabulous rings over the last few weeks ready for the website. I love vintage Mother Of Pearl buttons especially ones that have been carved. I also love the fact that you can see the signs of age - be it a bit of dirt here or a scratch there!

I have also turned some rhinestone buttons into rings too - they look so glam!

I have made one for my next door neighbour/baby sitter. She is making her debut in a few weeks time and it will match her dress beautifully. This is it below..

Well, I think it is about time I did something about getting the dinner ready.....good job I have left overs in the fridge :)

So Close...

Well, the website is so close to being finished. I'm hoping it will be ready this weekend but don't panic if it isn't! It will be very soon.

I just have to take some more photos of "stuff" then lable them, code them, describe them, thumbnail them, shuffle them around a bit, then hey presto! Yep, this website stuff is very time consuming but I hope it will be worth the wait.

I have included some photos here of some of my goodies so you can wait in anticipation....

The girls are ready to go to new homes...

Quilted durham roses tote bag..

Mary Rose, Yuwa & chenille tote...

Lots of new Handbag Doorstops...

My adorable "Pussikins"....softies

And of course a lot more..... Stay tuned and pop in this weekend to see if it's all a Go Go!

You have to start somewhere!

Well, it's true - you have to start somewhere! This is the first blog post of many to come......

I have just closed my Ebay store after 3 years and it's time to move on. I have been so busy lately trying to get my website finished so that all of my loyal customers will have somewhere to buy my goodies. I am on Etsy as well but only with a limited amount of stock.

Thank you to those who have found me on Etsy already :)

As well as sewing my little heart out my husband has been teaching me how to use the programme that will run my website. It has been hard going and he has been very patient let me tell you! As well as being a Draughtsman by trade he also does web programming so he is the master behind it all. I just tell him what I want and somehow he magically does it. A friend recently asked him "Yes, but how do you KNOW how to do it?". She, like many, have found it perplexing to know that a famer's son, draughtsman and country boy knows how to do these things. He is self taught by the way, never studied computers but he is an expert! Oh, and very handy to have a round!

We have had a beautiful long weekend. Thanks to the Queen for letting us have a day off for her birthday even though her actual birthday is not in June! We packed up the car and headed to my Grandmother - 4 hours away. It had been over 12 months since we had all seen her. She is 86 and amazingly fit and very healthy. She has a busier social life than I do! She goes to excercise classes, lifts weights, has been a member of the CWA for over 50 years, has collected for the Royual children's Hospital (Melbourne) for over 30 years, still drives and makes the best soup you can possibly imagine!

She lives at the foot of a hill/mountain called "Saddleback" which I used to climb every time my parents took me over to visit. It's a tradition that was pushed to the wayside until recently. My husband, myself, our two boys and my cousin set off the afternoon we arrived after a hearty lunch. It only took us an half an hour to reach the "summit". It was a beautiful day and you could see for miles. The boys thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought my little one (5) would complain about being tired but no!! I'm sure everytime we go now, they will want to do it again.

The worst thing about going away - even for a couple of days - is the washing. I hate it and that's what I'm off to do right now. XXOO