Chic and Green - Etsy love feature

Pop on over to "Chic and Green's blog" to see this post about....Me!

Yeah.

Karley at "Chic and Green" has a category on her blog called Etsy Love and every day she features an Etsy seller and their shop. It's a wonderful way to promote people's goodies and a great networking tool.

So, "Thank you Karley".

Karley also has her own shop on Etsy called "Facial Care Boutique". I hope you will stop by and say "Hello" .

Tell her Kathryn sent you!

More Christmas Goodies...

I made these pretty stockings yesterday and added the frilly bits last night whilst watching T.V.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and, I must say, I am very tempted to keep them!

Now, this stocking has taken me ages to finish. I have picked it up and put it down so many times. But, today, I finally managed to get into the right frame of mind to get it done.

It has beautiful shabby fabrics, buttons, roses, bells, ribbons, lace, chenille, ruffles, rhinestones, vintage trim and more!

Here is where I need help.....

I have no idea what price to put on it for the shop. I estimate, it has taken me, 10 hours to finish.

What would you pay for something like this?

I hope everyone has a great weekend,

KathrynXX

The prettiest street in August!

This is a street not far from where I live and, at the moment, with the cherry blossom out, it is so beautiful.

I drive past it everyday on my way to school and every time I see it I think how pretty it looks.

With Spring in the air, it is time to start thinking about the Christmas projects I would like to have ready soon for the website.

These are my mini stockings. They are perfect to hang around the house or on the tree for a touch of shabby. They will be popped in the "Christmas" section of Our Shabby Cottage soon.

Cameo roses and lace mini stockings

Santa mini stockings

I finished this today. I thought it might be nice in the shop. I covered some small canvas's with some of my favourite Christmas fabrics, added the red and white trim as the hanger then finished it off with red ribbon, felt ivy and three big red jingle bells.

I love Santa's rosey cheeks!
Only a few days left of gloomy old Winter and the beginning of Spring. I can smell it in the air!
Three cheers for warmer weather..Hippip Hooray, Hippip Hooray, Hippip Hooray!!!!
Hope everyone out there is well. We are all on the mend. Master 7 has been home for days now and still not quite right. Fingers crossed he is better soon.

Kathryn. XXXOOO

Lunch Box Tote!

I had a lady request a "lunch box tote" the other day!

I had no idea what one was until I did a search on google to find out. (thickie!)

Anyway , it's just a simple little bag big enough to put your lunch into, to carry to work. Great idea and one that I hadn't given a second thought to.

Now this lovely lady will have a great looking little tote to carry her lunch to work in.

I only have to make the base and voila, off in the post tomorrow.

Too cute.

KathrynXX

On My Wish List.....

This lovely catalogue was popped into my letterbox on Friday and I spent all weekend trawling over every page looking at these wonderful fabrics. It is from Hancock's of Paducah.

I think my credit card is going to get a thrashing. Perfect fabrics for Spring.

The gorgeous "Ava Rose" by Grand Revival designs and "Farmers Market" by Michael Miller.

"Daisy Chain" by Amy Butler

"Woodland Bloom" by Lila Tueller

"Flirt" by Robyn Pandolph.

Beautiful fabrics at great prices and the shipping is quite good too.

And they have some amazing WEB specials too from $1.49 per half yard.

This little birdie is a gift for my niece who is 6 today. I appliqued the birdie onto some fabric, sewed some details on, then attached it to a canvas board for hanging on the wall.

Happy Birthday Amy!
KathrynXX

What email problems??

Woah, after delving into the depths of the computer, hubby discovered over 800 emails sitting in cyber space all because (he) didn't click one box in his email settings. So, yes it is all his fault that I have been becomming increasingly frustrated at not being able to communicate with you lot out there!!!

This had been going on for weeks mind you and I kept saying

"but there is something wrong - I'm not getting my emails from ebay, etsy, order notifications from my website or paypal"

(and you all know how important that is)

and he'd say

"yes, but all the settings are right"

Oh yeah right!!!

Well, now they are right!

Email away.....Kathryn. (phew!)

Email Problems... Grrrr!

For anoyone who has tried to contact me through my email address kathryn@ourshabbycottage.com

I apologise. It seems to not be working. If you need to contact me please email me through grekat@netconnect.com.au

for now.

If it's not one thing it's another. I'm going to investigate......

Kathryn

illness sweeping the nation, somebody pass me the panadol?

What is going on lately...? Every blog I read, people are dropping like flies with the dreaded lurgie...Then, this was me and my boys this morning. I felt fine when I went to bed last night and now this...

Are people passing it 'round in cyber space?? If so, I would like to thank the following people...

Poorly Jodie, Miserable Mandii, Rotten Shannon and Kate's whole family!!!

I'm trying not to laugh too much as my chest is sooo sore (even when I breathe).

All from me today, back to the couch.

Kathryn.

(no kisses today in case I infect someone else out there....)

Auction update!

New ebay auctions will begin tonight for any one who is interested!

A pretty rose ring. Perfect for Spring - just ask Shannon!

A new Cath Kidston fabric reversible tote...

A handbag doorstop - yeah! I love these!...

A vintage style rhinestone and pearl centre ring...very Glam!
All starting a low prices too. Gotta love that!

Just click on the Ebay link on the right to have a look.

And this has just been added to Our Shabby Cottage. It's soooo pretty!

Kathryn. XX

A big "Thank you"

"Thank you" to all those people who wished my husband and I "Happy Anniversary" on my last post. We really appreciate it!

We had a lovely time in Melbourne and enjoyed every moment. We did not stop though! First we headed out to IKEA in Richmond to get some ideas for our new house, had lunch, checked into the Hotel, headed off Bourke St. mall to DJ's,

( we had some vouchers from our credit card points - yeah!! Who would have thought it was so hard to spend $200 though!! We spent ages trying to decide. We ended up buying a pie maker and a few other bits and pieces for the new kitchen. We tried the pie maker on Sunday night and it is fantastic)

freshened up for dinner, had the most scrumpcious dinner you can imagine (buffet at the hotel), buffet breakfast, experienced the Art Deco exhibition at the Art Gallery of Victoria (fantastic) more shopping and then came home to two little boys who had missed us terribly.

Oh...:0(

They got over it when they saw we had bought them some treats....it's amazing what a bag of choccie frogs and some snakes can do !!

Anyway, these are few things that I have finished today. I love the way this wall hanging turned out. The fabric colours and the face are really pretty.

A cushion with the same theme.

This one is made with some really beautiful Barefoot cameo roses fabric and moda polka dots.

The "thing" at the back is a wall hanging mini quilt. I haven't finished it though. You can still see the purple fabric pen I used for the outline of the quilted flower shapes. I need to do the hand sewing tonight then I think these will go onto ebay.

Hugs, Kathryn. XX

"I do"....ten years ago

Gosh, it seems like yesterday when we said our "I do's" to one another.

At 11am this morning we will have been married for ten years.

My father in law said, last night, that it was half a life sentence...He has been married for 40 years mind you.. what would you call that?

Total commitment.

Oh, so happy... we still are..gulp!

(where are the tissues?)

This photo was taken in my old school. I love the tiled floor. Does anyone recognise it?

Because it was Winter I went with velvet and fur trim for the collar and cuffs. Simple - no lace (apart from my Mum's veil), no beads, no bare shoulders! I think I was the warmest person there!!

The tradition for our anniversary is to have a weekend away on our own. So, this weekend we are off to the swanky Langham Hotel in Melbourne for some pampering, shopping, yummy food and of course each others company.
I love you Hubby. XXX
Kathryn.

The Potato Olympics!!!

Olympic fever hit the school this morning in the form of "The Potato Olympics"!

Each child was put into a country and given a potato as their competitor. They had to decorate it in their countries' colours, give "it" a name and then compete with it in three events.

Master 5 named his Potato "Flame" and boy was he on fire!!!.

"Flame's" first event was Golf. You can see him out in front. They had to use the golf club to push their potato around the hole and back again.

Yeah, a gold medal... well done "Flame"

Potato running..... This event was measured on distance

Equestrian...running around a race track. "Flame" won this event too (by default as the other potato was uncerimoniously dropped on the floor - oh well)

Gymnastics..ribbon potato rolling..

Poor master 7 had a very oblong potato and it kept rolling out of the square. (But Mum kicked it back in again to gain 50 points!!! Go Mum...what? Of course it was allowed...)

Diving... a lot seemed to slam themselves onto the ground - ouch! It reminds me of Greg Louganis way back in '88.

The amount of time and effort that went into organising this morning was incredible. Each child had a tag with their country flag, another tag with their events, there were pages upon pages of names, events, times, records, medals etc... It has taken weeks to prepare. I can see why the Olympic committee need 8 years to prepare the host city now!

All I can say is good luck to all of the athletes in Beijing. I think it will be a very interesting games.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi!!!

Kathryn.

A.W.O.L.

This past week, my blogging has gone A.W.O.L...ha ha!

But, I did manage to finish off a few things for the website and Etsy and a few gifts for children's birthdays etc..

A girlfriend of mine has just had twins - Milly and Emerson, so I have to think of something for a boy now...Even having two boys myself, I still find it difficult to come up with something handmade for a boy (I don't have many boy colours in my fabric stash) I could make a softie... Any suggestions??

The "Liberty of London" fabric frogs turned out nicely...and they love one another already...
Everybody...Oh...!

Some new rosey rings...Glue problem solved!

Childrens pencil roll with notepad...

I made a "jingle ball" for a little baby recently and decided some more would be nice for the website too...Inside is a little bell inside a ball (like the bells you buy for your budgie) then it is stuffed with fibre fill.

I am also working on my "Christmas" section for the website which should be added soon.

Gosh, fancy thinking about Christmas already...but then time does fly and it will be here before we know it...I had better get my sewing fingers into action....

Hope everyone is well, Kathryn.