The Holidays......

....are off to a good start! No fights.....yet!

The boys were blowing bubbles in the garden this morning so I thought I'd take a few photos of what else is in it!

Bulbs are pushing their way through the topsoil - daffodils, irises and hyacinths, the first flowers on my "Sunset Boulevarde Hebe" appeared, mushrooms are multiplying , the "Black Boy" tree grasses next door look wonderful, the grass is green and the sun is out.

I wonder how our new garden will be when we figure out what to put in it.

Kathryn. XX

On a complete whim...

I've kinda been having one of those weeks.

One where you just can't seem to get stuck into anything.

I seem to find myself aimlessly wandering the house wondering what to do with myself.

I know, crazy right?

Well, today I found this froggie pattern, all cut out and ready to sew. (It has been in this state for, cough, 8 years..) It was a panel I bought at Spotlight 8 years ago and I just never got around to sewing it up.

Today was the day! C'mon Kathryn, you have to at least accomplish something for the day.

Finished!

And here he is in all his glory!

Would you just look at that GREEN grass - haven't seen that for a while!!

Come on, don't be shy!

I haven't given him a name yet. Any suggestions?

Mr Toad springs to mind from "The Wind in the Willows". Ah, the open road...

"You're not going to leave me out here are you, where I could be eaten by that feline of yours?"

No, Mr. Toad, you're coming inside with me.

He was very easy to make, the only fiddley bit was sewing the legs onto his body. I can't believe it took me so long to get around to making him. Master 8 said he was "awesome". Can't complain when you get compliments like that eh?

Holidays are finally here too! Yeah!!

Have a great weekend everyone, Kathryn. XX

I am so gorgeous!

Yesterday, whilst trying to take photos of the new cushions this little "beast" decided to interupt!

Oh, let me play with the camera lens please.....
What if I look all sweet and purry for you?

Can you stop moving the camera so I can smooge on it?
smoogey, smoogey

Oh yeah, gotta love macro!!!

Kathryn. XX

A Cushie Job...

It's not really a cushie job, it's actually a really fiddley one, but worth it in the end.

And, I seem to have done this........ quite a lot during the process.

Apologies if you are squeamish! I've been making a few cushions over the last few days.

I had a custom order for this one....

House Inc. Stella and Eden fabrics...

So, I thought I'd do a few more.
The ruffles are so time consuming (I don't have a ruffle foot on my machine) but so pretty in the end.

I've used Rachel Ashwell's Wildflower, Cabana Stripe and Ribbons & Roses. All are discontinued now and will be very hard to find soon. Good job I have a good stash of them!

More House Inc. fabrics. They are all so soft and femine.
I think one, or two, may not make it to the shop!

Kathryn. XX

Getting down to the nitty gritty...

We are not far from being at the "lock up" stage at our new home. I have not stressed at all over the process whilst our builder has been in charge. In a few weeks, we shall take over organising all of the sub trades to finish off, then the stress will begin...or has it begun already?

The answer is "Yes". The tossing and turning trying to go to sleep at night is all too frequent.

We have had many discussions as to what comes first, do we have everyone organised as soon as the builder has finished his part, are we organised? I think so. But then come the "little but huge" decisions....what paint colours, heating, what taps are we going to have, the flooring, carpets, kitchen, bathrooms.......of course the list is endless.

We went to see about having the kitchen done yesterday so we shall just wait for the quote now. I'm a little scared!!!

We priced bathroom "stuff" on the weekend and that scared the pants off me too...I'm now searching on ebay! The ridiculous prices you can pay for a set of taps is incredible. I found the same ones we liked, at the shop here, on ebay for half the price and free postage. Now, when people say "buy local" I say, if you can do it for half the price then OK, but they don't.

We have exactly 3 1/2 months to move as we sold our house last week and we have a settlement date of October 5th. I am so relieved that everything regarding the sale of our house is nearly finalised. It is one stress off my mind!

Kathryn. XX

What is it with boys?

They can give you so much grief (one in particular - gosh, I'm being very disloyal here) but fill you with warm fuzzies too.

Being a Mum is bloomin' hard work isn't it.

One likes to torture me, the other one wants to be like his brother in every way (except the torturing bit.)

How can two boys be so different? My FIL always says "We're all different". He's right, of course. The world would be pretty boring if we weren't.

Yes, it's winter and 12 degrees and yes, they have shorts and t-shirts on...

What is going on in their little minds?

I'm blessed if I know half the time....If Men are from Mars then boys must be from Pluto.

Kathryn. XX

Hands Free and a Winner!!!

Inspired from here and here I decided to make my own "Hands Free" handbag.

I bought this "London newspaper" fabric (from here) a couple of weeks ago and thought it perfect for the accent fabric. I used lightweight clear PVC over the top with a quilt style binding so I didn't need a teflon foot for the machine to sew with it. Also used was denim, red and white polka dots and a luggage strap - adjustable.

It isn't quite finished: "Blog Finished" as a few would say!

I shall stitch down the binding at craft tonight.

I think I'm going to love being hands free now!

Now, let's get on to the giveaway winner, I know you are all dying to find out!!

Firstly thank you to those that entered. Your comments keep me motivated to keep going!

We had 55 comments. The pic is a little hard to read but....

the winner is comment number 35 and by my reckoning it is Deb from

"The Angel and the Pukeko"

Congratulations Deb. Please contact me to arrange your prize!!!

Thanks again everyone, Kathryn. XX

Crowning Glory...

I've had this idea in my head for a while now and yesterday began working on it.

"Crowning Glory"

I know crowns have been around for ages and I've seen many screen printed versions which I have loved.

But, I thought a Shabby Chic one was called for.

So I dug out my stash of Rachel Ashwells' "Wildflower" fabric and set to work.

This is how it turned out.

I handsewed the pearl trim and freshwater pearls on and hand ruffled the organza ribbon.

I love it. I think I will have to make a few more.

Lots' of Shabby cushions have been added to the website and Etsy

My Mum was thrilled to know that her fox was on yesterday's post.

Thank you for all of your lovely comments.

Only today left to enter the giveaway...

Kathryn. XX

Hello Foxy....

About this time last year I decided to start my Christmas shopping. I wanted to get an early start as I knew I'd be busy and didn't want to have panic attacks at the last minute wondering what to buy/make people.

So where did I start shopping?

On Etsy, of course. "Woolpets" was one of the first shops on Etsy that I made a purchase from.

I purchased a few needle felting kits including the "Red Fox".

I gave my Mum the Red Fox kit as she loves foxes...

The last time Mum and Dad came to visit Mum presented me with her very first "Red Fox". Not bad for a first attempt. You can probably guess, by this first attempt, that my Mum is pretty clever with her hands too!

At first, I refused to accept it but then she said, "don't worry there's enough in the kit to make about 6 so I'll keep going until I get one perfect!!!"
I don't know about you, but I think this one is pretty perfect.
I haven't started my Christmas shopping for this year yet.
Have you?
Kathryn. XX

P.S. there is still time to enter my giveaway if you haven't already!

It's all happening....

Ok, so not only am I celebrating my 1 year blogaversary but soon I will celebrate my 100th sale on Etsy and I have reached 100 followers!

The person who purchases my 100th item on Etsy will receive a special surprise......

Pop on over to my Esty shop, My Shabby Cottage, to find out if it could be you!!!

Lot's of new goodies have just been added so there is plenty to choose from...

"Barefoot Roses" Hairclips Tidy
Little girls bag "Royal Ballet"

"Royal Ballet" Hairclips Tidy

"Cameo Roses" Hairclips Tidy.

"Flower Fairies" cushion
Lot's of Handbag Doorstops

And some more Princess Cushions are on the way too.....

Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Goodluck, Kathryn. XX

Happy Blogaversary to me......

It is a year ago today that the big wide world of blogging began thanks to this awsome gal!

I was around visiting Jodie to pick up some chenille when she said to me...."have you seen these great blogs?" "Huh?" I replied.....

I had never looked at a blog.

She showed me hers and the rest is history!!

So one year on, I have discovered a whole new world of wonderful people, met some great new friends, learnt a lot from the amazingly talented crafty community, had lots of fun, been encouraged to keep going, joined a craft group, been on a crafty weekend away, joined some great swaps and kept a diary of it all for the world to see and me to look back on in years to come.

I want to thank everyone who has left a comment here for me. It means a lot and it keeps me going. I try my best to reply to comments but sometimes the sewing machine gets in the way........ :)

Now, no blogaversary can go by without a little giveaway can it?

So, I have organised a gift certificate of $50US for my Etsy shop MyShabbyCottage.etsy.com

I am in the process of restocking the shop so look out!

All you need to do is.....

leave a comment on this post and if you don't have an Etsy account you must register for one

(you can add me - myshabbycottage - as the referrer if you want but it's not necessary)

so that you can receive your gift certificate (it's FREE to join - so go and do it!) and once you have an account you must add me to your favourite sellers if you haven't already done so.

So, that's pretty simple isn't it?

The giveaway will close Tuesday 16th June at 7pm (AEST) and will be drawn on Wednesday morning.

Good Luck to everyone!

Thank you blogland. It has been a blast.

Here's to the next year!!! Hippip Hooray!

Kathryn. XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Giveaway now closed - thank you to all who entered.

On the long weekend....

We mostly tried to stay warm.

It was 11 degrees celcius....

Hubs tried to get some painting done before the rain came and the sun disappeared. We celebrated a few birthdays (hubs included!) with good friends....
Went to the house a few times and had a steady stream of visitors wanting to have a look....
Went for a walk........

What a view!

And my poor sewing machine has not been touched for 5 days.

I better go and stroke it...just to let it know that I have not forgotten it.

I hope you had a great long weekend?

Kathryn. XX

(edited to add: It is my 1 year blogaversary tomorrow, so make sure you come back for a super dooper giveaway!)

Quilt #4 finished....

Last night at Craft we were supposed to have made our stretchy no pattern skirts...

but a certain someone was dreadfully ill (I hope she gets better soon) and did not make it.

She had the overlocker.

So, no skirts were made.

I'm glad I took something else to work on just in case.......

This is my Irish Flower Chain Quilt that I began at Sewjourn a few weekends ago.

(Pattern found here)

I just had to put the binding on and sew down the hanging pocket.

After a few teething problems regarding the pattern I am rather happy with it. But I'm glad it's finished. I don't think I will make another one.....

Perhaps in a few years? (when I am over the agony and the pain...!)

I used a fadeaway fabric marker to draw on the patterns for the centre white blocks then free motion quilted them on. I wanted something in the middle but not too much. (I know, there aren't centred very well...)
These are the flower blocks.
I think if I make another one it will be made with a jelly roll (2 1/2" strips) instead of a honey bun (1 1/2" strips) as it would be easier to align the squares more precisely. Being such tiny squares it was difficult to match the seams up.

Some of the back.

I like how it looks with the FMQ around the edges then just the little motifs spread over the centre.

The overall effect is great and I do like it, it was just very fiddly to make and time consuming.

Kathryn. XX

Just call me "Stretchy"....

After spending the weekend at Sewjourn and some very clever ladies, I was determined to make one of Nikki's stretchy (no pattern, just cut and wing it) tops made in the blink of an eye and for the total sum of $6.00!

So, this is what I whipped up this morning. It took me longer than it took Nikki to make hers but after some adjusting to the size I think it turned out really well.

It looks a bit grey in the photos but it is black with little tiny sparkles through it.
Thanks Nikki, for giving us some tips and tricks and for making us realise that an overlocker should not be something to be frightened of!!
Right, next is the no pattern, just cut and wing it skirt......
Kathryn. XX