Tea Towel Tote

Hello Blog World,

Another weekend has come and gone and while I was supposed to start my quilt this weekend I got side tracked with another project that I have wanted to do for a while now.

I dashed into spotlight the other day for some material for my apron (more on that later) and I stumbled across this lovely set of tea towels on sale for like $4 for the set!!! I had been on the lookout for a nice set for a while as I had this project in mind.



Don’t you just love the trim on this one??



Now the hard part is to unpick all the seams on these as well as that lovely trim, fold 2 of them in half ( one for lining and one for the outside), sew up the long sides. Usually the third towel is put aside for the handles as well as a band along the top but because my towels had a lovely trim I unpicked the trim and used that instead, so that gave me enough room for a pocket and handles!!!

So just chop it all up, sew it all back together and WAH LAH a fully lined tea towel tote bag is born



I really loved the embroidery on this, it’s very sweet.



It has been very hot here about 42° C (108° F) so that is all I really achieved on the weekend. So I have to make a baby card this week, and next weekend I am going to get stuck into this quilt of mine, as well as start planning my craft room redo (oooh exciting!)

So until then Happy Crafting.

---

I often link up at these parties

Resolute This!

Hello Blog World,

While I have never really done resolutions, this year I am jumping on the bandwagon and while I am not setting resolutions as such I am setting goals I want to achieve this year.

I feel writing them down for the whole world to see makes this more serious and makes me accountable at the end of the year.

So here are my 5 goals for 2012 in no particular order – 1 week late

1. CRAFT MORE


While that’s easy to achieve with just that phrase I have certain projects I want to complete.

• Finish my quilt
• Gallery Wall for Kitchen
• Bathroom Organisers
• Finish my Cross-Stitch
• Make a handbag
• Finish my Elephant Drawing and complete 2 other drawings
• Continue to learn crochet and complete and hat for Tiana
• Make a skirt
• Make my clown doll
• Make at least 2 things for my niece’s school raffle
• Make Cards for every birthday and anniversary this year (no buying last minute cards)
• Redo my Kitchen table table and find chairs to suit it
• Redo my book shelf
• Make a meal organiser

2. ORGANISE & DECLUTTER

Source: cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest	Source: craftynest.com via Dawn on Pinterest

Again an easy goal to complete when you just say ORGANISE! But I do

have specific goals in mind.  My home is like a clutter jungle  most days

so these are things  that I want to achieve by the end of the year.

• My Bathroom (at the moment there is make-up, hair stuffs and other miscellaneous stuffs everywhere)
• Kitchen Pantry (this is just bad bad bad)
• My Craft Room (again stuff everywhere)
• My Bedroom ( we have a fairly small bedroom so something needs to be done now!!)
• Utilising a daily planner as to not forget about things
• Meal Organising

If anyone has any great tips on organising let me know, I need all the help I can get!


3. A HEALTHIER LIFE

Source: tumblr.com via Adrienne on Pinterest

I am not going to say lose weight!  That is not my goal, that is just an added bonus if it happens.  My goal is to live a healthier life in general this includes

• Exercising at least 2-3 times a week
• Minimal junk food ( I am only human and know I have weaknesses, but limit my self to only one or two times a week)
• Drinking at least 2 litres of water a day
• Cooking with fresh ingredients
• Planning meals ahead of time

It sounds pretty simple, but I need to remind myself of these things.

4. GROW MY BLOG AND MAKE SOME FRIENDS



I started this space nearly a year ago, but was very sporadic in my posting and connecting.  I have found since coming out of the winter blues in October I am really enjoying this.  But I am here to make connection so to speak.  I am passionate about crafting yet know no-one else that is! My friends get bored with me rambling on about fabric and paints and learning how to ruffle and the softest yarn etc… So I am here this year to share my passion with the blog universe and hopefully meet some friends along the way.

5. SPEND MORE TIME WITH MY FAMILY

Source: framedart.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Do you ever feel you are just going through the motions??  Some days weeks months I feel like that, everyone is busy with life, work, school, crafting, facebook, forums, tinkering with computers etc that we forget about each other.

This year I want to spend more meaningful time with my family, not just go through the motions of life.  I want to go on picnics, play games, continue my weekend date with my daughter before she grows up and out of it, go away on a romantic weekend with my husband, and have meals together! (hence the kitchen table redo)

This is my most important goal and if nothing else is achieved but this I will be a more happy person than now.

So that is it!! My goals!!  Do you have any goals for 2012? What do you do to help you stay on track and not get caught up in life?  I would be very interested to know.

Until next time Happy Crafting

---

I often link up at these parties

Jewellery Rack

Hello Blog World,

Now that all the Christmas gifts have been exchanged I can show you the one that I made my closest friend Jenny in Melbourne this year.  Normally we make something for each others birthdays but this year I flew down to Melbourne to be with her and ran out of time, caved in and bought her a digital photo frame.

So I made her something for Christmas instead, something that I have been wanting to make myself for ages and when I was in Melbourne a month ago realised that she could really benefit from it too.

I realised this as she loves necklaces and as I stayed at her house I noticed all her necklaces just on wardrobe door handles and basically wherever she could find room.  Therefore her own jewellery rack was born.

My beautiful hubby bought me home two pieces of broken pallet wood, which I sanded down and painted one a lovely cream colour.



I then distressed the edges and used a bit of distress ink to age it up a bit.  
I then did some measuring and marked the middle, popped my knobs where I thought they would look good but it was a bit blank, so I added a wooden monogram.  Nothing says personalised more than a monogram!



This I painted gold and also dirtied up a bit to look more like brass in the end to match the knobs I bought.  I was a bit pressed for time so I could only get to one store to get the knobs, not exactly what I had in mind originally but in the end they looked great and it will match her decor.  When I do mine, I am hitting ebay I have seen some beautiful and cheap knobs on there!!

So here is the finished product, ready to ship 3000km’s to Melbourne.



I can’t decide which knobs I like best!  They are all so pretty and now I can’t wait to start on my own.  First to ebay for knob shopping, oh the choices are endless!!

I have seen a few different varieties of these out there in blogland if you google jewellery rack or look on pinterest you will see heaps of different versions out there too.

The Weekend is finally here, and I am going to try and get some sewing done.  I am making another and I should be able to get a fair bit done of it today and tomorrow.  What are your plans this weekend? 
Until then Happy Crafting

---

I often link up at these parties

Shabby Teacup Pincushion

Hello Blog World,

Remember the other day I said I was going to do a bit of de-cluttering before I end up on Hoarders.  Well while I was de-cluttering I came across this teacup and saucer I got from a thrift shop about 18 months ago.



It was only a couple of dollars and I had bought it deliberately to make a pin cushion out of.  I had seen one on the net years ago and thought what a brilliant idea. Now I don’t remember the original one, so I did a quick google search and found that there are heaps out there!!! So now there is another one!

While the teacup itself is quite plain, it has this beautiful iridescent pearly shine to it that I absolutely adore.


So I went searching through my scrap material stash and found this lovely stripy fabric which I then cut into a circle about 1”-2” rounder than the saucer.  This was probably a bit too big but it still worked for me.


I then ran a gathering stitch on the inside about 1/4” all the way around the circle, gathered it and stuffed it with poly fill


Once that was done I simply filled the cup about half way with more poly fill and the ran some hot glue around the inside edge of cup, but not too close to the edge or you will get hot glue ooze, and then just pushed my puff into the teacup.

I then had to think about how I wanted to decorate it.  I had some pink crochet trim that I ran around the edge again with hot glue, also made a bow out of the same trim and then with some bead made a couple of hangy things to go under the bow. 



I also then decided I wanted a flower, again I went hunting through my material stash and found a lovely cream and green shabby floral patterned material.  I tore a strip about 2” folded in half and ran a gathering stitch very close to the folded edge and gathered.



After this I cut a circle of felt again about 1 1/2” round and started from the outside and just sewed this down and around until it came in the middle.  I was going to put a button but couldn’t find one I liked so with the same pink crochet trim as before I made a rosette and then sewed a pink pearl in the middle, hot glued it onto my fabric flower and WAH LAH one shabby little flower complete.



I just love the flower it’s so pretty and shabby chic looking in my opinion, and I deliberately wanted frayed edges, this is why I tore the strip of material.

After I was happy with my flower I hot glued it onto the pin cushion, then hot glued teacup onto the saucer and another WAH LAH we have one teacup pin cushion completed.





All in all I am absolutely WRAPPED with how this turned out.  I just may have to make more now!!!!

So if you are looking for a full tutorial just google it there are a million out there and they are sooooo easy to make or if you would like me to do one on the teacup or even just the flower let me know and I will be happy to oblige.  Hubby wants me to make one that looks like a cappuccino now, hmm where to begin on that??

Before I tackle that I have decided I am going to make a new quilt! I have already started cutting my fabric out and I will start the sewing this weekend
Until then Happy Crafting

---

I often link up at these parties

Crochet Hook Roll

Hello Blog World,

Over the Christmas and New Years break recently I had 9 days off work and got quite a few projects crossed off my wanting to do list.

One of these projects was a crochet hook roll.  I have only just ventured into the world of crocheting and still have lots to learn but for some reason have collected quite a bit of yarn and crochet hooks, which I have just been storing in a big bag.  The hooks were loose down the bottom and kept falling out so I thought those crayon roll things would be a perfect fit for the hooks so I went a googling and actually found a tutorial for exactly what I wanting and using crochet hooks.

The tutorial is from Joanne at  Today We Made, she has some great tutorials so go check her out!

So I started in my much needed re-organising craft room, and started looking through my material stash.



Hehe this is just one box, I also have a massive bag full of material scraps.
I ended up picking some lovely lemon and pink striped fabric, that I had left over from my baby blocks I made earlier in 2011.


Whipped it up according to Joanne’s tutorial and added a bit of my own quirky style by having the pocket sewn on crooked (this was not intentional)  The whole thing in the photo looks crooked but I assure you it’s just the needle pocket!



Now my hooks have a lovely place to live and roll up very nicely.


This is the first type of roll thing I have made and I am very pleased with the finished product.  Next paint brush roll (I think I will be making one for my friend Jenny, but extra long as she has heaps of brushes)  Joanne made this seem so easy and her instructions were great so again go check her out at Today We Made.

Now I can do my crochet in style, and I have plans on doing heaps of practice as I have found an online crochet school with heaps of videos but more on that later.

Now it’s 33 degrees here so I am going to die in front of the air con for awhile but I will be back as I have been working on the cutest Rufflyist apron!!!

Until then Happy Crafting

---

I often link up at these parties

Tower of Fun

Hello Blog World,

Yesterday I finally got around to doing some scrapbooking, the mood hit me a few days ago but I just couldn’t get to it straight away. 

Now I am by no means an organised scrapper.  I have a folder on my computer with copies of photos I want to scrap and it just seems to keep on getting bigger and bigger.  When the mood hits, I do not do them in any order I just do what either inspires me at the time or what I feel like.

So when I saw Sketchy Thursday’s Sketch this week, inspiration struck it is such a lovely sketch and I knew what photos I was going to use straight away!



The date on my journaling should tell you just how unorganised I am.



But I am quite proud of me, 12 months or not even that long ago I would have taken this sketch and pretty much copied it exact, but I have definitely put my own spin on it and I think it shows how much I am growing as a crafter in general.  



I did originally print out three little photo’s to go down the side strip, but I just love this photo and wanted it to be the main focus.  I am really happy with the result and this has now been swapped over with my last layout and put in my 12” x 12” shadow box frame on my bureau in my family room.  Scrapping this brought back memories of a wonderful day with my family mucking around and having a picnic in the sun.

Again I have dug deep into my stash for this, and have not bought anything new, but the following has been used.

Bella Chip Letters
Crate Paper
Bakers Twine
Kaiser Craft Star
Kaiser Craft Alphabet Rub Ons
Lots of Tim Holtz Distress Ink around the edges of the papers, and even the letters have a chalk ink on them as they were stark white and I didn’t like it that bright.
and my printer ( for the journaling and the smaller book page looking paper)

I only have 1 day left of my holidays and then I am back to work.  What to do??
Hmmmm I will go ponder that, until then Happy Crafting

---

I often link up at these parties

White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins

Hello Blog World,

Firstly

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Welcome to 2012!! I can’t wait to see what this year brings. Did we all have a good NYE, I hope we all fared up well this morning.  My hubby didn’t (a bit too much drinkies) you would think at 43 he would know better.  I guess we never grow up, and that’s a good thing my friends.

Anyways enough with my babble, onto the real reason we are here GOODIES!!!

I did want to scrapbook the other day, but never got around to, between cleaning and then finding an old project I just had to complete once I found it (more on that later) I ran out of time, and then to top it all off we were invited to a BBQ for New Year’s Eve and I was asked to bring desert, so I spent most of yesterday in the Kitchen while hubby was calling me a baking Nanna!

I thought about it for a while and decided my white chocolate & raspberry croissant pudding would be the go (again more on that later), so I made that and had some left-overs so white chocolate and raspberry muffins were born!

I would love to say it’s my own recipe but noooooo, I had pinned one awhile back that I had been dying to try but when I went back and looked at the recipe again in full it just didn’t look right to me, there was no sugar or butter you know all those yummy things, so I went hunting and found a fab recipe from Best Recipes.com.au and tweaked it to my needs.

You will need
3 Cups Self Raising Flour
1 Cup Caster Sugar (powdered or superfine sugar for my American friends)
125g White Choc Chips
125g Butter, Melted
1 Egg
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Cream
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence ( I love Vanilla flavour so I did use 2 teaspoons, or if you have proper extract which I had run out of you could use that instead for a stronger flavour)
200g Raspberries (fresh or frozen work with this)

To Make
Sift the flour and add all dry ingredients. Mix well.  Melt your butter add all wet ingredients to mixture and mix until combined and formed a sticky muffiny batter.

Carefully fold in White Chocolate and Raspberries. 
Divide mixture evenly among muffin cases (this should make about 16 decent sized muffins)  and bake in pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for approximately 20-25 minutes.


^{Before Baked (ignore the state of my muffin tin, it’s about 20 years old and I need a new one OK)}

Muffins are ready when you insert  a skewer and it comes out clean, then let them cool then eat as many as you want!!



MMMM Yummy even if I do say so myself. I thought about doing a powdered sugar glaze or something on top but honestly they were quite good just the way they were in all their nakedness and the fact out of 16 muffins there were none left by then end of the BBQ I am guessing they went down a treat.

Now I am going to get the scrapbook page layout done today, so until then Happy Crafting.

---

I often link up at these parties