A blast from the past

Just had a nice weekend in the small town where I went to 3 years of primary & 6 years of high school; hmmm the more things change...

Anyway, the reason for this visit (one of only 4 in the last 25 years or so) is that my first boyfriend was turning - get this - 50. Scary, scary. Anyway, it was nice & the weather was kind & the pub we had dinner in was fine, great steak & beautiful orange & almond cake - I took a few pictures of his beautiful garden - this is a dogwood tree, apparently. Whatever, it's gorgeous.

Also, I whipped the last of these up tonight when I got home - hope she likes 'em!

Smelling good, looking great!

So I made some of these for a person at work 'on spec', as they say here, and she ordered 4 sets, just like that. Here's a preview:

They smell great, too, full of cloves, a nice change from lavender... $10 a set is okay, right?

Also I get to use up some fabric I'm not that fond of, for a good cause and make some money - can't do better than that!

It's getting closer

Doncha just love it when Christmas gives you an opportunity to make things you love but are 'too old' for? I just made some great christmas decorations for my friend Deb's kids, and my husband's niece & nephew, and I thought I'd make a Christmas Garland a la Allsorts blog - mine isn't quite as glamorous has hers, but it's going to be cute in the office, and in keeping with my 'handmade' pledge... can anybody tell me how to get the photos to wrap round the text? It's driving me nuts!

And now I'm off to make a doorstop; I just found a great pattern here & I'll post a picture when they're done - I'm making three - one for Nellie, one for me & one for my mother, who currently has a great big lump of 'coffee rock' keeping her sewing room door open. I'm sure we can make something more glamorous...

Working, working

So I've been slightly busy at work dealing with a crazy woman, and I've come home every night this week & made one of these in various fabrics and coloiurs; the guys in the office have started to notice how the girls are all walking round with these things stuck up their noses (nearly) and how nice they smell, so I've started making some more masculine ones...

The blue one is for my friend Shaddie, and the purple for my BA Buddie... you know who you are.

Also I got a bit embarrassed about having lots of beautiful fabric at home & walking around with my headphones in a nasty poly-something bag, so I made a very beautiful bag to keep them in from some Amy Butler Blue Wallflower with co-ordinating cord channels in that great blue dot... but these are the ones I made for my friend Gill in the UK, complete with her initial, appliqued on by hand. Yummy.

For Suzanne, at Notable Notions...

And then there's the Etsy community! I think the people who make up the Etsy family are like family you actually like (and I know for sure there's the other kind...) - anyway, I ordered some boxes to send out my froggies in (when I ever sell one, hint hint) & they took ages and ages to arrives from the US. By the time they came, the seller and I were on first name terms and she was popping in for coffee. Well, nearly. Anyway, I decided that she should be the first recipient of a frog-in-a-box (hey! Marketing idea!) so I made one just for her as a 'pay-it-forward' thingy. I hope she likes it...

Hunter Valley birds

So last weekend we were lucky enough to spend time in the beautiful Hunter Valley, which is about 2 hours north of Sydney, with our friends Kaz & Az and their gorgeous dogs, Zeb & Zoe. Anybody see a theme here?

I found a reference in my friend Lulu Carter's lovely blog to a pattern for a bird, from Spool Sewing, so I downloaded it & made a couple for Kaz. I think she liked them!

Progress

So I've been working on the froggie pattern for a while now & I think I've got it - these guys are just getting cuter and cuter (it's a bit of a worry when you don't want to sell something you've made because it's really cute)... the house is in danger of becoming even more overrun with frogs...