Super Cute Little Girls Art

This was mine!

...and so was this. 

Actually they are both still mine, but live in my Lilly's room and one day they might live in her daughters room.  They are both in original condition, same frames as I remember and so lovely.  My Mum had good taste, that 70's era.  The little girl is actually a painting and I always thought it was me, it was painted by someone Mum knew.  We just need to get Lill's room done and find a permanent spot on the walls for them.  p.s. Miss Lilly took these photos.

Vintage Tea towel cushions

I love love love these!

the backs are just as unreal as the fronts.

This calendar Australia map one is my favourite.  I've had this tea towel for a while and finally figured out what to do with them.  The year was 1977 on this tea towel.

Here is the back of my favourite.  I put a zip through the backs under a secret flap.  The zips are just as awesome, the one in this cushion is bright green.

This is a patchwork number using scraps of favourite bits.

this one is a mega map cushion.  It was a small square tablecloth with native animals in each corner.  The kids like learning landmarks when they lounge on them!

I've got my hands on a few more vintage tea towels to add to the collection and also some brand new souvenir tea towels which are equally as daggy as the older numbers.  I am on the lookout for a groovy split cane lounge/daybed for these cushions to sit on for a non tv watching part of the house, a good spot to read I am hoping!

China Love

Yes sir, I love china, heaps and heaps.

Think it's my Mum's fault.

I've loved it since I was a teenager.

And I especially love it when I get it for a bargain.

Like this selection above, which completely doesn't match, but that just makes it all the more special, cause one day when I find a random bit which does match a bit I've already got- that's like winning lotto (I think kind of, not really).

The blue/gold floral cup above is a new find from the weekend trip to Goomeri, we called in at the (expensive) Kilkivan Antique shop, this cup was $6.  That's alot, for a random cup.  It's a Crown Staffordshire and the saucer under it was also $6 and its Anysley and soooo cute. 

When I find the cup that matches that saucer, that will be a winner!

But until then, I love it like this.

And check out this gorgeous gold Japanese Coffee set for 6 lucky people sipping coffee.

My Mum found me this at the Collectorama on the weekend.  I mentioned that I was into gold china at the moment and she found this for $25.  Now that is a serious bargain, it is mint condition and I can't wait to use it.  Coffee at my house very soon for the local readers with scones too to try it out...actually, that will be open to the 'commenting' local readers only, hint, hint!!  Thanks Mum, I love it.

This is what makes me happy, piles of this stuff!

This is all thrifted china, all english and all old and unmatching, I love it.

This is a few years worth at least, the op shop ladies are getting smart and pricing it high, not as many bargains these days.

I changed my kitchen hutch display last night, to a yellow theme, since I am loving the gold.

That is a very precious carnival glass bowl on the left that belongs to my husbands mum.  I don't know alot about carnival glass, but I believe it is very precious and I really love it.

The plain yellow Royal Albert cup and saucer with gold rim belongs to Lilly, she let me get it out of the china cabinet to join the other yellow friends on the hutch!  I gave it to her last year.  She loves yellow!

And here is my efforts from yesterday's car journeys, nearly sewn up. 

It will be a small cushion but so bright and colourful.

It is Lucy from Attic 24's pattern.  With a couple of changes also known as mistakes. Never mind!  But now looking at this picture, they are so obvious to me and making me a bit mad now the more I look at it!

Mothers Day Creations

This is what I am working on at the moment.  A bag for Mum for Mothers Day.  I got inspired to make hexagons after checking out Lisa's.  I planned on using more of Nanny's scrap fabrics to make this bag so a few pieces became this hexagon.  Hexagon tutorial from here.  The reverse of the bag is patchworked scraps and you can see the handles below. 

Now lets hope the sewing machine is in a mood for sewing plastic this afternoon.

And my other project are these vintage tea cup bird feeders, seen here.  A great way to recycle old teacups.

Lastly, my 2 finds at the Antique Fair recently.  This teacup would make a super duper bird feeder but I am a bit partial to yellow teacups at the moment so it will stay unglued for now.

Have a Happy Mothers Day!

xxx

What have I been doing?

Making shorts for little boys that have grown and complain the old ones are too tight around the waist.  A couple more in the pipeline as well.

I finished these last night and like expected I was woken by this little person wearing them telling me they are nice shorts Mum, not tight!

FYI the motorbike fabric was a pillowcase and the orange cord is stash = FREE shorts.

Making bags, not plastic coated.  This is the perfect size and I don't know about you but I love the sideways old car once a pillowcase fabric!  I did extra rows of stitching on the handles for a bit of something.

I like it and I'm using it!  I've got a couple of other ideas for a key hook thing on the inside with the scraps leftover.

And lastly, actually not lastly, I've made a zillion other things lately but these are just the pictures I've got on hand for now!  Pavlova birthday cake for Stephen.

We all love pavlova, especially ones with special jaffa's on top.

FYI, I use 8 egg whites (6 were cold and 2 were room temp cause I had to wait for the chooks to lay 2 more that morning to have enough!)  and 2 cups caster sugar-  that's it.  Nothing extra special like vingegar, cornflour or whatever in my pavlova but I do take about 25-30 mins to beat the sugar in and cook it very slowly and then leave in the oven to cool with the door open.  The marshmallow was nice and thick on the inside too! 

I love Elliott Heads

We spent a week at Elliott Heads for the school holidays, it is possibly my most favourite place.

Before we went on Good Friday, I sewed for 5 straight hours and only stopped because I ran out of overlocker thread!!!

I was so productive, not one unpick or mess up.  I made Lilly the outfit above, which is made from a gorgeous op shop tablecloth (the orange piece at the front) and doily I scored last time we were in Bargara.  I used lots of my bits and pieces on the skirt and got a bit fancy with the wasit band, adding belt loops and a belt.  The waistband also has elastic but the belt is so cute.  The heart appliqued singlet is part of the tablecloth as well, I love orange and pink!

This is an A line skirt with elastic waist and draw string for something different, using more of the cute orange tablecloth and another embroidered tablecloth I had.  Joe boy is modelling for me, this was a gift for one of our friends.  Lilly also got one of these skirts. 

I threw in a fine lacey doily on the side and at the back there is a bit more doily poking out from under the waistband.  Very cute.  Lilly also got a pillowcase dress made with a blue and white floral sheet with a ruffle around the bottom.  So she had lots of cool beachy clothes to wear that cost virtually nothing!

At Elliott I spent the week collecting shells, sorting shells, threading shells and tying shells onto fishing line to make long strings of shells which are now beautifully hanging downstairs from a piece of driftwood, this was my craft for the week.

Singlet Decorating

Today I have been making singlets, decorating them anyway.

I think this white one is my favourite.  It's just a Bonds skinny strap singlet and I've sewn on some white lace around the neck and added a pale pink double bow-handstitched.

It is so simple yet so pretty and so cheap!

I really love this one too!  Same singlet, blue ric rac around the neck and a cute old doily on the front from my stash.  You just never know what to do with these things when you find them until moments like today!

Isn't it just gorgeous!  I had pink and green ric rac but blue was perfect with the white.  By the way I paid her a gold coin per outfit change for this photo shoot, the frangipani props were her creative input and made me smile when I saw her picking them. 

3rd singlet and not happy anymore until I reminded her of the gold coin payment!

Strappy black singlet with cream broiderie lace trim sleeves and a cream double ribbon bow-handstitched.  Lill didn't like this one so much and checked it out in the mirror- she came running out shocked "Mum one of the bows has fallen off!"   Actually there was only 1, what do you think, does it need another bow on the other sleeve?

And lastly my little prince, "I want to be a model Mum"

I still haven't shown you all the sewing I did for myself pre Christmas. But here is some vintage goodness I found at Bargara on our camping holiday.

I love the orange and pink.

The doily has alot of work in it and a pretty soft orange crochet edge.  Somehow I will make these two into something special, they go together nicely.

Vegie Garden Update

Sunflowers just sprouted.

These little things sprouted only 2 or 3 days after we put the seeds in.
Green Cucumber
Baby Golden Squash, these were really good.

Everything is growing strong and fast!
A night's harvest! 5 eggs, some beans, lettuce, squash and silverbeet...all eaten up for dinner!
And finally, another Versatile Wrap Skirt I finished off tonight. Made from an old tablecloth, not too sure about this one though.

Sickeningly Gorgeous Wrap Skirt

Yep, this is sickeningly gorgeous and all for the small cost of $1
A perfect condition tablecloth which I nearly didn't cut, but you can only have so many of these things.



I turned it into a Make It Perfect Versatile Wrap which you can get from Kelani, which I've done a few times before and love it as does Kimmy. I dropped off a car load of gear to the Op Shop yesterday and had a quick browse of the 'Vintage' linens, cause you just never know, sometimes you score big time. I scored yesterday, there is another 3 tablecloths downstairs, one is almost finished into another wrap the other intact.
If you are clever you can get away with the original hem on the tablecloth for your skirt and I decided this skirt didn't need the contrast band around the bottom so left that off. I used up every last bit of the tablecloth(almost, the scraps left were not even worth the scrap pile) making the ties, and I make my ties longer than the pattern says, the longer the better.

Birthday Sewing

A couple of smocks I made for two little birthday girl friends this month.

This pattern comes from the stash of patterns in my Nanny's sewing treasures, it may have even been one Mum used to make up for me when I was little.

This pink one is reversible in soft pink cord and green polka dots for Eleni. The white applique piece on the front is vintage (op shopped!), I've got another ready to be chopped up. The green buttons on the front are not doing much for me, so I am changing them, yet another trip to Spotlight!

And this Sesame Street number was given to Kirsten, our adorable little 4 year old friend. The Sesame Street fabric (an old sheet I think or maybe even curtain) was given to me by Kirsten's Mum, she's a good girl. I made these shorts first up when she first gave it to me, thanks Mel!
The lining of this one is hot pink cord, it looks great over jeans with a long sleeve white top for winter.