Buntings galore !

Chances are if your child has a birthday, christening, or just a special occasion coming up that they may recieve a bunting from me as a gift !!! Why ??? You see I made a bunting for Isabella room's to match her quilt and my sister in law said I should sell them. Hmmmmm could I make a little bit of money by selling my crafty wares - obviously I only want enough to fund my next fabric purchase !!!!!!!!! So... I made my niece Gabi ( mother to my suggestive sister in law ) a 'Ballerina' bunting.

It's quite hard to get a good picture of a bunting. They are 3 metres long, feature 8 flags and are quite 'cute'. So then I made an alphabet inspired 'nursey' bunting for a girls room:

a boys jungle themed bunting:-

a multi coloured striped bunting. This one also have blue and yellow flags.

A friend of mine is taking them to her market stall to see how they go but I am faced with 2 dilema's:

1. what to charge for them ??

2. If they don't sell I will be left with a lots of buntings that I will probably give away as gifts - which is fine... however most of my friends are not 'crafty' and would not aprreciate the time and effort gone into making such an item. In fact at times it would be far easier to just pop into the shops and pick something of the shelf !!! So... even though it's handmade, it is semi expected to still 'buy' something to go with a handmade gift as in their eyes 'technically' it has not cost much.... that is until you mention the price of fabric in australia !!!

Does anyone else experience this ?

what do you think is a reasonable mark up on handmade items ??

and finally... anyone want to buy a bunting ?? lol X

Now I can't stop !

3 months old !

I can't believe that Kiah is 3 months old or 12 weeks this week ! I can't remember what life was like before her and can't imagine my life without her. She is a contented little cherub who just goes with the flow and is ever so placid ! She is quite content to sleep in her little pouch when out and about and will sleep in her cot during the day without to much difficulty. She has slept through the night a few times ( GOD BLESS ! ) but if she does wake for a feed she snuggles in, has a feed and goes straight back to sleep.

She loves her milk and has almost outgrown the 000 and is heading into the 00.

Her big blue eyes look at me with wonder, which is quickly followed by a huge smile !

She has started doing those gurgle type noise at me and really trying to communicate

At times a look at Kiah and am saddened as we had planned for her to be our last bubba, but as she is so easy I am wondering..... could we be a family of 5, could we possibly be blessed with 3 children ??? ............Lets just say at this stage it's up discussion !!

I can't believe that Kiah is 3 months old or 12 weeks this week ! I can't remember what life was like before her and can't imagine my life without her. She is a contented little cherub who just goes with the flow and is ever so placid ! She is quite content to sleep in her little pouch and will sleep in her cot during the day without to much difficulty. She has slept through the night a few times ( GOD BLESS ! ) but if she does wake for a feed she snuggles in, has a feed and goes straight back to sleep.

A few bee blocks

Another crazy weekend - a 2 year old's birthday party, swimming lessons, a play at the park, fish and chips for lunch...and that was just saturday !!! No golf for Matt this weekend but no extra hands on deck as he was busy doing a course for work : (

I was able to get a small amount of sewing time to myself and made 2 of these blocks for my month in the 'Sew Australia' bee.

I love their 'look' - however a high degree of accuracy needed to ensure everything lines up ! This quilt is for Kiah and it is going to match Isabella's quilt. I have this idea that one day the girls may share rooms - they can have their own 'style' quilts - using the same fabric, with different patterns !

Reversible fabric scrap buckets

Today Miss Kiah had a fabulous 3 hour sleep in her bassinette and I was able to be superproductive. I finished off and posted my partners items in the MMM swap. She is recieving the wonky star table runner ( see previous post ) and these cute reversible fabric buckets to keep her goodies in and her creative spot neat. I seriously need some for my own sewing space as it looks like a bomb has hit it !!!


The buckets are reversible and have a round base and despite the photo they are all actually the same size. I think in my haste to photograph them and mail them the one on the far right does not have the top turned over as much as the other 2.

I used fabric from the 'Make life sweet' collection

and......... I thought this cute 'fabric themed' zipper fabric would fit in with the sewing theme

Soooooooo when bored my partner can mix and match and turn them inside out to suit her tastes. I used th tutorial found here

Our weekend

Our weekend was a litlte crazy this week..... Matt celebrated a birthday on saturday which involved morning breakfast out at a local bakery, golf ( all day !!! ) followed by a yummy caramel mud cake and his favourite dinner. All Isabella wanted to buy him was cake and candles...... and she woke up singing 'Happy birthday daddy' !!! Very cute ! All kiah wanted to do in this photo below is go to bed and I was snapping away trying to get a decent shot of them looking at the camera ! Oh well at least I tried !



All in all - he had a lovely day. Quite different to the birthdays in the past - but thats what you get when you have 2 kids !

I got my own little surprise - kinda like a birthday present on friday for no reason at all except the lovely Kat from here was having a giveaway. I never win anything and I won these goodies....

I am quite short on 'blues' so they are a much welcomed addition to my 'stash'. Finally I got to sew this wonky star block for Maddy in the 'Aussie Buzzy Bee'.

and....... before you know it the weekend was over. How was your weekend ?

Wonky Star table runner - Finished

I have finally finished the quilting and binding on the Wonky star table runner for my partner in the MMM swap. Just in the nick of time mind you - as I will be posting her goodies out on monday !!! Hopefully over the weekend I will post about the rest of her goodies.......



Nice and colourful - so hopefully she should like it

The cake

Have you ever wanted to learn how to make something....... but you just didn't know where to start ? I have always admired the amazing cakes at 'The Royal Easter Show' and have added to my 'bucket list' to do a cake decorating course one day. Some of the cakes I see every year are real pieces of art and have hours and hours of work put into them.... it would be a shame to eat them. However living in a small rural town I know I would only be able to do a such a course in the 'big smoke' but not in our little town. I was also inspired to find a course when I saw the episode the other night on 'Masterchef' and the contestants did some amazing piping and decorative work at 'Sweet art'. To make and mould intricate pieces out of sugar and icing it just blows me away at how versatile these ingredients are.
A friend that I went to school, is in the process of making cakes as a 'hobby' and volunteered to do Kiah's christening cake. Together we came up with the design..... but the actual cake drew my breath away and it needed a seperate post about it !! So here is her work of art :



Two tiers - one white chocolate mud, one chocolate mud with edible decorations

and how cute are the little bear and rabbit !

She did an amazing job and it brought a tear to my eye to cut it ! So....... I am on the hunt for a cake decorating course and would like to pursue this medium and create 'edible' craft in the not to distant future !

Kiah's Christening

Well we survived the weekend with the onslaught of vistors and rellies - I think it will take at least a week to get the house back into any kind of order... but it was well worth it ! We have had gorgeous beautiful sunny weather all week ( quite warm for winter ) and saturday it decided to rain which put a real dampener on the festivities at the park afterwards !! The park had a small undercover area so we continued on with gumboots and umbrellas and it turned out fine. Kiah cried towards the end of her service and Miss 2 year old had to be part of the action of course but was generally well behaved.


The family shot......

Kiah in her christening gown

A close up the christening gown which I made when I was in year 10 at school. It features pintucks, pleas, gathers, lace insertion and embroidery on the yoke, sleeves and edge of the dress. I made a little jacket to go over the top when Isabella was christened 2 years ago, but it does not have as much detail on it.

All in all it was a lovely day........now wear to begin on the clean up ??

Hair clip hangers for Mia and addie

This week has been a crazy week - Kiah is being christened on Saturday and with both sets of grandparents living 6 hours away we have had a house full and this weekend is bound to get crazier with sisters and brother in law arriving tomorrow. We will have 8 adults and 6 kids in a 3bedroom house ! Anyway it will be crazy but all worth it as I love having everyone around. I will be having my 4 and 7 year old nieces stay and they have just had a birthday and I always give them something 'handmade'. Not wanting to break the tradition I made these quick and easy hair clip hangers to hold their hair clips on and so that they can hang them in their room and keep everything neat and tidy.

This is for addi - ( the 4 year old )

This one if for Mia ( the 7 year old )

Not great pictures - but the ribbon in the middle is straight it is just attached at the top, middle and bottom so they can loop through any ribbons or hair elastics.

I am sure I won't be psoting anything over the weekend - but will be back to share christening photos and a debrief of the weekend !