A Bit of Everything......

Look at what lovelies arrived in the post for me today.....
4 metres of lovely fabric and 6 metres of even lovelier ribbons from the Reprodepot Sale bin. I think that they'd all look great sewn up into reversible apron dresses like this one on my little princess..... I made it up on Sunday night while I was down at Cootamundra visiting my Mum for her B'Day. It was super easy and to start with we were following a pattern but then decided to change a few things about it and designed our own pattern. I think I might have to add this one to my list of 'to do tutorials' (along with the coasters) what do you think???

My basil is growing out of control at the moment, which I'm not complaining about, so I've been looking for some yummy recipes to make with it. Helen came up with a brilliant idea here and she also makes this great "poor woman's pesto" which sounds super delicious. You just blend kalamata olives, lots of basil, toasted sunflower seeds and olive oil together into a paste and stir it trough pasta or use it as a spread on sandwiches. YUMMO!!!! I have 3 huge bushes like the one below that need some serious de-leafing soon..... If anybody has a recipe idea I'd love to try it out. Have you ever grown little yellow cherry tomatoes like these before??I started growing them in my garden this year for the first time and they're absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!! I can't remember the name of them and would love it if someone could help me out. My current plant is yielding about a dozen little treasures a day which is just perfect!! Not too many, just enough for a salad or to roast up and stir through a pasta sauce.

On the doll quilt front, I finished, yippee!!!! I was just about to post it off when I thought I'd go check out my swap partners blog just one more time..... WELL!!!! It turns out that I've been checking out the wrong persons blog, BUGGER!!! It also turns out that my real swap partner REALLY doesn't like the country/shabby chic style of quilting which I've used here, she's more into a contemporary/traditional styled quilt.... Oh No!!!!!

So I set to creating a new doll quilt for the swap. Thanks to Amandajean and her fantastic quilt-a-long I decided to fashion this block into a traditional doll quilt with a contemporary feel..... This is what I came up with.....
What do you think???? Hopefully it's loved by my swap partner.......

I've been seeing this gorgeous Japanese website around blog land lately and just had to share it with everyone. All Buttoned Up made some of the paper craft for her son over the weekend and it looks like he had a great time playing with it all, she's posted a pic on her blog. I'd love to make some for myself, they're just SO cute. I think that my little princess is a bit small for them at the moment but I'll make them up anyway.

Patricia over at A Little Hut is also loving paper crafts at the moment and has came up with a creative idea to turn old egg cartons into a cute gift for Valentine's Day. I'm going to give it a go with my little princess, I'm sure that she'd get a hoot out of painting the egg carton for me..... What crafting ideas have you got on the go for Valentine's Day???? I'd love to hear all about them....

I've crammed a bit of everything into this post today, hope it hasn't blurred your vision..... LOL!!!

How did you spend your Sunday????

It was a beautiful Sunday morning so we decided to go visit my Dad at his property over on the river near Louth. We got about 80km out of town on a back road, 50km from Dad's place and this is what happened.....

We were bogged for 6 HOURS!!!! It was a long 16km walk in the heat to the closest farm house to get someone to help pull us out. Who would of thought, we've travelled on this road hundreds of times and never been bogged, but on Sunday there must of been just the right amount of rain and we must of travelled on just the wrong patch of road and what do you know.... We got bogged!!

It took 2 4wd's and a very long chain to finally move our car..... The 4wd's pulled.....

And they pulled......

And they FINALLY pulled us out....

Have you ever been stuck in the mud with your family before?? I'd love to hear about it if you have..... There's nothing better then looking back on situations like these and having a real good laugh. I can tell you now, DH won't be living this one down for a LONG time....

Although my crafting mogo hasn't been restored to its full capacity since returning from my Xmas adventure I did manage to sew up a couple of sets of coasters . This set is for a swap that I joined in on last week..... I bought both of these gorgeous fabrics from Spotlight at Wagga and have been dying to use them ever since but haven't found the perfect project. After checking out my swap partner I thought that they'd be right up her alley, fingers crossed I'm right.... I put the black leaf print on the back to hopefully help hide dirt that they'll pick up off the table. I also whipped up these ones for a beautiful lady I met a few years ago through a local patchwork group in rural VIC. She was a real inspiration to me when I lived in that area and I miss her dearly. I must make the trip back over that way to say 'hi' soon....For these ones I used the fabric that I bought from Japan. Navy on the back and cream on the front. I stitched ric-rac into the border of both sets of coasters, I love the extra dimension it gives....I was thinking about doing a quick tutorial for these coasters, what do you think??? They're super easy and super quick, in total 30-40 minutes from start to finish, tops....

The four seasons winter quilt swap deadline is fast approaching and thankfully after a night at the sewing machine Saturday night I'm now 3/4's finished.All that's left to do is hand sew down the binding and attach a label.... For a change this time I decided to hand quilt instead of machine quilt. It's hard to put together colour combo's for each of the seasons but I think I captured the warmth of winter with this one... What do you think?That about wraps it up for today everybody.... Happy crafting ;)

Deadly Creatures....

The most common snake around here is the Eastern Brown. Isn't it just HORRIBLE!!!You see..... Snakes are the hot topic of conversation around our house at the moment. On Friday evening, around 5pm, I had my very own 1 metre long Eastern Brown snake in my living room.... OMG I can hear you say..... Well the worst of the story is yet to come..... My little princess was playing right where it crawled out of not 20 seconds before I saw it..... Can you believe it????? She could of been bitten, then what??? My hairs stand on end just remembering it all.... It took DH and I just over an hour to catch it.

I think that my biggest weakness when it comes to snakes is the fact that I know nothing about them. So first thing Monday morning I went and talked with the Rangers at The National Parks office. They where really helpful and gave me loads of info on Snakes in my area. They also told me about these little kits you can make. I'll put 1 at the front door, 1 at the back door, and 1 on every vehicle just to be safe.... I'd love any advice that anybody has in regards to these 'deadly' creatures. Have you ever had a snake in your house???? If so what did you do???

On the craft front.... A friends daughter turned 1 over the weekend so I whipped her up a pencil roll....

Can you see my new labels???? I got them from here... They're really cheap, about 20 cents each, the only problem is that you don't get many colour combinations. So if you're really set on a certain colour, like purple, then you're out of luck... I think black and white looks just fine though, do you????I also made her up a set of these clips....I used the same basic 'sleeping bag' technique that Amy Karol used but instead of sewing the felt to the clip like she suggests I used my you bute hot glue gun and I think that work a treat!!

After reading about these YUMMY Calzones on Randi's blog I couldn't help but make some for dinner last night.....They don't exactly look like Randi's but mam-o-man they were absolutely divine!!!! I stuffed them with meatballs and grated cheddar cheese, served them with a creamy tomato sauce and had a green salad on the side that I made with fresh veges from my garden.... YUMMO!!!!

New Beginings....

WOW!!!!! Where have the past 3 weeks gone? It feels like only yesterday I was busily crafting away for Xmas and now I'm a week into a new year. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY I hope that you all bought it in with a bang as I know I sure did!!!!!

DH took the little princess and I up north to Moreton Island for 2 weeks over Xmas, hence the lack of posts on my poor neglected blog. We enjoyed a well needed break but are really appreciating being back home. Remind me to never travel at this time of year again the traffic is just horrible!!!!

With all of my crafting madness over the last month I've neglected to sit down and smell the roses. So with the new year comes some new beginnings, I've decided to try and make time for the small things this year like sitting down and reading a book or just laying on the grass and watching the clouds roll by. Don't get me wrong I'll still be crafting like crazy but I think a bit of reflective time needs to be thrown into the equation from time to time too.

I have a few new restoration projects that I would love to complete this year one being an old antique desk that my Mum gave me and another which is a bit of a secret at the moment. Yes the second project that I have in the pipe line has something to do with the big news I'm dying to tell you all!! Only a couple more weeks and I promise I'll let the cat out of the bag....

Every year I grow most of my own veges, it's so rewarding and the flavours are just amazing. Here's what I picked from my garden for dinner last night.From left to right we have Italian parsley, Chinese basil, tomatoes, apple cucumber and silver beet.... I made a big omelet style quiche with a tomato, cucumber and balsamic vinegar salad on the side, YUMMY!!!!

This Xmas we welcomed a new member into our family. Meet our new little boy Ginger.....Yes Ginger is the cat not my feral little princess. LOL... This pic was taken at Granny's house on the weekend. Is it just me or can you see a beautiful friendship in the making too?? I'm a definite cat lover and think that they make wonderful pets. Ginger is toilet trained, thank goodness and will be an inside/outside cat. At the moment he lives in the laundry and comes out when we are all at home to keep an eye on him this is only until he finds his feet and then he will have a free reign over the place, by that time I think we'll be needing a cat flap.

O.K...... I can't do a post without at least 1 bit of crafting goodness!!! I thought that I'd try to design my very own handbag as a gift for my sister for Xmas this year. I knew that she'd get a kick out of the fact that I did the whole thing myself from scratch, pattern and all... It was a bit of a nightmare and I'll definitely use a print on the outside next time instead of a solid colour, this should help to hide the flaws that I make, gasp...... All in all I think that it looks just fine and by the look on Abby's face when she received it I think that she really loved it too.

I'm so glad to be back and am really looking forward to catching up on every one's blogs...