Busy bees!

It's the first day of the school holidays here in WA, but already we have been busy little bees!

One of our favourite things to do in the holidays is to make a "lucky dip". Each member of the family gets 5 strips of coloured card (a different colour each) and we write down 5 things that we'd like to do in the holidays. We then take it in turns to draw one of our lucky dips, and then we all do that activity. These range from picnics, to golf, to baking cakes, to visits to Scitech, and everything in between :)

Today was my pick, and I drew "visit a toy shop that we've never been to and go window shopping". So we pulled out the Yellow Pages, found a shop, and off we went! We did LOTS of "window shopping", tested out some new toys, and I made a couple of secret purchases (there's a certain little girl's birthday coming up this month), including this...

...which I broke open upon arrival at home, and it kept us all busy, all afternoon!

So now our house is decorated with Pokemon,

and lovehearts,

and flowers :)

We also managed to fit in "a treat at Macca's" which was on one of Riley's lucky dips, so the holidays are off to a great start! Hope yours are too!

TTFN xxx

So predictable really :)

You knew I wouldn't be able to stop at one, didn't you?

This one is for a sweet little girl I know who is turning 9 today...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDIE xxxx

These dolls are the perfect size to add to a gift. I'd love to have a stash of them ready just for that purpose, but that is probably wishful thinking :) I made her a card too...



Off to add the borders to my Christmas Belles quilt...yep, THE BORDERS! Yippeeeeee!

TTFN xxx

Matryoshka Angel

Have you checked out Rosalie Quinlan's new book yet? It has some of the cutest designs for cushions and dolls and bags and....you get the idea :) Picking a project to start on was difficult, but I started simple...


This is a Matryoshka Angel. It's Scrapsidaisy's 4th birthday this month, so I thought the cow print would make a perfect little gift angel to celebrate. The orange and blue are the shop colours (or close enough to it, I'm hoping).

The back view is too cute :) These little angels are very addictive...watch this space!

The sun is finally shining after days and days of rain, so I'm off to enjoy it. Enjoy your Sunday, and thank you for visiting.

TTFN xxx

An education in cakes!?!

In patchwork terms, most of us have heard of the "fat quarter"...a piece of fabric measuring approximately 20 inches by 22inches. Most patchwork shops sell them, and fat quarters are a great way to build up your fabric stash. In my recent wanderings into patchwork stores and online sites, I have noticed a whole new way of selling fabric (keep in mind, I took quite a long break from patchwork while nurturing my obsession with scrapbooking...thus my ignorance LOL).

It's the names of these bundles of fabric that got me in though.

This is a Honey Bun...

...which consists of 40 x 1 1/2 inch strips cut from the width of the fabric. This is a Basic Grey Sultry Honey Bun by Moda......yuuuuuuummmmmmm!

Not to be confused with a Jelly Roll....

...which is 40 x 2 1/2 inch strips cut from the width of the fabric. This is a Jelly Roll of Eva by Basic Grey.......again, yuuuuuuummmmmmm!

Then you have a Layer Cake...

...which is 40 x 10 inch squares, in this case Urban Couture by Basic Grey.

Now for the trick question... if you combine a Jelly Roll and a Layer Cake, what do you get?? You guessed it....a Jelly Cake. Go figure. I even found a website selling Turnovers. What's a turnover? A pack of 80 x 6 inch half square triangles!

After all that research, I am feeling hungry!

TTFN xxx

Figgy Pudding and Front Porch

Basic Grey in fabric...does it get any more tempting than that?

Oh my. Basic Grey released the Figgy Pudding papercarfting line a couple of years ago, and I think I used every sheet in the range at least twice over...I made LOs, taught classes, created cards and generally just loved it to death :) You can imagine my reaction when I saw the fabric. Oh my. If anyone has any tips on how NOT to buy this , please let me know.

I've used a little more of the Jenni Bowlin Front Porch range....

This piece of paper combines everything I'm loving at the moment...polkadots, red and green and big white flowers...it's called Oilcloth. The quote/saying comes from the book "She"...I'm not sure who wrote it, but I love the message. It's been written on a scrap of paper floating around my desk for months.

I've used lots of leftover alphas from various manufacturers. The LO was inspired by a recent one by Stephanie Howell, a US scrapper whose work I love.

Smile....it's Friday!!!

TTFN xxx

Two Little Chicks

It's taken me a while, but I've finally completed the June challenge over at the Scrapsidaisy forum...a bit slack, since I'm the one who set the challenge...oops!

The final criteria were to scrap a photo of yourself as a child, and to use your favourite ink.

Finding a scrappable photo of myself was a challenge in itself...thank goodness for Photoshop! This one was taken in 1973, and is my sister and I at Hawks Nest NSW.

The new range by Jenni Bowlin Studios is what got me motivated...it arrived at

Tomorrows Memories this week and is so perfect for older photos. I've used Front Porch diecut and Green Crosshatch, some BG and Bella alphas, Collections and Fancy Pants chipboard and some ribbon from my ribbon jars :) The flowers on the chicks are rubons by American Crafts.

Have a great Thursday...I'm off to watch my son play Aussie Rules for the first time... should be interesting!

TTFN xxx

What's your cotton?

What sort of cotton do you use to embroider with? Do you choose by brand, or colour, or by what the shop you're in actually stocks? Do you store your cottons in a box, all wound onto spools with their numbers written on ...or do you have a tangled cluster in the bottom of your sewing box?

These are the questions I was pondering as I wound some new threads onto their little cardboard spools this afternoon....and don't say it....I know what you're thinking LOL. I'm a little bit anal about my cottons :)

Apart from a few lonely skeins of Anchor and Semco left over from my teenage years, I'm a DMC girl. They have the most colours, the quality is wonderful, and DMC is the most widely used brand in patterns. Speaking of which, if you're after some cross-stitch/embroidery/ crochet patterns, check out http://www.dmc-usa.com/ ...lots of free goodies that you can download right now!

So...what's YOUR cotton?

TTFN xxx