Merry Christmas All

Wishing you all the most joyful Christmas 2010... I hope it will be all you wish for & may you have your own little Christmas miracle of some sorts.
I'm spending a week in Albury NSW with my Husband's family, the weather is beautiful, not too hot & we are looking forward to Christmas Day.

Pretty puddings

We had a Christmas Shopping Night as a fundraiser for my son's primary school, so I thought I would make a few drawstring fabric pouches that I had seen in a Japanese craft book from Lark. I had an idea that they would be great as reusable Christmas wrapping...they fit a 750gr Christmas pudding perfectly or as seen in the photo below they look great with biscuits in them...a nice Chrissy gift.

A friend took them down to Sydney to show celebrity gourmet baker Simmone Logue, she loved them & ordered 20 for her Double Bay & Cammeray stores...yippee! Yep so I have become quite quick at whipping these little guys up. I have also put some in my Etsy shop for you guys to buy if interested.

Christmas biscuits as a gift in pretty christmas pouch.

Reverse side of Christmasy pouch.

pretty florals..great to reuse after Christmas for makeup or jewellery.

How are you all surviving the lead up to Christmas? We are getting quite excited here, tree is up & decorated by the kids..we also have many solar powered Christmas lights this year.

bag lady....bird lady

My first sean-the-prawn handbags looking very Nana...I think that is a good thing ,don't you? Hoops and fabrics are all upcycled...oops except the lining of the pinky one, thats a recently purchased quilters cotton.

Little bit of surface interest, got to love some vintage embroidery.

All fully lined with pretty old worldy micro florals. The pussycat hooks on which the bags are hanging in my hallway were a purchase from Anthropologie in NYC. I bought them during a holiday there year 2000. I fell in love with NY & even more so with Anthropologie, lucky they don't have a store in my neighbourhood, I would be stone broke.

Here is a snapshot of one of my chooks this one is Yoko, she is not the sharpest tack but a good little layer none the less. We often let our chookys out in the afternoon to scratch around the fruit trees. I would love to hear if any of you have chooks & let me know what mischief they get up to at your place.

faeries in my garden

I was a busy little sew & sew leading up to our spring holiday period, snipping & stitching, mixing & matching prints & patterns...sewing machine working flat chat to build up some stock to go into Mooch inside to try to snapple sales from some happy holiday makers..... Success was had, I received a great response to my springy floral themed frocks. Yippee!

Before I rushed the dresses over to Mooch I phoned my lovely friend/photographer extraordinaire Lisa to see if by chance she was nearby with her camera on hand, & blow me down she was & coincidentally that day she was keeping an eye on a posse fashionista faeries with supermodel talents. Lisa loaded the fashion faeries into her shiny silver modern day combi van & arrived at my place in no time at all.
Lisa has just started up her very own blog..Hooray about time I say!! Lisa's blog overflowing with samples of her super photographic talents & even some beautiful photos of sean-the-prawn goodies.
Below are some of Lisa's photos capturing sean-the-prawn springiness, not to mention my visiting frolicking faeries.

Beautiful faery in blue folksy tea dress

pretty fun filled faery in brown, orange folksy tea dress

fashion faeries in petal frenzy mode

dreamiest little faery of them all in Grafton jacaranda souvenir tea dress.

Kia Ora & Bonjour

I have been in a cushion making frenzy lately & I must say that I'm absolutely loving making them. I went out & bought a stack of different sized inserts a week ago & since then I've been unstoppable. It is fun cutting up little snippets of my ever increasing stash of vintage florals & even more fun playing around with the different combinations. These little mummas have already gone to join Big Blue at Moochinside.

Kia Ora Kiwis...yep believe it or not, a New Zealand frock Bros. This little dress would be great on a 10 -12yr old, although it could possibly be worn by a teenager or as a top for a foxy mumma . I realise there is a bit of Mumma talk going on this post..must be the day for it.

Upcycled from a vintage tablecloth of the tourista kind..I thought this was kind of fun & summery...I also see it as homage to my beautiful Grandma Lily, an ever proud Kiwi who used get up & do the Hakka before watching televised football games.

Dress now retailing at Moochinside along with recent cushion extravaganzas.

School holidays start today eeeek...Not off to a good start with both kids with gastric flu..one almost recovered & the other in full throttle..gloves, antibacterial wipes loads of disinfectant..washing machine working overtime. Fingers crossed we'll be out of the danger zone within 24hrs.
Have a great fun filled weekend & enjoy School Holidays New South Welsh folk.

big blue

Hey, I have just added cushions to the sean-the-prawn repertoire & I'm loving the result.
The one pictured is a large size approx 60cm x 60cm, made from all upcycled vintage cottons & lace. On the front a gorgeous vintage hand embroidered doily..not I can not claim to have done that handiwork. Anyway it is tagged & at the lovely Mooch Inside waiting to be loved & taken to a good home.

weekend treasures

My latest pride & joy...I couldn't resist buying this gorgeous old shopping trolley at Saturday's French Market. I have always thought that these are super cool & wonderfully practical, a common site when I was a child. Grannies could be seen everywhere dragging these around town on their weekly shopping days. I will probably store my vintage fabrics in mine...one day I may even be brave enough to leave the house with it.

I found these fab aprons in a local Charity shop last Friday. Great bright 60's florals made by someone's Nana no doubt....it could have even been mine.

Here are some more of the wonderful goodies purchased at the local annual French Market on Saturday.( Although it has a moderately French atmosphere, the organiser is named Marion French, it is located at her quaint little farmhouse & surrounding gardens). Lovely vintage tablecloths, braids, Sylko threads & British made fasteners.

I had such a fun time...maybe spent a little too much money