This Week.....

.... we have enjoyed an early family Christmas celebration...

All very busy opening presents.

.... we have celebrated Eden's fifth birthday...

Please forgive me for the paper plates and cups - at least we could compost them afterwards!

Birthday Girl.

Enjoying the very talented face painting by a clever kindy mum.

Eden's tiara birthday cake.

.... we have done some Christmas crafting, by ourselves and with some local friends...

The spice angels we made with our friends.

Christmas cards the kids made with their Grandma.

.... we have coped with the current heatwave by going swimming and relaxing...

.... we have had Grandma over for a stay...

.... we have enjoyed cricket and homemade beer...

Even Brannen has taken his place on the couch to watch the 'kiyet' (cricket)

.... we have done some Christmas cooking...

Gingerbread Christmas tree decorations.

.... we have made some Christmas gifts...

Lined tote bags for the girls to carry their swimming gear to swimming lessons.

My first attempt at a reversible tote with box corners - happy!

 ....receiving my university results. One distinction, and two high distinctions. I am very happy with that. I am changing my course slightly for 2014 onwards, to a double major in Sustainable Development and Community Development. I am slowly hatching ideas and plans for my future 'career' (or not) direction and am very excited about what the next few years may bring.

.... the lead up to Christmas is so exciting! What have you and yours been up to?

Frugal Christmas Gifts: Paper Covered Wooden Letters

With a month yesterday until Christmas, exams finished for the year, and my determination to give Christmas gifts that are secondhand or handmade, I have some serious crafting to do! A while ago a friend of mine gave another friend's little girl some gorgeous paper covered letters to make up her name that will look stunning on her bedroom wall. It reminded me that I had, somewhere in the depths of my sewing room, some large wooden letters of the girls' names and decided to make something similar for their Christmas gifts.

I went shopping and chose a pad of fairy-ish, butterfly-ish coordinating scrapbook papers and some embellishments to match. All up it cost me less than $30 for enough supplies to make both girls' gifts (but I already had the letters). I started by choosing the papers I wanted to use for each letter and tracing the upside down letter onto the back of the paper. I then very carefully cut the letters out.

 I applied an even layer of PVA glue to each wooden letter and smoothly pressed each paper cutout on, taking care not to leave bubbles in the surface. When the glue had dried, I trimmed any overhanging paper with a craft knife.

I used some fine sandpaper to sand the edges of the letters, giving them a more 'finished' appearance and preventing the edges from peeling back. Nath (who has had far more experience with spray paint than I) sprayed two coats of a silver glitter laquer to each letter.

I then arranged and superglued the embellishments, including some tiny little rhinestones for some extra shine.

The girls' fairy name letters look just as good as any that you could buy at the shop, and were a fraction of the price. I think the girls will love them.

One gift down, many more to make!

The Play Patch

A little doll I made for my lovely niece.

 As both of my growing-up-too-fast girls are off to school this year, Brannen and I will be finding ourselves with some time on our hands! I have decided to finally give a long-term goal of mine a good go.... establishing a little made-at-home business, selling some of my sewing projects at markets and swap meets.

Taggie Ball

Introducing The Play Patch. This casual little venture will see me sewing up lots of 'play resources'.... toys, games, dress ups, playroom decorations, toy storage bags and the like. I have enjoyed making some of these things for my own kids and their friends over the last couple of years, and would love to spread some imagination and fun onto other families too! Most of what I make will be from upcycled or thrifted fabrics, and all a bit one of a kind.

Simple Princess Tutu

My first stall will be on February the 16th, so I will be very busy getting my stock together before then. I am only doing markets this year, not orders, just in case I find it hard to fit it all in. I don't want to disappoint people by not meeting order deadlines.

Wishing Hearts

Some more pics of the types of things I will be making:

Playroom/Garden Bunting

Peek-a-Boo Bags

Fabric Travel Chalkboards

Capes

Fairy Wings

Soft Toys

Doll's Nappies

Fairy Crowns

Lego Bag/Mat

Lego Bag/Mat

I'm pretty excited, and a little bit nervous, and starting to feel that little panic that comes with having a lot to do in a very short amount of time! I have so many ideas of other things I could make, but need to start small, I think, and hopefully the first market will be a success!

If you live in WA, you will find The Play Patch at the Bakers Hill Swap Meet on February the 16th. Come and say hi!

Cheery Christmas Creating.

It is such quintessential Australian weather here at the moment.... hot and steamy one minute, dark and stormy and humid the next. I love sitting at my sewing table watching the summer storms roll in over the hills, bringing the hint of a cool breeze with them. I know that very soon, this pattern will even out to long strings of very hot and dry days and we will long for the relief of a summer storm or two!

Sitting at my sewing table is something I have been doing a lot of lately. Our handmade Christmas preparations are going swimmingly and we are all well into the swing of all things festive. I have enjoyed creating things for our home that we will love pulling out of the Christmas box year after year, and I love getting the kids involved in making things, too. They are little for such a short time, and I know it will be very special for all of us to look back on the things they have made during this time, in years to come.

Some of our makings:

The kids' crafting table!

Putting up the tree.

The 'holly' the kids made... from leaves out of our garden and old baubles.

Christmas lanterns we made as a family.

Mary and Baby Jesus

Together with Joseph, under the tree.

Peace bunting I made at my sewing night last night.

Joy bunting, hand stitched onto hessian flags.

We hope you and yours are having a merry, meaningful lead up to the Festive Season!

Making Christmas Fun!

December is finally here and we have well and truly got our Christmas on in this household! The 'Creativity Room' (the argument about whether it is our music room or our sewing room is ongoing....) is a hub of activity (and mess) and we are churning out Christmas projects, gifts and decorations. We still have Eden's birthday to go (in eight days - eeek!!) and probably should be sorting that out first but we have sort of been swept away by all things Christmas.

As a lot of the things I have made are gifts for people who may be reading, I won't post about them until after Christmas, but I can post about our decoration-making!

I made this wreath after going to a friend's house and flicking through her Christmas Better Homes and Gardens-y type mags. Being the cheapskate I am, I took photos of all the ideas I wanted to try and this wreath was one of them. I can't remember which magazine it was in, but that's ok, I'm about to tell you how to make it!

Take a wire coathanger and either snip off the hook part with wire cutters or bend it round on itself, then form the rest of the coathanger into a circle.
Tear strips of Christmas-y (or any colour, really!) scrap material into strips of about 3cm by 20cm. Tie the strips onto the wire circle, bunching them up really tight to make a nice fluffy, full wreath. Snip the ends of the strips off quite short, as long ones will make the wreath look a bit droopy. Don't throw the snipped bits away! I'll show you another thing to make with them in a minute.

When the wreath is full, tie on some string (and maybe a couple of bells) to hang it up with.

Now, for dealing with the snipped bits. I threaded mine with a very large-holed needle (one of the big blunt darning needles is fine) onto some twine, with a few beads along the way. The material sits quite snugly on the twine so you can space it out as you please. It makes a lovely fabric Christmas garland!

We have also been doing quite a bit of Christmas craft with the kiddies, including the 'craft swap' that my friends and I organised between ourselves. I'll fill another post on that in a few days.

Hope your Christmas planning and preparing is going well!