Hand made Christmas round up

Couldn' t post these photos until I had caught up with the gift recipients!
Macrame plant hanger for my niece, set of necklaces for a dear friend, CWA " scones" tea towel with added cooking note for my FIL ( long running family story about getting scones to rise!)  Found the tea towel at the Melbourne show  & new light box came in handy trace the added note before painting with fabric paint.  Not much sewing/ crafting this term as I was working extra days, looking forward to more sewing time next year!

Merry Christmas 2016

Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas. May your day be Merry and Bright! ( and may your pressies be home made with love!!!)

Bargain light box!

I spotted a light box in the kmart catalogue this week, & dropped by the store on our way home from the movies yesterday ( more on that later). Compared to the $80-100 units  seen at craft shows I figured $20 was a bargain!

The box is powered by 6AA batteries or by plugging it into a micro usb port- cable not supplied. Unfortunately it does not hold a charge - which would have been very handy- but only works when plugged in. Nevertheless it is a handy size - sceen area approx 27cm square, with a black surrounding frame, & about 6 cm tall.  It comes with several sheer plastic images to display & swap around, but I want to use it flat on a table for tracing images onto freezer paper to cut stencils for fabric printing. So much easier than having to peg the curtains out of the way, blutack the papers to the window and trace a picture vertically while standing at the window! ( which I had to do to draw this R2D2 stencil!)

I used one of my tie dyed t shirts from earlier in the year, cut a stencil & painted myself a tshirt to wear to see the latest Star Wars film "Rogue One" - the boys have Star Wars tees but I still don't have one, so I decided to make one ( the night before!)  I think it turned out ok! I bought some cheap plain t shirts last week to make some more, which will be much easier now with my new lightbox!

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The Great British Sewing Bee

Discovered on 9 gem tv - free to air- last Saturday night, first episode of season 1! Starts about 7:30. I happened to look at the tv guide about 20 mins in, and imediately put the telly on, set the recorder and abandoned family dinner to eat my dinner on the couch watching in adoration!
I have been waiting about 2 years to watch this, and was super excited to see that Tilly ( of " Tilly and the buttons"- see my blog list!) is one of the contestants of series 1! Total fan girl moment! I will be recording and rewatching each episode!!!

Decorating the Christmas tree

I had a rare " crafternoon" with my boys today, making some hama bead decorations for the Christmas tree.  We have gone  for a very non-traditional theme this year, inspired by finding a dented black bauble at the post Christmas sales last January - it just looked so much like a ready made Death Star!!!

Unpicking November

I don't know where this term has gone! I have barely done any sewing or craft at all.  There has been some op shopping of course- I thought I needed some wardrobe updates ( and haven't had time to sew!) and found some summery tops, including this sweet green crochet cardi.
  Except that there are several thousand tiny sparkly beads on it! I have a bit of unpicking still to do before I can wear it...

Op Shop Fun

I think I have convinced the JediKid that op shopping is good.  Afterall, sometimes you find lego-


Or books we don't have yet-
And you sometimes find awesome DVD's-

And sometimes you might even re-enact a scene from "Sherlock" and crack yourselves up!

Sewing pattern bonanza!

Dropped in at Glenroy Salvos on my way past today and spotted a pile of Burda sewing pattern (actually I spotted another woman looking through the patterns, which alerted me to them!).  There were heaps, all brand new.  Plus a couple of other brands.  Quite a few " young" style and several vintage look patterns too. I may have bought a couple of them...

Halloween 2016 #1

Tigerboy spotted this awesome steampunk mask in a party shop recently, but I wasn't going to pay $40 for a bit of plastic that may only get used once! Luckily there was a craft shop just around the corner, where we found a plain white cardboard mask and a roll of plaster bandage for about $4 each. 

A rummage through the shed and my craft supplies yielded an assortment of interesting bits and pieces.  Gold glue gun glue ( I knew that would come in handy one day!), some black and gold paint and a couple of hours' creating - I think it looks as good as the bought one!

Market Bags

I have been sewing like crazy every spare minute this week - and three jobs,  two kids and everything else there are not that many minutes to.spare!
I have sewed up 12 bags for the Twilight Market tomorrow, just putting the finishing touches on now ie.trimming loose threads and sewing on the button. Even choosing the buttons took time!
The bags are made from denim and are decorated with vintage doilies from my op shop collection. Some bags feature hand dyed doilies. 
No two bags are the same!
All bags are fully lined, have an internal pocket ( some with a zip), a clip to hang keys on, and a button/ loop closure. Or at least they will when I finish sewing them on...

Things to do in Moreland this weekend and next...

Holy Trinity Church fete in Pascoe Vale tomorrow; Brunswick Secondary Twilight Market next Friday 14/10; St Margaret Mary's school fete Sat 15; St Albans church fete Sat 15; Coburg North PS "Make Noise " music festival also on Sat 15. Looks like fun! Hope the weather is good.

School holiday roadtrip 2- the wildlife edition

We were pretty lucky with the weather when we were away, and so got to do a fair bit of walking, exploring, and nature spotting. We saw several lizards soaking up the sun, including some good sized skinks and young dragon (still need to research & confirm species). The dragon was a real sticky beak and appeared just as interested in watching us as we were in watching him!

The black birds were spotted at the park at Buchan Caves, they have curved beaks and distinctive red eyes, making it easy to identify them as Choughs.  

But the best of all was finding not one but 2 echidnas! The first ( lower photo) was just off the track near the Snowy River ( not sure what the area/ road was called, it was north past Buchan); and the second was walking across the grass at the Bairnsdale Archery & mini golf centre. It walked right past me as I filmed it, my own mini David Attenborough moment!!!

Other things to make with mars bars...

I just couldn' t resist grabbing a couple more $1 mars bars at the supermarket the other day. I had promised the kids I would make a cheesecake in the holidays, so I thought - why not a mars cheesecake?
I had made one from a recipe before, but it had a melted mars syrup and extra syruppy stuff on top, and was really rather too sweet, even for me! So instead I just used the basic Philly cheesecake recipe I cobbled together from several version in the Philly cookbooks ( found on a front fence last year with a note saying " please take"!!!
  I chopped 2 mars bars into smallish pieces- not easy as they are sooo sticky- and added them to the mix. Grated chocolate on top to finish, super easy, super yum!