Two Little Flowers

Pricing is always a tricky subject

2014-12-10T10:29:00.004+00:00

After much thinking and re-thinking and checking and re-checking.... I will have to put my prices up in the New Year. The cost of my materials has increased, which obviously affects the price....but, also, I spend ages and ages patiently snipping the curves and corners of each softie so that you receive as beautiful cushion as is humanly possible. Don't you think that it is time to reflect how long it takes me to make each cushion a little bit better?

So, if you are looking to purchase a softie at my current prices, please do so before the end of the year. From 1 January my prices will be changing.

Exciting News!

2014-11-14T09:33:00.000+00:00

Have you heard about Etsy House? Do you know what it is? Well, Etsy UK have pulled together a bunch of UK sellers and will be selling their goods for 3 days in Covent Garden in a Pop Up Shop. You can read a little more about it here.

....my exciting news...?

I, well, some Two Little Flowers products, will be there too! Actually, I will be there too, for a visit and to check out the other sellers. Maybe even doing a little of my own Christmas shopping...

It has been a mahoosive effort in getting all my items printed, made and ready to ship. I am almost finished. Almost... All sellers goodies have to be shipped this next week. I am trying not to panic!

Peg Doll Swap

2014-06-07T21:15:00.000+01:00

It's been a while... I've been on Instagram...

Anyhow. I recently signed up for a peg doll swap with Margaret of We Bloom Here {Thanks Margaret - it was SUPER fun!}. May kind of whizzed by and I only posted off my little dolls this week. Terrible, I know!

I'd like to show you what I made. Would you like to see?

I call them Pixie Puffballs.

My swap partners were very lucky to receive them (well, when the postman delivers them...) Chloe tried to make a run with them. All of them. The little monster!

They were so easy to make. A little 12mm wood bead for the head. A few dowel caps glued on for buns. A lick of paint for hair, a dab of paint for her face. Flower stamens for her head. Pom-poms for her chubby little self. Done!

I strung them on to a narrow ribbon and tied a little loop on each end. I figure that they would make a cute door decoration or look quite sweet nestled in between pictures on a wall.

I hope that Aimee and Ronnie love them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Birthday & Spring

2013-05-05T06:48:00.002+01:00

Here in the UK Monday is our Spring Bank Holiday. It's suppose to be a lovely day too....

Next Sunday is my birthday. It appears that I will be sharing it with Mothers Day again too. Well, Mothers Day in South Africa and America at the very least.

So, to celebrate the weather improving, long weekends and my birthday here is a little gift from me to you - 20% off in either of my shops with the code SUNNY20. The code is good until I remember to disable it on Monday 13 May.

As always, if you see something you like in the tlf shop and there are no postage options for you, you have 2 options 1) drop me a note and I will fix it ASAP, or 2) purchase with postage as collection and I will sort postage out with you via Paypal afterwards.

Wherever you are....have a fantastic day!

Iron on Glitter

2013-04-14T09:01:00.001+01:00

Is there anyone on this planet that doesn't like glitter?

Recently, I went searching for some iron on glitter. I really only wanted a little piece to decorate Ava's birthday dress. As is so often the case, I ended up buying 4m of the stuff! The shop I found it at only sells by the metre and the postage to product cost ratio made absolutely no sense to buy any less.

I ended up buying 2 lengths of the glitter version: gold and purple and 2 lengths of the sparkle version: pink and purple. It is 50cm wide, so this stuff is going to last a looooooong time! There were so many other iron ons to choose from - flock, metallic, neon.... It was hard to limit myself to just a few. But, sparkles is what I was after so sparkles is what I bought.

** Something worth mentioning: they say that their vinyl is intended to be fixed with a heat press, not a domestic iron. I say that I have washed and scratched at the glitter version and it is staying stuck. Do what you like with their guidance, at your own risk **

Ok...so this is how I did the '4'.

Print your template and tape it to the vinyl. The glitter vinyl has a clear vinyl over the top of the glitter. Keep that on until after ironing. I used my rotary cutter to slice the straighter lines. I think that my rotary blade is a little sharper after cutting this!

This is what the back side looked like after cutting with my rotary blade. I then peeled the template off and cut the curvy corners and edges with my scissors.

Take your bits to your ironing board and position your neatly cut vinyl piece where you want it. Crank your iron up to its maximum heat setting (assuming that you are ironing on to natural fabric). Place a thin piece of plainly woven cotton fabric over the top - you want lots of heat to get through that fabric layer. My 4 was perfectly sized to sit under my iron without needing to slide the iron around to cover all edges, so I placed my iron over my 4 and counted to 15. My 15 count was probably quicker than 15 seconds. For extra sticking security, I then slid my iron around the 4 for a few more seconds.

While your glitter vinyl is still hot, peel back the clear topping (please excuse that chipped purple finger nail!).

*Optional: run around the house with crazy excitement showing everyone your amazing glittery fabric*

For the sparkle vinyl, follow the same steps, except that it doesn't have a clear top layer, so no peeling is necessary. Also, if your iron is like mine and has indents on its ironing surface - keep the iron moving when sticking your transfer down. My iron has circle indents and I ended up with a strange ghost bubble on the heart transfer. A little more ironing and most of it went away - but not all of it.

I like the glitter vinyl much more than the sparkle vinyl. The glittery one has a much softer handle on the fabric; the sparkly one is very 'vinyl' when it is ironed on.

The 4 dress was intended to be a birthday present - Ava turns 4 in 2 weeks time. But, little miss eagle eyes saw me sewing and then stalked me to finish it so that she could wear it. Seriously - she walked around pretty much naked for the last 20 mins of me sewing and ironing!!! I guess now I have to come up with an alternative birthday dress plan!

Her heart dress is a dress that I made ages ago. Now it has an obvious front to it, to help her put it on the right way around :)

Have you played around with any fancy iron on vinyls - metallic...flocked....others? How did you find them?

************************************* Edited to add....actually the sparkly version also has a clear top to it. We only noticed about 4 hours after Ava put her dress on this morning that there was a clear peel-able layer there! So actually - the sparkly version isn't as stiff as I originally thought. It still doesn't have as soft a handle as the glitter version, but it is much, much better than my original impression **************

Almost 10 days - Whoops!

2013-03-28T18:45:00.000+00:00

I've been a bit slack here lately. Probably because I have become a little bit Instagram obsessed...much to Flower Daddies disgust. But, there is just so.much.to.see there!!! Have you been on? Who are your favourite people to follow?

Chloe has also been sick for almost 2 weeks. Some kind of virus targeting little children - flu-like symptoms with an added bonus of crippling lethargy and exhaustion. Poor little chicken.

Here are a few IG pics of what has been going on around here lately.

I made Ava 6 pairs of panties from this pattern. She totally loves them...and her little buns look so cute in them!

We have been attempting to grow veggie seedlings from seed. This picture shows radishes, spinach and beans. We have also planted lettuce, tomato, courgette, cucumbers and mielies. Unfortunately, the spinach seems to be pegging off...

I sent off my fabric swap panels - all 3 panels went west over the seas.

....and have received 1 panel in return so far. Cute, right?

I made this pouch, which I will soon be selling as a pouch or cross-body bag or shoulder bag - your choice!

I finished this little ripple doll blanket. Waaaaaay early, for Ava's 4th birthday next month. I used leftover yarn from the human sized blanket...which is still very much an ongoing project!

I ~~begged~~ found time to print a few panels of white petals, which I am rather smitten with at the moment. When the light is kind I will take a few photo's and get these panels listed in my shops.

And Today, we made these little rainbow crayons in a mini muffin tin. Less than 144 crayons made 24 little rainbows of fun. They are intended to be party favours at Ava's very first birthday party!

Have a fantastic Easter and long weekend. Eat too much chocolate. Get up late. Wear pyjamas until lunch time and enjoy being surrounded by family...!

PS - you can find me on instagram at twolittleflowers :)

Homemade Vanilla Extract

2013-03-19T19:32:00.003+00:00

Every man and his dog has had a go at making their own vanilla extract....so I figured that it was time I did too! Besides, I hunted and hunted and hunted for the right bottles, the right vanilla and the right vodka - all at a relatively decent price. Maybe you want that info too?

The pics are blurry, I am still having real trouble getting my not so new camera to agree with me. Sorry; you will get over it I am sure.

I really thought that it would be a *cheap* project. Not so much! The ingredients were each quite expensive. But, it is worth it - I now have a gazillion (21 really) ready made presents just sitting and waiting for unsuspecting recipients.

It is simple. All you do is cut the bean in 2, then slit each half in half length ways so that all the little beans are exposed. Keep one end of the pod halves attached. Put your sliced and slit beans in bottles and cover the beans with vodka. I used 2 pods per bottle.

I believe that it is also possible to make extract with other hard liquor - if you have a huge stash look into using it, the internet is your friend. The beans need to be kept covered with the vodka, otherwise they will dry out. They also say that the beans need to soak for something like 6 weeks before using the extract. The longer they soak the better it gets.

We sloshed some vanilla into our weekend latte - it was yummy, except that we could taste the vodka (ick!). I am waiting for some of the bottles to mature a little more, then I am going to move the beans around so that I have more beans in a bottle - to get a stronger vanilla extract.

About the stickers - there are so many free printables online for these. I ended up downloading a ready made sticker page, then, never happy with things as they are, decided I needed to add to it. So, my stickers have a recipe for Vanilla Biscuits on one side and instructions on the other. If you would like a copy, drop me a note and I will e-mail you the sheet.

Now...you really want to know about my supplies, don't you? Here we go then:

8oz/227ml sauce bottles - £17 for 39 bottles

Vanilla pods - £16.50 for 50 premium Madagascan pods

Humungous 1.5l bottles of vodka from Costco - can't remember how much they were, but they were a little bit cheaper than elsewhere. Cheap, cheap vodka is just fine.

If you have made vanilla extract, let me know what worked for you. I'd love to hear.

Spoonflower Fabric {What You Made}

2013-03-12T22:11:00.001+00:00

Not so long ago I mentioned these fabric designs that I uploaded to Spoonflower, at the request of the lovely lady, Brianna.

Well, looky what Brianna has made...these lovely picnic blankets...and more!

I could do with a little lie down on one of those blankets - as long as the sun were shining nice and warm on my face...

Go and see more on Brianna's website: www.embylove.com.au

And if you have made something with Two Little Flowers goodies, I would love it if you posted photo's over here on Flickr.

New Fabrics

2013-03-01T14:08:00.004+00:00

If you hadn't already noticed, there is a bunch of new fabric in my shops....

Printed on to 55% linen / 45% cotton fabric in 'natural' and a few printed on to 'linen', which is a very attractive off-white.

The pink petals are printed on to a gorgeously soft and smooth natural linen.

You can find them here and here.

If they were yours, what would you make with them?

Leap Year Day

2013-02-28T11:30:00.000+00:00

I have a friend who was born on leap day - 29 February. She says that she doesn't have a birthday and only celebrates when her date comes up. That makes me so sad - I look foward to my birthday every year. I say that she should celebrate on the 28th AND the 1st.

She is special - she should get to celebrate more than the rest of us! Don't you agree?

Last year I made this for her. This year I made her this pretty teal cross-body bag.

I posted it to her yesterday, all wrapped up in tissue paper and string and packaged in one of my pretty pink mailing bags. If I must confess, I am just a little anxious - a) what if the postman doesn't bring it to her today? and b) what if she hates it?

Ava's little Croc's bag was my inspiration. I think that I need to make another grown up version for me! Maybe add a little fabric flower too. Once I have made a few tweaks to the pattern and the way that I assembled it, I thought I might add a few to my shop or maybe create a pattern for it. What do you think?

Kids Slipper Socks {Tutorial}

2013-02-23T19:41:00.001+00:00

I don't know about other children, but my girls feet do not grow according to the shop stock seasons. You have no idea what I mean?! Ok...I saw slipper socks in the shops a few months ago - but, I figured that they both had slippers and were sorted for warm feet for a while still. Well, Chloe has just outgrown her slippers and I figured that I would replace them with those socks with little non-slip pads on the soles [what I call slipper socks]. You think anyone is stocking them now? No!

It is still pretty much mid-winter here. Feet still need to be kept warm for at least another 2 months. But, oh no, the shops already have their spring stock in. Which means, amongst other things, no slipper socks.

Every time I see slipper socks in the shops, I think that I really should be buying a few pairs. Kids feet grow so darn quickly, that I never do buy in advance because I just don't know what size they will need when they do need them! Stupid excuse really, but I am sticking with it.

A few years ago in desperation I brought out my fabric paint and drew all over the soles of a pair of Ava's socks. Then a little while later, I made some slippers and did much the same. The little feet never slipped and both washed really, really well. The socks in the picture above have been really well worn by my two little flowers.

Back to my desperation...

An almost 2 year old who needs warm feet - who needs to run every where - slipping and sliding on our wooden floor and banging into things and hurting herself over and over does not a make a happy toddler or Mummy. So, I went and bought some new socks for her and cracked open my fabric paints and once again have been painting the soles.

This is how I go about turning a pair of regular cotton socks into anti-skid traction foot wear....

Gather your socks, fabric paint - I have used volume and gloss with success - pen and some card.

I like to insert a piece of card into the sock, to make it easier to apply the paint. to do this I draw an oval that is the same length as the sock and a guestimate foot width.

This time around my card was a little on the narrow side. It makes it easier to apply the paint if the sole is stretched a little bit.

Trace a 2nd card insert.

Then apply your paint. I like to match my paint colour to the sock. So these pink spots were given gloss red spots. When doing spots, I find that it helps to squeeze a teensy bit of paint out and rub it into the sock and then give a bit more on top of it. I imagine that the paint is then attached into the fibres and will stay put better.

After doing a pair, I gently ease the card out of the painted sock and insert it into the next pair.

When painting, think about how your recipient walks and make sure you get the toes and heel covered too. My spotty socks really don't have enough heel and toe coverage...if she still slips in them, I will go back and add more paint.

The socks then need to be left to dry.

The volume paint that I used needed ironing once it was dry, so that it puffed right up. So, just do what ever your chosen product tells you to do to finish up....

You noticed that the flower power socks were missing?! Well, they have already been worn and are on their way to the washing machine. I couldn't very well let on how dirty our floor was today, now could I?

Happy smiley faces all around!

Now, all I need to know is how the heck to keep socks on a 2 year old?!

Macadamia Chocolate Spread {Recipe}

2013-02-17T07:06:00.000+00:00

My mother made me a recipe book for my birthday a few years ago. The recipes are all cuttings from various magazines....almost all from the 1980's-1990's. I guess that she had a monster pile of magazines that she wanted to ditch and decided to chop them into shreds before doing so. I won't complain - there are some delicious recipes in there!

One of the recipes is for this chocolate spread, I don't know what magazine it has come from. It is sooooooo goooood, so I feel the need to share.

125g macadamia nuts, chopped finely

250g milk chocolate, finely chopped or grated

125g unsalted butter, softened

Combine the butter and chocolate to form a smooth paste.

Add the nuts and beat until smooth and evenly combined.

Store in jars in the fridge, but serve at room temperature or slightly warmed up.

I spooned dollops of mix into 2 and a half dijon mustard sized jars. The half a jar means that we get to keep a little as the other 2 jars are [very] late Christmas gifts.

I also sterilised my jars and lids in the oven, am not entirely sure that is necessary - I figured it wouldn't do any harm to be on the safe side.

Once your jars are filled and cooled, have fun decorating them. I just cut fabric circles and tied them onto the lids.

Spread the chocolate on to sandwiches, toast, biscuits, cakes....you get the idea.

These little jars of healthy chocolate - hey! they have a nuts and milk in them...doesn't that makes them healthy!? The little jars would make a lovely Easter present too.

Handprinted Fabric Swap III

2013-02-16T08:42:00.000+00:00

Leslie, of Maze and Vale, warned me last week that signups for her third fabric swap would open on Monday....which lead to me stalking her blog. Creepy, I know. But I missed out on the second one by a day and I really didn't want to miss out this time around. So when I saw that she would post again on Thursday with details about signups....I again stalked her!

Long story short - I ammmmmm innnnnnnnnnnn - YIPPEEEEEEEE!

Now, I have to try and keep my pants on until 3rd March when I will find out who is in my swap group...

If you are even the teensy-ist bit interested in playing around with fabric printing - you should have a look at Leslies list of tutorials right here.

Happy Valentines Day!

2013-02-14T09:23:00.001+00:00

The little flowers made these at nursery this week. Ava took a little convincing to get paint-dirty and Chloe apparently ate as much glitter and glue as what is on her card. I can't believe that these 2 little chickens will soon be 4 and 2....!

New Yarn

2013-02-06T14:10:00.000+00:00

Progress has begun, again, on my Attic24 ripple blanket. It has been ages and ages since I last worked on it. My colour selections have been alternating warm and cool colours and last night I found that I needed a new cool colour. With only 2 blues left sitting in my bag. The last few colours were blues, so I needed something new. Like I needed an excuse to pop into our local yarn shop!?

Want to see my new colours?

There are a whole bunch of new Sublime Extra Fine Merino colours. Yay! Some lovely bright orange to reds...I must confess that the pinks were starting to get a little boring for me...as well as some new Spring pastels and gorgeous metallics. So, I bought 3 orange-y, pink-y, red-ish balls and another green.

Want to see the possible colour line up?

...and the gorgeous bag that I took it all home in....?

...and another shameless plug at one of my gorgeous goodies....

I also bought these....!

Hoooked Zpagetti! It's a rather dull shade of brownish grey, but it is intended for this. One day, the wall behind where it will hang will be a lovely shade of sea green, so grey seemed the sensible sort of choice. The shop didn't have many colour options - white, ivory, navy, a gorgeous coral-y orange, light and dark grey. I book marked that pattern ages ago and when the Zpagetti saw me it shouted and screamed at me to take its gigantic self home. The bag/basket will be used for stashing hats and gloves - which are presently all stuffed into one of those Crocs bags that you get with their kids boots.

So...you noticed that lovely printed green linen then? No?

This one...! The ink is a really lovely pearly white, slightly on the grey side so as not to dazzle the eyeballs.

These fabric pieces are destined for gorgeous bags or zippy pouches. I haven't decided yet. More like this one maybe?

What do you think I should do with that fabric? Have you made anything with Zpagetti?

Childrens Reward Chart

2013-02-06T13:04:00.000+00:00

We have tried Ava on a chore chart before. It was a very simple hand drawn thing, not pretty but it did its job.

In an effort to getting back on a good, well behaved sort of track (i.e. making Flower Daddies life a little more tantrum free and easier on the mornings of my working days, in the getting dressed sort of department) I put a new one together on the computer.

Again, not beautiful - but clean and simple and neatly customisable (and not full of annoying commercialised characters). Most importantly, it won't suck up all my printer ink in a single print!

I printed ours on to white paper and then stuck it up with pretty washi tape. If you are feeling like you need a little bit of help in the small person department, please feel free to download a copy here. {For some reason colour is missing from the download preview. When you download it is should look like the picture above.}The colours are less pink, more orange - gender neutral I think?
Not sure how to fill it in? Well, here is my suggestion:

Ava's responsibilities this week are:

* to get herself dressed in the morning {the picture says what she needs to put on - t-shirt, panties, pants, socks and shoes}

* to be kind and gentle to her little sister

* to check and top up the dogs food and water in the morning and evening

* to not suck her fingers

We are using 1 of the many, many, many sheets of stickers that we happen to have in the house. But, I have seen these cute ones here and another here.

She has to get 20 stickers to get her reward. She chose to go to the park as her reward...crickey! Makes me feel like I deprive her of park visits!!

Let's see what it looks like at the end of this coming Sunday...

Some Sunshiney Holiday Photo's

2013-02-04T09:46:00.000+00:00

Just a few photo's from our holiday in South Africa, the first 2 weeks or so that we were away.

Gotta love those legs...all of them!

Beachy fun at Gordon's Bay, near Cape Town

Heaps of people kite surfing at the Strand, near Gordon's Bay. Check that huge blue sky....sigh....

Too much fresh air and sunshine does this to a person.

Penguins and a dassie at Betty's Bay.

Nemo fish...and a little Ava head....at the V&A Aquarium in Cape Town.

Humungous crabs!

Whizzing down a slide at a lovely little play area outside the aquarium.

Lovely mountainous scenery on the drive inland.

Monotonously straight Karoo roads.

Playing in the Murraysburg lei water. {Lei water is water that is fed through parts of the town, via furrows that line the streets, from the local dam. Each property is allowed to open a sluice to allow water in to irrigate their gardens during certain parts of the day.}

Playing in a make shift paddle pool in the shade of a tree. It was blazing hot. The water was from my dads borehole and was very chilly.

On leaving Murraysburg there were masses of these beautiful cactus flowers.

....more photo's still to come!

Its finally finished....or maybe not

2013-01-25T22:33:00.000+00:00

I know that I promised some lovely summery South African holiday photo's....but we took so many while we were away, that we had to download them on to Flower Daddies laptop. So, I need to get my dirty mitts on to his laptop to repossess my photo's. All of that will hopefully happen this weekend!

In the meanwhile, I am super pleased that I managed to finish my flowery blanket last night.

* drum roll please *

Ta-dahhhhhhh!

Dinky, but pretty - no? It is perfectly lap and leg sized.

Did I say that I was pleased with the result? It has been almost 2 years in the making.

It would have been nice to have had more flowery squares. There are already 52 of them in there. {Yup, just counted them. I thought that there were at least 70?!} They were pretty time consuming and I was getting desperate to see some amazing progression. And, it would have been nice for the beige joining colour to have been a paler shade of cream - but Sirdar Calico DK doesn't come in a paler shade of cream, so I had to make do.

This is the first blanket that I have ever crocheted. Should the rippled edges bother me? I honestly have no idea. It is what it is and I rather love it!

***

Actually...I have a confession....

See, this is the back side...........it really isn't finished. Not by a looooong way!

There are so . many . loose . threads to weave in, I kind of lost the will to live. So, I shelved the weaving and jumped to the edging. You can actually see in the photo of the whole back that I have made a good dent in the weaving process. But, there are still so many to do.

Anyhow, that is a job for another gazillion nights.

My ripple blanket is really no different than the last time I mentioned it. I should really tackle that one head on, as soon it will be summer again (in like another 4 or 5 months....sigh....) and I really won't want to be anywhere near it. Now is the time!

Marching Elephants

2013-01-24T09:10:00.000+00:00

Just before we went away a lovely lady requested an elephant design from me. I already had an elephant design....so, together we came up with a variety of colour options, 2 elephant sizes and a few different layouts, then I uploaded them to Spoonflower for her to purchase.

Here are a few of the colourways....

There are quite a few colourways.....if you have a few minutes to kill, you can see them all here.

I'd love to hear what you think of the designs as well as the colourways.

Blazing Heat to Freezing Cold

2013-01-22T22:39:00.000+00:00

Hello...hello! Happy New Year - yes, yes, I know, 22 days late. Better late than never....

Well, it was mad rush getting ready to leave our house for 5 weeks. Remembering to pack the necessities, as well as Christmas presents and doing our best to leave the kitchen sink in the kitchen at home. That was 7 weeks ago already! We have been back for a little over a week now.

After a wonderful 5 week visit home, we left Cape Town on a gorgeously warm Thursday evening, arriving in London early on a relatively warm Friday morning, only to be plunged into below freezing temperatures on the weekend. A few days later the chilly weather produced some snow for us.

Cold + wet + low grey skies = ick!

Freezing + cold + snow = YiPEE!

Walking to work on Monday morning was lovely. I grinned for the whole 20min walk, even a grumpy old man moaning about the snow couldn't take my snow-happy-grin off my face. I took these photo's around 8am, before the snow had been trampled to sludgy brown moosh. The top picture is of Russell Square. There are lots of paths in that park - this was the only path visible, the others were still completely covered in lovely fluffy, crunchy, fresh snow.

This one is Bloomsbury Square. See the snowman?

...and the snow cat?

I love that some smarty pants used a bin for his hat! He was a happy sight, bringing smiles to a lot of people...there were still some grumpy pants that couldn't crack a grin....

I won't share with you what that lovely snow man looked like by the end of the day. Some kids obviously had a wonderful time slicing him into bits. The cat too.

Our garden is still covered in white. I am surprised to see white every time I look out the window... weird.

I am having a hard time keeping up with 2013, but I hope to share a few sunshiney pictures of our holiday soon. Also, after travelling such a long distance with the girls, I have a few hints/tips/insights about travelling with young children to share. All in good time...

In the meanwhile, how is your 2013 treating you?

Not Much, but Really, a Lot

2012-12-02T09:11:00.002+00:00

There is a lot of crafty Christmas present stuff happening here...by light at night. All in preparation for our imminent Summer Holiday. I get little to no time during the day to do much crafting. Actually - the thought of sitting behind my sewing machine or with needle and thread and attempting to sew while Chloe (in particular) is around is enough to send me into melt-down! Those little inquisitive, grabby fingers, that strong little climby body, those clumsy trippy feet - which result in many bumps, bruises and eina's....the hiding of scissors, pins, pens, WiPs and pretty much everything else in my sewing space...the resolving of sisterly disputes - WW3 in disguise! The shouting - that would be me. Far. too. much. shouting.

Actually, that pretty much sums up any time spent with us 3 girls...

Ava's artboard is full up. She has 2 magnetic boards and both are overflowing. I find it hard to throw away her masterpieces. When the girls get bored of paper, pretty much anything else is game for the crayons and koki's. That would be Chloe's influence. It never occurred to Ava to draw on the floor, furniture, table, oven, windows until Chloe did! At least they are washable. But, for fear of me blowing a fuse, I have hidden them.

In between cleaning crayon off the floor, I have been trying to get the washing dry. It has been pretty darn cold here. There is a pile of ice outside that hasn't defrosted for 3 days.

Ralph the Elf is visiting from the North Pole. He arrived yesterday. I would imagine that his reports to HQ so far are pretty mixed...

Colouring in Softie Special Offer

2012-11-24T09:18:00.004+00:00

Need help with stocking fillers for little and not-so-little kidlettes....or us not-so-old people too?.....find the special offer here!

The special offer will end on Sunday 2 December.

Christmas Tradition

2012-11-18T19:03:00.000+00:00

A few photo's of some of the Christmas projects that I am working on...

This is - uh, will be - a cat with a fluttery dress. I will be using the cat pattern from the Wee Wonderfuls book.

She still needs her legs attached and some clothing.

I combined two patterns from the same Wee Wonderfuls book for her.

I think that I should redo her cheeks...they have stretched out of shape after stuffing her.

The doll will sit in this backpack. Backpack pattern from Oliver and S.

Doll seat idea and spotty fabric inspiration from Saltwater-Kids.

The eye-less elf. The pattern is from the Scandinavian Stitches book. The elf will be getting eyes...temporary felt eyes until we get to my mom, when the elf will miraculously have teeny weeny button eyes.

Have you ever heard of Elf on the Shelf? I first heard of it last year, but thought that Ava was a little young for it still. This year - we are making it our new Christmas tradition. Anything to encourage good behaviour and kindness between sisters...! Rather than buying the kit, I have made our own elf. Maybe not quite as pliable as the 'real' elf, but I am sure that Flower Daddy and I will be able to conjure enough fun with it.

Zippy Bags for Grown Ups

2012-11-15T23:37:00.001+00:00

In between all my Christmas present crafting, I have made these two little lovelies....

Well....actually there is also a third one....but she is alllllll mine! I am going to use her for crafty storage while we are on holiday.

You could also stash your current crochet or sewing project or sketchbook and pencils or snacks or general nicknack's or knitting or toys or.....what am I missing?? There must be something else?

Anyhow, you get the idea, super useful in two super useful sizes and unique and pretty - all in one perfect little package.

I will try and sneak a few photo's of my Christmas-y gift projects tomorrow, while little eye's are otherwise diverted....a doll minus legs, an elf minus a couple of eyes and a backpack that is not yet a backpack...oh, and a cat that is cunningly disguised as a roll of felt! There are a few other bits and pieces in the works, but you will have to wait until after Christmas to see those.

If you fancy nabbing yourself one of these pretty pouches, they can be found here.

Pretty Petal Bucket Tote

2012-11-09T21:55:00.002+00:00

Can you see me boogy-ing behind my computer? I really am doing a little jig...surely you can see??

Seriously, looky what I am so pleased about....

Remember my yabbering about fabric way back here....yipes! 2 months ago! I hope that you didn't go blue in the face waiting for me. It is so frustrating how long it sometimes takes me to do things. There are so many ideas bouncing around between my ears. Makes it hard sometimes to concentrate on just one thing at a time. Never mind all the other things that keep me busy.

I have a few of these in stock, once they are gone, I will be making them to order - which I will endeavour to have in the post within 2 weeks. I also have a plan for at least one other colour way - maybe a teal-ish sort of colour...the petals could also be leaves, don't you agree?

If you need to get your mitts on one of these lovely bucket totes...looky no further than here.

....I think that I need to make myself one - specifically for keeping my crochet together next to the couch...plenty of generous hooky storage!