Monday 24 June 2013

Campervan. Op-Shop Show-Off


I found this great campervan at the local church op-shop for $3.50.
The kids love it and its of the same era as our dolls house so we have all the people and pets to go with it.  You just climb onto the roof and whip the boat off and it opens out to a boat jetty with deck and full kitchen!
 
 






Lillie was putting them all to bed, having a bit of trouble with the blankets that she already had saying they were all way too big and could I make some smaller so i crocheted some in the same-ish kind of colour scheme!!

 


 

There is even a built in dog box in the back of the van. That's actually Queenies corgie not the dolls house dog!
 


The fully equiped kitchen with freshly caught fish baking in the oven.

Linking up with Max for Op-Shop Show-Off

Little blankets

I have some merino that I thought I might make some real baby blankets to sell but just wanted to test the iron on tear off paper I bought to put behind applique.  So decided it was better to make something useful rather than test a patch of merino.  And I couldn't make one with two children!!! Didn't want any fights so there is a girls version for baby Anna-Maria and the boys for baby Joe.  They are backed with cotton knit and don't they look cosy!
 




The kids have been carting them round all weekend with different toys and the iron on tear off paper worked well so now i have to get sewing.

This is how it all started.  My brother had a new baby and we made a blanket for him then everyone said why don't you make some to sell. 




 
And here we are meeting baby Jed and delivering his  blanket.
 



Tuesday 18 June 2013

Op-Shop finds, lovely old thread and ric rac

I found these lovely old Clark's machine embroidery cotton at my local Salvation Army family store.  They were in two packs and had to have them both!  When I got to the counter the nice lady there said that price is far too much for those old cottons and gave them to me for less than half what the sticker said. Score!
 
 
 
The old owner must have thought they were too nice to use as only the blue has about half the cotton on reel and the rest hardly look like they have been touched. 


I want to put them on display some where in my sewing area and just use for top stitching special things!!

 
And this ric rac was from my local church op shop.  It still had a price sticker from DIC department store for 2c a metre, must be old!  And there is around  25m of each colour.


Plus a few other little bits of ric rac were in the bag too, all for $2.50, bargain.


Linking up with Max for Op-Shop Show-Off June 18th 2013

Friday 14 June 2013

High tea monday at mine

Once a month three friends and myself have a high tea at one of our houses.  Its just something a bit nicer than coming round for a cuppa. This month it was my turn.  Its great to get out the old china that sits in the cupboard most of the time.








The kids love it too and Marco had dished out his and his little friends morning tea long before anyone arrived.



Cath Kidston Coming Up Roses book

I've just read the new book out about Cath Kidston being in business 20 years.  And what she went through to get where she is today.  I picked it up from the library at lunchtime and had finished it by tea time in between school runs, afternoon tea with the kids and cooking tea.  It also has lots of lovely pictures too.  
 
 
 
Cath has put out a range called coming up roses to celebrate 20 years and its just beautiful, find them here at Cath Kidston.






My friend here in New Zealand has started selling a small range of her lovely products.  You can find her here at Treacle Design.  Below is my trusty old Cath bag which I love and people always ask where I got it from and offers to buy it too!


Thursday 13 June 2013

Weekend with no children!

I'm not sure what I did with all my time before children!  I'm sure we all say that.

The kids went with Dad and the Grandparents to their bach to do some jobs so I stayed home and sewed. 

Caravan squabs from this........


To this.............


They did smell really bad but now they don't, and were a bit yucky to touch too!




 
And a couple of cushion covers for the little girl and little boy of the house, one each so there are no fights!!
 



 
Next job is the curtains, keep you posted with our progress.  Roll on summer.....

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Hat box


I found this lovely old hatbox that has been all the way to London via Antwerp on the M.V. Pieping








And in the inside pocket was this "purple thingee", it has a painted wooden peg on one end and a wire ring covered in purple cotton with a bag-ee thing in between???  Does anyone know what it is and if it does have something to do with the hatbox.




Linking up with Max for Op-Shop Show-Off

Thursday 6 June 2013

Sewing a cushion for the tooth fairy



The other day Lillie said her first tooth was getting wobbly, and I had just the idea.  She hasn't shown much interest in sewing whenever I had suggested it but today she was keen.

So we didn't muck around and chose the fabrics, pink, pink and more pink!  I got her to write her name on paper and we copied it onto the fabric as she has a really cute way of writing the first few letters.

 

Now for the edge, we decided on blanket stitch, she could do the straight sides then I did the corners, a few pricked fingers, then we remembered we had thimbles. 







A little bit of stuffing and Ta-dah!  Now we just have to wait for the tooth to get really wiggly and fall out.  Proud mummy moment!