Day to Day

Tea Cozy

We've been having a pot of tea with our breakfast this last week.  James and Bella both enjoy having a cup with us in the morning so it made sense to dust off the tea pot and start putting it to good use. 

The teapot is part of a beautiful handmade set that my first boss gave Richard and myself for a wedding present.  She bought the set for us on a trip to South Africa and carried it back in her luggage hoping that it would make the journey safely (which it did).  I've always been really fond of it and often wish I had somewhere to display it properly rather than having it hidden away in the cupboard.

Anyhow last night I took a mad fit and decided it needed a tea cozy to keep it warm while the tea is brewing.  After several attempts to draw out a pattern that would fit (on paper) I finally got one that appeared to sit in place nicely.  The embroidered teacup design was from one of my Japanese craft books (Design Collection for kids) and the fabric was some that I had stashed away (http://www.joeldewberry.com/).

There were a few little hiccups - one being that it took me a while to figure out how I was going to sew it all together (liner, wadding & cover) and the main problem was once I sewed it all up the liner was a bit big inside.  But hey, you can't see that anyhow once it's on the teapot.

In blogging news, the lovely Jill from Nature Girl (http://lifewithnaturegirl.blogspot.com/) nominated me for the Arte Y Pico award (http://arteypico.blogspot.com/).  Thankyou Jill!  The Arte Y Pico is awarded to blogs that you consider deserving due to their creativity, design, interesting material and for their contributions to the blogging community. If you receive the Arte Y Pico you in turn bestow it on five blogs.  Normally I don't play along and I give the awards out to everyone, lol...but today I thought it might be fun to join in.  So, here we go:

http://scrapblogmebaby.typepad.com/blog_me_baby/ Ngai is a cool little blogger and creates gorgeous art.  Her blog is always so pretty to look at too :)

http://www.gingerbread.typepad.com/ I love all the baking and cards that gingerbread creates.  Gina also does lots of cool things with her two gorgeous girls and as you know I'm a big sucker for kids crafting activities...there's nothing nicer!

http://www.shereeforcier.blogspot.com/ I'm always really taken with Sheree's beautiful scrapbooking layouts - they're bright, funky and well, I just love her style.

http://oneredrobin.com/ Jhoanna is super talented.  She sews the most beautiful things.  Go on, sneak over to her blog, you'll love it.

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ My newest most favourite blog to visit. Rhonda Jean talks about baking, preserving, soap making (yay!), gardening, green cleaning, slowing down and living a simple life.

Oh and since I like breaking the rules for the awards, here is one more of my very favourite blogs:

http://franknotes.wordpress.com/  Frank is a super crafting dadda.  He sews so beautifully, knits and makes the most awesome and impressive cakes. 

Gosh I could make this list a mile long...there are so many super creative and inspiring people out there. 

By the way, if you have more storage ideas then don't forget to add them to yesterday's post.  Here's a link that Laura left for her storage solutions from her blog:

http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/my_montessori_journey/organization/index.html 

Thanks Laura. I love the simple idea to store bits and pieces from magazines - I have a whole pile of magazines that I don't like to part with...but now I think I'll tear out the pages of interest, store them in a binder (like Laura does) and pop the rest of the magazine in my recycle bin.  That's going to save me so much space.

See you tomorrow, thanks for stopping by.

 

Storage

Because our house is relatively small I've been finding it increasingly difficult to manage storage over the last year or so.  A couple of weeks ago I decided to start a big spring clean of all our cupboards, sorting out everything I could and giving away what wasn't needed anymore.  I came to realise that even with the clean out we still needed more storage! This sounds a little strange, but the cupboards were all so jam squished before - as in sideways squished so that if you opened certain cupboards you had to be quick at retrieving what you needed before the contents fell to the floor.  What I wanted to achieve were nice/easy to manage shelves that could be easily accessed (James and Bella haven't quite learnt the concept that if you pull something out from the bottom the whole thing is going to come tumbling down).

So the plan was that Rich would build us some new cupboards in the lounge room, but in the meantime we found this old wardrobe at a second hand/thrift store that we both fell in love with.  Once we added some shelves (only some of the shelves are shown in the photo here) it has been transformed into the perfect storage solution for all of our board games, jigsaw puzzles, playdough, etc..  I love that everything is easily accessible for James and Bella without them needing to ask me to carefully lift something out for them!

I still have quite a bit of sorting out to do in the house - so tell me, what is your perfect storage solution idea?  Take a photo and pop on your blog too if you like (I'd love to see!).

Well better go and prepare tonight's meal - chicken enchilidas and vegies.  We've been out in the garden for a bit today (ouch those rose thorns hurt when they get jabbed in your arm) so I've got some cleaning up to do.  I'm really excited that a few of you are going to try soap making - let me know how you go, I'd love to know.

One last photo before I go - today's biscuits - Raspberry Jam Biscuits - I'll pop the recipe on my recipe blog later tonight (link on the left in my side bar).  They are seriously easy (4 ingredients) and yummo :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Soap making - take one.

A few days ago I came across some really fabulous soap making recipes and decided that this was something that I wanted to make for our family to use instead of buying commercial soaps.  There are many reasons why I want to start using and making my own soap - you can read about a few of them here (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/soapmaking/108940).

I thought I'd start off with a really easy recipe and work my up to making a cold pressed soap next time around.  The recipe I used today was from here - http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2007/07/rebatching-soap.html 

I made a few mistakes along the way, but feel very confident that my next batch will be more successful.  Next time I'll have all the ingredients ready to go before I start, have the tray pre-greased and I won't be burning the soap!  Mmm, yes, those little specks you see in the soap aren't some pretty extra ingredient, they are infact little bits of burnt milk!

I chose not to add any colour or essential oil to this batch but I did realise that my scrapbooking stamps are perfect for pressing into the top of the stamp when it comes out of the mould.  Overall I'm quite excited about this new project and have many more plans to start making my own washing powders, cleaning products etc.. in the future.

Also, before I go - have you all watched The Story of Stuff?  http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html  A must see.  I saw it for the first time a few months ago when the lovely Jude sent me through the link and it's been playing on my mind ever since.

I'm behind on email again - will catch up soon  :)

Amish Cookies

Just popping in to let you know that there is a new recipe over on my recipe blog - direct link here: http://melissagoodsell.typepad.com/recipes/2008/06/amish-cookies.html

Choc Chip Amish Cookies - a long time favourite in our house and super easy (are you seeing a pattern here that I only ever cook super easy things!). 

I'm feeling incredibly tired tonight, so I'll keep this short :)

Filling in a Sunday.

Last week I took advantage of Spotlight's (www.spotlight.com.au) sale picking up 2.5 metres of red velvet for about $12.  On Saturday night my mother-in-law had a fall and managed to snap off the head of her femur bone (ouch), which lead to being scheduled for a hip replacement on Sunday. 

Some sewing seemed in order for Sunday while we waited to hear how the operation went, so I started (and finished) Bella's Red Riding Hood cape ready for the book week parade in August.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out (more importantly Bella thinks the cape is beautiful).  The pattern is from my all time favourite 'Dress-Ups & Parties' book, from the Australian Women's Weekly craft library. 

I would have really loved some nice thick red velvet ribbon to use for the tie, but I was impatient and just used what I had around the house.  That's probably a good thing actually - meaning less dollars spent and also using up some of my ribbon stash.

Next up I need to sew an apron and skirt to go with the cape. I don't have the motivation for that right now though - perhaps closer to the book parade I'll feel inclined.

Felt food instructions etc.. are still coming - I promise - just probably closer to the end of this week/early next week as I'll be at the hospital visiting my mother-in-law quite a bit over the next few days.

Flutter

A couple of weeks ago Bella asked her Daddy if she could have her own work bench to use in the shed.  They whipped it up together in an afternoon - just out of scrap wood and a bit wobbly, but it was a quick 5 minute job and it seems the perfect thing to be sawing and hammering on.

The other night Bella came in telling me she had an idea for a wood project, but she needed a hat and scarf to keep warm.  It was cold, really cold and starting to become dark soon after, so I headed on out to tell Bella that it was time to come inside.  She was using a saw by herself (eeek!).  Her and Daddy were working on measurements together and quite clearly she had a plan.  Who am I to get in the way of a plan - so I came back inside and let her keep working.

Half an hour or so later, the door flings open and Bella holds out this wooden puppy for me.  Leaves for ears, coloured in with texta, her own design...these are the moments that really do make my heart go flitter flutter.

Stockmar Modelling Wax

Gina (www.gingerbread.typepad.com) was telling me about a Steiner shop in Hobart a month or so ago and I finally remembered to call in when I was driving through town on Friday.  They have the most scrumptious art supplies for children and one of the things I came away with was a packet of Stockmar Modelling Wax (www.stockmar.de).  It's so beautiful to work with and James and Bella have already made several scenarios to sit around our home.  You warm the wax in your hands and sculpt whatever shape you need - so a little bit of patience is required :) Then, once you have finished sculpting, the design hardens and becomes permanent (ofcourse if you change your mind you can just rewarm it in your hands to redo).

What I especially love is that it doesn't seem to stick to things or roll away in a million pieces (like playdough) so because James was unwell yesterday, inbetween the throwing up he worked on the igloo scene which I was more than happy for him to use on the couch (on a work board/surface) - can you imagine using playdough on the couch? eeek!

Bella created the house and boat scene.

Anyone for muffins? These don't normally last long at our house.  I used the muffin recipe from here - http://melissagoodsell.typepad.com/recipes/2007/08/choc-chip-muffi.html - I promise that it's a never fail muffin recipe....so so good and yummy too.

Tutorial: Easy felt needle holder

I thought I'd share some photos (and instructions) for some very simple needle holders that I've been making for the school fair.  They are very fast and easy to whip up and best of only cost about 80 cents per needle holder to create.

Materials required:

Felt, Embroidery cotton, scissors, sewing machine. 

Step 1:

Use the templates provided (see below) to cut out X2 large rectangles (exterior of needle holder), X1 small rectangle (inside of needle holder) and X1 bird from felt.

Step 2:

Place one of the large rectangles on your work area and position the felt bird onto the right hand side. Embroider a French knot for the bird’s eye. Alternatively you could use a button or bead.

 

 

 

 

Step 3: Machine stitch around the edge of the bird to hold into position. Sandwich the two large rectangles together and machine stitch around the outside edge to hold together and also hide the bird stitching.

 

Step 4: Position the smaller rectangle onto the inside of your needle holder. Machine stitch the exterior and interior together down the centre - you might like to place a pin in the middle as a stitching guide. Alternatively draw a line with a fabric fade pen.

Step 5: Add a selection of pins and needles.

 

 

**Template provided: Right hand click and save to 'My Documents'.  Print out onto an A4 sheet until large rectangle measures approximately 21.5cm in length**

 

Since there were lots of requests for felt food and instructions I'll hopefully load up a few posts for those next week :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An album for James.

Using this month's Tarisota (www.tarisota.com.au) collection.

Thankyou for all the lovely comments I received for the felt food (in the post below). 

If anybody would like a tutorial (and pattern) for the food let me know and I'll try and draw one up and post here over the next week or so.

Hello Arno Cat

The felt food didn't end up getting a look in yesterday.  Instead I finished off Arno Cat using up a little of my newly felted jumper stash.  The pattern was out of 'Softies, 22 friends for you to sew, knit and crochet'.  There are some fabulously easy (I'm always on for easy!) patterns in the book and I have several of them bookmarked to make down the track.

I'm definitely sold on the idea of using felted jumpers/blankets for toys - so lovely to sew and work with. 

Bella and I also worked on these felted balls together.  Once we roll enough of them together they're going to be joined up to create a small necklace for her.