Day to Day

Easter raffle

I have two excited children because Bella won one of the Easter raffle prizes at school - lots of yummy bunnies and eggs :))

I thought I'd share a couple of Easter links too -

Rabbit templates,

the cutest bunny envelopes,

and this gorgeous Spring tote - too yummy!

Easter crafting & giveaway.

I thought it was about time to start some Easter crafting so we started this morning with our yearly egg blowing/dying session which is something that both James and Bella really look forward to doing every year.

After the eggs were finished they added spots of dye to some tissues, which will be nice backgrounds for the Easter cards we will make later on.

We then set up more mess on the dining table and while I sewed up some 'Happy Easter' bunting, James and Bella started work on a new painted canvas each. 

Bunting is really hard to photograph I've decided!!  The super cute ribbon and dangling chickens were part of a gorgeous Easter package that the super lovely Fiona sent me through the week.

This week my stats have just gone over the 200,000 mark - so somebody out there must be reading my daily dribble....lol.  To celebrate I'm doing another little blog give away - a couple of a4 pieces of dotty felt, some embroidery cottons, a selection of Basic Grey 6 x 6 papers, ribbons, chipboard flowers, acrylic stars, wooden flowers and Queen & co felt. 

Leave a comment today or tomorrow to be in the draw.

Ask me a question in your comment, tell me a fab Easter craft to make (or do) or just say hi :)))

Moss stitch & Easter

Yay, I've mastered moss stitch and managed 1 square of Bella's blanket.  These are the colours she chose and it will be edged in white.  I'm really slow with the moss stitch though as this took possibly twice as long as knitting one of James' squares.  It's very tempting to keep knitting with these lovely new shades though - but I'm being firm with myself and still saying no more squares until James' is all sewn up and on his bed.

Inbetween the knitting last night I stitched up two of these felt bags to hold Bonnie and Oscar's Easter eggs.  I used this tutorial from my Easter buddy Fiona's blog.  They are seriously so quick and very sweet to hold little eggs.

I then wrapped the goodies in cellophane and printed out two sweet Easter tags from this Easter Elegance download available from Tarisota Collections.  I'd really love to make the Tussie Mussie from the same download too - maybe next week :)))

Finally...the beautiful Pay It Forward gift that I received from Tanya (all the way from France)  A gorgeous little tissue holder and coin purse that are going to be perfect in my handbag!!  Thankyou so much Tanya, I love them :))

I'll be having another blog giveaway this week - probably in tomorrow's post :)))

Thanks for reading :))

Obsessing

I'm still obsessing over my purchases from yesterday...how good does that blanket look hanging on my washing line :)))

Bella has made fabulous use of the new ear-rings, dresses and typewriter (as you can see by this photo).  James is also loving the new typewriter - I really need to hunt down another one.

Oh and the start of my Easter projects for this year.  The foam eggs I've covered with a mix of mod podge and tissue paper.  The tied ribbon was Fiona's idea from this post here. Check out her totally beautiful eggs...so yum.

Camping, stitching & egg eating.

We left at 8am Thursday morning and headed to Mathina where we set up camp and stayed until Sunday.  It was a beautiful spot with a really shallow creek that the kids loved to play in and we had such beautiful weather while we were there.  We toasted plenty of marshmellows on the camp fire, ate way too many Easter eggs and the boys all went dirt bike riding for a full day on Saturday.  James and Bella made two lovely friends while we were there and I was invited for morning and afternoon teas at the caravan next door that belonged to a lovely couple from Cairns that have been travelling around Australia for the last two years.  The lady was very crafty and showed me some amazing treasures that she had sewed or knitted along the way.  I was particularly taken with the knitted tea cosies that she had over the tea pots - very sweet.  I gave them one of my Mini Moopy Bunnies to keep them company in their caravan :O) 

We set up a little craft table outside the caravan and Bella learnt how to stitch (bunnies ofcourse).  She did a beautiful job of her bunny - I helped with the buttons and flower stitching, but that's all.

James' bunny is cut out and he is hoping to stitch it through the week, he was too busy climbing trees and riding his dirt bike. 

Camping memories from the trip:

1. The boys rolling giant logs down the hill for the campfire. 2. The Myth Busters mentos and diet coke trick that didn't work 3. Robin slicing his finger open incredibly deep with his new knife. 4. The little stone bridge that Bella and her friend created in the creek. 5. The boys riding to the Pub in the Paddock on Saturday.  6. Seeing Nick age 10 years after he got back from the Pub in the paddock ride. 7. Robin getting his car stuck on the hill. 8. Our flat car battery. 9. The generator cutting out just as I was about to stitch more bunnies 10.  The giggling antics of the boys after one too many beers around the campfire. 11. Talking on the walkie talkies on the way up and back in the car.  12.  Listening to 88.5 Robin FM. 13. Bella feeling car sick 14.  Having a six hour trip home because Robin wasn't well - stopping at every town for the toilet 15. Cold mornings. 16. Pure relaxation 17. Nearly wetting ourselves laughing on Easter morning when James hopped out of bed and started cooking his breakfast - apparently he thought of having Easter eggs for breakfast  but decided it really wasn't a sensible thing to do 18.  Bella telling everybody - I'm a wild child.  19.  Bowser's incredible solar powered shower. 20. Just hanging out together.  21. Bella doing some serious dance moves on the way home in the van.

Would you like a Bunny RAK ?

If you've popped over to gorgeous Fiona Carter's blog in the last couple of days you'll have seen that we have been on a bunny making mission. I haven't been quite as productive with my bunnies as Fiona - her's are definitely breeding like rabbits.  I've managed two so far - One Mini Moopy Bunny from Nest Studio (in the felt) and one Purl Rabbit from The Purl Bee. I really loved making the bunnies.

Over the Easter break I'm going to make more felt ones and thought it would be a nice little Easter gift to put up a bunny RAK on my blog to say thankyou for reading and happy Easter.  I can't promise what it will look like or what the colours will be and I've got to say that my stitches are never perfect, but if you would like to be RAKed a bunny please leave a message on my blog.  On Easter Sunday night I will put all the names in my Easter basket and Bella or James can draw out a name (hopefully somebody out there would like a mini moopy bunny sewn by me).

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter.

P.S. Fiona is also about to RAK a mini moopy bunny so be sure to head over to her blog once the post goes up and leave a comment to double your chances :O)

{chirp chirp}

Last year the lovely Fiona sent me all of these delightful little coloured chickens for Easter.  They looked so sweet in their little box sitting on the table over the Easter break. 
Then I found a Mummy chicken for them through the year and this Easter I decided that due to the expanding family they really needed a new home - so I picked up this gorgeous velour basket for them the other day and now they can all live happily ever after :O)

Today was

Cold, rainy, wintery and fun! We had a craft day to prepare for our Easter presents that James and Bella make each year for the family. 

Usually I get the fantabulous job (not) of blowing out the egg yolk from the eggs, it hurts my cheeks and I don't like it one bit - especially since we always do a dozen eggs. So, I don't know why I haven't thought of it before - but today it struck me - *Mel, get the kids to do it** lol. They LOVED it all, poking the eggs with a skewer, breaking up the yolk and blowing all the middle out of the egg - except when Bella accidentally sucked in and not out and got a mouthful of raw egg, gross (see next pic) .

The eggs look really cool and bright. James had a friend over for the afternoon after we dyed the eggs, so I helped Bella with the cards and baskets.  We melted candle wax and dripped it onto the cards, then Bella painted over the top with the excess dye and we ironed the wax off. Bella was wrapped to be able to help hold and iron with the *big girls iron* - I'm sure that novelty will wear off later in life, it sure did with me!

And here are the finished projects - well nearly, still have to go shopping for the mini chocolate eggs to be put in the basket with the dyed eggs - but seriously can't do that until closer to Easter otherwise it will end up costing me a small fortune (as we'll eat the eggs).

And finally, we baked a double batch of brownies, YUM. Love these brownies, so moist and easy peasy to cook.

Wee Bunnies

After reading Fiona's blog and seeing her little growing family of Wee Bunnies, I decided I too needed to make some of these little rabbits.  You can download the free pattern here on weewonderful's blog. They are so neat.  Mine only took about 20 -30 minutes, LOL, you can see that because there is some pretty bad sewing happening, but James and Bella love these new additions to our family.

Here is wee bunny number 1 featured with my gorgeous package of coloured fluffy chickies that Fiona sent me. 

Then we have wee bunny number 2. He has a bit much stuffing on his bottom...OR maybe he ate too much this Easter.

Photo number 3 is to show you that I was very domestic today, bunnies, cookies and housework today.

Then we've got Bella and wee bunny number 1 - officially namesd *Clare* by Bella.

Oh, PLUS...the April Tarisota Collection is out...here's a sneak at a card that I created for the flower feature this month.