sunday stash ... getting organised

After a relaxing Christmas day, I found a renewed enthusiasm to build the new IKEA bookcase that had been sitting boxed up in our entrance hall for the past week or so. And I'm so glad I did! I spent the morning on Boxing Day arranging and re-arranging my stash of fabrics and other sewing bits and pieces - everything is so easy to find now! 

Some new kraft storage boxes from Kikki K were the perfect size to house my finished greeting cards and pencil cases. Those shelves on the left show my finished stock - nowhere near enough yet for the stall I'm having at the Sister's Market in February.

Feeling inspired (and slightly panicked about the upcoming market) - I started sketching a pattern for an envelope style clutch to add to my collection of Rabbit & the Duck products. I have just finished stitching up my first one - hope you like it! 

The plan is to make a whole bunch of these for my Etsy shop and market stall. I'm a bit in love with this scooter one though and may have to add it to my growing handbag and purse collection...

Christmas Aftermath

Christmas is over for another year. 

I hope everyone has had a lovely day - as usual I have eaten way too much which is not hard when you are faced with so much delicious food and want to try a bit of everything! A short nap on the grass in the backyard this afternoon helped but I think it will be an early night for me today.

And tomorrow... back to work! Yes it's true - for those of us who work in retail, tomorrow is one of the busiest days of the year. Should be a lot of fun though! 

Hm time to get cosy on the sofa with a good movie I think!

I love chocolate

As promised, some photo's of the chocolate truffles I made yesterday.

Firstly - preparing the chocolate:

The finished product:

The darker ones were the rum and raisin ones (definitely the winners!) rolled in grated chocolate. The paler ones were plain chocolate, dusted in cocoa. So good! I definitely need to make these again. 

Such a hoot

I've had this owl fabric in my stash for some time now, and have been wondering what to use it for. While sorting out my fabrics this week (again - it's never ending!) I happened to put the owl fabric next to my favourite red scooter print. Bingo! I was so excited by this perfect combination that I jumped on the sewing machine straight away and whipped up some new pencil cases.

And to update you on my previous post - I have decided to make chocolate truffles for this afternoon's Christmas BBQ. I am attempting two different types - a plain truffle rolled in cocoa, and a rum and raisin version for the grown ups. The chocolate mix is currently cooling in the refrigerator - pics to come once the truffles are done! For now, I will share with you a picture of this morning's breakfast - gluten free pancakes with strawberries and blueberries, drizzled with honey. 

 

I'm feeling so relaxed with all this making and baking!

In the spirit

With less than a week until December 25th, I thought it was time to hunt around for the Christmas decorations and make our home look a little bit more festive. Working in retail, I have been faced with long hours and hectic (but fun) days... before I knew it, December was half over!

Today the first Christmas present arrived in the mail from my sister, spurring me into action. We don't have a tree at our place (mostly due to space restrictions) so instead, we have a Christmas 'basket'. This is ours from last year - I'm still working on filling it this year!


This year I added some etched glass baubles to our collection of decorations. We have a few different types and sizes of these, which hang off doorknobs, hooks, and anywhere else I can find.


I'm slowly finding my Christmas spirit - next up - I'm trying to decide which delicious treats I am going to bake for some social events we have coming up this weekend. Perhaps a gingerbread cake...or my favourite flourless chocolate cake with raspberries. Decisions, decisions...

A trip to the country

With all the dreary weather we've been having in Melbourne these past few days, I've been dreaming of a trip to somewhere nice and sunny where you can wander among rustling trees and enjoy some fresh country air. So it's only natural that my Sunday Stash fabric this week is this gorgeous linen!

I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it yet, perhaps some cushion covers?

A little early Christmas present for myself

image from henk berg

It seems I have lost all sense of self control lately when it comes to handbags and purses. Today I went to visit Sophia at Nord Living to drop off some more notebooks, and while I was there I spied some new leather handbags she had received from Henk Berg in Tasmania. After um-ing and ah-ing between 2 different bags, I decided on this gorgeous red leather one. I am totally in love with the handle design - you can untie it and reknot it where you like, making one long strap so you can sling the bag across you, or a shorter one to turn it into a shoulder bag. So clever! 

In other news, my favourite wicker chair was picked up this evening by its new owner. I have a flat packed Expedit bookcase fresh from IKEA ready to be put together. I can't wait to start getting my sewing gear organised! It will be so nice not to have spend 15 minutes looking for that zip I need or having to rummage around in a pile on the ground for the fabric I want. Organisation = calmness = productiveness - at least that's what I'm hoping for! 

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

For the past week I've been rugged up at home (mostly) trying to get over a bad cold. Today I was determined to make it out of the house to attend the Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar held at the Swedish Church in Melbourne. I have a history of working for Swedish companies, including that well known Swedish furniture store, so was keen to get along. Although we didn't stay very long (I have a limit of about 1 hour before I need a rest, I hope I'm going to shake this cold soon!) it was a lovely afternoon spent in the sunshine enjoying the stalls, food, and entertainment.

Here are some images from the day:

- A delicious hotdog my boyfriend had, and hasn't stopped talking about all afternoon

- Swedish dalahast print fabric

- Christmas decorations for sale - it was like Santa's workshop!

- Church candles

I even spotted the real rabbit and the duck among the farm animals they had there:

The rabbit however was busy hopping around and wouldn't stay still for a photo!

And here is the beautiful Swedish Church building in Toorak, Melbourne:

As some of you Melbournians may know, Toorak is a suburb of mansions, 'Toorak tractors' (4WD's) and the occasional celebrity. As we were walking back to our car, we had to pass a house (well ok a mansion) that had 4 security guards posted out the front! We tried to peek in to see if we could spy anyone famous, but the fences were too high and the garden too dense. Damn, I hate a mystery! 

Still travelling...

Still on the travel journal theme, this weeks Sunday Stash fabric is a new print I picked up at Kelani fabrics. It is a medium weight linen/cotton - just perfect for notebook covers! 

How icecream, sewing and dirty dancing all relate to each other

I have had my new sew on labels for a couple of weeks now, and until today all I had done was use them in some new pencil cases. The thought of having to sew them onto my journals was for some reason causing me much stress. What if I couldn't sew them on straight? Finally today I tackled my fear. I really don't know what I was so worried about - the labels went on perfectly! 

And here is the finished product - the london map travel journals I've mentioned before. It took me all day to finish these as I kept getting distracted, including a 2 hour stint on the sofa this afternoon eating icecream and watching Dirty Dancing. I love that movie.

In other news today, I noticed this weed growing out of the gutter on our front porch. Someone really should tend to that I suppose...

Website of the Week!

image from ponoko

Lately I've been admiring a lot of laser cut products and wondering how and where they are made. This morning I stumbled across the Ponoko website and my questions have been answered. The lovely people at Ponoko will turn your design ideas into reality - you can send them a photo and they'll design your item for you, or you can submit your own designs to have them made! They can even sell your finished product on their website if you like. So cool, I might have to give this a go! They have a range of materials to choose from including acrylic, plywood and felt. But before I start any new projects, I really should get through the pile of 'work in progress' sewing projects I have here. I always need to have about 10 projects on the go at once it seems!