Giveaways galore!

edward and lilly are having a giveaway. Brooches; birds, owls and a porcupine. Very cute and they could be yours if you win (or if you buy one).

I had a fairly creative weekend. I visited my new house on Sat morning to check out the newly polished floors and the electrical work. All good. Then I spent ages on the IKEA web site pretending to shop. I wish there was one in Canberra (or maybe it is good that there isn't hmmmm).

In between quarters of the AFL on Saturday I made this glasses case for a friend who wanted one which could hold contact details as she keeps losing them. I made it up as I went so hopefully it will do the job. I also made a cute carry bag from an old teatowel to hold my quilting bits and pieces. I have to do something with my newly acquired vintage teatowel collection apart from organise them into piles each weekend.




Have a good week and good luck with the giveaways!

Stujo giveaway

Stujo giveaway
Originally uploaded by stujoart

I am having a giveaway! Yay. Over here

Quotes

Well as I sit here with native garden planning books, notebooks and other stuff the quotes start rolling in. I don't think I'll be spending money on the garden any time soon! Painting (interior) $6000, electrics $1650, floors (sand and varnish) $1843, new security doors $1000. There goes my $10,000 budget. Still waiting for the plumbers quote. From here on it will be DIY and doing without.

After a day of dust storms we now have a real storm in Canberra. Heavy rain, thunder and lightning. I hope my new house isn't flooding, sitting all alone and empty and vulnerable (poor drainage on sloping block).......

weekend sun

just flowering blossom
Originally uploaded by joe*bloggs

It was another lovely Canberra weekend. Not as warm as last weekend and it has just started raining, but warm and lots of blue sky! Hence the photos of new flowers showing themselves in the garden. It's amazing the changes from weekend to weekend.

I went out to the new house yesterday and met a couple of tradies. It is really hard to know in what order to get things done ie: painting, plumbing, flooring, electrics. At the moment it looks like the electrician may be in first, then the floors. I think a painter may be harder to tie down and will take longer, so if I wait for that to be done first which seems sensible, it may then delay the floors and my moving in date. I am thinking the plumber should be ok to fit in as his work shouldn't affect the painting or the floors. Oh the joys of renovating, followed by the joys of moving!! Am very happy that I have this problem though as I can't wait to move in and get started on decorating and gardening (and cleaning, not so much).

Eloise

Here is the other Lilymoon print I bought and the latest photo of my niece Eloise with her lovely Mum.





Now to think about what to do for Once Daily....

Lilymoon

I got a few new pictures this weekend, to frame and hang in my bedroom when it is ready to go. They are from an artist in Cyprus who has a shop on Etsy called Lilymoon.

I stole these pictures from Etsy, she doesn't have much for sale at the moment. I got mine from Canberra Handmade Market, no postage and instant gratification!

So much I could have bought at the market, softies, light fittings, fabric, clothes, jewellery......... Trying to save money to do the boring things like get proper doors with actual locks on my new house.

This is my bedroom floor sans old carpet and lino.

Echino Mosaic

Echino Mosaic
Originally uploaded by dognamedbanjo

My diary made from Echino scooter fabric has found it's way onto a mosaic on flickr and this blog. Aren't all of these items lovely - Echino stuff is pretty special!! I love the apron....

Went to the Canberra Handmade Market tonight - great venue. A huge old woolshed, it was as if it had been full of sheep and shearers just that day. Prettied up with lights from Electric Firefly (I am getting one of those for my new bedroom).


Inspired to get sewing and painting again so that I can fill my new house with lovely handmade creativity.

New home

This is my future home and new reno project!

Settlement happened yesterday, so it is officially mine. This weekend I'll be ripping out old carpet and examining the lovely old lino and hopefully amazing wooden floors lurking below. I imagine that it'll be the start of a long process. I will know after the weekend how much work I'll need to do before I can move in.

This week I received a lovely parcel in the mail. It was this collection of goodies from Buttontree Lane kindly donated in a blog giveaway. Checkout the cute quilted boxes and sunnyboys (remember them?) How lucky am I!! So with cute bag, chocolate and tea supplies I am now equipped for the trip out to my new house on the weekend.

Girls dress

Dress front
Originally uploaded by joe*bloggs

I made this on the weekend. It is reversible with one side pale green with white spots and the other a denim blue with flowers. It is a Little Bird pattern and was very easy apart from my usual trouble with buttonholes (had to get the instruction book for my machine out) and getting the doubled up buttons at the right tension.

Can't wait to see it on a 2 year old (Lily!!??) I think it'll need matching bloomers or whatever they call them. Otherwise it'll be nappies out! Also went through my tea towel stash over the weekend and washed some of them. I made a few into plastic bag holders, one for my new home. I have deleted my saved search for tea towels on eBay as it was getting a bit out of hand!!

blue sky

blue sky
Originally uploaded by joe*bloggs

What a gorgeous day in Canberra today. I love being outside on the weekend and it was warm enough to get several loads of washing done and dried on the line. The cats followed me around the garden while I took photos of flowers, budding trees and birds.

This afternoon I saw Blessed which was good but quite sad, there were lots of sniffles and tissues happening in the cinema. Looking forward to Handmade next weekend and also to getting started on my house, if it settles as planned on Tuesday.

I had a fairly productive crafty weekend also, finishing a reversible Little Bird pattern dress for a 2 year old. I also made myself a plastic bag holder out of a retro tea towel (my latest eBay obsession). The Kippax craft market was on this Saturday so I got two lovely crochet edged face washers fr $6 and a magazine, two napkins and a vase from Hand to Hand in Kippax.

Back to work and the gym tomorrow, hopefully my muscles will stop hurting soon and I can step it up a bit. I would like to be able to fit into my clothes again and not have to replace my entire wardrobe.