Sweet Fabric [Search results for the week that was] 

The Date's playing a golf tournament & he asked if the kids & I wanted to come along.

At first I had a minor breakdown about the kids missing school. The Date raised his eyebrows at me & I gave myself a stern talking to & now we're all on a plane heading for a bit of warmth.

I'm planning to share some of the recent op shop purchases that have made my little op shopping heart skip a beat.

I figured that might get a bit biege for you guys. So...

I thought you might like to take a little trip of your own...around my home town. I'll have a clue accompanying each post this week. You'll need to follow the clues & at the end of the week you'll unscramble to find something that is also close to my heart.

You'll need a notepad & pen beside your mouse (or something more techy if you're opposed to the pen). All the answers are contained within recent posts on each blog. That is I found the answers on the first page of each blog on Friday 11th September. Don't panic if you can't find the answers straight away...it's OK to cheat a little & email/twitter a buddy.

There'll be further instructions with the final clue!

Sound like fun? If you play to the end you'll go into the draw to win a prize (yet to be determined but I promise it will be good).

CLUE #1
Skip on over to Claire's.
What it was that was warped in Claire's creative space?
Use the 3rd letter of this word.

EXCITING
Snippets from my week.

I really enjoyed my delightful week last week & so I'm backing it up with exciting. Saturday is a bit of a slow day in the blog world & it seems like a good day to weekEND.

The date & are in the preliminary stages of a very big project...exciting.

Yesterday I ran in the pitch dark at 6am. I normally love running in the street-lit-Melbourne dark but running along the Promenade at Lonsdale is quite another thing. I scared myself silly...& then repeated the experience this morning...exciting.

Today, the kids & I played Mini Golf. The date always wins & the small & I take turns in coming last. But, today I won...exciting.

Out of town Op Shops turned up gold (again). I bought 40 Ladybirds for $5.00...exciting

Hard working, talented, local & particularly lovely girls are being rewarded for their efforts & embarking on new crafty adventures...exciting.

Care to suggest an adjective for next week? I'm game if you are.

We all know I'm a huge fan of just about anything "on wood" but I had no idea just how much I was going to love the crochet table cloth hacked & tacked to a couple of pieces of thrifted furniture.

Things are coming together quite nicely in the new house. If you've had a peek inside my place you'd notice that there was only a tiny patch of our bedroom photographed. We've been looking for something nice & skinny for the TV to sit on. It's in an awkward place because it's very close to the ensuite door.

I'd picked up this glass fronted cabinet at the Op Shop (for $5) intending for it to be hidden in The Date's office & reserved for his "straight to the pool room" golf trophies & such. It looked ridiculous & he pitched it out into the hallway earlier in the week. I seconded it for this maybe temporary maybe permanent fixture in the bedroom.

I'm not a huge wrap for the basket shelves (which came out of this unit) I've fashioned below & prefer a more open look. I've got another idea for that (which will hopefully still hide the power cords). I'll keep you updated.

While I had the glue gun out I worked a bit of crochet magic on this sweet chair (also Opped for the princely sum of $5).

Beautiful floaty images by Bricolagelife.

So I think I've managed a pretty nice bedroom makeover for under $20! Unbeatable value & my very favourite ... reused, repurposed, recrafted, upcycled.

If you fancy having a go at this yourself it's just super-easy-thrown-together fun.

You'll need...
double sided tape, spray adhesive, hot glue gun, a thrifted crochet table cloth ($2-$8).

For the cabinet...
Using double sided tape create a frame on the inside of the door (as close to the glass as possible).

Then...
Rough cut the table cloth to size. Keep all the motifs intact at this stage.

Now...
Expose the double sided tape & position your crochet piece.

And...
Use your hot glue gun to more permanently adhere the crochet piece.

Finally...
Trim away excess fabric so that everything looks nice & neat.

Repeat for the other door.

For the chair...
Rough cut the table cloth to size. Keep all the motifs intact at this stage.

Then...
Spray the wrong side of the tablecloth piece with spray adhesive.

Now...
Position on the chair.

And...
Use your hot glue gun to more permanently adhere the crochet piece.

Finally...
Trim away excess fabric so that everything looks nice & neat.

DELIGHTFUL.
Snippets from my week.

I purchased a few pairs of jeans from the Op Shop to finish of this project. When I got them home I examined them more closely & found one of the pairs to be fits-like-a-glove & tracky-dack-comfy...delightful.

I met a friend for coffee. She was running late - yay just enough time to duck into the Op Shop next door. I purchased a taped closed supermarket bag full of what I knew to be handwork of some kind. What I discovered was the handwork pictured above...delightful.

On my daily mouse-mobile travels I read this post on a blog well loved by many and written by lovely local Claire. The post was simple and utterly...delightful.

A souvlaki pizza enjoyed with beautiful tier one friends & pretty drinks & made by the date...delightful.

Sadly still in the old ranch. I've managed to clear myself about half the kitchen table to work away on some photo album covers.

I purchased a pile of photo albums still in plastic wrap from the Op Shop/Thrift Store a few weeks ago & I've got a little embellishment plan for the covers.

In the space are...
the albums
my washout marker *
a polaroid I've hacked up to make a template
twine
a beautiful tin full of old floss (which was gifted to me during the week by a lovely friend)
my pincushion (one of) **

*Same brand as the fadeout marker from last week. Both are Clover - not from any brand loyalty but just because that was what was available. I will say that the fadeout fades VERY fast.

**You can make a pincushion like this one in about 15 minutes. See my how to here.

Visit last weeks favourite space here.

Don't forget to pop in and add your link if you're playing along this week.

FRUSTRATING
Snippets from my week

I had a grand plan for some polaroid shots. I dug out the Barbie camera & then spent too much time tracking down film. I loaded the film & the blasted camera just took shot after shot after shot. It seems the smallest performed her own renegade style of maintenance on the camera & now it's fritzed!

My week has been dominated by the need for a polaroid camera. When I haven't been at work I've been trawling Op Shop after Op Shop.

I've got several crafty projects that I want to finish off but my obsessive nature won't allow me to focus on anything else.

I'll just have to be patient.

VARIED
Snippets from my week

It's been an eventful week.

* Warm, cold, healthy, sick, tired, energised - you get the picture.

* I'm having a crack at some different stuff, some organic stuff, some old stuff & some boy meets girl stuff.

* I've been totally motivated by Anna Laura, Loobylu & Hop Skip Jump.

* I've been out & about with the Polaroid.

* I've covered myself in gold paint (by accident).

* I've been looked after by the universe which landed me in exactly the right Op Shop at exactly the right time. Tune in Tuesday to see the results.

* I've had some crazy mad giggling type of fun running in the rain with this girl. I'm not sure she enjoyed the experience as much as I did.

This is... hosted by Angela theme from Kitty

It's a mouthful that's for sure.

This is... was a group effort & we've got a fair bit of banter this week...

This morning I asked the big girl to take a pic of me in my current uniform (trackies). I told her what it was for & she looked at me in the way only she can (picture eye rolling & raised eyebrows).

"That's not your style mum. It's your jeans, green jumper & snowgum jacket!"

So I logged the big & the small into Polyvore & they created the above sets.

1. Style Small, 2. Style Mum, 3. Style Mum Work, 4. Style Big

Then we did a bit of "polyvore at home" and came up with this. I think that the girls have pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'm all about comfort at home & for work I mainly wear vintage dresses. This one is my absolute favourite & selected by my personal shopper.

I'd been thinking that This is... was going to be really tough & it turned out to be lots of fun & the big girl LOVED Polyvore.

REWARDING
Snippets from my week.

Last week Jhoanna & Pip both made predictions/suggestions for what lay ahead. I've gone with rewarding because it was easier & I'm feeling a bit slack.

-Being able to help out some gorgeous friends both with blogs & without...rewarding.

-Making time for 5 new beginnings - I'm addicted to beginnings...rewarding.

-Being challenged (& stepping up) by this lovely soul. She's given me so many crafty nudges over the last 12 months and it has meant lots of new beginnings...rewarding.

-Being reminded that when life gets in the way of the things you love it's OK to say "no"...rewarding

-Pushing myself on my Friday run when I really couldn't be fagged...rewarding.

I was tagged ages ago by the lovely Chalk & Cheese. I'd decided today was the day & then Arthur's Circus tagged me too.

• Seven is the number of rings I wear all the time. It's ridiculous for a girl with hands my size & I look like a mafia wife but I don't care.

• Friday is my favourite day of the week - I run like a demon, drink with friends & fall in a heap.

• I love mornings best of all. The crispness of the air makes me feel alive.

• My favourite piece of jewellery is my wedding band. One of my school friends told me it would be & I didn't believe her. I was so in love with my engagement ring I couldn't imagine that a little piece of gold would be more treasured - but it is.

• I've known the date since I was 12 years old & we've been together for more than half my life.

• Grant Caroll made me remember than 7 8s are 56. He tortured me with that table in year 4 it's just about the only "times" I can remember - I was always bad at tables.

As for tagging other players - if you want to play consider yourself tagged.

This gorgeous girl has kicked off a bit of Friday fun & always up for a challenge I thought I'd have a crack.

After all...I went to a fabulous school that offered ceramics, printmaking, textiles, painting & drawing, garment construction & photography. True to form I tried my had at all of these and had wonderful parents allowed me to do Art 1 & Art 2 (read 8 hours of art per week) instead of maths! I was always more about the experience than the end result. I thought I'd have some giggle worthy stuff to share.

I had a feeling that most of my "folio" (& I use the term loosely) had been skipped during the most recent clean out. No great loss there I can assure you. BUT...I thought I had some stuff under the ranch. I donned the head torch & went for a rummage - I came up short. I did find all the letters the date & I wrote to each when we first hooked up! That gave the two of us a giggle but they have now been ceremoniously binned. I wanted to fire up the incinerator - if only it weren't illegal!

Anyway, enough of my drivel. In short - my Friday Archives offerings will be thin on the ground I think. Sorry Claire.

The above is a mother bird guarding her eggs. I made her when I was 3 with my next door + one neighbour who had a ceramics shed & her own kiln - incredible.

Ahh Betty was gorgeous wasn't she Jo?

I've spent a little bit of time in the space this week trying to get a little bit organised. I'm starting to get a little bit panicked about the move. I think that it will take as long to move the stuff from the craft space as it will to move the rest of the house!

So, in the space this week:

-I actually got the iron out & pressed & sorted some fabric.
-Flowers picked and arranged by the smallest.
-My weaving in progress.
-Vintage coasters for another crafty little plan I'm hatching.

It turns out the problem with the link widget last week was a new server. Let's hope it all goes to plan this week.

Pop in and add your link if you're playing along this week.

Actually rushing out the door to enjoy someone elses creative space today. I'm off to curtain school to learn to make roman blinds properly.

So my offering this week is my creative preparation (for saturday afternoon's HAC session):

-Kit bags
-Vintage basket filled with vintage & thrifted fabrics
-Vintage milk caddy filled with glues & cutting tools

I forgot to update the favourite space for last week (I'll do it now). I think that last week was our best ever week...lots of lovely, fresh, inspiring spaces.

My very favourites were:

myrtle & eunice
buttontreelane
74 lime lane

I'm looking forward to seeing what's in your space this week. Pop in & add your link if you're playing along.

The link man seems to be having a lie in...maybe try back a little later - sorry.

4:00pm: Still not working. I've tripped around from the comments so far so maybe that's the best bet for this week. You just need to make sure that your URL is included.

Finally back online! It seems our disconnect had nothing to do with storms & everything to do with the Foxtel guy. Apologies for not popping in to say g'day last week.

In the space this week I have the beginnings of a custom music box order. It's really all about the music box at the moment...I've got 5 on the go this week. I've really enjoyed the stretch with this one. I've used a comination of water colours & freehand machine embroidery to achieve the look that the customer was after.

Visit my favourite creative space ever right here. It's a really special one...go...go...go.

Just a little housekeeping note...I've ditched JS Kit. I'd received a number of emails from people having trouble loading the site & more & more of you seem to be having trouble commenting so I'm back to bloger which in my opinion is just about the worst commenting system going around. We'll see how it goes. I think I'll miss the chat.

Don't forget to pop in & add your link if you're playing along this week.

This week in the space I've got the beginnings of my long term (very) quilt plan. I've had this idea kicking around in my head for ages but have put off making a start because I know how long the whole thing will take me.

Time to dive in ... rolls of brown paper rescued from under a nice Edwardian that was being renovated, huge t square Opped for $5 & my quilting ruler.

My favourite space this week wasn't on last week's list but I'm obsessed with her space & thinking about it constantly...

the shed

Last week was our biggest creative space yet. It's great to have so many players but I'm trying out a new visiting "system" this week. We'll see how it goes...

Don't forget to pop in & add your link if you're playing along this week.

The desk has been pretty busy this week. Lots of comings & goings.

Today:

Handbound book from Kitty @ Fred & George books...
plus a gorgeous pillowcase for the collection. Thanks Kitty!
Printout of Pip's swappies & some of my own
Avant Card by Joel Tarling. The illustration really appeals to me & makes me think of The Plant Sitter. I absolutely loved that book when I was small.
My Grandma's document wallet & all her important papers. I really want to know what was in that envelope that was so important.

Such a lot of creating going on in my head lately but not so much with the hands. I'm hoping that this little experiment comes off. I'll be able to justify my crazy crafty happy dancing about it if it does.

The head creating is mainly about all things quilty. I got my copy of Fat Quarterly yesterday & let me tell you that little ezine(actually rather large - a huge 78 pages of goodness) has really got the mind ticking. Have you purchased Fat Quarterly? My favourite project was of course Kate's business shirt quilt. She gets two ticks from me on that one. Firstly because she's ace & secondly because of the reusing bizzo.

The new commenting system worked pretty well I think. I used the random number generator & asked for 60 numbers. It spat them out & I had a lovely time leap frogging around the list.

One of my favourite lily pads from last week was this one. I love her desk.

In the news: It's Cam's birthday today. She's one of the very first creative space players. Have a happy day Cam.

Don't forget to pop in & add your link if you're playing along this week.

was with the sticks. I learnt from my dear grandmother. The quick movement of her hands was inspiring & something I could never master. The painfully slow & awkward way I manipulated the needles & the yarn was too much for me & I concentrated my creative activities elsewhere.

I'm going to rectify that this year. I shall be spending a couple of hours each week with my Great Aunt learning how to do it "right".

Casting on with my thumb beautifully now & I've got the pointer finger flicking like a pro. No more of this hand off the needle & swing around with the yarn for me.

Once I've practiced my technique a bit more (& solved the problems of the world over cups of tea with Auntie Pat), I'm going to make this. Oh yes I am...just you watch me.

Super cute hankies that have been Op Shopped.

Hankies freak me out now, but when I was a kid I loved them. I had days of the week hankies and any outfit was complete with a freshly pressed and folded hankie in your pocket.

When I had sleepovers at Non's I was allowed to use her iron & ironing board which she would adjust to my height. It was my job to iron hankies, tea towels & pillow cases (perhaps that's where the pillow case love came from).

Best of all I was allowed to watch commercial TV at the same time!

I admit that the space has been a little barren this week. The trip & school holidays have left me without much craft time.

I have managed to...

-neatly fold a pile of vintage aprons to be included in my little HAC craft session kits.
*NOTE* it looks as though I may have a couple of spots free so if you're keen to come along drop me an email:
kootoyoo {@} gmail {.} com
-pretty things up a bit with the little "blue" shelves.
-load up the thread rack with thread that was being sold for $2 at the little wool shop around the corner.

Pop in & add your link if you're playing along this week.