#31 - Giveaway winner!

Well the time has come my friends.  I'll keep it short and sweet.  No piccies sorry because I am camping and have no internet to my laptop (all blog posts this week were pre-written prior to coming camping).  So you'll just have to trust me ok!!!  I have written everyone's names down on a piece of paper, and husby has drawn out a name....

It's Elfyn!

Congrats!  Please leave a comment, or send me an email with your details and I will pop your awesome prize in the post when I get home again in a couple of days. 

Thanks everyone for joining in!

#30 - Blogtoberfest review

Well I did it again.  Not entirely sure how.. but I did.  30 posts in 30 consecutive days.... don't worry, I have a post for tomorrow to 100% complete the month.  It was a struggle this year.  Last year I was alot more motivated, had alot more time to craft, had alot more patience for bad cameras and the long process of uploading and editing photos, and alot more fun stuff to show you!  This year I feel like my posts were boring.. if you agree, SORRY!!! Haha :)

I will be back to normal, intermittent posting next month!  

Thanks for organising Blogtoberfest all over again Tinnie Girl!  It was fun!

Until next year!

#27 - DON'T FORGET ABOUT MY GIVEAWAY

Don't forget!! You can join in here.  It closes on Monday 31st October at MIDDAY! (AEST)  All you need to do is be a follower and leave a comment.  Easy peasy!  Good luck!!!  It's kind of awesome!!!

#26 - He's back!

I have my husband back!!!!!!! Yay!

How delightful do I look??

#25 - Genious use for a paper doily...

The coolness blows my mind...

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#24 - Peeking through the window..

Whilst packing for camping last night, I looked out at the window as I was doing things, to see a sweet little green friend watching me as I ran around like a mad thing...

He's sweet huh?

#21 - Flying solo....

Well I couldn't talk about this until today.  I dropped husby off at the International airport on Wednesday morning... headed for USA.  It was a surprise trip so he can attend his sisters wedding on the weekend.  No one knew he was coming, except for his dad.  He was in on the secret.  We only booked his ticket a week prior.... so it has all been a very whirlwind type experience. You see, I am doing hair and makeup and little bit of costuming for a stage show on the weekend... which is stressing me out.  Then we are going camping next week.  But he'll still be in the USA.  So we had to pack the trailer for camping BEFORE he left, as well as plan everything that goes along with it - what still needs to be packed, eating plan etc.  We also had to pack his clothes for his trip, and the camping trip.  It hurt my head a fair bit.  I get to tow the trailer and everything else stuffed in the car down to the camp site and set it up myself.  It is going to be SO fun.  He doesn't fly back in until Wednesday next week - 3 days after I set up camp. 

The surprise went well.  Everyone is happy to see him.  I am stuck in Australia with a million things to do and flying solo, sleeping with teddy at night to keep me safe and warm :)

PS.  Don't forget about my mixed basket giveaway... it's kind of awesome.

#18 - Mixed basket giveaway

I know I know, I was supposed to post my giveaway at the BEGINNING of the month.  Slack.  *slaps hand*.  I'm going to keep it simple.  There's lots of stuff.  Giveaway is only for Australians (sorry).  To enter you MUST BE A FOLLOWER and leave a nice comment below.  I will draw this on Monday 31st October at midday AEST (I'll be camping!) and will do a post to notify the winner for the last day of Blogtober.  

Included: Ball of cream wool, pack of flower handmade flower embellishments, patterned cardstock borders, baroque motif stickers, sticky spots, blue rhinestones, green pearl stickers, self cover buttons, cardboard butterfly embellishments, greeting card, x6 pack of thank you cards, 'you're too kind' small gift box, x2 larger "just for you" gift boxes, pack of eyelets, pack of decorative photo corners, bag of metal butterfly's and dragonfly's, string of yellow tassel, cotton embroidered doily, pink crocheted doily, pink embroidery, 2 spools ribbon, 2 spools ribbon string, 1 spool decorative trim, blue decorative trim, flower rosette headband, pink lace, purple flower hair clip, felt hair clip, sunflower hair clip.  Comes in awesome clear plastic storage box.

Good luck!

#17 - A day late, self portrait day.

I missed the memo (in other words, didn't keep up with what's going on).  It was self portrait day yesterday for Blogtoberfest.  I am home sick from work and have spent most of the day infront of my computer.  So here I am.  Photo taken with my awesome fuzzy webcam.

No makeup.  Hair dried by itself.  No photo editing.  

The real deal.

#13 - Online Garage Sale

In the area I live in, some really smart intelligent person has made an Online Garage Sale Group on Facebook.  It's awesome!! Just the other day I bought about 100m of ribbon and ric rac.  I was so pleased that I thought, why don't I sell crafty stuff on here that I don't need/want/use anymore too!  So that is what I have done today.

And I also went through my remnants and put together a big bundle.

I actually sold the remnants within 10 minutes of posting them on the site.  Woohoo!!  I have sold a few other things on there too.  A lady just came and picked up something and handed over some cash.  I quite like it.  Every town should have an Online Garage Sale!! 

#10 - Oh boy. Ran out of stuff to say.

It's only day ten of Blogtober, and I've got nothin for ya.  Nothing I say!!  I even searched my laptop just now, hoping for some fun pictures I took of a project from the past few weeks that I happened to not blog about yet.  Nothing.  I did a Pinterest blog post yesterday, so can't do that one again.  Totally stuck.  So guess what.  You get to read about the blabberings of my mind.  Some random things.  Stuff that's happened lately.  Stuff that happened today.  You know, stuff.

- I woke up this morning, and sneezed 10 times in a row.  I've been light headed ever since.  Seriously.
- I have never drank alcohol in my life, but the way my eyes have been acting today after above mentioned sneezing, I think they might be drunk, somehow.
- I have the gimme's when it comes to Stampin' Up!.
- I don't really like ice cream.  But sorbet and gelato - whole different story.
- The power went out tonight whilst husby and I were at a friends.  A transformer blew down the street.  Totally exciting.
- I don't like my sign off signature below.  The colour is wrong and the font is ugly, but I don't know how to change it so there it remains.
- I have so much to do tomorrow, I have a headache just thinking about it.
- When was the last time you made fly eyes for a costume?  Never you say?  Well I'm in the process of making 5 pairs.... Oh that's a good blog post entry I can do when they're done!!
- I am about half way through my Christmas shopping.  Actually that's a lie, about 1/3 done.
- I am a bit over eating at the moment.  Might have something to do with the fact that I'm over cooking.  And washing up.
- I have a scar in my eyebrow and it makes one of my eyebrows look like I have over plucked it.  So I colour it in brown.
- I'm a hairdresser, my regrowth is 3 inches long, and I don't care.  Not sure how I managed that.
- I hate wearing glasses, it covers up your awesome eye makeup.
- Someone came into work the other day with whooping cough.  I could have slapped her, or worse.  SO inconsiderate.
- I'm really over working too.  It's so annoying and daily.
- I am loving that the nights are still lovely and cool.  Makes it so easy to sleep well.
- I'm going camping soon, for a whole week!!  I am pretty excited to be lazy.
- I love Catch of the Day.
- Husby and I are currently awaiting 16 parcels to arrive in the post.  I think we may have got a little excited about online shopping.  I promise they are all necessary purchases, and alot of Christmas presents, and you know, cool stuff for us just cause.  Like I said, totally necessary though....

#8 - A pet peeve - it's time to rant!

Rude drivers.

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If you are going to go slow, get out of the right lane.  I have been sitting here with my indicator on for 5 minutes watching this woman pack her groceries into her boot, if you DARE steal my spot after seeing it 2 seconds ago, I will chase you down and make you sorry.  Just because you're on a motorbike, doesn't mean you get to make your way to the front of the line of traffic waiting at the red light.  'P' platers, it is not a race.  Incase you haven't yet realised, skidding your tyres and putting the petal to the metal will set you back a few extra thousand dollars a year then what the rest of us pay to stay on the road.  When you need to merge up ahead, don't race up to the end of your lane and then expect me to happily let you in, if I let you in at all.  Guess what? You have indicator.  Use it.  Hey have you seen those cool signs on the side of the road that say how fast you should go?  I'm pretty sure most roads have a shoulder, just incase you forgot your brain, when you're turning, use it.  Cutting corners is like fingernails on a chalkboard - it's just not OK folks.

I promise I don't have road rage.  I just grunt and speak loudly at people with my windows up.....

Want to share a rant?  Join in over here for fun.      

#6 - Baa Baa Black Sheep Wool Giveaway Winner!!!

Earlier this evening I was downstairs washing up with my husby.  My phone made a strange noise upstairs.  When I came back up and had a look, it was a reminder to draw my giveaway!  Thank heavens I thought to set an alarm cause I'd completely forgotten about it haha!!!

I quickly got out my trusty giveaway drawing hat, scribbled everyone's names and drew out a winner.

Congrats Carol!!  Send me an email with your postal address and I'll pop your gorgeous bundle of wool in the post!! I can't wait to see what you make!!!

Thanks everyone for entering!  I will be putting together another giveaway shortly for Blogtoberfest, so stay tuned!!

#5 - The pain, it lingers!

Warning:  whinge about to begin.

Two Friday's ago, I was in the car with Dad, my sister and my sister in law.  We were headed out together for a daddy daughter date.  Our activity for the evening was pasta making (which by the way was awesome).  I was super hungry and it would be a couple of hours before the pasta was ready to eat, so I made myself some toast and was eating it in the car.  I swallowed a mouthful, and something sharp brushed up against my tongue.  My tongue went a searching in my mouth for that sharp thing.  I couldn't believe it.  

My filling had come out.  Again.

This tooth has given me more curry then a tooth ever should.  Let me explain.  About 6 years ago, I had a Root Canal on that tooth, much to the displeasure of my dentist.  She wanted to extract the tooth from the get go.  I'll show you which one and why.

Apparently I don't "need" that tooth.  But I am precious and I was not ready to part with a tooth at the ripe age of 20.  So I pushed for the Root Canal, and I got it!  $1200 later I walked away happy and with all my teeth intact.

One year on, the filling fell out.  Dentist fixed it.  Then it fell out again another year or two later.  Dentist fixed it.  Somewhere along the way, my original tooth was getting smaller and smaller, and she wasn't building up the filling high to make contact with the lower tooth - which was fine.  Filling fell out for the third time, and this time when she patched it up, she really took the tooth down short, and it was only a little above my gum.  Of course all along she still wanted to extract the stupid tooth haha.

So that brings me back to eating toast two Friday's ago.  I almost cried.  I thought all the troubles with this tooth were over!  I called my Dentist the next day and lucky me, she was on holidays and I couldn't get in with her for 11 days!!  I just drank a glass of cement and hardened up.  

So today was D day.  I really like my Dentist.  She is super cool and fun and it's always a shame that we are catching up with her hands in my mouth, or when there's drills and suction happening.  Not the most ideal way to fill people in with the events of life, but we do what we can.  

This afternoon I walked in, slightly nervous.  I sat down in the super comfy squishy chair and began rambling something like this:  

"I am a little bit nervous because 'the devil tooth' has showed its ugly head again and you are going to want to extract it and I am going to say no and you are going to have to try and save it and you are going to say you don't have enough time and I am going to say it is too expensive and I am poor".  She cracked up, told me to shut up and let her have a look.

Considering this story is already long, I'm going to jump to the point now.  She saved my tooth.  She is my hero.  But the saving of a tooth came for a price.

A monetary price.

A pain price.

I can handle the monetary price, I was kinda expecting to spend a small fortune one it.  But the pain price?  This part I was not expecting because afterall, this is a Root Canal tooth, and it no longer has nerves in it.  How I was wrong!!  She tried a new procedure on me, where she removed part of my root canal, and inserted a fiberglass rod into the canal, which was tall enough outside my tooth to also build a steadier filling around.  Technical stuff.

My neck is sore, my jaw is bruised along with my cheek from being yanked open as wide as humanly possible, the canal where the rod was inserted is ridiculously sore and my gum is swollen.  Not to mention the bleeding and cut up gums.  

Waaah waaaah waaah.  Come on pain killers, KICK IN!!

Whinge finished.

So do tell me about your last trip to the Dentist?  Did you leave with a smile?  An empty wallet?  Toothless?

PS:  Don't forget my giveaway ends tomorrow night!!

#4 - An alien wish fulfilled

For those who don't know or haven't caught on, husby and I moved in with my parents a month or so ago to save money.  Luckily the house is huge and we have the whole upper storey to ourselves.  On a Tuesday morning, my brother in law drops my 4 yo nephew off on his way to work, and he hangs out with mum for a few hours and then she takes him up to Kindy.  Now this morning I was working on something in my craft room, and I heard little footsteps making their way upstairs.  I turned around and found my sweet little nephew at the door and he came in and sat up on my lap and was asking me what I was doing.  We were having a little chat about some of my current projects and then he asked me a question.

"Aunty Christy I don't have the Alien toy from Toy Story yet, he is the only one I don't have.  Can you make him for me?"

The kid has faith in my abilities I tell ya!  How could I say no to that???  I promised him I'd make it while he was at Kindy and it would be ready when he came back in the afternoon.  He was quite pleased and walked back downstairs with a smirk on his face.  

Well I couldn't let the little man down, so before he had even left for Kindy with mum, I started googling what the heck this Alien looked like and what I had got myself into!!  It didn't look too bad.  I got straight into it.  I drafted a pattern, cut it out, pinned it to felt and cut out the shapes and started to sew them all together.  

It was pretty easy to make, except for those retched arms!!! They ended up being different sizes and shapes in the finished product, but I don't think my nephew minded so much.

He turned out pretty darn cute eh?

When my mum picked the little man up from Kindy, my mum mentioned to him that I had a suprise for him at home.  He responded with "oh I know what it is, it's probably an alien".  He walked inside the door and came straight up to me and asked if I had his alien suprise ready for him hahaha.  The man knows what he wants.  

He was soooo pleased with it.  His only complaint was that it was bigger then in the movie.  

You see why I couldn't say no to that face now?

I am worried that he's going to think of something else I need to make him though...

#3 - Great Grandma Alice's Sewing Tin

Each time I venture over to Nanna's house, I come home with something special.  Over the past few years she has been cleaning out her huge house with more storage nooks and crannies that you could ever imagine possible in a house.  So true to form, she had a big box of things that she wanted to show me of HER mother's things.  My Great Grandmother, Alice, was quite a clever lady.  She fed a family during the depression, and learnt how to bake with spoiled fruit, she sewed everyone's clothes and did all the mending by hand, and she raised five children successfully.  

Now my Nanna, is a collector.  She likes to keep items that have meaning.  She has kept alot of her mother's things and has brought things out here and there to show our family, but she rarely parts with these treasures.  Most of these treasures are in the above mentioned box, along with other treasured memories.  We sat on her bed and went through the box, exploring past memories.  There was a sweet little stationery box, filled with love letters from Pop, their airline tickets for their honeymoon, the receipt from the store she bought her wedding lace from.  Then there was another little box with department store price tags.  Nan used to be a master calligrapher, and she kept her practice cards.  I ummed and ahhed about if it was possible to make an art piece out of them.  I left them with her as I was unsure what I'd do with them and didn't want to misuse them.  There were pieces of old jewellry, cards, photos, and other lovely things.  And then at the bottom was this...

I instantly grabbed it and asked what was inside.  It was Grandma's sewing tin.  And look what I found inside....

My eyes must have lit up because Nanna asked if I would like it after admiring the contents for a minute or so.  I think I said yes before she finished asking me!  Also in the tin was some old small pliers, buttons, some needles and a thimble.  I absolutely adore those wooden spindles!  Little did I know what else I would discover.

I took the tin home and cleaned it out that night.  Wiped things over, cleaned the buttons and put them into my button trays.  I had emptied the contents one by one onto my desk, and at the bottom was a piece of folded tissue paper that was being used as a liner.  It was very old and smelly and gross so picked it out and threw it in the bin.  I discovered a piece of paper folded up that was sitting underneath the tissue paper lining.  I unfolded it...

It was a site permit for a craft stall!!!  I stumbled upon a small piece of family history that makes me very happy!!!  Crafting runs in my blood!  I wonder if she was successful at selling her wares?  

Now I need to find a sweet spot to display Great Grandma Alice's sewing tin so that I can admire it while I work.

What hobby, like/dislike or personality trait have you inherited from your ancestors?

#2 - Man tools put to use in the craft room

Husby bought a Dremel a little while back.  It wasn't the cheapest of tools and I wasn't hugely impressed, but figured he'd need to start buying tools eventually.  As he was showing it to me, he suggested that I COULD USE IT for my crafting.  I laughed it off, and thought it was a funny attempt to help me accept the purchase.  I was wrong.  He was right.

 When you have 100 pegs to sand back, the Dremel kinda comes in handy.

What tool did your husband/partner buy and try to convince you that you would get use out of it and you laughed at him not realising you WOULD use it??? 

PS.  My wool giveaway is closing soon, make sure you're in it to win it!

PPS.  I'll have to put together a special Blogtoberfest giveaway soon too!

#1 - The beginning

So I'm doing Blogtoberfest again. Last year I was awesome at it! This year I know I won't be AS awesome but am going to try and put forward a good effort. Being creative, using time wisely, having the botherance and remembering to blog daily are the realities most of us will face doing Blogtoberfest, but it is rewarding, fun, you find other amazing bloggers out there, and you are inspired beyond your expectations. So that's why I'm taking up the challenge again. Look forward to lots of reading and networking over the upcoming month!! 

Join in over here!

Finale: Giveaway winner. More then you bargained for!

#31

Did you see those magic numbers?  I sure as hell did!  31 posts done and dusted!!

So I have a little suprise for my giveaway winner which I have not yet picked out of my trusty hat.  You know how my giveaway looked a bit boring and there wasn't much up for grabs...?

Well I lied.  What was in that picture and what I have been advertising as the prize all month long is a lie.

Because instead you'll be getting this...

Various cardboards and patterned papers, Stampin Up cut outs and gift box dicuts.

And this....

Fabric in various sizes, 2 doiley's, 4 flower clips, craft rope, ric rac, laces.

And this...

4 Christmas cards, scrapbooking rings, 5 bracelet/earring sets of jewellry, tub of buttons, tub of brads, chocolate gift box.

I have my reasons for doing this.  I wanted this giveaway to be something more for my current followers.  Plus a suprise is always fun.

I didn't want it to be a big "let's join her blog so we can win free stuff" deal.  I just thought it would be fun to keep it smaller and have a nice big happy suprise for the winner.  The winner of which I have not yet chosen!  I wrote all the names down on paper earlier and they are ready to go...

And the winner is:  Karyn from Eva Mei and Me!

I have it all packaged up and ready to go so just email me your address Karyn!  Congrats!

Thank you everyone for entering and sharing your favourite Christmas Traditions.  I will do up a post shortly with all of your traditions with links back to your page so that everyone in blog land has an opportunity to read about the special things you do in your families.

I'm going to have to come up with another giveaway in the upcoming months.  They are so fun!

I was just about to sign off and say my typical "Until tomorrow", but you know what, I might take the day off!!  So...

Until next time!