A touch of France.

Do you know how hard it is to get a 18 month old to stand still while you take pictures of her?  Some of you probably do. 

But because she's cute, and has food all over her face adding to her cuteness, I forgave her.

I got this adorable Beret pattern from Lil Blue Boo.  She offers free PDF patterns all the time.  I don't think this pattern is available anymore, but I'm pretty sure she has a different free pattern available instead!  Definitely worth checking out!

What can I DO to help?

This is the question that has been repeating over and over in my head for the past week as a result of these cruel floods.  How can I make a difference in someone's life that is currently shattered?  How can I lighten their load?  How can I make them smile again?  

I think the most obvious thing one could do it to help physically.  Get in there and clean up the mess.  Help them regain order in their home.  

But what if I don't have the time?  (stupid work)

So I have been trying to think out of the box.  I considered joining in with the Craft Auctions over at make it perfect.  I even thought of just giving money to the Premier's Appeal.

Then my thoughts went to the children affected.  What an awful childhood memory to have.  The day your house went under water and you didn't have time to take your treasured possessions with you when you were whisked out of the house.  It must be so frightening for a child to go through something like that.  

And that's where I got my idea.  I don't know where I am going to go with this idea right now, but I suppose I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in helping out in this way.  

Sewing softies for children.  

I'm not a very good sewer yet, so I thought maybe this is something that I would be successful with if I kept it simple.  

It is something quick and simple that could make the world of difference for a child.

What do you think??

Interested??

Wordless Wednesday

The first time in my life I wish I didn't live in Brisbane.

My Madeit store is officially open! Freebies for the first few sales!

Greetings to you all on this strangely cold and rainy Monday Summer's morning!

Well my Madeit store is up and running and has some goodies in it.  To boost sales, more like START sales, I'm offering a little incentive, and it's only for my followers!!  The first 4 of my followers to purchase something from my store will receive an extra of the item they are purchasing.  Now I think that sounds confusing so if that is the case I'll explain it in a different way.  If you buy a greeting card from my store, I will include another free greeting card as a little thank you. 

Remember you have to let me know when purchasing the item you are a follower!!

Baby Steps

I have so much to tell you and show you but I simply do not have time.  It is wedding central around here with my brother's wedding approaching in just over a week's time, and I am helping with a whole deal of last minute preparations.  I promise I will try and post about all the fun stuff I've been up to soon.

Well, I officially 'opened' my online store... and I have a bundle of goodies waiting for new owners!  Check out my Madeit.com.au store.

In the meantime, thanks for the great links to your favourite blogs.  I've checked them all out and there certainly are lots more talented people out there that I am now following!

Favourite blog.

I was just on my lunch break at work and was thinking about what bloggy land has done for me in the last year.  I have come across a whole bunch of super talented people.  I've also come to realise that alot of you talented people are flippin awesome too! 

Then I was thinking that I just don't follow enough blogs.  I mean, I check that Dashboard a zillion times a day hoping someone has posted a new entry, to entertain my imagination, to give me ideas, and to drool.  116 blogs is NOT ENOUGH.  Seriously. (I'm not even joking).

Do you have a absolute favourite blog that you check every single day? 

I do.

The Clip Cafe.

What's your most favouritest blog in the whole wide bloggyworld??  I'd love to hear about them so I can add them to my list of most favouritest blogs too!!

Apron Giveaway

I haven't seen too many giveaways floating around lately that I'd want to enter/win.  Maybe I've become more picky, but that comes with NEVER WINNING any giveaways.  But this one is sweet and if I won, which won't happen I would give it to my SIL because just yesterday she was telling me she wants a pretty pink girly apron and these would suit her to a tee!!!

So to enter head over to The Dalli Cottage Collection and enter the giveaway to win a custom apron to your taste!

Experimenting...

I decided to give my brand new sewing machine a work out.  She's pretty good.  And she even shows me when her bobbin is getting low.  Which is convenient.

(Disclaimer:  photos were taken on my phone due to laziness in retrieving the camera from downstairs)

So I cut out a whole stack of random fabrics more appropriate for a little man, and decided to make a pram quilt.  I have a thick piece of wadding left over from a previous project and just decided to use that even thought it is thicker then most quilting wadding.  I just figure the little man will be extra comfy.  I also found a baby blanket in my stash to use as a backing.

Then was the fun part.. placing them so they looked evenly spaced.

And I sewed all my rows together, and then ironed them and ironed the seams in the opposite direction from each row below it, bla bla bla...  It didn't take long to sew it all together!

I also have sewn the wadding and back on, but don't have a piccie of that yet.  I'm debating a few things with finishing it off.  I need to attach all the layers together in the middle of course, and not 100% which method I want to go to do that.  But it is a pram quilt so the baby will be laying on top of it, so I may go for little knots with wool.  That way it stays nice and cushy.  And then there is the matter of binding.  I may end up having to make it which I'm not keen on, but boo hoo!  I might even just use ribbon.  We shall see what my little fingers do to it tomorrow!

As promised, punches etc.

So tonight I'm home alone.  Husby is gaming with mates.  I've already cleaned the house head to toe, and now have the laundry processing.  I was feeling a tad bored so decided I should actually update my blog properly.  I have been unforgivably slack since I got home from the USA.  I guess I broke my 'blogging habit' and even feel a tad disinterested.  But I am going to change that!

Here are the punches I bought in the USA that I have been promising photos of for a month now.

My favourite is the top white one, which is unfortunately a Martha Stewart punch (that woman annoys the crappola out of me).  It is just so delightfully doily-ish.  And the bottom smaller one was a must buy.  Stampin Up have stopped making their version of this punch and they are such a good punch to have so I was determined to get this one! (luckily for me it was on clearance for $8).

I have been doing plenty of other little things too.  Like making cookies, and putting them in bags with sweet little gift tags (that I got husby to help with since they were for his work mates!).

I also did up some choccie bags for my work mates.

And I did up the gift tags for the gifts we (me and the other leaders) gave to our girls at church.  (They actually took FOREVER cause those snowflakes are all embossed and I had to do 17 tags!)

Let me see, what else have I been up to...  ahh yes, introducing my Waterproof camera to the pool :)

The niece - Brooklyn

The husby

And I've also been brave trusting and teaching my 3 year old nephew how to use the camera - in and out of the water. (he still has issues with covering the lens with his fingers)

He just LOVES having ownership of the camera.  I can't not trust him, he's too cute.

Two day's after Christmas is my sister's birthday.  I have always made an extra effort to make it special and non-Christmassy.  So the night before I madly took down all my decorations except for the Christmas tree, cause I simply could not be bothered :)  And then I set the table...

  ...with my dinner set I bought as a 16 year old for my glory box!!  It took me almost 10 years to use it but I'm glad I finally did cause it's such a sweet little set.  Sad that it's only a setting for 4 though.

I even did little place settings to make it sweet.

She also got the bestest birthday cake ever...

I also am now the proud owner of SIX SU ink pads.  To some this is no biggie.  For me this is amazing.  No more cheap nasty ink pads from the $2 shop.

Most of you should know what I got for Christmas.  A sewing machine & overlocker/serger.  Santa was VERY good to me this year.  So I broke the girls out of their boxes yesterday and am working on re-organising my craft space to make room for them.

Now, I must warn you that I am strange.  I have to name everything.  And I need your help with this one.  I don't have a name for my sewing machine yet.  What does she look like to you?

There are rules to naming things though.  It has to be catchy and fun.  Not dorky.

Luckily my overlocker has a name.  Edna the Elna.

I am currently off work for a week for the Christmas/New Year's period and I've been trying to use that time to get the annoying jobs done around the house.  So I cleaned out the wardrobes, and put skinny clothes into Space Bags, scrubbed the hell out of my bathroom... and organised my fabrics!!  Yay!  A friend of mine gave me these fantastic drawers - she was going to throw them out!!  Husby is going to cut me a piece of wood to put on top so I can stack more crap on top of it hah!

And last but not least, this week I went over my friend's house.  She is a Stampin Up demonstrator so has ALLL the goodies.  Every so often I'll go over and we'll just make cards and things all day long.  It's fun and she always gives me great ideas.  Unfortunately this time round my brain was on holidays and had a bit of a creative block, so my first card design was a little boring...

But I got my brain into gear for the second design...

I love this card.. and did you notice the brads?

I bought them off Craftumi before Christmas.  They are just so adorable!

Well, I think that pretty much brings me up to speed.  I was thinking this afternoon I might wing making a quilt for a pram.  I don't know who it's for, but I need to give this sewing machine a work out and get a feel for it.  So I might just cut up some random bits of fabric and sew them together and see what I end up with!

Tomorrow night I'm off to a 60th for New Years Eve... what are your plans?

Have a fun night and don't go to bed too early!

Proof that I'm a good girl

Can you see what it is? 

(check out my hilarious nephew.. I gave him that swimming suit for a gift and he had to put it on IMMEDIATELY and of course 'help' everyone open their gifts)

It's a sewing machine and I love it!!

But wait, there's more...

With my sisters.  We were told we had to open them together at the same time...

We all got overlockers!  I knew about it and had to keep it a secret from both of them for like two months which was super hard.  Check out my older sis Alicia.. she was ecstatic.  Bethany suggested to not eat lunch and just sew haha.  

Now I have the set up and I'm ready to experiment!