Macrame Owl Goodness!

I got the coolest surprise today when I opened my letterbox and found two super awesome owls from Ange!

I just love their cute retro-ness and they now have a happy new home in my room.
However I'm now thinking they would look rather lovely hanging over my sewing desk instead so they will be relocated once I (okay, my Dad) has put some hooks into the wall!
So a BIG thank you to Ange for the new resident owls, I just love them!

12# Eye Spy My Favourite Corner of the house.......

I was having a look around blogland today (don't tell my boss) and came across this post by Pip. I followed the trail back to Cindy at bugandpop and discovered eye-spy sunday. So even though I'm a bit late I thought I would play along.

Since moving into our new little home, my favourite place would definitely be the small nook behind our front door.

When we bought the house there was a built in desk and cupboard but since then I have made a few little renovations.....

(i.e. ripping the guts out of it )

It is a great little spot to store all my stationary and to do small crafts like stamping. The window provides lots of light and makes it a very cheerful place to sit. I just adore the glass cupboards built into the wall. They are perfect for housing my collection of bits and pieces and is a handy spot for storing vases and candles all in one spot.

Crafty book goodness!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have acquired a lovely new crafty book by Cath Kidston called Make! It is full of Cath's famous fabric designs that you can photocopy and use in your own projects. I particularly heart the bird and star designs. The book is mainly concerned with the decoration and application of embroidery and designs onto things like bags, towels, socks and clothes. The pictures are gorgeous and colourful and very inspiring- the little pink songbird socks are especially adorable!

The coolest thing about the book is that you get a plain tote to use and decorate as your first project. I think I might cover mine in little multi-coloured stars. Watch this space to see how it goes. Knowing my hand sewing skills it's sure to be interesting! (Read: dodgy).

And the good news is that Cath has another book called Sew! coming out in a couple of weeks for the die hard sewers out there. The book also includes some of her trademark fabric to make a bag with. I can't wait!

Mmm...Cheesecake

Besides crafting another hobby of mine is cooking and especially baking. So therefore I deemed that for my Blogtoberfest post today I would show you the cheesecake that Mum and I made together for Dad's birthday. (Happy Birthday Dad!)

I love sweet things (who doesn't?) and as a result I really love collecting all sorts of cookbooks that support my habit. I have around 50 so far and I plan to keep on adding to my collection in the future. They're just so addictive! The beautiful, tummy-rumbling inducing photos, the yummy recipes, I mean even if you don't actually like cooking you can still have fun flipping through them. I particularly love Nigella Lawson, the Goddess of the kitchen and Jamie Oliver. Nigella has the most gorgeous cookbooks and I dare you to read one and not want to cook something! Her chocolate peanut butter cups really are drool inducing.

At the moment I am coveting Jamie's new book Jamie's America. At the first possible opportunity I am so getting myself a copy! Unfortunately that may not be for a while because I spent the last of my money buying Kath Kidston's Make book. Dammit.

The cheesecake Mum and I made is a New York baked cheesecake from the good ol' Australian Women's Weekly and it was goooood! (If I do say so myself.) I was really happy with how it turned out and it was very easy to make it gluten free by using rice cookies for the base. Actually, the rice cookies were heaps tastier as a base than the usual Nice biscuits I use.

I believe everything tastes better when it's home made, and this cheesecake was definitely better than a store bought one. The recipe is one I will certainly use again and besides, who doesn't love an old fashioned dessert anyway?

Does anyone have any favourite retro desserts they couldn't live without? I'd love to hear about them!

Brisvegas shopping.....

Today I thought I might share a couple of my favourite shops in Brisbane at the moment. Unfortunately for my husband, these are two shops that I can not seem to stay away from:

Funky Fabrix

(Photos courtesy of the Funky Fabrix website)

While Funky Fabrix have an awesome online shop and blog they also have a retail shop situated in Mitchelton, Brisbane. The shop is chock full of new and vintage fabric as well as handmade items such as bags, buttons and softies. I just love going in there to take in all the beautiful fabric and be inspired to get sewing.

My other favourite shop at the moment is Nook in West End.



If ever there was a shop created just for me, this would be the place. It has what I believe is the best range of handmade items in Brisbane. Stock has been sourced from all over the and my heart but skips a beat every time I go in there. From Able and Game cards to bags made by local BrisStyle girls Bec & Jade of Beckybean it has something unique for everyone.

8# From little things big things grow.....

Well it been a week since signing up for Blogtoberfest and things are going A OK. It's not too late to join in the fun or should I say insanity!

Today I thought I might share with you the project that got me back into the world of crafting and discovering the amazing online crafting community.

I have always love making things since I was a kid. My first official foray into stitching was due to my 6th grade teacher, who during the year managed to teach us only two things a) how to use deodorant (you know that age) and B) how to cross stitch. All the important things in life!

She made the whole class learn how to cross stitch, even the boys, and we all managed to create a cross stitch Easter Egg for our families. (I wish I had a photo to show but I might have to pop over to the parents and pull it out).

I was immediately hooked and it was not long until I was a permanent fixture down at our local craft shop. I crafted and stitched into my teens but it was here that I began to become disillusioned by the Nana style patterns out there.

It was not until I received this for Christmas last year, from my beautiful husband that I rekindled my love of making my own handmade goodies. Of course there were the requisite holes and stressful moments but I had no idea that I could actually hand sew my own little softie.

I was so excited when I had finished Miss Buttons that I noticed the pattern recommended that you upload a picture of your completed Miss to the Sew Your Own album on their website. After excitedly uploading my picture I noticed just how many other people had done the same thing and from here it helped me to discover just how far things had come in recent years in the crafting community and all the wonderful modern interpretations out there.

I am now officially addicted and can't remember what life was like with out it. Thank you Miss Buttons :)

Holey Moley it's a Sock Monkey!

I know this post is a day late but I swear that I really did finish my sock monkey yesterday, I just decided to hold off until posting today. Really!!! I swear on my fabric stash!
As you can see Mr Sock Monkey looks very "rustic", or as Sarah would say, "shabby chic". Or you could say he's just plain dodgy looking.

There is some truly craptastic hand stitching going on here, and I somehow managed to sew on one ear higher than the other. The stitches on his head give him a lovely frontal-lobe lobotomy look, but he can still read his Mixtape zine so it's all good!

Despite the questionable workmanship, I still love him and his sock monkey adorable-ness.

Has anyone else out there in crafty blog land made any sock monkeys? If you have i'd love to see any pics you have of them!