applehead

tied up with string....

The first task in the workshop was to choose the paper that we wanted to cover the box and book in. There were three enormous stacks of handmade Nepalese paper to choose from, in an absolute rainbow of colours and textures. Glazed paper, marbled paper, leaf printed paper and even paper that felt and looked like leather. So what did crazy ,outrageous,colour mad me choose for my first project?

Black and white.
How very brave and adventurous.

I must say though I was very happy with the simplicity of it when all was said and done( and glued and stitched)

Here's the box....

and inside.....

I'm tempted to put a collage on the inside cover of the box. Or not.

My first Coptic stitched book.....( and certainly not my last!)

I used red linen thread to stitch the signatures together.

After the girls go to bed this evening, I am going to make another book covered in vintage wallpaper - and then perhaps another !

a frog went walking....

These two froggies are just glorified beanbags made from the legs of old jeans and scraps of odd fabric...great for balancing on heads , throwing and catching. The girls love to take turns aiming for the washing basket or a bucket or sometimes each other ! These ones went off to Melissa over at tiny happy for her little ones - they smell kind of healthy as they are filled with brown rice- next time I might add some lavender in as well to make them smell a bit prettier. I probably should have sent them unfilled as they were quite heavy but somehow they didn't look quite as appealing flat!...here you go kiddos, a bit of floppy fabric, knock yourselves out! Definitely stuffed is the way to go!

Here they are flat so you can see the shape if you want to make a few - I sewed twice around them just in case....never hurts when they are filled with small bits of stuff!
Mine measured about 24cm in length - a good size for balancing on little one's heads. I'm quite keen to make a batch of little ones (about 12cm finished) for the girls to throw about ....add that to the "to do" list, I think .

As cute as they are I thought I'd best send something else for Melissa....she is the queen of the barkcloth bag so it took me a while to work out what I wanted to send.

This is the scarf that I sent , although I think it will be a little while yet before Melissa gets to try it out!

I went to my workshop at Primrose Park Art centre and spent the day making a Coptic stitched book and memento box. Great fun and very satisfying. It was a gloomy and dull old day here so no photo today but perhaps tomorrow. I am planning to go back to do the workshop on dowel spine books.....see you there?

almost a forest

the rest of the ATC's for the swap bot "tree" swap....

paper collage, watercolour and stamped text - the Hebrew text page that I used for the leaves came courtesy of the lovely Julie  who also has a thing for trees....

and two ATC's for some private swaps I've organised....

hand drawn pigment pen , watercolour and silver foil on vintage text page.

Off to do a workshop in another form of paper craft tomorrow....I'll be learning to make a Coptic handstitched book with it's own box to keep it in...all going well , photos tomorrow night!

bit fond of trees myself....

some ATC's I've been working on recently...

Tree series one....collage, pigment pen and water colour

Tree series two....collage ,pen and stamped text

Most of my ATC's can be found here......

king of the castle....

Happy birthday, Damian

love and hugs
your girls
xxxxx

now if I can just get that chocolate truffle cake to stand still, I'll let you have a peek....

later that evening....

and the birthday boy himself....

not bad for five years old, hey?

caped crusader.....

I am so making myself one of these for winter...

....and best of all the pattern in free! Go take a look at Fitzpatterns here...
Now, I'm dreaming of a red cape but do you think it's a bit too Little Red Riding hood?
Whatever fabric I choose, it will have to have a satin lining!

A  little doodle I've been working on lately for the ATC doodle swap. Once you've got your finished doodle, you cut it up into ATC sized pieces and send it off. How easy is that!

Note: an ATC is an Artist trading card - the dimensions are 2.5"x3.5", or 64x89mm.Click here to access a page that gives you a run down on exactly what an ATC is. If anyone wants to give the ATC format a try, let me know and we'll organise a swap. Its a great format size to work with - and  easy on the postage. I love it when one of these little cards turns up in my mail!

For a bit of beauty in your day, go visit the scent of water....photos and poetry, what a combination!

think pink.....

had a date at a four year old Piper's  birthday party on Saturday...so off we went to the birds, butterflies and bees gala dressed ( quite appropriately) as a bird and a bee.The two girls that is, not me.

Charlie was the bee.( And no, I didn't make this cute dress- it was a gift...)

I made tiny butterfly cakes ,with a bit of pink sugar on the top because Piper's philosophy is that you can never have enough Pink, Frills or Pink!

(that's Charlotte's sticky little hand quietly removing a cupcake!)

And what do you give a girl who loves Pink, frills, all things girly and of course, Pink?

This of course....

A Pink, frilly, girly apron.

But is it Pink enough????

happy mail...

I have had two lovely packages turn up in the mail over the past week...the first was from Tash over at poppyseeds who sent me a "just because" package. Such a generous gesture and filled with wonderful things! The first was a felt box that she had made based on this tutorial. Lined with a fabric map and finished with a covered button.

And there was more...some great old stamps of different weather conditions- stormy,cold,hot,windy....the girls will have fun with those;an lovely old Atlas that is destined for a new collage project I've been thinking about and some wonderful rosemary salt that smells divine.Oh and thread and  buttons ( just love buttons!) Thank you, Tash!

The second came from Melissa in NZ. I had admired a wonderful barkcloth bag on her blog and after a  few emails back and forth we organised a swap. It took me way too long to get my package together but happily it's on its way to NZ now and should be there any moment...Melissa not only sent me the coveted bag but a host of other goodies as well!
My bag...

and goodies!

What will be in the post this week , I wonder.....

cupcake heaven....

I wanted to go all out for Georgie- the-wonder- girl's birthday and baked these little fig,walnut and caramel cupcakes...those golden bits on top are toffee "crowns" ( how impressive is that! Not really though 'cause they aren't as fiddly as they look)
I normally wouldn't go as far as the toffee crowns but it was her birthday after all..... fresh figs on top too, mmmm

I was quite proud of these little cakes and Charlie was just a little bit tempted ( you can see the remains of the whipped chocolate ganache topping on her cheeky face!)

a very wholesome lunch....

One of my clearest memories from kindergarten has to do with food.
At lunchtime we would all pull out our sandwiches- peanut butter ( not on the forbidden list then!), Vegemite, devon and tomato sauce (not my favourite by a long shot) or baked beans ( I can hear quite a few groans out there..)
Pretty stock standard across the whole class except for Effie, the daughter of a Greek couple who owned the local milkbar. Twenty two pairs of eyes would be glued on her brown paper bag to see what would emerge. And more often than not , out would come the two pieces of white bread with a half a family block of Cadbury's milk chocolate sandwiched in between.

Oh-my-goodness......

Can you imagine what the teachers would say today if you ever dared to send your child off to school with a chocolate sandwich for lunch? Maybe if you made it with wholemeal, wholegrain bread you just might get away with it!
Or not.
So, as a chocolate sandwich is not high on the list of nutritionally sound lunches, I have been searching around for recipes and ideas for Rose's morning tea and lunch. What does everyone out in craft blog land send their children off with? Any ideas would be most welcome indeed.

Otherwise, I might have a weak moment and pack one of those much coveted chocolate sandwiches....

Just because I love a competition I decided to enter this post into scribbit's march' write away" contest -you just never know....