Lets Get Shabby.....Challenge #17

The new monthly challenge at Lets Get Shabby is up, and the theme is 'something from your sewing box'........ you don't have to sew........just be inspired by fabrics, threads, laces, buttons, dress patterns, pins.... I made my own decorative pin, I did'nt know the lovely Carol at Tattered Inspirations made the most beautiful pins and other gorgeous shabby bits and pieces. Carol is our generous sponsor this month and what she is offering as a prize is just amazing. So join in the fun, get the details at Lets Get Shabby blog and have a go.


The photo in the tiny frame is my mum...xx

My inspiration came from this unfinished quilt. The very first quilt I attempted, and it is still sitting in a shoe box waiting to be completed....one day.

Mend a Broken Heart

Dress Forms are the "in" thing at the moment...... chipboard, rub-ons,paper. I bought a papier-mache one a while ago after seeing an "altered" one by Teemie Eschenburg in a book called Altered Art Projects. Any way after a sad conversation with my beautiful 20 year old daughter, who had just had her heart broken, I thought I would have a play....... chains, locks and wire immediately came to mind, not quite sure why,but this is what I ended up with.









What I used: papier-mache mannequin, modge-podged, papered, painted and distressed. Collections elements papers and spools. Tim Holtz buttons, baubles and locket keys. Satin ribbon, velvet and dyed muslin Tiny pearls, pins, wire and chain.

Tea On Tuesday

Today I'm having tea out of a Royal Doulton tea cup. My mother passed on the tea service to me but I have never really used it because I did'nt have a teapot that went with it............ until I found this quirky little gem last week. My tea is from T2 tastea and is called White Monkey,soft,aromatic but not too "flowery". To eat I have an apricot and custard Danish, given to us on Sunday when family came for lunch. It came from the Normanville Bakery, is delicious and the last piece left.......... so down the hatch and onto the hips I guess. If you would like to join us for Tea on Tuesday visit Kimmie at artinredwagons.

and if I was going to your house for tea I would be bringing you a bunch of these......... I think poppies are just the happiest flowers, they always put a smile on my face,cheers.

2 More Dresses......

2 more little dresses for Dress Up 2010. One sort of hippy inspired ( John Lennon would have turned 70 this month). The other is a cocktail dress, Summer is on the way and I'm thinking strawberry daiquiri .




Now hanging in my little cigar box......

So Shabby.......So Happy !

Finally today I can share my very good news ! A little while ago I sent off a LO based on Gingham and Floral to the Lets Get Shabby challenge as an application to be part of their Design Team:---- O.M.G. they asked me to join them ! I am so happy and very excited to be involved with this group of lovely, talented, creative girls from all over the world. Please check out the Lets Get Shabby site and join in, you can even win prizes !

Lets Get Shabby.....Challenge #16

For this challenge you had to choose a colour scheme from 1 of 2 kitchens :- I chose kitchen #1. There was also a recipe to follow:-- you had to include a piece of fabric and two die-cut shapes.

I chose to do an OTP project and recycled an old box. Keeping with the "recipe" theme I decide to make a box in which to keep my favourite recipes taken from mums' original old recipe book. On the inside lid I popped in a 'ration card' belonging to mum from 1948, true vintage.





This is mum's original recipe book. It has a wooded cover with a journal inside full of hand written recipes, plus lots clipped from newspapers and many more given to her by friends.

Tea on Tuesday

Wow,Tuesday again already and I have'nt posted anything much since last Tuesday! You must think I don't do anything except drink tea and eat bun!? life is good sometimes..... any way for morning tea today I have apple bun, not home made sadly but from a bakery chain called Bakers Delight. Their products are really delicious but the main reason I like them is because the flour they use in their products comes from a small local flour mill at Strathalbyn called Laucke established in 1899 and contains no preservatives and is GMO Free. I drink my tea "straight", no milk, no sugar but both my daughters put honey in their tea and the honey we love is from Tasmania; it's one of their most famous exports: don't you just love the tin ? Cheers.

You've Got 'REAL' mail.

In this age of email and cyber communication, don,t you just love it when you get "real mail":--- especially packages ! I received 2 in the space of 2 days. They contained coffee, an empty vintage cigar box and patterned paper; lifes' essentials really. The coffee and cigar box were sent to me by my daughter who lives in Melbourne, coffee capital of Australia. My fave coffee comes from a small roaster and blender there called SEVEN SEEDS, and the vitage cigar box she found for me is for my Dress Up 2010 project:---- it is meant to become a ward-robe for all the little paper dresses, but I don't know if I can bring myself to alter it , it is so perfect and beautiful just as it is.
These pretties are a challenge prize that I won sponsored by the generous 'handmade by Suzanne'.