A Big Thank You

Thank You so much for the well wishes for our new adventure.  We are very excited about the changes happening for us over the next 6 months.  I only hope that some of you are right about our home selling quickly - I hope it does too before I change my mind about getting rid of it !

The flu lurgy has been trying to visit with me - I keep fighting it as I have so much to do at the moment including playing with this gorgeous stack of wool felt.

And organising all of our new marketing material that is arriving

And packing kits

 Which is lot's of fun

Our Tuesday night girls had fun this week making some shopping bag holders.  I found a tutorial for them here.

I changed it a little as the original tutorial has a tie closure around the buttons.  We used sewn in hat elastic instead

 

They were lots of fun to make and perfect for folding up plastic shopping bags to re-use and keep in your hand bag.

 I also finished off some mobile phone bags from an Anni Downs pattern, but once again I changed it a little and added a Theodora Cleave button instead of a stitchery.

 

 I also managed to get some brooches finished that I had in my UFO pile

 

 

 

One turned into two ........

 

And into three .....

And at the end of the night I ended up with 4....

They were such fun to make.

Over the weekend I will be having a giveaway and a Facebook Launch of "Fee's Shabby Shack" so stop back in if you can.  If you are a newsletter subscriber you will receive your first Daily Deal on Monday morning.....  I wonder what it will be?  Just remember that my main focus for the Daily Deals is to save you all some $$. I have managed to get some awesome deals from some of my suppliers to share with you all over the coming weeks.

Hugs - Fee X



The Adventure Begins ......

So did I finish the spare room make over on the weekend?  No - I didn't even start it - But I did manage to cross off a few things on the list of things to do before the house goes up for sale.  I de-cluttered a number of areas in the home and also tidied up our back area.

I think the sun shining briefly into this area had me motivated to give it a clean and tidy

This area at the back of the house became a vision about 4 years ago and luckily a friend's hubby is a builder and was able to put my vision into reality.  We have loved spending time in this area and many happy family gatherings have been in this room.

I have decided that I will be taking all of my own photographs for the real estate agent.  After looking through the real estate site over the past few weeks some of the photography leaves a lot to be desired !  I really do not want to look at walls and doors which seem to feature in most of the photo's and not the attributes of each house.

I still feel very sad about selling the house but I know that with 3 acres and a 32 square house that it is not practical for us moving forward.  We need a small house with low maintenance gardens and a studio room for me and that's about it. 

Our future plans include growing a business in the craft & quilt industry and we have spent many many weeks planning out our future around that. 

We have spent the last month setting up the business, registering it and doing all of the legal stuff as well as having a logo designed and new stationary, signs etc made.  Our new business will not be your typical on-line style business but instead a roving and newsletter based business with a few twists and turns.  We have many monthly clubs planned and will be running 4 brand new BOM programmes in the next few months.

And now for the unveiling of the new business logo and name :-

It is .........

The lovely Keren over at Free Pretty Things designed my new logo based on my Designs By Fee Logo and I have to say that I love it.

I will still be designing under the "Designs By Fee" brand but our new retail arm is called "Fee's Shabby Shack" and it is coming to a city near you in 2013.  Yep we are all booked and deposits paid for the Australian Quilt Show Circuit in 2013.  We even have airfares booked !  We have been very busy planning out a new path and it all begins in the next few weeks. 

I have a Business Launch Party planned and you are all invited.  There will be lots of giveaways, party games and lots more........

So if you do not want to miss out on anything then make sure that you are signed up to the newsletter.  You can do this on the right hand side of the blog.

I had better get back to my planning.  Enjoy your week.

Hugs - Fee X

A Winner and the Beginning of Change

Happy Friday !  It seemed to take a little while to get here this week and I am still deciding if that is a good or bad thing - Life is going so quickly but the week at work seems to take forever.  I have today drawn a winner for the fabric scraps and it is Scottish Nanna - Send me your postal details Mary and I will send them up to you.

Every now and again we have reason to reassess our lives and we have done a similar thing with the happenings of the past year or so.  We have decided that the time has come to part with our beloved property and house.

It is a place that holds many special memories for us but as we get older and more time poor, it is taking  much of our time to maintain it.  We only have 1 & 1/4 children home now and a huge house is just too much.  It will be very sad to say goodbye to it if we can find a buyer but for our future it just has to happen.

You soon decide what is more important in life and it is truly not possessions - They can be replaced.  Time unfortunately cannot.

So I have had to bring out my book of lists again with a number of chores, jobs and de-cluttering to happen here in the coming weeks.  We have given ourselves 6 weeks to do it all before the For Sale sign goes up.

Then we can begin the new chapter of our lives that we have been planning for many months.  And this will involve some travel :)

I am not looking forward to the period of being "For Sale" but I just hope that it doesn't take too long. 

But I am very much looking forward to the journey of finding a "new" "smaller" "forever" home and opening up the new doors of our future.

So this weekend I have a spare bedroom makeover planned.  I will bring the camera along and share with you the adventures of the weekend sometime next week.

Until then,

Hugs - Fee X

Quilt Rack For Sale & A Give Away

Time just seems to be getting away from me lately.  The weekend went by in a flash and now it's Sunday night and back to work tomorrow.  I have managed to get some more stitching done on my soon to be released Block Of The Month.  

Just a few more blocks and it can be put together and sent off to the quilters.  

Look what my gorgeous friend Dawn made for me and sent in the mail last week.  It is a 12 days of Christmas Quilt.

Each block is made from the amount of pieces for each day - This is Day 12 with 12 pieces and is my favourite block.

Isn't it special?  And made from delicious Aviary as well.  

I have also spent a little time cleaning out some of my tubs of fabric.  I have a few bits to go on the Destashing Facebook Page tomorrow but I also have this lot of assorted novelty off cuts.  There are farmyard animals, roosters, cats, dragonflies, Cat and the Fiddle and much more.  I am giving these away so if you are interested just leave a comment saying that you would like them and I will draw a winner on Friday.

Also as part of my clean up and de-cluttering I have this Quilt Rack for sale.  I have 2 of them so am willing to part with this gorgeous one for $50.

It is perfect for displaying quilts and is made of dark coloured filligree iron.  It's not suitable to post so only suitable for fellow Tasmanians.

So that's it from me this weekend.  Mum is doing really well now and is out of ICU and able to breathe without oxygen now so we are very pleased with her progress after the scary week we have had.  The brain surgery is healing well so everything is looking great.  Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers - They worked.

Hugs - Fee XX

Where I Create

I know that I am very fortunate to have the largest and brightest room in our house as my studio.  I had been thinking for some time that I needed a pattern writing desk set-up in it as in the past I set the lap top up on my sewing table and pack it away after I'm finished and it was just becoming too much of a hassle so

I took a trip to our local office supply shop and purchased a desk and shelves for my patterns

Whilst I made room for the new furniture everything got a little disorganised

And messy 

With everything everywhere ........

But slowly as the furniture was built the room started to come together

And the piles of accumulated stuff started to find places to live

So now the studio is once again tidy

and everything is back in place

Even the cutting table is clear

So once again I can create 

And make a new mess

But I'll have lots of fun whilst I am doing it.  

Our family has had a very worrisome week with my mum having brain surgery and is now in ICU due to some complications.  If you are of the praying kind all prayers will be welcomed.

Fee X