Easter

Happy easter to you !  I wonder if you are like us and take the opportunity for some quiet time at home.  Resting and reflecting.

We had our family celebration on Thursday night with all of the children and grand children here for a lovely get together.  I spent all of yesterday recovering !!

I've tried to spend an hour or so in the studio each day.  I've been struggling with pain and mobility more than usual these past couple of weeks but keep pushing myself to do something.

I have a very dear friend that owns a french gift shop in the city and she has commissioned me to make shabby vintage style gifts, cards and home decor for her store so doing a little each day keeps the wheels turning in the studio.

This one is a sewing inspired hanging plaque with lots of vintage goodies embellished on it including a very old lace doily on the background.

These are so much fun to make.  I have made quite a few of them now.

I've also been making some elegant style greeting cards.  I find the whole process of card making very relaxing.  It's quite a portable craft so I can do it from bed, my recliner or in fact in the studio itself.

I have to stop myself from over embellishing each one as some people like clean and simple.

This one is my favourite I think - I have a thing for glitter.

This one is so elegant

And this one so pretty

Today we popped to the shops for a few necessities and swang by the local op shop for a look see.  This is what I came home with.

2 gorgeous tins for 50c each

Some lovely linen fabric and some white cotton with embroidery accents

And all of these mini plates.  I have a few ideas for all of these so lets hope the motivation holds long enough to get them done.

Hugs,

Fee xx

The Rain is coming

A brand new week and a brand new list of To Do's here in my little studio.  Today is looking pretty bleak.  The sky has come over dark and the heavens have begun to open up with a nice steady rain.

I am taking a little break from the housework to sit and write this blog post.

The little tomatoes in the above photograph are the last of our crop from our garden.

With the help of the thermomix they have been turned into tomato paste which I use in lots of recipes.  I always try to have a batch of this on hand in the fridge to add some extra flavour to recipes.  It has lots of spices, capsicum and onion.  The thermomix makes it so much easier.

Broderie Perse has been a long time favourite of mine and especially sweet little butterflies,  It makes you look at fabric so differently.  I usually have a piece ready to be stitched in my stitching basket at all times.  This piece will be teamed with some lace and made into a cushion cover.

I love to use machine metallic threads as they are so much easier to use than purpose made metallic embroidery threads and so much easier to thread into a needle.

I teamed the butterflies with some gorgeous Tanya Whelan rose blooms.  Hopefully it will become a finish sometime this week.

I have purchased a couple of scrapbooking bundles from Ebay recently from ladies who have left the craft.  This has caused an explosion in my craft room and the need for some more storage.  I spied this old DVD Shelf in the shadows of our storage shed.  I measured the space I had and found that it would be a perfect fit but wouldn't fit with my pastel colour scheme in the studio.

After a clean up of the many layers of dust that had gathered all over it I was able to prep it ready for painting.

I chose my trusty grey pot of Canterbury Blue Chalk paint and set to work giving it a new lease of life.

It was a little fiddly with all of the open strip sides and little pesky corners in each shelf but persistence prevailed and it came up beautifully.

Some much needed extra storage that didn't cost me anything more than the initial costs many years ago for the paint and shelf.

The couch cover that I ordered from Ebay arrived.  It was super easy to fit and looks great on my old burgundy couch.  

As you can see it is in the perfect position opposite the fire.  There is nothing better than being in super comfy PJ's, slippers and gazing into the flames.  It warms the heart instantly.

The fire is a cat magnet.  Usually there are 4 in front of it but Boo has it all to himself in this shot.

And Dreamer is making the most of the newly placed couch.  I wonder if they will leave room for me ?  Well that's enough of a break from the housework for now.  Monday mornings are dedicated to a good clean to start the week after a busy weekend of children and grandchildren.  I am resuming swimming this week after a few weeks off so I had best get moving.

Have a wonderful week.

Hugs,  Fee xx

Inspired ..

Today I finally felt like crafting after returning from LGS last Monday .........

I kept looking at all the pretties that I brought home with me and decided that instead of stock piling things as I normally do that I should just break open the packets and start using them

I had lots of fun just sitting and creating

Making hand made lace flowers from upcycled textiles and teaming them with these adorable primacraft paper flowers and some stickles ......

The prettiness of these pastel flowers has to be seen to be believed.  They are just drop dead gorgeous !

My stash of these little resin swallows is getting very low - I will have to see if I can find some more to purchase.  Aren't they adorable ?

Just simple little tags to add to gifts

They just give that finishing touch

So my afternoon ended with 4 beautiful tags completed

And so many more ideas for more

It feels good to be using the things I bought but of course that means that I am probably going to have to buy some more now so that I have them when inspiration hits.

I have a roast in the oven and have my PJ's on and hopefully will get an early night.  It's quite blah here today with wind and rain so the perfect day for crafting, PJ's and a roast !

Hugs,

Fee xx

Inspiration

When you have been a crafter all of your life you come to love a variety of crafts and most people have dabbled in many crafts throughout their creative journey.

The same is true for me.  I love most crafts and dabble in lots of different things including clay, yarn, textiles and paper.

However, the style of crafts that I love is ALWAYS Shabby, Pastel ad Pretty .....  It just makes my heart sing

Pretty Laces, Pretty Pastels and different textures .........  

Paper crafting has been a long time love of mine that I have recently become reacquainted with

I follow a business on Facebook called Bella Paperie - The eye candy that Deborah (the lovely owner) posts every day is enough to make my heart skip a beat .........

So when I knew that Lets Get Stitched was going to be in Brisbane this year a visit to her gorgeous shop at Brendale was a MUST .......

And to say that I was in creative heaven would be an under statement .......  Oh the pretties, the inspiration, the talent and the lace ..........

Deborah kindly gave me permission to take photographs so that I could take a little of that inspiration home with me and here I am now sharing it with you .......

If you live in Brisbane there are many classes on offer regularly and the supplies that are available for purchase are divine.  Deborah stocks lots of European brands that we just do not see very much of here in Australia.  She also has a BLOG.

I wanted to bring it all home with me or alternatively just move into the shop and live out my creative days right there !

Every time I turned around there was something else that took my eye.  The OOhs and AAhs could be heard for the entire hour we spent in that shop.

So many ideas and inspiration can be carried over into textile crafts such as quilting and embroidery - The possibilities are endless .......................

The flowers

The textures 

The bling

The Lace .....   Do you see what I mean ?

And the little vignette displays were adorable

I wish I had have had more time to do some classes whilst I was there 

Isn't this delightful ?

So pretty and shabby

And this piece hanging behind the counter is my favourite.  I will be creating something like this for my own studio one day really soon !

A lovely bag full of goodies from Bella Paperie came home with me so that I can create some pretties of my very own.

Watch this space.

Hugs,

Fee xx