Things I like today

haha
Amazing art by Hope Gangloff


aBunny tattoo!

There's a certain something about flamingos....

A weekend country wedding

We went to the country on the weekend for a couple of friends' wedding. It was held in Wagga Wagga which was very pretty and the whole thing (besides the heat!) was lovely.

Some random pics (didn't take many of the bride and groom as they were surrounded by photographers the whole day):








How stunning is the bride!


I made some felt flowers for my hair the night before:




Loved this sign, there were ducks everywhere!



Totally wanted to steal this garden set!


Some fingerpaint style art from our hotel room which I found interesting....


It was really hot the whole time we were there. But we still had lots of fun. We went to a exhibition on Bill Kerr on sunday and hung out at the pub drinking gin and tonics. We also went to the local market and I bought a lovely embroidered doily for brooch making! Chris bought lots of art house horror dvds which will be fun to watch.

I also started the 30 Day Vegan easy challenge on sunday! You can follow my progress here. Quite a challenge in the country!

What I've been up to....

pic via ffffound.com

I feel I've been rather neglecting this blog as I've been quite busy and also quite tired. I have been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid and some related sleep disorders so I'm often very weary and don't always have enough energy to do everything I would like...

Things I am making:

-Red stitch embroidery/applique for Kootoyoo's red stitch quilt
-Embroidered gloves for a new stockist in London
-special order map coasters
-more comic wallets and bits and pieces for old and new stockists
-upcrafted ceramic crockery (stay tuned for pics!)


Things I have been doing:

-decluttering the house ( a massive task! We are holding a stall at CERES market in a couple of weeks and will be selling loads of books, cd's (our whole collecting is being digitised), fabric, vintage homewares and other bits and pieces. Whatever we don't sell will be donated to charity.

-organising our one year wedding anniversary celebration. We'll be staying overnight at the Melbourne Zoo as part of Roar N Snore! So excited.

-pet sitting a rather cheeky persian cat called Bella

-buying art (must remember pics!)

-organising an interview with Frankie Magazine about our Green Renters site

-learning German

-hypnotherapy

-exercising when I can and eating healthy

-working of course!

I found this on the internet and I really like it:

Lovely bridal corset...

I'm selling this on ebay. It was originally custom made for me for my wedding, but never worn as I went with a different style of dress. It's beautiful handcrafting with the most lovely silk materials and detailing.

Autumn is with us again...

It's actually been raining again today! Just fantastic! Since it's autumn and starting to finally cool down a wee bit, it gives me time to start thinking and planning how I would like to spend my crafty time over the next few months.

Things have been hectic for me of late (hence my venting) but are starting to become a bit more balanced-or maybe I am simply accustomed to being busy?
Cooler weather makes me think of all sorts of things (bearing it mind it isn't really that cool yet!):

Like home furnishings: (I've been meaning to make some cushion covers for ages and I have several naked cushions lurking in the craft room!:
Gorgeous scarves, like this one made by Black Apple:

Funky coloured tights:

Cloche hat from M&S (I adore Cloche hats!):

Thoughts for the next few months:

-bulb planting

-make sangria (because I like it ;)

-cushions

-pick fabric for patchwork quilt I've been promising to make for our wedding present since before we got married

-recycled pattens

-finish embroidery gift

-polka dot rabbit men's range

-gifts for friends having babies

That will do for now I think :-)

Handmade bridal corset for sale!

Never worn since I ended up buying a new dress and no longer needed the corset.

You can buy it here

Wedding!

Here's a sneak peak until the proper pics arrive...

today, tomorrow, next week...

I've had one of those half starter weeks at work where things kept changing and I seemd to be constantly waiting for things from poeple before I could finish them off. Three important meetings at work were rescheduled. The Craftea Chat group is going well although this week was a little big crazy but it was lovely to see everyone crafting and sharing their work and talking. There's been a few tangles to be worked through but overall it's been going very well. I've had alot of interest in the 'paddy wagon campaign' for making re-usable pads and I'll start some organising next week. I've finally finished that massive lot of orders for Polka Dot Rabbit goodies thank goodness, it was fun but certainly time consuming when accompanying a full time job. I've just got a few small orders to do and 5 pairs for the Frankie blog give away. I've felt quite weary over the last week and I'm really looking forward to the weekend.

Tonight Marni, Chris and I are going to A Minor Place for Tapas and I can't wait for a nice glass of red wine. It's tempted to get home a bit early and get started, I'm a bit too full from Tiramisu for Aqua Aerobics..... It's rather handy having a restaurant three minutes walk in your street!

Tomorrow morning we are going to St Andrews Markets. I'm looking forward to buying some fresh produce and some plants. Afterwards we are going hunting for wedding dress fabric. It's been tricky as the more summery fabrics are only just starting to come out. Fingers crossed! We ordered our wedding rings from the jeweller in her studio last week so that's one more thing off the list. They're sterling silver with a rose gold bit in the middle.

I'm invited to a party on Saturday night which I may or may not attend and my folks are coming over sunday for coffee which will involve cleaning the house. Gah. I hope to also do some writing on the weekend for my various pursuits.

I bought Chris a percussion set last night from Aldi (tamborine, maraccas, finger cymbals, triangle etc). I suspect I may live to regret it ;-)

No, I haven't bought a dress yet

I haven't written a catch up post for a while as I've been extremely busy at work and too tired to post in the evenings. I have loads of pics to upload at some stage!

Other news:
Craftea Chat workshops are coming along nicely with lots of wonderful presenters and quite a bit of interest. More updates to come!

I got through this week ok, monday was the anniversary of David's death. It's still terribly hard and i still get really upset thinking about him and how he died but I've made it through Christmas, our birthday and now the anniversary of his death which is a help. It's very hard to make sense of suicide and I still feel alot of pain and guilt about everything. To not have him around for key parts of my life like visiting england, my wedding and such is incredibly sad. It's so hard as everyone says, 'think of the happy memories'. These upset me the most. But I'm coping as well as I can.

I'm writing for a couple of different blogs at the moment (although I haven't had alot of time to post all that much as I would like I must confess).

The Dawn Chorus
An ace feminist blog!

http://greenrenters.blogspot.com
chrischinchilla and I started this blog for discourse on how you can live in rental accomodation and still do your bit for the environment.

Crafty creations at Polka Dot Rabbit are coming along, I have many half finished things (brooches, cassette wallets, cards) and i will be finished a cross stitch for dear friend's birthday over the weekend! My softie ducks for Softies For Mirabel are coming on nicely once I weight the feet so they don't topple over upon standing! I'm also hoping to make a doll.

The wedding is also coming along. Slowly. Despite being constantly asked, no I haven't bought a dress yet. And yes, I know I should have a long dress with long sleeves to cover my fat bits. And yes, I will be wearing glasses.

Other news is that I am joining the gym next week and looking forward to it. Much easier than worrying about my eating at the moment and berating myself for not cycling to work.

Lastly, Chris and I are going on a wonderful weekend away this weekend which I'm really looking forward to and we sorely need. We booked it originally as we share house with another person and were keen for some space but she moved on wednesday back to Perth so now we are living alone together at last! We are both really enjoying it. The weekend will involve lots of sleeping, chocolate, red wine and fun in gorgeous surroundings! Hurray!

They call me mellow yellow (and a hint of blue)

I have been rather slack posting in my dear blog for and I have very little excuse I'm afraid as asthma doesn't stop one from surfing on the internet.

As my recent 'No spend craft month" I made the following outfit:


A Line skirt made out of a curtain. I'm a far from brilliant sewer and I lost the zipper foot for my machine so I had to handstitch the zipper. I might take it in at the waist a couple of centimetres so it sits a bit flatter at the front.

Can you see the rounded pocket? There's one on each side, but I'm not much good at photography!

I also recreated this t shirt with a cute pic I got years ago as part of a Peter Rabbit bath book. Having owned bunnies (well been owned by bunnies to be precise!) I am fond of all things related to Peter Rabbit!


And here's a close up of the Robin (geez I really should've ironed it):


Other happenings have been around vague organising of our wedding. We've got the venue and reception books and guests have been told to 'save the date' so now we move onto the minutae of all things bridal-despite my attempts to avoid...Here's a picture of my mum with one of the phone book size bridal magazines she picked up.I imbibed several glasses of wine while she suggested I need an "ankle length dress with sleeves" (Mum speak for 'you're too fat for short and sleeveless'). I'm hoping for 50's style retro either bought or made for me, but I think I'm a bit short for ankle length being 5ft3! Plus i have no intention of wearing white....

Here's the beautiful roses which she gave me, with some pyrex bowls I picked up at Savers realising that everytime i wanted to bake a cake I was using a casserole dish as a mixing bowl!

I also picked up this darling bowl for $4.

It's residing on the book case in the living room at the moment, but Chris' shipping from England are arriving on monday so who knows how much knick nack room there'll be...

First Day of No Spend Crafting and weekend update

Well I haven't actually done any crafting being monday and a work day. I had a very busy weekend spending Saturday holding a Polka Dot Rabbit stall and attending sessions at the Melbourne Social Forum which was held at the EcoCentre in St Kilda, a really lovely space. Afterwards Chris and I went to dinner at the Builders Arms then a friend's birthday drinks and the Union Hotel where I got ridiculously drunk on very little.

Sunday we went to Woodend for a family gathering for Chris' clan, and because of track works, a 90 minute journey to 5 hours and 2 on the way back. Insane! But we had lovely lasagne and schitzel and loads of wine and everyone enjoyed the lamington sponge i bought with us. Of course, none of this is helping my weight!

We've found and booked a wedding reception venue at Wine Cellars
and we are hoping all will go well and be a really fun day. It's hard as there's so many pressures with a wedding, even if you are doing something different that's 'for us'. Perhaps the biggest pressure I feel right now is to look beautiful (thin) and HAVE A GOOD TIME as it is meant to be a day you'll remember forever....

I've attracted quite a lot of interest in my 'no spend crafting month' which started today. Alot pf people have asked about the politics, admitted to their own ridiculously large stash and asked about the politics. I'm yet to do any crafting as yet but I have a Polka Dot Rabbit stall this wednesday at Swinburne University and hoping it will go well. In a way I'd really like to sell everything I have craft wise and start from scratch with some longer more arty projects like painting and fabric mosaics. It all takes courage and tenacity....it was strange, I walked past a few charity shops and felt a bit anxious. I even felt like I should be buying something on ebay for some reason (ceramic cats). Very odd compulsion.

I started lunchtime yoga today, and will have a class every monday for the next 12 weeks. I really enjoyed it.

Faster than a speeding bullet...

Chris and I went to acouple of exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria on sunday. I like this Gerard Ritcher painting, it's based on the idea of a blurry photo... Other things happening: -Election colouring book has been printed and we are working on distribution and promotion... -Cool market coming up at Section 8 -organising a trip to the Zoo for my work volunteers -booking the wedding @registry office on friday. We all went and had a look at the Convent on saturday. It was gorgeous but the function room was way too big and the cost somewhat exorbitant for where we are at and who we are. We are intending on a registry wedding followed by a function somewhere with music and mexican food and jugs of cocktails.... We don't really celebrate Halloween in Australia at all, but I like this site full of Halloween Amy Winehouses...

This is our wedding venue-fingers crossed!

What do you think? It's an old converted convent...












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