Pincushion swap - progress

My attempt is a little wonky, but hopefully it will be loved all the same. more pincushions over here. Thanks again to Kate over at Foxs lane for this great swap

Five Faves

1: My boys - We had a wander at the botanical gardens today. Simply. Lovely.
2: flickr faves - I'm feeling a bit of a colour theme with these too, maybe it's the cooler weather
3: Nice package - be still my beating heart.
4: google reader - I set this up a few weeks ago and I'm feeling a lot less dysfunctional with my blog reading, sad that I don't get to see all the lovely bog posts in-situ but very happy that I'm not missing out on anything.
5: and... sad but true, tap fish on my iphone (it's an addiction)

for some more five faves check out Meet me at Mikes

Image credits for flickr faves:: 1. Untitled, 2. soft house street, 3. winter mood, 4. Don't miss the flickr meet-up Sunday, 5. mendon ponds, 6. Turquoise corner of my home, 7. Untitled, 8. sage, 9. Camera Obscura

Pillow talk swap.. cushion received!

My cushion arrived all the way from the USA! Woot woot! I love it Michelle, thank you!

{ Urban } HOME Goods - a modern swap

My inspiration mosaic for the { Urban } HOME Goods - a modern swap. Eeek! can't wait to get my partner and start creating!

1. toadstools, 2. Mini Quilt Monday :: Quilt edges , 3. Untitled, 4. Test Print, 5. Untitled, 6. Corner of love. . ., 7. linen.coasters, 8. An idea of sizing!, 9. y e l l o w, 10. 0, 11. Fabric Box for toys, 12. YellowBirdOutside, 13. Vintage Button purse (C365: day 84), 14. Let there be Light, 15. medium round bucket, 16. Placemats

in love with... Eamon Macmahon

Eamon Macmahon's photography is hauntingly beautiful. For some amazing ariel photography check out his website. Spectacular!

Chai-licious

Last night we made chai latte mix at crafternoon. I don't mean to be over to top, but my taste buds are in heaven! The spicy mix coupled with frothy milk (thanks to our new coffee machine, care of Erica, Ben, Mum and Dad, thanks guys, it's tops!) is so chai-icious, I couldn't stop drinking them all day (I couldn't even wait to take a photo before having a big swig!)

Here is my recipe:
4 teaspoons of ground ginger
4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
2 teaspoons of ground allspice
2 teaspoons of ground cardamom
2 teaspoons of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Mix all the spices together well, then add

2 cups of castor sugar
1 cup of instant tea

mix :: store in airtight container.

To make into a Chai latte
Add 2 heaped teaspoons of chai mixture to a mug of hot milk :: stir :: drink and relax while watching back-to-back episodes of Scrubs and writing your next blog entry about how much you luuurve hot chai-liciousness. xx

Once you pop... you just can't stop!

I'm mad for swaps at the moment. So mad in fact that I have joined two more! The lovely Kate over at Foxs lane in hosting a pin cushion swap - super love! Also Heather from the Pillow talk swap has started up another group Urban home goods - a modern swap - Oh my! Wonderful stuff. Can't wait to get into these.
Tonight I've been looking for pin cushion inspiration and found this cutie above over at the Creative place. You can find it over here on etsy. Ruth has some wonderful pincushion love over at her blog too, thanks for the inspiration Ruth!

Craft book love

I'm the luckiest girl! My Mum gave me these two fabulous books last night and I've been pouring over the ever since. Beyond the Square is a Christmas present and One-yard wonders, a early birthday present. I don't even know where to begin in telling you about the awesomeness!

Pillow talk swap.. cushion finished!

Hurray! My pillow talk swap cushion is heading out the door tomorrow. I've had a great time making it and am fairly happy with the result. Dresden plates are great fun to make and so much easier then I first anticipated. I can't wait to receive mine in the mail!

Taste of the Huon

Yesterday was about a million degrees and humid. It also happened to be the taste of the Huon, an annual tasty delight not 40mins drive down south. Well, an hour an a half of bumper to bumper later, The Boy and I rocked up, grumpy but ever so excited. We had a wonderful time with my Mum and my Grandmother (or Nannie and Super Nannie to The Boy) and I'm happy to say I got my fix of Tempura mushrooms with chili plum sauce (swoon). We got home covered in dust from head to toe (my shoes used to be black!) with full bellies and big smiles.

ALFALC swap

I've sent and recieved my first  'a little fabric, a little chocolate' swap and what a haul! The top picutre is what I receved from my partner (thanks a bunch Leah!), Japanese fabric, Heather Ross, Denyse Schmidt and some munki munki off-cuts, fair trade chocolate and junior mints (which I've always wanted to try) and you know I adore buttons and tea! Oh my, I feel so spoilt! The second image shows what I sent (for more info on either of the pictures check out my flickr)
ALFALC runs every month, so if you feel like a switch-e-roo head over to the flickr group and sign up.

Pin-hole son (camera obscura)

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself today, not only did I have one of my email accounts hijacked by some bogus bag-selling virus but I also had some strange re-direction thing happening to this blog (thank you so much to Tracey for letting me know).

I'm so very sorry if I spammed or re-directed you. I. am. mortified.

On a much happier note, this is a picture of The Boy's room which I recently discovered acts like a pin-hole camera! How cool is that! You can see a warped up-side-down image of my neighbors house, cool eh? I also had the most lovely 'thankyou' breakfast out at Moorilla this morning (thanks Maddie! It was so yum) and went to Meg's exhibition opening this evening which was amazing (congratulations Meg!) So all in all, I did have a great day minus the computer hackers :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend xx (long weekend if you are in Aus! woot!)

Party Stationary

I am so excited to show you the beautiful stationary from Madeleine's baby shower. We played some great games, one of which was present bingo. In the tummies of each of these owls we put a number between 1 and 15, each present had a number attached and Madeleine opened them randomly, the first person to call out BINGO won a prize! fun fun!

How adorable is this illustration by Sarah Magro (email) especially made for the party! I love love, the Mother and father bear with the little baby in-between, and the owls, too cute! Very special indeed. Everyone had a vintage golden book to lean against and a cute wooden peg (with lovely vintage illustrations attached) I thought the whole look was simply devine!

A party for Poppet

I was so honored to be the host of my good friend Madeleine's baby shower yesterday. It was the most wonderful party, lovely people, delicious food, fun and (most of all) the shared excitement for the arrival of Poppet! I love having people over to my house, the laughter and joy which seems to fill, rejuvenate and bring warmth to the space (with the huge boon of left over carrot cake! Yummo, thanks Mad I had it for breakfast!).
... and now, I can finally shower you a few of the things I've been working on! I made a simple little quilt (for the car or pram) with some lovely fabrics from supper buzzy. I am so in love with the fabrics in this quilt, grey linens, woodland scenes with owls, bunnies, squirrels and birds and some red dotty fabric on the back. Unfortunately I ran out of time, so I just need to do the final edge of the binding and I'll show you some more photos.
I also crocheted a little cardigan, in greys (Maddie is very into grey as am I, and it has the added advantage of being gender neutral). It's a lovely little pattern I found on ravelry. It took me 3 attempts but I'm thrilled with how it came out and it was a great learning experience too