Da dah!!

The Pin Up Girl quilt is finished. And I am jolly happy with it. Apart from it could have been a little bit bigger.

Australia Day Weekend......a little late

We had a great Australia Day weekend. Starting with a wonderful lunch with friends at the Victory Hotel Sellicks Beach. Then an afternoon swimming at Silver Sands Beach, playing cricket and even chasey! To finish off the day, a bbq of course with the most beautiful view of the most beautiful hills in the most beautiful colours.

Family Portrait

Not the normal kind of family portrait at all. But I really love it. Makes our family of shorties look rather tall! It's taken at our local jetty at Brighton Beach. Nice.

Celebration time

Some really amazing news......I have been accepted to study at TAFE! For the next year I will be enrolled in the Certificate IV in Visual Arts & Contemporary Craft, majoring in Jewellery.

It has been some time since I studied......and am a little nervous but SO excited. So much so that sleeping has been difficult. I have so many ideas zooming around!

On the 15th February at 9am I will be in my first class - Drawing Foundation. Wowee!!!

Work in progress

Here is the work in progress of my Pinup Girl Quilt. The easy part is over. Now I have to quilt this baby. Eek. And it's for our queen size bed, so it will be trickey on my tiny Brother machine.




I have embroidered a few squares (or do they call them blocks in the quilting world? I'm just winging it!) using Jenny Hart from Sublime Stitching transfers.

Just have to pop a border on, iron again, pin, stuff, quilt and trim..........

Extra Curricular

(photo from Extra Curricular)

I was lucky enough to get a copy of "Extra Curricular - for Creative Folk" from my very good friend Prue in Auckland. It's the very first issue.

It's a magazine about people doing exciting creative projects, part time and full time. Artists, crafters, photographers and illustrators - mostly from New Zealand.

And go here to see their blog.

Thanks heaps and heaps Prue.

Rays of Sunshine

This is the view from our back fence. I thought it was stunning.

Thankfully the heatwave is over. Today was wonderful. I don't think the temperature got past 23. It reminded me of Auckland!

Another Tote

An unusual thing happened - I didn't have a crafting project on the go. Nothing at all! So I went into my box of fabric and made myself a tote bag. I whipped this one up in an hour or so. The fabric is from Ikea from a previous project that was a bit of a disaster. At least I could recycle it!

Now I am planning another quilt with the stash of fabric I was lucky enough to get for Christmas. Can't wait to get started once this nasty heatwave is over. Looks like a loverly cool change is happening on Tuesday. Phew!

Rod and Huia

A late Christmas present arrived yesterday for my Mr Rockstitch. I found it on Toggle an online gift shop in NZ that has very cool selection of local craft and art.

I thought it was a very clever idea from Aimee Gruar of Birdsong. She has sourced abandoned and near extinct vinyl records, then cuts silhouettes of birds out of them. Mr R's is an extinct Huia. It arrives in it's original record sleeve. Fantastic. Then all you have to do is blu tac it to the wall.

Perfect. And a little bit of NZ for us.

Jam Drops

I made Jam Drops yesterday. The batch lasted maybe an hour at the most. Everyone loved them! So I thought I would let you know the recipe. I found it in a Woolworths Fresh magazine that I picked up at the supermarket (Issue 46 Dec 09). They are scrummy and easy.

1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup custard powder
80g butter, softened
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 tblsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup jam (I used plum)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Sift flour and custard powder together.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add milk and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Add flour mixture and mix together to form a soft dough. Roll heaped teaspoonsful into balls and place on trays leaving about 5 cm space between biscuits for spreading.
4. Using your thumb, make an indent in the top to fill with a little of the jam.
5. Bake for 15 minutes until golden. Transfer to wire racks to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Not that they will last that long!

Enjoy.

Happy New Year!

These are our solar powered, colour changing lanterns that make our funny little backyard look kind of ok. Especially on New Years Eve.

I wonder what 2010 will bring? Hopefully lots of good things for everyone. I'm looking forward to lots of Brown Owl meetings with very clever Owls. Going on lots of adventures with the family. We are still discovering South Australia but are desperate to go on a road trip to Daylesford in Victoria. Fingers crossed I will be learning lots of new things, more info later........




I had to show you the New Years spread. We ate outside under the lanterns. The main dish being Chicken Cacciatore from Jamie Magazine (Issue 4 July/August 2009). It was deeeelicous and so easy. I really love the magazine. Jamie Oliver is the Editor-at-Large. It's beautifully art directed and printed on lovely recycled paper. I have a bit of a paper fettish to be honest, and the smell of paper and ink, fantastic!