living on the crafty side of life

Better Homes and Gardens LIVE Melbourne ticket giveaway

The BHG LIVE show is coming to Melbourne! It's on 24-26 February 2012 at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton.

The three day event will host four stages, with live demonstrations from the Better Homes and Gardens TV experts, plus there'll be over 300 companies exhibiting at the event. You can read all about the show on the Better Homes and Gardens LIVE website.

To my Melbourne readers, start planning your day, cause I have 10 double passes (a total of 20 complimentary tickets) each valued at $40.00 to give away.

If you live in Melbourne or will be in Melbourne town on the weekend of the show and would like a couple of tickets, please send me an email.

Enjoy the show :)

Cheers

Fiona

 

 

ribbons galore in better homes and gardens magazine

I returned from our January holiday to find a couple of my handmade key rings in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine (the Australian February 2012 edition).

About six months ago I was asked to make several key rings in a few different summery colour ways. It was great to open up the magazine and see which key rings were chosen {the birdy ribbon is one of my favourites}.

All the cotton webbing and key fob hardware are available at Ribbons Galore. They are a very easy project to make.

Handmade ribbon key rings are also available in the handmade section on the Ribbons Galore website. 

Cheers

Fiona x

 

Ribbons Galore newsletter

I have just finished a new newsletter for Ribbons Galore.

You can download the Ribbons Galore newsletter or, view it online here:

Open publication - Free publishing

I loved putting this newsletter together after learning how to use Adobe InDesign recently. It has been a goal to mine to produce a little newsletter for Ribbons Galore, and here it is.

Hope you enjoy seeing all the new ribbons added to Ribbons Galore recently.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona

homespun magazine

Ribbons Galore had some ribbons featured in the Window Shopping pages of the latest Homespun Magazine (July 2011). The whole section featured products with cute reindeer designs, many of them being of the Rudolf variety, for a Christmas in July special.

 
The ribbons featured are the very cute Ruldolf the Red Nosed Reindeer ribbons.

 

They are beautiful quality ribbons, perfect for all your Christmas sewing (even in July). I made a little carry bag/gift bag with the pink Rudolf ribbon last Christmas.

Cheers

Fiona

welcome 2011

Happy New Year!

We've just returned from a short break in the Hunter Valley which was very relaxing. Now our thoughts are turning to back to school and work over the next couple of weeks... where have the holidays have gone? This afternoon I've raised the hems on a couple of new school uniform dresses and ironed on name labels onto several new uniform pieces. We have one excited 12 year heading off to high school very soon. Covering the text books is one of the next jobs on our list.

As I organise our new uniforms, I've also been sorting out the old ones, the uniforms that have been worn (and filled my laundry) for the past decade. Most have paint stains on them, a sign, I hope, of a little creativity that has been enjoyed by my two gorgeous girls at some time over the last 10 years...

I have some exciting Ribbons Galore news which I really should have shared at the end of 2010 (but due to circumstances beyond my control, last year didn't end as I planned).

Earlier last year I was contacted by the lovely Toni Coward of Make It Perfect. She was interested in using some ribbons for her new project, a new book called "Make it Perfect". A couple of weeks ago I finally bought the book while I was in th city at Kinokuniya (I also bought the latest Cotton Time, I just couldn't resist!). Toni's book is gorgeous. The projects are fun, bright and happy with a mixture of projects/clothes for kids and adults. The patterns are full sized (no need to enlarge) and multi sized.

Here's a couple of pictures of the book...

 

My first project will be an apron from the book. Just trying to pick the right fabric.

Ribbons Galore was also featured in Donna Hay magazine (Dec 2010/Jan 2011 edition).

 

This time of year is normally a time for relaxation, with many families enjoying the school holidays. Unfortunately this is not the case for many, many people across Australia at the moment, not such a happy new year for everyone.

Toni Coward and her sister Carli are co-ordinating fund raising auctions/raffles for those affected by the Queensland floods. I'll be joining in the fund raising effort with a raffle for some Ribbons Galore ribbons. I'll be posting more details in the next couple of days. In the meantime, please visit Toni's blog to read more about this fund raising effort and current auctions. 

Cheers

Fiona

australian homesewn update

It seems the magazine is now available.

Ro has just emailed me to say she's spotted AUSTRALIAN HOMESEWN in the newsagency in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney today. It arrived this morning apparently. Thanks for your email Ro.

Cheers

Fiona x

australian homesewn

A little while ago I was thrilled to be asked by Mel Goodsell to create a project for a new publication, Australian Homesewn. Last week my copy arrived. It is just lovely, with so many sewing projects for kids, the home and of course, us girlies. Mel has created so many gorgeous projects for the magazine herself.

My brief was to create a stationery set with a matching pencil case, covered note book (which you can see on the cover, above) and a laptop bag. 

 

I wanted to make something colourful, so I used some fabric from one of my favourite fabric collections, Park Slope by Erin McMorris, and mixed it with some lime chenille

The covered note book was fun to make with a place for your pen on the cover.

 

The pencil case....

 

and the lap top bag...

 

One of my favourite little details on my sewing projects at the moment, fabric covered buttons.

There are full instructions for these three projects included in the magazine.

Australian Homesewn is published by Derwent Howard. I've emailed Mel to find out when it will be on sale. To be honest I haven't ventured out over the last week to see if it's in stores yet, but when I find out, I'll report back here.

And in other news... 18 months ago I had braces put on my teeth. A little know fact to most and something that has not been well documented in photographs. Well, tomorrow I'm having them removed. YEAH!!! They've done their job. I'm not sorry to see them go, to be honest, but I did get a little sentimental this afternoon that I didn't have much photographic evidence of their existence. So this afternoon I dragged Phoebe outside to have a photo. Yes, a self portrait taken with Phoebe's little digi camera, a quick snap shot, a little memory captured of this little stage of my life. Bring on tomorrow!

 

I seem to have lots of other little things to report on, but have been really busy with family life and birthdays and Ribbons Galore. So I will attempt to post some more little projects very soon.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Fiona x

fabric and patchwork

Several weeks back I discussed with my gorgeous girls a project (or projects) I wanted to make with them.... patchwork quilts. We talked about them creating a patchwork piece with me, so they would have something we've made together, to keep, hopefully, for a long time. They seemed keen on the idea. We'd start simply with a square patchwork. So I let Emily loose on my ever growing fabric collection, she looked for a while, pulling fabrics together and came up with this collection:

I cut the squares of fabric for her, she started sewing the blocks together. I had trouble keeping up with her, madly cutting the squares to supply her sewing frenzy.

She did well, I tried to teach her about matching the seams/corners, etc (reminded me of a project I had to complete from my Clothing Manufacturing TAFE course many years back). Within a few hours she'd completed the patchwork top. She's only 12 and I think she did an amazing job, and I'm really proud of her!

We now have to find some backing fabric and the wadding, etc. Then we can finish this quilt. Now if anyone has patchwork/quilting experience, I'm wondering what sort of wadding you use, I'd like to hear what is your preference and why. I've started looking at the different types and I'd appreciate any advise.

Phoebe has her fabric picked out, and has already discussed some design modifications from Emily's quilt. I'm looking forward to starting that project next and working with Phoebe.

I went to the Craft Fair last week with a friend. I was so nice wandering around. We both enjoy different crafts so I was nice looking at what each other enjoys. I was mainly looking at the fabric stands. Loved the Vintage Comfort quilt on the Amitie stand. Unfortunately the kit was sold out. Material Obsession and Quiltsmith both appealed being Sydney based stores, which I'll be visiting very soon. I bought the Material Obsession book, which offers beautiful (and simple) projects, with gorgeous photographs and easy instructions. It was a good book for the girls to look through as well and gather ideas.

Well that's about all for now. Life's very busy here with lots of girls things on at the moment. I'm helping to make costumes for the school musical Emily is in. Both my parents are not well, so there's been extra visits to them, cooking dinners, making sure they are OK (thank goodness they live close). And of course ribbon orders are always being packed.

Thanks for visiting, thanks for the birthday wishes/emails to Phoebe and myself over the last couple of weeks.

Have a great weekend.

Cheers

Fiona x

Carrot Cupcakes

We have a very important birthday in our family this weekend. After subtle (and not so subtle) questions from the girls as to the type of cake that would be enjoyed by this birthday person, it was decided that carrot cake would be well received.

So here I am cooking today. We are running out of time to prepare the cakes, and tomorrow (THE birthday) is already full with sporting matches and plays, so I thought I'd make the cakes today, so the girls can decorate in the morning.

Something occurred to me this morning as I was enjoying my cooking - BY MYSELF. One of the very few negatives of having children (apart from the cost of running them) is that you create cake spoon and bowl licking competitors. I love licking the spoon, the bowl and anything else that has a dollop of uncooked cake mixture. But these days I rarely get to indulge in this pleasure. I have little people who, as soon as they hear the cake tin going into the oven, suddenly appear in the kitchen. And that's if they weren't already there, "helping" with the actual cooking.

Today I was able to enjoy a little bit of cake mixture, uncooked, by myself. And this mixture in particular was delicious and rich uncooked.

Here's the first batch out of the oven. The mixture was huge. I've made 28 muffin sized carrot cupcakes from this recipe. Looks like there'll be some left over for Mother's Day on Sunday :-))

The recipe I used is the Church Picnic Carrot Cupcakes (page 49) from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. Great book, full of beautiful ideas for cupcakes.

OK, I've finished my cup of tea, better keep going, I've got a mini book to work on and some ribbon orders to pack. I'll share some photos of the finished cakes when the girls have worked their magic on them tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Cheers

Fiona x

it's cupcake time again

There's another birthday in our house today. My beautiful Emily is 12 years old.

Happy Birthday gorgeous girl.

We've had the present opening frenzy this morning. Phone calls from Nana and friends. Pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast (Emily's specialty). All very exciting stuff!

And the cupcakes have gone to school... all 36 of them. Apparently, not only do we supply cupcakes for the whole class, but all Emily's friends not in her class must have a cupcake too. It's a good thing we like making cupcakes in this house.

So last night was the cupcake making and decorating marathon. I have a new favourite cupcake recipe. After years of using the same recipe (and being very happy with it), I tried a new recipe a few weeks back. And it is delicious. It's a Donna Hay recipe. If you have the Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2, the recipe is on page 54 (cupcakes with crushed raspberry cream, except I don't use the raspberry cream, just the cupcake part of the recipe). Delicious!

Have a great day! Thanks for visiting.

Fiona