my ramblings

The Easter bonnets and Easter bunnies

The Easter Bonnet.

Sadly my girls are getting a little old for Easter bonnets. So I've gone back through old photos to find our Easter hats/bonnets which the girls have made over the years. Our Easter Bonnets always had a very handmade look to them.

• We start with Phoebe in 2002 (above left), these big ears were made at pre-school and they were worn around the Sydney Easter show ALL DAY.
• Next is Emily in 2003 (above middle), she was in Year 2 and this was her hat for the Easter hat parade at school - real chocolate eggs dangled from the hat in true Aussie-style on a very hot day!
• Phoebe in 2004 in her 'hat' made in Kindergarten. Eggs, bunnies and fluffy chicks. (above right)

• Bunnies and girls sometime in 2004 (above left).
• Phoebe with her fluffy chicks hat in 2005. I think this hat is the same one used by Emily in 2003.
• Phoebe in 2006, she was in Year 2, her last year for an Easter hat parade at school. This hat was decorated with her own designs of bunnies and eggs, and finished with rick rack.

I'm sure there are more hats, but these are just from the digital images I have on our computer, I haven't gone back through our film photos.

We did make Easter bonnets this year... for the bunnies. Emily found these cute little cowboy hats, and they were a perfect bunny size. The ideas we used for these hats could be easily adapted to a slightly larger version if you wish.

Here are the little hats.

We wrapped ribbon around the hat, holding it with double-sided tape. Then pierce a small hole in the centre front of the hat, and use a brad to hold the fabric flowers in place. Attach fluffy chick. Our chicks kept falling off, so I would suggest using a hot glue gun, place a small amount of glue on the chicks feet, and attach to the hat.

And here are our Easter bunny photos.

Bubbles and Butterscotch were initially reluctant to model for their Easter photo shoot, turning their little cotton tails towards us.

But Bubbles did come through with some nice modeling poses for the camera.

She couldn't decide which hat she preferred.

Butterscotch did not cooperate at all. She wore her bonnet and then lay on the grass and did not move.

Here's one photo we really liked, no Easter bonnet though.

Marty couldn't help get in on the act also.

Rachel Richter has a very, very cute idea on her blog for Easter cards. You have to go take a peek. This is such a clever idea.

I'd like to wish you all a happy Easter. I'm taking a small break from blogging for the long weekend. Thank you for visiting and commenting. I will choose the RAK winners early next week if that's OK.

HAPPY EASTER

Cheers

Fiona

x

for bunny lovers only

This is for the bunny lovers who read my blog, a bit of Monday silliness.

Yesterday the girls decided it was a good idea to give the bunnies a bath. During the week we'd found bunny shampoo in the pet store which, of course, we just HAD to have. Bunnies are extremely clean little creatures and our bunnies have never been given a bath in the 4 1/2 years that they have lived with us (they are brushed several times a week, though).

Butterscotch, as you can see below, quite enjoyed the experience relaxing in the tub with warm soapy water....

Bubbles wasn't as relaxed about the whole experience...

But she did enjoy the blow dry afterwards...

Bubbles and Butterscotch are now very fluffy ready for their Easter photo shoot.

{please note: no bunny was harmed during this activity}

Enjoy your Monday.

Cheers

Fiona

x

first quick post for 2008

Happy New Year!!

We're in the middle of summer holidays here. A couple of days after Christmas we headed up the coast to Hawks Nest. We stayed until after new years, which was very different for us. I usually love being in Sydney for the Sydney fireworks, but this year we decided to have a very quite, relaxing break away. It was just so nice.

Bennetts Beach was closed for a day or so during out stay due to the rough seas along the NSW coast. Here's Phoebe with her newest Beanie Kid, Ky the surf life saving bear, checking out the surf conditions.

Little Bubbles and Butterscotch enjoyed their holiday too, they loved hopping around the garden up at Hawks. They travel well in their little pet travel case, and we keep a travel hutch up at Hawks for them to stay in while we are there.

Back in Sydney, and the girls and I have seen a few movies. Enchanted was good (especially as a Greys Anatomy fan) and we've seen the Water Horse which was a beautiful story and and movie. There's been many plays with friends, shopping, etc, etc.

I love school holidays.

Not much to report otherwise. I'm being kept busy with some projects for Maya Road with CHA coming up in February.

I've been enjoying my sewing a lot lately. I made Hootie the other night. He's already flown from our nest to another, but we enjoyed having him around the house for a few days before he joined another family.

The pattern is by Melly and Me (MO23). There are two versions included in the pattern, Hooty and Tweet (with longer legs). I found the fabric for my Hootie up at Tea Gardens. There's a shop called Black Possum Gallery which I discovered and made several secret trips to purchase some lovely fabrics. The fabrics used for my Hootie are gorgeous coordinating soft flanelette quilting fabrics (unfortunately I don't know the brand). Just perfect for a little baby!

That's about all for now.

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

October kit for Designing Memories

I was so happy to be a guest designer for Designing Memories and work with their October kit, along with Jill Geraghty Groves, also a guest designer for the month. Thank you Katja for asking me. Be sure to look through the Designing Memories gallery for lots of great scrapping ideas. Thought I'd share the layouts and cards using all the lovely products from the kit.

First layout uses a new favourite photo I snapped of Emily a few weeks back, not great lighting, but I love the expression is captured. At the moment her life is so good, she is achieving such wonderful things, and is so happy... just wanted to record those thoughts.

Next layout is of our cute little bunnies... they have been living with us now for four years. Wish I could say they are achieving wonderful things too, but their biggest achievement is being cute and fluffy.

And a couple of cards using lots of embellishments included in the kit for decoration.

 

Thanks for visiting, hope you're all having a good day.

Fiona x

a few more Maya Road sneaky peeks for CHA

A couple more projects for Maya Road...

The first one uses the Maya Road scalloped accoridan chipboard book, released earlier this year. The new sneaky peek on this project is the little pink chipboard hearts. These are a very cute size, and I received some pink hearts to play with recently from the MR girls. I've covered them with Kindyglitz and then applied a glossy sealer.

Now, next, is one of the NEW sheer books Maya Road is releasing at CHA-S. Lots of fun using this one, being a bit creative with the attachment of photos and embellishments!

I've added both to the galleries over on my website if you'd like to see all the pages of these books. The sheer album can be found here, and the accordian album can be seen here.Thanks for popping by my blog.

Fiona

x

lots of layouts...

Here's a few layouts to share.

"Topsy" is a vintage/heritage layout, created for a challenge to use older small photos (the small black and whites from the 1930's, '40's and '50's) BUT create a layout that was not the "traditional" heavy and dark heritage look. The photos on my "Topsy" layout are of my mum's family dog when she was a little girl and were taken in the 1930's and 1940's. The journaling remembers some of my mum's memories of Topsy. The papers on this layout are from KI Memories and the title uses American Crafts thickers.

"Carrot Harvest" was for the paint feature. The letters were from five different sets of Heidi Swapp chipboard sets (all different colors) which I painted. Also the large BIG uses some Maya Road sheers acrylic letters over which I've rubbed the paint. Papers used are My Mind's Eye Front Porch.

"Let's Celebrate" was created for the Occasions feature. These birthday photos were not the best, but I wanted to scrapbook them (and mum's yummy sponge cake with fresh cream and strawberries). Papers used My Mind's Eye Magnolia, letters are American Crafts felt thickers:

And a few more Paper Salon layouts also. These were done a little while ago, but I had not shared them. I've used one of my favourite Paper Salon collections on all three, the All Stitched Up collection.

   

Thanks for visiting. Hope you have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona

x

Merry Christmas

{Digital elements on the card above from a Fee Jardine digi kit}

And a festive little layout of our beautiful bunny, Butterscotch.

Well, this will be my last post before Christmas. Hope you all have a very happy, merry and safe Christmas time.

Fiona

x