Stylin it

Well the cold and rainy morning has turned into a cold and rainy day.
It's nice to be snug inside and getting lots done on an assessment.
I was finally able to get this little one out of bed (so I could make it) but now he's retired to his cozy chair in front of the fire and is still sleeping! He was also really happy when I pulled his little puffer jacket out of storage - all tail wags.
He really hates having his photo taken, can you notice the icy glare?!
And you can't really see in these photos but his little jacket has little buttons down the front.
super styling it up puppy :)

oh and this is the chair I brought to do up for my room, still in it's bad condition. Hopefully I can start fixing it up next holidays. I know I want to do a bold funky pattern - any fabric ideas anyone?

Luckstar

Sometimes when it's rainy and cold outside all you want to do is stay in bed...
like ALL day!
But seriously as the weather gets colder we are having real trouble trying to get this little one out of bed everyday!
And no my puppy isn't usually allowed on the beds. He usually sleeps in his little foam tee-pee box, but he had just had a bath last night, was super clean and fluffy and I was home alone.. and how could I resist this face?
I say... snuggle on down.
And pretend like their isn't this crazy lady trying to take a dozen pictures of you while you are 'trying' to sleep!

for the sweet tooth

"...Brown paper packages tied up with strings. These are a few of my favourite things..."

Inspired by the many amazing lolly buffets out their in blogland I have decided to have one as part of the dessert menu at my 21st and I'm so excited to put it together :) It's been fun collecting different style and size vases - although I am still looking for one in this shape (I'm pretty sure I have seen some in Freedom or Adairs)...

image by paperpony.

When hanging out with Niki the other evening we also got to dig into her amazingly fun and huge stamping and ink collection (the word huge here is a HUGE understatement!!) to decorate the lolly bags. Each bag has a cute stamp on it (my favourites are the chairs and the dandelions) and a sweet quote:

"Dreams come a SIZE TOO BIG so we can grow into them".
"Every Day holds the probability of a Miracle"
"Sometimes to create unexpected ideas you need to look in unexpected places".
"When Nothing is sure, everything is possible" - margaret drabble.
"It's the little things that make life BIG".
"Those who reach touch the stars".
"Take time to enjoy the simple things in life".
and my favourite..
"Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favourite things.."

I found the bags at spotlight for around $8 for a pack of 25, which I thought was a great price. They are even lined with a waxy paper (as they are for cake).

...If your wanting to try this yourself I also found these (in pink) and these similar bags on Esty by Nicepackage (she has some really cute stuff)...

To close each bag after filling I am going to leave a vase full of my colourful scrapbook-paper pegs, which I think finish them off nicely and I might use them in somewhere in the decor too - any ideas?

I can't wait to see it all come together. And yes, I will be posting pictures :)

Kt Mac's Mac

To say I love my laptop would kind of be an understatement..
It's always with me, I use it everyday, it houses all of my important stuff and have found it so convenient, particularly when taking notes and doing work at college or on the train. So of course if it is going to be covered - it's just going to have to do it in style ;)
So yesterday (when I should of been doing assessments for school) I decided to bring out my sewing machine - to keep me sane, ya know! And I whipped up this lap top cozy which I have been meaning to make for months!

The outside fabric is Amy Butler's French Wallpaper Duck Egg and the inside fabric is one of Spotlight's new quilters fabric.

I may have gone a little overboard with the enclosure (it has both a velcro and elastic enclosure) Although the elastic is mainly for decoration as I felt it needed a little more something. The wadding I used is a fusible wadding, which I also highly recommend, maybe for sewing items like heavy duty bags as well, or light weight quilts? It's a little bit more pricey than other wadding, but so easy to use and sew over - the needle went straight through it!

nice and cozy :)

and Leslie, you asked about school.. it's going ok. We've had a lot of little assessments lately - making sample boards for commercial areas according to colour psychology, doing mini-shoe-box-style visual merchandising displays, redesigning the soft furnishings for our bedrooms and learning curtain calculations etc (uggghk!), doing presentation boards on a particular historical styles which we pulled out of a hat, building studies (yuck) and learning about load bearing walls and which walls can be taken out etc and a few group presentations too. We have also just received our first major assessment - redesigning a lounge/dining room. We got given the choice of two briefs and in my brief I am designing for a young newly married couple expecting their first baby who live on the gold coast. We got given the floor plan and information and tables for all the supporting documentation to go with it. I'm doing a sophisticated resort style feel with hardwood floors, wooden furniture, a library nook, a bit of pattern thrown in and metallic touches in accessories. It's due a few days after my 21st, so I am hoping I can get it done before then and only have the presentation boards and speeches to do during that week. So I may be missing in action soon, and if I like it I may just let you all have a little peak when it is finished too..

invited again (because obviously we just like throwing partys!)

Wow... where do you start when you have not posted in forever?
When trying to get over a case of the blues?
How about the fun this lady and I got up to last Saturday?
A day which turned out to be just what I needed. A little break from the mundane and lots of fun! A great shopping trip with my boy in the morning, so much fun (I love when he buys me things!), lunch out together and an evening with a friend who just gets me. Playing with paper, ribbons, stamps and the niftiest little inventions ever sharing fun songs and a really yummy dinner with her and her hubby! And asking each other - Are you going to blog about this? hehe
Niki - thank you for a wonderful evening, I love you!

So Niki's craft room...
OH MY GOODNESS!! it's like a candy shop - this lady has everything. Over 2500 stamps, huge amounts of paper, inks, ribbon, embossing stuff, a cuttlebug (I think I still need to see this in action Nik ;) tonnes of cutters and so much stuff I'm sure I didn't even see! I brought over my little jar of ribbons and my suitcase sized craftyness - it looked silly in comparison.
We made these cute little invitations for my 21st which is coming up next month. They were really simple to make. We printed 4 invites on A4 special inky paper (it's really smooth and makes inks bold in colour and not washy). Then we used the guilatene to cut them and the black paper to size. Stuck the black paper and ribbons on with double sided tape, used a fun little corner cutter to soften the edges and then Niki stamped the word 'Fun' while I glued the buttons on. Simple and effective, slightly sophisticated for a 21st but bright and fun too :)

Here are a few of my favourites:

oh and we stamped the cutest little lolly bags (which I forgot to take a pictures of) - will share soon.
and yeah it was, fun!

love this.

phew its been busy over here.. lots of assessments, new modules and general school work (& many a late night/early morning) is keeping me quite busy! So sorry for my lack of comments lately.. I promise I have been tuning in to each of your blogs though!

Just about to head off to bed, but wanted to share these cute invites I found on Flickr while browsing for invitation ideas for my 21st. The other side reads "Guess Whooo". Cute huh?

Also... Many happy congratulations to this sweet family and their latest edition - a perfectly gorgeous little baby boy. He really is beautiful Chelle!

goodnight all
x