A Family Holiday

For the first time in what feels like a very long time we went on a holiday. I think it's been a couple of years by now so we were long overdue.  Last time we stayed down towards Byron Bay, this time we thought we'd drive a bit further south and explore the area of Urunga.  Urunga is about 20 minutes south of Coffs Harbour, inland there is a beautiful area called Bellingen and a little further, Dorrigo. We were keen to explore both the coast and inland so each day of our holidays we did just that.  We also visited Nambucca Heads, Yamba and also the Crystal Castle just inland from Byron Bay.  There was also a little bit of shopping done too, a nice little treat for me.  The time away was peaceful and it was nice to have a change of scenery and pace, time to get away from the usual routine of home and relax.  Next time I hope it won't be this long in between holidays, no it definitely won't be I will make sure of it..

Peg people and pig tails

Inspired by Tania's post the other day and needing something to keep one little person busy while the big sister is cooking, I pulled out the craft box and suggested making peg people.  I love seeing her create and being the lucky recipient.  They now have a special place in my craft room. I also found this fun mermaid peg person tutorial which might be fun to try too.

I love to try new crafts so I made this fun little gift yesterday for my best friend's daughter, korker hair ties. These I think would be great to make for Christmas presents, have you started thinking about Christmas yet? I've started to think about it, my plan tonight is to start writing a list of gifts I want to make.  If you would like to try and make some I found a great link here.

I hope your Monday was magical♥

A Bit of Crochet, a bit of sewing

I missed yesterday's post, my hubby needed the computer for work and I was out of steam with no hint of a bright idea to post. I won't get a chance to have too much computer time again tonight so I thought I had better get in quick and post a bit of what I've been up to lately.


My two girls are heading to a Masterchef birthday party tomorrow and the birthday girl is saving to buy herself an Ipod touch so I thought I would make her a little case to keep her new gadget in. It was super quick to make and a great tutorial to follow. I'll give her a bit of money as well in her card but thought I might make her some sweet bows and a couple of these crochet hair scrunchies. The bow was pretty quick to crochet and would also be a great Christmas present idea too I think!


On Sunday it's my sister-in-laws baby shower so I wanted to add a couple of little things to the blanket I crocheted. I firstly finished off the last of the journals I started back here. I then made a simple solid granny wash cloth using some Sugar and Cream cotton I bought from here. And since I had bought some pretty fabric a while ago to make her booties but haven't gotten around to it making them yet I decided to make a bib using the fabric. I first saw the bib pattern here and followed the link to The Perl Bee and sewed one up. I wish that I was more of a sewer when my two were little, handmade bibs are pretty sweet.

Have you got many plans for the weekend? I hope that you have some beautiful weather to enjoy and have lots of fun times.

See you tomorrow:)

P.S. I'm sorry for not popping by your lovely blogs lately but I will be sure to stop by this weekend:)

A Bit of Saturday Sewing

Today we had a little girl's 3rd birthday to go to. I asked her Mum for some guidance in the present idea department and she said to me clothes of any kind. Well I can do that I thought! With an already well used pattern and an idea, I made a sweet little outfit. It's a simple little skirt pattern, just two rectangles sewn together and a bit of elastic, so one skirt was made and a little applique top.

Miss 6 had a lovely time being the big girl and playing with the birthday girl. It was good for her to have the chance to be the older one since she has a big sister who likes to be the responsible one. So for a couple of hours there was lots of eating, swinging and playing party games. They played the egg and spoon race and had a sack race, it was so much fun to watch. I remember these games so vividly, I used to love playing musical chairs when I was younger. What was your favourite party game?

I hope that you have enjoyed your weekend. Today is our last day of holidays so my girls will be at school tomorrow and the house will be very quiet without them. Happy Monday to you.

My Creative Space

This week I been creative with paper. Last week I showed you my next project, making some journals for my sister in law to keep a record of all things to do with her new baby. Well I didn't quite finish them all, but only have one to go. I had lots of fun making them and enjoyed doing a bit of stitching on them, just for something a bit different.



My friend's daughter is having a birthday soon and I was trying to get some ideas for presents when she asked if I could make her a library bag, absolutely I said. One of her favourite colours are blue so when I picked up these crochet doilies from the local op shop I had to find some blue to go with it so I could use them. So this will be my next project for the week, I'm not sure if there will be too much crafting going on though because holidays start next week, yeah!

Pop in and visit Kirsty's to see some other creative spaces.

My Creative Space

It's Thursday again and time to peak into what's happening in people's creative space!



On Sunday I gave you a sneak peak at somethings I was making for Miss 10 and now it's finished I can show you, a crocheted notebook cover. I was going through an old copy of my Better Homes and found a pattern, I altered it a little after finding a bit of web inspiration, yeah for the internet!



And in my letterbox is some yummy fabric waiting to be made into this bag, another handmade something for my big girl's birthday.

To be inspired, stop by Kirsty's to see what everyone has been creating this week.

Crafting

After our outing on Saturday to the markets, Sunday was a good day to stay at home and do a bit of crafting for my family. Firstly it was for my little girl. To help with her school work I had number posters and sight words blue tacked to her wall. I know it doesn't sound pretty, it did help her though but it was time to pretty it up. So around the blog world I had seen some tutorials for making tissue flowers and thought she might like them. We headed to Spotlight together to choose some tissue paper and I followed this tutorial to make them. They tore easily and required some patience to make so after a bit too much tearing on one of them she was left with three to decorate her room.

The next project was a mat for Molly's dog bowls to keep them up off the floor. I got the project from the same book I made her blanket. All it needed was some oil cloth, glue and a scrap piece of wood. I think she likes it:)


And it seems like ages since I've shown anything to do with my paper craft so here is a quick little gift idea I wanted to share with you. My daughter plays the flute at school and is also lucky enough to have a neighbour who also plays the flute and teaches her each Tuesday. She didn't want any money so I like to thank her by giving her some of my cooking or if I haven't cooked I buy her a little something. This week I hadn't cooked so I bought some chocolate, wrapped some white cardstock around it with a bit of decorative tape, added some flowers and a pearl, that's it, quick and easy.

Sorry for not stopping by and visiting, I hope to pop by and see what you've been up to tomorrow. See you then!

Sunday

Today we celebrated my nephews birthday. We headed over there first thing for a lovely morning tea with close family. We all had a lovely time, the girls love playing with their little cousin and he adores them too. Because it was his birthday there was a present to be made so I spent all day yesterday making him one of these. But my version is called the Travelling Train Track.


He is a big fan of Thomas so although he didn't play with the track, the trains were a hit. I think the track will end up being a hit with his Mum when she needs to take something with her to keep him entertained when they go out. The only thing I did differently is changed the car track to a train track but later I thought I should have changed the car on the front to a train but it was already sewn on and time wasn't on my side so not this time.

I also wanted to show you what I won from Megan at Simple Pleasures for the Sew Mama Sew May Day giveaway. Thank you Megan for my beautiful prize it arrived safely and will be put to good use the next time I go away, it's just perfect.

How was your Sunday? Did you have nice weather to enjoy the last day of the weekend? Thanks for coming by lovelies:)

My Creative Space

Good morning:) In my creative space today is my first attempt at quilting. I've wanted to make a quilt for a long time and when I saw this cute pattern in the book Sew Darn Cute I thought it would make a perfect start to the world of quilting. It's just the right size for me because it's small so it didn't take too long, it was fun and not too daunting. I decided that it would make the perfect picnic blanket for a little girl who loves to play with dolls and with some food and accessories it will be making it's way to her soon.

*The little food on the plates are actually erasers from Kmart that I thought looked cute and the jar of food I bought at my favourite doll shop in Brisbane*

For more creative spaces head over to Kirsty's blog.

Catherine xo

My First Creative Space

Today was the day for me to take the plunge and give sharing my creative space with everyone a go, I really enjoy seeing all the creativity that people are up to. What you can see is scrapbooking paper, modge podge, a zutter cutter album cover and some rings. When you add it all up it means I am eagerly making a lockable diary for my god daughter's up and coming birthday. I was told she wanted a lockable diary and rather than buy it I was inspired by Mel to create my own. She likes fun colours and I plan on covering the album, putting in some ruled paper and using a couple of jumbo eyelets for the lock. I hope she likes it.

My other pictures show the little bibs that I made for my lovely friends newborn baby. I found this great pattern over here at Chickpea Sewing. It was fun to make and the fabric was a bit of a win, finding Micheal Miller fabric for $12 a metre at my local fabric store was pretty good.

And last but not least here is what I will end up giving to the new baby and their family a decorated tin bucket with a newspaper, some little socks, two bibs and also the tag album I made earlier. Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you all again soon.

Smiles Catherinex

Some Easter Treats

Hello everyone I hope that you are all enjoying your weekend so far my has been relaxing and productive at the same time. My family and I went to the movies today to see Monsters vs Aliens which we all enjoyed, a good movie for both adults and the children. Later on I went to visit Spotlight (my new favourite shop) to pick up a hot glue gun and got to work on some hair clips for some Easter gifts. They get so much chocolate that I decided to make a couple of things and limit the amount of chocolate I gave out so everyone will be happy. Thanks for visiting. Talk to you again soon. Bye!

Smiles Catherine