Upcycled Lace Summer Scarf

Well, again I haven't done that much of late, but just prepare kidlets for school and enjoy the holidays.  I have found some great printable lunchbox notes sites just by doing a google search and I am really enjoying writing two inspirational notes on the kids bag tags and a secret one in their lunchbox. I find it really helped my son want to learn to read last year and it is something personal about how they are going, what they can do or just "Niceness is kindness" which went on one today,..

I am trying to give them encouragement at the things they are good at or have done well the day before.

A friend also told me she engraves special notes into their banana skins...what a lovely idea.  I will post some pics later.

Here is a scarf I made the other day, I had some leftover muslin, very light and breezy fabric.  Then some old cotton  scallop edging. I sewed this onto the bottom of the muslin and then sewed around each large lace rose. It creates the effect of one whole piece, but it just helps dress up some dull outfits.

Hope you have a great day!!

Carols by candelight

We finally made it to a Carols by Candlelight for the first time this year....but alas, half an hour into the carols, it poured raining so we hotstepped it back to my sister's for a campover which was a lot of fun!

 We made our very first Xmas shirts this year too, my 5yr old made one at kindy that needed to be prettied up so she glued on decorations onto her shirt and we printed a silhouette of our rescue doggy and painted onto my son and daughter's shirts,...(so they could for once have matching shirts) and they decorated them.....very personal they were.  Also so the girls matched too, we put fairy wings on the back of each shirt done in just felt, handsewn on (my 5 yr old sewed hers on) and then,...everybody matchs everybody, and my son had jingle bells on his sleeve with a handy little pocket for candy!!

Homemade Marshmallows with Passionfruit Mango swirls

In anticipation of some campfire relaxing, I thought I would make up a batch of marshmallow to melt in between biscuits with choc to try our first S'mores.... but in the 8th Edition of Donna Hay's Kids magazine there are some marshmallows in cupcake wrappers with raspberry swirls....they say to use topping for this and I just loooove my passionfruit mango topping over icecream...

So I made marshmallows with vanilla seeds this time for true vanilla flavour and then swirled the topping through...YUMMOOO!!!!!!!!

                                  Photo courtesy of my 5yr old daughter...hers just looked than mine!!!
                                

Christmas corner

So here is my December month of festive craft in pictures.  Sorry no tutorials, a busy month and just didn't make time for that.

Firstly for our Road Xmas Party, I tried my hardest to come up with a very tame theme, that young and old, keen and not-so-keen would all be (hopefully) willing to go along with. I came up with Bows and Bow Ties....and for those that had already suggested they weren't keen to play along...I took the liberty of making their bows and bow ties...for the most grumbly or hard to convince to wear a tie, I pulled apart an angel earring that flashed (actually my little 1yr old, ripped the head off her and it was the perfect back piece for the flashing bowtie for the biggest "dummyspitter", fortunately there were none, but the tie got heaps of use and looking very becoming on the country gentlemen.

 I hung up the bows and bow ties on our "North Pole" which was an old plant stand, with solar lights placed up the top and a big lampshade (that I have as yet had no use for) and Ta Daaa.it was our North Pole.....will post more piccies soon.  The rainbow boards I have posted about previously, they were old cork placemats that I covered for the girls room.

 We made our own snowglobes, which was a lot of fun.  I only have a shot of one, because the others need to be reglued...some very vigorous shaking has taken place, so will post the angel and rudolph globes later.

 This frame and fairy lights hung between the tables...hard to read the sign, it says "The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is to sing LOUD for all to hear" I can't remember the website I printed it off as a free printable....but I really loved it.

The tiny Xmas tree was an opshop find as well as the angel.

I made the baby blue and white spot tissue poms and the rainbow pom from leftover tissue paper.

I created a bunch of paper decorations above the Christmas tree,  this snowflake...

this feather wreath with leftover supplies.....

 The outdoor table centrepiece for me were these old plastic lampshades from the house glued onto a broken base off a crystal jar, and two wine glasses of different shapes, that were 20c each....They are three different heights which adds some nice dimension and this year our theme was pastel blue green and pink, which looked so pretty!

 We also were going to make a gingerbread house or train, we even thought a castle or tent might be fun, but came up with this idea to make a gingerbread mobile with candy and hung above the kitchen table.  It looked really cute.

 For a party we made these santa hats which were really yummy and easy to make. Just strawberries dipped in white choc then rolled in coconut.  White chocolate on the top with a macadamia, but you could use mini marshmallows too!

I printed out photo props for the Xmas party and it was a lot of fun for young and old again. I was surprised that almost everybody had a go and it was such a lot of laughs.

Not the best shot, no lippie and not quite ready, but timing is essential to get the kids in the shot.  My bow was a bow tie with flair...I thought it was quite cute on the side.

 A dear sweet friend and I playing up to the camera

Everyone wants to be Santa

                                         Or a wise ole chap....

Same goes.......

Again those dear sweet friends hamming it up!!!

                                        

And my sweetie and I

Tidying turned Pretty discovery

In my effort to keep my girls' room tidy, I was sorting through some hairbands and baby headbands and having run out of spaced on the clipholders for these,...I pondered the next hook-like object I could utilise.

I had bought an ultra cheap but pretty lamp months ago and planned to put rainbow coloured ruffles around it for my sweetie.  Since my sewing machine has gone (until Xmas anyway when I received a new one) I haven't been able to do anything to it.  So I threw on a fairy headband and few other things, a few clips and this looks really quite cute and colourful to me in the meantime anyway. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Well I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, filled with lots of pretty DIY projects and styling you have done....there are some totally gorgeous things out there that are so impressive.  I also hope your New Year was festive and filled with love, laughter and plenty of fun toasts.

Ours was not too festive, but I did have a fun afternoon yesterday with the kids.  We played lawn bowls, while I drank some pink champas and they shared a guava softdrink for pink bubbles too.  Then we had a movie night in the treehouse and all snuggled in together under the mosquito net, watching some flicks... It was a lot of fun and I have to say, having a treehouse is so much better than setting up a tent when you want to camp out and we have a beautiful breeze flowing through, without the worry of any animals popping in to say hi during the night...!! I even got some little bits of sleep squished in with the three kids, so I consider it a success.

Anyway, I have a backlog of things I have been doing over the past month or so and I was so lucky to get a new sewing machine for Christmas, so can't wait to get sewing on that.

Sorry for the wait

Wow such a long time since I have been on, and not a great start to the "supposedly" consistent posts...but I have been doing lots....just haven't got it up yet.

Am making some bath bombs as gifts for ladies and kidlets at my Xmas party coming up and just had to share this great site Craft Bits with fabulous recipes for DIY crafts of all sorts including sherbet bath bombs, bath icecream, it all looks so good, even the bath cuppacino!!!! Wouldn't be wanting this at nighttime, but if you are an early riser, what a treat to soak in a cuppacino bath before the day begins.....

Or what about this Pina Colada bath bomb...might get you in the mood for partying...

Bath Salt - Pina Colada

 

For all the recipes visit this site ...Craft Bits