My Creative Space - Hello Birdie Pillow

The lovely Posie gave me a spare Red Thread pattern she had and I made this cute Hello Birdie Pillow for Anya's bedroom in a couple of hours! So cute and looks great on her bed! I highly recommend the pattern, it is easy and designed to be made from fat quarters which I love, because we all have fat quarters in our stash - don't we ladies!!!! So easy to make for a quick kids/baby/girlfriend present! For more creative spaces visit 'Our Creative Spaces'!

Ed's note: Thanks to everyone that left comments last week - sorry blogger deleted them all in the wobbly it had last Thursday!

My Creative Space - Giant Paper Flower Wedding Bouquets

I made these giant paper flower bouquets for a local bride who found me through a friend of a friend! They were fun to make and I love the colours the bride chose. The girls were wearing a dusty pink dress and I think the grey would have looked stunning!



The tissue paper held it's shape well, I just hope it didn't rain - the wedding was on the Gold Coast! The brides flower was made from a crinkly tissue paper which was a lot firmer and I think I preferred the shape and look. I used gum tree sticks and lightly sanded the bumps and lumps off!! My brides dream wedding flowers were inspired by this bride!



Grab a cuppa and wander on over to Kirsty's for a creative feast!

My Creative Space - Party Cakes

As I mentioned yesterday my handsome little guy is almost 1! We had a little family party for him last Saturday on the rare occasion all 4 my siblings were in town and it was my brother Jeremy's actual birthday that day!

My first 'boy' cake! From the "Women's Weekly More Cakes for Kids" book. It was very easy and if you have the book, I just doubled the butter cake mix and used a square tin instead of a loaf tin but I forgot to double my icing so I only just made it! Those flat icing knives really are worth having for this sort of icing!







Best dad ever! Another rare shot, Anya smiling for the camera, she is such a 'contrary Mary'.


The birthday boy a little unsure about the singing (pictured with my sister and niece).



The two birthday boys, Jeremy and Josiah. More creative spaces for your viewing pleasure, at Kirsty's.

My Creative Space - Mini Bean Bags

Did you have these at school when you were a kid? I have vague memories of them but saw them about the web last week and *bing* - the perfect way to use our Moda Pillow scraps! They are just charm squares filled with split peas from the supermarket.



Anya delighted in filling them with me - thank goodness for the funnel and vacuum cleaners I say! We have been practising our throwing and catching, balancing on our heads and even Josiah is enjoying playing with them. For more fun join in here.

My Creative Space - Watercolours

I bought some watercolours for Anya and I have really enjoyed using them with her and on my own at night when she is tucked in bed :-) Just playing around and doing something different to my normal sewing/creating.



This is my attempt at painting Mondays orchids.



Hope you have your cuppa ready to enjoy some more creative spaces at Kirsty's.

My Creative Space - Moda Floor Cushion

Last time you saw this cushion it was a work in progress. I am happy to say I finally finished it! Anya is so pleased and loves to sit on it for reading and watching ABC kids! I think her brother likes the colourful fabric but he regretfully gets 'shoved' off by his big sister any times he tries to use it! ha ha I may need to make him one too! Any good boy material recommendations along the same style as Moda?



For good crafty inspiration visit Kirsty's.

My Creative Space - Photos as props

I found this gorgeous photo on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect to display some of my hair combs going off to the shop! I think when we are given an image of how an item may look like 'on', we are more likely to buy it! Well, that is my theory anyway... apologies to the photographer as I can't find the source to credit this image! If you know, please let me know or leave a comment.



Some other items I have been working on this week and also off to the shop are some infant headbands. I was trialling a new spot for photos with the morning light and all these 3 pics are taken moments from each other - how different are the results!







For more craftiness.... you know where to visit....

My Creative Space - Paper

Some wedding samples in the works - although I won't reveal them just yet - I don't want to spoil anything for the bride if she goes ahead with the order.



I made this teeny paper flower to go in Anya's lunch box on Monday - I popped a piece of washi tape on the stem and wrote "I love you" - I have looked forward to doing things like this for my children for ages. I wished I could have seen the delight on her face when she opened the box, or maybe the food was more important?! ha ha - oh well I enjoyed making it for her... see what else is being created over here.

My Creative Space - Learning to Ice Biscuits

My sister gave me this fabulous book for my birthday which I have been wanting. So Anya and I set about trying 'line icing' and 'flood icing' on Monday. It was quite easy for Anya to do the 'flooding' part which I will explain in another post.



The advantage is they look so much better than an ordinary biscuit but disadvantage that is a whole lot of sugar right there - hence we went easy on the decorations. I am looking forward to practising icing on my own too, with no little hands (sorry gorgeous girl). I'm joining in on my first MCS for 2011 - enjoy a myriad of projects over at Kirsty's.

My Creative Space - Advent Paper Chain

I would love to make an advent calendar one year and I particularly love Kristin's advent kit but I don't think I will get to make it this Christmas so we made an advent paper chain countdown instead :-) How cheap am I?.... errr, I mean....clever!! We will tear one link off every morning to countdown to Christmas and no sugar high's neccessary.



We also made some Angelina Ballerina ears for a birthday party last week and my little mouse-ling was thrilled with her mama :-) Just as well because I had forgotten it was 'dress up' and the headband only took 10 minutes, Phew!



The Christmas baking has begun too. I wonder how many Christmas crafts will be on the go today? Find out at Kirsty's.

My Creative Space - Baby gifts and glass door knobs

A little baby gift I made for a friend. Even though it's a gift for a baby girl it's nice not to be drowning in PINK!!!! I'm not giving away what it is as I haven't given it yet :-)





I bought these glass door knobs from Few and Far on holidays.... I had/have dreams of stripping back my daughters bed and dresser, painting them white and adding these babies. I have put them on as-is but need to buy another 4 and can't quite decide if the furniture is worth making over? Hmmm... everyone makes furniture makeovers seem so easy and quick... let me know if you have any tips!

Visit Kootoyoo for not just more creative spaces but a cool blog with lots of clever craftiness from Kirsty.

My Creative Space - Washi Tape

Oh dear this could easily become my latest obsession... I have avoided buying washi tape for a while because it showed promise of a beautiful but dangerous new friendship! I bought this cute patterned roll from Indigo Love. Washi tape is made from traditional Japanese washi paper - it has a gorgeous soft texture and lovely to roll out onto card stock! There are a million places you can buy it online! One of them is here. Find out who else is playing along today at Kirsty's...

Ed note: Oh and Happy Wedding Anniversary to my lovely parents... xx

My Creative Space - fancy napkins & more hair candy

Its always nice to make something different once in a while! I made these cute little designer fabric napkins for a sweet little girls 2nd birthday. The lovely recipient was getting a tea set and her mama suggested napkins - they were a winner.



New Hydrangea clip - I love these... time consuming but so cute. I sent this solo clip to Shop Handmade but hope to get more in the online stores soon...



This new little headband was inspired by my custom order last week. Limited edition fabric/colour... to me anyway... such a pretty shade. My current supplier of this lovely scalloped elastic tells me she no longer stocks it! EEEEEEEK! What a bad time of year to find out... the search begins. More creative spaces over at Kirsty's!

My Creative Space - custom orders and birthday prep

A couple of custom orders for a friend for her brothers wedding :-)



Baking for my daughters 3rd birthday. We had two small celebrations spread over two days! The cupcakes were a recipe from the Donna Hay kids magazine - not sure how I liked the meringue icing - it was like eating pavlova mixture before it has been cooked.



I did a VERY easy no fail, 1 bowl cake to take to Floriade Saturday morning. I used one of the gingerbread biscuits to decorate. She originally wanted a butterfly cake - this was my compromise for this busy mummy!



My happy little family. We had a gorgeous morning with friends. For more creative spaces...

My Creative Space - Ice Cream and Echidnas

We made some home-made ice cream this week! A friend lent me her ice cream maker - yipee. The instructions of doing it by hand sound long and tedious... let me know if you have made ice cream the hard way and how it was? Anyway the above picture is the mix in the saucepan before it is churned and turned into this....



This consistency was like soft serve so we froze again before it turned into this!



We don't usually do ice cream after Vegemite sandwiches but the wait to make ice cream ( a couple of days) nearly killed the poor child :-)



After using so many egg yolks you need to make something with all those egg whites! Friands are basically, egg white, sugar and butter! No wonder I hardly make them - they were delicious though. Where do Echidna's fit into ice cream and friands you might ask? After baking our friands I went outside to discover this.... (Echidna on the left).



Anya needs her own MCS corner!! Admittedly the outside of our house looks like a chalk board and we let Anya draw on the pavers with chalk.... I hate to stifle creativity but the house... really!?!? Stern words followed then I whipped out the camera :-) My daughter was obviously inspired by the Echidna we found and released back into the native parkland last week with Posie's children.







That was a long MCS - thanks for hanging in there! See what else everyone is up to this week over at Kirsty's.

My Creative Space - Finished projects and a cardboard village

Way back in July I posted a sneak peak at this ruffled beauty... this is what it became... a scarf! Not a skirt as everyone guessed.



Trialling a few hair pieces with bows! This is in lovely ivory Thai silk. I use a lot of wedding fabric off cuts from this lovely lady.



Anya and I made tiaras out of pipe cleaners - they went down a treat... I may have taken mine off to answer the door!





The most basic of cardboard villages was set up on our dining table - inspired by Ruby's little theatre. I didn't go to as much trouble as Ruby but it was enjoyed all the same - we left it up for 24 hrs then it got 'moved' - hello recycling.





No village is complete without a train for the locals to catch. Bob the builder waiting patiently on the platform. Seriously Anya LOVED this project... she got so excited about what we could make from different cardboard objects.... if you are wondering what everyone else is up to today - visit Kirsty's.