Craft it Forward

Far out-they're so cute!

Good enough to eat!

A surprise gift that arrived in the mail from Cat.

Having a bad day, both hormonal and 'is it hayfever or am I getting the flu', the gesture brought a tear to my eye and cheered me right up.

                                                       Claud thinks they're pretty cool too.

                       We're playing 'pay it forward'. Which I like being just as enthusiastic a giver as reciever.

                                                Would like to be on my 'Pay It Forward List'?
                                (which may be 'craft it forwards' or 'op-shop it forwards', be warned!)
                                                     Say so in the comments if you do.

                                   All you need to do is commit to 'paying it forwards' somehow yourself.

             I'll pick at least three of you, and sometime, something (cool) will find its way to your mailbox too...

Choo choo's

Cool screen printed Swedish wall hanging.

Comes with the wooden hanging bits too.

Very film noir!

Frances Butler turns out to be a very interesting individual.

She was the Professor of Environmental Design at Berkley, who having been taught to sew by her mum started up her own fabric printing company, Goodstuffs Handprinted Fabrics, in 1969, with the intention of making clothes. Instead she produced wallhangings and fabric sculpture and then started up an letter press/graphic design book publishing company-her books are in the collections of the V&A and MOMA.

These days she is apparently building a massive mosaic garden in France.

Stromma Sweden have been making textile blinds and wall panels since 1832.

(Ain't google wonderful!)

Keeping it just in case (wouldn't it look cool in a little boys room?)

Also on a train theme I found this down the church fair yesterday.

Googled it too. One sold at Christies for over $500 pounds!

(Ok ok, so now I won't cut it up to make pweety butterflies!)

Share your flea market finds too, go on, we'd love to see, here

I'm a Giant Challenge Doll House Do-Up #10

Week 10. Only two weeks of the 'I'm a Giant' challenge to go. Must be nearly finished then?

Yeah. Just a few jobs to do...

1.Make bath taps.

2. Make pot plants.

3.Cut out multi-coloured terry towels.

(From retro 'Australian Home Decorating by Babette Hayes' manual I op-shopped this week)

4. Make towel rail for bathroom.

5.Make a blind for the bathroom.

6.Paint the sink taps.

7. Sand the bathroom ceiling and repaint.

8. Make a light shade for the bathroom.

9. Cut out and lay tiles.

10.Enamel paint the exterior of the house white.

11. Paint and decorate the outside of the front door.

12. Make curtains and curtain rail for white/red bedroom.

13. Make more round rugs-into a carpet of rugs.

14. Make a mattress. No two mattresses.

15. make two sets of sheets and pillows.

16. Make a yoyo quilt.

17.Make books for lounge bookshelves.

18.Make a dolly ipad

19.Posters and art for red/white bedroom.

20.Ball chandelier for red/white bedroom

(using these rescued from landfill balls, or pom poms if the ball thing goes pear shaped)

21.Make hall light from macrame beads.

22. Make kitchen lights (chrome egg cups too big)

23. Build a kitchen bench

24. Build a cooker

25. build a fridge

26. Cut and fit black wall paper in lounge.

27. Choose paper/paint for other wall in lounge.

28. Curtains and curtain rail in lounge.

29. Blind and rail in kitchen.

30. Make a mini wooden chopping board for kitchen.

31. Make mini fabric bunting for kitchen cabinet.

32. Make pom pom bunting on fishing wire with pom poms glued in place (more durable).

33. Desk/and or drinkies cabinet for lounge.

34. Coffee table for lounge.

35. Finish several cute craft cliche ideas.

36. Cut out leather 'animal skin' rug

37. Finish wallpapering the white/red bedroom

38. Get ideas to pull together washi papered, fairy story gone wrong bedroom

39. I could go on...

Hmmm.

I've prioritised the ones in red. That's still 20 tasks, in two weeks. So. Not. Going. To. Happen.

I need to prioritise the priority list

I'm to busy to prioritise the priority list!

I need a bubble bath in there, with a campari in hand and something louche and 70's on the record player to calm my self down.

Pleased with how this is working out, but shame about the giants fingerprint effect in the last piece of contact paper.

Bath is coming along, sort of.

40. Finish bath.

You wouldn't believe the amount of swearing that cheap-imitation-of fimo-white-bath-making-stuff induced (too dry to work as soon as it came out the packet-with-no-instructions).

And for all that it's supposed to be air-drying stuff but it ain't dried yet.

If it don't dry, and I can figure out what language the packaging is in, and have it translated, and find out where their head office is, and fly there, I'll fling this brick heavy soft bath through their front window. 

 Just saying it make me feel so much calmer.

Except it won't break their window cause it's too sodding soft. It'll just smear it.

Hardly worth the effort.

Think yourselves lucky who-ever-you-are crappy company! 

Mirror mirror on the wall,

who's the angriest doll-houser of all?

                                                              Bed has feet, floor has rugs.
                                                        Mucking about arranging things. Playing!
                                 Cool fun except all playing leads to a new need to 'make something else'.

41. Bedside table.

42. Shelving.

43. Clothes rail.

Have been faffing around with kitchen guff too

Faffing otherwise known as 'avoiding building a cooker, fridge, bench etc'

My first fimo-faff, ever! 

such an under-privileged upbringing, no dolly house and no fimo. maybe that's why doll-housing makes me angry? therapy!

(or maybe, susssh, I'm over this whole doll house thing?)

Anyway, it won't be my last fimo-faff. ACE stuff!

Nope, I didn't fimo-fashion these, although I'd be game to give it a try after my Bialetti success, if I had the time.

The shoddy paint job on the toaster and kettle is my handiwork though. Enamel paint must take days to dry. I picked those up after 24 hours expecting them to be dry but they wrinkled and took my fingerprints.

Enamel-paint-with-no-instructions-company watch out, your on my list too!

This stuff needs a home (aka bench top, cooker, fridge). I need to bite the bullet and just do it.

Here are the materials for my kitchen.

Here is the inspiration (tho mine will need to be Claud proof)

Which is this weeks mission (along with 14, 16 and 37)

Come and cheer me on for the finish line next week!

My Creative Space

                                              

If you haven't already seen it on Deb's blog, here's what I made her for our local bloggers secret santa meet-up.

Yes, christmas tree bunting.

My first (completed) proper sewn bunting!

(I need to work on my pointy bits a bit)

She was so excited about it (bloggers and their bunting eh). it made me so glad!

It made me want to make more!

I'm going to join bunting anonymous. It's my 2012 New Years resolution.

Wait! I'm going to set up bunting anonymous (BA).

But we'll be subversive, we won't try to give up our cutsey addiction, we'll start bunting-bombing raids on local eyesores and vow to make a different kind of bunting each week for a year and such like.

 Apply within. 

I also op-shopped this seasonal tin for her

and this 70's paper nativity set (hopefully all the bits are there?)

Thanks to Miriam for hosting and baking, Juliet for organising, Sophie for my gift, and Hannah, Nin, Kirsty, and Holly for their good company.

If any Christchurch bloggers are keen to meet up too (we're very nice and normal-I promise!) let Mirium know your email address.

Even more excited about Our Creative Spaces now it's the season of Christmas creativity!

Cute stuff I found down the oppy

Sometimes it's impossible not to judge a book by it's cover.

(Hi toes, fancy seeing you here!)

The stories are just as good as the design and illustrations.

Some original, some re-workings of classic fairy stories, many New Zealand tales.

The full set of 6, published by the School Publications Branch of the NZ department of Education in 1963-1969.

Many famous NZ writers and artists started their careers in the school publications department.

There is a wonderful book by Gregory O'Brien about the artists who worked there called "A Nest of Singing Birds"

Roy Cowan, NZ mid century modernist potter and print maker, and a favourite artist of mine illustrated one of the stories, Penguin Island. While it's not in the style he later developed I love the story/illustrations as they remind me of Moeraki/Fleurs Place!

There are a couple of GREAT James K Baxter, (facinating and famous NZ writer) childrens poems.

The red flowering tree there is the Pohutakawa,  New Zealands Christmas tree.

Great condition! What a find! Overjoyed!

Sugar and Spice...or in her case chocolate cake

My sweet girl. Roses fresh from the garden. Sun.

What are you loving today?

I'm a Giant Challenge-Doll House Do-Up #9

Slow as it is coming together (only a month left, and still no room complete!) frustration has given way to catharsis. I can't do a thing about my own earthquake damaged home: even moving around furniture is impossible as it's all now bolted to the walls; as we wait for the Earthquake commision to hand over our assessment to the building company (4 months since assessment, over a year since the first earthquake). However, playing decorator on a small scale is taking the edge off, like any addictive substances I suppose!

So while the combo of earthquake damage and too-busy-dollhousing-to-do-much-round-the-house mean my own house is in a decline, my doll house is my Dorian Grey, looking sprucer and cooler day by day!

I was fair despairing over the hall walls, but a rifle throught my paper stash came up trumps. Sepia with just a hint of cheer. Going for Resene double dutch white (a very pale lemon) on the ceiling. A ceiling with no cracks, feels soooo good. And, it means I have a room practically complete!

Hur-frikken-rah!

The door is a bit too rustic tho. Needs something. Gawd only knows what. I tried painting it brown and it looked cack so I rubbed it off.

Door mat is the 'grand central station' card from my Eames House of Cards.

Hall light shade makings (more macrame beads, of the long, thin variety) on the floor by "Roz's" uggies.

Yes Roz. Send me your email address Lakota.

                     It was tought choosing, but Lakota won the 'crack me up with this toy's story' contest

"Blythe's real name is Róisín, although she prefers to be known as Roz. She spent her early years touring America with her sisters as the youngest member of a Irish dancing troupe, but developed debilitating bunions and can now only wear Uggs. She broke off contact with her overbearing parents, and has the union jack cushion because she knows it would annoy them. She has an extremely popular make-up channel on YouTube, and has recently got into yarn-bombing."

Ball chair, ball wallpaper, ball lampshade in the making (not pictured, as as with macrame owl wall hanging and various other projects as they are not going too well and look cack).Wondering how far I can take the theme? The ball theme, not the cack makings thing theme, I'm wayyy way ahead there!

Anyhow, in the cute craft cliches corner this week...

Blanket pillows!

Made it and gaved it by Miriam at Make It-Give It.

Wonderful stuff, thank you hun!

Not keen on the black paint on the back wall there. Even though its matt, it looks shiny and shows off all every little scratch and ding on the wall from 40 years of use. I'm going to cut out some textured black paper to cover it, even though it takes FOREVER to get it right when every angle is slopping and every surface bumpy!

In the Op-shopped corner

A barbie sink, and a half roll of wood patterned contact ($1.50 for both). Will quite possibly make a sunken bath from white fimo surrounded by this wood veneer, using chopped up letter rack #2, copied inspired by this

Might put down some white tiles on the floor too, but probably not this century.

In the Before and After Corner

Shabby Victoriana chair with good bones.

 Sleek little number.

Ta for the chair Jen.

and in the Magical Mini Makings Corner

Before

Any guesses???

After

                                               You do know it's a flat screen telly, don't you?

                               Ok, thats enough corners for a square and enough dollhousing for a week.

                                                                                   Bye x

The gift that keeps on giving

 Rock and roll chef in the making baking?

Or mad swiss chef from the Muppets cuzzie?

Messy play is nom!

The lavender hedge here is in full bloom so we made Hummingbird Bakery Lavender Cupcakes, recipe taken from the card accompanying a recent Elf gift, and posted here especially for Jem.

Made yesterday, but only eaten today as Claud and I made ourselves sugar-sick on the icing yesterday!

Lavender icing. Truly heavenly.

Those parchement bun cases (on the card) have the look of a cupcake wet t-shirt contest, cheaping the wonderful recipe. Our classy shiny silver cupcake dresses do it justice. Shame about the icing. I'm not the only one about with icing problems. Tips anyone?!

Best cupcakes ever to date, and I've eaten and baked a few. And dead easy. Recommended. Highly.

My Creative Space

I made this doiliy snowflake bunting a while back but only remembered this week when I packed it up to post to the UK.

Idea sprung from some blog, somewhere, sometime.

I don't seem to have a photo of it completely complete but it was finished by handstitching the edges of each doiliy to the next.

Spray starch remedied the droop factor

Spray starch only seens to work on the cotton/linen doilies so the woolier ones were discarded.

Of course I'm digging these out of the archive cause creativity, of the crazy kind, continues only on the doll house; here if you want to have a look

What you working on?

Do show and tell at Our Creative Spaces.