I have been Op shopping again!

These are my most recent op shop purchases, I have plans for them, so pop in again soon! Have a happy day! Leah

A handmade baby card

I created this card last night for
Sandie's card challenge I would love to win some of her gorgeous paper flowers! I wasn't sure that it looked very babyish, so I asked Harry what it reminded him of and he said the day he was born, cute boy! I hope that you are enjoying your weekend! Leah

Oz Bushfire Appeal

Hello again, this is the gorgeous gift I bought for myself from this fabulous shop! it's all for a great cause so it was a perfect excuse to purchase something beautiful just for me! This button necklace was made in Australia by secterjewellz drop into her etsy shop to see more of her beautiful work. Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend! Leah

Retro Roberta

Hello again, I'm trying to blog every day in the hope that it will drive more traffic to my etsy shop! Thanks so much to all of you following my blog and leaving so many lovely comments. I do try to visit your blogs as often as possible too! I am about to add Roberta to my shop I created her last night. I think that she looks very retro. My husband sometimes travels for work and he visits op shops for me when he can. Roberta has been created from the most recent chenille bedspread he bought home for me, can you imagine having this orange spread on your bed?? Thanks for stopping by! Leah

Recycling, repurposing, upcycling!

Hello, our power was out for most of the day yesterday, so I scrapped this page for
Nicole. I love anything vintage and now have a small collection of sheet music and old children's picture books! Most of these things were sitting on my desk, I began to clear it and ended up scrapping, so it is still a huge mess! Have a happy day, don't forget to enter my giveaway in the previous post! Leah

Update in brief

THINGS THAT MAKE MOVING EASIER
-A note of welcome from the previous owner.
-Discovering that we have moved into a good, old fashioned, friendly, everyone-knows-your-name neighbourhood.

NEW HOUSE
-Moved in, half unpacked, half settled (feeling a little bit more 'homey' every day, and less like I am staying in someone else's house!)

NEW GARDEN
-Left beautifully weeded and dug over, with some silver beet and strawberries already established.
-My transient pot plant garden is being slowly moved to new homes... some of the winter veg went in on the weekend, the rest are waiting for me to have a spare 2 hours of daylight...
-Established fruit trees - cherry, blueberry, lemon and olive, plus blackberry canes and a giant rhubarb patch.
-Glasshouse - oh the possibilities...

LUI
-Took a good week to adjust to the house before we could even consider letting him outside.
-Spent a lot of time hiding under the bed.
-Ventured bravely out on Saturday, has made several brief visits since then, but still prefers to be an inside cat.

CROCHET
-Incomplete. Sadly. I haven't touched it since moving day :( I am now officially Out Of Time to finish by my deadline...

STUDIO
-Neglected. Full of the boxes I don't want to unpack yet and not much else.

INJURIES SUSTAINED WHILE BIKING TO WORK
-1 skinned knee
-1 scuffed shoe
-1 punctured tyre
(I am not a useless cyclist, I hasten to point out! I slipped off the pedals because the gears were out of whack from being stuffed in the boot, and I count the puncture as a blessing in disguise, because it poured with rain the next day and I was given a ride!)

UPCOMING PROJECTS
-Be the official photographer at my brother's wedding this weekend.
-Frantically re-read all the "How to be a wedding photographer" websites I have bookmarked.
-Get my computer unclogged enough that it can handle mass amounts of photographs.
-Clear some space in the studio so I can fit an air mattress on the floor.
-Sleep.

A handmade giveaway

Hello, sorry about the poor photo here, I have been buying some old childrens picture books and sheet music from the op shops and have been creating some tags. If you would like to win these 3 please leave a comment on this post. For a second entry, post about this giveaway on your own blog and leave a second comment here. Thanks for dropping in, we will draw a winner next Monday afternoon. Leah
Edited to add, pop in right here for another lovely giveaway!

More happy mail!

Hello, here is part of another gorgeous gift I recently received in the mail! Handmade by Karen, please pop into her etsy store, she has so many sweet baby gifts! These arrived in the mail with a beautiful card, a piece of gorgeous vintage chenille and some notebooks, thanks so much Karen, a beautiful Valentines surprise! I am busy, busy, busy! hoping to attend 2 large craft markets in the next 4 weeks, so I must get sewing. Enjoy your weekend! Leah

Happy Mail

Hello, I recently participated in a button swap, this is only part of the lovely present that I recieved in the mail today! I love this notebook cover, it will get lots of use. Thanks so much to Jacqueline who has a lovely handmade shop, called ZippyZippy Fun Happy Stuff right here please drop in and have a look. Thanks again Jacqueline, I love it! bye for now. Leah

Snakes Alive!

Hello, I have only managed one card for Sandie's card drive so far.
Nothing new happening at our place. Our cat keeps bringing snakes to the door. This morning the kids all jumped into the car for school, I walked out of the front door after them and stepped over a snake, yikes, I hate them!!! When I got into the car I asked the boys if they had noticed it. Harry just said "no mum was it a biggy?" I think I'm looking forward to winter again! Enjoy your day, Leah

Happy Valentines Day

A very quick post, enjoy! Leah

Shop Handmade for The Victorian Bushfire Appeal

If you like to buy handmade, please shop right here I purchased a beautiful necklace last night, all items are donated by kind and caring crafters and 100% of proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross, to help Victorians affected by these terrible fires.

If you like to make cards please drop in here and join Sandies card drive.

If you enjoy scrapbooking you can drop in here and send off a page or two!

I will post some more links soon, I'm a bit slow on the computer! I added my new "share" button today, please feel free to use it! Thanks for stopping by. Leah

Winner!

I have a winner for the print of Sweet House and matching ATC! It's #51 - Danielle! Congratulations - I will be sending out the prize as soon as the madness of shifting house has subsided!

For now, it's all go. We got our key yesterday so I've steam cleaned the carpets, and we've shifted several carloads of boxes into the garage to be sorted into the house as soon as the carpets are dry. Today I'm shifting the garden (all the potted plants that is) which is sure to be back-breaking, especially since it rained hard yesterday and overnight and they'll all be full of water...

Before I go I want to say a big thank you to everyone who left a lovely comment on my giveaway post. Thanks for all the well-wishes for the new house! You are all welcome to come around for tea and lemon cake :) But now it's time for me to go and load some pots and boxes.

I love this!

Hello, my mum forwarded this on to me, I thought that I would share it. Still thinking of all of those poor Australians affected by the bush fires. There are lots of ways that you can help, I will post some of them here in my next post. Take care, Leah.

The History of 'APRONS'






I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath. Because she only had a few dresses, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.



It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ' old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons.


REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.

Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.

Mystery

Does it look like someone is going somewhere?

Or maybe someone is building a fort out of boxes!

Careful investigation is required.

Evidence = inconclusive.

Never mind - I have a clever hidey hole. They'll never find me here!...

...oh. Bugger.

WIN!

Here is a link to another very cute giveaway!Click! Take care, Leah

I'm sending off some toys

I hope that these brighten someones day! Click here for more info. Leah

Two new girls

I made 4 of these last night, 2 are on their way to New Zealand, the other 2 will go into my etsy shop when I take some better photos. While I was making these I was watching the devastating news about the bush fires here in Victoria, they have been horrific and so many homes and lives have been lost. Our thoughts are with all of those poor people. If you live in Australia, I really hope that you haven't been affected! Bye for now. Leah

Another cute giveaway to enter

Would you like to win this?

and these?


Just pop in here to enter the Bundle of Joy Giveaway. I hope that you are enjoying your weekend. Leah

Crochet update

Here's where I'm up to on the cardie right now. I've restarted since I last posted about it, though - it finally got big enough to try on, I tried it on, and... it was too small. I'd only done the bodice and armholes, so I gritted my teeth and restarted it in the next size up. It got big enough to try on again, I tried it on, and yay - it fits!

However. Yes, there is a however. My gauge is still not correct (in the excitement of it actually fitting I forgot to check this part) so, while it fits, my shells are a lot smaller than those in the pattern. That means I have to do more rows - many more - to get it to the right length, which I wanted longer than the original pattern in the first place. Which is where I'm at right now. I'm thinking two more repeats of the shell pattern might finally do it, and then I can start on the side/front patterning (more extra stitching will be required), and then the sleeves - I'm leaving them till last so it can be a sleeveless vest if I run out of time!

My deadline is March 1st. And I'm moving house this weekend. And I still have oodles of stuff to pack. And I've developed a cramp in my left hand which I'm worried will turn into RSI if I don't rest it, so I really need to take it easy on the crochet today.

*Breathe deep*

Still. It's going to be stunning when it's actually finished, isn't it?

Say yes!

For my Valentine

 

I made these for a special craft swap, I hope that my Valentine likes them! I'm off for a swim and drink with the neighbours yay! Leah

A couple of sneak peeks!

 

These a some peeks at some Valentines scrapping I have been doing for Craft Queen

I bought myself some downloadable vintage images, I love them. Enjoy your weekend! Leah

A delicious giveaway!

I was off to bed but I just discovered a fantastic giveaway, drop in and enter right here Kookie Kids is a fantastic Australian team which I am part of. Leah

My grown up boy No.2

It is still very hot here we are heading for our 13th day in a row of temperatures over 40 degrees! We now have the computer and the air conditioner working, both very important! This is the best photo I have of Jack's first day at school, for some reason, he has been pulling a cross eyed face in most of the pictures I take of him lately! Jack loves school which is great and Toby LOVES being the only boy at home. Thanks for visiting. Leah

Everything is broken!

I was going to post those cute first day at school photos today, but the computer is not working properly, either is our phone, our fridge or our airconditioner!! we are still melting it has been over 40 for more than a week now, no cool change in sight! I plan to do some Valentine scrapping and have been searching for some images, this is one that I found, I think it's cute. Thanks for dropping in. Leah

Today I made....

some cats for my etsy shop Do you like them?? I have been trying to make more rabbits, I just can't create one that I'm really happy with. We are still melting. Two of my boys will be off to school tomorrow, they grow up too quick! Leah