Valentine's Day Polaroids

Ah what a lovely Valentine's Day!

ALOHA: Dashboard dancer broken... uh oh

MY STREET: Richmond. Slade Knitwear

ABOVE: The flowers I got for Valentine's Day

ABOVE: Me

ABOVE: My first Polaroid ever - Jag and I on Valentine's Day

ABOVE: The card I made for Jag for Valentine's Day. Machine-sewed vintage swap card and sheet music.

After months of talking about Polaroids, dropping hints about Polaroids, admiring Polaroids, researching Polaroids... I finally got one!! I have the greatest bf ever!

Ever since I was flowergirl at a wedding when I was four, I have wanted a Polaroid camera. Someone at the wedding had one and I was fascinated.

A week before Valentine's Day, Polaroid announced they would be stopping production of Polaroid film. There is only enough (estimated) to last in regular retail outlets until next year. Currently Polaroid users all over the world are signing petitions and discussing how to get another company on board to take over film production for Polaroid cameras.

If you would like to sign a petition, (please do!), click the link below:

"Request that Fujifilm manufacture Polaroid instant film types"

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/LicensePolaroidTechnology?e

New ideas... New design

This bag was made for my lovely friend Angela as a birthday and farewell gift. She has just flown back to her hometown of South Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland, for 9 months.

The fabric is all new (from Spotlight) and I made up the pattern as I went along. I have never unpicked so many stitches - I made the same mistake twice! The logistics of sewing still baffle me sometimes.

I spent WAY TOO LONG making the little belt loops for it. I have now worked out a better way of gathering the bag with a 'belt'.
The inside pocket on the lining was so easy but such an essential thing for a handbag these days!

I learnt heaps making this bag... Can't wait to find time for another one with modifications... Spare time... what's that again?!

All in Moderation, unfortunately...

Recently, my blog has had a lot more traffic than ever before. For this, I am grateful and excited - I love the feedback I have been receiving from people all over the world in the craftster community.
However, in the past 2 days I have had some spam comments left, which make me mad. So I've added the 'comment moderation' thing - I'm sorry, but it had to be done. It was lucky that when I clicked on the link left by a spammer (unbeknownst to me) I was at home and not at work or I would have been sacked for sure!
Anyway, when you leave a comment, just know how much I love them from people who have something constructive to say, and that they will all be accepted once I have worked out who they are from and what they say!

Thanks for the feedback, I love it and it inspires me to keep going! x

Message from across the seas...

OK, so the story goes that when I was in Paris in September/October, I came across this street performer. So impressed was I to see a French mime artist in Paris (on stilts too!) that I gave him some coins and he kissed my hand, then I took this picture.
Months later, once the photos had been posted online, the performer found this image on Flickr and left the comment, "cest moi!" (it's me!).
I wrote to him via Flickr mail, "Hello, How did you find the picture of yourself in my flickr collection?! It was great to see you performing in Paris - you kissed my hand!"
And today I got this response:
Désolé de répondre en français mais mon anglais est trop faible.
Je trouve la photo magnifique et suis content que ma performance vous ai plu.
I kind of knew what he was saying but I had to run it through a translator to check (which is always good for a laugh...) and got this:
Afflicted to answer in French but my English is too weak. I find the photograph splendid and am content that my performance liked to you.

The wonders of modern technology!

Keep your knickers nice!

I made this little underwear travel bag for my lovely friend Kate who does an awful lot of jetsetting about to see her fiancee & family. I wanted to make her something pretty and useful because she is only recently engaged and her fiancee is in India for work, so she is always living out of a suitcase!

Above is the bag stuffed with fabric - I guess this is what it will look like with undies in it! The sewing machine is my $1 gem from Jag's mum, who found it at a garage sale. I love it!

And this is my swing tag with the Spices for Violet stamp that Jag had made up for me as a surprise last week! I was so thrilled that it fits perfectly on the tags I got from Officeworks for my last market stall (which I think was 2 years ago...) The back of the tag reads "Keep your knickers nice - underwear travel bag, made for Kate with love".

... And this is how I packaged it up for her.
She was thrilled and her sister has put in an order for a handbag!!


Below : The mess of experimentation & excitement!

Cutting up books! What?!

This is lovely.
I like that she hacks up books like I do!!

Snip-happy

After the recent interior-vine-removing episode, I was a bit snip-happy with the secateurs and went into the scary backyard to prune the iceberg rose that had grown outrageously criss-crossy and silly. I am always amazed at roses, how they just grow back after vicious, ruthless & unskilled pruning. I cannot take any credit for looking after this poor thing, beyond the occasional snip and a bucket of washing water here and there. It is the only decent plant in our entire backyard and seems to grow and (even flourish sometimes) without a problem.
Unfortunately the lovely pink rose my Mum gave me one Christmas has well and truly died after a hot summer of neglect in said scary backyard. She assures me she is not offended and that "at least I still have the pot" (and indeed it IS a lovely pot, on a beautiful stand no less). I guess this means I have to dig the poor thing out and lay it to rest, and perhaps start again with something new.
Anyway, after pruning the white rose without reservation, I realised there were some pretty rosebuds still intact, so I rescued them and popped them in a vase. They are now on my desk at work... cos everyone knows that all teachers need flowers on their desk!!

Mag Racks Galore!

One of my lovely vintage magazine racks (a Christmas present), filled with unopened newspapers... oops...

... and the OTHER vintage magazine rack I got for Christmas... it was strange, believe me - two different people gave me these. But I love them both and they serve different purposes.

Oh Sew Cushy

The cushion covers (above) were made by moi, from vintage sheets. They were inspired by the ones below, which were a Christmas gift from my cousin Ryn. She made them from vintage curtains. Ryn is MUCH better than me at these things and most weekends she's at Camberwell and/or St Andrews Markets selling various creations as well as bits and pieces from op-shops that she has scrubbed up nicely. My old cushions are exactly that - old - and flat, not nicely plump, but that cotton is SOOOO soft and lovely to lie against after a long day at work.

I learnt a lot while making cushion covers -

1. I can't cut in a straight line, even if my life and that of others depended on it.

2. Old sewing machines are temperamental and have issues with regulating their speed no matter how steady a foot the driver has.

3. There are a number of ways one can 'close' a cushion cover and I am not very good at any of them.

4. I like making cushion covers because they are quick & easy and they totally change the look of the lounge room in a few hours!

5. My olive green velour lounge suite (thanks to Dad & the Trading Post, $40) is a wonderful old thing and strangely, many colours complement it. Plus the couch is the BEST EVER to lie on.

I've been tagged!

I got tagged by newenglandquilter to write 7 things about myself on my blog. I think I may have done this one before but it's so exciting that someone else has read my blog so I'll do it again and try to write 7 different facts!

1. I have an addiction to vintage floral bedlinen. There, I said it.

2. I am learning to sew but I am very inconsistent in my efforts to sew regularly and finish things properly.

3. I feel I am in a constant state of indeciveness and semi-chaos, yet I manage to hold a permanent full time job as a high school teacher and generally maintain the charade of being an upstanding citizen of the community, ha ha ha!

4. I went to Paris last year and didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as I wanted to/expected to/thought I would. Now I look at my photos and wish I was back there.

5. Sometimes I cry in advertisements, like the Saab one at the moment with the dog chained up & the whale in the pool... it's all so sad, then you realise it's a car ad and you feel cheated because the bastards made you cry. Oh, and there used to be an ad for the bank with a girl who swam competitively (I did too, for years) & it was about reaching for your goals... then you realise it's an ad for a bank and again, you feel cheated. Humphf.

6. I love the sound of rain outside - it gives me an excuse to stay in and mooch around.

7. Words like 'mooch' and 'squiffy' (my little sister taught me that one) and 'squircle' (a square-ish circle that kids make when you ask them to stand in a circle in class) appeal to me very much.

This was quite fun. I could easily add more... For example, I enjoy a glass of sauvignon blanc but I hate chardonnay......... I like dark chocolate but not the 70% dark chocolate - you might as well eat unsweetened cocoa from the tin........ My boyfriend is a minor celebrity and gets recognised sometimes which makes me get very excited........
Anyway, thanks to newenglandquilter for tagging me and commenting on my blog. Much appreciated.
:)

Tag Rules
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Lucky Seven Tagged by Me:
1. drewzel
2. curly pops
3. Amelia
4. nikki-shell
5. green olive
6. aunty shabby
7. Jill

Little Shop of Horrors-esque

This is the naughty grapevine that found its way into my kitchen recently and grew very quickly! Aside from being a little bit creepy (no pun intended) it did actually look quite pretty...