A light has gone out ....

On Friday we learnt our lovely friend Susannah went home to heaven at the tender age of 30 after enduring 3 tough rounds with Cancer. Susannah and my husband Gordon grew up together in North Qld as children and their families have remained wonderful friends over the years. Susannah was a beautiful, Godly, vibrant woman, devoted wife, mother of two sweet little girls, daughter, sister and friend. I want to hold my daughter & husband that much closer and longer every day - grateful for every moment we have together. Keeping Susannah's dear family in our prayers.

Friday Favourites on Etsy

I am a massive letterpress fan! Here are some lovely cards by satsumalynn on Etsy. Enjoy your weekend!! I am heading off to a child-free day in Bowral with my sister in law and cousin on Saturday! I can't wait to browse all the lovely stores at my own leisure. Elephant boy cafe here we come!

Birthday goodness

My delicious birthday cake - nothing good in it, oh maybe the 5 eggs :-) Muddy Chocolate Cake by Donna Hay, cooked by moi. I had a lovely day, thanks for the well wishes. My daughter enjoyed blowing out the candles so much we did it twice. I finally started on my honeycomb smocked cushion cover too! It is very time consuming but hope it will be worth all the effort! I am just using a cream linen/cotton blend from my stash. I also received the most gorgeous Japanese sewing pattern from my cousin Gret. I can't wait to try it out - it's for a children's top two ways and converts to a dress. Fortunately there are a lot of blogs that help out with the translation/instructions but I think it will be a lot of guess work and possibly trying it out in a muslin first!

Grace Designs - In Etsy treasury

It's always lovely to be featured in a treasury! The lovely Vicki from LilliputLoft has featured another of my photos in her treasury entitled Child's play - I love those top 3 images especially.

Chandeliers

I could do a whole series on Chandeliers - oh I love them so. When I was 10yrs old we moved from the Snowy Mountains to Sydney on Christmas Eve to a house that was over 100 years old. My sister and I had a chandelier a little like this one in our bedroom! Sooo extravagant and glamorous for a young girl. I loved lying in bed at night staring at the chandelier pretending they were my beautiful jewells - we also had an elaborate pattern on the roof which I memorized and could trace in the air - it felt like a castle. Mum, Dad and my youngest brother still live there. Speaking of 'little brothers' - the surprise baby of the family starts as a senior in high school this week - eek. {image - Mahine on Flickr}

Happy Birthday to me :-)

My 30's are fast disappearing as I edge towards that other 'age bracket' - eek... I don't have much to tell today as I am about to disappear into a lovely day spent with my hubby and daughter - It's Australia Day here in Oz and the nation celebrates with a public holiday and fireworks among other things :-) I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. {image}

Monday Musings

I had to start off the week with a gorgeous image from Ali Harper. Hydrangeas are one of the few flowers that are lovely both fresh and dried. How was your weekend? We had a few social events but tried to balance them with some chillin at home. Which was very hard to do Saturday in this awful heat. One of our elderly neighbours organised a 'get-to-know your neighbour' afternoon tea yesterday. We met all sorts of weird and wonderful people :-) Reena was a real character in her late 70's who gave me a few toys for Anya to play with while telling me she didn't believe in conditioning little girls to be mothers!! Not the sort of view point I expected from someone of her generation, good on her. How well do you know your neighbours? It's nice to have somewhere to go for an impromptu cuppa or to borrow an egg or two don't you think?! Have a great week.

Friday Favourites on Etsy

I definitely do not spend enough time browsing Etsy - but that is probably a good thing (for my wallet anyway)! Here is a gorgeous tea towell from Skinny laMinx aka Heather Moore. I follow her blog which is both amusing and inspiring! It's too pretty to dry dishes on don't you think! Have a brilliant weekend...

Craftig - another wonderful pool of tutorials

I discovered Craftig just before Christmas. What a great idea from Kristen Magee, a self-confessed craft junkie :-) Basically it is a big round up of links to various free tutorials. They are grouped into themes, i.e: Crochet, Eco Friendly, Bridal etc.. with the ability to subscribe to an RSS feed for individual categories - very handy!! You would all agree there are sooooooo many tutorials and free craft ideas out there but not enough hours to find them all. More info on how to register and submit ideas here. Now what to make first??? I love this ruffled shirt by Tea Rose Home.

Kids Pattern

This was supposed to be Anya's birthday party outfit for last October (spotty theme) but we had a cold snap and she had to wear Jeans and a long sleeve shirt underneath! However we have gotten alot more wear out of it in the warmer weather. What crazy mother makes white linen pants for a 2 yr old!??? {Ermm, the same one who bought her a white winter jacket for this winter! ha ha..} Anyway, this pattern was a quick and easy one from Burda. You may notice I changed a few things to suit myself, i.e. no frills on bottom of pants and no elastic or gathers on the sleeves to make them puffy etc.. I think a sleeveless version in some AB fabric would look nice too.

Behind the scenes - photoshoot

The cutest thing was Anya bringing out one of those story book view-finders to 'take some photos' of Auntie Liz - just like Mum was! I am wishing my sister-in-law lived in Canberra not New Zealand - I much preferred taking product shots on her head than mine.

MACRO Monday - Gardenia

I took this photo in my Mum's garden - so pretty you can smell it! Oh I would love to make a gardenia that looked this good. I hope you had a lovely weekend... ours was a mix of relaxing and boring chores. I sent hubby out on a man-date Friday night (read_movies with a friend) but the funniest thing was I packed him & his mate an apricot tea cake (Donna Hay - mmmm) with strict instructions to eat them in the car not in public ;-) They were off to see Avatar which I hear is good but not really my style. I might watch it on DVD one day... Anyway.... here is to a great week for all!

Top 100 crafting tutorials on The Long Thread

These blog posts are like GOLD don't you think? Ellen from The Long Thread has posted her top 100 crafting tutorial finds for 2009 which include her own clever creations. You will never run out of things to make and inspiration from other fellow crafters. My cousin Gretel from A little red ribbon made the list too with her linen drawstring gift bag under bags, pouches and purses! Enjoy perusing the list!

Another new design..

Did I mention I like versatility?? :-) This is a silver/grey satin bloom featuring a dark Swarovski pearl surrounded by clear Swarovski crystals. I hardened some of the petals to give textural diversity as well as strength! I really like this design too :-) I will be making some for the shop soon now that I have sorted out the prototype!

Alice in Wonderland

A friend of mine in Brisbane is a very clever lady who has recently opened an Etsy store with her daughter called Lilliput loft. I love the Alice in Wonderland mobiles. Spy the golf tee for a bugle - smart idea! These aprons are also lovely - a great birthday gift to encourage those little budding master-chefs! You just have to check out the Enchanted tree - Vicki makes these all herself, I think you would agree she has a great imagination!

Grace Designs - In Etsy treasury

Lovely to be featured in my first treasury for 2010! It's called Here Comes the Sun and was put together by Lilliputloft. Thank you!!

Sneak Peek!

A sneak peak of my favourite new flower! This is only on a hair clip at the moment but will probably attach to brooch backs too for the shop - I love versatility. Thank you to my gorgeous sister-in-law Lizzie for doing some modeling for me :-) SOON to be on sale :-) The pictured bloom is in Ivory thai silk.

Back to reality!

Well tonight our holidays are official over! Hubby goes back to work tomorrow and it's back to just me and Anya (and the baby bump who lets his/her presence be known!) It's also our 7th wedding anniversary today hence Gordon starting back at work tomorrow. We had such a lovely time away, both over Christmas with family, then some time at home in Canberra then 5 nights at Jervis Bay at the beach which was superb! Jervis Bay has some of the whitest sand in the world (according to the Guiness book of records). Such a beautiful part of NSW. It was hard getting used to 38 degrees in Canberra today with no sea breeze or beach views to ease the pain! ughh. Thrilled to make some new flowers while on a break too! More about that tomorrow!

Grace Designs - Embrace Workshop sponsor

I had to break my little blog holiday and post this exciting announcement... I am delighted to be sponsoring my first 'event' - The Embrace Workshop for the very talented Amanda Keeys & Kara Elmore. My clever hubby designed a lovely little button for me which you can see under sponsors (rhs of the Embrace Workshop page). If you live close by to Utah and are interested in the photography workshop contact the girls now! I am not sure how many spots they have left but they have limited places... I am sure it will be worth your while and Amanda is coming all the way from Australia to be there :-) ... back in holiday mode now....we are off to the beach on Wednesday for 5 nights! yeah!!!!
{image Amanda Keeys Photography}