ornament #10

the princess leah angel...

ornament #9

this bauble always reminds me of a klee painting...

ornament #8

my gorgoeus auntie darling makes beautiful beaded pieces, this is one of the first decorations she made for us...

ornament #7

white dove with red berries, christmas 2001...

ornament #6

a few years ago we spent a wonderful week and half in new york and we just had to bring home a brown bag of bloomindale baubles...

ornament #5

naive reindeer, i fell in love with his simplicity...

ornament #4

first decoration for my true love, christmas 1998...

ornament #3

our daughter's first christmas decoration...

ornament #2

when i was a little girl, my mum worked for a lady who one year decided to have a completely new chrismas tree...she gave us her old tree complete with boxes full of beautiful old glass ornaments, many of them have broken and disintegrated over the years, but a few remain and i love to see them on mum and dad's tree each year...i couldn't resist this silver glass bauble, it reminds me of the christmas tree of my childhood...

ornament #1

over the years i have collected decorations (technically one a year but it usually ends up being more) and as much as i love the idea of a minimal colour themed tree...i just can't go past a tree filled with memories that don't necessarily match and that speak of remembrance and hope, joy and peace...having said that, i've actually decided to make soft decorations for our christmas tree this year because i'm not sure if little hands are quite ready for mummy's treasured (and breakable) ornaments...so along with showing you the new softie decorations (when i've had a chance to make them) i hope to share some of our christmas treasures with you each day in december and decorate a tree over here...these beautiful origami stars were a gift from dear friends who lived in japan for a time...

twenty-five boxes...

when the latest issue of notebook came out a few weeks ago, i too was inspired by their version of the advent calendar...so tomorrow night we are delivering these to someone very special....


they are filled with sweet treats and tiny treasures...

on the subject of advents, the new issue of australian family circle has instructions for a lovely advent tree...

blogkeeping...

lots to catch up on...
here are the other beautiful postcards i received in the postcard swap organised by nicola...
from christina...


from natalie...


from shelly...


and robyn...
(unfortunately customs confiscated robyn's because it had a flower on it, but luckily they sent me a copy so i got to read this lovely poem that was on the back)

thank-you all for your gorgeous cards, and thanks nicola for organizing such a great swap...

i can't believe a week and a bit has already passed since clay paper cloth...it was such a wonderful day, it was a delight to meet jackie from littlest flower, so nice to meet a fellow blogger in person...


it was a great experience to be surrounded by such a talented group of artists and i actually sold quite a few things which was lovely (yesasia here i come!)...special big thanks to the fabulous miss j for all the encouragement and for the space on her stand of amazing work!

three sisters...

kiku...

mimi...

& nono...

the show was wonderful, will be back soon to tell you all about it when i've had a chance to gather my thoughts...
ps...happy birthday mum!

busy busy busy...

just like these squirrels on this gorgeous fabric that fran kindly sent me...thanks fran, i just love it and will be saving it for a special project...
in the meantime i am madly sewing to finish some work for clay paper cloth on the weekend...

eeeek!

how can it possibly be the middle of november already?
hmmm...i'm having a bit of trouble keeping up with everything at the moment, there really should be more hours in the day...
keeping me sane...afternoon tea from nicole and a gorgeous postcard from suzy!
so beautiful...


and just delicious!


thanks girls!

this week's mail...

postmark...a series of cards created for the postcard swap organised by nichola, see the full set here...

more yummy mail...

friday was a bumper day for mail because i got my first postcard from the postcard swap organised by nichola...she made this beautiful postcard with amy butler fabrics...


nichola also sent the yummiest fudge as part of the afternoon tea swap...um, i can only show you the recipe because i couldn't resist eating it as soon as it arrived...


thank-you so much nicola and more importantly congratulations on your wonderful news!

an invitation...

saturday 19th november 2005
at
"numinbah valley school of the arts hall"
from 9.00am - 3.00pm
nerang-murwillumbah road,
numinbah valley

an art and craft pre-christmas fair,
brought to you by a group of artists and friends...
"clay paper cloth" will present an eclectic mix of artists and their wares.
bring along a big old basket to fill up with goodies and
remember to bring plenty of pocket money
as there are no eftpos or credit card facilities at the venue!
country baked refreshments, tea & coffee will be available and
we will feature a lucky door prize with objects of desire from each of the participating artists...

this show was wonderful last year and promises to be so again...
take a trip to the country...be curious...appreciate art...

hooray!

isbn 4579109988, thank-you lyn for reviewing this one and for getting me hooked on yeasasia...


isbn 4579208110, because i'm a paper fiend...


and last but by no means least in fact it's probably my favourite, the wonderful rinen wa ku, isbn 4579209303...thank you alison for posting and recommending this one...i love it's smallness, i've been carrying it around in my handbag serene in the comfort of knowing it is there...

yummy mail...

i love the sound of mail...
stop-start motorbike
or
a motor not quite screeching to a halt...door slamming...one, two, three, four, five...there, it slams again and the motor hastily retreats...hooray, that means mail or maybe even a package...

today it was this lovely parcel of afternoon tea goodness from kath at red current...


the reason for my interest in the mail is that i am anxiously awaiting my first ever delivery from yesasia, so you can understand my excitement when i also discovered this in the mailbox...


off we trot to the post office to collect
a small slim envelope...
that couldn't possibly contain my japanese craft books!
and it doesn't...
it's stamps for you know who and while they are perfectly lovely stamps,
it's not quite the same!
luckily i got to come home to this...


and a nice cup of tea and these yummy biscuits...


thanks ever so much kath... they are delicious and made my day!

essential viewing...

i have a new favourite tv show...this one, it's so so wonderful, i love it...
i'm going to go and watch it now!
and there's more here...

in the mail...

a lovely parcel arrived here last week...a while back, we fell in love with flossie at hop skip jump but didn't go shopping fast enough... fiona kindly agreed to make another similar kitty for little moo...


our lovely cat is called beth, she is settling in very well...getting used to being called "cat" for the moment and to being given rather slobbery kisses every now and again...it was a wonderful surprise to find these little things in our parcel too, gorgeous fabrics and a delightful pincushion...


thank you so much fiona, we just love our new things!

tie one on - the tea towel apron

this is my tea towel apron for tie one on...it's really quite simple...

a tea towel with some cotton tape and an old bakelite button...


and some japanese inspired fabric...


i was hoping to do a fridays favourites today but i have run out of time, my show and tell will have to keep for next week...have a great weekend!

legs...

after toying with the idea for a couple of weeks, miss moo has decided to actually use her little legs for walking...we are very excited and she looks so cute tottering around the place calling "cat" (her new friend...more about that later)
anyway, you can see that i went a bit silly over socks that were on sale at target... so far one monkey has been completed...he was supposed to be a stripey mod monkey, but i ended up sewing him in a mad rush so that he wouldn't miss his flight to scotland...i sewed what should have been his jaunty red scarf on very firmly, so firm in fact that when i realised i hadn't left enough room for his arms, i didn't have time to unpick it and start again...
i thought i might have gotten away with it until someone commented that she thought he was a russian cossack monkey...hmmm
hopefully a three year old won't know the difference...

guessed!

well done jacqueline and mandy, we were indeed fred and wilma!
we had a yabba dabba do time at the party, especially as our friends the rubbles came too...it's amazing how much easier karaoke is when you are wearing a wig, they even had our theme song along with all my favourite 80's tracks...anyway i'm going to stop now before i really embarrass myself...

guess who...

hip hip hooray...no it's not my birthday...this is the closest thing to the fifth sentence of my 23rd post, for the following meme from ainslie whose lovely blog is over here...

THE RULES:
1. Go to your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.
(i'm not entirely sure where the meme has been so i'm just going to leave it open for anyone to take...)

speaking of birthdays, we went to a twenty-first party on saturday night and it was a fancy dress...


can you guess who we were?

short attention span...

surprise surprise...i should be finishing projects but instead i am trying out the lovely little purse pattern that lyn so kindly shared over at molly chicken...
i have been wanting to experiment with some applique and embroidery and i like how the red shoes turned out...could be just the thing to practice on sunday nights while i am watching a certain television show...

not so random acts of kindness...

someone very clever made this lovely doll and cd case for me...
thanks scooter girl, i just adore them!

new things...

a shiny red heart, a bracelet of pretty beads, lolly red earrings...and a new name to match...

this week's mail...

these quilt squares are going to Quilts for Katrina...