Feel like a bit of crafty retail therapy?

If you are local (ie Adelaide) and feel like some crafty inspiration this Saturday Mathilda's Markets is on at the Burnside Ballroom (exquisite clothes, accessories and crafty things for little people) and the Adelaide Hills Spinners and Weavers have their annual Open Day at Littlehampton Peace Hall - lots of handknits, felting and homespun wool (even some of my little hats) and they normally have complimentary mulled wine too!  Definitely good for a bit of crafty inspiration!
Have a great weekend,
Keep smiling,
Nell

I don't do Winter...

There is a good reason why bears hibernate.
The airconditioner here is stuffed (yes, our 5 year old airconditioner is obsolete and non-functional and has required 2 different repairmen, 1 electrician, 1 trying-to-be-handy husband, 2 very hard to get fuses, a fortnights worth of patience, goodness knows how many phone calls and a whole wad of cash and is STILL non-functional)
It is cold.
It is rainy.
It is grey.
I am grumpy.
Hope your Wednesday is an improvement on mine.

Felting Fun (or not?)

This post has been waiting for a photo of the finished projects but because this hasn't happened I thought I would share the photos now.  In the school holidays my crafty friend Lea-Anne and her delightful daughter came over for a day felting.  I recently made a felted bag at Spinners and Weavers and foolishly thought it would be a great project to keep three children entertained over the holidays LOL.

Let me first state categorically that I am NOT a felter.  I still see it as a bit of a waste of good spinning fleece (yes, I know this is upsetting to all good felters and I apologise if this offends)  Despite this, I seem to feel compelled to indulge in little felty experiences from time to time (there is even a 100% lambswool striped jumper waiting for the next felty experience LOL)  The day started out okay given that our plans to felt outside were changed when the workmen turned up to put up our new pergola.  Undeterred we set up a trestle and prepared to get wet and felty.  The kids enjoyed the initial process but found the actually felting a bit too time consuming.  The fleece Lea-Anne had brought with refused to felt and kept springing back up!  Eventually we ended up with three more-or-less felted bags that just require a bit of work on handles and embellishments.  Highlights of the day were definitely Lea-Anne's wonderful parmesan meatballs (we would love the recipe - maybe she will even let us blog it?!) and the impromptu concert that the kids put on afterwards (complete with costumes and original songs with repetitive lyrics)

I think this could definitely become a school holiday tradition (minus the felting!)  Maybe next time we will just stick to spinning!  Anyway, at least the company was good.  I feel really blessed to have crafty friends like Nic and Leanne and Karen and my Apple Piecers friends to share crafty adventures with!

Hoping to get back into blogging more regularly - it just feels like the work/life balance has been a bit out of whack here lately! 

Keep smiling,

Nell

Scrappin and Quiltin and enjoying the weekend

It's been a long time since I shared any scrapping on here.  This is the beautiful new "Rugged" Power Palette that was released for May.

Yesterday my friend Nic and I went for coffee and a play at the playground with Emma from http://www.sampaguitaquilts.blogspot.com/ (we had 7 kids under 7 between us hence the playground once they were all sugared up!)  Emma did such a beautiful job quilting Caitie's quilt.  Today I sorted out the binding for it and hopefully will get it finished over the next week.  Emma has put some great photos of Caitie's quilt up on her blog and I can totally recommend her if you want your quilt professionally quilted (well-priced, very quick turnaround and BEAUTIFUL stitching)

I have also been putting sashings on the Quilts For Queensland project I have been working on.  Unfortunately I have a problem with this quilt.  It once again has red spotty fabric (I know - you would think I had outgrown the addiction by now?!?) and it looks sooooo good draped over our couch (in fact I'm thinking that with the same aqua blue fabric I used to border Caitie's quilt it could be pretty near perfect as our lounge quilt) You can see where I am going with this can't you?  Now I will need to make ANOTHER quilt for Queensland and this quilt might have to live here?  And all this time poor Darling Daughter is patiently waiting for her quilt to be finished too!

Anyway, along with the quilting and the scrapping and the outing with Nic, add in a birthday tea (lasagne and the special occasions chocolate cherry cheesecake) a sleep in, and the fact that our pergola is up and nearly finished and it has been a lovely weekend!
Keep smiling,
Nell