Here is my new linocut combi designs, have many plans for the combi design - stay tuned.
I've had some stress lately that has finally lifted as of Friday, yay! Now I can get back to the real business - crafting wildly for Christmas. In my stress induced state not much crafting was happening, although did manage to knock out my new design, which was courtesy of a suggestion from a mum from Miss 6's school. Coming from a large family I grew up with combis and other large, what us kids called, butter boxes. Our combi days were particularly horrendous though. Dad bought all our cars brand new, so really there was no excuse for the bloody things to be breaking down all the time. We regularly had to get out and push. Mum would be cruising along and all of a sudden we were on the side of the road and she was pleading with us to get out and push. I was mortified that my school mates would see me and dreamed of the day I could buy a sedan. Sedans to me represented normality and the regular folk and we by any stretch of the imagination, I perceived, were not normal. What was my mother thinking giving birth to nearly a whole netball team? Although only mildly scarred by the experience I do have fond memories of our combi. One thing I particularly loved about our combi was the middle ramp between driver and front passenger. Cruising in the 70's with our lax seat belt rules meant us kids could walk freely about the combi and visit Mum up front for a bit of a chat, who am I kidding, a whinge was the more likely scenario. One of our combis even had a tent that could be attached to the back door. How sweet is that? Cruisin' and camping in the combi - ah happy days!
A selection of new and old designs on cushions and in the background is my second cot quilt.
In other news The Olive Tree Market's Twilight Market was on the 29th of November and again was a great success, even if it did rain for most of the day. There were hard-core shoppers out and about which impressed me to no end. Most came prepared in full rain gear with prams covered in rain coverings. I got to find out, even through torrential rain, how much people are justing loving this new market. Got to meet the lovely doll maker Michelle from
The Royal Sisters. It's fun meeting bloggy friends, it's a bit strange as you know so much about them, but have never met them. Didn't have much time to chat as I was either super busy or huddled under my canopy trying to stay dry. See you at the next market Michelle, I think it's on the 7th February 2009.
And just for my 2 minutes of fame
here is an article which mentions moi and my crafty journey. Thanks Lisa for getting me some free publicity.
Here is a selection of handmade decorations we have going on at our house this year. The prawn ones of course are mine, but check out my mum's handiwork this year. She knocked out some rather fancy and funny knitted Mr and Mrs Claus and a rather stout angel. The crocheted snowflakes are my mum's handiwork from last year. Must find a recipe to make them a little stiffer. Anyone out there got any suggestions? They still look quite pretty flopped around the tree. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and I'll check back once Christmas has run it's crazy course.
Here are my efforts for the placecards for Christmas dinner. I made these up inspired from a popup card I received a couple of months ago from my lovely friend Julia. Julia picks the best cards and this particular card was of a roman warrior whose head popped up. I re-adapted this pop up idea into the bird, deer and tree. I then added the 3D element with the detachable wings, antlers and stars. All up I made 25 placecards and it cost me $1.20 and they are made from heavy white card. This would have to be one of the cheapest and most effective Christmas decorations I've made so far. What do you think? 
Here are the prawn cards all printed and ready to send to the lucky recipients. I love these little prawnie cards and after printing them out I decided there was more crafting to be done with this design. So the prawn graduated to a little softie christmas ornament. I printed the image out on transfer paper which worked a treat. Ironed the design on to some linen and backed it with a cute check I had lying around. I then stuffed them till they could take no more and voila, handmade loveliness for our tree. 
