November Happenings

A quickie cake, if you can believe it, for the family function for Miss Seven's birthday. My sister and I did a collaborative effort on this one. The birthday was well and truly stretched for maximum party fun. This cake was constructed from a bought block cake and jam rollettes, hmmm, weird, but yummy.

Miss G's quilt is finished. Needs an iron and the pic is a tad crap, but hey crafters photographing a quilt is hard.Some lovely press from the lovely Julia from rudy and the dodo. As I am a tad slack on the marketing front, Julia's marketing skills and getting my stuff out there is much appreciated.

Have you been to ikea recently? They have the cutest fabrics and am just loving them. This hat is made with the pink and green fabric that has foxes, squirrels and deers. So damn cute!

Talking of fabulous materials. Newcastle has finally got some decent fabrics coming out of a little shop up the road from me in Hamilton. Sew City has been taken over by a lovely lady called Sharon and she is getting all the best fabrics in. Amy Butler, Michael Miller and Saffron Craig are just a few. I have been travelling far and wide for decent fabrics so hopefully I'll be able to get my fabrics a bit closer to home from now on. Sharon is even hosting the Amy Butler Trunk show from Monday 23rd November to Saturday 3rd of December. A select range of Amy Butler patterns and prints will be made into gorgeous items. Then she has a special night on Wednesday the 25th of November from 5.30 to 7.30 to celebrate the trunk show and her new ownership. So all you Novacastrians out there show Sharon some support and get along, she's also offering 10% off all fabrics and patterns on the night with lucky door prizes and giveaways.

October already!

It's been birthday season around here lately. I knocked out this cake for my caffeined up sister. Her miss six thought it would be a cute idea to make a cup and saucer for her mum, so of course I obliged. Nothing like making a little girl, who is about to lose her first front tooth, smile. She helped ice the pink and her little mate helped with the yellow and I made the most delicious 7 minute icing to go on top. It is a meringue/marshmallow style topping, that is very yum.

Here is the recipe if you want to give it a go:
Ingredients, 2 egg whites, 1 cup of castor sugar, 1/3 cup of water. Stir the water and sugar in a pot over a low heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for 10-12 minutes until mixture starts to gel together. Tip: drop some mixture in a cup with water if it stays together, it's ready. In a bowl whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gradually, in a thin steady stream, add the sugar/water mixture. Whip until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Slather liberally over anything and enjoy the silky sweet goodness.

Here are our strawberries from our garden. Little miss picks two bowls full of them everyday. They are very delicious and really signal the start of spring around here.

Miss Rosie posing in the angel wing dress. A little angel through and through. I love you Miss Rosie and thank you for co-operating.

Here are some new linocut prints that are destined to be pockets for my little girl 'Angel wing Christmas dresses'.

Progress on Miss Gigi's quilt, featuring Amy Butler (pink/green flowery), Saffron Craig (pink/red/white dandelion) , my prints (red, of course) and another fabric which I'm not sure who designed, but I love it (bluey/white with brown dots). This is my first ever purchase of an Amy Butler print - such a fabric amateur - I know! An old shop around town has been taken over by a young hipster and is getting all the fab prints in, I'm in fabric heaven. A more unisex style quilt. Bright, bright and then some more brightness. Tis lovely.

The lovely Julia, yet again, has come through with the goods and has my dolls up in lights in the October/ November edition of Mother & Baby. Who knew how many mother, baby, shopping mags are out there. Noice one Julia, she is my marketing guru! Mr pirate and Miss Dollster get a look in.

What is happening? I feel like I'm living my live in fast forward lately. I am busy making Christmas stuff for the market and know I'm going to be sewing till the last minute as it is. I went to see Julie & Julia today. I really enjoyed it and had to laugh at the part where Julie gets really excited to get her first comment on her blog only to find out it is from her mother. I'm pretty sure my mum thinks a blog is something you eat!