Easter tweets

This year the Australian side of the family will get these little tweets...sorry... treats. I picked up some noodle take-out boxes and some Coconut Fiber (from hardware store in the garden department), some little chicks and some chocolate Easter eggs and put together these little beauties. They turned out a lot cuter than I thought, so I might have to make one for myself. I slapped a little card with a handwritten Easter greeting on the top to make it extra festive.

I suggest putting these together outside because the Coconut Fiber can get a little messy, but it's really authentic looking.

Happy Easter friends!

Chateau couture - pleated pillow

Here's the second design of the day - a pleated pillow. It looks like a couture blouse to me. When I was putting it together I almost went as far as to put a pair of sleeves on it and wear it to a cocktail party, but I think it will look just as fashionable in our guest room.

The fabric is a really nice gray and white striped silk.

The fabric was purchased at a thrift store near our house.

Chateau couture - ruffled pillow

I had some design ideas for pillows that I tried out today - I'm quite happy with the result. My inspiration was the avant-garde ruffles that have been influencing fashion lately like this ECI Ruffle Top found at Nordstrom.com.

I got the fabric at a thrift store near my house; it's a nice thick navy blue linen.

For the birds

Last year I found a pattern on Spool Sewing that I had to try. I varied the pattern a little and made a plush animal out of it. Here's the original bird pattern (in the side bar of the page). This little beauty is going to be a gift for a special little baby. I bought the fabrics at a second-hand store.

I'm currently using an old Singer sewing machine that was handed down to my mother-in-law. It's a great machine that works better than a new machine. I love it!

Here are a couple variations of the end product. I was trying some different designs.

For the boudoir - bed side tables

I'm getting hooked on eBay Australia and I'm finding some good things. I've been outbid a couple of times for things that I thought I couldn't live without, but I did end up winning some Australia made bedside tables for AUD $15! I'm going to sand them down and repaint them white (Princess Bling is the exact colour). We went to a local gift shop/cafe the other day and got some torquoise coloured knobs for $3.75 each.

Here are the before shots

you can see that they need a little tlc

the after shots...

extra space for friends underneath

new hardware found at a local gift shop and was 50% off at 3.75 each!


some of my favorite things sit on top (the little owl is from Russia, and wallet is handmade with a silk-screened bicycle, lovely). All that's missing up there is a copy of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (what I'm currently reading).

Birthday Banner

Before I left the States I was frantically trying to get rid of a lot of stuff and I had oodles of craft stuff stored away. I tried to use as much as I could and then gave the rest to my sister. I used some fabric that I've saved over the years and made a birthday banner.

cut scraps.

I made extra triangles so I can change the wording around.

For the letters I printed letters in different fonts and put a cupcake in between happy and birthday. I simply used double sided tape to stick the letters to the fabric, so I can use different letters on the banner for different occasions.

It's a beautiful day!

Melbourne is easing its way into Autumn, and we've had some gorgeous weather these past few days; not too hot and not too cold. Everything has a glow to it and the sun keeps pushing its way through the clouds.

On this wonderful Monday morning I'm catching up on my blog posts and posting some projects that I've been working on. We got some furniture for free when we arrived here. Friendly people were getting rid of some things and we gladly took them, no matter their condition. I figured it would be good practice to refinish some items.

I got so excited about starting the Chest of Drawers project that I forgot to take a "Before" photo. So I've had to mock-up a rendering for you so at least you know what it looked like before. There were different colored pastels drawers and wooden knobs.

On top of the drawers are my beloved Matrushka dolls from Russia and a impressionist painting one of our Russian friends did of my husband. See the resemblance?

More to come soon!

I failed :o(

The previous post to this will lead you to believe that I had high hopes of completing the aforementioned challenge. The challenge was that my sister and I would make a table setting from things that we bought, found, or already had. We had a budget, and a time limit, and a theme for each of our tables. My sister succeeded and I'll show you the pictures to prove it. I, on the other hand, didn't succeed. After moving to Australia and trying to get our house together I had a hard time completing the task. I had to track down a sewing machine - I'm currently borrowing my husband's grandmother's Singer machine from Great Britain. Then I had the challenge of finding things within my budget of AUD $30. Everything here is soooo expensive! And I couldn't find the sort of patterns that I was looking for. I ended up finding some fabric in a thrift store, but alas just left it sitting there until I was far beyond the due date. Enough with the excuses; I'll keep working on my table setting and post those pictures when I can.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures of my sisters table setting. Her theme was polka-dots and twigs. Her budget was US $20.

very cute and just in time for Easter!

But while I was failing this challenge I was working on some other things for our house in Australia. We got some free furniture from some friendly people and I set to work on refinishing them. I finished a chest of drawers and I'm currently working on some bed-side tables that I bought on ebay Australia for AUD $15. Pictures to come soon!

The Challenge

My sister and I watch Project Runway together, it's kind of our thing, and it inspired us to do challenge each other to a craft project with a time, budget, and material constraint. Sally will have a budget of $20 U.S. dollars and I will have a budget of $30 Australian dollars. We randomly opened two Domino magazines (Bye Domi!!) and happened to fall on a page where table settings were the themes. So we have decided that we'll make something for the dinner table; it could be napkins, chargers, center piece... whatev! We then had 5 minutes to flip through the magazines at hand and pick a theme - Sally chose twigs and polka-dots and I chose the colors Blue, White, and Pink. We have until mid March to complete our look and we have to use it in an upcoming dinner party. We'll take pictures of our fun along the way... stay tuned.

Here's my inspiration...
I love all the blues found in this fabric combo in Domino magazine.


And the pop of pink in this Teleflora arrangement

Let the games begin!

Before and After - chair and shelf

As promised, here are some before and after pictures of my sister's latest projects...

Sally bought this red chair at a local thrift store for $2.99. She's giving it to her friend's son, Isaac, for his birthday this year.

Here's another $2.99 bargain that Sally picked up

She loves green!
Well, actually she says that they have a very limited
paint selection at her local Fred Meyer.
All the little knick-knacks are from Sally's adventures around
the world (mostly from Scandinavia and Russia)

Thanks for sharing Sally!