in September I am reading...

eeeep, I feel like I'm squeaking my September reads in just in time - I know it's such a boring thing to say, but I can't believe next week is October!


Anyway, a bonus to having been home sick last Monday was that I spent the morning in the lovely spring sunshine with Jinxy finishing Earthly Delights, and over the past few days have started in the second book in the series -Heavenly Pleasures (they're actually about food, fyi!)



I've also been reading the latest Mollie Makes admiring my two newest sewing books - Fabric for Fashion, and its bff Fabric for Fashion The Swatch Book - which all arrived in the post during the week. (Tilly wrote a great review of the Swatch book here, if you're interested!)

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I'd love to hear what everyone else is reading this month! Leave a comment, or a link if you post on your blog, to let every one know what you're up to and join our bloggy book club for September!!

Enjoy your reading!!

xo

creative space :: country square

This week is all about trying to make progress on some lovely quilty things (UQTs) I have hanging about here.

This evening I finished cutting the squares for my Country Time Quilt...

The selection of the prints for the quilt was pretty random - I just raided my stash (mostly from my fat quarter collection) and pulled out 30 of my favourites, trying to be a bit balanced with the colours (blue is obviously my favourite! I swapped a few bluey prints out, but still ended up with 10 out of the 30!)

I'm hoping to get these sewn up with my 6 embroidery squares over the weekend so that I can get on to putting it together with the batting and backing, and of course the best bit - giving it to my friends' gorgeous baby girl!

Pop over to our creative spaces to check out more creative goings on this week! =)

xo

whisked

I made this little play kitchen utensil set for little E's birthday present last week , and I think it's pretty cute!



These are bits from two patterns from Ume Crafts (on Etsy, natch) - the cookies and the cupcakes

Lots of fun - I'm pretty sure I'll make the other bits from these sets too!

xo

UQT week

After a week of birthday crafting, this week I've decided to dedicate my crafty time to quilting - mum is coming to visit next week, and there are a couple of unfinished quilt tops (UQTs!) kicking around here that I would like to have finished by then in case I need a hand with the next step of basting etc.


This lovely autumny one only needs borders added, and of course there is the country time baby quilt I have been working on pretty much all year - all the embroidery is done, it just needs the other blocks cut and sewing up!

Stay tuned!

xo

3 :: project sizzles

Today was little E's 3rd birthday party, and I was very honoured to be making her birthday cake!

I have to say, I LOVE doing kids birthday cakes, not that I have done that many, of course, but I just think it is so much fun! I've talked before about how much I love Women's Weekly birthday cake book and I think after all the time my sisters and I used to spend looking at all those lovely cakes it's very exciting to have the opportunity to make something just as nice!!

Last year's cake was Dorothy the Dinosaur and the year before that the Hungry Caterpillar.

The current favourite is Charlie and Lola, so this year's cake had to be Sizzles! =)

Sizzles is two layers of vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream icing and was pretty delish (even if I do say so myself ;o)) .

The party was lovely - with bubbles and cake and a sausage sizzle, and swings...

this little guy is a friend of Suzy's

A perfect was to spend a gorgeous sunny spring Sunday morning!

xo

more bibs

These four were sewed up last night/this morning and gifted at a baby shower this afternoon.

1. dotty bapron, 2. bear fold-up bib, 3. purple fold-up bib, 4. berry bapron

 Apologies for the pics - of course I finished these up about 15 minutes after we were supposed to have left the house, so I snapped them on my lap in the car with my i-phone!

The baprons especially were a hit at the shower - I used this free pattern from craftiness is not optional. I made my own bias binding for the strawberry bapron - making the binding actually took longer than sewing it up! I do love how it looks though - definitely worth it, I think!

For the fold-up-and-snap bibs I used this same free pattern that I have blogged a couple of time already.

We have a colleague due to go on mat leave next week so I'm planning to whip up a couple more tonight for her =) xo

creative space :: bibbing

I have LOADS of plans on my crafty plate for September - including cakes, quilts, a new dress and a couple of new baby presents too. I'm trying to get something crafty done each night (after spending every evening of last week watching the Borgias, which I adored and which had me so enthralled I couldn't manage any multi-tasking)

Earlier in the week I cut out a bunch of backing pieces for bibs like this one - I have also picked up some flanelette for some of these baprons - tres cute! Check out more craftiness over at Our Creative Spaces xo

Melbourne weekend

It's been a wee bit mad around here lately - we've had a sick kitty (she's fine - just naughty, really!) and - this weekend - water coming up through the drains in the bathroom (just from the washing machine, thank goodness!) Luckily we also had a fabtastic weekend in Melbourne in between to keep us sane! =)

There was footy (natch) and victory drinks - both our teams won (yay!) - and lunch with family and icecream in the sunshine

There was lovely food and evening walks along the yarra and breakfast at federation square and a tram rides!

We also had the most fun you could ever have buying jeans - Dejour jeans in Brunswick - $40 a pair, and worth it just for the entertainment!
The store motto is "Good Jeans. $40. We make them fit. For free. You go on hot date". Do check them out if you have the chance! =)

more pics from our weekend here =) xo

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