MissyMuh

Been doin' stuff...

...lots of stuff. On Saturday i had a photo session with a lovely family in Kew. They had two gorgeous girls who both had exactly the same smile LOL...

Then on Sunday we met up with some friends at the Botanical Gardens. It was a stinkin hot day, but we still had a good time. The kids had a ball, i actually didn't take that many photos for a change, but here are a few.

then this morning i had a quick maternity session which i haven't even looked at yet, and i also caught up with Danielle, Kelly and Dannii.
Took a couple of photos but again not too many...too bloomin hot. The kids found a family of snails in the back yard and proceeded to harass the poor things until we distracted them with icy-poles LOL

(oh and the hats they are all wearing were made by www.perfectamity.com, Danielle was doing a product shoot for them using the numerous available children as models, even though the hats were knitted and it was a 34 degree day today LOL...you gotta do what you gotta do...)

Ok, i think that's enough photos for one day.

In other news i am in the process of updating and recreating my website, it's all very exciting let me just say. And i also booked and paid for my tickets to Sydney this morning...again, very exciting. I haven't done any scrapping in weeks even though i have a heap of new things to play with. I just haven't had the time.

Lukes grandmother also blessed me with a mighty big bag of vintage fabrics that she had cleaned out of her cupboards...oh my..heaven! I have had a quick sort through and the keeper pile was far bigger than the donate pile which is always a good thing. Lots of nice corduroy amongst the lot which will be great for some winter pants for Charlee. 

The house looks like a troupe of monkeys has been living in it for a month so i REALLY need to get stuck into it. I was meant to catch up with another friend tomorrow but charlee is so exhausted from the last week of activities that i have decided to stay home (sorry Cass), so i might mark the day as a computer free day and do some serious cleaning...well ok...maybe just a computer free morning...i can't be expected to stay away for an entire day..i mean seriously...

New Pj's

Ok i know i promised a few days ago that i was gonna be getting rid of some fabric..i haven't forgotten, it has just turned out to be a bigger task than i planned LOL..man i have a lot of shit! But i will attempt to sort out what i don't want, measure it, photograph it and pop it up here sometime this week.

I got a bit distracted yesterday with this task and decided to make charlee some Pj's with a sweet pillowcase i forgot i had LOL... I used some green flannelet to make the pants...

Details

Also thought i share a few green things i have come across lately...just because i have a thing for green,

a ninja

Crab apple trees

creepy looking spiders

bubbles

and a little girl on her birthday scooter...

Not particularly green, but still cute and behind me everywhere i go...

Mmmm...Twisties...

Ok, that's what i am currently eating and i couldn't think of another title LOL.
Just thought i'd come and share a few things. First of all i made a dress for Charlee this afternoon. I picked up this fabric the other week (vintage quilt cover) and it was just screaming to be made into a summer dress.

Tomorrow i am off to meet some of my fellow Melbourne ACOCP members over in Sandringham. Now i know i have mentioned this charity a few times here, but thought it wouldn't hurt to mention it again. If anyone knows of someone who would appreciate what we do then please pass on the info.

Then on Saturday i have a client session and Sunday i am going to a scrapniques crop night to do some scrapping. Speaking of which, if you are a scrapper in Melbourne i'll expect to see you attending next years Crop for Kids.  I am pretty sure the tickets will be available soon so keep and eye on the blog. And if you can't make it to the crop then make sure you do one of the classes to help raise money. My pal Danielleq has a gorgeous mini book class that she is running on the 16th and it's only ten bucks (which all gets donated to the Good Friday Appeal).

Anyway, that's all i have to say for now. Luke has gone to play poker with makes tonight so i'm gonna settle myself down on the couch and finish some knitting i started a few weeks back.
I'll leave you all with this cute shot i took of the kids and Oscar this afternoon. Koby was being brilliant and listing to me perfectly...Charlee and Oscar however had other plans. Charlee was too busy telling Oscar to smile to bother smiling and looking herself, and I had no hope getting Oscar to look in my direction. Besides that the kids wouldn't get any closer to him than this because apparently today he is "scary" LOL... i still love it though...

Thrifty goodness

I haven't been to my local thrift shops in ages but i decided to have a quick squiz today with Charlee after we dropped off Koby at kinder (she adores Op Shopping almost as much as mummy does LOL). Anyway, i managed to find a whole bunch of gorgeous fabrics.

I adore the orange one (a square tablecloth) and i am sure it is destined to become a nice summer dress or twirly skirt for charlee. The pink floral is actually a very light weight flannelet single bed sheet which i shall be making some summer pj's out of for Charlee as well as a few Secret Santa's i am doing this year. The blue and green are also flannelet and the other two are cotton single bed sheets. Lovely lovely.

I also thought i'd share some sneak peeks for my mate Felicity. I photographed her family last weekend, and i am also thrilled to announce that she will be joining me along with Marni Telford and Kim Nutly on the Scrapniques DT. Well done girls, i can't wait to work with you all.
Anyway, here are some shots of Brodie :)

G is for...

Goodies! ok so it doesn't really fall into the whole "Encyclopedia of me" thing, but i went op shopping today and had to show off what i got LOL.. It's been a while since i have managed to get a good haul of stuff, lately i haven't had much luck finding things. I think there must be some other sneaky people about that keep pinching the good things before i get there tee hee... anyway here's what i picked up today...

Some lovely vintage sheets. One with bright flowers and the other a patchwork design. Both will be made into summery skirts and dresses for Charlee, and if i am motivated enough other summery things to re-stock the Charlee's Closet store.
A crochet pattern book, with step by step photos on how to make a granny square and also a cool crocheted hat. Another old book to be pulled apart for scrapping purposes, and some sweet buttons and trims.

A couple of old table cloths that i am actually planning on using as table cloths for a change PMSL (who would have thought?!?), a very sweet hand knitted cardigan for Missy, it's a really nice soft wool too not the scratchy acrylic you sometimes find. And some other random fabric scraps, the brown one is actually ribbing, which you can never have enough of. All that came to a grand total of $11.20.

I also came home to a lovely pizza box full of goodies i picked up at Blue Bazaar. So overall a pretty good morning.
I had Charlee with me today for a change. She hasn't been well this past week so i decided to not send her to Playgroup. I took her to the doctor this morning because besides coughing, a snotty nose and puffy gooey eyes she had also started complaining of sore ears.
I am not one to rush my kids to the doctor at the slightest cough, i usually let them suffer through it for a while to see if it will clear up on it's own (mean mummy). But once they start complaining of sore ears i know well enough to get them checked out. But thankfully she doesn't have an ear infection and apparently she is now on the back end of whatever she had. So she should be back to her noisy joyful self in the next day or two.
We have quite a few play dates organized for this week, so i'm glad she is getting better.

You may or may not remember a few months back, my grandmother fell and broke her hip...well she was doing very well. She was walking about again with the aid of a walking stick, she was driving and pottering along with her merry little life until last week when she fell over again and broke her pelivis. Would you believe it!! She was walking along with some friends not paying attention and tripped up on a bit of carpet. Because the hip that was shattered is now all titanium, instead of breaking again her pelvis copped all the force. So she is back in hospital again. I spoke to her on the phone the other day and the first thing she said to me was
"I am a stupid, stupid woman Clair, i've gone and done it again. But all is not lost because my St Kilder footy team won over the weekend!"
  PMSL...she is quite the avid footy supporter.... so all is well as long as the Saints keep on playin....

Monday randomness

Went thrifting today. First time in aaagggess...and i was kinda disappointed. Nothing really jumped out at me and made me squeal. You know when you find one of those little gems that you feel like snatching up and rushing to the counter to buy before anyone else steals it from you? yeah well i didn't get that today... i did however managed to walk away with a bag full of stuff anyway tee hee. All for the grand total of $5.50.

Some old buckles, lace and some sweet fabric that will be turned into a twirly skirt i think, and an old sheet and some purple linen type fabric.

Some random knit and stretch fabrics that I'm a little obsessed with lately. Some old books and a crochet pattern book, even though i have NFI how to crochet, i thought it was sweet and might come in handy for something one day. Oh and that's just me because i wanted to have three photos in a row like the top one.

My cat likes to sleep in plastic bags....

is that normal??? I can't say how many times i have walked past and kicked a bag out of the way only to have her jump out of it. The kids have also been known to drag her around in them when they find her. She doesn't seem to worry, but the thought of suffocation has crossed my mind a few times... strange.

I am totally loving the singer Regina Spektor. Her song Fidelity is just adorable. I saw her on Rove last night and she sang it live. Gorgeous. Luke thinks she is weird but i love it. It's very me. I love depressing melancholy songs even though i am SO the opposite of that. Why is that i wonder? I always get sucked into sad depressing break up songs, that really don't relate to my life in anyway. I'm not depressed or sad or anywhere near about to break up with someone. Must be some emotional kick-back from my youth.

Hmmm... that's enough for today i think. Off to work on some secret stuff...

My weekend in a nutshell

Not as exciting as the title makes it sound LOL... On Saturday afternoon/night i headed into the city with my Mum. We had tea at Crown Casino and played on the pokies (i won twenty bucks Whoohoo!) then we headed to the arts center to see Guy Sebastian.

It was fantastic, and wowsers (yes.... it's cool to say that now) that guy can sing (pun intended). He did a big range of songs from his first and second album's as well as a whole heap of great covers of songs by Elvis, the Beatles and a few other old crooners. We had a good night, despite mum leaving her car window wide open and front door unlocked in the car park the entire time we were gone...but i guess nobody really wants to steal a bright blue Barina these days PMSL...

Anyway, i woke up this morning to find two wonderful packages in my letterbox. I got two...yes two RAK's (random acts of kindness) from some anonymous girls from EB. In one was an absolutely gorgeous mask for scrapping by Heidi Swapp... i am SO in love with this and can't wait to use it. And in the other was some gorgeous fabrics and old patterns.

Thank you so much both of you, whoever you are. XXX

I also went to a few op shops this morning and picked up all these goodies.

And with the $20 i won at Crown i picked myself up a few more scrapping supplies. I am in love with the American Crafts A La Carte range...gorgeous. And also some from Crate Paper and good old Cardstock...which you can never have enough of IMO...

And if you thought my day couldn't get any better, my brother scored a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS3 which i installed this morning. Very fancy looking compared to my old Version6, can't wait to take some new photos so i can play around with some of the new tools and features.

Oh Happy day

Occasionally I'll see something on the side of the road that makes me gasp, pull over and call my husband.

This morning such a thing happened. No more that five doors down from our very own home i spotted this glorious cabinet.

Our area is preparing for a hard rubbish collection next week, so i have been keeping a close eye on the area to see if there was anything worth scabbing, up until now i had been disappointed. But on my way to a kids birthday party i spotted it on the side of the road, just waiting to be thrown out.
I couldn't believe it. It was the perfect size to hold all my sewing/scrapping crap. And i made the split second decision to stop and pick it up. I toyed with the idea of waiting until i was on my way home but the little voice inside my head (her name is Martha and she speaks to me often) said that it will surely be gone by then. So i called Luke (who was still at home) and told him to hoof it down the street and help me discreetly lift it into the car.

I thought about it the entire time i was at the party, and couldn't wait to get home again. When i got home i set about spiffying it up a bit. I cleared out the indecent amount of mouse poo that had accumulated in it over the years and gave it a good going over with some bleach and water. It came up a treat. So i then spent the next 2 hours cleaning up my crafty space.

Here is the rather embarrassing before shot.

And here is the completely glorious after shot some hours later...

I feel so fresh and organized now. I have cupboards for my scrapping and cupboards for sewing. My fabric is all nicely organized and folded in a smaller shelf under the window sil. It looks like there isn't much room left on the desk, but there is actually more than before, instead of random piles of mess though it's a nice organized cabinet. And i love it oh so much more because it didn't cost me a cent. Happy Mothers Day to me :)

Thrifty thrifty

Man it feels like i haven't been into a opp shop in months. It's probably only been about two weeks but it feels like forever. But I've got a kid free day today (MIL has taken them both off my hands for the day), so i had a quick look in a local shop that i don't normally bother with because it is quite small. But i managed to score a few nice finds.

-A whole bag of old trims,ribbon and lace that will be put to good use on various projects.
-Some golden books. They are all quite tatty looking so i will probably just rip up the pictures to use in cards and collages.
-Two sets of pillowcases. I think the patterns would make some nice summer pj's for charlee, or for the store. Haven't quite decided yet.

- a sweet little cardigan for Charlee. It is a really nice soft wool too, not the scratchy cheap type you usually get. Perfect for cool summer evenings.
- and about 1.5 meters of this sweet soft chord fabric. It will probably end up as pants or overalls or cute summer shorts. I haven't decided yet.

Scrapboxx DT update: Well i have made it to round three. This one is gonna be quite a challenge though. We have to use one item three different ways. They don't all have to be on the one Layout though. I came up with a fantastic idea at about 1am last night, and i had to scribble it down on some paper so i wouldn't forget it in the morning lol. Now that i have managed to get rid of the kids for the afternoon, I'll go work on it now.

My mum has flown out to Korea this morning for two weeks, the Japan for a week. I am gonna miss her, and i am really worried about her too, because it's not the safest country to be in at the min. I'm sure she will be fine, but i am hoping the three weeks goes by quickly.

That's all for today. Thanks to everyone who has checked out the website too. Quite a few of you have picked up on my several spelling mistakes, and i appreciate it. I'll fix them all up asap. Cheers, C xx

Corner of my home

I don't usually like to show of bits of my house. Mainly because we are only renting and i hate everything about it lol. It's ugly, the colour scheme is terrible, and it's just so not "me". If i had a choice we would live in a lovely weather board home, on a big block of land with plenty of windows, and nooks and character. And plenty of trees and a nice little veranda out the back.
But for now we live in a dingy 70's brick house, that is falling apart at the seams and with a tiny kitchen, ugly curtains and absolutely no visual appeal whatsoever. However i just had to show of this.

It's my new dining table. I brought it at the salvo's for $50. It was originally a yucky brown laminate colour, but i loved the detail on the legs, and the size was perfect. SO i took it home, gathered up a few old chairs and painted the whole lot white. And Voila! We have a dining setting. We have never had one that we can all sit at before. We do have a round dining table, but it was too big, and never fitted anywhere. But now we can all have dinner together. And we can have visitors over and enjoy proper adult meals without balancing plates on our knees in front of the telly.

Koby loves it, I'm sure the novelty will wear off though.

disclaimer: i apologize for the bad pictures, my dingy kitchen gets no direct natural light, and only has one horrible fluro light on the roof. Terrible photo taking conditions...

on another note, i made this dress the other day. It was originally a round tablecloth. It will be appearing in my store later today.