Alfresco Dining...

Well, we had a lovely weekend and the wedding was beautiful. Of course the bride looked gorgeous, the reception was great, the food was great and there was lots of dancing afterwards so I was happy!!! And it was lovely to spend a WHOLE day with Glenn on Monday (minus children). It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't have to get kids in and out of the car. And we were in and out of the car a lot!!! We were on the hunt for furniture for our alfresco area. We visited every outdoor furniture shop in all of Perth (well, nearly) and finally ended up finding what we loved at Big W of all places. It's the 'Patio' range of furniture by Jamie Durie. We got a six seater meals setting and two large day beds...they're my favourite. Glenn brought it all home last night and set it up for me....he's a sweetie. And I LOVE IT!!! Please excuse the plastic pots for the plants as I haven't potted them up yet, but you can get the general idea. There will be lots of tropical style plants around, a few coffee tables, maybe some wall art, some candles and that should just about do it.

Do I really need more cushions?

Last night I stayed up way past my bedtime to make some cushion covers for the living area (I know, I know...those that know me are probably thinking, how many more times can she change her cushions!!!) I like to call it 'experimenting with colour'. I won some fabric scraps from Ingrid at Lottielulu a few weeks ago. The orangey-yellow flower fabric was from Ingrid and the pale green spot fabric is from Spotlight. The fabric on the back of the cushions is also from Ingrid. I love the cheery, sunny look of these cushions.

We broke with tradition last night (our tradition...) and put the Christmas tree up early. I usually like to do it on 1st December, but I bought and made some new decorations this year and couldn't wait to see them on the tree. Now that Will is older and less inclined to pull, poke and prod the decorations, I thought we could scrap some of our old and very well worn ones and go with some newys. I'll post a photo of the tree soon.

Must leave it there for now, I need to drop the kids off at mum and dad's. Then Glenn and I have twenty four hours of childfree time together....very rare and much appreciated. Thanks mum and dad!!!!!!!

Art...

I don't have much to show by way of my creations at the moment so I thought I'd show you the painting I was talking about the other day. My mum's friend is an Artist and this is one of her paintings. As soon as I saw it I loved it and new it would be perfect in our house. So here are a couple of photos of the painting in our entrance. Sorry again for the bad photos...photography is definitely not one of my strong points.

We have a wedding to go to on Sunday at The Vines and Glenn and I are staying at the resort overnight which I'm looking forward to. I don't know the bridal couple very well (in fact, I've never met the bride) so it will feel a bit strange to be sharing such an intimate day with them, but I'm sure it'll be lovely. ALL weddings are lovely!!!

Bye for now and have a great weekend...

Mmmmmmm Lemon Slice...and Decorations

The kids and I went to my mum and dad's for afternoon tea today and mum made the most delicious (and very easy!!!) Lemon Passionfruit Slice. My kids have a definite weak spot for Lemon Slice so it went down a treat with them.

I'm sure mum won't mind if I share the recipe with you (it's not like I've tried to pass it off as my own.....I would NEVER do that!!!).

LEMON PASSIONFRUIT SLICE (mum didn't use passionfruit 'cause she didn't have any and it was still yummy)

1 cup SR flour
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup caster sugar
125gm butter, melted
1 can sweetened condensed milk
juice of 2 lemons and finely grated rind of 1 lemon
pulp of 2 passionfruit (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line the base and 2 sides of an 18 x 27cm slice pan. Combine flour, sugar and coconut, add butter and combine well. Press firmly into the pan and bake 12-15 minutes until golden. Cool slightly. Combine condensed milk, juice and rind with a whisk and pour over the base. Sprinkle with coconut and bake for a further 12-15 minutes until set. Cool in the pan and chill until needed. Cut into squares and store chilled in an airtight container.

Sorry, no photos....we ate it too quickly!!!

On a craftier note, I made some lovely simple Christmas decorations today. In the latest Better Homes & Gardens magazine they had some free wrapping paper. I used it to cut out little Christmas shapes then stitched them together so they hang in long lines. I've hung two strings of them at the front door (we have glass front doors) and they look really sweet. Here is a photo of one set (they were really hard to photograph as it was so bright). These particular ones I actually stitched to some very thin white ribbon so I could leave a gap between each one.

I'm Free...

My lovely friend has taken my son, Will for a play this morning and has then offered to drop him at kindy this afternoon so I have a very unexpected, but most appreciated FREE day today!!!

So what shall I do and where should I start? I have one more of the three 'skirt and top' sets to make so I'll get that done and I'm hoping to head to a garden shop to buy a new pot. I bought a plant yesterday to go inside near the meals area and I want to plant it in a big, tall pot.

Here's a couple of photos of the second 'skirt and top' set for the eldest of the three daughters. I made this one with a contrasting hem band and the tutorial was courtesy of I Have To Say .

And one more skirt...a little ruffle skirt using the tutorial from Grand Revival Design. For a beginner like me, both of these tutorials were very easy to follow with a beautiful result.

Surely that's enough skirts for me for now.....

All that glitters...

I've been inspired to make some jewellery lately. We recently purchased a beautiful piece of art from a good friend of my mum's (I will post a photo soon...) and I wanted to make her something in return. She loves jewellery, particularly in aquas and greens so I made her a lovely bracelet in those colours and a pair of matching sterling silver drop earrings. I only made them last week and at that stage had no intentions of starting my own blog, so I don't have any photos as I've already packaged them up to give to her.

But I do have a couple of photos of another very similar bracelet that I made for myself in pastel glass beads, swarovski crystals and sterling silver spacers. Not sure if the photos do it justice???

And a couple of appliqued singlets for Chloe's teacher ready to go...

More Christmas Gifts

Here is a little outfit I made for my friend's five year old girl....a Bonds singlet with a flower appliqued on it and a little skirt using the most gorgeous floral fabric. I'm making two more of these sets using different style tops for the two sisters of this little girl.

These sets are so quick and simple to make and after many years of starting very lengthy quilting projects, I've finally come to the realisation that I am definitely most suited to quick sewing projects. I like to start and finish something all in the one sitting.

Next on my list of things to make are some gifts for Chloe's teacher who is leaving at the end of this year to have a baby boy. One of the mums at school is organising a basket full of goodies so I thought I'd make one or two bunny rugs/muslin wraps and some little blue Bonds singlets with appliques on them like the one above.

Well, we have some beautiful sunshine outside today that I'm going to enjoy. Hope you're having a lovely Sunday!!!

...and now some pictures

...just a quick post to include some photos.

Firstly, a skirt I made for my daughter, Chloe that has sort of turned out to be a Christmas skirt.

A lined tote bag that will probably be a Christmas gift.

And finally, a picture of our very first flower on our Little Gem Magnolia tree....it smells delicious too!!!

Please excuse the layout of this post...hopefully I'll get better with time.

Hooray...My First Post

Well, I've finally found the courage to start my own blog.

There will be plenty of chatter, plenty of sewing and little bits of jewellery making, home decorating, cooking and recipe sharing thrown in too (I love sharing favourite recipes for others to enjoy...and I'm always on the lookout for favourites from others too, so feel free to share).

I will post again soon, with some photos of Christmas goodies I've been making (I have good intentions of starting my gift making early this year....we'll see how it goes).

Finally, a HUGE THANK YOU to Ingrid at Lottielulu for give me the gentle push I needed to get my blog started.

Bye for now....