Merry Christmas!

A merry Christmas to all! Hope you have a wonderful festive season!

Christmas Decorations

I have been wanting to make some Xmas decorations for ages and have started collecting patterns and projects I might use. I did not start on anything until I received my new book "Sew Pretty Christmas Style" last week. WOW! What a book! So much eye candy! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book! I want to make everything in it! This was enough inspiration for me to start with some projects for Xmas.

This is not from the book but from the You can Make This blog. It's a door ornament, easy to make and adorable!

Recently my Mom-in-Law gave me an embroidery frame and I did not think I would ever use it, but I did for this project. What a difference it makes! It was so much easier to do the embroidery.

This is the finished product, although this is another one I made for myself with pink. You use organza ribbon to hang it from. It is really cute!

I also made some heart hanging ornaments that are from my new book.

Once again, easy to make! All the projects in this book are easy to make and gorgeous! I will post a review of the book soon. I used my new adorable pink Xmas fabric for the bigger heart and felt for the smaller one. I embellished with yo-yo's and on the one I added little Xmas bells on ribbon. I will post some pictures of my house as soon as all the decorations are done.

Stork Party Gift

A colleague is expecting a baby soon and I wanted to make her a gift for the baby. She chose white and lilac for the baby's room and the bedlinen is lilac gingham, so I made these for her.

This little bear is from felt and the pattern is one piece. It literally takes about one hour to make this bear! I have made several over the last few months. This time I inserted some gingham in the ears and hands. I also made a little pillow for the room.

The kitchen project

For some time now I have been wanting to make some items for my kitchen and recently I finally had time to do it.

These are store-bought dishcloths. All I did was sew on a row of little pieces of fabric that goes with the colour scheme. I am quite pleased with the result!

These are the potholders. I used my favorite Valori Wells fabric and some yellow gingham and did a bit of very simple quilting.

These are the potstands I made. Same fabric and so cute! Both the potholders and potstands are from the Amy Butler book "In Stitches". I adore this book! I plan to make many more projects from it soon.

New Pincushions for new pin toppers!

I recently discovered the most gorgeous pin toppers on Etsy made by Yifatii. It took a while to decide which ones to buy - they are ALL gorgeous! - and when I received them, I just had to make new pincushions to show them off!

I made this pink pincushion from felt and attached pretty ribbon tape on the side as is in my new book "Pretty Little Pincushions". Here I show off my sweet treats pin toppers. They are adorable!

I made this brown and creme pincushion based on the same idea as the pink pincushion above and here I show off some of my cupcake pin toppers.

This pink cupcake pincushion is simply adorable and so easy to make. I cannot remember which blog I got this from though! It shows off my lovely new pink cupcake pin toppers.

I also found the pattern for these cute little hedgehogs and decided to make a few!

Lastly, and the BEST of all! I asked Yifat to make me a custom order of pink tulip pin toppers. They are so amazing! She even made me a free little charm to go with the set! You must go look at her Etsy shop and buy some of these gorgeous pin toppers and other lovely polymer clay items she makes. She is a true artist!

My first Blog Award!

My friend Hannah over at http://www.hannahmshaw.com/ gave me a blog award! I am really excited as this is my first ever blog award!

“This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I am supposed to pass this award onto 8 wonderful people, but in the spirit of the award I have only selected 6 people that have been very supportive and kind to me and saved me from talking to cyberspace! This award is passed on to:

1. http://madebylova.wordpress.com/

2. http://zenforyou.dalefg.net/

3. http://appelligartafamily.blogspot.com/

4. http://sewkalico.blogspot.com/

5. http://theindecisivepinay.wordpress.com/

6. http://majik078.blogspot.com/

Ladies, you all deserve this award for being considered blog friends and leaving kind comments! Pass this award on to other blogger friends!

Creative Swap update

What a lovely birthday surprize to find this parcel in my post yesterday! Tulsi, my swap partner in the Creative Swap, sent me the most fabulous stuff!


I am crazy about the brown fabric with pink flowers and butterflies on it! Tulsi even sent me matching plain pink fabric and brown thread! The yellow fabric also came with matching thread and is ideal for my kitchen I am re-doing in yellow. I also received two handbag patterns! cannot wait to make them!



A box of cereal with all my favorite ingredients that I will be enjoying soon and a lovely card with a handwritten note inside. Thank you so much Tulsi! I LOVE everything in my parcel! I appreciate all the trouble you went to to get me stuff that I like.

Seams to Me projects

I recently did a review on my blog about this book by designer Anna Maria Horner. I love this book more and more every day! Within hours after receiving it I was busy making the Taxi Tote featured inside! What a fabulously simple and pretty bag this is!

Here is my first attempt at it with pretty pink and blue material. I had such fun making it that I have cut out another two already! The full size patterns in the book makes it possible to start a project immediately. With this one I used a stiff interfacing which I will not repeat in the next two. I think this bag is meant to be a bit floppy.

This is a view of the inside of the bag. I used a lovely pink gingham inside that matches the pink flowers on the outside fabric. The loop and large covered button matches the inside fabric. I put more pockets inside than the pattern requires and I have made the next two smaller than the first bag. The bigger my bag, the more stuff I tend to put inside!

Birthday fun!

I had a great birthday yesterday! Spoiled by the men in my life with fabulous presents. We had a few family members over for tea and visited until late. On the weekend I was trying to finish a few projects to show off at my birthday. I only managed to complete one item though. Here is a picture of my new tray cloth complementing my new set of yellow mugs with ladybugs on them.

I found a tutorial on the internet to crochet the edge of your tray cloth or it can be used for placemats and napkins as well. Not very clear on the photo but I embroidered the edge with a blanket stitch in yellow embroidery thread and used a stiff interfacing inside. I found this fabulous yellow fabric last weekend at my favorite habberdashery shop.

I have also cut out placemats, coasters and a stunning tablecloth with a frilled edge from this fabric but did not finish it. I cannot decide on the embellishments...

I also bought foam to make some cushions for our lapa (outside entertainment area). The other night I found this small piece of home dec fabric in my stash that was ideal for the cushions. This was a quick, fun project to make.

This is an oilcloth tablecloth I am busy with for the outside table. I am busy sewing the hem with some cute light blue embroidered lace I bought. I will post a photo of the completed project soon.

The cutest pink flowers from a colleague at work and chocolates from a client for my birthday!

It's my birthday today!

I have not posted for a few days and feel really guilty about it! Although I have been crafting a little bit, I have not taken any photos yet. I have spent some time on making some stuff for our entertainment area since we are getting a few people over for supper tonight to celebrate my birthday. My husband and the boys woke me up at 6am this morning to give me my presents! All craft-related. Lovely! I will share some photos later this week.