total and complete freak out on the cards

I've totally and completely over-committed myself.  I might possibly be going into melt down before the end of the weekend.

 

I'm doing my first market in one week. I don't have quite enough stock.

I have a tonne of things to finish off including business cards and product tags.
 

I have to finish screen-printing tea towels for a swap due out next week (sneak peek of a trial screen-printing session)

I have to finish (or rather start) an item for an international "boys only" swap.  I've made one already (a cute bunny rattle), I just have to make another for this little lucky baby's big brother.

I have a rather demanding-four-year-old who is at home when I'm not working. Read: When I'm at home, so is he; When he's at Kinder, I'm at work.

I'm screwed. (sorry, I don't have a photo for this one... yet).

My temporary relief?  This little tub of schoko... mmm, deliciously thick hot chocolate.  Meanwhile, I should be doing all of those things instead of posting on my blog.  But, I am a procrastinator.

Wish me freakin' luck over the next week.  I can see many a sleepless-night on the horizon.

looky what I made last night...

 

Like I'm sure many of you have experienced before I got the urge to craft last night and I remembered the tute I saw for a super easy messenger bag.  

Mind you this was at about 9:30pm last night, so I really should have been thinking about getting myself settled in for the night with mindless tv garbage instead of tackling a sewing project.  So I thought to myself, I'll just cut all the fabric pieces I need for the project, press them and get them ready for the morning.

Unfortunately, once I got started, I couldn't help myself.  I finished the bag at 1:30am this morning.  And then I proudly wore it out shopping today.  Even got a comment on how cute my bag was from a shop assistant.  "Thanks" I said.  "Whipped it up last night".

I impressed myself because I've never been great at following instructional type things.  I always manage to mess up one of the steps and it results in disaster.  That's usually why I don't bother with measuring, templates or patterns.  I like to freehand.  But I loved this bag so much that I really wanted to give it a go.  High fives for me.  I guess there's hope for me just yet in the "following-of-instructions" department!

Wanna make one for yourself?  Here's the tute.  And here's some more piccies.

 

I like it because it looks simple, funky and understated on the outside...

  

a pocket on the back to carry important things like the latest issue of Mix Tape

  

but then you lift the flap...

  

 and peek-a-boo... there's a little cheeky happiness found inside.  totally unpredictable I think

eek, mega creative block!

 

I have some freshly washed and pressed canvases in these linen tea towel blanks which I finally received in the mail yesterday.  And all I can do is keep staring at them in complete blankness.

I think my issue is that I have too many ideas and I can't focus on one or two because I'm worried that they won't be the pick of the crop... so to speak.  I have about 2 weeks before these babies need to be in the mail to my swap partners.  

Knowing me I'll probably get them done the night before.  I'll post pics after they're all complete (if that ever happens).  Gulp.

matchbox of tiny trinkets

I recently participated in a matchbox swap.  We had to either make from scratch (template was supplied) or decorate an empty matchbox and fill it with whatever we wanted.

Here's what I made for my swap partner.

I made my matchbox using the supplied template and some gorgeous scrapbooking paper and filled it with lots of trinkets in the theme of love including stickers, brads, beads, buttons and ribbons.


I received my swap parcel yesterday and it was filled with not only two matchboxes containing all sorts of gorge trinkets, I also got Hawaiian chocolate and soap as well as some window love heart jellies.  Totally gorgeous and totally made my day. Thanks Heather from Hawaii!

Yay for the basic messenger bag

 mmmcrafts: the basic messenger bag

I've been wanting a messenger bag for a while now but haven't been able to find one that I'm head over heels about. I just stumbled upon this easy peasy tutorial over at mmm crafts and I'm excited because now I can make my own in a fabric that I'll be happy with. Yay. And now I have to get ready for work. Not yay.

handmade valentine

Over the past couple of weeks I've been super busy (unfortunately neglecting my blog a little more than I'd like).  

I started a part time job, have been trying to get ready for my first market appearance, have been making stuff for swaps (I'll share pics soon) and have all the while been trying to fill my mum and housewife duties - a little unsuccessfully I might add.  Ah well, we all gotta suck at something, right?

But to show my dear beloved that I do love him dearly, I started making a "love" album for him a month ago which included photos from the last seven and a half years we've been together.

I gave him the album yesterday - Valentine's Day.  Now I might add, we don't usually celebrate V day as we don't really believe in it, but I got sucked in this year.  All the fab crafty blogs covering many a thing that you could make for V day got me hooked.

So here's a peek inside the pages of the love album I made for my sweetheart.  

P.S. he was touched.

everything old is new

I love finding new uses for things that would otherwise end up in the bin.  Having made envelopes from old newspaper pages in the past myself, I really appreciated reading the secret pie shoppe's blog where she shares a tutorial for turning glossy magazines pages into envelopes.

I hope it inspires you to make some envelopes yourself.

Totally cool.

instant love

Being the avid wannabe photographer that I am, I've been excited to hear about Fuji's Instax Mini Camera which is a new and improved instant photo camera.  If you haven't heard about it yet, you must check out the photojojo site.

I still have my old polaroid camera but it's a bitch trying to find polaroid film, plus when you do find it it's expensive!

So when I read Ez from Creature Comforts post about giving one of these babies away, there was no way I was going to miss out on entering.  The amount of money I will save purchasing one of these little instant lovelies I will put towards stocking up on film.  My aim?  To create an album of one photo taken each day over 100 days.

For your chance to enter check out the lovely and fabulously talented Ez's site!  Thanks Ez for sharing and thanks to Photojojo for supplying some freebie goodness.  We're all waiting with baited breath to hear who wins.

inspiration time: red love

Time for some inspiration.  And with Valentine's Day just around the corner and hearts a-fluttering, I thought it quite appropriate to give today's inspiration a 'red love' theme.


If you love red and have a moment, make sure you check out Beth Retro's collection on Flickr.  She has some amazing photos.  I've featured some of her work in today's inspiration gallery!  She seems to have a passion for red... which I absolutely adore.

 

Flickr Gallery - red love

cute as a bugs foot pin cushion

I got up this morning and whilst eating breakfast and drinking my morning cup of tea, I caught up on all the blogs I follow... like I do most morning's really.

But one thing really caught my eye... It's really functional, but different from the standard mushroom-top-with-wrist-loop-pin-cushion.

The cutest little pillow shaped, heart-embellished pin cushion I've ever seen!

Jessica from Happy Together has shared a tutorial on how you can make your very own adorable pin cushion using up various fabric scraps.  Super duper easy peasy lemon squeezy.  I think I will be making one of these for myself today; to compliment my mushroom pincushion of course.