day thirty four: home-made cards

my two finished cards

day thirty four is upon us and its time for some more card making! todays two card inspirations come from k werner design ... i love the simplicity of her designers, really crisp and not fussy, my type of card!  one of her cards is pinned onto my paper crafts board at pinterest.

working out the grids

gathered my supplies, then began with my main to use the same type of gridded squares she used on her card ... i inked the edges of the squares because as we know ... i don't like raw edges.  i also used a home-made flower and tim holtz tattered flowers in my sweet friends cuttlebug (she lent it to me for the week, i so want to have one now!) with some preloved book pages ...

can you tell i have a sweet spot for
fabric flowers ;)

outcome:  love the gridded squares, easy to achieve, these cards took no time at all to put together and are a great design option if you need a card in a hurry ... next time i make one, i want to add some bold, bright papers that yell child at you when you see it!

many thanks to the very talented kristina of k werner design... the designs are simple and stunning and the way her cards are put together makes me completely envious :)  she has a very popular following for her weekly make a card monday, and designs for the scrapbook industry.  definitely check her wonderful blog out!

photo fun challenge day 29: trees

looking out the front of our house down towards the vegies!

day thirty three: the great pikelet bake off 1850's style :)

one proud 1850's boy with his pikelets

day thirty three and the kids and i are off to howick historic village to do our learning today :)  yesterday the kids visited with their great nana who made pikelets for them, which they demolished and then requested we make tomorrow. as we were in puhi nui house at the village today and had the big wood fired agar at our disposal i said i would find some recipes on pinterest and we could try a couple out.  i gave the kids one recipe each to make and bake for the visitors and staff.  both recipes are pinned to my recipe must do's board.

the bake off started with pollyanna who had a basic pikelet recipe from ladies a plate website.  she whipped up her batter and we cooked them on top of the wood burning range ...

she was so delighted with her efforts, my little
1850's girl :)

pollyanna's pikelet outcome:  these pikelets were delicious, the golden syrup in them is a great addition and topped with strawberry jam they are very hard to say no to for seconds!  actually nobody did say no and most of us had at least three!

benjamin was given a apple and cinnamon pikelet recipe from frills n spills  blog ... we had no grater in 1850 (the period the historic village is set in) so the apple was chopped very finely for this recipe and we considered it a real treat to use such an expensive spice as cinnamon (really only used for the lords and ladies during this time!). the batter looked and smelt awesome :)

ben's pikelets baking! we had very LITTLE control over
the heat with our agar, it had to be hot because we had
bread in the oven baking :)

benjamin's pikelet outcome: these pikelets are fantastic with a little bit of freshly churned butter on top .... so good ... but don't be tempted to put a jam on top it really doesn't work.  on their own these pikelets are top notch, no additions necessary. these too did not stay on the plate very long at all!

thanks to the lovely frills n spills  blog and the ladies a plate website for two scrummy recipes that worked just as well in an 1850's setting as they would in the twenty first century! equally as good but for different reasons, this bake off was well and truly a draw :)

photo fun challenge day 28: transport

our magic school bus ;)

day thirty two: fabric flowers

the finished fabric flowers!

day thrity two and i am into my second month of pinterest 365! who knew creating each day would be so addictive. today we are venturing back into the world of fabric flower tutorials.  today's tutorials can all be found on pick up some creativity blog .... nice to have eight different flowers to do today to add to the collection and you can find the link on my general crafts board at pinterest.

the lengths of fabric ironed ready to turn into flowers

the first thing i did was cut a whole lot of different lengths of material at different widths and then ironed the strips in half.  because i am not the biggest fan of raw edges i did also iron in the ends ... need to work on my issues surrounding my compulsion for neatness.  as you will see i did step outside my comfort zone and do a couple of raw edge flowers, there is also the possibility they could be my last too ;)  i also added a couple of pieces of lace ribbon to my collection.

all the different types i made following the tutorials:
gather flowers, rolled ones, raw edges, twisted, and
circle petals to name a few!

the rolled rose looking ones i used hot glue to create, the rest are done with a needle and thread ... to say they require sewing is a stretch, the kids are going to make them this week in art as part of their sculpting with big needles and i am sure its not going to be a challenge for them ... so you get my drift!  the fun part is when you are finished the gluing or sewing and get to chose centres for them ... nothing like beautifying beautiful flowers :)

outcome: the flowers turned out fantastic, i loved learning all the different types of flowers she had available and it makes me realise i CAN make my own .... its a really rewarding way to spend an hour of your day, which is how long it took me to make these beauties ... it took me almost as long to chose the centres for them .. choices, so many choices!

remember the EASY skirt i made for pollyanna (you can see it here) ... well now i can make all sorts of flowers i decided to add one to her skirt ... cute aye.

a cute addition to pollyanna's skirt :)

my thanks to the lovely christine at pick up some creativity ... having links to all different types of fabric flower tutorials at one stop was awesome and i now feel i have a complete handle on them all!  the pictures + words tutorials and helpful advice are wonderful ... some of the tutorials are hers and some are from other blogs but also just as good ... if you want to master all the different types of fabric flowers this is a great place to go :)


photo fun challenge day 27: your weakness

this picture is worth a 1000 words!

day thirty one: paper houses for tea lights or candy :)

my finished paper tea light house

day thirty one and we had such a stormy night! holy moly the lightning was enough to wake everyone, let alone the thunder claps :)  i was up early with excitement today as i had friends coming over for the day to craft ... yip all day, its bliss for me -- crafting, good food, and good mates :) so today was a day we all chose to make paper houses that could be used for tea lights or to fill with candy as a substitute to goody bags.  the paper house pattern is pinned to my paper crafts board on pinterest and originated from all at sea with a bucket and spade ... the lovely lady of this blog used them as treat boxes for a birthday party, the table setting was GORGEOUS!

my flat pack house!

ok i printed the pattern straight onto my double sided scrapbook paper so i didn't need to use a template.  the printed side with the lines are on the inside of my box so you can't see them and i find this saves a lot of time and cutting!  i cut the door to open for both of mine and glued the roof on so i can use them with battery tea lights for christmas.  the originals don't have the doors cut or the roof glued as they were used for party favours.

the growing village of paper houses!

outcome: so easy, REALLY sweet and they make you smile when you finish one.  this is one of those crafts that are well worth doing because you really can't stuff it up! i added a few bits and pieces to each house to individualise them and plan to make a few more so i can have them along the kitchen windowsill for christmas :) good things as martha would say!

in other news:
here is my finished oliver owl and the shirt skirt i promised to show pictures of when finished.

oliver owl with his cosy scarf!

the finished shirt skirt!

photo fun challenge day 25 and 26: citrus and your favourite colour

the mandarins off our tree :) sweet and delicious

steve in our rugby team supporters tee ... the blues
(and also my FAVOURITE colour!

can i just say also my thoughts are with japan as they go through another series of significant aftershocks, it seems our end of the world has yet to settle down with more earthquakes in new zealand over this past week :(  kia kaha japan and to my own country folk

day thirty: knitted amigurumi oliver owl

ok my little owl looks more like a penguin
without his ears and tail but when they
are added tomorrow i am sure he will return
to the owl family ... if not peter the penguin
sounds good don't you think!

day thirty and welcome to saturday everyone :) hope your weekend is a good one .. i was still at the spring cleaning list (from day twenty two) quite the COMPREHENSIVE list i'm telling you.  so today after running around sorting out my dust issues i felt like a pinterest creation where i could, well, sit for a lengthy period of time this evening and do it in front of the sport on tv (go the silver ferns and crusaders!).  knitting certainly fitted the bill and as the amigurumi animal friends knitting book turned up at the library last week for me, i decided it was time to give oliver owl a go.  he is pinned to my general crafts board and you can buy the pattern book from amazon or get it from your local library :)

the knitting book from which oliver comes from

i really like knitting but i am pretty slow so there was no way she was going to be finished today, but he is close with only ears, tail and scarf to do tomorrow .. no sweat! ... i used the colours i had at home so he is a little different from the original brief :)

oliver in bits and pieces ... soon to be whole!

outcome:  i love him and it won't be the only amigurumi i make in the very near future because they are a great thing to do while watching tv ... i don't do too much tv but when i do, i will be knitting some more little friends for oliver owl!

he's a cutie that's for sure!

fyi: with all the spring cleaning and knitting going on today i didn't make it over to the sewing machine so tomorrow i will show you the finished shirt skirt!

day twenty nine: oatmeal raisin bars AND a simple skirt

oatmeal and raisin bars ... seriously so good

the easy as skirt turned out great :)

day twenty nine has dawned and i asked my husband what i should create today for p365 ... typical to form he said i think you need to bake something .... yip should've guessed that was coming! only problem was i felt like sewing after we had finished our schooling today ... well as you can see i went to the boards and found two EASY creations to make so i could do both!  the simple skirt tutorial comes from a sewing blog favourite dana made it and is pinned to my general crafts board.  the oatmeal raisin bars are from martha stewart and are pinned to my recipe must do's board on pinterest.

this afternoon i sat down to make pollyanna a skirt and figured if it went well i could attempt one for myself ...eeek! i used a simple check material for her and used the well finished salvage for the hemline!  i also decided to see if i could make one of steve's work shirts into one and while its not finished its not far away from being added to pollyanna's wardrobe! no skirt for me yet, until i find a nice fabric but its gonna happen! gosh i wish there were more hours in the day!

ok decided for winter these raisin bars were nice and comfort foody looking so while i prepared dinner i mixed together the ingredients and shoved it in the oven ... the most timely bit was waiting for the butter to melt ... seriously it took ten minutes to whip this one bowl wonder together and it required NO machinery ... love that because it means i also don't have to clean said machinery :)  the only adaption i made to these were substituting sultanas for raisins and adding some chocolate melts to the top :)  its winter, of course you need chocolate ;)

outcome: ok first with the skirt, very cute and so SO easy ... if you have a sewing machine and a daughter there is no excuse for not making your child this skirt!  the fabric was cheap $NZ3.99 p/m, so with elastic this skirt cost me $2.50 to make ... SWEET!  as for the oatmeal raisin bars ... they were all gone by the end of the netball (we watched the silver ferns take on south africa at the world champs!)  honestly they were the best comfort food and the chocolate bits on top were a really nice addition!

once again many thanks goes to dana made it for another very cool tutorial on sewing for us mere amateurs! the skirt is awesome and i am definitely finishing up the shirt one (pics tomorrow) and making one for myself! the oatmeal raisin bars have already been asked for again tomorrow so it must be another successful recipe from martha's house!

photo fun challenge days 23 and 24: black and white and love (yess i cheated slightly! i loved the picture i took of my boy so much yesterday, i wanted to kept it for today as my love photo :)_

black and white for day 23

love for day 24

day twenty eight: printing on fabric vintage pillows

my little christmas pillows :)

day twenty eight and its probably too early to think about christmas .... na it's never too early to think about christmas .... nevertheless i decided to print on fabric today and this craft was pinned to my general crafts board and originated from the the pickled pepper patch that has a really good demo of how printing on fabric is done using words and pictures (my favourite type!).  i also used inspiration from the awesome website my repurposed life, she has lots of great ideas and uses a4 stickers as her backing for printing on fabric as an alternative.  she also used some gorgeous graphics from the graphics fairy (see sidebar button to take you straight to vintage image heaven!) and given my lust of her graphics since i went their yesterday, i thought printing on fabric using her vintage christmas images sounded like a match made for the ages :)

the printed fabric still attached to the freezer paper,
fresh out of the printer!

I ironed my calico onto the freezer paper, clicked on the image i wanted to enlarge it and printed from there ... whala ... beautiful fabric!  i decided to make each image into a quick pillow that i can toss about the place during christmas (teehee) ...

outcome: fabric printing + images from the graphics fairy = pure joy ... its simple, easy, and oh so satisfying!  now what shall i print out next (i fear this could become very addictive, much like pinterest!)