Some stitching action

An attempt at some hand embroidery!, originally uploaded by [mummalu].

I would love to try doing some more hand embroidery. This was done a couple of months ago for an "embellishment" project at Tafe.

Let's go shopping

Well my heart definitely skipped a beat when I spotted this shopping cart on my brief visit to an op shop on Wednesday. I had to look around to see if some granny actually owned it and then I saw the price tag. $5!

I have been on a quiet hunt for a floral shopping cart for about 6 years now. I have only ever seen about 4 of them, and they usually belong to a granny. So you can imagine my delight when I found this one. It even came in my favourite colours.

Now I just need to go shopping! Tomorrow might be the perfect day to start at the Newcastle Art Bazaar at Civic Park, 9am till 3pm. There are 80+ stalls with around 100 artists on display! BTW, my fashion design class are having a stall there, so I should be there for most of the day.

The Christmas Tree is up

The Christmas Tree is up. We have tried to keep it simple. It is covered in a silver tinsel that I had bought at the op shop years ago. In fact, it was unused and still had the 15 feet label wrapped around all 3 packs. So either they are very old or have come from the States!

Our parents have been in the habit of each sending us a Christmas decoration for the past 5 years, and along with a handful of other collected decorations, that was enough to fill our little tree.

There are no lights this year. I think we have decided to simply save some energy. I might keep an eye out for some second hand ones at the World's Biggest Car Boot Sale this Sunday on in Newcastle, Australia.

Homemade Christmas Cards.

I let little miss 2.5 get involved in the Christmas card making this year. The painting got a little bit out of hand when she decided that she didn't want to put paint on the cards and would much rather put it on the table and all over her body. So I ended up having to finish some of the cards, I felt like a mother who is doing their child's homework for them!

I thought I'll bring her back to help me do some of the pasting, but she thought that it would be much more fun tipping out all the glitter and making a little mountain on the table.

I have been saving old Christmas cards from previous years to use for craft projects. I cut out all the existing sayings such as "Seasons Greetings" and "Merry Christmas" and have stuck them on the cards. I think I am going to sew a little border around some of them on the machine, just to add a little bit more interest.

Red Lantern Night Markets

Mr. Rickshaw, originally uploaded by [mummalu].

Last Saturday night was the first evening of the Red Lantern Night Markets. I had a teeny stall there and had a brilliant evening. I just loved the life that the market bought back to the mall. There were so many people, great music, fantastic handmade stalls, yummy food and the mall was closed off to traffic once again.

I'm unable to do any more stalls for the remaining Red Lantern Markets (27/11 & 11/12), but I am hoping that I can sneak in as a shopper and finish all of my Christmas shopping.

I will be making a small appearance at the Annual Art Bazaar in Civic Park, Newcastle on Saturday December 4th. I will be on a stall with rest of my Fashion Design students from TAFE.

Hopefully see you there! :)

Our Christmas Tree in the making

I love a fresh Christmas tree, I love the smell, I don't like the idea of cutting down a tree that has grown for years and will only last a month.

So here is this year's answer to a tree. It is made from driftwood collected from the beach. I have a feeling that we aren't supposed to take these from the beach so sshh, don't tell anyone! ;)

Here is last year's Christmas tree. With a little toddler on the run we decided that it was safer to just have a 2D tree.

Wishlist Wednesday

1. This would definitely suit my little babe for Christmas! From bohemian babes on madeit.

2. If I just shut my eyes I could just pretend that there's no nasty food colouring in this one. How amazing does this look! Found at Whisk Kid.

3. A Polaroid SX-70. I just love the rainbow colours that run through the middle of the camera. And I love bokeh! Image stolen from Brandon Warren on Flickr.

4. I first spotted these on someone's blog yesterday. Then I saw one on a friend today.
So in love! MadebyEmilyGreen from Melbourne.

5. So I have 3 tattoos that I got done in Mexico and Ecuador when I was much younger. I don't like them much at all now. I have been completely against getting any more tattoos until now! I saw a girl at work with a babushka tattoo on her leg and my heart started racing. It was just gorgeous.

(Don't worry Mum, I'm not really going to get one! I just WISH that I could!)

This one was posted by babushka_baby done by Marc at 2012 Tattoo, Newcastle.

Ta da! 36 hair clips done.

I am currently without my good camera so please excuse the quality of the photographs. I have finally finished a round of hair clips. They are the first lot that I have made since last year! They are 'non-slip', great for babies' hair, all backed with felt. I made an effort not to put too many buttons on, so that I am not stressing about the littlies choking on them.

I have packaged them onto card leftover from the cereal boxes and glued old atlas pages on top. I printed a little blurb for the back with contact details etc.

Anyways, they are all for sale at the Red Lantern Night Market coming up this Saturday night.

How much would you pay for one of these?

Scrappy hair clips are back.

I'm just in the middle of making a round of the scrappy hair clips that were so successful last year. There's not going to be many, so be quick if you want to grab one!

At the Red Lantern Markets in the Hunter Street Mall, Newcastle. I'll be there on the 20th November.

Encircled will be appearing at the Red Lantern Markets

My little brand 'encircled' will be making an appearance at the Red Lantern Markets in the Newcastle Hunter Street Mall this coming Saturday night, 20th November, 4 till 10pm. I will be having a selection of girls dresses, pencil cases, coin purses and hair clips all made from upcycled fabrics and many items hand screen printed.

The initial Red Lantern Market will feature rickshaw rides, a body-painting exhibition, street performance, Earthen Rhythms African Drumming, ‘Efendi Jaenudin’ Indonesian Music Ensemble and a fire-twirling exhibition.

Additionally, ‘Livesites’ will collaborate with the Night Market and produce an evening of ‘Dancing in the Streets’, at the David Jones end of the mall’.

Stay up to date with the happenings of the market on their blog: http://redlanternnightmarket.blogspot.com/

I think I can feel another useless collection coming on.

I have been seeing these gorgeous floral flour sifters at some of our second hand markets. I have been avoiding buying them, because seriously, why do I need another flour sifter? Well this time we were at the Wickham markets and I just couldn't help myself. So here I now have the most delightful flour sifter to add to my utterly useless dust collecting collection of "stuff". But I can tell you that I am in love with it :)

Trains, Art Galleries & Op Shops. Oh my.

Yesterday we made the train journey out to Maitland to visit their fantastic art gallery. They put on some brilliant kids holiday programs. The theme for the pipsqueak littlies yesterday was to create some play food to coincide with one of the current exhibitions 'Lunch with the Trades'.

We made some sandwiches with cardboard bread filled with shredded coloured paper. A soft drink of red cellophane with a bendy straw (no ADD symptoms to deal with here!), Styrofoam cupcakes, stickered lollypops and cutout cookies. Junior Masterchef, eat your heart out!

I think I had more fun creating the food more than miss 2.5 did. The Maitland Art Gallery is well worth a visit. It has free entry & a fabulous gift shop. Some of the kids programs cost a little bit of money, but are cheaper if you are a member.

After all the fun and food, we took the kids to the play ground next door and wore them out. They crashed out in their prams and my friend and I managed to briefly raid some of the awesome op shops that Maitland has to offer. I think I could spend an entire day trawling the op shops of Maitland.

Not sure where Maitland Art Gallery is? Here's a map.

Some quiet days at home.

Yesterday afternoon was spent in the backyard digging for worms. We have transferred some earth worms over to one of our veggie patches that was just waiting for some wrigglies. E loved watching them burrow into the soil, but was not so keen of the squirming feeling in her hands. She now has a very small corner of the garden to dig holes and plant twigs in so that DP doesn't have a meltdown everytime a seedling gets squashed. :P

This morning we baked a carrot cake. A healthy one of course... It has carrots, it must be healthy? E and I were fighting over who got to lick the icing out of the bowl. Don't you just wish you were a kid again? Remember the magic of being able to lick the beaters after Mum had whipped up something yummy.

Upcycled Ladybirds in the making.

Upcycled Ladybirds in the making., originally uploaded by [mummalu].

These are currently being made by me. They are little ladybird purses with a zip through the middle. The dots have been screenprinted onto the fabric of old shirts. The little eyes have been sewn on using a free machine embroidery method. I can't wait to see them finished.

What do you call them: ladybirds, ladybugs or ladybeetles?

Weekend treasures.

Did some hunting at the Wickham Markets in Islington yesterday. It's always a fave. I came home with a few treasures:

1. The mushroom jars, two for $1. I don't know what I'll be putting in them yet. I just thought that they were cute.

2. The rusty enamel teapot, $2. This won't be getting used for anything, it's going up on the top shelf in the kitchen to gather dust with the rest of my teapots. I loved the retro pattern and couldn't pass it up for only $2!

3. A Paklite vintage suitcase, $10. I have been looking for a vintage suitcase to keep Miss 2.5 dress ups in. It has been hard to find one that doesn't smell like a cross between talcolm powder and mould. This one is just gorgeous, it is almost like new.

Check out some more Flea Market Finds from the weekend here.

Circles by Encircled

I am currently working on some circular coin purses with a zip through the centre. My niece is in love with ladybirds at the moment, so the plan is to do some screen printing and make some ladybird style purses very soon.

Yes, I'm still alive.

softies, originally uploaded by [mummalu].

Here are some little softies I made a few months back. It's not the best photo, but I am quite proud of the screen printed fabric. I did a photo emulsion of some lace on to a screen. I can now jazz up some old fabrics with a bit of lace texture :)

The Envelope Project

Here is my contribution to the Meet Me at Mikes's Envelope Project. It was so much fun picking out the little treasures from around the house and creating my envelope. I made the envelope from a stash of my favourite vintage wallpaper, threw some little goodies in there, chose $1.1o worth of stamps and sent it on its way.

A little update

Although things have been fairly quiet around my blog, my real life has been very busy. I am now back at work, hmm a real job, I am studying 2 days a week, helping a friend out with her ladies 2nd hand market and juggling a very active 2 year old.

School (TAFE) is moving along very slowly, but that's what you get for only going 2 days a week. This semester we had a good play with some screen printing which I have been loving. The last couple of weeks we have been doing up some screens with photo emulsion. I made a screen with my label 'encircled' on it so that I could use them for tags on the items that I am creating. The sushi fish was part of a project that had to be japanese inspired. We are in the middle of making a skirt that had to have one of our screen prints on it.


The pillow is made up of lots of upcycled fabrics including parts of my favourite pair of jeans and many men's shirts. I did some self cover buttons and attempted some piping for the first time. The circles pattern was made using some fabric paint and printing bubble wrap onto the fabric. I then free hand machine embroidered over the top.

Raid My Wardrobe

Raid My Wardrobe, originally uploaded by [mummalu].

Finished screen printing the t-shirts for the Raid My Wardrobe event on this Sunday in Newcastle, Australia. It's a second hand ladies clothing and accessories market. There are going to be 40 plus stalls. Come and check it out if you can: http://raidmywardrobe.com.au

Fairies in the garden?

Fairies in the garden?, originally uploaded by [mummalu].

Paul got in touch with his creative side over the Easter long weekend. With a bit of extra time on his hands and armed with PVA, he created these "fairies" made from champagne corks, googly eyes, scrap fabrics, a shell and a wine cap.

Instead of chocolate on Easter Sunday, Eliza was presented with these gifts. She now has a collection of 5 "fairies". They are definitely flavour of the month, playing in the garden and in the doll's house. Now you are probably thinking, "wow, they must be getting through some wine!?" I am actually collecting the corks from my workplace where they usually just get thrown in the bin.

I am so proud of my manly man for having a go and getting crafty all by himself!

Renovations Complete.

We finally got around to renovating Miss Two's new, preloved doll's house. Mr Practical Dad actually did most of the work. I just did the bossing. He sanded back all the timber and gave it a varnish, gave the roof a new coat of paint. We laid down some fresh carpet in the bedrooms and some lino in the wet rooms. Mr Practical Dad found these in the skip at a job site. And my favourite part is the new vintage wallpaper on the bedroom walls.

Miss Two is loving her new house. I think that there is in fact too much furniture in the house at the moment and she tends to get a bit overwhelmed and just throws it everywhere.

What a fabulous birthday present! Best $30 spent in a long time. Check it out before the renos.