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.

A needle case that makes me feel like a trashy sunday morning.

needle case, originally uploaded by [mummalu].

Well I may have forgotten to tell you that I have started back at TAFE this year. It all happened very suddenly and I am now doing Certificate III in Fashion Design & Technology. Thanks god it's only 2 days a week as going back to school after almost 10 years is hurting my brain. I'll say by the end of the year I shall be a professional crafster.

The course is truly basic. We are learning how to sew from scratch basically. We will be doing some pattern making and my favourite part is the screen printing.

Today we had a play with some "Solvy". A water-soluble stabiliser. I just "chucked" a whole load of fabrics and fibres and even attempted to add some bubble wrap too. Place the layer of Solvy over your mess. Sew all over the top. Rinse the Solvy away. And ta da, a very cheerful, messy piece of art. This needle case, I have to admit, does look A LOT better in real life.

Introducing our new mate Trep-Trep.

Introducing our new mate Trep-Trep., originally uploaded by [mummalu].

This fella was kindly donated to Eliza at the second hand markets on the weekend. She has named him "Trep-Trep". As much as I love trash and treasure, we always seem to get given other peoples unwanted crap toys. "Oh here you go, have another unwanted McDonalds happy meal toy." You can keep your crap thanks, I always think but am too polite to ever say.

This guy is kind of cute. He is slowly deflating so I don't think he is going to survive the week out.

Sunday Treats.

Sunday was a trip to the Adamstown Markets in Newcastle. It was fairly quiet, but full of casual stall holders, so it was a great for a change of scenery. We picked up this gorgeous wooden doll's house on the way out. It was $30 and included all the wooden furniture and dolls. Apparently it had once belonged to a preschool. I love the idea that so many little hands have once created magic in this place. I am looking forward to renovating our new house and hopefully having it finished in time for Miss almost 2's birthday. It definitely needs some new carpet!

I love the dunny!


Come and share your Sunday Flea Market Finds over here.

Sunday Treats.

Yesterday was a quick trip to the Wickham markets. It was raining on and off so there weren't many marketeers there. We only had $15 with us so I had to be careful what I was going to spend my money on. In the end it came down to these 3 treasures. I bought 2 biscuits tins ($4 each) to keep some crafty "stuff" in. I am slowly trying to organise my creative space and moving the old shoe boxes into some more appealing containers. I am even tempted to get myself a label maker just to make sure that everything has its place. :)

I also bought this wooden shadow box for $5. My intention is to give it a paint, maybe even a bit of mod podge love and use it to store my spools on.

Helping Mum make Olive bread.

Helping Mum make Olive bread., originally uploaded by [mummalu].

Yesterday I had no meal planned (as usual) and decided it was important for me to use what I already had available in the house. I ended up making a chorizo and chickpea stew with lots of tomatoes and veggies in it.

At about 3 o'clock I thought maybe we can eat this with a loaf of crusty bread, but I don't want to drive all the way to the shops just for one item. My bike tyre was flat, so we weren't going to do any riding either.

And then, I remembered, I know how to bake bread! It's been a few months since I have baked, but within a few hours we had a delightful olive and rosemary bread. Miss E had a great time helping Mummy knead the dough.

I was proud that I could switch my brain to remember that I can make things from scratch!