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.

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.