Welcome 2013

 I cant believe it is FEBRUARY already!! I started writing this blog post back at the beginning of Jan, but had problems with my computer uploading photos, so after a few hours of frustrated words, I gave up. Then life got busy, real busy, and I haven't had a chance to get on and finish it up. So now I am finally finding time, I thought I would update you all on my crafty adventures!

Christmas was, as always a really busy time for us, we spend the whole time driving from family member to another, I managed to squeeze in some homemade Christmas gift, though a lot less than I wanted to.

First I finished the Rag Quilt and let me tell you this beauty was REALLY hard to give away

My sister was the lucky recipient, She also got some cute Peter Alexander PJ's so she can sit under her cuddly quilt in her new PJ's! 

We all met up at my sister house Christmas Eve for our traditional dinner, and I wanted to take something nice along, I found this on pinterest, so decided to give it a go..... Bit of a failure...

I used royal icing to cover the cardboard cone, but I don't think I let it set for long enough, because all the strawberries were falling off. the other weird thing that happened was the strawberries "leaked" heaps of juice.... I have never seen them do that, maybe it was just too hot... My tip is to not do this when strawberries are $5 a punnet.... I used about 5 punnets here!

cute wrapping paper

secret Santa gift

Emelia got a Trampoline and a play Kitchen for Christmas, two huge pressies, but let me tell you, they have been two of the best purchases we have ever made for her! She uses both daily!

playing in her kitchen

Emelia and Daddy on the Trampoline

I also tried my hand at some hand embroidery! Ok so they are not brilliant, but its a start!

This one inst finished, as you can tell, the second E in exercise is not finished hahaha

I also made a cute cushion, I need to make 3 more for my lounge, and I will get around to it sometime soon!

I just love the colours

A friend of mine had her baby girl, and being that she isn't a "pink" person, I decided that I would use the same fabrics I used for the cushion to make a pram blanket, It also helped that all the little squares were already cut out! I forgot to take a picture of the finished project, but here is a pic of it on my sewing machine

such gorgeous colors

OOOO and when I returned to work after the Christmas break, I got the chance to help out with a project my local youth centre was running, we helped a bunch of kids design their own t-shirts and then screen print them! it was so much fun! So then I decided that I would like to do some screen printing of my own, I went of to the shops to buy all the gear, and was totally shocked with the prices! so after a bit of googling, I found a tutorial on making my own screen! $8 and 20 mins later I had it finished, sooo easy!

wooden frame (from a cheap canvas) "silk" which is really just a fine polyester curtaining fabric, and a staple gun

two of my original designs, "make do and mend" sewing machine and Rockabilly babe

t-shirt I made Emelia, silk screening and applique 

and finally just some sewing projects

little house, Emelia loves this, she calls it her Hoot, no idea why! 

Little Sailor Shorts, LOVE these pattern available here 

top to match the shorts, my own pattern

And my little Angel wearing the outfit! I cant contain this cuteness! 

Wow long post... I was going to tell you more about what is happening on my life, but eh another day perhaps!

Bec xxx

Creative goings on!

Hellllooooo to everyone out there in blog land! how are you all?

Did you know there is only 6 days till christmas? arrggghhh I am NO WHERE near ready... I still have both my parents and their partners, Trystrams parents, my brother in-law and grandparents to organise presents for.... Oh and of course my hubby... we have made a pact this year, we are buy each other stuff for our back yard for Christmas, 3 years of it being a sand pit is enough! I am buying him a wheel barrow, and he is buying me a Tree!

Any way, so this last week I decided that I wanted to hand make some of my gifts, great timing hey? its not like working full time, and being a mummy is enough, I now have to put extra stress on my self hahaha

I had half made emelia a dress for her Daycare Christmas Party, but never quite got round to putting the finishing touches on it, and as it was her party on Friday night, I had to finish it up very quickly on thursday night. Very happy with how it turned out.

Looking pretty pleased with her self! Michael Miller -  Christmas Fabric Peace and Firefly in Red by Pillow and Maxfield. Purchased here

I also decided to make was some Felt "Paper dolls" Emelia loves dressing and undressing her dolls, but gets frustrated as her little fingers dont quite co-operate with her mind. So I came up with the brilliant idea of making some felt dolls and clothes to go with them.

I drew the patterns, then cut them out of felt.

A set for Emelia and a set to gift to her daycare

Emelia found the daycare set, at least I know she will enjoy this present!

I drew the patterns up, If I can figure out how to upload them to the computer I will pop them up as a PDF so if you want to make them, you can just print the patterns out. I just used felt, so there was no sewing needed. I am considering sewing the hair on, as its a bit painful trying to find those bits all the time!

Next I decided to make a rag quilt, I ran out of wadding about half way through, otherwise I would have finished this last night.

Moda - Domestic Bliss by Liz Scott purchased here

My little helper - what a rat bag!

I am loving this project so far, love the colours! I dont know if I want to give it away :-/ I have used a lovely soft flannel on the back, and 100% cotton wadding, its so soft and snuggly!

I will post a picture when it is all finished, and raggy!

I still have a few projects I want to tackle before christmas, but I have nearly 2 weeks off over Christmas and New Year, so if I dont get them done in time, I can always do them in my break!

hope you all have a lovely christmas!

Love Bec xxx




what do you carry around in your bag?

Today I was walking to work, and I realised that if somebody stopped me for a bag search, or if somebody stole my handbag, they would really be in for a bit of a shock! I carry some VERY strange things around in my handbag.....

So it got me thinking, what are some strange things that you carry around in your handbag? We all have the typical things like, purse, keys, makeup, perfume, sanitary items, pen etc but what would stand out in your bag?

Currently I have:

a couple of dolls patterns gifted to me by a beautiful work mate

a pin cushion???? strange I know

probably not that strange given that I have a 2 year old

Tea Ducky! this little guy float in a cup of hot water, his bottom holds tea leaves, so you can have a lovely cup of REAL tea :-)

A Dictionary - read this post if you want to know why this is in my bag



A crushed plastic cup.... there were no bins where I was yesterday!



A rather odd collection of bits and bobs if I do say so myself!!!

would love to hear what is in your bag!

Bec xxx

Confessions

I have a confession, I am not a good blogger, in fact Im a terrible blogger. I think of things to write about, then I think to myself, no one would want to about read that, its boring. I have some friends who are awesome bloggers, some blog nearly every day, they say to me "just blog about anything, it doesn't matter" So that's what I intend to do!

Sorry to those people who signed up for updates on my business "Milly and Mummy" I am not really concentrating on that at the moment, I am back working full time, and plus a mum to a gorgeous 2 year old, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend.... I just don't have time to run a business as well!

So... what is this blog going to be about? well I thought that it might be a good place to share my crafty projects, tutorials, and just a general blog about my life! So I thought I would treat you to tutorial on how to make these lovely prints.

I made this one for a Secret Santa gift, but it has found a home on my bookcase! Lucky they are so easy to make, I can just make another!

What you need:

• An old Dictionary or Encyclopedia - the older the better, I found mine in a op shop, it cost me $1
• A printer
• Image, you can join sites that have free vector images, or just google it :-) I found this one by googling "Dandelion Sillouette"
• Nice frame, this one came from the reject shop and cost me $4. Its a good idea to take you dictionary/encyclopedia along with you when you buy the fame, just to make sure your frame isn't too big.

Method

Tear (Yes TEAR) a page out of your Encyclopedia, I am sorry to all the book lovers out there, I promise this was an old unloved Encyclopedia with outdated information!



Trim the edges of the page up so it goes through the printer nicely

Now place it into your printer

you may need to play round with the orientation, I ended up putting the paper in "landscape" way, but forgot to take a picture :-)

Next you need to pic a picture, I then just used the default printing program (sorry but I am not a computer savvy person haha)

And you have your picture!

I then used the guide that comes with the frame to cut the print to size

And then framed it up!

And there you have it a cute little Secret Santa gift that only cost $5!

I also made some nativity scene frames, to hang on my wall

just got to frame these up!

If you make any of these, let me know, I would love to see your versions!


Bec xxx

Winner!

Ok ladies, I am so sorry it has taken me so long, but I have finally drawn a winner for the $1 giveaway!

here are the gorgeous entries, don't they look super cute in their Milly and Mummy outfits!

I used random.org to determine the winner, and out of 6 comments (not including my comment) RANDOM.ORG came up with the number...........



3 - Talia Tomba Woohooooo

Congrats hunni! contact me at millyandmummy@gmail.com to organise your outfit!


Bec xxx