Family Christmas Decorations

I have been decorating a Christmas tree for my grandmother who is now in a nursing home, as her favourite colour has always been orange the tree will be decorated with gold and orange ornaments. We have some of the ornaments from the old house so I was hoping there would be some orange satin balls amongst them. This is what I found.

A very 70's biscuit box with some lovely 70's ornaments.

These are a few of my favourites.

I love this old hand made Christmas bell.

No orange satin balls but there were some gold ones.

A Flurry of Mittens and Hats

So happy to be in the top ten last week at Spoonflower for the Mittens Gift Wrap contest. I love how they have photographed the top ten designs. As you can see below they have been printed as gift wrap, wrapped a box and added a contrasting ribbon.

The Local Wildlife

The black cockatoos are back in our garden once again. They have been eating the banksia pods in the back yard. I love seeing them each year always just around the beginning of Summer.

This is what they have been devouring. They break the banksia pods off of the tree and holding them in  one claw and eating them like a cob of corn.

2013 Christmas Pageant

Recently we went down to the city to watch the Credit Unions Christmas Pageant. If you want a front row seat you need to arrive about four hours before the pageant starts, many people had claimed a spot and spread out a rug from 6.00 am. We always try to leave early but in the end left around 7.45 and arrived 8.20. It is so important to have snacks and entertainment for the kids, this year the iPad and chalk to draw on the pavement. The weather was perfect and we all had a great time. Here are a few of my favourites from the pageant.

New Silky Faille Fabric

Such a wonderful surprise to see Holly from Spoonflower had made a skirt in the new Silky Faille fabric from some of the designs in my Japanese Cameo collection. I love the skirt, it is so sweet and all the other garments look amazing and very inspiring, I especially love the scarf. Below is the Silky Faille post from the Spoonflower blog.

Garden of Ghostly Delights

Even though Halloween was a few weeks ago and it is already mid November I thought I would post that Garden of Ghostly Delights slipped into the top ten of the Ghosts contest at ninth place. This was a surprise and I was very happy with how it printed.

Fabulous Finds

Some great finds from over the last month or so.

 From the Balhanna church op shop.

From Aldgate mission op shop.

My lovely neighbour found these beauties for me at the Gepps Cross Market. Two dollars each, bargain!

From a variety of locations, the tall coffee pot one dollar from our local market.

From the Bridgewater Country Fire Service op shop. Fifty cents each, bargain!

The Local Wildlife

A blue tongue lizard that has been visiting our neighbourhood.

There have been lots of rainbow lorikeets flying around lately, their backs are a vivid green.

Spooky Owl Tutorial

Here is my Spooky Owl in the blue green colourway.

 The orange colourway below.

 Spooky Owl costume instructions.

 Cut out the pieces from the 1 yard panel, leaving as much white as possible around the mask.

Place the body pieces right sides together and sew the shoulders.

 Pin the wing into the armhole where indicated on the panel.

 Sew around the armhole and pin the remaining side.

Now cut the white line on the back neck and either hem, zig zag stitch or serge the entire edge. The side seams and wings are not sewn together so that the costume can fit a variety of sizes.

Velcro tabs or snaps can be attached under the arm, at the base of the wing and the back neck. 

For the mask - Cut out mask leaving a small amount of white fabric around edge. Cut a piece of iron on interfacing the same size and iron onto the back of the mask. Cut neatly around the edge of the mask and cut the white circles from the eyes. The interfacing will stiffen the fabric and stop it from fraying.You will need a small amount of elastic to attatch to the sides of the mask so  that it will fit snuggly around the head.

Spooky Owl Costume

My Spooky Owl costume came third in the Halloween Costume contest last week which was very exciting. They did a wonderful job at Spoonflower of sewing up the top five designs and took these great photos too. The colours are so lovely and bright, printed on the new Kona Ultra.

Owl Treat Bag and Instructions

Just finished these owl treat bags which are going to be available for sale in my Spoonflower shop. Here are the instructions, they are quite easy to make, the design is on a fat quarter and includes a facing for the top inside of the bag.