Marley, Paris and Sewing

Milly from Milly's Stitches kindly shared the link to this lovely design she just completed the other day on her blog. Thanks Milly! I've ordered it for myself.

You can read Milly's post on this little fellow over here:

http://thegentlestitcher.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/sam-is-finished.html

It's from a cross stitch range called

"Sam and Peeps"

Here is the link if any of my Cavalier friends would like to give it a try.

http://www.goldleafneedlework.co.uk/

It reminded me so much of Marley when he first came to live with us at 8 weeks old.

He was soooo cute!

See - he even sits like Sam from "Sam and Peeps".

As I have one little person here who is mad on mice I just had to order this design too.

Jasper caught in the act!

I've been wondering why the back of our lounge was always looking squished down when we got home from going out. I often leave the dogs in the outdoor room now if it looks like it's going to rain. Yesterday we caught Jasper sitting up here sunning himself.

Looking very comfy there Jasper.

Before I got the link for 'Sam' from Milly, I scoured Ebay looking for a Cavalier design cross-stitch and found this one over at Fido Stitch Studio from the UK on Ebay. It was very reasonably priced and it just arrived today. This one will be for me. More of a grown up Marley. Only a small design it might look nice above my desk.

I've been busy setting up my sewing corner lately too and finding new places to store my stitching stash. It used to be in odd bod boxes and folders all over the house. Now that I set up a sewing corner I decided to bring it all together in one place.

These are the little drawer openings under the desk. I found these gorgeous little white boxes at Officeworks. Unfortunately the lids won't fit on them in here, but I found a use for the lids inside the sewing table drawers for loose little items like pins, needles etc...

A box for Ric Rac....

One for zippers.......

....and one for miscellaneous bits and pieces.

I also used the bookshelf in the office to collect together all my cross stitch magazines, books....

patterns......

....scrapbooking items for the kids, fabric for sewing, and a lovely big box for the cross-stitch kits and hoops I scored just last week on Ebay

I saw this bulk lot of cross-stitch items being sold by a lovely New Zealand lady named Judith who has just moved out here. She said she used to own a craft shop in NZ but has now retired and got rid of ALL of her cross-stitch stash and won't be doing cross stitch anymore. I can't imagine ever giving up cross-stitch. She said she had nobody to pass it on to over here and sold it to me for next to nothing. I couldn't believe all the items she gave me in this huge big bag for such a minimal cost. I am so grateful. I also couldn't believe I was the only one bidding on this bulk lot of stuff. She wasn't asking that much and once I had it all sorted out there were over 12 cross-stitch kits, around 20 or so frames and hoops of all different sizes, and over 200 pattern leaflets and magazines as well as the first 8 issues of Sampler and Antique Needlework printed in the early 1990s. They have the most lovely sampler designs in them.

  It's really too much for me to use so I will be listing some of them on Ebay or sending some on to other cross-stitching friends. There are only so many designs one person can do in a lifetime. I think I have more than enough.

I got these boxes at 10 for $20 from Officeworks. They are really strong and sturdy cardboard with reinforced metal edges. They keep my sewing things like velcro and bias binding, my crochet handkerchiefs which I will share with you another time. It's a craft I learnt to do in Austria when I was only 12. the bottom box is for spare odd bits of floss. There are still a few more bigger boxes of kits, fabrics, linens and floss I need to organize.

Here is my current WIP

Weekend A Paris

I'm really enjoying this one.

It's stitched on cream 14ct Aida with 2 threads.

I will share the final result with you when it's done. I'm not as fast as some of you, having two small children I don't get as much time to stitch as I would like.

Sewing Corner Score - Part II

Here's my new sewing desk again. We picked it up last night. See that cupoboard on the left? Well, that door slides upwards and pushes right inside...and here's what I found underneath/

All these neat little cubby holes. We think there must once have been drawers in those three at the top and a big file drawer at the bottom. It still has the stoppers on the floor of the cupboard. My husband wants to try to get some Silky Oak timber to make a new drawer, but as one of my sewing friends said tonight: "Just the right size for an overlocker." Hmmm.... come to think of it Mum did offer me hers. It's only 5 years old and like brand new. She doesn't use it but I said no because I didn't have anywhere to put it. Well.... looks like I do now. By the way it's very dusty in there isn't it?

 This is the long drawer at the front. Eeekkk!!! Needed to vacuum, dust and scrub it.

Then I lined it with some pretty duck egg blue scrapbooking papers

... and put in some small containers to organize all my sewing things that used to be in my old broken sewing basket. Happy to toss that one out today.

This is the other smaller drawer under the cupboard door that will hold all my cottons - AND.... knitting needles in every size. That's another skill I never mastered but I know a small someone here who wants to learn.

I found these lovely small glass jars at Spotlight today for only $1.00 each. Perfect for storing all my buttons - black, brown, rainbow colours, gold and silver and ofcourse those lovely white toned ones at the back in the larger jar.

So here it sits so far. Isn't it cute?

I also found out the story behind the desk when we picked it up. It had been in this couples family for over 50 years. Belonging to his parents who are now in their late 80s who saved it from an old fire station in Bundaberg (northern Queensland) and then lovingly professionally restored for his wife years ago, it was her sewing table too. They lived for many years in the country and it suited their style but now they have moved onto the coast for the sake of their grown children and their new house is very modern. As the lady of the house said "it just didn't suit our new house style." They had a garage full of items like this one that they were selling on Ebay to make room for the new.

Well old is new for me and I just LOVE it!

Sewing Corner Score!!!

Not ten minutes after finishing my last post I popped onto ebay to have another quick look for a sewing table. Nothing! So I decided to check out if there were any desks that might work for us and found this one. It's restored silky oak, exactly the same timber as our office desk. It even has a glass top which is what I was going to do with the other desk I saw. So easy to keep clean and won't scratch or damage. Perfect!!!

I LOVE that it has this door that opens upwards and has the drawer and cupboard underneath. It's like a secret compartment.... ooooo ...how exciting!!!

...and best of all it came with a bonus matching chair so I don't have to keep borrowing one of our kitchen chairs when I want to sew. One chair like this alone would retail for around $165 over here.

Can't wait to pick it up and start sewing.

Sewing Corner Project

Many years ago I found this old tin in a secondhand shop and used it as a biscuit tin

I just loved the old fashioned picture on top. I kept it for awhile but then passed it on to my mother and she used it store her button collection. 50 years of buttons in fact. All either bought or cut from used clothing or those extra buttons you get when you buy an item of clothing. Many - actually most of them still had threads in them and I set myself the project the other night of sorting them all out. Simply cutting the threads off took me many hours. But finally....

...I was able to sort them into some glass jars. I just LOVE the way these white ones look altogether. Like a lovely shell collection don't you think?

...and some black ones...

...and coloured buttons too!

There are another three plastic containers with all the brown ones, gold and silver buttons and grey ones. I need to find some more glass jars for those.

This is the sewing machine the children and I finally decided on. It's not a beginners machine but not for experts either. Just middle of the range, which suits us just fine. I especially love the fact that it has an automatic needle threader. Once I turned 40ish I needed glasses for reading and close up work.

This is the one that got away! (Insert sad face)

My son and I saw this in the local Lifeline store for $45. It was in excellent condition with a leather insert top (my plan was to remove it and replace it with a sheet of glass for easy cleaning) and I would have painted it white and put new handles on the drawers. I had planned to go measure our sewing corner space to make sure it fitted and then go back to get it. But....silly me! It was gone. It was the perfect size for what I needed too. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be so we'll keep looking. I have looked at the Horn sewing cabinets but they are so expensive for what they are and only made of laminate. We love solid timber in our home, doesn't matter if it's old because we can paint and revamp it.

So that's my plan for our sewing corner so far.  It will be a small corner in our office for sewing and crafts.

I also scored an old timber pincushion from my Mum and have a plan for revamping that too, but I'll save that for another post!

Hmmmm.... no comment!

What's This?

Do you know what this is?

It's not a photo of Jasper by the way. Just another gorgeous Tri-Colour Cavalier.

It's my new Mouse Pad! Isn't it cool. I found it on the internet awhile ago. Silly me deleted the web site and now I can't remember where I found it. I want to get another one for the office computer with a Blenheim Cavalier like Marley. The company who makes these allows you to send in a photo of your own pet too if you like. Must try and find it again.

Unintentional Bird Collecting

Inspired by our bird bath which attracts lots of little visitors...

..and the two cheeky Willy Wagtails who visited us last year

- you can read about them here

The Tale of Two Willy Wagtails

My husband and I bought these two little birds to decorate our outdoor room.

The plant they guard changes with the seasons, but the birds stay here looking pretty all year around.

Then I found a bird house and added a little bird to sit beside it. Recently I also found some Bird book boxes and have used them around the house for different purposes.

After that my husband made it his mission to start collecting birds made out of all different materials. So the Bird collector in this post has turned out to be - not ME but my dear darling.

This is his favourite so far

A little interesting bird made of wire, must admit I do love it too, so unusual.

This little duck egg blue bird I found at Sam's Warehouse (a cheap $2 shop) for just $1 and it holds a little tea light or small size candle. It's kind of stuck in him since the last dinner party we had...  hmmm...  might have to cut it out soon so I can replace it.

Here's another of the book boxes. There were three inside each other. I got them on sale 75% off at one of my favourite home furniture stores. They were getting rid of all their accessories and ornaments. I had planned on only buying the biggest one for all the loose mail in the office, but when the lady said I could have all three for the price of just one, well I wasn't going to say no was I?

This little 3 dimensional plaque is just gorgeous. It's made of plaster I think. The colours are so vibrant and I love the little saying on it too. Being content with the things we have rather than always having what we want.

 

At another homewares store that was closing down I recently found this little platter. Just big enough for my cup of tea and a treat on the side.

Here is a close up of one of the book boxes.

I found these two bird pictures and seeing that they also had the same duck egg blue colourways added them to our outdoor room.

They remind me of  Japanese influenced painting with the blossoms.

So pretty!

A few weeks ago we visited on of our favourite little craft towns and my "Little Mister" spent his pocket money without me knowing on this gorgeous glass jewellry box. He said "I just had to get it for you Mummy because it has a little Birdie on top." So cute! I love it. It sits on top of my desk.

Then Dear Darling found our most recent bird. A ceramic bird in light green. Love the cut work and texture of this one. I really am spoilt. I don't even need to start collecting myself, the boys in the house have taken it upon themselves to do it for me!