Because i am pledged to choose handmade over mass-produced and imported, rockmelon has now released 6 handmade cards for valentine’s day: You are my happy in turquoise

Wild Thing heart card in purple with vintage sheet music as a background;

Loved card with a soaring red bird of passion and a vintage page from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette;

Bliss with vintage dictionary background;

XO made from a remnant fabric sample swatch;

and Happy… the way you make me feel.

All cards are 100% recycled, 100% unique, hand stamped and are blank inside for your special words to the one you love.

So much rain has caused a mini creek to start running through our property and the kids got out an old surf board and the skim boards.  So funny to watch them try and ride the boards down the ‘creek’ which was only 10 cm deep.

 They only came inside when it was too dark to see anymore,

and so much better than TV!

i chose some books that were damaged or very worn to use for craft.  I love using vintage dictionaries and sheet music especially so i have stocked up well, tomorrow i sit at my craft desk and play.  One of my latest projects was repainting my daughters bedside table and doing  a little vintage dictionary decoupage.  This little table was left to us from a friend (thanks Leah) and since Nat’s bed is white, it needed a paint job.

Here is a peek inside the drawers that i have decoupaged with pages from a vintage dictionary. 

I chose pages that would interest her, guess who’s horse mad?

One of my favourite furniture repurposer’s marie nicole has a wonderful decoupage tutorial that is sure to inspire you.

This is the before shot, just for interest…

and here is the bedside table next to Nat’s bed, her bookcases stuffed full of books and this photo was taken before the bookfest….

1)  a lovely postcard from the lovely Paris,   2) a photo graciously printed of the Eiffel Tower (where my husband is taking me one day  and where we will kiss passionately from the top under a starry Parisian night sky) and   3) a tourist map of Paris!!! Yippee, love it, thanks so much Michael and Chantelle. Now, what to do, what to do with my map…

Maybe i’ll turn it into some more special handmade envelopes for the markets like these Vintage maps of London handmade envelopes.

Bow Ties and Bliss has many clever ideas for maps including: these map heart garland hangers, 

and these paper rose bouquets made from maps,  sooooooo stunning!

and this one is in classic blues and white.

These two bunting are handmade from recycled, remnants and vintage fabrics: a pair of pyjamas, op shopped remnants, vintage sheets and the odd pillow case.  They both are approximately 4 metres long and have 21 flags. It’s been raining so i can’t hang them to photograph them, hope to share more pics soon!

For more inspirational handmade bunting pop over to these blogs: merry go round or Lushlee, they are fabulous!

For more details on rockmelon’s recycled, remnant and vintage bunting visit: rockmelon on Etsy.

My son says it’s a little scratchy to sit on but he is a little sensitive to things like that, tags in clothing etc,  it hasn’t been scratchy to me.

Here it is where it is currently living, where i can admire it daily and pat myself on the back for being clever LOL.  It is a flip top seat that has storage underneath.  This is what the seat used to look like, I upholstered it in 2007:

Tips to working with hessian coffee sacks: they fray, they leave little hessian bits on you as you work with it (you can use a razor to shave the finished product to make it smooth), making neat corners is a little challenging due to its thickness, but overall a great experience well worth it, very happy with the result.

1) Learn to crochet: Three amazing people inspire me to this goal, Seaweed and Raine, Sammy’s Secret and my SIL Ruth.

2) Eat for Health: Reduce sugar intake, increase raw fruit and vegies, increase water, eat more from our garden.

4) Get serious about my handmade business; rockmelon: get a website, develop a more professional presence, list more on etsy, attend markets regularly.

4) Buy something handmade every month: even though i can probably make most anything myself, i want to support other handmade businesses, particularly locals and buy their gorgeous wares to encourage and support.

5) 100% Ethical Fashion for myself:  fair trade, recycled and handmade; sew, knit & crochet.  Currently the entire family is on 80% ethical fashion.  If i had more time to op shop and hand make i would attempt 100% ethical for the five of us.

6) Sketch and paint more:  Complete 1 drawing, collage or painting every month.

7) Begin to learn some French:  Keeping motivated for hubby’s and my trip to France.

8) Read 3 books a month:  Yes, i’m a fast reader.

 9) buy a house.

In 2011 i succeed in 7 out of 11 so rather than despair i am rolling 3 of them over into 2012 to try again.

 10)  learn to touch type! I know, how can any female under 40 get through school and Uni and have never learned to touch type? The short answer is doing other subjects much more interesting such as Woodwork and Tech Drawing. Oh, and because i can hen peck pretty fast with 4 fingers so i have never bothered.

11)  Finish my book and send my manuscripts off to an editor or publisher (in fact anyone who will read them).  I have 2 children’s books written, a book of spiritual dramas and an unfinished book in progress (spiritual) just sitting around…

open an etsy store. tick.

exercise 3 times a week. tick.  I struggled with this in winter but am adamant to keep going.

have a coffee-ish drink with hubby 4 times a week. tick.

 make my own bread. tick.

be frugal. tick.

blog 3 times a week. tick.

try a new recipe every fortnight! tick.  Succeeded mostly.

Post one i never did: 100

Hubby’s grandfather turned 100 on the 11th of the 11th (born in 1911!)  Up until a few years ago Grandpa was still driving and sending us emails.  Now age has chased him down and he is in a high care facility.  My favourite memory of grandpa is on our wedding day when we were leaving the reception and saying goodbye to all our guests.  He pulled me into a patriarchal bear hug, and in his low gravelly voice said “Welcome to the family.”  Those words have  meant so much to me over the years.

Official letter of congratulations from the Queen, full page story in one of the major Gold Coast weekend  papers (he is quite well known on the Tweed), a glass of champagne, so many cards, wishes, speeches… one tired grandpa (he only lasted about 40 minutes, then back to bed.

 Grandpa we love you, happy 100th birthday!

Post two i never did: Christmas

The kids slept under the Chrissy tree with great anticipation, under strict instructions to only knock on our door after 8am (they lasted til 6:45am but it was worth a try!)

Santa crept around their sleeping forms  to fill stockings til they bulged, drink milk and feed the reindeer in the darkened kitchen.  One stocking remained sadly empty though.  The owner of this stocking had adamantly declared on Christmas Eve : “I don’t belive in Santa, i don’t believe in Santa…” while the other two children clapped and chanted their belief in Santa (we’d just watched ‘Elf’).  So on Christmas morn when two siblings were squealing in delight one child opened an empty stocking except a brief note signed from Santa:  ’So you don’t believe in Santa hey?  I exist.  Ha, Ha, Ha!  Ho! Ho! Ho! from Santa. ’

So funny! Luckily ‘Santa’ was able to schedule a last minute stocking-filling visit when the disbeliever was out of the room!

Spend Christmas lunch with friends who, over the years have warmed our hearts until our ties have become indistinguishable from blood family.  Love you all, haven’t laughed so much in ages.  What a wonderful thing to sit around a beautifully decorated tree opening carefully selected gifts we will cherish for years to come, reading the true story of Christmas from the Scriptures, having  a slow pancake breakfast, eating together the most amazing Pavlova and drinking the coldest glass of American sparkling grape juice from dear friends. Happy birthday Jesus, we remember you this special day.

Post three i never did: travelogue six

Relaxing at Byron Bay was a great way to finish a busy  holiday.  I’ve never seen so many people riding bikes.  Byron Bay memories: the bronzed sand sculpture man who spends his day chatting and sculpting and drinking beer on the beach,

bargain op shopping (one op shop sold me an armload full of books, a few items of clothing and a board game which was as good as new worth $50 for $3!!!!! When i only had a $50 note she said just take it all for free.  When I insisted on paying, she grudgingly got me change).  We spent one evening crab spotting.  Picture 3 kids and 2 adults scurrying crazily around the moonlit beach with one little torch chasing side moving crabs.  Each crab conquest was met with a cheer and lots of laughter before the befuddled crab was released to scurry about for another day.

We swam in the waves til we were prune like, ate local: bbqed up amazing vegie burgers every day for lunch and ate amazing ice-cream in waffle cones, tantalized our taste buds with good quality chocolates and munched through packets of corn chips (but not all in one sitting).

Meeting interesting people like the man who had his pet rabbit on a leash and was walking it along the foreshore before i stopped him for a chat and so my youngest rabbit-crazy daughter could get a cuddle.

 LOved watching the sun sink into the green, twilight sea

leaving silhouettes around the lighthouse. 

Walking hand in hand with the ones i adore, standing on the most easterly point of our beloved Australian mainland,

watching God paint the sunset,

Tranquility for the heart and soul.

Thus ends the blogging year and i anticipate beginning another blank canvas on which to record my life.  New beginnings, new challenges, new stories, new friends… joy!

Then i got to enjoy watching the Kookaburra Queen Paddle Steamer glide up the Brisbane River whilst BBQing at Kangaroo Point.  See my new vintage locket embellished with  a 1973 stamp from Poland, love, love, love it!

A birthday package was at the front door when i arrived home, thanks so much friends for making my day special then family dropped over with a handmade card (made from a vintage Paris postcard), a Paris necklace and some lovely soaps i am keen to try. Feel loved!

Wore my little red dress out to dinner at Ahmets on Oxford Street, tried lots of new Turkish food, so lovely to look across the table at my smiling family!  Love you all, you make my soul full!

We made a dent in our garden with the produce we ate also. I don’t have a pantry after shot as it’s raining and i couldn’t get a good shot with our crappy camera.

What have we learned?  Gratitude is now embedded deeper into our souls, we are determined to use more from our garden, we will try and keep food simpler, i so appreciate whole grains (so sick of white bread, rice and pasta), i can live without coffee and chocolate (my craving was actually salted nuts), and we can make a difference, change starts with us!

Today the kids had red lentil Dahl for breakfast and Naan bread!  Love leftovers! 

Pasta for lunch was a delectable change from rice!  (Yes, that is cheese.  We traded in our excess  powdered milk and rice for a piece of fruit each and a sprinkle of cheese on our pasta!)

For tea with our rice and vegies i tried to make ginger cordial to go with our soda water (from our Soda Stream), but even though i used the last of the sugar it wasn’t sweet.  Oh well it was a tingle on the tongue!  Surprised everyone with a single piece of chocolate each because after all, Friday night family tradition is Chocolate Night. And thus ends our week of poverty awareness and gratitude of what we have.  We are determined to do it every year… remembering Africa.  I am also sick of seeing well fed children from charities of children in poverty.  Here’s a reality check picture.

And did anyone cheat?  Yep, one child forgot and ate a lolly, and one child couldn’t resist and ate a lolly, we all had a giggle over dinner and confession.  And I cheated by adding a little honey to our store when we got low and used an onion that wasn’t alloted for the week!  So proud of our family.