Monday 28 April 2014

.: for the awesome girls in your life :.

We have a few new cushion-panel designs in the shop, to celebrate the awesome girls in your life!

These three were inspired by our own awesome girls, and we both can't wait to sew them up into cushions, most likely with a fun pom-pom trim!



We'll be back in the next couple of days to share our other three new designs - which are perfect for Mothers' Day!  They're already in the shop - I'll link to one of them so you can take a sneak peek ... 

xoxo cat

Saturday 26 April 2014

.: Finn McTrickster + Pandamonium say hi :.

Just popping in to share a couple more cushions I've made recently as pressies.  

Finn McTrickster and Pandamonium have already gone to live with the Bela Hoo cushion I made over the hols.  Fun times to be had, with a fox, panda and owl joining forces ...




[I do so love Mo Beddell's seahorses!]


That's all for now - I'm off to join the rest of my little family for our weekly 'dinner + movie night' - which is really dinner on the lounge in front of the telly, watching a movie chosen by one of us in turn.  It's my youngest's turn tonight, and she's refusing to tell us what the movie is ... oh the anticipation ... Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  xoxo cat

Friday 25 April 2014

.: feel good Friday :.

Vee and I have been talking about starting some regular posts in this space ... possibly because that would actually make us commit to regular blogging ... but also to try and expand what we share here.

As you've probably noticed, neither of us like to share much of our family/private lives in this space.  It's pretty much all about our cat&vee stuff, and sewing - which is great - but we'd like to go a little crazy and share some more stuff - design, stuff we love that other people are doing, books, food, travel, who knows, let's just get started and see what happens.  We won't necessarily be sharing any family/private life stuff! - I should say that up front - but we think that through sharing all sorts of different things, beyond our own creations, you can get a little more of an idea about us.  Hopefully that's a good thing ... 

So.  Welcome to our first 'feel good Friday' post.  These Friday posts will be about anything 'feel good', to kick-start the weekend.  Since we just thought of this today, we're keeping it simple and easy with a few holiday pics ... of mine ... since we had a fabulous holiday in the USA over December/January and I'm pretty sure I've never shared ANY of that here!  

I've tried to keep it to one pic per holiday-event, so don't click away too quickly, thinking you're about to get an endless holiday slide-show!  

We flew via LAX to Orlando, Florida - of course to go to Disneyworld and to Universal Studios, solely to go to Harry Potter-land.

[husband + girls dancing with Frozone at Disneyworld]
[the entrance to a ride at Harry Potter-land ... we waited TWO AND A HALF HOURS in line for this ride!]
Next, we flew to San Francisco.  The absolute hands-down highlight of San Francisco, was having lunch with the gorgeous Pam, Bret and Frankie.  They are SO lovely, fun and kind, it was an absolute joy to meet them.  We loved San Francisco.  We stayed at Ghirardelli Square, which had THREE Ghirardelli chocolate shops.  Alcatraz was extraordinary, we all wished we had more time there.  Fisherman's Wharf was fantastic - all the seals at Pier 39 were just so amazing - and very stinky - to see.  And we ducked into Art Attack SF - the home of Turtle Wayne! (which you will know is awesome, if you follow him on instagram).  We met Turtle Wayne (yes, I was the stalky woman from Australia, asking "are you Turtle Wayne"?), and he did a quick drawing of Turtle Opera House for us, he was so sweet.  We did all the other touristy things too - rode on a cable car, walked up and drove down Lombard Street, took lots of pics of the Painted Ladies ...  I'd go back in a flash.  


Then we drove to Monterery - what a gorgeous place! - Frankie had gone to college in Monterey, so had lots of local tips about things to do and see.  Our absolute favourite was the Monterey Bay Aquarium - look at these jelly-fish! 


And we had lunch in Carmel one day, where the girls found this sweet carving in a little fence overlooking the beach ... actually it was on a little fence I was leaning over to try and take pics looking across to Pebble Beach golf course!  I was hoping to bump into Clint Eastwood, but, shame, he was hiding from random tourists.


We drove down the Big Sur highway to Santa Barbara.  This might have been my husband's highlight, as he loves cars.  And driving.  Long distances.  It was definitely amazing.  Some of the houses, perched right on the edge of sheer cliffs - I just can't work out how they even got planning permission, let alone were built!



And then we drove to Las Vegas.  We'd never been to Las Vegas before.  The best things?  Our helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon - we landed IN the Grand Canyon and had a little glass of champagne.  The girls had juice.  Awesome + amazing.  The Grand Canyon-experience, I mean, not the girls having juice.   And it was awesome to fly over the Hoover Dam too - I'd love to drive there one day to take a good look around.

[we were in a line of I think, 5 helicopters, all flying along, dropping down into the Grand Caynon]
And we saw a couple of shows - a fun Chinese-acrobat-panda show, and the Cirque de Soleil Beatles Love show.  Just so fabulous.  And we (well, I) looooooved the outlet shopping - I can't get enough of Kate Spade handbags, bangles, wallets, purses, key rings, mugs, note books, everything.  Love her.


So - through some holiday-to-reality-segue - I hope you're now feeling good and ready for the weekend.  Have a good one.  xoxo cat



Thursday 24 April 2014

.: sewtakeahikeundies-a-thon :

The very lovely + talented Penny from Sewtakeahike shared her undies pattern with us all.  There have been so many fun + funny undies popping up everywhere - if you are on instagram, take a look at #sewtakeahikeundies.

I copied the undies-template into a couple different sizes, then made little plastic templates so I could work out some fun fussy-cuts for all my undies.  Originally, I was going to make some zip-pouches for travelling, but then I decided I wanted to sew all the undies into just a couple of bags which I can use more often ... oh, the possibilities ... 

Once again, I turned to Jeni's fabulous lined-drawstring-bag tutorial.  I've made two undies-bags for me - one with two undies, and one with four.  Let the undies-a-thon begin.

['hairstyle lady' is from "Good Intentions" by Cerigwen on Spoonflower]
['daily reminder undies' are also from 'Good Intentions']
[undies for those bah humbug! days ... wish I had more of this fabric, it was a scrap-pressie from someone, I just can't remember who!]
[I LOVE this cat!  So wish I'd bought more of this fabric]
[for those days where you are feeling secretly superior ... ]
[time to spruce up ... ]
And here are way too many pics of the bags ... I followed Jeni's instructions, except for a specific size - I sewed a 'front piece' and then worked out my lining measurements based on that. 

[mug + pencils for size-reference ... how much are you loving the Kate Spade mug ... yep, me too]

[the lining for this one is a gorgeous Tula Pink, and the drawstrings are fab Prints Charming for Spotlight]
[the back - Violet Craft Waterfront Park on top, Denyse Schmidt Chicopee on the bottom - love them both] 
[my favourite Prints Charming lime green starbursts for the lining, and Tula Pink for the drawstrings]

I don't even think my undies-obsession is over ... I have the templates stashed away ready to make some more, once I've ticked a few other things off my to-do list.  Hope you all have a very happy weekend.  xoxo cat




Thursday 17 April 2014

.: we've been sewing ... just not blogging much :.

Happy school holidays to you!  We are coming to an end of our wonderful school hols - the kids go back to school the day after Easter Monday.  We've had a very relaxing, pottering-around kind of holiday, which is exactly what we needed after a crazy-busy first term.  

It's ages since I've shared some pics of sewing - so here's what I've been making over the past few weeks.  If you follow me on instagram (I'm @hellofromcat and Vee is @hellofromvee - you can click through to our pics using the button in the right-hand sidebar) - you'll have seen all these pics before ... just so you know ... :-)

First up - a trio of Easter Bunnies, sewn from a sweet pattern by Rosalie Quinlan.  I love faffing about choosing fabrics to fussy-cut for the ears and tummies.   


Next is a birthday pressie for our friend Tracy - a pair of personalised undies, from Penny's awesome undies pattern - Penny's #sewtakeahikeundies tag on instagram is so fun to look through!  I sewed the undies into a project-sized lined drawstring bag, using In Color Order Jeni's excellent pattern




And now, a couple of pressies using our Bela Hoo screen-printed panels - first up, a pretty massive tote-bag for an owl-loving girl:




And last for today - a Bela Hoo cushion - I haven't made a 'boy' cushion for such a long time!


I took the cushion-pics with the cushion sitting on my ironing-board, which is oh-so-well located under this fun print, a constant reminder of my domestic Queen-dom ... if you look hard, you can even see me in the reflection in the print, but I'm not wearing my crown:


I've got even MORE sewing to share, but figure that's enough to catch you up on for one day!  I'm aiming to be back over the weekend with more pics.  Here's to a great Easter weekend, whatever it is you are doing.  We are off to church tomorrow for Good Friday, and again on Easter Sunday (we're missing tonight's Maundy Thursday service though ...).  My husband is on keyboard-and-singing duties for both services.  On Sunday we're having a family lunch, as it's also my sister's birthday.  Take care xoxo cat
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