.: ho ho ho pressies :.

You may have noticed our new blog-look - all thanks to the magic-ery of Vee.  There's more to come, once Vee has finished her graphic-design course and can carve out a little more creative time.  Did you love the awesomeness of her program design for our recent school graduation?

After a prolonged blog-absence on my part, I'm popping in to share a few pressies I've made and given recently.

First up - a fun cushion featuring the awesome Tula Pink raccoons and Melody Miller telephone - it's actually an enormous x+ block, but you can't see it too clearly in the pics. 

And next - my first ever make from Pinterest!  I pinned this fab little tutorial by Erin from Dog Under My Desk months ago, and finally sewed one up for a friend's birthday - a little circle zip pouch to hold ear-buds for the gym!  I want to make one for me too ... though I need to increase my time-spent-at-the-gym first ... 

And now a little pixelated heart mini quilt - made for a wedding pressie - a mix of fun fabrics for the heart, and sweet low volumes for the background.  And the gorgeous Violet Craft breeze print on the back. 

Ted's always lurking out of frame for pretty much every pic I take, so every now and then I make sure to snap one of him.  It's pretty hard to get him to look at the camera - the secret trick is to say "are you hungry?" - works every time. 

Last one for today - little tote bags made for my oldest daughter's two buddies.  My oldest has just finished primary school.  At the start of grade 7, they are paired up with a buddy or two from grade 1.  Ruby was her buddy right from the start, and then Isla came into the buddy-hood when her grade 7 buddy changed schools half-way through the year. 

The sweet 'Ruby Ruby Ruby' panel is by Karen of Blueberry Park - I saw it on instagram, and Karen very kindly printed one up for me to use. 

The cute Queen stamps are from Spotlight, and the zebras are a Michael Miller print, I think.

I'm hoping to share some more projects in the next few days, before taking an actual, planned blogging-break for a couple of weeks.  Hope all your Christmas plans are coming together nicely.  'til next time, cat xoxo

:: holidays ::

The school holidays have started - yahh, at last!! 

The last couple of days of school are actually always a little sad - the holidays loom forever out of reach for weeks and then they're suddenly here and you realise that another school year has finished.  But then once the holidays actually start, good grief it's awesome.  

Here are a few pics from the last few days.

My new advent calendar stick, bought from a gorgeous local gift shop, and made by a gorgeous and very talented local lady.

{{the advent stick of awesome}}

And now Ted:

{{chatting with his magpie peeps}}

Ted had a bath and hair-cut today, at a local pet-pampery place we hadn't tried before.

{{please take the bow out of my hair}}

{{why have you stopped?! take it out!!}}

{{are those scissors?!}}

The bow is finally out.  Scissors were involved.  I'm not quite sure why it was there in the first place.  The kids wanted to change Ted's name to Francine, but thankfully we're now ok to stick with Ted.

We went and saw 'Rise of the Guardians' yesterday, and then had a healthy lunch:

{{this wasn't my lunch.  I had hot chips}}

And finally, some sewing.  We REALLY needed some coasters for home, so I made a stack of 9-patches using Mama Said Sew, AMH feathers, Alison Glass' Lucky Penny, Center City and a pink solid and texty print from the cupboard.   I love the colours all mixed in together.

{{waiting for wine}}

Here's to a happy and safe weekend for you all.   xoxo cat

:: to market, to market ::

Today is the day.  Today is the reason we have not blogged for nearly two weeks.  Today .... is .... our first market! 

A sewing, ironing and packaging frenzy has been happening at my house and at Vee's house.  And we were ready with two days to spare, oh the surprise of that.

Vee has been on cushion patrol, while I've been on zip-pouch and Christmas decoration duty.

All of these:

.

Became these:

.

Except for the pi-pouches, they're all large enough to fit an ipad.  Handy to know.  An excellent Christmas present idea, wouldn't you say.

And here are the Christmas decorations, hanging out with my new reindeer:

.

Vee's car is packed.  My car is about to be packed:

.

Ted's been helping:

.

We'll be taking pics tonight - the Twilight Christmas Market at Fig Tree Pocket.  

It's going to be fun!! 

'til next time     xoxo cat

:: bunkered down in BrisVegas ::

Another week has flown on by, ending with the perfect long weekend - cold and rain in BrisVegas, so we hung out at home, saw friends and family and did not much at all.  Loved it.  Here are a few pics. 

{mee friend kits, headed for Ireland - gosh it's a long while since we've made these}

{patiently waiting for the husband ... my husband, not Teddy's husband ... he'll sit like that for gee, whole minutes at a time, for no apparent reason, just waiting}

{hama beads, how we love you}

{chocolate + blackberry jam cake.  made this twice. and ate a lot of it.}

{made this for one of my kids' teachers who's headed for an England-holiday. Thought the V+A fabric was perfect}

see you xoxo cat

:: on the 10th day of Christmas .... ::

... the decorations are finally making an appearance at chez cat.

The tree went up last weekend - but it's hidden away in the study, behind a closed door.  This is our first Christmas with Teddy in da house, and the kids were keen to keep the pressies and lower-branch-decorations free of teeth-marks, dog-slobber and general chewing destruction.

Teddy (looking here like butter wouldn't melt, let alone be chewed and ripped to pieces) has been included in the household decorations, courtesy of the lovely ladies at the dog-grooming salon:

{gorgeous though it is, the snowflake hair-clip is now history}

And here is what I can show you so far - our 'tulle tree'.  The light hasn't been great today for inside-pics, but since the tulle tree is portable, it took a little trip outside for some late afternoon shots.  The tree is Hart and Heim (Vee and I bought two trees online for our market display, but I can't remember exactly where we bought them, sorry), and the gorgeous little star decorations are Paper Boat Press, purchased at this lovely shop:

I'm hoping to do some Christmas sewing in the next few days - I've never made anything Christmassy just for us, so we'll see what happens.

Hope your house is decorated, twinkling and dog-chewing-free.     xoxo cat

what's on your head?

OK, so we thought Teddy's 15cm head-bucket was big ...  It's nothin'.  Not compared to his new 20cm head-bucket.  Here's Teddy looking thrilled with his new headwear:

We took Ted to the vet this morning - he's been beyond miserable all weekend, so I was getting worried something was wrong.  Nope.  He's fine.  Just a sensitive soul.  A sensitive soul who is need of a bigger head-bucket, to keep him away from his stitches.   You can imagine the happiness levels around here at the moment.

Anyway, since Ted's now doing this:

 I've taken the chance to start cutting up fabric to make into coasters and sewing kits, for our Christmas Market stall - it's on 18 November - far enough away to not be scary, but close enough for us to want to get as much we can done during the school hols.

I've been sorting my scraps into my apples too - picked them up in Kingscliff last week, while we were there on hols.  Not sure of the name of the shop, but it's on the main street, just up from the very fab Boardwalk Books.

Hope your day is happy and free of head-buckets.        xoxo cat

happy weekend

Oh, I was loving reading Vee's post last night - nothing like kids to derail the sewing to-do list ... though a pinched nerve in your neck will do it every time too! ... rest up, Vee, and stay away from the sewing machine.  And the fit-ball.

Teddy's home from his 'fixing' surgery ... and can I just say ... I didn't realise he'd be quite this sad, sorry and sore - what planet have I been living on?  He is absolutely the definition of 'mournful'.  Here is Teddy 'before' the surgery, looking quite the muppet:

And here he is this afternoon, wearing his 'bucket' ... at least we are able to make eye-contact now:

We had a very lovely picnic in the backyard this afternoon:

And I nipped off to one of our local quilting shops to buy some batting - thanks for your help and the lovely chat, Jenny! - somehow, I have SIX quilt tops waiting to be turned into quilts.  It's not like they're massive quilts though - three are single bed size, and three are throws.  I'll post pics when as they're finished, hopefully very soon for at least one of them, since it's a pressie for our sweet friend Rosie.

And now, I'm settling in with a glass of wine and my dottie angel book (purchased here). dottie angel arrived yesterday (via Vee-mail ... Vee collected our mail for us while we had a couple of days away  here - thanks Vee x).  I can't tell you how much I love dottie angel  - please track down a copy of her book - it's just gorgeous, full of Tif's lovely words and thoughts, and heaps of crafty how-to's.

Happy weekend to everyone          xoxo cat