Garage Sales, 2nd Hand Shops... My Weakness

When I can I try and get to the various garage sales on Saturday morning here in Gisborne. Some weeks are disappointing and some are fabulous! Check out my finds this week:

Favourite find by far for a long time! ONLY $5 

Watch out soon for a before and after on this baby.

LOve love love it! (p.s garden coming soon!)

A bike for Matt - our last garage sale one (which was so retro and awesome) got stolen! 

a great steal for $5.

bill doily table cloth.... can't remember how much? maybe $5?

ah yes more doilies! 50cents each.. couldn't not get them ;)

Little wooden handled zester. $1

Gorgeous little enamel pouring pot (what are these called?) a couple of dollars

Textured amber glass jug... because who can have enough jugs.... 

my husband may disagree with this..

And Another wool blanket. $5. Because who can have enough wool blankets...

no really they are great!

and just a little add on... It's Matts (husband) Birthday today. Here's the cake we took to his work this morning :) 

Baby Fair and Me!

What a busy week! I have been flat out sewing all week for a baby fair which is on this Saturday that I (very last minute) have decided to sell some clothes at. It's very daunting for me to be one selling my stuff and two to be sharing a table (as in my terrible sewing next to) with my friend Chelsea, who has had her own successful clothing label! I'm doing the boys stuff and she is doing some absolutely gorgeous girls things. 

A couple of things I have learnt this week.. Pressure is a great way to get stuff done. I Have been really wanting to sew in the evenings more often but I am always persuaded by my lazy self to have a "relaxing" night instead. But I can't believe how good I feel after a week of sewing every night for a few hours. 

The other thing I have learnt is that sewing more than one of the same thing (even better 6 of the same thing) is so much easier than just sewing one thing at a time! It always takes me a while to get my head around the pattern (even if its one I have done before!) so sewing a whole heap at once makes for super quick work. Anyway here is a few snaps of the things I have been sewing (mostly half finished..)

stack of half finished linen shorts like these I made a while back.

Knee patch pants

Crawler pants (pattern from Ottobre)

Check Bloomers 

planning... still a bit to do!

One of the many piles of fabric waiting to be used up... or not.

a snap shot of the mess.

I will post again after the fair and show you how we looked

DIY Doily Dress

I have been meaning to post this all week... except I never remember to take photos of the finished garment when I'm actually wearing it out! I am really happy with how this dress turned out as not all my own designs do... 

My first idea came from my cousins blog when I saw the cut up doily she had left over from some christmas decorations she had made. I thought, hey that looks like a purpose built neck line for a top or dress... 

I rummaged through my little pile of doilies and found this one

I snipped out the centre..

rummaged through my stash of fabric and decided this lilac organza would fit the bill.

I am "borrowing" my mums dressmaking dummy and I tell you it makes designing/fitting clothes a breeze! 

I literally took the length of fabric - about 1.5 meters and chopped it in half pinned it to each side of the doily with a few gathers on each boob and one in the centre back. Pinned the side seems loosely and it was ready to be sewn.. 

Here it is before i had sewn it, I decided after to cut it just above the knee. I didn't even hem it... probably will have to at some point though!

Here it is, worn with a tan leather belt and some peep toes. 

I really like the scooping back too :)

I wore it out on Friday night, Matt and I had a very rare night out at a Christmas party and it's definitely a party dress...  Now I just need to find a few more occasions to wear it too, and work on the hang over it gave me!

xox

Christmas Ornament Swap: Made.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I have entered into a Christmas Ornament Swap. We have been put into groups of 5 or 6 and by the 1st of December we have to send a home made ornament to each of the members in the group. Basically you end up with 6 different home made ornament at the end - lots of fun... and how doesn't love getting presents in the mail :)
What to make!? There seemed to be too many options I just could't commit to one... but I just got on with it today.. and I'm pleased I did!
One of my first ideas was to make mini bunting flags so I rummaged through my fabric stash and found a bunch of things that seemed to marry together well. Here's how I went:

 All the items I used were from second hand shops, isn't it so satisfying when you can make something entirely out of thrifted materials! Nothing bought new. 

I cut long strips of both fabric

using pinking scissors to avoid having to hem the flags... 

6 bunting ready to sew..

probably should have ironed them..

Ta-da!

had to take a shot with my hand in there so you can get an idea of how tini tiny they are :)

I'm feeling a little more christmas-y after this little project... must start on actual christmas pressies next.

Ci Vediamo!

Animal Coat Hooks DIY

We have been cooped up inside for the last few days with rainy cold weather out. Not much fun with two little active kids... and to make it worse our lawn as been dug up and re-seeded so we aren't able to use that even when its fine. Lucky for us the grass is growing and the weather is improving!

Today I felt like getting a bit crafty.... I went out to our local $2 shop and had a wonder around, I spotted these plastic animals. They reminded me of an idea I have seen a few times on Pinterest with various toys stuck on a bit of wood and used as coat hooks! So simple and easy and I think very effective.
Anyway here is how I went....

Plastic Animals +

a piece of wood - or a purpose made coat rack - I cheated a tad on this bit :)

Cut the animals in half - or there abouts depending on what size "hook" you want. I have seen ones made with just heads before.

take off plain hooks and drill holes for screwing onto the wall if needed.

I painted my board with a light white wash.

Using a hot glue gun stick animals halves to wood! 

EASY

 AS

PIE!

Enjoy your weekend :)

xox

Fresh Baguettes and Dukka

I found this brilliant baguette recipe through Pinterest a week or so back, I made the dough last week and the fantastic thing about it is you can keep the dough in the fridge for up to a week (who knows maybe longer) and just take out enough for a fresh stick when ever you want! I have a breadmaker so I skipped the method for making the dough in the recipe and just chucked all the ingredient in the breadmaker on the dough setting. Then from there to the fridge. You should definitely give it a go!

Dukka is fantastic with fresh crusty bread and a good quality olive oil, YUM!

If you haven't made Dukka before - it is so easy and keeps for ages. 

Here's my basic recipe:

1/2 cup Sesame Seeds 

1/2 cup Sunflower Seeds

1/2 cup Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup of Almonds 

1/4 cup Cumin Seeds

1/4 cup Coriander Seeds 

1 tbl spoon Paprika

1 1/2 tsp Rock Salt

1/2 tsp Ground Tumeric

put in a blender and blitz. Store in an airtight jar.

Happy Tuesday! 

Cotton Candy! From Sheet to Shorts...

I have been collecting the odd cotton sheet from 2nd hand stores / Thrift stores for sometime now. If you can find one in good condition, without the worn middle then you have yourself a huge piece of fabric to play around with. I mostly look out for vintage floral ones, but this week I found this delicious cotton candy striped one. The cotton is fantastic quality and is still lovely and thick. The colours are "me" too. Although I did intend to make the boys pants/shorts from it.. I thought no, I will make something for me this time.
I found a pattern from one of my Burda magazines and got to it....

How cute is that sheet! $3 from The Sallys!

 Cotton Candy

My new sewing toy.... great time saver!

a dotty guide to cut out

Finito!

So what do you think?