Ceramic and Japanese ink necklaces

Fairfield Primary School had a Maker's Market yesterday, and I made these little necklaces to sell.  They are made from clay and printed with Japanese ink.  I think this Christmas will be the 'jewellery' Christmas.

Knitted dishwashing cloths and scourers

Last Christmas was the year of the handmade dishcloth.  However, my enthusiasm stretched over the Christmas holidays and since then I have sporadically knitted away as I have come across balls of cotton in op shops.  Here is my current collection of knitted cloths and scourers.  I have done double yarn knitting to ensure they last longer.  Warning that knitting jute is quite scratchy on your hands!

Fairy Dust

Fairies are big at our at house at the moment.  Jemima is impatiently waiting to lose her first tooth and is eagerly anticipating a visit from the tooth fairy.  Recent google searches she has carried out include 'where to find fairies' and 'where do fairies live'.

Somewhere along the way I came across some fairy dust for sale in a lovely little glass bottle, with a little poem on some card packaged up in a cellophane envelope .... hmmm.  I could do something like that!

I spent some time looking for suitable containers and glitter as separate items, and then discovered OK looking plastic tubes of glitter for sale at the local $2 shop  (10 tubes for $2 I think it was).

So, I came up with my own little poem and voila .... magical fairy dust.

My kids still haven't quite mastered 'just the right way' yet but they are working on it!

Felt Flower Hair Ties

I made these hair ties for the craft stall at our primary fete in March.  I made some in blue and red.  They have a little button in the middle and 2 petals that are joined together at the back.  This is where I sewed it all together, hiding the elastic between the back of the flower and the petals. They look quite cute in and the red ones match the girls school uniforms.  Very handy.

Wardrobe Sachets

Obviously I am on a theme this christmas, and have made smelly linen and leather sachets to hang in the wardrobe. 

I have filled these bags with herbs from my garden - lavender and rosemary - and with lemon rind, star anise, cinnamon and cloves. I added a couple of tablespoons of linseed to each bag to give some weight and something for the herbs and spices to rub against when they are moved around.

I bought patterned and plain linen from Rathdowne Remnants, and cut up some brown leather strips for the strap.

They really look lovely, and I going to give them to my Nanna for christmas. 

Essential Oil Diffusers

On Sunday I had a great idea for our home made christmas, and headed off to Camberwell market to get some little old jars.  I had in mind some old half milk bottles (cream bottles) but the man who sells them wasn't there (1st Sunday of the month apparently) so I found some ink bottles and old alcohol bottles instead.  The advantage of the alcohol bottles is that they have lids, so they can be transported around without spilling the oil.

I followed some online instructions and mixed almond oil with a tablespoon of vodka, and then added  a blend of essential oils.  I bought rattan at Cobra Cane in Collingwood  (in hindsight I think I already had some in my garage from when I made a mobile once - and I bought it from Spotlight ...).  I did try bamboo skewers first, but they didn't soak up the oil enough (rattan has little tubes all the way through which apparently helps absorb the oil better).

Anyway, I am happy with the finished product.  They look very cute and they smell great. 

More Reinvented Tea Towels ....

I have a garage full of junk collected from op shops and the side of the road, and I have a big collection of mainly Australiana tea towels.  In an effort tidy up a little I fixed up a couple of stools ... they are now in my lounge room.

Rainbow Necklaces

In June, India's birthday party was a 'craft party' and I bought a range of coloured fimo from Spotlight, and then bought some chain to make necklaces.  The kids made basic beads in a range of beautiful colours and made rainbow necklaces.  They were simple, and ended up looking great for kids or adults to wear!

Clove Oranges ... A Trip Down Memory Lane

When we were little we always had a clove studded orange in our kitchen that my younger sister Merryn had apparently made at kindergarten.

This week I went off to the local fruit shop to buy 5 oranges and then to the local Indian shop for a bag of whole cloves.

I figured my kids and their cousins could do an after school project and make a clove studded orange each as a present they could use for our homemade christmas.  I hadn't done much investigating but I figured you would just roll the oranges in the cloves and somehow they would stick in .... I was mistaken. 

You have to actually make a hole with a fork or toothpick for each clove before you poke it in.  Clearly in 4 year old kinder my sister had had a lot of 'help' making her orange.

So an after school project for the kids turned into a week long project for the older kids and adults (the younger kids gave up after about 2 minutes and headed out to jump on the trampoline!).

Anyway, we are nearly there ... and I now hope they actually preserve and don't go mouldy (imagine all those hours chucked in the bin).  Once we finished studding our oranges (well the 2 that we have completed - and I am optimistic about the remaining 3), we  rolled them in a mix of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove.  The kitchen table with our half finished project on a tray is a bit messy, but it smells delicious! 

Knitted Stool

Knitted Stool for Art for All 2012

This year I also experimented with a knitted stool.  Sort of weird but fun. 

Art for All 2012 - My Chair

Given that I am at home looking after the kids, I figure it is a great time to be volunteering.  

This year I am helping organise our annual art show Art for All. 

I am really enjoying getting into organising something and making an event happen. It is just 3 weeks away, on the 8-9 September, and some fabulous artists are going to be part of it, and we have a great day of kids activities planning for the Sunday, so I am very excited about it all.

The chair as I found it on
the side of the road.

As I am trying to tick things off my list, I have actually made my chair for the annual Chair Auction on the Opening Night nice and early this year. 

I found this chair on the side of the road in Northcote, it was a little worse for wear!

Since then I have re-padded it, sanded it, put new shellac on, and recovered it with a lovely Australian themed table cloth. 

I hope someone bids on it!

Knitted Tea Cosy

As part of our second hand and home made christmas, my sister and I screenprinted t-shirts for the kids and I made skirts for the girls.  My aunty made necklaces for the kids out of fimo.  My brother-in-law made florentines. My dad made me some fly screens for my windows (very practical).

It was lovely to get stuff that either people knew you really needed and had searched for or something that they had made with love. We are planning to do it again this year.  My Nanna who is 90 is already on the job, and has knitted dishcloths for everyone (I also did these this year, but she is doing much bigger ones - she has more patience than me).  I am looking forward to a larger one, we all agreed that they are terrific - the ones I made are still going strong 8 months later and I use them every day.

I bought my sisters a second hand teapot each, and knitted them a tea cosy to go with it.  I used a number of different elements out of the books 'Tea Cozies 1' and 'Tea Cozies 2' and 'Really Wild Tea Cosies', which I borrowed from the library.  So, if anyone has a need for knitted roses and knitted leaves, I am the girl!

Screen Printed Tea Towels

Even though I haven't posted anything on this blog for a long time, I have still been creative, I just haven't taken the time to upload images.  So, this is a long overdue post, but my second attempt at screen printing assisted by my sister was a little more sophisticated.  We made some tea towels which ended up looking terrific (I think anyway). We ordered them in bulk from Linen Line and they cost about $2 each I think for great quality linen tea towels. 

We cut the screenprinting images out of thin acetate sheet (I bought it in a packet of 20 from Officeworks), which stuck pretty well to the screen (we didn't have any bleeding problems).  Using acetate rather than paper meant that we could keep our designs, and do them in different colours, without having to recut every time.  It was very successful.

 Our only drama was with setting the paint.  When we ironed it some got on the iron and with the red for example, the material became a little pinkish around the print.  I am not sure if we can set the paint in the oven or dryer, but next time if I iron, I will not iron direcly onto the paint.

A Second Hand and Handmade Christmas

This year our family is endevouring to have a second hand or homemade christmas.  It has been lots of fun so far, with many hours spent scouring op shops for unique christmas presents and pursuing creative ideas. 

My most exciting items this year in terms of the homemade element are 1. a quilt for my nephew Hugh, and 2. dish scourers and cotton dishwashing cloths. 

Hughie's quilt is coming along nicely, however I horrified the lady at GJs fabrics (the specialised quilting shop in Brunswick) when I explained that I just measured my fabric into 11cm pieces and then snipped the edge and ripped along the grain.  This approach is quick and easy to create my 11cm by 11cm squares, but not really true to the meticulousness of the quilting tradition.  She also explained to me that I need to quilt in inches not centimetres.  Never mind.  I am happy with the result. 

My other exciting homemade christmas gifts which come as a set are scourers, knitted out of garden twine or jute from the $2 shop and knitted cotton dishcloths.  I bought the cotton at Spotlight.  I know they are a bit time consuming, but I remember when my Nanna bought me a metallic pot scourer (for some strange reason) and how I thought about her every day when I used it, and how I was sad when it finally fell apart and I had to chuck it out.  So hopefully, the people who receive these special (and very practical) gifts will think of me when they use them (and will dispose of them in their compost bin when they finally disintigrate). 

Chairs

Each year our school has an art show and family and friends are invited to decorate a chair and then donate it to be auctioned with proceeds going to the school.  Chairs make a couple of hundred dollars each. 

This year my idea was to screenprint our postcode onto fabric and then recover a chair. 

I found a great stool to cover at the Tip Shop at Reservoir.  I bought the fabric at Rathdowne Remnants (it is heavy duty synthetic stretchy stuff).  I was very happy with the results. 

And then someone donated a chair to the school that I couldn't resist recovering with hessian and tacks.  It is very 2011, but I am a little concerned as to how it will stand the test of time. Whilst all the rage in current home magazines, it seems to me that tacks and hessians aren't the most robust materials when combined as a chair covering material, and I had to glue and screw the chair in the first place.  Anyway, it looks good.  Just as I imagined.  Fingers crossed.    

Father's Day 2011 - A Long Overdue Post

For Fathers Day this year at school we changed the labels on tea bags and then repackaged them to make personalised Fathers Day tea.  With messages like 'you're the best dad in the world' they are bound to cheer up any Dad that has a cup of tea at 10am at work on a weekday!

We also used our newfound soapmaking skills to make bring back 'soap on a rope'.  Could there be a better Fathers Day Present?

Picture Framing

I have recently been framing pictures that I have collected.  I bought two paintings from second hand markets.  They both now look lovely in new frames. 

I also framed some of my daughters art work from kinder - which is a long overdue task.  I picked up the black frames from a school fete (a great find), and the white frames are from Ikea.  The thing I learnt this week (from my sister) was how the cut the mats. 

It is actually all very straight forward, and as long as you have the equipment (which I borrowed from my sister) and can measure correctly, then it is easy.  You just need to make sure the blade is sharp!  So, hopefully soon all my pictures in my house will have lovely mats.  But first I may have to do another trip out to Reverse Garbage with the hope that they have more mat cardboard (I saw some there last time I went - why pay full price if you can utilise someone's offcuts).

Fancy a cuppa? It's all in the packaging ...

More ideas for things to make ...


Some fun mugs packaged with camomile tea



Body lotion in a fabulous brown glass bottle



Delicious smelling rock salt and rosemary



Bath Tea Bags

This week I have again been on the job for the school's Mothers Day Stall. I have made bath tea bags using a recipe from the home life website.    I have then sewn little calico bags to look like tea bags and filled them up with the mix of oats, epsom salts, rose petals and essential oils.  They look quite lovely I think. 

  

Making Soap for the Mothers Day Stall

I have been looking at things to make for the school Mothers Day Stall on the internet, and found lots of inspiration on the HomeLife website which got me thinking about making soap.  I looked into it a little bit but it all seemed a bit complicated to source the ingredients etc.  Then I hit upon the fantastic idea of melting down existing soap and adding stuff to it, then remoulding it.  You can add colour, smell, texture etc. and you can buy the soap at your local supermarket, or use up soap that you have in the cupboard.

To melt it down all you have to do is get the soap you want to use and grate it.  I just put it in a saucepan and added water (somewhere I read you need 1/2 a cup of water to 1 cup of soap and I loosely followed this ratio). When it melted it went all sticky.  I think that technically speaking you are meant to use a double boiler, but I am impatient, so I was very careful to watch it the whole time to ensure it didn't burn.  I then added essential oils (I also read that you can add bees wax for a honey smell which I would like to try) along with dried lavender, dried rose petals (you can also add oatmeal or ground coffee ...) and some food dye.  One lot I put in a milk carton to dry and then cut it up with a sharp knife.  Another lot I just did in a baking tray.  Apparently you need to leave it a few days to dry out before you use it.  But it looks good within a few hours.  I have used strips of the pages of an old Alice in Wonderland book that I sourced at an Op Shop to wrap it.