Rainbow is my favourite colour

What is your favourite colour?  For most of my life, I could always answer this questions, easily.  But not anymore.  I love colour.  I love sewing with colour.  I love painting with colour.  I love all colours. It is safe to say, that rainbow is my favourite colour now. 

Last year, this idea came to me.  It took months to finally make them, with Christmas and a house move keeping me busy.

But here they are, my first zippered bag range, featuring my own screen printing.  8 different coloured zippered bags, representing the colours of the rainbow.  These ones have a cotton inner lining, next time I'll make some with waterproof fabric.

Which one is your favourite?

They are now in my etsy shop.

Have a colourful day.

Do you want to wear a rainbow?

Hello,

Would you like to wear a rainbow? Well, now you can.  I have been wearing a rainbow for a few years now with my handmade rainbow wooden beaded necklaces.

Now in my etsy shop you can choose which rainbow style you would like to wear.  Choose one of the nine different styles I have designed or choose your own rainbow necklace.  You choose your own rainbow adventure (just like the "Choose your own Adventure" books I read as a child).

 

All beads are wooden and hand painted by me.  They are finished with a gloss varnish (all non-toxic, of course).

You can find them here in my etsy shop.

Have a great day, may it be filled with rainbows (and raspberries).

Cat xox

Rainbow Ric Rac Wall Art

 

Hello lovelies,

This week I have been busy sewing up a rainbow ric rac storm.  Cushion covers will be coming soon, but first up I have finished my wall art pieces, these movable, portable rainbows to hang up and brighten your day.

Each one is securely mounted in a 7 inch wooden embroidery hoop.

I currently have three different background fabrics - grey sketch, blue clouds or yellow clouds (Passing Clouds fabric designed by Eloise Renouf for Cloud 9 Fabrics, 100%  GOTS certified organic cotton)

Felt has been sewn onto the back for a neat finish.

They are now listed in my etsy shop.

Each one is unique and handmade my me.

Have a great day.

Cat xox

Handmade Christmas Gift Guide 2013: Gifts for little girls

Hi peeps,

Today in our series compiled with Cat, it's all about girls.  I may know a few things about girls, being the mumma of two girly whirlies (as I call them) and I was a little girl once too.

My girls love imaginative play and can spend hours together making elaborate scenes with their toys.  The whole lounge room floor is usually covered with their imaginary world, they will include their toy kitchen food with My Little Ponies, Sylvanian Family toys, Little People, puzzles, books, anything they can find. I love listening to these games, they make up the funniest stories and scenarios.

1. Handmade Dolls, cats, koalas and more by A Little Vintage, various prices.  I personally want one of each.  We own a koala, her name is Mildred, and she is adorable.  Etsy shop here.

2. Wooden Toadstool house puzzle by Raw Toys $290 HKD.  We own two puzzles from Raw Toys and love them both.  Madeit shop here.

3. Dress up Rainbow bird wings by Sparrow and B Costumery $520 HKD.  My girls would love these, we adore anything rainbow in our house.  Etsy shop here.

4. Australian biscuits and cakes felt food set by Wombat's Picnic $215 HKD, madeit shop here.  I've had my eye on this set for so long now!

5. Crochet Rainbow bracelet by The Black Sheep Crafts $58 HKD, madeit shop here.  I know both my girls would love this.

6. DIY Tutorial: Make your own hair ties, this tutorial could not be easier.

What else do you buy for the little girls in your life?

Cat xox

Wooden Beaded Necklaces go to Market.

Hello,

When I go to Market on Sunday 24th November, there will be a selection of beaded necklaces.

These are some that will be available on the day.

Hope to see you there.

If you want one of my rainbow beaded necklaces, there are three different types available in my etsy shop at the moment.

Have a great day.

Cat xox

Shall I sew us a ric rac rainbow?

Hello peeps,

I am writing this from freezing cold Melbourne (Australia)  We are visiting friends and family as the girls are on Hong Kong summer school holidays.

It has been great to get some respite from the heat and humidity of Hong Kong.  I am missing home though.  We are all missing the Shropshire boy/daddy.  We will be home next week, and school commences again for Abbey in the middle of August.

I have to share some photos of a recent creation.  I joined the lovely Cam from CurlyPops to make a hot water bottle cover for the 2013 Hottie Challenge.  There was a recent exhibition of all the amazing hotties (see lots of photos here on Cam's blog)

The finished hotties are donated to the Margaret Pratt Foundation, so that they may be sold to raise funds.  The aim of the Foundation, as stated on their website is:

The Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust is a registered charity whose aim is to encourage, develop and maintain Australia's world class expertise in the field of organ transplantation by supporting research that addresses the problems faced by children and adults after heart and lung transplant. 

If you know Cam or follow her CurlyPops blog, you will already know she is the recent recipient of a double lung transplant.  She has been given the gift of a new life.  The hottie challenge is important to her.

My entry to the hottie challenge was an idea I have had rattling around in my head for months: to make a rainbow out of ric rac.  I love how it turned out.  This will not be the last ric rac rainbow you will see in the land of the Raspberry Rainbow.  When I get back to Hong Kong, I have plans.

Have a great week.

Cat xox

Let's take a scrappy trip, shall we?

 

 Hello peeps,

My Grandmother's quilt should not have been my first.  I had actually started another quilt before I made hers - this one I am going to show you now.  Back in late December of last year, I noticed on Instagram that a quilt-along was happening, called the Scrappy Trip Along. The blocks for the quilt looked so interesting, I was fascinated how they were made and I so desperately wanted to make a quilt of my own. I knew that I would soon be trying one of these blocks.  Of course, I loved making my first blocks, but I was not happy with using random fabrics.  Maybe the control freak in me did not like the randomness. I wanted more control.  I chose to have each block as a colour theme.  Six different fabrics of the same colour together in each block, kind of like a rainbow.  I do like rainbows!

By the end of January, I had 24 finished blocks.  All fabrics used had come from my stash. I was in love.  To be honest though, I had no idea where I was heading with this quilt.  I laid out all my blocks together, seen in the photo below, and I knew it needed to be bigger, a few more yellow and orange blocks too.

I took a break from my Rainbow quilt to make Grandma's.  I was itching to add more blocks, but I had the deadline of Grandmas 90th birthday party.  I had to finish that quilt before her party.

Finally by the end of May, I had 30 completed blocks.  As I was laying them out with much excitement, I believed I had finished all my blocks.  Once they were all together though, I knew immediately I had to make 5 more.  If this quilt was to be the one we snuggled under on our couch, it had to be longer.

So 5 more blocks were made.  I have yet to take a photo of all completed 35 blocks, it is getting more and more difficult to photograph as this quilt is so large and our living area very small.

If you want to make your own scrappy trip quilt, all the instructions are here.  It really is easy to do, the blocks come together quickly once you have all your fabric strips cut.  I used this photo as a reference guide how to iron my blocks before cutting (the photo in the instructions is not clear to me)

I have created a board on Pinterest with all this info together, you can see that here.  There is also a Flickr group with so many photos of gorgeous scrappy trip along blocks and completed quilts. Go check it out of you want some inspiration.

I am so eager to finish this quilt, but a secret project has been taking up my time, I'll share that as soon as I can.

Do you want to make a scrappy trip along quilt, or have you already made one?

Happy Creative Space day to you.

Cat xox

Do you want to wear a rainbow?

Hello peeps,

Do you want to wear a rainbow?  If so, now you can.  New in my shop are RAINBOW necklaces.

There are two different types at the moment (the yellow bead is a different shape in each one).

I have a funny feeling I will be making many more of these.  Mine has been worn almost every day since I fist made it.  I love my rainbow necklace, I love wearing a rainbow.

Also in the shop are other beaded necklaces, these are some of them:

I have a special offer for all my friends and family.  Use the code "FRIENDS" at check out and receive 10% off your order (does not include shipping)

Happy Monday to you.

Cat xox

Paper Punch Fun

Hi peeps,

Yesterday, I set out to post a few parcels that are (unfortunately) long overdue to be sent.  I wanted to make my own cards to go with these parcels and presents so I got out all my paper punches and paper and got rather distracted creating.  This is what I got up to.

This one was my favourite of the day, spots and stripes together.  So happy. 

 

Now, I really better get these parcels in the post.

Have a great evening.

Cat xox

Somewhere, over the raspberry rainbow......

During the day, I sort through our possessions, I cull, I drop things off at the opp shop, I give things away to friends, family and strangers on freecycle, I sell things on ebay.  I move boxes into storage, I cook, I wipe sticky hands and faces, I wash clothes and dirty dishes, I garden,  I hoover.  I negotiate with a 21 month old.  I talk about Hong Kong with a 5 year old, I do the kinder run.  I hoover some more. I read books to two eager little girls, we sing along to Mary Poppins. I change our address (again and again)  I do more sorting.  More culling.  Gosh, we have so many too many possessions. I wonder when this will end.

Insurance claims are refused.  I cry and swear.  I move on.

We start to say goodbye to friends and family. I try to remember to breathe. I squeeze in a little sewing in the evenings, my sanity saver.

Now, I know it will end soon.  The date has been set, 3 weeks from now.  Tickets have been issued.  The packers and shippers have been booked.  Excitement is building. Abbey is crossing off each day on a calendar. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. My Shropshire boy will soon be here to help with the last minute things.  He will take us to our new home.

This is really happening.  I am so excited and sad and happy and thrilled - all at the same time.

I won't be around much in blog land for a while. I will miss you all.  Soon, I will be back though, ready to share my new adventure with you, what ever that may be.

Love from Cat xox

My (girly) Creative Space

This week I have had fun making a girlie birthday present. One of Abbey's new kinder friends celebrated her birthday today. Since they met just over a month ago, Abbey and her new friend Ellie have become almost inseparable at kinder. Abbey asks me many times most days what is Ellie doing now? Where is Ellie? When is kinder next? When I ask her what she has done at kinder, it always involves Ellie. It is so cute to see and makes me all squishy inside. My big girl, all 4 years of her, is making friends. I am so proud of her.

Ellie's mum summed it up perfectly - they are in love. And it is true, they both adore each other and play so well together.

This week I have been smiling as I was sewing, knowing these creations were for Abbey's dear friend.

I sent Abbey to kinder one day last week, and her mission was to ask what Ellie's favourite colour is. Mission accomplished by my little snoop, Ellie likes all the colours of the rainbow.

Abbey helped me choose which fabric's to use, and I made Ellie a zippered pouch and two headbands.

Little girls can never have too many hair bobbles (hair elastics), so I made some of these too.

To finish off our home made present, Abbey painted some brown paper with a colourful rainbow to use as wrapping paper and drew Ellie a birthday card.

Happy Birthday gorgeous girl! We had a wonderful time at your party.

Pop in and visit all the lovely Creative peeps over at Kootoyou on Thursday.

Cheers, Cat.

My Creative Space

There are so many things I should be doing. Such as packing and sorting for Hong Kong. Making more Christmas presents. Finishing my softie for Mirabel.

But when my little Miss 4.5 asks if I want to play "play dough" with her, how can I say no?

When she was much younger, I tried to stop her mixing up all the play dough colours. It did not really work. It is not much fun keeping all the colours together. I am now glad we mix them all up - look how beautiful little play dough stars can be.

Pop over and visit Kirsty for many more creative peeps.

Have a lovely Thursday.

Cat.