The Birthday Boy

Yesterday was my dad's 70th birthday. We celebrated with a family dinner at the Oyster Cove Inn at Kettering. We've been having some hot days here in Tasmania and the weather was perfect and the view awesome.

I'd booked a private room so that the kids could feel free to make noise, and to be honest the adults in our family can be pretty noisy too! I think dad enjoyed the night (judging by some of the photos, I think he may have enjoyed himself a little too much!). The night ended with my cousin inhaling helium from one of the balloons and much laughter. Happy birthday dad.

My Mama's Quilt

Finally I can reveal the quilt that I made for my mum for Christmas. I've had to keep this one under wraps because my mum reads this blog (hi mum). Mum requested a lap sized quilt for the garden room so this fabric (Aviary by Moda) was a perfect fit. I used a pre-cut layer cake to save myself some time. I wouldn't describe myself as a lover of florals, but I was really impressed with the end result. Hmmmm....I may have been converted.

Success!

Master A was much impressed with his quilt. Phew! What a relief!

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas everyone!

It just wouldn't be Christmas without the corny jokes that come in the crackers.

And the best part of Christmas lunch? The raspberries of course!

Almost done

Well, two quilts down and one to go. Thankfully, this one is almost done. All that is left to do is the binding on one side. I'll have to finish it off tonight after I have wrapped all the other presents.  This quilt is for my niece. The fabric is Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut. Below are photos of the front and back. The front is a disappearing nine patch. I made the back from a panel of left over fabric and scraps from the front blocks. I can't decide if I like the front or the back best.

I won! I won!

Finally, after months of entering blog give-aways I won something. Thanks to Sarah from SEWN I won some lovely fat quarters. They'll make nice additions to my growing stash. Thanks Sarah.

Handmade Christmas Challenge update

Finished: a quilt for my nephew.

Gingerbread House pt 2

Yay, no disasters this year. There were a few moments of apprehension when roof tops began to slide, but a few minutes of holding in place fixed the problem. Royal icing really does make a difference! Amon's house is nicely fenced. All we need now are some gingerbread animals.

Afterwards Amon and I walked down to Middleton beach (about 200m meters from mum and dads house). Lily stayed behind. She had eaten too many lollies and felt ill. It was a lovely summer's day...slight breeze  and the beach all to our selves.

Gingerbread House pt 1

This morning I bought two gingerbread house kits from the Tasmanian Gingerbread Company at Salamanca Market.  They are for my niece and nephew.

Last year we made gingerbread houses for the first time. They were fun to make (we made them from scratch) and the kids did a great job of decorating them.

Being a novice gingerbread-er I didn't realise that you need to use special icing to hold everything together and pretty soon we had a collection of collasped houses. Not wanting this to spoil the fun we decided to just go with it and made 'natural disaster' houses. We broke the limbs of some gingerbread men, added some red icing for effect. They may not have been pretty, but they tasted fantastic!

We'll be decorating this years houses tomorrow....wish us luck!

My kind of Christmas shopping

My sister rang me yesterday morning and asked if I wanted to go Christmas shopping with her. My handmade Christmas challenge has released me this year from the madness of Christmas shopping crowds and all the frustrations that go with it. I have to say, part of me has missed this experience, so I said yes. Vicarious Christmas shopping for me! First we started with lunch. Pizza and beer. My kind of Christmas shopping!

We did get some shopping done, but when we were driving back to my house, my sister admitted that she had bought more things for her self than other people. What's wrong with that? That is how my Christmas shopping usually goes...one present for them, one for me, one for them, one for me...

I added this photo 'cos it was pretty (we've been having odd weather here in Tassie this week- 32 degrees on Wednesday, 16 and rain on Thursday and hot and humid yesterday).

All I want for Christmas

All I want for Christmas is Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane.

Oh, and the bike in this picture. And the dress.

And world peace.

A fond farewell

One of this year's highlights for me was being apart of the Beach Market. The market was the brainchild of the lovely and talented Julie Hoddy. Julie did an fabulous job getting the market off the ground. It was amazing to witness its evolution from the first summer market to the to 2 day Christmas affair just held. I can only imagine the amount of work that must have gone into the organisation of these events. Sadly, the market will not be continuing next year, so I would like to say a big thank you to Julie for all her hard work and for helping turn 2009 into such a great year for me and my little business. It was much appreciated.

These are some examples of Julie's own gorgeous creative endeavours. I was lucky enough to have my stall next to Julie's at the Christmas market and I can tell you that her beautiful ceramics were adored by young and old alike. Julie will be launching new products in the year. In the meantime you can ckeck out more of Julie's wok on her blog.

Done & Dusted

Well, no more markets until next year. Phew! What a mad couple of weeks it's been. This weekend was especially busy with two markets over three days. I enjoyed every moment of it, but the preparation was hectic (as usual, I left everything to the last minute) and the aftermath not pretty.

While the last few weeks have been dominated by making, I have also been plotting and planning and have lots of ideas for next year. I have some gorgeous new fabrics and I'll be launching these new designs in January. Next year is going to be an exciting time. As of last Wednesday I am officially unemployed, or, as prefer to think of it, officially self-employed. The other 'me' is a free lance historical researcher and my latest contract expired last week. Half of me thinks this is great. I can spend all my time and energy on the business. The other half of me is terrified. How will I pay the rent? Can I make a living from my craft? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

The Beach Market

No words today...too tired. Maybe tomorrow.

Tonight: Christmas Market

Tonight is the inaugural Beach Market Christmas night market. The market will be in between 4 and 8pm. Not only will there be plenty of  gorgeous handmade products to purchase, but also wine tastings and sales by Meadowbank Vineyard, a sausage sizzle, and juice, smoothies and muffins from Juiced Up cafe. There will also be a stall to wrap all your presents for you! So why not come and enjoy a fabulous evening of shopping, food & fun? You'll find us in the Blackmans Bay Hall, on the Esplanade. Oh, and if you can't make it tonight, we'll be doing it all again on Saturday, 9-2pm.