Full of the joys of Spring

All this beautiful sunshine has got me feeling like Spring is in the air. I know it's wishful thinking,but it's inspiring me to create with lots of gorgeous colours.

It's the August Devonport Craft Market tomorrow (Sunday 1st August), 10am-2pm, 32 Clarence Street, Devonport, Auckland.

These two are definately full of the joys of Spring.

They are totally babysafe with double stitched seams and embroidered faces.

They're not just for babies though. Big girls would love them too!

I've got loads of new little girls' aprons to add to my stock of boys ones

And all my usual goodies.

Pop along if you can. It's going to be great fun.

My Creative Space - Model debut

My Creative Space is quite high flying today so make sure you have your best designer duds on before you read it ok?

Are you ready?

Hang on, I have to change to a posher font. OK.

I designed and made the outfit worn by the catwalk model on the front page of today's New Zealand Herald Time Out entertainment guide.

Ta da!!!!!

OK, so I'm starting small and the fame won't change me.

Seriously though, have you any idea how bloomin' difficult it is to set in sleeves on a t-shirt that small?!

For more Creative Spaces, pop over to Kootoyoo .

Flower Fairy Party

Eloise is turning 4 soon and we are planning a flower fairy party for her. I'm making the most of it as I'm very aware that my baby is growing up fast and the days of fairys are numbered! Like most families, we're doing this on a budget so I was thrilled to find so many free resources out there on the big world wide web.

We used these gorgeous fairy invites from here. Simone has a whole bunch of gorgeous free invites on her website and she also writes a fabulous blog full of party tips. I'll definately be using some of them from her fairy party.

I've printed out and photocopied several of the placemat colouring pages from the official flower fairy website. I'm planning on providing lots of glitter and glue to help the kids make their pictures more authentic.

We've made a start on the take home gift by making homemade sparkly playdough (recipe here) by adding glitter to the playdough recipe. We've packaged it up in cello bags and curling ribbon and it's looking rather gorgeous.

We'll be decorating with lots of huge paper napkin flowers which the kids will be able to take home with them. I'm trying to avoid balloons if I can because they drive me crazy with the tears and fights that ensue when someone's balloon pops at home! I'm hoping that the flowers will find a place in the bedrooms of the fairies so that they can be reminded of the day for longer than a balloon would last.

image from Made

There are lots more plans in the works but I'm doing my best to keep it simple. I get so excited by birthday parties and have to fight with myself not to overdo it. It just makes me stroppy when I can't achieve it all and lets face it, as long as the kids get something sweet and a couple of party games, they don't really care about the tiny details!

While it's still fun, I'll keep on going with my plans for the party. Eloise and Maddy are enjoying the party plans as much as I am at the moment. If you see me going overboard and getting stressed about it all, do feel free to tell me to settle down and reign back on the plans!

The best laid plans

One of my antique Kenyan dining chairs needs restringing so I moved it into the lounge. I forgot to tell the cat it was broken.

Look at him.

He's doing his best to pretend he's not holding on for dear life and is actually really comfy.

I love how they try to hold on to any scrap of dignity no matter what.

Anyone know of someone who can restring chairs in Auckland?

Bobble trim and Fashion girls

Maddy went to a birthday party for one of her good friends on Saturday and requested a cushion as a gift for the birthday girl.

I briefly considered putting the birthday girl's full name on the cushion but with eight letters and limited time, I went down the initial route. It definately ticked all the boxes for girliness and cuteness. Talking of girly and cute, check out what little miss fashionista chose to wear this week.

The layered look is definately in.

It's been a busy old weekend in the Cotton Kiwi household. The Mr has been building a MAMMOTH wall unit which I am extremely impressed with (even though *horror*,  he did make off with my rotary cutter to cut some aluminium for the project). I shall share photographs of his handywork once he allows me to. Maddy had her party on Saturday afternoon so I left the handyman extraordinaire with the three year old, who assured me she was going to be extremely helpful to Daddy (ha ha!) and popped downtown to the Auckland Art and Craft Fair .

Wow.

What an amazing bunch of talent they had in those two little rooms! Extraordinairy! I was thrilled to meet Melissa from Tiny Happy and indulged in a pair of her adorable reversible booties for our new(ish) great neice. I stupidly didn't take a photo of them before I handed them over today, but hopefully I'll get sent a pic of little Bella wearing them and I can share then. The weather today has been STUNNING. Just the thing to put a smile on your face in the middle of winter.

We had a wonderful family get together today. Thank you so much Grae and Frik for hosting!

How was your weekend? I hope it was full of fun. x

The cushion

It's raining. Again. No surprise there for the depths of an Auckland winter! It was beautiful first thing this morning though, so I grabbed my camera, the bag and the cushion and headed down to the beach.

I've finished the cushion as you can see. This is the second item for the Corban Estate summer school I'll be teaching at in February 2011.

You can just about see the two tone black fabric I used for the fantail applique. It really adds a lovely depth.

The beach is just around the corner from our house but I haven't been down there in ages. I think a family trip there this weekend is order! Hope you have a great weekend.

My Creative Space - Tui

I've been working on some new designs for a Summer school class I've been asked to teach. This is the first. I've got a cushion to make this afternoon during kindy hours. Lots of fun!

Do you like it? Is it the sort of thing you'd like to learn how to make?

For more creative spaces, pop over to Kirsty's.

Super Model

My Felt shop is running low on stock at the moment so I thought I had better do something about it.

I wanted to list some kids' clothes so I asked Eloise if she would mind doing some modelling for me yesterday. Ever the helpful child, she said "Sure Mum."

A few seconds passed and she said "What's modelling?"

You have know idea how much I love that my nearly 4 year old has no idea what modelling is! She was still in agreement when I told her what it was so we got set up and started snapping away.

She was absolutely amazing and let me take loads of photos.

She was even happy modelling the boys t-shirts. I was gobsmacked at that one. Normally you can't get anything boy related anywhere near my daughter.

She is firmly a girly girl. I think you will agree she did an amazing job and I didn't have to bribe her once!

BrisStyle Indie Eco Market

I managed to get to the BrisStyle Indie Eco market whilst I was in Brisbane.

I was thrilled to meet Rebecca from Edward & Lily and had a lovely chat to her. I indulged myself with one of her gorgeous zipper purses.

I also met Kellie from Kellie Christie who had a beautiful stall full of gorgeous colours.

And I spent a lot of time at the stall of the lovely Megan Kelly (from Meggy Green). She doesn't have a blog unfortunately but I'd highly recommend a visit to her etsy shop or to her stall if you see her at a Brisbane market. She has the cutest repurposed vintage childrens' books goodies. I couldn't resist this little notebook.

And how cute are these mobiles?

So many lovely people! Thanks Rebecca for telling me about the market.

Home

I'm back from my holiday and before you think it, no I didn't bring this rotten rain with me. I do think the weather gods conspire to throw torrential rain at you when you return from holiday. It adds to the whole depressing experience!

Don't you love the little trail the short one has made walking back and forth to the water to fill her bucket? I suspect the taller one was doing a little bossing around don't you? Needless to say, we had a wonderful time with my family and I even got some hand sewing done whilst watching endless episodes of Australian MasterChef with my Mum.

So I now have ridiculous amounts of unpacking to do, which is very depressing but a certain someone decided to put a great big smile on my face this morning. Look what arrived for me in the post today.

It's a wonderful parcel from Megan of Mousehouse. I ordered these gorgeous personalised applique pillowcases from her just before I went away.

They came so beautifully wrapped and with some gorgeous tags and a very funny card (it reads, my life would be so much nicer if only my Mother would stop knitting). Thank you Megan, you really put a smile on my face and I can see a lot more orders coming your way for these pillowcases. They are divine!! Megan is having a giveaway on her blog which is definately worth entering. Pop along and join in now.

My facebook giveaway closes at 6pm today, Kiwi time, so if you haven't already, head over there and make a last minute entry.

Dorothy meets Batman

Yes, it's a new twist on the classic Wizard of Oz story. Batman gets involved and of course saves the day.

And I know that's a tiger and not a cowardly lion... call it artistic license. Two flying monkey outfits and a Dorothy dress where about my limit. My sanity levels were already balancing on a fine line after an entire morning looking for ruby slippers in the shops and the Tiger was extremely happy to be a tiger and not a cowardly lion (and we already had that in our dressing up box... bonus!).

Batman? Well, we may well have needed more than his super powers to save this particular Wizard of Oz show (No songs from the movie whatsoever AND Dorothy wore silver shoes ... can you believe it?!!). I think his in ability to save the show was why Batman is looking so particularly serious in the below shot.

It could of course be extreme concern over his Aunty Sarah's wearing of a flying monkey hat and wings whilst having a photo taken with a scarecrow and Dorothy.  Or perhaps he was  little more worried about his Nanna...

Whatever it was, these super heros don't have it easy you know.

AWOL Creative Space

Just in case any of you were thinking I've dropped off the face of the Earth, I'm taking a little holiday with my family in Brisbane. I therefore don't really have a Creative Space for you today mainly because I haven't figured out how to upload my photos on to my Dad's computer. In the meantime, check out my Mum's awesome creative space circa 1978.

I suspect my parents may have had shares in Fisher Price. No wonder I have a slight obession with vintage Fisher Price toys. Mum still has that knitting machine and I have a strong suspicion that that is my current sewing machine.

And here's a photo of me modelling one of Mum's creations whilst mauling a wallaby on holiday in Oz, circa 1973.

Pop over to visit the hostess with the mostess for some proper Creative Spaces.

Lovely day

I had such a lovely day at the Devonport Craft Market today.

How was your Sunday?