My Creative Space ...

I've been plodding my way through this quilted table runner this week. Doing a bit at a time, when Nicholas lets me. I wanted something nice and bright, but at the same time "me" for our dining table.

Unfortunately my sewing has been hampered by a migrane this week that knocked me out for a day or two, I am just now starting to feel a bit better with most of the heaviness that a migrane brings, gone. We are still sleeping in 2-3 hour cycles through the night as Nicholas hasn't realised that there is a difference between day-time and night-time sleeping. I had forgotten what caring for a screaming baby was like with a migraine ...

As you can see, I still have to bind it, but doesn't it look great on my Jarrah table?

I picked up a metre of this gorgeous Japanese print from the Kimono Girls at the Australasian Quilt Convention and I used some Jelly Roll Solids from Green Fairy. The orange band is from the Haunted House range of fabric. The grey/black polka dot is from Spotlight, and having worked with it, I dislike it! It will be interesting to see how it survives a wash.

For more crafty peeps, head on over to Kooyotoo

Another Butterfly ...

Flipping through some of my iPhone pictures .. this one was taken at the recent "Black Market".

Victoria was so excited to see that there was a face painter there, and was even more excited when she saw her butterfly face. Some days I can't believe that she is almost 4 years old.

The Culprit

Apologies for the non-crafty post, it has been a bit of a challenging week for many reasons!

It wasn't rocket science. I knew that my daughter had issues with food colourings and additives. I was just hoping that she was starting to "grow" out of it. For her first birthday we had ordered a cake from a bakery and we got them to put "iggle piggle" on the top of it. Unfortunately she broke out in hives that night. It was our first real experience of her reactions to food additives and colourings. Since then controlled experiments with all sorts of processed foods have often resulted in skin irritations such as eczema and hives.

I didn't think twice when I pulled out the packet mix for Baby Cup Cakes from the cupboard. Tori and I had a grand time mixing up the batter, making the cup cakes, then the frosting. We even had someone over for morning tea to help us eat them.

Unfortunately she had a reaction last night. Woke up with her "back burning" and lumpy .. hives. After a weekend of exposure to all things sugar and artificial, it was all a bit too much for her. The cup cakes probably tipped her over the edge and then we had to deal with a very upset 3 1/2 year old.

When she has reactions like this we generally treat it with Polaramine which gives her some relief. the hives get scratched and then we have to treat the skin irritation with her eczema creams which consist of both cortosone and non-cortosone based products. We also have a topical antibacterial to use if the scratchings get infected.

So just when we had her eczema under control ....

Does anyone else in crafty land have food colouring or additive issues?

More Butterflies

Isn't this just devine?

 

via

Made by Luly Yan, more butterfly evening dress goodness here .. 

Easter Sunday

I love the innocence in their eyes as they discover that the Easter bunny has been ...

I love that belief in magic as they tell you that they saw the bunny hop away down the street ...

This will only last a few years and then they will have to try and understand the true meaning of Easter.

May you have many special moments with your families this Easter.

Butterflies

I seem to have a thing for butterflies at the moment.

I picked up this cute little number up the other day from Jeans West. Then I stumbled across this lovely piece on etsy Butterfly Wing by zippandesigns.

And then in my travels I came across this gorgeous Art Quilt by Caryl Bryer Fallert, check out the web site that goes with the quilt. Machine pieced, appliqued and then quilted. An amazing piece of work. Some of the techniques used in this quilt, reminds me of the Stained Glass Quilt book that my dear friends Kerri and George got for me.

I am wondering what the universe is trying to tell me?

16 years and counting ...

Another year has flown by rather fast and we find ourselves celebrating our Wedding Anniversary yet again. 16 years married, 21 years together ...  I am currently reading Kerri Sackville's new book and there is a line in it which says that when you are married for a while it is like reading the same book over and over. For us it isn't like that, we are both changing and certainly with the arrival of Nicholas, life is definately not the same book over and over.

In previous years I have posted some actual wedding pictures, but this one is perhaps my favourite. Can you guess where it was taken?

Andreas, I love you and feel I blessed that you chose me to share your life with. Even when we are operating on very few hours of sleep at the moment, you make me feel special and loved.

And the winner is ...

After a jam packed weekend, Victoria and I got around to "drawing" the winner of the book. Yes, I could have done a random number generator thing, but then it wouldn't have been half an hour of excitement for my 3 year old!

So we both printed off all the comments, cut them out and scrunched them up into my hubby's hat.

Victoria mixed all the scrunched up bits of paper together and then .. drumroll ... Heather from A Quilting Mother's Journey in Colorado.  Heather, if you want to email me your mailing address, I'll pop the book in the post for you this week.

Stay tuned in the next few days for another give away for April to celebrate my Birthday Month!

Stolen Bag from ACQ needs to be returned

 

I was speechless when I read that someone had the audacity to steal a sample bag from the Nicole Mallalieu stand at the ACQ.

 

If you see this bag on the street, with the very special button that was used to make it, ask the person where they got it from and then let them know that it is a stolen product.

And if you are the thief, and you read this post, pop the bag into a post-it bag and return to sender please ...

Help spread the word by getting the html for this wanted poster from Curlypops blog.

Button Goodness

I braved the Australasian Quilt Convention yesterday with Nicholas, but I haven't gotten around to writing a blog post and processing all the pictures that I have taken. I got a tooth extracted on Thursday and well, I am still very very sore :-(

Just a reminder that I have a market tomorrow. It's more of a gigantic garage sale than a makers market, but it will be a good day. Tori has been excitedly helping me make some button badges to take along, she has worked out how to use the machine herself.