Pin doctor

So, as you know, after many years of firmly refusing to venture away from paper crafts, I developed a recent and fairly serious obsession with sewing.

On the plus side, there are an endless number of new projects available to me now that I can handle fabric, as well as paper. On the downside, craft stores only used to hold 50% worth of temptation for me. Now when I go to Spotlight, the WHOLE store is a source of temptation. And its worse than just the fabrics themselves as I have not had much time to stock up on fun sewing tools and gadgets, so there's so many things I NEED to look at and consider.

One thing I have been working without is a pin cushion. I bought my pins on a plastic wheel and have been just placing them onto the table beside me as I sew and then carefully putting them back into the wheel when I am done.

Its time consuming and... to be honest, not very pretty! And what better use for my new sewing skills, than to make myself a tool to make my sewing easier.

This one I made for myself, using some Amy Butler remnants I had from a previous project. I love it- its big and colourful- pretty and practical- my 2 favourite things :)

When I took up sewing, my amazingly talented mother-in-law let my rifle through her old stash- she doesn't do much craft these days, but is very capable! She showed me the pin cushion she made when she was in primary school (and the history student in me was super excited :) that was really too small to be practical. So I determined to make her a replacement (the little turtle pin cushion will hang around for posterity, but a new larger pin cushion was needed for practicality).


 And then when I showed my sister-in-law she looked impressed so I thought perhaps she would like one too.

(the tutorial is available at Better Homes & Gardens)



I had also seen a really adorable pin cushion idea, using a frame. I picked up a frame for $1 at the local op shop and put together this one for my other super-talented sister in law. This is much more her style and I was really pleased at how it turned out. This one is fun too, cause you can use it lying flat or prop it up with the stand at the back- just like a photo frame !(tutorial at Spin Cushion)

I am so enjoying the ability to make myself pretty things. I love being able to see something online and have a pretty good go at making it.

Hope your weekend has been as productive as mine.

Love Gubby xo

A little something I whipped up!

I have recently had a few friends bemoan the loss of their crafting 'mojo'. Its always so sad when you have time and projects to do, but no impetus to do them.

I have not had this problem of late. In fact, I find myself just sitting down for a few minutes to 'whip something up' simply because I have a few moments to kill before I have to get dinner, pick up the girls from school, put the washing out (insert home-making/parenting task here)...

I went out one evening last week, picked up some fabric at Spotlight on my way out and when I got home at 9:30pm, I used the fabric I had purchased to make an hair clip board for my girls, before I went to bed!

 I had decorated a couple of small tins for the girls' hair clips and hair ties. They looked really pretty and compact. The problem is that when kids can't see what they have, they find a way to make it easier to see... ie they tip ALL the items out of the tins onto the dresser and leave them there for the cleaning fairy (and, no, we don't have a cleaning fairy... its actually just me... I know, you're stunned, right?!?)

So with a donated frame from a friend, a small piece of fabric and some ribbons, I put together a pretty board to make it easier for all of us to see what my girls actually have.

Firstly, wrap the fabric around a solid piece of cardboard.
* Don't use the back of the frame, as you will want this piece to hold the fabric/ribbons in place. (sorry about the misleading photo- I started folding the fabric and then realised it was the wrong piece, but forgot to retake the photo)
*You could use the glass from the frame, but I am not sure if that would put holes in your fabric.
*This frame had a plastic insert so I was able to use that to wrap the fabric around.

 

Use a very strong glue- hot glue gun is a good option- to stick the fabric to your board.

Measure your ribbons, allowing a generous overlap, so there's plenty of ribbon to afix to the back of the board. Use glue to stick the ribbons to the back of board.

Push the board into the frame, with the ribbons facing the front of the frame- it might be a little squishy, but that will also help hold the fabric and ribbons in place- especially when the board is in daily use as it is in our house!

 

Press the back of the frame in and secure firmly. 

I knew we had a lot of hair clips, but seeing them on the board confirmed my suspicions. This frame is an 11" x 14" frame, just to give you an idea of just how many hair accessories we have in this house. This does not include headbands, hair ties and flowers!!

I also came across a few hair clips that had fallen apart and sorted those out with the hot glue gun too.

Its amazing what you can achieve when your mojo is present!!

Love Gubby xo

The reason for the season

I have recently discovered (and become a fan of) subway art.

They look so effective and are a great way of communicating a message... but in a pretty way :)

For those who don't know what 'subway art' is, its basically a collection of words/phrases in various font styles/sizes/colours that you can use for decoration (see my Valentines Day post for a subway art printable).

This one appeared on Pinterest and immediately caught my eye. I wanted something for Easter that a) wasn't too pink, b) contained no reference to the Easter bunny and c) looked good!

And so this piece now adorns our entrance way- a reminder for all our visitors that Jesus is the reason we get to gorge ourselves on chocolate some time in March/April/May each year! I like the emphasis on HOPE, as hope and new life are the themes we emphasise when talking to our kids about Easter.

My littlest will celebrate her birthday on Easter Monday this year- so am looking forward to planning a birthday/Easter celebration with all our friends. It is fitting that my precious little 'surprise' baby is born at this time of year- as hope and new life are the characteristics she brought with her when she landed in our family almost 3 years ago :)

Love Gubby xo

*oops* Completely forgot to credit 'Antsi-pants' blog for her beautiful subway artwork. There are 3 colour schemes to choose from :)

Next!

The next holiday on my list is Easter. Only 6 weeks or so and its time to get started.

I was thrilled yesterday when I picked up a silver tree at the Salvos for $5.

I decorated it with some hanging eggs and a pretty Easter Egg ribbon:

I have some pretty little handmade birds to hang next and a gorgeous piece of subway art ready to go!

Hooray! I love Easter.

Love Gubby xo

Love letters

I spent this afternoon with my daughters writing Valentines Day notes to eachother.

I bought some red sparkly gift bags from a $2 store and personalised them for each member of the family.

The girls added some embellishments of their own this morning- little punched hearts. Obviously, not enough love hearts for little girls!

I also found another lovely quote for my wall of love.

I can't wait to read all of the notes tomorrow morning. The girls had such lovely things to say about eachother.

Love Gubby xo

I {heart} Valentines Day

Never. NEVER been a fan of Valentines Day.

It always seemed to forced and commercial and I hated the idea that expressions of love needed a spot on the calendar and a Hallmark card.

But I recently came across a very cool concept- essentially, that anything- a holiday, a concept, an opinion- can be received, rejected or redeemed.

There are obviously plenty of people willing to buy into the commercial aspect of Valentines Day- just like Christmas, Easter, Mothers/Fathers' day. But that doesn't mean there is no good to them at all.

There are those who choose to completely reject those holidays simply because there are those who have moved the focus from their true meaning. But that is throwing the baby out with the bath water.

I have decided to redeem Valentines Day for my family. To use this opportunity to take a little extra time and effort to remind each other of why we do love eachother.

Most importantly, we love because God loved us first.

And with that in mind, I have put up a little reminder in our house, so that even as we make cupcakes and cute little love notes for each other, we won't lose our focus.

Thanks to The Girl Creative's gorgeous website for the printable

Love Gubby xo

Confessions of a sewing addict!

Well, its official. I am heavily addicted to sewing.

I love it. I love choosing fabric. I love finding fun patterns. I love when I make something for the first time and it works... perfectly!

My most recent feat is burp cloths for my cousin's baby shower. She doesn't know the sex of the baby, so I went with generic, colourful fabric.

I purchased the terry towelling at Spotlight off the roll and pre-washed it all- didn't want flecks of white towel all over my sewing room.

They are all straight lines (my preference in sewing ;) but they look really effective and, of course, they are super-practical- when it comes to babies, there is always an excess of fluids!

I was going to post this a few days ago before I remembered that it was a SURPRISE baby shower (it was her last trip over from Perth for my uncle's 60th- Happy Birthday Uncle Kevin- before bubs arrives, so we had to make the most of the opportunity ;)

She was most impressed, as were her crafty friends- one of whom makes modern cloth nappies for a living- so I felt pretty chuffed :))

Back to the sewing machine.
Love Gubby xo