Little Golden Book Horses Paper Garland

Finished the paper garland I was making from the Little Golden Book Horses - hooray! It's a gift for my oldest daughter's best friend who is absolutely horse crazy. I hope she likes it. Still need to help my daughter finish the "I love horses" sign this afternoon:) Cyndy Pin It

My Inspiration

Sometimes a project just comes together. My youngest daughter (age 3) had a birthday party today. We had settled on a little baking set as the gift for the birthday girl (age 4), but it just seemed, well a little blase. Last night at about 5pm it hit me, what the gift needed was a little apron to go with it. I could see the apron in my head; I was imagining a 1950's style apron, but with an Australian twist:) So I went in search of inspiration:

I love this beautiful retro style apron from SpicerRak Designs . The pockets are fabulous!

And this solid color apron with a fun print from StitchnShout is cute, especially the ruffle!

And who could resist this halter neck style apron from Lovers Dovers . I love the dots and rick rack combination!

So with my inspiration in mind I went to work and before 2pm today I had created this:

My 1950's inspired apron for a 4 year old (as modeled by my youngest).  Since I gave this one away, I am thinking I might have to make one soon for another little girl I know:) Cyndy Pin It

My Creative Space...

Next week is my oldest daughter's (age 7) best friend's birthday. As a regular op shop visitor, I had found a Little Golden Book about horses with lovely illustrations in it some time ago. I scooped it up thinking I might make something from it for my daughter's best friend who is horse crazy. As with many of my purchases I wasn't sure what I would make, but I knew that would come to me when the time was right.

After procrastinating as long as I could (I actually have a hard time cutting up books), I finally settled on making a paper garland for her bedroom from the book. I started working on it yesterday. When my daughter came home from school she saw some of the shapes I had punched out and said "Mum, I know what I want to make for Bridgette for her birthday, one of those banners like you made for Aunt Tanya." Clearly great minds think alike:) I was able to tell her that was exactly what I was making. She still wanted to make something herself for her friend, so we have come up with an "I love horse" collage/sign she is going to make using some of the leftover illustrations from the book.

I hope you are getting lots done in your creative space today. I am feeling the effects of my first cold of the season, so might not get as much done today as I had hoped! For more creative spaces you can visit here. Cyndy Pin It

My Creative Space...Literally

I don't know about you, but my physical creative space competes with a lot of other needs in our house, like a place to eat, a place to cook, a place to use the computer, a place to put all the children's school gear when they come home...and more. With three children (and all of their stuff) space is a hot commodity in our house.

I have been trying to come up with an idea to make better use of the space we have and how I am able to organize my creative stuff. On a recent trip to IKEA I purchased some shelves (EXPEDIT) and some boxes (KASSETT). I thought I had an idea of how to use it in my space, but it just wasn't working. And so the shelves, in their box, just sat in the middle of my kitchen for 2 MONTHS (too heavy to move out to the shed).

And then last Wednesday my friend Kate came to the rescue and said what about putting the shelves here?As soon as she said it, I knew it would work. So with a little girl power over the weekend, we put the shelves and the boxes together and I began to move stuff into the shelves. I can't tell you what difference it makes being able to get to things easily and to have most of them in one central place. You will note, however, that a couple of spaces have been taken over by my youngest and middle daughter - ah, that will have to change:)

To see more creative spaces you can visit here. Cyndy Pin It

Op Shop Find

My youngest (age 3) and I stopped at our favorite ops shop on the weekend. We love looking at the books - I don't think we have ever left the shop without at least one in hand!

I was excited to find this stash of children's books from the Young Australians Series for practically nothing! While a number of them have some water damage, loose pages and broken bindings, they have some fun and beautiful illustrations in them. Not sure what I will do with them yet, but I am sure I will come up with something fun - garlands, cards, envelopes, tags? Cyndy

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My Creative Space...

One of the crafts I enjoy the most is cross stitch; I find the repetitive nature of cross stitch very calming and I like watching the image slowly appear. I have been working on this one as part of a series featuring Australian wildlife. While I have done a lot of different kinds of cross stitch (from table linens, to hand towels, to birth samplers) I especially love the silloutte look and the use of tone on tone in this one. I also like the rustic look I achieved using hessian fabric as my canvas.

You can see more creative spaces here. Cyndy Pin It

Happy Mother's Day

Although today is Mother's Day my oldest daughter (age 7) came home on Wednesday and said "mom I have something for you." As it was Wednesday, not today, I wasn't thinking Mother's Day present and when I turned around she handed me this:

She had made the card at school and apparently couldn't wait to give it to me! She was so proud of her creation and couldn't wait to see my reaction. Of course, it will go in my special box:) Hope you are having a lovely Mother's Day! Cyndy Pin It

My Creative Space...

Do you ever have weeks where you get nothing done? That was my last week. I even had a child free day and what did I do? Watched really bad TV (one of the shows I watched was the Love Boat!).

Hopefully, I have made up for that in the last 24 hours, as I have finished a number of projects that were in progress, including some head scarves in school colors for my daughter and two of her friends, a couple of draw string bags and most importantly a Mother's Day gift for my mom.

My mom was here for a visit in March. While here we attended one of our area's local handmade markets, the Picadilly Market. At the market she marvelled at the many "fabric" necklaces she saw; apparently she hadn't seen anything like them at home (she lives in Michigan, not exactly the fashion capital of the US). I showed her a necklace a friend had made for me and she loved it, so I decided to make one for her for Mother's Day. I finished it yesterday - I hope she likes it:)

For more creative spaces you can visit here. Cyndy

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