happy planet - challenge 5

Ok so I've skipped a Happy Planet Challenge. No crazy excuses. As you know life gets pretty busy from time to time, work, our friends and family need us more at times than others. Sometimes an extra challenge in our lives may not be the best place to focus our energy. I try when I can and I'm always making little efforts towards a happier planet with or without my challenges! Recycle, reuse and reduce where possible.

The last challenge, if you remember was 'No Meat Mondays and Wednesdays'. I did it! Not as hard as I thought. I did almost slip up a couple of times remembering at the last minute. Good timing from Holly over at Vegan and Vintage, she posted these yummy vegan recipes. And I also helped myself through with Becka's yummy hommus I have mentioned before. What I didn't realise before now was how much tuna I eat. A lot! I missed tuna the most on the days with no meat. Although I think it was a bit to do with my mind wanting what it couldn't have! A no meat day once a week is something I will try to keep up. And I'm cutting back on tuna.

For Happy Planet - Challenge 5 I will be creating (and trialing) a Happy Planet Cleaning Kit for around our home. I have found some SUPER information on different products to make over here and here. Currently I buy some eco cleaning products but know I should be stepping up my efforts in this area. If you can make your own products that work, save money and are good for the environment what could be better! I'm looking forward to this (as much as one can look forward to cleaning) and hoping to have lots of success. What have you tried and what works for you? I would love to know.

i'm a winner!

A couple of weeks ago I won my first ever blog giveaway prize. Even better, when it arrived in this weeks post I'd forgotten all about it so it ended up a lovely surprise! Don't you love it when that happens?

The giveaway was from Cecilia who I've posted a little about before. I'm a big fan of her wonderfully hand drawn pattern designs so you can imagine my delight when I found out I'd won. The prize was a sticker poster and print from Cecilia's graduation work. I also got to choose which design out of six I would like. How nice is that! I chose this one.

Included in my package were some cute little stickers of all six pattern designs and a very sweet note about the piece I selected. Thanks Cecilia, winning your giveaway definitely put a big smile on my face!

You can see more of Cecilia's work on her portfolio site here and regular experiments and updates on her blog over here.

finally finished!

This week I finally got around to finishing the back on a little brooch I started way back when. Thanks to everyone who commented on the first post about this little guy. I opted to leave him black and white!

ollie anyone?

recycled skateboard napkin rings from here (image also from there)

Some time ago, well actually it was 11th August, Alarna from Little Jane St did a lovely post on the opening of Nook - a beautiful store in Brisbane full of all sorts of gorgeous things. In one of the pictures, below the clever Able and Game greeting cards were some fun, brightly coloured bangles. I couldn't read their tag and there was no reference to them so I quizzed Alarna to see if she knew more. She kindly did a little investigating and found out they are by 2ReVert and can be purchase online from here. And they are made from recycled skateboards! Neat!

Anyway I've been meaning to do this post for ages and let you all know how nice Alarna is. In case you didn't know already. She's a clever cookie too.

sly fox & planetman

Just quickly, things are busy! Awesome vintage rubber toy collection from here, found via here.

finito

Nine Lives, my redwork piece for The Quilt Project is on its way to Kirsty.

I really enjoyed this project from start to finish and look forward to seeing everyone's different squares come together as one!

A couple of different pics are over here. If you would like to have more of a look you can.

cate blanckett

images from here and here

Cate rocks the granny square like no granny can!

Love it or hate it?

I see the quickest way to roll off the couch when you've just settled in for the night, granny blanket on lap, perhaps a cat and a cup of tea near by... to out the door in a flash when a distressed friend calls and needs you to leave said couch no ifs or buts about it! Comfort and convenience in one. No?

the end is near

Nearly there!

The stitching was finished last night. Unfortunately since I am quite new to this I wasn't aware until almost the end about how to make the reverse side neat! Oh well. You live. You learn.

Today this will be washed... hopefully dried and ironed. Tomorrow express posted to Kirst for Monday's deadline. Nothing like a tight finish!

from one generation to another

These all belonged to my nana. She is no longer able to put them to use as her body fails to keep up with her mind. They were passed on to me. And will be treasured!

blast from the past

Apologies for the crinkles! The iron is not my friend.

My handy Hobbytex work circa early 1980's!

My mum recently gave this back to me. It's a pillowcase sewn by mum and decorated by me. I remember it being a favourite. I didn't know it still existed so it was such a nice surprise. It looks a little different to how I remember. Check out those crazy red lips and eye lashes on Starlite and Rainbow Brite!

Each image was on either side of the pillowcase. The villain side. And the good side. I thought Lurky was cool because he always liked the pretty colours of Rainbow Land much to his master Murky's dismay. And Rainbow Brite was another favourite. Although, the only character I owned as a toy was Red's sidekick Romeo Sprite - he stole my heart!

I think the above images were made into transfers from a colouring book. Ah, the memories!

illustration of the sexes

The Smiley Family by Camelia Dorbin. Image from here.

Ever look at an image (for example) and think, 'Oh, I like that! I wonder what other work HE'S created.' Yes? No. Completely sexist? Maybe.

Well it's like when you speak to someone online or over the phone but haven't met them yet and you have a visual of what that person looks like. It comes from nowhere perhaps but it sticks with you and then you meet and BAM they are nothing at all like you imagined!

Sometimes it's a weird no match, other times close but no cigar and then sometime it is something better than your imagination could imagine and you are smiling on the inside (if not, the outside too but it might be a little awkward!).

Anywho. It may be completely wrong of me but when I saw a piece of illustration on Design is Kinky I pictured the creator as someone of the male gender variety only to find out after a little investigation this marvelous work was in fact by the female gender variety! In your face handmaderomance. In your face. Check out more of Camelia's work over here.

Camelia's line work reminds me a little of Nate Trapnell's style which could have triggered the gender assumption...

super stylin' smalls

Even though I don't have kiddlets of my own I subscribe to LMNOP, a free online magazine with the most stylish kids I've seen. When I originally subscribed I thought, 'Oh this will be great present inspiration for those friends of mine who do have kids.'

Who was I kidding! I love this for myself, utterly adorable and full of the most fabulous finds. Plus it looks good, as a graphic designer I can be a bit of a sucker for a pretty page.

now available at lark. seriously I could have hours of fun with these.

beats the plastic street mat my brothers had!

see the gorilla! i love him.

all i can say, 'i want! i want!'

the above images are from LMNOP issue 8

Want more?

Another super cute online children's magazine I can't resist is Papier Mache a relatively new publication. I'm looking forward to issue two. Check out the Papier Mache blog for more utterly swoon worthy finds for the smalls!

image from here

stitching mad

There seems to be a bit of a needle and thread theme happening over here of late, in case you hadn't noticed!

Oh well, what can I say, it's like when you are thinking of buying a new car and everywhere you look all you see is the one you want. You know what I mean? It suddenly appears everywhere, out of no where! Well what I'm getting at is, I spotted a sweet little book yesterday that's on my 'books to buy' list and it had a limited edition stitched cover.

Needless to say I couldn't resist.

Plus, it's packed full of interviews with 29 amazing peeps who 'make stuff'!

check out the handmade paper shopping bag it came in!

clockwise from top left:
snawklor, megan whitmarsh, kim wong and ana serrano

clockwise from top left:
dell stewart, victoria mason, beck wheeler and ghostpatrol

and can't wait to read about this artist, emily valentine

The creators of 'I Make Stuff - Volume 1' have a blog over here and online store here.

charley harper

image from here

If I was to do a needlepoint piece I would want to do this one called Limp on a Limb, by Charley Harper. But then some may tell me, 'Be careful, you are turning in to the crazy cat woman!' Perhaps. But I don't worry too much about what others think of me.

And then I saw this amazing Charley Harper piece made into a cushion over on thepurlbee.

image from here

I could do a bird instead of a cat...?

no computer days

Addicted to blogging? The internet? Was that a yes?

I know I am when I wake up and tell myself, 'No computer today. Seriously. Especially no blogs. You know how distracting this little habit of yours can be!!'

It never works.

Without fail I check at least one (who am I kidding, lets just say a lot more than one) website or blog every single day unless I am at my parents in the country who have no internet access, however this very rarely happens.

So here are some that without fail sneak in to my 'no' internet days;

The Age
Mieke Willems
Camilla Engman
Design*Sponge
Design For Mankind

...or perhaps just one more look at this, oh and again!

What makes your sneaky list?

here kitty, kitty

A few posts ago you saw a snippet of my idea for ‘The Quilt Project’. Since then there has been a lot of preparing and red stitching going on.

After selecting which sketches to go with I arranged them in some kind of order and drew them in a more identifiable state! This was then scanned and enlarged to the right size before being transferred onto the supplied calico.
This is the first time I've used carbon transfer paper for embroidery. It's amazing. So much easier than this tracing paper method I once used. Actually my old method was how I started my quilt project piece but finding it a little difficult I went searching for the carbon paper which, I ended up finding at Eckersleys. Other craft stores had some but it seems the darker shades are popular and they only had white and yellow paper left... not so good for calico!
Anyway, this is how things are looking. LOTS more to go. I think I got a bit ambitious with my design forgetting how long it actually takes for an amateur to stitch!!
Good timing - yesterday spotted via the WhipUp newsletter was a handy Pocket Stitch Book posted over at SewMamaSew. Perfect for me, I'm pretty new at embroidering, having only learned 'properly' at Brown Owls last year. Prior to that I completely made up what I was doing. Still fun.

Happy stitching if you're doing some!

gone potty

From top to bottom images from; sweetrice, littleredmercantile again for pic 3,
mongoliavintage and SentimentalityYour's

Many of you may have seen the adorable potholder displays Mieke Willems make instore which I have posted about before, and you may have posted them too! They make a lovely feature wall.

One day I plan to learn how to crochet something like them myself.

If you too like this look and are not so good with a crochet hook you could always keep a look out when op shopping or perhaps head to etsy where I found these beauties!

There are also some pretty crocheted pot holders listed over at Fine Little Shop.

welcome spring!

images from here

I am absolutely in love with floral arrangement company Leif.

Owned and operated by twin sisters in Utah. Leif uses all recycled containers for their arrangements, which are exquisitely organic in style. They also have their own blog, leifflowers.

Such a pity Utah is so far from Melbourne, although I will be bookmarking this one for wedding inspiration that's for sure!

(No. No wedding soon, doesn't mean a girl can't have an inspiration folder though.)