Rourke and Henry

My Creative Space....Be Funky and Glad

This is my happy day, this is in my window at Coco's, today I'm glad my coffee was hot and my voice is returning. I'm still glad for the Glee soundtrack, it's on repeat instore, in the car and at home, I'm Gleeing everyone out. I'm glad to have spent a week with family, I'm glad melting moments are so yummy to make and eat. I'm glad to take part in Our Creative Spaces, it is an inspiring site to hang.I'm glad I have befunky on my iphone , it's a groovy photo app and it added a great amount of vintage to my shot above. I'm glad for lovely customers , glad, glad,glad.

So my creativity is playing with my photo apps, and rearranging my happy store. Pop on over to our creative spaces, you'll be glad you did.

Sew Cool, Sew Skool, week 4- Sew NOT a tea towel bag, a gift register and photo booth

My Gosh, young people are way clever. Today, my clever little crew made sling bags. Sew NOT tea towel sling bags, complete with a felt embellishment and buttons and a sling strap. They whip stitched and I had my memory jogged for the middle bag that was blanket stitched- I do love blanket stitch, it always looks so clever and this one is so very lovingly stitched. They all finished and received their DREAM badges. Great job, yet again. 

I have a gift register of sorts given to me by Miss.Muffet who helped me at the shop a couple of Saturdays ago and she scribbled down a few suggestions for me for her 7th birthday. I worked them out, a few misspelt, they look so very cute and I love that she had a really good go......after each word she has given herself a yes....

keyring...coffee cups...hair clips...pencils...pen...high heels...wallet....bag...bracelet...

then we fooled around with our very own photo booth....Iphone app- IncrediBooth, very cool and lots of old school fun, you should so check it out. 

 

It's an Owl Frenzy

New this week in Coco's is some super cute Mini Owl hair slides and brooches.

 photographed on the cool world poster from the current Frankie magazine. The owls are approximately 2.5cm long so they are wee but they are SO very cute. The slides are $10.00 a pair and the mini broch is $5.00. They come in lots of different colours.

I have also been very busy stitching a whole Parliament of Owls, Miss Muffet is on the brink of turning 7 and we have an Owl party going down over the weekend......

this is now the "clayton's" pintara because Miss M doesn't now want to smash it, which I'm kinda cool with cause it made the transition from my head to the bench quite well. It started as a rice paper lantern shade and add a bita clag, crepe paper, doilies and paint and wha-la you have the Hootilicious Owl Pintara..... It will now act as some sort of lucky dip we're thinking.

I know I should probably show you after the party but I tend to get very excited, I just love birthdays. Here are the party bags and Miss M requested in French- "you are my lovely friend, thank you for coming to my party"  YAY.. YAY.. YAY.. the rest I will contain myself and show you after the party. It's going to be a HOOT I'm sure.

Coco's is taking part in this until sold out so you should pop over and have a looky see what the go is, they are selling like hotcakes and the Deal Ezy is on people so hurry, hurry... once they're gone, they're gone!!

 

 

 

a little overdue..

Sew Cool, Sew Skool this week has been  and gone. Here is what these fabbo kids made this week. 

mine is the unfinished one- hence I did not receive a completion badge. The other two owls and a very retro caravan earned their makers a CREATE completion badge. It makes me smile from ear to ear when these guys finish their projects. It's kinda cool that they get to leave with what they have made and I have a whole heap of fun chatting to them and imparting my not very technical yet so learned skills to these guys.

The cousins are here at the moment, this is why my post is late. The girls and I had fun today doing a spot of craft. Miss Muffet and her two cousins made handbags, they hand sewed and used the machine. Miss Muffet also made her own DS case today. The three of them were completely chuffed with their bags and so was I. 

I think it makes me smile for the girls to make something that is uniquely their own. I have vivid memories of making a blue and black stripe skirt, on an elastic waist and my cousin made the same; then we wore them proud as punch to Dubbo Zoo! And I reckon we looked a treat too!! My aunty helped us on her sewing machine and we thought we were the bees knees..... I smile when I think of things like that, the inseparableness of my cousin and I, we'd give anything to stay together as much as we could when we got to visit each other. We'd wear the same or similar clothes sometimes and hatch plans and trade present secrets our mums had bought each other.....I see that now in my children they will do whatever they can, however they can to be with each other...they say things like "oh, remember last time when...." and "can we have another sleep over?"  and "can we have the day off school" and "do they have to go home?" 

I love the memories they bring back for me and I adore that my children and their cousins are weaving their own magical memories to hold onto. I hope you have great memories of cousins and families and special times.

I'm Grateful for.... the World Wide Web

 

This week I am grateful for this medium we know as the World Wide Web. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of talented individuals who continue to inspire me day to day. 

Maxbella Loves... blog, inspires me to continue to be grateful every single day, our family plays the glad game a lot and I like to play along over here when I remember....

Kind Over Matter.... I often stumble from side bar to side bar on peoples blogs so I can't remember how I found Amanda's blog but oh I'm glad I did. I'm also lucky enough to have an apple and tend to scroll through my history when all else fails and I want to find a blog I found day, or hours or weeks ago. Kind Over Matter has some super free printables and I took pleasure in printing some out and sticking them on my shop window for people to read and take. Yay, they did. 

Meet Me at Mikes, the very clever and ace Pip has a way groovy blog that I like to visit often. Pip makes cool stuff and has a cool shop and she has cool books too, you should totally check them out.

these are just the tip of a whopping, great iceberg . There are so very many amazing, inspiring and creative people in the world and this thing, this World Wide Web is a wonderful platform to launch from and I'm very grateful to I have it and live with it and use it. 

If your grateful too head on over to Maxbella Loves.... pop in and say hi it's a bit of fun.

 

 

My Creative Space....Fooling around with photo booth!

My creative space should be full of stitching but alas my kidlets showed me how to take photos of myself with effects in Photobooth last night so creatively I'm now Warhol, I've also been to The Eiffel Tower this morning then sktched myself in Coco's - sometimes technology is sooooo much fun to fool around with.

For lots more creative and quite productive spaces check out here, You'll be inspired and so pleased you did. 

ps the rain as finally stopped and I hope it stays that way. Have a fab Winters Day.

look what they made.....

Sew Cool, Sew Skool Class 2- apple pin cushion, completed. Cleverness comes in lots of packages, I have 3 special packages of cleverness that came out today even though the weather was foul. I'm so glad they did, they make me smile and giggle and I had to try to keep up with them today. Great job sunshine kids! your ACE!!

Merveilleux....

What I find Merveilleux today......

I have class today, in this miserable weather, sitting on top of my wee little blow heater, getting ready for class 2 of Sew Cool, Sew Skool- I did try to blog from my phone about last weeks class but due to some technical issue, it didn't evenutate, so here is what my class created last week.

MERVEILLEUX....

So this week we will make apple pin cushions to go into their creation stations.

I also am beginning to think about Miss M's birthday.... I think this is SO merveilleux that we have been inspired to have a bit of a hoot. So begins the cake drawing and invitations....here is a sneak peek at what will be her cake

then I'm thinking we'll have an owl hunt, pin the beak on the owl and maybe a few other old fashioned favourites. I absolutely adore this Owl party, it is totally amazing and so worth a look. It is So very MERVEILLEUX....

I have been stitching at night lately and here is some new editions to Coco's

the Love Owl, I really like hand stitching, it's cool.

these are little Wish Owl, I'm thinking these would be pretty cool in Miss M's Owl hunt!! best get stitching....

one last thing or should I say accessory I am finding SO very MERVEILLEUX, actually make that two things... I am listening to Songs for Japan, it's good and it's for a good cause, the second and I am so in love with these are my new Wittner boots, I jadore them, they are divine, I still love my old boots who have been so faithful over the last 4 Winters, but each and everyday whilst zipping them up I go "please don't break, today!" ...... so last week these MERVEILLUX boots arrived it the mail...squeal of delight, they fit, they are comfortable, I can run in them, I walk very fast at the best of times and they are just the bee's knee's for me. Oh and here's a little secret, they make me feel taller! yay- win, win all round.

I hope this rain stops soon, I hope if your are on the Mid North Coast of NSW, like me,  that you are safe and trying to stay dry. I hope you can find something Merveilleux in your day. 

Mr.Magoo goes double digits!!

Happy Birthday Rourke, double digits, the big 10, does't feel like too long ago I was in hospital wondering what the bloody hell I do with a cloth nappy? Worked that one out pretty quick actually!! Anyhow we've come quiet a way since then my cool boy, Dad, Miss Muffet and I hope 10 is as spectacular as the day you arrived.

You give us reason to SMILE everyday. 

Cake 1- the soccer field, went to school this morning. 

Nothing like a classroom full of kids and green icing! oh, to be 10!

Sew Cool, Sew Skool, weeks 4 & 5. Completed!

Ok, Week 4 quickly- the sunshine girls managed to make 6 Sew NOT a tea towel sling bags....yep you can make 2 groovy looking bags outta 1 tea towel, add a felt and button flower and some tape and wha-la fabbo bag. Me not so fabbo forgot to take any photos.....I did take a shot of the passionfruit melting moments and here is the recipe, thanks to the good old Women's Weekly Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits.

those were the yummo ones that the girls demolished!! But you need

250g softened butter,  1/3 cup icing sugar, 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 1/2 cup cornflour, buttercream- 60g butter softened, 1/2 cup icing sugar, 2-3 tablespoons tinned passionfruit pulp.

What you do- pre-heat your oven 160 degrees C

Cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, add sifted flours and beat for about 3 minutes, you can pipe them onto trays lined with baking paper, I just like to plop a tablespoon on the baking paper and flatten it a little with my fingertips- it's that homemade rustic look!! bake them for 10-12 until they just begin to golden.

Buttercream- beat the butter and icing sugar, generally I do a double mix cause its sooooo good, then add the passionfruit pulp, if the buttercream is too dry add more butter, if it's too wet add more icing, I'm a bit of an adder so I tend to add here and there.

Once the biscuits are cooled sandwich them together with an ample amount of buttercream. Then most important make yourself a cuppa, sit back and let them melt in your mouth, trust me they will!!

Ok, week 5 YAY she reminded her students to remind her to take photos and they did!! YAY, YAY. This week was our final week in the Sew Cool, Sew Skool, Course 1, Introduction to Creation. Week 5 came too quickly and admist the dreary day that was, I left my shop door closed all day! It was dreary....then suddnely it was 4pm and my hour of sunshine came with cupcakes, chocolate biscuits, Sprinkle biscuits, lollies and double chocolate macadamia nut brownies....it's all about the food you see, not really but it is important.

Gathered in Coco's Closet these sunshiny girls made a sew cool wallet as their final project, 

pictured a partially finished wallet. Full of chat, craft and cookies we progressed and below is the finished wallets all 6!!

you can see just how clever and amazing and crafty these girls are, with this project finished they received their IMAGINE badge and a cool completion certificate.

They are now awaiting as I write Course 2, Amazing Accessories Darling!! It's almost there, I think.

The Double Chocolate Brownie Recipe is a Family Circle 1 pot wonder- love it, tweaked it a bit...

you need- 200g dark chocolate bits, 100g butter, 2 tablespoons water, 1/2 cup caster sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla essence, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 1/3 cup plain flour (I substituted  1/3 cup almond meal  and I think the result is amazing) 150g dark chocolate bits, 2/3 cup chopped macadamia nuts

what you do- pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C, line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. Combine butter, water and  200g chocolate in a saucepan and over gentle melt until mixture is smooth. Stir in sugar, and remove from heat, stir in vanilla essence, eggs and  flour or almond meal (depending on which one you have used) mix until well combined. Stir in nuts and 150g chocolate, as soon as its together spoon into prepared cake tin and place in the oven. Bake for 35 mins. Allow to cool in the tin. Cut into squares and if you are not all melting momented out make another cuppa and devour some of this, it is gooey and chocolately and amazingly great!!

So, that's that.... I hope you enjoy those two recipes, they are pretty much no fail, so have a go, it's such the weather for a good cuppa and cake or cookie.