Flea market finds

So we went a-flea-marketing-today. It was so hot and sunshiney here today, that in the end we didn't stay long. Little-miss-e needed a sleep and there was no shade to be seen, so a-home-we-went again.

But not too soon, not before we got what we had gone for. See we wanted to get some handmade Christmas decorations as pressies for my family (as we will arrive back home shortly before Christmas). And we found these - aren't they lovely.

They were hanging from a wire baobab tree, and so we bought the tree too! Its going to be our African Christmas tree.

There is now just the small matter of working out how on earth we get it home...

the quilt and the christmas story

i have a very strict policy of not posting about gifts here until they have been opened by the receiver. however, given this quilt is going to my not-yet-born nephew, so he won't be the one to unwrap it, let alone be able to notice its existence for quite some time. and given this is my last post of the year, i thought i might apply that policy a bit loosely in this case.

so here it is, my nephew's finished quilt:

and that's it from me for the year! it's been great fun, let's do it some more in the new year!

and finally, merry christmas to you all!

because:

 Mary was engaged to Joseph and traveled with him to Bethlehem. She was soon going to have a baby, and while they were there, she gave birth to her first-born son. She dressed him in baby clothes and laid him on a bed of hay, because there was no room for them in the inn.

That night in the fields near Bethlehem some shepherds were guarding their sheep. All at once an angel came down to them from the Lord, and the brightness of the Lord's glory flashed around them. The shepherds were frightened. But the angel said, "Don't be afraid! I have good news for you, which will make everyone happy. This very day in King David's hometown a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord.You will know who he is, because you will find him dressed in baby clothes and lying on a bed of hay."Suddenly many other angels came down from heaven and joined in praising God. They said:

    "Praise God in heaven!

   Peace on earth to everyone

   who pleases God."

After the angels had left and gone back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord has told us about." They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and they saw the baby lying on a bed of hay.

When the shepherds saw Jesus, they told his parents what the angel had said about him. Everyone listened and was surprised. But Mary kept thinking about all this and wondering what it meant.

 Luke chapter 2 verses 6-19

doin' some decorating

 ahh, don't you love decorating. we've put up and decorated the christmas tree

i've set up my crocheted nativity scene (yeah, i know it's missing a lot of the people and animals involved. it's an ongoing project -i have also made joseph's head, but i thought i shouldn't just have his head rolling around. so mary and Jesus it is, until i get a chance to finish joseph) 



and i've even been doin' some decorating 'round marjoryjane. i've added a "stuff i want to make when i get time" list - down under the follower's box. check it out! i always have a great big list of things i am keen to make. and now whenever i come across something fun, i have a place to put it - so it won't get lost, or forgotten. what do you do when you come across those great ideas you'd like to make one day? where do you put them so they don't get lost?

crafternoon show and tell

our crafternoon last saturday was so much fun - full of old friends and new, old crafts and new and, well, old and new cocktails! it was very christmassy. 

inspired by the gift cards i was sent, i decided to try out some potato printing! not something i have done since primary school, i think. but i am really happy with how they turned out. (the cow design is based from here). 
 

a friend was making christmas decorations out of "claydough" a kind of flour/water mix that she baked (last time she made this stuff, she was 13). 
 
and finally, more on the sculpture from last crafternoon-it's really starting to take shape!

we also had crochet, crochet, more crochet, wedding invitation making and a fabulous range of food. and my new favourite cocktail, which i have renamed sundowners (i think it is actually called "african breeze"):
1 part crushed ice
1 part cointreau
2 parts amarula

mmm, so so good (the crafternoon that is, not just the cocktails)... 

a random christmas assortment

ooh, there is so much to say! whenever i have been too busy to blog, i always have so much i want to blog about!
like this:

how cute are these! i visited chantal's blog a few my creative space's ago, and left her a suggestion for her christmas tag prints. low and behold she not only made some tree ones, but she generously sent some to me! these look so cute in red and green. they will go so well with my wrapped up pressies!

and there are also these - boozy mini pudding truffles (i know the recipe isn't boozy - i added brandy). i've made a stack of them for the useful gift christmas bbq that my lovely friend's 7 year old decided to hold last night. (you should check out tear's useful gift catalogue - they are a fabulous way to give really useful gifts) 

good thing that there are some left over to take to crafternoon today! yay! christmas crafternoon!

and finally this: 

 our not-yet-put-up christmas tree. i brought it down, got it out of its bag, but haven't yet had the time (or found the phillip's head screwdriver) to put it up. here's hoping we get time to put it up this weekend!

how are your christmas assortments of things going?   

christmas tree packing

so, a few days late, i know, but i have finally taken down my christmas decorations and dismantled my christmas tree. 

see, i am late because before i did that i had to have somewhere to put it. it being new and all, i was planning on popping down to the fabric shop and getting me some cheap christmas fabric in a post-christmas sale. but, instead on my last op-shop visit, i found this fabulous christmas table cloth 

made it into a bag 

and voila, one christmas tree safely packed away 'til next christmas.

a (late) chrocheted nativity scene

so, i was going to post about this before christmas (which would have made a lot more sense than now), but life / holidays / christmas itself got in the way. so here is my (late) final post for 2009.

i got this fabulous macrame nativity scene book for my birthday. it is so, so much fun. unfortunately though, i have no idea how to macrame - so i borrowed a friend's crochet hook (i didn't have any small enough) and decided to crochet the nativity scene instead. however, i since i started this the week before christmas, it's going to be a bit of an ongoing project...

still, i am pretty pleased with how mary, baby jesus and the manger all turned out!

more crocheted stars

as i predicted, i am love love loving making these stars...

(although a confession, most of the yellow ones here were actually made by the fabulous sayraphim at another of our crafternoons)...

and how fun are crocheted christmas decorations!! 

check out the fabulous tree pattern from michelle at the fabulous royal sisters


crochet really is addictive, isn't it? (but in a good way...)

look, i can crochet...

ok, so its not very good, but i have to say this is my first ever crochet by pattern - and i am really proud of it...

big thanks to the lovely michelle at the royal sisters, for her easy to understand grandma twinkle star tutorial (found via the very talented and much more even crocheters miss muggins and kate).

more stars to come!

we made a christmas tree...

what fun!

much credit to the engineer who did much of the drilling (for the branches - they thread through) and for a number of key aesthetic decisions (like the use of an old tomato garden stake for the trunk). now i just need to make a few more decorations for the bottom few branches...

a macrame birthday

so since my last post, i have deliberately set aside two whole days to do crafty things - the plans i had, pillowcase projects, wardrobe refashioning, crochet, some stencil art... unfortunately things came up (as they do) and both of those days ended up being used for other things. oh well. on the plus side - one of the reasons i have been so non-crafty busy was that it was my birthday! *blushes* and i did get some lovely crafty presents from a lovely crafter. Including: the gentle arts - by jennifer isaacs (which catalogues "200 years of australian women's domestic and decorative arts") this great little beading magazine - for use with gay art bead loom. and this - how fabulous! a macrame nativity pattern book. for a full nativity set with macrame baby jesus a macrame sheep and even macrame camels (although i think they were being a bit creative - i can't actually make out the camel in this pic. a challenge made even harder as blogger refuses to orient this pic correctly. don't ya love fighting with blogger... ). i have no idea how to do macrame, but i am so excited - i have wanted to make a nativity scene for ages... yay for birthday fun!