Colleen's Cat

I was asked to do a cat diary for a lovely lady and this is how it came together.

Spring has sprung and Summer is well and truly here.  And while my front garden is more foliage than flowers, the flowers I do have are just lovely.........

Basket Case

Yup, I am a basket case, but in the nicest kind of way.  I have gotten myself hooked (excuse the pun) of crocheting baskets lately and I have been having so much fun with them!

I started making just one for my Mum as part of her Christmas present, but as per usual, after the first one I felt compelled to make a second, then a third.....and well, you get the idea.  I think I am now up to number 8, but I really stopped counting after number 5!

These two were for my Mum and my Aunt as part of their Christmas presents

We had an early Christmas with family a couple of weeks ago.

My Uncle thought the basket would make a great hat!

After number 5, I started adding embellishments to the baskets - just for the fun of it.

And this is the one I am working on at the moment.  I have promised myself that it will be the last one, but you just never know.........

I dont have a pattern or tutorial for these, I just made them up as I went along.  I also checked out other people tutorials through pinterest.  My crochet board can be found here if you would like to check them out.

Christmas in November

It has been very quiet here on the Sugarbird blog of late.  I have been very busy getting ready for our Christmas in November.  We cant actually spend Christmas with our family this year as hubby is working, so we just moved it forward a month.  We toddled off down the Pacific highway last week to spend a lovely couple of days with friends and family.  It was a 14 hour round trip, but definitely worth it.  We all had a lovely time, ate too much and spoilt the kids - what more could you ask for!

 North Haven Break Wall - a long walk before a picnic lunch

 We all admired the ocean view at the end of the wall, and then we all turned around and walked back.

2014 Meow

Happy happy happy me!!!!  Yes, it is that time of the years again - no not spring or x amount of weeks until Christmas........calendar and diary making time!!!!!!

Here is the latest one and how it all came together.

2014 Diaries are here!!!

Would you like a 2014 Diary with an original Sugarbird drawing on the cover?

Here are the first five and they are available for sale on the Sugarbird facebook page.

They are A in size and a week to an opening.  They are also made with vegetable inks, recycled paper and cardboard.  So not only will you get an original work of art, but you will be helping the environment - how good is that!!  They are $18.00 each plus $3.00 postage (Aus)

Mice for 2014

My first 2014 calendar!!!!  Wow is this year going by so fast!!

Polymer Pendants

I dusted off my jewellery making supplies and came up with these little guys.  They are made from polymer clay and decorated with white pigment ink - fun fun fun!!!  I just love wearable art, don't you?

Pretty in Pink

QUESTION:   

If you have so many fine line markers that they no longer all fit in their holder, do you stop collecting them?

ANSWER:

Hell no!!!!!  You just make a bigger holder!!!

Well, that is my way of thinking anyway.  And then of course the next question is what to make the newer, bigger holder out of.  Because I have been doing a fair amount of crocheting lately, it seemed only logical to crochet one.....and here is how it all came together.  

And there you have it...........more room for even more pens!

I don't have a set pattern for this.  It all depends on how large you want it to be but I used 8ply wool, 2mm hook and it is done in single crochet.

Cheap gardening

You have to love school holidays - if you are a kid, which I am not, but I do have kids and sometimes keeping them amused can be taxing and expensive.  But this week I have killed two birds with one stone.  This project kept the kids amused for an hour, I got a bit more vegie growing happening and it was inexpensive.

I am still struggling to remove the tree stumps from the prime vegetable garden spot.  So this Spring / Summer I am growing my produce in containers. 

We took a trip to Bunnings where I got some buckets for 72c each (much to the 13 year old horror - he thought we were stocking up for a big spring clean) and trays to go under them for $1.50 each  

 Then, once hubby was at work, I borrowed his cordless drill and drilled some holes.  I put them around the base rather than on the base, because the buckets are flat on the bottom and I didn't want the pots to get water logged (thanks for the tip Mum)

I also removed the handles.

Then we added the potting mix with some compost, and potted the plants.  We used pumpkin, tomatoes, cucumbers and spring onions. All of which we previously grew from seeds.

Now all I have to do is keep the kids interested enough to water them on a regular basis :)

  

   

Hoot Tattoo

Check this out!!!  HOOT the Owl has been turned into a tattoo.  I am rather thrilled that someone liked my work enough to do this!!!!!  Stay tuned, this HOOT is going to have colour added!!!  

Meow 2014

Hello my poor little neglected blog.  I have been very busy drawing up a storm for my 2014 dairy covers and here is one of my favourites and how it came together.....

I have also started working on A4 calendars

Happy happy me :)

Classy Cannisters

When three thoughts come together.......

1.    Two of the little things in life that make me happy are coffee and recycling.  So I was doubly chuffed when it dawned on me that I could recycle our coffee tins.  Don't get me wrong, previously they never actually made it into the bin, hubby usually whisked them away for use in his workshop.  

2.    I was recently pondering how to inexpensively revamp my pantry.  I have taken more of an interest in cooking from scratch lately and have lots of ingredients in bags and other assorted mismatched containers.

3.    I love using mod podge

Thoroughly clean and dry the inside of the container and remove the outer label.

Select your scrapbooking paper.  Measure container and cut paper accordingly.  With a sponge brush, apply mod podge to the wrong side of the paper and position it on the container, being careful not to have any air bubbles.

Set aside and allow to dry.  I then added the labels, but you could do this at the end if you think you might change them later

Apply 3 coats of mod podge to the papered container, allowing 20 minutes drying time between each coat.    

 And there you have it - some recycling and a really inexpensive way to jazz up your pantry...or indeed any area of your home that needs a bit of updating.

You can use a can opener to remove the lid lip and then they make great  containers for holding kitchen utensils, pens, pencils and anything else you can think of.

New Toys!!!

How exciting is it to get new tools / supplies!!!!!!  I saved up for 6 months and bought these lovely little gems and boy am I having fun learning how to use them - fun fun fun!!!

 My new Spectrum Noir pens

Playing around with them

 Adding pigment ink details

 Hanging Heart Greeting cards