Busy busy busy......

The next person to tell me how long it is until Christmas will see me running away screaming!!!  It can't nearly be Christmas, I am just far to busy and I am so not ready.

I am still working on orders, all of the diaries are finished and have found good homes, but I am still working on calendars and love birds.

And the spring cleaning was still plodding along nicely until I started on my work area........and then it came to a grinding halt.  Who knew there was so much "stuff" in such a small space.  But I do have to get it finished, because I think my family aren't too happy with me turning the lounge room into a craft room in the mean time :)  

Here are some of the things I have been working on over the last week....

 Lotus Birds Notebook

Purple Petals Calendar 

 Spring cleaning my work area - it is an on going progress 

 Field of Flowers

Pencils, pencils,pencils - what a beautiful sight. The ones at the bottom of the shot are my new ones and they just look too pretty to use :)

Last post for 2013 Diaries

Yes, I can hear that sigh of relief and I know that there are only so many diary covers that I can bore you with.  But I must say that I am pretty impressed, very happy and so grateful to you wonderful people. 

You see, a few months ago I ordered 40 blank diaries, to put my original drawings on the covers of.  I thought at the time that I was being optimistic, but hey, at the worst all of my family would get diaries for Christmas!!!  

But amazingly, as of this week, they have all sold.  I still have a few orders to finish and then they will all be gone to their new homes.  It has been a lot of fun designing and colouring them and just as much fun working with you wonderful people to give you the images you want.

So as the final (I hope) diary post, I thought I would show you some of my favourite ones :)

Roll on 2013

No, I am not wishing my life away......but I have been spending a lot of creative time lately working on diaries and calendars for next year, so I thought I would share some of the calendars with you.   They are a lot of fun to make and I am going through colour pencils at a great rate of knots.  I have just ordered some new ones and I can't wait to get them.  Is it weird for a forty something woman to be eagerly waiting for her colour pencils to arrive????

Quirky Cats

My spring cleaning is still on track and at the moment I am knee deep in the 13 year old's room - yuk!!  And as promised I am not going to bore you with the details.......

I am still working on orders, which is so great.  I now have 4 diaries and 1 calendar to go.  But I had to take a break from them last night because there was an image running around in my head that just HAD TO come out.   It was inspired by Ms Midge's cat post, which you can read here.
I am really happy with it and think the cats are quite cute, especially with their hearts and tails :)  What do you think?

Spring Clean...the beginning

So, what do I do when I am not being a Mum, a wife, an employee or an obsessive crafter?  Well, at this time of the year I do what my mother taught me to do........I spring clean the house!!!  

But this year with limited time, energy and enthusiasm I am changing the way I do it.  Instead of spending a whole weekend (or two)  up to my eyeballs in dust and stuff I didn't even remember I had, I am doing one part (not even one room) each evening.  I know that as a whole it will take longer to do, but each part gets a really good going over and it doesn't seem like a never ending chore or bore.

I obviously won't blogger bore you with every evenings cleaning (I can hear that sigh of relief from here) but I did want to share the start with you.

                                  Before                                                                        After

This is my bedroom wardrobe.  I am very fortunate, and appreciative to have a Mum who makes beautiful quilts, so we have a HUGE collection of them.  It took a lot of man handling and a step ladder  to get them all sorted out.  The kids, rather wisely< fled the house when they saw the step ladder :)

These are the quilts for our bed, and the 9 year old's bed.  The 13 year old's quilts are in another wardrobe in another room.  I will (eventually) get to them.

                      Before                                         Before                                              After

Now, as long as no one needs a quilt for the next year, this is how the wardrobe will stay.......not likely I know, but I can dream.  

I am planning on starting in the kitchen tonight, and as promised I won't share that with you.  After all, how exciting can egg cups and (empty) muffin trays be?????

Hoot Hoot

Owls......why does everyone love owls (including me)?  I don't know the answer, but I am really glad that they do because they are so much fun to draw and colour.  Here is my latest calendar and it has not one, but two owls on it!!  Each petal and feather have up to 4 layers of colour on them and then they are each blended with an overlay of white pencil.  This method is extremely labour intensive, by well worth the effort.

Not a diary post

I kid you not......you will not see a single diary image in this post.

Instead let me show you the first of 6 calendars I have just finished.  I started making calendars last year because I needed one for my desk at work and as per usual it just all went from there.  I think, from memory, I ended up making about  12 last year.  Some went to friends as Christmas presents, but most got sold.  I like to think of them as practical artwork to brighten up anywhere you want to put them :)

This one is called Citrus Birds......I hope you like it.  The colours just seem to pop and are very vibrant.

Linda's Order

Woo Hoo!!!  Another order all finished and ready to go.  And yes, it is MORE diaries.  I have 5 more to do and them (maybe) I will have finished all of the orders that I have.

I still have 9 blank diaries here if anyone would like one :)  Or I will be decorating them and putting them in my madeit shop, for those who would like one, but not sight unseen :)

Christmas shopping anyone?

Hello and welcome to the final x amount of weeks before Christmas!!!  Are you excited or just plain scared!!!! 

In the interest of your sanity please let me remind you that I have handmade goodies available for sale at very reasonable prices in my madeit store :)  I would love for you to pop by and have a visit :)

Sugarbird Madeit Store

Or if you are mega organised and are making your own presents I also have craft supplies available in my craftumi store :) 

Sugarbird Craftumi Store

Here are some of the things available and I have now finished self promoting for today - it is hard work and I am not very good at it lol

Sassleberry Creations

I love wondering through facebook and blogs to see what other people are making, creating and doing.  I have come across some amazing and lovely people, so I thought it was about time that I shared some of them with you.  

The lovely Sarah from Sassleberry Creations actually found me, when she was starting up a facebook page and was looking for a logo. 

 You can find her at

 https://www.facebook.com/SassleberryCreations 

Sassleberry's page is all about lovely hand crafted jewellery, reasonable prices and great customer service.  So pop over and say hi.  Who knows, you might find the perfect piece of jewellery you have been looking for, or Christmas presents that will be cherished because they have been hand made with love :)  Sarah is also having a 20% off sale at the moment that ends tomorrow night.

 Here are some of my favourites.....

Here Kitty Kitty Kitty......

Drawing and making cats is fun fun fun and if you haven't met Joey before, let me introduce you to my inspiration.

He is definitely an original and so loves the camera - as you can see.

This drawing was a very special order for a lovely lady who knew a cat like Joey.

And these are the latest and newest batch of magnets

Joey spends a lot of time sleeping on the lounge next to me while I create.   He is wonderful company :)

Oh what a day!!

As you should know by now - I HATE shopping - unless it is for craft supplies, and Saturday was spend doing just that.  Mum, Dad, the two kids and I went to the craft show at the Brisbane Convention Centre.  The 13 year old boy wasn't thrilled about the whole thing, but he took his ipod, so was occupied until it went flat.  Needless to say Mum (the patchwork enthusiast) the 9 year old (budding artist) and I had a really really good time :)  Want to take a look at what I got?

I still have to sort it all out and work out where to put it all, but at the moment it is just fun to look at a dream about what I am going to make.

The Quilts were also amazing and even managed to impress the 13 year old (not an easy thing to do)

And we all agreed that this was the most amazing quilt we had ever seen and the photo just doesn't do it credit.  The detail is truly amazing.