Here we go!

Let the adventure begin! (Now with extra yo-yo's, thanks Julie)

Oh happy day!

Guess who's going on a road trip to Daylesford tomorrow? Yes, little ol' me (ok, less of the 'old' methinks. Just because there was a birthday last week, no need to get too excited.)
The Bloke Who Lives At My Place will be spending some quality time with The Junior Crafter and Mr 400 Questions Per Day, while PP3 and I will be driving to Daylesford with my gorgeous and dear friend Leigh.
On my itinerary:

• Daylesford Makers Market of course!
• The Mill Markets There was too much to see last time, it requires a 2nd visit
• Red Pepper Gallery Just to drool over artwork I wish I could afford, if you get the chance this place is really worth a look.
• Lark Just because!
• A spot of lunch somewhere nice, with maybe a little glass of something bubbly...
• Some 'me' time, and some girly time with a great friend
• And, of course, looking forward to seeing some yo-yo wearing friends while I'm there!

White Ribbon Day

Today is White Ribbon Day, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

To support this worthwhile cause you can purchase a White Ribbon - proceeds from the sale of White Ribbons and Wristbands go towards changing community attitudes through high impact awareness campaigns, and you can wear your White Ribbon to raise awareness of this worthwhile cause.

The Bloke Who Lives At My Place is having a morning tea at his work in support of White Ribbon Day, so I baked some White Ribbon cupcakes. I used black cases, and because I didn't want to introduce another colour I sprinkled the white icing with some sparkly edible gold dust; the White Ribbons on top are fondant.

Birthday update

Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes last week. Here's some of the wonderful things that happened...

An abundance of beautiful birthday flowers...

Unbelievably good chocolate mousse cake...

from here:

The cake was a gift from my husband's boss and was hand delivered after same lovely boss sent him home early for my birthday lunch. I'm nominating her for World's Best Boss. Seriously.

Then, just when I thought things couldn't get any better:

A chocolate ripple cake made by my gorgeous sister and topped with two of my favourite things, strawberries and peppermint crisp. One end of the board is marked "kids end" because the rest of the cake was made with biccies soaked in Frangelico! Yum!

Poor Point 3 had his first taste of chocolate cake and loved it:

And I received so many lovely gifts, including earrings, whizz bang electric salt and pepper grinders and this very special necklace handmade by my Auntie Jo; the centre bead is all the way from Nepal.

 

Lost: my sanity

I wish to apologise for my lack of posts this last week. Don't you just love Domestic Bliss? Will be making a concerted effort to regain my sanity by prioritising just a little bit of Me Time this week.

And another birthday...

I am a lucky girl. Today I awoke to steaming hot coffee, 2 boxes of beautifully wrapped chocolates, a gorgeous new watch, 2 beautiful handmade cards (one of which has a dancing 'Y' on it I am reliably informed by the 4 year old), and a whole lot of love.
I'm looking forward to a lunch date with some special girls in my life, and The Bloke Who Lives At My Place has been ordered by his lovely boss to come home early. Yep, I am one lucky girl.

A Birthday...

Happy Birthday Zahra, my beautiful 8 year old girl. She is everything I could have wished for and more. High maintenance, and totally worth it! Love you sweet girl.

Preparations...

At my place tonight we have the makings of...

a cake...

a fairy garden...

and a very positive little gift.

Tomorrow the junior crafter is turning eight!

My Creative Space - the first cut is the deepest

My creative space today involves the somewhat difficult task of repurposing some old books. I say difficult because I was brought up to love, respect, enjoy and revere the written word, and defacing books was not something I would ever have contemplated (with the possible exception of my Year 9 History book which contains a small number of scrawled notes of great historical significance, such as    "I *heart* Brian Mannix"  and
"G.D. 4 C.O. 4 EVA". In pencil, I might add - things can change quickly when you're 15).
Anyway, enough reminiscing, back to the task at hand. Where was I? Oh yes, defacing a book *shudder*.
I picked up a couple of books at the Op Shop this week with the specific idea in mind of cutting out some of the beautiful illustrations to make into cards. The books were already looking somewhat worse for wear when I bought them, but it didn't make it easier when it came time to actually cut the pages out. A deep breath and I dived in. After the first cut it wasn't so bad. And I'm quite pleased with the results so far.

Click here to be inspired by more Creative Spaces. Thanks Kirsty!

The Queen of the UFO

Okay girls, I'm claiming the title. I am the Queen of the Unfinished Object.

I have found what I'm pretty sure is my oldest UFO. It is a cross stitch I started back in 2001 when I was pregnant with my first child. It is a growth chart that was intended for said child (note: the junior crafter is turning 8 next week and I'm pretty sure she would be too tall for the chart by now even if it was finished). It has survived through two house moves and various storage boxes, but is looking decidedly worse for wear after I unearthed it last weekend from a box in my bungalow. The bloke who lives at my house suggested through gritted teeth that I should to teach him how to cross stitch so "the damn thing can be finished one way or another".

Note the packaging and the example of the finished growth chart shown full length; see the little clown sitting right in the middle? See my little clown? Yep, that's all I've managed to complete in eight years.

So, fess up girls, surely mine can't be the longest standing UFO? What's your oldest UFO? Are you ready to claim the Title? Post a link to your oldest UFO in the comments, pictures would be fab.

PS. SammyJ, if you're reading this, thanks for teaching me to cross stitch all those years ago, and yes, this really is the same one.

Giveaway Winner!

The winner of my first giveaway according to random.org is Jo. Jo, drop me an email thecraftgypsy(at)iprimus(dot)com(dot)au with your postal details and a little parcel of goodies will be heading your way!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave wonderful suggestions to help me on my way to making my first quilt. I'm inspired by all the ideas, and will hopefully be making a decision sometime soon - I'll keep you posted.

Apologies for the tardiness of my giveaway draw, this week has seen me bravely fighting my way out from under the MOUNTAIN of washing created by our camping trip last weekend, my efforts handicapped somewhat by a teething baby (ie NO SLEEP).

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

My a-ha moment

Okay, so I'm very new to blogging. And quite sleep deprived. And not very technological. And sometimes just a little slow on the uptake. But earlier this week I had an 'a-ha' moment, and think I owe quite a few apologies to some of my readers.

When I started my blog I set up a new email address - thecraftgypsy(at)iprimus(dot)com(dot)au. I had not received any emails relating to my blog or from any bloggers I had come across, which I was a teensy tiny bit disappointed about, but I kept telling myself I'm new at this, and it may take time etc. Well, I just found out that I had not configured my email program correctly to receive emails at my new address...I fixed it, and found 83 emails in my inbox *blush*

Some of course were notifications of comments left on my blog. But so many were emails from bloggers regarding comments I had left on their blogs, answering questions for me, and generally being nice and chatty and friendly like lovely craft bloggers are!

Which brings me to my apologies. I am currently trying to catch up on replies. Thanks for your patience dear readers, and for taking the time to leave a comment on my blog, I'm very grateful!