All the fun of the fair

The Junior Crafter's little school held their biennial Village Fair yesterday, and it was a wonderful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there was an air of festivity all about the place. The Fair also incorporated the *ahem* Grand Opening of our (not quite finished and not really how we wanted it but shh don't mention the war, it's not at all PC and we may seem ungrateful) new Junior Learning Centre which was overpriced   massively behind schedule  bungled  built as part of the Federal Government's Building Education Revolution. Our local federal MP put in an appearance and cut the ribbon. I'm hoping it will be completed by the time the Boy Genius commences school next February.

Anyway, back to the fair. The Bloke Who Lives At My Place organised races and games for the kiddies on the school oval, including the egg and spoon race, sack race and three legged races; some good old fashioned fun. I held the fort on the Cake Stall for the day, along with 2 other mums, and we simply couldn't keep up with demand! We had two trestle tables, which were completely covered and sold twice over, thanks to the generosity of our school community who baked and donated all the goodies which we sold.

My contribution this year was 4 dozen Anzac Cookies and two batches of my famous Chocolate Slice, a family recipe passed on to me by my cousin, who got it from our Great Auntie Jess, who I believe had it handed down from her mother (my Great Grandmother).
I'd love to share it with you of course, but I think that publishing a recipe like that on the internet would amount to some kind of sacrilege!
Hope you had a lovely cake filled weekend too :)

Donate Life



Image from here

Today, our family is rejoicing. A much loved family member today received the gift of life from an anonymous stranger: My husband's beautiful Aunt endured 9 hours of surgery today and is the grateful recipient of new lungs. Truly a gift of life.

Our entire family is rejoicing in this amazing gift we have all been given today.

But also in our hearts today are thoughts for another family, a family in grief and sorrow at the loss of their loved one. We have only thanks and immense gratitude for this anonymous family, who, in their time of grief, were able to donate their loved one's organs to give new hope to so many families. We are eternally grateful, and our heartfelt thanks cannot be adequately expressed in words.

Have you made a decision to donate your organs? Have you talked to your family about your wishes? Please do, your decision could save many lives. Visit DonateLife for more information about organ donation.

Don't take your organs to Heaven. Heaven knows we need them here.

NCB and some Pinny love

I ventured out to the Northern Craft Bonanza last night, and it was jumpin'! So many crafty girls there, stitching, hooking, knitting, chatting...ok, mostly chatting, but loads of craft taking place as well.
Some were making a start on Kirsty's granny shrug. Nikki and Trudi were making really beautiful newborn dolls. There was a surprise appearance by one lovely crafty girl I thought hadn't come back to the real world yet.
And the nicest surprise was the enormous stack of Pinafores which were awaiting my arrival; don't they look pretty all hanging up together:

 Thanks a million lovely ladies. I have put a list in my sidebar of all the girls who have made a pinafore for a great cause. There's still time to join in if you want to make one too.

Completed - Kinder Safety Vests

I finally finished stitching clear vinyl pockets on to the backs of 65 High Visibility safety vests for our kinder. Yes, that's right, 65 of them. Here's a tip for you for free: if someone happens to ask if you can sew some clear vinyl pockets onto 65 of anything, you should probably just say no!

Although, on the plus side, I did save the kinder $660 of hard earned fundraising money which can now be spent on paints and puzzles and toys for the kinder, so I do feel pretty good about that. And of course, if the children do have to be evacuated in an emergency, they will be wearing High Vis safety vests with all their personal info safely tucked into a little vinyl pocket on the back, which will keep them as safe as possible, and I feel really good about that.

Many thanks to Liesl for putting me onto the teflon foot, best $25 I've ever spent.

Weekend

The fancy hotel

The room

The 'do

The big event

The wonderful MC

The girls

The date

The perfect ending.

Hope you had a lovely weekend too.

A beautiful example...

of a completed pinafore. I just had to show you this stunning pinny that Steph has made for a very worthy cause. Isn't it gorgeous?

More pics of this beautiful frock and a rather inspiring post can be found at Mon Petit Poppet. Thank you Steph.

Pinafore news

Thank you so much to everyone who has contacted me to say you will be whipping up a pinafore for the Dago Dala Hera Orphange. I have spoken with staff at Spotlight Bayswater today and they asked if completed pinnies could be returned to the store in the next 2-3 weeks, which is by the 2nd week of June. They also mentioned that they are looking for plain elastic waist cotton shorts for boys, so if anyone can sew up a pair or two of those that would also be a great help.
As I mentioned on the weekend, you can send your pinafores/shorts directly to Spotlight Bayswater or you can send them to me and I'll deliver them to the store (email me for my postal address thecraftgypsy@iprimus.com.au)

**I'm more than happy for people to mail their dresses/shorts directly to me, I'd love to be able to present the store with a pile of clothes and let them see just what craft bloggers have done to help.

**Shorts can be made in any boys' size, I'm thinking any size from 2 to 10 would be fine.

My Creative Space - I need help!

I'm having a little problem with my creative space this week. I'm attempting to make a Pinafore for a very worthy charity, but I've hit a little snag, and as I have absolutely no experience making pinafores (or any other sort of frock for that matter) I'm stuck! Maybe you can help?

Here's the problem:
The pattern is size 8. I borrowed the pattern from the store and was advised I would need two different fabrics, each1 metre, to make it reversible. So I need to cut a back and a front from each piece of fabric. Here it comes: One of my fabrics is a directional print, and selvedge to selvedge it's not wide enough for me to cut both a front and a back. Aaarrrgh. It's short by about 3cm, and only at the bottom of the dress, where the skirt is the widest.

Here's the question: Can I just reshape the curve at the bottom of the sideseam so that the bottom of the dress doesn't flare out quite as much? That will make it fit on the fabric, and I'm hoping won't alter the dress very much as it's only a small amount?

PS. Would you like to make a pinny too? Go on, please do!

My Creative Space

This week my creative space is about making space to get creative...get it?

My 'space' has been in complete chaos and I haven't been able to find anything let alone actually make something! I really needed to organise my stash, but don't have any shelves to store it on as my space is part of the Sewing room/Study/Library/Music room, so there are many competing interests for the available storage.

So I got creative and found some plastic tubs that used to store kids' toys and started folding. All the fabric is grouped by colour and I actually know what I have in there! Excellent. I have also sorted my stash of zips, snaps, elastic, binding, ribbons and scraps. Now maybe I can find something to take to S.I.T. this weekend...

Thanks for hosting Kirsty, click here to see what everyone else is doing in their space this week.

PS. Would you like to make a little Pinafore for a really worthy cause? Click here for the details!

Pinafores for Orphanage - can you help?

I was in Spotlight Bayswater yesterday, stocking up on a few things for the weekend, when I noticed a line strung up across the back of the store with a number of very pretty little pinafores pegged up on it. Intrigued, I enquired about it at the cutting counter and was told that they are being made by staff and customers to be donated to the Dago Dela Hera Orphanage in Kenya.

Apparently a young Melbourne woman spent some time volunteering at the orphanage in Christmas 2009 and was struck by the fact that the children there have no proper clothing. So she and her mother, Karen, along with about 20 women who Karen works with in the dress department at Spotlight, have started making reversible pinafores to send to Dago Dela Hera, and they have asked customers to join them as well.

Want to be involved? All you need to do is make a girl's reversible pinafore and take it or send it to the store! Simple! They are collecting pinafores in many sizes to suit young girls of different ages, so you can make whatever size you like. The lovely ladies in the dress department will even lend you a pattern if you need one (however when I was there yesterday all the patterns were already on loan). The patterns they are using are

New Look 6576 and New Look 6578 but you may use any simple pinafore pattern - preferably a reversible pinafore so the girls can have two dresses in one!

Of course the other thing that you can do to help is mention it on your blog and try to spread the word! If you do, can you leave me a link to your post so I can read it too! Thanks :)

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment and I'll reply, or alternatively you may call Chelli at Spotlight Bayswater on 03 9729 0770 and she will be happy to talk to you.

**If you are coming along to Sew It Together this weekend and have a pinafore pattern bring it along, maybe we can make a couple of pinafores over the weekend!

Stitched, Stuffed, Delivered...

My very first softie is finished! What do you think?

Not only is she finished, but since she's a Softie for Mirabel the kids and I dropped her off at Pip's this afternoon. Hoorah!

However, I must tell you that The Great Softie Adventure Chapter One was not all smooth sailing.

First, when I managed to scrape together a half hour of spare time for crafting (rarer than hen's teeth these days) I realised I had no felt in my stash (doh!). Ever resourceful, and too stubborn to let a little thing like 'lack of correct materials' get in the way, I decided to use brown cotton drill for the hair. (Please feel free to note my obvious lack of softie making experience here.) Okay, so at some point I realised the reason felt is used is because the hair is top stitched on and felt doesn't fray. (Just for the record, cotton drill does). Doh! So, after checking my trusty Most Resourceful Girl Merit Badge I recut the hair piece times 2, carefully adding a seam allowance, stitched the hair pieces right sides together, turned them out, THEN topstitched in place. Can anyone say 'extra work'????  I'd also like to be able to say that her arms are deliberately open wide just waiting for a hug, but I fear I've a lot to learn regarding the importance of limb placement when stitching body panels right sides together.

The rest of The Great Softie Adventure came together remarkably smoothly after my somewhat wobbly start, and I'm please to say my little softie girl is living happily ever after in Pip's front window. (Well, at least until Sunday when she'll be whisked off to meet, and hopefully live happily ever after with, her new owner!)

My Creative Space

Usually when I take a pic of My Creative Space, I stage it just a little. I tidy up. I make sure all the important elements of my craft make it into the shot (and the brekky dishes do not). So the end result is that it's a  concise and aesthetically pleasing photographic representation of my crafty adventures, rather than a picture of my space when I'm actually getting creative. Well, in the spirit of honesty, today you are getting The Real Deal.

Yep, this is how I create. In real life. Yes, that's my kitchen table. Yes, that's a coffee cup left over from breakfast in the background - you wouldn't want me to waste valuable crafting time by doing housework, now would you?
And because my creative space got too big for the table, I did some of it on the loungeroom floor.

Don't look too closely at the carpet, I haven't vacuumed in weeks.

I'm working on my Softie for Mirabel. For more pics of chicks avoiding housework Creative Spaces visit Kirsty.

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.