Balls!

 Blogtoberfest (Day 8)

Well beads actually, but I figured "balls!" would get your attention! Bored with a bletchy collection of plain wooden beads I whipped out my moth-eaten paintbrushes and set to work.

 Begone boring beige beads ( hey, that is an alliteration!) and hello vibrant painted beadies.

 That front one is decoupaged with paper from a Japanese notebook I purchased in Melbourne earlier this year at ZiguZagu.

Now, to thread them up in some delightful way ...

Giveaway Winners are Grinners!

 Blogtoberfest Day 7

Woo hoo, time to draw the winners of the giveaway. I typed all your names with my trusty Olympia ...

And here they are ...

Now into the bowl they go ...

Drumroll please as hubby lends a hand (boom boom!).

 First out of the bowl is ....

Enchanted Moments who wins the pearly bracelet!

Another dip and we have the winner of the vintagy ear-rings ...

   Yay for Jo!

And finally ....

 Congratulations to ...

 Fritzi Marie who wins the necklace!

 Ladies I will be in touch to get postal addies  (Jo I can't find yours so please contact me!) so I can send your pretties as soon as possible! I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them. Thanks to everyone who joined in.

T-shirt reno.

Blogtoberfest (Day6)

The eldest daughter came home for a visit and a spot of t-shirt decoration.

Probably not the most conventional method of t-shirt embelishment but heaps of fun. That is a paintbrush in her hand, not a wand!

Certainly it is best to do this outside - fortunately we had perfect weather for it. I should add that both the dog and the cat are now sporting some spiffy turquoise spots.

The finished product - an inexpensive white t-shirt now a piece of 'art' - well it might not grace a gallery wall anytime soon but it looks great and is definitely one of a kind. Flinging paint about like that was intensely 'freeing' - love to break a few rules! I will be drawing the winners of the giveaway on Thursday so stay tuned!

Macaroons

 Blogtoberfest (Day5)

 I recently purchased a few nice mags from an op shop - the kind I don't normally buy on account of they are usually expensive and secondly because they generally make me feel inadequate! I like the photography though - and am always amazed at how beautiful the food looks in the culinary ones. I decided to have  a go at one of the recipes in 'Gourmet Traveller' March 2001 - I mean who could resist making Cinnamon Almond Macaroons when they look this good ...

 Yummy right? And they don't look too complicated do they? Well the recipe is in actual fact pretty straight forward but they are a bit time consuming - lots of beating and adding sugar gradually - think this is probably crucial and could be a factor pertaining to the appearance of my version ...

Oh dear! No where nears as lovely to behold as those gently rounded mounds of yumminess featured in the magazine.They taste great which is some compensation but I would have liked them to look just as good as they taste!

Cinnamon Almond Macaroons.
11/2 tspns ground cinnamon
300g ground alminds
2 tlbspns p. flour
3 egg whites
1 1/3 Cups castor sugar

Combine almonds, cinnamon and flour in small bowl. Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form - use electric mixer if you can. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and beat well to dissolve after each addition. Beat until smooth and glossy then fold into almond mixture. Roll heaped teaspoons of mix into balls (flour hands lightly!) and place on lined trays - approx 4cms apart. Bake 180C for 10 mins then swap trays around and bake further 4 mins. I think it is best to keep an eye on them though! Alow to cool on trays a bit before transferring to wire rack.
Apparently these will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks - yeah, well good luck with that - they are too delicious and very moorish!

Enamelling in the works

 Blogtoberfest (Day 4)

My dear friends treat me to a subscription to this magazine every year.

It has lots of eye-candy and this isssue has a good article by the lovely Deryn Mentock. Do hop over to her blog and have a squizz at her work - yummy! The article is called "Finding Your Creative Voice" and the accompanying pictures really struck a chord for me.

I fell in love with the idea of making some enamel birds of my own as I thought the ones  Deryn used are just lovely. So I sketched up a reasonable shape, fished out a scrap of copper and set to with my trusty saw. Then it was time to add the enamel. I torch fired this piece twice - the second time I gave it an eye because I thought it needed a little definition.

Not sure how I will use it yet - probably as a focal for a necklace because it is not small and dainty but for a first attempt I am rather pleased with it even though it is more dove than swallow!

 

This one has far more swallow-like features. I am a complete sucker for red enamel so there was never any doubt about the colour for this one. My first attempt was a dismal failure as I used very thin copper and the enamel just kept popping off - ggrrr! I am persistent (some might say stubborn) and after a number of attempts to fix the munted one I finally conceded defeat and cut a new one from a heavier gauge metal. And this time it worked. Hopefully I will make these into something lovely real soon.

Flea Market Finds

An odd assortment to share with you and all those joining in with Sophie's meme. First up some really cute stacking mugs that my daughter spotted . They are made of the same stuff as baking dishes. Perfect for a picnics methinks.

 This booklet had to come home with me just by virtue of its amazing cover! Good old plastic - how happy she looks to be setting out to fill up her home with handcrafted plastic goodies!

 This poor tin is pretty battered but is still charming.

This next little item will not be gracing my body - ever, at all, not in a pink fit - sadly my 47 year old bosoms rely on far more technology than is offered by this piece of nonsense!

 However, if you look closely you will see a rather nice sparkly jewellery component just waiting to be disconnected from this bit of frippery. Do I sound bitter - there was a time (oh distant youth!) when I would have considered this a great addition to my wardrobe. sigh.

If you have hit the thrift stores this week I hope you had heaps of fun and found lots of exciting treasures! I am summoning up my courage and joining in with Blogtoberfest ( see button on side for more info) even though it means using the "C" word - 'commitment' I mean! Today would be Day 3 so I am already a bit behind but I have really good intentions ....

Blissed Out.

I am renaming yesterday "BlissDay". I am sure you will understand why when you cast your eye over these .

Blue skies and dovecotes ...

All the colours of Spring ...

Rustic garden features ...

French Earl Grey tea out of pretty china cups ...

... and all this in the company of my bestest pals. Sigh - it doesn't get much better than that does it?