Thursday, April 30, 2009

Craft 2.0 Badges

Last night Sue who is the amazing lady who organises Craft 2.0 came along to crafty foxes, she came bearing gifts - Craft 2.0 badges! Yah!

Horror Swap Score!

Yesterday I recieved the most amazing swap package from Germany! I don't have time to show you all the goodies now but I will show you my favourite - it's a crocheted LEATHERFACE!

He even has a tiny crocheted chainsaw - more photos of leatherface and assorted swap awesomeness later.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Crafty Foxes - Tee Shirt Swap

Recently my craft group, the Crafty Foxes, undertook another swap - this time it was a tee shirt swap. Basic premise being that you swap tee shirts with someone and then transform that tee shirt using your crafting skills and return to the original owner.

My friend Kat was my partner and I gave her a simple gray tee shirt with a Pegasus design - I really liked the design but gray isn't really my colour.

She revamped the tee shirt into a whole new tee - using stripy fabric (which I love) and the original Pegasus design.My swap partner is an "absent" crafty foxes member - my friend Iris who lives in Auckland at the moment. So I am going to return her tee shirt to her (in re-crafted condition) which Rich and I visit Auckland later this year (in June - tickets have now officially been book by Celia & Simon).

Monday, April 27, 2009

Skull & Lace Headband

A while ago I completed a matchbox swap with the lovely Mel - she did amazingly well at providing me with appropriately ghoulish goods (given that skulls and black are not her scene).

One of this things she sent me was some amazing skeleton ribbon - I've been wondering what exactly to do with it. Finally I decided to make it into a wee headband (with some black lace thrown in for fun!).

Here's my final creation "in action" so to speak.


Sunday, April 26, 2009

"Rich Made This" Blog

My partner Rich has just set up his own blog with all his crafty goodness - it includes everything from his sketches to cross stitch and softie making.

It's rather appropriate that the new blog is called Rich Made This.

Here's a photo of one of his more recent creations, a bat journal.



Anzac Day

Given the news that I received on Friday night, I wasn't really too much in the mood for anything on Saturday - even though it was ANZAC day and I felt like I should do something to commemorate this.

Rich and I did however go to the Botanical gardens, which has a bit of an ANZAC link as my grandfather did train there. Also the gardens does have a Krupp Gun that some New Zealand Soldiers "acquired" from German troops in some point in history.
Also as I was feeling a bit down I decided to do some baking, as I find it relaxing, so I made some ANZAC biscuits as it seemed like the most appropriate thing to bake.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Shocking Start to the Weekend

Last night I received a phone call from my friend Suze in Hamilton. It was a call I really wasn't expecting.

My good friend Karen died in a car accident early this week, which is really incredibly sad. I had texted her earlier this week and thought it was unlike her not to respond.

She was really one of those people who didn't have a bad bone in her body, so for her to die at such a young age (only 30) is pretty gut wrenching.

I don't think I have come to terms that she isn't with us anymore. I think it will be a while until I do.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

An Autumn Evening at the Gardens

This evening Rich and I went on a walk to the gardens just before dinner, it really does feel like autumn down there at the moment as all of the trees are starting to loose their leaves.


Fabric-a-brac

On Saturday I walked all the way up that nasty hill to Brooklyn with Hiliare to attend Fabric-a-Brac. You may be wondering what exactly Fabric-a-Brac is - well in a nutshell it's a venue for people to sell off their unwanted fabric, buttons, patterns, trims, patches and anything else involved with sewing - like a giant sewing/crafting garage sale.

I had expected that the even would be madness as there's nothing a crafter likes more than a bargin on supplies, but I wasn't sure I was ready for just how crazy the day was, there were people everywhere - you could hardly move in the little hall that the event was held in.

All in all my craft purchases were quite restrained - I ended up buying a few little items to use in my Wayward Victorian swap, but overall I was most restrained, as was Hiliare (although she did buy an awesome retro teenage mutuant ninji turtles patch).

A good day overall - but next time they may need to consider a much larger venue!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Easter Monday

On our final day of Easter Holiday Rich and I decided to go for a walk - we would have liked to have gone for a day walk but I still wasn't feeling up to it after my operation (to be honest I'm not really up to it even now!) so we decided to head to Otari Wilton bush for a wander.

It was a very windy day on Easter Monday but luckily it was quite sheltered at Otari Wilton's and because it was a bit windy there weren't too many people around - but there were lots of birds around. If you look closely at my photo's you will see a friendly Kereru!










Easter Swap!

So Easter is now a distant memory (farewell four days off work and feeling justified eating too much chocolate) but my swap partner in Wales just received her Easter/Spring swap package from me so I thought I'd share some photos of what I made for her.

Firstly a little bunny pouch - I actually had help from my mum with this one - I wasn't feeling up to sewing the actual pouch after my surgery but needed to get the package out so she sewed the pouch and I decorated it with the lace a little bunny.


Next up are some Easter chocolate, although they kind of look like soap in this photo! I made them with white chocolate and coloured some of them with red chocolate food dye.
Next is a little chicken fimo brooch - it was the first bit of fimo I had made in a while - I'd forgotten how much fun fimo is!
Finally is a rather LARGE container of chocolate mint lip gloss, I found the awesome star container at Goldings in town - I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be used for? But it makes an excellent giant lip gloss container. The rickrack is vintage that my mum acquired on her travels and the chocolate charm is fimo - made by me!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Hot Air Balloon Fun!

Last night Rich, Ross, Shelly and I went to the "night glow" at the Basin Reserve. I heard about this event a while ago but to be honest I didn't really have high hopes it was going to go ahead - as hot air balloons need still clear nights and Wellington doesn't often have these.

But surprisingly, the weather was pretty perfect for hot air balloons and it was pretty amazing how close you could get to the actual balloons.

We didn't actually get to see the balloons "fly" - I guess flying in the centre of town with the airport so close isn't a good idea! But the balloons did put on a pretty good night show.


Sunday, April 12, 2009

Mariella's Visit!

My good friend Mariella was visiting Wellington for a few days over Easter with her partner Scott - last night Rich and I caught up with them for Mexican fun at Coyete and an "almost" visit to the wind turbine at night (turns out they lock up the area the wind turbine at night - in case you were wondering).


Craft 2.0 = Happiness

Yesterday it was time for Craft 2.0, which for those of you who don't know is an indie Craft fair held in the New Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt. The fair is organised by the lovely Sue Tyler - I have met Sue before, at a workshop she was running at the New Dowse (to make record bags - yah!).

When I met her previously I told Sue about the Craft Group Kat and I run called Crafty Foxes.

When I met up with Sue at her stall at Craft 2.0 she was nice enough to give me a couple of awesome items from her stall because "We crafty ladies that organise things need to look after each other" - she's so sweet!

Here's what I received from Sue, some cupcakes magnets and some skully earrings - My two favourite things in the world! Skulls and Cupcakes!




Because Sue was nice enough to give me some goodies, it freed up my money to buy even MORE stuff! I ended up buying this necklace, skully Hello Kitty Ring and a pack of vintage paper items for further crafting madness.







Finally, we finished off our day out at Craft 2.0 with Chocolate on Chocolate cupcakes...mmmm...tasty...

Good Friday

Good Friday was the day that I officially "returned to civilisation" after my surgery - and all things considered - it was a pretty glorious day to return to the real world.

Rich and I took a walk through the Botanical Gardens and then headed down to the waterfront - it's days like this that make you forget Wellington's long winter months.