I rang an elf in Alaska

I rang Alaska i really did,well i was impressed.I mean do you know anyone who has rang Alaska cause i sure don't.I mean do you know anyone that even knows anyone in Alaska ? Okay i apologize ot all you Alaskans who i found out don't all live in igloos and guess what they have houses and they decorate and they have Internet and also a huge craft store named Michael's and some of them actually do craft.Umm i guess what i am saying is since Laurie joined Prettychic i found out that Alaskans are pretty much like you and me (but a whole lot colder).I also found out that yeah they do have to go to school and work and do the chores when the long dark winter days come.I have learned that moose can be very stubborn.That bears can hurt your friends.That yes it can be 40 below and you can still live (not always happily)
Umm i learned if someone or something dies you hope its in summer so you can bury it.As you cant dig ground thats frozen solid.I learned taht even in Alaska neighbourrcan be from hell.That keeping warm is hard work chopping wood loading wood ,carting wood.That the northern lights are magical.
That snow mobiling is fun.That there is more than one North Pole.And i have learned that friendship and kindred spirits can be found no matter where in the world they reside and that the colder the climate sometimes the warmer the heart.
And the last thing i have learnt is that sometimes email isn't enough.
Look at the wondrous swap Laurie sent me too too much.Everything was exactly me her and petah and linda all know me well.

I did a blog post once on how bunting made me happy,cause it does you cant be sad looking at bunting.Laurie made me gorgous bunting its going up soon and yes it made me happy.She knows i have a penchant for bluebirds along with my sister (laurie i am sharing just one with her lol) So you can see now why i had to ring.
Her daughter answered the phone and i said its Jullie from Australia thankyou for my peg butterfly (she made me a gorgeous butterfly with painted wings and a peg middle)
she said is it really,Laurie and i talked for half an hour laughing talking at the same time,i knew she grew up in Texas and then moved to Alaska after being married,but know what i never thought of her having an accent.of course i don't have one myself,im an Aussie.I treasure my friendship with Laurie she is my very own pocket sized Alaskan,i just want to keep her in my pocket she really is an elf.I have suspected it for a while now.I think she is in Santa's witness protection program so please don't tell anyone!

Petahs pink and pretty parcel

Ahh gotta love my pretty chic sistas ,Pet ah and i were partners for the
PRETTYCHIC CHRISTMAS STOCKING EXTRAVAGANZA (CAN YOU TELL I NAMED IT)
i WAS THE GREAT AND POWERFUL SWAP MASTER HMM OR MISTRESS BUT THEN THAT MAKES ME THINK OF WHIPS AND CHAINS SHEESH.
Anyway there was an odd number so i got two partners (oh its awful i know but someone has to do it hehe)
Petah was my Aussie partner and she sent me the sweetest parcel swathed in pink tissue packed in a Christmas mailing box.She made my stocking in the nicest pink patches and i am hanging it on the end of my bed to give Santa the hint.
There were other lovely goodies i tried to take pics of all of them.I just loved the china collage and the fact that you picked things i loved.The calender and sachet are just my style.The pink measuring spoons wow i love em and the tickets 2 shillings a ticket and you wonder what would that have been to,a movie,a ride.O love anything vontage liike that so thankyou so much you know you are an angel .
I fellt bad as the stocking i sent were from lincraft not my sewing machine but really if they saw my sewing they would know i was being kind lol Thankyou thankyou Petah

Home for the holidays -Take two

I had two partners for the home for the Holidays swap,This partner is Linda also a dear friend and longtime swapper pal from the prettychic yahoo group i am in (see our blog).Linda is fabulous and so talented i adore her tags especially i have them hanging all over my house.The glass ball contains an altered art pic with my son alex as a baby ,she stole it off my blog how sweet .The joy banner she made me is to die for,the tiny cup says Love the giver and know what I do.

Hold on I'll just google it

Wow i am wayyyy behind folks in showing my many wonderful swaps.
This is one of the many ways blogging and the Internet have changed my corner of the world.I often think how lonely i would feel without all of you.I just pop over to a few blogs if i am feeling lonely and read the latest gossip,get a decorating idea or maybe be inspired by someones crafty pursuits.Drool over their work spaces or in Reading how someones space is a shelf in a closet just be grateful i have my little room here (albeit shared with the glitter hater)
The phrase i will google it slaps off the tongue so easily.I even told the specialist my son sees that i knew all about him as i had googled him.I'm sure he went home and googled himself later.You don't know a scone recipe just google it,wonder how to make a button fairy find a tutorial.want to research that vintage op shop find -yep google it.Strange swelling on the third toe google it,find out it could be a simple insect bite or perhaps a life threatening flesh eating bacteria,so you can worry all night.Nope you survived must have been the mossie bite! See how it changes our life.Wanna find a house , a car, a smurf t shirt,a husband a long lost friend or just a life yep it all there.So without further ado its onto the swaps.

Home for the Holidays swap

This gorgeous stocking and some other vintage treasures are from Carole Boatright
she doesn't have a blog yet but I'm sure she will soon.This is from a flickr vintage ephemera group swap.Called "Home for the Holidays"Thank you Carole i think you were so clever to make that stocking it just looks so darn sweet.

Santa was a friend of mine

Here is my brother and I Christmas 1965
I have always loved Christmas ,from the letter written to Santa in November through to the cotton wool snowmen we made at school and the Christmas lolly baskets coloured in and stapled.To me it was all unadulterated Joy.
Sitting on his lap in your new Christmas outfit was just the height of happiness.I was usually a very good girl i had no doubts he would come to our house.But the joyous agony of the wait and the horrible feeling on boxing day that it was all over for another whole year.We had a lovely aluminium tree and the usual decorations.i have bought many that i remember as a child for my own tree.

Christmas spew

Well my friends it seems to be almost that time of year again.
And right now there looks like a tinsel monster was slaughtered in my living room.
And just before he died he spewed baubles all over the place.
My husband is on late shift,he will freak as you all know glitter and tinsel to him are like kryptonite to superman.Unfortunately he married me and therein lies his problem as i shall NEVER give up my glitter and tinsel its the magic i tell you.
So after posting this i am gonna start mopping up the spew and trying to uncover our home beneath the shambles.Most of my ornaments are treasured vintage ones.some are out and out retro ones to remind me of my 60's childhood.I am a child at Christmas its in my heart its in my hands when i create.But oooh the mess.I mean face it i love the bits of tinsel that drop off the tree as i love the purple carpet on the lawn left from the jacaranda tree.One side of me is miss neat freak the other is the creative messy bossy one who usually wins.Thank god i have both or i don't care to imagine.Aww well better go clear a path before superman gets home!

Heaving Bosoms and Blog awards

I have been awarded the Marie Antoinette Blog Award by Not one but two amazing bloggers who since they both picked me seem to have amazingly good taste hehe! Thank you so much for passing it on to me and for the honor!
Thankyou thankyou both

Ms Barbara

and

Ms Rhonda

for such an amazing award,(her massive boobs heave in her thrift bought strapless awards gown)I am so overcome with emotion(she blushes and her bosom heaves making those in the front row nervous)
She curtsies low (a little old man in the first row has a heart attack)and she leaves the stage.


Ok!! Here are the rules:

1. Please put the logo on your blog

2. Link it to the person from whom you received the award

3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs

4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog

5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them
The people i chose all mean something special to me and have
enriched my life and my blog
hugs to you all and to Rhonda and Barbara too

And the winners are:

Carol at Sassafras and Lulu

Shannon at Paint mine pink
Glenda at Sweet Daisy Dreams
Kellie at Papercat designs
Sue from Junk studio on Karabah

Lisa from Lisa Laughs Blog
Dionne from

Cherubs wishes

I hope you will stop in and visit each one! Have a great weekend everyone!

Identity crisis and Christmas drips

I think i maybe an elf
Am I ? Is that why i am 4ft 10 and is that why i am always covered in glitter.
I personally know an elf she lives in Alaska.But am i one i wonder.I have been
very very busy and Christmas is dripping into my craft room one drop of glue and glitter at a time.I have been making things that just pop in my head and out my hands.It happens this way to me a lot ,i wake up and think ooh i must try this.
That what i love about craft.You think of something and then there it is!
Well sometimes it doesn't turn out exactly like it was in your head and sometimes it turns out nothing like it and that can be great too.Many a happy mistake i have made.Here is this months treasures,the little dioramas came from an idea i got thanks to my aunt.She gave me a lovely decoupage book and one picture was of a Victorian child's pop up page so thats the small and large box i did.i changed the snowman as the Victorian snowman looked enough to give any child a nightmare lol.
To see the diorama better just click on it and it will enlarge
The medium sized one is totally one i made up from a few images.The pop up cone deccys were inspired by a similar toy my son Tim had as a baby.

Halloween Creations and my first Inchies

Here are my first Halloween inchies
who would know you can fit so much in a 1 inch square

Vintage ephemera Party Hat swap

This is my fabulous swap from my newest friend Lisa of Lisa Laughs
It was for a vintage ephemera Part hat and extra ephemera.You have to smile when you see a party hat like this.i just love the little butterflies all over it.
Its going on my studio shelf and i will have to smile and think of Lisa when i see it.She has an adorable fairy child named shadi and i in return had to make her an altered piece making shadi a fairy,to go with her hat.She sent me heaps of lovely things,love that altered frame its so me and also the pocket with the tags in it (that i adore)
yep its a definite favourite
oh i just couldnt believe the scraps etc and the lovely ribbons tags bits
and bobs and all the game pieces are great and the book pages
love the tinkerbell correction tape and you do know how i needed that deco
tape.
I love the scrap papers honestly it feel like xmas,Lisa and i were getting worried as it took so long to arrive but
i was right quarantine had opened it and left amessage that it had been held
checked and found ok nothing was removed,They are very strict here with quarantine.
So it came and it was a huge success thanks so much to Lisa
I have loved being your partner and we are remaining friends.See why blogging and swapping are so addictive.

Where do babies go ! Warning kind of whiny and nostalgic

I tell you where they go,they grow and grow and grow and then before you know it
there are no more fingerprints on the wall.No more toys on the floor.Those babies are gone and usually before you are quite finished them too.Oh they ring occasionally to ask if its going to kill them if they cook frozen steak,or as happened once they want the recipe for that white fluffy stuff you made them so many times (after much thinking this was mashed potatoes).They ring to ask if their eye is red will they be okay.or perhaps $20 to tide them till payday.But them babies are long gone and now you are just on standby.I have four sons and only one left at home and i miss my sons sooo much.I see them at times not often they all have lives and jobs and they forget to ring.But the time just flew in a wink and yesterday my eldest baby turned 28 and he is a man (but to me he is forever my Matty)So i guess there is a mothers mourning for what they were and the realisation that you have to accept that's what is meant to happen.But oh a mothers lot is hard ,to give birth and have to share what was once yours alone and then to love and hug and hurt for them to fight sometimes so hard for (and against them as they turn into teens) To congratulate yourself that you managed to keep them alive, Sometimes damaged often stitched but yes they survived and hey no one is more amazed than you!And then simply to let them go and become what ? A mother waiting for them to remember you love them more than anything in the world.I am glad my eldest has found a lovely
partner and that she is so good for him.I want that for my next two sons too and that they be happy.Matthew just got back from the United states its their second big trip and since i have never left Australia i was so happy for them.Oh i know this is a nostalgia post but hey at least once a year is acceptable I'm the mother of sons don't you know !So since i am being pathetic here is my Alex now 15 at about 2 and he was a little pixie.

Party hats and wheezes

While i was very sick and couldnt sleep due to the steroids i made
this cute party Hat for Lisa of Lisa Laughs blog.It was for the
Vintage ephemera Birthday Hat swap.Lisa is a lovely person and we have had many emails to get to know each other. I am so glad i got to meet her through this Flickr group swap.It never stops amazing me just how kindred some of us bloggers and crafters are.Anyway here is lisas hat and it was a lovely thing to come out of a very bad time for me lol !
Check out Lisas Blog here at Lisa Laughs

spring in the mountains

Well spring has definitely came to my part of the world,flowers are everywhere
even in my little garden amongst the weeds.My snowdrops finished with winter and now the blubells are out as is my flowering peach and azaleas.Also the first roses from the new ones i planted so exciting to see them.The birds are out too and the kookaburras have again found their laughter.Bad emmilou would love to picnic on a rozella but we have two bells on her collar so she can stalk them but they hear her coming.It makes you want to do things when the weather is warmer unfortunately i have been really ill and cant get a hold on my asthma so its xrays and steroids and specialists for me.The only good thing is the steroids have helped my RSI so good i can at least sit and craft.

Super Sweet Aussie Artist Giveaway

FINALLY Shannon over at paintminepink CAN REVEAL THAT THE SWEET SURPRISE IS A GIVEAWAY.
BUT..this is not just any old giveaway...WE'RE TALKING HUGE HERE!
she has rounded up the best of the best Aussie Girls here to bring you a giveaway full of SOOOO MUCH GORGEOUS-NESS you wont believe your eyes!
Even i made something -A sweet and sinister tussie to add to the goodies.There is
so much sweetness you just may dribble, so pop on over to shannons b;log Paintminepink and leave a comment.
who knows you could be a big winner of many lovely things.

Princess Maddison Poses

Well i was lucky enough to have a visit from a real
life fairy today.My friend Cecily came with my baby Maddison.
I am Maddison's favourite Aunt (she knows this as i tell her all
the time !) I got to play dollies on my bed with her.Ever since Maddy was born i have
wanted to tutu and pearl her up and here she is !I thouight my vintage pale pink bedspread the perfect foil for her..
Isn't she just the cutest thing with or without her wings ?
This post wouldnt be complete without showing you Maddys royal brother King Caleb,
when Maddy was born i bought her a tiny princess plastic tiara that said princess,Caleb was envious and wanted a crown and so i made one put of gold cardboard and several stick on gems and he was shall i say disgusted.You see Maddys crown was real (hard plastic) and i had just made a pretend crown.After much searching and considerable outlay a REAL CROWN of hard plastic was procured ($2 aT THE $2 SHOP) HIs highness was at last appeased !

Camera fun in panorama

Just a few Panoramas Neil took in our house .
He could have waited till i cleaned the kitchen lol
it wasn't visitor ready at all but since you lot are friends
why just come on in !The shelf is in my purpose built in vintage
Plate pantry (my own idea that i really love)And before any of you ask them cups sit there year after year and have never fallen.No not even when a short plump lady(Resembling somewhat little Miss Pepperpot) hid in there to scare the family cats.The Pink room is just a walk through sitting room
with a fainting lounge and old treadle sewing machine it also houses the plate pantry.

Fabulous Fall ephemera Tussies

Well here is my Fantabuloso swap from the wonderful Rhonda she really outdid herself.
I was so excited when i opened this it Really was like christmas only
Santa ,you would think would ever know how you love vintage tickets and
latin flash cards and french ones and teeny tiny vintage cards and and and
well sooo much and all i love .There is a cheque from 1905 and some old
accounts from the 1940's Tickets to the worlds fair.Tickets tickets to everywhere !
There are photographs and vintage needles.A whole set of stamps to create my own
Aussie Halloween.There is a bird Tussie with button trim,vintage game pieces its all too nice.Alex stole a genuine American lollypop and took it to school.Its my trove of treasures.Thankyou thankyou Rhonda.Check out her etsy store where she sells these vintage fancies (no you cant have her she is mine and i already said im keeping her) I mean i loved her before i saw her etsy but i didnt love her less after thats for sure.
Thanks again Rhonda you are the best !