We are what we believe we are -CS Lewis

I won her in a Party Hat swap

Thats my friend Lisa I won her once in a vintage party Hat swap.
Then i found out she was pretty darn wonderful so i thought i would keep her.
for maybe forever!Heres the Hat i made her that started it all off

and then well we just kept going,quite a few matchbox swaps and xmas swaps an inchie swap and soon a Christmas Tussie swap.She is the best most sweetest swapper ever and always goes that extra mile to surprise me no matter how many swaps we do.
In our inchie swap she presented them in a bound envelope style book with what looked like a hundred coloured ribbons hanging off the binding.Its everything about her that makes me smile and it always is wrapped or packaged so sweetly that your heart skips a beat.


Lisa lives in America her blog is Lisa Laughs
anyway see what the internet does to you .If i had never signed up for the vintage party hat swap on Flickr vintage ephemera group i would never have got Lisa and my world would have missed a lot of whimsicality and that ,that just doesn't bear thinking about.This world needs more of the whimsical ,Im doing my part are you doing yours !

Friends are gifts you give yourself

I believe that saying.I value my friends and i try not to ever take them for granted.
I think i have the loveliest friends in the world and i have kept most of them a long long time.I am reminded of this very much lately.I have been going through a rough time not rough as in feel sorry for me everybody but rough as in personally hard.
Anyway things are looking up or perhaps its me looking up and what has helped me are my friends.Some friends are online and although i have never met them they keep me company and make me cry and laugh.They live all over the world and have expanded my knowledge a whole lot.Others are friends i have had for a while like my dear friend Chris who was my first married next door neighbour when i was 18 and newly married.Boy have we been through things that would make your hair curl (is that why mine is sooo curly)The other day i had lunch with her and she gave me such a gorgeous book called hope and told me it was ok if i wanted to cut it up,I said never ! (never lasted 4 weeks).She also sent me a book i'm reading called the five languages of love it tells how we all show love differently,some of us (me) are present givers and love sayers,Some (him) are service givers and NOT love sayers.
Anyway what a gem is Chris.Then there are what i call surprise friends,friends that you never expected and the next thing you know there they are in you heart! Jo Chris's mum is one of these.I never expected to feel as i do with Jo she just sorta grew in my heart till hey there she was,Jo calls a spade a spade (i can be like that myself) she is more my mothers age which i have come to know means nothing.Friends come in all ages and sizes and sometimes they are not even people but cats and dogs.
Anyway theres Jo a surprise friend and yesterday i opened an unexpected parcel,and aren't they always the best kind.She had heard i was going through a rough time and sent me the sweetest note saying the gift was from her heart and more true the bottom of her sewing box, Buttons galore teeny tiny buttons and picture buttons,ribbons, shapes, a teeny mouse (my favourite thing of all!)So thankyou Jo you made my week.So anyway after this epic post if you are still here listening to me ramble,here's to friends so lift your cup (tea or coke it matters not)
To my friends-the most precious thing I've got!

Ever the dreamer

Feeling a little low today and made this
wanted another two lines but got stuck
was going to add on the end
"like why the moon
is sometimes sad"
but then couldnt get the next two right perhaps another day....

My BOOtiful mantle

By the way my cats hate hate hate the Halloween cat (maybe its just me but i find him sweet) maybe its the arched back.Perhaps its his sharp sharp fangs but they definitely do not like the mantle visitor and keep swiping him off there hehe !

Feline-Fairy Encounter

This is the sweetest pic of an encounter between a feline (one Emmilou) and a Fairy,well actually a fairy Godchild (mine).The fairy being my god daughter Princess Maddison .How sweet is she hunkered down for a chat with a cat with just one thing on her mind (that door and escape!)Please click on the pic to see it better.

Halloween Shadowbox

I was in Vivs Whimsy shadowbox swap for Halloween and i had to make a shadowbox for my American partner Hope.This is my shadowbox complete with a light that i am so proud of.The little pumpkin on top with the face turns the light behind the moon on and off.Move him and the light goes on place him back it goes off, The little hard plastic pumpkins i carved the faces on myself breaking several craft knives in the process.I had this vision of sweet trick or treaters with a sinister backdrop.It was hard to send off but Halloween is Hopes favourite holiday so it goes to a good home.

In Memory of my Dad-a very good man

"And on the first day of spring
Love made him wings
and he flew away"
Four years since you said "Hello love"
Four years since i kissed your cheek and and answered hello Dad.
Four years and so many hours of missing you !
The tears are less but i think i shall miss you till im old and grey.
The songs you used to sing sometimes come into my head and out of my mouth.
Sometimes they make me laugh ,sometimes they make me cry.
I wouldnt have traded you for any other father on the planet.
No you were not perfect but you were perfect for me!
Welcome Spring and memories of you !

Slippers for a Rose Faerie

These little slippers are for a Rose faerie (Miss Emily-Rose to be exact)
The have Rose petal cuffs and crystal tips.Tassels on the back and teeny pearls
on the side.They have a wisp of green leaves trailing to each pointy little toe.
i think they are sweet,My sewing of course is imperfectly perfect for Faerie shoes

Life is a great bundle of Little Things

Recently I did a bedroom revamp,i was given the quilt by an aunt,i wanted the bedroom less fussy so i chose neutral uncluttered curtains,i have kept the colour scheme muted,palest pinks and cream and white against the whispy green walls.
i am pleased with the dreamlike atmosphere i created! mY love of words is evident everywhere with To sleep perchance to dream on the wall above the curtains,To the plaques that have meaningful quotations on them.





Cynthia my mannequin (who is quite a hussy but that's altogether another tale !)
holds my collection of vintage brooches and imitation pearls with grace.
She wears two old hats one of which i adorned with every flower i had hanging about.


I love these little bears (they have such a quiet dignified air) atop my dresser which is full of vintage finds collected over the years.

This plaque says "Life is a great bundle of little things"

This hanger is full of little things i love One of my sons christening petticoat,
an old paper collar and some vintage baby hangers ,Tags from Linda a good friend of mine who also supplied the two sweetest bluebirds in my craft room in the previous post.



Dont you love my quiet corner with its shabby cream framed faerie picture,the hanger that the vintage clothing is on was a vinnies towel rack.

Where I create

It took me four sons growing up before i finally got my own craft room
and what you wont see here is my husbands wall of the room.Sigh yes i share it with him.I thought it was fair that i got 3 walls and he got one,after all he has a blokey double garage all to himself !
Above is my favoutite part of my craft studio which is my bluebird shelf.
Its part of an old dresser i bought for $15 off ebay .My sister and i madly decoupaged it one night so we could hang it up and i love it.

My sister made me the banner which says imagine and the noteboard has letters and craft from friends i have met on teh net all over the world.


This dear little hoop pine cupboard is really a tv unit bought off ebay for $50 it
hides a multitude of craft buys from those who may frown.

Another favourite atop the craft cupbopard sits my bits jar a huge i think punchbowl bought for $5 from vinnies and filled with bits and bobs and treasures untold.

This is a dresser that holds many treats,specially my collection of vintage bottles filled with German glass glitter, (i am a glitter snob and you cannot go past German glass glitter !)It also houses gifts from blogger and swapbot friends and my yahoo group.


Ok here is the nerve center or craft central
I was going to wait till my desk was tidy but we may all grow old and die hehe
Actually i am a pretty organized crafter i like to know where everything is and after each project i do tidy my desk, I love this desk given to me by an old friend
its a roll top with many hidey holes it is much loved.
The shelves above the desk are built into the wall where an old window used to be before we extended the house.My son takes great delight in taking the S from the wall so it says Crap hehe Thats a magnetic spice rack you can see with its round containers with see thru lids.So handy for odds and ends within reach.
Dont you love my library index drawers found on ebay for a song they house all my papercraft and scrapping needs,They are all labelled and i can find everything so easily.

Fire-wishes and reasons why !

I had to make an atc with the theme fire interpreted anyway i wanted for swapbot.
Somehow as always kids crept in and it became wish fire,For me the lighting of the candles and the making of the wish were always the sweetest memories .The thing i love about creating is it then had me looking up the origin of the birthday candle which was very interesting and very ancient in its origins.It is said that the custom of placing candles on a birthday cake was started by early Greeks who used to place candles on the cake that they offered to Artemis - the Goddess of Moon. Lit candles made their round shape cake glow like the moon.How romantic mind you i am sure some of my cakes would have scared the goddess (they sure scared me !)

Happy 4th of July to my American blog friends

Which is not to say i don't wish everyone a happy 4th of July
but here in Australia it doesn't mean much more than the day after the 3rd of July.
Like most kids i used to envy the Americans it seemed to me they had it all.All the things
in those comic ads that we could never have like sea monkeys (which i finally got much to my disappointment at 43,they were not the performing aquatic monkeys of my childhood dreams) along with xray glasses and moon walking shoes ,they were all the stuff of dreams.More than that those American kids had the 4th of July and Halloween.Now anything where you get to eat and see fireworks or dress up and collect huge amounts of candy, well you can't blame us poor Aussie kids for a hint of the green eyed monster.Hell we all wanted to be in the cleaver family with the beaver.
So now im all grown up (well out anyhow i never did grow up that much !) its time to forgive, well now that we are starting to have Halloween too and i found out i wasn't missing too much with the sea monkeys hehe
So Happy 4th of July !

Fairy troubles

These are my latest atc cards for a fairy mishap swap im about to run on
swapbot.I have been running a series of fairy atc swaps starting with Fairy attire then Fairy transport and the next is Fairy trouble.I was thinking there are so many things a fairy could get into trouble with,From being stuck in a spider web to falling in someones milkshake.It was only when i went to do mine that i discovered my poor fairies were in major trouble after being caught by the acme fairy catcher and exterminator.I just loved this little guy who i altered off a vintage valentine card,He looks like such a dandy.Then i had to find the right cage and then put my altered fairies inside it.Not easy as I am creative but often mechanically challenged,i have trouble working out which way to place things so they print on opposite sides etc and with this cage it was very hard to place my poor fairies behind some bars and in front of others to create the inside effect.I am pleased how they turned out.The cage but ended up so small on the atc you couldnt even see all my fairy work inside so i will be doing a fold out atc so that they can see whats inside the cage too.By the way its okay when these fairies have had a rest im sure they will just pop out between those bars and fly off.

Latest creations

All of course much nicer in real life these are the flat images after i have finished the digital part.After that i POP things a little with diamond glaze for eyes and of course the glitter.Then i also cut wings ets to stand out from the cards.The button one is an ATC card The fairy transport is for a series of fairy Atc swaps i am hosting on swapbot.The Butterfly wing skinny (a skinny is similar to an atc but bigger being 3 inch by 5 inch i like the scope)is much nicer as i did the wings so they were cut all round and stick out from the card.The Fairy in a nest is for a swap also a skinny i was happy with this one and the wings on this will pop also and have glitter.All in all im happy with where i am in my creative journey,i always love to learn new techniques then mix them with the old .At the moment its the stand out wings before it was the pop up atc cards below which i invented myself.There is always so much to learn that you never get bored.

Happy Birthday Bluebird

My sister's Birthday is today she is Bluebird on swap bot cause like me she
loves Bluebirds. Its also my wedding Anniversary our ninth (He forgot) less said about that one the better and depend on it he shall suffer. So Happy Birthday Jennifer.
My sister and I never fight we love lots of the same things and we are different in lots of ways too.I often am grateful that i have a sister to share life with but perhaps thats cause I got a good one hehe.I remember more about her childhood than she does being 5 years older.I used to make her stuff and buy her stuff and read her stories and also make up stories for her.She always was gonna run away to a shack in the hills and she did albeit a lovely shack circa 1920 and a huge hill called Katoomba.
I dont think the husband and three sons were in that pic she had but hey tell me about it.The layout is one I did of her ages ago.

My favourite saying- Click to enlarge

Radiotherapy and shakespeare

That's my mum, (the poppet on the left looking at the world through fierce sad eyes ,her childhood was harsh and left her with a determination to survive)This week she starts her radiotherapy, and i am glad she has that determination.she has had to endure a lot in her life and this is merely the latest challenge.She is like a little fighting hen
(my brother calls her chooky).Cancer for anyone i think is a lonesome road to travel but now that my Dad is gone its even lonelier for her.I feel for her but all i can do is what i have always done and that's be her daughter.She used to make us laugh as kids we would come home and call out her name and she was nowhere.We knew of course she was somewhere and so the hide and seek would begin until i would open my wardrobe and there was my mother waiting for the door to open so she could start quoting Shakespeare.She dusted the house to the sounds of Strauss.She did and does have long long dark hair that reached her bottom.Hence the reason when i had my sons she became their nanny longhair.Still a nut she would attend their birthday parties dressed as a giant Bee or some other wacky character.

Sometimes as kids we would be annoyed and say "Why cant we have a normal mother !" Years later i would hear my sons say the same about me as i did something goofy.The other week waiting to see a Dr regarding his aspergers and anxiety Alex was worried and grumpy so in the waiting room i tried to cheer him up.I said Alex i think its happening ,i think i can teleport like the guy in heros and i started to look weird.Now the waiting room was empty but alex was hissing at me stop being stupid mum.When we were in the Dr's he said to him what i had done and he said and i am the one seeing the psychiatrist .The Dr looked at me and i said yep i did do that i was trying to Cheer him up.The Dr said if you didn't like it Alex perhaps you should just ask politely for her to stop.I did says Alex she wouldn't.The Dr turned to me,ummm yes he did and no i wouldn't stop,I answer.The Dr made a hmmm noise and changed the subject.
Guess i am more like my mother than i realised.And no my children never had a normal mother just as i myself did not and of that i am most grateful/I myself feel Normal
is highly over rated and very boring.Something my mother NEVER was and still isn't.
Happy mothers day Mum and i know there are many many more abnormal ones to come !

Motherhood is fraught

Yes it is ! its fraught,
With what i hear you say and i would have to reply with everything.
Its fraught with guilt, Is the baby warm enough is he getting enough milk,should i let him cross the road , is 16 too young to go to the party.Did i do enough trying to stop him smoking.See guilt and then before you have finished with them they are off and out in the real world and they think they don't need you cause they are all grown up.They will never know that in your heart they are still that two year old who loved you to the moon and back...
Its fraught with laughter
when you want so much to be angry but you are looking
at that two year old who unravelled all that toilet paper and is wearing your lipstick all over his face.
When your four year old is outside talking to god and you think oh how sweet till you hear him threatening him (i remember saying hmmm not a good idea threatening god you know thunder ,lightning)
When the boys laugh at your attempt at bread making and you are so peeved until you see them hitting it with a hammer and saying proudly mum the military could use this.
Is fraught with magic
when you see the faces of your sons when Santa's beard has been caught in the firescreen and some is left behind.
when the tiniest fairy letter arrives in the post or a Santa letter appears to float down the chimney.
When the fairies leave presents in the fairy teapot in the kitchen.
Yes oh i miss the magic although my god daughter and her brother are on the receiving end now lol
Is fraught with Amazement
That two little boys can dig a 4 feet deep trench in land that is 99 percent mountain rock
That a child can survive being catapulted over a fence and having an epileptic seizure and laugh about it one day.
That the same child can be squashed beneath a full trailer loaded with wood and that his mother can pull it off him and find him bruised but unharmed.
That a four year olds leg can be twisted and squashed beneath a bike wheel and its fork and the bike must be dismantled and he is bruised but unharmed.(same boy)
That a car can run over a 5 year olds leg wreck his school shoe make the driver throw up all day and you guessed it come out bruised but otherwise unharmed.(yes the same child)
That you can be given four sons all ADD one ADHD (yes that's the boy) who also happened to
be epileptic as a small child always having seizures sometimes requiring mouth to mouth to get him breathing again ,And the last one Aspergers.AND the amazing thing is you ALL survived.
That you can take boys to the doctor to be xrayed,patched,stitched etc so often they offer to keep you a seat.
and mostly Amazed at your own capacity to do all this and yet love those boys soo much that it hurt and that you would most definitely kill or die for them cause after all you love them to the moon and back.
Fraught with sadness
That their childhoods may have run you ragged
driven you crazy
made you feel inept cause the house was never perfect and they didnt always brush their teeth
but proud that in all this you never ever missed a birthday or a chance to create some magic
no matter how dark a time it may have been.That you read story after story till you knew the words and they had their favourites.That in the darkest time when you got divorced and ended up alone and renting with a cat a dog a budgie and four sons you bought them all a season ticket to wonderland so that something good would come out of the bad times.
So motherhood is really fraught,
i have said before and i will say it again its the hardest,happiest ,saddest thing i have ever ever done.It has dragged me up and dumped me down its been the most awful and most glorious of rides and although nothing turned out how i planned i am still awfully glad that i went for the ride.
(Just remind me that when they forget to ring wont you !)