today was a ribbon day

just a little embellishing today

Carole

don't look....!!

I'm just having one tiny Vanilla Crisp with my cup of tea - don't tell anyone!

Here's the recipe which came from the Quarter Acre Cafe in Levin:
125gm butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
raspberry or strawberry jam
 Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease two baking trays. Cream butter and sugar until white, then add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Sift in the flour, baking powder and cornflour and mix gently. 
Put generous teaspoons of the mixture onto the trays and bake for 8 to 10 mins or until golden brown.
Cool on a rack and when completely cold sandwich pairs together with jam and icing.

To make icing put 125gms icing sugar, 100 gms butter and 1 tspn vanilla essence into a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.

To finish dust with icing sugar.

Back soon,
Carole

A new born yoyo

I've had a number of emails about the cuteness of the yoyo's that I use to embellish with and I'm also asked how I make them.
Hope also emailed to say she is having a little trouble with her yoyo making and asked if I could help her, so here is how I make mine.
I use the Clover yoyo maker, these come in all manner of sizes, but I'm using the tiny one (due to the cuteness factor). If you want, you can make them by hand, but for a few dollars this makes them quick, easy and uniform.

I put my piece of fabric in between the two discs, as per instructions.

Then I trim round the discs so that I don't have too much fabric bunched up when I'm 'pulling' the yoyo.

Time for stitching. The above pic shows the top side of the yoyo, start stitching from underneath, and continue round the plastic discs until you get back to the start.

This is the underneath of the yoyo. I've stitched right round and am now back at the beginning.

Unclip the plastic discs and slip the fabric off.

Now, here comes the bit where you witness a baby yoyo being born! Slowly pull the cotton and as you tighten the yoyo gathers.

Until it looks ... sort of ... well ... almost like a small bag. Now, a word of warning at this point: if you are a sensitive soul, please turn away now, we're going to be practicing a wee bit of tough love.

I'm a bit ruthless at this point and I squeeze the living daylight out of the wee thing.

And then I have to just slip a couple of stitches to hold it in place.... cut the thread.

And there you have it, a new born 3/4 of an inch yoyo. Isn't it just gorgeous!

There you go Hope, I'm sure this will help. If you haven't made yoyo's before, I hope this inspires you to have a go at making them.

Back soon,
Carole

embellishing myself

a couple of weeks ago i bought a skirt at an op shop. it seemed fine although the previous owner had left a scorch mark on the pocket and some detail stitching had come undone. but it did look nice on. i decided i should buy it seeing it was only $4.99.

so i decided to embellish it, and of course you'd expect nothing less that some vintage fabric or doilies and perhaps a yoyo or too. i doubt you'd ever know there was a mark on the pocket.

now to address the detail stitching. some torn fabric, some vintage trim and a few yoyo's. this is soooo me!

i love embellishments, you can use them on anything, anywhere.

back soon
carole

picking roses

Wow, a whole month has gone since I was here last. I really need to get my act together.

I have been busy trying to loose some weight. As you will know, it takes dedication and commitment and above all time. I've been walking twice a week and attending exercise classes twice a week. I'm told the endorphins I get from doing all this exercise will carry me through and help me feel great and give me more energy. I'm wondering if it's possible to overdose on exercise? All I want to do is eat chocolate and sleep!! It's going to be a long road......

We have also decided to sell the Madness and Mess home and that has meant spring cleaning from top to toe. Of course I've had to fit this in between sleeping and eating chocolate so it's cutting into my creative time. 

However, I did slip unnoticed into my sewing room this morning and you might get to see what I've been up to....

Back soon,
Carole