Handcafted Cards, Pictures and gifts

Today I am featuring just a few of the beautiful Handcrafted Cards and frames that my daughter's friend, Joelene creates.






Joelene is selling these Gorgeous frames for $6. Can you imagine them adorning your house during the festive season? She made a picture to go in the frames using Stampin' Up! stamps and added a little tab at the top with sticky tape so that the picture can be pulled out easily. You can replace the picture with a picture or photo of your choice, using the one taken out as a template.
Please check out her blog for more details and leave a comment to encourage her! Visit her at
http://craftedcustomisations.blogspot.com/

Rewards in the Post, A challenge & gift for you!

What a Lovely surprise in the post today! "Musings with a Cuppa - The Poetry of Tea" written by Earlene Grey, illustrated by Susan Laird arrived from another blogger Lynn in the USA. Please visit her blog at www.simple-studio-journal.blogspot.com Lynn is an Artist and to celebrate her 250th post held a give-away, earlier in November, she offered both a 'crafty' and a 'tea' gift as a give-away for her readers and I was blessed to win the TEA book. I have already read some of the lovely poems, but want to leave some to enjoy another time, with another cuppa of course. I share one with you-

Christmas Tea on High

High Tea on Christmas Day
With friends and family
Close and warm and safe.
With sugar cakes & savouries
And spiced tea from the chest.
It's the celebration of God's gift
To us, but more important still,
It is what we will give to those
Who are but only one small
Grace away from us.

Here is the table that I began to lay for 'tea'
To welcome two lovely ladies for the weekend.
However the verandah was Not the place to be
As it began to pour,
We rescued cups and saucers
As the deluge came down,
Sweeping right across the boards
Soaking everything in its path.
We sipped inside as water drummed against
The Corrugated, colourbonded roof

Of course it's just the beginning of a piece of prose that came to me, being in the poetic mood, I challenge you to finish it, use your imagination and write another verse! I have a gift on offer to help motivate you - a set of Westminster Australian china for tea and bikkies [ccokies], for one.
I will post a photo later as I'm rushing off to lunch with colleagues.

Celebrating birthdays

A quick hello!
A stunning cake made by a friend
for another friends birthday

sitting under the pergola,
outside the cottage restaurant

the children joined in and
could play on the grassed area

roses from my garden
and a rose birthday card for me
from a few weeks ago

Must go and prepare for visitors

arriving for the weekend - its been a busy week!

The Engagement

Decorating the cake
the purple hearts - cut out

The white ready made icing,
rolled out and covering the cake

The purple hearts - 3 a side on THE cake

Writing on the top
Showing top and sides
the kitchen cake- I made this
one first and practised the icing
it was a little rough

the show cake - on view

and cutting the cake

Rachel & Troy - the happy couple

cutting the cake &
smiling for everyone

cake update

The start of the covering over the cake with soft white icing.

Left overs...mmm.. what colour? purple I think!

3 drops of red and 1 of blue on a plate & mix it around.

Add it to the left over white, bit by bit and knead it in to make mauve!

Now mix up 2 eggwhites and gradually add 500g of icing sugar
(for royal icing to stick on the decorations)
with the old yellow sunbeam mixer - that belonged to my husband's grandma.
More installments on Saturday - the finished product!

Cakes, Curtains, Ducks crossing & Mist

Welcome to all you lovely ladies that have visited my blog. I am am so happy and honoured. I just love how visiting someone's blog can lift your heart at the end of a hard day and how wonderful it is to receive comments when you take the time to post yourself. Its also fun to take photos and begin to compose a blog in your head as you go through your day. Which is what I did today.
Well today started a little late, sleeping in after a late night, D.H. left early to go on a caving overnight trip. I had cakes to bake (for an engagement party) and was glad to have the house to myself to do it without distraction. I had to pop out and get some more sultanas in the late afternoon and took a few photos,

The duck crossing sign near the beginning of our road - and YES ducks do cross our street from one hanging swamp to another.

As I went down to the village to buy sultanas, the mist was rolling in, the weather had turned during the afternoon.
The mist, the road works (the highway widening) and railway in the background.
A close-up of one of the flowers on my 'vintage' bathroom curtains. I made them originally for the laundry door at our last house, from a vintage fabric find in an opportunity shop.
the pink roses on a pale blue background - they are finished with blue & white gingham at hem
Daylight is fading outside and you can see the shadows of the window frame behind
My pink mixing bowl - a reproduction of the sort my Mother has - I remember her mixing the Christmas cake in it.
The mixture before being spooned into the baking tins, lovely fruitcake
One of the cooked cakes. Icing & decorating comes tomorrow, Must get to bed, goodnight all!

The princess clown

Now about the "Princess Clown" drinking tea like Alice in Wonderland at 'The Mad Hatter's Teaparty'. I went to a big community festival, about 1/2 an hour away. The group I was with had been asked to do some community games on the oval as part of free family fun. I usually dress up as a clown for these occasions and last Saturday I decided to try something a bit different and went as 'A princess Clown'. I had a pretty yellow girls dress on (that was adult size - found at a charity shop) with stripey clown sox and a silver cardboard crown.
In the photo I am wearing an orange sparkly top hat that I had bought at a garage (yard) sale that morning. These photos were taken afterwards at a friends house where we stopped and had a cup of tea on the way home. Of course I was taking to my husband and taking the picture myself with the second camera on my mobile phone which is why it is such a shocker.
During the festival I occasionally stopped and 'had a cuppa' as part of my clowning around. [one time I actually had some real tea in it] I used this same demi cup and saucer to drink tea at my friends house.

Wow the world of blogging is big!

I have had a journey around the world and glimpsed into many women's lives today WOW
and now I share five snapshots from my home and some of my story. Many years ago a lady painted this tray and it was the prize for the Most appropriate title for a little in house newsletter among women at our church I entered with the title "Among Friends" and I won. This has ever since taken pride of place in my home - it was a sign that one day I would own my own cottage and now many years later we live in it and this tray hangs on the wall. I am crying as I write this because dreams do come true and My Heavenly Father gave this to me to help me hang onto that dream! I guess at times along the way their was HOPE, doubt, despair, RENEWED HOPE prayer and dreaming, window shopping, bargain hunting, waiting, crying, Believing. Happening!
This is a close up of the fabric of the kitchen curtains I made as another glimpse of HOPE! I had the roll of material for ages, finally had enough money to buy it, but then didn't have time to make it. I originally bought it to recover our lounge suite but wasn't brave enough to attempt it. But I did make a' mock up' cushion to visualise what it would look like. Next is a close up of the fabric that the lounge was finally covered in - better quality and done professionally about a month before we found our new home. It went so well!
Just one of my teddies, she was falling over. I found her at a garage sale and brought her home.
This is a picture of my first (I think) piece of patchwork with roses and teacups - I have liked them both for a long time.
Well later I must upload that funny picture of me as the "Princess Clown" drinking tea [I cut and paste text and some how its now a Link???] like Alice in Wonderland at 'The Mad Hatter's Teaparty" ANOTHER STORY - ANother DAY HEh heH - am I weird or what - yes! The photos are here as a reminder to me so I will keep you guessing!?! They are taken on the second camera on my mobile phone so in reverse.

Vintage china & Linen

Well they would have looked better if I had ironed them first,
I washed them and they were still sitting on my flat drying racks

Here are some of my pretty pink rose china.
Some of these first ones are for sale at the moment on ebay
copy and paste into your browser
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250307591422&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:AU:1123

The rest are part of my collection.
I just love pink roses on
Royal Albert American Beauty & Old English Rose
Queen Anne - Princess Rose & Lady Sylvia
and other darling ones!