Teacher's Gifts & Gratitude...

Its THAT time of the year again.... 3wks left of the school year and I'm still fumbling around trying to find a gift for my children's teachers. They have been fortunate to have the most amazing teacher's this year, perceptive, hardworking, comical - just all round good people. For the record I don't feel I HAVE TO gift to show my gratitude.... there was a year when not even a Christmas card was given... but I WANT TO - especially this year!

USUALLY I've got this in the bag... my husband's work orders hampers and we get a couple in for the teachers as well... but this year they aren't... bugger!

So, I consulted trusty Pinterest and found this...

It starts by listing things that teacher DON'T WANT - mugs, apples, mugs with apples and other kitchy, desk-clogging items.

Being of American origin, it has some helpful and some over the top suggestions.... like #5 Cold Hard Cash!!! This one may not be that well received here in Australia.... the winning lotto numbers on the other hand may be welcomed with opened arms.

After reading this extensive list, I'm still no further in my quest for the perfect gift to show my gratitude... I may just opt for a great bottle of red (its nice to unWINEd) with a hand written note of appreciation. Afterall it takes special people to dedicate their worklife to educating, molding and nurturing our little ones and its nice to let them know they've done their job well.

Belated Spring Clean

Hellloooooooooo... I've been rather absent of late. I've finally finished Apron-Fest 2012 obligations, I've had sick kiddies (what the hell its almost Summer - no one has sniffles in summer!) and I've been trying to Spring Clean around the house!

My darling husband helped with the Spring Clean by purchasing a voucher for a cleaning service. Now before you all gush - its something that he now seriously regrets. Not because he offended me by ordering it (hey if he's paying someone to mop I'm not going to complain), or because it was a one off and he thinks I now expect it to be a regular service... BUT he regrets it because they were 3hrs late, they were rough and heavy handed and there was a creepy guy lingering in my bedroom, walking in circles and polishing the light switches.

TO TOP IT OFF.... they cleaned up my brick letterbox on the way out. Did $1k worth of damage and didn't even come to the door to tell me they had done it (despite a neighbour seeing ALL 3 of them out of the car kicking and pushing at the letterbox to try and get it upright AGAIN).

So the battle has begun trying to get it replace... but lets face it the company is not going out of their way... I even had their office give me a courtesy call 2 days later about the clean and they had no idea that there was any damage even though I reported it to a "manager"

But enough of the drama.... here's a good bit of Spring Cleaning.... I've bundled up some stock that has been sitting around as well as random half yards and will be offering them at $5 per half yard tomorrow (16/11) from 8pm AEDST over at The FabricBUG

Just out of Pinterest....

I love Pinterest!!! (pls note it is pronounced as it is written.... its NOT Pin-Interest!!)

It is my one-stop, go-to shop for everything from crafty tutes, to witty sayings, to recipes, to inspiration and more! The only trouble is that it is extremely ADDICTIVE!! I usually find myself having a Saturday night Pin-fest... and tonight is no different - in fact I'm thinking of changing my name to Ms Pins-A-LOT!

Here is a snippet of what I'm currently seeing on my Pinterest page:

Sadly - there is a lot of "Non-Diet Days" food on it.... and try as I may to pin other topics, when I return the next wk there is even MORE sweet, irresistible treats waiting for me to drool over. The culprit is this board that I follow.... but I just cannot bring myself to un-follow it.

I have tried to group my pins into boards to ensure I can find pins easily.... but then get a little territorial.... my board that is called Inspiration is really for MY inspiration... not others lol! But what are the options... pin on an easy to find board in pinterest with the risk of others following or go back to archaic bookmarks that you'll never find in that looooooong list made PP (Pre-Pinterest)?

Finally, just to prove that Pinterest is USEFUL here is my son's White Rabbit (from Alice in Wonderland) costume that I made him this year for a school dress up day (PS he WON best dressed.... of course). I used this pin for inspiration and the tute for the hat pinned here.

Do you share my guilty PINing pleasure??????

CHEAP FABRIC!!!!!!

Now that I've got your attention.... often the biggest pain about living and stitching in Australia is that there is not a lot of reasonably priced designer quilting fabric available. Yes you can buy overseas - and generally even when factoring in a shipping price its still cheaper than buying from Australian retailers... but you have to wait lol.

To subsidise my fabric bills, I opened up a small fabric retail page on facebook The FabricBUG - this allowed me to buy in fabrics by the bolt, use what I need for my handmade page and then sell the rest at a reasonable* price.

Before you start screaming at your computer..... fabric prices for Michael Miller, Amy Butler, Alexander Henry, Riley Blake etc can all range between $18-$25 from ONLINE Australian Retailers (and then you have to add post on top). This pricing guide is what allows me to label my price "reasonable"

BUT.... It gets better.... I have a tagline "The FabricBUG - Your friend... with BENEFITS" where I offer $15 per yard on orders of 2yds+... and not just on that order... for the entire month including buy in fabrics. If you haven't heard about this, you can read more here

 

 

Finally, since opening my page, I've networked quite a bit and have formed a great relationship with a buyer in the USA. This not only gives me access to bolts of yet to be released fabric but it also means I can (at times) offer CRAZY PRICES like this...



The MM Backyard Baby "Crazy Price Pre-Order" album and more info can be found here

Set & Forget

I love, love, love using the time delay function/timer gadgets that are on appliances... feels like I'm multi-tasking.... I can have coffee and cake with a friend and whilst I'm away from home the dishwasher will come on as well as the washing machine and it will be ready for me at the exact time I get home.

We've probably all used one of these at some point or another... you know on a lamp when you go away on holidays so it goes on and off at random intervals to make it look like someone is home.

I've already mentioned the washing machine (which kindly does a load of washing before I even wake up most mornings) and the dishwasher (has a midnight cleaning-fest of all the dishes from the day). Our new oven has a timer as well... nothing overly new for an oven, you can't preset it to come on, but you can set the timer for your desired cooktime and once it finishes it shuts off the oven.

Outside, we have our sprinkler systems set - usually at an ungodly hour of the morning (when we are once again sleeping) - mainly to ensure we only water the garden on our allocated watering days - thus avoiding a hefty fine for free range watering.

Also water related, my husband uses one on the garden tap when he is filling the pool... prior to investing in this timer we had a couple of occasions where the pool had overfilled and spilled out onto the patio (not to mention when he topped up the neighbours pool and left the tap on for 3 days.... minor details that we never mentioned to them).

Lastly - this one is a fairly new discovery for me - I learnt that you can pre-set/schedule your FB status'. Simply add your status or pic as usual, then click on the clock in the bottom left then select the relevant date & time from the drop down options and click "Schedule". This nifty timer works on your computer's time - so no need  to fuss with GMT+/- time conversions.

So the tip of the day.... set & forget - add an extra hour or two into your busy day.... giving you plenty of time to reward your productivity with coffee and cake!!

SUPER Fun!!!

Recently, one of my fav handmade crafty pages went on an extended hiatus.... downside no more fun and fantabulous things appearing on my FB newsfeed :o(..... UPSIDE the wonderful Kelli (who is now famous for her clever, crafty & slightly twisted blog Twist of Citrus ) was kind enough to refer a customer my way.

I'm ever grateful - not just for the extra custom, but also because it allowed me to try something new.... something a little more on the fun side of functional with these SUPER Fun Superhero Capes .

The custom order is almost complete (superhero masks still to come), I've since taken more orders for these capes and I've really enjoyed stitching with bright and bold colours!

Here's an pic of my latest cape creation - hot off the sewing machine, whipped up especially for a birthday party we attended this afternoon. Happy 5th Birthday Mr A!

My Sunday night fetish...

The kids are in bed, my husband is pushing out snores too.... and at 8:30pm on Sunday night nothing else matters.... It's HOMELAND TIME!!!!

It's intense, its graphic and has a LOT of adult words - but I LOVE IT!!! It also has my #1 Celebrity Girl Crush... Claire Danes! She's hot! Damian Lewis is not too bad either.... but he has this lispy thing that I just can't get past!

Wikipedia will give you all the background guff here and you can take a peek at Season 2 here .

Whilst it may not be everyone's choice to indulge in... it leaves me on the edge of my seat until 8:30pm Sunday rolls around again!