Typical...

...that Ella hasn't been invited to a birthday party for months and when I went in to drop in her invitations in the pre-school pockets this morning, what was waiting in hers? an invite to another girls party...same day, same time! All the people we were inviting already had another invite in their pocket, so they either had to choose between parties or I needed to change the date of ours. I went home, printed out some little slips of paper with the change of date on them and when I picked up Ella I put one with each of our invitations (which were luckily all still there). Problem solved...oh and I had to make one more invite, because the girl whose party Ella had been invited to hadn't been invited to Ella's, whoops. All good now so onto some sewing.

Here's another pin cushion, not sure I like it as much as my first one, I used white thread and am sure that wasn't the best move.

I recently discovered this wonderful blog written by Mai. She just does the most amazing things and all by hand, so last night I thought I'd give it a go and made this pouch all by hand while watching TV. I followed Mai's tutorial, but obviously did mine a bit larger and I top stitched on the zipper, which I'm not sure turned out that well. Never mind, it was fun and I love this fabric.

We all love Ella...

Yes, I've been listening to that CD a lot lately, but I'm talking about my Ella. I'm planning a fairy party for Ella's 4th birthday, so far I've done the invites and am consulting with an old school friend who lives in the UK to plan the day's activities (thanks Jacks!) which will include lots of glitter, lots of pink and lots of squealy little girls.

I wanted to use fabric so I just just out small shapes and sewed them the onto card with the sewing machine, then stuck them onto another bit of card to hide all the thread ends.

Oh, and don't look too closely at the photos...my camera desperately needs a clean!! There's so many dust spots. I'll have to just avoid taking photos with white in them until it's clean.

I also got this fabric the other day, not sure what I'll use it for yet...maybe this or this...who knows.

My paper pieced pin cushion

I had the urge to hand sew something and I needed a pin cushion so last night I made this...

Hope you're all having a good weekend so far.

My Creative Space...

Yesterday I went to Ikea and bought some fabric, so today I need to pre-wash it all. I might get to the sewing machine if time permits.

I'm also going to join in this Post Card Swap being run by Quirky Momma. Should be a fun (cheap) way for the kids to learn some geography and get mail at the same time.

Go and check out some more creative spaces on Kootoyoo

We're ready for you now Tooth Fairy

So this is what I've been working on the last few days, a Tooth Fairy pouch for Joe who just got his first wobbly tooth.

Back to bags tomorrow.

This is where Ella got to last night...

Not quite as far down the hallway as the other night.

Emergency Craft

Joe announced his tooth was sore on Friday morning and sure enough it's his first wobbler!! I've had a tooth fairy pouch on my to do list for a while now but it was moved up to first priority over the weekend so here's a sneak preview... should be finished soon (hopefully before the tooth falls out)

Last week I got a couple of drawstring bags finished, here's one without the drawstring put in yet.

And here's where Ella fell asleep last night...

She's been going through a 'sneaking down the hallway underneath her sheet at bedtime' phase and last night she jut ran out of petrol half way down...so cute.

Hope you all had a good weekend xxx

RIP Redback

Now, don't get me wrong, I actually like spiders. I usually leave them alone all over the house because they get rid of a lot of the mozzies and flies and things, but while I was sweeping the front verandah this morning I came across this soon-to-be-a-mother Redback (couldn't get her red stripe in the photo). That's her egg sack she's protecting, she would have already eaten the father.

Sadly she had to go as she was within the kids reach so...RIP Redback.

My Creative Space...

Planning on finishing a couple of bags today and, if time permits, make something from a book my MIL found me called Cotton Projects by Kumiko Kabayashi. Has some cute things in it.

Check out some more creative spaces at  kootoyoo

Kind of shabby recycled fairy wings

So this is the sewing that I did on the weekend. These are Ella's old fairy wings, they were a well loved hand me down to start with and she's worn them to death, so we though it was about time to make some new ones...

I cut them up and used bits of them to make some new ones. She loves them! Here's them in action. They're floppy, just the way she likes them (she doesn't need to take them off to get in the car or to put on a jumper).

Talking about wings, I made her some Christmas ones last year which turned out pretty good, I used some wire coat hangers, white yarn from my stash and red ribbon scraps for around the edge.

My Saturday

Today we took the kids to fly kites and have a picnic looking over Sydney Harbour... very nice.



I had a go flying the kite way up high, perfect day for it.



I did manage to fit in some sewing, but will show you that another time. Yesterday I finished a little bag for Joe's home readers (he just started school this year so I'm getting to make a few little things for him). I found this cute fabric and embroidered some basic words on it (in blue to look like pen). I did his name in red to stand out a bit.

I could have sworn....

...I had a fabric cutting board in there somewhere

Here we go...

Ok...so I'll jump right in.

Welcome to Chicken Willow. My blog and hopefully someday soon my small hobby business. Thanks for reading the first few lines!

I have to tell you, it's a bit daunting doing a 'first post' (after re-reading this sentence I realise that most people reading this will have gone through the same thing...duh). I feel like I'm such a boring person, I have absolutely no idea why anyone would want to read about my life...time will tell.

So this is what I did yesterday...

So that I could start this today. The first day went better than I thought. I could actually jog and breath at the same time which was pretty unexpected. The dog kept looking at me like I was mad with all the stopping and starting that goes on (you have to walk, then jog at certain intervals). I'll keep you posted on how it's going. Does anyone else get really itchy when they jog? I'm guessing that once all the 'wobbly bits' get... well... less wobbly that'll go away.

Well, if your still here...thanks for reading and hope you come back another day. Will add some craftiness to the blog tomorrow.