A breath of fresh air...

... is a perfect title for this pretty, girly treasury put together by Kitty and Wren. All pink and mint and creamy fluffiness - check it out here.

Look at those little houndstooth ballet shoes! Freaking adorable.

Bunnies of the cute, happy, sad, undead and evil kind

Something a little different on this Tuesday evening... Truman the fang bunny sits amongst his own kind in:

Odd bunnies of the apocalypse! Thanks to TheOddFactory for this sweet(?) treasury!

Oh, fancy schmancy... it's a garden party

Yes, in the words of Johnny Rotten, thank you for coming to our garden party.

And here's a lovely little treasury put together by The Parthecraft (check out her cute cupcake aprons). My wee doily garland looks to be in good company with this jolly sweet collection!

Baby quilt love

Why oh why did I start making Holly's quilt before decorating her room? Now its totally going to lower the tone. And its the wrong colour. And the wrong kind of theme. 

These beauties however, would be perfect! 

This one from Sweet Jane

This one from Busy Quilt Mom

This one from Quiltville

Win rad stuff with Kid Independent

Fab indie kids site Kid Independent is turning one and to celebrate they are giving away loads of cool stuff - quilts, softies, dresses, paper goods, bibs, prints, bags and more!

Visit their site to win one of four great prize packs!

One Thousand Visitor Giveaway! Win a $30 gift voucher!

Well, that's snuck up quickly hasn't it? Close to one thousand unique visitors to this blog; a thousand people reading through my rants, waffle, goss, reflections and finds. To celebrate, I've got a $30 gift voucher for my madeit store up for grabs!




Just leave a comment before the 28th of February, and a winner will be chosen at random to receive a gift voucher. Feel free to comment a few times and send your friends the link too! http://porkchopandme.blogspot.com/


Thanks loyal readers!  :)

Family Finds

Custom family of 4 by Goose Grease

Family tree initial necklace by Soul Peaces

Mum & me reversible apron set from Lucky Ducky Designs

Tour de Family personalised notecards by Dean Penn & Paper

Family slippers set by burebure

Mother & daughter planet heart set by marmar

Love nest custom engraved stones by Monkey Jewels

Personalised family name print by Gene Ploss

Custom zombie portrait from Art by Manda

Introducing...Truman

Take him home via etsy or madeit !

Pretty as a peacock

Violet felted treasure bowl from shanineal

Silk origami wall hanging from SewSmashing

Baby alpaca silk blend yarn from Quirky Concepts

Peacock plate by Village Clayworks

Purple peacock feather lampshade from Zedhead

Peacock filligree mini box from Starless Clay

Hand printed linen peacock feather fabric from Giardino

Long horn wall hook from Monkey and Squirrel

Set of 3 leopard peacock lumbar pillowcases from Giardino

Valentines picks from pork chop

Oh my goodness is it nearly February already? How did that happen!? That means that smoochy-smoochy love day is coming up. Here's some cute etsy finds in keeping with the theme... all for under 40 bucks.

  Handcut heart garland by Paper Polaroid

 Praying mantis valentine by xlessthan3

I heart you mix tape hand pulled print by elSage

Custom porcelain fortune cookie by yogagoat

More sweet picks here...

Beat it, grandma

With such a creatively titled treasury, 'This Ain't Your Granny's Doily' from danceswithflowers is sure to get some interest! Thanks to Jenny for featuring my doily garland  :)

I love that doily clock! I had just 'hearted' it a few days ago with Holly's room in mind; but I'm not entirely sure it will go with her room's look and feel so I haven't bought it.

I'm trying to practice restraint. It's really hard. There's so much pretty stuff in the world... especially my little girl. How cute is this photo. Seriously. She makes me vomit with her cuteness.

In my element!

I most certainly am... now that I have a new house to style!

Moving day was the longest of my life, and after a disappointing start due to the previous owners leaving the house in a mess, I have got stuck into (to quote my mum) 'tizzying around' with all this luscious blank space which is just aching to be decorated.

Only one room is close to being finished; our bedroom. How fitting then that this lovely etsy treasury from firewood furniture has made the front page... it's like a little snapshot of our new room!

 

 Here's my mood board I did a couple of months ago: 

My inspiration was faded - nautical - ocean voyage - calming - wood & wicker - blues - driftwood - linen.

  

The idea was not to buy anything new for this house; bar a new lounge from King Furniture (arriving Valentines day - how Richard will top that next year I don't know!). I'll get around to taking some better shots when I am not standing on one leg trying to keep a one year old from running into the ensuite and throwing my socks into the toilet. 

Above, you might be able to see my great great grandmothers mother of pearl inlaid fire screens which I have propped on either side of the bed.

 

This is our special box. Richard found this old spice drawer at Surry Hills markets and its filled with special treasures including a teddy bear I won at a primary school fete, a fertility icon from my dad, shells from a childhood trip to Wollongong, and Richard's little wooden train, the only thing he has from his nan who passed away when he was young.

The upturned wooden Dewars whisky box that I have used as a bedside table is from my Pa's garage. After the smell of kero finally dissipated, it was rebirthed as Ty's toybox, and now my table. The blue lamp is from Ikea.

I love my tribal drum, which I can play in a very basic fashion, and the kids love to beat on it. The linen was a little treat to myself (yeah I know I have already broken the 'no new stuff' rule), but I have never splurged on quality sheets and our old cheapie ones were getting pretty tired anyway. I bought the Sheridan 'Coast' quilt cover set from Domayne.

Holly's room is nearly done too... what will I do when I run out of rooms?!?

The frustrated interior stylist

Well I can't do any sewing at the moment due to the whole moving house thing, but I am still mucking around on the computer until it too will need to be packed away next week. Mostly, I've been spending my time putting together mood boards for each room (yes, in a house that I don't actually own yet - details details).

My only problem is that I love too many different styles! Has that got anything to do with being on the cusp of Leo and Cancer? Fire and water; leader and follower, lover and fighter - I am a woman of contrasts. It's all fun and games until you need to buy a new sofa and can't decide whether faded vintage or sleek minimalism is going to be your go-to style for the next few years.

Oh, but thinking about it all is so much fun! The possibilites! I have about ten different ideas for Holly's room in particular, and have just put together this little etsy treasury which would probably work just as well as a theme for the master bedroom... goodness, I'm never going to be able to make any kind of design decisions.

The curse of too much choice!

Monsters: cute vs. fugly

Some food for thought from Etsy's storque... why the fascination with plush monsters? 

Jeffrey Kastner from Cabinet magazine writes a nice little think piece on how and why we are fascinated and drawn to ugly toys - both as children and grown-ups.

Read the article here.

Some of my favourite ugly-cute little guys: 

Devon the Pentapus from KitLane

Cupcake Monster from Cutesy but not Cutesy

Cute-thulhu by Jellibat

Ambrosius Little Bugger from Cotton Monster

Handmade Christmas Part 5: They're coming... for your underpants

Here's a sweet and simple pressie to suit almost anyone - funked up lavender sachets for your drawers, in the shape of wee monsters. Why have a boring little bag when you can have a smelly monster?

I made a handful of these for my best friend Christine last year and thought I would do a set each for my parents this Christmas. Chrissy's undie monsters were made from blue and yellow felts with contrasting button eyes. This time I've got tweedy blokey kind of felts for my stepdad in red, olive and mustard, and for my mum there's vintage linen, new oatmeal coloured linen and white minky fleece, and I have added pink button eyes & noses to hers so they look like little white pigs.

As you can see in the pic above, I used a pattern that I already had on hand (which is part of my pocket monster dress) but these are super easy. Cut desired monster shape - stitch button eyes and/or noses - pin wrong sides together and hem - turn right way out and stuff with fibrefill and a spoonful of dried lavender buds - machine finish the bottom and zig zag cut the raw edge with pinking shears.

Easy as, bro. Now your undies will smell nice. Not that they don't smell nice now. I'm not saying you have hygiene issues or anything. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Yeah. Umm... ok.

*Momentary hiatus from writing - I share an office with two snakes and my big girl has just pooped. OMG I haven't heard her poop before. That was like an extremely long wet fart. GROSS. I wouldn't have thought they would make any noise? They do everything else silently...*

ANYWAY, you can make these as classy or as funky as you wish - you could use a similar shape to mine and make yours a kitty cat, with pearl button eyes and an embroidered pink nose. Or at the other end of the spectrum, go for fluro green felt with applique monster fangs and mismatched crazy monster eyes. Or, you can even add a ribbon when stitching the two sides together so you can hang them from your Christmas tree.

Next Handmade Christmas post: Illustrating a childrens book - harder than it sounds!

Probably not *actually* going to get done in time for Christmas!

Why? I'm moving house!

Both my madeit and etsy shops are in vacation mode at the moment whilst we try and organise sale of one house and purchase of another, all happening the week before Christmas of course. 

So, if I am off the radar a little over the next few weeks, you know why. I'm looking forward to a shiny new crafting space that is bigger than the closet I have currently. Yay!

Handmade Christmas Part 4: Kitty pencilcase (I can has pencils?)

Inspired by tokyoinspired's cat pencil cases, I have whipped up my own version of a kitty pencil case for my niece.

I drew a simple pattern on paper and cut it so the finished product would be roughly 30cm long. I used a lovely scratchy (pun intended) wool blend fabric and cut the front piece all the way across where the mouth was to go, then pinned it all wrong sides together. Then I ran all the way around the edges with a straight stitch - no need to leave an opening as I could turn him right way out through his mouth (oh it's wonderful not to have to hand-finish seams).

 

Three cute blue buttons and a red 13cm zipper (which was the smallest I could find at Lincraft) complete his kooky little face. I didn't bother with a zipper foot, the regular machine foot worked fine. He was easy, super fast, and I'm really happy with how he turned out!

 

Next handmade Christmas installment: Undie monsters! RAWWRRRRRR!

Doily love, halloween style

How sweet is this little doily hoop from Betz White? Simple, gorgeous and mildly spooky.

Happy Halloween!

POP!

Constellation baby mobile from The Wonderland Studio

Chevron stripe sunsuit from The Measure

Helvetica font painting  from Lesley Arango

Silver Scissors Tshirt Dress from Circular Accessories

Urban Type Cotton Teatowel from Green Olive Textiles

Jpegasus Tshirt from The Chop Shop

Polka Dot Ring from Minicyn

Recycled Sail Throw Pillow from Reiter8

Pow headband from Janine Basil

Handmade Christmas Part 3: Repurposed Polo Stocking

 

This is another one of those traditions that our family never really 'did' when I was little, but I want to make it a regular Christmas occurrence for my children - stockings.

I like the idea of a stocking hung on the bed post on Christmas eve, to be found full of little goodies in the morning, along with one or two big pressies under the tree.

I found this tutorial on (cringe) Martha Stewart's website (I usually try to avoid anyone big enough to be considered a corporation). Having said that, this stocking from a repurposed polo shirt was too cute to resist. I had one of my old purple polos in a chuck-out bag under my desk, ready to take to Vinnies, so I had the bonus feel-good hit from reusing something I was going to get rid of next week anyway.

I didn't use Martha's pattern; just freehanded a shape with tailor's chalk on to my shirt, leaving around 2cm either side of the collar for seam allowance. I whizzed around the edges on my machine then realised how discoloured and manky the inside collar binding was, so I covered it with some dark aubergine satin ribbon, adding a wide ribbon for hanging at the same time. This probably would have been a lot easier to do before I sewed the back and front pieces together (note to self for next time).

Then I switched the old boring buttons for cute mis-matched girly ones, and made a little co-ordinated brooch from satin ribbons, a button and a tiny doily. I was going to get fancy and put Holly's name on it somewhere, but I suck at embroidery. It doesn't really hang beautifully when it's empty but I'm hoping it sits nicely when full of goodies!

Now to raid hubby's wardrobe so I can make a matching one for Tyler. Next Handmade Christmas installment: Meow, pussycats... It's a crazy kitty pencil case.

Handmade Christmas Part 2: Tart lemon butter and other treats

Even though I love cooking, particularly baking, 2009 was my first ever go at a proper holiday cook-up. Previously, I might have made a slice or some truffles to take to dad's for lunch, but from now on I'm determined to always make a few tasty treats for my friends and family that will last well into January. 

In last year's hampers were spicy & sweet Indian nut mix, peppermint crunch, toasted muesli, lemon butter and rum and cherry Christmas cake. I also made two kinds of truffles, one I can't remember but the other was really easy; crumble a dark fruit cake with some melted dark chocolate and roll into balls. Easy as!

This season I'll be making the lemon butter and toasted muesli again. Both keep quite well so you can make them a few weeks before silly season is in full swing, and both also hold up ok if its a 40 degree day. 

And I love this idea from Our Best Bites - single serving pies in a jar! I have a feeling they wouldn't actually make it to anyone else's house though as I am a bit of a pie fiend...

Lemon Butter

(Recipe from Valli Little - delicious magazine - via taste.com.au). 

Ingredients 
2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
1/3 cup (80g) chilled unsalted butter
Zest and juice of 2 lemons

Whisk whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth, then place pan over a low heat. Add the butter, juice and zest and whisk continuously until thickened [from memory this takes ages]. Strain through a sieve into a sterilised jar. This makes about 1.5 cups. Lemon curd keeps, covered, in the fridge for 2 weeks. [I reckon it keeps for much much longer; mine still tasted scrummy after about 2 months].

Toasted Muesli

This is my own recipe so it's not really a 'recipe' as such - I take around 3 cups of rolled oats, 3/4 cup of LSA (linseed sunflower and almonds all ground up - it's in the health food aisle), 1/2 cup shredded coconut (the moist kind if you can get it), 2 cups of whatever nuts you like smashed up in a mortar and pestle, and chopped up dried fruit (however much takes your fancy) and throw it all in a big roasting tray.

Drizzle about 1/4 cup of olive oil all over and about the same of honey, maple syrup or golden syrup and mix it all in. Toast it in the oven on 180 degrees for 15 minutes or so, checking and stirring it regularly as the oats burn easily. Let the muesli cool completely before putting it into an airtight container.

In high summer the nuts tend to sweat a bit after you roast them and release the oils, so I'd say its lovely for around 3 or 4 weeks, then if you still have some left over try using it as a crumble topping for apple crumble, or mixing with yoghurt for bircher muesli.  

Of course you can mix it up and create whatever fruit & nut combos you like - I love green pistachio, white macadamia and red cranberry for Christmas. Or try date and walnut, or almond and apricot, or all nuts - no fruit (Richard's favourite).

Next Christmas instalment: Part 3 - deck the halls with repurposed shirts! 

Mmmm... lacy goodness

Hey doily lovers, check out this treasury from Monicaj on etsy (and go on, take a look at her store too, she has some beautiful tactile crocheted and tatted goodies).

Oh, the places you'll go!

With lovely customers based all over Australia and internationally, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at all the cities I have sent orders to...

From just down the road from my house, to Brisbane, outback WA, Mornington, Adelaide and Tassie, and on to New York, Oregon, Virginia and Venice Beach, it's sweet to think of a little something that I made being worn by a little girl in Mount Gravatt or adorning a bedroom in Portland.

And on the flipside, here's a shout out to the etsy sellers all over the world whose lovely handmade wares I have bought (note there is a distinct yet unintentional Stateside bent to this list):

Rainbow fabrics in California - yes, of course I can buy fabric from the store up the road but they have some lovely hard-to-find prints

3dots in Quebec - Lucie's wooden jewellery is graphic and organic and beautiful

The Pink Crochet Hook in Tenessee - look at those apple jackets, they just make me smile

Spidercamp in Atlanta - funniest shop EVER

Sir Mitchell in LA - my favourite t-shirt ever, featuring my favourite quote that I have been using for years that I can FINALLY wear across my chest*

Smika in Europe - soft and tactile wool felt beads

Lunahoo in Spain - simple but feminine jewellery - I love these earrings; they make me think of Icarus





*That quote would be 'you are a beautiful and unique snowflake'. Know the film? Hint: my son is named after the lead character (yes really) :)

Handmade Christmas Part 1: Advent Calendar

 At Christmas, I have always made something little for my mum, but this year, nearly everything for my friends and family will be handmade.

That's the plan anyway.

Now, I am not entirely sure who reads my blog so I can't give away all my surprise ideas, but I can tell you what I'll be making for the kids and a few other special people. I'll be posting updates as I go, hence this post is part 1.

For pork chop and muffin top I'm making an advent calendar, using Michael Miller's Gnomeville fabric as a base. We never really had advent calendars when I was little, but it's a tradition I'd love to start with my children, so I thought I would make a lasting calendar that will hopefully become part and parcel of Christmas celebrations at our place in years to come.

I didn't use a pattern or anything for this; just googled fabric advent calendars and got a few ideas. Because I am half arsed and not so good at fiddly stuff, I've used little squares of fabric about 6 x 3 inches, doubled over and pinked the edges. I could have got all fancy and turned the edges of each pocket under and things but that involves ironing, and this is supposed to be fun, so that idea didn't go much further. I attached them to the front panel using my double needle which I haven't used before - the pockets turned out quite nicely I think. Just the right size for a few lollies or coins.

The backing is a lovely gold and cream Japanese wave print that I had originally bought to back Holly's quilt. The pocket fabrics include Michael Miller's Dick & Jane print, calico, cotton drill and bits of one of Ty's gingham bassinet sheets.

The top is a simple rod pocket arrangement and so that I don't have to make a special trip to Bunnings to buy a length of dowel, I will probably end up using a nice twig from the garden and some ribbon to hang it on the wall.


Look out for Handmade Christmas Part 2 - yummy things in jars!

Goodness me, another one!

Purple + tangerine + aqua + mustard = awesome. Totally going to earmark this colour scheme for Holly's bedroom when we buy a new house!

Thanks to Chelsea from whiterabbit7 for including my tiny garland in this etsy treasury!

Cream and sugar

What a sweet etsy treasury - I adore those mint and cream colours. Thanks for including me scarletbeautiful!

A magical pixie land...

... is where my husband is convinced I live, just because I think nice things and see the good in people who are probably twats.

But I digress - I wanted to share this REAL little pixie land made possible by Kate Landers Events in the USA - I've been researching party ideas for Holly's first birthday and I think I've found the perfect theme! It may well end up looking lame next to this extravagance, but I'm sure Holly Dolly won't notice.

What an inspirational setting! More beautiful pics here.