Arabella, crafting in Sydney

You can't keep a good 'crafter' and her good man down!  Not even when they're entertaining their little niece, on a rainy day,  with Play-Doh. Don't you just love my little blue witchy-poo?

Said, little niece, turned 2 while our 'Greek based chickies' were visiting their Sydney family.  And guess what?  Arabella was asked for help in decorating the birthday cake and given a brief which she lovingly and creatively filled.  Take a look at the end result...  (I might need Arabella to help me out here, can't for the life of me get this jpg to load vertically). 

Don't you just love the paper/card balloons?  And the brilliant number 2?  Our littlest chickadee sure loved her cake.

Happy crafting all.

AprilBlackbird

BB's cake and a pretty box...

Good morning!  It's Sunday morning here in Greece and my husband has just gone off to the Irish pub with BB's husband to watch the World Cup Rugby Final (NZ vs France).  My husband is wearing his All Black's shirt and has taken the NZ flag with him.  I hope NZ wins!

I'm about to sit down with my crafting gear and have some 'me' time.

I thought I would just pop a picture in here of BB's birthday cake... sadly it is all gone now, but the memory lives on : )

Yum!  Mum's choklit cake recipe with a kind of chocolate buttercream filling (I say kind of because it is something I tend to make up as I go along and is never the same twice) and a chocolate ganache icing...  I'm glad it's all gone now... it was dangerous!

I made a wee box for BB's birthday present that I thought I would share here because I used a fantastic tutorial that I found on the web... You can see the tutorial here.  The box was super easy to make and has quite a professional feeling finish and the making of it is actually a bit therapeutic.  I have found myself since then just randomly making boxes when my mojo is low on batteries.

Here's the box I made:

It all folds in so there are no raw edges and the base and top are made in the same way.  The sides are all double thickness so it is quite sturdy and can be made with paper rather than card if you prefer.  Since I made the first box I have found that I prefer to make the size difference between the top and bottom 0.2 or 0.3cm difference rather than the recommended 0.5cm.  

I was inspired to make a box after reading this post by Rimna.  I really love her work... it has such a beautiful feel about it.

I hope you are having a lovely relaxing Sunday wherever you are!

Arabella Chickie in Glyfada, Greece

Outfit reno!

Well, I decided to take a look at the contents of my rapidly depleting wardrobe this morning.  I don't want to go out and buy an outfit to wear to church on Sunday unless I absolutely have to. There has to be something that I can update/change and what do you know, there is.

Arabella might remember walking Auckland flat with me just before our UK chickies got married.  We eventually bought a lime green two piece outfit that I loved and my father hated.  When I'm finished with the cake this afternoon, my icing paraphernalia will make way for my sewing machine and overlocker.

I'm going to shorten the skirt from the top as the hem has some lovely detail I don't want to lose.  I'd like the skirt to sit just under my knees so it looks smart with high heeled sandals. That's the easy part.  The top needs some 'jazzy' buttons as I'm bored with the old ones and I need to lop off the sleeves at the elbows.  They were always just a little too long and I'm not that cracked on the way they've been finished off.  It shouldn't take too long and I'm happy to think that I'll be getting some more use out of the outfit after all this time.

Just by the way, the cake is morphing into something really pretty... I'm really happy with it.  One or two more little finishing touches and that will be that. It's been fun playing with icing again, but it has bought home to me the fact that my piping skills are zero now thanks to my 'sore' wrist.

Who'd like my icing nozzles?  Some are genuine antiques!


April Blackbird