Home alone!

I am home alone:) I love to be home alone:) I love my fiance to be here too obviously, but sometimes I love to be home alone:)
Although tonight is halloween and I did forget to get any halloween treats for trick or treaters. It's not a big holiday here in Australia, very few people actually do anything, but there is a new family at the end of my block and they do have kids... hmmm may be an excuse for chocolate purchasing:) Especially when I am home alone and can eat my chocolate freely without that pesky sharing!

My plans for home alone time are to...

1. Finish the pair of booties I have made and list them on etsy.
2. Tidy the kitchen.
3. Continue working on a custom make up bag that is reallly confusing me (I will do it though).
4. Watch Harry Potter, the second movie, it's on tv tonight.
5. Sand some resin while watching Harry Potter in preparation for the upcoming exhibition and to send to the store allll the way over in Palm Beach, Florida.

What I would really like to know though is how to achieve a shine like this in my resin -

This beautiful design is by jasminescott (so is the photo!), she sells these here through etsy. I love her rings, they are just beautiful and I are in awe of her ability to make them so shiney.
I have been making resin for YEARS and I have never achieved this level of shine:)
I love the colour use in this one too, Jasmine says it was inspired by nature and I really think you can tell. It reminds me of spores... like in slow motion in a nature documentary... :)

Anyway enough of my procrastinating. I need to go and try and make my resin this shiney.

The truth about my cupcakes....

At my work I am known as the maker of excellent cupcakes. I won't lie. They taste awesome. Judgements on my future as a successful wife are made on the deliciousness of these cupcakes. Apparently one day I will make a man very happy.

This is beside the point, because I already have a man and my cooking skills are NOT making him happy. Well let me clarify... he is not uphappy so much as probably a little malnourished...

The gluten-free chocolate mud cupcakes slathered with the vanilla buttercream icing are delicious, BUT IT IS NOT MY COOKING SKILLS. I have tried to burn them, I have tried to undercook them. It's hard to go wrong with a recipe that is made up of 400gms dark cooking chocolate, caster sugar, butter, almond meal, 10 eggs, vanilla extract. That's it. My big secret that I try to tell everyone.

Sometimes I wish I had never discovered this recipe... I feel so much pressure. Every time we have a staff morning tea people rock up with their packet of bickies they picked up at the servo on the way to work, I turn up trying to juggle my laptop, giant handbag and two massive tupperware containers filled with the cupcakes. As I walk through the carpark I hear the whisperings, "Is that the cupcakes?" "Better get there early for the cupcakes..." "Can you grab me one of those cupcakes at morning tea?".... And as I get into the staff room I hide them under the chairs so as not to attract attention to the gleaming icing decorations.

BUT the problem arises! 10 eggs and 400 grams of dark chocolate doesn't come cheap. And the HOURS it takes me to make the cupcakes, the dishes, the getting up an hour early in the morning to ice them, the starving fiance who is once again going without dinner, just so these cupcakes can grace the mouths of 26 lucky people. Usually not me. Sometimes I'm not even at the morning tea.

So tomorrow is the SECOND morning tea I am having to supply food for this week. And there will be NO cupcakes. I will no longer buy my ingredients only to sit on the kitchen floor crying about betty crocker being on sale! You spend 5 hours making cupcakes for an institution that can not supply a constant running water!

Anyway so I am making "Betty Crocker no cook fudge" and "gluten-free lemon slice" from a box.

Because secretly now that I made the awesome cupcakes it doesn't matter what I make because everyone thinks I can cook. I made overflowing burnt Betty Crocker muffins and people raved.

Just don't check my freezer because that is where all the frozen pizza is. That's what's for dinner.

If I was in Ontario this is what I would take to morning tea tomorrow.

These Nutty Chocolate rolls are made by the lovely Kindlytreats on etsy, this is her beautiful photo! Such definition:) I could eat it out of the screen. Her shop is here... i'm drooling just thinking about it:)

Booties:)

I love making booties, they are my best. I love to knit them because they are always so little and cute, and because they are so little and cute you don't get bored of the colours and your don't get bored of the design! These are some booties I make and sell on my etsy site and wholesale so I am ALWAYS making them:) Today I am making a pair in the lightest baby pink with a sweet white top:) They are going to be super cute! These are my most popular colours though, everyone loves the brown:) Or to be more correct and fancy - Latte:) Apparently coffee sells things:)

I wanted to put in a favourite thing that I found from etsy today!
I love this card and I really want to use it for my wedding invites!


They are made by the designers Pocketstudio, who work from "under some stairs in London", coming from a one storey house in Australia I didn't know you could have a studio under the stairs... so they get credit for that as well:) You can see their store here. You should have a look:)

Oh so long...

I have just found something that I really want to make... obviously the weekend of 16 things (16 things I have to make for etsy custom orders) has really spilled out into the three weekends of 16 things to make, it is really cutting into my making things for me time... also the whole wedding plans... and the whole full time job thing...
Wait I am just so lazy I think... although I must say I now have a work blog specifically for my fulltime job, being a teacher means I have to learn new things... and the lovely ICT lady has set up a program where I can learn to use web 2.0 in my classroom, the redback project. Yes that is a lovely aussie spider... its bitey:)
So I have another blog... 2 actually and a wiki... oh just so much excitement!

But I have been letting this one go by the wayside. So we much catch up... another time... I still have like 6 more things to make...

But this is what I want to make!

And this is the link to the instructions... here:) At Orange Flower Sketch book blog... I already love what I see on this blog - the writer uses it like her own personal sketch book, I really love that idea and may use it myself... somewhere:)

Now I am going to use it in my craft room for all those fiddly things that need a home but just never seem to go anywhere?? It is going to be super cute... with lots of them all in a row... Oh it will be so organised.... now if I could just find time to make them:)

Also...

Now I'm on the laptop.... and I have these pictures of some of the 16 things...:)



This is the same russian doll fabric but super cute in pink:)

I also wanted to show you these two:)

These were also out of fabrics from the same etsy store - from japan with love:) And the last picture is of course... my model blackberry curve and i touch... mmm high tech:)

The Weekend of 16 things...

So it is actually the day after the second weekend of the same 16 things...
these are the 16 things I am making as etsy custom orders.

2 Portable dvd bags
2 Hip pouches
2 Breast feeding coverup
2 Dresses
1 Handbag that I can start
1 Handbag that I can't start
1 Make up case
1 Fixing a dress
1 I touch cover
1 Blackberry curve pouch
1 Diaper/nappy clutch
1 Felt Brooch

Oooo may be I spread myself a little thin there with the whole writing reports and writing out a plan for my new senior classes that start next week... but is ok... here are some of the things I have finished already by the end of the second weekend of 16 things...


Don't you just love that russian doll fabric?? I bought it from this etsy store - From japan with love, they have such a great selection of all different fabrics and stickers:) And other things:) But that was what I got:)

Many more things were made... I will have to show you them soon!!