Oh its reeeallly early:)

It's really early for a Saturday morning... it is ... 7.30... but in light of my recent going to bed at 7.30-8pm the last two nights I think its ok... I hate going to bed. I'm like small child. I just want to stay up and play with my toys. But recently my arms and legs pain has been forcing mw to be an adult:( But luckily my lovely fiance comes and sits on the bed and plays his laptop while I try to go to sleep:) What a lovely boy:)
So now that I am up early, I am super excited to make things! I want to make something from this book -
It is the best ever book. Well its is equally as good as the first one actually... which is just called Softies. This is the one that has the pattern for the doll my student made in the last post.

So better go make the most of this being up early business and make some things:)

Sweet Softies:)

This is a lovely softie created from a pattern by Heidi Iverson of H. Luv Fabrications. You can find the pattern "Twinkles" in the "More Softies" book from Penguin Australia.

The maker of the softie is from my Year 8 textiles class who I believe is now hooked with softie making. This was her first and she couldn't wait to start her next one which is just great to see!

How gorgeous are those lovely colours and sweet twisted legs and arms! Shanai learnt lots of new skills and has done pretty well for her first ever softie! Well done!

Weird weather!!

Oh the weather is weird today... heaps of rain, which is great because we are in a drought... but a lot of wind... and now it is sunny.... My little Japanese Maple is blowing around like there is no tomorrow.

So I am sitting inside doing all the etsy listings I need to catch up on since I started making resin again! Here is a picture of 4 of my pieces stacked together which is how I like to wear them:) I have a set with lots of different colours which means that I can wear any combination to match whatever I am wearing! Yay! I also like to highlight them with some pearlised pigmentised resin bangles:)


I love the richness of the coppery pearlised pigment... it doesn't match my pasty pale skin though:(
I took these pictures on my lovely "new" antique (although probably not super old) shelf that I got from my local antiques warehouse for just $15! I sanded in back a bit so I didn't get splinters but otherwise left it as it was. I love it:)

Long time no see!

I have finished my 16 things... weeks and weeks of 16 things...plus a few more things.
This is one of the other things. It is a custom made laptop sleeve in my favourite ever fabric. Anna Maria Horner designed it and it is called Drawing Room Pink Birds. I would have to say it is actually my favourite fabric ever. Usually not so into a pink fabric but this one is beautiful! I may even use it for my wedding in the form of table runners... very excited:)

The day after..

The day after the evening of sanding and polishing. Oh how do you feel you ask? Well I was home alone after all which is a little exciting, but due to the excessive time frame that was required to sand and polish my resin I couldn''t even eat any chocolate! Resin dust is very bad for you so you have to sand with wet and dry sand paper, and obviously water, to minimize the dust. So despite having the wrinkly pruney hands of someone who has been in the bath all day, your hands are covered in a fine film of resin dust. Which of course being really bad for you... you probably shouldn't eat.
So I now have three of the minimum of 11 bangles I need to fill my current resin order - I would like more for the exhibition so I can do some kind of "set" work with matching pieces but of course I will have to see how I go:)
I guess i'm just not as productive as I had planned. My morning was also taken up with investigating cat proof fencing... not to keep my cat in but to keep a neighbour's cat out. Don't get me wrong I love cats, I used to have one. But they love the delicious taste of my housebunny when she is free in the yard... and with the council imposed 24 hour cat curfew mu bunny should be safe! But not from this cat... it has a sneaky skill of walking so its neck bell doesn't ring.. Ohh it made me angry. And a little sad:( Will have to be more careful about letting bunny free in the backyard!

Anyway this is my resin that I spent HOURS sanding and polishing. HOURS.

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:)