messy Miss Kate

Thrifty: Pretty little garbage

I've always thought it a bit amusing watching all the sudden rush of cars down our street [and everywhere else too] in the weeks before & during hard rubbish collection.  We once put out an old busted TV. It was gifted to us years before but finally the tube inside went & that was it. Dead. Does anyone actually know what a TV "tube" is by the way?  I know I could google but.. nahhhh.

Within hours of putting the broken TV at our front curb, it was snapped up.  The next day we saw that same TV further down the street again, just on somebody else's curb.  And would you believe it moved yet again, also within our street.  We thought it was hilarious.  

And I'm not being all conceited here by thinking, 'sucked in, you stole my crap TV & it didn't work, ha ha.' Quite the opposite.  I think if people put out items they no longer want or need, they are up for grabs to whom ever wants to collect and do something with it.  I just found it funny how this one item kept hopping around the street like that!  Also a tad relieved that noone else had been able to fix it.  The fix it/hoarding part of me doesn't really like to toss things if there is a chance they can be used for something else.  TV goldfish bowl anyone? Anyone?

So anyway, I've never been brave enough to go looking for hard waste 'loot' myself.  Let alone actually pick up somebody else's rubbish from the side of the road.

Until this year.  

Kitchen: Le Creuset score!

For as long as I can remember I've wanted a set of Le Creuset for my own kitchen.  In the 20 years I've had a kitchen I've no doubt spent enough money on crappola saucepans & baking dishes to in fact buy a set of Le Creuset but obviously I didn't rate it high enough at the time, whenever I had money to buy a set, or even just a piece.

I did get a beautiful large Le Creuset mixing bowl as a wedding present from my Aunty which was the most favourite thing in my kitchen but sadly my husband dropped it & it broke last year. A totally depressing kitchen disaster.

So anyway, my mum collects it & I have adored it always.  Rather than wait until the inheritence comes through - because I put my name on it years ago - in a funny joking way of course - but mum, I'd still love it LOL.  And because my mum isn't going anywhere anytime soon [her mother lived until she was 96!] I decided today I might just go and do some investigating.  

Right now we have no spare cents to our name whatsoever, but I didn't let that minor detail deter......

Christmas: Secret Santa...

This year I made a few little things that I sent out to some unsuspecting ladies.  Just gifts that I wanted to give.  With Christmas traffic its unlikely they will arrive on time but they weren't really Christmas gifts anyway, just an end of year recognition type gift.

Anyway, thought I'd share a few of them...

This little one below has been in the making for ever.  I was so inspired by 'Knot Thread Stitch' earlier in the year I decided to buy up big on hoops & transfer my artwork onto fabric along with a little sewing.  I taught myself how to free motion and there the project sat until I picked it up again to finish off just recently.  

Well it seems so many others have been inspired too as I seem to be seeing hoop creations everywhere these days.  So beautiful & such a great framing idea.  I still have so many hoops so although the market is flooded, I will probably add some more to the shop in the coming year.  Afterall, transfer paper is far from cheap & I've invested lots of dollars into paper, linen, printing & hoops already!!

This piece below is for a special little lady who was extremely helpful to me this year. She's already brilliant but I think she will go far!  

This one is for my friend who showed great kindness to me this year.  She is mad for pugs.

And this one is for a courageous lady who I sincerely wish will enjoy some peace & healing in the new year.

I am really loving making these cushions.  I hope to make many more in the new year for my shop too!  They are made with a mix of retro/vinatge fabric & new fabrics that I collect.  I include stitcheries & hand cut the letters & then stitcheroo it all up, messily of course.

Thanks for looking. xo

Christmas goings on & my making...

Well all discussions around here seem to be focussing on Christmas at the moment.  We are getting all sorts of interesting & sometimes awkward & tricky questions.  Lunchtime today provided us with this little gem of a conversation....

"Mum, some people call Father Christmas St Nick!" says Georgia.

"Yes that is his real name, St Nicholas!" I replied.

Georgia then says, "So that means he doesn't have any knickers then!!!??"

Amelia pipes up, "Of course he doesn't!  He has jocks!"  And then everyone loses it in a fit of giggles.

Typical little kid silly conversations, I love them.

 

Considering we spent the last couple of weeks of school term feeling dreadful & getting behind on everything, I feel surprisingly relaxed & on top of my Christmas to do list this year.  We ordered our gifts for the children online in July & picked them up a few weeks ago.  I always feel a bit sick at the influx of 'stuff' into our house everytime there is a birthday or Christmas so we are mindful to stick to our budget & try to build on existing toy collections, like dolls or lego or craft etc....

We've also been cleaning out the playroom of surplus & broken toys.  We donated 3 Ikea bags worth to the op-shop & threw out another bag full too.  It still feels like there is too much stuff here & the kids still manage to make a mess playing every day. I guess that is part & parcel of having young children.   Its neverending...

Anyway, our budget for the kids is a fairly conservative one & within that we try to get their most wished for thing, a book, a game, an art/craft activity, an outfit plus school lunch packs, drink bottles etc for next year.  There are always other bits & pieces too.  I know that it is not as much as many other families allocate but for little children its enough.  It provides plenty of packages to open & a good mix of wants & needs.  Times that by 5 children too and along with gifts for other family, its as much as we can do.  

For the first time we did our major shop at KMart & sticking to budget was not a hard task.  When I picked up the layby all the large boxes completely filled up our 8 seater Kia Grand Carnival.  It was almost dangerous driving home with obscured vision.  But extremely good value!  So when I unpacked all the boxes I realised that again, we just had way too much stuff.  I ended up taking about a quarter of the toys back & decided to get an extra outfit for each of them & to make some gifts as well.  So in all we did go over budget a little, but not too much.  And I think all the piles of pressies that will await the kids Christmas morning will please them very much.  Fingers crossed.

I've made each of the kids a personalised cushion for their beds using all their middle names.  Poppy, Daisy, Bluebell, Blossom & Bud.  All made with a mix of vintage & new fabrics, beautiful stitcheries in either their favourite colour or the flower of their middle name.  And they are all backed in fabric in their favourite colour too.

I've also made new stockings for all 7 of us, which I'll photograph once up hanging on the staircase, Christmas Eve.  Again in my messy patchwork style.  

I've made little birdy Christmas decorations too, which still need to be beaded [eyes] & then bellies stitched closed.  So they look a bit odd right now....  but you get the idea.

And the communal gift I have made, which I think the kids will hopefully get a real kick out of, is a tablecloth cubby house for our formal dining room table.  Made entirely from my favourite vintage/retro sheets collected over the last year from op-shops.  I am not sure where I had seen these before and I didn't follow a pattern but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere.  Mum says Better Homes & Gardens did something similar.  I have always always loved that tent in the movie, 'The Holiday' and this is my attempt at having a pretty little hideaway for the kids using our existing furniture! 

I didn't add windows or anything, just the sheet/tablecloth across the top and flaps hanging off it all around the table which we will tie back with ribbons around the table legs.  I've been up late every night for the last week sewing while the kids were sleeping and some sessions during the day too while they were busy, just to get everything finished.  The cubby is done except for the ribbon ties.  I cannot wait until I set it all up for them.

The next few nights I'll spend doing the last minute hand stitching & wrapping gifts.  I am SO excited.  I absolutely love Christmas & I LOVE giving to my children and family.  I am so happy this year that we have a great mix of handmade & bought and that many of the items we bought for them are quite practical or building on existing collections which means they already have a home!

Anyway, I think thats all for the moment.  I'll share more over the next week or so once I have things completely finished & can take some more pictures! I've even had to be careful posting to instagram lately as my big girls can see all my pictures in my feed!  Lets hope they don't check my blog LOL

Are you ready for Christmas?  

Do you set a budget or just merrily keep buying all throughout the year OR all at the last minute?!

Arty Things: There's always something going on...

Even though I'm not pumping out volumes of arty work right now, there's always something crafty going on behind the scenes.

I'm finishing off a commissioned canvas here but between the drying layers I've been working on a few other things.

Some messy Miss Kate plushies! Ha ha!  These are really just for fun. Its a long time dream to get my art printed onto fabric. I will do it, in my next spare 5 minutes, but that won't be this year. Maybe 2013?

Anyway, these are just made with t-shirt transfer paper onto a lovely linen, stuffed with hobby fill & backed with cutie floral fabrics. Oh and they have a felt bottom too, although they don't really stand up very well.

I kinda like them, not sure if I'll sell them, not sure if I will do more, but was a little bit of fun anyway. The idea of strings stitched to their heads making them into Christmas tree decorations crossed my mind. We'll see.

Here's a cushion I made for my sweet friend's birthday. I will definitely be doing more cushions.  And more birdy ones too. I have been sketching up a few designs.  But in the meantime, I have a few cosy cushions in shop now!

Gift all wrapped up with vintage wallpaper & other pretties below. 

Here's some of my cutie pins that I am always rearranging.  Just thought I'd share a pic of something sweet from my sewing table.  This beautiful jar was a gift from the lovely Tamar & holds buttons that were passed down to me from my very thrifty grandmother. I treasure the whole thing, bottons, jar & sweet pins too.

My sister is in complete machine mode with her family right now, getting their house ready for sale.  We had the boys over on the weekend so Jane & Tom could get cracking on their work. On the Saturday night they breaked to head off to a Mexican party so I got the boys ready.  

Thank you "Sharpie" for the moustaches!  And thankyou old ugly throw blanket that worked brilliantly cut in half as little amigo ponchos.  The ponchos took me all of 20 minutes to slice & dice & add some shoelace threading at the neckline. Thank you 'overlocker' you are fabulous in a crisis. Quickest costumes ever.

I think these two little hombres look quite the part eh?

See always something crafty going on, even if its not collage & painting!  Otherwise, I get way tooo fidgety! 

What are you working on right now?

Arty Things: Cosy Cushions

With the big studio move this year its taken me a long time to make peace/feel comfortable/feel secure/feel at home/feel creative in my painting studio. I love it. I'm itching to paint. I miss it.  There's a gazillion ideas busting out into my scribble books. But I haven't made any real progress yet.

I've dabbled. I've had to work on some committed projects but apart from that I've mostly been using the space to create with the kids or to make birthday cards for the huge number of birthdays we have to celebrate on our calendar.

This is all in the little cracks of spare time. I have not yet committed my full evenings [post little ones bedtime] like I used to do, to work in that space.  For starters its been too cold this past winter. And although I don't like hot days so much, they sure are perfect for evening creating benders.  I am super looking forward to those.  And Jeff and I are working out some plans so that he can be near me when I spend evenings creating.  Because well, I'm a big scaredy cat even in my home. Especially at night. Because of this.

So anyway, I have instead, because I need to create to keep sane, been sewing a bit lately!

Its been easy to do that on weekend days as the kids run around playing and visit me every so often. Normally its on a day where Jeff is watching football so everyone is content doing their own thing.

Whilst I was making some birthday presents, I managed to also get some more cosy cushions done for my shop. Some of these below are now sold or were ordered especially but I will have 3 going to shop hopefully this week!

 

They are all made with both vintage fabrics, fabrics from my personal collection & other upcycled pieces too.

This one above was made for my cousin who recently turned 18. It contains part of her grandmothers vintage lace handkerchief. Her Grandmother passed away only in the last few weeks at the age of 99 [!], within the same week of Victoria turning 18. Amazing coinciding milestones so I thought it was a nice touch to include the beautiful lace handkerchief.

So there you go, a little of what I have been working on lately. I have created two other new things also. I'm excited about them! But they are drying on the line & its too late to photograph. So I'll tell you about them very soon.

Thrifty: Things I've found recently...

My local stores are still coming up with the occasional gem. I think I'm going to need to start trawling further a field too though. Aww how sad. Not.

On one of my recent trips, Miss Chels came along and immediately spotted a fluffy white coat just like Lotta's from Charlie & Lola. It was either $2 or $4, can't recall. Couldn't resist. She wore it the whole weekend. 

New old painted pink chair. It now sits at my paper working desk. 

The last few weeks I've been finding minutes and half hours here & there & been madly cutting squares & other shapes [!] for the current projects I'm working on. More cosy cushions with words AND a new exciting pretty thing too.  I won't say coming next week, because I always say that and I should know by now my life rolls the way it rolls and I just have to be a little flexible. So I will say, as soon as I possibly can share I will.

Have a great day!

Arty Things: DIY cabinet makeover...

One of the things I had to achieve when moving my art studio into a bigger space was to work within an extremely limited budget.  So far we've paid out $1200 for double doors to be put in and the lighting cost $600.  

As for furniture, I've taken all the surplus to requirements furniture from within the home & garage and I've moved them into place in the garage. All mismatched. For now thats fine but eventually I want to paint everything white. Walls and bookshelves etc.  That way I'll have a blank canvas for all the arty bits & pieces of colour to pop out & brighten it all up.  Along with all the white, I'm happy to have a few select pieces of colourful furniture too but not many.

A while ago, I found this cute little cabinet, with short legs on wheels, and 2 drawers. I think it was $20 from my local op shop.  I just knew it would make a great little hidden storage area & super useful for putting inspirational magazines or baskets on top too.

You can see my before picture here on the left....

  

And this is it now below! Oh and I have added drawer handles of course.

Now, how I made it over....

I am not the most meticulous at some things. I'm not very patient either. Good enough sits perfectly fine with me for many things, definitely making over furniture. If that horrifies you, you best move on to another blog.

If you like quick & easy, you've come to the right place. I like quick results.

The drawer unit I bought was covered in brown paint & a thick coating of chipped shellac.  The first paint store I went to, I was told that the only way to fix up this little unit of mine was to sand it right back, add a primer & then paint it.  I couldn't be bothered with all that so I went off looking for another opinion. 

Thing is, I'm not looking to lovingly restore a piece of antique furniture for a dining room masterpiece. I'm just looking to brighten up a cute little piece of furniture for my painting studio in the garage!

Next, I found this fabulous lady at Bunnings who has done the same thing many times and she put me onto a brilliant product. 

So, here was my saviour.... Grip Lock Primer.  The lady said if I couldn't be bothered sanding, 'this stuff will stick to anything, and anything will stick to this stuff!'  Paint it on, paint over it. Simple. Quick. Done! Yessss!

So off I went & primed my little unit, I only did the outside including drawer fronts, not the inside, and waited for it to dry.

I then painted the unit red with spray paint. LOVE spray paint. So quick. I've been using White Knight Squirts.

Next I narrowed it down to these two colour schemes and my dear instagram followers convinced me to go with yellow. So I sprayed the drawer fronts yellow.

I then left the unit to dry overnight before adding a floral napkin [with a white background] with gel medium, over the yellow paint.

Spray matted the drawers with matte spray and left to dry!

And there you have it!  Done.  Since these inferior quality photos, I have added the handles back on & its become a very cute & functional piece in my studio. 

Next mission was to make over my grandfathers old singer sewing cabinet.  Again I primed it & I've painted the whole thing yellow. For the moment, its just yellow. I'm not sure if I want to do anything with the doors.  But for now it proudly sits in my studio with my old 1980's record player & stereo on it. 

  

And oh how I LOVE having a stereo & record player in my making area!  Lots of grooving has been done in here already! See exhibit A below!

 

Exhibit A:

Do you have any easy peasy lemon squeezy makeover tips for updating furniture? Do share!

Arty Things: Little DIY projects...

Must say the cold is really getting to me this winter. My days are really busy with the kids & juggling work & the nights are so cold I'm reluctant to do anything but go to bed early. Very unlike me.  So blogging is slowwwwww.  I've also been shifting about computers & struggling managing my enormous photo library so I never seem to have the photos I want when I'm in the mood to blog on my laptop tucked up in bed.  That is all changing however & my newest online storage provider is helping me sort all of that out. Hope to share how that is working for me at some stage.

Anyway, I have been wanting to share some of the things I have been doing on a budget around my office & my painting studio.  I thought I would start with my little cork board wall above my computer in my office/sewing room.  

Pin up boards can be pretty expensive from what I have seen & aren't particularly attractive either.  My moving/setting up budget is pretty small but I found these brown plastic framed cork boards at Officeworks for $15 and purchased 4 of them.  It was a bit more than I wanted to spend but it was also the cheapest that I found.  I decided they needed a bit of prettying up so I roughly measured some fabric from my vintage sheet collection and just added extremely strong double sided tape to the edges.  I peeled back the tape backing and pressed the fabric down firmly on all sides, stretching it on each side as I went.  

I've seen fabric covered canvases etc where the fabric has been wrapped around the edges and either stitched or staple gunned at the back but I I tore the edges of my fabric & I kinda like the little bit messy frayed edges that I can see from the front so my method suited me.  But if you hospital corners all squared away, it would be just as easy to tuck overhanging fabric & staple gun them.

I chose 4 different fabrics for my boards & then once covered, just nailed my boards straight onto the wall. Yep, thats right, nail striaght through the front of the cork board, straight through the gyprock.  I figure if/when we move out, there would have been holes anyway so why not secure it easily now rather than fuss around with hooks & framing wires at the back of it.  When I pin things to it, I want it absolutely secure.  And it is.  3 nails in each board & you can hardly tell they are there.

So now I have a fabulous visual guide right above my computer with blogging topics listed, scheduled plans [like those I did for school holidays recently] and other bits & pieces I need staring me in the face.

So there you go.  Easy peasy!

Thrifty: A few little finds

Just gotta love a 20% off opshop manchester sale!

Found lots of lovely great condition vintage floral sheets this week & a couple cute tablecloths too.  They are all heading for the recycled cushion making chopping block soon!

This gorgeous piece of fabric below was found at one of those tiny opshops where you have to rummage through to find stuff.  Often get the best stuff there I've noticed!

Anyway, this was a sweet pillowcase made from the most beautiful linen printed with cherry blossoms and bluebirds. Could there be a sweeter combo?  I adore it. I will include some in my cosy cushions soon but I think I might keep a small patch of it for myself too. Its really so adorable. Photo doesn't do it justice.

These beautiful stitched treasures below were gifted to me from my arty friend Louise. I couldn't believe it. So very generous.  And they are just so beautiful! You just may be seeing these on some cushions soon too!

Now that my sewing area has been sorted out a bit more, I may be able to sew on a more regular basis. Well, maybe a couple of afternoons a month. That is regular for me!  Anyway, we'll see.

Kate xo