a bird in the hand... and a parcel in the mail

Remember the Sew mama Sew giveaway back in May? Well, I won 2 giveaways. the first from Kickapoo Chronicles can be seen here
The 2nd, from
Oh Angelina! has been trying to get here since then.

This lovely linen printed pouch and crochet goodies were making their way from Australia, but got interrupted by the Canada Post strike. Now that the strike is over, it's starting to feel like Christmas here.
The crochet flower is very intriguing in it's making. i still haven't figured it out. Nice indeedy.
Thanks Angelina for the giveaway. It's going to be used for something special to be sure.

Around the same time, I signed up for a bird swap hosted by We Bloom Here
I finally received one of the birds from Tanja at Watermellish Another parcel from Australia. (sidenote: When I was a papercrafter, there was a community with a lot of stampers from England. Seems this Waldorf inspired, home schooling, creating back to nature kind of crafting has found me a nice community of Aussies. Kinda cool)

Here is her inspiration:
"Tanja (Australia) of the blog Watermellish says of her birds: [They] were inspired by the dozen or more families of Fairy Martins which live under our verandah. I made some wee birds from a modified Spool Bluebird pattern. I shrunk the pattern and changed the shape of the tail. I also designed, knit and felted a little nest for each of my swapees based on the bottle-shaped mud nests these birds create."

After such lovely packages, my son gathered up our little collection of birds sitting about.

I think it's missing a penguin.....

Have a good one,
Amanda

who wants one? - a giveaway!

I've been wanting to host a giveaway for some time now, but just didn't have anything new. Until yesterday!

A toadstool pouch made from a thick wool suiting with wool blend felt accents. The toadstools are from my QuicKutz dies and the scallop is just my scallop edge rotary cutter with holes punched by my crop-o-dile.

Oh looky here, what's this?

Oh, a little tea cozy...

With some of my favorite teas. Shall we have a cup together?

Just leave a message by Monday night. Nothing fancy. A simple hello will suffice. One entry per day. Become a follower, come back and put another comment saying so. That gets you 2.

Have a good one!
Amanda

who wants to trade??

I feel like getting some hand made "ME" mail. Who wants to trade me something for these snack sacks?


Plus a much larger one for picking up a few fruits and veg on the way home...


A variety of sizes


You can tie this one on the top as a bag or tie it all the way down to keep the vittles snug and in the bag.


How purdy would this look at your picnic?


And here they are all, nice and folded.


What do you have to do to get it? Send me a photo of something that you made, that you think I would like. If I do, I'll trade. I will ship internationally if you will. If I get 2 takers, I'll make up another batch. I will post when it has been filled.

thanks, have a good one,
Amanda

Gnome giveaway!

Giveaway is now over! Thanks for all the comments. Winner is Maureen from
Twig and Toadstool

here's my giveaway...


A little gnome, his leaf playmat/sleepingbag and a toadstool.


Made just for you.


All you do is leave a comment. Once a day until... Sunday Night July 25. that's it. I'll send internationally.


I know, the colours are a bit inconsistent. I played with some settings in iphoto. forgive, but it's still green and red.

It was hard to find some green grass to take a picture on. It's dry here. They've been calling for rain and thundershowers a few times now and we didn't get them. Toronto is a weather repellant.
The city is pruning our trees right now. Hoping to save a chunk of a maple branch to make some blocks out of. they wanted to cut the whole tree down (you've seen pictures in my blog posts with it in the centre of the yard) but we've convinced them to prune it and check back in a few years. Can't imagine how it would be with that big shady tree gone. It will have to come down, eventually. The trunk would leave a huge hole and the hill it created....

enough of that.. leave a comment for the giveaway and pass it on...
thanks for looking,
Amanda

Zippy Winners!

Well, that was kind of anti-climatic. LOL I was excited about finding out where my readers were from, as I noticed there are some new ones, but ya didn't comment! did I scare ya away?
Anyho, My daughter picked out 2 names (proudly and wanted to pick more until she got her own). So the winners are:

Thanks to those who commented and thanks to all my readers. Without you, this would just be a big cyber memory book!

On with today's show....
Zippy Wallets from Anna at
Noodlehead She has an awesome tutorial. And I solved my mystery problem with the zippers on another of her tutorials. Now I feel confident with zippered pouches.


These are so addictive, you'll make more than one. Get your stash of zippers and snaps ready. I need more zippers already.

And a flash of the inside

Look at the size of them. too cute. Big enough for your gym card, a few coins and some keys. I cut and prepared little side tabs to put key rings on them for each one. But I forgot to sew it in, every. single. time! Neve already claimed the music one, so I'll have to replenish.


i took some pics of my other pom pom skirts, but am not overly happy with them. I'll try and take a few more. And I'm working on another project I hope to show you soon.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

500th post GIVE AWAY !!!!!!

This is my 500th post. Where has the time gone? I started as a paper crafter and ended up a sewing crafter. Just today, I was a felting crafter. I love to be versatile and put my oar in many waters.

So to celebrate, I am giving away 2 prizes. I'm showing 3, but giving away 2. I was only going to offer the skirt and car cozy, but then realized that the winner may not prefer a child's gift. So I added the wristlet as an option.
On with the show....
1st up is a teal/brown/black wristlet with butterfly details and whimsical polkadots. For this beauty, I followed the tutorial on
Two Peas in a Pod Designs


Next choice is a car cozy. I got the tutorial for this one at Homemade by Jill

Please note: cars are not included.

And the last choice is this awesome pom pom skirt

I'll have another post all of it's own for this skirt. Can't wait to make some more. I got the idea for this from Jessica at Oh So Happy Together


So there you go. Join me in celebrating 500 hundred posts. All you have to do is comment here. Tell me where you're from or how you found me or nada. Just a hi. I'll pick a winner next Thursday, March 4th. Please make sure you leave a way for me to get in touch with you, should you be one of the 2 winners.

thanks for looking on the 1 or two posts or the 500 of them. (right mom?)

Cheers,
Amanda