Life in pictures......

Enjoying a week off from work.  Catching up on my my reading (blogs)  watching movies, cooking and sewing.  A great way to end the year.....not long to go before 2011 is here!

enjoying green tea

Admiring other peoples creativity....

of the sugary, cakey kind

Discovering the Paddington Reservoir

reminded us of a mini Colosseum

Sydney Opera House....Good to see that Oprah left it as she found it.....phew!

Sydney Harbour Bridge - Summer in the city....blue skies for miles

Have a wonderful New Years Eve everyone....and look forward to announcing the winners of the competition in the next couple of days!

Rocky Road, Project 365, Sunsets and all the Christmas crazyness......

Its been a little crazy around here.....

However I wanted to wish everyone who has been so supportive with my blog and competition and all my projects a very Merry Christmas 2010!    Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and also comment and email me with great feedback and ideas.   I truly feel lucky to be part of a great online community.

Also I am very excited about my new project for 2011.   You can read more about it here:



***Project 365 - 2011 - One picture every day for a year......***

All the best to everyone and here I share with you some pictures of the lovely things I have been up to in the last few weeks:

Enjoying sunsets.

as well as Sydney Summer Storms.

Summer skies

Admiring the new Market Street entrance to the new Sydney Westfield Mall

A very handmade vibe about it I think....feels like rope!

Lots of Christmas festivities in the lovely city

Making rocky road with mum

Ready for gift giving

Sewing more owlies....they patiently wait to be finished

Creating wall art for our apartment.  A joint collaboration with Martino...

Some Christmas shopping for myself....

Feliz Navidad a todos!

xo
claudes

A year round wreath....

I had bought this wreath with the intention of decorating it for Christmas.

Inspired by this beautiful idea:

Tutorial can be found here

However the other day I was looking through my fabric stash and found this beautiful apricot colored satin trim.  It once belonged to a blanket that I cut up to make more of my owlies.  I took the trim and wrapped it around the wreath.  Kept it all in place with some white dressmaking pins.  I then cut up some felt butterflies in a matching apricot color and also used pins to keep them in place.  Finally,  I used the pages of an old book I found during a recent council clean up.  A paper punch used to give them their shape.  Here is the finished wreath:

It now decorates our apartment door.

It only took me less than 15 minutes and really cost $2.99 for the wreath as everything else I had here at home.  

ps:  Dear Santa....If you are reading this post....please I would love love love one of these for Christmas.   As my mobile phone camera no longer does it for me.  

Because today I am just thinking......

Project 365 -  29 July, 2009

Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results.” — James Allen

Craftyclaudes Giveaway

With only 2 weeks to go before Christmas, I would like to share in the Christmas spirit by announcing my very first ever Giveaway!

There are 3 prizes up for grabs (one prize per winner):


Prize 1 -  is this lovely necklace made by Jenn from Mytwobutterflies blog.

This piece is a wonderful example of the beauty and stylish simplicity of her jewelry.  Jenn loves to recycle and rework vintage jewelry to create her beautiful one of a kind pieces.  Jenn has many more pieces for sale over at her Etsy shop.


Prize 2 is one of my owlies.

 

These owlies are handmade from recycled fabrics sourced from various thrift stores around Sydney.  Each owlie is unique and made with quality fabrics as well as hypo-allergenic polyfill stuffing.  They make wonderfully hug worthy pals.

Prize 3 is another one of my creations.  A flower brooch.

These brooches are made from felt, glass seed beads and cotton embroidery thread.  All brooches are hand sewn and come ready for presentation as a gift to someone special or as a treat for yourself. Use them to brighten up a hat, cap, scarf, cushion etc.

To enter simply leave a comment on the post below.  Please be sure to let me know your email address so that I may contact you if you are one of the lucky winners. Entry is open to both Australian and International readers and winners will be chosen at random once the competition closes.

** Entries close on December 31**


So good luck everyone and look forward to announcing the winners on the very first day of 2011!!

Sculptors, fashion designers, wig and shoemakers - The making of Lady Gaga

Amazingly talented artists come together to make the latest Madame Tussauds wax figure.  Lady Gaga would have been a fun one to be part of I think.  A great video featuring some of the processes involved in making her eyes, wig, shoes and even her teeth. Fascinating.

Freshness from the net......Covet Garden Magazine

I know the month is only really just getting started, but I could not wait to share with you this loveliness.   It is Covet Garden online magazine.  oh my.  She is really a beauty.  Where have I been??  They are up to Isssue 4 already!


Now personally, I am not a fan of all magazines going the online route.   See I love nothing more than sitting with my fave new (paper) magazine out in the park, or under a tree, or by the sunny spot in the window etc flicking through the pages and being able to take my time to go through the articles and pictures.   Often coming back to them weeks or months later for more inspiration. With online magazines you often are tempted to just go through and speed read.  But  oh no - not with this little find.  This deserves your undivided attention and that little bit more time.

The idea behind Covet Garden is best summed up by the clever people behind the mag:

There are a lot of magazines and blogs that show cool interiors. But they always leave us feeling that we’re standing behind a rope, looking at the space like it’s a museum diorama. We started Covet Garden because we wanted to see a magazine that made us feel as though we were invited into someone’s home. And then, once they let us in, we started snooping around and got to know them a bit better.
Covet Garden takes a peek into the homes and lives of some of the city’s most interesting people—spaces that have not been styled by interior decorators and that above all else reflect the passions and interests of those who live there. We hope our stories and our subjects will also inspire you with uncommon and attainable ideas. 

Apart from the beautiful photography and the chance to look at the most detailed rooms I have ever seen, you also get to click on some of the pieces shown, and find out exactly where to purchase them!    Etsy is very much represented in many of these spaces.  Lots of cute little prints and softies and jewelry and clothing.  People supporting handmade.  Lovely.

So check it out, subscribe and let you inbox enjoy some inspired and inspiring  people and spaces.

Olivia and Fifi

Olivia and Fifi owlies.   Softie or cushion. Either way....ready for lots of hugs. Available now in the shop

Sydney - Finders Keepers Market - A review in pictures

Welcome one and all - the weekend's here so kick back, relax and shop handmade.

Phew!  I feel like I can finally sit and share all the wonder that was this years Christmas Finders Keepers market.   The market is held indoors at Carriageworks in Eveleigh, a suburb in Sydney's south east.  Eveleigh sits in between the suburbs of Newtown, Alexandria, Erskineville and Darlington.  I love the location for its history and the industrial nature of the space.  Carriageworks was once a working railway workshop built in the late 1800's and is now used as a contemporary art space.  A place where artists can come together to develop and present their works for all to see.

This year we decided to visit the market twice.  First was opening night, where we wandered around to get a feel for what beautiful creations were on offer, as well as soak in the musical acts and the general buzz of creative excitement that was in the air.  Friday night + a bar in the venue + handmade goodies for sale + musical acts made for a fantastic start to the weekend - hundreds of people thought so too.  So for all that could not attend, as promised, here is craftyclaudes review in pictures:

The beauty that is the old railway workshop site

Bike love gets crafty.....

Fixie security is tight

Martino got to road test the "stumpy" stool by The Missing Pieces

See - it really is handmade!

My contribution to the initiative being run by the School for Social Entrepreneurs

On day 2 we came back and decided to make our purchases.  We got to check out the stalls again which was great as we got to chat to more of the stall holders and find out a little about them. Here are some of our purchases:

Martinos t-shirt by Roman Corporate

A beautiful selection of greeting cards by Little Branch

A wrist cuff by Wanyika - Designer for Froqafriq (website currently under construction)

Part of the "Off the wall" Exhibition

 

A really great market, one which I hope to be part of in 2011!