I love brooches

The lovely LittleChrissy popped these lovelies into my letterbox today (well, actually the postie did, but, you know..)

I had been admiring this 'Commodities' brooch with the barcode on it for a while. I got round to purchasing it on Monday and the lovely Chris gave me an extra little special brooch as well! I really quite like it; it is soft felt with a little paper word on in - 'warmth'. Lovely.


Oh! and a sew sweet little card too!! How spoilt am I?! Thanks lovely Chris :)

As I have quite a love for brooches, here are some other yummies I've been coveting recently!

Gorgeous little cheekyRabbit Badge from pocketcarnival

fabric covered badge by STARASHAN

Gorgeous colour burst: Handfelted little nest brooch by SMboutique

They are on my shopping / wish / Christmas list!

Lairy Pants

What a weekend! Hosting a 5 year-old's party is a little bit exhausting! This was his first 'real' party so the anticipation and excitement was think in the air! On Saturday morning Lachie had his little friends from school and his cousins over for a party. There were lots of happy faces, lots of yummy goodies and lots of games to play.


Lach had his special new party clothes on: a new t-shirt, special 'lairy pants' and a new 'brooch'. Earlier in the week he put his order in for some new shorts; the lovely vintage red-patterned fabrics were his choice and we added some red to go with them. They looked so great on - I was pleased with his choices! The little brooch he wore matched his pants perfectly. It's a little collage brooch he made from some Chinese paper (beautiful reds and golds) while I was making some BrisStyle brooches this week.


He is proudly showing off his new outfit, along with a very cool race car that one of his little frineds gave him .... the prodruding belly in the photo is a product of his party munching; there was no hiding it, I'm afraid!

I've decided that kiddie parties are a lot of preparation and quite exhausting ... but so fun and so worth it, especially when the guest list is kept small! :)

Tis the season ...

The BrisStyle Christmas Market, held last Saturday was such a jolly start to Christmas! So many happy stall-holders and customers; the market had such a lovely vibe. Thank you to all the lovely BrisStylettes and the wonderful Helen for making it such a success!

The guitar 'boys' did such a great job - I was very grateful of my position at the market - right near the music and the food!

And like all the other BrisStylettes, my stock sold well - it's the best market I've ever been to - not only for the great sales, but more importantly because of the friendly and fun atmosphere! I had such a lovely, fun and happy day!


I was also able to do a little of my own Christmas shopping buying two lovely brooches, one for my Mum from Hayley at ReRead and one for my M.I.L from Helen at Ruby Red Studios ... oh, and a few other little bits for myself! :)

The lovely BrisStylettes got into the spirit of giving and donated goods that were raffled off for the Knitting For Brisbane's Needy charity with the lovely Tracy from Hey Harriet looking after the charity and promo table. Here's the raffle prize - chock full of BrisStyle goodness!

And, in the spirit of receiving, here are some lovely handmade goodies I've happily received in the past few weeks!

This is a cute little 'wallet' that came complete with pens, stamps, cards, notebook and stickers. It was made by a student of mine (she is only 13!) and I was so proud of her efforts! So much time and love in a handmade gift; I appreciate and treasure it so much! Vive la Handmade!!


This little cutie (with her expression of absolute bliss!) was a gift from the gorgeous Bel of EmBelISH. As you can see she is gracing our tree, enjoying the Christmas singing and checking out the pressies under the tree!

For our BrisStyle Secret Santa swap, Robyn from Hot Fudge made me this delicious apron! Apologies for the pic - my 4 year-old budding photographer took it this morning, just before cooking pancakes. (he also took all the market photos above, which I was quite proud of!)

And here is is hanging up in the laundry, ready for a wash (I knew I would get it dirty on it's first wear!!)


I feel like I own my very own Hot Fudge little girl dress now - I love the fabric choice and little details! Thanks Robyn!

Ooooh, I love Christmas time; I'm off to wrap some pressies then go for a swim!

Procrastination

Remember the very frustrating dress project of mine? Gorgeous 1960's pattern, yummy grey wool fabric, lined and all ... but was too big.
My lovely mum helped me with a number of fittings and pinnings (who was I trying to kid thinking I was a size 34 bust??!) and I've since made the changes. The lining was a pain but the thing that stopped me in my tracks was the zippper ... an invisible zipper!! It being only my third attempt, I was quite scared. Anyway, I did it and invisible zips really aren't that hard!! (I'll have to remember this for next time!!) I now prefer them to normal ones. So it's finished and here's a dodgy pic to prove it!

I added some stitched black and white ribbon around the waist as a little feature and pinned on one of my favourite button brooches. I really love the pattern and have copied down the changes I made so that I can make a no-sleeves version when summer rolls around.

Another little sewing project waiting for me is to finish these babies.

Along with Bel and Em, fellow BrisStylettes from EmBelISH Clips, I am going to the St William's market tomorrow (Dawson Pde, Grovely) and am hoping to get these 'little jellies' finished and named so they can join Daisy-Bell ready for their market debut!

Gifts

A friend of mine gave me a little 'thank you' gift today - it certainly made going back to work today after holidays much nicer!. She knows me well, look what I got!

This is a fantastic book! It's full of great 60s fashion advertisements with fabulous images and great blurbs. Amazing retro charm!

And this lovely green button. The red/pink ones are for me to make a pair of earrings for her, the green one's for me. The buttons are amazing too - they're made from resin with nuts and sticks in them, then polished smooth. They were purchased on her recent trip to South Australia. I'm looking forward to wearing the green one as a brooch ... or maybe a pendant as it's really smooth and nice to touch.

New Things

Welcome to my blog :)
As well as my new blog 'Charlie and Grace', here are some other new things I’ve been making this week.

As part of my ‘Retro Ladies’, I’ve made these little brooches and rings. I love flipping through vintage women’s magazines and going back in time, having a laugh and finding little treasures! I found some particularly tiny treasures and decided to put them on rings ... while these are essentially paper rings, and not very practical, the images are fun!

This brooch is a pretty 60s lady. I used a page from an old novel and highlighted the words "I was thinking" - I think it suits her picture, don't you?!

As I'm hoping to sell these brooches and rings, either in my etsy shop or at local markets, I decided to make myself a brooch too. I used this gorgeous scrap of fabric - she's such a 1950s sweetie, reminds me of my mum as a little girl with curls :)

The magazines I use for my collage work are usually damaged with ripped covers or water-stained so I don’t feel so bad cutting them up. I do have a small stash of magazines in better condition that I keep away from the scissors (some even have the original sewing patterns still included … and one of these days I’d love to give one a go!).