A little bit of love for Inglewood

On Saturday we had a gorgeous day with a sunny 25 degrees. We decided to hop in the car for a little country drive and visit a new place. Looking at the map we chose Inglewood, and what a great choice it was.

This is a town of only about 1000 people, that once flourished during the gold rush, but seems once again to have found a world in which to shine. The people were among the most friendly and welcoming I have ever met, and although many of the shops were crammed with tiny collectables and antiques, our family of six were welcomed into each one without any of the hesitation that shopkeepers can have at the sight of small children. I fell a little bit in love with the place, and can't wait to return.

It has several antique and collectible shops, an op shop, some gorgeous old buildings, and a lot of history.

Here's a little of what we found.

Juliet bought these shoes for $1 and I got this home made table cloth for $2 which I will make something with.

And I also got this 60's dress which needs a little bit of love. I've already started working on it.

I really wanted to buy a boot load of vintage suitcases. But alas, we can't have everything. :-)

Yarn wrapped coat hanger hearts

What started out as a lovely autumn morning planting a new crop in our veggie garden, spiralled into a full day outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh air, and getting creative.

I thought I'd share this little tutorial of how I made yarn wrapped hearts.

First I got some old wire coat hangers and bent them into heart shapes. I just did this with my hands, and then used the pliers to cut the bottoms off (the hook part). If you want to be a bit more perfect with your heart shapes you can use the pliers to give a better shape.

Then I cut off a length of yarn and tied it to the peak of my coat hanger, and wrapped the bottom bit tightly with my yarn. I'm using this wide yarn called 'fish net' yarn which comes in these gorgeous bright colours.

Basically I just kept wrapping fairly tightly and crossing over whenever I felt like it.

Then it was just more crossing and wrapping. When I ran out of yarn I just cut off a bit more and tied a knot to keep going. I wrapped some yarn around the knot to disguise it a bit.

 Here's my finished heart, tied to my fence.

And another one.

I've got four kids, so I had to make 4 hearts. Yes, they make me smile.

It was lovely outside, so I used the last bit of sunshine to do some more sewing of blankets onto my trees. My yard is doing a lot of smiling on it's own now, and it's a very happy place to be.

I live in the best place on earth!

The Red Jacket

Here's the jacket I got at the op shop for 20 cents. It's a Billabong brand and it's warm and cosy with a wool blend. I love the buttons at the back. A couple of buttons were missing so I cut off the others from the front section and put some cute floral buttons on instead from my stash.

A simple change that adds some colour and makes it more 'me'.

It's even brighter than my hair. I'm almost kinda ready for winter now. As if I have a choice.

linking to http://www.blackbirdhasspoken.com/,  http://www.alivingspace.com/ , and http://www.recycled-fashion.com/

Rockin' the denim

Here's another refashion of one of my old t shirts. I won this (glow in the dark) top in a competition way back in my uni days. It's about 20 years ago. Yikes!

 I chopped it today and added it the the denim jacket I got for Dylan at the op shop the other day.

Jacket.

T shirt. Barely worn as it was a really narrow fit that squashed my chest making it look like I had a mono boob. You know the type?

                               

Mr D rocking the jacket! With his sweater pants.

Yes Mum, I do need to sit in mud whilst wearing wool pants.

Oh look, Dad's home. xxxxx

Thrifty Business

Winter is starting to creep in here, with the days still warm but the morning and afternoon/evenings getting decidedly chilly.

Op shopping on the weekend was aimed at some wintery finds.

First up I found this Billabong jacket, it's part wool so it's very warm. It was a crazy 20 cents at a local parish op shop. Yep, 20 cents. Nuts!!

These are for Mr Dylan. A cool denim jacket, a warm lined parka and a hoodie. These were 1 and 2 dollars each.

Mr D also got a snow suit. Totally adorable and just the thing for playing in muddy puddles. We don't have snow here but it does get a little chilly.

Some pretty plates, for a project.

And a young soldier in a frame. I wondered how he got there and why. In the end I couldn't leave him in the old frames bin, especially as it's ANZAC day here tomorrow, and our soldiers of the past are very much on our minds. He has come to stay at our place.

I am part of a group called stuff sharers where group members give away their unwanted 'stuff', and this week I got this vintage scrabble board, and the smaller of the two vintage suitcases below. (An old Nun's suitcase. I love it, and am using it for storage in my craft room, which is always a work in progress.)

Bless all of our wonderful soldiers of past and present. xx

Birds....Again.

I made some more bird feeders today. I had the screw in legs of my broken table and I didn't want to waste them, so I used the legs and glued on some old saucers and a cup.

I stuck them in bricks because our soil is pure rock. Impenetrable.

Unfortunately it attracted the wrong wildlife. These scavengers!

Will see if I get any actual birds tomorrow.

On the happier side of cooler weather coming, today was the first day I got to wear my decoupage shoes that I made a little while ago, and they made me smile all day. Oh the simple pleasures of life.

My Nan's towels to a lovely picnic rug.

I have been looking at these towels longingly since I first got them from my Nan. The colours are so vibrant after all these years, and I wanted to make something great with them. I finally took the plunge and was brave enough to get my scissors and sewing machine out for this project.

I used her towels, another hand towel I found at an op shop, and an op shop plastic tablecloth to put on the bottom to make it waterproof for damp ground.

First I cut the towels into rectangles. The first cut is always the toughest.

Then I sorted out my design, and decided to add a doily to the centre.

Sewed all my pieces together, and here is my rug.

The kids love it, and so do I. Now we can enjoy these towels for picnics and play, and make many wonderful memories with these as our backdrop. Thanks Nan. xx