Welcome to my new domain!

Months ago, before the paid work got crazy-busy, I had grand plans of making craft stuff to sell on-line.  I registered a business name, got a domain name, and started work on a website.  I also made some labels and put them on some presents I made for family last Christmas as well as some fairy skirts for the Queensland Flood Relief Appeal.

Things have come to a screaming halt though, and I figure that I may as well use the domain name for something, so I'm starting the switch over to 'fred-and-cissy' as my blog.  Who knows, maybe down the track I'll get back onto making things for sale, but in the meantime, here's the story behind Fred and Cissy (my apologies if you've read it before...) :

Fred and Cissy (actually Alfred & Gertrude) were my dad's maternal grandparents.  To the best of my knowledge they died before I was born, but I have the letters that Fred wrote to his sweetheart on the boat across from England in 1912-13.  He came to Australia ahead of her to find work and get settled before she made the trip and then they were married.  Dad also has a poem that his grandfather wrote (or appropriated) for their golden wedding anniversary so many years later and he was evidently as smitten then as he was on the boat across.  Since I inherited the letters from my Grandma I've been fascinated with them, charmed by their love for one another and aware of the sense of humour they must have had (this is one of the few photos dad has of them - Cissy is on the right in the photo, holding the silverbeet).

Anyway, I'm going to keep on labelling some of my craft stuff in their honour.  I hope that if you receive anything with a Fred & Cissy label it'll give you a smile to match Fred's in the photo!

Gathering inspiration for a new project

Right now I'm gathering inspiration for some new projects, so watch this space!

Here's some tasters of projects from the past which are influencing my thoughts...

Raffle winners!

Thank you to Baukje and Alison for entering my raffles - the fairy skirts will be on their way to you shortly (I just need your address Alison).  I can't believe that one of my skirts is heading its way to France!  I hope that the little people in your lives have lots of fun dressing up (my younger son has a pink skirt and wand, and he loves being a 'pink fairy', much to his brother's amusement!!).  I have one lone fairy skirt left, and will hold it open for anyone wanting to make the same $10 donation to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal - just leave me a comment with your receipt number.

Be the first to enter my raffles!

I have three fairy skirts on offer by raffle for the Queensland Flood Relief Appeal.

Each has three layers of tulle/soft net, with the top layer being sparkly (the 2nd one has metallic silver stars). They're adjustable and would suit a pre-school / primary school aged child. You can enter with a $10 donation to the appeal - see full details on the post below.

SO FAR NO ONE'S ENTERED MY RAFFLES, SO IF YOU DO YOU'LL BE FIRST IN THE RUNNING TO WIN!

Flood Relief Giveaway of sorts #3: Pink Fairy Skirt

This pink fairy skirt has a fully adjustable and elasticised waist, and would suit a pre-school or primary school aged child. It has a couple of layers of pink net and a pink tulle layer with sparkly silver dots on top. It's soft and wafty with a maximum length of around 40cm.

How this giveaway works:

1. This giveaway is open to everyone and postage is FREE. 
2. To enter you must donate $10 to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and add a comment on this post including your receipt number.
3. You can enter as many times as you like but each entry must have a separate receipt number.
4. This is an honour based system, so please don't use the same receipt number for more than one giveaway/auction - the idea is to raise as much money as possible for people affected by the floods.
5. The giveaway ends at midnight Queensland time on Wednesday 26 January 2011, and a winner will be drawn at random on January 27.
6. Thankyou for participating and good luck!

Flood Relief Giveaway of sorts #2: Mauve & Blue Fairy Skirt

This blue and mauve fairy skirt has a fully adjustable and elasticised waist, and would suit a pre-school or primary school aged child. It has a layer of blue net and one of mauve (soft, not scratchy) and a white tulle layer with sparkly silver stars on top. It's soft and wafty with a maximum length of around 45cm.

How this giveaway works:

1. This giveaway is open to everyone and postage is FREE. 
2. To enter you must donate $10 to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and add a comment on this post including your receipt number.
3. You can enter as many times as you like but each entry must have a separate receipt number.
4. This is an honour based system, so please don't use the same receipt number for more than one giveaway/auction - the idea is to raise as much money as possible for people affected by the floods.
5. The giveaway ends at midnight Queensland time on Wednesday 26 January 2011, and a winner will be drawn at random on January 27.
6. Thankyou for participating and good luck!

Flood Relief Giveaway of sorts #1: Two-tone Blue Fairy Skirt

This blue fairy skirt has a fully adjustable and elasticised waist, and would suit a pre-school or primary school aged child. It has a couple of layers of blue net (soft, not scratchy) and a pale blue sparkly tulle layer on top. It's soft and wafty with a maximum length of around 40cm.

How this giveaway works:

1. This giveaway is open to everyone and postage is FREE. 
2. To enter you must donate $10 to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and add a comment on this post including your receipt number.
3. You can enter as many times as you like but each entry must have a separate receipt number.
4. This is an honour based system, so please don't use the same receipt number for more than one giveaway/auction - the idea is to raise as much money as possible for people affected by the floods.
5. The giveaway ends at midnight Queensland time on Wednesday 26 January 2011, and a winner will be drawn at random on January 27.
6. Thankyou for participating and good luck!

Flood Relief Appeal

We've been watching ABC News 24 for much of this afternoon, and feeling a combination of relief that we left Ipswich for Melbourne last night, and concern about the Man's family who are still there.  They're safe for now, although we've been harrassing them about moving to higher ground.  Was just closing down the computer when I saw the above link on Samelia's Mum's site and thought I'd put the word out there now.  Click on the picture above for more details, but essentially the idea is that as an on-line community we auction off and/or buy crafty items with the proceeds going to the flood appeal.  Will be adding a post later with details of what I'm auctioning...

Going dotty (part 1)

You might have noticed that my 'grand plan' includes a few dresses with spots, and that two of them absolutely must be finished this week or there'll be embarrassment around the Christmas tree come Saturday.  Well, I'm pleased to say that the first dress now totally finished.  I wanted a design that was a bit dressy, but not so much so that my nieces wouldn't get much wear out of them, so I've only lined the bodice, and rather than have a tulle frill peaking out from under the hem I've put a pink band on the bottom of the skirt.  So that's Miss 2 done, now I need to get onto Miss 5's matching dress.

Fred & Cissy

Fred and Cissy (actually Alfred & Gertrude) were my dad's maternal grandparents.  To the best of my knowledge they died before I was born, but I have the letters that Fred wrote to his sweetheart on the boat across from England in 1912-13.  He came to Australia ahead of her to find work and get settled before she made the trip and then they were married.  Dad also has a poem that his grandfather wrote (or appropriated) for their golden wedding anniversary so many years later and he was evidently as smitten then as he was on the boat across.  Since I inherited the letters from my Grandma I've been fascinated with them, charmed by their love for one another and aware of the sense of humour they must have had (one of the few photos dad has of them has Sissie and another lady on either side of Fred.  They're holding silverbeet and he's holding a teddy bear with a grin on his face!

Anyway, I decided that I'd label some of my craft stuff, so I've made labels tonight honouring them.  I hope that if you receive anything with a Fred & Cissy label it'll give you a smile to match Fred's in that photo!


If you want to make similar labels here's what I did:

• I made the labels in Word.  I experimented with Word Art, and obviously you could use pictures if you like, but in the end I just used text in a table (no gridlines) - it was a lot less fiddly than trying to align multiple pictures/frames into neat rows.  I got 5 columns and 10 rows onto the page in landscape format using this method:  

• The tricky bit is that you need to 'mirror image' / horizontally 'flip' the text and any image.  On the Mac I saved the Word document as a PDF, opened that in 'Preview', saved it as a JPEG, and then flipped that horizontally (for some reason it'll flip a photo but not a PDF).  I've had a look at our PC, and the most straight-forward way that I can find so far to flip the text is to make sure that it's inserted in Word as Word Art.  You can then click on the 'draw' tab and then 'flip horizontal' on the drawing toolbar.  I tried inserting it in an auto shape, but the shape mirrors and the text stays the same.  The other option would be to create your label in Paint, flip it there, then insert it multiple times as a picture in Word.  Both options are not particularly user friendly in my opinion, so if you come up with a better way let me know!

• I printed a sample and checked it in the mirror just to be sure, then printed it onto some iron-on transfer paper from Lincraft (it comes in a pack of 5x A4 sheets).

• Cut the labels, leaving as little blank paper around them as possible (I used a guillotine to cut them into strips, and then cut them into separate labels from there, so that I could put space between them on the tape - if you were less stingy with your use of the paper (eg. had 3 or 4 columns instead of 5, then you wouldn't need separate them out).

• Iron them onto cotton tape following the instructions on the paper packet.

Inspired by (2)...

I feel like I'm hyperactively crafty this week (and yet somehow I've missed doing what I said I was going to, and haven't started the dresses for my nieces) - my latest offering was inspired by Samelia's Mum's mug-rug.  Our prep class have watched caterpillars hatch, grow, form a chrysalis and finally transform into Orchard Butterflies.  I think that the teacher's been at least as excited by the process as the kids, particularly with the first butterfly coming out of its chrysalis on Friday.  Don't tell, but I've made Mrs K a 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' mug-rug to be paired with some related goodies.  Refreshingly quick to make (I started it after dinner last night, and finished it about 24 hours later), and I really enjoyed the pictorial style - I can see myself following it up with a quilt-as-you-go project down the track.

My creative space

I have finished the Trouser Project (I've another pair of threadbare pants now though, so the project may make a reappearance).  Very happy with the finished product!  Just waiting on some goodies to put in it before sending it north for Christmas.

So, in my creative space tomorrow I'll be turning this small stack of pink into a frothy birthday present fit for a fairy!

How many weeks is it until Christmas?

I've planned a very crafty Christmas.  You know - make as many of the presents as possible, that way they're unique, personal and hopefully you save a bit of cash along the way.  I've been doing a mental tally of the list though, and am getting concerned at this point.  Here it is in black and white:

• Finish the Trouser Project bag (I cut out the pieces last night and in theory they're ready for embellishment, but I'm obsessing about one of the pockets that I've added and I think I'm going to redo it).
• Make a dress each for my two younger nieces
• Make 2-3 fairy skirts
• Finish a photo album for my older son

It's a bit embarrassing that I've already culled the list, excluded the 'little' things like Christmas cards (soon to be relegated to next year again I'm afraid), and to say that I'd also like to finish the curtains that I'm making for our bedroom and make myself a dress, plus I've been looking at the trouser bag pattern and thinking that it'd be really cute to make little girl versions to go with the dresses (one side out of floral/spotted material and one plain, with a contrast binding)... [deep breath].  Hmm, and I need to work, look after the kids, etc..  Lucky my husband doesn't read this, or he'd be rolling his eyes!  I plan to finish the trouser bag and one fairy skirt this week, then take it "one week at a time" - wish me luck!

the threadbare trouser project

I have a handbag that I love - just the right size (well nearly, if it were a smidge bigger I could get an A5 notepad into it and that'd be great), right number of pockets, the strap goes diagonally over my shoulder so it doesn't fall off and I can use both my hands - I have vowed to keep it forever.  The problem is that my 'made in china' bag wasn't made to be kept forever.  The lining has fallen apart, and doesn't seem to be fixable - oh the tragedy!

Strangely enough the answer came in a work expo and a pair of threadbare trousers...

At the expo I was given a bag of handouts.  The handouts were so-so (most went straight in the recycling), and the bag's handle was annoyingly short, but the design was bliss!  One pattern piece, cut it out twice, sew it together, and you a nifty handbag that you could resize a little and use for the beach / a nappy bag.  Make it out of a pair of suit trousers and you have the makings of the world's best bag - slightly bigger than my old bag, button up pockets inside for things you need to keep safe, a zipper across the top, and even a separate pocket to keep the mobile/car keys within easy reach.

I added the dragonflies along the way (the material has a red line through it), hubbie wasn't wearing them that way at the office!

  I've been so impressed by the way the bag's worked out I'm going to make one for a female relative I have in this year's Kris Kringle (here's hoping she likes it!).  I've gotten a pair of pants from Savers - probably too good to cut up, but they don't sell pairs with holes in them :(

From tulle on to threadbare trousers...

Thank you to everyone who has asked about / bought a fairy skirt.  I'm off to school tomorrow to add $95 to our class stall's total for the fair, as I've now sold all of them!

I've a couple of projects I need to start for Christmas (OK at least 3 to start and a major one to finish).  No details just yet, but if you're keen to know exactly what you can do with a pair of suit trousers so threadbare that they have a hole in the crotch watch this space (digital camera's gone AWOL otherwise I'd give you a bit of a hint)!