Lilly Cottage

Up close and Personal.

My apologies for being away from my little blog for so long, life gets so busy sometimes it is hard to find that quiet moment in the day ( well more than just a moment) to sit down and write. Blogging is such a wonderful part of my life that I feel like a neglectful mother when it is goes a week or more with out paying it my full attention.

Blogging to me means meeting so many new people and following their blogs, it means sharing what I love with people who love the same things I do. It means sharing photos of my little cottage shops and life around me...it makes me pay attention to the little things and see the beauty within.

I  am forever taking photos to share on here, photos of the things I make, displays I have created, the waves crashing on my litle island and those little things that capture my heart.

Like the sun on this crystal dressing table set. It had just been washed and was sitting on the table drying and the sun was sparkling away throwing rainbow light around the room...and I just knew I had to take a photo.

Often so much time passes between when I take the photos and when I get to document them on here and I wonder if it is too late to post them, whether you would still be interested in them..then I ask myself the question..would I still like to see them? The answer is always yes, I adore looking at the blogs by others and reading about your lives and seeing photos you have taken...it makes it more real for me, like I was there visiting in person all most, no matter how many weeks have passed since the photos were taken. So I shall make a point this week of posting about the wonderful but time consuming things I have been up to in the past month or so ( how quickly the time is going this year).

In the meantime, I hope you have also found some sparkle lately..even if it is in the kitchen..every day you should see something amazing, all you have to do is keep you imagination open.

Kiss Noises Linda

Handmade French Chic up the mountain.

Wow, this year just seems to have flown by and it is that time of the year already for the Mothers Day Craft Extravaganza at the Vonda Youngman Community Centre at North Tamborine.

I have been sewing like a mad woman...I do everything like a mad woman I think and we have been up the mountain and set up our display and it is all ready and waiting for happy shoppers.

We set up the display the day before and we are never quite sure what it is going to look like or where exactly it will be in the hall until we get there.

I must say I was pretty pleased with the end result, it all seemed to work so well together...and I have an awful lot of bags! The shops at Bribie and Old Petrie Town will be a little light on with handmade lovelies this week but do not despair as a huge delivery of gorgeous throws, pillows, blankets and dressing gowns arrived today and there are some stunning new designs!

 

For those of you that would like the drive up the mountain to see the Craft Extravaganza it is on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm each day. Seeing as Sunday is Mothers Day it would be a great opportunity for the family to take you on a lovely day out as your choice wouldn't it?

For those of you that can't make it up the mountain to Tamborine, I thought you might like to see a few ( remember my version of few might be a little bit more exaggerated that yours) photos of my display.

Everything on this stall is handmade by me and whilst nothing there has my name on it, I think you would probably be able to recognise my work fairly easily.

 

Hopefully with this Extravaganza set up I will be able to share a few more posts of lovely things that have been happening around here inbetween the mad sewing.

Until then, enjoy,

 

Kiss Noises Linda

Handmade French Chic up the mountain.

Wow, this year just seems to have flown by and it is that time of the year already for the Mothers Day Craft Extravaganza at the Vonda Youngman Community Centre at North Tamborine.

I have been sewing like a mad woman...I do everything like a mad woman I think and we have been up the mountain and set up our display and it is all ready and waiting for happy shoppers.

We set up the display the day before and we are never quite sure what it is going to look like or where exactly it will be in the hall until we get there. 

I must say I was pretty pleased with the end result, it all seemed to work so well together...and I have an awful lot of bags! The shops at Bribie and Old Petrie Town will be a little light on with handmade lovelies this week but do not despair as a huge delivery of gorgeous throws, pillows, blankets and dressing gowns arrived today and there are some stunning new designs!

For those of you that would like the drive up the mountain to see the Craft Extravaganza it is on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm each day. Seeing as Sunday is Mothers Day it would be a great opportunity for the family to take you on a lovely day out as your choice wouldn't it?

For those of you that can't make it up the mountain to Tamborine, I thought you might like to see a few ( remember my version of few might be a little bit more exaggerated that yours) photos of my display. **** Note for some bizarre reason I can not get my photos to load so will publish this without photos until I can fix it...in the meantime I will put photos up on the Lilly Cottage Facebook page HERE be back as soon as I can..Kiss Noises *********

Everything on this stall is handmade by me and whilst nothing there has my name on it, I think you would probably be able to recognise my work fairly easily.

Hopefully with this Extravaganza set up I will be able to share a few more posts of lovely things that have been happening around here inbetween the mad sewing.

Until then, enjoy,

Kiss Noises Linda

Can a cushion be classed as art?

Well I think it can. After finishing this custom order for a very patient Emily, I am thinking a cushion can most definitely be classed as Art or at the very least artisitic. Way back when Emily asked me if I could make her two European size cushions ( oh my goodness I sooo didn't know how huge they really were), with embroidered words, crazy patch edges and borders...in pretty  bright happy colours. She handed me the words on a little bit of paper, ( she was very organised) and it didn't look too hard...it was a tiny bit of paper afterall...yes well.

It took me a while to find exactly the right background for the embroidered words and once I did getting them to fit onto that background in my crazy writing  was another challenge all together.

Writing the words over and over again I started to get a feel of what colours I thought those words would be...that is when I started thinking this cushion was going to be a work of art much like my long neglected paintings, in the same way I chose colours for the canvas by what felt right the same thing applied to the threads of the embroidery.  After I had been stitching for a while I began to NEED to know what the words actually belonged to, I figured they were lyrics to a song and sent an SOS to Emily to ask her what they were from and then it was home to Google and You Tube to find these two songs. 5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale and

Which perfectly match the colours I had chosen (in my opinion), so here you have the making of Emily's cushions and the finished product...my works of art..I hope Emily love love love's them as much as I do.. Maybe you could play the music in the background and see if I got it right.

 Oh yes Darling Husband helped too..sewing the squares on is his favourite job.

I loved making these cushions too, a bit brighter than my normal stitching colours but my perfect painting colours so  I was in a happy creative place making them.

So what do you think?

Kiss Noises Linda ( off to wrap them up so  Emily can collect them tomorrow)

A little blackboard hint.

I have had a few new blackboards of late, a lovey speech bubble and heart one from The Blackboard Boy, gorgeous ones from Shabby English Rose with...surprisingly roses on them and these French inspired ones. Even painting your own cupboard doors or own blackboad notice boards with blackboard paint has become popular.

One thing I try and remember to tell people when they are purchasing a blackboard from me is that you must 'prime' or 'chalk' your blackboard before you use it for the first time. If you don't do this then the first things you ever write on the board will always be visible underneath.

It is really easy to do and you have to find your inner messy child too which is kind of fun.

All you need is a light coloured chalk and a blackboard eraser ( failing that a dry kitchen sponge will work).

Cover the entire area you will write on with chalk, you might have to go over it a few times to cover it.

Leave it for a few minutes if you can then erase it with the chalk duster.

Cover the blackboard again with the chalk, you will find it is much easier and smoother to do this time.

Leave for  a little while and then come back and dust off again...your chalk board is now ready to write and draw on.

Another little hint when writing signs on chalkboards that you would like to stay on for a little while, is to dip the chalk in water before you write on the board, it looks a little odd when it goes on but when it dries the colour is much brighter than with dry chalk.

So if you ever wonder how I spend me day...this could be it, playing with chalkboards even though if the truth be known I actually HATE the feeling of chalk on my hands and HATE the thought of fingernails or something scratching along a chalkboard and making THAT noise...lol

Have a lovely day,

Kiss Noises Linda

Garage Sale Goodies.

Usually when it comes to Garage sales, they are a bit hit and miss for me...occasionally I might get something awesome but lots of the time they are a little disappointing. Yesterday was different however.

Yesterday we only managed to do half the Garage Sales on my list as we ran out of room in the car ( oh and money and energy).

This amazing Jade plant was one of my treasures..eek think of all the good luck it is going to bring me!

These are my treasures from yesterday..one mans trash as they say!

These are officially the before pictures...before they made it into the house!

Have you found any treasures this week?

Kiss Noises Linda

This Old House.

The hospital I go to for my monthly  infusion is right in the middle of the city. Parking is a bit of a pain sometimes but I really don't mind having to park on the street (even if it is up a really steep hill) as I get to look at  gorgeous houses all the way down the street. There are lots of beautiful houses with lacey wrought iron verandahs and gorgeous windows and fences but this old house is my favourite.

It looks like it has been added to several times over the years and the wood is the most fabulous colour.

If you go along the wall of the house that is on the footpath you can see treasures tucked away under the house where the boards have parted.

I would so love to ' discover' some of those things..like old deck chairs and stair treads...if I didn't look  like a crazy woman ( well anymore than usual) I would stand there and look through those palings  for ages.

The colour of the wood inspires me to paint something with those colours and textures as a background and that window..underneath the house..swoon!

 If you were with me would you join me admiring this house or would you walk by quickly hoping that it wouldn't fall down on you or something horrid run out from underneath?

If you are looking for me, I shall be standing outside of random houses taking pictures on my phone.....and having a wonderful time.

Kiss Noises Linda

Oh dear!

Apparently nobody knew anything about this lovely dolly having her own hair in her lap and a rather unfortunate eyebrow.

Apparently I just picked her up and she was like that. What happened to her? Did she have a really bad hair day and just yank it out herself...but then how did her eyebrow get like that? Now I know the children are too old to be playing with scissors ..well to the point they would chop poor dolly's hair off.

The cat? Did the cat pull her off the cupboard and pull out her hair and maim her eyebrow...maybe but I can't see why...and how did she get back up on the cupboard with her hair in her lap?

None of the children when interrogated I mean questioned said they had an idea at all about what had happened. Now having just had a big dose of steroids it took me a couple of hours of running different scenarios through my mind before it dawned on me...I had been in hospital for a week...what happens when I am away from the house and everyone else is home...aarrrgh silly me why did I not think of it before!!! THE DOG is allowed INSIDE! The much loved Jack Russell/King Charles Cavalier dog that is treated like a baby by Darling Husband and 3 darling children...who also seems to have a particular naughty streak for any of my belongings...the dog has done it surely and then the deed has been covered up by children hoping I wouldn't notice.

That evening I approached Darling Husband with my suspicions...only to see a glimmer of amusement (?) in his eye...he knew!! Not only did he know, it had happened before I went to hospital on a day I wasn't at home..clearly...and he had had himself a little nap (how frightfully unusual...NOT) in the lounge chair, after he had let the said dog in. Said dog had jumped up on top of him whilst he slept and climbed to the top of the lounge chair  and removed my lovely little rag doll and apparently tried to kill her by tearing her hair off...and still he slept on. Not sure when the deed was discovered...obviously before too much damage had been done. What I do know now however is that dolly was put back where she was with her hair in lap, at least one child and one husband knew what happened and some guilt must have been felt as DH had already checked whether the dolls creator..Lisa from Olive Grove Primitives ..could do something with her hair and eyebrow....all before I knew a thing....Sprung!

Happy to say though this lovely Miss has been for a visit with Lisa and has come back with a beautiful new head of hair and some rather natty eyebrows...no one would ever know...well that was the plan...now everybody knows!

Kiss Noises Linda

Lisianthus by Lamplight.

I love Lisianthus, I had never heard of them or more to the point never paid them much attention until I was living and working in London. I had a wonderful job that involved all sorts of fabulous tasks including meeting amazing people and going to places I never dreamed I would go.

One of those wonderful tasks was to help out at a trade/designers fair in London..I think..it was helping a glass artist who was designing some frames for us. Anyhoo one of his postcards had an amazing vase  with  Lisinathus blooms in it and somewhere I have that postcard in a glass and brass frame he made. I know it made it's journey back from England and it is probably packed away somewhere safely  some 16 years later but everytime I see Lisianthus I think of that time.

This wonderful blooms were bought in Aldi of all places and they are beautiful...seeing as it is getting dark earlier I didn't get to photograph them in the sunlight so thought I would try lamplight instead...I am quite please with these quick snaps...unexpected pleasures.

Kiss Noises Linda

Eclectic Fabric Inspiration.

I am not biased, I don't take sides when it comes to fabric, I can see possibilities in all sorts of fabric which could account for my overflowing cupboards and plastic containers full of fabric, but you never know when inspiration may strike and  you have to have the perfect piece of fabric for your creation.

I like to work in colour collections and finish a range of bags and accessories in those colours and then move on to the next colour selection. Sometimes though in the middle of a range other colours call your name and it is really  hard to focus...well that is just me.

Take this weeks fabrics for instance ( admittedly one was bought by my Mother who taste in fabrics in the past has been a bit hit and miss..more miss), I see great things for both these fabrics, though not in the same collection.

As for the one with the bike...love that, inspiring me in all manner of mediums.

I am working on bags at the moment, ones with just a touch of romance...right after that though I am going to play with this fiery red fabric with the good old Eiffel tower on it.

Which would you choose if you had to choose between these lots of fabrics?

Kiss Noises Linda