Help!? my wedding is trying to eat me!!

Uh oh.... 1 month and 9 days to go until....


until





I GET MARRIED!!!!!!


Still so much to do! I can't believe it's flown around so quickly! I'm starting to feel a bit distant from it to be honest, like it's not 'real'... it's like Christmas when your 6, you wait for it for weeks, months even and when it finally arrives it's like you've waited so long, and been so excited and there's so much hype surrounding it that the day just doesn't seem like 'The Day'! I kinda feel like I should just 'go with it' and take everything as it comes but I'm feeling like I'm being a little TOO laid back about it and I don't know why. It's not that I don't care about it, no no no no no... im marrying my best friend and to use a cliche the love of my life.. it's more the wedding part than the marriage part... oh gosh I'm making no sense again aren't I?

I've been planning for so long, and there have been SOOOO many dissappointments along the way... to name a few:

The dress not fitting ( i wont go into it but in a nutshell, it does now THANKFULLY!, but when I tried it on the ladies who sold it to me told me it was perfect for me when it turns out it hadnt been done up at the back and was way to small)

My social anxiety holding me back from going to the gym which is costing me a fortune to stay a member of and we can't get out of it :(

Family dissapproval

Bridesmaid dress issues... as in we only just picked and ordered them two weeks ago (I wont go into that further but HOLY COW has it been stressing me out!)

Being double booked TWICE after a PAID deposit for our original ceremony site AND the second ceremony site we booked due to the first one falling through.

Having such rude vendor services in our original wedding location, no one we paid to hire actually made us feel like it was our big day, just that it was a burden on them

SO due to some major stressors and budget problems we moved the wedding from one town to our home town for convenience for us and costing less 3 months before the wedding date... that hasn't been as much of a nightmare as you'd imagine... aside from a 30% drop in the guest list of attendees but we expected that.

There are more  but I won't go into it...


you see why I'm feeling a little distant about it? It just seems like everytime we plan something to work for US and to make US happy it falls apart and ends up being more stress! GRRRRRRRRR


I guess I'm just finding it difficult to be excited, and to be prepared for whatever happens.

Help!?

Goals and I dont get along too well

I started a little page for my hand sewn things but you don't know me from any one else out there who does the same thing. I am just another girl entering the crafting world in the hopes of selling something right? Wrong! Actually, the real reason was because I feel like of my many little foibles (be they useful or not) not many of them are actually known to anyone but me! I didn't know I could sing until I stood up in front of a crowd of 250 people one day for a charity fundraiser and sang 'Killing Me Softly' and got a standing ovation...I didn't know I could draw overly well until my art teacher told me I would sincerely benefit from taking a two year trip to Paris to study in a Parisian Art School! As I am not currently sitting under the Eiffle Tower sipping piccolo lattes with a pencil in my hand, you can see that I didn't take that advice.. (a couple of thousand dollars can make any dream a reality) but still, it was a MASSIVE encouragement to be told that.

But in saying all that, I don't sing in front of people, I'm not a member of a choir, and I get rejected from musical auditions (I maintain I'm not 'stage material'... I think you have to be pretty for that stuff), I hardly ever draw anymore and I'm sure there's more to me than that but I haven't worked it out yet.

And so, one of my foibles that I actually want the world to notice (and people have told me it's a little peculiar at my age, but I dont care)... I actually really really REALLY love to hand sew and embroider!! Machine sewing, and don't get me wrong, there are some AMAZING things out there people are able to sew with a machine but I just don't get the same satisfaction from it. I actually enjoy the quiet moments spent sitting with a needle and thread in hand and carefully running a stitch through fabric, it's utter bliss for me! I don't feel the same sense of... oh I don't know how to word it.... erm, the drive to make a dress for example.. so you buy your fabric, you buy your pattern and it's pretty much done in a day. I suppose, if my intention was to make baby clothes for example, you'd need to make them sturdy, they're have to withstand multiple washes... hand sewing doesn't always provide that so of course I'm not going to try and make baby clothes. Dolls clothes perhaps, but not for children... does this make sense?

Anyway, so let me show you something I found thismorning that I had forgotton I'd done

This is a 30 x 30cm square of chocolate brown satin that I hand embroidered with dragonflies and a lovely vine pattern with beadwork. I adore dragonflies, and my intention with this was that I was going to make enough squares in 'colours of the seasons' each embroidered with the dragonflies and vines and roses to make a bed throw out of. It was when I found this square of fabric thismorning that my intentions came rushing back to me and I felt an overwhelming desire to continue with my dream (I don't need a couple thousand dollars for this one!)

Here is the second one I must have started but didn't finish

So this is my plan... I want to finish this project, I really do! Then I want to enter it in the craft section of the Autumn Festival next year! Wouldn't that be fantastic?! I'm excited just thinking about it... but of course, I'd have to actually start working on it again for that. Too bad I can't stick to goals! I will, for the time being, put this project into the 'to be completed' basket I think.

Dreaming of Chocolate Cream Pie

I was watching 'Julie and Julia' today and I have been hit with a powerful desire to make a chocolate cream pie!! Looks like I'm taking a trip to the supermarket in the morning! And while we're on the subject of food, I will also be baking a roast dinner on Sunday... oh yes, yes, yes Sunday roast how cliche right? Ha ha well it's like this, I havent baked ANYTHING in oh I don't know how many months. Call it being busy, call it being lazy, it could be due to anything really but the point is I am due to be married in October and I'm shaping up to be a pretty crummy wife! So my poor fiance has been sleeping outside in the freezing cold for his job since Wednesday and gets back on Sunday and I feel terrible... the apartment is an absolute disaster zone, I've hardly touched the kitchen, the washing is almost high enough to scale with a grappling hook and considering we don't have children I'm thinking that's pretty slack of me. So I've kicked myself back into gear and gone a crazy cleaning spree this evening and my lovely man has requested a nice big beef roast with lots of baked potatoes (his favourite) and a citrus meringue tart. Sounds good doesn't it? Ok so it does seem a little '50's house wife' but believe me when I say, if I am willing to clean up our collosal mess and cook a giant meal... our apartment and eeating habits have been REALLY bad lately.

But anyway that's enough of me commiserating about how I wouldn't survive a bygone era...

So, 4 months til Christmas huh? Holy cannoli that has come back around fast! It doesn't seem that long ago that we had last Christmas! I swear it comes up faster and faster every year don't you think?
I hadn't even thought about it really, until the thought struck me today that i'd need to start present hunting again *insert slightly apprehensive frightened face* I HATE Christmas shopping... you would think since I had my own little shop I could just make everyone something right? Alas the downside of only stocking things applicable to girls... I don't think my dad or my brother would appreciate a cute headband somehow!

What is everyone else doing for Chrissy this year? Wouldn't it be great if the whole online crafting community could participate in one ginourmous 'Secret Santa' where we all agree to swap with other businesses in return for something of theirs and so on? Imagine the variety of gifts you'd end up with!! THAT would be a great way to make Christmas easy...

Happy Friday and wishing you all a fantastic weekend guys

-Tash Xx

Obsessed or devoted or just nuts?

Look what I made yesterday! I am ridiculously proud of myself, I did it without a pattern or tutorial or even a measuring tape and sewed it with a hand needle! Pretty cool huh? I highly doubt it's an original design though, and to be honest I just chopped up a heap of rectangles and guestimated what I'd need and where to put them and how to sew it together so it didn't fall apart but it worked!

I am sooo keen to get to work on another one! Only the next one I will work out what kind of closure to add to the bag and put some pockets on the inside and two on the outside and make it into a nappy bag.  I even had some ideas about making matching nappy wallets that you could fold out and use as change mats too!

Hand sewn I hear you say? Yes indeed... I hand sewed it. Each seam is triple stitched for durability and you don't want to know how long it took me to complete... really you don't....

you do?

Oh gosh...

ok well it took me 6 hours.. yes I know, it really is a labour of love but for some reason (and this partly makes up the reason why I'm crazy) I find it very theraputic and relaxing!

I went fabric shop hunting today and came back with lots of fabrics (I couldnt decide on just ONE), a roll of lovely variety vintage cotton strips, ribbons, buttons, christmas buttons for my christmas bundles I want to make (and I am very excited to start those let me tell you!!) and some other bits and bobs... I am smiling from ear to ear! I even thought I would try my hand at some of my own design owls but mini versions! I don't know how they're going to work out but hey, it's worth a try right?

Well, I'm off to get sewing! It is positively freezing here today, I swear my toes are going to break off my feet very shortly (time to find and 'borrow' the fiance's ugg boots methinks)..

Happy Thursday everyone!

-Tash xoxox

Sew Sweet Headband Tutorial

Well ladies, here it is! My very first tutorial I would love nothing more than for you to have some fun and tap into your own inner-creativity to make headbands in any colour and size you like! If you're like me and love accessorising your outfits with that perfect item but just can't find that special something, just make yourself one! They also make fantastic gifts and with Christmas just around the corner, it's the perfect thing to do! I hope you have as much fun making these gorgeous headbands as I do... they're so so adorable!

I was feeling particularly girly today so I have picked a gorgeous pale yellow and purple fabric for my flowers, pale yellow buttons for my centres and a lavender spandex lace for the headband...worked out quite nicely don't you think?

You will need:

• a 1/4 of a metre of your favourite coloured fabric. I'm using cotton today but satin works just as well
• a pair of sharp scissors
• glue gun and some hot glue melts
• needle and matching thread
• buttons to match your fabric
• a 12.5 inch long piece of spandex lace (available at most crafting shops)
• a 5.5 inch long piece of elastic
• 2 x 5cm pieces of matching ribbon
• a coffee cup (empty of course)

Trace around the brim of your coffee cup onto the back of your fabric 20 times and cut out your circles...these circles will become the petals of your flowers; there are two flowers to this type of headband with 10 petals on each flower.

To make your petals, take a circle and fold it in half. You can iron the crease to make things easier

Fold in half again and iron your crease

Do this with all the remaining petals

Take your needle and thread and pop two stitches along the bottom of one petal

Do this about a 1/4cm in from each edge and a 1/2cm from the bottom edge

Do this with 9 more petals and tug the thread as you go so your flower begins to take shape

Your flower should look like this!

Once you have threaded all 10 petals on, pop your needle through the petal you started and tug on it gently with to close the flower

Run a stitch or two back and forth through the two petals to secure it, then stick your needle down through the fabric and tie a knot on the back

Repeat the process to create your second flower. They should look this this:

Cut out two small circles of left over fabric about the size of a 50 cent coin and hot glue one on the back of each flower to secure your petals in place

Glue your buttons on over the centres of your flowers

Take your 12.5 inch long piece of spandex lace and stitch your 5.5 inch long piece of elastic to each end of the lace. Be sure to stitch it on securely so it won't come loose.

Take one of your 5cm long pieces of ribbon. Wrap it and glue it down over the stitching on your headband. Repeat on the other end.

Have a play around and decide where you would like to position your flowers on your headband. Once you have them where you'd like them, use hot glue to attach them to the headband. Cut out two small circles about 7cm wide and use these to glue over the lace on the back of your flowers.

And there you have it! Your very own fabric flower lace headband!
For personal use only though please, I'd appreciate it if you didn't sell items made from this tutorial; it's just courtesy :)

I would love to see everyone's headbands! If you email your photos to me at
thequirkycraftingshmooglebean@gmail.com
I will feature them here on this blog!

This is my very first ever tutorial so if I have missed something, or you would like to ask a question...please don't hesitate! :)

Enjoy! xox

Chocolate covered coffee beans and pop rocks!

I don't know whether or not I've just had too much sugar and caffeine today (possibly a combination of both) but I have had this crazy idea to post a tutorial on how to make something... I'm not yet entirely sure as to what but hey! Who cares! I'm just gonna go with the chocolate covered coffee bean flow....

Brilliant!!