Photo mosaic

Christmas2009_Mosaic, originally uploaded by Zoomie Zoomie.

When I was writing my last post the other day I wanted to arrange the Christmas photos like a mosaic. But as a tech challenged person, I couldn't work it out straight away. After mucking around for more than an hour this morning, I have finally made a mosaic of the pictures we took in the last few days, capturing some of this year's Christmas. I must say I am pretty happy with how it turned out!

Now, I can go back to doing what I had planned to do - housework & tidying up... yeah I know that's boring but the reward is that afterwards I can sit down and get crafty (I am one of those people who can't get on with it unless the workbench is tidy)

Well, hopefully more blogging this afternoon after I have made something...

Until next time, take care and blog soon!

Christmas Day...

We had a lovely Christmas day with family and friends...

This is the Christmas tree on Christmas morning - full of pressies from family &  friends...

The Christmas cake! Green tea powder outside, inside it is a sponge cake with chestnut and fresh cream - very pretty and quite yummy too...

Rum balls from mother-in-law - Hubby's favourite!

Some of the presents from the family! Check out the Amigurumi book and the cute Asian fabric!

Presents from our dear friends...

Sally - after she "played" with one of the presents we got from her "cousins" - see the yellow bits lying around on the floor? That's bits of a tennis ball!

The food! We had such a great feast....

Thank you for Mr Postman!!

Thank you for Mr Postman!! My order from U-Handbag has arrived!!! Here are the goodies I got. They even threw in a package of yummy bears which was promptly gobbled up (for extra energy before our lunch time exercise yesterday)!

I am so excited about these kits and I can't wait to make them. Though I have to get myself some Gutermann Textile Glue... Lincraft doesn't stock them so I'll have to check Spotlight and Hobbysew.

Until next time, take care & blog soon! xx

Christmas Toy Society drops

I did two toy drops hippo & felt mouse) in last two days and still planning to do at least one more before Christmas. It is exciting and impressive to see that over 140 toys have been dropped worldwide!

Until next time, take care & blog soon! xx

Hey Ya! Charlie Brown Style

This is fantastic - I had a smile on my face the entire time!!



Until next time, take care and blog soon!

Owlie night

After a fun filled weekend with a 2.5 year old (more of that later), I finally had two hours of me time this afternoon and managed to get crafty. I made two owls from Craftschmaft's Owl mobile pattern and well, I thought they turned out alright! Until I make two more to complete the mobile, these two are gracing our Christmas tree this year.

Now, back to that fun filled weekend I mentioned.... We went to Featherdale Wildlife Park yesterday where the 2.5 year old chased baby emus and wallabies - luckily the animals were extremely children friendly! I haven't been to a "zoo" in years so I had a great time too! Afterwards, while the little one snoozed, Mum and I had a peaceful lunch together. After lunch, we decided we were brave enough to tackle the shops (and it was only groceries I had to do!).

The weather looked rather miserable this morning so I thought the Wiggles Centre would be a good place to burn off the little one's energy. Now, not having any children myself, I never had any reasons to visit places like the Wiggles Centre and always had this fear to be amongst lots of children. I must say, I lived through it... Actually I was quite impressed with the setup there and the staff were all very nice. I can see how children can stay in there for hours and hours. Yep, our little critic enjoyed his playtime too. I watched as all the children communicated with each other when most of them couldn't string sentences. As much fun as I had watching delightful screaming children, all very well behaved mind you, I was very aware of how much time we were there for (my mum made a comment about how she couldn't believe 2 hours had passed already... hmmm, I could).

So, this weekend, I learned that children love animals no matter what they look/ feel like; that animals tolerated children no matter how hard they patted them; that kids under 4 have their own language; that I admired parents of their patience and concentration span when it comes to their children.... I had a lovely weekend and I even got to make two owls...

Until next time, take care and blog soon!!

New purchases!!

I am so excited! I finally bought myself some patterns from Craftschmaft! A little something to treat myself, plus there is nothing under the tree from the mutt to me which can't be right, right?

Claire has set up a fantastic business, some of the cutest sock softies, I have admired her work since I first saw her at the Stitches and Craft show at Rosehill in September this year. I bought the Owl Mobile pattern, the G-Raf pattern and the Woof Woof pattern. I can't wait to try them out.

One problem - I am running low on perle embrodery thread! Hmmm... have to go get some soon!

Speaking of purchases, I recently put in an order of some cute purse kits with U-Handbag from the UK and I can't wait for them to arrive!! Please Mr Postman!!!

Lastly, I am proud to say that all of our Christmas shopping (for others) are done. All the pressies re nicely wrapped and placed perfectly under the tree. What needed to be mailed are mailed so we are all set! Phew...

Until next time, take care and blog soon!! xx

A day in town

Well, I had a fantastic day yesterday until I came home and tried to post a new blog last night when I encountered pc problem.... I used my husband's new Asus laptop with Windows 7 (Explorer 8) but for some reasons I couldn't get this New Post window appear plus various webpage error messages, so after 2 hours of mucking around, I gave up... I am now typing with my macbook pro. I am determined to work out why I got the error messages on the pc though...

Anyway, I spent a great day with my mum and her little charge, Hugo. Mum minds Hugo for a friend and he is a delightful 2 year old. We took a train to Town Hall and then a bus from Elizabeth Street to Paddingtown Town Hall to visit Allies Attic. We spent a couple of hours there and a small fortune. I had a fantastic time there and said hello to Corrie of Retro Mummy (http://retromummy.blogspot.com/) and Claire of Craftschmaft (http://craftschmaft.com/). The ladies have great stands, actually all the stores were excellent! I got very inspired, now I just have to actually sit down and create!!

Until next time, take care and blog soon!

Lazy Sunday

I didn't feel very motivated today but that's what Sundays are for, right... Right... anyway, by around 5pm I felt thoroughly lazy (I mean relaxed) and thought I would make something. I rummaged through the collection of patterns I found online and decided to have a go at Revoluzza's Monster Ninni pattern (Tutorial: How to sew a RevoluzZzionary Monster / Wie man ein revoluzZzionäres Monster näht)

Two hours later.... VOILA! I am happy with the result but I think if I am to use the same light weight fabric, I ought to iron on some interfacing. Check out the pictures from flickr below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoomiezoomie/sets/72157622945708906/

I aim to make another smaller one to give this one a little friend.

Until next time, take care and blog soon...

Finders Keepers market - Sydney

Just came home from Finders Keepers market at Eveleigh. I had a great time browsing and even managed to pick up some Chrissie presents for 3 of our nieces (so I'd better not post the pictures of my purchases here yet). There were quite a lot of people and their dogs - wished I had mine with me... maybe next time though I would have to drive as I don't think you are allowed a bring a dog on public transport. I also loved the fresh food market and sampled some yummy stuff. I fell in love with a dip called Green Tahini by Yalla (yalla.com.au) so I bought a little tub and have been gorging myself since I came home an hour ago.

Anyway, these are my favourite stores from the market today:

theredthread.com.au

pigeonhole.com.au

herbertandfriends.com.au

onlymidge.com.au

and of course craftschmaft.com.au - Claire was very busy with customers which is fantastic so I didn't interrupt to say hello.

Until next time... take care and blog soon...

Hello to Blogspot - my first ever blog

Hello hello! Thanks to my lovely friends (you know who you are), I have finally pulled my finger out and set up my own blog. I am a complete newie so lots to learn here.

Learning is the word! After all, that's one of the things I would like to do through my blog. I want to learn from others through sharing.

I have been thinking about what to say in my first blog and after many hours of thinking, constructing and thinking some more (I have been told that I analyse too much), I decided that I would just start writing. So here I am - completely blank or rather lots going on in my head but not quite able to articulate.

Anyway, this is my first blog!

First thing came to mind right now is how I am looking forward to go to the Finders Keepers market tomorrow (http://www.thefinderskeepers.com/) in Sydney. Woohoo! It's my first year to visit the market and I no doubt will enjoy it.

Oh, one more thing, the "strangest" thing happend to me today. On my way home from work, as I headed towards the train station, some unexplainable forces took control of my legs and took the opposite direction. Before I knew it, I was in Kinokuniya and I was staring at a book called Stray Sock Sewing. I have had my eyes on this book for a while now but only ever online not on any bookshelves of local stores... so this clearly was meant to be and how could I possibly walk on by without doing something about it... I know I should have focused on Christmas shopping for others but surely there ought to be something for me too, right?! Surely I am doing HUBBY a favour as I have saved him time to get me a present from him (he just doesn't know it yet) That's the story I am sticking to! I can't wait to paw through the book from cover to cover...

Until next time, take care of yourself...