A little Christmas present from me to me.

Well kind of. I got a gift voucher from Damien's mum for Christmas and I used it to buy two thirds of this beast. I saw it a couple of weeks ago while doing the last minute shop for Christmas and thought it looked awesome.

Besides being possibly the heaviest book in the world, it's also very interesting looking. The chapters aren't divided in your tradtional meat, dessert, baking kind of way. They're way more interesting than that, off the top of my head without having the book in front of me for reference, some are; Rise and Shine which is Breakfast goods obviously. But it also includes some great juice and smoothie recipes. Drinks and snacks (I think) is full of cocktails, nibbles and other party kind of foods. There's also super fast, healthy, and asian chapters.

Anyway, enough rambling, I'm just excited to get stuck into it! I'll be doing a proper Christmas wrap up on the weekend when I have a little bit of time. But until then I hope that everyone has a very safe, happy and fun New Year.

-Jemma

The reveal.

This post has been a long time coming for me, and I'm very excited to show my creations off now!

I actually made this for my sister months ago, and it's been sitting in my linen closet just waiting for a home. It was very tricky as my second quilt, and it's a bit "special" if you look at it too closely. But I love it and I'm very proud of it.




The thing that I like the most I think is the binding. I used the lovely Fii's tutorial from her blog. And the result is ace! It makes the whole thing look about 100% better I think.



My mum just started working again after a few months off in between jobs and I made her this bag from the always favourite Bend the Rules sewing. It was quick to put together really and I think it's turned out pretty nice. I really like the fabric. One question though. Does anyone know what flannel facing is? I interpreted it as wadding, but I'm still not totally sure.



And lastly here are some litlle zipper pouch make up bag thingys that I made for Damien' sisters. We tucked a few choccies and a gift card in them all. They turned out cute!

Did everyone else give and recieve some nice handmade gifts? I'd love to see!!

-Jemma

Eye spy.... a bit of bling

Thanks to Bug and Pop for hosting, and to Hoppo Bumpo for the theme this week.

These are the decorations that I got this week from my lovely holiday traditions swap partner.



I love them, they're so cute and they look very nice on my tree.




I'll do another post later when I have the chance dedicated to the swap.
Busy, busy!




-Jemma

Eye spy... a burst of colour

This is a small part of my shoe collection.



Wearing yucky boring work clothes and stockings every day is made so much easier when you can also wear purple shoes!




Thanks to Bug and Pop for hosting and Flossy-P for this weeks theme.

-Jemma

75 Books in a year

Book 2

This is another series that follows John Marsden's very good tomorrow series.

It's pretty much just the 8th book in the series, but it's equally as entertaining. So I won't hold that against him. I really liked it as much as all the other ones. It's a little different, it's set after the war and Ellie's parents are dead and goes through the trails of running the farm, looking after Gavin etc.

If you liked all of the other books, I'd definitley recommend it!

I have a lot of books that I've read recently that I haven't written up, but I'll try and do it soon over Christmas.

-Jemma

G Day*

On Sunday my Ginger beer was ready, yay! I didn't really have a proper taste of it but I'll write a few sentences about it anyway.

The small glass I had was WAY to sweet. It was almost syrupy to me. I think that if I make some again that I'll put in half the sugar at the final stage. Maybe less. At the moment I want to give it a go sliced with a little soda water and lime. Maybe some gin too.



Another thing. It's so fizzy. It put my batch in 1.25l bottles, and boy has the fiz come on strong. The first time I opened the bottle it fizzed over but was manageable, the second time it spayed all over! Luckily I was speedy to get it into the sink and close it up. Next batch I think that I'll use 2l bottle, see how it goes.

Anyway, in summary. Even if I end up pouring this all down the sink, it's been very fun to make anyway. Having the plant to feed every morning for 2 weeks was like haveing a whole new pet, very exciting!

-Jemma

Anyone else that's made Pip's ginger beer recipe, any words of wisdom?

*In no way affiliated with G'Day or D Day

Making paper.

Well not really making it, but same thing!

Here are some photos that the wonderful Damien took of me last night while I was painting some of the brown paper I got on the weekend.



Although this is a really horrible photo of me, please note the stencil. I think that I might make a little stencil tutorial the way I made this one. I used a plastic pocket for it.



This is one doing the prefered method of paint application, stipling I think it might be called? I also use one of those funny shaving cream brushed to apply the paint.



This is the finished product more or less. It's fairly unspectacular. But trust me, it looks very nice when wrapped around a present. I'll throw up some photos of my very coordinated Christmas tree and you'll be green with envy!



And I thought this was a funny photo of me, don't I look like I'm having fun??

-Jemma

Eye spy... something in my garden,

Thanks again to Bug and Pop for the great new Sunday night game, and to CurlyPops for the theme this week.




It's a tomato plant with actual tomatoes on it! And from the look of those flowers, a few more to come. Sorry about the terrible quality of the photo. My camera died while trying to take a second one, so this will have to do.

Another thing I like in the garden,



this little succulent tray that my Nanna made for me. I love the look of succulents.

Some of the things that were missed in this post because my camera died:
- A chili plant with an actual chili on it.
- A strawberry that I've had for 2 years and never gotten a strawberry off.
- The corn that I tried to grow in pots (it didn't work)

The newest member of our family...

Introducing...



Alec!

Don't tell Damien I put a picture of him on the internet ok?
He's only been with us since this last weekend, so he's a bit to squirmy to get any good photos of, not that I haven't been trying. Also, Amity is really not liking him at the moment. So he's being kept in isolation until she get over herself because we're afraid she might hurt him.

Any tips on introducing cats to each other?

-Jemma

A week of collections - Day Four

The glass ones.

Please excuse the photos, it's deviously hard to take a photo of glass that is all rounded and such like these are.



On the left is a nice little guy that I picked up from Ikea a while ago, they have another one that's the same just bigger that's really nice too. Though I think I have enough plain glass canisters. I'm all about COLOUR! On the right is one that I got from a Vinnie's I think. $3? Sounds about right. I do remember though that the old man selling it to me was very interested it what I was going to do with it.



This is another of my favourites. I got it of eBay and it's one of the few that I've paid a not measly sum for $20 or so? Can't remember with the postage. I love the colour and texture of this, love it.



Another beauty from trash and treasure, which I've decided to start calling the happiest place on earth. I think this was actually $1 and it was my first canister I think. I mean besides just regular supermarket purchased ones that is.



My mum gave me this last Birthday. It's very pretty! You can't really see here, but it's got lots of lovely etchings on it of flowers. It currently houses latex gloves for when I have to touch raw chicken. YUK!

Plenty more tomorrow!

- Jemma

What are you wearing Wednesday

As I said last week, mine will be more of a "what I would be wearing if I wasn't at work Wednesday". Say that 10 times fast!

This week though is what I wore to the Mike's Christmas party.



Sorry about the terrible photo. I took it last night when I got home, very tired.
I got this dress at the quick brown fox a few weeks ago on sale, it's lovely I think. It was a bit long for my taste so I cut about 2 inches off the bottom, it's now very short, but looks awesome with black tights and I like it so much better. And, on the hem there was 2 very nice pieces of matching embroidery that I have now to applique on something. Which is nice.

Coming up, tomorrow more canisters, Sunday I spy and I'll be back next Wednesday for what are you wearing.

-Jemma

A week of colllections - Day Three

The sets or, The collections within the collections.



These ones are another gift for my nanna. I only got these beauties recently, so they don't actually have anything in them. But they're pretty yes? These ones don't actually live in my kitchen, they're currently on top of the heater and looking for a permanent home.



I remember someone in my family having something very similar to these when I was growing up. I got these at trash and treasure for some paltry amount. $8 I think. They came with a cutlery jar, for wooden spoons and such, and 2 shakers that I can't figure out what to do with.



These last ones are from trash and treasure too. (I love it there!) Also very cheap, $15 I think. And they have a matching cake tin that some of you might of seen at the pedlar's picnic. These are my favourite of the sets.

More tomorrow.

-Jemma

The best!

Vintage LOL Cat

Via Gawker

-Jemma

A week of colllections - Day Two

Ok, I'll admit. This is technically a Christmas cookie jar that I got at Target last year.



But I like to call him Mr. Rice Penguin. Because that's where we keep our rice. Nothing is funnier than the day my nephew reached in there for a cookie, pulled out a handful of rice. And STILL tried to eat it.



This one I got at the heavenly trash and treasure market that's just near my house. $5 I think? This one holds our first aid supplies. It's deceptively big and currently has a jar of cough syrup, a jumbo pack of bandaids, about 8 different kinds of panadol, prescriptions and Damien's medicine.

See you tomorrow for more collections!

-Jemma

A week of colllections - Day One

This is my first attempt to host anything, probably no one will play. But at least I'll get to show off my favourite thing to collect, which is Canisters!

I may have mentioned this before, but I love them. There's some really awesome things out there. My collection also extends to include cookie jars, regular jars tins etc. Pretty much anything that you can put a bag of flour in, I love.



This canister is one of my favourites (I say that about all of them). Yes, that is a top hat with a bunny coming out of it. And yes, the bunny is the lid. I got this bad boy at a local Vinnie's, it was a bit pricey at $7.50. But well worth it I think for the kitsch value alone!

Hopefully someone else will join in, I will of course happily link anyone that does. If no one plays, just enjoy the canisters. I'm sure some of my other kitchen goodies will make there way in here too. Like the caraffe that I made my ginger beer plant in, vintage pyrex and gorgeous.

Anyway, enjoy them.

-Jemma