I have missed the last few weeks of WYMW and it is funny. People have emailed me telling me what they are doing and asking when we are doing it again. Thanks guys. I didn’t know if it was worth continuing with or not. So, now I will.
Here’s who and what they been a-makin’ (crikey (no no-one except me ever says this word in Australia), my english gets better all the time)…

• Miss James of bleubirdvintage  is making her first collection of vintage-inspired clothes for her label TWEET.  This lil jumpsuit is to die for.  I can’t wait to see the rest.  And as an aside comment – she is now selling men’s vintage and her new model is …. can’t find the word…. a total spunk.
• Benita of Chez Larsson is making a pelmet cornice valance.  Or how to finish off a window divinely and simply.  This is a lovely tutorial.
• Anna Maria Horner has is putting her designing talents to making paper products that are colorful and fun.  These are now available for sale.  What will she be making next?  Clever lady.
• At Apartment Therapy check out the coffee light, little light shades made from coffee cups and saucers.  These don’t look that hard to make.  A tip:  Buy a porcelain drill bit at your local hardware store and drill slowly when you are drilling china.
• At Curbly they are making Decorative Tile Coasters.  I would make these using scraps of Japanese papers.
• More at Curbly.  Mosaic Toaster – kitsch and lovely.  I want one.  i just don’t really want to spend all the time to make it!
• And I can’t resist.  One more from curbly.  How to re-cover a desk chair.  I will definitely be doing this in my spare time (lol).  How many times have you heard me say that?  I have a feeling that the next thirty years doesn’t hold much spare time but after that…..maybe.

I am making a party bag tutorial at this moment and will be posting it soon or-ish.  I am also still organising things in my house.  And I have a new book idea that I am really excited about.  Thanks for the comments and emails.  So, back to the computer and behind a camera for me again.  Remember, my New Year’s Resolution to not take on anything big this year?  Oops out the door I suppose.  Oh well, I keep telling myself, ‘this time I know what I am doing.  Writing my second book will be MUCH easier than my first’.  Denial is not a river in Egypt.  Yeah I know.

And, most importantly, what are you making on this Wednesday?

Mia

xx

Please leave comments to help me decide! Thanks so much for your input.

(NOTE:  This scarf requires absolutely no knitting or crocheting or knotting so stay around and read more…)

(Mia modelling the tube scarf)

I walked into my local craft store a few weeks ago and saw these divine scarves behind the counter.  They looked like a cross between a feather boa and a scarf, totally cute.  I asked the lady how they were made and she was kind enough to give me a demo on how to make them. Now I am passing on the love….

I am hooked!  These are the cutest scarves and they could not be easier to make. My nine-year old made half of this one easily.

Materials
I used four balls of polyester (this will depend on how long you want to make the scarf)
1.2m of 5/8″ white elastic
30cm/ 1ft length of plastic tubing
Two medium wooden beads
Hot glue
Scissors

Tie a knot in one end of the piece of elastic. Apply a dab of hot glue onto the knot and push it onto the bead.

Use two balls of yarn together – this gives a fuller look to the scarf. Tie the two ends of the yarn onto the elastic with a knot, just under the bead.
Thread the elastic through the plastic tube, with the bead at one end.
Begin wrapping the yarn (two together) around the plastic tubing.  (I started by wrapping the yarn this tightly but found it much better to wrap it quite loosely going down the whole tube).
When you have wrapped the yarn around the plastic tube about ten time push it off the tube and onto the elastic.

To keep the other end of elastic from getting in the way, secure it with a peg as shown in the photo above, letting out more as you need it.

Continue to wrap the yarns around the plastic tubing and then gently push them onto the elastic. You will quickly start to see this yummy, feather boa scarf!

Finish the scarf when you get to the elastic gets to the end of the plastic tubing (you will have 30cm of elastic left when you cut it). Knot the yarn around the elastic. Tie a knot in the elastic (as in the first step), place a dab of glue onto the knot and push a bead onto it to secure it.

Finito!

(Look what I made!)

The next one I will make will be double as long so that I can wrap it around my neck a few times. Millie’s getting this one – lucky girl. And the last thing I have to say — what a strange thing to be making in 40 degree heat!! And that photo shoot with the turtle neck! Hot!
Enjoy!

I spent the last week of the summer holidays bringing some much needed order to my craft supplies. It was so much work but I can’t tell you how happy I am that now all my craft supplies are neat and easy to access.  Every time I look at my shelves I feel so happy♥.

Bookshelf number one and….

Bookshelf number two. I will go into more detail about what is actually in each bookshelf in the next post.

The photo below was the mess I had before I started.  Yes, those are actually my good fabrics thrown carelessly on the floor.  The cubby holes were not being used well.  Some had one thing in them (in the hope that I would not lose it) while others were packed to the brim with paints and canvases or fabrics or papers.

Before I started I googled ‘organising craft supplies’ and looked at a few websites. for ideas. My favourite website for organising is by far Chez Larsson. I love the way Benita organised her Expedit (the wonderful cubby hole bookshelves from Ikea – they are the BEST!).  Since I already owned two Expedit (four by four) I decided that all my craft supplies (including books) would have to fit into two Expedit. Anything that didn’t fit just had to go because owning more than that is just stupid (even if you do run a craft website and write craft books for a living).

I had a number of challenges organising my supplies.  They were:

• How to organise the amount of supplies I have.  I have so much stuff and want to be able to access all of it quickly and easily.
• How to organise so many different craft supplies.  I sew, embroider, knit, felt, make jewellery, use clay, make cards etc.  I also have a load of craft books, a huge collection of vintage dress patterns, over 60 CD’s which contain all the text and photos for my book.  The list just goes on and on…
• How to store my fabrics.  When mum came over a while ago she (being a quilting goddess) said that I have to get my fabrics well away from the sun so that they don’t fade.  As any good quilter knows, fabric can remain in your stash for well over a decade, waiting for the perfect moment to be sewn.  I also know that fabrics cannot be stored in plastic tubs.  Cottons need to breathe.
• How to organise so many little things.  I have thousands of tiny glass beads and findings, buttons, sewing needles, cottons, little scraps of fabric and card that I wanted to keep.
• How to label everything clearly so that it was easy to find.
• How to store paper
• How to store ideas.  I love clipping ideas from magazines.  Sometimes I get ideas from the most unlikely magazines.  I often find that Vogue magazines trigger great ideas but I wanted a way of keeping all those ideas together for a rainy day.

So, how did I get started?

• Firstly I needed to work out what I had.  It turns out I had my craft supplies spread over five rooms in my house.  I got everything and put it in this room to sort out.   It was completely overwhelming.  I wondered at this point how I would organise it all but realised that it would take a lot of determination to get through the piles.  I also knew that I wanted everything to fit into two bookshelves that I already owned.  The storage units you own already will determine what sort of containers you use.
• When I could see what I had I realised that some of my organisation was already working.  For example, my beads were already organised into plastic containers with little compartments and these were perfect.  So, I grouped together all the things which were working, like my beads and my jewellery tool box.
• Then I made another (large) group of all the things which were either not containerised (not my favourite word in the world) or in the wrong containers.  My laces, rickrack, ribbons and bias tape were in containers that were more than twice as large as they needed to be.
• I then went shopping.  Ikea was the first stop and at this point I just had to make guesstimates (another interesting word?) about how many containers I would need.  At Ikea I bought nine fabric boxes made to fit into Expedit.   I bought four woven baskets which I completely love also.  I also bought eight magazine files, four plastic containers with compartments (the ones for beads and small things).   This was not my last trip to a shop for containers.  I filled these containers and then realised that I needed many more so went to a container store and back to Ikea (twice).  I have decided that organising is a very messy task.  Like most complex tasks it is not linear.  I kept reaching dead ends when I didn’t think I could do any more.  Usually these were overcome by finding the right storage boxes!

Well, when you have organised your stuff into the same room, sorted into groups of things that are working and things that aren’t, bought some more storage containers, then you can begin the mammoth task of putting everything into those containers…  At this point I called it a day…

Back with more organisational tips tomorrow.

Have fun cleaning out.

Mia

I started concocting perfumes and potions as a five year old. My twin sister and I would lock ourselves away in the bathroom and mix anything (usually mum’s expensive perfumes) we could find. Most of the concoctions would cause me to have an immediate allergic reaction, so would end in tears. But, this did not deter me.

I still love making lotions and potions. These bath bombs are the fizziest bombs I have ever made. They explode and keep fizzing for ages, then make the whole bath smell divine. The oil leaves your skin soft and smelling like lavender.

These bath bombs make great presents and are easy enough for beginners and children to make.

Ingredients
1 cup tartaric acid
1 cup bicarbonate soda
½ cup powdered starch
1 dessertspoon lavender oil
2 tablespoons dried lavender.
1 teaspoon pink food colouring
7 dessertspoons avocado oil
2 dessertspoons dried lavender.

Mix tartaric acid, bicarbonate soda and starch in a bowl.

Add the lavender and food colouring to the mixture.

Add a dessertspoon of lavender oil. Slowly add the avocado oil (be careful not to add too much).
Mix the ingredients together until you can form the mixture into balls, adding a touch more avocado oil, if needed.

Take a small handful of mixture and place it on a desert spoon. Mould it on the spoon and place it on a tray. Repeat this until you have used all the mixture.

Leave the bath bombs in a dry, warm place to set for between a few days to 1 week (drying time will depend on air temperature and humidity).
Add a few to a bath or package and give them away as a present.

I hope you enjoy making these as much as we did!!
Mia
xxx