PLEASE EXPLAIN !!!!

The famous catchcry of Pauline Hanson - in a very nasally tone "PLEASE EXPLAIN" - YES I NEED TO EXPLAIN WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING. Obviously I have not been blogging. And I have received a couple of lovely blog awards that I have not had time to respond to. Please, let me explain. I now have a job, working five days a week at the moment. I feel like I have returned to my old life before kids. Except, that now I have two kids to look after AND a full time job. Eventually I will probably working 3 or so days a week, but for now it is Monday to Friday. SO NO SEWING AND NO BLOGGING HAS HAPPENED IN THIS HOUSE SINCE EARLY JANUARY. I am too busy to miss it too much, and I am loving my new job, but hopefully eventually I will be able to get back to at least a little bit of sewing and maybe blogging. Even it it is just to keep myself sane and to touch base with all you lovely people out there once in a while. So, sadly, there won't be so many posts going on here just for a wee while, but I do hope to be back at some stage in the near future. UNTIL THEN, Karyn xxx

wee wonderfuls & spool dolls

I am sorry to say my time for blogging has been severely restricted recently. So too has my sewing time. I do not feel like me at the moment. In 2010 I did nothing but sew sew sew. But lately I have been busy with Christmas, visitors, covering school books, cleaning mould from the walls (well, not as much of this as I should be), and lots of extra little things as well as just being a housewife and Mum. But it does not stop me from thinking about what I will make next, when I have time. I was at the bookshop today and saw a cute book called WEE WONDERFULS by Hillary Lang. I must check if my library has a copy as I would love to make some. A friend was also talking about this book just the other day. It's basically another softie book with some really sweet little dolls and critters to make. These little spool dolls also caught my eye today when browsing blogs.

I borrowed these images from aQTforever ( follow link below )

more spool dolls - also from aQTforever

a Wee Wonderful from crafty mama creations, see here

Image from Windy and friends, see here

AAhhhh, so much to sew and such little time.

Queensland Heroes !

The Queensland Floods - January 2011

These are just a few of the heroes who have risked their lives to save others

The tug boat drivers who saved the Gateway Bridge

Chopper Pilot saves little girl

The animals suffered as well as the people

These pictures bring me tears of sadness and tears of joy.

They make me feel proud to be a Queenslander

(sorry Mum and Dad, I know I was born in Victoria, but I think 33 years in Queensland qualifies me)

Thank you to everyone for helping those at their time of need.

A lot of the heroes will remain anonymous, but they will never be forgotten for their selfless acts.

Like my neighbour who left his family here to drive to Brisbane.

To team up with his brother and drive around the flooded suburbs of Brisbane offering help to those in need.

They offered assistance to complete strangers who needed to evacuate their homes and helped them to move their posessions to safety.

They even moved a piano to higher ground.

And to Kevin Rudd - you are a champion. I saw you wading through deep water carrying suitcases on your head, helping to move peoples things through flooded streets just like everybody else.

There is so much comraderie at times like these and we must not forget the heroes.

But it's the lives that could not be saved that will haunt us all forever.

May you all rest in peace.

Sorry I have not blogged much these holidays - I'm trying to enjoy a bit of time with Miss L & Mst O before they return to school and I start a new job on the 24th of January. And clean up my damaged TV room and fill in claim forms for the Building Services Authority to fix my house. And catch up on washing and numerous jobs that have not been done due to the consistent rain here.

But I could not miss out posting about the Queensland Flood Appeal Dolly Drive.

Monkeemoo is doing a wonderful thing over on her blog - I urge you all to pop on over and join in this great cause. I surely am. I may be starting a new job and I may have visitors arriving and I may have my kids starting back at school and need to still buy uniforms and organise and cover books etc etc, but I WILL find time for the dolly drive. It will be nice to make some cute little dolls / bears / owls or whatever for the children affected by the recent Queensland floods.

Please join us, a little bit goes a long way.

Put a smile on their faces again !

sold SOLD AND SOLD !!!!

Yesterdays newsletter from Madeit.com.au created a tornado in my shop - it was off the richter scale. The most sales ever in one day. They total 13 to be exact. It seemed people were fighting to get a hold of this khaki green skirt. But, as with most of my stuff, THEY ARE ONE OF A KIND so you've gotta be quick. Once the green skirt sold with matching headband, people started looking at my other creations and snapped them up. There is still lots to be had though, so go check it out http://madeit.com.au/eva-mei-and-me - or just click on my Madeit button and beat the crowds.

SOLD SOLD

SOLD

AND SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

AND SOLD

And still there was more sales.

I'm very happy.

Thank you Madeit.com.au

Madeit.com feature for eva mei & me

MADEIT FIRST FINDS OF 2011

I was so excited just now to open an email from Madeit.com.au. It was one of their regular newsletter type emails. The title of the email was Madeit first finds of 2011. AND, I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES, ONE OF MY SKIRTS (PICTURED ABOVE) WAS AT THE VERY TOP OF THE PAGE. I have been trying to work out how I can do a link to this email but I don't think it is possible. I have to say it has been a very exciting start to the 2011 year for me and eva mei & me - thanks Madeit.com.au

Friand recipe as promised

I have in my hot little hands the recipe for the beautiful friands that I shared with you recently here I would love to hear back from anyone who has a go at them. Resist if you can. I have not actually baked these myself yet as my dear neighbour was kind enough to give me some of hers the other day. We bought her a friand tin for Christmas, weren't we clever. So here is her recipe: RASPBERRY & WHITE CHOCOLATE FRIANDS 6 egg whites 185g butter, melted 1 cup (125g) almond meal 1 1/2 cups (240g) icing sugar mixture 1/2 cup (75g) plain flour 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest 100g white chocolate coarsely chopped 100g fresh or frozen raspberries METHOD: Heat the oven to 200 degrees celcius Lightly grease your friand tin (12 hole) (or alternatively use a muffin tin) Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat, then cook for further 1 minute. Be careful not to burn butter. Set aside. Sift flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Stir in the ground almonds and lemon zest. Lightly beat the egg whites with a fork and pour into the bowl containing the dry ingredients. Add chopped white chocolate. Add the warm butter and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. Spoon mixture into the prepared friand tin, filling to 3/4 full. Top each friand with some of the fresh or frozen raspberries and then pop into the oven to bake for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes reduce heat to 180 degrees celcius and cook for further 10 - 15 minutes - or until golden and risen. Allow to cool in tin for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Try not to eat them all at once !!! they should look something like this

Sewn, Stapled and Delivered

Mums Birthday gift

I have sewn a canvas for my Mum for her birthday in February. It is a copy of another one of Lucys recent drawings. I am enjoying doing these, using a transfer pencil and copying the kids drawings to embroider. Mum was here for Christmas so I got busy and did this for her to take home to save posting it. Never in my life have I been this organised in advance for a birthday gift. She is so excited she can't wait to get home and hang it on her wall. I should make her wait until February - but of course that won't happen. Happy Birthday Mum xx

Beautiful Friands

We gave our neighbour, Ming Lee, something that she had been wanting for quite some time for Christmas this year. It was a Friand tin. Doesn't sound so exciting does it, but it sure was exciting for us when she delivered these amazing Friands to our door the very next day. The rasberry and white chocolate ones were the best I have EVER EATEN. I will try to get the recipe and post here for you all to try, they are TRULY AMAZING........

How did your Christmas day go ?

Ours went like this. The day started of course with the opening of the presents:

Oliver requested a radio control monster truck from Santa and was not disappointed Lucy requested a unicorn, she too was not disappointed. But I love this dress from Mexico

Lunch was served at about 1.00pm - there was 15 of us in total

We ate:

Roast Turkey served with home made Spiced Cranberry Relish

Baked Ham with Palm Sugar, Cinnamon & Cloves Glaze, studded with pineapple and topped with cherries

Cannellini Bean Salad with Kalamata Olives, Semi dried tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes, Red Onion, Parsley and a red wine vinegar dressing

Swedish Potato Salad made with Kipfler potatoes, shallots, fresh dill and parsley finely chopped, with a white wine vinegar and Dijon Mustard dressing

Traditional Potato salad made with Kipfler potatoes, mayonaise and greek yoghurt dressing and boiled eggs

Salad of Dried Pears poached in Maggie Beers Verjuice/Peppercorns/Lemon rind and then pan fried, on a bed of mixed greens, with double brie cheese and lightly toasted Californian walnuts

We finished off with a Christmas Pudding SemiFreddo. The recipe was chosen by me. But it was executed to perfection by my husband, he is the better cook out of the two of us. I decided we needed to add Cranberries and Pistachios to give it a christmasy theme so in they went. It was topped with melted Lindt milk chocolate and cherries and then popped into the freezer to set - the cherries came out all frosty and looked gorgeous, we then served it with fresh fruits - yummmmm............

notice the frosty cherries

Lucy was quite excited by it

And then we sat down and ate it all over again for dinner that night - sigh !

Our Tree !!!

I got a new camera for christmas, it's so wonderful to be able to take decent photos again. My LG phone camera just does NOT cut it !!!!!

I got a few shots of some of the sweet decorations on our tree and I wanted to share them with you. I love christmas decorations and always manage to get a few new ones each year.

I have some lovely shots of the food we ate on Christmas day and will post these hopefully tomorrow.

Until then, Happy Holidays !!!

Some of this years handmade gifts !

Canvas embroidered by me for my husbands office

Drawing is done by Lucy

Pencil case for my niece

reverse side of pencil case

pillow for my niece reverse side of the same pillow for my niece

large cushion for my nephew

He wanted something to put on the floor in his bedroom so he could lay and read

pillow for Nonna Julie

the kids did a drawing of Nonna and her beloved cat Seiko (who died a few months ago aged 18 years)

a close up of Seiko

This gift bought a few tears when opened by Nonna

Cushion for Lucy I copied from her self portrait she drew when she was four years old cushion for Oliver I copied from his self portrait drawn when he was four years old also

And finally my handmade gift tags

Belle and Boo christmas scenes sewn with silver thread onto cardboard

These were a last minute thought, quickly thrown together, I will do more of these next year

And next year I will start my preparation for christmas much earlier and I WILL MAKE THAT ADVENT CALENDAR I HAVE WANTED TO DO FOR TWO YEARS NOW !!!!!!!!!

Have you googled yourself ??????

I googled myself just now - or rather, I googled "eva mei & me "- my childrens label. I came across a post on a blog by Tina Givens, a textiles designer who has her own fabric line. She has done a post about my trip to Singapore on her blog and mentioned my clothing. Wow, I was stunned. Thanks Tina, your blog is fantastic and your designs amazing ! pop on over here and have a look at what she does. Tina was born in South Africa, then moved to Canada and currently resides in Cleveland Ohio, and guess what, she too has a set of twins, just like me ! This is her profile page from Quilt home here. So you never really do know what you are going to find when you type yourself into google. Give it a go! I'm off to see what else I can find

MARKET SET UP & HOT SELLERS

I wanted to share with everyone just a few pics from Mammas markets yesterday. I think the market was very successful, there was a lot of familiar faces there to say hi as they did the rounds. Mammas market is a boutique market, full of gorgeous stuff, I'm just sad I did not have the opportunity to have a good look around. Never mind, there will be another chance in February.

These are a few of my top sellers Christmas stockings were popular

My favourite, made from recycled lambswool blankets

My other favourite stocking

(this was sold to a lovely lady for her baby boys first Christmas)

It was so nice to meet the people face to face who are taking your creations home to their house.

My owls were seriously popular, sorry to those people who missed out, but there will be more hatched in the new year

I love the combination of the pistachio green chenille and vintage floral fabrics

This my practice run at home in the week leading up to the market day

And this is the real thing above and below

TMe on the left and my friend Ming Lee on the right who helped with the setup infront of my stall. My new eva mei & me banner in the background which I made especially for the market

Me with Oliver & Lucy, my gorgeous twins, they hung around the stall all day and helped to give out the change, played their DS and ate market food.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their kind wishes for success in my very first market day. It was a lot of fun but also a lot of hours of work went into creating each and every article that I had for sale (over 100 items were hand made totally by myself - except for the 3 or 4 door stops that Oliver stuffed for me, he is a great little helper).

Don't know if I could do it again on such a grand scale.

In the meantime I look forward to visiting Mammas markets in February as a customer - this way I can get to have a really good look around.

Only 6 sleeps til Santa comes !