Foto Friday

I love ordering things off the internet.  It gives me something to look forward to when they arrive.  Some time ago now I order small, slower shaped fondant cutters.  I was going to use them on my RSPCA cupcakes but they did not arrive in time.  On Wednesday I received a package in the mail from China.  The customs information tag noted that the contents was a car charger.  Of course when I opened it up I found my fondant cutters.  I bet the x-ray guys at customs had a good laugh at that one.

Sometimes when I order things I get them sent to me at work.  It means that I have something to look forward to at work and don't have to rely on someone being at home to sign for the package if need be.  Today I got some gems I ordered from Earth's Gems.  They are a store on Face book and have some lovely things. 

Being that this is Foto Friday, I have taken some photo's of them for you to see.  I am also still in love with Pixlr-o-Matic as well so I played around with the images a little.

This gorgeous angel is made from Opalite.  He is 5cm x 3cm.  I love these angels.  I have a smaller one in blue goldstone that I need to photograph but it needs to be in the right ligt to show off it's sparkles.  I was also given an opalite stone and a blue howlite stone for free.  The blue howlite is very nice.

This angel and point are amethyst.  I am not sure what the specific use of the pendulum is for.  I bought it to make a necklace out of the charm.

I also bought 3 blue tiger eye stones.  Tiger eye has always been one of my favourite but I never new it came in blue and red colours.  The blue is a little too dark to be photographing in the light that I have at the moment so I will try and do it later.

On a yummy note, we were given a thank you gift in the office today.  Teeny tiny cup cakes came in the post.  I had a purple one (of course - purple fan here). 



I have had more deliveries this week but all my photos are else where.  I will post them on here tonight if I have time.

In the meantime, have a great Friday.  The weekend is almost here!

Totally Tessa Tuesday

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
And slowly up my dog she creeps
Until her nose in on my cheek.

I'm praying here I say to her,
But these words will not deter.
And if I die before I wake
A wet tongue slides across my face.

She stares at me with big brown eyes
and exhales little puppy sighs
I try to ignore this interruption
But she insists on more corruption

I am sorry Lord I can not pray
This little monster wants to play
But later when she is asleep
I pray the Lord our souls to keep
Amen

I didn't have time yesterday to post what I have been making so I will do it now.  It was a busy weekend and we had a black out on Saturday night.  Our oven decided not to work on Sunday and I had been creating things out of polymer clay that needed baking.  I ended up over at the neighbours house asking if I could bake two dragons and a butterfly in her oven. 

It seems I got the timing slightly wrong and the dragons are a little overcooked.  It looks like they were in a fire fight and haven't cleaned up yet.

Later on in the evening I decided to try our oven on a whim.  It finally decided that the blackout was over and it could be useful again.  I then sat down and made another blue dragon and cooked him for half the time as the others.  He looks much better.

I am going to make these into necklaces.  I have also ordered some pointed gem pendants and I will wrap a dragon around them.

Wacky Wednesday

Yes I know, it's Thursday.  That is why it is wacky.  Also because I was doing this last night, which technically was Wednesday.  :)

Have you ever used Paverpol before? In short it is a fabric hardener.  It can be used to make artwork for outdoors, indoors and may other things.  I am just learning how to use it myself.  I am currently trying to stiffen fabric petals to make a 3D flower that a FIMO teddy bear will be sleeping on.  Definitely Wacky Wednesday!

My friend at work is having her first baby (a little girl).  She is also a little closer than just a work friend as well as we often do craft days together.  Instead of the traditional maternity leave card (boring) I decided to do something special and different. 

I found a large frame going really cheap at Thingz (wish I got two now).  The matt board that was included is big enough for all of us at work to sign.  This was signed last week, and I somehow have to get it back home again with her knowing.  We catch the same train at night and this thing is big.

So, the matt board is signed, and where the picture would go is now being transformed into a paverpol floral delight.  At least I hope it is.  I have made a teddy bear out of FIMO and he will be laid on top of a flower as if he is sleeping on it.  I am very proud of my FIMO bear.  I shaped him first using tin foil and then covered him with a thin layer of FIMO.  That way he wasn't too thick for baking and his ears wouldn't burn off before the rest of him was sufficiently cooked.  I will take photos once I have finished the whole picture.

Speaking of pictures and FIMO.  I had a little bit of brown FIMO left over.  After having so much fun making fondant dogs, I decided to see if I could make a Fimo one out of the small amount I had left.  He is so cute and currently looking up at me from my desk.  He is 1cm wide and about 1.5cm high.  Think I might make a few more and see if they sell in my Etsy store as charms.

What I've Made Monday

I have been very productive this last week making things for my friends new baby that is due soon as well as preparing for the RSPCA Cup Cake Day - today.

Perth main train station was shut down over the weekend due to renovations and track maintenance so it was going to be interesting getting to work with my cup cakes.  Thankfully my line was running well and there weren't the usual crowds.

I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I was going to make it from scratch but then I noticed that White Wings had bought it out in packet form.  OMG it is delish.  They turned out so moist and the icing is to die for. 

The fact that I was no longer making from scratch left me more time to play around with some fondant I had bought.  I decided I would make 3D dogs and put them on top of the cup cake.  I started the process on Friday night.  I made 6 on Friday, another 6 on Saturday (and a little experimentation) and then the rest on Sunday.  I had a blast. 

At first they did not sell because no-one wanted to eat the dogs (and because we charged $4).  Finally they seemed to disappear and we were left with about 6 of them which disappeared this afternoon.   Some have kept their little dogs and have them sitting on their computer (on a tissue I hope).  I believe some even have names now.  Lucky is one of them, I think it was because he was lucky he wasn't eaten.

Next year I have orders to make them in clay so people can buy them and not worry about sticky mess on the computer.

There were three main styles that I did: a standard looking pooch in a sitting position; a few laying down covering their eyes so that they couldn't see when you bit into them; and 2 boxers.  The ears of the boxers were hard, hence the reason why there are only two.  All together there were around 25-26 cup cakes an dogs.

  

Theses yummy  cup cakes were made by Mel and dog face ones by Corinne.  We also had a chocolate mudcake.  I don't know how much we raised yet.  I will find out tomorrow.



Totally Tessa Tuesday

Not sure if my dog is interesting enough to do this every Tuesday so this could be a once a month thing.

I can't believe my precious girl will soon be 12.  If she was human I would be sending her off to high school soon, if not already.  Fortunately for me she is a fur baby and still acts like a toddler.

When I get home from work you would think she hadn't seen me for weeks.  She will jump up and down on me, and whinge and whine until I say hello.  The mere act though of petting her and saying hello is not enough.  No, she has to lick my nose.  She is not satisfied until she does that. 

For the rest of the evening she is happy to sit nearby me and let me do my thing.  At bed time though she gets all sooky and wants to snuggle up into my shoulder with her nose in my armpit.  It amazes me she can breathe.

I have her bed on top of mine but at the bottom.  While I am getting myself organised and prior to snuggle time, she hops into her bed.  I took this photo of her last week on my phone.  Anyone would think that she had run a marathon the way she is slumped here.

The flash of course disturbed her so the next photo she is giving the evil eye.  How dare you take a photo of me while I am sleeping!

Since mum was away for 8 weeks, Bo still thinks my bed is hers.  I go to bed before mum so Bo will come with me and mum will collect her later.  The problem with Bo is that as soon as she is on my bed, she curls up beside my pillow (after rubbing her face all over the sheets).  She just looks the picture of innocence.

What I'm Making Monday

I am taking a different approach to how I blog.  I want to blog more often but never seem to know what to blog about, and when I do have something to say I am not ready to post it because I want to put up photos.

Through blog hopping I have noticed that people have set aside days for specific things so I am going to try and do that.  I would love to know if there are any other suggestions that I can make this blog that little bit more interesting.

Today is all about what I am making.  No photos this time but I promise that I will have photos each Monday of the progression of what I am making.  I have a number of things on the go, as usual. 

A while back I won a jelly roll from the Fabric Patch.  I love this store.  Linda is very helpful when I have a question.  When I won the jelly roll I chose the fabric Birds and Berries by Lauren & Jess Jung (pictured below).  The colours in this are gorgeous. 

I am relatively new to quilting and had no idea what to make with my jelly roll strips.  A google search led me to the Missouri Quilt Company.  They have a lot of really good tutorials.  The woman who does the video speaks clearly and explains things really well.  One of the tutorials is called the Jelly Roll Race Quilt.  It was perfect for what I wanted to do.  I have loaded the video below so that you can have a look.

I have stitched all the jelly roll strips together so far and now I just have to do the backing.  I am also thinking of doing some applique on it as well.  Maybe some little birds. 

Around the same time I won the Jelly Roll I also purchased some precut tiny squares of Basic Grey's Fruitcake fabric.  It is a christmas fabric that is more earthy than bright.  I am hand sewing hexagons with this fabric. I will tell you more about this later as there is a cool technique involved.

Finally, my friend is due to have her first child.  I was going to make a quilt for her but she said  she would prefer pram toys as she had already bought a quilt set.  This quilt set is jungle animals so I set out to make those same jungle animals as pram toys.  Suffice to say that after trying to make a small zebra yesterday I have decided not to do jungle animals.  Think I will make some octagon balls and put rattles in them.  I will post a photo of the zebra once he is stuffed.  He is cute but I just don't think it would work as a pram toy.