Anniversary present…

In a little over 6 weeks Hubby and I will be celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary. I’m such a woman to be excited for it over a month beforehand but this girls gotta plan ahead. Usually we don’t really do gifts, instead opting for an extravagant dinner at a restaurant in the city but given the craziness that has been this year I thought it would be nice to treat ourselves to a present to be remembered.

The wedding took 6 months of desperate indecision, over-organisation, control freak moments, lots of laugher, a few tears and plenty of cocktails. I obsessed over very little detail down to the shade of white the table clothes would be. I still laugh when I think about how confused and stressed I was picking my flowers as I was scarred I would choose the wrong tone of pink and it wouldn’t match the men’s grey suits and everyone would sit there through the whole ceremony thinking “why on earth did she choose those tones”. Or when spotlight (now affectionately known as Spazlight) ran out of the lace for my invitations I had on hold only to then loose the re-order for it twice- this was of course a national crisis in my mind and I rang every spotlight in NSW looking for it.

…….so getting to the point, what better way to celebrate the second anniversary of our wedding then with a beautiful, coffee table book wedding album.

I’m in the final stretch of finishing the designs so here is a sneak peak of a few of my favourite pages……………

 

(Photography by Weddings by Wayne)

Creative Outlets.......

So after a crazy, stressful, exciting and slightly overwhelming couple of months my Husband says to me “you really need a hobby” of course my initial reaction is “what?, me?, a hobby?”. I was all glarey eyed from all night flight after 2 long weeks overseas for work. I laughed at his seemingly naive suggestion. I was completely run off my feet and finding a hobby was the last thing on my mind.
 

But sure enough and as usual, my husband proved to be right. Before I knew it I was shopping for a new sewing machine buzzing with excitement to get the creative juices flowing. My husband and foster son patiently followed me around as I decided on the machine and spent hours in spotlight stocking up on tools and picking out on fabrics for my first project…a quilt.

Why I decided on something as complicated for a beginner as a quilt is beyond me. I had this picture in my head of my beautiful first born baby blissfully sleeping in the quilt i had lovingly made as my first sewing project. I'd never even heard the quilting phrases Bias, Basting or fat quarters. But finally after a load of googling, YouTube tutorials, unpicking, 16 hours and 7 cups of tea I finished my first quilt!

The time spend on this little project felt so relaxing and inspiring. It feels so good for the soul to escape to my own little world for a few hours each night and rid my mind of all the drama life can bring.
 

I started to dream about all the gorgeous homemade goodies I could start making and became inspired to find some funkier fabrics. I came across the Heather Bailey designer lines which are TO.DIE.FOR! Being a night owl I scowered the web for online sellers of the range here in Aussieland. After having my enthusiasm dampened by the high prices and limited range offered by the main Australian fabric sites I found a site based in the US called Hawthorne threads with most of the Heather bailey ranges for a fraction of the cost (and cheap shipping!).

By the end of the week I had my stash and felt like a kid at Christmas……

My sister had just moved across to the eastern suburbs of Sydney overlooking the beach and I thought I’d make use of this new stash and surprise her with a little housewarming gift. I found this great pattern online for little birds and knew she’d love it with her kooky sense of interior design.

She loved it and little birdie has found a proud place in her living room.

So, now onto my next project.... Another baby quilt with those Heather Baily fabrics. Yes, I know I'm clucky as hell and who needs 2 baby quilts with no baby to cuddle up to them? But those fabrics are just too delicious NOT to make a cute little baby quilt. And what better start to give my future little bundle of joy then an appreciation for funky handmade quilts. Having trouble deciding on the pattern combination I decide to make a throw pillow with my favorites for the couch to see how it feels....

After a week on our lounge, I'm sold on the combo. Hope to update you all with pics soon!

till next time xoxox