Mine, All Mine

As of Wednesday this baby is all mine. Oh yeah!

Spring Cleaning

I thought I'd give my blog a little freshen up in preparation and celebration of the coming Spring. I'm not usually much of a green gal but I thought it was appropriate to go for some Springtime colours. Anyway, I'll sit with it for a minute and see how it works out.

Funnily enough I was doing some sewing today and green was a prominent colour again. No photos to show for myself yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, it's been a lovely weekend so far. Sewing, relaxing and catching up on all my favourite blogs for the first time in so long. It's lovely to visit all my bloggy friends and see what everyone's been up to.

Edit: I've just been visiting Kootoyoo and after seeing what she has done with her Pool Room I think I am going to have to add a craft room Spring Clean to the agenda also. I've been thinking about it but am feeling totally inspired and full of possibilities now.

Love Fridays

The sun is shining. Spring is nearly here. It just brightens my day when I see sunshine. Everything seems ready for renewal, including me.

Everybody Play The Game

That's what you're supposed to do right? At work that is. I think you're supposed to be a little savvy, work out when to just say yes, choose your battles, play nice with everyone in your particular sandpit, and, at the end of the day, leave it all behind you.

I seem to have been born without the "work" gene that enables you to do all those things. I'm definitely going to need to work on developing my teflon coating for the difficult days. All advice and tips gratefully received good people.

Anyway, nothing too tragic but I'll be Loving Friday tomorrow. For sure.

Right now, a bath, a book and some dark chocolate are the only thing for it.

Incoming and Outgoing, Mail That Is

I came home to one of my favourite experiences. Mail on the doorstep. I signed up for a Pay It Forward with Anastasia Drawing and Dreaming and my package of loveliness arrived today.

So many lovely things. Vintage magazines, stunning fabric, buttons and ribbon,

hot chocolate and Bopeep lollies. I haven't had them since I was a kid and my Mum used to buy them for me on special trips in to town. Seeing them tonight brought back lovely memories.

My favourite things were the handmade goodies. I love Anastasia's beautiful vintage collage work and now I have some of my own. I'm taking this little one to put on my wall at work.

And these gift tags aren't likely to be passed on. They are just too lovely to share.


Receiving my package got me all motivated to get some packages of my own ready for flight. The pink one is my long overdue Cupcake and Tea Swap for Molly Cupcakes. The others are a couple of little goodies for some nice bloggers. It must be time to start getting my Pay It Forward goodies ready to go too.

Spring is in the air and I am feeling like playing with the world again. Yippee!!!

It's More Fun With Friends

I'm pretty tired after a fabulously fun day of sewing, laughing, eating, talking, learning and hanging out with Cam, Juddie, Serena and Sherrin.

Yes, it was a lovely day. We all missed Belinda though.

Love Fridays, A Picture To Match

As I was walking to work today I was thinking about my Love Fridays post. Planning it out in my head as you do. I looked down at the ground and saw this.

Love Fridays.

Love Fridays

Sometimes the universe delivers just what you need when you need it. Today it was this post and this one. There was also this gorgeous link via Anastasia Drawing and Dreaming. Little messages and treats from the universe. I love it when that happens.

Feel free to join in and post about why you Love Fridays on your blog. If you would like a button for your blog you can grab the code here.

On My Desk - Awards

The lovely Curlypops recently bestowed 2 awards on me. It is very exciting as I have never had a blog award before and now I have 2. The most recent was this:

I'm passing it on to some blogs that I love to visit.

Project Incomplete
Two Peas in a Pod
Georgie Love
The Sum of Mum

These women are all funny, passionate and thought-provoking and make me feel like I'm part of the "sisterhood". Thanks ladies.

I also want to pass The Brilliant Blog Award on to The Toy Society It is one of my very favourite craft projects ever. Innovative and renegade. I just love it.

The second award that I received was the Tree of Happiness, so I'm going to tell you 6 things that are making me happy at the moment.

1. The idea of Spring coming soon fills me with anticipation and hope.
2. The second Thornbury Sewing Bonanza is happening this Saturday so I have a day of stitching, snacking and chatting to look forward to with some lovely women.
3. Ms L seems to be on the mend after being sick for almost 20 months.
4. Reconnecting with some girlfriends who I haven't spent much time with lately has been lots of fun and good for the soul.
5. Reconnecting with myself and learning to look after myself more is happening slowly but surely. I am well on the way back to being healthy, hearty and happy.
6. My creativity is starting to stir again after the usual winter hiatus.

So there you have it. A little bit of happiness and love to share.

Love Fridays

It has to be a quick one today. I've got a date with some magazines. I have the latest copy of Frankie and Australian Vogue sitting beside me after a trip to Borders tonight. Tomorrow I've got a date with my hairdresser. Sunday I've got a date with some fabulous friends. A weekend full of lovely dates.

Don't forget to visit these lovely folk who also Love Fridays.

On My Desk - Wednesday

Well it's a good day when you have a package with one of these on your desk.

My Cupcake and Tea Swap arrived yesterday from The World of Twiggy Peasticks.

It's full of lovely cupcake goodness and some delicious Yorkshire Gold tea.

Just 2 weeks ago I was looking for a spare pincushion in Spotlight and didn't see anything to my liking. Now I have 2 beautiful hand made spares. So much better. I think Willow is trying to claim the orange one though. She knocked it off the table earlier and had a bit of a play with it. Not sure that I'm willing to share these beauties.


I'm ashamed to say that my swap package is now nearly 3 or 4 weeks overdue. I hope Molly Cupcakes will like it when it finally arrives. Hopefully it's going to be on its way by the end of the week.

This winter has me beat. I'll be glad to see Spring when it arrives.

Love Fridays

Loving Fridays for lots of reasons today. It's pay day for one. Yep, every second Friday I get to head into the weekend cashed up. Love it.

The most exciting reason for loving this Friday is that I've figured out how to make a blog button for the Love Fridays Meme. What do you think?



Now just give me another day or so and I'll have the code for you so you can put the button on your blog if you want to. If fact I have the code. I just can't work out how to post it without it turning into the picture above. I'll get there though.

I must say a big thanks to Leni and Rose as it was her fabulous tips and tricks that helped me. I can't believe I worked out how to do it. It feels like such an achievement. I'm constantly amazed at the things I've learned since I took up blogging.

Update! Update! Update! Thanks to more help from the fantastic Leni and Rose and a great tutorial from Kootooyo I've done it. If you are playing along with Love Fridays and want a button for your blog, copy and paste the code (in Blogger this is done by adding Third Party HTML via Layout & Add a Page Element).

<a href="http://bigcatsemporium.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3242/2736622827_68504e8822_t.jpg" /></a>

On My Desk Wednesday - Nothing To See Here

Nothing to show this week. I am however planning and scheming away. I'll have show and tell real soon. A button for Love Fridays perhaps? A new swap to join in? Maybe a new blog that I've been thinking of starting?

This week though I am a taking a mini-break from blogging while I catch up on other bits and peices of my life. Don't worry though, I'll see you all for Love Fridays.

The Weekend That Was

This weekend was completely free. No plans, no work, no chores. It was just what I needed to restore some balance.

The weekend started on Friday night with a trip to Spotlight. I bought a few different fabrics for projects I have in mind. And these...

For a grand total of $5/roll. I don't know what I'm going to do with 60 odd metres (at a guess) of green and yellow spots but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

The weather on Saturday was perfect for sewing.

I made myself a work tote to carry my lunch and bits and peices.

Today I got out the glue and the art goodies for some collaging. It's the first time since around April. It felt great to feel the creativity stirring again.

It didn't stop there. I also made these.

Now, I'm off to make Quesadillas with Guacamole for dinner and then hopefully spend a little time on my crochet that's also been neglected for a while.

What a wonderful weekend. Hope you had a fabulous weekend. What did you get up to?

Love Fridays

Today I'm loving Friday because things just seem a whole lot better today. Perhaps it's the thought of a free weekend ahead , it might be all the lovely comments left on my last post and it could just be the Yoga (gee, did I sleep well last night). Anyway, the world feels a little bit brighter and I've been able to put the worries of yesterday behind me.

Oh, how I Love Fridays. Don't forget to join in.

Some time soon I'll get organised and make a little list of players for my side bar. Maybe I'll even get really fancy and make a button. I'd have to learn how to do that somehow.