Follow the White Rabbit

Things are getting curiouser and curiouser around here.

  

Kitty turns 13 years old very shortly and we are expecting her cousin and best friend (Ruth) down for a few days with her mother (the loveliest most gentle person I know) and we are so excited. Kitty didn't want a party as such she just wanted to spend some time with Ruth and when her mum suggested they both come down for a few days visit it was the perfect opportunity to get together.

I've been secretly planning an Alice in Wonderland party for some time since we took out the stunning book Paper Cuts by Taylor Haggerty from the library. So while the girls were recently with their grandparents for a little break I cracked out the pva glue and string and started to create a little bit of wonderland for our home.

The White Rabbit:

This scrumptious little man is a Lindt chocolate rabbit. A middle size one (500g) which this time of year are fairly easy to come by in a large supermarket. I wrapped him well in cling film so that there was no chance for the PVA glue and acrylic paint to taint the chocolate. I then paper mache'd him up with a layer of white tissue using Decopatch glossy glue; a little slightly thinned PVA glue would have been cheaper and just as good but I had the decopatch to hand and I didn't have the PVA. Because white tissue is so transparent when used like this I then covered him with a layer of white acrylic paint followed with a final layer of white tissue and glue once the paint had dried.

His snappy little suit I painted on using acrylics in two shades of green, blue, brown and a tiny bit of yellow for his buttons. I based it on John Tenniel's original illustrations of the white rabbit.

The straws and gift bags:

Sourced from the lovely products at Project Pretty She will personalize flags and stickers for the bags and straws but I chose to make my own eat me/ drink me tags from Cath Kidston stickers I had hanging around.

  

This adorable fellow is a friend of the Mad Hatter and likes to sleep in tea pots. He came from the wonderfully creative Etsy shop Quernus Crafts and has been resident with us for only a few weeks.

X Jo

Embarrassment

I am intermittently a clumsy person. I've known it most my life. From the time that I tried balancing along a tree branch (it doesn't just hurt for blokes!) to tripping down the cinema stairs last Friday. I will be a perfectly normal person for a few months before I morph into my alternative personality and begin banging my head into things, tripping over air and fumbling with innocuous objects. My early relationship with Matt was a miracle in survival and love- we were like Laurel and Hardy. Between me accidentally kneeing Matt in the head and on to getting a black eye when I inexplicably rammed my eye into his elbow the poor man still married me.

So in the last week I have:

•  dropped a cake
•  fallen down stairs
•  poked Matt in the eye while he was driving
•  dropped a teacup in a shop which managed to fall against a cake stand and a pile of plates: breaking six objects.
•  walked into a door

The long and short of it all is that I broke the glass of my phone. So for all my bragging my last post... I still dropped it while checking my messages and my beautiful little case did nothing to save it. Traitor.

Hands free

I like to carry my smart phone with me everywhere.

Not because I get calls... I get one or two a day (almost always from Matt).

Not because I have interesting apps (Windows 7 phone- was great but now getting a bit glitchy).

I just love it's carry case!!!

This was cross stitched onto cream evenweave and then just sewn with a felt lining to the right size with a ribbon for carrying. The design is by Kerry Morgan and can be found in Cross Stitcher isssue 247.  It has this adorable title line which you can personalize. Mine says "California Dreaming" and who can resist a classic? Not to mention; I do... dream of CA that is.

I love it. I don't have to scrabble in my bag looking for it, forgetting it on coffee shop tables, setting it down somewhere in the house where it disappears into the background because of the bland black colour, or (and yes sadly I have done this before) put it in my pocket where it slips out just as I go to use the loo!! No not for me because... THERE! SEE IT? My phone hangs sweetly from my wrist. 

I got approached by a bloke in the music industry who wanted me to make him some (500) to include with parcels he wanted to send out. After controlling my initial surprise and telling him it wasn't my design to sell I asked him how much he thought it was worth per item... Well let me just say that men in the music industry clearly have no clue how long it takes to produce a small cross stitch pattern because his assumption was grossly undervaluing my time not to mention Kerry's lovely design! 

So if you see me strolling down the sidewalk with my arm waving in the air crazily: I'm not hitchhiking/distressed/mad/having a heart attack. I just want everyone to look at my uber-awesome phone case!

X  Jo

Obsession #1 and #2

Obsession #1:

I'm still playing with my Momma's photos. At the moment I'm putting all the older ones (which have been shoved in boxes and envelopes in cupboards and basements for who knows how long) the safety and security of an acid free home.

Obsession #2:

Prismacolour Pencils.

'Nuff said.

Ohh how I wish that all these pesky little issues like feeding people, homeschooling and keeping a house tidy would just disappear so I could properly obsess.

**Sigh**