On My Bench

Do you remember On My Desk? The meme Kootoyoo hosted before My Creative Space? Am I showing my blogging age?! Well, it was one of the reasons I fell in love with blogging. It opened my eyes to the creative community online, introduced me to many of the creative bloggers I still follow and gave me a chance to not only peek in to the crafty lives of other makers, but share my own works in progress. Some things never change, and you will quite often find me sharing On My Bench posts on Instagram.

Above are a couple of the things I have been working on lately. Pictures one and four show a blue quartz ring in progress, for a custom order. I love this beautiful dark blue rock, it's such an intense colour. It is going to be one amazing ring! A simple four claw setting and solid band, showing off the gemstone. The second image across is a pile of castings for orders and stock. The rings on the far right are a new design I have been working on and will be released next month. I have a couple of other ideas up my sleeve with these rings and I do believe my Christmas present will be taken care of as a result. The third image is of a pair of Maeve rings being resized for a customer, using a jewellers trick to make sure they are both the same size.

So my lovelies, what have you been making lately?

Did you used to play On My Desk?

Do you miss My Creative Space?

On My Fridge...

Amy (badskirt) is playing On My Fridge, as On My Desk is no more... Pop over to her blog if you want to play too and check out who else is playing!

This is my fridge... (I love it because it is stainless steel and the freezer is at the bottom and the fridge at the top - 'cause which do you use more...) Below is a photo booth pic of me and hubby, held on with one of three bird-peg-suction-cap things we brought in a gorgeous little design store in Paris - could have brought so many beautiful things there, but near beginning of trip and limited back pack room - three birds fitted nicely. Beneath that is the afore mentioned Victoria Reichelt invitation, with a Modigliani (legendary artist) magnet from the GOMA store and a souvenir magnet brought by my mum in Vietnam...

A Picasso magnet, "La Guernica" (anti-war painting), also from GOMA, hangs on to the invitation to my sister's exhibition... And a reminder of the trip to Japan that could have been and may one day be, this beautiful postcard I found in an op-shop...

On my desk... Part II

I managed to get hospital nightie shopping today! Let me say firstly that I probably would not wear something like this if I were not - A. Already married and B. Pregnant. That said, I think I did manage to find the most nanna nightie at the op-shop today for $5. I think the 'elle' label must really have been tounge-in-cheek, don't you? It is one step up from a hospital gown though... Lock up your sons... Ha! Even Targets $30 nighties weren't much better. And as I know that I won't be wearing it again after the big day, $5 is better than $30! So nightie shopping out of the way and hospital bag all packed, I got back to what was on my desk. I managed to get the little animals cut out and fused to my pages and this is how they look so far... Elephant...

Lion...

Cat...

Dog...

Chicken...

So I think I have done the easy bit, the next steps may be trickier... But I think they are looking cute and it was fun putting it all together. I am already thinking Natasha doesn't charge enough for her finished books!

PS. Also managed to get to the post office today and post my softie to Mikes for Mirabell - aww... feeling good about my small good deed.

On my desk...

On my desk today is a printed epattern from Hanies that I am lucky enough to get to test out! So I have been reading thorough it, gathering my supplies and trying to pick the fabric for the gorgeous little animals and pages...

I'm guessing that very soon you will be able to buy your self this beautiful pattern from Natasha's website. Or you can buy a finished book for a special some one for Christmas from Natasha's Etsy store! Shameless plug, I know, but it is just so damn cute!

I will keep you posted on my progress... I only hope I can do it justice as I am new to this kind of thing...

On My Desk...

Another softie has made it off my desk... Introducing Poppie Piggie... Poppie is modelling this seasons summer dress which features two co-ordinating 100% cotton prints...

... and four tiny buttons...

The perfect dress for a picnic or a walk in the park...

On My Desk...

Unfortunately dedicated crafting space is in short supply at my house. I have my sewing machine set up on an antique writing bureau in the guest bedroom, the drawers of which are filled with fabric, scissors and threads, but there isn't much room beside my machine. As a result my craft tends to travel around the house, from the dining table, the coffee table and the kitchen bench. Last night it was the coffee tables turn.

I finally got to play with my $2 shop and op-shop purchases!

I began by putting this button and ribbon brooch together. I saw the idea in a library book and I keep adding to it until was happy. Cute?

I was also inspired by some beautiful blogs I saw yesterday I thought I'd make some more pin cushions. I made this felt, my first ever pin cushion a few weeks ago and have been using it ever since. Before that my pins were just in the little plastic box they came in!! Last night I made these two pincushions...

Yay once more for op-shop fabric!

The second one is made from two beautiful squares of fabric my sister gave me, which were left over from a quilt she made. So cute and so easy - I just stitched them together, stuffed it and rummaged around in the button collection mum gave me and found these cute buttons. There's a button in the middle of each side squishing it together.

So many buttons, so little time...

My crafting urge was not completely satisfied, so I played with some more fabric covered button bobby pins as well before bed... hmmm, more spots...

Check out who else is playing On My Desk here...

On My Desk...

On my desk... are half of a pair of little shoes I have been making from an old magazine pattern for a friends baby, but I have run out of bias binding to finish the other half of the pair!

I have also been making recycled fabric bags out of old pillow cases I found at the op-shops, I love the yellow and orange in the fabric! My beautiful mother gave me a huge box vintage buttons and a box of ribbon and ric-rac that belonged to my Grandmother, so I have been carefully sorting and wrapping all the cool vintage ribbons on to cardboard. As a result of having many buttons and lots of ribbon I have taught myself how to make ribbon flowers and have been stitching these on to the bags with the "A little bird told me..." tags that I have also just made using iron on T-shirt transfer paper. If you want to make your own ribbon flowers I have found a great ribbon flower tutorial here - I do it a little differently, but it will only take you a couple of goes to work out how you want to do it.

Now to pick another type of ribbon....

And make something with them...