I foster kittens every now and then for my local cat rescue. I shared a photo of my foster cat Chaos in a post about a wood burnt cat spoon, he is my cat now. My husband finally let me keep him after Chaos got crystals in his urine, I guess he saw how upset I was at the possibility he might die. Either way, Chaos is a special little character and luckily he has found his forever home with me.
Our rescue has wonderful creative supporters that donate their handmade items for us to sell so we can raise money to care for unwanted cats and kittens.
We had organised a market stall so I decided I would make a whole lot of cat phone charms that we could sell. After the market stall I needed to make a stand so they could sit at the vet where we get all the vetwork for our rescue cats.
I made some of the phone charms with the loops used for the older phones that had the little spot to loop it through. They still work great to attach to keyrings, zips, car mirrors, etc. But they don't work with new phones, so I found earphone dust plugs to create charms for those phones.
The tree stand I got for Christmas time originally had bells in all the holes and wasn't very stable with all those charms on it so I made a base and glued it in place. The original charms with loops hung off the branches easy enough. The dust plug charms didn't fit over any branches so I used the holes where the bells were and attached an earring hook with a jump ring so I could hang them.
I didn't take a photo of the non Christmas tree I made, but I just drilled holes and inserted wire to create a hook on either side of the branches.
These trees are a great way to display small items for sale - and they don't need to be specifically for jewellery.
At the moment I am totally uncreative, there aren't any crafts I feel like doing. After my huge list of handmade gifts at Christmas time (and the birthdays around the same time) I just get worn out and don't craft for awhile. But it is March now, this weekend is Easter and other than my sister's birthday in January, I haven't made a single present.
I have a birthday present to finish in just over a week (and by finish I mean I also need to start it)! Hopefully starting on this handmade gift will help me get the creative bug again.
Luckily for my blog, I have plenty of goodies I've made and haven't yet shared. Like these honey dippers.
I know they're not commonly used anymore but they are cute in their own right. Personally I think I made them even cuter with the little bee designs I burnt into them. I made tips for my wood burning pen to create the basic outlines to keep them consistent, then just added in the details.
I've given a few of these as gifts, and a few have been added to my "selling box". My selling box is where the items go that I've made just out of enjoyment, not intended for anyone in particular, just my one day I'm going to have a market stall or website where I can sell my creations. I am happy that it at least has been added to since Christmas.
I realised it has been quite awhile since I've posted photos of my flowers. There aren't many at the moment, it has been pretty hot this summer - I think that is the reason my callas are only just starting to pop up (they are supposed to flower in Summer, technically it is now Autumn). Hopefully there is still a chance they will flower.
A lot of these are new flowers I've added to my garden as we are thinking about getting a native bee hive. After researching I'm trying to add lots of white and yellow flowers and I will now try to avoid the red flowers as bees don't see red.
Here's hoping I have lots more beautiful flowers to share soon!
I found some super cute fabric at Spotlight one day and decided to make matching outfits for my nieces and nephew for the Christmas presents.
The third dress I made was another Madison Dress from Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop. I used some of the blue fabric to make matching buttons for this dress, they turned out so cute. I've made a few of these now, I should see if I can find photos of the others and post those. This orange one is the first one I ever made.
I saw this pattern for the Newsie Cap from Peek-a-Boo Patterns and thought it was so cute. While my sister was pregnant she said she was going to have so many hats for her baby boy so I figured I would make him one.
Well in the end I technically made two, I was tired and for some reason thought I had to add the seam allowance to the pattern so I ended up with an adult size newsie cap! Luckily I had enough fabric leftover to make a second one that actually fit him.
Oh and this was one of those times where I left it until the last minute - this photo has no button as I sewed that on in the car.
They both turned out cute, but it was a little bit fiddly putting it all together. I think if you were really careful sewing the outer hat and lining together you could make it reversible.
Awhile back (I think it was for Christmas 2014) I made a cute little reversible vest for my baby nephew. I found a tutorial online with a free pattern (size 18 months) which was lined. I figured since a fair bit of it was lined that I might as well make it reversible which led to me finding this tutorial for a reversible vest (size 12 months).
My combination of these two great tutorials and patterns looked cute on my nephew, and it was nice that I could sew something special for him.
Sorry about the photos, I really need to learn to finish gifts early so I have time to take the photos, along with spare time to retake them when they don't turn out that great.
Stay tuned, my next post will be for the Newsie Cap from Peek-a-Boo Patterns I made for his birthday to match this vest!
