Sattelite Dish Planter

When we got our roof repainted it meant removing the old satellite dish and I insisted that I had to keep it to create a succulent garden. And much to my husbands annoyance it sat in the way until I figured out that the remaining stump of our palm tree was the perfect stand! It was a tough decision to permanently cover up the cut end of this stump since it made a great background for my agate pendants, but I think the end result was worth it.

I had the draft of this post written many years ago and I've just recently changed this part of my garden so I'll have to do an update once all the plants have settled in.

4 Years Later!

Wow it has been 4 years since I've updated my blog!

There has been lots going on but I think I've finally settled on my favourite craft... pyrography. I sell some of my finished pieces on MadeIt which is an Australian handmade site - you can check my store out at madeit.com.au/krydasu or you can find my pyrography on Facebook at facebook.com/krydasu

I have plenty to share with you, and I'll try not to bore you with too many variations of woodburnt spoons - I still do plenty of other crafts!

We had a bad year last year, I had some health issues, we lost Ray's grandfather and not long after that we found out Trixie had cancer and 1 month later lost her at only 8 years old. She was our baby and I still can't believe she is gone. We chose to have her cremated and I'm still deciding where and what tree will hold some of her ashes. It's still difficult to talk about so I'll leave you with my favourite photo of her at the park with her beloved frisbee.

While last year was bad, good things still happened and I promise the next post will be a much happier one!

Cat Rescue Charms

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.

Bee honey dippers

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.

Summer Flowers 2016

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!