Lest We Forget

Learning German & WIP

Last week I was contacted for a custom order from Switzerland from a lovely girl named Rahel, I really enjoyed learning the translation for her 30th birthday invitation, her party is in June and I will also be designing a range of party decorations for her as well, which is something I have been meaning to do for ages anyway to match the invites. Looking forward to seeing photos of her party its in an old mill, sounds amazing, if I win lotto Rahel, think I might gate crash your party myself !

Some poster prints designed for some little munchkins I know...

And a design I did for a competition

Happy Easter Blogger's

Finally, the Easter Bunny should be coming tonight, if you have been good that is ! 

Table preparations before bed took     F.. O.. R.. E.. V.. E.. R     by Master 4, 

think its all in place after much consideration and moving around,

 display of arts and craft collected, 

even a test bite of the carrot was done

Next stop..  fast asleep !

Happy Easter Bloggers

Easter Freebie !

EASTER FREEBIE ! 

Well how excited was I when the Easter Bunny asked me to design a letter for him this year, he sent a special letter to my son Sam yesterday in the post and how very excited was the little munchkin that the Easter Bunny even knew about his swimming.


So as the Easter Bunny is so busy making and wrapping he has asked me to giveaway some letters, all you have to is join/follow my blog, add a comment and I will send you the file via email. (If you are already a follower, just leave a comment)


PS: if you are new to blogger, make sure you put in your email address in your profile so I can send you the file, if you dont want to share as public on your settings, please email me directly at inmypencilcase@hotmail.com otherwise I wont be able to contact you.


The giveaway will finish midday Thursday 5th April 2012.


This is the file you will receive via email pdf format ready to print on A4, (without the watermark) of course,  pop it in an envelope and post it or leave it out for your special someone to find. 

And this is the personal letter the Easter Bunny posted to Sam !

Happy Easter everyone !

Printers Drawers

My local shops recently opened a second hand shop its chock a block full of "good stuff".  I found these drawers and was so excited when the owner explained that they were from an old printing factory, made from kauri with brass handles and little metal label holders, I was in love, my heart was beating with treasure hunt success ! Looking around for the actual cabinet the owner advised me that there is no cabinet it was thrown away by the man he got the drawers from.  Aaaahhhh, that saying one persons trash is anothers treasure comes to mind. 


Anyway I still loved them and remembering a cool idea a friend recently did with a drawer on her wall, here, I went ahead and bought them.  One for the sprogs room, one for my art room and one is going to my friend that I stole the idea off. 

I had to give them a good clean.

Made with Wire

I love working with wire, I have made a few things over the years with wire and quite like starting with a pack of straight pieces and a vague idea to see what eventuates.

With all the bird cages and lampshade frames in vogue at the moment it inspired me to make something today for a besties daughter who is turning 5 next month.  My friend is coming for a flying visit and stay on the weekend, so an opportunity to get her to take something home made back on the plane, I forgot about customs so I had to undo a bit and take off the stick that was on the birds perch.

My little guy had a great time with his and whipped it up in less than five minutes,  he also did the frame for the bird perch for mine as he told me I was a bit slow at arts and crafts and needed a hand from him... thanks Sam, I was actually very impressed with your work at only 4 years of age !

Here is Sams ! named Alfie after his cousins bird who flew away one day

A couple of wire pieces I made a few years ago.

The Blog Catchup

Wow .... I didnt mean for that to be such a long blog gap ! 


It was a very busy Oct, Nov and Dec, a lot of cards and clay tags were sold and a couple new stockists found me so all'n all I was very pleased and grateful.  Hope you had a great Christmas and New Years, here is a few snaps of the last couple of months for me.


A new big bed for the little guy, (he decided it was his Santa Sleigh) with snow decorating for his "snow cave" and "sleigh". Apparantly Santa even came and picked him up on the first night in his sleigh bed, he went to the workshop and was in charge of dolls and robots, such a great age.

A visit to the man himself, ... one of many, we (maybe me) became a bit stalker-ish by the end of Dec, not sure who is the bigger kid at Christmas.

A visit to a couple of vinnies shop to stock up for the christmas day table.  Last minute decision for my husbands family and a couple of friends to come to ours for lunch. I really enjoyed finding this loot and of course hosting Christmas Day, even though I forgot to put out the rice salad and bon bons.

This is a Kris Kringle present for Anna a lovely girl from my other part time job.  Our rules were under $20 and handmade.  I was telling her one day how this would probably be the last year I can get away with being able to be selfish and decorate the tree on my own, I normally have a theme that I stick to, mega coloured busy tree's are not my style.  Next year I will have to let go as Master 5 will be into it.  Anyway Anna said she loves a tree with so much mismatched stuff on it that it is crazy messy, so that is what we gave her.  Sticks, wire, and loads of stuff, nail polish, chocolates, jewellery, booze, paints, a hatching penguin, toy dinosaurs, ribbons, clay tags and god knows what else were tied on by myself and the little guy, I really struggled with its mish mash of no structure, but she loved it ! and proudly took it home on the train, I did offer to drive her with it, but she is such a fun girl, full of life, she thought it would be funny people trying to figure what on earth she was holding.  Follow your dreams in 2012 Miss Anna. 

A little baby for christmas, my husbands step sister had a beautiful little girl on the 23rd, congratulations Allison and Murray.  When we got the news Sam and I were at the shops and promptly went to the girls section of Myer and Sam proudly picked out her first little dress. 


Hello and welcome to the world Ivy Harper Slee. 

This is Christmas Eve, and its the photos you never see on a blog, or is that because your not supposed to put them on your blog ? Oh well, there was MESS in every room of the house.  At this point I was freaking out a little to get everything done I wanted and having it all look like what was in my head. We only even had the new table we bought as our christmas present delivered on Christmas Eve, did I mention the pav is yet to be made, I had a deadline of 6.00pm so I could spend this special night with the little one watching a Santa movie ... The clock shows 4.00pm aaarrrrrgh !


The Pre Christmas M E S S !!

Nana's Pavlova recipe, didn't take a shot of it with cream & berries on top, but it turned out ok.

I did manage to get to my 6.00pm deadline so now for the nice christmas photos .... 

And not forgetting the snow marks Santa left behind, and yes that is a dog poo right in the middle of it ! Nice one Wilson.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, now there's a Holiday blog to catch up on.  Off to pour a wine as I look out to a amazing view of the boats on the water, our last few days of holidays at Clontarf Beach, photos to show soon of how spoilt we have been, house and dog minding for a friend, and she thinks we are doing her a favour ? 

More Christmas & Newspaper Taxi

A couple more christmas designs available.

The street party was originally designed for my own street this year, last year we had a great time.   Funny how you can spend a whole lifetime in your house and not know the people down the street, or do I spend too much time in the house designing quirky reindeers perhaps ?

Think this is me secretly wishing I could sew a quilt.  

The Street Party

Introducing Newspaper Taxi  "We LOVE Mail competition"

I cant even remember how I came across this blog, but am grateful I did and is now on my 'Blogs I Stalk' list.  And to make it even better the owner Stef has a boutique vintage store in Newtown. Think I will be popping over for a personal visit in the next couple of weeks. 

So anyway what I wanted to share is her great giveaway of stationary. 

So, my desk is covered in packs of christmas cards, so there is a couple of packs on their way.

Hope you can join in, be quick it closes Friday the 4th November 2011.  You have gotta pop over to her blog and check out all the amazing stuff she has received.  

Personally I would have trouble letting it go, its going to be one AMAZING prize !

Christmas & So Soon !

I am sure I will say what we all are thinking ... 


"I can't believe its only 2 months till Christmas" here are some new designs will a couple more to come, and some freebie giveaways very very shortly !


Merry Christmas, sorry carried away .. thats a little bit too soon isn't it.

"Cant wait to see you this Christmas" 

"Sending Big LOVE this Christmas"

" M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S "

" The Reindeer Tree "

The Pirate Adventure

The Pirate Adventure !  My little man turned 4 today, and it felt like his actual birthday would never come, we had a pirate party for him two weeks ago, and I think I started preparing for the (what turned into an event) at least 3 weeks before that.  I really enjoyed the theme of black, white and red.  Happy Birthday my beautiful boy I hope you enjoyed your party as much as I enjoyed creating it x mum-ma x


The Invitation ......

The FRONT

The BACK

Address Card #1

Because most of the kids were from kindy they were hand delivered.

Address Card #2

And an address card for those that needed to be posted. 

mmmmm, Am I sure I really want to invite 25, 4 year old pirates with swords to my house ?

The Cake ......

I found a silicon pirate ship for the cake and used food dyes with fondant icing which was a first for me, but just like playing with clay, I pushed it into the mould to make imprints and a bit of cutting, rolling and painting I was quite pleased at how easy it was.

The Pirate Ship ......

I saw this idea somewhere on the net (but couldn't find it again to give credit sorry).  


But basically a trip to your local hardware store for three pieces of dowel, a couple of buckets, a piece of black fabric, and string.  Out with the power-tools I drilled a bracket to the underside of our dining room table to hold the first piece of dowel in place, carefully trying not to drill all the way through, otherwise that will be a story for future dinner parties. (you could always just have three pole's standing straight up if the drilling is a bit scary)  The other two are just poked in a bucket full of dirt (wet to add weight), then tie some string and add some bunting (the striped ones are just wrapping paper cut into triangles.  The others are what I just designed on the computer.  Super easy and super cheap.  


Now its just getting permission from Master 4 that it can be taken down, thats the hard part !

The lollie bag ......

Kicking myself for not remembering to take photos of the table all set up with the food etc, I also forgot to take pics of the take home gifts for the kids.  I used empty tennis ball containers and filled the bottom with cannonballs (jaffas) and topped with pirate bits and pieces, pencil, bubbles, cards and gold coins.  This was the left over one that doesn't even have a lid left on it and their were more jaffas in the bottom, but you get the general idea.  I cant stop thinking of the great pic I didn't take of all of the 25 of them lined up together. 

Decorations & Games .....

Decorating was easy lots of stripes, bits of garden netting, we had a treasure hunt after a mystery Pirate phoned Sam to tell him there was a map buried in the garden.  He had to lead his fellow pirates around the house outside, finding a parrot, sword and scarf for the final clue to find a treasure box full of chocolate coins and pirate rings. 

Phew, Pirate Adventure 

 The End