Hush, not a whisper...

Sorry I've gone radio silent on my blog. Life has been happening too fast! Here is a sampler:
We fell for an apartment and want to sell our house.
We've turned what was our office/sewing room back into a master bedroom including taking down built in shelves, packing away contents, paint and wallpaper. Erk
On Friday when we moved the PC, it died.
I spent the weekend at a quilting retreat. And got heaps done. Including all the bits of laurel dress I had to finish.

A mixture of clouds and silver linings...

I'll be taking photos of as many things as I can, to show them off. :)

Happy Birthday to me!

Yay! A box arrived from Amazon at last with my birthday present. I asked for contributions towards buying all four Patterns of Fashion books and got enough to buy two which is an exciting start!

These are the ones I wanted the most anyway :) I am drooling over them whenever I can, especially the 'black' one as I've already almost memorised the other over the years. I love Janet Arnold!

Life! It has a life of its own!

Well, now, it looks like Julz just may have won herself some cupcake things! :) Although my lovely Joie de Vivre who has tried and failed to get Google to let her have a presence, swears (literally) that cupcakes are better than Google apps!
I've not listed my next giveaway because - on Monday we saw an apartment just because it's good to keep one's eye on the market, and fell HOH in love. I was liking the downstairs a lot but feeling a bit disappointed that there probably wasn't room for all of my making and doing, but upstairs was a 'bedroom' that is really just a big space with sun and room and - it's gorgeous! It's easily half again as big as the space I have now, which means we can put the sofa bed up there too - nice place to sit (and dump projects) and somewhere for guests.
So, the upshot is that we're trying to sell our house. I know! Can I take my kitchen with me?
So, please bear with me a bit longer for giveaway number two. No Dreamstress, alas it won't be my house hehehe.

Fifteen Followers! Fantastic!!

Very exciting stuff. To celebrate, I am doing three giveaways, one a week, all around the different things I make and do, so you can choose the giveaway that matches your own passion, or try for the hat trick! :)

This week's giveaway is all about cupcakes. There are well over 150 cupcake papers here for every occasion, including the stand alone ones, and five plastic icing bags (they are disposable but also very reusable).

Sorry to my lovely international followers but because this one is quite bulky, it's only open to kiwis. (sorry Duchess!) however, the next two are going to be sewing related and will be open to all! :)

All you have to do is to post a comment telling us all why cupcakes are better than [...] (which can be anything you choose) I will include my cupcake and butter cream icing recipes with the giveaway so you'll have everything you need to get started (or keep making if you are already a cupcake convert like me!)

I'll leave it open until next Sunday kiwitime. International followers and commenters are welcome to join in, you never know, it may get you brownie points towards the next two giveaways! :)

You learn something every day!

This is my mother's favourite tea pot and I have to say it makes a wicked cup of tea. Perched on its handle is a parrot made of fabric lined with some kind of batting. Apparently these were quite common once, as a sort of  'ovenmit' for the hot teapot handle. Who knew! If I had come across a parrot like that, I'd not in a thousand years guess what it was for.

As an aside, I wasn't trying to take a fabulous photo but overall I think it came out really well, don't you? And you can just make out the photographer and her mother reflected in the teapot's surface. :)

And finally...!

The finished cake. It tasted great and went down a  treat. Could have been half the size, but hey, the children of quilters all over Wellington are well pleased that I didn't make it smaller! :)

Exterminate! One mouthful at a time...

I need practice, this one would never be able to take on the world!!!