stapeliad swap

Ok, I'll admit it. I love stapeliads aka starfish flowers! I've become addicted to growing them and waiting for the flowers to bloom. But sadly I've only been able to find 2 different sorts, and one of them is growing so slowly I haven't even seen what kind of flowers it has!

So when Sandi blogged about an unusual succulent on her veranda, I was over the moon! After a few emails had been exchanged on how wonderful and amazing these flowers are, we decided on a plant swap!
So I sent Sandi I piece of my starfish flower -For a piece of hers -But guess what? She sent me extra! And not just another starfish flower called "Owl Eyes" (which I am sooooo super excited about) but some other beautiful succulent plants, and some sewing supplies too!Oh Sandi, thank you so much! I have potted them all up -and I just adore the scissors and pins!

Have you ever done an out-of-the-ordinary swap?

Op Shop Finds

I spent a day visiting my favourite thrift shops last week, and here's some of my finds -A hand appliqued cushion cover, perfectly stitched.Another pillow case made from a panel of a very sweet little cat, surrounded by pot plants and matching backing material. Both were only AU$1.00.This is the most glorious native Australian flora folk art painting, complete with butterflies, only AU$3.00. (I must show you my flower folk art collection one day!)A gorgeous rose accordion folder with a pocket for every month, only AU$2.00. It will be perfect for storing birthday cards in! Notice the table cloth underneath? It's made of plastic for an easy wipe down, and fits my family room dining table perfectly! I bought it, too, from a thrift store not long ago for AU$3.00!A medium sized metal bucket for AU$0.50, which is great for storing all sorts of goodies!Last but not least, this sweet little egg cup for AU$0.50 which I shall soon turn into a new pincushion.

Have you been thrifting or bargain hunting recently? What's your all time favourite item that's been picked up for next to nothing?

Ului

Edited to Add:
Cyclone Ului crossed the coast on Sunday morning at 1:30am, 500kms north of us. Mackay has caught the brunt of it, but as all of Queensland is saying - we have been through much worse, and if you have to have a cyclone, then this is the kind you want! It has been downgraded to an ex-cyclone, and is now a rain depression heading west to Jenny of Elefantz. Millions of dollars worth of damage, mostly to the sugar cane crops, but Mackay is a beautiful city with wonderful people, and they're on their way to being back to normal already!
We got a heap of wind and rain - it's still raining in fact! Some lightning and thunder, and a palm tree in our front yard was pulled up by the roots, with a heap of palm fronds we had to clean up, but that's it.
Thankyou all so much for your thoughts and prayers! They worked!


Forgive me for not having blogged about my crafting the last week or so. We're on Cyclone watch! Cyclone Ului is headed our way, and already the wind is quite strong, so we've been securing everything around the house and preparing, just in case.A cyclone watch has been declared for between Cardwell and Yeppoon, with residents warned to prepare for damaging winds and outlying areas to expect heavy rainfall.

"Damaging winds should develop between Cardwell and Yeppoon during Saturday, and increase further on Saturday night as the cyclone approaches the coast," according to a Bureau statement.

Here's a link if you would like to read and learn some more.

A big thankyou to all who have left a comment on my mushroom pin topper tutorial!

Mushroom Pin-Topper Tutorial

I've been asked by my good friend Teresa how I made the mushroom pins I showed in my last post. So yesterday I grabbed out my supplies and with camera in hand, created an easy peasy tutorial for her, and thought I'd share it with all of you guys too! It is so easy, you won't believe you never knew how to make them!You will need -

• Pearl head pins
• Polymer clay in your chosen colours (I used red and white)
• Small beads
• Oven

Step one - Roll a small amount of white clay into tic tac sized and shaped pieces:Step two - Push this "tic tac" of clay up through the sharp end of the pin, so it's sitting as pictured:Step three - Roll pea-sized bits of red clay into balls:Step four - slightly flatten red clay balls as pictured:Step five - Push pearl pin head softly into the center of your flattened red ball of clay, pick it all up and gently squeeze the edges of your flattened red clay around the pin head as pictured:Step six -Once flattened all the way around and in the shape of a mushroom, add however many beads you wish to make your mushroom look shroom-y (You could also use small round balls of clay to achieve this effect):Step seven - lay on some baking paper and follow directions on your polymer clay packet to bake:Step eight - Once cooked and cooled, take pins and stick them in your pin cushion for a photo shoot!!Step nine - Leave a comment on this post letting me know that you've made some!

EDITED TO ADD:

Thankyou all so much for your wonderful comments! Here's some links to crafter's who have made their own! I love how they all turn out differently -

Teresa (of course) of All Things Vintage
Lisa at Cubby House Crafts

Stumped

So last year sometime, I've forgotten when, I found a little vase at a second hand shop for AU$0.50. It looked like a little tree stump. Too tempting! I bought it, brought it home, and have turned it into a pincushion.I've even made some little mushroom pins to go with it and make it seem more "woodsy-ish."It's currently sitting on my bookshelf, hence the background in the photos!Very easy, very effective, very cute! Waddaya all think?

Double Rescue

It seems like I'm always finding animals that need to be rescued and looked after!

Meet Oscar. I rescued Oscar from a street corner in the rain. He was terribly frightened and wet and muddy and shivering, and desperately trying to get across the road in between the traffic. So I parked the car up the street, walked back, and coaxed him over to me. I brought him home, cleaned him up, called him Oscar and fed him.He is the most beautiful cat, I don't know how anyone could have left him there, or would not look for him when he went missing! But without any collar or micro chip, his "found" ad has been in the local paper, and his description left at a few different vets, but all to no avail. So he's been taken on by Capricorn Animal Aid and has already been adopted!!! I'll have him for a few more weeks while he gets fixed up and heals from his wounds, but after that, he will be moving on to his forever home, which just happens to be on a property out of town. He will simply love it there!

My other rescue happened last Friday. I was at the local Botanic Gardens taking photos of birds (twitching) when I focused my lens on an egret sitting on the ground, only to realize he was a baby who had fallen from his nest in a big old palm tree.Well there's no way I was getting him back into his nest, so I took him up to the office. "Take him to the vets," was their response. So I did. "Oh no, not another one!" was theirs. "It's the 7th baby egret this week! No carers will take them on, so we've just been culling them."Not my rescue baby! He was way too cute to be killed! So I brought him home, and looked up local carers on the Internet. Finding one, I called her, and "Yes, I'll take him. Just bring him over!"

Ahh yes, happy endings all round!!