Queen for a Day!

Yes you read right, I am the Queen for a Day! Well I was yesterday when this divine creation turned up at my door!!!

Karin made me this most glorious crown for Holly's swap, I just love it to pieces! It has all my favourite elements.... real vintage wallpaper, glitter, roses, pinkness, mintness (is that a word?) and I am loving blue now too... and flocked tulle! and ribbon and fabric flowers and glitter and those amazing paper roses with the curly petals and rhinestones and oh I could go on forever!!!!!!

Sheesh you would think I would have put on some pretty clothes instead of photographing myself in my sweaty gym gear wouldn't you.... but I took the pics the minute I walked in the door after finding my parcel waiting after my disastrous gym session yesterday (see last post). So daggy clothes it is I am afraid!
Love these details, Karin you have outdone yourself!
Oh the prettiness of it! This is displayed on a table in our bay window in the bedroom, you can see it walking to the front door, it tells people I am the Queen!! It also reminds hubby too as he walks past it on his side of the bed!
Oh and as if that wasn't enough, she treated me to this marvellous notebook she made.... I loved it when I saw it on her blog and flickr and now it is MINE!!! I don't know if I can bring myself to write inside it.... what would be worthy of writing in this beautiful creation?! Certainly not a boring TO DO list. Any ideas? I don't want to waste this on something humdrum, if that makes sense!

We also did a kid swap. Leroy loved his Backyardigans goodies, the postcards, magnet and fun stuff that was sent to him, but this would have to be his favourite of all, a ribbon twirler! He calls it his magic wand. He says "Zibbidy Zibbida Mummy Disappear!" then flicks the wrist while I hide. "Zibbidy Zibbida Mummy Come Back!". LOL it is so funny watching him twirl away. Thank you Karin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and a sneaky peek of a swap I did with Dede . She doesn't know what she is getting. I'll post full size pics when she receives it. I can't wait to get the wonderful party hat she is making for my birthday!
Oh hey when did the bulbs start flowering?!!! Suddenly we are getting hints of the Spring season we know will come soon.... can't wait!!! My favourite little grape hyacinths I planted last year (woohoo I didn't kill them!)
And jonquils too!!!!
Enjoy your day!
Natasha xoxo

I MUST be Nuts!

Why do we torture ourselves ~ all in the name of fitness and vanity..??? I've been putting a few kilos back on (that's more than a few pounds for my US friends) and so I joined up the Fitness Challenge Time Trials at my gym, starting today, to get those kilos off again in time for my smaller Summer clothes. Idiot me, didn't realise I am supposed to have trained for this for 2 weeks to prepare myself. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's what I had to do, and try to do this in under 8 minutes...

• 1 kilometre (1100 yards) on the exercise bike
• 500 meters (550 yards) on the rowing machine at the hardest-to-pull level
• 15 sit-ups
• 20 shoulder presses with 7 kilogram weights (15.5 pounds)
• 400 metres (450 yards) running on the treadmill

hmmmmmmm enough said..... I thought it would be easy, thought "I'm fit enough with the boxing classes I do and the weights I do I'll be fine". WRONG!

Nearly fainted on the treadmill and I was sooooooooo close at the end....

8 minutes and 3 seconds. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! If I just didn't slow to a fast walk towards the end I would have done it.

Now I can't move on from bronze to silver level, where there are more things to do in a shorter time... YEAH RIGHT, like that is something I WANT to do???! I must be NUTS! Oh and I can't walk or bend over now either!

Check this space same time next week, I am training this week to beat that 8 minutes, just to know I can, seeing I was soooooooo close!!!

So I am bushed, beat, buggered, tired, all of the above. Into the bath full of Radox in about 30 seconds!!!

Tomorrow I will share with you some fab photos of my beauties from Karin that came in the mail today, I am just too tired tonight to do them justice!

Over and flat out! xo

Hearts to Hearts and Hands to Hands.... Beneath the Blue and White We Stand...

My boys are outright 2nd on the AFL ladder!!!!!!!! GO KANGAS!!!! Here they are singing our theme song, a few weeks ago. LOVE this, it makes me so happy and puts a huge smile on my face!

This is the other part of my world... the non-painting, non-pink and non-pretty stuff part ~ Enjoy my rooboys!!!! xo

Incoming and Outgoing Mail!

Ready for a long one? I think there are about 20 photos here.... LOL so get a cup of coffee and I'll see you in a minute!

Warning to Heather (Speckled Egg), Ele, Amy, Cheryl, Rachael & Rosalyn-Sue ~ if you don't want to see you swap goodies look away now!!! (Maria and Angelina I forgot to photograph yours!)

Gorgeous Holly was so sweet, the cheeky girl sent me some pressies! I asked her "What is a nut cup?" So she made me one and filled it with goodies and sent me a matchbox of beauties too!!!! Amazing, love everything!!! Thank you Holly!

And more incoming mail ~ my bits and pieces swap collage arrived and wowee!!!! Catie Ann made this amazing collage for me for the swap Jenny organised. She knew I love pink and green and she has included so many personal touches I don't know where to begin! Like a bingo token with the letter N and 31, would you believe she found a token with my initial and my age??!!! (not for long though yikes!). And she included my son's name, little dresses (how I love dresses!) and lots of lovely sweet trims. THEN as if this wasn't enough she really spoiled me and sent me a vintage sewing pattern, vintage trims, lovely old postcards and more! All packed in PINK bubble wrap!!! Thank you Catie, it's so lovely!!!

Now from the other side of the world in a different direction, in my favourite place outside Australia, and what I call my second home, Italy, the lovely Joan sent me this gorgeous package! We were supposed to swap an ATC, and boy did she spoil me. FOUR gorgeous hand drawn/painted ATCs later, plus some lovely trims and sheets from an Italian book (super!).... boy did I feel bad about my little ole ATC I sent her, I am hoping I remembered to put a few extras in her package.... fingers crossed!!!
And not a swap but an "I must have one of these" purchase (well it was incoming mail!), was this divine corsage made by the talented Beth ~ you can buy these in her Etsy shop but hurry on over, she has only got a few left and they go like hot cakes!!! I wish the photos could do it justice, there is beauty all around, inside and on the back... unbelievable!!!

Now for the outgoing mail...

Here is the tussie mussie I made for Heather for the Tussie Mussie Swap. It's my first tussie mussie... I was (and still am) nervous about sending to Heather, she has such wonderful trims and so I hope the vintage stuff I filled this one with will be to her liking! I figured she is a trim queen so if I stick to vintage stuff she is less likely to have it already. I also made a different one for Maria who hosted the swap, but forgot to take pics of it before packing it, LOL!

I used anaglyptic wallpaper and tried to keep it all in tones of white with hints of pink. She likes white so I figured it would be fun to do something where the layers and textures speak for themselves.



The Art Doll Hat Swap ~ my partner is Ele and she is so lovely! We have bought items from each other so I was excited to get her as a partner! Here's my doll I made for her. I hope she likes it! I used colourful German glass glitter on the bodice and on the skirt, I have used a beautiful Alannah Hill fabric underneath (one of my favourite Aussie designers!) and layered the top with vintage embroidered lace. I also managed to burn my hand with the hot glue while sticking the lace on! LOL! I am such a klutz!
The mini one in the front is for Amy who hosted the swap, this time I did remember to take a photo! She likes brighter colours, and loves pink. The third one is a spare I made just because I wanted to! Might put it on my website, still deciding...
Next swap! The lovely Angelina organised a Christmas card/tag swap. My partner is Cheryl and if you go over and visit, you will see the amazing job I remember she did of her crown for Holly's crown and tiara swap and the amazing box she created to present it in. Then you would know why I was nervous to get her as a partner! Hoping I could live up to her lofty standards! So I created these.... I felt like I was in a bit of a creative funk when I did them but they are warming on me now... I so hope they are ok for her.... I am avoiding visiting her blog in case she has pics of mine up there, for a change, I am keeping the surprise!!! I still haven't looked at Karin's pics of my crown that is in the mail.... itching to since I am the person who is terrible at receiving a surprise!
These were my favourite, the little tags. I will do some more of these closer to Christmas to put on my website. Each card and tag is of prints of my paintings.

Oh and some experimenting with my new crown seal and green pearly wax on doilies... Angelina is getting some goodies too but again forgot to photograph them. (again??!!!)
Phew are you still there?!!!

Last swap.... Rosalyn-Sue hosted a cupcake swap. Now how could I NOT join up! My partner is Rachael just a hop skip and swim across the water in stunning Auckland New Zealand! She likes pink and green (thank goodness ~ cause that's what she is getting!) ~ I put together a package of my faux cupcakes, some of my cupcake scrapping pages plus a few new backgrounds that haven't made it onto my website just yet, some rose printed cupcake patty papers, cupcake tags, cupcake cards and a cupcake wall hanging collage. And here's the little thank you gift for Rosalyn-Sue (didn't forget to photograph this time!)
Lastly ~ (thank goodness, you are saying!) I sent this little wall hanging to my friend Ali up in Queensland as a little thank you for helping out with some stuff, she is a sweetie! Also sent a hanging strawberry for her daughter's room that you can see here . The biggest FLUKE of all is that Ali calls her blog "Ali's Spot" and I seriously didn't know that when I made this. Her blog is very new. I totally fluked it by calling her wall hanging by the same name!

All done now!!! See you next time!

Natasha xo

Holly is right!

Dear sweet Holly is right. Check out this post on her blog, I love it. So true and so right, a really simple thing and she is spot on. Couldn't have said it better myself.

"You are the bee people". Love that!

I have come to experience this in the past week or so ~ you, my bee people friends, are so lovely and sweet, kind and thoughtful. Thank you for your comments on my blog, your emails, thoughts, prayers and understanding. You are fabulous. I am doing fine, well and catching up on my backlog of work and blogging. I have missed you guys!!!

Heather has included a link to the song on Holly's post, you can see it here. Now try getting that song out of your head! I have had it in mine since hearing it yesterday, what fun!

Will catch up soon... in the meantime...

Thanks everyone for your warm thoughts, prayers and wishes. I really appreciate it.  I have been in and out of the house the past few days, trying to check in on blogs here and there while I can.  I will catch up more over the next week and maybe tomorrow will have pics to share.

In the meantime, take a peek at my gorgeous friend Kathy's new blog!  Click HERE to see it.  Finally, LOL! She's had it for a while but tonight is her first post, so head on over and give her a hello message, don't be shy now!  She'd love to hear from you.

Kathy is the sweety who lives in the most stunning postcard setting, up in the perfect-weather state of Queensland in Australia.  We see each other a few times a year. I just booked a flight to go up and see her in November. She was just here a couple of weeks ago and is the one you will see in my blog posts if you scroll down.  Kathy makes the most beautiful (and expertly made!) soft furnishings, cushions, pillows, bags, quilts.... every room of mine has something made by her, seriously every room, even Leroy's!  

So have a great day and thank you again,

Natasha xo

I guess, when it's your time to go...

Just a quick one as I am not sure when my next post will be ~ might be tomorrow or the next day or the next but I am not sure...as my uncle is about to pass away right now. My parents have gone to the hospital now, he most likely won't make it through the night, maybe not even an hour. He has inoperable throat cancer and is not quite 59 years old. Yes, he was a heavy smoker for many years and yes cancer is on my mother's side of the family everywhere. Both my grandparents died of it, and some cousins have had it. Just awful. So if you can say a little prayer for my uncle it would be greatly appreciated. It's not a surprise and not unexpected but it is still sad. He will be out of his pain, he is in terrible pain now so that is a good thing at least. So I have posted here as it is a little easier for me to do than emailing people individually ~ sorry for that.

Talk to you soon,

Natasha xoxo

**Update** My uncle passed away this morning, he is not in pain now.  Thanks to everyone who has left me a message, or emailed me, I really appreciate it. xoxo

What have I been up to?

First let me share the exciting news with you!..... I can now tie my hair up in a pony tail!!! It is long enough!!! With the help of a few pins. I felt really girly today wearing it up with a pink ribbon in it... simple pleasures I guess... I am a bridesmaid in a wedding next March so decided I wanted to grow my hair a bit, just so they can put it up if that is what the bride wants.

So now what have I been up to lately... well let's start with a couple of new things on my website. These little tags were fun to create! I made a few for the cupcake swap and decided to make some more and put them on my website.

Remember this frame?

Well now the roses have a deeper tone, as well as the leaves... I couldn't just let them be!
And there is a dress in the middle of that frame! I designed the dress, I love 50s style fashion and tried to stick with that theme. This painting is now on my website.
Not sure why the order is muddled like this, I uploaded them correctly but I won't move them around or else they won't be 'clickable'!
And a close-up of the dress.

So what else have I been up to? Well I have had quite a few commissioned pieces to do, lots from one lady in particular. I just got through her order yesterday, tomorrow I start on someone else's. But here is a box I did for the lovely Wendy, who saw that I made this box for a swap and ordered one for herself! It's made with my own paper designs that I sell on my website.
And a crown fit for a queen...
And another box where I got to choose the papers and surprise her! The papers on the lid on the sides are from Holly, gorgeous vintage wallpaper. Heather got me the lovely rose! My two favourite "H" girls!
Beautiful vintage wallpaper on the crown, I adore it, it's embossed and such a lovely cream... with pink roses! Wendy wanted a gold W and it was great to do one different to the silver I seemed to be using! I keep forgetting I can use gold too or other colours for that matter. Notice a wand there, that is a surprise for Wendy, I jazzed up a silver plastic wand with gold glitter, wound pink ribbon around the handle part and put ribbons and a vintage lace bow, with cute paper rose to decorate.

Some details...

More for Wendy, she has a few of these already but none in mint green!
Oh and back to the wand again, lol what is blogger doing??!!
And another one for Wendy, who wanted a hook coat rack with roses and a little bird.
So that has been keeping me busy along with various orders I get through on my website and creating fun stuff for swaps!

I am done making my cupcake swap items for Rachael over in Auckland (sweet lady!) and goodies for the swap hostess Rosalyn-Sue, will get some shots tomorrow. Also received my lovely bits & pieces collage late today so I will post on it tomorrow too. I was going to work on Angelina's Christmas card & tag swap tonight for my partner Cheryl but it's almost 1am so I will start fresh tomorrow. And how exciting I got Ele for my partner in the Hat Doll Swap! We just swapped wallpapers/yo-yos & cards/tags with each other last week so I know she must like some of the stuff I do and I definitely love her work!



Enjoy your day, in the lovely heat in the northern hemisphere, while we freeze in our coldest winter for about 20 years, it has even snowed on the outskirts of Melbourne the last couple of days! I thought that little bit of snow while I was away was exciting, at that same place they are now making snowmen!!!



Bye!


Natasha xo

So here's some of Melbourne

WOO HOO two posts in a night!!!!! How's that for good form!!!



I've been promising Karla for ... how long???... to show pics of where I live. So rather than boring everyone with photos of my suburb, which is just a regular ole suburb of Melbourne, I had Kathy take lots of photos as we were driving to the football a few weeks ago, through the city and through the inner city suburbs, where the interesting buildings are.



But first up is parkland that is only a couple of minutes walk from my home. Looks like I live in the country side but it's just a bit of parkland, the houses that are behind the trees haven't shown up. It's a great area for kids with all the space for them to run around. Like you Karla, I grew up in this area and have lived all my life less than a mile from where I am now! So I used to play here, back in the days where we used to ride BMX bikes (anyone remember those? BMX Bandits... oh wow that was a long time ago!). We used to have a BMX track where one of the ovals is now. And in behind some of the trees is a Baseball Diamond!!! One of the very few in Melbourne!

Ok first of the car shots. Remember we drive on the left side of the road, the driver sits on the right, so don't panic, it is not me taking photos while driving!!!
A nice old building, not sure what it is!

Some interesting colour choices here.... cant' say I like it but it sure is eye catching!
Near the heart of the city, you can see the university I went to, RMIT University, and the red brick and cream building is fabulous, should have driven past it, they are the city baths, very old public swimming pool there.
Ooooh a TRAM, lol! Melbourne is known for trams, someone correct me if I am wrong but I think Melbourne is the only place in Australia that still run trams as a method of public transport.

Oooh an old tram! This is the FREE TRAM, the 'City Circle' that goes around on one route and stops at all the sites, great for tourists as it is FREE!!! It's an old "W-Class" tram, bit of a bumpy ride, but an experience to be had!

The lovely ornate building you see is the Princess Theatre, where they do all the musicals and stage shows. I saw Cats there years ago. It's beautiful inside too. Oh and check out the old VW Beetle, still see lots of them around!
This is the side of Melbourne's only cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral
And this is just somebody's house! Well, someone RICH I assume! It's just at the entrance to the football ground so in one of the best parts of town, it's huge, it's old and it's beautiful and worth millions of dollars. I just love it....
And I couldn't show you Melbourne without the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground, strangely named as for most of the year, AFL or Aussie Rules football is played there!!!! Holds about 100,000 people and is the best sporting stadium in Australia. Melbourne is known to be the sporting capital of Australia (no arguments please from Sydneysiders!!! LOL!)
Yay so I have finally done it! Thanks for looking and sorry if it was boring!!!

Natasha xo