"We're all going on a Summer Holiday"

Sort of...

Except its only me going, and it will be spring where I'm going, not summer, but you get the idea...

Yes, I'm going on holidays for three weeks, and I'm very excited about it!  For 11 days I will be shopping for vintage in LA, on a tour that has been billed as a 'cocktail fuelled vintage shopping adventure', and then I'm flying to Toronto to visit my brother, who has lived in Canada for several years.

This of course means that I won't be writing any blog posts for three weeks....

If you want to keep up with the goings on, I'll be updating my Facebook page, or you can just wait till I return!!!

See you all after the 12th of May!!!

Beccie
xxx

PS.  This is my 100th blog post!!!!!  Kind of an appropriate time to be going on a holiday don't you think???

The way forward is now clear! (and CLEAN!!)

I must apologise and say I was swanning around over the weekend again and not sewing.  This time I spent the weekend in Sydney, specifically to go to the races and watch Black Caviar win her 25th race in a row.  She has since retired (announced yesterday) so I'm really glad we made the effort to see her.

And of course the thing everyone wants to know is 'what did you wear?':

Hat by Madly Hatted Millinery

Dress from Miskonduct Klothing

Mmmm curvalicious!  I felt a million bucks all day.  Unfortunately I did not win a million bucks....

The next day though we did do something productive!  Whilst in Sydney we took the opportunity to visit Ikea so I could get some shelving units to help me tidy up my sewing room.  You remember the mess - it looked like this:

Total pigstye!

So we shopped up a storm and left with all of this (for surprisingly cheap!):

Not all of the containers are for me - some are for storing things in the garage

Now a bit of a side note about my husband - as soon as he had that flat-pack trolley in his hands he wanted to stand on it and have me push him... or scoot along and then jump on it and ride it... This was through the accessory section of the store, where lots of breakable things are!!!  Common sense prevailed UNTIL we got into the carpark - then he went crazy:

Anyone else have a husband that doesn't act his age???

So, we somehow managed to fit it all in the car and get it home, where I left it in the capable (much more so than my husband's) hands of my Dad, who put the shelves together and delivered them to me the following afternoon:

What would I do without my Dad!

Then it was my job to tidy and clean.  I pulled everything that wasn't where it should be, or looked messy, out of my sewing room and into the living room, then I set about putting it all back in.  And this is where I'm at with it now:

Ta-DAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

(and yes I do sew standing up)

Here is a better view of the shelves.  I used this opportunity to move some things out of a bookcase in my bedroom, and now the bookcase can go to the charity shop which means more room in my bedroom! (vintage dresser maybe???)

And here are all the pretty details!

I feel SO MUCH BETTER about this space now - its pretty and its even more functional, and it smells nice thanks to the scented candles (Pumpkin Maple!!!!).  Every time I walk past the door I want to go in just to look at all the prettiness.  It makes me happy again - YAY!!!

For those of you out there that have commented that their creative spaces are as bad, or worse than, what mine was (you know who you are) you really should consider spending some time to make it better.  You will feel so much more creative in a space thats clear!

What do you think?  Does your space need an overhaul?  Do you think I'll be able to keep mine this tidy?  Should I ban my husband from Ikea?

Beccie
xxx

Let them eat CAKE!!!!!

Just not these ones...

Cause we know from a previous post that whats inside of them is styrofoam, and the flowers and ribbons are all stuck on with glue.  Might be hard to digest!

Late last week I had to deliver these beauties to the Sherbet Birdie studio in Sydney for their Marie Antoinette themed shoot day, and can I tell you that it was possibly the most nerve-wracking drive of my life!

After I put the cakes in the boot I packed around them with plastic shopping bags (I have about a million of them) to protect them and away from each other, then I closed the lid, crossed my fingers, and drove for two and a half hours, hoping all the time that no-one rear-ended me!

Thankfully all that finger crossing and wishing worked, and they made it there in one piece - phew!

And Sasha and Lucy were waiting very excitedly for me - not because of these cakes... because of these ones

Yes, I also made edible cakes for the lucky ladies who had booked for the Marie Antoinette shoot, and for the three of us!

The chocolate one with the raspberry is a Tim Tam Tart (recipe here) and the other layered one is an Iced Vovo Tart (recipe here).  When the Iced Vovo Tart's were served to the clients, they were topped with whipped cream and shaved coconut - totally decadent!  And they received such rave reviews from everyone that I'm pretty sure I will be providing baked goods for shoot days in the future!

Anyway - back to the story!

As a reward for my efforts (and because I'm awesome) I was the test subject for the shoot.  Lucy practiced on my hair and makeup

And Sasha and I worked on the set, lighting and poses for the girls the next day

The shoot day itself was wonderful, and all the ladies had a fabulous time being pampered, and left looking very glamorous!  Sasha has only released two of the photos so far and I just had to share them with you all because they are just so beautiful!

 

 The beautiful Liz, channeling Marie Antoinette in the style of those 

gorgeous antique, oval framed, silk portraits

The fabulous Karen posing on a glorious couch amongst the Moet,

roses, feathers and towering cakes

So helping create this magic took up my whole weekend, so there was no sewing... sorry about that!  And my sewing room looks like a bomb exploded in it (again) so that is going to need fixing before I can sew anything.  Sigh!

Beccie

xxx

Mad Men Dress Challenge : At last! Its cool enough for me to wear it!!!

Yes thats right - the temperature has dropped to the point where I can comfortably wear the wool crepe dress to work and get some 'office-y' shots!

But first up here is a reminder of what I was trying to recreate:

Now mine is different, but similar enough (I think) that you can see what I was trying to achieve.  So without any further carry-on, here are photos of me wearing the dress!

This last photo is me trying to do something 'office-y'.  Not that I think Joan would file... she would more likely check someone elses filing and then make a nice but bitchy comment to them if they got it wrong.

And before I go, I just want to say that this dress is amazingly comforable and flattering on.  I will be making many more of these for the coming season!  I already have some dark teal green wool crepe, so I will be looking for a few more colours.  The dress is a winner!

So what do you think?  Do I make a good Joan?

Beccie
xxx

PS.  If you missed any of the Mad Men Dress Challenge posts, you can find them here, here, here, here, here, and here.  I hope I got them all...

And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

Recently, my good friend Sasha from Sherbet Birdie (the best pinup photographer in Australia in my opinion) announced the theme for her next shoot day experience - the absolute opulence of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette!

I often help out on these shoot days as an assistant, and with costuming (remember the mermaid tail????) but this time I offered to make the fake cakes to decorate the set!  Fun!!  Now I've never decorated cakes, let alone covered styrofoam fake cakes with fondant, but I can do anything I put my mind to right???

Sasha visited a cake decorating supply store in Sydney and provided me with the styrofoam fake cakes, cake boards, fancy food colouring, sugar paste, and 7kgs of fondant (thats about 14 pounds for you overseas people)!!!!  She also gave me some flowers and ribbons that she had to help me make a start.

First job was covering all the styrofoam fake cakes with the fondant.  And can I say thank goodness for the internet!  I found instructions on how to roll it out properly, and more instructions on how to dye the fondant with the fancy food colouring.  After a few hours solid toil, I was covered in icing sugar from head to toe, had sore and tired wrists, and had these:

All I can say is thank goodness they only have to look good from one angle!!!

The backs on a few of them (especially my first one) are awful!!!

Now came the fun bit - making them pretty!  I went to Spotlight, which is my local go-to for crafting goodies, and bougth some fabulous fake flowers and some ribbon and other trims:

Then I cleared the big dining table, got out my hot glue gun, and went at it!!!

And this is what I created:

Aren't they fabulous!!!!!

Seriously, this was just so much fun!  It was so enjoyable to do something creative that wasn't sewing.

I hope you all had a lovely and peaceful Easter.

Beccie
xxx

PS. It was also my birthday AND my first wedding anniversary last week, so sorry if I was a bit absent...