Lots of new (old) Treasures!!

Things have been getting super creative and inspired around here the last few days, I feel like I don't have enough time to sit down each night and blog about it! I'll endeavour to share what's been happening creatively as much as I can though, so watch this space.... there may be a few more blog posts in the coming days!!!

Before you read on, please feel free to enter my giveaway!!!!! Thanks to everyone who has already entered. To check out the giveaway prize and enter your name into the draw, please check out the post before this one.. (if I knew how to make a link to another post, I would! But my technological skills are still somewhat limited...if anyone would like to tell me how to do it, please do!)

Much treasure hunting has been going on in the Coleman household of late, thought I'd once again share my newest finds, linking up with the Blackbird has Spoken's Op Shop Show Off.

sweet little jumpers for little Miss...

 

We think this is a retro bin! Well, that's what everyone on Instagram told me!

 

 Pretty floral fabric

 

a pretty vintage Stationary set (untouched!!) I've been using it for letter writing already, love it!

Brown. Yellow. and Orange. Floral. Towel. Yes.

 

 Not sure exactly what this is, but was delighted to come home from work to find that Mr. Coleman had bought it for me!

 

a wrap skirt for me! (this was 20c in a box of aprons, but it's definitely a skirt!)

cute bag

 

 love these colourful hanging things, we're not sure what they're meant to be used for, but we like hanging our tea cups from them!

My parents had one of these stools. Good times. I remember fighting with my brothers over it!

 

 We really do love London, so had to buy this 50c bag!

Sometimes you have to buy something, even if you're uncertain as to whether there is any real need for it or not. Hence, my new cassette tape belt!

 

And more books. One thing you can never have too many of I say! (not sure Mr Coleman agrees, poor guy, being married to a book worm and all!)

 

Hope you enjoy all my Op shop (Charity Shop) finds form the past two weeks. We never spend much on all this stuff, nothing would be more then a couple of  bucks at the most. I also scored three bags full of clothes from some friends who were decluttering and about to get rid of stuff this week, so feel very blessed by the amount of nice things coming my way at the moment. In some other exciting news, last week my lovely sis in law Taz had  a photo of her very pretty kitchen dresser featured in Mollie Makes most recent Gathered issue. We were pretty excited that her little kitchen down under got a look in!!  Head on over to her blog to see the pic and tell her congrats!

 

Mezz xx

 

 

10,000 pageview Celebration Giveaway!!!

Hi friends, it's giveaway time!! This little blog reached over 10,000 pageviews this week. Considering that when I started writing it a year ago I never expected anyone to look at it, I figure it's worth celebrating.

The motto for this blog has always been MUSIC + CRAFT = HAPPY. I think these days, I could add a third part to the equation and say MUSIC + CRAFT + THRIFTING = HAPPY...and so I've put together a little parcel of fun things that are either music, craft or thrifted to give away to a lovely reader.

The "giveaway" includes...

 

a handmade notebook, using recycled everything!! This lovely gift comes from the wonderful shop and organisation GreenCollect.

 

 a handmade paper garland using pages from this cute little golden book..

 

 

 

a vintage copy of one of my all time favourite reads, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte.

 

some cute floral fabric

 

some really cute hankies

A copy of my album "Parts of You, Parts of Me" (you can hear one of the songs from the album in my post below)

a copy of the first ever mini album I put out in 2007. I only have a few of these left, so you can think of this as a "limited edition" ha ha!!

 

All you need to do be in the running to receive this little bundle is follow me on either BLOGLOVIN or FACEBOOK or INSTAGRAM, (I don't mind which) and leave a friendly comment below. The Bloglovin' and Facebook links are on the side bar, or if you are on Instagram just look for mezzcoleman. I'm happy to post anywhere in the world, so please feel free to enter whether you are in Australia or somewhere else!!

I'll pick a winner at random in 2 weeks from today (May 10th)..so please throw your hat in the ring!!

Mezz
xo

our DIY film clip "Circus"

A little story about what you're about to watch...

 

More then 3 years ago, when we were releasing my album "Parts of you, Parts of Me" we decided it would be fun (and a good idea) to make a film clip for my single from the album, "Circus."

Genius!!

So.. I put on my favourite love heart t shirt and a splash of make up, my brother John and Mr. Coleman got the video recorders out and off we went!! John (bless him) did the editing and put it all together..

....and then...

...I decided I didn't like it.

I know. It sounds like a lot of mucking around for nothing, and I felt terribly guilty especially about all the hard work my brother John put into the editing, but I just decided I wasn't ready to share it with the world. I have always been very DIY about my music, but not proudly so. I saw friends and peers with seemingly much more successful and shinier music careers then mine, and I wasn't jealous, but I guess I was worried that our "back yard" job wouldn't hold up.

Well a lots changed for me musically over the past few years. I took a huge break from music and realised it was a scene that I was not enjoying. Don't get me wrong, I love music and always will, but I was finding the "music scene" I was involved with was pretty fickle, competitive, unsupportive and desperate.

I have found many other creative outlets (mostly craft related) over the past few years, and have been blown away by the crafters I have come across. The "craft scene" as I have experienced it seems to be so much more about community! It's about being as DIY and imperfect as you want to be, and crafters seem to be so kind, supportive and encouraging toward one another. We even seem to help each other out by promoting selflessly what someone else is doing-quite a new experience for me coming from the music world!!

So 3 and a bit years later, for many, many, many reasons... I am a different woman, and I see this clip differently. I love it. I'm proud of it. I want to share it!! I don't care that it wasn't professionally made, in fact I think that's why I love it! I love how many hours my brother put into it for me. I love that you can see the streets of my beloved Foostcray in the clip. I love that at one point you can see the building where our friend Eddy used to live. I love that Coleman Jnr and his cousin appear in the clip, and I love seeing how damn cute they were, but it also makes my heart sing knowing how much they've grown up since then. I love that it features my vintage yellow scooter (which I hardly ride now, as it doesn't fit a child's seat on the back...grrrr.) I love that we filmed this in our old share house we lived in with my brother John, his wife Ash and their little Molly. I even love that I was younger. We made this clip before my body ever went through the process of making baby number two, so I love seeing and thinking about how all of that has changed me too. Oh, and I still love the song.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the song and the clip. I hope you don't expect perfection, but that you get a sense of love, simplicity, joy and energy...because that's what we were brimming with when we made this! And if you like this clip, feel free to share it with your friends whether they be of the online variety or not.

Mezz  xx


PS Stay tuned later in the week for my first ever "give away". Pretty excited about it!!

I Made a Dress!! woohoo!

Excuse the dodgy photo of me (it was late and I was tired!) but I have made myself a cute and simple little dress! Copying the shape of another dress, and keeping it really, really simple (ie no zips and buttons for me quite yet thanks!) I used an old bed sheet, some bias binding and some op shopped thread!

 

Here is how I put it together, I am not much of a sewer, so all you dress makers out there, try not to cringe too much about how many corners I cut!!

 

Chose and old sheet from my stash (went for autumn colours to celebrate the new season!)

 

cut out the shape of another dress I have

Chose some bright pink thread (picked this up in a bag of craft supplies from the op shop!)

no overlocker, so just zigzagged the exposed edges

 

started piecing it together

 

used some pretty bias binding on the arm and neck holes.

I'm a bit happy in my new little dress!!!!

much love, leaves and sunshine
Mezz x

 

 

Hip hip Hooray!

(green icing waiting to ice the cake!)
 

Coleman Jnr turned 7 on Saturday. In fact, he's growing up so fast, I'm afraid he won't seem much of a "Jnr" for long... one day I'll have to reveal his real name (or come up with a  new "internet" one!!)
 

(handmade party bags made using an old plain bed sheet and decorated with fabric textas by the Birthday boy!)

We had a very special day celebrating all that he is. He is extremely clever, funny, creative, and compassionate. He drives us crazy at times, but isn't that a kids job at least sometimes!!!??

 

(Popcorn for the movie....gee I'm glad I bought 500 of these paper bags a few years ago at the Op Shop, they keep coming in very handy, and are pretty cute!)

 

(each child had their own movie ticket)

 

We celebrated with a  very simple day, but it was lovely. In the evening we set up an old fashioned "projector" screen and invited a few friends over for a Movie Night. We thought it was most impressive, but on reflection realised that most kids who came over probably have TV's at home about the same size as the projection screen...(we are still hanging on to our very crappy, very old, very small non flat screened 80's box.)

(the cake is ready to be iced!)

 

 

Happy Birthday to a wonderful little man!!

(I bought an un used packet of these straws at a trash and treasure market last year. I've been waiting for the right occasion to pull them out!)

 

Much Love and happiness

Mezz x

 

 

Bloglovin...and the re-launch of Easy Peasy Recipe Swap!!

I'm feeling pretty clever right now. I just added a "Bloglovin" button to my page, and THE HUSBAND wasn't even at home. Yes. You heard me! If you are a blogger you probably already know that in order to follow blogs, you will soon need to do this with Bloglovin. So here is my invitation to you to join along the fun with Bloglovin..and if you're someone who just likes to pop over every now and then then this won't affect you...so don't get worried, Mum!

Anyway, it's been ages since I shared a recipe here, so I thought I'd do just that today. Last year I put the call out for easy recipe's to share, and we started an online Eeasy Peasy Recipe Swap amongst my friends and readers. It was a lot of fun, and rather simple. Lovely people would send me an easy recipe (either via email, or a link to their own blog page) and then I would just use my blog to share the recipes with other readers. It was a bit of fun, and a great way to swap and gather ideas for EASY cooking, and discover a few new blogs.

So I thought I'd launch it off again with my mini frittata's I made the other day. A great way to use up leftovers, and perfect for school/work lunches, picnics and parties (if there are no egg allergies of course!)

Easy Peasy Recipe #8

MINI FRITTATAS in 5 very easy steps...

 

1. All you want is about a cup of grated cheese and whatever left over cooked vegetables (or meat!?)you may have. We had a baked potato left over from dinner, some roasted pumpkin and a few semi dried tomatoes. I mixed all of this together...

 

2.In a separate bowl I placed 3 eggs, and a large dash of milk. I whisked this together, and added some salt and pepper.

3.The veggie and cheese mixture was placed in mini muffin tin (1/2 filled)

4. The egg mix was then poured on top.

5. And then they baked in a 180 degrees oven for about 20 minutes, until golden brown.

YUM!

If you have an Easy Peasy Recipe that you'd like to share feel free to email it through to me at mezzcoleman@hotmail.com or post it yourself on your own blog, and let me know so I can share the link with my readers. There are no rules to this swap. Email me or link me up...share now.... share later...it's just an ongoing thing!

Hoorah for food! xx