wow! its baby time!!

If the title for this post got you all excited, and you think I'm having another baby, I do apologise!! I'm not. Not really up for 9 months of vomiting and enormous weight gain yet again!!!! Not to mention, another actual person to be a mum to. No, I'm happy (and at my current limit) with my gorgeous two kidlets.

But.

A lot of my friends are at the moment, lots of little bubs and pregnant women everywhere! So I'm getting into the very serious/fun business of handmade gift making for all these little people entering the world. I'm knitting, sewing, cutting, pasting and writing. ..you name it! There is something very special about tiny people, and I love celebrating them with handmade goodness!

One of my dear friends is expecting her first baby any time now. She doesn't know the sex of the baby (or is very good at keeping secrets!) so I liked the idea of making a gender neutral gift with a whole bunch of fabric scraps I had. You can never have enough play mats for your little one so I whipped up this upcycled one using fabrics I had lying around.

(do you like my baby "model?")

Most of the fabric in this quilt is quite special to me. It's really lovely passing it on to others in a new form. This little patchwork is made up using fabric from my own children's cot sheets and clothes, vintage pillowcases, material bought in markets on overseas trips and more. I like that this little playmat comes with a bit of a story.

What do you like to give to friends who are expecting!!??

Mezz xx

Handmade Card swap..the rundown!

Hi all,

So today is Monday which means entries for the Handmade Card Swap are now closed. I have 21 names on my list, from all over the world! Australia, UK, Russia, Africa....how exciting!!

Now, if you have left a comment or emailed to enter the swap, you should see your name on the list below. I'm going to organise pairs (there might be one group of three) tonight, so please contact me ASAP if you need to drop out.

Please check this list, and if you expected to see your name here but it isn't, please contact me ASAP as well.

Participants

 

Me (Mezz)

Melissa Bantock

Taz Carr

Nicole Coleman

Beth Locke

Kylie (Lucy Violet)

Fiona

Sara (Flora and Paws)

Hannah Karim

Bee (Linen Cloud)

Mayra

Suki

Shella Smith

Frances

Mel Tully

Zara

Erin Charteris

Kate Hudson

Nadia

Olga (wassaupbrothers)

Virna (Craftmates) -I can't find your email address!!!

VIRNA, (CRAFTMATES) I NEED YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO YOU CAN PARTICIPATE!!

Once I have paired you all up, I will contact the details for the swap directly via email.

I thankyou all for joining in, and encourage you to find each other online, whether its through blogs, FB or anything else! In a separate post I will share your links (those of you who have blogs) so all my readers can see how wonderful you all clearly are!

Keep your eye on your inboxes, ladies!!

xoxoxox

a bit about Mezz today...

It's a cold winters night. Thought I'd warm myself up and join this bit of fun put together by Pip (Meet me at Mikes)

Here's a list of bite size Mezz things that are happening at the moment.

Making : baby gifts for all my expecting friends!!
Cooking : home made pizza (see the pic above!)
Drinking : tea. always tea.
Reading: Mister God this is Anna (Fynn)
Wanting: more sunshine
Looking: at mess on the lounge room floor
Playing: with stamps and paper
Wasting: time
Sewing: quilts
Wishing: I had a bungalow to make music and sew in
Enjoying: planning the first issue of  "Hundreds and Thousands", a handmade magazine I am creating with Taz...stay tuned!
Waiting: for Christmas
Liking: my neighbourhood (Footscray)
Wondering: if we can find the $ to go back to UK one day!!??
Loving: 80's surprise parties!!
Hoping: for peace of mind
Marvelling: at my kids
Needing: a better space to create in
Smelling: cinnamon
Wearing: pants, t-shirt and cardie (I'm a dress girl, the pants are quite unusual!)
Following: lots of awesome peeps on Instagram!
Noticing: that  more Australians care about Asylum Seekers then I thought!!
Knowing: all will be well
Thinking: about how insane my life is!
Feeling: creative
Bookmarking: recording an another album
Opening: so many recent lovely parcels
Giggling: The Mighty Boosh
Feeling: a bit overwhelmed!!

What about you?? Feel free to cut and paste this and have a go on your blog! let me (and Pip) know with a  comment if you do. I'm sure she won't mind me spreading her awesomeness.

for you to cut and paste.....

Making :
Cooking :
Drinking :
Reading:
Wanting:
Looking:
Playing:
Wasting:
Sewing:
Wishing:
Enjoying:
Waiting:
Liking:
Wondering:
Loving: 
Hoping:
Marvelling:
Needing:
Smelling:
Wearing:
Following:
Noticing:
Knowing:
Thinking:
Feeling:
Bookmarking:
Opening:
Giggling:
Feeling:

Mezz x

PS I am looking forward to contacting all my Handmade Card Swap participant in the next few days. yay!

Simple craft #7 baby's "initial" singlets!!

 

This is an idea I had based on an original project I saw a few years ago in a craft book called The Crafty Minx. I have modified the idea to make a singlet with a bub's initial on it, coz I thought that would be VERY CUTE!

So..

Buy or find some plain baby singlets

Using zig zag scissors cut a shape of the new bubs first initial with some vintage fabric.

 Sew the letter onto the singlet using a bright thread and a strong zig zag stitch.

You can also just do cute pictures and shapes. (Mr. Coleman found me this Holly Hobby fabric, it is adorable!!)

A gift of a couple of these little singlets are a lovely way to welcome a new person to this world, I think. I made a lot of these a few years back for our little Miss when she was a new born. She is now almost three, and a completely wonderful but totally insane Toddler!!!!! Where did that baby time go??

I made these ones for my friend Noni's brand new little girl, Ava.

PS-entries to my handmade card swap close on MONDAY. Have you joined in? There's still time!

xx

Simple Craft #6 - Tea towell wrap!

Hi!

Before we start, have you joined my Handmade Card Swap?? Still one week before entries close!

Anyway, here is a another quick, easy, thrifty and crafty idea!!

Do you ever find calendar tea towels when you are Op shopping (Charity shopping)? Sometimes they are great and vintage, sometimes just cheesy (but still great).....well, I think if the year on the tea towel is of meaning to you or someone you love you should buy it and see if it will come in handy!!

I found this 1981 tea towel, the year my big brother was born. Yesterday we celebrated his birthday, and we bought him a DVD. I thought it would be nice to give him this tea towel as well, and wrap up the DVD with it instead of wrapping paper!

You can do it too, I just folded it around the gift carefully so that the year showed, and tied it with some string. I intentionally made this fairly blokey, but you could use ribbon, fresh flowers or anything really to make this idea quite pretty!

I've had a lovely, Melbourne weekend. Yesterday the kids, Mr. Coleman and I checked out some great historic buildings as part of the Open House Melbourne Weekend, and today I went with my sister in law Ash and a group of her lovely friends to Women of Letters, a gorgeous monthly event where 6 female Aussie artists share an open letter with the audience. Clare Bowditch, Judith Lucy, Libby Gore and Estelle Tang were some of today's artists..it was lovely. Sometimes very funny, sometimes a bit emo, but mostly just incredibly honest, which I love above all else.

Speaking of my sister in law, Ash, she is organising a wonderful craft project that you should check out and get involved with!! It's a craft auction that will raise money for Green Collect the great organisation she works for (and my hubby has started working for too!)

And since I'm giving you all these links, here's one more!! My hubby's acoustic band, The Sketching Room have a few more songs out that you can listen to and download for free. They really are great, I'm not just doing the proud Mrs thing!! www.thesketchingroom1.bandcamp.com

oh, and did I mention I met Pip Lincolne today?? I'm sure I blushed a lot, she was very sweet.

See you soon!

Mezz x

PS feel free to leave a comment sharing ideas on other uses for calendar tea towels!!

Vintage Button Swap and a surprise parcel!!

I recently took part in Taz's Vintage Button Swap and it was so much fun. I was paired with Hannah who lives in the UK and writes the cute blog which you should visit called Dainty and Ivory. We chatted via email, and she told me she loved gold, dark green and blue. She also loved the vintage era's and her fav animals included tigers and penguins. With this info, I raided my stash of bits and pieces and was able to come up with this little parcel that I loved putting together for her.

 

 

 

 

 

And lucky me, because Hannah sent me some gorgeous buttons too!!! All in my favourite colours..

 

 

Also, really out of the blue, I received the most gorgeous parcel from another one of my sister in laws, Nicole. Nic lives on the other side of the country with her hubby (my hubby's older brother) and three gorgeous kids in a small country town. While we are really happy with our city lives in Melbourne, and they are equally happy with their lives in Western Australia, we have really felt the distance over the last few years but luckily through things like blogging (and Instagram!!) have been able to remain a bit more connected. Anyway, she sent me this gorgeous parcel, and some of the things are very precious as they used to belong to her grandmother, so I feel pretty special to have them now! However, the most special thing in the parcel was the note Nic wrote me. But I'm not going to share it with you, it was too lovely, gonna keep that loveliness to myself!!

Nicole and her family have embarked on a very interesting life journey the last few years. Some of the things they are currently doing include committing to buying nothing, both parents studying full time and not working, and working towards growing most of their own food. Nic writes a really lovely and inspiring blog Make Sew Bake Grow about their simple journey together as a family. Head on over and have a read!

Mezz x

PS have you joined my Handmade Card Swap? Please do, we have almost 20 people involved so far....

Join my Handmade Card Swap!!

 

I am inviting you to join in with the first ever swap I've decided to host. It's a Handmade Card Swap!!! Woop.

 

 

I love handmade cards. I love making, sending and receiving cards, don't you? I like to recycle pictures I find in magazines, cards, vintage wrapping paper and so on to make little bits of lovely to share with lovely people. 

 

 

I thought it would be nice to have a little stash of handmade cards tucked away for times when I'd really like to give a handmade card, but am pressed for time to make my own.

 

 

so I thought, why not organise a swap so we can all make each other a little stash of handmade cards for such moments!!!??

 

Are you IN!!!!!???????

 

If you are, read on...............

................

 

To be a part of this swap, please follow this blog and leave a comment below, including your email address. If you'd prefer to not make your email address public on my blog just leave a comment letting me know your keen, and then email me so I have your email address. mezzcoleman@hotmail.com .If following this blog is all a bit too tricky (Mum!) don't stress, please join in anyway!

 

You have 2 weeks (til Tuesday August 4th) to do this, then entries will CLOSE.

 

I will pair you with someone and give you your partner's email address so that you can share a few details including postal addresses. You will have a couple of weeks to send off your little parcel, by mid August would be great.

 

 

Now, here is the fun part!!!!

 

Once you're partnered up, please make a set of 8 handmade cards (don't worry about envelopes, lets keep it simple!) You can do this however you like, but I suggest looking around blog land and Etsy/Pinterest/Instagram for creative ideas. Suki (aka The Owl Club) recently made these really cute cards, perhaps they might inspire you! Keep them fairly general as far as themes go, but you guys can discuss specific likes with your partner via email.

 

I encourage you to get as creative as you can. Feel free to upcycle, recycle, re use....its all part of the card making fun!! (The pictures on this post are of a few cards I've made over the last year, I'm sure you can all come up with something a bit cleverer then mine!)

 

PLEASE NOTE: The one thing I ask is that if you enter, you are prepared to post overseas. I have made this swap a card/paper swap partly with the idea the postage costs will be kept low.

 

 

 

Leave comments below. The more swappers, the merrier!!

 

Mezz

xx

 

 

ONE LITTLE RIVER

Being a parent has made those few hours between when my children go to bed and when I go to bed incredibly precious. I adore my kids, but being a parent is friggin' hard work (don't let anyone tell you otherwise!!), especially when you have some high needs thrown into the mix. Being both an artist and a mother is something I'm really coming to terms with at the moment, it requires a certain balance that I often get wrong, and occasionally get right! I'm still trying to figure it out, but at the moment its often in those few hours between their bedtime and mine that I can find space to create.

Anyway, the other night, during the "sacred hours" of the evening (ie-2 sleeping children!!) I made some music! My beloved Mr. Coleman and my lovely sister in law Ash joined the fun too, and we recorded  a cover of Clare Bowditch's song "One Little River." Clare's most recent album "The Winter I Chose Happiness" fell into my hands right at a time when I really needed it, and every song on the album has had a special place in my heart for the last few months. The music and message behind the album is really beautiful, and if you don't have a copy you should get one!!!

I recently entered a comp with this little video to join Clare on stage during her tour. I'm sure plenty of other people have entered, (and to be honest, having re read the guidelines, I'm not sure I was supposed to include other people in my recording) so I'm not expecting anything to come of it, but having an excuse to turn the lounge room into a studio and spend an evening doing creative stuff with people I love sure was nice!!

I hope you enjoy it too.

And if for some crazy reason you haven't heard of the wonderful Ms Bowditch before, please visit www.clarebowditch.com . She is one of Australia's most generous and talented artists.

If you are new to this blog and interested in my music, feel free to visit www.mezzcoleman.com

love
xx

Giveaway Winner and my holiday Op shop Show Off!!

Last week we went away for a few nights for a much needed little break down on the Mornington Peninsula (one and a half drive from our place in Melbourne.) We tend to go to beachy places during Winter when everything is quiet and cheap. We save the expensive holidays for overseas trips!!  It was still very beautiful though, and oh my, the Op shops!! So many! So cheap! So wonderful!

Here are some of the many treasures we found down there, plus a few pretty views!! Joining in again with Blackbird Has Spoken's Op Shop Show Off!

Last but not least, announcing the winners of my little Giveaway! The first name I pulled out was my very own sister in law Taz (Butter and Buntings), so I thought I'd pull out a second as well and have 2 winners!! Hannapat and Taz, I haven't checked yet, hopefully you haven't doubled up on which magnets you liked, but if so I'm sure we'll work something out!

Hannapat, please email me your postal address! mezzcoleman@hotmail.com

Mezz x