Hearts and other Bits and Pieces

This really melted my heart(!) last week. It's one of those proud mum moments - but I hopefully won't bore you. We were at a cafe last weekend when Mr 6 asked if he could have the camera to take a photo 'of that heart up there'. We were all looking around trying to see what he could see. It turned out the heart was a blob of moss on the plastic awning outside the cafe! It didn't appear as a heart from any other perspective except his chair. He knows how much I love hearts (remember the heart shaped cornflake he gave me?) so he was determined to get a pic of it. I think he did a fab job! It has all these lovely textures and shades of grey all around it so it looks really cool. I surprised him by printing the photo and framing it so he could see it as soon as he walked in the front door. He loves it and so does his mum!

My cushion is now all joined and ready to be backed. The raised seams look great and feel really nice too. I think I should probably have a go at blocking it as I have never blocked a project before but have read a bit about it lately. Probably not too vital on a cushion as it will be pulled into shape once the insert is inside but I'd like to try it out on a smallish project just in case I make a mess of it!
The chair with my cushion on it is my latest bargain purchase. It was $20 on Trade Me and I've been looking for one of these old lovelies for ages. Just what I needed to finish off my mix and match dining chairs - yay! I'm really looking forward to taking to it with some steel wool and furniture oil to breathe new life into it. It is solid and sturdy but in need of some TLC. I have popped another pic a bit further down of a gorgeous tray I bought recently and did the same restoration on. It's such a lovely, simple process which can make the cheapest op shop treasures come to life.Isn't this so pretty? I absolutely adore the colours on this piece of china. I wish I had some fabric like this - I can think of a million things I'd make with it.This gorgeous old cake plate is one of my favourite, favourite things. It's really quite old so I am terrified I'll break it every time I use it! But it was just screaming out to be used ...Yummy chocolate chip biscuits made for afternoon tea and for a lunchbox treat tomorrow when the small folk start the new term after a two week break. Two weeks of rotten, wet weather so we were stuck inside most of the time and wouldn't you know it, today the sun comes out just in time for school tomorrow. Aargh.
Here's that tray I was talking about earlier. $5 at the local Salvation Army store - talk about a bargain! It was in a terrible state but I could see that it had potential. This pic was taken after I had given it a huge clean as it had clearly spent it's previous life living next to an oven as it had oil splats all over it. An hour of steel wool, furniture oil and elbow grease and here she is ...How cool is that? I'm thinking it's the perfect tray for bringing me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day next Sunday! I might have to drop a few large hints I think. Although yesterday when Miss 3 was being chef in her toy kitchen, she asked me if I'd like an onion smoothie - mmm lovely! So hopefully she won't be in charge of the Mother's Day menu!! One last pic I wanted to show you. This is a wee ceramic brooch I bought at the Craft 2.0 event last weekend. I love it so much. It features the Maori koru just like in my Dad's 70th birthday tattoo (it still cracks me up that he did that).

Have a fabulous week all! I am just about to pick up my hooks and start a new project. A fabulous cowl I have designed so fingers crossed it works. If it does I will definitely share it with you!

PS: I am having a nightmare with line spacing on my posts. It all looks fine until I publish it. Any ideas/help gratefully received!! It's driving me crazy. I like my spacing to be nice and even and when it decides to do it's own thing I go mad.