‘Twas the night before Christmas

And I am ready for a holiday :) I managed to finish my custom orders, the last ones were delivered yesterday.

Its lovely to think that they will be given out as presents tomorrow on Christmas Day.

The Postman also delivered some lovely presents my way. I was the recent winner of a 3rd Blogiversary giveaway over at Katherine’s blog - Sew Me Something Good. Look what lovely treats I received…

Thanks ever so much Katherine, your creativity inspires me!

Then the Postie dropped off 2 parcels, for me and my family, from my beautiful Sewing Sisters Katherine and Kylie.

Some Babushka goodness from Katherine, &

Some Bag and Babushka goodness from Kylie.

Thanks heaps precious friends!

”Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night”

May you all have a Safe and Blessed Christmas, love Kylie, Katherine and Janelle xx

Bosom Friends, Books, Babies, Bon Jovi, Bags etc…

I have always been fond of alliteration :)

I caught up with ‘Booky’ Bosom friends - ‘The Bronze Horseman’ Book Club on Tuesday night for our Christmas break up. We shared a gorgeous Italian meal, book titles we’ve read/going to read this summer, and I got to cuddle the most delicious 10 week old baby named Xander. I will have to get a copy of the photo off Cheryl.

My Wednesday consisted of a ‘Bloggy’ Bosom friends Christmas catch up with Lisa and Susan. We exchanged gifts,

LHS from Susan, RHS from Lisa – THANK YOU xx

we toured Midland for some fabric shopping at work, a delicious lunch at Sweet Country Abode, a browse at Handcrafters House and Afternoon tea at Midland Patisserie. It is always a joy to spend time with these girls.

My afternoon was spent teasing & crimping my hair, putting on the stone wash denim and bedazzled shirt (only joking!) to go and see Bon Jovi – The Circle Tour, in Concert!!!! I last saw them 20 years ago so it was a real trip down memory lane for me. I even convinced my Mum to come with me – I wouldn't have 20 years ago :) My Bosom friend Vikki and Elise came too, we had the best night though it has taken me a wee bit longer to recover from the late night…

I have my store work party tonight. Do you remember how we made & exchanged aprons last year? Well this year we didn't have a theme, we just had to make something for the person we were given. Below is the evening bag I’ve made for …

It’s made from navy and gold shot silk. All the presents will be on display at Midland Textile Traders until Christmas Eve.

Speaking of presents, this arrived in the mail

My gorgeous Filly Dilly bag made by none other than Ros/Bloom/Muriel – another Bloggy Bosom friend. Thanks ever so much sweetie, I LOVE it.

My DH says I am using ‘Bosom Friend’ a bit too much, I blame it on my recent viewing of Anne of Green Gables ;)

Much Love

PS Look at the Korker hair accessory Erika has made to go with Rachel’s graduation dress – Gorgeous!!!

 

Professional Photos

My friends Erika texted me last Sunday to say her gorgeous daughters were getting photographed modeling her new range of hair accessories called Hair Flair, & asked if I would like some of my Janellybelly Bags to be photographed too – I said YES!

I even convinced Erika to model too :) The photographs were taken by Michelle Martin

If you would like to see more photos I have put an album on my Janellybelly Bags and Things facebook page

With Love

 

Just in case you were wondering…

This fabric

turned into this

Mmmm :) The fabric is Lotus by Amy Butler from work. The pattern is another modified ‘Pleated Beauty Bag’ by Amy Karol – LOVE this pattern.

With Love

This is…

the dress my daughter has chosen to wear for her Primary School graduation, my 1st baby is growing up!

A custom order ‘Pleated Beauty Bag’ for Ali

The fabric I am playing with today.

With Love

Weekend Retreatin’ by the Beach

I spent the weekend with 9 precious crafty friends, on a creative retreat, and had a FABULOUS time of sewing, eating (no cooking or dishes!), laughing, staying up late, chatting, consuming chocolate etc… We stayed at the Sisters of Saint John of God Retreat Centre in Shoalwater, WA. Here are a few action photos from the weekend.

Our sewing/scrapping/crafting room.

Lisa & Vicki working on their quilts.

Ali clipping Vicki’s shaggy quilt, whilst Jenny & I sew bags behind her.

Michelle, Zoe and Chanoa working on their photo albums.

Shelley with her finished quilt & Cheryl with her WIP.

A HUGE Thank You to Cheryl for organising this fantastic weekend, I can’t wait for the next one :)

I made 7 bags on the weekend and came back with 5! This bag below is based on the ‘Pleated Beauty Bag’ from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol – and now lives in Busselton with Chanoa :)

I also finished a few more bags today for an upcoming market, I love bag making.

With Love

Babushka, Babushka, Babushka-ya-ya

It’s one of those song choruses that gets in your head and stays there for days. I don’t really mind though, you all know how partial I am to babushkas :) I have made some babushka girls bags to go with Anna's gorgeous children’s clothes – Gooseberry Bush Kidz. Here is a sneak peak…

Anna is going to be at Market Girl Boutique Markets for boys and girls this Sunday 7th November 10-4pm at the Joondalup Reception Centre, Boas Ave, Joondalup (next to the library).

I finished making the other bag from the Butterick pattern in my previous post. I used a yummy red blended linen fabric from work. The pattern has a set in, gathered base which works really well. Please excuse the dusty cupboard slats in the background :)

 

DH has just put the kettle on, so I am off to have an Organic Earl Grey tea – many thanks to my Bergamot supplier in Melbourne ;0)

Hope you have a great weekend!

With Love

a little Christmas stitchin

What can you do in a few spare hours?  A little Christmas project to get you into the christmassy mood!



I picked this kit up at Winterwood last week and thought she would be a very cute start to the silly season! Katherine and I got together last night for our regular Dear Jane evening. The grand plan being if we set aside time to do a block each month we may eventually finish the quilt top by the year….2029. I have, however, managed to talk Katherine into doing something else the last few Dear Jane nights (didn’t take too much convincing!) and Little Holly was the very productive result of my latest Dear Jane Procrastination Session :)



I have never attempted any wool felt projects quite like this and I really enjoyed making her. She’s quite tiny, the base being about as big as a 20 cent piece. The pattern is from De Witte Engel and there are other flowers in the series, ooh the possibilities.



Hope your Christmas preparations are full of fun and stitchin!

Zig Zaggy Bag

I brought home a new bag pattern from work on Tuesday night, to make up as a sample for the store. It’s a Butterick pattern – B5449 and comes with 2 bag patterns. It also happens to be in the ‘See and Sew’ range so it’s quite cheap ($5.80 AUD/$2.99 USD).

I chose to make the frilly one first, here is a close up of their version…

& here is my version

the Zig Zag fabric is ‘Pink Brick Path’ from the Woodland Delight Collection by Paula Prass for Michael Miller. I also used pink cargo drill for the lining and orange velvet trim. My DD has put her hand up for this one :) I hope to get the other bag finished on Friday, my other sewing day!

With Love

Creative Catch Up

I love to spend time catching up with friends, especially when they are like-minded! Last night I went out with my book club friends to see Eat Pray Love, starring Julie Roberts and Javier Bardem.

We’d read the book as a group earlier this year, and went to an Italian restaurant to discuss it – as well as enjoy some extremely delicious food. Going to see the movie was the icing on the cake, it was great to see visually some of the locations/characters that were described in the book. We had a mini debrief in the cinema afterwards too.

Today I caught up with my bloggy friends Lisa and Susan, at Susan’s home. Our get togethers often seem to include chatting, book browsing, eating & gift giving – today was no exception.

From Lisa I received a copy of Stitch magazine (complete with a couple of her projects within), a reindeer cookie cutter, some divine twine and some Lindt chocolate :)

From Susan I received some gorgeous Babushka tape and some groovy muffin cases. These precious girls bless my cotton socks off, not just with gifts, but with love, encouragement and wisdom too. Thanks heaps xx xx

We also got to do a little crafting too, Lisa brought her Cricut along and Susan allowed me to dip into her paper stash to create these…

I will have to ask Susan what paper ranges we used, it has totally slipped my mind!

(edited to add – Basic Grey ‘Kioshi’ and ‘Lemonade’ papers)

My friend Vikki had a birthday last month, but she didn’t get her present till last week. You can probably guess what she received – but what colour did she choose???

Answer: Silver.

With Love