Has it really been that long? My little blog has sadly been neglected for some time.
Rather than begin a new blog I will retain this one and allow it to find a new direction. It will still be creative but I will share my projects more for inspiration than as step by step tutorials. This will give me the freedom to be able share my makes without spending too much time away from my family.

Motherhood, school runs, play dates and after school activities certainly take much of my time these days. I do however still sew and get creative whenever opportunity presents itself. I am looking forward to allowing this blog to take on a new adventure.I will be making a few modifications the the layout so if things look a little out of place please be patient as I will fix them as soon as I can.

Recovering a Childs Chair

After many years of being loved this child's chair really needed recovering. I put it off for ages as I knew it was going to be a project that once begun it needed to be finished or it would never get done. So much work needed to be done to restore this little chair.

Here are some photos of the before, during and after process.

BEFORE!

Fabric and padding had perished or torn in many places due to all the love it has received in its time.  At one stage our two little chihuahuas had even claimed it as their own. Much of the chair was originally just nailed together and this would not work if it were to survive another decade or so, and one chair leg was broken with another at an awkward angle.

As we pulled the perished fabric off the chair I took photos in case we needed to refer to them when putting the new cover on. We found all sorts of kids small toys and pencils that had been lost inside the chair over the years. There was even a pair of scissors! Yikes! I don't want to even think about that one.

The arms of the chair needed to be removed to allow easy access to the rest of the chair for recovering.
They were only nailed on so this was an easy job with a mallet and some muscle.

We added new padding before stapling on the new fabric covers. 

The feet have now been fixed and screwed into place. Hopefully they will stay in place longer than they did being nailed on.

The fabric for the arms needed a little sewing to fit properly, but the rest was stapled before we attached the arms back on the chair, with screws.

A new back on the chair, I photographed this upsidedown as we then added a base to stop any critters making their home in the bottom of the chair.

 The finished Chair!

AFTER

AFTER

Yoga Baby!

I just had to share this photo. Our little one is starting to get around and this is something she loves to do.

She looks like she is trying to do the downward dog so we call her our yoga baby!

Have a great day and soon I will be able to show you photos of my newly renovated old sewing machine. I just need to fix up the decals and then I will be finished. So remember to come back so you can see it!

Free Business Cards to Download and Print

I know many of you crafters out there are selling at markets and fairs so business cards are a great way to get your name out there. They can be expensive to have made for you and when you only need a few so why not try making them yourself?

I create my own business cards using microsoft publisher, but then I found these sites where you can make your own then save and print off so I wanted to share them with you.

Business Card Star Prints 8 or 10 per page, lots of designs and colours to choose from. Easy and quick to do. Allows you to move text and change colours and even lets you print on the back of the cards if you want to. Here is a sample of what you can do.

Business Card Land A sister site to the above link that also prints 8/10 per page

Free pdf cards Plain cards with a picture or logo you can upload

New Arrival - in the Pink!

We have added a new baby girl to our family recently, hence the lack of blog posts. As you can imagine life has been very hectic but I am looking forward to getting back to blogging as things settle down and we get into more of a routine.
Naturally you can expect to see a few baby related creations. I managed to find some time while waiting for bub to arrive to get some sewing and even knitting done. So once I get them photographed I can share them with you. Until next time, bye for now.

* Clip art above from http://hubpages.com/hub/baby-clipart

Back from my unexpected Blogging Break

First I would like to thank those of you that have emailed me. It has been lovely to hear from you and read your messages. My sincere apologies if I have not replied to you. I have been unwell for a few months and only now just getting back to a normal routine. As things settle down I am hoping to share a few projects with you. So be sure to check back or subscribe(button on the right) to keep up to date.

Typing, Typing, Typing and Nothing to Do with Sewing or Crafts! LOL

Just to let you all in on a little secret - I am learning to type properly by using the right fingers on the correct keys! I am hoping it will save me time and help me with my blogging.

I did learn the basics back in high school and that has been enough to get me by most of the time but I tend to lazy type. Usually I type though mostly looking at the keyboard, then the screen and also using the wrong fingers for the keys. Sound familiar?????? The only drawback this way has been that any typing I do seems to take forever.

I started thinking that I would benefit by online so that I can work at it in my own time. I have just started using the free online typing tutor on Typing Web. It has already made a huge difference! I won't tell you how many words I started out typing, but lets say I am now at typing so much faster and with a far better accuracy than what I began with.LOL So if you would like to improve your typing/keyboard skills with different exercises and tests go and have a look. If you register they will store all your results as you learn and practice so you can see how you improve.

Anyway I am off to practice some more typing exercises........I will be back to show you some more of my latest creations soon.

SewDelish

Ready for some Online fun? Crafts Beautiful Forum Party!

In less than 2 hours Crafts Beautiful will be holding an online forum party to celebrate the launch of their new Make Jewellery magazine, which looks absolutely divine!

It is free to join the forum and there will tons of free downloads over the whole weekend, as well as guest designers, challenges and loads of other fun! I went to the Christmas party and let's just say everyone had a fabulous time. Hope to see you there.

Tragic Bushfires in Victoria - Australia

I imagine many of you have heard of the horrific devastating fires in Victoria - Australia that have changed the lives of so many people recently.

The last I heard over 200 people had died and over 1000 homes completely burnt to the ground. It is just so hard to imagine. I am in Australia, but can't begin to understand what these people are going through. The Australian and Victorian governments have declared a National day of mourning for the 22nd February.

During so much tragedy there are also many miraculous stories of survival including those like the koala in this video Sam the Koala.

Many of the heros that risked their lives to save and help others during the fires are also victims, losing loved ones and also homes themselves. Volunteers and emergency care workers are all giving tirelessly to help those in need.

So many people from all over the world have come together and donated things from money to clothing, toys, bedding and even hobby materials to help victims that have survived get back on their feet. Many are sleeping where they can or in tents borrowed from the army.

If you would like to help out then make sure you are donating to a genuine charity as there have been a number of reports of disreputable people collecting donations for their own personal profits!

If you are able to donate please do. You could get together with a few friends and send your donations to one of the groups below. There are more, but these are the best known charities helping out at the moment that I know of. I will add more as I become aware of them.

The Australian Red Cross

The RSPCA is helping all animals affected.

The Salvation Army

St Vincent de Paul Society

Happy New Year!

Well the festive season is now over and as usual we had loads of food leftover. So much that we made up numerous plates filled with delish Christmas goodies and pretended to be meals on wheels for our family and friends. After all there is only so much turkey, mince pies, pavlova and trifle one can eat!
Hope you found something lovely under the tree at Christmas! I know I did! I will be sharing a few things I have been making with it in the next few weeks. I have just finished writing another post scheduled for tomorrow that should keep you busy for a while. (wink wink!)

Wouldn't you know it, right at a critical crafting time last week, our printer decided it was time to go to printer heaven. It wasn't recognising cartridges and would take absolutely forever to print a black and white page! So now armed with a new printer (and oh soooo much better) I can print lots of things in just the same colour as shown on the monitor! I have been trying to give it a work out, just to make sure it still works! LOL
Anyway enough of the chatter, I am off to finish some tidying in my sewing room and then to cook some dinner.

Happy New Year to you all and I hope this year is much better for you than any before. I have lots of ideas for this year that I would like to share with you. So don't forget to keep checking back or even subscribe (the link is above) to be notified when I update with new posts.

xx

Online Party Event - Prizes Galore - You're Invited!

The Crafts Beautiful magazine forum is celebrating Christmas with a HUGE online party.

It will be held from Midnight (GMT) on Friday 28th November until Midday (GMT) on Monday 1st December.

There will be loads of prizes and fun things to do. So mark your diary. Overseas members are always welcome too!

If you are not a member please join up(it's free) so you can celebrate the fun with us and have the chance to win lots of prizes.

My forum name is Pinkbubble if you want to come and chat. If you found you way there from me, private message Adrienne Chandler from admin saying that I invited you to come along. I look forward to chatting and celebrating with you at the party.

Sneak Peak No. 2

Just to keep the suspense going I have another sneaky peak for you!

Can't guess what it is? Well you shouldn't have to wait too much longer! I am expecting on making the announcement in the next 2 weeks, provided all goes to plan!

Sneak Peek No. 1

As promised here is the first sneak peek of what I have been up to.

Something in the Air!

I am currently working on something that I will be announcing very soon!

It is taking a some time to sort but I will reveal all in the next couple of weeks, so be sure to check back or subscribe to my blog (button is up the top on the left) so you can see when it is announced!

Adding a Watermark to Your Photos.

I thought I would share with you the information I used to learn how to make a watermark for my photos.
It is here and actually uses photodraw, but the instructions are very easy to follow so you can adapt them to suit what ever program you have.

I usually make the watermark using fancy fonts and I save it separately to just copy and paste each time I want to add a watermark to a photo. It saves having to create a watermark each time. My current watermark is made using a free fonts downloaded from the web. One of them is a floral font. I just add text boxes with the individual images/font letter and arrange them until I am happy. I then group them as one image and adjust how transparent it is before saving as my watermark. Make sure the colour will show up on your photos. You don't want it too light or too dark.

Here is a site that explains how to add a watermark to your photos using word or photoshop,

and here is how to do one in a flikr account,

Lastly here is a video for visual learners.

Adding a watermark will not stop someone from copying your photos and claiming them as their own, (as has happened to me) but it will show who they belong to and hopefully prevent it. If you add your blog name too this will help.

I hope the links above help you add a watermark to your photos. If you find a really easy tutorial you would like to share I will add the link here. Just leave a comment below for me to check it out.

Have fun creating!

SewDelish
xx

Plagarism and Blogging

To those of you that subscribe to my blog or are regular readers, there will be a few changes happening in the near future. I have had to change the feeds back to partial feeds again due to some of my blog content being stolen.

This person has directly copied one of my blog posts including the watermarked images and pasted it into their blog as if it were their own. They have not provided a link back to my blog and also what is worse, they are making money from my work using Google Ad sense.

I will not be providing the link to the offending blog because I feel they do not deserve the link from me, visitors nor money raised from any ad clicks. There are a number of posts on the offending blog that I believe to be stolen from other bloggers and again no credit has been given to the original authors. The whole blog looks like it was created in a few days just to make money from ad clicks.

I am flattered that someone would love to share my work, but to give me no credit or a link back and completely plagarise everything is more than frustrating. The post copied is not the issue here, just the fact that it was copied entirely to make money from and without permission sought nor credit given. I have now reported the incident to Ad sense as the blogger is not only breeching copyright laws, but also Google Ad sense policies.

If you are a blogger yourself I would recommend putting a watermark or name and copyright information on all of your photos before you upload them to the internet. That way there is no dispute as to who they belong to.

I love to inspire creativity in others, just as I find inspiration from the work of others, but credit needs to be given where it is due. I regret having to make changes, but I feel it is necessary and hope it will not prevent your enjoyment of visiting.

Awards!

I have been generously given these three awards by the lovely Cambiel. It was such a lovely surprise to receive them. Now for me to pass them onto three other deserving people.

My Recycled Bags
Sweetiepie
Craftfairy

Thanks goes to.......

all of my wonderful readers and visitors!

I have just logged on quickly and discovered that I have now reached 10,000 visitors since beginning my blog. So if you have been one of them, or left a comment or three, thank you.

To celebrate I will be giving away some crafty blog candy. Just leave a comment and make sure I can contact you. I will draw a couple of names to receive some blog candy in a few days.

Please Note the Stepping Out Challenge deadline will be extended until the weekend due to other commitments. Feel free to enter if you haven't already.

SewDelish
xx


Edited 21/5/08 to add:
The winners have been announced here.

SewDelish has made the Top 100 Australian Women Bloggers List

Yay! I have made it onto the Top 100 Australian Women Bloggers List. The position where a site is on the list is determined by the average of it's Technorati rank and it's Australian Alexa rank.
I have made it to 75th on the list. An accomplishment considering just a few weeks ago I didn't even qualify.

Click on the pink Australia and you will be taken to the list. There are some great blogs to discover. So go and have a peek.

Don't forget to have a go at my Stepping Out challenge. Details HERE.

Green Challenge

Cottage Magpie has set a green challenge this time. So here are my green photos.

Our Siamese fighting fish, Ben, in his tank on our green walls.
The water is very clear but the reflection from the
wall and the gravel make it look green!
Mr Bump lives in there too.
Ben sleeps under his arm at night!

A nest of eggs the Easter Bunny left on Sunday.
I think I forgot to mention that the Easter Bunny
left some very suspicious looking chocolate buttons
over the floor in several places around the house!
What a naughty bunny!

My sage green and cream sewing boxes.
Sage green is popular in this house at the moment. You
can just see the striped green curtains in the background.

Where would a sewing box be without thread?
These are some vintage wooden threads I bought on
ebay last year. A number of them haven't even been used!
You can just see some new green spools in the
background there on the right.

Coming up last there is the doll's house in green.
It was painted to match the walls, in our house
making it a little less obvious in the room.
It will no doubt receive another coat of
paint sometime in the future.

Well that is it for the green photos for now. My camera's batteries are recharging, but I wanted to get this post up before the deadline.