Digital Scrapping

I have such a short attention span, and blog surfing does not help at all.
Although I have managed a quick paper declutter, it is now all piled up high in a box, mocking me, waiting to be organised.
But before I do, here's a link to a digital graphic thingy, called gotta pixel

Time to get organised

It's easy to feel little overwhelmed in a house full of stuff.

Our two bedroom 'cottage' is overflowing with kids, kids toys, clothes, plastic stuff, shoes, more plastic stuff, books, tubs and even more stuff, most of which is un-neccessary but hard to part with.
Sometimes I almost wish we were faced with a bushfire, and then I would be forced to start again from scratch. Well, not really: but you know what I mean.

Anyway, last week, I came across simple mom, and with any luck this clever lady may just change my life. Okay, that's optimistic. At least tidy it up a bit.

To be fair on myself, I don't have a lot of spare time with three young boys, ranging in age from eight weeks to six years. And to be honest, what little spare time I have is spent hanging around the computer, checking facebook, getting carried away with browsing ebay, and surfing around looking for ideas to inspire me. Occasionally I update my blog, which is my version of an online scrapbook - somewhere to gather and save the many great ideas I come across online.

So, simple mom has got me a bit excited about getting on top of things, and the first project I intend to tackle is managing or even killing the paper clutter.

 

I heart organizing and organizing your way are two more blogs that I intend to check out next time I have a few moments to spare... when I'm done organizing all the paper, that is!

Here's another great idea, to keep all that active paper handy, but not in the way.
Organizing Junkie has a family binder  system to keep everything in it's place.
Here's a couple more links for good measure:

Creating a paper file
Cleaning in stolen moments

Ooooohhhh... halloween crafts

Thanks to the crafty crow, I now have a few simple ideas to keep the boys busy with halloween crafts.
At Paper crafts, there's a great little spooky mobile involving scissor work and a little drawing, so I'm keen to give that a go.

I'm also planning to make some ghostly cupcakes.

There's also some cute little bats at mer mag: a quick scroll through her blog leaves me inspired and envious of her creative talents.

Toffee apples anyone?

These butterscotch toffee apples went down a treat.

Maybe next year we'll also try Ghostly hands.

Gone Bananas - felt craft

Isn't it amazing what you can find online... there really is no end to how clever people can be.
After discovering a blog featuring felt food, it didn't take long to find some more for inspiration.
Next stop... craft shop. Supplies ready, my first effort will be a banana. My toddler's favourite food.
I have also found strawberries, apples (+this one)and actually, the full fruit salad. Cherries anyone? Citris slice? Here's a shortlist of free patterns.

There's even a grocery bag.
I'm seeing a great christmas gift idea here.

I think, for the most part, I'm going to wing it - using photos as inspiration and a guide, as well as the odd tutorial. If I get stuck, or really into it, I can buy some patterns from little crickets at etsy.

Maybe a playscape?
Other felt crafts...

I could go on and on, but I should really just get started.
Can't wait to see some results, but for now, we'll just take it one at a time, starting with the banana.

... Okay. It took two attempts. The first banana was a bit too stout, so it has become my new pincushion. Below is my second attempt. I used only three, rather than four, sections - which was how the tutorial explained it. And I used the sewing machine. Hand sewing was taking too long, it was sooo much quicker on the machine and I was relieved how easy felt is to sew.
Overall I'm happy with the result but I would tweak it a little if I have another go.

Gone bananas - my very first attempt at creating felt fruit.

The Art of Distraction

The rain has been pouring down for days, even weeks, so I've been wandering about online, looking for some ideas and tips for crafty projects. Mostly I've been shopping on ebay.

Tonight I am planning to do some sewing. For a long time I've been wanting to try sewing a new pair of pants for my toddler (recycled from an old t-shirt of mine). I have been checking out a few blogs lately, and I think the best tutorials for some simple toddler pants can be found here and here.
I've also bought 2 new pairs of yoga pants, which need taking up a bit. Curse of being a shortie.  

But so far, I've just been keeping myself distracted on the computer.

I call it research.

Then research lead to the idea that I need somewhere to save all these great ideas, and therefore I needed an online scrapbook.

Here it is.

I have created it for my own personal use, and if you find it helpful too, well that's a bonus.

I haven't quite got the hang of online publishing yet and hope to tidy up my design over the next few weeks. But not tonight, it's time to haul out the sewing machine and do something creative.