The following tutorial shows how to make Plastic Beasts, using items that would normally end up in your recycling bin.Getting your materials together...MaterialsPlastic Bottle (coloured or opaque)Plastic Bottle Caps (assorted colours and sizes)Scraps of PlasticWirePlywood or Light BoardNeedle Nose PliersKitchen SnipsDrill or Hammer & NailDrawing PinCraft KnifeStringStep 1Cut base from the plastic bottle. Clean plastic bottle removing all labels, chemicals and tacky residue.Step...

Continue Reading

I would like to introduce you to my new friends. From left to right we have Ermintrude the Cow, Maurice* and Sid the Soda Beast. Sid is purely vegan and the product of my dearest drinking way too much soda. The others are more vegetarian, rather than vegan, due to their curly milk bottle lid horns and antlers.Little E refers to this gaggle...

Continue Reading

I have a bottle top collection hidden away, beneath the kitchen sink. My friends and relatives have been contributing to the collection. It’s been growing for about a year now. There are bright plastic bottles in the laundry space with strict instructions – Do Not Recycle. You may have guessed, I’m up to something.I’ve wanted an excuse for having a bottle top collection...

Continue Reading

I have stepped over a new line, or two. I’ve been admiring softies for a while now, carefully secreting away patterns that I thought I might make, retrieving them from magazines, cautiously storing the links in a folder marked “Someday I will make..” and of course stockpiling supplies. This week, I’ve finally done it. I have made my first softie. I have also...

Continue Reading

If herding cats gets 5 stars for difficulty, then dressing a 3 year old surely deserves 10. I start out with visions of an immaculately turned out child with co-ordinated handmade clothes that subtly whisper my mother has style. Instead, I end up with a stunningly dressed child, with outfits that shriek I’m an individual and yes, I did dress myself today. You...

Continue Reading

There is nothing like taking your little pirate down to the beach to look for treasure. Last time Aunty E was home, we went on an expedition. Together, with Grandma too, we found shells, sticks, seaweed and made a smashing birthday cake.Big E and Little ready to goMiss H and I set offLittle Miss IndependentHand Crafted Birthday Cake - complete with butter, sugar,...

Continue Reading

Under no circumstances should purple tractors be worn as serious attire. Occasionally you find some gems in the opp shops that have you puzzling “Why?”I’ve had some time to think about it but still can’t think of what grown woman would want to wear a lilac jersey dotted with purple tractors. The closest I can get is a kindergarten teacher might wear one...

Continue Reading

I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but sometimes it is just so hard not to. When I saw a 50% off paperback fiction sign a few months I couldn’t resist. It’s a once a year indulgence. In hindsight, I was having a very aqua and orange day.I had to have Going West by Maurice Gee. I’d read it years...

Continue Reading