I'm definitely on a roll.........

A friend of mine sent me a photo of a plate basket so I thought I would have a go at making one.  Just a little bit fiddely......but fun all the same!

A little wine, perhaps.........

Just sharing a pic of a newly finished article.  Hope you like it!!  I'm getting back into the swing of this now!!
Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Swing handled basket........

....made for a friend.  Just thought I would share an image before it goes to it's new home!

Have a wonderful day tomorrow (we get there first!!)

Holiday Greetings!

I really want to wish you all a very happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous 2013.

  It looks as if we could be celebrating the day in sweltering temperatures.

Whatever you plan to do, take care and stay safe!

Thank you one and all for taking an interest in the stuff I do!

A Little Bit of Play Time.............

and this is what I came up with........

I have been a little bogged down with baskets just lately.  I am off to Kensington in May 2013 and have to
have something worthwhile to take with me.  I think I will take Christmas Day off and give myself a break though!

I hope you are all keeping well and are all ready for the holiday season.  Take care and stay safe!

Pie Basket Tutorial - Sydney Workshop 24 Nov

I can't believe where the time has gone - it's been well over a month since my last post.  I must admit I have been a little busy though - getting the last little "tweak" in on my tutorial and then traveling to Sydney where I held a workshop at the AMEA meeting in Auburn on 24 November.  And what a wonderful day was had by all.

At this stage the ladies are still smiling and having fun!  

Concentration Plus!

Getting it done!

Thank you ladies for making the workshop such a fun thing to do - I certainly hope you ended up enjoying it as much as I did!

And a thank you to AMEA (particularly Adelaide Cann) for nagging me until I gave in!!  I had a wonderful day - and the FOOD!!! ......was all fantastic!

And now I have to put my head down and get serious about doing some basket work.  I am heading to Kensington Dollshouse Festival in May 2013 - and that's not a lot of months in terms of baskets to be made!!!  Back to the grindstone for me!!  But hopefully I won't be so long between posts now?  Let's see what happens!

Have a wonderful week everyone.

A wonderful swap finalised!!

Some time ago, Lotte of http://lottesminishoes.blogspot.com.au suggested we participate in a swap and just take a look at what arrived in the mail.  I am thrilled to bits!

How lucky am I?  Not just one pair - but three!

Thank you so much Lotte!

Where did September go???

I knew I hadn't posted in a while....but I didn't think it was quite THIS long!!
I have been in the doldrums of late in terms of basket-weaving.  I have several "new" projects in several different planning stages - some half finished - seemingly getting absolutely nowhere.  So I stopped - which is probably what I needed to do.

I have been doing the odd bit of preparation work for my cane-based baskets - such a tedious job - but also satisfying because this is where one gets the basket shape happening.  I just thought I would toss in a photo so you can see I have done SOMETHING in the last month!!  This shows about half the stash!!  Nothing like working in bulk!

I went to the markets yesterday morning and found these beautiful Waratahs - aren't they just gorgeous.
Waratahs are the floral emblem for the State of New South Wales by the way - just thought I'd throw that in!

I love these flowers!

My doldrums were lifted somewhat by a visit from a very dear friend on Sunday afternoon.  Susan (http://minicrochetmad.blogspot.com.au/ ) and her "Grumpy" came visiting with a picnic in mind.  But what I'm really wanting to show off is what she made for me - can you believe how beautiful this is?  It measures 100mm x 100mm!!! and soooo fine - I can't stop admiring it!  Thank you Susan!

And so I've come to the end of my post for today.  I will take this opportunity to welcome new followers to my blog - thank you for dropping by!  It's always nice to "meet" new people!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Totally off topic...........

How patient is this dog?  We needed cheering up because Jess (daughter 22) and I both have the poxy lurgy!   Jess decided to do a bit of dress up and Monte (who is a dignified standard poodle - using that term dignified very loosely) was happy to oblige - and he is such an obliging dog.  We have two of these standard poodles and they are just wonderful.  Poor Monte however, has masticatory myositis and is on medication for the rest of his life.

Now I'll get back to being serious and do some work!  I'm working on many "new" things in the weaving/wicker department and the development stage is always the most time consuming.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

Adding a little colour to the mix.........

was fun!  Hey - Spring is on it's way and I'm so glad of that!  I hate the cold - but only 2 weeks to go and we'll be off!!  So I'm celebrating - adding some colour to baskets - and it was fun!  They look very cheerful!

I hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Until next time - cheers!!!!

Rik Pierce Workshop - New Zealand March 2013

Rik will be visiting the southern hemisphere next year to run his Fair Rosamund's Bower workshop.  With the cost of shipping being what it is, he was concerned about getting his display house to this part of the world.  The Australian organiser of the workshop got a kit sent out and asked me to put it together for the event and I wanted to share the end result with you.  I'm quite happy with it and I hope the master will be too!!

This finished house will end up in someone else's possession but I will be getting a kit for myself and then I can make all the alterations I would like!  I am so glad I had the opportunity to work on this project.

The V-Dub Spectacular came to town........

..........and on Saturday morning, Nambucca's main street was crammed full of Volkswagens of every shape, size and colour (rumoured to be 400 in number)!

They ranged from the beautifully restored........

to the restorer's dreams........

to the downright characterful..............

The main street was jam packed with cars and people - and oh what a beautiful day we had for the event!

This is winter for us!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Some new stuff...............

.........I've been working on.  They've taken just a little longer than expected to complete, though I must admit that I had to wait a couple of days for Peter to finish making the undercarriage for me.  Oh what would I do without him to do all the easy bits for me!!!!  So, very pleased with the results all round....what do you think?

Front view of the lidded shopping trolley.

Another view - just in case!!

Open shopping trolley.

And another view!!













I hope you like these trolleys - they took a while to complete but were well worth the effort in terms of satisfaction!

Hope you all have a great week.   Until next time, take care everyone and enjoy whatever you are doing!

What I've been working on recently...........

......are a couple of rocking cradles.  One is for a friend and the other is the start of my stock pile!
They are made to fit a little Belly Button Baby - they measure 60mm long and 35mm wide.  The sides measure 25mm from the base and the hood stands 55mm high.
Hope you like them!

AND THE WINNER IS...............................

WOW - where did that time go?    We drew lots last night and the result was..........

CIRIA !!

Congratulations!  

Please e-mail me (lidistroud@yahoo.com.au) with your postal address and I will get your parcel in the mail first thing on Monday morning!!  Hope you will like it!

The Hedgehogs' Home!

I've taken time out today for a little playing!  I have been buried in basket frames and working gods-eyes until I'm blue in the face - and still a ways to go yet.  So I thought I would re-do the hedgehog home to scale and house a couple of hedgehogs in it!  I think the hedgehogs are just gorgeous - Annie Willis of Fine Design made these and they are just perfect!

The house measures 35mm at its widest and stands 20mm high. The board measures 75mm x 80mm.  I'm quite pleased with the outcome!

I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend!  

Something Pretty.........

well - as pretty as I get I'm afraid!!  I just wanted to play with something totally different after my frustration with the lid of the previous basket!!  So I played with this Moses basket.  What do you think?

This moses basket is made to fit a little Belly Button Baby!

Picnic Basket Give-away ...Ready-Set-Go!

OK - it took me a little longer than expected - and there's always something to go wrong when you want a job finished isn't there!  One of the lids did not want to behave at all - but.........well, it's as done as it wants to be!

Some pics for you:

Showing the God's Eye!

Showing detail on handle.

End View!











So - usual rules apply - be a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post!

I have nominated Friday July 13th as the drawing date.  That's not all bad - as well as being Black Friday, it is also the Tennant Creek Show Day in the Northern Territory - and that MUST be good for something..  For those of you not living in Australia - that's somewhere in the middle (of nowhere!)

I shall be using a random name selector to do this job for me - so GOOD LUCKY EVERYONE!!

Update on picnic basket give-away!!

I know - the count got to 300 a little quicker than I expected.....but rest assured that the basket is nearly complete.  I have the lids to make and attach and then I shall take photos and post!!  Sorry......but I'm going as fast as I can.  I have been busy weaving all day so I'm really quite pleased with progress.  Lucky I already had an almost completed basket form to start work on!!  Until tomorrow!!

OMG....it's almost time for a giveaway!

I can't believe that I'm at 294 followers!!  Thank you all so much for taking an interest in whatever it is I do!  Time also to welcome new followers - you are very welcome here!  And a big thank you to all of you for the comments you leave,

So I'm thinking (and this doesn't happen often, believe me!!) that at the 300 mark, I shall give away a lidded picnic basket.  I have started making it already so I shall have lots of time to finish it!!  And I'm learning:  the usual rules will apply - such as you must be a follower of this blog and leave your name in the comments section so I know you want to enter the draw!

Now we have to wait for the big 300!!

Have fun everyone and take care!

And some Old Stuff.........

.....which I promised to do a while back.  Some internal shots of the Fisherman's Cottage!  The pics are not brilliant - but I hope it will give you the general idea!

The living area - we pretty much made everything - except for the cat on the chair (hard to see!) and the pottery.

The loft area is tiny - thus the hammock!  Just enough room to swing that - but not the cat!