Just a little pre delivery teaser!

New and on the way to Myrtle & Grace...

Some gift Ideas arriving in time for Christmas delivery. For prices on products and postage, please email me at groobiteam@optusnet.com.au. Wholesale enquiries Welcome :)
1. Little Vintage children Note books and sticky labels.

 2. Little Red Riding Hood Pencil Wraps, Apple note-lets (other fruit available), Mini Chalk Boards labels, Babushka Pencil Cases, Fabric Sticky Tape (also floral coming)

 3. Sticky Masking Tape set- All pre-cut for you. A few little project possibilities. FUN

CAKES I LOVE, party insiration found...

 

Cake inspiration found while browsing the net can't remember where from exactly, but if you know feel free to post a comment. I love these cakes.

Helloooo Strangers!

Well Hi There my Blogger friends, It's been a while but as usual there are lots of other things happening at Myrtle & Grace HQ. With 2 new retail outlets stocking some of the ranges they have kept me quite busy. Still popping along to the markets. Most recently was the Muddi Boutique Market in Wagga NSW, a bit of a commute for us... 6 hours to be exact (Felt more like 10 with all 6 kiddies in the car) But well worth the it especially with family and friends waiting at the other end. Miss Emily birthday approaches and this year we had a CRAZY idea, A challenge was set to organise a party using my face book friends and referrals. This party has turning into one huge extravaganza! Think warm spring afternoon on the lawn , high tea, warm spring colours and 12 little girls dressed in their finest to enjoy. complete with lolly buffet and seated afternoon tea. I compiled an image gallery for inspiration for me and for the people and business' supplying all of the goodies. The response was amazing! This is a little sneak peek of what we have been doing at home to start preparing. I have had this little dressing table in the shed for a while I found it on one of my Op Shopping days for a bargain price of $15 and just needed the motivation and reason to 'renovate' it into a shabby chic style. Miss Emily even got in on the act helping out, you will notice that she still has her helmet on- apparently painting id a dangerous job that requires protective head wear! I'm really happy with the end result and the little glass vintage handles i found at "provincial Home Living" really finished it off nicely. (Not pictured- yet)

 The little details...

 Inside... I'll use the drawers to hold the drink bottles for the party.

 Finished without handles

 My helper...

 With the protective head wear...

 Couldn't resist bring home these cute matching frames for a bit of a spruce up, a well spent 20c

 A little more rubbing back...

Could possibly be adding a tiny bit more distressing yet. But a great tip if you are going to try this to is NOT do too much at the start, you can always add more but it's harder to take the distressing off!
We have had a couple more photo shoots, of course with Celeste Vermeend from ourgirlyword.blogpot.com I had the opportunity to cut up a vintage lace wedding dress for a client and I am soooo pleased with it, was sad to see it go actually. But the "tea party photo shoot as impromptu as it was ended up being beautiful. The lace dress is pictured here with the Fairy Floss Pink Emily's tea party dress, custom dyed and exclusive to Millie Molly Moo in Portland.

The new Camilla style dress is now in production in a beautiful range of warm tones of peaches, pinks. I'm really enjoying having a play around with all the different dye baths. Colour blends and mixing my own "off the chart colours"

 Above are some pretty second-hand shop finds to use for the party and below are some cute little grass place mats made from fake turf from Bunnings and a cheap bunch of flowers again at the Op Shop- They are just LOVING me at all of the "locals" at the moment.
I made the place mats by cutting 25cm squares of fake turf. (Be sure to ask the person cutting it to make it straight) and hot glued the little flowers on. For about $1.30 each I'm sure they will be a prefect addition to the dining table at the party.

 

And last but not least some of the new "gift" range I have started getting a little bit of My next order will go in about 20th September and these cute back packs about 25cm high will be $19.95 each The picture is pretty average sorry, but they are Elephant, rabbit, black cat, duck, frog, pig, panda, turtle, ladybug, pink cupcake, white cupcake and strawberry. If you would like to order on please email me at groobiteam@optusnet.com.au. They will be here by mid to late October and in time for Christmas. Stay tuned on the planning of the upcoming birthday extravaganza! I'll be blogging more about party planning, and styling before and after.

SOOOO much has been happening...

So here is a bit of what's been happening since I blogged last...

 1. Magnolia Square- the market to top all markets had Myrtle & Grace Present and accounted for. Phew, busy, crazy! www.magnoliasquare.com.au
2. Myrtle & Grace has signed on 2 retailers for a launch of Sping/Summer ranges La Toriana in Bendigo and MillieMollyMoo in Portland.
http://www.latoriana.com.au/blog/autumn-afternoon-picnic-designer-kids-fashion
www.milliemollymoo.com.au

 3. Orders, orders, orders
4. Piccadilly market in Geelong attended- beautiful <3 <3 www.piccadillymarket.blogspot.com.au
5. Reuben the donkey class in Gisborne at The Drapers of MT Macedon Quilting Shop. With the talented Jodi Carelton from www.vintagericrac.blogspot.com as the instructor. What a hoot and a cute donkey to boot!

6. A Tutorial just for you... Some recycling LOVE to share.

I HEART RECYCLING!
 Upcycled Button Skirt

1. Find a garment you like to use... I've had this one sitting for a while in my box of things to do. When miss 3 pulled it out the other day and asked for a skirt made from it. O.K I said! This one is a woven, slightly stretchy cotton blend fabric.

2. Some measuring is required. What size would you like it to be? Well I need it to be a size 4 girls so I borrowed one of her other skirts and took a measurement of the finished length and the waistband.
The existing skirt measured 12inches so when I cut I added an extra 1.5 inches for the elastic casing at the top. (If you plan on folding some under for a hem you might need to add a bit more length for a hem)
Because this skirt is quite full you'll find you could get 2 skirts out of it. Proceed to unpick the Bias (in red) or the hem. And mark out you desired length with pins or tailors chalk. Hold your breath and CUT!

 

3. With right sides together sew the side seam back together. If you don't have an overlocker you want to zig zag stitch the edges first then straight stitch the entire length. Now you should have something that slightly resembles a  miniature version of what you started with. Off to the iron next...

4. Press about 1cm of the top edge down all the way round and then fold down again about another 1.25 inches. (I use 1 inch wide elastic for the waist band) Pin as you go to hold it all in place. I decided to add belt keeps and all i used was a co ordinating ribbon. They measured 3 inches long x qty 7. I find that one in the centre back, one on each hip, another measured toward the front about 12cm from each hip and again towards the back half way between the hip and centre back. Do not put one on the centre front- this is where you need to tie your bow up. Slide these belt keeps in at the mentioned distances about half an inch to make sure they catch as you sew the bottom edge in place -remember to leave a small gap for threading the elastic trough.

5. Back down to the hem. Re attach Bias or using existing crease line, re hem. Skirt. Nearlly done!
6. Cut your elastic to length. I needed my waist  to be 57 cm so I cut my elastic a bit longer to allow for the join. Thread elastic through and when it pops back out of the other end lay the elastic flat together with the other end and stitch together. The most secure way for me is to sew a box shape then a x in the middle of it.

7. Fold over you belt keeps to the front and stitch down right on the stitching line from the elastic casing. I added a button embellishment to each keep. Because Miss 3 LOVES buttons almost just as much as Mummy.

8. I have added a few more buttons to the centre of each flower to dress it up a little more.

9. A length of ribbon threaded through the keeps and you are done!

Miss 3 is going to love this when she gets home! So go on have a go make another one in a different size. Why not cut out one the left over flowers and add to a t-shirt to complete the outfit.

School Holiday Stuff to do Part 3

More ideas BANGLES...
...to fills the school holiday days and entertain the little and not so little ones.The girls aged 3 to 15 enjoyed this activity. It's super cheap and relatively easy to do.
This idea has been used in many different ways in our house. A couple of years back we made some bangles for school fair they were cheap easy. While wandering through the "cheapo shop" I found some  plastic tubing (about 15m in fact for only $6.50) this one is bigger than the one we used last so we could put more interesting things in it.

You need plastic tubing- available from fabric or hardware stores

 Cut to desired length add about 1cm extra(- you stuff one end into the other).

 Fill with anything your heart desires- this time around we have used Easter egg foil rolled up into balls, glitter, tiny stars, scrap ribbon. Other things you could use are beads, seeds, coloured pencil shavings, your imagination is your only limit here.

 We used the blunt end of a skewer to stuff our foil beads in. Even miss 3 managed to create her own bangle.

It gets a bit tricky here so adult help may be required. Leaving about 1.5cm spare at each end pinch in end like so and stuff it firmly into the other end of the tube. dipping the plastic into hot water helped soften it enough to get a tight fit. 

 And finally here is a selection of our pretty bangles. Just a tip- the fine glitter may escape so a piece of clear sticky tape around the join will help keep it inside the bangle.

More Boredom Busting Ideas from Tiny and Little

Egg Hunt Cups

www.tinyandlittle.com.au
Check out this super Easy and super cute craft idea from the Tiny and Little Magazine. All of my kids had fun making them.

Not Long Now Until Magnolia Square

Magnolia Square

Is fast approaching and we have been absolutely flat out here at Myrtle & Grace Head Office (aka the kitchen table) getting ready with a whole new winter range for BOYS and Girls. A whole new image and "shop front" to launch there, Love to see you there! Check out Myrtle & Grace on the Retailer list, we're no 1!!! http://www.magnoliasquare.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=703&Itemid=158