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Halloween costume fun

One of my favourite social events is a good old dress up party, I love that they really bring out peoples creativity. Thanks to my lovely friend Jess of Fox Parse for hosting a wonderful night and inviting excellent people.

For this party, I selected to dress up as the ever internet famous Keyboard Cat. I sewed together some arms, ears and a tail from about 1 meter of fur fabric, grabbed a $20 K-Mart keyboard, downloaded the Keyboard Cat song and put it on repeat on my iPod which connected to the keyboard (impressive for a $20 keyboard). I will also note that I did learn how to play the song as well… and played people out as they left the party.

Below are a some photos of me as Keyboard Cat and some of my friends in their wonderful handmade costumes.

Amie (that's me) as Keyboard Cat

Joel as Ash from Evil Dead with hand made cardboard chainsaw

That is one amazing handcrafted cardboard chainsaw all made straight from Joel’s wonderful brain. It probably took him about 5 hours all up. You can see the cardboard chainsaw in more detail on my Flicker.

Red Panda & Fox Parse as themselves (photo by Liz)

Character and costume design by Fox Parse & Liz

Internet cat friends Nyan Cat & Keyboard Cat

I was so excited to find an excellent internet cat friend at the party, many points to Bronte for coming up with one of those fab last minute costumes with minimal resources!

Captain America with amazing cardboard & gaffa tape shield

This is Matt in his great Captain America outfit and shield which he made using a Captain America shield Instructables tutorial, he also had some great cardboard scale mail which you can’t see in this picture.

Mike as the Count (photo by Liz)

Cape and Count head all handmade by Mike with things like fabric, felt, cardboard & wool.

Last by not least… here is me doing my best… or perhaps most special rendition of the Keyboard Cat.

Little shoes pattern

Just before my recent holiday break, I was given the opportunity to make and review some little shoes from the little shoes pattern Etsy store – with thanks to the Adventures in dressmaking blog.

Little shoes - Sporty shoes

So yesterday evening I whipped up these gorgeous little shoes from the Sporty shoes pattern. I’m not usually one to read every single instruction on a pattern (I’m too impatient!) but for the sake of properly reviewing, I actually did – yay me, I probably also saved myself a little unpicking along the way!

I made the shoes over an entire evening, in amongst doing other things, like making dinner, unpacking from my holiday etc. I think that if you knuckled down (sewing beginners included), you could get a pair of these made within an hour or 2. I thought the pattern was easy to follow, particularly with thanks to all the pictures. I did get a little confused in the last couple of steps which involve getting the sole on the shoes and finishing them off – I think this more comes down to the fact that little shoes are little and fiddly and I’ve never really made tiny little things before. I obviously still got there though and have some terrific little handmade shoes to send off to our recently born & gorgeous niece Jordi in Lismore.

In regards to materials needed, I used 2 fat quarters from from a local quilting store which I got for $2 each and I have plenty left over to make at least 1 (maybe 2) more pairs of little shoes. I used the only interfacing I had which was probably a little heavier/stiff than needed, I’d suggest going for a medium/soft weight interfacing, it would probably make turning the shoes in the right way etc a whole lot easier. These sporty shoes have a little velcro bits under the end of the straps, these are cute but if you don’t have velcro you could probably even just sew them down as they don’t seem to be there for functional purposes.

Would I recommend Little shoe patterns? Absolutely! At less than $5 for a pattern and around $3 for materials per pair of shoes, you really can’t go wrong. I am already planning the next pair I’ll be making and I’ve also got my eye on the Keeley pattern!

Many thanks to Little shoes pattern Etsy store for the opportunity to make and review these little shoes!

Holiday inspiration

I like to keep my blog a little “personal life free” but I thought I’d quickly share with you (and re-live myself) the reason I’ve been quite over the past month or 2.

I’ve been on a great big European adventure with my partner Joel. We spent 6 weeks travelling Italy, Spain, France and Greece, and what an amazing adventure it was, Joel even managed to add a marriage proposal in there as well… so yes, I am now an engaged lady.

The whole holiday was amazing and pretty much a trip of a life time but some of my favourite things where…

Gelato from Festival de Gelato in Florence, Italy

All of the gelato – I now worship Italy for it’s extrodinary array of flavours and fine quality of gelato. I actually drew pictures and rated of all my gelato experiences… I hope to digitalise these illustrations and share them with you very soon.

All the other foods! – With so many amazing foods at my beck and call, I was full nearly all of the holiday, Spanish tapas and one particular Italian lobster raviolli are at the top of my favourites list!

Spanish coast by night (Benicassim)

Spain – Oh Spain, what a beautiful country, we only visited Madrid, Barcelona, Benecassim & Figueres but decided we definately need to return one day, perhaps to travel the entire Spanish coast and swim daily in the Mediterranean Sea.

Disneyland! In a teacup! HAPPIEST PLACE EVER!

Disneyland – What can I say except… FORK YEA… how can one place be SO HAPPY!?

Now that I’ve had an amazing and relaxing holiday, I feel fresh and inspired, there really is nothing like a good break to inspire.

Coconut Macaroons

Coconut macaroons

Looking for a light and super dooper easy treat recipe? Go no further than these tasty little coconut macaroons. I baked them for the first time yesterday from start to finish within less than 30 minutes.

Ingredients
2 eggs (separated)
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups coconut
1 tsp vanilla essence
pinch of salt

Method
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Gradually beat in sugar.

Mix coconut in well with a spoon.

Place spoonfuls of mixture onto foil covered oven trays. Bake for about 16 minutes at 170 degrees celcius, until golden brown.

Coconut macaroons, before & after baking