pinterest picks: sew sew sew.

I'm a Pinterest fanatic. I really love it. I've been on the Pinterest bandwagon for many years now and have accumulated many and a wide variety of boards and pins. I always find it fascinating to see which pins get the most interaction.

Because some of you don't need Pinterest in your lives, I thought I'd share some "pinterest picks" from time-to-time. I'll either share some of my favourite finds or what my Pinterest followers are loving. Today is all about sewing, because that's what my followers are telling me they like.


This cute fish cushion (from here) is created from a child's drawing. A great way of keeping a child's (or your own) masterpiece. Make your own, or send it my way – hand embroidery is so therapeutic!

Or if you don't want to make your own, check out these by Ava and Yves from The Gathered Store.

This simple heart (from here) has gone cray-cray. It has a full tutorial attached to it and is pretty simple for beginner sewers. These were made for her wedding.

I made a whole bunch of them for my niece's 5th birthday party last year. All of her friends found one in a treasure hunt and got to take them home. The rest of them ended up on my sister's Christmas tree and are still hanging around her kids bedrooms (and my mum's living room).

A work in progress

My niece collecting her hearts from the treasure hunt

Keeping the heart theme, this heart garland (from here) is super simple, especially because it's made from felt. Felt is great because it doesn't fray so you can cut it up into whatever shape you like and you don't have to overlock or anything... The link to the tutorial doesn't go anywhere but I bet it says something like this: cut out hearts, sew vertically through the middle with the sewing machine, then keep sewing for a few centimetres, then repeat until it's your desired height (to cover your window or wall). Repeat until all hearts are used up or you have enough strings of hearts. Hang! See? Easy!

And finally, the sweetest softies (from here) are on my board 'sewing' but to be honest, I think I'd just buy one. They are too cute, and I may also buy many other things too (to justify the shipping from England, of course!).

And some of her other work:

To check out the rest of my pins (not my legs), click here.

a beautiful banner for a beautiful wedding.

This year is a year full of weddings for me. Lucky I love weddings. I love seeing how different people express themselves and celebrate.

In March, our special friends Fi and Mike got married. Their wedding was beautiful because it expressed who they were and included lots of contributions from so many of their friends and family. They (ok, maybe she) knew what they wanted and what they wanted people to do. I was asked to create a banner for the entrance of their wedding and to live in their home. I was honoured.

Photography: Mr Glen Edwards

I was honoured because Fi is incredibly creative. And she has many incredibly creative friends. I don't see myself as creative around them. I don't let myself shine. But Fi believed in me, trusted me, and gave me confidence to design and create a banner for them. It was a privilege.

In asking me to do this, she has given me great confidence in other things. It's amazing how her small act of asking me to do something for her wedding has empowered me to do more and given me confidence in myself and my abilities. So I want to say thank you. Thank you Fifi for trusting and empowering me, for seeing things in me and for allowing me to grow through that.

A couple of the MANY shots from my living room floor, showing a little bit of the handsewn detail.

My trusty helper (I couldn't do it without him) and the finished product before the guests arrived.

Me with my banner.

Their wedding was beautiful, in so many ways, however the most special part for me were the name placecards. On each and every person's name card (all 126 of them), Fi handwrote three things that she loves about that person or sees in them. I have written about how I am a 'words of affirmation kind of girl' here, and this spoke to me. The words were clear and prophetic. I was honoured to receive the card. And they are incredibly designed (with all of the other wedding stationery) but the incredible Lauren Langley. My friends are pretty great.

This post is to honour my friends but also recognise the creativity in me and show off my banner. I'm pretty proud of it – I put my heart and soul (and many hours and handsewing nights) into it – and I'm looking forward to revealing more creative endeavours soon.

cushions.

As you already know, I love my home and making it beautiful. I love stuff and having it in my home. Cushions are one of those things.

I also love to make stuff. My budget for homewares isn't huge but my love for reusing things and creating homewares is huge. More on this another time but today it's about cushions. I can't spend significant amounts of money on cushion covers, so I make them. I love looking for inspiration then creating my take.

This is a cushion which I made two of for our couches. We have two couches: light grey and mustard. These go perfectly. The fabric on the front I bought second hand (and is great quality), I backed it with linen and put in an invisible zip. Easy, great quality and affordable!

This is a cushion my mum created for me. She did buy the grey cushion but she gave it personality by crocheting the front. I love it. It's just what I imagined!

Here are a couple of cushions which have inspired me recently to get sewing again:

Kip & Co Obus Cushion Cover

Bonnie and Neil Watercolour Blue

I am in love with both of these brands and the unique designs they create. I love Australian brands, especially when they create such beautiful things. Please check them out – there is so much to love. {I am especially loving Kip & Co's brand new AW14 All Grown Up velvet collection and Bonnie and Neil's wooden wall tiles.}

I chose these two cushions because they have so much personality not only in the fabric choice but in the trimmings: I love the effect the pom poms have on the Kip & Co cushion and the depth that the edging creates on the Bonnie and Neil cushion. I need to find some amazing fabric and trimmings and start making. Stat.

But before then, I need to make some cushions for my sister. For her birthday, I pledged to make her some new cushion covers. She has quite different taste to me (I can imagine her reaction to the two above) but I am looking forward to creating something simple but amazing!

Now I need the energy to go to the shops and choose some fabric.