Bagged, Tagged, and Payin' it Forward

I love a good catch-up post, so here it is. Firstly, a couple bags I have finished recently.

One for a lady in my mother's group. Made with a lovely sturdy japanese cotton canvas from Kokka fabrics, as well as some vintage brushed wool fabric, and an upholstery sample. My poor machine jumped and groaned and spat lots of needles at me while making this one. I'm now on the lookout for a good walking foot industrial sewing machine...


And another one for the shop.


This one was a bit of a freestyle jobby, as I just made the pattern up as I went along. It took a pretty long time to put together, but I really enjoyed it, and am quite happy with the outcome. It reminds me a bit of a school uniform, hence the Malory Towers name (gotta love the depth and breadth of references you can get from Enid Blyton books, he he). This bag is actually made from 100% recycled and reclaimed fabrics. Vintage brushed wool on the outside, upholstery samples used on the strap and cuff (more jumping and needle spitting from my machine) and a really soft and lovely vintage flannelette pillowcase on the inside lining. Even the interfacing is recycled flannelette. Basically only the thread and magnetic snap are new, so I was pretty happy with that (yes I know, I should have had this bag finished before last week's recycling show and tell...oh well).

Now onto the tag. Dee from Words has tagged me so here goes. Don't worry, I'll keep it short and sweet!

a) What was I doing 10 years ago?

I'd just returned to Melbourne after living in Darwin for two years and got some casual work at Centrelink as a customer service officer. After working as a youth worker previously it seemed like luxury to have an office job where I could drink tea as I worked!

b) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today:

1. Go to my homeopath appointment
2. Upload a bag to Etsy
3. Go to the local Farmer's Market
4. Ring my aunty & my sister to organise tomorrow's outing
5. Do this blog update

c) Snacks I enjoy:

Green and Blacks organic milk chocolate, Jatz crackers with hommus, french toast with tomato sauce, toast with peanut butter and honey, pumpkin scones, homemade shortbread, crepes with lemon and sugar...oooh boy, the list could go on...

d) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Buy a huge acreage and build heaps of houses on it for all the extended family members. We would have an extended family commune, so to speak, and the family that don't want to live there can have holiday houses there. Matt and I have often discussed this and this would be our ideal set up. I know it sounds weird, but our family just really gets along, and we all really dig each other's company.

e) Places I have lived:

Nyah (WAY outback country Victoria), Melbourne, Darwin, Brisbane


So there ya go, lots of useless information about me. And this lovely sunset is what we saw out our front balcony a few nights ago. Isn't it lovely? Now onto the last thing.

I recently joined a Pay-It-Forward that Big Cat's Emporium was passing along. And now I'm looking for two more people to join in the fun. The way it works is that you sign up and some time in the next 365 days I will send you a surprise in the mail. In return you agree that you will pay the kindness forward to at least one other person (you can do more if you want to) in the 365 days after you join in. It's a fun idea, and sure to put lots of good crafty karma out there. So if you want to be one of the two people to receive some goodies from me, leave a comment and let me know.

**EDITED TO ADD, I NOW HAVE THREE PAY IT FORWARD TAKERS - THANK-YOU TO Curly Pops, Button Beauty and Ingrid's Sewing and Craft!!**