A very Soule Mama kind of day!

I have just returned from a wonderful weekend cropping with the gorgeous girls in my Creative Memories team. We managed over 300 pages between the 12 of us (I only contributed 32 but at least I got my mojo back!) We stayed at the beautiful Glenbarr Homestead at Strath and my friend Meredith finally took a belly shot for me (the first for this pregnancy which is disgusting given that we only have 7 weeks to go!) Shame that the shadow makes me look even huger than I really am!!!

Being away from home for a few days does have its positives. The children have been positively angelic today and I have had a very "Soule Mama" kind of day (check out her blog on my list - I have both of her books with lovely things to do with and around small children) Anyway, the kids were happily creating christmas baubles and playing with my magnetic pin picker upper on one side of the table while I played with fabric on the other. I had already cut out the skull and crossbones fabric for a bag for my crazy friend Lindy Lou before discovering a bag tutorial on Ric Ric's blog (Jodie does amazing things!) so I kind of modified Lou's bag to be a slightly smaller version of Jodie's. This bag really is the simplest pattern ever and before I had even finished I knew I would make another with this "vintage"/retro fabric that I got off the trading table at Spinners and Weavers last week. For the extraordinary sum of $2.00 I had two pieces of the floral just the right size, quite a bit of very bright orange linen and three craft magazines - bargain!!! My straps are a little shorter than Jodie's because of the length of the orange linen but I was thrilled to end up with a totally thrifted very "hip" bag in under an hour! Even the buttons came off an old cardigan from James' Aunt! Now I know I really should use it as a Christmas gift but I just like it too much! I can definitely see me making several more of these as quick gifts!

While you are blog hopping to check out Ric Rac's bag pattern, why not go to gardenmama.typepad.com as well? She is having a very Steiner inspired toy giveaway.
And thinking of all things natural and lovely; couldn't resist photographing the lilac at Glenbarr. I love the smell of lilac, and the daintiness of the flowers, and the fact that it is so reminiscent of Springtime (my favourite time of year!)

Wherever you are this week, take the time to stop and smell the Spring blossoms!
Keep smiling,

Nell