designed to a T: January 2011

31 January 2011

New Year=New Craft Challenge

I mentioned a little while ago that I was commencing the New Year=New Craft Challenge with the Creative Collective and Calico & Co.

Amanda from Calico & Co is one of a group of fabulous bloggers who set up the Collective and there are some great handmade crafts showcased over on their Flickr Group.

I'd been trying to think of a way to jazz up my magazine collection, when I remembered a post over at Kootoyoo early in December, for 'No sew decorations'.

Kirsty has used her decorations for the Christmas tree, but I found another way to use them.

My collection of paper, stamps, twine, and hole punch came out and here it is. A set of alphabet tags for my magazine holders.

I've only done the first few as letters, but I'm thinking I'll also do some for the titles - 'Inside Out', 'Vogue Living', 'Real Living' and so on. I think I have about 6 subscriptions now, some have been gifts from my sons.

Stay tuned and I'll show you the 'Title' Tags when I've finished them.

29 January 2011

A thought for you...

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are

tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
Walt Emerson

{Image source unknown}

26 January 2011

Happy Australia Day

{Image from here}

25 January 2011

Auction Results

Congratulations to the final bidders for my 3 auction items:

Item #1 - Framed Photographic Print - Kylie from My Flying Ducks
Item #2 - 'Sew On' Prints - Kirsten Smith from 'Turn your face to the Sun'
Item #3 - Framed Paper Flower art - Amanda Jane

A big thank you to all who supported my little bit. You helped me raise $140.

Congratulations to everyone involved and more importantly a huge THANK YOU to Toni and Carli for their efforts in organising this wonderful opportunity.

All the best to everyone in QLD who has been affected, to the people who have volunteered to help clean up and also to those who assisted with all the other wonderful efforts to take much needed food to those same volunteers.

Remember there is still a lot of fundraising opportunities and so many other ventures to make sure those QLDers affected can and will get back on their feet.

Let's not forget the families now going through a flood crisis in Victoria.

One of the best stories I heard coming out of the flood crisis, was the people of Kinglake organising donations and a convoy of cars, to take them to the people of QLD.

22 January 2011

Creative Collective...'New Year=New Craft'

Paper projects seem to be the go with me at the moment, and when challenged with trying to have an appropriate and minimal time consuming project, for the Flood Relief Appeal, I came up with the 3D Paper Flower artwork.

The tutorial for the paper flowers was on 'How about Orange' ages ago. I made mine a little bit differently, in that I glued each layer and used a button as an embellishment instead of the paper stem in the tutorial.

All in all I was very happy with the concept and will probably do a few more for family gifts.

Apart from doing this for the Flood Relief Appeal, I thought it a good option as a 'new craft' for the Creative Collective 'New Year = New Craft' challenge.

A thought for you...

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain

way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

Thomas A Edison

Where would we be without someone like
Edison who always tried 'one more time'.

1868: Filed a patent application for his first invention, electric vote recorder.

1874: Major financial success for Edison as he invented the quadruplex telegraph. This invention is said to have helped the firm Western Union to save huge amount of money by increasing the number of messages a company could send without building new lines.

1875: With an electric pen, a small battery and an ink supply, the 'autographic press kit' helped businesses to make copies of documents.

1877: Hailed to be Edison's favorite work, phonograph, was a major breakthrough in helping people listen to songs and play music. With experiments on disks and tape, Edison invented the most famous phonograph. Edison also worked on a telephone transmitter that helped in better transfer of voices. In fact, he improved Alexander Graham bell's telephone services.

1878: Edison worked on improving electric light bulb invented by Sir Joesph Swan in England in 1878. Edison worked to improve the filament of the bulb so that it could burn brighter. He changed various features in the electric bulb and by working on electric bulbs, Edison gave this world one of the most reliable man-made sources of light.

1880: In Edison Lamp Works, Menlo park, commercial production of electric lamps is carried out.

1882: Edison files application for patent of 53 applications. The patents are filed for numerous inventions like electric lighting, electric railways, and secondary batteries.

1885: In this year, Edison patented nearly 17 inventions for telegraph and telephone systems.

1888: Filed for patent of 22 applications that include cylindrical records and photograph equipments.

1891: Kinetoscope and Kinetograph, one of the earliest motion picture devices are filed for patent by Edison.

1896: Edison Home Phonograph is introduced in the market by Edison. This phonograph was a spring moor driven phonograph.

1902: Edison uses several of Edison storage batteries in his specially designed electric vehicles. The most popular alkaline storage batteries get a kick start after this.

1906: The famed Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden awards Edison a gold medal for his inventions in phonograph and incandescent bulb.

{Information and image from here.}

21 January 2011

Keep those bids coming...

Monday night at 9PM is the cut-off time for Auctions on the QLD Flood Appeal blogs.

Remember to scope out the items you have your eye and have you bid placed by this time, so you don't miss out.

Is it going to be a race to the finish to get that handcrafted item, and all for a worthy cause.

My Creative Space is back...

I didn't realise it was back until yesterday when I read Posie Patchwork's post. Haven't done anything this week that's very creative, but have just picked up some more wallpaper and fabric offcuts from Signature Prints for some projects to be featured next month.

Hopefully I'll have had time to finish setting up my 'Made It' shop by then.

The pieces are fairly neutral, but they need to be for the projects I have planned.

The newest piece I've created was for our Flood Appeal Auctions, as shown below.

Don't forget to get behind the great work all these wonderful blogs have been doing to help raise money for QLD.

Auctions close on Monday 24th January, 2011 at 9PM. So if you waiting to see how high the bids go, this is the cut-off time.

Happy bidding, and thank you all for the interest you are showing in my auction items.

You'll find more Kootoyoo creative spaces here every Thursday.

20 January 2011

QLD Flood Appeal Auction Item # 2

The second Auction item/s is a set of my 'Keep Calm and Sew On' prints. The auction item is the prints ONLY, no frames are included.

The prints are made to fit the IKEA Ribba frames.

Here is a photo of mine already in the Ribba frames ready for the workroom.

How this auction works:

1. Bidding will start at $15 (Australian).

2. You can place a bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount and email address. Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder. Bid comments only, no general comments here please.

3. Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.

4. This auction is open to everyone. Postage is FREE for Australian residents, International buyers will need to pay $20 to cover some postage costs.

5. The auction begins NOW and will END at midnight on Monday 24th January 2011.

6. At the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (please make sure your bid comment includes your email address). The winner will pay the winning bid amount directly into the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and send proof of payment via email to designed.to.a.t@optusnet.com.au. Once proof of payment has been received, I will post your prints to you.

8. Thankyou for participating and happy bidding!

QLD Flood Appeal Auction - Item #1

Welcome to designed to a T and in conjuction with the wonderful Toni at 'Make it Perfect', my blog and many many others are participating in a series of blog auctions and raffles to support the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal.

You'll find the master list of participating blogs here.

I have a big connection with QLD, as my regular readers would know, having grown up in Bundaberg and my 2 sons still living in the 'sunshine state'. My eldest son Brendon, lives at Bulimba, an area that had some flooding. I felt compelled to do something to help, as I couldn't be in QLD to help my son, who luckily was only affected in a minor way compared to others.

Auction Item #1 - Framed photographic print by Brendon Grove

My first Auction item is one of Brendon's photographic prints. This was taken in Amsterdam on his first overseas trip back in 2003. I spoke to Brendon about putting it up as my first Auction item and he was happy to have a piece of his art used for such a worthy cause. He's seen how so many people have lost much much more than he did over the past week.

{Original photograph by Brendon Grove - copyright
Please do not use without permission of Brendon Grove}

How this auction works:

1. Bidding will start at $30 (Australian).

3. Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.

4. This auction is open to everyone. Postage is FREE for Australian residents, International buyers will need to pay $20 to cover some postage costs.

5. The auction begins NOW and will END at midnight on Monday 24th January 2011.

8. Thankyou for participating and happy bidding!

QLD Flood Appeal Auction Item #3

Last item for the Appeal is this Framed Paper Flower art. I was really happy with this project in the end. I hope you like it too, and place a bid or 2.

Paper Flowers framed - hand made by designed to a T

Baroque frame from Typo

Paper Flower in detail

How this auction works:

1. Bidding will start at $30 (Australian).

3. Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.

4. This auction is open to everyone. Postage is FREE for Australian residents, International buyers will need to pay $20 to cover some postage costs.

5. The auction begins NOW and will END at midnight on Monday 24th January 2011.

8. Thankyou for participating and happy bidding!

QLD Flood Appeal Auction update

Auction Item #1 - photographic print by Brendon Grove - $40 bid from Kylie at My Flying Ducks

Auction Item #2 - set of my 'Keep Calm and Sew on' - $40 bid from Michelle at Sew Frayed

Auction Item #3 - Framed Paper Flower 3D Art - $30 bid from Jennie at Posie Patchwork

Thanks girls. Let's keep the momentum everyone. News is after 3 days the 240+ bloggers participating have raised about $45,000.

4 days to go.

15 January 2011

A thought for you...

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end

of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover

that you have two hands. One for helping yourself,

the other for helping others.

Audrey Hepburn
{Quote from here}

{Image: Brisbane Times}

Volunteers help clean up the home of neighbours, who were away on holidays when the floods hit Brisbane. The cleanup is underway so they don't have to do it when they come home.

How lucky can you be - QLD Floods

I am so grateful my son Brendon and his area of Bulimba was saved from such inundation. The streets around his home had some flooding, and there is still a bit of a cleanup, but nothing they can't handle.

They only lost a couple of things in the garage, nothing that can't be replaced.

{Images: Brendon Grove}

Remember I have my Auction starting on Monday. The item I am Auctioning is actually a framed photographic print by Brendon.

I know it's supposed to be a 'crafty' item, but I couldn't help it. I was so worried about what was happening to them, because I couldn't contact him via phone at one stage.

So, the item has a bit of a link to what's happened, a little bit of a story for whoever wins the bid.

14 January 2011

QLD Flood Relief Appeal Auctions

A huge THANK YOU goes out to Toni from Make it Perfect for organising the Auctions. I'm going to join in.

The Auctions run from now until 24th January and there are many blogs undertaking this wonderful effort.

To those bloggers in any of the affected QLD towns, my thoughts are with you. I have friends and family in Bundaberg, Emerald and Brisbane, so am keeping an eye on things regulalry.

I hope you are all OK....T

11 January 2011

It's got to be an omen....

Yesterday was the 1 year blogaversary of 'designed to a T', AND I received my very first blog award!

Thank you Jane at 'Me n My Monkeys'.

Being my first award I would like to do it justice, so the rules to follow are:

Link it back to whoever awarded it to you
List 7 things about yourself
Selcct 10 other bloggers you'd like to reward with the same award
and let them know

7 things about me, here they are:

I'm very patriotic
I cry in sad movies, really cry - so going to one at the cinema...not good
I procrastinate
My secret passion is lots of colour and florals
Come July every year, I HAVE to watch 'le Tour de France'
Now that I'm (sooo) much older, I know what I should've studied at school and
after all these years I think I know what I really want to do

Now to the bloggers I would like to reward, there are so many. I enjoy reading quite a lot of them.

I have to start with some of the ones I read regulalry and have given me inspiration:

Janette at My Sweet Prints
Michelle at Paper Tree Studio
Julie at Olive and Joy
Tina at Rubie's Place

Then there are others who entertain me:

Sophie at Her Heart My Hands
Anita at Fun and VJs
Emma at Down to Girth and on Twitter
Jennie at Posie Patchwork

And the ones that I just like:

Karen at Eco Inspired
Letitia at The White Shed

There are just sooo many more. You all give so much of yourselves.

A truly big thank you from me.

THANK YOU ALL

I will be having a Giveaway to celebrate my year of blogging, but not just yet, as there are so many people suffering in the wake of the QLD floods, including my family and friends.

Toni over at Make it Perfect is organising a Flood Appeal Auction. Please do what you can. I will be joining in.

08 January 2011

11 for '11

A little more focus this year...

I've so many ideas floating around in my head, I just don't know where to start...so maybe a list is in order!

Here it is. My 11 for '11, and in line with a baker's dozen (you know buy 12 get 13), I'm actually thinking 12 is a better number. One a month, in no particular order.