Mama's Rolling Pin

I should tell you about the acrylic paints that I use. It's none of those fancy brands, that's for sure. That's because I have never had the chance to go for proper classes so I figured I better not waste on expensive paints and just went for some unnamed brand. The colours are pretty funny though (or mind boggling, rather!), cause "burnt umber" is really dark brown and "vermillion" looks orange.. you get what I mean.. so it is pretty challenging to mix them up to get exactly the colours I have in mind.

You can imagine how ecstatic I was when, whilst mixing cluelessly, this sweet green came up to coordinate perfectly with the colours on the napkin I intended to use :o).

My mum better keep her eyes on her rolling pin or it might get decoupaged! heee..

By the way, I have some pretty napkins which I have purchased in a pack for my projects, so I have some extras, I'll be putting them up for sale so if you're interested, please check back soon ! :o)

Petals & Berries

Berries on Trivet

I found some wooden trivets being sold pretty cheap. Just what I needed to make some "trial-and-error" projects. Was hoping to skip the "error" part, but hey, no gain without pain :o). I painted the trivet white at first and decoupaged some pink roses on it. Apparently the paint was not fully dry yet (found that out the hard way!), and I accidently tore the napkin whilst applying the modge podge :o( So.. back to square one..

I then cleaned everything up and repainted the trivet a very soft pink and liked it much better. Added some berries, did not want to write anything on it but thought it needed something else. So I added the ribbon and daisies for a country feel.. :o)

Now where shall I hang it? :o)

Petals & Berries

Simple & Sweet Aprons

This is a very simple project and perfect for someone pressed for time (that would be me!). You only need some tea towels, plain or patterned, depends on what you prefer. I found some pretty ones on sale..

this one has a couple of embroidered cakes on cake-stands..

and these are just plain/striped ones.. bought it cause I love the colour..

Next, we need some pretty ribbons to match the colours/patterns on the tea-towels.

Flowers, cupcakes, polka-dots, stripes.. whatever you may fancy..

Cut it to fit.. depends whether you prefer it long or short. Then, sew on a length of ribbon at the top (to tie around the waist) and use some to decorate the apron too if you like..

And the result..

For the pink and brown cakes tea-towel, I chose a brown with pink polka-dot ribbon..

I used some cupcakes printed ribbon for this one and I also used some felt cupcakes from this project and sewed it on (I should thank my cousin for agreeing to pose for the photos :o)).

This last one, instead of cutting it down to size, I folded it up and sewed three front pockets. This would be perfect to carry your tools for crafting/gardening/cleaning, etc.

Simple and sweet, isn't it? (and useful too!)

You just need to fold it up, put in a pretty gift bag and it would be ready for gift giving. A handmade gift from the heart!

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Kitchen Towels

A couple of weeks back I received orders for good quality hand towels for the kitchen. They specifically requested for thick fluffy towels. I can understand their request. Those in the market are mostly small, pretty thin and comes apart in a couple of washings. It's true when they say the quality of the stuff sold now are never the same as in the olden days. I am happy to oblige to their request. The pleasure's all mine :o) When it comes to towels, the words "luxury" and "pampered" comes to my mind, so no skimping allowed! :o) Here comes..

pretty..

fluffy and extra thick..

extra long and extra large..

kitchen towels.. your hands deserve it! :o)

Enjoy!

Petals & Berries

More Fluffy Towels

As promised, here are the other orders that I've completed. One is in green..

.. and the other one is in peach..

..all tied up and ready to go!


I also earlier received an order for a cupcakes pink bath towel for a sweet little baby girl and a cupcakes baby wipes case to go with it (these are the photos that just would NOT load earlier!).



Although I have more orders coming in, I'm so glad that I've completed most of the orders that were pending. My sincere apologies for the delay. I'm happy when my customers are happy! Thank you and enjoy!

Petals & Berries

Pretty Fluffy Towels

It's been quite some time, huh? Where did January go?? Already more than half the month has gone by. Our whole family, my husband, both my kids and I (even my helper!) were down with a bad cold and cough, one after another. Baaaaddd bug. No one was spared. But, Alhamdulillah, we have all recovered and the kids are bouncing of the walls again :o) (did they ever stop? naahhh, just slowed down a tiny bit..). Enough about us, back to crafting :o).

Quite a few orders for towels came in this month, amongst others. This time around the requests came in for sets which contains a bath towel, a hand towel and a face towel. I love fluffy towels that feels good to the touch so rest assured that only those kind of towels were used to fulfil the orders.

I was told this pink set is going out as a birthday present for a good friend..

All nicely tied up and ready to be delivered. To the recipient, Happy Birthday! Hope you enjoy the gift as much as I enjoyed making them!

Another order is for a purple set. Somehow the pictures came out more blue than purple, I wonder why.. the lighting perhaps?

Just needs to be tied up and it would be ready to go. Wouldn't these towels look beautiful hanging in your bathroom? or laid out on the bed in your guest room? :o)

And lastly, this towel set in baby pink are for a sweet little girl.. (aaaaarrrrrggghhhh.. blogger is up to its nasty tricks again! I've tried uploading the photos 2,451 times tonight and it failed, failed, failed! Next time perhaps, as it's getting really late and I need to get to bed soon :o))

And before I forget (sorry for the delay), the highest bidder of the Spice Jars is Miss M, a friend I got to know through my blog. I respect her request to not reveal her name and the winning bid as she intends to give it as a present to her aunt (how sweet!). Anyway, thank you!

I have more orders that I'm currently working on so please stay tuned! Nighty night..

Petals & Berries

Spice Jars

Guess what I also found at the same place where I found the earlier porcelain jars? These really pretty mini jars that would be perfect to put your spices in (unfortunately, these were not on clearance :o( ). Asian spices rarely come in nice pretty bottles unlike their western counterpart so these would be perfect to fill in those cumin, cardamoms, star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, etc.

And me being me, plain white jars just will not do! :o) So out came the decals again. And the result..

See those tiny roses right on top? It took a whole lot of patience to apply those as it's a curved surface and took quite a bit of strategic cuts to make it look presentable. And it doesn't help when you have a toddler hanging on to your legs asking "whatchoo doin, mama?" every two seconds whilst you are applying them :o) (patience, patience).

Don't they look much better now?

Now that I have a complete set, it made a happy start to the new year :o) (aren't I easy to please? hehe) . I've been asked by quite a few colleagues and friends on whether I'm willing to sell these. Unfortunately, I'm running out of decals (and those came all the way from the US). However, with what I have left I can just about make one other set of 5 spice jars to sell. Each jar measures 2 inches in diameter and is about 4 inches high. To be fair, this is what I'll do: E-mail me at petalsandberries@yahoo.com, state your offer (don't forget to leave your name and contact deatils!), price starts at RM29.90 for a set of 5 jars (trust me, this is below cost price :o)) [excluding postage] and the highest offer wins! And since I have a grand total of maybe.. ehem.. 2 readers of my blog, you would have a very good chance :o). Offers close on midnight, 9 January 2009 and the winner will be announced on 10 January 2009. Oh yes, I'll be adding a little rose porcelain spoon to the set as a bonus!

Salam Maal Hijrah and Happy New Year

from my family to yours!

May this year bring peace, happiness and good health.

Amin..

Petals & Berries

Rose Porcelain Jars

Alhamdulillah, I'm having a wonderful weekend :o). My husband is on his way home after being away for a week (missed you :o)) and I managed to finish another craft project today. Hooray!!:o)

Found these on clearance at a local rejects store for RM5 each. It was a steal! White porcelain jars just waiting to be decorated. Although it was all dusty, dirty and stained when I saw it, I knew it had potential :o).

I spent quite some time working off the glue from the tape and all the stains and dirt and 5 hours later (is my nose getting longer? well, it FELT like 5 hours!) tadaaa..

.. all nice and clean. It was practically gleaming :o).

I had some rose decals that I bought online earlier in the year which I have not gotten around to using so I thought this would be the perfect project for it. I cut up some of the decals and followed the instructions on how to apply it. And finished it with a layer of varnish. Voila!

All done. Don't you just love the cabbage roses?

These would look wonderful in the kitchen. My asam, garam and serbuk kunyit would be so honoured! hehe.. It can also be used to fill in tea, coffee and sugar. Jars like these are so useful, I'm so glad I found them. The decals are about RM1.50-2.00 each. So, calculating it roughly, it all came to only about RM10 per jar. How's that for a good bargain?

Petals & Berries