Link Love: Cute Projects and a Lesson in Life

Illness has struck our house just in time for a four day weekend of togetherness. It’s ridiculous, the Little Man and I are walking bundles of coughing, sneezing and moaning about being sick. The timing couldn’t be worse but at least we’re at home so we can spend the days in our pyjamas watching television and playing lego. I swear, sometimes life is just a comedy of errors and if you don’t laugh you’ll go insane. Here’s a great example… at the end of January we had a freak hail storm pass through and cause significant damage to both of our cars. My car wasn’t even a year old at the time.

It’s ok, I rolled with the punches and figured it could have been worse and while the thought of paying $600 per car in insurance excess to get it fixed didn’t thrill me I consider myself ultra lucky to have insurance and so consoled myself with that. Then at the beginning of March I was at a local quilt store teaching a class only to return to my car at the end of the class and find that someone had side swiped my car and taken the paint off the rear panel. Luckily the person who’d done it had left their details and so they are required to pay the excess. Phew!

You’d think it would be enough to stop there, but no – there’s more…

The day I found out that the carpark accident was going to be covered by the other party and my no claim bonus would be fine I rushed home to tell HUBBY. We did a mini celebration and then got down to talking about what to do for dinner. HUBBY had to go to Woolworths to get dinner supplies so he took my car (as his was at the panel beater being fixed for the hail damage). When he got out to my car he found it partially blocked by our ever considerate neighbours who were moving out (yay!). Instead of asking them to move a car they were clearly loading things into HUBBY decided he’d just go around it. (You see where this is heading…)

He cleared their car, but in the process used my side mirror to take out our letterbox and then have the metal post from the letter box put a long slice through our rear passenger door. He didn’t even know he’d done it until I came out to get the groceries when he got home. My poor poor car. Our poor poor bank balance. In just under a month we’ll have paid 3 lots of excess to have our cars repaired. (That’s over 90m of fabric!) It’s enough to make you cry… and I did. But what you going to do? You can either rally and rage at the world or you can just accept that you can’t change it, tighten your belts, pull up your big girl pants and get on with life.

2016 is proving to be a year of challenges and lessons and it’s only March! Makes you wonder what the rest of the year will have in store for us! I hope your Monday is quiet and boring! *wink*

FUN THINGS TO CLICK ON

I’m a sucker for a great black and white quilt and this one from Dear Stella is no exception. Click here to get the pattern.
I love this little heart hexagon DIY magnet from Mollie at Wild Olive. Click here to get the tutorial.
It’s great projects like this that make me wish for more free time and patience. I love this hoop of wildflowers by Sedef of Down Grapevine Lane. Click here for the tutorial.
I love this heart backpack from Sew Much Ado. I wonder if I could upsize it to make one in my size… Click here for the free pattern.
How cute are these thread spool pincushions from The Family Hearth. Click here for tutorial.
Loving this little case to store your ear buds (or coins, or love letters) in from The Polka Dot Chair. Click here for the free pattern.

COMMUNITY CORK BOARD

I met Alyce from Kit and Clowder at Spotlight’s National Craft Month Event in Melbourne last week and she is amazing! She teaches online colouring in classes for those looking to take their skills from just staying in the lines to making works of art. Check out her work and find out more about the classes by clicking here.
Canberra Quilters Inc. are celebrating their 40th Anniversary in 2016 and to mark the occasion they’re holding a “Celebrate 40 Challenge”. It’s open to Australian and New Zealand Residents, with 40 quilts (quilts must be 40cm x 100cm) being selected to hang at the 2016 Annual Member’s Exhibition. (You don’t have to be a member to enter!) It’s a great challenge and you can find out more or enter by clicking here.

Want something included on the Community Cork Board, then why not drop me an email and if it’s applicable to the GnomeAngel community I’ll share it. It can be anything from a local fate, a charity raffle, a class you’re teaching, a pattern you’ve released, a sew-a-long you’re involved in to a community event that’s happening. Be sure to send me as much detail as you can and links to any applicable websites. I do not have any affiliation with the information provide, it is done so as a community service only. Click here to email me.

SPONSOR MESSAGES

Fat Quarter Shop have released their new monthly subscription service: Sew Sampler. It looks amazing and I love that unlike other subscriptions this one comes with all the information you need to make a quilt. Each month contains a quilt block recipe card that you can use to make a full 12 block quilt. Genius! You can find out more by clicking here.
Don’t forget there’s still time to win £200 worth of product from Sizzix just by clicking this link and going on an Easter Egg hunt. Good luck!
Craftsy is saying a sweet farewell to National Craft Month by offering you the chance to get any online class for $19.99! Check out all the classes on sale before the offer ends on Monday (at Midnight). Click here to shop their classes.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a very small commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link, in fact in some cases I can offer you a better price via an affiliate link. I will not recommend something that I do not use myself. These commissions help me keep being able to provide you with great content for free. Thank you, in advance for your support!