Competition- Mother's Day, Meet My Mum.

This post was sponsored by Nuffnang and Mag Shop
For more information on sponsored posts please click here.

Mother’s Day is coming soon, here in Aus it’s on the 8th of May this year so only a few weeks left to think of things to get. I’m quite a bad daughter, I usually forget about these kinds of things. I don’t really celebrate holidays and Mother’s Day changes every year so it’s hard to remember!!

This is my Mum by the way… She didn’t like the photos I took of her so I’ve made and artistic representation of her for this post.

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She’s been on the blog a few times but now she’s also come to live with us for a little while. I feel a little sorry for her, we haven’t lived together since I was 17 and back then she didn’t have to deal with all of my blogging related quirks. Back then it was my artwork littering the entire house and she put up with tripping over paint pots and picking up random comic book layout pages from the floor… Now she comes home from work to find the entire floor covered in nail polish swatches James is photographing for me and the bathroom overrun with make up and lighting umbrellas while I shoot a video and bits of lace or craft supplies everywhere. Don’t even get me started with the diamantes… It is impossible for James to make it through a week in our house without having to pick diamantes out of his feet. At one point when I was doing a lot of deco commissions I used to call James Diamond Foot Jimmy XDSo yes… Back on point, I’m not the easiest person to live with so she probably deserves something better than I can afford for Mother’s Day.

Our conversations are usually fairly sarcastic and nonsensical,  and the one about Mother’s Day went something along the lines of this…

mum1mum2mum3mum4mum5

mum6mum7mum8mum9mum10mum11mum12mum13mum14mum15mum17mum19mum18mum20mum1mum21

Of course, after this conversation Nuffnang let me know about the new competition from Magshop!!

Here’s the information:

Currently Magshop are having a big sale on selected titles just for Mother’s Day and if you purchase a subscription on the selected titles you go into the draw to win a trip to Italy. There are lots of different titles to choose from and a magazine subscription is the perfect gift for your mother – they are relatively cheap and will last the whole year.

Besides having discounts on selected titles, people will have a chance to win a unforgettable trip to Italy.Now that would probably be a good Mother’s Day present!

Subscribe now to Madison Magazine or to one of the fashion magazines and you could win a trip of a lifetime to Italy. Lots of others are on sale so there is a magazine that matches everyone’s tastes.

Much better than tech support lessons anyway haha! So what are you guys doing for the holiday, do you all have special traditions?

Rose Cushion Cover Sewing Tutorial

You might remember when I visited the Melbourne flower show I saw a pretty rose pillow that I wanted to try and replicate? Well it was super easy!

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This is the one I saw at the flower show:

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What you need:

  • Base fabric to make the pillow cover, I’m using pink cotton
  • Soft fabric to make the rose from, I used muslin but you could use silk or something of a similar texture
  • Sewing machine/overlocker or a lot of patience to hand stitch it all!
  • Button (optional)

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So first thing is to decide how big you want to make the cushion cover. Squares work best for these pillows.

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Cut out a square in the size you want plus a couple of cm on either side for seam allowance.

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Now cut out the back, you will need 2 rectangles that overlap around 10cm in the middle. This is how we will get the pillow in and out of the case! You can see below the square is on the bottom with two rectangles over the top showing how they overlap in the middle.

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Now let’s cut out the pieces of the rose!

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Cut strips of muslin around 15cm wide. I needed 4 to cover my case but you will need more/less depending on the size you’re making. Cut one of the strips to a point on one end, this will be the middle of the rose. Muslin works really well for this because even when the edges fray they look really delicate and pretty.

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Basically to form the rose we’ll put the strips in a big spiral, this is how it looks roughly laid out…

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I personally hate pins while I’m sewing but I know that a lot of people are more comfortable using them so I’ll show where to put them in this tutorial. To start the rose, pin the pointy end of first strip of muslin to the middle of the square .

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Following a tight spiral keep pinning until you reach the end.  Don’t pin the next strip yet because having that many ruffles in one place makes it too hard to sew. The tighter you make the spiral, the more ruffly the petals will be in the end.

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Take it to your sewing machine and starting at the centre sew directly down the center of the muslin strip following the spiral. If you want, while you sew you can pleat the muslin a little bit to make the petals more ruffly or stretch the muslin to make them stand straight up. I made mine point up in the middle then ruffly on the outside 😀

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This is what mine looked like after the first strip was sewn on. The dotted line below is where you should be stitching, see how it folds in half and forms the petals?

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Over lap the next strip a bit with the first and then keep sewing following the spiral.

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After the second one’s finished…

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When I added the next one I started pleating the muslin as I sewed to make the petals more ruffly.

When you reach the end of the last strip stitch it as close to the last row as you can so the end looks clean.

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This is the finished rose:

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On the back you should be able to see a clear spiral of stitches…

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Yay! Now we just need to turn it into a pillow case!

Overlock one of the long edges on each of the rectangle pieces. The overlocked edges (in the middle below) will form the hole to get the pillow in and out of so they need to be finished well.

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Fold them over and pin in place…

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So lay the rose square out face up.

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Fold all of the petals of the rose in so they don’t accidentally get sewn into the sides. Pin in place.

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Put the first rectangle over the top of the rose with the folded edge facing up. Pin in place like this:

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Add the other rectangle to the other side and make sure the two rectangles overlap a decent amount in the middle. Pin!

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Overlock around the outside of the square! Remove the pins and that’s pretty much it ^_^ Trim loose threads and turn it inside out.

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On the back you can see that the ends are all folded under and out of the way. If you feel the need, you can add a button there on the back or velcro to give it an extra closure.

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And the front 😀

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Then all you need to do is stick a pillow inside! The whole project took me maybe 30min to do. So you could realistically make a whole bunch of matching ones in an afternoon.

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I think mine is pretty close to the original so I’m happy! What do you guys think?

Dolce by MOR Collection Review- Pomegranate

After reading how much I loved their last gift bag, MOR was lovely enough to send me another package with their new Dolce by MOR collection for Target. It comes in 3 flavors: Honey, Sorbet and Pomegranate.

I recieved the Pomegranate flavor which is described as having “a heart of Violet and Jasmine, a burst of tangy Pomegranate blends with sweet Rasberry and Black Currant coulis to top a Sweet Musk vase.”

This whole collection had a really interesting smell because while all of the items had the same ingredients the mediums they are contained in (eg. hand cream or body wash) made different elements of the smell come to the forefront. That said I think I am absolutely terrible at describing scents so it’s probably best if you all go and smell for yourselves!

As usual the packaging was absolutely beautiful. This being their cheaper range for Target I was expecting the quality to be a bit lower but I was pleasantly surprised. It all looks adorable and reasonably sturdy 😀

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Candle- $15Firstly I love that the candle comes in a tin with a lid because after the candle has been used up, I have every intention of keeping the tin and reusing it again for a cute storage container. As I said in my last MOR review, having nice packaging is such a big plus for a company because if it’s nice enough, people like me will actually keep it and advertise the product long after it’s run out. The biggest point of smell in the candle is the pomegranate. When lit it provides a deliciously sweet smell but not to the point of overpowering a room. I can comfortably burn it for a few hours without wanting to open a window. It’s subtle but I still found it enough to drown out the delicious smells of next doors curry dinner!! Not sure what else I can say, it certainly burns well and doesn’t let off smoke. I would buy again especially with the tin as a nice bonus. DO WANT!VioletLeBeauxDSC_0415_1312

Hand Cream- $10

The hand cream has a really thick texture and while you don’t need much to cover your hands, it feels like it doesn’t soak in completely. I found that if I used just a little too much it could be hard to actually rub it all in. Even an hour later when I went to wash my hands they turned that slightly slimy texture. I loved the smell though. The strongest smell in this one was the black currant and jasmine. A big plus I give it, is that while it smells nice and strong coming out from the bottle, after rubbing in the smell is just subtle and doesn’t linger for an annoying length of time. I’ve had hand creams before where I needed to wash them off because the smell just lingered and gave me a headache after a while and this wasn’t one of them. Overall I think the size is appropriate for the price and considering how rich it is, the tube will probably last months! TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!

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Body Wash- $15

The body wash comes in a nicely sized pump bottle which matches the lotion perfectly. It suggests either use in the shower or as a hand wash, I chose shower but I love products which can do double duty. The smell straight out of the bottle is mostly pomegranate but once water hits and you start rubbing in it turns to black currant, reminds me a ridiculous amount of black currant Soothers, you know the purple ones? The biggest problem I have with this is that the pump itself puts out a small amount of product, not so bad if it wasn’t quite thick and therefore hard work to pump in the first place. It would be a fine amount if you were using it as a hand wash, but should be more for body wash. It lathers well, cleans pretty well and leaves a hint of scent behind. Oh my god the smell is amazing, it could turn me completely purple and I would still buy it for the smell XD DO WANT!

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Body Lotion- $15

Same very pretty bottle as the body wash but in white. Love the graphics on the bottle, so pretty! Again the lotion is quite thick though and the pump only puts out a tiny bit at a time so it can be tiring to try to get enough out of the bottle. It’s a nice texture and easy to rub in and absorbs well. Feels moisturizing but obviously being a lotion rather than moisturizer it’s not a substitute for a proper skin care routine. The smell lingers longer than the hand lotion and you don’t need much to go a long way. You can really smell the violets in this one, once rubbed in the pomegranate and black currant remain. Very yummy and I found myself sniffing for hours afterwards. This I would definitely buy again. DO WANT.

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I haven’t tried the soap that was sent because I much prefer body wash to bar soap so I can’t really comment on it other than to say the packaging was really cute and it smelled as lovely in the box as everything else in the collection. If and when I do I will update this review.

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Overall I love this collection. The prices are decent at $10-15 per item and being stocked at Target means it’s very easily available. While there is some room for improvement in the formulas and packaging, I would definitely put any other items with this fragrance onto my wish list. It’s sweet, refreshing but not too overpowering or sticky. DO WANT.

 

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