The Janelle Wind Collection

Stitch a little Christmas...

A few weekends ago the Australian Quilt Market was held in Melbourne and sadly I couldn't be there this year, BUT my samples were. I am SO grateful to the wonderful Creative Abundance team for all that they did to have my samples there and to share them with my customers. A very BIG thank you to my lovely friend Natalie Ross who did a fantastic job of setting up my section of the booth and for primping my samples throughout the weekend for me too. Here is my stand...

And a close up of some of my samples...

(photo credit - Natalie Ross. Thanks Natalie xx)

If you look closely at the first photo, you will see that I have a NEW design in there. I am thrilled to finally be able to share this with you. It is called 'Stitch a little Christmas'...

'Stitch a little Christmas' is a 2 part pattern, made up of my Christmas Bell Bag and a smaller Gift bag. I designed the Bell bag to be hung in your home and Christmas time, not only as a decoration but also somewhere to pop some sweet treats for your family and friends.

And the smaller gift bag is designed as a special way to 'wrap' smaller gifts for family and friends. I can even see these sitting on place settings at your Christmas table, with special gifts inside for each family member - a great replacement for the bon bon.

The pattern is already on its way to my lovely distributors, Creative Abundance so will be available VERY soon. If you are a shop that is keen to stock this pattern, I am sure they would be happy to take pre orders too.

SO here is my 'Stitch a little Christmas' pattern. Just in time for Christmas...

AND because I like to show you my patterns made in other colours, here is a group shot of some of my beautiful Tuesday girls - we enjoyed a day of stitching together where they each made their own version of the Christmas Bell Bag...

As you can see, this bag can be made in other colours and used for non Christmas themes too. Sue (on the left of the shot) made two bags for her Granddaughters and made them in colours to match their bedrooms. They are going to hang them in their rooms with their hair accesories in them.

I am thrilled to finally share this pattern with you, as it is something I have been working on for quite a while. I hope you would like to 'Stitch a little Christmas' too. x Janelle

December Daily...

Last year I took part in December Daily, something that Ali Edwards makes each year for her family. You can read all about her album here. Basically, before December, Ali suggests that we make the foundations of an album, ready to record daily the things we do each day in the 25 days leading up to Christmas. For me, it really helped make our Christmas even more special. It made me more aware of the things we did as a family each day. I was thrilled to continue with the challenge and complete my album (well almost, I still have to complete Christmas day). You can read about my 2008 album here, here, here, and here... (I will share links to the last few days as soon as I complete and take photos of them).

This year I have decided to participate again and have been busily putting my album together for 2009. I have chosen to use papers and embelishments that I love, rather than sticking just with the 'Christmas' theme. I wanted this album to also be a record of the things that I loved in 2009. I thought I would share a little of my album with you now and then throughtout December I will share my completed pages with you.

Here is the cover. I made this myself out of chipboard, then covered it. The aqua fabric was from Kim's retreat, so had to include that too!

And here is a side view, showing the pages I have started preparing...

For those of you not familiar with this but who might like to participate, preparing the album before December is one way to make this achieveable, then each day all that is needed is to add a photo, journaling and any embelishments you might like. I will most likely work on mine every few days and complete a few pages at once, so long as I take a photo each day I will be set. So here are a few of my prepared pages, ready for photos and journaling...

I know some of you took part in the Dec Daily challenge last year and created your own 25 days albums. I would love some company this year and can tell you now that it is SO worthwhile, as it is wonderful to look back on in years to come and remember the details of your December and Christmas. So who's in? Would you like to join me? If so, leave your details in the comments section and I will set up a 2009 Flickr group where we can chat and share photos of our albums. I really hope you will join me for the fun!

x Janelle

@home retreat (last day)

So where were we?

Saturday night was such fun that we didn't want it to end, and ended up heading to bed much later than we planned - hence we were a little tired in the morning but still excited about the class we had planned.

After another yummy breakfast, we headed into the classroom where we were judging the challenge layouts. I was excited to be a sponsor for the challenge called 'Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'. For this challenge I had donated some patterns as well as a journal cover especially made for this event - it was in the colours of the weekend, aqua and lime green.

I was very excited to see so many fantastic layouts entered into my challenge (thank you girls). The gorgeous Libby won the main prize, and here she is holding her layout, name badge (that was also amazing) and her prizes, I think she was happy LOL.

There were so many other great challenges and prizes from the sponsors - it was really tough to choose the winners!

After a few more prizes were given out, we dove into our big group class - this was a tag team class  by all 5 of us tutors. As the class went along, we each moved around the room and taught our pages of the mini album to a table at a time. It was a BUSY class but I am sure the girls loved what we had to share. I couldn't wait to get home and scrap my 'home' album too. Here is a page from my section of the class...

Before we knew it, the day was almost over. We quickly got together with as many girls as possible and took photos together. It was SO sad saying goodbye and it has been really hard finding the right words to say how much we really did LOVE the retreat and each of the girls that came to spend the weekend with us. Saying goodbye was the sadest part but we all felt full of friendship and creativity too.

We ST girls and Kim raced outside to grab a photo together with our aprons on too - I think we all looked a little tired by now, so not the best photo but we had a good laugh while taking it!

And here I am with some of the girls (in no particular order). I am sorry we ran out of time and I couldn't get a photo with everyone.

With beautiful Cherie Walsh...

With the lovely Christine Rumley...

With my dear friend Jen Hall...

With the wonderful and amazingly talented Kim Archer...

With the gorgeous Leanne Love... Leanne totally spoils my kiddies all the time, and it was wonderful for us all to finally meet her IRL too. Thanks Leanne for being so lovely to our family xx

Sadly I didn't get a photo with Libby-licious - she is one stylish girl with an amazing sense of style. I have a serious crush on her bag too - so am on the hunt for one for me (thanks for the laughs Libby)

With this gorgeous little one, Lisa Pate...

With my beautiful, amazing and supportive friend Mardi, I love her to bits xxx

With the hilarious Mel, thanks for being a wonderful roomie and for keeping me laughing ALL the time...

With my inspirational new friend Samantha Pearce who has an AMAZINGLY positive attitude and proved to us all that the laws of attraction really do work with a positive outlook on life. Congratulations on all of your prize wins Samantha x

With the gorgeous Sheree Forcier...

And last but definitely NOT least, with the stunning Yvette, who is just AMAZING. I am SO glad I got to finally meet you Yvette...

Goodness, how could I miss the beautiful, gentle Moi. It was SUCH a pleasure meeting Moi after knowing her online for years too. Here I am with Moi...

Thank you to EACH and every girl who spent the weekend with me at the retreat, it was a pleasure and an honour to get to know each and every one of you. I am SO sorry I wasn't able to get a photo with each of you, hopefully next time xx 

So that brings me to the end of the retreat - it all ended too quickly, without enough hugs but we really did have a wonderful wonderful time. A HUGE thank you to Kim for EVERYTHING, your amazing talent and details of every aspect of the weekend was amazing and we will treasure the memories from this weekend for years to come.

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I am putting the finishing touches on a brand new design, so will be back VERY soon to share that with you too. It is called 'Stitch a little Christmas'...

@home retreat (part two)

OK so where was I - Let's pick up again on Saturday morning...

My roomie and I (Mel) woke earlier than we wanted but were super excited with what the day had in store for us. Here is our beautiful room.

And here I am taking photos of the room (on Friday). I read a blog post before I left that suggested you take photos of yourself in a mirror while on holidays so that you don't miss out on being in the shots - so I took their advice and here I am.

We headed off for another delicious BIG breakfast before beginning our day. At 8.30 am we started with Mardi's class in the classroom - those girls not doing some of the classes had the scrapping room to themselves for the day, so there was LOTS to do. I assisted in Mardi's class and had a wonderful time getting to know each of the girls as they scrapped Mardi's AMAZING layouts.

Here is Mardi with her class. all holding up one or more of the layouts they completed in the class.

I was lucky enough to purchase a kit too so upon returning home, I sat happily and scrapped three layouts with the kit. Thank you Mardi for your generous kit and gorgeous samples too.

After Mardi's class and a yummy morning tea of pastries and a cuppa, we dove into Kim's class. Her class was a beautiful mini book with lots of texture and mixed media. It is GORGEOUS and I so wished I could have made it too. Sadly we didn't get a group photo as we had to head off to lunch after Kim's class but I did manage to snap some shots of Kim teaching - here she is.

After a delicious lunch it was my turn. Now I had taught one or two local small groups some scrapbooking but this was my very first large group taught at a retreat (scrapping that is), so I admit I was quite nervous. I didn't need to be though because the girls were wonderful. I had them stitching, playing with felt and I think they all had a great time. Here I am teaching.

And here is our group shot, all the girls holding up their mini albums that they made with me. Thank you SO much girls for being such a WONDERFUL class.

Here is a little sneak peek of my project. 

After my class we had a 3 hour break, to rest and grab some dinner. I took a little time out and had a few quiet minutes in my room to recharge my batteries. Then it was time to head back to the main scrapping room ready for the Saturday night PARTY!

Kim and her family had been busy decorating the room - and it looked FANTASTIC! Kim had even handmade an aqua polka dot party hat for each of us too.

 

During the evening the girls did some make and takes, and took time to complete challenges and class samples. Here is a table of gorgeous girls having a fun time!

Kim had made a pass the parcel for each table as well, and we laughed so hard we could hardly breathe as well played together. We ST girls even had one for our table with Capri and Jamison, it was SUCH fun. There were VERY generous gifts donated for each table too. SO many gifts were given out throughout the whole weekend. It was very exciting to see whose name would be pulled out for each prize.

 

We really did have a wonderful night ending in LOTS of belly laughing till our sides hurt. It was wonderful and just what we all needed. Here we are with Kim, wearing our party hats and enjoying our night together.

 

Back soon to share all about the last day of the retreat...

x Janelle

The rundown on the @home|away retreat (part one)

 As mentioned in my previous post, I had the most WONDERFUL time at the @home|away retreat last weekend. I have actually been a little down this week, missing all of my friends and the wonderful girls that attended too. So today, I have been reliving the retreat by editing photos ready to share with you. So grab a cuppa and get ready for photo overload!! I can't wait to share it all with you...

Thursday morning I awake and my first thought was 'it's today!'. I was SO very excited for so many reasons. The retreat had finally arrived but I was also getting to meet Yvette and Mel for the first time AND have Mardi and the girls visit me at my house. Something I have been wishing for for a long time.

After doing my final packing, I began to get nervous, so I decided to bake some afternoon tea for the girls. I made a batch of chelsea buns and paced a little more. The time eventually arrived and the girls were here - in my home! I had to pinch myself to believe it was real. While the girls were here, we made a little tag team card for Kim (secret squirrel of course) and headed into Kim's house.

I did the quick 'tour guide' of my town and area as we drove together to Kim's house (thanks Yvette for your great driving) - and we were soon at Kim's where there were more hugs and we were on our way. Kim and I travelled together and chatted non stop - we were SO very excited.

We arrived at the BEAUTIFUL resort, checked in and found our room. It was BEAUTIFUL and huge. Just like a 3 bedroom town house with our own plunge pool. We were all so excited that we forgot to take some before shots of our rooms. Here were are together after dinner, chatting, laughing and doing some last minute preparations.

It was during our Thursday night together that Kim presented us each with a beautifully wrapped gift. I did actually know what was in these gifts as I had made part of them, but we all excitedly opening them together. Inside was an individual apron that I had made for each of us in the colours of the weekend, as well as a notebook magazine from Kim. Kim also spoiled me with a little mini kit as well as a thank you. Everything was gorgeous!

Here I am modelling Kim's apron at home...

 

Our rooms were so beautiful and the beds so comfy. So after a BIG day of travelling for the girls, we all headed to bed, super excited about the weekend to come. We were up bright and early Friday, ready to check into our new rooms for the remainder of the weekend. Here I am with my first roomie, Mardi. It was wonderful to get to have a sleepover with Mardi before the retreat began.

After a yummy BIG breakfast, our day began. Kim had worked tirelessly leading up to the retreat, so it was our job to help put all of her special touches together for the registrants. We worked together to get the scrapping room all ready. There was just SO much attention to detail, from the name tags - with a small beach bag each containing a hand painted 'lovely lady' painted by Kim and a scratchie to win a lucky dip prize too, to the table centre pieces.

 

Kim's beautiful friend Leesa came to put the final touches on the table centre pieces. They were all SO beautiful.

Each table centrepiece was slightly different - but equally as gorgeous.

While Leesa was tweaking the table centres, Mel was busily setting up a display of some of our layout samples and mini albums. She did a great job.

Yvette, Mardi and I put the finishing touches together for the gift bags and Friday night class kits on each persons place at the tables. Everything was coming together so beautifully.

  

Kim also had the wonderful idea to have a Market Stall where we each handmade items to have their for sale for the girls attending the retreat. Each of the ST girls and Kim worked so hard on handmaking such beautiful things. Sadly I didn't get to make things for sale however I was proud that some of my patterns could be part of the market stall. Kim's son Jamison and Mum Peggy did a wonderful job manning the stall on Friday night. It was a HUGE success.

And by the afternoon, the room was ready! It looked WONDERFUL and we were all SO very excited to begin welcoming the girls as they arrived.

5pm arrived and we excited waiting for the attendees to start arriving to register. It was like greeting old friends as so many have been online friends for years and it was wonderful to meet so many new friends too. Here were are waiting to enter the scrapping room - I look like I might have been doing a little jig - I was VERY excited!

After dinner, our weekend kicked off with a combined class run by Kim herself. I must confess that the other ST girls and I LOVED the layout so much that we secretly wished we were scrapping too, however we were really thrilled to assist in Kim's class, and get to know everyone just a little more too. Lots of fun, chatting and excitement filled the air.

During the night we also ran some make and takes too. Here is the little mini tag book that I taught alongside Mardi who taught the most GORGEOUS version too.

The girls scrapped happily till around midnight when we all headed back to our rooms for a chat (or two) and some much needed sleep before our big Saturday of classes and scrapping arrived. I for one, went to bed with a happy heart - I had a WONDERFUL day and couldn't wait until tomorrow.

Edited to add: I forgot to include a photo of the supper that we shared, it was delicious!! Beautiful mini muffins made by Kim and her family, I made mini choc chip cookies and Kim Wood made cup cakes with beautiful @home cup cake wrappers - just beautiful. Too nice to eat, so lovely to look at LOL.

Back soon with part two...

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On an unrelated note: Today the Australasian Quilt Market (trade show) started down in Melbourne. Sadly this year I had to decide not to attend due to family reasons, so have been feeling quite sad today that I am missing all of the fun. I just wanted to wish all of the Creative Abundance team the ABSOLUTE best for today and the remainder of AQM, I SO wish I could have been there too. And to any of my wonderful customers that I may have missed seeing this weekend, I look forward to seeing you there next year!

x Janelle

I'm back - after an AMAZING weekend...

Yes, I am back. I am recharged, refreshed and re-energised. I had the MOST AMAZING weekend with these wonderful, inspriting, supportive, accepting, amazingly beautiful girls.

And all of these amazing, inspiring, beautiful women too.

There is SO much to tell and so much to share - we had such a wonderful time together that none of us wanted it to end. I will be back soon with a BIG post, telling you all about the Kim Archer @home|Away retreat, but for now I want to say a HUGE thank you to Kim, my beautiful support team girls and each person that attended the retreat. Thank you ALL for giving me such an amazing and wonderful weekend - I will remember this weekend forever... x Janelle

thinking, deciding, stressing, wishing, wondering.......

That was my status update on facebook VERY late last night. There is a lot of thinking, deciding, stressing, wishing and wondering going on in our lives at the moment. All of this is consuming my thoughts most of the time. With this in mind, I am going to take a little blog break for about a week.

And while I am here 'keeping it real', I thought I would share a photo with you that I took yesterday afternoon of my sewing room. I have been chained to this room for about 16 hours a day for the last few days working on something that I can't share until next year! I wish I could, so for now, I will share my mess. This photo pretty much sums up my mind at the moment too!!

Off to think and clean up my messy room - maybe the cleaning will bring some clarity to my mind too, who knows.

Back next week x Janelle

A very special weekend...

This past weekend, my family and I made a whirlwind trip (by car) to Queensland for my cousin Laura's wedding. Our weekend was made even more special because Emily had been asked by Laura to be their flower girl. To say she was excited was an understatement. She was thrilled...

So bright and early Friday morning we set sail for Stanthorpe in Queensland. It is about 3/4 of an hour past the QLD border, so it took us about 8-9 hours to get there. Although the trip in the car was cramped etc, we had a lovely time chatting, watching DVD's and singing Mamma Mia songs together too.

When we arrived we dove straight in to help. Setting up tables at the reception and doing lots of little jobs to help. At this stage I was also asked to be one of the main photographers for the wedding, a very daunting task but one I was happy to do my best at.

Saturday morning arrived and a very excited and nervous Emily went off to breakfast with the bride and bridesmaid, then off to the hairdressers for her very first time at having her hair done in such a special way.

Emily was VERY nervous so wasn't too keen on eating much breakfast, so I think she was relieved when I arrived to start taking photos - nothing like having Mum nearby.

Here is the back of Emily's hair - isn't it beautiful! She was SUCH a good girl and sat patiently for the 2 hours it took to do her hair. I couldn't have been more proud. After the tough year she has had, I think this special day was just what she needed.

And here she is with her hair all finished - looking beautiful and SO excited and happy. The tummy butterflies had started to settle down a little by now too I think.

While the bride was having the finishing touches added to her hair and veil, I headed back to the house to lend a helping hand and ready myself for taking more photos. The girls soon arrived back and we sprang into action getting everyone ready for the 2pm wedding.

Emily was so excited to have a little makeup applied too. She felt so very grown up.

After the girls were all dressed and ready to go, we headed outside for a few quick photos before heading to the Church. 

Laura had her best friend Mishele as her bridesmaid and her nephew Cooper as page boy. And can you see her gorgeous dog Millie in the photo, well she was the ring bearer. I think she matches perfectly!

We headed off to the Church and we were only fashionably late. Laura's father passed away when she was very young, so she asked my father if he would give her away, and he accepted with pride. I was proud too, to see my Dad walking her down the aisle.

It was a VERY hot spring day of over 30 degrees and being an outside wedding we were all quite hot. Laura and Andrew didn't notice the heat at all - it was very obvious to us all how much they love and adore each other. I took this shot after I took the photo of 'the kiss'. I love the look in Laura's eyes.

Being one of the main photographers, I spent the ceremony popping into lots of different places to capture as many of the moments as I could. And as often as possible I snapped shots of my gorgeous girl.

It was a beautiful and heartfelt ceremony where Laura and Andrew exchanged vows and promises and shone with pride as they became husband and wife.

After the ceremony we headed off to take some photos of the wedding party. I was relieved to have Laura's brother in law and Andrew's nephew taking photos as well. Together we took a LOT of photos. Here are a few favourites.

Laura's mother (my Aunty Dorothy) is an avid patchworker and very talented seamstress. She made Laura's dress, Emily's dress, her own outfit and handbag for the wedding. I think she did an absolutely amazing job. And I was SO very thrilled to capture this shot of Laura and her Mum (Aunty Dororthy) together. It is easy to see the special bond that they share.

After the ceremony we headed out of town to the reception that was held at a beautiful vineyard. It was late in the day and the lighting was spectacular. We quickly took as many photos as we could while the light was there - group shots, family shots. Lots of capturing of memories and laughing too. This is one of my favourites from the day.

I managed to get in a few photos myself - here I am with Laura.

And again with Laura and her sister Susan. I was mistaken for their sister a lot throughout the day, and I loved it! It is lovely to feel like you belong. There is nothing more special than family I think.

Jasper had a wonderful time at the wedding too - playing with his cousin Cooper. They were inseperable and needed NO encouragement to have their photo taken together either. I am so glad Jasper has a little boy cousin close in age to him too.

It was an absolute honour to be a part of and share Laura and Andrew's day. It was a magical day filled with love and family. We didn't want the day to end. However one little girl fell asleep in the car on the way home from the reception - it really was a BIG day.

Back soon with a few more photos from our trip home and a few other bits and pieces. Thanks for sharing this special day with me too. x Janelle

I know, I'm late...

I am late with announcing the winners of my last two giveaways!! I am so sorry. I have had such a busy week, that getting a chance to print out all the comments and choose the winners (with the help of the random number generator) hasn't happened until today. Thank you for being SO very patient with me. We have a HUGE weekend ahead of us that I can't wait to tell you all about - Monday I will be back with lots of photos and a big share.

The two winners of my 'Poppies for you' bag pattern are...

Janelle Giblin

and

Alison M

Congratulations girls, if you would like to email me at thejanellewindcollection@westnet.com.au with your postal details, I will get your patterns in the post to you.

AND the two winners of my 'A Penny for your Thoughts' pattern are...

Sue - 4/10/09 (I love that you have kept a journal for so many years Sue, what a wonderful memory and keepsake for your family)

Gerda Hartman

Congratulations girls, I hope you enjoy making these projects. Please email me on the above email address with your postal details so I can get your patterns in the mail to you.

Back Monday with LOTS to share. x Janelle

One of the reasons I have been so quiet...

I just HAD to come and share one of the things that has been keeping me quiet (and super busy too). I have been busily stitching and making my class sample for this super exciting retreat that is only 17 days away now. I can't WAIT...

Here are some more details from Kim Archer, who has meticulously planned every part of this amazing retreat. It is one not to be missed.

no frills saturday

Seventeen days until the @Home|Away Weekend retreat.

Two of the additional workshops on Saturday are at 90% full. And the third class is not too far behind with bookings. And I want to fill those last few spots.

Sooooo, I have decided to announce NO FRILLS SATURDAY for local girls or anyone interested in travelling up to Salamander Bay (north of Newcastle) for a workshop or two or three! No extras. Just the workshops.

• All workshops are $45.00 each.
  
• Includes tuition and full kit.
  
• DOESN'T INCLUDE: meals or entry to our Saturday night party crop night.
  
• Bring or buy your own lunch (wraps, salads, breads, pasta etc available for purchase at the alfresco coffee shop within the Sunsets At The Bay resort)
• Workshops on offer are: MOVING RIGHT ALONG with Mardi Winen. LITTLE BOOK OF TEXTURE with Kim Archer and CELEBRATE THE SEASONS with Janelle Wind.

WORKSHOP ONE - Moving Right Along with Mardi Winen

8.30-10.30am Saturday 7 November '09

PRICE: $45.00

{more sneak peek photos coming soon}

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WORKSHOP TWO - Little Book of Texture with Kim Archer

Saturday 7 November 2009 11am-1pm

PRICE: $45.00

 

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WORKSHOP THREE - Celebrate the Seasons with Janelle Wind

Saturday 7 November 2009 2-4pm

PRICE: $45.00

 

 

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