The Lavender Bag

This is a design from The Art of Crochet series. It is a lavender bag, the sort that you put in your underwear drawers.

Its a pretty basic pattern of trebles made into clusters with double crochets in between. The thing I loved about this pattern, was the yarn! Its a Milford soft yarn and it just crocheted into a lovely random colouring. i had originally bought it to make some doilies with but never got that far. I'm glad I didn't now.

The first step was to crochet until it was 30 cms long. The end result was a bit misshapen...


I suppose that is why as part of the instructions it tells you to block it out before sewing the seams! haha! So naturally being the follower that I am, I proceeded to block it.


It took quite a number of pins to put it all in place, then I used a damp white face washer and gave it a gentle press. Viola, it was all pretty and square... well rectangular.

There was nothing left but to sew up the sides, crochet a lovely and simple shell boarder around the top edges and then thread a ribbon through. The actual pattern calls to make and insert a lavender sachet and then simply tie a ribbon around to hold it in place.

Well I have allergies so I'm not going to use it for a lavender bad at all, rather a pretty little gift bag at some stage... maybe even for something much better than lavender... like, I don't know... Chocolate!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I gave in to the Christmas spirit and pulled out all our Christmas decorations this morning. I still refuse to write on any Christmas card until at least December 1st but I figured it was either this weekend or next to do the tree as our mid week is usually pre-occupied. It amounted to a few boxes and random items...


So off to work we set... My little one was more keen on playing with his farm animals then helping, however once the tree was up and I found the baubles "bubbles mummy!" he showed slightly more interest. Last year we had a silver and blue theme with a splash, dash and drop of other random colours, so this year we stuck to the same theme. This year, however, the glass baubles (beautiful as they may be) stayed in their plastic container for another year. Good thing too, as we dropped a number of them in decorating, the best part about the plastic ones is that dropping them on solid wood floors = bounce! Not smash!

As usual the first thing to go on the tree was the lights... bah... a tangle of wire and coloured lights. Note to self - next time be more careful in pulling of and packing away so as not to spend half the morning untangling them!

Bah humbug!

The last thing to go onto our tree is our special ornaments. There is one for each christmas that we have had together as a family. (Well two for the first one as it was pretty special). My favourite is the bottle with the tree in it... I still have to buy this years, but there is plenty of time to do that.

Im terrifed of a little someone grabbing them off, but at the same time, they need to be on there. Its just so!


We always have a card string along the hearth. I use tinsel to cover the blue tak holding it up. I pulled out the tinsel and little one immediately exclaimed "Catapillar!" He had a blast playing with that one piece of tinsel! It doesnt go with the blue theme of the tree, but purple is my favourite colour, so who cares!


You'll notice the empty stocking over the heater, my idea this year is to get little one to place all his dummies into the stocking before bed Christmas Eve as a gift to Santa. In exchange Santa will bring him something special, just for him. It's my hope that he will be able to understand this concept and make giving up his dummies a little more easy on the both of us. Ive been wanting to get rid of them for ages, and this seems like the perfect opportunity... I hope he doesnt hate Santa for life for taking them though lol!

The final touch in our Christmas make over is the front door. What door isnt complete without a Christmas Wreath?

...Merry Christmas...

I won - Bink Link

Well just like I dont normally post about giveaways to earn entries into competitions on blogs, I usually dont post about wins either. Mostly because I don't win!!

Well all that has changed, all thanks to Hip Little One and Mini Hippo.

This is what I won:

Photo from Mini Hippo Website.

Its a Bink Link, this one is the Gumball design. I had one similar to this for my own son when he was a baby. It worked a treat, right up until the day he learnt how to undo the clip lol. I got it from a local baby store that unfortunately stopped selling similar to the above and then shut down shop as she was having her own children. So now, all I need to do is find another baby to use this little treasure on ;-)

Happy Days!

Ho...Ho...Ho...

So it's fast approaching to be that time of year once again. The Christmas tree is in its box, the ornaments in another. I have however made our christmas cards. I love making them and this year was so much better than last.

Last year they were simple photo cards, shoved into envelopes and sent off. This year I used my digital scrapbooking program for the front image. It's my gorgeous boy playing outside, one of my favourite shots of him.

Inside I made simple christmas trees and used pre-printed stickers for the 'message'.

Now to find out how many I actually need (I suspect a lot less than usual given I'm no longer on forums) and to personalise them with a message, ready to be sent no earlier than December 1. And, yes, I have already gotten two Christmas Cards... It's still only NOVEMBER! Bah humbug! lol.

The Sewing Machine must die!

So these are our Imse Vimse swim nappies. The one of the left is our newest addition. This is the way they should look. The one of the right is our old swim nappy, after 18 months (give or take) of solid use every week, I finally retired her. Not because she no longer worked, but simply because she was old and worn.

Because she still works I decided I would use her again... ELMO style...


I cut her down the sides so I could get the shape, I added new elastic across her back, front and legs (just to be sure) and pinned her altogether...

It was then that my sewing machine snapped my needle, ate my thread and just generally was not agreeable. It does this often, I thought finally the gremlin had left when I had thirty minutes of solid sewing without missing a thread or catching. Apparently not...

So until she gets a service (and probably a fix) no more sewing in this house! Phooey!

Hip Little One - Giveaway

Well I dont usually blog about giveaways, however Hip Little One has a gorgeous giveaway that I am dying to win. In order to get as many entries as I can, I am now blogging about them lol.

Their giveaway is for a Playsand 'Im Bored' kit. Playsand's such a great idea and I can see my little boy having lots of messy fun with it! Heck I might even enjoy it too seeing as it is right up my creative alley.

Be sure to check it out :).

Apple Crumble Delight

This is a variation of two different, 4 ingredient, recipes. Although I have never tried the proper 4 ingredient recipe I must say, that my version ROCKS! It also contains no apples from a can =P

So yummy.

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 Granny Smith Apples (approximately 800 grams), peeled, cored and sliced
• Sugar to taste
• 250 grams Scotch Finger biscuits, crushed
• Small handful of chopped/quick oats
• 75 grams of softened butter

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

On a medium heat add chopped apples to saucepan, add Castor sugar to taste and cook through. Do not allow to boil. Once apples are cooked take off heat and place into oven proof dish. Layer evenly.

Using a mixer, beat the butter with sugar to taste (not much is needed given the biscuits to be used) until light and fluffy. Add crushed biscuits and oats, mix until combined. (Note this will not form a solid mass but be crumbly in texture). You may wish to add Cinnamon to the mix at this point.

Take the biscuit mix and cover the apples.

Place in oven and cook for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Variations can include lemon juice, saltanas and cinnamon.

Enjoy!!

30th Birthday Cake

No I didn't make the cake, that was done by a very talented friend of a friend. I did however take the photos, and then play with them a bit.