Updating

It's been a long time since I posted on here. Months in fact.

I guess I should do a little update.

I entered the show only to receive a call a month later to say that my entries had been received late. Nice one Australia Post! The gentleman was going to ask the judges if they would kindly still accept them but that judging had already taken place (so whats the point?). He would get back to me. He never did.

My sister had her baby girls. They were born early so I still havent finished either of their quilts, that said, they are well and truely past their original due date and they still arent done. Whoops! One is close to being finished and other I am thinking of making as a quilt rather than crochet blanket. Wait and see.

I have also been busy with booties, lots and lots of booties. They are being made especially for the girls christening. (I will try to take a photo later).

I also still have my pass it forward to finish. I've still got two - maybe even three - outstanding. Im not entirely sure when I will finish those. I still dont have any ideas on what to do for one of them! And only two months to do them in! Eeeep!

I was planning on doing another toy drop before Christmas but am yet to get there. The year is flying past and things are so very busy at the moment between the girls, my own little man and uni.

Oh and Im still doing my 365 day project. I guess I should post some of those too... Lets see...

 Taken with my old Kodak Camera.

Taken with my new Canon 550D. Yes, Im in love. =P

Do Not Disturb

There is another baby on the way. As such, nothing is more important than to get sleep when you can. Therefore I spent the last two days whipping up this little gem for the mother to be.

It's been quite some time since I got out the paint brushes to do something like this (as witnessed by my paint having gone dry - d'oh!). I loved getting in and doing this. I did however discover that my hands are no where near as steady as they used to be for the fine detail. I must definately aim to practice much more!

I'm entering the show!

With the count down well and truly into the single numbers, I have decided to enter the local show's photography section for the second time.

Last year I far exceeded any of my expectations when I won a highly commended. As such it made me ineligible for the same section at this years exhibition. So after um and ahing for a while I finally decided why not?

My entries for this year are:

Waiting

As yet untitled

Crochet cardigan

I don't know why I ever knitted before. I can't believe how absolutely fast, simple and perfect crochet is. I equally cant believe it took close to twenty years for me to discover these facts.

My only down point about crochet is that all my baby book patterns are for knitting. I don't have a single crochet pattern book for babies. I have a couple that my sister gave me as a gift, one with little animals and one with a random scattering of household objects to start off. But none entirely devoted to the baby.

Why baby? Because they are quick and easy and someone will almost always undoubtedly use them!

So with my lack of crochet patterns for baby I have become a fan of google and looking for free patterns of every variety.

I stumbled my way across a gorgeous pattern - Baby Cardigan on IVilliage - which was a marvelous find two fold. One because it was just what I was looking for and two because it is written by a Brit! No having to convert double crochets to trebles etc here. Wooo!

It even turned out pretty impressive for my first attempt at crocheting a cardigan... I did have a minor mishap (or two) in the creating but shhhh you cant tell...

I'm on a roll

I really am most definately on a roll tonight.

I am absolutely in love with this simple headband design pattern, which I got from here. A little fiddle here and little fiddle there, a touch of personalisation (because I hated their flowers =P ) and viola, a whole new headband for a whole different age group of child.

Simple, easy and so darn effective...

I love crochet!

Crochet Central

I have been busy, busy, busy.

Tonight I finished crocheting another shell dress in some left over white wool that I had. I still had a small amount left over so set to work on making a headband for baby. Complete with little flowers. It turned out heaps better than I expected it to and should fit perfectly.

I used my son's dolly as a model and there is still room for stretch to fit comfortably on a baby head. I haven't actually posted these before so here they are. A set of cute little booties for baby. I wont lie, they were horrible to crochet. Mostly because I had two different thicknesses of thread, but I wanted the detail to be in the same colouring as the dress. So viola, complete!

And the dress that they go with;

A finish!

I'm currently in the process of participating in a one project a month (OPAM) challenge with a bunch of girls from a forum I was on. It's really getting me back into my crafting and trying to tie up all these loose ends that I have laying around the house.

This one is one of my younger projects in that it has only been half finished for a few months as opposed to a few years!

Knitted from Panda "Adorable Baby Knits" No. 205, pattern 8, in Baby Lustre 4 ply.

Sentimental Sunday - The Dress

Over the last week DS and I have been going through my old toys. In those are a bunch of dolls clothes. Each of them hold some special memories, but this one in particular. You see it was made over twenty years ago. It was made just for my sister and I, and it was made by our Grandmother. According to my own mother its only ever been used as a dolls dress even though it is quite clearly sized for a child. I have so many memories of me as a child sitting near my Grandmother as she knit or crochet. Perhaps that is where I picked up my love of the craft from? I know this dress definitely gave me inspiration to try to make one in a similar style, length and size for my upcoming niece should one of the twins turn out to be a girl!

LEFT: Grandmother original RIGHT: My copy

Note. Original is white due to lighting on the day it came out looking less than fresh.
Pattern for the recent copy can be found at HeartFelt Angels

Baby Showers

The nappy cake is almost finished.

The invites just need a date and time.

And the wishing well...
is made entirely out of paddle pop sticks.

I keep expecting it to fall apart but so far so good. It has support beams inside so hopefully it will make it to the day. Otherwise we might end up using a tissue box lol! The basis for this is that we would like monetary donations rather than gifts as the host has everything so this way people can give however much they are comfortable with and no one will know the difference. Good eh...

I really do hope those sticks were non toxic though as my son chose to suck on one turning his entire mouth blue! Ack!

Sentimental Sunday - A box of clothes

At the bottom of my son's wardrobe lives a little box. Inside that box is an ever growing collection of clothes. Not all his clothes are created equal you see. Some hold a special meaning that I can't bare to part with them. So rather than passing them on to a new home, they live in the bottom of his wardrobe. Ready to be pulled out to reminiscence over at any given moment.

At the top, the little blue bonnet/hat, this is the hat that he was wearing when we took our first ever family photo. Him, the dog and myself all outside on a hot summers day. The hat next to it was the Santa hat he wore for our first Christmas card. (It was actually an ornamental hat ;) ).

Either side below those are two bibs. Cross Stitched for him by his Aunty. In between those are the 'puppy' booties that she brought home from work for him. He wore those constantly.

On the left hand side is his favourite pair of overalls. These particular ones don't stay done up, no matter how hard you try, the crotch always, always comes undone! On top of that is my first ever Ebay purchase, when he was still growing inside. It's a Pooh Bear jumpsuit... it no longer does up but I love it all the same... He was wearing it the day he was kicked out of day care (again...). And at the very front of those is a little t-shirt and shorts set, sent all the way from America to us from our friends. I remember getting it in the mail and how surprised I was. I put it on him as soon as I could as he was almost growing out of it when he was born! lol, the joy that is a big baby!

In the middle are just a small selection of jumpers, shirts, body suits. The one on the bottom of the pile was given to us from my boss and his wife when they were passing down clothes. It says "mutha sucker" I loved it! I would constantly put it on DS for when he went to his father... he never commented though...

At the top of this pile are two shirts, one red, one navy. These in particular hold an even more special place in my heart. These two shirts were worn alternately underneath a pavlik harness for six weeks. I didn't actually keep the harness as I returned it to the hospital so that someone else might be able to use it as their second harness. That way you can have one new harness and a second, one on and one in the wash. :D

Lastly on the right hand side are two hand knitted jumpers and a bonnet. All knitted by myself. The green jumper and hat was never actually worn by DS but rather his cousin. Who in turn returned it to us so that we might be able to use it, unfortunately DS was born far to big for it to be used, but it will forever hold a special place in my heart...

Getting Crafty

How does anything possibly get done in this mess?! And this is a good day lol.

Underneath I have a blue sewing case of paints and paint brushes, a pink sewing case of cross stitch, a red spotlight bag of various crochet and knitting ready to go projects… all in various stages of completion. Either side of the desk is two bedside tables full of scrapbooking pieces, and on top of those and on top of the desk is more scrapbooking…stuff. The tiny little section of blue at the front is my work space lol!

This isn’t even everything, you can’t see the built-in robe still with scrapbooking papers, or the tall boy behind the camera packed full of more folk art paint, sealers, brushes, knitting wool and various pieces of arty farty fluff… or the HUGE pile of quilting materials currently strewn about on my floor in the last minute rush to make a taggy ball for my sisters friend.

Nor can you see the crochet bucket that lies beside my bed with various blankets, bags and scarves all in various stages of completion…

Plus there is another box of quilting materials that live on my back verandah never quite having made it inside from the move almost 3 years ago!!

And honestly… for me this is organised chaos! =O

Sentimental Sunday - The Flute

So for those who are listening, you are no doubt aware that I am doing the 365 day project. As something different I thought that I would carry some of it over to here as part of a Sentimental Sunday posting about different aspects to my life. Some will be about things of old and some will be about new things, all of them will hold a special place in my heart.

The Flute.

So I have been a flutist for over... well a while ;-) I started when I first entered high school. I was nothing special but I enjoyed it. I had lessons every week until I finished school. I even did my HSC music assessment on it. To this day I still cringe at those pieces but alas can mostly play one of them by heart. All be it a bit stumbly and clumsy but still, thats what you get for not practicing.

I got this flute for my 18th birthday, before that my parents rented one from the school. I was so excited, they gave me the choice between a laptop and a flute, I chose the flute because I would use it more (ah hindsight rofl). Still she holds a very special place in my heart.

MIA

I've really been neglecting my little space here haven't I? Sorry about that, I wont promise to change that because I'd hate to break a promise that I have no idea if I can keep it.

I have still been going with my 365 Day Project. I'm absolutely loving it. I tried putting it on the 'official' site for a while because... well... I crave comments ;) (hint hint) but alas I lost my nerve simply because I had to then do two different projects because I don't want to post pictures of DS (dear son) out into public cyber space. It gives me the willies. So back to word press we go and stay. Randomly changing the passwords as we go, just in case.

I know - paranoia...

In other news I have been neglecting here because I have been doing... stuff... lots and lots of stuff...

I'm part way through crocheting three different blankets (oh my) half way(ish) through all of them... I'm not a fantastic finisher. I start well.. really I do... I just loose my gusto.

Ive almost finished my first crochet beaded bag. I love it, looks awesome. Requires a sewn lining. Sewing machines hate me. I dunno what it is about them? They look at me and go, "oh its you again, yeah bugger that" and stop. Cold turkey, just stop working. My mum thinks its hilarious... until I struck her machine. She promptly stopped laughing. That'll teach her =P

I still have a half finished knitted jumper. I only have the sleeves and hand sewing to do. I'm procrastinating. If I keep at it long enough I should eventually forget where I'm up to. That's what usually happens. I have so many half finished knitted jumpers! Its terrible really.

And among all that Ive picked up the mouse (not really as its a laptop so it has a touch pad) and started digital scrapbooking again. My how I missed it. Well I did, until I once again realised the enormity of the task at hand and slinked away to a corner to sulk...

On top of all that my child refuses point blank to sleep. The experts say his behaviour is a direct result of lack of sleep (really who knew!) and that I just need to get him to sleep more and it should improve (you don't say!) and their solution is to remove part of the one good sleep he has during the day to make it shorter (oh god) and he will get tired enough to go to bed and go to sleep at night (HAAAAA!). I'm slowly going insane from grumpy child sleep deprivation.

No one believes me though, he is an angel in public (maybe I need to stay in public more often?) and the horns only come out for me... lucky me...

...It's not paranoia if people really are out to get you...


embellishments and digital paper courtesey of Digital Scrapbook Artist 2 and Daisytrail.com

The 365 Day Project

I have decided to participate in the 365 Day project.

Some of my photos will contain pictures of my child so I decided that I would prefer to place them on a more secure site, wordpress, that way I can password protect those particular posts for close friends and family only.

Ive started a little late, so it's really more a 360 Day project for myself. Nevermind, I look forward to the fun.

Create-Able Me's 365 Days

All wrapped up...

What you'll need:

Pair of pliers or other pointy instrument
Scissors
Flame
Ribbon
Tissue Paper
Metal Braids
Gift to be wrapped and sticky tape (not pictured)

Instructions:

1. Using the tissue paper, scissors and sticky tape, wrap your present as you would normally. Ensuring that all ends are tidy.
2. Getting your ribbon, cut a piece that wraps all the way around your gift both horizontally and vertically, with an extra 10 - 15 cms.
   
3. On the surface that is to be the top place the ribbon across the top third of the gift, take it around the back and then twist the two ends of the ribbon around one another once, take the ribbon back around the front of the gift vertically. Take the ribbon back up the the top third and with approximately the same amount of ribbon thread the ends under the original horizontal placement. Tie the ends in one knot around the horizontal placement.
   
4. Take the ends of the ribbon and thread them through opposite sides of the knot and then knot again.
   
5. Cut another section of ribbon approximate 20cm and tie in a knot over the original knotted ribbon, so that the new ribbon is at opposites to the original.
   
6. Trim the ends to suit.
   
7. Using the flame melt the ends of the ribbon CAREFULLY so as not to burn anything, but to stop fraying.
   
8. Using the melt braid and the pliers, attach the braid in the centre of the bow for finishing.