Archive for the 'Sewing' Category
The big day. It dawned misty and magical, so after packing Daddy off to work and Finn off to school, Niamh and Mummy walked down to the reserve to get some Birthday Girl photos.
But. Hmmm. There was a lot of this:
(She’s about to yell!)
And this:
“No Wotos Mummy”
So Mummy took a photo of Niamh’s beautiful Soulemama-birthday-crown on a magical and mystical log, instead.
(Note - I made this yesterday. So much fun - It took me about an hour (and only that long because I was messing around with elastic casings). Niamh does like to wear it about, honestly. At her convenience, not mine!)
Then Niamh had to try out the very wet playground (of course she did):
(At least we got to show off the new shorter ‘do’)
Then we found out Mummy forgot to pack a playground snack. (Ouch). Whereupon we went home, and Niamh had a nice long kip:
And Mummy got the kitchen ready for this afternoon’s cupcake fest:
Finally… proof that there was both smiling and crown-wearing yesterday:
Happy Birthday beautiful girl!
June 03 2008 | Family and Other Craft and Sewing and The Kids | 9 Comments »
There’s no escaping it - excluding January, 2-oh-oh-8 has been a pretty lean year for me, crafting- and stitching-wise. I’m a bit bummed about that, but as usual, when I’m feeling a lot of stress about other things, I find the urge to create falls in a heap. Instead, I’ve been doing a lot more reading than usual (the highlight of which has been the very beautiful Girl with a Pearl Earring - how, oh how have I not read this before?) More recently, I’ve developed an unhealthy addiction to Packrat on Facebook (and I’m going to go ahead and blame Annette for that, even though I know she will protest!)
All has not been completely lost though. Way way waaay back in February, I did actually do a wee bit o’ cross-stitchin’ 
Can’t for the life of me remember where this cute heart is from (DMC??), but it was a freebie chart, and I stitched it with a pretty pink hand dyed silk from Jo.
Then, in March, I became a joiner-in-er! I sidled into a Brown Owls meeting one night, had a bit of fun stitching up my name and Tweenie panels, decided that a room full of crafty strangers wasn’t quite as scary as I thought, and became a Seconder that very night. What is Brown Owls? Why it’s ‘Brownies’ for Crafters, of course 
(or ‘my weird cult’, if you believe my sweet husband!) Bunches of crafty chicks sitting around the clubhouse drinking tea, eating bikkies, chatting, and learning and sharing bits of crafty goodness. All thanks to the Good Lady Pip.
I’ve been to another two meetings since - in April we played with hooks and yarn. After the crochet class, inspired by Lara’s collection of flowers, I came home and puzzled my way through a few online tutorials to create this bunch:
At last night’s meet we had a bit of a Mix-up - everyone brought in whatever they liked to work on, plus some Show & Tell. I was so worried I was going to be the daggiest crafter there - because it has always seemed to me that even in this atmosphere of crafty revival, cross-stitch is still stuck firmly in the ‘Nanna crafts’ category. But surprise! and yay! I wasn’t the only one who brought cross-stitch. I know… I worry about the silliest things 
Oh yes, and on the weekend, one of my red flowers made its way onto a last-minute handmade gift for my Mum for Mothers’ Day (makes me feel like I’m back in kindergarten… in a good way!)
Pretty!
But the thing that is making me happiest of all today is a small but significant breakthrough in the Finn situation. We’ll get there yet
May 13 2008 | Counted Stitchwork and Finished and Other Craft and Sewing and Yarncraft | 6 Comments »
This is a bit of a filler post, I apologize. It’s a bunch of stuff I made in January but never got around to blogging, perhaps because I was busy with the making, and with all that other stuff. So here you go:
I made this little artist-tote thingummy for Marita’s daughter Heidi’s birthday. The inspiration came from several places, but in the end I sat down and made it up as I went. Despite a few dud calculations, I think it turned out okay.
My sister stayed with us for a couple of days in January, and asked if I could make her a pouch for her new digital camera. The camera is shockproof and waterproof, so the pouch didn’t need to provide super protection, just a barrier against scratching. The first attempt came out a bit small (bonus for me, as it’s now my coin purse), but number two was a winner.
Next up, bibs (same spotty fabric!) for a friend’s baby. This is where I shamefacedly admit I haven’t sent them off yet, d’oh! Suzie, if you’re reading this, I’m so sorry, and pretend to be surprised when you (finally) see them, okay?
Then, Finn’s school library bag gave me the chance to use up some more of that mushroom fabric, plus co-ordinating colours picked by him (hence the yellow, of which I am less than fond):
But wait. That’s not all! I also made a green stripy grocery bag - no pic, but it’s from this craftster tute. It was easy peasy, and I plan to make a bunch more. Aaaand, then, squeaking in on the last and second last days of January, I de-and-reconstructed a men’s green shirt to make a school Art Smock. Yay!
And just in case you think I wasn’t busy enough in January, guess what else I did? (This will make you fall down in disbelief, I promise)… I read FOUR books:
- The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
- Other People’s Children (Joanna Trollope)
- I Choose To Live (Sabine Dardenne)
- Dandelion Soup (Babs Horton)
(Of those, I heartily recommend the First and Fourth, but reserve merely a ‘meh‘ for the others).
So now. I think you can guess what two of my New Year’s Resolutions were!
March 04 2008 | Other Craft and Sewing | 7 Comments »
I didn’t pledge handmade this (past) Christmas, but as it turned out, many of our gifts were handmade anyway. First there were these, next up were a couple of bags for some more small friends of ours. This one:
using that ubiquitous mushroom fabric, was for a five year old boy, and was given as a Library bag, complete with new book inside. The other:
I made for his sister, who is three months younger than Niamh. The bunny pattern came from here; the bags I made up as I went along. I was quite pleased with these, and I think the recipients were happy too
Next came a wild burst of kitchen activity (mostly by Dermot, I do admit), and some playing with my new toy for labelling and packaging, to create the fabulous boxes of goodies for our families:
(Inside: Orange cordial, Spiced nuts, Mexican drinking chocolate, Dried Mango, Cranberry & Pistachio biscotti, Orange spiced tea blend - all handmade; and a teatowel - which we did not make ourselves!)
Finally, at the eleventh hour (the night before Christmas Eve), I managed to squeeze in some homemade goodness for my own kiddos. I finished up the stitching of ElfGirl and ElfBoy, and made them up into a couple of simple drawstring bags. In hopes of starting off a new Christmas tradition (which I kept hearing about on various blogs), these held brand new PJs for Christmas Eve. Here they are under the tree:
Oh, and lest I forget, somewhere in there, I also managed to whip up Finn’s party cake:
I made up a packet teacake for this, as everyone knows kids only eat the (hideously sugary buttercream) icing and leave the rest. For his actual birthday, I made a more grown up cake - a rich, moist, dark chocolate cake covered in ganache and silver cachous… but forgot to take a photo, d’oh!
Next up, post-Christmas crafting
January 12 2008 | Family and Other Craft and Sewing | 12 Comments »
‘Tis late. We’re not long back from ‘doing’ the Myer windows and the Boulevard lights - two Melbourne Christmas institutions if ever there were. With a stop off at Haigh’s on the way. Yum. Two happy but tired kids fell asleep on the way home. I thought I’d show you a couple of recent finished objects before I do the same.
This cushion:
which is a long awaited finish (remember the work in progress?) from Finn. He finished it in time to show his teacher last week at his (sob! sniff!) last Kinder session.
The proud boy (since having a new camera - early gift from Mum, thanks Mum - necessitated taking new playground shots of kids):
And a finish from me, which I probably shouldn’t really be showing off yet, since it’s still en route to the recipient:
This was for an ornament exchange on the Aus Xers yahoo group. I joined up before I realised what a slump in stitching I was about to experience. Blah. So I have to confess… I probably broke the rules a little bit. This stitched piece (a Drawn Thread freebie) was sitting in my ‘to be finished’ pile already(!) When I realised I had zero chance of getting something new stitched for the exchange, I picked this out and finished it up as a pillow ornament. Is that bad? Anyway, I’m not counting it as a finish for the year, but I do plan to restitch it for myself, because I think it’s really pretty. If I manage to kick myself in the butt after Christmas is over, I might just get it done before ‘08!
December 18 2007 | Counted Stitchwork and Finished and General Ramblings and Kid Crafts and Other Craft and Sewing | 4 Comments »
So. While I was out…
It turned out that No-vember meant not only (almost)No-blogging, but also (almost)No-stitching. Not a single cross was stitched with these hands in November (shock!), but I did get to and finish the girl-elf I showed you back here, and made a good start on boy-elf. Pics when they’re both finished.
Also, I did some crafty gift making for a couple of the small people in my life. I don’t think either of their mums read my blog, so I can show:
First up, I made a kitty version of Sara Bear, who will go to sweet Lilly. I hope she likes her. Finn has named her ‘Heart Love Kitty’ on account of the hearts in her shoes (uh… which you cannot see… so I guess that makes little sense to mention!)
(Pattern by Hillary Lang)
Next up, a crayon roll for Mr A, Dermot’s nephew. This was fun. I made two - the other one for Finn and Niamh, and it had mysteriously vanished by the time I came to take these pics.
(Based on the tutorial at Skip to my Lou, via Sew, Mama, Sew).
Finally, I whipped up a last minute (11pm, November 30) advent calendar-ish thing to round out the month. We’re also doing the Lego advent calendar this year, because we just looooove Lego around here (except notsomuch when coming across it with bare feet in the dark.) The one I made is simple little felt bags of chocolate goodies, tied with a pretty ornament which goes on the tree (or will, at least). Ornaments from Allsorts.
Oh oh, looks like there’s an imminent break-in!
Hope you’re all having a great weekend 
December 08 2007 | General Ramblings and Kid Crafts and Other Craft and Sewing | 5 Comments »
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