Finally - A New Bag!

I have been wanting to make a bag again for ages as I was sick of the other one. So the other night when BJ finally was in bed I attacked the cupboard & found the boxes of fabrics to see what I had that would work. This is the Amy Butler Swing Bag pattern. I sewed it today while BJ had his nap this afternoon. It only takes half a metre of fabric for the outside & then for the inside. So lucky for me I did have some half metre cuts & also 2 of some fat quarters. I have a few fat quarters of Moda Marbles but not many that I have 2 of so I was nearly struggling to find any 2 fabrics to go together. Luckily I found a marble blue that would go with my Alexander Henry Owls. I was a bit sad about cutting into them but now I get to drag them all around town with me. They get out to see the world! But I still have the white owls to use, but only a fat quarter of that one. Oh well... I did add about 2 inches to the length of the bag & then a bit to the straps too. I basically used up the whole half metre on it that way. Groovy! Plus a bigger bag for more stuff/crap! Hahahaha...

Free as a Bird

It's the next best thing to be

Free as a Bird

Free as a Bird - The Beatles

Autumn Diamonds

I am a bit slow putting these on. I did the one on the left on the weekend & the second one on Monday night. These are with the Anchor Magicline cotton that was in the little suitcase in the other post. I love it. It is such a shame the cotton is discontinued. It really feels nice. This colour range is also lovely. I started each with a different ball & the colour order actually varies in them. Interesting that they would do that. I have one ball left & some ends of balls. So I will probably do one more of the diamonds as I love this pattern. Maybe I will use some of the Sugar'n'Cream instead.

A lovely day at home for us today but not so lovely housework in there too.

Sadie the cleaning lady

With trusty scrubbing brush & pail of water

John Farnham

(ekkk.... I can't believe I am using John Farnham on here!)

Best Movie I have seen in a long time...

Movie star movie star, ahaha

You think you are a movie

Movie star movie star ahaha

You think you are a movie

Movie Star - Harpo

Cheap Diamonds!

Oh I really like this one. It was easy but looks like it wasn't! That's a good thing, isn't it! I even figured out the border but had to keep the little mantra going all the way around - skip, slip, chain, double, skip, slip, chain, double. I used the cotton I got at Spotlight yesterday, the one with the blue thread through the white. That would be 03, if you read yesterdays post. Anyway I really like this pattern for the Diamond Dishcloth & will try it again with one of my firmer cottons, the My Friends yarn from Kmart. This one is really soft & would be a nice cloth for a new baby.

When you have everything

You have everything to lose

She made herself a bed of nails

& she's plannin' on putting it to use.

Cos she had diamonds on the inside,

She had diamonds on the inside

She had diamonds on the inside

Diamonds

Diamonds on the Inside - Ben Harper

A little bit of shopping!

I had to take my aunt shopping today. Terrible I know. The worst thing was we had to go to Spotlight! hahahaha... What a chore. Well Aunt is here from England & needed to get out & have a look at what sort of things are available here in the craft world. She didn't expect so much in Spotlight so we took quite some time wandering around, looking at all the different sections.

I came across this cotton in the baby wool section. It is 100% cotton & they had plain stuff as well as these with the flecks through them. They don't have names. Very boring. They are just numbers. So left to right we have 01, 03, 05 & 07. I used 05 this afternoon to make the star cloth there in front. It seems a bit thinner than what I have been using so I tried it on a 4mm hook. I will try a 4.5mm hook for it next.

Actually in the picture the star cloth doesn't look so bad! lol One side I think seemed to flatten out a bit so I know I stuffed up on stitches in there somewhere. It is probably a really easy pattern to work but I found it hard - right from the beginning! Ekkk... not a good sign. But I was determined to end up with something starry looking. I am not used to having to follow a pattern so closely & also the change in stitched from double crochet, to single to half doubles & to what ever etc... I must admit I did nearly frog it. It looks ok. It isn't big though so I would be interested to try it on the bigger hook to see how much difference it makes. I will give it a try with probably 01.

There was a stack of sale stuff in bins & we found these little cases. It had the cotton inside plus a pattern for a crocheted lion to make with it. Well they were marked down to $15. I thought the yarn might well be worth that itself so went to buy it but Aunt said she would get it for me. At the counter we found it had another sticker on it for $5. Wow! So of course I had to check the others but none of the others had the $5 on it so we didn't get more. Bargain of the day. The cotton as you can see is Anchor Magicline so I will have to see if I can find more of that. It looks lovely. This was a bonus though as I now have a little case too! lol

I also got my yarns from American Yarns yesterday. The Lily Sugar'n'Cream looks lovely - well the ones I got that they had in stock. If you go there to buy some, it might say it is in stock but it might not be as I found out. Saved me some money I guess. It isn't like I have enough to use up! I really must try & make March a stash free month! Yeah, as if! lol Well I can try. I was going to try to see how long I lasted at the start of the year, but I'm ashamed to say it wasn't very long.

It won't be long, yeah yeah yeah
It won't be long, yeah yeah yeah
It won't be long
Till I belong to you
It won't be long - The Beatles

Something smells a bit fishy!

Yesterday I managed these two fish cloths. I am quite pleased with them. The blue one on the bottom is a fighting fish. Grrr.... He took ages. I kept stuffing up the decreasing. Plus cooking tea & watching the Wiggles endlessly probably didn't help it's cause. But the orange fish I have called Hammond, I did last night in an hour all up. Not bad. I was watching the Top Gear special. Quite funny. Richard Hammond cracks me up. Anyway the fish are pretty good to make. Like the acorns they are single crochet so that suits me! BJ might enjoy these in the bath.

Well if the fish isn't on your line,

Bait your hook & keep on trying

Don't let him get you down

There's other boys around

There's too many fish in the sea

Too Many Fish in the sea - The Commitments

A little bit of this. A little bit of that.

I have had a rather busy weekend. Well productive more than busy I guess.

I made chutney. For the first time ever, I have made chutney! I am pretty rapt with my effort. We tried it last night with our dinner. It was good. We aren't really big sauce eaters & so this is something that will get used occasionally instead of tomato sauce. I will use this as a pasta sauce as I don't like the stuff you buy in the supermarket. I got the recipe from the book "A Year in a Bottle" by Sally Wise. It's a good book. I am sure there will be other things I will make from it as our garden continues to be fruitful. We still have a lot of tomatoes so I will make more in the next day or two.

I also sewed these cushion covers for the floor cushions. The small one was here left by the previous owner for BJ to sit on. I had this cool pirate fabric that I got a while back & had intended for floor cushions, so finally I made them. I had bought the other cushion on sale some time. It's a European cushion so nice & big. (though I think it will be flat quite soon!) BJ thinks the cushions are pretty comfy anyway.

Finally I have a couple more cloths for the cloth-along. These are two acorns from the Lily Sugar'n'Cream website. They were easy! I was impressed. Though my first one turned out better than the second one like usual but still it's not bad at all. They worked up quite fast too. Best of all, it was all single crochet! I can do single crochet!!! Without having to go & find a video tute each time to remind me how!!! hahaha... Anyway, they are pretty cute, quite large & should make good kitchen cloths.

This is one I did on Friday. It's bad. I was trying another cotton with it. This was my second attempt. I undid the first one with different thread. This is some other thread that is too course & seemed thin also in the end. So I won't use it again for these.

So there you go. Busy with different stuff. It's good. We even got some gardening in in between the rain today. But now we don't have to water the garden again so that's cool.

It takes a little bit of this
Hoah with a little bit of that
A little bit of good
Yeah with a little bit of bad
You know that life's a contradiction
And you can't escape the fact
You gotta take a little bit of this
With a little bit of that
Little bit of this, A little bit of that - Carolyn Dawn Johnson

My Place and Yours - Kitchen Love

Oh this meme for the week is going to be one to drool over when I take a minute or 10 to go & check out all the other kitchens or parts there of. If you would like to see what others love about their own kitchens go & see Vic as she has the list at the end of her blog post.

Well my kitchen is really nothing to rave about too much except I love it! This is my new kitchen. It's heaven. It's big! It's sooooo... roomy. The kitchen itself is quite dated, but it really quite suits me for now. Ok, the light fittings are a bit dodgy, & there are a couple of other things, but who really cares. The kitchen is workable as it is. This way I can relax with a toddler in the house, not having to panic about him wrecking some modern pretty kitchen. We have only been in this kitchen for 5 weeks now. It looks like we have lived here forever. The bench is enormous & ends up with stuff all over it. That is one thing about the big bench. It really is a dumping ground for stuff! I was excited about this kitchen as it fit in our really large fridge. I was dreading the thought that it might not but was ecstatic when I measured & found that it would fit easily.

But that is just the kitchen itself. My total heaven in the kitchen is the walk in pantry! Ok, lots of people have pantrys that are walk in. But hey, check this out...

Now isn't that great! It's large! Big even! The freezer fits in there really easily. In fact I could probably get a bigger freezer now! lol This one was bought to fit in the space at the old house. It really is great. Heck there is even hook on the inside right, where I can hang my aprons. The fabric on the right front of pic is actually my apron I bought on etsy.com from the Cause for Haiti shop. Bargain plus supporting a worthy cause. Plus it was Amy Butler fabric! How cool! On the left is my bag I made with Amy Butler fabric too. It's hanging on the door handle. Ok, the door doesn't get shut much, it's one of those louvre doors! hahahah... very modern! NOT!

So that's my large kitchen & my wonderful "I'm in Heaven" walk in pantry. Ok, if you saw my kitchen in the house we just left you would understand my excitement. My old kitchen is nearly as big as the pantry now!

There you go. We had recently updated & renovated the kitchen to include the little dishwasher & the overhead cupboards. The pantry in there is the cupboard that is nearly ceiling height on the right. Not big at all! & now you see why I am excited about the new kitchen. How I ever fit all my stuff into this kitchen I will never know. I don't think I could get it all back in there anyway. My old kitchen was lovely. It is really nice, neat & modern. It was easy to clean with painted doors etc, & a glass splashback that was heaven to keep clean. But I think older is more me. I don't really care about stuff like this right now. I have major "Kitchen Love" for the kitchen in our new place. It works for us now & should do us as is for quite some time as it is even without a dishwasher - the electric variety anyway! lol

Thanks for visiting me at my new place today.

Oh & if you are one of my relies that hasn't seen it yet either, hope you liked having a look too!

This is it

Oh this time I know it's the real thing

I can't explain what I'm feeling

I'm lost for words

I'm in a daze

Stunned & amazed

By your open ways

This is It - Dannii Minogue

Busy with blocks

I said the other day I had been busy filling orders for blocks. They are done! Yay! Here's one I just did for the heck of it though.

These pics of BJ are still some of my favourites & since I have some large blocks again on hand I used one to stick these on. I also had the pics on hand obviously. Looks pretty cute & he loves looking at it.

This is one set that I just completed for an order though. I had sold a set of the farm animals to this person before Christmas & her kids love them apparently, including the 10 yr old that can't stop playing with them. Now she wanted a girlie set for 3 yr old though. I think these are great. I had this golden book myself when I was little & found it in my stored stuff last week. So now I got to have a bit of a reminisce with the blocks I made as well. The book is called "Little Mommy" & you can see why in the pictures.

I had the funnest time at work this morning - if you can call working in a fabric shop work, cutting fabric, helping people pick fabrics & ribbons & buttons & anything else! Coolest work ever! lol It is only occasionally but still, it is better than none for fun!

She works hard for the money

so hard for it honey

she works hard for the money

so you better treat her right.

She works hard for the money - Donna Summer

Another cloth

sorry the picture is so bad. Hard to get a decent shot at 7am. I did finish this last night. It's not very good. Well the middle bit was ok, but as soon as I had to put the edge around it wasn't quite so even like the pattern tell you to do. Oh well, it is ok for me. I will keep this to test out the yarn. It is beautiful & soft. I don't know how it will go. It is Sirdar Juicy DK & is 80% Bamboo sourced viscose & 20% cotton. I had to try it anyway. I don't know anything about the bamboo bit but I liked the feel of it. Now it makes all my other stuff feel so hard! Oh & it is a citrus colour, like a pastel lemon.

This pattern is the Snapdragon washcloth from littlehouseinthesuburbs.com. The pattern was really quite simple & I didn't actually use it after row 2 when it just worked out obvious where what went. But this is the first one I have had to do an edge on & although it looks ok, it isn't perfect so that's something I can work on.

Ok, I will go & hunt down some more patterns that sound easy! lol But I can't start any until this afternoon as I am going to work! Wow! Me work! & not at the lawnmower shop for a change!

It's got to be perfect

It's got to be worth it

yeah

Too many people take second best

But I won't take anything less

It's got to be, yeah, perfect

Perfect - Fairground Attraction

Finally a cloth!

I've joined in on Mel's "Cloth-a-long" for lack of anything better to do! hahahahah... as if! But you no how it goes. You plan to do stuff but other stuff jumps up in the way! Well actually I have been making blocks. I have a couple of block orders to fill & I have been trying to do that. I have managed to get most of those done in the evening after the little Mister has gone to bed. At the moment bedtime is rather late as it is just too hot, for him & myself!

Anyway, this is the dishcloth I have worked on in between things. I have just about got another couple to show too. This is the one I like from LionBrand, one of their free patterns. It's the sedge stitch one. I can do this one without thinking too much now & it looks pretty good. It feels quite thick so would be a nice washcloth as opposed to a dishcloth. I have a couple of these I made the other week which I am going to use myself. I had better be a tester on my own things before I give them away. & this yarn is about a 55% cotton & 45% acrylic or something. It is more of my Kmart bargain yarn. (I went there again last week & got the last 6 balls - 75c each, bargain!)

The "cloth-a-long" is good though just to stock up on a few of these things for gifts maybe. So hey, if you get a present from me, then you might end up with one of these later on! Hmmm... if you don't & you would really like one you can ask! If you might get one & you don't want one, ummm... probably bad luck! I am attempting a handmade sort of gift year this year where I can. I wonder if I can.

Have you ever heard of Eremikophobia?

Well it seems that is what BJ has. It is the fear of sand. It has been so stinking hot the last couple of days we have gone to the pool & the beach. Pool ok. Beach bad! Beach so bad! I took his shoes off. Shouldn't have done that. The sand must feel so strange all wet & squishy. Then I sat in a pool of warmed water with him on the beach. I was splashing about & then pulled a handful of sand out & he freaked. Ok, so he doesn't like getting his own hands dirty so I didn't expect him to do it, but I sure didn't expect a reaction like that to my holding the sand. Oh well, it looks like the pool will be the order of the day today if it is as bad & it feels like it will be. They have a nice kids pool at the local one. It's waste deep on me if I sit in it & there are squirty things around it that are quite fun. BJ still doesn't really like water but he didn't freak at the pool the other day like I thought he might. He was watching the other kids playing. I wonder how long it will take for him to play a little if he watches everyone else playing. I will try to go a little bit more with him while it is so warm.

It was so hot yesterday but he still wanted to do the gardening! lol I just let him outside in just his nappy. He was happy. We were watching him with his Thomas the Tank Engine gardening tools, so I snuck out & took a couple of pics. He was just digging. As you do. Dry sand/dirt must be quite different than beach sand!

Have a good day & stay cool!

Me mind on fire, Me soul on fire, Feeling hot hot hot,

Party people all around me, feeling hot hot hot,

Hot Hot Hot - Buster Poindexter

My Place and Yours - What's in Your Bag

Punky's Mama is hosting again today & the theme is what is in your handbag! Ok, mine wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
1. Amy Butler Swing bag made with Amy Butler fabrics - this is my current bag. It's time I made another one.
2. Fat & dirty wallet. That white mark must be paint or something as it won't come off. & it isn't fat with money!
Ok, the rest in a sort of clockwise action...
Hankies, Mentos, change, Tupperware midget with sultanas for emergency in stores to settle BJ! (it's been working! Size of midget is perfect for his hands), Burt's Bees case full of lady things like deo, manicure stuff, bandaids, makeup (as bag has no interior pocket this is it!), red phone pouch currently holding a phone that won't work (& hoping I get a chance to take it in today!), 2010 diary from Smiggle (large but too cute not to use!), pen, notepad, travel pack of huggies wipes & the baby hair brush for BJ's unruly hair that never looks brushed!

So there you go! That's my crap!

But I see your true colours shining through,

I see your true colours, & that's why I love you,

So don't be afraid to let them show,

You're true colours, true colours

Are beautiful like a rainbow.

True Colors - Cyndi Lauper

Mmmm...cookies

Haven't been doing much of anything lately except playing trains, watching the Wiggles, Hi-5 or Thomas, playing cars, reading Thomas... you get the idea.

Somehow I managed to make the cookies above today. They are these ... Choc Chip Cookies.

Did those while I had to do this cheesecake for lunch tomorrow. Easy & delicious, as I made it last week for our Aussie Day barbeque too.

Have done a little crochet this week. Been working on a couple of granny squares & a couple of washcloths. Took the crochet in the car again to Hobart on Tuesday but was too exhausted to do much. It's been a busy week for the last couple & we are taking a couple days out at home to chill, BJ & I. It's been nice. Today was so hot though, he was running around in nothing but a nappy & still hot as anything. Trying to keep him settled & calm so he doesn't make himself hotter but that didn't always work. lol

C is for Cookie that's good enough for me,

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me,

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me,

Oh cookie cookie cookie starts with C.