Our Creative Spaces

Today I am sharing creativity with BJ. Yesterday we stopped at Spotlight & he spotted a couple of things in the craft corner that I thought would be nice for us to decorate & stuff. He was quite excited. So this morning it was just about our first thing of the day of course. He concentrates on it quite well for a time, but I did have to finish it off. Plus he doesn't like getting his hands dirty so heaven forbid he actually got a spot of paint on his fingers! Anyway, the yellow pig money bank is outside drying still. His feet will need a touch up. I wonder what we will end up decorating him with next. Stickers or painted spots or something?

If the pig wasn't enough, he actually wanted this wand as well. So I gave in & bought a wand! It is actually a Pirate Wand of course. We tried to find pirate things in the shop yesterday to go on it but didn't find anything, so I will raid my scrapbook papers as I have some there. (yes I have scrapbook papers. No I don't scrapbook but I do buy the paper cos I like them. I wish more of the designs were on fabric! )

Some how in the middle of this & a baby that won't sleep much for me today ( & me who desperately would like to sleep!) I am also trying to get through a couple dozen sets of blocks for an order & to get some more in my shop for Christmas shoppers. So there are loads on BJ's farm table for lack of anywhere else at the moment to put them all. Oh well, it's only temporary.

Check out some other creative people today won't you!

ETA I keep trying to add comments on others but am getting the message I don't have permission to the view the page. Don't know if it is me or not. Some are working just fine!

It's Friday

1. Trying to find time to get some blocks done & into my madeit shop.
2. Finally saw all of The Proposal. Not often I get to watch a chick flick these days & usually not all in one hit like this time. lol Sandra is one of my favs!

3. Getting inspired by this book but no time to make use of inspirations. Each chapter starts with something about a particular embroidery stitch. I discovered I have been doing Berlin stitch all these years as apparently that is the original name for cross stitch.

4. Watching DJ grow so fast & making new discoveries.

5. Listening to new music.

Eye Tests

It's been a while since I played along with My Creative Space. In fact there is a place just for every one's creative spaces now.

At the moment I am fiddling around with this doll I have made up. Just a Geisha kind of doll that I had in my head & just wanted to see if I could create. It's going ok after a bunch of scrappy tests. I felt very designery playing with scraps & experimenting etc. But I am fiddling with the face now. I am experimenting with faces. Eyes are hard I have discovered, but one thing I have already figured out playing with this is that more simple if often best, so I need to get the needles & pencils & threads & whatever else back out again & try to get some uninterrupted time to figure out what face looks best. We'll see what happens, as I don't want it to look like creepy or anything. Eyes are hard!

Seems the day for eyes, as BJ has to go for a quick visit to the eye place. It's been a drag over the last 2 years, as they don't do anything. Hopefully it will be simple & the last one! Hopefully I can follow that up with a quick eye test here on dolly!

Anyway, go & visit the creative space link above to check out some other clever clog people! Happy Thursday!

Bit of This and That

I have been fiddling around with bits & pieces. Trying new crochet patterns out & ripping them out. Trying out different yarn I bought at a bargain price probably for good reason but I am determined to use it. It's quite alright, I am just not used to using thicker yarns for crochet yet.

Anyway, I finally finished all 3 of these cats from the first Meet Me at Mike's book. I finished one off awhile ago as it went as a present already. While I was making that I did another one for a baby due any day now. I also did one for DJ as he doesn't have one & they are simple enough, I just didn't rush with these 2. I was determined to finish stuff off now though before starting a few new things.
I also got quite excited by a book BJ got at the library today. It's this one...

Now for any crafty folk that have small children & are reading this, this book is for you too! Check out this link from amazon where you can look inside a few pages. It seems all the books illustrated by Clare Beaton are done with sewing collage pictures using felt, fabric, buttons, sequins, you name it, she uses it. This one is awesome, plus at the end it gives you info on each of the animals found in the north of the world so that is nice for us lot down on the bottom of the world. Just the cover of Secret Seahorse had me sucked in & I had to look through the preview for that one. Well there is one illustrator that I would enjoy looking at picture books of that is for sure.

Okey dokey, that's for me the day. Time to go & read a grown up book in bed. Hahaha... I just realise I am reading a book about sewing too! Laura's Handmade Life - nice easy relaxing read for the busy mum! Seeya!

More Animals

Well after complaining about the frog in the last post I made another. Ok, so it was easy really, but the toes are a real pain, not hard, just a pain! This frog is going to be heading interstate. Hopefully it doesn't breed & go mad over there to become a problem like the cane toads! At least this one is cute though. I still have enough green Dimple fabric to make another I reckon but I won't. (well not unless I find I need a fast present for someone!)

I also did the duck! He is from the same company of patterns. He is really cute but boy, I am feeling quite clever after making him. He wasn't so easy, what with little pieces here & funny shapes there & sew along line M to N & cut holes in it & stick the legs in with some hand sewing & crazy things like that. But over all, he wasn't hard. The directions were really good & as long as you took the time to follow them it went easily. I don't think I had any mistakes to unpick or anything along the way. He is a cute duck that I am sure DJ will like one day.

& so a lesson came of having to teach the big kid that not all the things I make will be for him now. BJ got the frog the other day & of course wanted the duck. So if you have the duck DJ will have the frog. But no he wants both of them of course. Sorry, but the lesson is a valuable one which after a third discussion he may get a little bit more & is quite happy to let DJ have a turn playing with some of his toys since he knows then he can play with DJ's. Life is tough when you are 3.

Have you checked out this magazine yet?

Wow, I love it! Talk about inspiration. I read one of these & my brain starts ticking over with so much inspiration & ideas until I have a sad moment that I am never going to find time to do all the things I need to do. It's a great mag. Unfortunately way down here we are a bit behind on issues so I have to wait to see the issues that I see on the Mollie Makes site. But it really becomes a whose who of blog world. The first mag I picked up, issue 1 funnily enough, I was reading through feeling like I knew quite a few of the writers & creators in the mag as I have read all the blogs at some point. Really great to find them all in print now. They really are doing well. If you haven't had a look at this mag yet, keep an eye out for it at the shops & pick one up. You won't be disappointed.

Times To Treasure

Yep there has been a bit of nothing going on here. Although when I have 2 boys sleeping on me it is not really doing nothing is it? Though I feel like while they are asleep I should be getting some things done. Well not this time. Not possible. The big boy has been under the weather so was having afternoon naps & miserable times which resulted in a moment like this. Quite precious & something that won't happen a great deal, so I must treasure the moments instead of feeling like I should be doing "stuff"!

Somehow over the last month & a bit though I have got my Spring in September hexagon blanket finished. I did give a little info on this in my previous post. I ended up putting in 116 hexagons of the 120 I had ready to go as 120 is the amount I would get out of 5 colours with each hexagon being different combinations. It looks ok. Lucky for me I had spent the odd 5 or 10 minutes sewing ends in so when the end came I didn't have to do the whole blanket worth of ends. It isn't all that big but will do as a lap blanket or a baby blanket or something. It's not a big deal though. I think it was starting to get quite heavy though. I do like it. I need to put it away for a time though so I don't have to look at it for a bit & then I will like it more. I did a 2 row border of single crochet around the outside. It was all it needed to finish it off I think. It does feel nice & soft in the bamboo/wool mix but I sure won't do bamboo for a blanket again in a hurry. Not anything big anyway.

I also have played around with the frog which BJ saw at work (while I was stocking up on bamboo) & told me he needed one. So being the sucker I am I got the pattern & the lime green minkie kind of fabric. The fabric totally sucks to sew but does feel so nice & soft as a toy. The pattern is Prince Charming by Funky Friends Factory & the original shows a crown on the frog but I gave that a miss. There wasn't much to it, but the fabric made it a challenge & the 4 feet with 4 toes, being rotten curves for sewing also added to the challenge. I'm quite pleased with it though & BJ certainly likes him. Now I have to tackle the duck from the same company. DJ needs one too of course. I need to stock up on more of that rotten fabric I guess. I will be brave because it does feel so nice to hold. I will have to grin & bear it & rise to the challenge of the rotten fabric. (not to mention the fluff it leaves all around the house from cutting it out!)

Also a couple of washcloths that I did last month. I found the beautiful cotton in a local store & HAD to get it of course. (yes I could say I was forced, although a lie, it was the bad angel on my shoulder telling me I HAD to try it!) But it is lovely. It is Snuggly Smiley Stripes by Sirdar & so so very nice to play with. The cloths are nice & are nice to use on DJ. Actually the big hexagon one on the top was my practice hexagon for the blanket. I just added a couple of rows onto it to make it bigger for a cloth. It is nice & I love the colours of both. The store only had 3 of the range of colours. I believe there are 8 different ones. I didn't get the third one available here though as it was all pinks & I am really not a pink person to that extent. A little is good but not all pink.

So there you go. I have been busy, although not blogging. We had no computer for a bit as it broke which is of course a pain in the butt, but it made me do other stuff. You don't realise though how much you use the rotten things until you don't have it & want to. I was also going to jump in with something called Blogtoberfest but I missed too much with no computer so I won't bother now. I will try to have my own little blog event where I actually try my hardest to actually post a wee bit more than I have been.

Now I am off to finish off another project that I started recently, as I want to just tie up a few things before I start on another blanket. I am waiting on my first ever order of wool from the Bendigo Woollen Mills & can't wait. I might do a blanket in wool for a change. Then I will hopefully have made up my mind on the colours I want to use for a ripple blanket for DJ. But there is no hurry in that. I will find plenty more to do in the meantime.

Happy Sunday to you all.