End Of November Already

Hat production is on again...  another request for someone with fabric they chose.  This is very cute fabric too...  

& yet another Mill Hill beaded ornament.  

And Another Off That List

I saw this simple idea the other day for Santa pants...  They had done it on red plastic cups.  I needed to find something red first...  I was looking for something like a plant pot thinking I would have to paint.  

Done...  red ramekins from the cheap shop.  $2 each...  bargain.  A bit of black felt ribbon, a white felt belt buckle & some glue - voila...  these will hold my pillar candles on the Christmas table.  

They are so cute & effective I think, that I went back to the cheap shop & bought 8 more.  I will fill them with something, cello wrap them & gift them.  Nicer than a throw away cup & something cute & useful later on.  

I can't find the original picture that I saw but there are a few other types of this on Pinterest if you care to look on there with the search of Santa Pants!  

Now I don't know why I did this yesterday but I did.  I was in the middle of making hats, but couldn't as the little guy wouldn't have a sleep so that messed up my make time.  So instead for some reason I picked this up & went with it.  I had no intention yesterday of doing these but well, things just happen sometimes & I went with it.  Since I had the back ground cut & the sun fabric still left over from the other squares it really didn't take long.  If you remember or not, I did the first 10 Happy Sun quilt squares at about this time last year.  I was caught up with them & then had to wait for the last 2 to be released.  Well of course I didn't do them at the time.  But these last 2 were on my list on the right hand side of my blog "to try to do list". & well there is another done!  I guess for next year I had better put making the quilt top on the list.  

The Happy Sun quilt squares are now available to buy from the designer April Mae, but if you would like the Happy Moon quilt along set she has those available now on her site.  Check them out!  They are like the suns, but night time!  

Weekend Bits

We actually had some sunshine on the weekend.  Wasn't bad considering it was forecast rain all weekend.  

BJ got his Ninja Turtle ornaments made.  We got the idea from Pinterest.  There are so many different versions out there, so you can really pick your own way to make them & do them to suit the age & ability of your children if they want to make them themselves.  A box of Christmas balls from the cheap shop & a bit of felt & google eyes & easy done!  He is most pleased!  Going to make for an interesting tree of course!  

& yes, one more ornament, Chilly Penguin!  Bit cute.  He has lots of bling...  a pretty holly berry, a snowflake, a bell & a fringed scarf!  lol

Taking Stock

Here is my list for today!  If you want a list you can get it from Pip at Meet Me At Mike's too!  

Making : Cross Stitch Christmas ornaments, hats, dishcloths, 
Cooking : boterkoek
Drinking :  coffee
Reading: Coming Home - Rosamunde Pilcher
Wanting: lots of time to finish making
Looking:  at the toy shop catalogue with the boys
Playing: Bug Trails our new favourite game
Deciding: what to get some grown ups for Christmas
Wishing: for a bit more sunshine
Enjoying: planning for a big Christmas.  
Waiting: for new episodes online of Hart of Dixie & Homeland
Liking: a new series to watch, Chicago Fire
Wondering: How much sleep Master 5 will get on Christmas Eve?
Loving: hunting down new recipes for Christmas.
Pondering: the point of hunting down new recipes for Christmas
Considering: what would be best in the boys Advent Calendars
Watching: Chicago Fire
Hoping: That all my effort with the cotton yarn at work will be worthwhile!
Marvelling: at how Master 2 if finally saying everything or at least trying too!
Needing: an early night
Smelling: the clean dog
Wearing: daggy home clothes
Following: My friends Sally & Bron...
Noticing: how grown up my big boy is suddenly
Knowing: I spend too much time playing Candy Crush.
Thinking: I am never going to get every thing done before Christmas that I would like too, but I won't stress over it either!  
Feeling: content
Admiring: Claire Danes as I watch her in Homeland.
Buying: too many Christmas ornaments & things.  But I love it!
Getting: lots of ideas on Pinterest to make more Christmas stuff!
Bookmarking: recipes
Opening: the One Pot Wonders cook book for our dinner tonight
Giggling:  at how some people love Christmas so much that they put up their tree in November & even October!  

How fun is that then.  I love reading what people put down for some of these things.  It's quite enlightening don't you think.  If you want to do it too, go to Pip's page & use her blank list to paste.  

Another Thing Crossed Off

Yay, The Patchwork Stocking is no. 6 of the Mill Hill ornaments.  I had 6 on my list to do this year.  Another one I can mark as done!  

Santa's Sack is Full

I'm nearly done with the 6 that I wanted done this year!  Number 5 is Santa's sack.  I love this one.  This is one of my favourites.  Now admittedly, I haven't just done all of this since finishing the other one.  I found this with all the green bag stitched already.  I got this off ebay some time back.  When I went to do it I found the bag of beads in it didn't match & I actually didn't have most of what I needed to do the ornament.  I know I had stocked up on a few beads & treasure sometime ago.  So I went through stitching & finding all the beads I had bought to complete it.  Some are right & some aren't as I did use a few that were in the bag with it.  It didn't really matter for them.  I really love the bows on the 2 gifts, on the doll & on the sack.  The jingle bells I had to buy as well as they weren't in with it either.  This is one of the earlier ones & I really like the ones made around this time.  

Candy Canes

OK, one more...  the list of 6 on the wanted to do this year is now getting smaller...  2 to go. 

New Ornament

Yes, another one.  I have loads you know.  That aren't done yet.  & loads that are!  lol  

This is a Charmed Ornament.  It was a bit unusual but boy it is pretty.  I just adore the colours of it.  

A Touch Of Snow

Another Mill Hill ornament done!  Yay!  

More Handmade Christmas

Another cowl.  Yep.  This was for the second teacher but I don't think the colours will suit her so it's for someone else now.  I really liked this pattern though. Ziyal was rather cool to do.  Not difficult or anything & quite a quick knit considering I did it only a row here & there.  I'm not loving the yarn colours it was done in, as I think it will be a bit limiting, hence the change of person.  Also next time I will add stitches to make it longer.  As it is though, I only had 6 grams of the ball left so that wasn't bad.  Lucky it wasn't any bigger else I would have run out.  

What do you think of the yarn I've used?  Too much colour to be practical to wear?  Or not?  

Our Weekend

Our weekends are starting to all look the same I think.  A pair of soggy boys playing in a pool.  

But it wasn't a pool yesterday.  It was some alien space ship that BJ was driving.  

Apparently the aliens were pulling him out but DJ had to hold onto him to pull him back in.  

The nappy butt is a good look of course!   But his pants were so soggy they kept falling down.  I took them off just after this.  

Daddy was busy digging up new patches of a now cow free section of paddock, ready for veggies that might be safe from boys & dog.  Unfortunately Juneau our dog was busy helping herself to the crops last year.  

At the moment we are dog sitting too.  Ellie the lab has grown accustomed to being outside with everyone.  She has come a long way in 3 weeks.  She is an inside dog mostly I think.  But not here.  She h

Handmade Christmas

Working on a couple of teacher gifts.  This is the Honey Cowl, which I have done before.  It's a nice pattern.  I didn't do the knit rows top & bottom.  I think I should have after all.  Oh well.  I will in future as it looks a bit better I think.  Anyway, one down.  

Christmas Is Coming

& finally I am getting some Mill Hill ornaments stitched.  They are on my list of things to do this year.  I did the other ornaments the other week & just felt like doing more.  These take a little more time for me, plus I have been short on time this week, but one is done.  Yay!  

Long Weekend

We were lucky enough to have a long weekend this week.  Plus a busy one!  But it was nice to have a couple of things to go & do.  Today we spent the day with family at a wildlife park.  It was busy.  It was great to see the boys interact with the animals that we were allowed to pat & feed.  We've had it now!

Tractors and Hats

DJ has got bigger in the last year.  His hats from last year are too small.  Lucky that mummy knows how to make new ones.  Lucky too that where mummy works has nice tractor fabric!  He was rather pleased with his new tractor hat.  So much so that it even got hugs & kisses.  Yep the hat got them, I didn't!  lol  

I don't usually like using fabric with a definite direction, but this one I had to try.  It's bright so I can spot him easily when out, it's tractors which is always a winner with him these days.  It's worked out better than I hoped though I did fussy a bit to get some decent placement of tractors that weren't only partial.  

Now I can get on to the rest of the hats I have here.  I had a few cut out still from last summer.  Lucky that fabric doesn't go off isn't it!  So I can get them made up & hopefully someone will need one!  

Santa Sacks

Santa Sacks - that apparently are good for potato sack races!  

NOT!  lol  

Well they both tried.  But this is some more stash that I have got out of one cupboard only to put in another I guess.  lol  But I had these Nancy Halverson panels for a while.  We cleared them out at work sometime back & I decided it would make a nice big bag.  I did get fabric to finish them off at one point but I can't find it so used a bit of other stuff I had & just made it work.  You can see the one on the left has 2 rows of small pictures.  Those rows were on the top & bottom of the main design which you can see on the right.  But that made it tooooooo big for a bag.  So I cut the rows off the top & bottom & used them in the back to make the back a bit more interesting.  BJ picked green for in his.  DJ just got some yellow that I had enough of to join to make fit.  I know I will find the missing stuff now.  It's a good thing that fabric doesn't go off in the cupboard isn't it!  Actually if it did I would be able to smell the missing stuff & find it again.  Maybe I didn't get it like I thought I did.  Who knows.  Anyway, they both have giant draw string bags now.  Hopeless to get a picture of them both cooperating at the same time.  Too busy saying "cheese" for the camera.  So sorry, you can't see the big Santa design very well at all!  But they are quite cute I promise!