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.

A Sneak Peek

This is my current project that I am naming my Spring in September blanket. It is the hexagon pattern from Attic24 & it's pretty simple but very effective I think. I am only using 5 colours & did you know that if you use 5 colours on a 4 round project you will get 120 different pieces using all different colour combinations, but only using each colour once per piece. Got that? I thought I was pretty clever working that out myself with my little family tree type diagram to work out my colour list. But then I was given a very handy link which does that working out for you & even lists the combinations for you. So handy so save it won't you. You will be glad you did. Maybe not right now, but later on. I need to save it as I will never remember the word permutations to ever do a search for it. So that's what I have been playing with lately. I have all 120 pieces done up to round 3 so I am pleased. Just trying to find time to do a bit of round 4 & round 5 the join as you go one! It's fun watching it grow! I still don't know how big it will be or if I will need to add a couple more hexies.

In between times we just watch these 2 growing up so fast. DJ is 12 weeks already!

Happy Weekend!

No More Cake Thanks!

There's been a whole lot of this going on lately! Time for a cake break though. You kind of get over it after a while!

Cupcakes at the top are Red Velvet. I don't know what the big deal is with the current trend of these right now as it was really just cake. I sure wasn't going to keep adding red colour to it either to get it any redder! Cream cheese icing was great though.

The next lot were Cappuccino cupcakes. They were a hit but not enough flavour to me. I am getting fussy! The top is interesting as it is baked cheesecake on top instead of just a cream cheese frosting. Good fun to try!

& someone had fun blowing out each candle! lol

I Have Been Giraffing Around

I have been doing some craft! This giraffe is for DJ & is from the same pattern book as all the animals I did about 2 years ago for BJ! I am not particularly happy with Hoff, as I have named him. But he's ok. I actually finished knitting it weeks ago, but some days with a couple of kids just doesn't give you a chance to sit & do a thing like this so the sewing up of each bit took a little while too get done. One day I will look at it & think I didn't do a bad job of it after all, even though the legs aren't really in the right place. The most impressive bit is the mane, which is actually knitted in that loopy style! Very clever! For the rest, I don't like the pattern as I don't like how the increases look like holes. I don't like the bottom of it's body which I ended up weaving some extra yarn around to try to fill in the holes, else I expect he would have leaked stuffing in no time. Oh well, he's done & DJ now has one toy too.

I have finally decided on a couple of new projects as I haven't got anything simple to just pick up & do without thinking. For the little time I have in the evenings between getting the boys to bed & my crashing out (very early) it is nice to just be able to pick something up & do a little & feel a little creative. So below is my current little splash of colour this time using Heirloom Bamboo Wool blend. There are lots of little centres all over the place at the moment & that's about all.

For the rest there has been much focus on the family. DJ is growing way too fast. He is cute as ever though. He was sleeping on Daddy yesterday & squishing his little face up in all sorts of cute ways.

If that baby fix doesn't do anything to make you smile then check out these wee ones we have over the fence. We have 6 little lambs in the paddock - not ours, they just spend time eating our grass! They provide a great deal of entertainment, jumping all over the place & chasing the chickens that also come over for a play. They are cute in little black socks & faces, & one is stripy & one has spots! So cute!

Well, it's been a busy little month, but hopefully I will get a chance to do a couple of other things. I have a couple of things in the works at the moment, but getting the sewing machine out is going to be a night time activity I think! So stay tuned for more!