one from grace

Grace wanted me to show you her artworks she did a little while back, now framed and hung in her room. You have probably seen the outside two here, and the one in the middle was done a few days later. I love the middle one because she had it all finished, then decided that the person in it needed one last finishing touch- lipstick. I was about to shout 'NOoo!!' as she slapped on the red, then realised that her idea of beauty is different to mine. And I love that because instead of just being a painting, to me each one tells a story and shows me more who Grace is.

organising our art

It feels so good to have accomplished something around the house today. I finally put some hooks up in the kitchen to hang all the kiddy art on, thanks to a little inspiration from Soulemama's book and my good friend Lissa. I always hate the thought of putting holes in the walls, since we spent so long painting them...but it did look good once it was all done. I stretched the string from hook to hook, and threaded a whole bunch of mini pegs across. Now we have the perfect spot to display all those colourful creations!



While we were pinning up all the paintings, we came across a bag of gumnuts/pine cones/seed pods. We collected these a while back to make a natural mobile, but somewhere never found the time to make it. So we did that too, and hung it from one of the beams. Its so simple, but the beauty of the natural objects speak for themself and somewhere I find myself endless staring at them.

so you sew

I have an endless list of things to sew at the moment. The problem is it seems to grow at twice the rate in which I can sew...impossible to keep up with! I have patterns I have traced everywhere, that need to be filed away. Patterns of my own that I am busy making, so I can start selling some of my own creations. Another thing I really wanted to do this year is make presents for family and friends, instead of buying. So far, so good...however we barely have any family birthdays in the first half of the year...the real test is yet to come! Luke's mum recently celebrated her birthday, so I made her a tunic top with 3/4 sleeves and a bag. Grace decorated a piece of fabric with fabric crayons, and we stitched it inside the bag as a patch pocket (no photo, sorry).

And my first attempt at a sponge cake, mmmm...it was so tasty!

So, back to that sewing list, today is the perfect day for sewing. Its too wet to go out so I don't feel guilty about staying indoors. Not a minute to lose!

on my needles

So I have decided to knit myself a jumper...and if you know my level of skills in knitting, this is actually quite funny! I probably should have done a scarf or something simple first, but no, I need a jumper so that's what I'm making. It's actually not as slow going as I first thought, and it probably helps that I am knitting in 10ply. Its 100% wool, and the colour is oatmeal. It even smell like oats. If I had my way I would be a skilled knitter and knit like Peta or Kylie...somehow I think I will have to keep dreaming. See the two different kind of stitches on the jumper? That's all the stitches it involves...as well as increasing and decreasing. Very simple. I will keep you updated on it progress. Are yearly updates ok?, this is going to be a long term project!



One other thing, I have realised that I can knit while watching a movie! So we watched Jane Eyre (again) over the weekend. This movie is right up there with the best of the best on my movie list...dare I say better than or equal to Pride and Prejudice. I think I will get in trouble for this one. BBC sure knows how to produce the goods.

mini quilt #2

Here is the other mini quilt I made for Grace's dolls...I think it was for her 3rd birthday. This one I actually hand quilted, which took a lot longer but I was far more satisfied with the end result. All the fabric is from my growing collection of vintage fabrics, sheets and such. I also painted up my old dolls cot to go with the bedding as part of her present. There is also a mattress to match for both the quilt sets that you can't see in the photos.

mini quilt

Gosh, its been more than a week between posts and I have nothing to show for it. I have cut out a pattern to make myself some wide leg pants, but they are looking really w i d e. It kind of put me off as I really hate having to alter the pattern. I really should get to it tonight, so I can tick one more thing off my list...that just keeps growing and growing.
We had one of my brothers and his wife stay on the weekend, which was just lovely. Although I did manage to cram in one too many serves of desert- looks like those wide leg pants could come in handy after all. We normally only have desert when visitors are over, so I made up for lost time. We also did a little op shopping together and came home with an Elna sewing machine for my sister-in-law. It goes like a dream. I managed to talk the lady down from $45 to $25! What a steal!


Anyway, instead of blabbing on I thought I would show you something I made a little while back for Maeve's 1st birthday. You have probably seen the doll before here. Dad and Luke made the little walker trolley together- which I just love! I made the little reversible quilt and pillow to match. The embroidery on the pillow was off an old vintage sheet I found, and the quilt was made from my sewing scraps. Its amazing how satisfying it is to make bedding for the dolls. Maybe I'm just mad, or maybe it because its nice to have an easy project that can be compleated in under 2 hours. I have also done the same thing for Grace's baby, so I will try and show you those photos soon.

kim pants #2

I finally got around to making Grace the second pair of Kim Pants by Farbenmix. She had picked out the fabric and trims ages ago. I have had them sitting there all cut out and waiting to be sewn for weeks, so it is nice to have them out of the way. This is a great pattern (instructions are a little lean though) and very versatile. I am thinking of making some denim flares with it next. The bellow pockets were not on the original pattern, they were and added extra.
Let me say, they are not exactly my style, but I tried to follow her direction and make them extra girly, because she does like things pretty...her only concern now is that people might think she is a clown! I think they have turned out pretty cute.

picnic

I hope your weekend was as fun as ours. We had a picnic down at the creek, which was so peaceful. We really need to make more times like these to connect as a family. There was lots of running around, a little soccer and boule, bird spotting, splashing in the creek, fruit and cups of tea.

magnet swap

I just took part in my first swap over at Crafty Mamas. The challenge was to make a magnet with something on it that represented the start of winter. Lucky me got to swap with the very creative Melissa, and here's what I received.

A beautiful needle felted flower, and a gorgeous little gnome...which is very appropriate considering what most my friends call me!

Some very sweet little cupcakes- yum yum.

And the cutest little bee finger puppets complete with rhyme to sing along with! My girls totally love these! So thank you very much Melissa, for making my first swap so enjoyable.

The start of winter for me reminds me to eat up my citrus. Its usually in season and high in Vitamin C to help keep the winter nastys at bay. So here is what I sent to Melissa.

Four little citrus magnets, a lemon zip up case (that I was going to hand embroider around, but got lazy and did on the machine), a lemon tea towel and lime lip balm.

Here are the magnets that I hand stitched.

And a close up of the lime, because it was my favorite.

button bag

Things have been a little slow around here lately. The internet had painfully switched back to dial-up, thankfully its now back to normal. Dial-up is torture.
This is a bag I made a couple of weeks back. It was a present for my sister-in-law. I haven't really been into bag making, but this was really fun to put together.



I made up my own pattern which was very basic, and lined it. I really need too learn how to do the lining properly, I think my method was rather unconventional...but at least it worked. If I was making this for myself I think I would slightly enlarge the pattern and add a button/clip for closure.


And a close up of the covered buttons. The red fabric is some from my vintage surprise pack- very nice! The blue flower is from the lining fabric, and the other pattern is from a much loved vintage apron.


And what good is a present without a beautiful card to match? This one is thanks to my budding little artist who is swamping me with the cutest drawings as of late. The birthday girl is in red and she is holding a bunch of balloons. I am sure this will make her day!



Next on my bag list is a little girls hand bag for Grace. The current one has just had the handles re-stitched...thanks to one little sister who loves to grab and snatch. Her one specification is that it must have a zip, apparently snaps just aren't good enough fo keeping little sisters away from your special things. So the verdict on bag making...I loved it! There are many more patterns floating around in my head, some on paper and some yet to get there. Hopefully I will have more to show you very soon.