Bend the Rules Sewing

Source: Craftzine

Last week I made the 'Swing Swing Smock' for a friend's new baby from Amy Karol's book. I was so well behaved that I even pre-washed my fabric *gasp*

I have never sewn binding on in one swoop (I usually sew one side on the machine then the other by hand), definitely never before using zig-zag, but this was quick and not too tricky. I didn't even need to use the seam ripper, which is usually my best friend when sewing. thanks Amy! I'll post a better photo after the gift has been recieved x

Busy bees...

Yesterday I tackled my personal sewing fear (I am sure we all have some of those)... the dreaded and evil zipper. I made three little zip pouches from my new book 'Bend-the-Rules Sewing' by Amy Karol. Two are going to special friends for gifts, and one is for me to hold my crochet hooks.

There is something nostalgic about the metallic jingle the hooks make in their little zip pouch.

This is Hanna. Yesterday she sat there on the dining room window ledge for hours crocheting ... amidst complaining of pins and needles in her butt lol.

She crocheted this (how very sweet is it). It is a christmas crown. She wasn't impressed with the paper ones you get in bon-bons as they rip and come in dodgy colours (haha, too true), so she crocheted a woolen one ALL BY HERSELF! ! ! No help, just little consultations. She even worked out how to do the spikey top! It makes me feel a bit spesh as I taught her to crochet a year ago. It's so nice having a crafty daughter-in-law. Your such a great kid Hanna. ox

Gift tags - tick!

Today was very productive indeed!!! Finally things have been wrapped, tied up, glued and written on for special peeps (it seems to take so long to get to this stage doesn't it?)
Pages from an old book were cut up, and glued onto playing cards.... which were snipped into gift tag shapes and hole punched.

I followed Pip's super quick crochet love heart tutorial from here and managed to persist and make about 15 of them.

et viola!

Oh Christmas branch, oh Christmas branch...

Here is our finished handmade branch. It was a family joint effort... well sorta.

and here is our lounge room with branchy goodness in the corner...Hanna crocheted the long rainbow garland and made a pile of tiny.... no - miniscule, paper origami cranes.

I crocheted the white wool bobble garland, sewed the weird shaped fabric ornaments, and insisted on listening to nice carols sung by Perry Como, The Drifters, Dean Martin, Sinatra and Nat King Cole.

The Boy's contribution was to get frustrated and stamp on his first unsuccessful origami crane, so tried again, decided to ignore the all-important folds and proudly completed something which resembles a Pterodactyl. He also provided honest (sometimes honesty just isnt called for) suggestions which we disregarded anyway - yay for female:male ratio of 2:1!!!! Lucky for us he does not really mind what rediculous crafting goes on in the house :D

x Happy Thursday everyone!

tik-tok

Last night I started this embroidery hoop felt clock, and finished it this morning. It was a little bit slap-dash I admit. But I couldn't help but rush it a bit to see if the clock motor I dexterously removed from a cheap wall clock would work ($3.99 -Sam's Warehouse).

Magically it does work- despite a worrying snapping (!) sound when I removed the hour hand. Success! Here she is...

I made it after stumbling across and proceeding to drool over the embroidered clocks made by ESTY seller's blissinateacup.

Patience Tracey, patience.

After months of watching our three fruit trees grow (fig, pear and peach/apricot - we still don't know what it is) they are weeks away from being ripe enough to eat.

I nearly fell off the ladder while taking the next photo. Stupid unbalanced ladder.

I'm expecting the pears to be bitter. I figure if I lower my expectations and they are sweet-ish I'll be very excited. If they are bitter can I make them into jam, or will that turn out bitter too?

Does anyone have any tired and tested fig or pear recipes? :)

ps. I do love school holidays. I went opping on a Monday, woohoo!

pss. The vintage boat tin was $1. happiness.

Avez vous une moustache?

We had a family picnic today! It was lovely, and made even funner (not a real word but it works) with the addition of these cupcake moustaches and speech bubbles (which I printed onto card stock from the free .pdf, made by Elsie of A Beautiful Mess - one of my fave blogs!)

I would suggest for everyone to whip up a batch of cuppins, print of the .pdf and be ridiculous xx

Crochet headband ...

This morning I was bored with the state of my black curls and inspired by Leigh-Anne at Freckled Nest's beautiful crochet headbands. I had 20 mins before I needed to go out so I got crocheting. It was so simple to do. The best thing is that it ties in a soft knot at the back to fit my head shape - all headbands bought from shops give me headaches. Could it be that I've got a big head? ;s

My 100th post!

yikes - 100!!! It is a huge number. I cannot believe that I have shared 100 little pieces of crafty, oppy, nesty or just plain happy things. AND I also cannot believe that I have 22 followers, I feel so amazed when I see that number jump up very couple of weeks....

AND thank you super huge amounts to those who leave comments from time to time. It reminds me that others are reading and enjoy what I share, and that I'm not just sending photos and words into the depth of cyberspace (a bloggers nightmare, am I right?). Comments spur me on to think of new things which would hopefully inspire and delight :P

Now, onto what I have been crafting up this weekend. The festive season seems to have hit me, like never before. I am usually not really into it, but want nothing more than to crochet new decorations for the tree, eer branch, and watch terrible Xmas movies like The Santa Clause with Tim Allen.

Here are some sneek peeks of our Christmas branch. Yes, I chose to boycott the traditional Chrissy tree. We chose a beautiful twisted Eucalypt branch from the reservoir at the end of our road.... it was heavy and I nearly got bitten by a party of angry inch ants while dragging it out from the thicket. It will be a 100% handmade tree, to follow in tradition of the handmade pledge. Here are some sneek peeks into what we've been doing to make it look special :)

No, this is not a pile of 'Roo Knackers' as the Boy suggested.

A vintage napkin decoration and in the background a single crochet rainbow garland.

Finally I get to use some of my cotton reels in a fun way. I will be sharing more photos over the next few days when the tree is finished x

Handmade garlands...

I am sure that an epic weekend of xmasy DIY this weekend will get me into the festive season. We'll be getting a tree, very exctied! I'm planning to make some of these garlands from recycled catalogues and old crappo magazines...

Flower Garland from Zakka Life

Paper Circle Garland from Wrenhandmade on ETSY (I love this so much but don't know where to get a cirular punch from. Has anyone seen one in any shops in Adelaide?)

Paper, felt & Bead Garland from Joli Paquet

Let the stitching begin...

Hooray - I've finally started my handmade Christmas makin'.

Something for my cousin's 4 yr old son - a fabric memory game. A wonderful, simple and clear tutorial can be found here at Chez Beeper Bebe (I didn't have enough felt, so put bamboo quilt wadding in my fabric sandwich instead).

The game squares all zig-zagged up.

Something for our house too. I have been experiencing 'inspiration wall' envy big time recently. On Sunday I finally made one for our dining room wall using our new flash Epson printer - she is a beauty! I was a bit naughty and used double sided sticky scrapbooking dots directly on the wall. I'll just paint over it in the future right?!

I am really loving the wall. The lines are quite straight (admittedly I can be rather anal about straight lines - example, if you put twinkle lights on your house frontage - please nail them up in a nice perfectly straight line, please) and the photos all make me smile x

The owl giveaway winners are...

Above: The writing and folding of 41 blogger names (MY OH MY! What a monstrous number of people loving my little softies). I looked up at the ceiling (and noticed some feral spiderwebs by the light fixture, will get to that tomorrow) and chose 3 winners.

Congratulations to

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Hoot Hoot!

I will be in contact with you very soon :)

Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home

Hello! Myrtle & Eunice is this weeks chosen theme queen for Pip's meme. I admit this initially had me stumped. Largely as since we moved mid-09 I seem to have many beloved treasures still in my old bedroom at my folks house.

So... upon roaming the house (with 3-day-school-camp brain I might add!) something jumped out. This little ceramic elephant was given to me by my cousin when I was probably 14 or so. We grew up practically in each others pockets when I lived in Melbourne. My cousin and I were inseparable on weekends, and spent most of our school holidays together.

So many treasured childhood memories were spent with my cousin, including making bathroom moosh (the art of using up copious amounts of lotion, makeup and toothpaste to whip up batches of 'new' and 'improved' bathroom products), playing cow-pat cricket in paddocks, making nasturtium leaf meals on huge rocks by the stream, sewing then wearing black satin face masks and glitzy rhinestone gloves for Michael Jackson's History concert in '97, and taking turns at pretending to be Don Burke and guest gardeners on their acreage.... to name a few. I'm chuckling away as I type this as so many moments were so fun, messy and downright brilliant!

The elephant is now quite well travelled - when I moved to London with my family, the elephant came with me for 3 years. It's now found its way on our shelf in the entryway in Adelaide. It is a nice reminder of my childhood and good times.


*Giveaway Reminder* Today (Sat. 5-12-09) at 8pm I will be announcing the 3 winners of these 3 handmade owls. If you want a chance to win its as easy as leaving me a comment here. Good Luck!

happy little campers...

...and now I sleep.

pledge you!

do it x

seasonal shmeasonal...

Xmas for me arrives with a big flashing neon light screaming 'Commercialism Ahead!' This Xmas I am boycotting as much commercial ick as I can by attempting to make, bake or buy 100% handmade. I have lots of delicious plans but sadly not much time.

What to handmake for a 30 yr old boy, that is of paramount concern here right now. Last year I asked him what he would like. He was being cheeky and rather ridiculous at the time, plus being the bug lover he is simply said "A praying mantis!" I laughed. We laughed. Then I started drawing up the pattern. Here she is. We adore her. She takes pride of place on one shelf in our dining room. Problem? This years gift has to top the darn mantis. Crap. The envisaged crochet stubby holder may not suffice this year.... any ideas?

oh, mum gave me a random gift today, wait for it.. a 72 PACK OF STUDIO DERWENTS!!!! :):):):):) ok ok, I have wished for these since I was 12 years old.. that is 15 years of wishin! I seriously love them mum, your the best!

C'mon already school holidays!!!

Peace and quiet...

Things in general, but especially on the craft front, have been pretty relaxed in our house. This time of the year for me means reports, assessment and camp organising. But... today I did manage to whip up a lovely playlist for Vic of Punky and Me's 'Music to craft by' CD swap - very excited to get some happy mail in the letter box sometime next week!

I also started some amiginumi making. I havent made any ami's for yonks, so I happily welcomed the urge to follow the pattern for Little Teddy Bear in my beloved 'KYUUTO! Japanese Crafts' book!

x

Hope you had a relaxing weekend too :)

My Creative Classroom...

My creative space is in my classroom this week! For those who weren't aware, I am a teacher. I'm taking my class of Year 3/4 munchkins on camp next week for 3 days to the beach. Yes, I am brave! This week's pre-camp craft activity - making teddy bear friends for camp!!!!

Last Saturday morning I passed some time sewing up 50 simple calico teddy bears. I don't want to sew up a teddy - ever again!

Look at their busy little hands!!!! :)

They did such a great job....I was amazed at how quickly they all picked it up. Some of their hand stitching was super neat and tidy! Making the bears reminded me to incorporate handcrafts into the curriculum more often. Teaching life skills skills such as sewing and knitting are too often forgotten about in schools these days. What do you think?

The finished teddies.... I feel so proud of my class!!!

Three Little Owls Giveaway...

*Hooray* It's Pip's 3rd bloggy birthday this week. Sheesh - three years of sharing craft, inspiration and all round niceness, of which I have been happily reading for about one. Pip is celebrating giveaways today! I have never held one but have always wanted to. Who doesn't love to recieve things just because?!

I am giving away these 3 (keeping with the theme) sweet owls handmade by me in 2008 when I first became interested in softie making.

I still adore them, but sadly all three currently live in a cardboard box in a cupboard. I would like them to have good homes, where they will be seen, fly free and perhaps be loved by a child (or adult). They were made with love using nice things like...

• retro buttons
• thrifted fabric from 1) velour cushions and 2) curtains
• doilies
• thrifted ric-rac
• felt

Although I hate to split up the parliament, I will be giving away one owl to three different readers. So really .... you have 3 chances to win!

All you have to do is... leave me a comment on this here post. I will be choosing the THREE winners on Saturday the 5th of December (at approx 8pm) and will be posting the following week. Posting within Australia only, sorry international visitors! Oh, don't forget to leave your email address so I can contact you if your one of the lucky three winners.

Yikes, I am a tad excited :)

Good luck! x

Getting out of the city...

I hope your weekend was inspiring too. x