pins

I still had one sick child home with me today, while she napped in my bed I did a wee bit of crafting. It's a project I've had in mind for quite a while now. It's a place for all the Pippins pins that miss E has made over the last couple of years at Pippins events. There are a few more scattered around the house that I must track down, a sure sign that I should have got on to this project earlier. It brightened her mood once she awoke and it's now hanging pride of place on her bedroom wall, she's graduated to Brownies now and we are going to make another for all the pins she'll make in the coming years, then I won't have to track any down! The fabric I used was a from a little tunic I made way, way back here. It was a little cover up for preschool all those years ago, the front was all stained from painting adventures so I cut the unstained back to make the frame (the Pippins symbol is an apple that's why I used the apple fabric!)

While I was at it, I made a little frame for my bedroom wall too. One to house all my brooches, I find if these sort of things are on display I tend to wear and use them much more, look at all my Tiny Happy felt brooches! I love them. I finally hung the thrifted Tui cross stitch and my lovely name badge from Max. A lovely little trio on my wall now.

hot!

I had two sick children at home with me today, it meant some DVD watching and washing being FINALLY folded as I tended to the sick and needy. I also managed to get some stitching time in, completing my hottie cover for the 2013 Hottie Challenge. All the hottie covers will be exhibited at Open Drawer, Art, Textiles and Learning Centre. Once the exhibition is over all the hottie covers get donated to the Margaret Pratt Foundation that raises funds for supporting people who have had heart and lung transplants, cool huh?

I don't know why I came up with this design! I was thinking of crocheting a green base and sewing a bunch of crochet flowers all over it, like a crochet garden. Then one night when I was almost asleep this idea popped into my head. It's a bit crazy, but the sick children agreed they would both like one! The best part was I didn't buy a single thing to make it. Stash busting at it's best.

Some hotties have already been finished, check out this post to see some. It's not too late to enter if you too would like to donate a hottie cover too, you can find all the details here.

Argh!

Late last year the super talented Lisa from Big Little asked me if I would be interested in being a pattern tester for her girls pirate jacket. I had already been  lucky enough to test way back here for her Pirate Jacket pattern, so I wasn't about to say no! Miss E was desperately jealous without a pirate jacket of her own so I was pleased to see that the new pattern went up to larger sizes (up to size 6). I love all the little details Lisa puts in her patterns, the treasure maps are such a inventive idea and I often spy the kids out in the garden looking for treasure with their maps. The patterns are so easy to follow which makes them suitable for sewers of all abilities. The kids wear their jackets out all the time, getting lots of comments, especially when they are out together.

If you would like to make your own pirate jacket you can buy the amazing pattern from the Big Little Etsy Shop, or if sewing isn't for you, Lisa can custom make one for you! Check out the other great things Lisa has in her shop, I have my eye on a hot water bottle cover!

weekending luck

 I'm quite a homebody, especially over the cooler months. We'll often spend the entire weekend at home and  in the depths of Winter probably the whole weekend indoors! It's quite lucky that most of my favourite pastimes can be done snuggled up inside, and made all the more enjoyable in the cooler weather. This weekend was a rainy, stay inside kind of weekend and I did just that.

I like to keep a stock of handmade booties and other wee things for gifting to new babies, my stocks have been running low lately. It's a good excuse to use some nice hand spun yarn and try out a new pattern. I've got several pairs finished now just awaiting the right buttons.

We did actually briefly brave the rainy weather to drop off a bunch of stuff to the local thrift shops, while there I picked up some amazing linens. Each is a large square tablecloth, two are in pristine "I can't bear to cut them up" condition. The bottom one with Autumn like leaves however has a number of holes and stains so that one will be made into some notebooks. Each tablecloth (1 metre by 1 metre) was just $1! Crazy I don't know how they slipped through the pricing cracks as teeny tiny pieces of linen were priced at $8 each! The young girl at the counter didn't bat an eye as she announced the "grand total" - I high tailed it out of there before I was found out. I felt like I was stealing them at that price. Lucky for my linen collection that we braved the rainy weather.

Do you like rainy weekends?

experimental

 I've wanted to make some fabric yarn  (spun on a spinning wheel) for a long time, but with lots of other projects on the go I haven't really had a chance to sit down and experiment. I did get a wee chance over the weekend, nothing like a rainy Autumn weekend to be nicely tucked up inside and creating.

I started out using a very soft vintage sheet that was a bit too soft to sew with. I'm not going to sugar coat it, it wasn't as easy as I had imagined. I stopped, did some online research and tried again. Still slow going! I'm not a patient crafter, ahem and that's putting it mildly if you ask my husband. SO there were some grumbles and then I decided I'd try another day, but it's been bugging me ever since as to why I couldn't get it to work how I wanted it to.

 I've heard the weather isn't going to be so great this weekend, so I might give it another try then. I've got a new idea about how I might go about it. Are you a patient crafter?

into the clouds

I'm pretty sure I'm no different to any other child (or adult), when lying on my back staring into the sky, I imagine what it would be like to sit in one of those fluffy looking clouds as they float on gently by. I have very vivid memories of this from my childhood, they look so inviting, don't they? 

 It's with these fond memories in mind that make me fall head over heels in love with this book - Mr Bear Branches and the cloud conundrum by Terri Rose Baynton (written and illustrated by! - super talented huh?). It also happens to be a finalist in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. 

It's a lovely story about two friends, one with a dream of playing and sitting in the clouds and the other a "realist" or a spoil sport to put it bluntly!

It uses some pretty sophisticated language when describing why, playing/sitting in the clouds will never be a reality. This use of the correct terms delighted miss E who had studied the water cycle at school and knew all the correct terms. 

I know my two also harbour dreams to sit and play in clouds and we've laid on our backs together in long grass before, watching the clouds drift by. So I wanted to create a "cloud" for them. I told them to gather up all the pillows off each bed in the house, including the ones on mummy and daddy's bed (the ones they aren't allowed to play with!) and bring them to the lounge. 

They were just like this character in the book, Lintfrey Longfellow, they had "growing curiosity" as we placed the pillows into a circle and draped a crisp white sheet over. I hung a sheet behind them also. Then I dished out some "cloudy" snacks, popcorn with a meringue for afters. 

It was quite magical and we sat and read the lovely book. Made all the better by our cloudy surroundings for sure!

my camera didn't do a great job capturing the true magic of the cloud - so I magic'd them up a bit with pic monkey!

frogged

Frogged is a yarn term that I've only recently discovered. It means to unravel knitting/crochet, maybe

because you've made a mistake - or in my case, because I'm recycling! 

I found one of those enormous wrap style tops, the kind that are just a  giant rectangle with two slits for arm holes. It was just $3 and I knew that there was LOTS of yarn hiding in that rectangle. 

So I've started to unravel it, with plans of making a cardigan for Miss E, she loves the colour (me not so much though). I had in mind a tutorial to show you how to recycle yarn, but then I found this recycling yarn tutorial, so that should help you if you want to recycle too, and why wouldn't you?

Crafting can be expensive! Seriously, I think sometimes they see us crafters coming and rub their hands together with glee! Recycling yarn is a great way to keep costs down, look for big items in mostly the same colour, like jumpers or jerseys. These yield the most yarn.

I've read some pretty staggering statistics recently about how much textile waste is going to landfills around the world, kind of super scary stuff people! I know I can't change that too much by myself, but I'm determined to make a small difference how and when I can. For me personally that means trying to make careful clothing choices for my family (think quality over quantity and making the most of thrifted clothes) and I and recycle when I can! It's got to be better on the pocket too and that's always a win!

market + wee giveaway

When I was in Christchurch for Around the table, there was an amazing market on the Friday night. There was a huge array of talented crafters and designers there, seriously. Each table seemed to be filled with things I wanted to take home with me.  I was restrained by the cash I had in my wallet and that was probably a good thing. 

 I love this brooch by Little Fritter. I was taken by two brooches, this one that features some sweet liberty fabric and the other was an acrylic one shaped like a fantail. I wanted both, but after a lengthy decision I decided on this one, I can always buy the one from the Little Fritter shop!

 I loved everything from In my backyard, Stella and I both bought a print and some fabric scraps too - such copycats aren't we? I loved the wee scrap packs, mainly because I'm a terrible fabric hoarder. I just hate cutting into beautiful fabric, but you see the cutting has already been done! So I can happily use these pretty wee pieces.

I didn't buy this one, but it was included in the great goodie bag from Around the table. The super generous Emma from Emma Makes donated a notebook and pencil for each blogger attending the conference. Super duper generous I say! Check out her lovely Emma Makes shop.

And I know all of you NZ bloggers who missed out on attending Around the table, are feeling totally left out after all these posts popping up about what an amazing event it was. Here's you chance to feel (in a small way) like you were there. I've got the above items to pop in the post for a NZ blogger who didn't make it and would like a goodie bag of their own! The first comment of "yes please" will get the lot. My favourite thing would have to be the cool postcard by Stella! "I'm kind of a big deal on my blog"

*Open to NZ bloggers only, first comment by a blogger who didn't attend Around the table will win!  Giveaway closed
Congratulations to Sally!

bombed

Last week a group of kind bloggers got together to send off surprise packages to a lovely lady, nice huh?

You can read about what she thought and look at some of the other beautiful "bunting bombs" sent  here.