Day to Day

Crochet blanket questions.

Thankyou for all the lovely comments about Helen's beautiful blanket.  To answer your questions, all of the yarn used was from Bendigo Woollen Mills (8 ply classic).

Yarn colours used:

Blueberry, Iris, Guava, Celery, Poseidon and Seaquest (a 200g ball of each colour)

Three 200 gram balls of Mulga (the chocolate brown colour) were used for the borders and edge around the rug.

Blanket backing:

Crochet the entire blanket first (including all the edging). Then, spread the blanket out on a flat surface and cut a piece of fabric (Helen used a flannelet sheet) to size, allowing space for the hem.  Fold and iron over all the edges of the hem - measuring and checking as you go to ensure that the backing is the right size for the blanket.  Once the hem has been ironed, handstitch the fabric onto the back of the fabric.

Pretty easy hey!

Here's a peek at my crocheting progress too....inspired by Helen's blanket I spent an hour or so on the weekend sewing ends in on some completed squares for my own blanket:

 

And I've started another pear using Salihan's pattern - this one is pink!

 

Have a lovely week - it's raining here again, good weather for staying indoors and crafting I think.

Birthday celebrations.

Today was Oscar's 5th birthday party (my divine nephew).  His party was at home (his house) and there was an abundance of cute food to help celebrate:

A digger cake made by his Mummy.

Cute spider cupcakes that were delicious!

Racing car biscuits...brrrrmm brrmmm.

Teacups (made by me).

Cute streamers for decoration.

The birthday boy himself.

Miss Bonnie.

Party games.

Dancing.  Bella's sweet flower brooch was a gift from the lovely Catherine.

More party cuteness.

Bella and her cousin Kate (she's over visiting from the mainland, yay).

And every big five year old needs a special present!  This was my gift, a fabric car mat (one of my projects in Australian Home Sewn magazine).  It was heavily inspired by a car quilt that I found in a Japanese craft magazine, but that one had curvy roads, ponds and trees.  I kept my version nice and simple with straight roads.  I fell in love with the Japanese fabric as soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for Oscar, he's mad keen on trucks and cars!  I've heard via the grape vine that he's been playing with it this afternoon after the party - so happy that he loves it !!

Happy birthday darling, we love you so much!!

P.S.  Thankyou so much for all the lovely comments about Helen's crocheted blanket - I'll get back to you tomorrow with the questions that you asked :)

Clever friends.

I have quite a few talented crafty friends and today I thought I'd share a project created by one of them!

This beautiful blanket was crocheted by Helen.  Helen started the blanket after seeing my first crochet blanket attempt, but quickly overtook me with her crocheting, finishing her blanket super fast!

Isn't it beautiful!!? I really wanted to keep it for myself ofcourse, but it's for Helen's shack and she just wouldn't leave it at my house after we photographed it....oh, there is a matching pillow too, but I don't have a photo of that.  The blanket is backed with fabric, such a nice idea and I'm thinking of doing this on my blanket too (when I finish it).  I really love the thick, crocheted edge too.

I know there are quite a few of my readers that have also started their own crochet blanket, so I thought you might like to see Helen's version, it's certainly inspired me to keep plodding along and finish the two projects I have started.

Next week I'll share my Mum's knitted blanket with you :)

Have a peary nice day.

After doing such a confident pear post the other day, I realised (thanks Salihan!) that there was a wee problem with my pear....so I unpicked and started again!  In-between the painting and mess that we have going on here at the moment, I snuck a few moments of crocheting and TA-DA my pear is nearly finished (just waiting on the stalk and leaf that I'll hopefully do today):

Cute is an understatement! I love this little guy and have become so super impressed with my crochet making/pattern reading skills that I want to make another one.  He's huge too!

Bella was waiting patiently for my leftover yarn to do some more finger knitting with too (she's working on a finger knitted blanket).  Now, I'm not sure how we're putting/sewing the blanket together or whether it will ever come to fruition, but so far she has about 20/30 metres of length finishedand waiting to be sewn.

 

P.S.  Don't forget - you still have time to win your very own pear!! Go HERE to Salihan's post and leave a comment.

Rainbow Witchy Poo & the green frog.

Remember my post from a few weeks ago about the Rainbow Witch?  Bella finished writing her story (Rainbow Witchy Poo & the green frog) this week and last night we put the finishing touches on her costume ready for the Book Week Parade today.

 

Book: Written and illustrated by Bella
Rainbow Socks: Borrowed from Claire
Red Tutu: An old dance costume from a couple of years ago
Red Velvet Cape:  Little Red Riding Hood's cape from last year
Witch Hat: Sewn from felt scraps and the garnish was a finger knitting project that Bella created herself
Necklace: Made by Bella
Red Top: From Bella's wardrobe
Green Skirt: Refashioned from a second hand ball gown.

End Result = One happy little Witchy Poo!

Thankyou so much too - my inbox is overflowing with around 40 penpals for Bella!!  I'm going to remove the post from yesterday and today I will email eveyone back.  Bella was so excited, it was really hard for her to pick just one, especially since she really loved the idea of writing to them all!!  Thankyou :)))

Pear crochet.

Armed with yarn, Salihan's delightful pear pattern and my crochet hook I attempted to start my pear today.  Having no experience whatsoever with crochet stitches or pattern reading (my crochet stitch expertise is limited to one stitch only) my first couple of attempts didn't go well.  However, my lovely friend Helen came to the rescue and helped me master it, starting off the first few rows for me and guiding me when I was lost wondering which stitch was next....

And now I'm home alone and feel like shouting out to everyone how confident I'm feeling that I can master this pear and really it's not so hard to read patterns after all :))

Just incase you're wondering what I'm going to do with my finished pear, it's going to live in our camper - something fun to sit on James or Bella's bed (perhaps I'll need to crochet another so they have one each). 

It's crocheting up much faster than I imagined too, so soon I'll hopefully be able to share my finished pear with you all.

In the meantime, don't forget to go HERE and enter the give away to win your very own pear!!

August sponsor - Salihan Crafts {+ giveaway}

Today the lovely Salihan has released her very first pattern and delightful crocheted pear toys for sale.  Aren't they sweet?!!

The Amigurumi pear pattern comes in three sizes - the smallest pear is 18cm/7″ tall and 51cm/20″ around, while the largest stands at 25cm/9″ tall and is 71cm/28″ around.

Over the next week I'm going to be starting my own pear (using Salihan's pattern), which is rather exciting, especially since I've never followed or read a crochet pattern before - so I'll keep you posted on how that goes :)

Now for some fun ........

You can take a peek at Salihan's online store and purchase your very own Amigurumi pear pattern or pear toy HERE

Then, pop over to Salihan's blog post HERE to enter the giveaway for your very own pear!!

My little mud muffin.

We sure have had plenty of rain here lately and Bella does love her mud playing.  She was building a dam in our backyard in this photo, good stuff when you're little.

Speaking of rain, I snapped this photo today at Evandale (in the north of Tasmania) - they're picnic tables and parking signs nearly under water!

And just because I wanted to make this an 'all over the place' post, here's a photo of James from today.  I'm getting a little bit frightened of just how grown up he's looking lately.

Last but not least.....drum roll.....I finally finished Bella's scarf (plus the matching one for her friend too)!!

New books.

This new book just arrived in my mail box:

Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule.  There are some gorgeous projects inside, but what I really bought a copy for was the written text. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Amanda's first book (The Creative Family) and I can't wait to soak up the stories that go along with the projects in Handmade Home.  I was a teeny bit disappointed with the photos - they're beautiful ofcourse, but some of them are quite dark, which I personally think takes away from the projects a little.  My most favourite project is the Treasure Bag on page 125 - wow, what a fabulous idea to take to the beach, I really need to make one before summer time hits.

Another book I spent a bit of time looking at this week was Amy Butler's little stitches for little ones.  I've had it on order at the library for what seems like forever!!

Most of the projects are for sweet babies/toddlers, which almost makes me wish I had another little one just so I could make some cuteness for them.  There are several projects though (like the darling cat on the cover) that would suit children of all ages, plus some bags/fabric mini albums that I could see myself sewing.  It's chock-o-block full of beautiful photographs and easy to follow steps (including a seperate pattern sheet).  I'd love to add this one to my bookshelf to keep ready for baby gift ideas in the future.

Are you reading/enjoying any fabulous craft books at the moment?  I'd love you to share the titles with me :)

Reading & making.

Bella:

Reading: The complete tales of Beatrix Potter.
Making: Little setups in her bedroom for Ruby (her Blythe doll).

James:

Reading: A new stack of military model magazines that a family friend passed onto him.
Making: Just starting on another new model.

Me:

Reading: Living dead in Dallas.
Making: Sewing up the bookmarks for Bella's class.

Richard:

Reading: Clearly no time for reading.
Making: A big fat mess in our lounge room/kitchen area {just kidding honey}.  New skirting boards, new window trims, some new plaster, new paint, new lights, new carpet.