Day to Day

Blog celebration

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In a couple of weeks my little blog is going to tick over to 2 million page views.  It's a crazy figure and although I'm not really big on talking about stats, page views and the like, I think a bit of a celebration is in order for reaching that figure.

I've mentioned before that I have the kindest and loveliest readers in the whole wide world and really, it's so true.  I'd like to say a very big thank you to each and every one of you, for reading, commenting, emailing, sending sweet things to our mailbox and so nicely coming to my assistance if I ever need help with something. Thank you so much. xox

To celebrate, I'm going to have a crazy blogging week very soon.  They'll be a couple of giveaways, special store offers, guest bloggers, recipes, tutorials and other random posts over a five day period (in a couple of weeks time).  So, lots of blog posts every day! I hope you'll enjoy it :)

Since I seem to be blogging every day now, I thought I'd also treat myself to a very special Freckled Nest blogging makeover.  I've been on the waiting list for quite a while now and finally my little magic number has popped up.  Can you believe it?  Yes, there's a waiting list, which makes it seem all the more special :)  Soon-ish (is that a word?) I'll be able to share my new blog look with you all and I really can't wait.

Well, thank you all so much again for popping in and reading.  I'm off to bed, night night xo 

Wednesday hex-along

How is your hexie progress going? Are you getting there?  Due to our trip, I haven't managed to pick up my hexagons at all - so I don't have any progress to share.  However, lots of other people have been hexing like crazy.

My Mum has finished her pillow and I really love how it turned out:

Also, my Auntie Coral completed her pillow as well - it looks gorgeous:

The lovely Simone from Brazil is still playing along too and I have to say that I'm totally loving her red hexies. They're so striking and pretty.  If you'd like to see Simone's blog post, it's HERE.

Jacquie (also from Tasmania!!) was kind enough to share her beautiful hexagon brooch with me.  It's obviously not fabric, but inspired by all the patchwork hexies that are around.  Love. Love. Love.  Link HERE.

More gorgeous hexagons from Sally and don't they look glorious, all sitting out in her sunny conservatory. Link HERE.

Here's a peek at Helen's awesome progress this week.  She's finished all of her coloured flowers - 20 'big ones' (with 19 hexies) and 12 'little ones' (with 7 hexies) and sewn them together.  Link HERE.

Em has also finished her hexagon project and it looks fabulous. I especially love the autumn toned fabrics.  Go HERE to see more photos of the finished lap quilt.

That's it for sharing this week :)

Don't forget, if you're playing along and have a fabric hexie blog post that you'd like me to link next Wednesday, just leave me a direct link to your post.

If you've left a link during the last week and I've accidentally left you off my blog post, tell me - so I can be sure to link you next week.

Thanks for joining in. xoxo

Collection

I was in denial for a while, but I've now come to realise that Bella is collecting Blythe dolls.  There are seven of them now - Bessie, Rosey, Mabel, Hazel, Emily-Jane, Alice and her first doll, Ruby. Oh yes, I do know them all by name and look out if I occasionally get a name mixed up.  Three of them have been totally funded by Bella herself - birthday & saved up pocket money.  The other four have been gifts from us - x2 Christmas, x1 birthday and a weak moment when we bought the first one, just because.

I'm not going to lie, these dolls aren't cheap - but they've been worth every cent.  They're all constantly played with and I do mean constantly!  After school and weekends you can find Bella dressing them up, changing their dolly house around, creating Blythe clothes + accessories and chatting with her little blogging friends about them.  

There's also lots of planning & writing involved - doing the maths on how many weeks of pocket money a certain doll would cost, writing ever changing lists about which Blythe is high priority (ie. next on the want list), writing Blythe stories, blog posts, problem solving how to make clothes that fit over the doll's head (it's big!)and so much more.  

We do have other collections in our family too - stickers, erasers, Star Wars, miniature Ferrari cars, vintage cameras, babushka dolls and I think Rich is collecting used dirt bike tyres in the shed - haha!

I once found a book on really cool things that people collect and I'm so cross with myself for not buying it at the time - and now I can't remember the name of it.  Arghhh.  

Do you or your children have a collection that just kind of happened over night? Ka-boom! In the blink of an eye, you realised that it was maybe getting a little out of control?  Please share, I'd love to know.

The boat that Bella built

A couple of weeks ago Bella had an idea to build a little wooden sailing boat for herself.  She talked to her Dad about her plans and pretty much within the hour, they were both out in the shed building the boat.

It only took a couple of nights, a whole lot of glue (oh, and scrap wood) and then the boat was pretty much done.  Bella used my sewing machine to make herself a flag, because all good boats need a sailing flag!

Then, we had a sail off in the bathroom sink.  There were tiny animals gathering aboard and the little boat seemed quite happy to just float on the water, even though there were a few gaps in the wood.

Sometimes it's tricky to turn 'little people' ideas into reality, but this one was worth it.  One sailing boat = one happy girl.

Settling back in

Today:

Unpacking suitcases. Grocery shopping. Finding a home for new things.

Playing chess. 3 loads of washing. Building models in the shed.

Wearing new t-shirts.  Feeling a bit tired.  Eating the last of the cream puffs that Mum hand delivered yesterday.

Tidying up the Blythe dolly house.  Mowing the lawn.  Wishing we were still in holiday mode.

Back home :)

Just popping in quickly to say that we're home and have had the most wonderful trip.  Our lounge room looks like a bomb has gone off though - we're trying to find a place for all the new goodies as I type.  We seem to have arrived home with 3 new Blythe girls too - that 4th one (above) just came along for the suitcase ride.

I'm going to prepare some holiday blog posts and will be sharing them soon - oh my goodness, we have about 2 million photographs!!  In the mean time, it will back to daily blogging, as of tomorrow.

Thanks for all the lovely blog comments while I was away too :)

Very, very tired - crawling into bed any minute now.

Mel xox

 

Mum's hexagon quilt

{Photos taken at my Mum's house}

Since I'm away at the moment and unable to blog the normal 'Wednesday hex-along' post, I thought I'd keep the hexie theme happening and share my Mum's hexagon quilt.  She sewed it entirely by hand when I was small and all up it took about 3 years to finish.  All of the fabrics were sourced from an existing stash, friends and family and the hexagon flower centres were cut up from old sheets.

It must have been a pretty mammoth task to get all that stitching completed, I can't imagine how happy Mum would have felt when stitching the last hexagon into place.  Pretty proud of herself I imagine.

How are your hexies going? Hopefully you're all busy creating while I'm away.  I'll be back to normal 'Wednesday Hex-along' sharing next week - so be sure to leave your blog links!

xox

Project Christmas - 2011 - lap quilt

As promised yesterday, here's my first completed project to pop in the cupboard for Christmas 2011.  This one is for Richard's Auntie.  Her taste is quite conservative, so I wanted something that had elements of an old fashioned print, but was also pretty.

Excuse the crumpled up bits on it - I promise it all sits lovely and flat, it's just that I had it folded up in our bedroom for a week before I photographed it.

The size is 1 metre X 1 metre (about a yard x a yard, give or take a bit) and although that doesn't sound overly big, now it's finished I'm really happy that I went with that size.  It fits really well over your lap and there are spare bits to tuck in at the sides. 

I did the quilting myself - just using masking tape to keep the spacing even as I went.

It feels great to know that I already have a Christmas present organised for December too!  Now, I just need to stay focused and complete some other gifts that I have started.  Wish me luck.

xoxo

Project Christmas - 2011

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Last December was a crazy busy time for me.  It seemed a bit like I was spending every spare second sewing up handmade gifts for Christmas.  Of course, that was my choice - but boy, I was super exhausted/over sewing by the end of the month.

Late December, Janelle (who also did crazy December sewing) and I were email chatting and somehow came up with a brilliant plan that in 2011 we were going to get right on top of all this handmade sewing for Christmas - hello Project Christmas!

Our plan was to work out exactly how many (handmade) gifts we each needed for next Christmas, divide this by 10 months (Feb - Nov) and then sew, sew, sew!  Which means, December 2011 is going to be a sewing-free month - cool, hey.

Before long, Tamar, Gigi and Mardi had joined in and we were all planning what to sew.  I started out with a huge list of ideas, but didn't actually manage to finish anything for February.  However, this month I've sewed a lap quilt for Richard's Auntie and have another one half done - I'll share photos of that tomorrow.

Here are a few of the project ideas that I have bookmarked on my list, to sew:

{image source}  I bought the book 'Warm Fuzzies' a while ago and plan on making a few of these sweet pincushions.

I also have Janelle's book and I'm going to make a heap of pretty journal covers out of it for friends and family.

Pretty crocheted clothes hangers.  I realise that these won't work for everybody - but I'm thinking for Aunties, in pretty rainbow colours. I just need to track down some nice straight/wooden hangers.

Although I'm not planning on making this cute soap, I'm going to buy a few for the guys on my list.  Perhaps to add with some nice chocolates or sweets.

I'm also planning on making a couple more little quilts for my niece and nephew.  Just easy ones - nice fabric, simple design - but made with love.

Of course, I'll be sharing everything on here as I make it - unless it's something that I've sewn for a family member that reads my blog.

Are you planning a handmade Christmas this year and what do you plan to make?

xox

 

Pokemon addiction

Are your children on the Pokemon bandwagon too?  Pokemon has been going on in our house for ten years now!  When James was just five, he started collecting Pokemon cards.  They were all the rage at school for swapping and he used to think they were gold.  I think we've also sat through every single Pokemon movie there is - oh goodness, there were often tears at the DVD store if we'd subtly try and suggest perhaps a 'non Pokemon' movie might be in store for the evening.

Last week (or there abouts) the new Pokemon White and Pokemon Black games were released for Nintendo DS.  Well, it's possible that they were released for other game platforms too - but I'm not really up with all that!  My two agonised for days over whether to dig into their Hong Kong spending money and buy a new game each and finally, on Saturday, they gave into temptation.

Bella bought Pokemon White and James, Black.  Although I'm not an electronic gadget/gaming fan, I will say that I've loved seeing them hang out together and talk/play 'Pokemon'.  James has been a very patient big brother too and is trying not to get too far ahead of Bella in the game.

I must say, even after 10 years of Pokemon, Pikachu is still my favourite character!