By Golly – It’s got sleeves!

Slowly goes it with the needles of late. I was managing a round or two a week, but since getting over the increasing rounds and conquering my fear of binding off the armholes and re-casting more stitches on… I absolutely hammered through the next section (think 12 rows in a week… considering I’ve had the worst. week. ever. I think this is good progress!) I’m just about to start the cable rows – yahoo!

Can you see the sleeves?

Please don’t look too closely, you may see where my sides don’t join up oh so neatly and where I may have dropped a stitch or two… or just knitted rather loosely.

Anyhow – I love it! Someone might have herself a vest for the winter (gosh I hope it fits!!!)

I’m calling it a form of Scrapping

Just a few more cards. Small. Quick. Easy projects. What more can a girl ask for when time is limited and motivation lacking?

w15 – Your Parents 

W16 – Get others to contribute (paper by DD, Flower by Nanna!) 

W17 – Your bedroom…

W18 – Nature

W19 - Surprise

W20 – Change

Me vs Collections

I am a bit of a collector. A bower bird perhaps… I find pretty things and start collecting them. I think the lure of the chase draws me in and the more I get – the more I want.

I first mentioned this little green man right HERE

From the first moment I was given a hand me down Oscar the Grouch toy, I developed a must have attitude for him. I now sport a rather Large collection of Oscar Memorabillia, including coffee mugs, glasses, PJ’s, toys, pictures, clothing, hats, books etc

I’m not even sure we want to mention the Care Bear fanatical….

shortly after being introduced to Ebay. I discovered that you could purchase 1980’s Care Bears at pretty good prices. So bought on a frenzy of buying that saw me purchase possibly 10 bears all for less than $15 each. I have way too many residing around the house, but I figure if Miss K is anything like me – she will appreciate all the different coloured bears when they are having tea parties together ;)

So now it’s onto books. I’ve mentioned a few times the Berenstain Bears books that I loved as a kid.

After reading a few to Miss K – she has discovered she LOVES them.  Every night we read at least 1 Bears Book and after reading and re-reading the bears holiday one night, I decided to pop over to ebay and see what I could find. 10 mins later 4 books were winging their way to us. We have given her 1 already and put 3 away for her birthday. Well it seems I’ve caught the collecting must have bug once more, I’ve been ebaying just now… I’m currently bidding on another 10 :o

YES TEN!!! 

The tortoise wins the race…

Or does he?

This is a week and a bit of attempting to knit a MILO Vest for Miss K. I am far from catching Becky who can do them in 5 days :o (and she calls herself a beginner knitter… hmmm…)

Even these were slow…

by the time I accounted for letting the really thickly applied gesso dry enough to stick the lovely letters on… now question for Ruth – where did you get the letters from? I am wanting to get some more to do ROSE. So I can put them on the wall of my sewing  room.

It matters NOT…

I’ve been bleating on about finding the happy balance for several months now. The balance between Motherhood, Crafty endeavours and working, and with recent staff issues at work, my ME time is sadly fading into the distance.

But that’s ok.

After reading Tinniegirl this morning, she sums it up better than I ever could.

* It matters NOT that I have 300 blog entries to catch up on.

* It matters NOT that I have only just finished reading my 3rd book of the year.

* It matters NOT that I have only 2 afternoons a week (at a pinch) to do my crafting

* It matters NOT that my good friends Bub won’t have a quilt this month or maybe even next month.

* It matters NOT that I still haven’t managed to work out how to take bloody awesome photos on my DLSR.

* It matters NOT that I have not done any free writing all week

IT DOES MATTER if I don’t get the Milo vest I cast on LAST WEEK finished this winter… actually it matters NOT I know lots of little girls coming through the ranks ;)

Focusing on the positives of the week that’s been & gone…

* A back is FINISHED for my Round Robin Quilt. Next step basting!

* I finished the 3rd book of the year… Outback heart a true story of the Original Crocodile Man, although (as with any memoir / biography I read) it was a little slow going in places, the message at the end was strong. Drugs are bad.

* My bestie delivered these stamps, now to put them together & do some stamping

* spending 10 minutes in my sewing room, surrounded by patterns and fabrics, a cup of tea, dreaming of things I so desperately want to make and knowing that I will get to them eventually.

It matters NOT

Pay it forward #2

Ok I am doing this all ass about :) I know you are supposed to blog when you sign up for the Pay it Forwards, but somehow I got confused as to which ones I’d signed up for… *embarrassed silence*

I currently have one running that finishes in October ~ Nic & Lisa officially signed up and I am sending a super secret PIF to a third person…

Yesterday I received a gorgeous parcel in the mail from the lovely Kayscha – just what I needed after a LONG day at work!

Not only has Kayscha made me a Gorgeous Bag ~ something I’ve been meaning to make for myself and now I don’t have to ;)

she also included a Jelly Roll Book :o  Thank you so much Kayscha, I feel totally spoilt!

Ok – you know the deal… I need three crafty peeps who want to share the love to sign up. However like my last one and knowing that this meme has been around the block and back once more – if I cannot get 3 people to sign up then I am willing to send to three crafty people, something handmade within the next 12 months just for commenting. No strings attached (oh dear, I am sounding like some info-mercial here…)

So get commenting (PLEASE!!!)

Thoughtful Friends…

I sat at my desk last week, staring at the empty box of Roses and chocolates and I half considered doing a blog post – asking if it would be WRONG of me to buy another box for the sake of art and creativity* ???

Well blow me down if I don’t get a box hand delivered to me by the sweetest (and blog-less)  girl you ever did meet all because I had loaned her my maternity clothes *awww*

And it wasn’t just a little box… see the bottom left corner

A whopping 1Kg box ~ ONE KILO!!!

* Chocolates + art I hear you ask? Have you seen these wrappers? So bright and pretty… now to think what I can actually DO with them…

a back with no direction

I pulled out all my left over scraps from the EB Newbie Quilters Round Robin swap and started cutting. With no direction and basically no idea what I wanted to achieve… I’m pleased to say it’s coming together very nicely (and very slowly)

I know there are other far more important things I could be doing, but I needed to do this for ME today. Some days you just have to follow your own lead.

Do you think this little girl is going to be a quilter when she grows up ?

She tells us she is going to be a nurse and her aunty Sue (who incidentally IS a nurse) will grow up and be a doctor when she’s bigger ;)

Me thinks she will have a crafty side though – what do you think?

Progress report ;)

Thanks for the support girls! I must admit that room wasn’t too bad in terms of showing the mess, it’s just that combined with my office and other areas of the house (like the tupperware cupboard which is now a ‘stand back and throw as you close the doors’ cupboard LOL),  it’s starting to drive me up the wall!

PLUS I live with Mr Clean.

PLUS my cleaner (my MIL constantly has to vacuum around the piles ;) and it’s getting rather embarrassing!

Now I can see the floor ;)

I still haven’t finished the room, but at least that one pile that’s been bothering me is sorted & I found 4 identical baskets to use for smaller fabric scraps!

Obviously the crafty side was buried somewhere beneath the piles – today I managed to

1. Finish 1 block for the Dear Jane quilt (pics on flickr)

2. Finish my RR quilt top (I know I said it was finished weeks back, but one border was bothering me and after unpicking, it turns out I’d cut all my sashing 1/4 bigger *doh*

3. Arts and Crafts with my girl (dyed pasta!)

4. tizzy up a little moleskine notebook that’s been carted about every day for a month and is looking a little sad and sorry for itself

Ok it’s NOT picasso – but hey, it’s better than the horrible smudgy stuff that was there before!

It’s not HUGE steps forward, but am feeling so much better!!! Now it’s time to go work out some dinner for tonight as well as tomorrow night’s dinner and now that the rain has started up (again) it looks like it will be another LONG drive to work tomorrow morning (it took me 1.5 hours on Monday morning :o normally only 45mins – grrrr!!!!)

One per month – March

I know I dismally failed February’s challenge, I didn’t even look at the book again after I posted – however this month I intend to be more accountable…

Easter is only one month a way – what better present can you get than this little cutie…

From this book…

 

PS the Question posed above is purley hypothetical… of course a far better present would be chocolates LOL!!!

Bare with me…

I’ve done a lot of lamenting on lack of time over the last few months… but I’m starting to wonder whether it’s a clear lack of “TIME” or just a lack of motivation in the small patches of TIME I do have available? Something to ponder perhaps. I also realised last night that there is a tonne of things I WANT to be doing but quite possibly it’s a case of can’t see the forest for the trees, due to the never ending piles of JUNK that keep growing beside me.

I KNOW I need to rid the house of excess clutter… this came to me over the weekend when rummaging through the pile of “possibly junk for the op shop clothes that I never wear, but simply must keep them just in case” to find a small black crocheted shoulder bag that I take to concerts. Could not find it. I had to purchase another bag (just what my house needs – more clutter!!!) I think it’s the clutter that is getting me down. I can’t move and feels it’s stifling me and pulling me under. So today is the day to start those small steps that I constantly tell myself to take, but never do because it’s all too easy to just tell myself to walk away and close the door.

So you will have to excuse the lack of ‘crafty chatter’ while I try to get my bearings and do some catch up… I’m keeping a record here cause well, that’s what I do best and this blog keeps me grounded. Bare with me while I clear the decks to creativity once more!!!

First things first

Updating my Journal from here:

To here:

When that is done & dusted… I’ve big intentions on starting small… tackling the never ending piles that are dotting my sewing room

A box of Christmas crafts are buried in here (still :o )

There is a half finished DJ block buried under this pile :o

Stuff I took to my friends house (several) weeks ago :o

A pile of vintage sheets / table cloths that are too big to store in with my sewing fabrics.

I don’t want to share this one with you – it’s just a Horribly messy cupboard :o

Ok and just to show – I’m not all just mess & clutter, a semi organised fabric storage space (with envelopes filled out and ready to send for the 2010 FQ Birthday Swap ;)

Best stop talking and start organising!