Harvesting & Making

Outside in our PJ’s this morning, we noticed our heaving passionfruit vine (which is actually growing in & over the top of our 4 lilly-pilly trees) had dropped a heap of fruit. We loaded up Miss K’s little wheelbarrow and bought them inside to see if they were any good. The first batch were super sweet and we filled a baby food ice tray (with lids, perfect for passionfruit freezing ;) A second trip to the vine yielded enough to fill 3 trays, frozen down for a baking day in the very near future. Surprisingly even though the passionfruit grow like a weed – this has sated my need for fresh fruit and veg ~ especially after my recent vegetable garden disaster! I am now keyed up to get cracking on the new season vege gardens!

 

After our swimming lessons, I couldn’t settle to any one task (I had a lot on my mind) so opted for fondling some new fabric and using some of my old scraps to whip up an outfit for Miss Barbie.

Isn’t she so stylish??? I can’t believe how fiddly barbie clothes are to make (gosh the sewing was sew very dodgy ;) Even if it looks so-so, my 3 year old gave it a seal of approval and I have just enough fabric left over to make her a matching skirt!

A Giveaway to Pay it Forward

 

I have some Pay it Forward spots that were never fulfilled, so I’ve decided to have a little giveaway – one copy of The Quilters Homecoming by Jennifer Chiaverni is all yours and all you need to do is leave me a beautiful comment! Easy Peasy! 

I’ll pick the winner on Sunday 26th February 

Hi, my name is car…

and I’m an addict!!! I can’t help but start new quilt tops – all the time!!! Don’t mind the messy-ness of this one, I’m just playing with the layout for now!

Blog Hog

I’m feeling quite the blog hog today! This is the 3rd post here, 5 posts over here and a couple planned for the family blog too ;)

We’ve been feeling quite run down of late and life just seems to be so hectic! I decided today after swimming lessons instead of dragging my poor child to the grocery store, we would go on an adventure together! She was quite excited and off we toddled to Suttons Beach at Redcliffe for a little mummy-daughter picnic & a play in the park.

What a great morning – it’s moments like these, I wish I could pause time and experience over and over. So I’ve decided every few weeks we are going to have mummy-daughter adventure days where we just pack up and drive off for a fun-filled day together. No housework, no bookwork, no TV!

On the way home we did stop in at Spotlight and I picked up this fabric to use as backing for my Quilt Top for Corrie’s Quilts for Qld (I really need to get cracking & get this finished soon!)

 

What do you think? It’s not from the same range, but the purple blends with the purples of the quilt really well! I am hoping to baste it tomorrow!

I also picked up these two jelly rolls while I was there

I was thinking of turning them into similar quilts, but realised they only have 20 strips than the usual 40 so they maybe a bit smaller… perhaps I should cut them in half and make pram blankets? I don’t know am sure something will jump out at me once I start tinkering in the room once more!

The future and all it entails

There has been some BIG discussions on our future here over the past week or so & while a lot of our decision making is hinging upon my appointment next week with yet another specialist (I deliberately don’t go into too much detail here as I like this craft blog to remain a bit fluffy ;) when I’m ready to share, I send you in that direction)

So change is in the air, work, life, creativity… I am excited and more-so now that this little book arrived just when we were discussing our plans. I am so excited to be writing our future, one line a day! 

Hopeful that this will work as my journalling and blogging has been a little few and far between of late (I blame my hectic lifestyle, there is only so many times you write “today I am tired” and spice it up ;)

I have also nearly convinced the other half that I totally need to do a Creative Writing degree before I look at commencing a university course! I am now saving my pennies!!! 

Words from the wise!

Thinking of what we can do today as a treat for my DD(3) exceptionally good behaviour at swimming this morning...

Me - how about we go to Spotlight to get some fabric

Her - that's a great idea...

Firm proof I am definitely doing something right in raising her :)


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Shopping & fabric

My gorgeous toddler woke me when the clock was still pointing toward the 5 (she had a wet bed) & along with the remnants of a niggling head cold & an interupted sleep with our dog (he was on edge for some reason) I was tired, cranky and in need of a super strong coffee!!!

Happiness was forthcoming when armed with my iPad, internet access, a credit card & a US fabric store...



Fabric Shack

These beautiful charm squares fell into my cart, destined to become a mystery quilt at the SewIn next month (we Qld girls who couldnt make it to Sydney SIT are meeting up for a quilting day... I cant wait!!!)

Its been so long since I went fabric shopping, I forgot how bad I am at matching fabrics, I am hoping the periwinkle blue Kona Solid matches these charms and I suppose it if doesnt - I can always buy more!!! Now to wait for its arrival... Does anyone know how long they take to deliver or how much the freight is???


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Day 1 ~ The After

Day 1* of Operation De-clutter, I think the results speak for themselves!

The chest of drawers & table now cleared of mess!

The floors tidy and ready for a big vacuum

Nice neatly folded fabric (ok so I didn’t go too far into this cupboard, I folded what was floating around)

Even the inspiration board was tidied & de-cluttered!

End of the day, I have chucked several bins worth, one bag of fabrics to be sent to a lady who lost everything in the recent floods & a bag for mum and a bag to be relocated to another room. So while it’s not technically de-cluttered as such, I am one step closer & now I can actually get to the cupboards, the next step is to rid myself of more.
Nappy making supplies – anyone???

Notice the book on top of the chest of drawers? I used it to list things I thought of as I went & also listed work in progress (as suggested by skip ;) I nearly filled a page :o and you do know that hard work needs to be rewarded with fun times too…

So some crafty time was had and those leftover rolls of bamboo wool have nearly all been crocheted up into mini washers.

And with all that hard work ~ I needed something cool to wear, so I whipped up a market skirt just for me!

I used an fabric remnant I picked up ages ago and utilised the way the fabric was printed to get that bottom contrast. A zig-zag around the bottom leaving a shaggy hem and I have myself a super quick skirt – I will definitely be making many more of these!!!

* ok technically 2 days, but we will run with one ok?

Operation {de-clutter}

I admit readily that I am NOT the neatest person around ~ I can easily live with a little clutter surrounding me, my husband however is a neat freak and EVERYTHING must be put away… which is why most times our main living areas are fairly well under control (I did say fairly well, give or take work bags / daycare bags / paperwork etc on the dining room table)

However in order for this ‘neat’ living area, it means a lot of my excess stuff is dumped in the front two rooms (my craft room and office.) Now I’m totally NOT making excuses here, but with the last year spent working 3 days, getting on top of these rooms AND staying on top of them is proving somewhat difficult… ok I lie, they have become an out and out dumping zone and I cannot MOVE in the office. It is disgraceful. It is at the stage where I honestly don’t know where to start :’(

I recently won a copy of Skippers’ new 25 days of decluttering

Now those of you who have been reading for a while, will know that me and Skip go a long way back… I’ve been a huge fan of her work and own all of her ebooks ever written. It’s no secret that I am her biggest stalker fan ;) So it was only a matter of time before I was going to buy this new e-book anyhow (just totally good luck that I won a copy first ;) 

Skip says in her intro that she would LOVE to see before and after photos… looking at my rooms ~ she’d be horrified & seeing how she won’t fly all this way to help ME personally, here goes. Today I started* on the sewing / craft room (note I haven’t actually STARTED the decluttering, I am tidying to start and then I will be moving onto declutter stage) 

* Yes started, I did not get it finished as I’m suffering a head cold and couldn’t keep up the pace more than an hour at a time ;)

This is the sewing room from the door:

This is the room standing from the windows:

My cutting table:
 

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I started with the floor…

* quilt blocks stacked neatly next to the machine awaiting piecing
* bamboo wool leftovers being crocheted into washers
* crochet squares now stored with current project
* pens returned to their box in the office
* quilting rulers stored away in their plastic storage box

* paints stacked neatly in their box ~ the lid now shuts ;)

I didn’t get a chance to photograph the finished areas, but I can tell you the table is completely cleared off and the pile on the floor to the right of the chest of drawers is now gone. Tomorrow I will attack the chest of drawers, refold the fabrics & clear the last 2 piles on the floor before the big decluttering process begins on those cupboards.

The Bette

Do you think that by naming my future crochet blanket, it will actually help me achieve my goal of finishing it this year? (LOL) I have nicknamed it The Bette, as it’s pattern (from the BH&G Magazine) is scarily similar to the utterly GORGEOUS blanket floating around the net called The Babette… mine will be like a baby version (almost a dear baby jane if you will, though no where NEAR as good ;) ) 

See that horrible yellow mustardy colour square. It was the only YELLOW that spotlight had at the time and I just don’t like it. I was showing my friends on the weekend and they agreed with me, it just doesn’t gel like some of the other colours. So I was most excited when I stumbled across a Lincraft today & found that gorgeous yellow in the top right (the horrible mustard is under it) plus I also came across the mid tone purple next to it! I think I am finally happy with my colour choices (it’s only taken me 9 months!) 

Crochet Bette Block Tally

Block A - 0 / 4
Block B – 0/14
Block C – 1/24
Block D -  2/53
Block E – 13/104

Total - 16 / 199

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While I was at Lincraft, I picked up some new thread (totally did NOT think) and came home with polyester :( not cotton… damn :( and it wasn’t cheap!!! Since when did thread cost $7.98 PER SPOOL!!! Yikes!

Lucky I came home and found my patterns had arrived (sorry C, I can’t access the link to your blog) I am thinking I might whip myself up a market skirt over the weekend!

Where did January go?

Can you believe one month of 2010 is already gone? January seems to have gone by in a blink of an eye ~ between holidays, the recent floods & an operation (with a week off) and work ~ it was gone to soon with only SEVEN measly posts here on this still (sorta) creative home front!

I bet you were thinking I had escaped to some tropical paradise such as this:

I haven’t, though we did have a picnic dinner there last night!

I’m spending a lot of time over here and I’m pretty impressed that I  managed everyday in January for the 365 + a few other weekly challenges. Some days I feel I’m just taking a snap shot, others I really feel my creative side is evolving!

As time permits (however time is NOT my friend at the moment) I have been doing little by little, block by block, page by page, square by square… slow crafting at it’s best.

A few blocks of crochet & some hand sewing,

along with a couple of art journal pages,

some simple 9 patch blocks (which surprisingly took me ALL of January to complete :o ) and lots of baking!

and a bit more baking

There is tonnes of gardening to be done, the recent weather patterns and me resting up the last couple of weeks means it is long overdue for weeding! Plus I have to start my vegetable gardens from scratch *sigh* and I have grand plans of renovating the side garden and starting a compost bin… all plans, just need time! 

I’ll be back to share the recipe for the muesli bars!