Bette Progress

There's been a rush of progress on the Bette over the weekend ~ inspired by a rush of blog entries on knitting and crochet and with Easter fast approaching (the time I always get into the yarny crafts) so today between bouts of cleaning up after a sick little girl & re-runs of Scooby Doo, I have been happily trebling away.

I am keeping a track of where I'm up to by highlighting each competed square on a pattern sheet and today I have taken the liberty of a quiet house, a husband away and a clean sewing floor to start laying them out how they will look when sewn together. So far so good. I am really starting to love it! It is also helping me decide which block I want to do next as I am just working my away around the edges. Instead of just doing a bunch of the small ones you know? Doing it this way is also pulling together the colours and I am looking and going Ok next square red with orange to match those near it

This is not even close to a quarter of the finished quilt :o

So the current tally is as follows:

Block a ~ 1 / 4

Block b ~ 1 / 14

Block c ~ 3 / 24

Block d ~ 5 / 53

Block e ~ 20 / 104

Total ~ 30 / 199

Operation Declutter ~ Part 2

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to win a copy of Skippers' newest ebook "25 days of declutter" Day 1 I got stuck into my sewing room (you can see my blog post here and was mentioned on Skippers' Domestic Guru Blog and Facebook page... chuffed? Yes indeedy, it's no surprise that I am a complete and utter fan of the Skip!

Well since then, I have managed to keep the sewing / craft room relatively tidy ~ but have been struggling with trying to sort out the 'office' I decided in a fit of frustration, that I would move the office desk into the craft / sewing room, since my photography is really part and parcel of my crafting, but that meant clearing out the chest of drawers :o

It doesn't look like much hey?

Think again! So much stuff... I started it Wednesday morning, ran late for Mothers group, then ended up purchasing 2 big clear storage boxes from Woolies to store the contents of those draws until such time I can sort through and store it appropriately. For now, it works....

  

I moved my desk into the vacant space and have set it up how I want it, already I am feeling much better working on the laptop and feel this room is finally coming together (it's only taken me the better part of 4 years ;)

Nice and light and airy! But still some stuff to be put away. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow!

Craft Fair 2011

As promised, some more photos of my loot from the craft fair... I didn't set myself a budget and I think I actually came in {relatively} cheap compared to previous years... but feel this year I have a few different areas to branch into ~ something that's been lacking lately!

First stop was Paper Quilt Creations

They had the most gorgeous gift tags and cards, with a make your own! I didn't make my own, though I was SERIOUSLY salivating over the Bernette Machines they had for sale for only $ 199... I could have totally justified a 4th sewing machine... *hopes hubby isn't reading* At this stand, I purchase a pack of papers and 2 whole punches (total bargain at $32 for the 2...!) looking forward to creating some beautiful cards and gift tags of my own!

A stop at the bookstand is always handy and I found this Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs for a relatively good price ~ hopefully a way to better my crochet skills, I'm thinking first I should really learn to put some squares together though ;) The second book was filled with perforated papers with writing on one side and ledger paper on the opposite, perfect for my Art Journalling!

Our stop at the Prudence Mapstone stand was a lengthy one... I also went back in the afternoon! I could have gone NUTS in this stand but was quite restrained. I bought that gorgeous silk yarn (alchemy yarns) to make myself a lacy crochet scarf. My friend Cath is going to come and teach me how. I probably SHOULD finish the scarf I started 2 years ago... perhaps I will finish that first and then start this one as my prize. I bought the pattern for Alpacalicious - OMG, it was so soft and beautiful and truly if I could have afforded the $160 to buy the kit, I would have. So soft!

I also bought this bracelet kit all because it came with a new crochet needle and you know it looks totally cool because it matches with the yarn colours ;0

And my last purchase for the day was this kit for a black and white hearts quilt. The quilt is only 30" x 24" but I just thought it was so adorable (and relatively cheap for a pattern & kit!)

None of the above items were on my 'must buy' list, but I did pick up a few essential things that were needed Appli Kay Under and some mini hexagons. So it was a pretty good haul and a lovely day spent with my friend Cath and my parents (who very kindly too my little girl around the show to give me some time out to browse in peace! yay for grandparents!!!)

Oh and my parents also bought me these - spoilt much? It's not even my birthday yet :o

Craft fair

Today was the craft fair and though it was only small compared to previous years, it was still good! A little sample pic of my goodies, more to follow tomorrow when I have better light!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Getting Crafty

It's been sometime, but finally I found some crafty time and inclination!!! Last year the lovely Kayscha was de-stashing and sent me a huge bag of beautiful fabrics, there were some chenille squares already cut out and sometime before Christmas I sewed them together into 2 x 9 patch squares at 16.5" squares. I had EVERY intention of buying some cushion inserts from Spotlight and giving them to my daughter for Christmas. This didn't happen. They sat in the cupboard and waited.
And waited some more.
Finally last week while at Kmart I found some cushions that were only $5 each and grabbed two! I pulled out the chenille 9 patches and they were the perfect size, so tonight I added a pink check backing (very simple overlaid by 2.5" so the cushion doesn't pop out) and gave one to Miss K before her bedtime.



She loved it.

She even came into the sewing room as I was cutting out the backing for the 2nd cushion cover and hugged me and said "thanks mummy, I love my new pillow"

All together now... awww!!!

I finished the 2nd one after I put her to bed and then snuck it in, she was still awake and told me "it's so good"

Awwww!!!!

Gotta love it when your work is loved and admired!

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We had a little visitor today



He was so cute and perfectly happy spending the day in our bottle bush tree!

The new do!

Photo on 2011-03-16 at 14.55 #2 a photo by car_rose21 on Flickr.

I went and had a haircut today, the first one since Octoberfest last year. This time I went a darker colour and NO foils... The lovely girl who cut it, decided to straighten it to see what it looked like. I like it!

Work has been crazy. After last week and finally putting in my official resignation, my replacement handed in her notice :o and she finishes up TOMORROW :o So now I have officially 25 days to go and we have to find a replacement and train her up. I have been given the instruction to TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN. Which means no real responsibility, but it also means I need to ensure the next person is fully capable and there are procedures in place so nothing is missed.

I managed a little craftiness over the weekend, the Sew IN that is being hosted by AJ on the weekend is fast approaching and we were initially supposed to do a little something for the gift bags. I stumbled across a great little tutorial last month and have spent some time cutting into my scrap bins to create a few little items to take along. Unfortunately one of the girls has already dropped out due to family sickness :( so I might just have to keep her little something here for me... or I could post it to her ;) A little sneak peak can be found over on the other blog!

I am dying to get back into my sewing room and craft and make messes, but at the moment it's near impossible to find the time nor the inclination to do so... so we will continue to plod along... tis only another 2 months - I can do this!!!

An update on ME...

My creative space has been sadly lacking of late, I am struggling to find time between work and home life, my at home job (which contrary to popular belief is actually WORK - shock, horror :o ) life with a busy toddler, appointments, and a tonne of birthdays and catch ups has left me with ZERO creative time and ZERO energy to actually do anything when I do get small snippets of time! 

Some exciting times coming up ~ firstly I will finally get to meet AJ & Rose as we are having a sew in at AH's house. Unfortunately I had to give SIT (sew it together) a miss this year as I have some pretty hefty personal stuff happening of late that's only just now found a little direction (should  you wish to read more about this let me know, it's not terribly pretty but I'm finally letting go and getting it out there) So because we aren't going to Sydney some of us Brisbane girls are meeting up to do a (not so) mystery project at AJ's house. I can't wait!!!  

My fabric for the sew in has arrived and I cannot wait to start cutting it up hopefully this weekend (when I find that spare moment!) 

I've been having some computer issues of late - which has probably been partly the reason I have not been blogging as regularly as I usually do, after having the stupid thing break for the third time in as many months I finally put in a request for a new one and my lovely gorgeous husband has bought me a MacBook Pro :o Apart from the G key popping off which I've only just discovered - I am loving my new mac laptop, however it is a struggle getting used to all the new command prompts (I'm a PC girl from way back… so far back I actually learnt on a DOS machine… how's that for dinosaur ages!!!) I am not liking the new photo program as it is vastly different from photoshop elements which I had only just started to get into on the PC, but I think after a month of playing around working out what I really like and don't like, it should be second nature! 

In other big news, I have previously alluded to some big changes happening this year. I can FINALLY divulge ~ I have handed in my notice at work and will be finishing up just before my birthday in May. This was a HUGE decision to make, especially as I have been with the company in various roles since early 1999. While I really truly appreciate them having taken me back on after having a long hiatus (2.5 years) when I had Miss K, the time has come to move on with life and boy oh boy - do I have some big things in store. As much as I will miss the work and the staff, I am for the first time in over a year excited about my future and all that it may hold for me. This departure coincides with my precious Miss K commencing school next year and after worrying about what we would do in terms of drop off / pick up / after school care, we came to the decision that ME attempting to work around those times was just too difficult particularly as my work is 40 min (off peak) to get to and from. Makes for a very long day and not very convenient should she get sick or if I'm running late. Of course it won't be all idle hands, my husband has his own business and we will both be working together to grow the business so I am envisaging a few mornings a week working for him. A little study on the side (with the possibility of a university course in the next few years) and some time on my hands to do all those crafty things that have been lacking the last year or so. To say I'm excited is an understatement!!! 

While I had every intention to continue working up until September, my health had other ideas and has sort of pushed the button on an earlier finishing date than originally anticipated. Though the extra money  would have been a nice bonus and would have paid pretty much ALL of this upcoming (& very expensive) operation, my personal stress levels seem to be higher when I add the work factor / travel factor / lack of time factor to it and in the end - for my mental piece of mind, it's far easier for me to finish up early before I burn myself out. 

I suspect the next two and half months will be pretty busy (& hopefully will pass by FAST) time spent in my sewing room will probably be lacking - but bare with me, I will still be hanging out somewhere in blog-land and I will still be posting here intermittently (more regularly over on the photo blog) I am absolutely dying to throw myself back into my art journalling, my quilting, my crochet and gardening. Until that time, one small square at a time. 

The winner is…

Introducing my new & lazy style of drawing a number out of a hat (minus the hat) oh and I do apologise for the delay – it’s been a crazy week!

Me {yelling across the house}

Miss K what’s your favourite number

Miss K {yelling back}

two and one

Silence

And four

 

The mighty toddler has spoken.

AJ - you have won a copy of The Quilters Homecoming (as pictured) I can post now, or hand deliver when I finally meet you later this month :)

Lea – you have also won a copy of one of my The Elm Creek Quilters books (which I will give to you next weekend IF I can touch base with mum before then who has borrowed it – otherwise we will just have another excuse to catch up for a coffee later in the month )

Kayscha – Luckily I did have three to giveaway ;) have you read either sugar camp quilters or circle of quilters? Either one is yours – I will pop in the post later this month (when I get them back from mum!)