weekending....and something new-ish....

Hello!

How is your weekend going? Mine is going great so far!

But first up I'd like to thank you all for the lovely comments I received on my last post about my blanket progress. So much encouragement! You are all so gorgeous, thank you for taking the time to comment, I love reading them (who wouldn't when you are all so nice!). There were a few questions about the blanket and types of yarns etc, so next time I post an update I will try to include more technical info for you all.

But anyhoo, I went for a fossick the other day at The Vintage Shed in Tyabb, and I have to show you what I found! (This place is fantastic if you are into mooching around all things old and wonderful, lots of clothes, furniture, household stuff, just about anything and everything, if you are in Melbourne and like op shopping, it is well worth a visit, it is only 5 minutes from here, lucky me!)

Yep, this special little 1960's retro table and the gorgeous vinyl chairs that match. I am very happy with this purchase.!! In excellent condition, it is just what I have been looking for to go next to our sunny window........

.....the perfect spot to catch some late afternoon rays and lose yourself in Harry Potter.....

This used to be where I had my 2 sleepy hollow chairs, but I like a bit of change, so now it is my pretend-I'm-sitting-in-a-funky-cafe spot, still great for crocheting, but now a good spot for breakfast and lunch too! Happy, happy, happy!!!!

........It's a pretty dreary day here weatherwise, so the mowing plans have been shelved, and I think I might get a bit of day time hooky action in, which is always nice! The boys are all happily occupied, so it might just have to happen!

Have a great weekend everyone........talk soon!

my creative space.... Stripey blanket progress.....

......so this is my main on the go project at the moment. The granny stripey blanket is coming along nicely and I am really pleased with it's progress......

This is it laid out flat, it is getting big! I think I am about 2/3 rds finished, so I hope it won't take too much more time.....

........lots of colour.......

This is the bit I have done this week, the green and blue bobbles and the pink and white granny bits and red and greens stripes......

............and then there will be all of these to deal with!!!

Have a look at these inspiring places over here.

Winter wandering........

........had a little squelch around the garden today. Sigh. We have had so much rain this winter and everything is very soggy. And weedy. And overgrown.

I need to spend a lot of time out there, and soon!

Such a change from the drought Winters of the last several years, I had forgotten what a normal wet Winter was like.

........it was nice to see the snowbells out, and lots of other bulbs about to burst into flower......

........the vegie gardens are in various states of disrepair, but the Winter sun did look lovely through the leaves of the silverbeet......

........and the leeks are going strong, one of the only things that are growing well at the mo.....

.....this poor area is needing a big make over, hang my head in shame! The celery is struggling and the tuscan kale is still producing, but only just! And kikuya going mental!! I can never seem to get on top of that stuff!

I think that if the sun is out tomorrow and things dry out a little bit I am going to have to get Stuck Into The Garden.

(I haven't shown you pictures of the front, due to it's terrible state of neglect, I'm only going to show you the 'after' pictures once I've done a huge clean up. haha..)

Sorry there are no crochet updates today, I had to post about the garden to try and make myself get out there and fix it up a bit. I love gardening, but have been very remiss in my maintenance lately, due to bad weather, too much craftiness, etc, so this might be the spur on I need!

Craftiness returns soon, have a great day!

Having a little bit of playtime....

I have found this interesting website where you can make mosaics of your photos and other fun stuff, and started having a bit of a play, so here is one of some crochet projects from the last 12 months. I have shown these photos at other times so sorry if you have seen this stuff before.

(a rare double post today!!)

My creative space.....What to do?....

Hi there.

Today my creative space has many possibilities, I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment and they are all calling my name!

Above is the granny stripey blanket with the next few colours I am going to use, we are going for a bit of a bluey green patch, with maybe a bobble row thrown in there too.

Or there is my crochet jar covers in cotton. I am trying to get a few of them together to maybe put them in a shop and try and sell some. My sister used to work in a lovely florist shop that I might be able to put them in, or else they might go in Little Woollie Makes..........

And I also have the baby things I have been working on for a few weeks to finish off and make a some more different coloured boots, and sew on the flower embellishments.

So I am spoiled for choice!!

As long as I actually achieve some progress today I will be happy, although it is mid afternoon and we have a busy sports time after school today, so I had better get cracking!!

Hello, hello, hello, to any new followers,( and everyone who has been around for a while!) I seem to be getting a lot of extra views recently, and every time I click on to blogger there are a few new people on board!! So thanks for having a look, it is very exciting, I hope I don't bore you all with my drivel!

Have a great day!

Playing along with the others at Our Creative Space today.

Monday, Monday.......

hi there.

Well another week rolls around, the boys are all back at school today, so I had some time to play with colour combinations from my baby wool stash............going to make 3 colour stripe little beanies for babies.........

........... and do a bit of baking to fill my new cookie jars with the cute little rooster tops, I couldn't resist them at the DFO on the weekend...........

........and watch my new chookies test out their flying abilities, these are the first chooks I've had that have flown up to the top of the high fence, the other girls didn't look impressed, and they didn't seem too keen on going further though, probably only a matter of time......

( they were a bit chicken to fly right over! pun intended haha)

.........treated myself to a big bunch of one of my favourite flowers, these purple stocks - aren't they lovely? Fresh flowers have a way of making you smile and feel good about your home no matter how messy or holiday trashed it is.!!

Hoping to get a bit of extra crafting done this week, so should have some nice piccys later....

Have a great day!

my creative space....heads and toes...

Hey there, how's your day going?

Today my creative space is about making another little flower for these little boots and trying to finish the stripey hats that have sat with threads hanging out for ages.

This is the first time I've made little boots, and it was not that difficult once I got the hang of the pattern, I don't make that many things from patterns so it can be a bit challenging working them out.

They were actually fun to make, I was thinking they might be cute in stripes too.

I have a heap of this lovely soft merino baby wool in gorgeous colours, so I think there will be more of these in the pipeline.

....Just thought I'd pop a piccy of my blanket progress this week, slow and steady it is growing...

Have a look at other creative spaces over here

Talk soon, have a great week!

My crafty space sorted.....

Hello .......... what's news around here.........

I have given my bit of the study a make over of sorts. Still school holidays, and the boys seem happy to hang around at home , so I have been trying to organise my wool storage and give me somewhere to do crafty stuff that doesn't end up spreading through the whole house.

We took a trip to Ikea on Sunday to get these square boxy shelves. It pays to be prepared when you shop at Ikea, the place is enormous and like a great shopping conveyor belt, everyone moves in the same direction, and it is like swimming up stream if you want to back track and check something out.

Note to self: don't go to Ikea on a weekend ever again thinking you can just quickly pop in and grab what you want and be on the road again in 20 minutes. It ain't gonna happen. Best leave 4.5hrs for the round trip, (3hrs driving, and 1.5 to get the stuff) , and be ready to go, go, go!!! It is not a place to browse in peace, be ready to contend with 50 million other people not really sure what they are looking for, and then all trying to check out at the same time. It is an amazing shopping experience.

So anyhoo, we bought these new shelves and I am soooo happy with my new organised things, all the colourful wool sitting nice and neat in their little squares. Moved the table around to a new position, tidied up my wool scraps, gave it a bit of a dust and vac, added my blue chair and had fun rearranging stuff, and there you go, one new improved crafty space!

Think I'll have a little sit in the blue chair with a nice drink and do a bit of hooky, I've got a few ideas swirling around trying to get out, and it is great to have a nice tidy space to use!

Before I go, I just wanted to say hello to anyone who is new to my blog. I seem to have gained quite a few followers recently, so welcome, it's nice to have you visit!! I'll be trying my best to check out all your blogs too when I get some free time on the computer. (Not that easy here, as the middle son has introduced the youngest to the wonderful World of Warcraft. 2 gaming nuts in the house now. What joy.)

So thanks for popping over and I'll see you soon!

Saturday sugar fix......

Today Andre, Max and I decided to do a bit of cooking. Not just plain baking either, we decided to dip our toes into the wonderful world of lollie making.

.....Spurred on by the recent purchase of this little gem of a cookbook.......

the main ingredient of the whole book being sugar in all its various guises, it's a sweet tooth's dream and a dentists nightmare! I couldn't resist though, it has a recipe for musk sticks, I mean who doesn't want to know how to make your own musk sticks!

Pure Genius!!

.........lollipops were decided on.......

A trip to the cake decorating shop for special supplies (glucose syrup, flavours and colours), and then we were away!

.....And here are the fruits of our labour, yummy and not too bad looking either!

Max has a big hunk of left over lollipop-that-hardened-before-we-could-get-a-stick-into-it wedged firmly in his cheek, hence the cheeky grin.

A special treat for the holidays kiddo, don't think we will be making these everyday!!

Hope you are having a great weekend too!

my creative space....the new do and a bit of blanket...

.......I have been adding a bobble row to my blanket, which is surprisingly slow going. Hope to finish it off tonight and get a few more rows hooked down.

The day has been busy with my nieces birthday and dropping the older boys at their social engagements..........and getting my mane chopped into something more manageable.

I had forgotten how nice it is to get your hair cut.........

.....This is the before photo, I usually keep my hair tied up, so I hadn't realised just how long it had got, (only really notice how long it is at night when I wake up being strangled by it), definitely time for a make over.......

......and here is a little peek at the new me with short hair.... I feel like I've shed about 5 kgs! I am a big fan of the 'don't do things by half' rule, so it feels great to look so different.

(I have just broken my 'no pictures of me on the blog' rule, oops, as you can see I don't really resemble my knitted avatar, but never mind, now you can put a face to my ramblings)

Hope your day is going creatively, you can see what other peeps are up to over here.

see you soon!

Camera love.....

look at these brilliant colours!!!

......been playing with my camera and the photo editing on the imac.......

.............loving how I can pump up the colour saturation and lighten everything up....... and change the 'temperature' of a picture, I like the cool end of the spectrum.........

.........I think it's going to be hard to use a 'normal' photo again!! At last I think I will be able to get those beautiful bleached out vibrant effects that I see elsewhere on the internet ...

sorry if you guys all know this stuff, I'm a bit behind the times I think.

...back to my new favourite time eater.......

see you tomorrow!

Holiday Tuesday......

Finished the shadow boxing, wall paper all stuck down and ready for a wall.

Hi there.

The school holidays are with us here and I have big grandiose plans about all the things I am going to achieve while the boys are home and our busy life is a little slower. Yeah. Right.

It is already Tuesday and the 'post on blog everyday' plan is behind schedule. Sigh.

I will try to improve myself over the next 2 weeks, I want to finish a heap of things that are nearly ready for my shop, so I can actually get them into my shop and out there in the big wide web world.

There are several family birthdays around this time , so I am busy making little somethings to go with their presents, and I want to add about 40 cm to my stripey blanket along the way too.

Just as another distraction, after lots of frustrating computer says no moments,

we decided our computer needed upgrading, so we are now the proud owners of an iMac, I have to say I LOVE it and am wasting a fair chunk of time discovering all the fab stuff it can do. Hopefully this is the end of my computer problems with blogger too.

The weather has gone freezing and I think I'll go ands make a nice cosy fire and do a bit of knitting while the boys are occupied with their mates.

Just to show that all is not completely lost, I did manage to finish off my little shadowbox project, I think it is looking quite pretty, and once it is home to some of my crochet creations I think it will be complete.

I am going to try and post my holiday progress every day or so, if I can book time on the computer, it is quite popular with the boys too.

So this week we are getting haircuts, attending a cousins birthdays, going to the movies, maybe a bushwalk (weather doubtful), having an extended family lunch, lots of playing with friends that just pop over, baking our hearts out, and I think I will give my craft room/area a bit of a make over if I get time.

What do you have on the go at the moment?