Not out of the loop anymore........

Hello.

 I was is the newsagent today, and look what I found...... the Molly Makes magazine.  It is the first time I have seen it anywhere round here, and it looks like we are a few months behind, but better late than never!   Apparently they are getting 2 copies a month, so I had better be on my toes to make sure I can score one!

 I liked the stories about the craftsters and their homes and work spaces, and all the crafty eye candy, like this page, wish we had a shop like this somewhere around here!

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I have started my crochet doll, this is as far as I have got, time for arms and legs I think.

Cup Day tomorrow, lunch at mum and dad's place, Gary and I will try to pick a winner or 2, I am sure there will be a sweep to take part in as well. ( Last year Gary and I picked the trifecta for the Cup, very exciting!!).  It is the only day of the year when we have a little punt, and it is kind of fun!

Hope you have a great day!

( Oh,  and the last day of Blogtoberfest, Yay!  I was not very good at it this year, lots of gaps, luckily back to normal transmission for November, so no self imposed guilt trips!)

look what I (re)discovered.....

Today I have been tidying areas of my house that have been very neglected for a long time.

The amount of cobwebs and dust was a bit embarrassing!

Anyway, I was cleaning a shelf that had lots of my knitting stuff crammed in and I found (or rediscovered) this blanket I was knitting just before I learnt to crochet last year.  Obviously once I got the crochet bug, my knitting took a back seat and I haven't done much with the needles since really.

But I was looking at all the lovely colours I have used in this and I think I should really get on and finish it.

So I have added to my 'projects on the go' list, much more respectable than shoved in a corner getting dusty and forgotten.  I have forgotten the pattern though, so must have a hunt for it, it will probably turn up crammed in another shelf!

I have got quite a few things lined up to make at the moment.  I have joined a couple of Christmas swaps, and need to make some things for those, and I have joined the 'Softies For Mirabel' Christmas craft appeal, and am making a softie for that. 

More info about this over here at Meet Me At Mikes. 

I have an idea for a doll of my own design, so we will see how it goes. (I actually have an idea for a dolls dress that I want to try, so have to make a doll to go with it!)

If it works out, I might make one each for my nieces, while they are still young enough for dolls.

(although I think you are never too old for a lovely doll!)

Tomorrow we are having a garden lunch at a friends place, hope the weather hold out for us, a very pleasant afternoon with good food, good friends, and a couple of nice cold bevvies, I am looking forward to it!

I am bringing salt and pepper deep fried calamari, Mum bought me a deep fryer recently, and it does calamari sooooo well!!  Our friends live down the road from us so it should stay nice and hot and scrummy, perfect as a first course nibble!

Anyway, hope you have a good weekend and do something fun! 

Bye!

Friday new things....

Hi there.

What's been happening today?

 Not much here.  Just a normal old Friday that seems to have come around extra quick this week.

I went down to my parents place today and had a nice lunch and pottered in the garden a bit, we visited a strawberry farm in Red Hill only to find it doesn't open for the season till next week. Doh.

Andre is still home recovering from his op, (think - lots of computer time) I think he is looking very well and is definitely ready for school next week.

We have a kind of long weekend here, with the Melbourne Cup running on Tuesday and a public holiday, so lots of people take Monday off as well. Technically the boys have school, but lots of kids are away so not much is done as far as school work goes.  I think my boys want to go to school, so it will just be a normal day for us.  Still feels like a holiday though.

I'm going to spend the weekend trying to restore some order in a few rooms here, cleaning and tidying a big mess.  And I should be able to fit in some crafting and cooking and gardening if I try hard!

Thought I would show you a couple of things I started yesterday (got a bit tired of the flower motif, so mixing it up a bit).  The little shape at the top is my first attempt at a heart, I think with a few modifications it will be right for some cute Chrissy decorations.

Also started another cushion in the Bendigo cottons, felt like doing some rows, and something small was just the thing.  Maybe another thing for Christmas?

Had a quick look in the Oppy on my way home and found these nice aqua, blue and lime check blankets. There were 2 single bed size, and a bit of a bargain, so I had to grab them. 

I did think of Claire over at Sweet Birdy Love and her lovely upcycled blanket toys when I saw them!  I have a few ideas for these, involving the sewing machine. 

Not sure if they are wool or acrylic, does anyone know how to tell the difference?

Anyway, I'm sure they can be used for something fun, such nice colours!

OK better go and do something! 

Have a great day!

My creative space...more pretty things...

 

Hellooooo.

..............oops, a whole week since my last post, and in Blogtober as well, shame on me!

I have to declare a fail in the 'blog every day of October ' department, humble apologies!!

This week has been a bit crazy for us, hence the lack of blogging.

It's 'my creative space time' again already!

Firstly I'd like to give you all a big thank you for the amazing comments you left on my last post, I loved getting your opinions, and all the thought you lovely ladies put into them, I really appreciate your views!  Thanks for your encouragement, excitement, and practical thoughts, it seems I am not the only one who has thought about opening a wool shop!

It gave me lots to think about, it seems some of the concerns I have about my wool shop, ie the location, would worry you too.

So, to cut a long story short, I have decided to knock back this particular shop, and look for one in a better location with more foot traffic and people around, and in the mean time I am going to start an online wool shop and sell some of the beautiful wool that I use here that may be hard to source overseas. My emphasis will be on gorgeous colour as that is a passion of mine.  Hopefully by the time I find a suitable place, the online bit will be doing well and will give me more money to put into an ace shop!  I should also have a good supply of wool ready to stock it straight away, as this was another concern I had, not having enough money to fully stock a great range of yarn at the start.  So by starting out smaller with less overheads, I should have more money for the good stuff, the yarn!

So stay tuned, I don't know how long these things take to set up, but some time soon there should be a 'Little Woollie Makes' wool shop, in one form or another!! 

Anyway, on to other things, I have spent 3 days this week away from home, sitting in a hospital ward with my middle son who had a bout of appendicitis, they ended up taking out his appendix, so now he has the rest of the week off school.  He has recovered very quickly, and only has a tiny scar to show for it!  

It is amazing how being in a hospital makes you feel cut off from the rest of the world, sort of in your own little time bubble, it is like a self contained little universe in there, you look out the window at the rest of the world going along normally, and you are just not part of it for a while.  I have never had to spend time in a hospital before ( other than having babies), and I have to say the nurses and doctors were so fantastic with their care and cheerful attitude.  Luckily our family is generally really healthy and we don't visit the doctor much, I really felt for families in there who obviously spend a lot of time in hospital and are very familiar with the system.

By the second day I was looking for something to pass the time ( we spent lots of time waiting for things), so got my crochet  out and hooked some more flowery bits for my 'summer tablecloth'.

There was an art therapist at the hospital who was interested in what I was making, and said she might just have to persevere with learning crochet to make beautiful things like this. I was chuffed. The universal language of craftiness!!  Good for the healing process I think.

I have 9 finished flowers now, I think I should weave in ends as I go so it won't be a huge task at the end. Must start doing that now!

Anyway, I wil try to be a good girl and finish Blogtober off proper like, with daily posts for the rest of the week. 

Joining in over here today with very creative people.

See ya !

My creative space...pretty things..

Today in my creative space, I have finally found a use for some lovely bright cotton I bought while we were on holiday.

These little doily things are pretty and cute and are in one of my Japanese crochet books, I have been meaning to give them a go for while, and got around to it last night.

I have no idea what the book is called, I haver seen it in Blogland quite a lot, but you can see the cover, I bought it from etsy, so if you google  Japanese Crochet books you will probably find it pretty easily.

I'm thinking that lots of these in different colour combos sewn together would make a pretty funky tablecloth for summer...hmmm, I'll see how many I make before I get sick of them.

Joining in over here today, at Our Creative Spaces, lots of other creative stuff happening there!

I also wanted to chat about something else that I am thinking about, and ask a couple of questions.

Feel free not to read on here, but I would love to hear your opinions.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the direction of my life, my children are getting older, although they are not grown up yet, and I feel that things are changing, they are more involved in their own lives and plans, and don't need me hovering around them all the time like they did when they were little . This is good. This is a natural progression, and is one that I feel is the result of the strong, secure family environment that we still have, they are making (some) decisions about their lives without too much input from us, and seem to be making good ones. 

All this leads me to the point where I feel I have time to do something else with my own life.  My family is still my first priority, but they are happy for me to do something that will make me happy, and they are even interested in what I'm planning!

Plus there is the practical side that we have been predominately a one income family, and our budget could do with some extra income.

With all this in mind I have been thinking about combining things I love, crafting, yarns, colour, and setting up a shop.  An empty shop has come up for lease in our town, and I am seriously trying to work out how I can open a wool and haberdashery, crafty supplies type shop.  There used to be one in town when I first moved here, but the woman retired and it shut. 

It is in a bit of a quiet part of town though, so I am wondering if people will make the effort to seek me out, or if the LYS is a thing of the past? Should I sell online as well?

Also I hope to offer classes and spread the yarny love with lots of inspiring gorgeous yarns and examples of what you can do with crochet and knitting.  I am not trying to make a fortune, (but a little income would be nice), I really think that being creative is so good for your soul and mental health, and I want to try and create somewhere people can indulge their creative passions.  There are so many gorgeous materials out there, and our closest yarn shop is 30 minutes away, so I think (hope) it could be viable.

One reason I thought this could work is the amazing community of crafters that I have found since starting this blog, I never thought there would be so much interest in yarny type things until I started blogging, I thought I was a bit weird with my creative endeavours, but then I found i was not alone!!

So, a couple of questions

Do you buy yarn from your LYS or mostly online?

Do you buy luxury yarns for a special treat?

Do you think there is still a place for a traditional haberdashery and yarn shop in todays world?

Do you think people have time/want to learn new skills like crochet nowadays?

Sorry to bombard you, and for rambling, if you stopped reading ages ago, I can understand!

So, I am off to my ponderings, and I hope you have a great creative day!

Sunshiny day.....

pink poppies getting blown around

   

Greetings from the garden today.

It is a fabulous day here and I just had to record whats going on in the garden.  It has been so nice to have a year with normal rainfall, the garden has really taken off after so any years of drought.

So, sorry to bore you if you are not into gardens, but it is a nice colour hit anyway......

...there is lots of pink in the garden at the mo,  lots of roses are starting to bloom, think I'll go and pick a vasefull, wish I could share the scent with you, it is really special.............

........pretty snapdragons......

The crap apple is spectacular, and covered with busy, buzzy bees.........

 ......this reddish brown iris has been gorgeous, heaps more flower spikes than last year.....

 .....the poppies just keep on giving......

Some purple aquilegia, I love these flowers bobbing around in the wind......

......and, so excited, HEAPS od raspberries starting to form, those bees are really busy pollinating everything, so I'm hoping for a bumper crop!!

 .....and there is still plenty of broccoli to be picked, unfortunately I am the only one who likes it in our house, so we have a bit of a broccoli glut! Anyone want some?

I really love Spring.

So much colour and life around, it's just ace.

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the stripey blanket, I didn't expect such a nice reaction, quite overwhelming! You guys are great!  Now time to get onto something new......hmmmmm.....

Have a great sunshiny day!!

mixed stripey blanket - the end - TADAH!!!!

OK here we go people, the stripey blanket all finished, wrapped up, complete!

Be warned quite a few photos in this post!

.....here it is on our bed.....

......I like it folded long ways too.......

........Stripe details....

.......it looks quite small folded on the bed, but here I am looking happy with myself, so you can see that it is bigger than I am!.....

I am very happy how this has finished up, pretty close to how I imagined it!

So a few facts for you all:

* the finished blanket weighs around 2kgs, so takes 20 100g balls of wool to make, no wonder it took a while!

*I used a variety of 100% 8ply wools in the blanket, brands include Colourworks, Cleckheaton Country 8ply, Bendigo Wool Mill, and some others that I can't remember.

These are the left over bits of the wools I used, I think all the colours are here, 18 in all I think!

*Sorry ladies, I made the pattern up as I went, so don't have a pattern to show you as such. I think part of this blanket's charm is the  random nature of the pattern, so I think just have a go at varying the stitches and colours and see how you go.

It is lovely and cosy and warm, I am sure it will get lots of use next winter!

So that is the end of the Stripey Blanket, it's been quite an epic crochet adventure, and I thank you all for the lovely encouragement I have received along the way, I am happy so many of you like this blanket!

The edge that I ended up doing was quite plain, as there is already plenty going on in the main blanket I think!

Pleased to report that my anti weaving in edging seemed to work!

I ended up crocheting around in sc, then 4 rows of dc along each side that had all the loose yarns to weave in. Then I folded over the dc rows to form a casing for the yarn ends and sewed this edge down. Hey presto, yarn ends all safe and sound hidden inside the edge!  

Hope that makes sense.

Have a great day!

Saturday

Hello! 

Just a quick post today, I couldn't miss 2 days in a row of Blogtober, I am already behind!

I am nearly finished the stripey blanket (last bit of sewing will be done when I'm finished here), so tomorrow will be the big reveal! (I hope!)

Today has kind of just petered away, can't really say what I got up to, nothing much, a bit of this , a bit of that, shopping, and other home things.

I have a heap of housework for tomorrow ( sooooo happy about that!), but it is only because I have let the house get a bit out of control, so no one really to blame but myself.  Might try the Lucy at Attic 24 approach, and change my attitude to enjoying making the house clean and tidy. I'll try anyway!

Tomorrow I might tell you about my big plans too, and see what you think. 

Tomorrow I am also going to do some baking, gardening, and start looking for my next crochet project. I've got a few ideas, but have not settled one one yet.

Max is waiting impatiently to get on the computer, so better stop this ramble here. 

Have a great day!

My creative space....on the edge

 hello!

My creative space today is all about the edge of my stripey blanket.  I am on the home stretch!

And my lazy non-weaving-in-of-the-threads edge is looking good I think. 

Can you work out what I have done?

It is such a busy blanket that I wanted a nice plain border, so I have decided that the red and pink edges on the sides will be balanced by  a nice neat row of single crochet on the top and bottom.

I feel the grand tah dah is not far away! Yay!

Joining in over here today, so go have a look at what everyone else is up to. 

Have a great day!

PS. my secret project is looking like it is going to be a goer! Getting excited!!

Plans......

Sooo.....what's been happening?

I have been in a bit of a limbo recently, I have some exciting plans that might actually become a reality, and it is a bit daunting.

I was telling my 11 year old about what's going on and he said

"so is this one dream Mum that you are actually going to do and not just talk about?"

Hmmmmm....... I think I have a reputation as a dreamer and a bit of a gunna.

I do have lots of ideas and schemes for things I could do, and different paths my life could take, I tend to talk them up for a few days and then they just slip back into the background of life, while everyday stuff is the actual life I lead.

So yes, I can understand when the boys look at me sceptically, I am sure they are thinking, there she goes again, off on another tangent.

But anyway, this is different.  Exciting, a bit risky (not dangerous, but it might not work), and something I think will be really good for me and all my family. Something I have been toying with in various guises for quite a while.

My mum thinks I might be having a mid life thingy, maybe she's right. I think I have been avoiding making decisions about what to do with the next bit of my life, using the boys as an excuse to put off doing things.  hmmmmm....... we will see what happens next!

Sorry to be so criptic, but I will write about what's going on soon if it all pans out .

Have a great day!

Colour hit..Nature does it best....

 Today I thought I'd give you a little feast of colour, something to lighten your heart and lift your mood!!   

On our way back from Sydney , we went through Canberra, and Floriade happened to be on how lucky for me!  We had a lovely hour stop and wandered through the tulips, and I happily clicked away on the camera, I think even the boys were impressed!

So heres a little taste of the colour fest that was Floriade! 

Enjoy!

Have a great day!