Crochet in 2011

Hello!

How was your Christmas?

 Ours was great, lots of food, drink and good cheer. 

And now we can relax into the summer holidays! Yay!

The boys are taking full advantage of the holiday lack of routines,

 and are not getting up till 10.30 -11am,

 they do love their beds, especially the older two now they are teenagers. 

 Might have something to do with staying up all hours playing Xbox.

I do find it quite frustrating that they won't go to bed and then they don't get up, but I am trying to let it go and not be too much of a witch. I just start some loud music mid morning and get on with things around here.  They will be back at school in a few weeks and will have to get back to sensible hours then anyway.

Thought I'd make a couple of mosaics of my crochet makes in 2011, it is coming to that time of year, to look back and see what you have achieved over another 12 months, I am always surprised by what you can do in a year!

There were more bits and pieces I could have put in , but I haven't put photos of every project onto Flickr, so these are what I came up with.

I got a lovely book for Christmas with lots of things I want to make in it. I will do a post on it soon and show you, I am sure you will like it!

The new year is always so exciting, I always make heaps of plans and resolutions (that I rarely keep), I am making a list of crochet and knitting projects to try this coming year, and it is lots of fun!!

Anyhoo, must go and wake those boys of mine!! hehehe....

See you soon!

Merry Christmas to you...

Wishing you all the very best for the festive season, 

I hope you all have a lovely happy, restful, fun time, 

Julie xxxxxxxxx

Best.Ever.Shortbread.

Just wanted to share this recipe.  It is the best shortbread recipe and is the only one my mum and aunts make, it's a bit of a family tradition........

Margie's Shortbread

225g butter (I usually melt the butter)

1/2 cup castor sugar

2 cups plain flour

3/4 cup ground rice (ground rice gives it a lovely, slightly gritty texture, so try and find it if you can, it's better than rice flour)

Mix all ingredients, press flat, or roll and cut out shapes.  Cook in moderate oven (around 180 degrees c)

until pale (around 12 minutes)

That's it, very simple, but so delicious and Christmassy!!

Enjoy.

polka dot progress.....

.............polka dot square cushion progress.............

How are you all going at the moment, organised for Christmas? starting to panic a bit? 

It is all systems go here, I've spent today shopping and have broken the back of my list, and I've ordered the pork for lunch.  We got through our busy weekend, and had a lovely social time in the process and now the end is is sight!!

So I hope you all have a wonderful time this Christmas with family and friends, good food and laughter, and generally just a lovely merry time!!  And I hope there are no fights, I know this stressful time of year can push relationships, so let's just relax and be nice to each other and let go of the little things!

I probably won't get to post again till after Christmas, the boys finish school in a couple of days and will be dominating computer time, so have a great day!!

PS I am really enjoying my advent swap pressies, I have been very spoilt, so Vickie thank you so much!

Slack me though, haven't taken any pictures, will try and do a big group shot at the end.

See ya !

An antidote to busy.......

Well, it's that crazy busy time of year again, and we have lots to do in this house. 

We were away for a few days last weekend, and had a nice family break, swimming and lounging around reading a great book  (Book 2 of'A song of Ice and Fire' series, I love a good sci fi/ fantasy tale)

It was great, because this week is pretty hectic!.... 

All the usual end of year things and lots of Christmas catch ups and get togethers...... I think more socialising is crammed into these few weeks than six weeks in Winter......  all lots of fun and very enjoyable!

.......having said that, I am freaking out a little bit how I am going to fit in everything I need to do, I haven't bought any presents yet, but there is still a week or so to get that done.......

  

Today - Garden job in the morning (paid work, so very welcome), Catch up in afternoon with friends for a chat and drink, make meringues for school break up party for andre, 

Friday-out all day on bike riding trip with Max's class, basketball Christmas party in evening,

Saturday - SummerHarvest lunch at Community garden (I am catering the lunch, luckily a small group only), Tennis Christmas BBQ in the evening (bringing some sort of salad)

Sunday- big extended family christmas party at my olds place (70 people, and I told mum I'd bring potstickers, fairy bread and cupcakes, and a salad if I had time),

....as well as these organised events, I have a lot of little admin type things that have to get done like booklists and biscuits for teachers, and running Jesse to his job and his friends places and having enough food in the house for extra kids........I am sure I am going to forget things,  I do that even when we don't have this much on!!!

.......deep breath.....

I hope this doesn't sound whingy, I am happy we have lots on and am looking forward to see everyone,

I do like to enjoy the festive season, so I am trying to not get overwhelmed, but there is a lot of cooking coming up in the next few days!! haha...

I thought this is the perfect time to start a new bit of crochet, just the thing to unwind my frazzled brain.

So this is the start of my polka dot squares, I am going to make a cushion cover, it is hard to tell the size from these photos, but they are not that big, so I think 16 will make a good size cushion.

wouldn't mind a big blanket made of these either.......

I have seen some lovely circle in squares crochet blankets recently in blogland, there must be something in the air! ( Sorry, it's after midnight and I can't be bothered finding links to show you what I mean, I am a slack unit!)

I made this pattern up,  as the ones I saw in other blogs used dcs (tr), and I wanted a nice dense weave using scs (dc), I am pretty happy with how it has turned out. I am sure I am not the only one who has made a pattern like this, but I didn't find one in my short little hunt on the internet, and it wasn't hard to figure out for myself.

Thinking of writing a little pattern and tutorial post if anyone would like to have a go themselves.

Probably after Christmas though!!

What have you got on at this time of year, are you busy, busy, busy or are things more cruisey at your place ?(lucky you!! haha..)

See you soon!

Christmas (twig) tree..........

Our Christmas twigs looking a bit forlorn and presentless.

 It has been a full on week here, blogging got put on the back burner, but I am back into it now!

I am joining in with My Place and Yours over at the lovely Punky and Me for the first time today, I saw the theme was Christmas and thought I might as well jump on the band wagon!

We did the tree yesterday, I use the term 'tree' loosely, as it is kind of a sticky, leafless version of a tree.   We are going for an airy, eclectic, whimsical Dr Seuss-y feel at our place this year, and this is how it turned out. You may laugh.

It is surprisingly tricky to find suitable twiggy branches that have enough little stubby bits to hang our assortment of children-made, me-made and trashy decorations.  Very tricky indeed.  I thought it would be easy as we live in a kind of bushy place, but gum trees don't make very good stubby branches, too smooth and not branchy enough, and the scrubby undergrowth doesn't yield much in the way of sticks at all.

So our stick collecting was a bit of a fail, I had to resort to the pruned bits of our flowering cherry tree and cut off all the dead leafy bits. But they do work well I think.

We were going to spray paint the sticks, but my son's spray paint stash was down to gold only and it wasn't a very nice shade (looks more like vomit green to me), so we have gone with the naturale colour scheme.

Had to wedge the star off to the side rather than the top, as this was the only bit of suitable Stick Intersection.

Looks good at night though.

Definitely lots of airy bits!......

.....and I think once I do some Christmas shopping and get a few pressies under it, it will look like the super freak tree that it is!!  It will...I just know it.... I promise.....yes it will....I'm sure....

Oh well, the boys think it looks pretty interesting (it got the high praise of 'cool'), so that is the whole point of decorating the Christmas tree anyway, isn't it?

Hope your festive preparations are going well too!

Christmas star crafting.....

 Hello everyone!

I thought I'd show you what I have been making this week, something a bit Christmassy, as December is nearly here!  It is a cute little knitted star, I am loving making these, the little diamonds are quite addictive and I love all the colour combo possibilities!

I was taking a bit of a look around blogland and came across the pattern for these stars 

here at the lovely blog  Dutch Blue,  (now called The Dutch Sisters) of course I had to give it a try!  I have kind of given it a Little Woollie touch, but it is pretty much the same pattern.

And then I noticed that Vanessa at Do You Mind If I Knit  was making the same little diamonds, I'll be interested to see what she does with them, her work is always gorgeous!

I've really enjoyed dusting off the knitting needles for this one, so I thought I'd share my little side track into knitting.......

........so here are some of the little diamonds straight of the needles, lots of lovely colours!  I am using 8ply pure wool for these in a variety of brands, it is a great pattern for using up little straggly bits of wool left over from other things.

.....I like the striped effect, so have made many stripey combinations.

........after a bit of blocking they hold their shape better.......

.......here are some of the colour combos I had fun playing around with (and have yet to finish)....

 .....a Christmassy colourway..........

.......and here is the one I have sewn up so far, I didn't do matching colours for back and front, I like the mix of colours and stripes, I think they all go together .......

.............I decided to crochet my star together instead of sewing right around it, here it is all pinned up ready to be crocheted.......

............and here is the finished star! I am really pleased with how this worked out, and have lots more planned, they are fun, fun, fun!!

I popped 2 nice vintage buttons in the middle, one on each side, so I can hang these babies and let them twirl a bit, this way there is not really a back and a front.

 Haven't got around to hanging it yet, but might do a bit of a bigger ta dah when I have finished a few more and can get a bit more of a massed effect, I envision a lovely dangley display of colourful stars, maybe in a window..........I have a heap of lovely 4ply wool that might be just the thing for some smaller ones too.....hmmmmm.

I have a few other Christmas decoration ideas to try out, so will show you how they turn out when I get around to them!

Back to the clickety clack of my needles, I think my crochet hook is getting jealous..haha

Have  a great day!

Advent Swap......

hello!

So, it's nearly December and look what  arrived here the other day!

My advent swap parcel full of lovely packages, looking very festive and cheery, and with a whole heap of candy canes too!!  The lovely Vickie from Vickies Crafting was my partner for this swap, and I think she has sent a gorgeous parcel of Christmassy happiness!  Thank you so much!  

I have to say the bloggy community is a pretty great one. When I started blogging, I never dreamed it would be such an inspiring, generous, sharing, and rewarding community of people with similar interests, experiences etc, spread all around the world but joined by the blogging experience. Just amazing!

Thank you once again Vickie!  I will do a few showings through December of things as they get revealed I think!

Christmas crafting post coming soon! (just got to finish it first!)

My Creative Space....red and white......

My creative space today is all about sewing in the loose ends on my red and white bunting and blocking the pieces and crocheting them all together.

This is my contribution to a Kris Kringle swap organised by The Haby Goddess, and it really needs to be finished today for the deadline!  It is a mystery type swap, so I don't know yet who I have to send it to, it is fun making things for strangers, I just hope they like it!

I have also been making a bit of progress on my random stripey Christmas stocking, and with my swap things out of the way I should be able to get this finished this week.  I'm thinking I will put a plain back on it maybe felt or some type of blanket material, I think one side of ultra busyness will be enough.

So, I am starting to make head way on my Christmas crafting,  I just had a call from Gary at work, he has just checked our household budget for the next month and it is not looking great, so I am hoping handmade presents are going to be all the rage this year!!  I am sure Max will love a crocheted Nintendo DS, haha....

If you have some time, have a look over here at the far more creative spaces of lots of others.

Have a great day!

Brown paper packages....

Hello

I have finally gotten organised and finished getting my Advent Swap parcels together.

I was mulling over how to wrap them ( I know, I think about all the big issues here...haha), and decided to go with the brown paper and string look. I stamped my date cards to add a bit of colour.  I think they look nice and rustic, I hope Vicki my swap partner likes them!  They are currently winging their way to the Northern Territory, and should be there early next week. 

So, one thing to cross off my to do list! Yay.

I have nearly finished my thing for the other Christmas swap I signed up for,  but will show you that tomorrow when I take photos.

Just thought you might like to see the gorgeous colours of the self sown Shirley poppies in our garden at the moment......

so beautiful!  They really glow in the late afternoon sun......

Anyway, hope your week is going well, see you later!

My creative space.....stocking on the go

Hello

My creative space today is about my Christmassy crochet that I want to try and finish soon.  

This is the thing I have been working on recently ( well there are lots of other things on the go too, but I can't show you those as they are secret swappy stuff!)

 It is my version of a granny chic stocking, a bit over the top, but I am liking how it is coming along. 

I am onto the leg bit now, which should be quite quick, I am going to have some wider bands of colour here so I can embroider/sew some extra stuff on, just in case there isn't enough going on in it already! haha....

.......popped a few bobble rows in for good measure......

It is a bit slow going, as I am trying to write the pattern down as I go, and I have no idea how I am going to do the reverse side, I don't know how to crochet from the opposite direction.

Maybe one side will be fancy and one side will be plain, so you can change it depending on your mood!

Something to think about anyway.

I am joining in over here today, pop over and see what everyone else has been up to.

Have a great day!

PS. Thanks for the birthday wishes ladies, you are all so lovely!

Yum Yum......

Hi there!

  

What have you been up to today?

It was my birthday today, although it feels like Saturday was my birthday with the party and all that.

I have had a lovely day with visits from my aunt and sister and nephew, and a great lunch with my mum and dad.  I haven't really seen my husband much yet as I have been doing the basketball run this evening and he and Jesse play tennis tonight, but I'm sure we will catch up later this evening and watch an episode of 'The Living Dead', this new series he's found that we are getting a bit hooked on. 

I have been very spoilt, and received lovely presents and cards from everyone, there was a bit of a build up to the big 40, and I feel very lucky in the life I lead.

Lucky with the people in it, lucky with the things I do, lucky in the place I live, lucky in the good health we have.  

I hope the next 40 years are just as good!

Oh and to top it off, I picked our first 110gr of raspberries today! Yay! Delicious! They didn't last long, but there are plenty more where these came from!  They looked so good I had to take a photo!  

......I am starting to freak out a little with the fast approaching end of year busy time....... 

I  committed to a few Christmassy swaps and need to make some things for them, and deadlines are coming up quick!

And the calendar is filling up with social events and parties from now to Christmas, and there are lots of things I want to make for presents, and I wanted to fit in a Christmas giveaway too!! Eek...

Taking a deep breath, writing a list and checking it twice.

Have to prioritise, and just start on something, or finish off something properly!

I'll try and show you the progress on some of these makes, the ones not for swaps anyway.

Well, better go and get cracking on that Christmas list, the hook and yarn are calling!

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!