Handmade Christmas 2018

Hello!!  It's been a while since I've been over here, I'm blowing the dust off my blog and hoping to get back into blogging, I know I have said this before and it hasn't stuck, but I'm going to give it another crack, it is such a great way to record and share things! :)

Anyway, it is the start of September and Spring here in Australia, and our thoughts turn naturally to...Christmas!  Just joking, it is super early to be thinking about Christmas, but I have an idea that I'd like to make some presents and decorations and it all takes lots of time!  Usually I don't start my Christmas makes till much later in the year and then of course I never get things finished in time.  

This year, now that I have the shop, I thought it might be nice to start a Handmade Christmas Club for anyone who is interested in getting their craft on for Christmas. 

I am thinking that we will meet once a month at the shop for a making, sharing, inspiring each other session.   I will bring out my collection of books and patterns to get the creative spark going, and hopefully other people will have ideas for things they want to make too! 

(I also have some cute Christmas decoration kits coming soon in the shop, so there should be plenty of inspiration for things to make!)

I will share any cute/ Xmas gift potential patterns that I come across on here as well, so we can encourage each other over the next 4 months, and anyone can join us even if you can't come to the meet ups.  I will probably do a weekly Handmade Christmas post and share anything I think is interesting! 

The get togethers will be held at the shop in Hastings, Victoria, Australia, the  dates I have for the Christmas Club get together are:

Sunday September 16th  12 - 4pm 

Sunday October 21st  12 - 4pm

Sunday November 11th 12 - 4pm

Sunday December 2nd 12 -4pm

For the local girls coming to the get together, I'm thinking it will be a bit like the Saturday Crafternoons, costing $5 a head, you can bring your own stash yarns and materials, or buy things in the shop,  and everyone will be working on their own different things.  (I'll have some snacks and drinks to refresh us when we need a break. :) )

Feel free to get in touch if you'd like to come along, and I'll make sure I have enough chairs! :) 

Anyway, that's all I can think of at the moment, maybe no one else will be interested and I'll be crafting by myself, but it should be a bit of fun!

Have a lovely crafty day peeps! 

Catching up....

Hello! How have you been going?  

I've been pretty busy with this and that, nothing extra special, just normal life and preparing for another market.  I thought I'd pop in here and show you a couple of things that I have been making these last few weeks.  We spent the Melbourne Cup weekend at Philip Island, so I took a few little projects to keep me busy and not eating and drinking too much! 

Here's a bit of what I've been up to.....

....hooking away like a mad woman!  These round puffy flowers are destined to be Christmas decorations, I am planning on bringing them to the Emu Plains Market next weekend, I'll have to make sure they get finished!  I think they will look cute dangling from a tree.   I am thinking of making a couple of table top pompom trees to take to the market as well (thanks for the suggestion Angela! xxx), and I want lots of crochet decorations to hang from them.  Must get cracking!

...I have also made a couple of extra heart washers that need finishing off too.  (I am sensing a bit of a theme today....)  I had some of these at the last market I did and someone saw them and gave my card to a friend of theirs who owns a shop in Mornington, and long story short, I have been asked to make some for the shop, so I really need to make a few more!

.........aren't these roses beautiful?  Straight from my garden, I had a lovely half hour picking these this morning, I think I have a thing for pink roses, I have several different shades of pink, but not many other colours.  There is nothing like a garden wander to get you enthused about growing things again.

I went out this afternoon and started the mammoth task of clearing my veggie beds, I have bought a few seedlings to plant in each area I clear as a reward for each little achievement. We will have veggies this Summer, even if they are a bit late!

......and I found a whole heap of broad beans ready to pick under all the weeds ( plus a nice haul of potatoes), there are plenty more too, I have a recipe for smashed broad beans that you mix with some grated sharp cheese and a bit of olive oil and eat on bread or toast, a bit like a chunky dip, it is quite yummy, must make that soon.....

Well, that's about all I have for the moment, I have had a delivery of some new colours in the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, but need to take photos, so will show you them next week, Have to say I am warming to some of her more muted tones more and more, quite lush indeed!  I have added them to the shop over here if you'd like to check to out! 

Have a great day, talk soon!  

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Handmade Christmas Making......

Hello, how are you going today? 

I am having a good day, nothing special, just food shopping and general housey things, but I like days like this.

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for the lovely comments on my last post and your ideas for reinvigorating   bloggy energy.  I think I will just continue to blog when I can and not worry too much if it's not everyday, I think I am too casual for anything like a formal schedule, so this blog is just going to go with the flow, the same approach I take to most aspects of my life.  Thank you all for your continued interest in Little Woollie, I have a few new ideas to try out over the next few months so I'll see how that goes. :)

Well, suddenly Christmas doesn't seem that far away, (eek, nearly November!) and once again I am finding myself tossing up how much of a handmade Christmas I'll be able to achieve.  I'd love to make some of the gifts for my family this year, I don't think I'll worry to much about all the boys I have to buy for, they are not really into handmade stuff, but I could do some baking for them, they do love a homemade bikkie or 2.

I am thinking that cute crochet washers and a nice piece of soap would be a nice little gift for my friends, I like making the washers so they should be fun to make.

I am doing a couple of markets between now and Christmas, so I am also trying to make some things that would be good presents for people to buy, maybe for teachers or other people we get little gifts for at this time of year.

So I have been making these little milk jar covers in multicoloured stripes, I think they look so cute in a group!  These jars make good small vases and you could pick a posy of flowers and give a cute jar of flowers to your favourite teacher, or you could stick a nice candle in one for a candleholder, or you could fill it with some bright coloured fine liners for a cute pen holder.......or you could fill a shadow box with different patterned one for a very cute wall display!  

These small milk bottles can be picked up cheaply from 2 dollar shops, or you could keep your eyes open for interesting shaped bottle and recycle bottles that are finished in the kitchen, I think a little collection of different shaped and sized bottles with there cute colourful cover would be a lovely present! Cute and thrifty, gotta love that!

.....I just had to pick a few ranunculus from the garden and colour match them to their vase....

.....and a couple more gratuitous flower shots, just because I can't get enough of their gorgeous colours.........

So, are you making any presents this year?  

I am going to make a few decorations too.

Have you been following the Handmade Christmas posts over at One Crafty Mumma?  Mel is one organised girl!  She has lots of ideas and links for handmade things this year, I am getting on board a little late, but there is still lots of time to get making!

During the week I will have a look around the internet and see what Christmas decorations I can find and share with you all next week.

Have you got any handmade ideas for Christmas this year, any secret crafty plans?

Have a great day!

Crochet Washcloths, so hip!!

Hello!

We are starting two weeks of school holidays here, so looking forward to a break in our usual routines, hopefully we will have a lot of fun days, relaxing doing what we like. 

This morning I sat down and weaved all the ends in on my little washcloths.  It was time for some photos!  So here they are, humble washcloths, little woollie style!

A couple of these have already found a new home, far away across the ocean, how exciting!

**Thanks to my very obliging helpers here, a little glimpse *behind the scenes* at our headquarters. :)  

(Although it turned into a bit of a tug of war with washcloths flapping around all over the place very soon after this was taken:) )

Anyway, I am pretty happy with how these turned out, very easy, and I think a cute present with some nice soap or something like that.  A good start to my Handmade Christmas effort. 

What have you been up to this weekend?

Had some fun times?

xxxxxx

(ps. A few lovely people were wondering how to to the dotty pattern, I will try and clean up my scribbles and post a photo of the dot graph for the tapestry crochet technique:) )

Edited to add:  I now have a pattern available for these washcloths as well as the hearts and clouds ones. If you are interested they are for sale on Ravelry over here!

Made by Hand - dotting on

Joining in with crafty types over on Christina's blog for Made by Hand today.

So I am still a bit obsessed with the tapestry crochet technique.  I have been making more wash cloths, playing around with pattern and colour, doing a bit of polka dotting along the way.  I am going to do a little tadah post soon, because they are looking so cute all together with their different patterns and colours.  I finish one, then have to start another because there are so many colour combos to try out!

What have you been making?

xxxxxxx

Good things about Spring.....

 Hello.

I thought I would share a few good things about Spring with you today, I love the change of seasons and the way they break up the year into manageable portions.  Each new season has me making plans for things to do in the next few months, and Spring is no exception.  The year is marching on!  I have Big Plans for Spring, I have to admit a lot of them are Big Plans for Winter that didn't quite make it.  I have garden plans,  crafty plans, getting into shape plans (this one tends to carry over many seasons, I'm struggling a bit with self discipline), getting-the-house-looking-good plans, menu plans, wool shop plans, and the list goes on. You get the picture, plenty of plans!

....One of my plans is to make a few Christmas presents this year, so Spring is the time to start if I am going to have things finished by December ( I like to have plenty of time!)  These little squares are actually destined for presents, I am going to call them face washers and make a bit of a bath kit with them and some soap or something like that.  I have made them from cotton and kept these 2 pretty bright, I think they will add a bit of fun to bath time for my nieces.  

You can see how to do tapestry crochet here.

...think I might make a few more of these in other colour combos, they are a bit addictive.....

  

......in other news, I have repotted all my dead and dying pots with some lovely Spring Colour.  (Not really earth shattering news I know, but anyhow.)  My garden is big and it is easy to get overwhelmed with all the things that need some work, all the weedy unkempt areas, so I decided to concentrate on the area near the back door  and make it a pretty place to sit and have a break.

Now I can look at my pots and see something actually achieved and feel a little bit proud.  I am thinking that I will tackle little chunks of the garden over the next few weeks and try and get it in good shape.  One step at a time....

...I love how this is such a nice blossomy time of year, plus it is pretty windy around here, so it often looks like it is snowing petals, very charming!.....

....my special daffys have opened and they are so pretty don't you think?....

....and our chooks are back on the lay, hooray!  lots of fresh eggy goodness every day around here, 

(I was a bit worried that I had duds as they were taking their time coming on the lay, but all is forgiven now and I love my little flock of different breeds, such nice colourful eggs).....

Anyway, that's all for now, what's happening in your patch?

Got any plans for the new season? 

xxxxxxx

Christmas eve!!!

Only one sleep to go! Yay!
I love Christmas Eve almost better than the actual day, there is so much anticipation and the whole family is kind of extra hyped and excited and happy! I have tried to decorate our family room this year to make it feel a bit more special, as I am hosting Christmas lunch tomorrow for my family ( 16 people, so not too big).
These are some pictures of my twiggy table centre with hanging decorations that I crocheted. I like the little granny christmas trees, they were so easy and I think look really sweet! Thanks to the Royal Sisters for the great pattern. Also hung up the snowflakes that I showed you before.


I also made a couple of Lucy at attic 24's lovely decorations, they took a bit more time but were fun to make.


This is a corner of our family room with our wonky Christmas tree. ( excuse the mess, I think I was about to do a bit of tidying up after these photos) I have strung paper balls across the room and also my knitted buntings, although I could have done with more of them.



I love my paper balls, especially the dotty ones! Not traditional christmas colours, I know, but still festive and partyish I think!


Finally, I tried to take a shot of the second scarf I made for my other sister, it's a bit dark, but I think you can get the idea. I hope she likes it!

So I hope you all have a great day tomorrow and actually have time to sit back and enjoy all the hard work and fun effort that goes into the Christmas festivities, and I hope Santa brings you something special!!

Merry Christmas and thank you all for having a look at my humble blog. It's been fun 5 months!

Hand made Christmas Challenge......

It is really starting to feel like Christmas is on the way! I found a half done Christmas bunting that I started earlier in the year, and as always time has got away from me and now it is nearly Christmas time and my hand made decorations are not finished! Damn!


Sooooo... I am going to quickly finish these little flags and string them together for a cute deco across a doorway.


Also made the first batch of the season of shortbread last night, a bit early I know, but I love these bikkies and it doesn't take much arm twisting to get me baking them!

We did a bit of Chrissy shopping today, braving the crowds at DFO, didn't get much really. I think I'm going to fail on my Hand made Challenge, it will probably end up being a 70/30 split of shop stuff to handmade stuff, but I guess it's a start!

So feeling quite festive this weekend! Hope you had a good one!

My creative space #12........

......today I'm starting to think about a new project for Christmas. Involving snowflakes. I have found a heap of free patterns and I'm going to get cracking on making up a few. There are so many resources on the internet, it's just so ace! I'm loving working in this fine cotton at the moment and I think the snowflakes will work well in it.
It will probably be 35degrees here at Christmas, but I guess snowflakes are still a Christmassy motif. Also making more flowers for another flower vine.

I really don't know where this week has gone! I can't believe it's Thursday already! I have been on a little post-blogtober come down I think. It has also been Melbourne Cup week here, and I always find when the kids have a day off in the middle of the week somehow the whole week gets screwed up! We had a party at our place on Cup Day , so I spent Monday preparing, Tuesday partying ( we backed the trifecta!), and Wednesday cleaning up! So I hope you forgive me for a few days absence from blog land!

I have signed up for the Softies for Mirabel appeal over at Meet me at Mikes, so I 've got to get onto that as well. I have several almost done knitted babes, so this will be a good reason to finish them off!

Check out other creative places at Kirsty's .

Have a great Thursday!

Hand made Christmas Challenge......

Blogtober 23rd

This is some Christmas bunting I have been knitting recently. I am having trouble keeping it flat as the edges are curling in a fair bit, I have tried blocking it, with limited success, oh well, it's just for us so I guess it doesn't really matter much, it still looks cute and Christmasy!

I have a few more favourite recipes for biscuits I like to make for gifts.....


Chocolate Fleck Cookies
125g butter
2 tblsp castor sugar
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups SR Flour
75g chocolate, grated

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in sweetened condensed milk, then sift flour in 2 batches. Stir in chocolate. Roll spoonfuls into balls, place on greased tray, press down slightly with fork. Bake in moderate oven (180 degrees) for about 10 minutes.

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Weekender Biscuits
125g butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup sultanas
1 cup SR flour
2 cups lightly crushed cornflakes

Cream butter and sugar, add egg, mix well. Fold in sifted flour and sultanas, mix well. Roll spoonfuls of mixture in cornflakes and place on greased tray. Allow room for spreading. Bake in moderate oven (180 degrees) for about 20 minutes.

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Delicious Chewy Ginger Bikkies
125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup golden syrup
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
2tsp boiling water
1 1/2 cups plain flour

Place butter, sugar, golden syrup, ginger and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until butter melts and mixture is smooth. Put bicarb and boiling water in a small bowl and combine. Add to butter mixture and stir to combine. Add sifted flour and stir until smooth. Spoon spoonfuls onto greased tray, leave room to spread. Bake in moderate oven (180 degrees) for 12 - 14 minutes or until biscuits are just firm around edges. Allow to cool on trays.

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This is not a biscuit recipe, but is delicious for a sweet hit and people really seem to like a homemade version of this lolly.

Honeycomb
4 tblsp golden syrup
1 tblsp water
1 cup sugar
3 tsp bicarb soda

Before I start I like to prepare the tray I am using by lining it with a piece of baking paper. Heat golden syrup, and sugar, bring to boil, then simmer on low heat for 5- 10 minutes, careful to not burn it! Test for brittleness by dropping a little bit in water and seeing how hard it goes. When done, take pot off heat and add sifted bicarb, stir quickly and tip onto tray to set and cool. ( When you add the bicarb it will froth up and turn into honeycomb so stir the bicarb in quickly, but don't over stir or the air will all go out of it and it will lose it's lightness).
When cold and hard, shatter into pieces and you can dip in chocolate for homemade crunchies!

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As you can probably tell, I come from a family of sweet tooths!

Hope you are having a nice weekend!

See what other people are doing in the Handmade Christmas Challenge at Knicky Knacks here.

Hand made Christmas Challenge......

Blogtober 16th

I'm a bit of a sucker for an interesting advent calendar, so I was kind of thrilled with this update on the old tradition. All those grey shapes are in scratchie paint so you rub off a patch each day of the countdown. A scratchie advent calendar - I love it! I picked this up at the Finders Keepers Market last weekend from tmod. ( www.tmod.com.au), they had other quirky scratchie cards and things, but I really like this calendar!
I was going to try and crochet one this year, but I think I'll be short on time, so that will be for Xmas 2011.

Have a look over here at Knicky Knacks to see how others are going with the handmade Christmas Challenge!
Hope you're having a lovely weekend ( it is ffffffrrreeeezzziinngg here!)

Hand made Christmas Challenge......

Blogtober 9th

This week I thought I'd share some of my favourite biscuit\cookie recipes. I love to bake up a whole lot of different biscuits and package them up in nice tins or cellaphane bags with cute ties and give them out at Christmas to my friends. They all seem to like them, especially the non cooks amongst them. I have a growing collection of cookie cutters so it is fun to make lots of different shapes and give a nice mix in my packages.



Our Favourite Gingerbread
Every family probably has a family recipe for gingerbread, so here is mine.

125gr butter
1\2 cup brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 1\2 cups plain flour(sifted)
1 tsp bicarb soda (sifted with flour)
3 tsp ginger (grated\crushed fresh or powdered)
2 1\2 tablespoons golden syrup

Cream butter, sugar and golden syrup, add egg yolk, beat well to combine. Add ginger, mix. Gradually add dry ingredients, mix well. If dough is too soft to handle, cover with cling wrap and put in fridge for a while to firm up. Knead lightly , roll out and cut out cookies in what ever shapes you want. Cook in moderate oven for 10 minutes ( about 180 degrees C on my oven).
Cool on tray.
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Our Favourite Chocolate Chip Cookies

125gr butter
1 cup sugar ( mostly brown sugar, topped up with a bit of white sugar)
1 egg
1 3\4 Self Raising flour
1\2 bag choc chips

Cream butter, sugar. add egg, beaten in gradually. Sift flour in, mix well. add choc chip mix.
Shape into smallish balls, flatten slightly on trays. cook in moderate oven ( 180 degrees) for 10 minutes. Cool on trays. ( delicious still warm!)
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Crispy Coconut Biscuits
125gr butter
1 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
2 cups Self Raising Flour
1 cup coconut
1\4 cup sugar, extra

Cream butter, sugar, add eggs beat till combined. Stir in sifted flour, stir in coconut. roll into balls, dip on side in extra sugar and bake in hot oven ( about 190 -200 degrees in my oven) for 12 minutes or until light brown. Cool on tray.
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Anzacs
1 cup rolled oats
1cup plain flour
1cup sugar
125 gr butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1\2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tablespoon boiling water

Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Combine butter and goldensyrup in saucepan, stir over gentl heat till melted. mix bicarb soda and water, add to melted butter, then add this mixture to dry ingredients, stir to combine. Place spoonfuls of mixture on trays. cook in slow oven (150 degrees)
for 20 minutes. cool on trays.
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I have more to share but I've run out of time today, so will stick a few more recipes up next week. To check out more on the Handmade Christmas Challenge see here at Knicky Knacks.
Have a great weekend!

Hand made Christmas Challenge......

I was checking out a few other blogs the other day and found some cute little drawstring coin pouches in Jellywares banner, she said a tutorial was coming, but being the impatient crafter, I thought I would make my own version. I thought they would be a nice little addition to my nieces presents or with a nice chunk of soap in them they could become a 'soap on a rope' type thing and hang in the shower. You could even do a bobbly stitch on the base and turn it into a soft scrubby soapy type thing. I made this in cotton and just used a bit of ribbon that I found in a drawer, but I might crochet a little cord if it is going to get wet. What do you think?

Have a look at what other people are up to in the challenge at Knicky knacks.