My place and yours - Blog H.Q.

My blog H.Q. is at the kitchen/dining room table, down the far end away from sticky fingers. The computer used to be down the other end of the house in the study, but I found I would only check on it every few days. Now it is in the 'cockpit' of the house that isn't a problem any more.

There's my current pot holder in progress. There's usually another one underneath my laptop as that is my way of blocking them. Can get a bit wobbly when typing though.

There are always school notices and bits and pieces around, but this morning there's also the Saturday morning garage sale treasures.

A box full of tea spoons from a deceased estate for my sister Emily who collects them.

They are pretty beautiful to look at and imagine someone's great adventures travelling around Australia collecting them from places they visited. They are all made in Australia too.

These four are my favourites. From left Deloraine is near where my parents live, Castlemaine & Malden is the closest I could find to here, I love Strahan's dangly anchor and Burnie's apple.

Some lovely old linen.

And a tin of buttons.

When I walked down the hill to this garage sale a woman called out that she'd wondered if I would turn up as there'd been another blogger who'd already been earlier, but these were perfect for me. Bren loved this story. He said my blogutation had preceded me.

I have no idea if these buttons are old or precious but they are already being picked over and threaded and glued onto cards and presents for my birthday in a few days time. It looks like these buttons came just in time as I have a handmade cards and presents only rule this year.

Thanks Ninon for this week's theme and to Pip for hosting the big list.

Crochet, magazines & buns oh my.

I thought I might give up the crochet habit when the weather warmed up but it doesn't look likely. A few rounds of a pot holder while supervising some late afternoon outdoor play-safe, portable and productive, it doesn't really get any better than that.

Have you checkout out this little magazine? You should its just gorgeous. Lots of crafty, environmental and sustainable ideas. And that could be me with our coloured carrots in my pocket. Thanks heaps Allison I love it.

And thanks Andi for this little book tied up with a ribbon. I am so close to leaving the pot holders and heading over to the tea cosies.

One final picture of the sticky buns the boys will be eating with their tea today. To ice or to leave plain that is the question.

My Creative Space.

This week my creative spaces contains a bit of sewing.

Not calm, thought out, planned sewing but mad, the girls are happily playing in the sand pit for ten minutes, rushed sewing. Yanking down fabric, drawing the made-up pattern straight on, cutting, overlocking, sewing.

This dress does not have lining, you can see some of the texta marks, the gathers aren't even, and I wish I hadn't ruffled the skirt. But I don't really care, because it is wearable, it looks pretty cute on Miss Pepper and I managed to finish it.

Of course my creative space has a pot holder on the go.

And lots of baking. I'm a bit obsessed at the moment. I'm planning my meals around what type of baking can accompany it: pita, pizza, dinner rolls, burger buns. I'm just loving that feeling of having dough rising in the corner, punching it down, and forming it when the time is right.

To check out other creative spaces click on over to Kootoyoo.

Poinsettia potholder & another party.

I made another pot holder.

Do you think I'm obsessed?

This is one is adapted from the Poinsettia Potholder pattern here.

So many of the potholder patterns I look at comprise of separate parts sewn together at the end but not this one. The flower and leaves are crocheted and then caught into the base as it is made. I really liked this, as sewing in all the ends once the project is completed is more than enough sewing for me.

We had another little party for Miss Pepper after school yesterday.

I made the sprinkle sticks in milk chocolate this time.

The balloons left over from Jazzy's party two weeks ago looked like colourful bunting.

Someone had the best time and even got a birthday kiss from a three year old boy who held both her cheeks as he planted it on her. Of course I washed her face first.

Blogutations & Blies.

Bren doesn't have a blog. He is very supportive of my new community and source of inspiration but I still think its something you can't really understand unless you are involved yourself.

He has made up a couple of blog related words that he throws around a bit, see what you think.

BLOGUTATION; your blog reputation. How you want the blogging community to see you. What sort of crafter, Mother, person you are. What information you include or omit to get your desired blogutation.

BLIE; a blog lie. A mistruth you publish on you blog because no one would know any better.

There is also a WHITE BLIE; a small lie that is not really important but its still not true.

I just thought I'd better own up to the fact that while I was busy crocheting these three flower brooches for a delivery before we left for Melbourne last Friday, Bren made the cupcakes for Pepper's party.

The purple and white Flora Pot Holder at the top was adapted from this pattern.

The Vintage Rose Pot Holder is a commission. I crocheted a back for it this time. The hole in the back is where I started to crochet a thumb holder but stopped when I realised that chances are it will be hung on a wall and the thumb bit would make it stick out.

Miss Pepper's party.

Last Saturday after the market we met some family and a few friends at a school playground down the road from Bren's parents' house. Pepper knew it was her birthday because people had been singing and giving her presents all day. I think she got the whole party thing having been a part of Jazzy's party a couple of weeks before.

When a five year old boy complained about the pink cupcakes and refused to eat one he was easily convinced that the sprinkle sticks were footy sticks, even goal posts.

At one stage after watching the big kids have running races around the track Pepper took off and ran the whole circuit to the sounds of all of us chanting "Go Pepper go..."

Into the loving arms of her Great Grandfather.

We packed up, drove the hour and a half home and as I was carrying a very tired two year old into the house and talking about her day she said "no more Happy Birthday Mummy."

One party down and one more to go on Tuesday after school with some little friends from here.

My place and yours - Bedside.

A few years ago when we went from sleeping on a mattress on the floor to a proper bed with a frame, Bren dragged these drawers out of the bottom shed where the last owner had left them. He gave them a wash with the high pressure hose and they've done the job as our bedside tables ever since.

I am a terrible sleeper. My technique to deal with this is to go to bed as late as possible, when I am absolutely exhausted and hopefully go straight to sleep.

I have a pile of books on my bed side table that I read bits of depending on my mood but more often than not I don't want to wake Bren with the shuffling of pages.

My dream/idea diary is right down the bottom because I realised a while back that I am way too lazy to write all that stuff down in the middle of the night and I am too busy being jumped on, cuddled and dragged out of bed in the morning.

In the top photo you can see a crochet project I started yesterday at market and managed a few stitches of last night before the light was turned off.

At the back of the pile of books is some of my collection of handmade books and cards.

I was thinking of styling up my bedside a bit for the photo, picking some flowers or a tablecloth. But they would just get tipped over or pulled out in the rush to have a cuddle or a jump on the bed.

Thanks heaps to Pottymouthmama for the theme. Check out lots more bedsides over at Pip's.

Happy Birthday Pepper.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful two year old.

What a great day you are going to have filled with all your favourite things; your family, yummy food, singing, presents and cuddles.

I think Indi got it right the other day when she asked us what we ever did for laughs before you were born.

You are so funny and clever and into everything.

For your birthday I made some sprinkle sticks. I can't wait to watch your face as you enjoy yours.

I intended to make grissini but ran out of time so ended up buying a box from the fruit shop.

I melted some white chocolate over a saucepan of hot water.

Stir, stir stired it until it was smooth.

I painted two thirds of each stick with the melted white chocolate.

Then I sprinkled the 100's and 1000 on the chocolate until they were completely covered.

The crunchy chocolaty spinkly treat is delicious.

Happy Birthday my two year old. Please don't grow up too fast.

And the winner is.....

I did everything you all told me to do in the comments from this post and the random number generator picked comment number 7; Andi

Wow!!! I'm feeling a tad teary reading that!!
I've not been reading much this year. Mainly craft books, kids books and reading for work.
But I did absolutely devour "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. Amazing storyteller.
Send your mum my best.
Andi x

I am actually a bit teary at this stage because funnily enough I went to school with Andi. We lost touch but reconnected recently through our blogs. I am thrilled that Andi and her family will get to read my Mum's book as Andi met my grandmother and knew her in the good times when we were growing up and then when it started to get difficult around the time of my wedding. Funny how things work themselves out sometimes.

For everyone else who entered, thanks so much. Its been said before and I'll say it again, I wish you could all win. Mum's book went into bookshops yesterday and into libraries last week so if it is something that touches you and your family it is out there now.

Finally, my Mum was overwhelmed by the response and wanted to say this;

Thank you so much, Kate for running this giveaway in support of my book. I hope the winner enjoys my book. I know they'll love your crocheted flower and screen printed t-shirt!

I feel quite overwhelmed by the responses from your fellow craft bloggers. What an amazing community. Some of the books people mentioned I'd already read but others I hadn't, so I now have a nice list to explore.

I was especially moved by the commenters who'd been touched by Alzheimer's in their family. It's such a difficult journey, I know. I can only wish you strength. What helped me most was having a close and loving family. Including Kate and Bren and their girls.

I hope you all have a great weekend. We've got Miss Pepper's second birthday tomorrow and a farmers' market in Melbourne.