Shiny New Apron

The kids from mother's group are starting to turn 3, so I'm making them all an apron for their birthdays. I bought some mini kitchen utensils (wooden spoon and rolling pin) with coloured handles from House, and each child will have an apron with binding that matches the colour of the utensils.

"photos knickers"

Just a quickie before bed - I was checking out the feedjit live traffic feed in my side bar (scroll down) to see where people are visiting me from. Someone had googled "photos knickers" and came across my blog! How hilarious! 

And *cough* welcome to my blog if you googled knickers and found me instead. Ahem.

Pincushion

It's the wrong time of night to be thinking of witty pear puns to go with this post!

I got the inspiration from here and the pattern from here (after googling it). It took about 20 minutes to make, and I've used a lovely grey wool with an apple green linen-cotton blend. I think some of these will make some lovely stocking stuffers for the few sewers I know. (I hope you didn't read that Tan!)

Score!

Please excuse the fuzzy photo - I found finger prints all over my camera lens - or was it a lick mark (distinct possibility - see previous post!).

I'm on a very tight budget at the moment, but could not walk past these in the Oakleigh Salvos (op shop) this morning. In fact, I had to stop myself from running over to them :) I knew I was meant to have them when the Salvos man gave me 20% off!

Budding Photographer

I had a surprise when I uploaded photos from my camera to my computer this afternoon - someone had taken about 40 photos!

Most were of the carpet, but there was one very telling photo (above).

Plug

I was contacted by the lovely Jodie at Haby Goddess who wanted to feature some of my etsy creations on her website. Jodie showcases different local handmade goods each week, as well as selling all sorts of haberdashery goodies, updated weekly.

(Photos courtesy of Haby Goddess)

I'm very flattered that she has chosen to feature my goods! 

Despite my aversion to making buttonholes, I might even be tempted to get my hands on some of her buttons!

More jam...

...this time it's strawberry and kiwi fruit jam. Really yummy.

Again, made in the bread machine, so no real skill involved. I think I had about 500 grams of chopped up fruit and 400 grams of jam-setting sugar (has added pectin). I also added a squeeze of lemon juice. The bread machine does all the hard work! I also made some raspberry and strawberry jam, just using some frozen raspberries and the rest of the strawberries. My freezer is chockers full of jam - but at the rate Miss J eats it, it won't last long :)

Etsy Shop Update

Grrrr... still having trouble uploading photos to blogger!!

I've finally updated my etsy shop with the dresses I made weeks ago - I had real trouble working out the automatic buttonhole foot on my sewing machine (thanks to everyone for the handy tips - especially Hoppo Bumpo, who made up a flickr set for me!). I reverted to using Miss J's old sewing machine, which was much quicker and easier in the end.

Stylish Shopper

Grrrr, I'm having real troubles uploading photos with blogger! Very frustrating! After days of trying, I was only able to upload one image - so here it is.

I have made myself a reusable shopping bag that is slightly more stylish than those green ones from the supermarket. The pattern was very loosely based on this one on Sew, Mama, Sew! - I say loosely because I jotted down the measurements a week ago, and quickly read through the instructions (only about 3 photos from this photo-heavy tute showed up on my computer), then couldn't find the measurements when I was ready to sew, so just kinda winged it! 

I also added side and bottom seams to make it boxier, like the green supermarket bags (which, of course, I couldn't find when I needed one as a reference - so again, I winged it!). 

The fabric is a lovely furnishing weight cotton from Ikea. I have 2 more cut out (so they'll probably sit on the edge of my sofa til someone important comes over and I'll have to tidy up, at which stage they'll be transferred with a pile of other cut fabrics to the top of another pile in my bedroom!).

Oh My...

That strawberry jam I made yesterday is so delicious! Ollie and I have just had strawberry jam on fresh white bread for lunch - so yummy!! The consistency turned out fine - not too runny at all. Personally, I'm usually a raspberry jam girl, or even rhubarb jam, but maybe now I'm a strawberry jam kind of girl too  :)

Look! I couldn't even take a photo of the 4 quarters of the sandwich! One quarter was in my mouth before I'd even finished cutting them all!

Strawberry....syrup?

Since the strawberries are so affordable these days, I thought I'd whip up some strawberry jam in my bread machine (it has a jam setting). My last attempt at making strawberry jam was probably about 1999, the jam didn't set at all, so I ended up with syrupy strawberry mush in jars.

I didn't follow a recipe this time round( to my detriment, I think). I just used equal quantities of chopped up strawberries and sugar, with a little Jam Setta* thrown into the mix. It turned out to be very very runny :(

Fortunately, I only used half of the strawberries I bought, so I'll scour the internet tonight for fail-safe recipes. At the very least, we'll have a delicious strawberry syrup to pour over ice-cream sundaes and add to strawberry smoothies!

* Jam Setta = powdered pectin, available in supermarkets in Australia.

Sheeps Clothing

I entered a birthday blog giveaway at the start of the month over at Sheeps Clothing, and was lucky enough to win! My prize was a $30 voucher to the Sheeps Clothing Etsy or Made It stores.

I chose this gorgeous cable knit scarflette made from super soft bulky 100% Australian merino wool. I'm so pleased with it! Thanks so much Stacey (and Happy Birthday again!!).

It's all about me!

When Miss J was about 3 or so, we were given a roll of paper. We stuck some up on the back of a door, drew an outline of her (piggy tails and all), and thus began one of her (and my) favourite activities. It was always a work in progress, something she would go back to time and again. She filled in her facial features, drew in clothes, and doodled as she pleased.

As she got a little older, we did other outlines that included names of her body parts. As well as filling in her clothes and facial expressions, she would trace over the writing, and try to copy it.

I stumbled upon a roll of paper at Ikea a few weeks ago (40 metres for about $10), so Ollie has just begun his first work in progress. I have filled in the face for him (at his request), but everything else is up to him. We'll leave it up for weeks, if not months, and he can add to it whenever he feels like it. He's really excited to have a "Little Me" to colour in!

A play dough kind of week.

::Dendy Park, Brighton. Saturday.

::Ollie's all-time favourite swing.

Ollie goes through phases with his play - some weeks it's all about the cars, others it's the dress ups. This week is a play dough week. At least three hours today (which I was grateful for, as I was feeling the on-going effects of a sleeping tablet I took last night). Today he rolled about a gazillion balls (and dropped most of them onto the floor!).

It's not all procrastination and crochet...

:: One of a pair of cushions, to be given as a wedding gift

::New spring cushions for me

::Japanese print linen napkins, also to be given as part of a wedding present

::New pants for Ollie

::Scotty Dog applique

I have been busily whipping up cushions left, right and centre over the last few weeks. I have five new ones on my couch, including two gorgeous Birch Forest cushions in Olive. I've also made a couple in Cranes in Cherry on Chocolate to give as a wedding gift. The linen napkins are made from a gorgeous Japanese kitchen print fabric bought here. 

I made the pants for Ollie a while ago, but can never manage to get a photo of them when they're clean (which is why they are all wrinkly - straight off the clothesline!). I had been making the Ringo pants from Ottobre magazine, but he's already outgrown them after only a couple of months wear. Wide legged pants are the logical choice, I think. They are made from the wrong side of some pinwale cord, with a cute little scotty appliqued on the leg. Very appropriate, considering he has been acting like a dog for the last 4 weeks straight! (Is that a sign of intelligence? I sure hope so!!). He insists I call him 'little baby dog'. I draw the line at him calling me 'big dog'.

67 squares and counting...

It's coming along beautifully at the moment. I just need another injection of funds from a wealthy benefactor for some more Noro. Maybe a Sugar Daddy would do the trick?
Ollie was delighted that I had constructed such a colourful road for him to drive his cars along :)

Buttonhole Woes

You probably can't see it in this photo (I should have used contrasting thread!), but my button holes are not going according to plan.

My machine apparently does automatic buttonholes, but I can't seem to get it to work properly. I have set it up according to the instructions, but I don't think the fabric is feeding through properly, so it stops feeding but keeps sewing. Subsequently, I have big clumps of thread and no discernible buttonholes. I have tried with different thicknesses of fabric, but it's the same deal.

I'm about to drop Ollie off at a friends for an hour or so, so I might come home and have an uninterrupted session in my own! 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.