mini makeover

I'm giving my sewing space a mini makeover. It's nestled into the corner of our bedroom, once mr A came along it was goodbye to the spare room. The table I've been using for many years is a Formica table that has splashes of paint all over it and rather unappealing, not so great to have in your bedroom day in and day out. I sew and cut out my work with a stack of towels on the table top working as an ironing board and a place to pin too. To makeover the table I stapled down a double layer of towelling and then a layer of a thrifted woollen blanket. The top layer is a piece of green cotton (with a linen look) fabric. To make sure it doesn't get covered with bits of visoflex and vilene when I iron on it I've made a little slip cover of the same fabric that I can easily wash and protect the bottom layer.

As it was just a mini-makeover I didn't paint the legs of the table, I got out some of Wendyl Nissen's peppermint paste and a scourer and the paint just scrubbed off! That had the added bonus of our room smelling delicious too. It's now a much more pleasant place to sit and sew.

a stitch in time

I love to have a stack of blank cards at hand to send and give to friends. I'd recently come to the bottom of my stack and needed to replenish my stocks. All my book buying at secondhand sales means I've often got lots of books for upcycling into cards. I had a lovely embroidery book that was falling to pieces and me with no talent for embroidery lead me to start with that one. I can see me sending little notes to other crafty friends, who knows maybe they could learn a new stitch?

I also had a very pretty botanical book that had a great section on Orchids. Stunning illustrations that must have taken many, many hours to complete.

I've got a bit of a surplus of cards now so I added a few sets in my Etsy shop.

lovely mail

I love getting mail, seems a bit of a rarity these days. This week I got a couple of lovely things arrive in my letter box. The first was a brooch from the Flowerpress brooch swap. I love it! It goes with my favourite cardi and I think I'll wear it a lot. It was sent by Megan from Australia.

The second wasn't much of a surprise as I bought it from etsy. It's some of Melissa's fabric called "planting seeds". It reminds me of picnics and making huts in the backyard, I'm looking forward to Summer already I think.

black vita

Despite my lack of posting, I have been very busy crafting. It's just that it's been soooooooooo rainy that I never seem to get enough light to take photos of the end product. But a little sun shone through, just enough to take some photos of this cushion I made. I used a thrifted red wool skirt for the main part and some of Melissa's beautiful Vita fabric in black for the appliques. I am so in love with all her fabrics! and some more arrived in my letterbox yesterday - oh the excitement!

To made the crochet appliques I ironed on some vilene to the back of the fabric, cut out the a pleasing shape, blanket stitched around, then crocheted around the edge . All those little stitches were perfect to do while watching a DVD with the kids while we were stuck inside. I made many more appliques from the same piece of fabric, I'm thinking they would look nice on a skirt for miss E or on a zip purse too.

red & green

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that I'd won this amazing watercolour from Dee. Red is my favourite colour and I do have a soft spot for Maryjane type shoes. Now I just have to find the perfect wall space for it, for now it's nestled on a shelf in the lounge and makes me smile when I see it. Thanks again Dee, I love it to pieces!

So that's the red and the green is the spinach smoothies that we have been enjoying. The lovely Hannah from Craftykin shared the recipe on her blog and we have been enjoying them ever since. Super duper yum and a great way of getting more greens into all of us, even if they don't photograph well.

art and craft

I was very lucky to visit the Auckland Art and Craft fair over the weekend. So many beautiful crafted things and clever makers. I bought this embroidered pin from the lovely Melissa from Tiny happy. I have another of her embroidered brooches, a feather one on grey felt and I wear it a lot, so now I have two that I can wear so my feather one won't get worn out.

It was really busy when I went there and didn't get a really good chance to look at all the beautiful things on display, which is a good thing for my wallet!

Swapped

This is the brooch I made for the flowerpress brooch swap, for my swap partner in Australia. There isn't really any sense of scale in the photo, but the button is quite large. I really enjoyed making it, there is something nice and relaxing about crocheting in a circle. I've got a few more of these in different stages, with all this rainy weather I might just get them finished off this week.

warmth #1

The very cold winter weather is yet to hit us here, we've had a lot of rain and quite warm weather for this time of the year. But I'm sure there are cooler days ahead. I've wanted to make some small lap blankets to keep in the lounge for ages, combine that with an overflowing basket of thrifted felted woollen jumpers/cardigans and you get a patchwork wool blanket!

This one is for my husband (um, yes there is quite a few patches from a pinkish jumper, but he doesn't mind) who likes to keep warm. After I cut out all the squares I was left with lots of small scrappy bits so I cut out some shapes and sewed them on the top too - they worked out handy to sew over some holes and stains that I couldn't get out. It is super duper warm and was making me quite hot as I was sewing on the binding (a thrifted linen shirt cut into strips). The backing is a thick cotton from Spotlight that was on sale. I'm quite pleased with it and on to my next one so when the cold hits we'll be nice and cosy.

warmth

It seems to have got just that much cooler this week. I'm working on some "warming" sewing projects, some lap blankets for the lounge so each family member has something to snuggle up in and hopefully some draught stoppers for the doors to stop the warmth escaping. So with all the cold and snuggly thoughts in mind, it's hard to wrap my head around what I found in my garden yesterday. Strawberries in winter? I can't quite believe it.

walk

We made the most of the beautiful Autumn day today, out for a walk in a park near our house. We'll more of a chase from my point of view as the little one took off at a tremendous pace, a nice change from the rainy days we have been having.