busy

It's been one of those weeks where I constantly feel one step behind, where the lounge and kitchen both look like a bomb has gone off and don't even ask about the washing. I've been putting my time into other areas and it's showing! Never mind, it's all "clean" dirt after all! I celebrated a birthday this week, where all I asked for was a sleep in and someone else to make dinner. Well I got one of those two wishes! My birthday did fall on a weekday so a sleep in was really out of the question anyway.

I've been carrying around a small bag of crochet with me, wash cloths on the go. I sneak in a few rows here and there when I'm waiting around and it's amazing how fast my pile grows. Hopefully I'll get all the ends sewn in, in the same way. While I was making the wash cloths I crocheted a little bag for my "wonder soap". I don't really have a soap dish in the laundry and I normally just balance it on top of the wash tub. I often find that once a load of washing has finished the spinning action of the washing machine has made the soap fall into the wash tub! I'm greeted with a very soggy bar of soap and that's just not a good thing! Now my "wonder soap" can hang from the tap, not fall in the tub and all will be good! (Gosh I'll have to add "clean my wash tub" to my must do list too)

I'm going to be spinning in public tomorrow! Eeek! There is a local council run event for arts and crafts and I volunteered to help out and spin! I'm hoping that I might get lots of spinning done and not get asked too many questions!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

joining in!

I've decided that I'll join in this year with the Elsie Marley Kids clothes challenge week. The basic idea is to try and spend one hour sewing kids clothes each day that week, I think I can do that! The reason I really want to make the effort is for my boy mr A. He needs some more shorts and I seem to be putting off making them. I've got the fabric and some clothes that I want to restyle into shorts so there is no excuse really.

Click on the photo above if you want to find out more or join in too!

dyed doileys!

Dyed doileys? Try saying that five times as fast as you can.I've been busy crafting away in anticipation of up coming markets and - dare I say it Christmas! This is what I'm currently working on, a large pile of dyed doileys that have been stiffened! I've got a few plans for them, Christmas decorations, jewellery and mobiles! What other colours would you love to see?

weekending

I had an early birthday present last week, a new (from the thrift store!) coffee table! I've never bought one before, our previous one was long and narrow and a hand-me-down. This one is big enough for us all to gather around and play UNO! (our favourite family game at the moment). I saw the table and really loved it, which I found kind of strange because it's much more "crafty" looking than I'd normally go for. But it was something about those carved flowers in the middle that really had me excited! Luckily for me, with my husband in tow, he suggested that maybe it would be a good birthday present. Um yes please!

I've started to realise that after doing nothing in the garden at all over Winter that my garden is in kind of a big mess. It seems like a big job getting it back in order, so I've started slowly. Emptying the compost bin and spreading it around. Watching all the bug life in it getting a change of scenery! I've trimmed some hedges and started a bit of weeding. It's something about these warmer days that gets me busier in the garden.

golden

I was really lucky to win two tickets to Valerie Adams' Olympic gold medal ceremony in a radio competition. Valerie (if you are not a NZer) is a New Zealand shot put athlete. She competed in the London Olympics and came away with the silver medal. Once the games were finished it was discovered that the gold medal winner had in fact taken some performance enhancing drugs. So the New Zealand Olympic committee put on a special ceremony for her here in New Zealand.

Miss E and I had an amazing time, I think she might have enjoyed it more than me though! That's her in the purple skirt (and rabbit hat) in the picture above - dancing and cheering in the aisles! I don't often get one on one time with her so I really enjoyed taking off on an adventure just the two of us, train trip, dinner in town and of course those amazing fireworks! It was the chance of a lifetime and I hope that she remembers what an amazing time she had.

on the line

Nothing beats the sight of embroidered linens flapping about in the sun and wind. I had some amazing luck at a local thrift store today, 3 large tablecloths and a selection of doileys too. The tablecloths should be perfect for notebook covers (once I work around some stains and holes) and I've got a few projects on the go for the doileys. One of the tablecloths is in such good condition - well perfect really that I can't use it for crafting, it will go into my "keeps" stash of linens that seems to be growing!

tied on

I was recently commissioned to make a vintage inspired apron. There were a few things I had to include, ruffle edge and a "bib". I had a vintage tablecloth that I thought might suit such a project. I'm pleased with the result, I hope the recipient is too! It was actually quite fun to make so I just might have to make a few more, I do have quite a few vintage tablecloths that I could use!

bleached as

I was totally inspired by this tutorial by this lovely lady. I find most of my kids clothes at local thrift stores, there are always lots of T-shirts in great "as new" condition, but often the logos and decoration on the fronts aren't, well, what I'm looking for. SO I wanted to come up with something I could cover those logos up with.

What you'll need:

- T-shirts - ones that you want to restyle and some other ones that you can cut up with no logos. I used the backs of some old t-shirts that the kids had outgrown and were stained on the fronts - recycle!
- Bleach
- A spray bottle
- Freezer paper
- Embroidery thread
- Sewing machine
- Visoflex - The iron on stuff that is used for applique.

 - An iron

These are the two t-shirts to be restyled! 

Cut out a design on freezer paper, and iron on a piece of t-shirt material. Here I'm using a back of an old t-shirt.

Fill your spray bottle with bleach.

* Please do this next step outside in the fresh air and with gloves on!*

Put an old towel down, or a large plastic bag, and spray the bleach over your design.

Once the bleach has given you the desired effect, wash the fabric. I just washed it by hand in a bucket. You don't want the bleach to spread or get on your other washing, so please wash it separately!

Once it's dried and the freezer paper has been removed, we can then attach it to the t-shirt. Cut it to size, big enough to cover the logo. Iron some visolfex to the back and then iron it to the t-shirt. Then with a zig-zag or a straight stitch, stitch around the edge.

You might want to skip this step if you are happy with how your design has turned out. I used some embroidery thread and back stitched around the design to give it better definition. You could also use a running stitch too.

This one for miss E I added some doiley sleeves!

I think it could be a great holiday project - Go to the thrift store - Get the kids to design what they would like on the t-shirts - parents do the bleach - and they could do the embroidery details!

nesting

There was a flurry of activity here on the weekend. Spurred on by a generous donation of some little bits of yarn. The mother in law of a lady at my creative fibre group had passed away recently and some of her stash was on offer. There was a large bag of scrappy bits all tangled together, I gladly took them with this project in mind for them. It's inspired by this pin. A bird's nest helper! Miss E and I set about making one, one turned into three as she kept coming up with more ideas and people who really "needed and really must have" one.  Luckily in my stash was lots of wire to make the frames with. In another crafty life I crocheted a lot with wire and certainly miss E thought it was luck once she found some wire flowers and other unfinished projects for embellishments. Our one is hanging in our fig tree, I'm not sure if it's such a good idea though. In a few months I'll be doing my best to keep the birds away from my figs!

Pop back tomorrow for a easy tutorial! I've finally got some sunny weather to take the pics.

snapped

I had hoped to share a wee tutorial with you here today, but alas the weather hasn't been the best for photos to it will have to wait. Instead I'm sharing a few snaps from the weekend. We seemed to spend lots of time in the car over the weekend with little ones falling asleep during the travels. As a passenger it was a great chance to get back into some washcloth crocheting with Christmas and new babies in mind. I find it amazing as a person who suffers from motion sickness, who can't look at a map while the car is moving, I can happily crochet away in the car without feeling sick! There seemed to be lots of flowers out and about in the little towns that we visited, yes Spring is really here!

mending

It looks like just a pile of folded washing up there right? Well wrong - it's 90% of my mending basket all mended! It's such a great relief to have it all done, especially those pink woollen tights. They were a present for miss E around two Winter's ago. She has worn and worn and worn them, and not surprisingly they had holes in the knees - big holes. I had tried to say that she had grown out of them and now that they were "holey" that it was time to let them go. But no. I wasn't sure how I was going to fix them, so they sat, along with other mending projects cluttering up a corner of my bedroom. Then when I was sorting out some doileys I had an idea. I reverse appliqued them, then cut away the ripped holes to reveal the doileys. It seems that they might now be better than the original tights and I think I saw her looking for other tights to make holes in!