Summer . . .Autumn . . .Winter who knows lets crochet

Deary me yesterday was 34c here and beautiful and sunny, I washed all our linen and hung it out to dry. Little princess even got a new donna cover for her bed which I am growing more and more jealous of every time I walk into her room.

(and yes she is hiding in there)

But today is freezing and cold and wet. Right now the wind is howling outside. But on the plus the cooler weather has seen me in the mood to do a little cleaning. I feel like I have been spring cleaning the last 2 days. But we are in autumn with weather like who the bloody hell knows so I feel I shouldn’t say I’ve been springing cleaning. I have however been cleaning up a storm. Our house is now sparkling a little bit more and the carpet feels oh so nice under foot and all the kiddies mess has been cleaned organised and put away. Oh and of course all of my crafty mess has been cleaned, organised and put away. Except of course the baskets with projects I have on the go. I must show you my new basket. You will not believe where I got it. ‘Hard rubbish’ and I didn’t just get one I got 2 perfectly good baskets that would go for around $30+ in my local op shop (thrift store). Yes our op shops have cottoned on to the bargain hunters and are now aiming at the middle class and as such prices are through the roof.

But anywho I love this basket!! I gave it a fresh coat of stain and made a liner out of what else but red and white polka dot fabric. It’s the first time I’ve ever made a basket liner and I really just winged it so I was pretty happy with out this turned out. A basket with yarn makes me so happy, I love going to my crafty cupboard and collecting all the bits and bobs I need for the next project and packing them all nice and neatly in my basket and heading in to the lounge to create and relax. This one above contains all my supplies to start on the next order for a hoot and hootabelle which is due after the easter weekend. My other basket has a secret blanket in it, So I can’t show it to you just yet.  But the blanket is a very special one. I have absolutely loved working on it and one more row of a border and it’s done! It’s for one of my besties. She is having her 1st baby “YIPEE” and if you can’t tell I am just a little excited. The baby shower is in april and I plan on making a few more goodies to go with the blankie so I will reveal all after the big day.

I’ve also been playing with fabric. Mr C was busy a few weekends ago with Karate business so I took the boys and little princess with me along to a Quilt show organised by the lovely people at Mrs Martins’s. Surprisingly the boys had a ball. The kind ladies let them also vote for a quilt and they loved wandering about looking at all the quilts and I think the felt very special choosing their favourite to go in the draw. But the most exciting bit for me was when a wonderfully amazing lady showed me how to do english paper piecing.  Something I have spotted about but never thought I could do it. Well after discovering it is all done by hand I was very keen to give it a go.  I headed down to Gail B’s (if you haven’t been, and live in the area you must go!) as soon as I could and purchased all of my supplies and began straight away. After sewing 3 hexagon flowers and not liking some of my combinations. I decided maybe I was a little eager and decided a plan was to be made. So in msword I came up with this

following a wonderful tutorial I found here. So with a plan I restarted and so far I’m liking what I have and loving stitching them together. This is definitely going to be a long term project and by long term I’m talking years. I’m not sure how big it will be, maybe it will be little, maybe it will grow and grow over time but for now it’s an in between project when I can fit some stitching in.

I’ve also been designing lately, mainly new toys of course but a few other little things here and there. My latest design is  Raggedy Piglet. I’ve had an idea for an old fashioned style piglet wondering around my head for a while.

I really like her. I love how she has such a flat square bottom like the old floppy dolls my mum used to make. I’ve popped her pattern up on Etsy and Raverly . I want to make a bunny next and then maybe a whole series of fat bottom animals and dolls.  ‘The fat bottom Gang’ maybe we’ll just stick with the ‘Raggedy gang’. Do you see that blanket in the background you will not believe this but I got that blanket for $5. It’s quiet a large blanket made with really nice wool and when the lady in the shop said $5 I have never whipped out $5 faster and handed it over. It is now B’s blanket and he adores it. Most mornings when we get up you can find him cuddled in it on the couch watching cartoons. And I love it as I no longer feel as guilty about not finding the time to make him his very own blanket. So a great blanket and it eased a little mummy guilt all for $5 now thats a bargain. I have a few other little crochet projects to show you but not today, dinner time is fast approaching and I have just typed this up on a computer with Microsoft Office 2013 and I’m feeling a little lost. I think they changed EVERYTHING not one bloody thing is in the place it used to be. Well I’m to cook dinner.

Love to all

xx