Christmas Crafting.

Hi again everyone! I'm not sure if anyone reads here anymore, and my blogging has become sporadic at best. Life gets crazy, huh? However, I love this little corner of the internet. It has so much of little family's history on it, and I come back here a lot to help jog my memory on things and to show the kids special moments from the past. So, even if it's not as frequent as it used to be, I'm going to keep popping back in and posting when I get the time.

Today, I wanted to share my most recent crafting adventure.

About a week ago, my mum shared an attic24 link on my facebook timeline. It was a picture of this gorgeous wreath...

Isn't it lovely? I replied to my mum that I have followed the Attic24 blog for years, and that I'm sure Lucy had made a whole bunch of wreaths for different seasons or occasions. Which of course then led to me falling down an Attic24 rabbit hole (man that girl is talented!!), and eventually landing on her Christmas wreath.

By that time I was totally itching to make one of my own. As beautiful as these wreaths are, they weren't exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to make myself though. So I did the only logical thing and headed on over to pinterest for some more inspiration.

By that evening, I had begun a little collection of christmasy crocheted creations (how's that for alliteration!) with which to embellish my wreath. (The colours came up SO WEIRD in this photo)

On the weekend I went on a wreath hunt, and found a styrofoam wreath at Spotlight for about $8.00. I had found this tutorial while browsing pinterest, and decided to use it instead of doing the stripey wreath cover from the Attic24 post. I just thought it was super cute! I chose an awesome bright pink fluffy yarn, and got to work. It really didn't take me too long. It was a little bit to get my head around at first; you have to kind of loop the yarn around with your left hand instead of picking up loops with your hook. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy peasy. I single crocheted around the whole thing, and then did a shell stitch to make the super cute scalloped border.

The lighting in these photos is completely awful, I do apologise. I was working at night, and you know, no light an all... 

I started playing with placement of my bits and pieces and quickly decided that I was going to keep to flat embellishments (ie, none of those little red balls or curls I had made, and no pompoms). 

I used the leaf pattern from here, the heart pattern from here, the mini wreath pattern from here (with little silver rings that I had stashed from my jewellery-making days), angel pattern from here (minus the tassel), and flower patterns from here and here. I only used cotton yarn, and only used what I already had at home. My husband was very proud, haha. Oh, and I also used a star pattern that I made up a few years ago, but I haven't got a link for it, I'll have to do that at some point! 

I actually ended up just pinning the pieces. I did this for a few reasons; firstly it was easier and quicker, and what's not to love about that! Also, it means that I can change them easily if I want to go for a different colour scheme or something another year. I made some simple little white single-crocheted strips to turn into curly swirls for my finishing touches. Annnnd..... voila!

I chained a loop which I pinned to the back for hanging, and today, I hung it! Yes, we have already decorated our house for christmas. Because, we are awesome like that, and we LOOOOOVE CHRISTMAS! I'll share some more photos of that sometime soon.

So here it is, my beautiful new Christmas wreath; in situ:

Go on, get crocheting! You know you want to!

Crochet Mojo

You know me.. I love making stuff. Just like Mayana. I like to sew, paint, scrapbook… I’ll have a go at pretty much anything. At the moment though, my craft of choice is crochet.

I’ve been at it for a few years now. My Nana attempted to teach me when I was about 12, but gave up on me because I hold the crochet hook “wrong” and she couldn’t get her head around it. (She did, however teach me many other skills, like how to use a sewing machine.. so I’ll forgive her). Funnily enough it was my husband who taught me the basics. He has made exactly one crocheted thing.. in fact, he’s still making it – an ongoing granny square blanket that he picks up and adds a few rounds to most winters. Anyway, he taught me the basic stitches, and once I had the hang of those I went back to my Nana for some clarification on more complicated stuff. I also used to watch a few YouTube video tutorials when I got really stuck. The internet is a very hand place.

Suffice it to say, I now consider myself a fairly seasoned crocheter (is that a word?), and I love finding new patterns and challenging myself. I especially love making stuff for my kids. Of course, for the last few years I have only had a girl, and as such have mainly made girl stuff, and I’m enjoying stretching my creativity to make some more manly bits and pieces.

Recently I’ve been making hats.. mostly for Reuben, and one for Mayana because she was getting jealous! I’m also working on a blanket for Reuben. The thing with blankets though is they get very monotonous, so it’s good to be able to break it up with smaller projects.

Here is some of what I’ve been up to lately…

That last pattern is my new favourite. It’s sooo effective and I just love it. The pattern can be found here, or let me know if you’d be interested in me making one! I’m seriously thinking about getting things kicked off again with selling my handmade goodies.

I’ve also got my eye on these patterns for inspiration…. (all from Etsy – click pics for links)

I’ve also got a small collection of crochet books that belonged to my great grandmother, and I’m planning on trying my hand at some finer doily work too.

Aaaah the scope is endless!!! The only problem is trying to decide what to do next!

Make it Yourself {Ribbon Board}

I saw something like this at the markets the other day, and instead of paying the $20+ they were asking for it, I decided to have a go at making my own. I’m so glad I did, because it was super incredibly easy, and cost me next to nothing.

All you need is:

* A Canvas (mine is 30cm x 30cm, and cost me $3.99 at a discount store)
* A piece of cute cotton-print fabric to fit over the canvas (I used some I already I had)
* Thumbtacks ($2.20 for a box of 200 from a Newsagency, I used about 20 of them)
* Some ribbon and ric-rac (I used some I already had)
* Some hooks (I used these ones from Ikea, which I already had. These hooks have plain hooks, as well as hooks with clips attached- they are meant to be for hanging shower curtains)

Cut the fabric to the right size, so that there is enough to wrap around the edges of the fabric and pin to the back. I cut it with pinking shears, to keep it neat and stop it from fraying, without needing to do any sewing or overlocking. Then you simply pin it onto the canvas.

The frame of the one I had bought was reasonably soft wood, and quite easy to push the thumbtacks into. I pulled the fabric nice and taut as I pinned each side, so that there were no creases and the fabric was tight across the surface of the canvas.

I made sure the corners were all tucked in and folded neatly.

Next, I picked a variety of ribbons and lace and ric-rac from my collection, and arranged it in a way that I thought looked good. I ran two lengths of fabric vertically down the board, but you could do more if you wanted. Again, I cut these long enough to wrap around to the back of the canvas, and pinned them in place with thumbtacks.

I plaited together three colours of ric-rac, and pinned them horizontally along the top of the canvas, to hang the clip-hooks from.

I used the thumbtacks to secure five of the normal hooks along the bottom of the canvas.

And that was it! All that was left to do was to clip Mayana’s hair clips and bows to the lengths of ribbon, attach special hair-ties and headbands to the clip-hooks, and hang her hair-ties on the bottom hooks. I attached it to the wall Command Brand Picture Hanging Strips (which are completely fabulous for renters, I’m totally in love with them at the moment!)

Mayana loves it, and for once all of her ‘hair-candy’ is in the same spot, and easy to find. And – bonus – it also looks *really* cute hanging on her bedroom wall.

So have a go! This would have to be one of these easiest projects around.. no sewing.. not even any glue! I reckon these would make great presents for little girls, and all for about $5.00!

Handmade Goodies

I’m sure many of you remember my little foray into the handmade-business-world during my final year or so of uni. ‘Particularly Zoey’ kept me very busy, and gave me enough pocket money to feed my craft addictions without poor Pete pulling his hair out.

Unfortunately I’ve slowed things right off this year, working full time and trying to spend as many minutes with my lovely little family as possible when I’m not working has meant that something had to give.

However I’m on holidays now, and I have a small collection of little goodies for sale just in time for Christmas. I have big plans once maternity leave time arrives to revive my little business for real, and I can’t wait!

So please, if you have a few spare minutes stop by my facebook page and have a look. You can contact me here, or leave a comment on the item you would like if you wish to buy anything. I accept payments via PayPal or direct deposit.

Thank you for indulging me in my own little self-plug here!

Here’s a preview of a few of my goodies!

Impromptu Crafting

We had the most lovely afternoon of impromptu crafting last week.

Mayana brought her basket downstairs and we filled it with flowers and leaves and other pretties from the garden.

We took our goodies upstairs and organised all of our pieces.

Next, we rolled out some contact, sticky side out. Then we went to work sticking down our pretty flowers and leaves.

Mayana had such a good time. She kept exclaiming, “We making stuff together! We all playing together!” Something about the three of us all sitting down together working on a project really made her happy.

Then we carefully picked up our artwork, and stuck it onto our front window.

It looks so beautiful with the sun shining through the colourful leaves and flowers.

It looks so beautiful, and I wonder how long it will be before the colours start to fade. I don’t really mind though, because then we can just do it all again!

Owl!! Hoo hoo!

That’s one of Mayana’s favourite things to say that the moment. She’s really into owls for some reason.

So when I came across this incredibly delicious fabric at Felix Loves Fabric’s eBay store I couldn’t resist.

I was so delighted when I received it, it’s so gorgeous. Mayana’s eyes completely lit up when she saw it, she wouldn’t let me put it back in the envelope! She spread it out on her lap and pointed at all the owls, saying “Owl. Hoo hoo! Pretty!!”. And she’s so right.

I have a few plans in mind for the different blocks, and tonight I’ve finished off plan number one.

I’ve appliquéd my favourite square to this t-shirt, and added a cute and frilly crocheted border. I think it sets off the gorgeous print perfectly, and I’m very happy that it turned out pretty much exactly how I imagined it.

I also made this t-shirt for Mayana tonight…

  I’ve done a lot of sewing lately, but it’s been a while since I’ve made something just for my girl, and I really enjoyed it. It was even worth the huge burn I’ve given the inside of my elbow with the iron (yeah, ouch!).

Keep an eye out for photos of my little cutie-patootie modelling these in the near future :)

Oh, and I have t-shirts similar to the second one available on my facebook page. I can also make to order, in almost any size (subject to availability!)

Adding to the Stash

So after a bit of an unofficial hiatus from cloth-nappy using… what with our interstate trip, a million roadtrips between here, Mundubbera and the coast, 8 new teeth and horrible nappy rash, we had sadly become somewhat lax with our cloth nappies.

But I had been given a lovely piece of soft pink PUL, and a bundle of soft hemp towelling, and they were crying out to be made into nappies. So I did some online shopping and ordered some yummy soft pink micro-fleece, and baby-pink velcro… and went through my scrap basket, and unearthed my prettiest, girliest scraps for the tabs… And last week I did me some sewing.

I whipped up eight new nappies.. all beautiful, girly, pink.. soft and lovely.  And we used our last disposable yesterday, so we’re back on full-time track. Yay!

I’m SO happy with these nappies. I mean, I was/am happy with my last batch too, but I seem to have refined them with this batch. They’re neater, and I made a few subtle changes that just seem to make them fit better. And they’re cute as!

I’d have to say that Mayana’s collection has to be complete now. Twenty-three nappies should be enough that we only will have to wash every second day… maybe even less seeing as how daycare provides nappies for three days a week!

My goal is to not buy any more disposable nappies before toilet training (unless my Nana would prefer to use them when she’s looking after Mayana at prac-time).

So without any further ado… here are our new nappies!!

Pocket Nappy

Inner made of micro-fleece…

Outer made of PUL 

Cute size tag! How pro is that.. lol.

Absorbent prefold. Made from a layer of bamboo, a layer of micro-fibre and a piece of hemp terry.

Eight pretty new nappies!