My creative space ....

This week the focus has moved from fabric to yarn.  I have crocheted up a whole load of flowers to make into a scarf for me, I've knitted a scarf for Craig and I have knitted a dress for Cassia.

So here it is, being modelled (in the very loosest sense of the word!) by someone who really didn't want to put it on this morning and certainly did not want to put on clothes that it might actually go with!!!!!

There's a few mistakes and I didn't really follow the pattern strictly but I'm so PROUD!!!  I've always been very envious of people who can knit so I thought it was about time I taught myself.  I've been able to make long, straight rows of knitting (aka scarves) for a while but was a bit daunted by shaping, however I took it slowly and achieved this!!!  On to bigger and better things I think.  I guess the knitting bug could be pretty addictive eh?! x

For lots more lovely creative spaces head over to kootoyoo x

What have I been up to?

Can you guess what's been keeping me busy the last couple of days? xx

My creative space

We're off on holiday (and a little bit of crafting is coming too!)

We're going away tomorrow for a week's holiday - hurray!!!! Up to the sunny Bay of Plenty (oh please let it be the sunny Bay of Plenty!). Although there'll be lots to do up there I still might have the urge to be crafty so I've packed a little case (in fact it's the first and only thing packed so far!).

The case's contents:

2 embroidery hoops

linen offcuts

embroidery silks

scissors

material marker

ball of chunky colourful yarn

bamboo knitting needles

And the best about it to me? The case was found at a garage sale for $1, the embroidery hoops, linen and silks were all received via Freecycle, the yarn is new but was reduced and the bamboo needles cost me 50c, yes that's right reduced to 50c. So a whole case of loveliness for very little money - what more could you ask?!

All packed and ready to go! Until we get back - au revoir! x

PS To check out lots of other lovely creative spaces take a peek over here.

Welcome winter!

Today heralds the official start of winter, and with the snow coming down on the mountains all around us it certainly felt like it yesterday. Some things that we're going to count on this winter. First and foremost is this:



Generally New Zealand houses don't have central heating so you rely on the woodburner a lot. This is the first house where we've lived in in NZ that has such a great fire - and we've a woodshed full of dry, seasoned wood to boot! However, the fire is only in the living area so for the bedrooms you need these:


flannelette sheets! I tried my best to find some second hand but the local op shops were not forthcoming, and when it gets so cold at night you can't really wait for them to turn up. So these are new but so worth every cent when you get into them at night! However, I was more imaginative when it came to Maia's bed:



When Maia was born we had brushed cotton wraps which we used for wrapping her. They were then used for Cassia and have now been re-invented into a patchwork top sheet for her bed and a pillowcase. I was pretty pleased with this little conversion - it cost me nothing and it took about 10 minutes! Even with flannelette sheets you still need lots of these:



the left one has such beautiful colours that I would really like to turn it into something but it has only been loaned to us so it just looks pretty on the bed! The right one was an op shop find and has been cut up into a single blanket and the other half will be used for something, eventually!



The pink blanket is one I made for Maia when she was born - it took me months - what was I doing? The bottom one was one my mum nade to use up her scraps and which Maia took possession of when we were home recently!



This is still a work in progress but may be called into action if it get too much colder!




And this is one I relieved my mum off when we were back - daughters are good like that I find! It was crocheted by my Nan and I hadn't seen it before. It's lovely to have something made by my Nan in my house. In fact there's three generations of crochetetd blankets in my house - pretty cool eh? So for outside of the house we'll need these:

these (with not a handmade one in sight unfortunately!):

these:

and these:

And finally if all else fails this little lot can help boost you up!

I can now knit ...

Now I know the photos aren't the best quality but I am soooo proud of these items I just had to share them with you. I did some knitting whilst I was in the UK so here goes!

A scarf - now I know that this must be one of the easiest, actually the easiest, thing to make but I love it. My mum had been given one ball of wool from a friend and I knitted it on lovely big chunky wooden needles. It took me two evenings and I've worn it so much. I can't believe how great it is to actually make something for yourself and wear it!



I then thought I needed a challenge so knitted a dishcloth!

The large heart does have a mistake in it but I really enjoyed following a pattern and knitting this. It was lovely knitting with my mum who helped me when I realised I'd made mistakes and showed me how to correct them.

And finally a shot of Maia this morning. She got herself ready for Kindy and proceeded to announce "I'm cool aren't I?"!!!!!

In the post today ...

Two sick little girls and one sleep deprived mother is not a recipe for a pleasant day however, what we found in the post box this morning has certainly bought a smile to my face.

The bottom two are for free coffee - which is always a delight in this house! One was from our local independent cinema, which is an awesome facility with big plush seats where you can take food and drink in. I haven't been yet but I got a voucher for it for Valentine's Day! I popped in the other day for a coffee whilst I was in town with Cassia and saw a customer survey form and thought I may aswell fill it in and be in with the chance to win a month's worth of movies. I didn't, but I got a lovely letter from the owner thanking me for filling out the form and enclosing a coffee voucher. My kind of lady and my kind of business! The other was just a flyer but it offers you a buy one get one free deal - and it's from a place we frequent regularly so yet again, awesome! Now the top letter is a first for us - a hand signed letter from a Member of Parliament. What a surprise it was to get a letter from Nathan Guy welcoming us to the district and hoping that he can be of service. Now we have moved around a lot and so have had our details changed on the Electoral Register many, many times both in the UK and over here and not once have we ever received a letter like this!

These lovely hand knitted socks were sent to me by my Mum for my birthday. Thanks Mum I just love them!

Receiving these today reminded me that I didn't show these lovely socks which I received just before Christmas back in the days when I was broadband-less! Way back here I bought some wool and sent it of to the lovely lady at A smile a day for a swap. Well when I got these I was stoked because I'd never had hand knitted socks before and I just love the colours. A very big thanks to you Denise.x

Lovely warm tootsies for winter - which by the temperature these last few mornings doesn't seem too far away!

Visitors to our home, the welcome and not so welcome ...

So we have new visitors in our house, the mouse below is a very welcome addition. A wonderful present for Cassia from her very talented Nannan! Thank you very much Mum it's fantastic.

The other visitors, chicken pox, are not so welcome! Well certainly not at this time - did you know that airlines do not let you fly with chicken pox?!!! I am suddenly very up to speed with everything associated with it. As a truly magnanimous gesture Maia has shared it with Cassia - when we went to put her pjs on after her 'birthday party' her whole trunk was covered in little red bumps! Now we're assuming its CP because it would surely be way too much of a coincidence for her to have something else, but it's presenting so differently from Maia that I just don't know!! Well here's hoping that they both get better soon because although we can get a medical note from our doctors (they are no longer contagious 5 days after the rash first appears) in an ideal world you wouldn't chose to fly a few days after a child had CP and as it stands today I couldn't, with a clear conscience, put them through a long-haul flight! Keep everything crossed for us!

Into the house ...

These beautiful little creatures arrived at our house last week. They came from the talented Becky over at different-choices and were a swap for some crochet hearts. Very many thanks - this is the only time that they have all been together since they arrived because the girls love them!

A jar of apple jelly. Whilst we were at my mum's she made this and the colour is beautiful. They were very small, very red apples which produced this. When you ate them the red colour bled into the flesh hence the vivid colour of the jelly. Thanks Mum!

Some pretty old hankies from my lovley aunty A. Thank you!

Now I know I should be clearing out because of the move, and honestly I am, but a few more things have sneaked in via the car boots!

And the best thing I've found recently? A Buzzy Bee for 50p - to you Kiwis that's about $1.30 - which is an absolute bargain since they cost $30 new! We were given one when Maia was born and the two girls fight over him so when I saw this I just had to get it - and at that price I had a smile from ear to ear!

In the post this week ...

Incoming

A couple of months ago I got a whole swag of craft/sewing books from the library and of course would have liked to have gone out and bought half of them! The two below have got great ideas for little scraps of fabric that are leftover and I was lucky to find them on Amazon for 23p and 28p (yes I know you have to pay for the postage but it was still a great deal!). I keep all my cut offs and scraps so it'll be great to delve into these and make some things up.

From ebay - another last minute bid and win - again only a matter of pence! I really want to try some of the motifs in fine cotton which I've never done and thought these would be a great place to start.

Outgoing

Some of the ladies on the GP Forum have organised a GP LETS scheme (see here for more information from the lady who was agreed to 'run' it!). I didn't want to formally join up (reasons for that will become apparent soon!) but 2 ladies did post that they'd 'quite like some crocheted hearts' !!! Wonder where they saw those then? Well I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity of a good old-fashioned swap and so contacted them both to see if they were agreeable. These hearts were sent off to a lovely lady and in exchange I'm getting some knitted bugs which are soooo cute and look soooo hard to knit

and this bunting is for a marvellous mama whose knitting me some socks - again wouldn't even know where to start on that one

and this is the yarn for the aforementioned socks.

I am so excited and I'll be sure to show all.

1st knitting project

I don't know what came over me the other day - I said that I would enter a 'hand knitted item' in the village Flower Show - and I don't even knit! I learnt when I was younger but haven't done it in ages. Luckily I found this idea on the NZ House & Garden website. My mum had some wool and needles and my niece had some beading wire so I had no excuses. The buttons are didn't photogaph that well but are beautiful glass one that we're in a button box I received from Freecycle. Needless to say, I am somewhat pleased with my attempt.

I already had a recently crocheted item I just now have to make the 'handmade toy' and 'handmade doorstop' - not forgetting to help the girls with their entries!

Handmade by relatives

So since Maia’s been into hospital I haven’t touched the sewing machine – and I’ve really missed it! I was getting lots of things finished off which was very satisfying so come next week I’ll be into it again. Having seen a handmade pledge on Julie’s blog yesterday has made me really think about the things in our house. It’s funny because once an item is finished and in daily use you tend to forget about making it. So I’ve had a good look around and really noticed those items I’ve made previously and also those items handmade for us as gifts.

This beautiful little top was knitted by my sister for Cassia and was a present for her first Christmas. It was so lovely for her to wear because it is the most gorgeous soft baby wool. I had my reservations about 100% wool because I tend to throw everything into the washing machine, but as this was made with so much love I gave hand washing a shot. It was such a little item that it didn’t take a moment and came out like new.

The socks were also knitted by my sister – originally for Maia but when finished they fitted Cassia! I wish I had a pair too.

This little summer dress was made by my niece. It was started last summer and just finished this spring but fits Maia perfectly. I think I will borrow the pattern and make a couple like it.

This cardigan was knitted by my mum for Cassia but when it was finished it was somewhat too big and so Maia is now the proud owner. (There seems to be something of a theme with the sizing of handmade articles!)

The last shot is in just because it's cute! It's of Green Rabbit, the toy Maia took into hospital with her, and this is how he looked after we came out of recovery - thank you nurses!