More Card Making

Mum and Dad came into town today to get a few things and so that Mum and I could spend the afternoon mucking about with cards. It was great fun with mistakes aplenty but with some really nice cards made.

Here are mine:

3 birthday cards, the one in the middle is the designated man card.

Mum wouldn't let me take a picture of hers even though I personally think her were better than mine. Silly lady!

I am still trudging along with the new bub's bunting, my newest granny square blanket and the dishcloth thats on my needles. Plus I have about 4 zippered coin purses to make. I will have to have a VERY crafty couple of days to get it all done before I am back at work!

What's in your pile of "on-the-go" projects?

Making Cards

One of my things to do this year was to NOT buy any cards, and I have been pretty good doing that only breaking twice. Both times were new bub cards that I just didn't have any idea how to make (or truthfully had had the foresight to get them ready before I needed them), so I went to the markets and bought handmade cards from the lady that had created them. I thought it a good compromise.

First two tries, I added the Happy Birthday stamp afterwards.

I was chatting to my Mum and we thought we should give card making a go and as I like nothing better than jumping into a new craft with no idea, we took ourselves down town to buy some relatively cheap supplies.

The newest attempt

What you see here are my first tentative cards, the hardest part is I really have no creative bone in my body. I am not the person who throws a scarf around their neck and are instantly glamorous. Who knows what a colour palate is? I am usually at a loss! Ahhh but I am going to have a go and I more than suspect a lot of fun trying!

Cleaning Up and Cleaning Out

How many clothes do two children need? Apparently a whole heap! This morning I went through Amelia and Wesley's wardrobes and these four large garbage bags are the result. The cupboards are a lot cleaner, though Wesley's need some more work mainly chucking last years school junk. Three of the bags went to Vinnies (a charity shop) and one bag to a friend of Amelia who is two years younger. With a big clean up you can clearly see what they do and don't have and how much they DO NOT need!With Mum sending me daily Glitz & Blitz emails my cupboards are looking a whole lot better. Here is my platter and dish cupboard.
And my lovely pantry - you can see everything!!

And lastly one of my two pot drawers, its so lovely when i go past I am known to have a peep at their loveliness!

I made two purses today, one for Mum and one for Megan, it is to hold their cards.

Amelia made wrapping paper this afternoon, her friend is having a party next sunday and she wanted to get started straight away.

And keeping with my "no buying cards" this year, here she is making the birthday card.

It has been a really warm Sunday, I am just waiting for it to cool down to go mulch the garden. I was really happy to do a bit of sewing, after Christmas and New Year I am having trouble settling back into a normal routine (probably like everyone else!) I have only 7 more working days until I get some time off and I am way way way ready for it.

I haven't got any quotes for the fence or for the house to be painted yeat but we did have a builder around yesterday to get a quote for a front porch. Our house has a big porch area but no roof so if you do sit out there it feels like a fishbowl (cause it is). I think too that because it is high off the ground it is even more exposed. I want to sit out there in the evenings and catch the cool breezes and not feel like everyone is looking. I wonder how much the quote will be? I am guessing more than I want to pay!! It is still hot. Are you hot where you are?

A First & Evan Almighty

Amelia received a small sewing machine from Santa. She wanted to make Aunty Megan a bag, so we used a 70's style cloth placemat and a leftover extra strap from one of my aprons. Here is Aunty Megan modelling her new bag!
And here is the bag by itself. I think she did a really good job and she is quite proud of herself too. This afternoon she sewed Wesley a bookmark that he had requested, its green as Amelia thought that green is more "boyish".

It's very nearly a smile... really it is! Master Evan is a bit tight fisted with his smiles so close enough is good enough. Look at him trying to flex his almighty muscles, what a strong nephew!!

I Love Parcels!!

Two parcels arrived today, my plain broadcloth from Spotlight and two print fabrics from Craft Depot. They make my fingers just itch to get started!

Crafty Saturday

Here is Harry's Christmas present - Bunting for his room. I hope he likes it!
This is the material for Megan's birthday present - can't say any more as she reads this blog.
No matter how many plastic bags I don't accept we STILL keep getting them. We have been just throwing them into a cupboard but this was giving me the cranks so I whipped up this bag keeper. I saw them in a kitchenware shop this morning for sale at $15.95.These are Amelia's stars. Her and Grandma finished them off last weekend while I was away. I cut all the stars so that they could just sew and stuff them. I sewed the ribbon on today and then we put them up. I like them.

Busy Busy Busy

Woo hoo! Three days off! I love the October labour day holiday! Always a Monday. Thank goodness I dont work in hospitality or I would have to work.

Got a few things planned for this weekend. Pull the last of the cauliflowers out and blanch them as well as blanching a bunch of silverbeet, plant more carrots, pick-blanch-freeze some peas and make some cheese.

I also have the material to make Harry's Christmas present and will look for a pattern for Megan's birthday present. On top of this we have to keep the house looking fairly nice as we will have a valuation Tues/Wednesday next week - oh joy!

Megan's shower was really good and I am sure the table was bowing under the weight of all her gifts, even though she told everyone not to bother. I have to say that she loved Evan's bunting and I will get her to send me a pic of it to put here. Mums quilt is gorgeous and I will get a photo of that too. And here they are!!!!! Looks like my washing is ready to hang - hopefully it will dry before the black clouds get here!

Tychus

This is my sister's partners birthday present. I forgot to give it to him when I saw him over 6 weeks ago - yes I am that slack. I have made one before for Dave, the pattern is easy, quick and looks good. It's from the online knitting mag Knitty, www.knitty.com

Happy to say that he should have it this week, if I remember to pack it! (I did and he did!)

Nice Stuff

Lots of nice things today! My Aunty Wilma sent me a food processor!! It is great and I have already made a whole orange cake with it - so yum!

Here is the homemade part of Mum's mothers day present. She will need it with our current temperatures, which have been Brrrrrrr!

Wes and I picked our two pumpkins. These were the ONLY ones on the vines. Though I planted them in the wrong spot altogether and these two only grew cause the vine took its self into a more sunny position. I just realised the photo is blurry, obviously I wont be getting a phone call from National Geographic to do the cover shot anytime soon...

This is a great book. It arrived in the mail from my wonderful, gorgeous, fabulous sister Megan (did you like that description Meg?) and it is good. I am definately trying the oven dried tomatoes and the red onion marmalade. There is even a method for doing ccandied citrus rind which would be a different thing to try.

In other news it looks like my job may be going full-time. Which would be good moneywise though time wise perhaps not? I guess its just juggling stuff around to fit a new routine.

Paid all the bills and have stuck to the budget which shouldnt be hard since we have been only doing it for 1 day but sometimes you can start snicking in stuff straight away - i know.

Discloths

I have finished two discloths for my buddy in the discloth swap over at Rhonda's Down to Earth blog.
I did a basketweave pattern and...

one with a 'C' on it as my buddy's name is Claire! I hope she likes them. I will post these of on Monday as she is in Texas, not Texas Queensland but rather the one in America. Not too sure how long snail mail will take? Guessing about 10 days???

This is what I see as I sit on our back deck. It is lovely out there today and that is where I am taking myself to as soon as I am finished here! I think I will end have to make a cuppa to enjoy in the sun.

Getting There

Weekend list update number two!

The pear chutney is done and I have given two jars away already! It has a really nice flavour and I think it will go very nicely with pork. Thank you Debbie.

Wesley's stitchery has been started. Though I bought this tracing pen from the material shop and I think I might have made a mistake. It is meant to go through your tracing paper straight onto the material. I am not loving it for two reasons, firstly you have to go over the pattern quite a few times quite firmly for the pen to go through and secondly, it fades very very very quickly. I did the trace this morning went back tonight to start and 75% of it was gone! Plus the stupid thing cost me $9.90 so I feel like I HAVE to use it now.

We had a lovely day at the Ashford caves and McIntyre Falls. It was fun and relaxing. I took some pictures but have got to get the camera out of the car, so will do that in the morning. The Easter bunny was very good to all the kids (and Dave and I too). The kids were up at just past six to see what they got and then went for an egg hunt in the garden. Lovely.

Thinking off doing more stitching tomorrow and I might go feed the ducks! Though I will watch the Anzac march first. Have a great Easter Monday.

March Already

I can not believe March is here and we are only 10 months away from another year already! I think I am getting old cause I never used to think like that!

I am still working on Dad's birthday present and am looking for a good fudge recipe so the kids can make that for his birthday. We are having Mum and Dad for dinner that night, it will probably be steaks on the BBQ but I will have to make something exciting for dessert.

Kim's daughter Sasha is the next birthday I have had to be organised for and so far so good. She gets an awful lot of stuff throughout the year and since I don't want to give money I have thought of something she probably WONT have.

I went through some Handmade mags and found the pattern for some bookmarks. We picked a cat cause Sasha is getting a kitten for her birthday.

The bookmark took an afternoon/evening to make completely. The stiching is backstitch and satin stitch for the eyes and nose.

The back is done in the same material as the coin purse Amelia picked out of the stash, so we have a bit of a puple theme happening.

See? Purple. I put one of the lollipop soaps I got yonks ago with it too.

I LOVE this material!! I got it from the markets for $2.50, its about 2.5 metres and it will be either a sundress for Amelia or a skirt for me. Haven't decided yet.

~

The scrap bucket is working a treat, we are hardly throwing out anything foodwise. It really has made me keep an eye on whats in the fridge and freezer. I have a curry on the stove at the moment to use up some vegies which I will freeze for another day though I will have to label it as this one is a veg and chicken curry and looks similar to the pumpkin and Kadu curry.

I had to buy another punnet of silverbeet as the birds pecked my to death. I have put up some netting so they have a chance to get established. I don't mind the birds having some as long as they are prepared to share!

Show and Tell

We don't use paper towels, haven't done for close to 6 months now. At first it was really really hard, but we now are just used to it. We use alot of tea towels and calico squares and its worked out really well, so with delight I saw at Coles they had 10 tea towels for $5! That's only 50c each - loving that. We also don't use tissue, just hankies. I nearly wrote a letter to Amelia's school when they sent home notes with a list of things the kids needed to bring which included 2 boxes of tissues, but didn't as I hadn't wanted her teacher to think I was a freak!!!!

Here is Dad's birthday present, well half of it anyway. And that's about as much as I can show as Dad does see this blog and it's got to be a little bit of a surprise. Hence why the strategically placed ball of wool! Hee!

Paid bills this morning - that is the least funnest (new word!) thing, though putting away groceries is pretty dull too. God my life sounds exciting.

Crafting

We have had a lovely lazy-ish day. We had morning tea down town and had a wander through the shops, looking at all the things we couldn't afford! Ha! Got Wesley's cement glue for his model Tomcat. And here it is! Didn't he do a good job!

Just have to buy the paints for the body now. He is pretty happy with the way it turned out, especially for his first model.

And here are two more coin purses I made today or as Amelia calls them penny purses.