Making christmas cards

Small Lino prints and paper cut-out red noses.

Yum

I love this  Holiday giveaway from Mummy Sam!

x

That Felt Nice...

Image and pattern from http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/2006/12/cozy-up-with-blanket.html

I love these felt garlands from Anna Maria! I first saw them on 'Whip Up' and wanted to share them as well.

So easy to make and so beautiful.

I want to make some - when I do I will post them here. If you make some, show me!

x

Felt the Love

Felt hearts with vintage buttons and vintage lace and an awkward little blanket stitch.

Hung along the door frame with a little piece of bluetack - they are so light they won't fall down.

And wrapped in some second hand tissue paper for gifts.

Needing that coat

Another little vintage wooden peg gnome needed some woollens for Autumn.

He now joins Mrs little vintage peg gnome on the seasons mantle.

Bless

x

The bees knees

Life is funny.

God bless bees.

I can't be bothered to change a light globe in my bedroom/lounge room. Have you ever done the same? Living in very low light because changing the bulb takes just that little bit of extra effort?

But I can be bothered to make beautiful beeswax candles.

I can be bothered to stick my head in the vapours of the beeswax as it melts in the double boiler, smelling the warm faint honey smell, and smiling that very soon I will have my own natural beeswax candle in 

vintage crockery.

I can be bothered to take happy snaps, to edit and post the happy snaps and to provide commentary for you all in my blog. Yes, I have my priorities right ;-)

Meanwhile, my eyes squint as the light is low from the lack of light bulbs.

But who cares? I have my very own beeswax candles to work by.

Happy times to you my friends.

x 

Gnome in my home

Delicious Gnome Recipe:

1 vintage wooden peg

red and blue and peach colour felt

antique lace and fabric trim

wool for hair

a marker pen face

= 1 pretty gnome in my home

Peggy

I bought these sweet vintage clothes pegs from a little antique store in the Blue Mountains. I love the markings in the top of the pegs.

Whilst I love them as they are I think I will turn them into little toy gnomes with red felt hats. Stay tuned...

x

Pretty...Incomplete

Oh dear..

I have all this beautiful wool and all these beautiful crochet squares but alas, it is hard work and very fiddly. I thought it may be possible to make crochet blankies for Christmas presents but I think it may take me 20 years to finish one. Ha ha. At least I am positive about the colours - aren't they pretty? 

Maybe as Autumn moves into Winter the motivation to crochet will come back again... let's hope

x

Felty Times and Twiddle Sticks.

I don't know what the 'twiddle sticks' are in this post - I just liked the sound of it. Maybe its all the crafty fun I have been having when I should really be preparing for the start of a new teaching term. I know that come the end of the week I will be obsessed with planning lessons and the crafty goodness may have to be moved to the sidelines for a little while. But for now...

As a little break from making Granny Squares I have been playing with felty bits.

Years ago I made some pretty felt brooches and sold them at the local markets. They were puffy felt hearts and I used a gold safety pin on the back of them. This time I am using proper brooch findings from Lindcraft - probably more secure (more expensive) but I did like the little gold safety pins too!

I hope you like them. The gnomy girl with the hat is not a brooch - she is far too big for that. Although, I tend to believe that with brooches, sometimes bigger is better. Possibly a finger puppet. We'll see. I will post them when I finish them all.

I love brooches. There is a student at the school I teach at who notices the vintage brooches I wear everyday and says 'I see your bringing brooches back miss!' and 'Nice Brooch miss', etc. Very funny. I am selling a lot of my vintage stuff on Ebay at the moment - I have too much stuff! Check out Ebay at 'smilesblue77'

This is my lovely sewing box. I have a vintage 'Witch' needle threader, vintage buttons and lace and a whole lot of other goodies. Slowly I am beginning to use these things.

I hope you have a lovely Australia Day tomorrow wherever you are!

Bless

x

Granny go lucky

The Lovliest thing has happened. After so many attempts, and so much pure frustration, I have made a 'granny square'. I made one!!! And guess what? I am on my second granny square! And guess what else? I reckon I could make quite a few a day - it does become easy, please trust me! Ok, once more, guess what else? I reckon I may even be able to move on to a more difficult pattern now!

I will show you the pictures when I can I promise...for now...A couple of pointers.

Find wool colours you know you will LOVE to use. I chose pink and navy, yummy.

Get the right crochet hook to wool - I got 8ply wool and a 4mm hook

Research and play with the basic stitches - 'slip stitch', 'chain stitch', etc.

Remember, a treble stitch is also called 'dc' or double crochet (Aussie vs US crochet language).

Use different web sites/books until you find the ones you like. For me, the Meet Me At Mikes video demonstrations were awesome and a really great starter. After that I did not want to keep watching each video so I found the 'craftstylish' blog which means I can have the pattern up on the computer and keep looking at it while I stitch - great pictures and very very clear.

Here is the granny this page helps you to make.

Finally, keep dreaming of the beautiful pink crochet granny blanket you can make for the sister in law for Christmas...

Now that's a treat.

Bless

x

Meet Me At Mikes - A Granny a Day Craft Challenge. What Have I Got Myself Into?

I have been absolutely hectic, doing anything but preparing for the new school term next week. My days are spent drawing, reading, explorations with felt (to be continued), ebaying, etc with sounds of Kerri-Anne Kennerly on TV in the backgound. I am looking after a friends house and the photo above is my makeshift studio mess.

I have been looking at Meet Me At Mikes - 'Granny a Day'. Yes, a definate craft challenge. I have been desperate to learn how to do granny squares but avoiding because of so many things to do. So...meeting my mum last night for dinner I had to sneak into Lindcraft for some late night shopping...

I came out with...

3 x 8ply wool - Black or navy (I can't work it out but it is a rich lovely black if it is black), baby pink and hot pink.

1 x 4mm crochet hook

Fabric chalk,

lots of colourful felt squares.

The beautiful Burmese cat I am looking after (Cherry) loved my goodies as much as me...

So, 7am this morning, ruthlessly following Pip's videos. It is risky to document my progression because it is somewhat pitiful. You know, at first I thought 'what??? A granny a day? More like a granny a week - maybe a month!!!' But I am actually thinking I may master this today - maybe tomorrow. I do think it is possible...

A couple of stuff-ups

Finally taking shape!!!

Her videos are really, really good. Worth following. But I won't pretend it is easy (neither does she!). I feel lucky I have been playing around with the wool and crochet hook for about a year, making only a couple of silly random crochet, made-up toys and many mistakes. So I know my chain stitch but that's all. I have now learnt treble stitch and even made my first little square.

It was when 9am hit and I changed colours that I ran into trouble. I have no idea where to go now. Time for a break - more ebaying, a shower, some toast, playing with my felt and MAYBE some lesson prep for next week.

Oh no. Don't know how to keep going after change of colour...

Break time.

Simultaneously rewarding and frustrating, a series of problem solving efforts. I think that is what art and craft is.

Bless,

x

A Blog I Love

WREN Handmade

I love looking at the blogs of so many beautiful bloggers who make very fine wares.

Just look for yourselves. Stunning.

She has an Esty store too.