Tally Time

Hi everyone. Yes, it's time for the One a Day Tuesday Tally again. I was naughty and missed last week's tally and although I haven't been making as many squares as I'd like, I have got a few more to add this week. I currently have 76 completed squares, with another one just needing the white border added. It's only 5:30pm here in New Zealand so I have all evening to add to my tally and fully intend to take advantage of that time! I'd like to get to 80 by tonight - we'll see.

Edited to add: 11pm and I have finished 80 squares :)

Don't forget to pop over to Gingerbread's blog and check out what everyone else has been up to as well - some amazing projects are going on! As of right now the new Tuesday Tally isn't up, but should be shortly.

I also managed to complete another bag for our school fair on November the 5th. It has a cell phone pocket as well as another, larger pocket inside and a snap closure. I quite like this one and will be making a couple more in different fabrics (and maybe one for myself ;) )

Well, that's all for today - see you same (ish) time, same place next week with some more crochet goodness, and hopefully some other creative endeavours also :)

Gift making

Well, one of Izzy's best friends is having her birthday today so yesterday Izzy and I got busy creating. I saw this fabulous post on a friend's blog the other day and was inspired (plus I love owls), so Izzy and I decided to make one for her friend's birthday gift.

I went out to Pete's Emporium, which is like a huge $2 shop but with fabric, buttons and loads of other craft goodies at very reasonable prices, and found canvasses and then went to Spotlight and the Warehouse for scrapbooking paper. I didn't have a template for the owls and couldn't print anything of the internet because my printer is out of ink so I just drew the templates up myself.

I cut out the shapes in the scrapbooking paper and Izzy chose which patterns to put where on the owls and then Izzy glued them on. Yes, it does look pretty much exactly the same as Miriam's second one, but don't they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?!

Now, apparently this wasn't enough to suffice as gift in Izzy's eyes so I needed to make something else. I suggested bunting and Izzy thought that was a great idea, and that it would look even better if I appliqued her friend's name on it. So, while she glued, I cut out and sewed bunting! Again, I had no letter templates so I just did the letters freehand. Izzy chose the colours and overall I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Izzy loves both things and then wanted to keep the owl canvas (well, she wanted both but her name isn't Olivia!). Luckily we have another canvas and more scrapbooking paper so we'll do one for her to put in hers and Tessa's room.  These were both heaps of fun to make, so I'm sure there'll be more on the way, specially with the birthday and Christmas season fast approaching!

Saturday

I completely missed doing my Tuesday Tally this week, so here's a quick look at what my squares are looking like now. There are now 68 squares completed. I've been busy doing other things in the last week or so, so my poor squares have been neglected somewhat.

Here's what else I've been up to:

an Eden's Adam in size 3 for a custom order in BWM cotton in Wild Lavender.

The person who ordered it had knitted the straps and one side down to the bottom of the armhole and I did the rest. I really like how this looks on Tess - and it's very tempting to knit one for her now too!

In fact I've just started on at test knit of a very cute summer dress and am using the same cotton.

I'm also trying to sew things for our school fair coming up on November 5th. This is the beginning of what I hope will be quite a few things - there's another (in a different design to this one) nearly finished as well. This one was made using fabric from a sample book and is a dark chocolate on one side and purple on the other, with a deep burgundy lining fabric.

This is a Paxton Cardigan in knitted a while ago, using 100Purewool 10ply instead of the recommended 8ply yarn. It's a newborn size (the pattern comes in prem, small newborn and newborn) but has come out a 6 - 12 month size. I have only just got around to weaving in the ends and blocking it as the intended recipient will be the right size in the wrong season!

And finally, I spent some time yesterday searching for the right materials to make one of these, which I found on a blog I follow. I fell in love with it straight away and knew we had to give it a go. How cute is that?! I will show you the fruits of our labours in my next post ....

Hokey Pokey

Mmmmmm. Every time I hear 'hokey pokey' I think of Cadbury Crunchie Bars - yummm!!!  This hokey pokey, however, is not crunchy but deliciously soft and just as yummy as the chocolate bar, only in a different way. This hokey pokey refers to the name of the colour of the gorgeous yarn I bought a while ago from Hannah on Facebook (or Hannah can also be found at Red Riding Hood Yarns ) where she does regular stockings of scrumptious yarns. She actually did send a Crunchie Bar with the yarn too (lucky me!) - thanks Hannah

This delicious yarn also features in my blog title up the top there ↑↑ (the yummy yellow one in the centre).  And now it looks like this:

I really love this cardigan design. It is Jane from Georgie Hallam, another fabulous pattern to add to many gorgeous patterns from Georgie. This pattern is so versatile - as written it uses up very little yarn and is a perfect cardigan to be worn over a pretty dress. You can weave ribbons through the 'lattice' like lace pattern, so the cardigan can be closed at the front, but I prefer it as is. You can find this pattern on Ravelry too.

Right, that's enough from me for today - everyone here is gearing up for the Rugby World Cup semi final tonight between the mighty All Blacks and Australia. This is a big deal here in New Zealand and the males in my household (except for the cats and birds, who really couldn't care less) are champing at the bit for it to be on.  Me? I'm not exactly a rugby fan, but I am feeling the tension and preparing for the inevitable yelling at the tv screen and general stress and mayhem that always goes hand in hand with these high pressure games. Go the All Blacks!

Playing house

Last weekend we got a new chest freezer as the freezer part of our fridge freezer is tiny and for a family of 6, it makes it very difficult to plan ahead with meals or have much of anything on hand. So, new chest freezer collected and installed - yay!! What to do with the huge box it came in? Why, turn it into a house of course ;)

A lovely friend and her children came to our house yesterday and with the help of a clever 11 year old, Izzy and Tess cut out a door and painted the box and today Izzy and Tess decorated it with flowers. Tah dah!!

Let's try and ignore the 'extra' painting that occurred at the same time ;)

In other news, Ollie played in a futsal tournament yesterday and his team won, which was great to see. So he came home a happy, if not pretty exhausted boy!!

The kids have all had sleepovers and movie trips and playdates these holidays, so despite some pretty crappy weather (we had a hail storm today!) they've still managed to have a good time.

Here are three of them snuggling under a blanket together after a lovely Christening we went to at the weekend - awww! We got to meet an old friend's latest addition to her family - an absolutely gorgeous wee girl ♥
 
And while the kids were snuggling, I was doing exactly what I am now - enjoying a lovely cup of tea :)

Recently I participated in a kitchen tea swap with some friends. These are the lovely goodies I received, two lovely (and much needed) tea towels, a cute wee pink notepad, an awesome knitted and sewn hand towel for the kitchen (pictured below in use already, alongside some choc hip cookies Ollie made) and some scrummy chocolates (which lasted all of 3 minutes!). Lucky me!!

 Here's what I sent to my recipient:

(her photo as I didn't get one of all of it together)

Right, that's enough from me. I hope you all have a lovely weekend - I'll be busy knitting and crocheting :)

Tuesday

Yes, once again it's time for Tuesday's Tally from my One a Day group on Ravelry. So without further ado, here is my progress to date:

I now have 57 squares but my progress has been slowed down by several knitting projects that need to be finished. I finished one of those last night, but haven't blocked it yet and I need to make a start on another one this evening to get it done asap so I can begin a test knit of a lovely summer dress that I will hopefully have finished for Tess's 4th birthday early in November.

I also have a list a mile long of projects I need to get done in the next couple of months, so I need to get cracking and pick up the pace a little!

I must also resist the urge to begin any other non-essential projects. After reading Attic 24's and Little Tin Bird's blogs today, I'm itching to start either a granny stripe blanket or a ripple blanket. I do need to start one for Izzy, but must resist until I have finished all the projects on my 'must do' list!

It's school holidays right now and this is the first time since before Tessa was born that I need to juggle working during the day and child care - and I had totally forgotten what a hassle it can be! Luckily I have great friends and a wonderful mother-in-law who have stepped in and are helping out. Also Kim will be taking some leave, along with me taking a few hours leave as well. I only work 3 hours a day, four days a week - who'd have thought it would have such an impact!

Right, I'd best get back to all these projects if I have any hope of getting them done!

A Tah Dah Post!

I recently participated in a kitchen tea swap and had so much fun making the swap items! I haven't been able to post the pictures until the recipient received them - and she did today, so I can now do the big reveal.

Tah dah!

The teapot cosy pattern is from crochetwthraymond's blog. I really loved making this - I modified it a little by knitting it in the round. The flowers are from various free patterns on Ravelry and I wish I'd had time to make more, but I really needed to get this in the post, so my next one will be a bit more floral!

The flower coaster pattern is from this site.

I'm really loving crochet at the moment and have so many plans for more projects, so watch this space ...

It's Tuesday!

Yes, it's Tuesday again.

I'm not sure how these weeks manage to whiz by so quickly, but they do, so here's another update on Tess's blanket.  I'm up to 46 squares (it will be 48 by the end of the evening) and still having fun with it.  Go and visit Gingerbread Girl's blog for further details and to see others' fabulous Tuesday updates :)

It's still looking pretty tiny on this bed, although it is a king single, so slightly larger than a standard single bed.

And just cause I can, here's a pic of Eddie, one of my two beautiful cats. He loves climbing in baskets and boxes - and this time took advantage of me taking my crochet yarns out of my knitting bag to sort them out and jumped right on in!

I also snapped a pic of my littlest one, helping to make an omelette, with my 11 year old in the background making himself a miso soup! Action stations in the kitchen ;-).