Girls Wear Blue Too

Birthday Party

2013-05-19T09:07:00.002+10:00

Its been all stations go around here lately!

We are in the Birthday season and its a Party Year.

My Children get to have a Birthday Party, where friends are invited, each second year and alternate years are celebrations at home with family.

My Boy has turned another year older and after attending a Bithday Party at AMF bowling that is what he decided he would like to do. "Mum I want to take my mates bowling for my Party"

Prior to that declaration I had been planning for a Mario party, and had a pin board with lots of great ideas, I kept some of these in the works for the party.

Mario Party ideas Pinboard

The day of his Birthday Super star cupcakes went off to school.

These are shortcrust pastry stars with yellow icing :)

Superstar cupcakes

We didn't actually book a Party package, instead I called and booked the lanes and asked if it was Ok to take some food and a cake, they were more than happy for me to do that which was great. We had the party in the afternoon and I set up a few bowls around the back of the seating for the kids. One with Natural Confectionery Company snakes, one with tiny teddies and another with Choc chip shortbread squares.

Cheese plate for transport to party

I took a plate for the grown ups too.

I was able to prepare all of this in advance, I put the kids treats in containers with lids for transport and simply removed them for serving, the serving containers are of no concern to the children, its the contents that matter :)

I have real issue with 'party bags'. I seem to have a pile that have been bought home, they sit in my fridge, full of 'treats' that my kids will never eat but that they also don't want to relinquish. I try to make our bags with minimal waste, minimal expense and activity as well as treats. We try keep our number of guests equal to the year of age the child is so for example turning 8 would get to invite 7 friends + a sibling. so preparing this kind of bag is manageable and this year he actually did most of the bag preparation himself. :)

Party Bags

This year his bags were transparent pencil cases. In each pencil case was 2 chocolate frogs, one Big tedz, and a pack of 3-Dees Mario jellies. A tiny tube of pencils, a little monster notebook, and a bouncy ball.

These were a big hit with his closest friends and most of the mums complimented me on them, which was really nice.

His Birthday Cake was Chocolate.

A round cake cut to form a One up Mushroom which I iced as appropriately as I was able, he liked it which was the main thing.

One up Birthday Cake.

All in all it was a no fuss, easy party but I was still exhausted afterwards!

We have another one coming up too so there will be a second Kids party post in the next month or so!

In other news I am frantically trying to sew for a Blythefest trade table which I secured at the 11th hour. Hence, I feel largely unprepared for this in terms of stock levels. I still have the best part of 4 weeks to sew so will just have to see how it goes :)

We are heating pretty much all day and night now, there was a really good frost this morning, partially freezing the surface of the fish ponds and solidifying the water in the bird baths.

Enjoy what is left of your weekends Sweet readers! x

Crochet ripple finished.

2013-05-07T09:57:00.001+10:00

I finished it!

In truth I finished weeks ago but hadn't updated here, I ended up just doing one last repeat of the teal, which was the first colour of the various bands.

So there are three repeats of all the other colours and 4 of the teal, The blanket lives on my chair where I craft, It covers my lap frequently on chilly evenings as I knit up dolly wear.

This was the largest Crochet project I have tackled and I am so pleased with how it turned out! I wouldn't mind doing a bigger ( wider mainly ) ripple in the future sometime as it is quite a soothing and rhythmic pattern to work, I really enjoyed it.

Autumn Glory

2013-05-04T09:31:00.000+10:00

Our days are glorious showing of weather this week, perfect Autumn,

colourful leaves cover the ground and the sky is the most beautiful blue.

Mornings are chilly

Days are warm.

If there is a wind its crisp ( sometimes cold )

We are wearing long sleeves and pants ( occasionally scarves )

Winter pyjamas are in rotation.

We have had our first couple of below zero nights.

The fire is lit about 50% of the nights and really takes the edge off the cold mornings

Its not really cold enough to put the blankets on the beds just yet.

Bulbs are beginning to break ground in the garden.

Violas and Cyclamen are the cheerful flower faces I see.

I just adore this time of Year!

I wish you all a great weekend sweet readers. x

Yarn

2013-04-27T09:24:00.000+10:00

Hello sweet readers!

If there is anyone still there after such a long absence from me. In my defence our hard drive is having issues and so there's no computer at the desk.

However as I adapt to using my phone as a camera and doing my essential internet work via my Nexus7 tablet I decided to give this Blogger app a whirl and see how I go.

I decided to ease my way back in sharing the lovely yarn that arrived from Denmark yesterday.

This is holst garn super soft and destined for more dolly knits, my yarn horizons are getting much broader lately as I search for the finer ply in interesting colours and textures.

I first got this from the lovely suzy hausfrau but then found I could buy smaller sized balls direct from the manufacturer.

This is yarn exploration is a problem in that I am now accumulating a yarn stash to rival my fabric stash.

I am having fun along the way though.

Have a lovely weekend. x

Easter Weekend

2013-04-02T10:04:00.000+11:00

Its over! Well tell me where did those 4 days go?

I missed my #ripplealong update yesterday as I was enjoying the sunshine and family vibe here, though to be honest there wasn't really much to update on :)

For now I have decided to continue on with my blanket until I run out of white yarn, I don't think I'll get in a full pattern repeat but I feel totally Ok with that 'Que sera sera' . I only did 3 rows of ripple during the week and almost completed another two last night.

I did get quite a bit of Dolly sized knitting done hence the lack of blanket activity.

On Friday I headed over to Katies house where she had a little working Bee going in preparation for Blythefest. There were 4 of us there working on different things. It was great to have a nice girly, crafty catch up.

On Saturday The eldest had his guitar lesson to attend and other than that it was quite a gentle relaxing family day.

Sunday after a early morning egg hunt that had to be bought indoors due to a light shower of rain, Grandma and Grandpa took the children out to some of the national touristy destinations which seemed to be fun for them ( the children at least ) The Mr and I went out too and headed over to the other side of town for a little shopping and to collect the newest addition to my Blythe doll family, the 'Parson Grace' middie I bought from a Canberra friend. I've named her Peanut.

Sunday was also the day I worked out that there are two weeks of School left not just this one. My poor Children! I thought they just had these 4 days to go before the end of term but they have another full week after that! They are so ready for holidays and in a way a 4 day weekend now was a bit 'mean' slipping us into holiday mode then having it revoked!

Yesterday I spent some time outside with the Children enjoying the morning sunshine, I wandered around photographing the inhabitants of and visitors to the garden. The Mr put up the new blind in my sons room. Then I made them some sandwiches which the Children sat on the trampoline and ate. In the afternoon The Mr took the biggest boy back to his mother and my fair haired Children and I mellowed out with a movie. My girl is always quite emotionally affected when her big brothers visits are over, so a quite easy afternoon was in order.

Now I have a long weekends worth of housework to get on with and some sweet ( tiny ) middie sized knitting calling me. The sun is shining and the birds are busy. I sign off with a contented sigh.

Have a great Tuesday sweet readers! x

Blythe Doll Knitting

2013-03-29T09:33:00.000+11:00

Good Morning sweet Blog visitors. ❤

I really thought I'd have a lot more Easter craft to share with you in this past week but I was distracted with some Dolly sized knitting. I totally lost all interest in Blythe for a few weeks there, my poor girls just sat in the studio waiting. A few things contributed to this but I don't really want to get into them right now. I encouraged myself to take out one doll, change her clothes and put her back each day so none would get stained or damaged. Then once I was knitting my neck warmer the dolly ideas and mojo started to flow again.

I purchased a pattern I had sitting in my Etsy cart and set to work with the smallest needles I have, not quite as small as instructed though. Jane's patterns are beautifully written and laid out, she has some pattern freebies available on her blog if you want to give one a try. I have made up the matching 'cosy comforts' sweater too but as I am not working in the recommended gauge, they don't fit together too nicely but they do both fit blythe and are lovely. I just took advantage of the great Suzy Hausfrau Easter weekend sale and ordered a beautiful variety of yarns in different textures and colours that I hope to work up some sets with in coming weeks/months. Once I wash and embellish this dress I'll pop it in my Etsy shop.

I do hope you have a very GOOD Friday and spend it in a way that will buoy your spirits. x

Egg Shell Gardens

2013-03-28T10:08:00.002+11:00

Here are how the egg shell gardens looked yesterday afternoon.

Some of the yarn I was using for my neck warmer, which by the way just needs some huge buttons now, plaited up nicely to make some sweet handles, I originally had envisioned raffia or string for this purpose but like this much better and it was so simple.

When I was putting them together yesterday I thought the bear soil looked a bit blah so went off in search of some moss, which I found dry and despondent looking growing between the paver's under the fig tree. I got some garden tools and it lifted out fairly easily. when I broke it and placed it in the shells it looked a little better but it still didn't look great. I watered it anyway and walked away, thinking I would come back and make a final decision, 15 minutes later I walked back into the kitchen to find it was this beautiful, lush, green, soft, spongy moss! Happy Happy.

I added some simple little cards this morning with some care instructions for planting out, these are both seriously low maintenance plants, the cards say similar things. Both of the children wrote the teachers name and their own on the card and each of them wanted the one that has the grape hyacinth in it, which was a bit mad to me as I so adore the one with the succulents and wanted to keep it! When I told my Daughter I coveted it for myself she chose it.

Though the goal was a non chocolate gift I opted to add a few little choccies anyway as I really think it adds value to the presentation, teachers also deserve a little sweet treat sometimes.

I heard My Girls teacher let out a delighted whoop as she received hers and as I headed out of my sons room I heard his teacher quietly cluck to herself as she placed it on her desk "thats just so cute!"

I'm so thrilled with how these turned out and couldn't have been happier that the recipients like them.

Super simple Knitted Bunny

2013-03-27T17:29:00.003+11:00

When pinterest told me I could turn a knitted square into a bunny it just seemed too easy.

I have had this failed waffle weave dishcloth sitting in the studio for a really long time so it became my test subject.

I didn't click over to the website the pin came from I just followed along the diagrams and made changes that suited me. The head and ears I created the same way by making the big running stitch triangle and pulling it tight around stuffing

I then I used that same thread to continue on to a shorter running stitch external back seam, I added the stuffing and then for the tail area I took a running stitch through about every second knit stitch about 1 cm from the edge and gathered it all in super tight to for a ruffled tail end.

My embroidering on knitting skill may leave a little to be desired, as from certain angles this bunny looks sad and a little bit 'bad' but once I popped a ribbon around his neck or put him in a basket he became sweet and forlorn. Of this whole process I found I the face to be the trickiest part.

You could do this with any kind of knitted swatch or even a close set crochet stitch too.

Have fun!

Eggshell garden update here tomorrow :) Kids are getting excited to give them to their teachers.

Ripple Blanket update

2013-03-25T06:50:00.000+11:00

Good Morning!

This is my 4th Crochet Ripple Blanket update if you would like to see my progress from the beginning my other posts are here, the first post is at the bottom.

I have been at a standstill of indecision with my blanket for a few days now. This week I completed another 35 rows, this being a complete pattern repeat of all my colours, The blanket is now an adequate length to cover each of my Children as a couch throw. Herein lies my Quandary, do I want it longer?

Now that I have written this down and am looking at my photos I'm thinking that a blanket is probably better to be a little too long rather than a little too short, maybe its the proportions that are bothering me, in that making it too much longer would make it look inadequately wide.

spread across a queen sized bed.

Should I add another 35 rows or weave in that one last end and call it a day?

Easter craft

2013-03-24T07:45:00.000+11:00

I have been busily pinning lovely crafty things on my Pinterest Easter board and I am running out of time to make most of them but I am happy to say that I have done some and have others ready to tackle in the coming days. Easter is not something I would typically decorate for but my Children really enjoy adding some festive mood through decor and there is so much family value in crafting with them.

Pop on over and have a look at my board there are felt templates, crochet projects, decopage ideas, baking and papercraft projects. Most of my posts over the coming week will be Easter craft themed, sharing the projects I am doing with the children and on my own for them.

If you are in Australia and want to get some crafty Easter activity happening I noticed Lincraft have their entire Easter range discounted if you need supplies.

Do you decorate for Easter?

Do you have any lovely crafty links for me that I can add and maybe tackle next year!

I'm also Knitting

2013-03-23T09:02:00.000+11:00

Hello Sweet blog visitors, Happy Saturday!

I have had one of those weeks where I feel like I am chasing my tail and playing catch up.

I went to the dentist, which might not sound like much to a lot of people but the process of organising, experiencing and recovering from this gobbled up the best part of two or three days in major anxiety and then relief/recovery. I have a frustrating dentist/dental phobia. There will be more of this 'facing my fear' to deal with in coming weeks, but enough said for now. I also had a sick child at home another day this week, life went on around me and the housework patiently waited.

When I was in town prior to the dentist appt, I popped into Lincraft in an effort to distract my self and came out with some supplies for my first neck warmer of this season. I have never knitted in this gauge and its a leap after using 4 ply on tiny metal needles which is what I have worked with over the last 12/18 months to construct Dolly sweaters and cardigans. When my daughter saw me using these, after commenting on their size she offered with much gentle concern in her voice "Mum I think those knitting needles might be the ones for beginners"

I picked up some Lincraft Baw Baw, I really prefer to work with Natural fibres but the last time I made Envy in a smaller gauge with wool and I don't wear it because its too scratchy so I am branching out. This yarn is a 50 /50 wool/acrylic, lovely and soft and has a bit of a sheen. It is the trickiest yarn to photograph sometimes showing as purple toned and other times as a rich royal blue. Its more of a flecked storm blue/grey.

As you can see I botched up the seed stitch in the beginning, as my buttons will be here and it will be covered I left it. I'm not about perfection and really who will be scrutinising it when its around my neck? there are a few bumps in the lovely sleek selvedge too, where I guess I wasn't paying attention and knitted instead of slipping. The pattern is simple and each pattern repeat is 6 rows so I only knit when I have time to do a complete pattern repeat, I'm still working on my crochet blanket and will update my progress on Monday.

I'll be back tomorrow with some Easter craft ideas.

Have a stroll in my Garden

2013-03-20T08:03:00.000+11:00

I headed out on Monday Evening to try and photograph two Cockatoo's. They were so very amusing sitting either side of the large water bowl and leaning down to reach the water level for a drink only their tails could be seen poking out. I have never seen Cockatoo's at the water bowl before so that was interesting in itself. They then went off and fossicked for plum seeds on the ground :)

I became aware that the quality of the light was so pretty and warm as the sun was dipping, it is such a lovely time of day to take in some of the beauty of our overgrown neglected patch of Earth so I took a little stroll around to capture some of what I love right now to share with you ❤

My Daughter alerted me to the presence of this eager little Crocus. I doubted her at first as the crocus under this tree are yellow and its just too soon but here it is stretching wide to soak up the last rays of that sun.

Here are my plum fossickers, judging by behaviour I suspect one of them was a youngster however cockatoos are so entertaining he/she may have just been feeling playful ? I really don't know.

The detail in the natives is so exquisite it you lean in for a close look.

So many flashy, beautiful & fragrant roses are strutting their stuff.

Its always hard to know which ones to photograph, this one captured my attention with its subtle colour, intricate and damaged petals.

Of all the show stopping gorgeous roses this is the one that I feel will forever have my heart, not fragrant at all, simple and small but at the same time stunning in that simplicity. Its colours being the draw card and in its fading blooms the stamens providing texture where colour once ruled. I adore how It glowed illuminated by the setting sun.

here is my playful visitor again. It attempted to interact with me but was ultimately still too unsure, definitely a bit more cockily confidant when above the height of my head, it would mimic my movement and try to bridge some distance between us before nervously moving away again.

There is lots happening in the garden right now as we start to feel Autumn in the air, the nights are cooler, mornings are 'brisk' and the days are sunshiney and warm, ❤ I'm looking forward to sharing some of my gardens changing colour with you as my favourite season progresses. x

Egg shell Garden

2013-03-19T07:30:00.000+11:00

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest and with Easter approaching I thought it was a great idea for a non chocolate gift. I went and selected some small succulents of various sizes from the garden and started saving the bigger halves of my eggshells.

I have put together this little version which will be a teachers gift this year, I have not used moss as shown in the original instructions but do see why it would be a lovely addition. I still plan to add a little handle which will run between the two peaks of the carton and make it easier for my children to carry.

We had eggs for breakfast on Sunday and I had another 6 shells rinsed and ready, I've noticed the grape hyacinth sprouting in the lawn area so dug them up yesterday and planted some in these shells.

I planted the succulents a little over week ago in a hope that they can establish some roots and hope the grape hyacinth will have settled by Easter too. I'll pop back towards the end of next week and let you know how they are going and will be sharing more Easter bits and bobs in the following week or so.

Take care lovely readers x

Crochet Ripple update

2013-03-18T06:54:00.000+11:00

I'm still moving along nicely with my ripple-a-long blanket.

I can put it down for a couple of days and pick it back up with out a problem though it is still my primary Work in Progress and I seem to do at least a couple of rows most days.

Girls Wear Blue Too - Crochet Ripple Blanket

I have completed just over 80 rows and it seems to be just moving past square to rectangular. It really covers my lap nicely now when I work in the chillier evenings. The kids will also take it and want to wrap themselves or just test it out for a minute :)

Around the time of last weeks post I also became able to recognise the pattern as I worked which initially reduced time in finding errors and now has pretty much eliminated them. When I say I was able to recognise the pattern, I became aware of where the increases and decreases should be placed in the stitches of the previous row, its kind of hard to describe but some of you might understand. So for example I knew the decrease for the row I was working on would begin in the stitch prior to the decreased stitch of the previous row. I'm also weaving in my ends every few rows and it really pleases me to know I don't have to do them all at the end.

Crochet Ripple Blanket

I may start to loose a little momentum now, I can't say for sure, I am working on some Easter things though as I said earlier with the evenings starting to be cooler it is a great project to be working on while watching telly. With my shorter hair now I am dreaming up & planning so many lovely scarves for myself there's no telling when I could get an overwhelming urge to start on one of those too!

Piper guards the crochet in the craft chair.

If you want to see more lovely ripple inspiration pop on over to Mels blog for a complete list of the ripple-a-long participants or check out the #ripplealong on instagram.

Have a great Monday. x

Short Hair!

2013-03-15T07:30:00.000+11:00

So I did it again - Got all of my hair chopped off very short!

If you have been reading my blog for a long time you might remember when I did this a few years ago, though that time I did not go this short. I have not been to a salon for the LONGEST time, a year ago I lopped my own pony tail off in frustration one day and that was the last time my hair was cut.

Here is the selfie I took in the car before I went in.

During the cut I looked down and was amazed, I asked the girls in the salon not to sweep up my hair so I could take a picture of it. It all looks so lovely and curly laying there on the tiles, much nicer than it looked on my head :)

I asked for short and messy to let my curl have its way and she talked me through her suggestions. I took on most of what she recommended. I'm pretty relaxed about getting a new style really, it will grow back after all.

It will take a little time to get used to how to 'do' this hair but I really love how it feels, I think once I get used to it all will be great and once it gets just a tiny bit longer at the front, so I can tuck it behind my ears, that might be perfect. For now I am more than happy.

All photos in this post come via my iphone :)

Have a great weekend lovely readers.
I'll be back with the regular Monday morning Crochet ripple update.
x

Felted Crochet Bowls

2013-03-14T08:00:00.000+11:00

so here are the results of the crochet bowls I made with the Feltable wool that I talked about here.

I made up the orange/yellow round bowl first and then the wider mouth blue/green one. I'm really happy with the results of the felting and wanted to talk about it a bit :)

The rounder bowl went through the wash three times ( if I remember correctly ) I have a front load machine that heats the water itself. I can not manually adjust the water level. The second and third times a couple of pairs of outgrown kids jeans went in with the bowl and both washes were 2 + hours at 90deg.

Each wash cycle it went through did improve the felting.

The shrinkage was significant so I decided to try and hand felt this one and see if it made a difference.

I went through various warm hand washes creating friction by rubbing and using a small amount of water with detergent. the fabric was becoming more felted each time and the shrinkage was significantly less than when using the machine method. However as I am impatient, once my knuckles were blistering from the wet wool friction I threw it into the hot wash cycle I mentioned above to finish it off. It then shrank in line with the size reduction of the other bowl. I understand there will be shrinkage as a part of the felting process but did not expect it to be this much.

Pictures from my Instagram feed the original crochet bowls and my poor finger.

The experimentation was lots of Fun and I am really happy with the results, I'd like to try again and persist at a slower pace with the hand felting and see how the result might differ. I was wondering about the strength of the skin of the women from years gone by when hand washing was the norm, and feeling blessed to not have to deal with that.

For now I have two small colourful felted bowls, my fingers have healed and I still have lots of lovely bright wool to felt with. I will most certainly have another go at it.

Banana Bread

2013-03-13T07:20:00.000+11:00

I found this recipe for Banana Bread online and decided to give it a try, this is my really simplified, basic instruction for preparation but if you want all the fancy bits the original recipe is linked further on.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups SR flour

1/4 cup Plain Flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs lightly whisked

50g melted butter, cooled

2 overripe medium Bananas mashed.

Method

Preheat oven to 180 deg

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add all the other ingredients and stir until they are well mixed, use a spoon not a mixer.

Bake in a loaf pan for 45 - 50 minutes.

The original recipe called for the melted butter to be cooled which I didn't realise until I was well into it and didn't want to wait so I just added the melted butter first and the eggs last to the liquid pool and there didn't seem to be any problems. This loaf also seems like it would lend itself well to the addition of some walnuts.

Going Bananas ...

I cant really tell you how this tastes as I am not a fan at all, I make banana based cakey things for my family but I don't taste test. I am very particular about my bananas, during my first pregnancy the smell of a ripe banana would make me sick and to this day I cant stand the smell of ripe bananas. I love a good banana that is just ripe, slightly on the green side, fresh - but it gets a few days old and no thank you! I can't have them in the kitchen because of the way they smell.

That said, this Banana Bread has a lovely texture. I am using whole meal flours and I added an extra splash of milk at the end when I thought the mixture consistency was more that of muffins.

It got the big thumbs up from the kids so I'd say give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Hot Air Balloons

2013-03-12T06:42:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was a Public Holiday here in Canberra and it was Canberra's Birthday, 100 years old!

One of the things I love about Canberra is the Hot air balloons that you see majestically drifting through morning skies in Autumn. Each year there is an event where the balloons are launched from the lawn and surrounds of old parliament house and you can go and walk among them as they are inflated and take off, its amazing. I have not made the effort to go for probably the last three years or so and was so glad I roused the kids at 6 am and set off yesterday, they thoroughly enjoyed it.

I feel obliged to let you know that given my love of these amazing contraptions - this is an image heavy post.

Hot air balloon Canberra 2013

Once we found a place to park which was an adventure in itself we headed over to the first lawn and saw this peacock ( below ) lifting off beyond the trees on a different lawn.

Hot air balloon Canberra 2013

We spent a lot of time standing by the purple balloon as it inflated and took off, my son was fixated on this one and took lots of pictures of it.

Hot air balloon Canberra 2013

I was much more aware of the empty balloons lying on top of each other in a staggered sequence; one almost ready to go, one in the process of being inflated, another perhaps in the early stages and several others flat on the ground underneath. As the first one took off they all moved up in the process and the top flat balloon would being its inflation process, ensuring we were treated to a constant procession.

Hot air balloon Canberra 2013

While standing among the balloons being inflated in the crowds of people the sun was rising higher and balloons were taking off over our heads while others could be seeing travelling off into the distance.

Hot air balloon Canberra 2013

The rising sun caught the gold on this air force balloon and it glowed! Oddly this made me feel quite patriotic.

Hot air balloon Canberra 2013

We had made it up to the third launch area and spent quite a lot of time from a distance waiting for this lion to inflate. It was fun trying to guess what it would be during the inflation process.

Hot air balloon Canberra 2013

The majority had been launched and we decided to head back to the car and come home for some breakfast, which is when we saw this big turtle back at the place where we started out.

Hot air balloon Canberra 2013

On the way home we saw several cars with launch trailers on the road and going in the opposite direction. We wondered where they had come from. Before too long we got to this spot and realised we were passing the designated place for landing. I had to pull over for some photos. The three of us ( my daughter, son and I ) all had our cameras. How beautiful is this! Multiple balloons coming in to land in this field back from the road! Just gorgeous. The blue Balloon on the right had been just taking off in my third photo above.

Hot air balloons Canberra 2013

and if we looked back over our shoulders from this road side spot this was the skyline.

You can just see a row of waiting cars and trailers here on the right of the horizon line in this photo .

Hot air balloons Canberra 2013

A beautiful experience!

I hope you enjoyed seeing it through my eyes. x

Ripple Along Progress

2013-03-11T06:15:00.000+11:00

At my last update I had began on the dark pink row and I am really happy with the progress I have made since then. I have not done too much in the last couple of days but early last week there was sickness in our home and one day I completed 7 rows and another day 5.

One pattern repeat of all of my colours is 35 rows and on average I guess I do two or three a day. I am into my second repeat now. I haven't decided on the final length for my blanket but think it will be at least three pattern repeats.

I have done my best to add images this week I am posting via my Nexus7 tablet and phone as Windows 8 locked us out of the PC on a password reset for the eldest child on Saturday morning when this is fixed on Monday I will replace these images with Camera images. Photos are already edited and replaced 6.10am. :) the phone shows the purple as more of a blue, the green in an inaccurate shade and the darker pink as a more reddish shade. These from the camera are more true to colour.

the instagram pool is #ripplealong and there are lots of lovely progress shots being updated each day.

I'm rushing my edits as I am off to see the hot air balloons so I hope this is not too terribly worded!

Happy Monday.

A rose by any other name

2013-03-09T08:35:00.000+11:00

The roses are blooming and beginning to beautify the garden at the moment as they dot the place with colourful and fragrant joy. Here are some of the snaps I have taken with my iphone in the garden, and of the flowers I have cut for the table this week.

Its the beginning of a Long weekend and we have our home filled with all three children here. The vibe is good after a week where various of us were plagued with sickness and the next couple of days are busy. I have a shopping date with my ever growing Girl today and The Mr and I are off to the theatre tonight while Grandma and Grandpa come by to care for the kiddos.

I will be back on Monday to post about my ripple along progress.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. x

Land Lover

2013-03-08T16:07:00.001+11:00

Here a page I did a long, long time ago, with my last Tarisota kit.

That was over a year ago now. I do have one or two other things that I had started with that kit too but never finished, well not yet anyway!

Whenever I look at my old pages I think I really should make an effort to Scrap more now, so many little things I captured that mean a lot to have recorded. I am thinking about paper craft a lot lately and have a simple Christmas catch up OTP to do at the top of my list.

I haven't started to look yet but have some grid paper in mind for it so does anyone have any recommendations for 12 x 12 paper with a simple grid pattern or notebook lines?

New hooks!

2013-03-06T08:28:00.000+11:00

When I started rippling along I started to notice some real discomfort in my wrist and elbow when I was crocheting. It got to a point where I wanted to do more but knew physically it was not possible.

My instagram friends recommended I start using a hook with a grip and the most popular opinion was to try Clover Amour hooks so I found Ozquilts, an online seller in Australia and invested in a few. I love that they are all colour coded and so clearly marked! The hook itself is lovely and smooth. I want to amass a matchy, matchy collection *blush*

I realised once I started using my Amour hook that the movement in my wrist significantly reduced, I used to move my wrist a lot when I was working but now the way I hold the grip reduces that, I guess its like learning to hold a pencil in school. I'm adjusting to them nicely and love that my actual physical grip is more open now which I think also removes some of the stress in the movements. I have no elbow discomfort at all.

What hooks do you use?

I've linked up with Kootoyoo at Kidspot creative spaces. :)

Chocolate Cake

2013-03-05T16:35:00.003+11:00

Tried this one last week and dusted it with icing sugar rather than icing it, mine was a little dry but I baked with wholemeal as I am trying to change all my baking over to wholemeal. Next time I will try icing it and think it will be great.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups Plain Flour

1 tsp Bicarb soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp Cocoa

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp golden Syrup

2 eggs

2/3 cup of oil

2/3 cup of milk

Method

Preheat oven to 160

Put all dry ingredients into the bowl and then all wet ingredients and mix well.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes and leave to sit in tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool.

Make an indulgent icing with 185g chocolate gently melted in a pan with 2 to 3 tbsp of cream, let this cool a little and then pour it over the cake.

The kids loved this Chocolate cake as was and demolished most of it. Thats actually the reason it didn't get iced, anxious taste testers arrived home from School before I'd had a chance!

Autumn steps in

2013-03-04T19:30:00.000+11:00

As we came to the last week of Feb. I started to really notice the smaller birds in the garden, A couple of white plumed honey eaters and an Eastern Spine Bill I did not manage to photograph.

I snapped this fan tail hanging about with some silver eyes one evening, they are still around . Fan tails fly and dart and dance in the most intriguing and entertaining way.

One particularly rainy day a small flock of fairy wrens fossicked and sang but were so hard to capture as with their colouring they blend so well into all the dry and dead growth.

The whole time the fairy wrens hopped about this wag tail sat mainly perched upon the rock at the end of the garden bed, singing beautifully in response.

I had to rely on high zoom on all of these, while I sheltered from the rain or tried to see into the tippy tree tops. I'm happy to be seeing these small inhabitants visiting again and now that our couple of Wintry cold days seem to have passed I hope to be seeing more of them this week.

Autumn is my favourite season without a doubt.

Do you have a favourite? x

Crochet Ripple Blanket

2013-03-03T19:30:00.000+11:00

I have joined in the Ripple Along being hosted by my friend Mel aka One Crafty Mumma I have only worked a sample of ripple before so the foundation row based on 157 chains was a big tackle for me!

crochet ripple

Once I had decided to do it there was no question in my mind that I would use anything but Cotton for a blanket. I do tend to prefer working with cotton at this stage as I find it much nicer for my hands, not so drying.

The next step was deciding on colours and finding some inspiration, I wanted to include white and liked Mels choice of alternating white stripes and I wanted to use these colours again as I love the combination of green, yellow, teal and pink together! My desire was for my colours to touch each other and wanted the white to pop but not dominate. I searched Google image pools of ripple blankets to inspire this and one really jumped out at me.

This one.

gorgeous ripple blanked from Janpugs via Flickr

The white pops, the colours are bright and it provides me with perfect inspiration!
I tracked back to the original image owner the lady who made this in 2009. I gained her permission via flickr, to use it here :)

I chose to start mine with Teal as I already had some of the Teal in 8 ply, I ordered the rest of my colours which arrived on Friday and I have managed to get quite a few rows done while couch bound feeling sick. I am using Lucy from Attic 24's neat ripple pattern and a 4.50 hook with Bendigo Woollen Mills 8 ply cotton.

Crochet Ripple in progress

I Hadn't decided to add the Grey in its current position and did it impulsively, which then threw the entire colour order I had planned out of whack as I had to add the pale pink ( as best match next to grey ) which I had not planned on using at all. I'm happy with how it is coming along so far. I'll keep up playing along with Monday update posts for the #ripplealong and am frequently posting pics of my progress on Instagram, my profile is private but send me a request if you are a fellow ripple along participant are creative soul who would like to see my crochet evolving as it goes :)