Bunting and lots of it!

I decided to make aprons and bunting to decorate our school fete cafe!

I think I am a little crazy!

The fete is not for a few more weeks, but Joey turns 5 this Sunday and his park party needs this bunting.

So, together with Lilly and Joey, we made bunting! Lots and lots, about 25 metres I think.

It looks awesome here in our lounge room.  I moved the sewing station upstairs for the ordeal, too cold down in the garage at this time of year.

I need to thank a couple of people/things...Lilly and Joey for being so well behaved while I sewed and sewed and my bias binding maker for assisting me with the 30 odd metres of white bias we made together!!

I took a break mid-bunting yesterday, to make this cute cord skirt for Lill.

I sewed on a small granny square I had laying around, it looks very cute.

Today's Projects

Today Kimmy and Wolf came over.

The kids played and we did a bit of craft. 

I have been saving tins to mod podge so we did a little bit.

The conversations are unreal when we are doing this stuff.

Alot of laughing and stupidity.

We got a photo of us today, standing in front of the fabric piles and ironing board where the best work happens.  Now she has gone over to her sisters to bake cakes, for no reason, just for fun.  What a fun day she will have had!  p.s. they are entering my kitchen rules as a sister duo, lets hope they get in!

Here is my latest crochet project, this one will see me through till next winter I'd say.

It's a Lucy inspired from Attic 24 Granny Stripe Blanket.

I thought it would be a good way to use up some wool.  I am not thinking about the colour combinations, just using up wool but making sure there is enough to complete to rows in each colour at least.  It's pretty long, so we'll see how quickly I get bored with it. 

This is a crochet hat for Lilly.  It is a touch too big.

I finished this off when the kids were fishing the other night.  See where I ran out of light pink wool, nevermind I think the darker band looks ok.  And the flower was pure scraps, which I made up as I went, the centre is a little dodgy!

Here is the little boy in his new crochet hat he had to have.  His is plain blue 100% wool and fits like a glove.  I've got his size and pattern sorted just need to perfect Lilly's.

Crochet Hat for Violet

I paid 20c for this model this afternoon.

Cheap.

This is for cousin Violet who is 1 soon and since I'm into crocheting at the moment and its a bit cold and her name is Violet and I love her Mum  lots and I've never met Violet yet even though I was given a chance, I made her this hat!

I tried it on a 7 month old baby boy today (a big boy for his age) and it was perfect on him, it is also pretty perfect on my boy above.  I need to write down what I did, cause I think I have finally cracked it on a good shape that fits!

Warm winter things for newborn baby girls

I have finished off the things for my friends new little girl. 

Pink is easy!

A big rug/quilt (not really quilt but you know) made with beautiful flannelette and chenille and binded with pink spots.  No handstitching went on here (binding) as this little beauty needs to be very washing machine friendly as I am hoping this gets used and used and loved and cuddled.

Some warm winter crochet hats for newborns.

Finally I can make these for someone where they will actually fit.  I am determined to upsize this pattern to fit Lilly this year properly.  Here is last years efforts.

There wasn't much in the way of cute flannelette at spotlight this week, I found the white owl print, which is pretty cute.  I just hemmed it into a big bunny rug, can't have too many of them!

and I finished off my crocheted cushion.

Now that wasn't easy- getting that thing onto a pillowcase.

It turned out ok in the end.  But it was tricky stitching it onto the fabric first, without pulling it all out of shape.

Back of the cushion. 

It is going on my bed, not Lilly's!

Now I need to paint my bedroom and make it look worthy of this cute cushion.

China Love

Yes sir, I love china, heaps and heaps.

Think it's my Mum's fault.

I've loved it since I was a teenager.

And I especially love it when I get it for a bargain.

Like this selection above, which completely doesn't match, but that just makes it all the more special, cause one day when I find a random bit which does match a bit I've already got- that's like winning lotto (I think kind of, not really).

The blue/gold floral cup above is a new find from the weekend trip to Goomeri, we called in at the (expensive) Kilkivan Antique shop, this cup was $6.  That's alot, for a random cup.  It's a Crown Staffordshire and the saucer under it was also $6 and its Anysley and soooo cute. 

When I find the cup that matches that saucer, that will be a winner!

But until then, I love it like this.

And check out this gorgeous gold Japanese Coffee set for 6 lucky people sipping coffee.

My Mum found me this at the Collectorama on the weekend.  I mentioned that I was into gold china at the moment and she found this for $25.  Now that is a serious bargain, it is mint condition and I can't wait to use it.  Coffee at my house very soon for the local readers with scones too to try it out...actually, that will be open to the 'commenting' local readers only, hint, hint!!  Thanks Mum, I love it.

This is what makes me happy, piles of this stuff!

This is all thrifted china, all english and all old and unmatching, I love it.

This is a few years worth at least, the op shop ladies are getting smart and pricing it high, not as many bargains these days.

I changed my kitchen hutch display last night, to a yellow theme, since I am loving the gold.

That is a very precious carnival glass bowl on the left that belongs to my husbands mum.  I don't know alot about carnival glass, but I believe it is very precious and I really love it.

The plain yellow Royal Albert cup and saucer with gold rim belongs to Lilly, she let me get it out of the china cabinet to join the other yellow friends on the hutch!  I gave it to her last year.  She loves yellow!

And here is my efforts from yesterday's car journeys, nearly sewn up. 

It will be a small cushion but so bright and colourful.

It is Lucy from Attic 24's pattern.  With a couple of changes also known as mistakes. Never mind!  But now looking at this picture, they are so obvious to me and making me a bit mad now the more I look at it!

Pumpkin Festival

Today we went to Goomeri, to the Pumpkin Festival.

It was awesome!

On the way, I crocheted. 

And on the way home I crocheted. 

And now I am almost finished the front of my cushion! 

Will be revealed soon!

We watched the street parade.  This is the winning whopper of a pumpkin!

We saw horses, stock whips, drafthorses, working dogs, bands, old cars, pumpkin pagaent princesses...

Mum and I checked out the crafty section and saw some quilts including this gorgeous hexagon quilt, which was massive and the hex's were tiny.  Now... I haven't made many quilts so I'm not really in a position to be too critical BUT I would never ever spend a trillion hours hand piecing something like this and then machine quilt it with a revolting bright green thread in a pattern that just doesn't do anything for anyone! 

Machine quilting is def the way to go, but surely a nicer colour and pattern would have been better.

Here are the cute mini pumpkin themed quilts!

We ate pumpkin scones and pumpkin pie! 

This is pumpkin pie, it was good. 

They (the CWA type ladies) were very secretive about the recipe for pumpkin pie which kind of made me mad, cause I really didn't want their exact recipe, I just wanted to know if there was a pumpkin pie recipe in the special cook book they had for sale!

Me and my BFF Kimmy and the pumpkins! 

Our super cute kids enjoying the fairy floss.

Kimmy insisted on going in the famous Pumpkin Rolling Competition and she entered herself and her son Kai.  He chickened out (actually I think he realised his Mum is nuts)  so my boy Joey stepped up to the mark. Here he is trudging up 'Policeman's Hill' to the starting line.  All 680 of them lined up ready to roll their pumpkins!

And here they are with their tagged and numbered pumpkins getting marshalled! 

 It is big business and you can be disqualified for stepping over the yellow line!

Kimmy ready to roll, she was number 367!

And she is nuts, but I love her!

Joey and me waiting patiently, he was number 162!

The view down the hill from the starting line. 

Somewhere down there at the bottom is our family dodging flying pumpkins that hit gutters and got airborne!

Joey's pumpkin went well, flying down the middle then hurtling off to the left...

...and came to rest somewhere around here.  The policeman you maybe able to just see is standing nearby to the special yellow spot that marks $1000 if your pumpkin comes to rest right on it! 

No one won the $1000 this year!

We picked up 6 pumpkins! 

They are in pretty good condition too considering they were hurtled down a bitumen road.  Actually everyone picked up pumpkins.  I thought it was a bit wasteful at first, but every single pumpkin was taken away and we have pumpkin soup in the slow cooker ready for dinner tonight!

We loved the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival and have marked it in our calendar for next year!

Crochet Project and a Sneak Peak at my Bathroom Progress

As always when it comes to anything involving wool I don't finish stuff!

The bebop cardigan for Lilly is no further advanced than here and might get a bit more done next stint of night shift possibly.

So here I go starting something else!  It only involved a tiny bit more in the way of supplies, white wool for the edges.  I am making these cute little grannyish squares to make into a cushion for Lill's bed and I am going to edge them all in white, will figure out the back later, so far I am thinking a small print floral cotton.

This is Lucy's cute pattern, cept I didn't bobble the middle section, I just did clusters of 2 trebles or double crochets.  The bebop cardi uses bobbles and to be honest I can't see that they are that bobbly!  And bobbling makes me think too hard and crochet shouldn't make you think too hard, agree?

Next up I give you my bathroom, all but done! Massive cheers!

I am loving it except those wall tiles are not really white are they, they are supposed to be alabaster and in my books alabaster is almost white.  They are gorgeous though and massive things.  We have tiled floor to ceiling and those glass mosaic niches are just going to be the best. We are just waiting on the shower screen and mirror and taps to go on then its done!

Here is the super duper vanity.  Designed by me and made to fit every spare bit of space available!  There is a secret laundry shute in that first door in the middle and those drawers are so deep.  I need to get some Ikea dividers cause everything will be standing up rather than lying down in the drawers.  The drawers and doors are gloss white vinyl wraps and the top is stone, think it was called Torino, its all fairly boring colours but means I can have a shiny green plant on the bench and change my mind between chocolate, hot pink or even lime green accessories.

We also have a new toilet that has an easily removable lid and seat so I can clean it with bleach if I want, since we can't put anything like that down the drains (we have an Ecosafe sewerage treatment plant to look after!) Painting the toilet walls and bathroom ceiling is next up followed by choosing towel rails and drawer handles, so stay tuned for the finished product.

Pretty Little Girl

Little Miss wearing her butterfly singlet and one of our crocheted flowers in her hair.

Crochet Flower Hair Clips

I crocheted these a while back using this pattern and on our way to Dreamworld recently I stitched some clips to the back.

Lilly loves them and I filled in some spare time so everyones a winner!

Table Runner

I made this gorgeous table runner this arvo after school.  Mum got the fabric in Bowral and the ric rac at the Remnant Warehouse.  She got lots of other good stuff as well and I am very jealous I wasn't with her when she bought it all!  My excellent Aunty was though, and took her to some really awesome places, you are so lovely Lydi!

I got that red and white stripey jug in Sydney so the runner and jug should feel right at home.  It looks kind of Christmasy too so I'm happy with that on the table right now.

And this is the rest of Mum's shopping, a little bit of Love (another skirt in the making), some Kaffe Fassett, Anna Maria and some more of those table runner panels.  The big dusty blue and strawberry piece at the bottom of the pile is for a massive tablecloth Mum is making.

How cute are these crocheted teapot cosies.  The little one was $8, its hard to see clearly but there is masses of hours in them, the black background is all crochet as well.  We love pansies!

Lastly my work in progress, Lill's next bebop cardi, one that fits hopefully.

x see you next time