Up, up and away

photo from here

You could be forgiven for thinking I have been away already with all being quiet on the blogging front of late, but no, I have just been pre-occupied with the forthcoming trip. I fly to the UK next week for ten days without Tavis and the boys, I'm going to a friend's wedding with my mum and I am excited and petrified: excited for obvious reasons - I haven't been back since we lived there in 02/03 and I can't wait to see family and friends and Old London Town; I am petrified because I've never been away from the boys for more than a night and I've never been away from Tavis for so long. I want to enjoy it, I know I should enjoy it; it will be over in a flash and who knows when I will next be back so I better enjoy it and not pine for my three boys at home on the other side of the globe!

Gratuitous photos of my gorgeous boys.

Mothers' Day Present

Tavis bought himself this totally awesome bike on Mothers' Day. Not for Mothers' Day, it was purely incidental that it was Mothers' Day and I was very happy for him because it is very cool, it's something he needed, he fully researched the best bike to buy and he got it at a good price.

I was pampered and spoilt for Mothers' Day and generally had a lovely day. Part of the justification for this particular bike at this time is that it is Tavis's treat for staying home with the kids while I jet off to the UK for ten days for a wedding! Things have been a bit quiet online for me lately while I have been preoccupied with the impending trip - I leave in two weeks.

I have never had a night away from Angus and have only had four nights away from Rohan (and two of those were in hospital while having Angus!). It's fair to say I'm a bit apprehensive - the boys and Tavis will be fine of course, I'm worried about how I will cope!

My Creative Space

I love seeing other people's creative spaces here and I'm really happy with how my own is coming along thanks to a garage sale at the weekend where I picked up the two shelving units pictured here (for $2 each yay yay yay), and my recent stash purchases (thrifted and new).


I love seeing the fabrics displayed like this and just seeing it there makes me want to get down to work on something crafty right away. In fact it makes me happy just passing by and seeing it all there ready for me, I feel so fortunate just to have a little space like this.

Project for May

My May goal is to knit a vest for Angus but I knew that it would take me more than a month to do this so I've been practicing for a few weeks now.

First attempt at ribbing - not a success

I had never tried ribbing or even stocking stitch before and to be honest I never really understood the whole moving the yarn from front to back to change stitches; but it suddenly clicked and I'm pleased to say I finally feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it!

Second attempt at ribbing and first at stocking stitch - not bad

Next I need to frog all of that knitting and start again using a pattern. I've never tried to read a knitting pattern before and I haven't yet found one I like for a vest for Angus so these are the next things to overcome to achieve my May project. I've just kept going on the knitting in the mean time because I'm enjoying it, but the more I do the more disappointing it will be to frog it and there's no way what I've started will be wide enough for a vest.

I'd rather be knitting...

...than moving all this wood.
But then if I didn't have the wood delivered today I wouldn't be able to knit with warm tootsies by the fire tonight so scratch that.

A quiet day at home

Cooking Jeffrey's delicious and simple pasta sauce which is loved by all and fortunately makes 1.5 - 2 litres so there is some for the freezer to rescue me when I am disorganised (which is often so it never seems to last very long).

Knitting with the bamboo yarn I recently bought. It felt so nice I just had to start without anything in particular in mind. Then I frogged it and started practicing some ribbing. Still not sure what I'm doing but I'm enjoying it anyway.

Reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I'm not very far in yet but already it's the best book I've read in ages. I loved it from the first page.

Soon I'll be waking the boys for music but there's just enough time for a cup of tea in front of the fire with my knitting.

It's all about corduroy right now

At least for me it is.
And I'm seeing it everywhere!

1. Boh Tea Estate, Cameron Highlands, 2. long live grunge, 3. orange chair, 4. New Corduroy Bags, 5. sea of purple corduroy, 6. Hometown farm, Laurel, NY, 7. Blue with airplanes, 8. Overman Lounge Chair, 9. pants

I snuck Angus in there at the end because I'm seeing corduroy nowhere more than at home - both the boys seem to be wearing it all the time and I picked up a lovely new pair of cord pants for Rohan at the oppy today for $1. Great quality, french made, fully lined. Gotta love it.

I have some of that gorgeous Lara Cameron fabric from no. 4 above but in a different colourway. It was part of the pack from my lovely cousin and looks great there made up into a bag... hmmm...

I went back the the fabric superstore yesterday and bought some plain brown cord so I think I'm ready to just get the scissors out and go for it with the refashion job on the Levis skirt. There might even be enough leftover to experiment with a bag?

Work in Progress

Very much in progress

I bought this skirt from an op shop without trying it on because it was Levis and looked as though it had never been worn and I couldn't see a size on it anywhere. It was cheap enough that it didn't matter if it didn't fit which is good because it didn't. I later found a tag somewhere on an inside seam that said it was extra small!

It so didn't fit and was never going to fit no matter how long it sat in my wardrobe that it went straight into the fabric box to eventually become something else.

Then when we were well into April, and I realised I had done zero preparation to achieve my April goal of sewing an item of clothing for myself, I thought I might cheat and refashion this one by opening up the two seams at the front and adding new panels of some amazing fabric. I bought some fabric I thought would work last weekend; it's a fine gauge cord and I thought the weight of it matched the weight of the denim.

What was I thinking?

During the week I got the seam ripper out and opened up the seams, and today I played around with some stash fabric to test whether the panels should taper or not (not). And that's when I realised that not only is the fabric I bought totally wrong the whole thing might look totally eighties and naff even with the perfect fabric (which I'm now thinking could be a plain brown cord). I haven't given up hope but I've definitely stalled and I doubt I'll be finished by the end of April.

So someone's daughter is going to get a new pinny with butterflies this winter!

Sunday Stash

Two visits to the supermarket of craft stores today.
They are having a sale and I can't resist a bargain.
Woops...
The fabric at the top is for my April mission and I hope some of the others will appear as completed projects soon (but I admit that some are just for the stash for now).


The yarn top right is for my May mission and the rest was just a bargain. Foolishly small quantities I have realised already - a common mistake made by the rookie knitter (who in this case has never completed a garment, except a rather small scarf which I'm not convinced counts).

No excuses now, better get crafty!

Happy Easter

1. Wright the Jack Rabbit Love=Creature, 2. Rabbit, 3. White Rabbit Decoupaged Box, 4. Poc Poc rabbit!!, 5. RABBIT FOR LINUS, 6. Honey rabbit 1, 7. Young Rabbit 06a, 8. Melancholic Blue Rabbit, 9. Rabbit, 10. photos from my old rabbit book, 11. Spencer Rabbit, 12. rabbits. blank expressions, 13. Rabbit Lawn Sculpture Peeking Up Through the Snow, 14. rabbit companions flee scene, 15. RI RU RABBIT, 16. New Rabbits!, 17. Rabbit / Coelho 1, 18. Rabbits everywhere, 19. attempts at origami rabbit, 20. Rabbit Cookies, 21. Rabbit 2, 22. The Lion-Rabbit and his Friend Hormiga :), 23. Marimba Rabbits Oaxaca, 24. 13 fibonacci rabbit, 25. Wobbles the Rabbit