redesign in progress

Hi there! does my blog look a wee bit messy? sorry, just playing around in the background... it's a work in progress. Hopefully will be designed and looking beautiful again soon... xo

a happy thrifting report, and some crochet success!

Our move to Sydney has been, well, mixed. I miss sunny Brunswick with all of its stimulation, beautiful friends, food and coffee, but love being closer to family, other lovely friends, and having a backyard for the boys to run about. One of the great excitements for me, living in the Sydney 'burbs is that it seems that many of my local opshops are yet to have been discovered and picked over by professionals or serious opshoppers. Yippee! So there often fab finds to be had. Some which warrant a post of their very own.

I have recently just ventured into the land of crochet. I am loving having something to do whilst sitting with hubby on the lounge in front of the telly, instead of having to remove myself to the backyard shed, where my sewing machine etc lives. So when I stumbled on these eight vintage pattern books I was beside myself! And only $4.



Whilst cooking tea for the boys I picked out  few favourites to try, and then whipped this up in less than an hour - just amazing!



This is from the (red) Paragon Crochet Book - a collection of favourite Medallions (popular reprint R1 - sorry, no year of publication), and is the Star Motif. Of course the design is meant for doilies, and much finer thread, but I wanted to try a beefed up version with some chunky yarn. It photographed pretty terribly (taking photos at night will do that, but I was too excited to wait!), but it is in a soft, variegated brown and cream yarn. And it's BIG - probably about 25cm diameter.

So, now I am looking for a use for this big star motif... any ideas? Some of the patterns in this book are just gorgeous and I am beginning to think about flash crochet blankets, whizzy-bang scarves, and lah-dee-dah cushion covers...  The pattern book would have me keep going and make a trolley mat from a number of these... any other ideas?

Yippee! loving crochet!

Chat again soon xo

the gherkin is three! (and the big play kitchen reveal)

So... the day arrived. And the gherkin turned three. And the cliche that all parents repeat, in spite of themselves, enjoy every moment - it all goes so quickly, is so true. I can't believe that our little baby, who took an anxious two minutes to start breathing, was such a bright shade of jaundiced orange, was sooo very sleepy, is now our funny, clever chatty, all-singing all-dancing, gentle boy. He's three. And he had a blast!

He did have a cake of course, but the photo of him blowing out the candle on his birthday raisin toast is so much better.

For those of you out there, wondering about progress on the play kitchen, here is the end result.

Doesn't it look great? The gherkin loves it. A happy bonus for us, living in a teeny tiny home, is that it looks quite unobtrusive in our loungeroom where it lives permanently. Components are listed below, for those of you interested...

* It is built from the components of the RAND bedside table (thanks IKEA). We bought two, and used one in its entirety and the other for parts (a grand total of $29.98).
* The kitchen has a divider between the two sections, and a door, all made from the second bedside table. The door is hinged using a cabinet hinge.
* We also added a back made of masonite, which is just tacked on.
* Stove top knobs are made from cabinet knobs, as are the taps, and the tap itself is made of a U shaped handle with one side sawn off.
* We didn't like the IKEA coasters as hot plates, so instead invested in some floor protectors that you attach to the underside of your furniture and screwed those on.
* Then some eyelet hooks and a bit of elastic with a cute japanese cotton print...

...And voila!

I'll be posting on some of the foods over the next week or so, but I have a lot of crafting to share so will have to spread it all out...

Chat soon!
xo

I'm in love...

Hi all

So, my sojourn back into the paid workforce is over. What was it like? Well, I really enjoyed myself, and got to exercise my brain which was fantastic.  And the crafting time on the train was wonderful. Sadly though, this was all at the expense of time with my beautiful boys. A very sad thing. So, it's now back to being fulltime stay at home mummy.

And in preparation, I have been prowling the net, looking for some activities for the boys and i to do on those days when the park is just not going to happen. And something that doesn't involve a westfield.

And what a collection of fabulous things I have found! And all of them stored neatly in the one place thanks to Pinterest

Yep, I'm in love. All of my favourite ideas from the web catalogued in the same place, into categories that make sense to me? Sounds perfect. Then to have the opportunity too to connect with some of my very favourite people there too... I'm in love.

work in progress... sunnyside up!

  Hello!

I have been busy, not doing anything too exciting that no one has done before, but crafting felt food for the gherkin's (shhh) birthday present.

I am pretty happy with my eggs (easy) and love my pile of beans! I am now a complete convert to wool felt - this process has shown me just how much better wool felt is to work with.  My bread is ok - love the shape and thickness, although if I had my time again I would make with quilt wadding rather than just stuffing it with polyfill, so it didn't puff up too much. I am very unimpressed by my first watermelon attempt - I think I really have to make a three dimensional slice,rather than trying to cheat with a flat version! Cheating never pays...

Sadly, I am only able to handstitch these, as my machine is strictly off-limits at night due to our teeny weeny new home in Sydney and our very light sleepers...
So, next on the list is... more fruit and veg. Because the gherkin has significant allergy to nuts and peanuts (and not long ago, sesame too), he hasn't eaten much packaged food, so all of the foods I will be putting in his kitchen will be the key staple sorts of foods - bread, pasta, fruit, veg. I also want to make up some cartons for milk etc. And bought a small variety pack size box of weetbix (you know the single serve sized boxes) yesterday just for the box! (weetbix is the only cereal we can eat in this house when mummy's not doing porridge).

I have been super-inspired by a number of felt food genii (?the plural for genius?) on the net...

amazing range (and diy e-books for purchase) from lilly bean

gorgeous lunchbag tutorial from skip to my lou

plus many many many more.... it seems the world loves felt food. My Pinterest has been getting a real workout!

Have fun, I'll check back in shortly with another update.

xo

crafty books for kids

Hi again!

The pickles clan took a wee trip to the library yesterday, and picked up a great couple of crafty books for the gherkin (and for me too).

Joseph had a Little Overcoat is a 1999 book by Simms Taback, and is all about the art of reuse and refashion. Joseph starts off with an overcoat which then becomes a vest, a tie, a hankerchief etc... and in the end turns the whole experience into a story! It is a lovely read (based on a great concept), but of course what first caught my eye was the gorgeous illustrations.

Crafty of course because of the story. And check out the back cover... buttons - yippee!

Another of the books is by Clare Beaton, whose multimedia (mostly felt applique it seems) illustrations are just gorgeous, and have been a favourite with the gherkin since I bought him one of her books as his first ever book (before he was born)

This time from the library we have picked up Mrs Moon. One of my favourite illustrations would have to be this one, although this nursery rhyme still completely freaks me out...

I love the fabric choice for the tree! A lovely read with my boys and a bit of inspiration for me, too.

Do you find yourself picking books "for your kids" which are actually for you? Or are you (as I was pre-kids) an avid childrens book collector? What are your favourites?

I'll pop back later with my fab opshop finds for the toy kitchen and just because, a bit later.

Chat soon xo

cottage industry... have i mentioned my visit?

Probably have forgotten to mention that I visited Cottage Industry when I was last in sunny Melbs. Cottage Industry is the baby of the lovely Pene, and is where I spotted my first ever in real life doily tree....



[sigh] Lovely!

I had almost completely forgotten about this visit until just the other day when on holidays with all of my boys, and flicking through a pile of my sister's old inside out magazines, and found a photo of the lovely Pene herself!

The article was just okay - more of a pictorial than the sort of article I was interested to read about this gorgeous woman... her blog is so warm. But that said the photos were lovely and the shop itself on Gertrude St is just beautiful... if you are anywhere near Melbourne it is well worth the pop in to Cottage Industry. (And I wish you luck in any efforts to leave the store without one of the vintage teatowel ottomans...)
xx