Voila: A Ripple Crochet Baby Blanket

My dear friend had a baby girl in July, and I'd been wanting to try a special crochet style, the ripple effect! It wasn't hard after about 3 rows, but it took a lot of concentration for a while to get the 'peaks' and 'valleys' as my pattern called it. My Mum's friend Chris knows a lot about the old crochet, and gave my baby 2 darling blankets for when he was born. One was a ripple blanket so she shared her pattern! 

I was a bit gung ho at first, because you count out your stitches in the first row, making sure you'll have enough ripples (but don't they look a bit chevron-esque?) and I was worried the blanket wasn't wide enough (so counted out over 200 stitches I think, what a headache!)... so I ended up making it too wide, so didn't make it as long... so the ripples are vertical instead.

But makes it kinda sweet and different looking. Plus if the new baby is swaddled, she'll be rippled across horizontal anyways... win win!

YAY!

Voila: A Crochet Baby Ball

Hello again! Thanks so much for my birthday wishes! Love you guys!

This week, I found some tv time (!) to watch Project Runway (new eps!) and crochet some baby balls... I found this Purl Bee Crocheted Balls tutorial, and loved the simple colours. I love a lot of textured things for baby hands to touch and hold and squish. I added a bell and tried the handstitched cross stitch thingie, and it looks great. This is the second Purl Bee tutorial I've followed (My DIY Rainbow, knitted, baby blanket was the first), and they're amazing to follow, great photos and explanation!

The wool is some sort of cheap Spotlight kind, let me check.... it's called 'Filou' and 100% cotton, and on special for 50c, so I bought a few and if you're having a baby in my friendship group in the next 6 months... guess what your baby is getting? They are so quick to make up, and I need crochet projects at the moment as it's hard to sit for periods at the machine! (Please don't ask me about my Sew Weekly Reunion piece!)

(While googling my own blog, I found my first crochet ball, a little bird from 2009!)

Hope you've been having a great week! I love it here at the moment, mama lyf has been great this week! The weather is warmer and it smells like spring in our streets! Exciting!

xoxo

A Macrame Terrarium

Have you, like me, noticed the love for macrame & terrariums online, in design blogs and pinterest faves? My friend at work talked about Terrariums a lot and we would laugh at the spelling and mispronounciations of the word... I could easily say 'terr-RAH-rium' instead of 'terr-rare-rium' to be posh. But I also remembered my family had a terrarium coffee table (YES!) and although I don't we called it a terrarium, it was a magical place there indeed!

Anyways, this week I cut up an old tshirt (bought especially for the colour from the op shop), and made this darling birthday present!

Following this tutorial was pretty easy for the macrame, you pretty much cut off a big tshirt under the arms, make it into 8 strips and then create a series of knots at different parts to cuddle the terrarium. My test macrame was pretty neat, so it didn't take too long to get to making this orange one. I found the round glass vase at the op shop in Gippsland, and planted two little succulent plants a few weeks back to see how they'd grow. And they're just darling!

If you're out walking a lot (like my #mamalyfe) you can keep your eyes peeled for broken bits of succulents if your neighbourhood grows them in the front yard. In the past few months, I've noticed lots of broken pieces or leaves and if you plant them, they'll grow! I never break off any bits, I just gather up pieces that I've found on the footpath, that's ok in my books!

I absolutely love it, and might be a new favourite pass-time! Refashioning mens tshirts and growing succulents!

Sydley Town Bunting

I love love love nicknames for towns! Sydney has so many options, but Sydley and Sydders are my fave abbrevs!

This past week I was visiting the gorgeous humidity ridden place and seeing all my darling friendships again and pretty much working like crazy for the best Australia Day musical countdown of the year!

Here's darling Lindsay fully enjoying my decorations! The theme of this year's Hottest 100 was magic, so I overlocked several packs of playing cards together to make bunting! So quick to make and really easy to hang!

More hangtime soon pls, xoxo

Back from the country!

Thank you so much for your lovely comments about my first dress for the Sew Weekly challenge! I was so excited to read through them all, and I felt very spesh indeed! And thank you for putting up with my spelling mistakes courtesy of my 'smart phone', as I had to load the photos quickly on Friday morning, and then write about them in the car down to the country.

I can't remember if I posted this baby blanket, but it's one I finished before Christmas, while watching The Sopranos. It's made up entirely of scraps from my wool basket/suitcase!

I also thought (for you non-crochetters) this really shows you how the granny square is done, when it's multicoloured like this... So pick that yellow fat yarn/wool there, it's more of a square than a triangle, cause it's such fat wool. But see the purple and green straight after it, and how they sit like a triangle? That's made up of three little stitches, and I call them half double stitch... or maybe I can them treble stitch. I can't remember, cause it's different in different countries. I'm really bad at explaining things... I'll have to work on this sometime this year!

But I guess what I'm pointing out is that you keep one colour, and go all the way around the edge of the square... you do three little stitches together, then you do one single stitch, etc until you reach the corner then you do three little babes together in the corner, do two single stitches, then another 3 little babes in the same corner stitch. All the way around. Yep. Bad at explaining.

This is another blanket for the gift box, and we're hoping to see all these new baby friends soon, so we can give these presents away!

Also: The Sew Weekly challenge this week, is a film theme: Unrequited Love... I'm going to choose a film made in the late 1990s, but set in the 1970s! I'll blog my progress again this week when I can... is that ok? I'm adoring sewing a theme each week, with the darling Sew Weekly community! Whilst we (Debi, Sarah & Adey, and Mena of course) are the contributors, you are also invited to sew along when you have the time! I saw some darling Chanel photos on Mena's blog, as part of the flickr group... so if you have time to look at a 'Unrequited Love' movie this week, sew away with us!

Something for the 'Gift Box'

Do you have a little corner where you put gifts and presents for people? So when their birthday or other spesh occasions come around you can go to your 'Gift Box' and grab out something for them? I am not usually very good at being so organised, but after my clean up over the past week, I've discovered HEAPS of things I've made and never got around to giving people.

Like crochet scarfs. And loads of baby things. And quirky things I've bought on a whim at the shops. I'm not good at shopping appropriately.

Because it's summertime here, I can't really give someone a scarf now, but I've put it into my 'Gift Box' (I wish I had a better name for it... it's only new, I bet a funny name will evolve eventually) and as it gets colder through the year, maybe someone will need it. I made this crochet scarf (from secondhand wool) by making a long chain, and then going around and around with 2 double/treble crochets in any spaces I could find... around the end (above) I scooped it a little bit, adding a few extra stitches to make it curved. I am determined to show you how I learned crochet, but am REALLY bad at explaining it. For example, I just had to think what 'stitches' were called, because in my head I call them 'friends' or 'guys', "I've got 2 little guys together, then I do one, and then make two more little guys in the next space"....  Not good with crochet lingo.

We might be waiting a while for me to get a tutorial together... so that you and I can understand it!

My first week back at work has been eventful: lunches, phones calls, catch ups, and employing people. YAY. But tonight I've been invited out to the THEATRE by my darling friend Amy and we're going to see Mary Poppins The Musical! ARGH! So excited! Actually, I'm wearing a purple dress (made late last year) that I haven't photographed yet to show you, so I'll make sure I get a few happy snaps at the theatre!

xoxo

My first baby crochet garment

I've made some crochet toys and some accessory 'things' but I have never made a crochet garment for a baby to wear before, until now!

Do you like it? It's around the 1 year anniversary of my learning to crochet (I started learning it just before Christmas last year), and I'm pretty pleased with myself. My friend's babe just turned 1 on Monday, so I gave it to her! I love that's it's short sleeved and kinda kimono style!

AND, I'm going to explain how I made this, and show you all the other ideas I've learnt along the way. It's a little hard at first (where do you stick the hook? How do you do all this with just one stick? Why do I have to count all the time at the start? What's with the instructions? Why is UK and the US different, and what should I learn if I live in Australia?) and once you work out those hard bits, it's freaking easy and you can do MORE TV WATCHING because this becomes automatic after a while! Yep! Auto pilot on the old crochet! It's seriously a multitaskers dream!

Here are the little itty buttons as I didn't really wanna do ribbons or whatever, so I improvised with the crocheted button loops as well!

The pattern is on Ravelry, for FREE, via this darling person, who has an amazing story as to how this cardi came about. If you are serious about learning crochet (or knitting FYI) you should get on Ravelry, it's free, and there's usually shitloads of free patterns there. I am a total beginner in crochet, and not really a good knitter (I can purl that's about it, but when I concentrate I can do other patterns), and there's heaps of really great easy projects you can just look at and study.

Here's the back:

Ok, friends: if you'd like to start crochet, but don't know how (and I know some of you have spoken up in the past), please let me know what you want to know, and I'll explain how I learnt it, and pointing out the various online tools that helped me learn. Guys! It's not that hard once you get over the hard bit!

Personally, I don't think I even followed the cardigan's instructions right, and still it's a freaking cool baby jacket! It's almost like you can't stuff up crochet! (I have stuffed up crochet, but you just unravel it, and then NO ONE knows!)

Anyways, I'm no expert but I'm a happy go lucky amateur, who is really friendly, so if you have any crochet questions (and they can be dumb, don't worry, I've muddled a year's worth of WTF moments) let me know and I'll see if I can solve it for you!


P.S. The bike stains from yesterday are all gone now: Preen and a little nappysan in the wash, and my big skirt dress is as good as new! I'll heed your advice fellow bikers, sitting on skirt and mud flap thingies sounds good!

Baby Booties: Meet Me At Mikes!

My friend gave me Pip Lincolne's first book 'Meet Me At Mikes' (still available I believe through Readings Bookstore - aren't I the local these days? But trust me, you haven't heard me pronounce it, as I say it different to most Melbournians, because I am an idiot and habitually pronounce things incorrectly just to piss people off, and then I can never get out of the habit) recently, and I only just got around to opening this morning, and had a brainwave!

Since there's a lot of smaller projects in the book, and things for scraps, I thought I could do some 'in between projects'! I can't focus on one thing at a time, so while I'm sewing 'larger' projects like dresses etc (and tedious handsewing bodice dresses at that) I can stop for a bit, sew up a quick little 'in between project' from the book!

Yay!

So, my first project from Meet Me At Mikes:

My current larger project is this tablecloth dress, as part of my Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge (I can't get enough challenges at the moment. I have 2 others I've been thinking about too. I just have to calm down a bit I think!) and looking at the scraps from the tablecloth, after I'd cut out the pattern pieces, I thought they'd be perfect for little booties.

The Teeny-tiny goody-two-shoes pattern is the first project in the book, it uses hardly any fabric pieces, and I loved how the pattern pieces were folded away in the book, so no need for drafting or whatever. I tend to jump right in to pattern instructions, but I had to read over these steps (out loud!) to check I was doing everything right. I'm not used to modern day language! LOLZ! It was very colloquially written, which was sweet, but for the sewing part, I had to double check I was doing it right.

But they've come up really well, and will be perfect for a little girl who's about a month old perhaps? One of my Husbie's friend's new little baby. I'd totally make these again, because it probably took half an hour (maybe?), as I didn't check the clock, but it was great making something on the side. Sometimes vintage dress patterns are a bit annoying with the handstitching and the lining and whatever, so it's good to take a little break and actually finish something.

If you're a Melbs blogger or crafter, or a follower of the Frankie cult, you'd probably have seen Pip's blog, but I haven't really stopped by that often, but it's AMAZING and so resourceful with patterns and tutorials and tips! You should totes look! She also has another book! RHYMEZ!

Twinnies: Baby Blankets

Awww, my friends had TWINS! They are a little girl and a little boy, and I made up these two crochet blankets (I have been working on them for a while, mind you, so made them up means doing the final granny square edging) on the weekend for them:

The burgandy black one is mostly of vintage wool, from op shops, and the brighter coloured one is from store bought wool and I used a hookie 5 in size. I really like doing these blankets, you can watch the Grand Final, True Blood, Tina Fey movies and 30 Rock. You can start them in July and finish them in October, if you fancy. I've already started another one, that is made entirely of scrap wool and looks AMAZING already!

 Doggie Darling wishes they were for her, but they'll go in the post tomorrow (I had too much work on today to pop out to the Post Office. Oh the woes of working 9 to 5!) for the babies.

As we're getting settled at our house, I thought I'd show you some of our darling things! My Granny and my mum threw these cats into the bin, and I rescued them. Granny had them at her house for years, and I remember looking at them with distaste when I was little (I didn't like these cats or her Siamese real life ones). But I know they'd make great decorations, and Husbie loves cats! They were seriously in the roadside big wheelie bin as well, not just in the bin in the house. I truly was a dumpster diver that day!

From The Mailbag!

Wow, Saturday again. Our friends were up from Melbs so we all had a smashing Friday night in Surry Hills with foods and drinks and LOLs. Saturday for us is all about finishing projects. I've got some completely silly and random things to finish in the sewing room, that I'll show you some sneak peaks of soon... and Husbie will upstairs in the attic finishing off the painting.

I woke up this morning to an email from Wikio, about my 'ranking' and it made me laugh when I checked my so called 'ranking' in the blogs they collate and process (I have no idea what they do, apart from gather what people are talking about, so I suppose it's like trendings on twitter) I'm pleased to show you this funny ranking:

That's 141 in the World of Needlework Blogs, friends. LOLZ. I also rank in the 700s for Craft Blogs, and overall 24000, or something. But that Needlework Ranking has made my funny old day. I remember seeing some discussion on someone's blog recently about how you classify yourself as a blogger, like if you associate yourself as a fashion blogger, or a crafty blogger, or a vintage 50s pin up girl style blogger. I don't really think about where I sit in the online world that much, I know lots of you like reading my sewing posts the most, and that's the reason I started my blog. To document my evolving sewing adventures (and get better at it too!), but I love all things about life so will tend to talk about it as such. And as for fashion, I don't categorise my style into any genre! I love all styles and all genres, but know that skinny jeans aren't really suited to my calves, so know what works for me.

Also, I got a great email from my mum, who is caravanning around Australia at the moment with dad, with this picture:

With a little note from her, "Have I told you I LOVE this bag.. I think I have but had to remind you because each pack-up and un-pack there it is holding all my computer and camera paraphernalia and then it tucks away beside the bed - perfect!"

And that's my fave pink/red floral fabric again (from the cushion covers I posted the other day) that I use ever so sparingly! I made this bag from really thick linen material probably just as I started this blog, so didn't get around to blogging everything I made then. CUTE. I love that mum's getting heaps of use out of it, sometimes you don't know with presents!

Have a great Saturday darlings, talk soon.

Sending some gush to you!

Jeepers, it's hot AGAIN today lovies, so I'm in the bedroom with all the curtains drawn, a tired out and hot Doggie Darling beside me and we're not going anywhere!

I tried to sleep before, but it's too hot and the workmen behind us are too NOISY. Gah!

So time for some peaceful blog perusing and some GUSH in this crush post to Kristina Sostarko over here (who's JUST started blogging under her own name, and putting her own name on things, so well done! I am not so brave!), but I was in a shopping mood last week (for my sister in law to be's birthday) and spotted a sale for special blog peeps on Kristina's blog. How freaking gorgeous is this print!??

 

Image by Kristina Sostarkos - Here

I just had to make it big so you can go 'OOO'. It's her first lot of prints on 100% recycled post consumer paper ... and it may have been those words and those pictures that had me hovering the mouse over her esty shop link and then I saw the 'blog special sale' and I clicked for sure! I have NO idea how Kristina works, she's a mystery to me, but she's really got great colours and lines and things going on and I LIKE IT! She sometimes laughs off her sewing skills, but my aim is to make something so inspiring to her that she dusts of her sewing machine one day and gives it a go! Sewing's easy right gals... right? Right?!!! (Not at the moment in my sewing room, hence my hanging out here)

Admittedly, I don't spend much time shopping online, and I'm really bad for remembering people's birthdays, so I have one print of Kristina's now for my SIL and one saved up for another good friend. I have to STOCK up!

Also admittedlym\, I don't spend much time shopping at all, today I was trying to describe how expensive mens' sneakers are to a work colleague, and I realised I hadn't been into said store for perhaps 2 years. We're very thrifty round these parts of my world, and especially since we're working on 'The Bigger Picture' we're saving like crazy. At the moment 'The Bigger Picture' is not a baby (I think some of you were wondering) it's something else and isn't confirmed yet either, so can't report on anything yet. EEK it's annoying!

Anyways, it's still hot! Where's the freaking cool change loves?

The Bigger Picture

Here's my bits and pieces from this morning! I've lazed a bit on my holiday, but today realised there was stuff to do for The Bigger Picture. My Husbie and I have things on the go, for The Bigger Picture, and today it was bank stuff. Forms to sign, witnesses to call on, and now off to the post office (with some fun things too for friends!) and a play in the park with Doggie Darling.

You can totally tell what I'm making for my fairy godson right? It's so funny because I kinda thought these toys would be made all in one go, not stitched separately! Making things is always a surprise!

I also realised today, as I made a quickly Christmas Card for a friend, that I'm not really organised for Christmas. And perhaps I should make up some cards for people. Last year I made some really good ones, but not sure at all what to make this year. I pulled out our big stationary drawer and found all the old books that Doggie Darling chewed up when she was littler (she's a teenager now, just sleeps all the time) so it'd be good to use up some of those novels is a scrapbooky Christmasy kinda way.

I don't know! Better rush to the express post now!

Dress Two: Black Knit for My Bestie (AKA 100!)

Yay! 100 Outfits completed and blogged right here on Veronica Darling's Crafty Adventures! Yippee! I'm very proud and would like to thank Mr Veronica Darling (aka Husbie) for all his support over these past 18 months! He's a total dearheart, of course, and has often waited an extra hour or two to go out, whilst I was hemming or fixing or swearing, so that my outfit (or my friend's) looked just perfect.

Now for my 100th Outfit! It's a wool blend knit dress for my bestie who lives in London!


She's coming over for our summer, but I thought for her bday (and her son's first bday) I'd send a care package and this dress would suit the UK as it starts to get colder there.


I've pulled out all my stretch and knit materials, because I've got a few orders for this style from friends and thought I'd sew up all my knits so people could choose their faves. (If you've contacted me for a special frock in the past, I'm aiming to have it completed within Frocktober, so thank you for waiting for me to get my sewing shoes on again)

But... the best bit:


I sewed up one of my tags into my bestie's dress, it's the first tag I've used! What a way to celebrate 100 Outfits!

Giveaway skirt finds a home!

A few weeks back I had a giveaway (my first ever! Can't believe people applied for it!) and I drew Bethany's name from the hat, and doesn't she look AWESOME in the little checked skirt:



Even better, she sent me the photo and blogged it here! CUTE STUFF! You're a total darling Bethany! You look great and I want those boots! I had a great pair of doc marten steel caps when I was little, but I wore them every day for about 5 years and left them behind in England cause they were too heavy for my luggage. CRY! I think I'll have to get another pair now that I've seen you wear them!

Just as an aside, I did an online whip around for some cheap veggie meals to have over the next few days and came up with this list! (Sorry to blog my shopping list, but I wanna update my computer now with new firefox etc, so wanna save the pages!)


Vegetable Crumble

Chickpea Curry

Soba Noodles with Spicy Tofu Peanut Sauce

Delicious Vegetable Paella

Leek and Corn-Stuffed Peppers

Yum! Can't wait to eat them all up!

Husbie and I are cooking up something big for the future soon, so we're minding our pennies and saving up dosh! We're dreaming up traveling schemes and family schemes, so hopefully they'll all come together soon.

Happy Birthday to me!

My darling Husbie gave me such a beautiful and thoughtful present on my birthday (which was Monday 24th August - so you can write it delicately into your birthday book LOL).

There are 500 of them, and can be sewn on the back of the garment, or even halved and sewn on the side of a t shirt. He chose the font from my website!

I LOVE THEM AND I LOVE MY HUSBIE!

He also presented them to me in the gorgeous film canister (isn't it cute), as he works in the film industry, and tells me this is a 35 mm film canister to be exact. Spiffy and just gorgeous!

Thank you darling!

WWW - Watcha Wearing Wednesday #12

Hey there guys!!

Almost Giveaway Day! I'm drawing your prize on Thursday so fingers crossed it's you!

Today, being Wednesday is once again WWW - Watcha Wearing Wednesday, and quite simply it's a YAY DAY, because Franca over at Oranges And Apples sent me a darling little present! (Please don't laugh at my funny face, I'd only just woken up from my little nanna nap in the afternoon!)


The darling little brooch! She's also listed some on etsy I see too, which reminded me to favourite her store. Cuteness! If you haven't been to her blog before, Franca posts at least once a day, and her outfits and creations are so bright and colourful. So good for me to look at, during our winter, but would be perfect for springtime/summer!

We just got back from the Johnny Depp film, it was good and the fashions were ACE, so it's quite late for me.

I'm still on a little holiday from the sewing room, but promise, more things soon!

Friend day at the biggest shopping centre in the world*

Thank you for all your comments lovely peeps! I think I'll draw the winner out of a hat on Thursday, cause then it'll feel like the weekend when you win! Thursday feels like the weekend to me most weeks, so giving a garment away will also be fun!

I'm so gushed out because of the nice things you've said, and even if you don't leave comments, it's so nice of you to stop by and have a look. Yay!

Anyways, I'll leave the comments open til Thursday, so if you wanna leave your fave garment in a note to me, you'll still be in the running. And if you're stuck with what Number each garment is, the garments listed in the mosaic are all from July, so here are the Outfits all listed here, but don't worry I'll try and work out which garment is your fave. Plus remember that if you like a garment that's not readily available (ie starred in yellow), I'll happily make you your fave! It might just be a different size or colour or whatever, but still unique!

So today was a big day at work, I lost something, then found it, and then escorted my friend to a very big shop that EVERYone knows around the world, but especially Australians right!? IKEA! I haven't been for ages, but I also didn't need anything, but my darling friend needed some lovely things for her newly moved into art deco apartment. And we found HEAPS of great stuff for her, plus $80 of stuff for me! I got 2 bits of fabric, gonna try it out, it was a cheap one and then a pricey one. And some glasses and a small saucepan for making custard. Yep, that's what IKEA is all about, it makes you think your old op shop glasses don't hold enough water, and makes you think you can make custard. Or want to make custard. Hee Hee!

And as for you curious-o's, I've still got THREE Outfits to make to finish off my (to quote Annie Hall) lar-dee-dar 100 Outfit Challenge, so I'll be posting asap (once I work out what to make, I guess they should be significant in some way? They'll probably be stash busters again), so I'll still be around. I'm addicted to blogging now, right? And I think I've found my voice finally! (Those who know me best, are mightily aware of how self conscious I am in blogland usually, as I studied author/reader voice in several uni classes back in the day)

Yippee.





* Not accurate, but feels like it!

First Ever Giveaway! (And look at my mosaic of garments!)

*** Please note that this giveaway has happened already, thanks for your lovely comments! - Veronica Darling 13/08/09***

Yay!

If you've only just joined me here on my crafty adventures blog, you are finding me at the end of a month long sew-a-long, where I made an Outfit a Day for the month of July! I rather roughly called it the "Ultimate Outfit Send Off, 24/7 July Challenge with Veronica Darling" or something along those lines, because you see I'm aiming for 100 Outfits all up, and needed a bit of a kick because I'm so close to 100!

Well here are all the Outfits from July! (In no particular order!) You can click on the image if you wanna see it larger though!


Yay again!

So for my first ever giveaway, I thought why don't you leave a comment with your fave Outfit, and I'll pick you out of a hat to be the winner of that Outfit! Sound easy enough? The only catch is that some outfits (pictured above) have been given away (baby presents!) or sold or worn by grubby old me. So if you fancy a garment that's been either of these things, perhaps list why you liked that garment and I shall make you a new one.

OR browse by what's available, by looking at the YELLOW stars (click for the larger image) below:



Remember too, I'm more than happy to take commissions, but I'm really not a professional sewer (getting faster!) and whilst your garment will be totally one of a kind, it's made with slow & particular care & adoration for the craft. Hee hee!

You can contact me at veronicadarling AT gmail DOT com any time lovely peeps!

So I'm just about on 100, perhaps after my little weekend break from sewing (I've been cooking and clearing up my sewing room) I'll reach 100 this next coming week?

24/7 - Day Twenty Six - AKA Outfit #92

Oh, before I duck out, here's my little baby tshirt! Yay!

As I've been using those Built By Wendy Stretch patterns, I'm starting to get a feel of how tshirts go, and thought (now that I have a new 2 day old baby friend in Melbourne) I'd make her a tshirt for Outfit #92 of this fun time (but busy) challenge. I used the same material as this dress, cause of the softness and it's so light as well. Perfect for baby.


Perhaps I need to fix that hem up a little... but otherwise it's perfect, and it was MUCH easier to sew that I thought! I took the measurements from a vintage baby jumpsuit pattern I had (google was no help), so I'm not sure how it'll fit, but I did manage the scoop neckline ok, so hopefully it'll fit over her darling head.

But the best bit? My gathered sleeves, they are particularly girly, and so cute!


Ok, ducking off to op shop now! I did a LOT of work early today, and will spend a large chunk of my day tomorrow at work, so I got home at 10.30am, and have been pretending that I 'work from home' like a few of you lovely readers... And it's GREAT!

xoxo

Back to Crafty Adventures with my 200th Post

Well, it was a busy time, but I got through it *just* and now have a day off today. Yay! I don't tend to harp on about my day job, but let's just say it was extremely busy but altogether a great time (now that it's over!), so hence my EXTREME lack of blogging and crafting here.

KNITTING UPDATE: When I was in Melbs I went to Borders in the citz and bought "The Knitted Odd-bod Bunch: 35 Unique and Quirky Knitted Creatures":


As I was thinking of learning crocheting, to make little toys for little friends, but discovered I can knit little toys instead! Much easier for me, and whilst I know my knit and purl stitches, I don't know a lot of the terms, (skbo or kbtl - I'm making them up now, I have a puppy on my lap and can't run over to pick up the book) BUT the knitting lingo is explained in the back of the book. The photos are gorgeous, and I'm making a shorter tummied daschund, for my little fairygodson in the UK. I'm making her up in black wool, like my little Doggie Darling! Counting the stitches is the worst part, but you can see the shape straight away and I've finished the body of the toy and up to her little ears (hope to finish tonight during telly time).

WARDROBE REFASHION PLEDGE UPDATE: Whilst on my working trip I also raided a few country op shops for wool, fabrics and patterns. Oh! I just remembered a really cool burgundy disco dress I got too, better stick that in the wash today too! So for my wardrobe refashion pledge, it's still intact, although I bought tonnes of tights and stockings and socks from Melbs. I'm also going to buy a pair of shoes:


But it's my reward for getting my last year's tax return in in time to get stimulated by K Rudd! Shoe Reward! So shoes and tights I can't make just yet, so fine for the WRP (no new clothes, just what you can make etc).

BOOKY NEWS: I finished "Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog" by Paul Robert Smith (Hee hee, Robert Smith) and it was pretty good. I read it only because my all time fave author Douglas Coupland had a quote on the front, so it wasn't brilliant but a fun look at relationships.


GARDEN NEWS: My banana tree is now taller than me, my coriander seeds sprouted with great success as did the snow peas. I have absolutely no idea how to grow snow peas, so have left up the tomato stakes with twine between them, so we'll see.

AND LASTLY A LIST OF WHERE I'M AT WITH SEWING STUFF:

- Art smock dress x2 (at least)
- Trousers for Men x2
- Wiggle Dress x3
- Baby bigs x 1 million (however many I can sew actually, as babes continue to be born)
- Vest for a Man x2
- Skirts for skinny hot friends
- Winter Dresses for me
- Baby jumpsuit for Baby Friend

Phew! Also, I'll promise more blogging! I miss it! I look forward to reading your blogs, I'm off to check you out now and see what's been going on!