Coming in 3's

Some would say everything happens in 3's. And today I would of too.

I spent my day baking and icing for a few special friends of ours.

Happy Birthday Ashley, Sienna and Braiden!!!

Celerbrating 79

Make a wish...

A pets a pet, right?

So don't let this kid catch you stomping on a Cockroach, or squishing out an Ant! Unless you want him to cry you a river that is...

Psst... this is not really a pet, just so you know. After a quick how-do-you-do we usher our new little friends outside to find their Mama. Sorry Granny and Grandma, I know you are both gonna get the bumps now. 

And so it began

You might remember back earlier in the year when I sewed this BOM or this one...

Well I have started another. These are just so addictive especially when you see the Oh-so-cute fabric packs that CQS have to go with the patterns!

As I was returning the Ally Gator block to the CQS, I had Little Bro with me who cried and cried because he wanted to keep his 'RILEY'. The picture below is the actual fabrics that you get in your kit from CQS.

Riley was a crocodile from the Animal Sanctuary in Townsville a year or so ago and oh boy did he want to keep this block. But that's OK coz Mama is LOVING these blocks!

So we set about picking a new set of fabrics (these are not the ones that you get in the kit) but something with a little RED. This is what we both picked.

So I cut and vlisofixed and got this far that afternoon while he slept.

Now he was happy, it kinda got left here and nothig much came of it, until one bright and early morning that just seemed perfect for a Little Bro project.

I was going to make a pillow case but decided that there were enought floating throughout my linen space.

I ripped one of the seams open and top-stitched the panel onto it. And Ta-da. In no more than an hour I had appliqued (by machine of course), attached RILEY to his new home and restitched the pillow seam.

Now if only I could get a nice smile from him and not this over-the-top cheese face!

A perfect fit

Do you remember my first attempt at the Tappan Zee pattern?

It came out really big and saggy. That'll teach me for not swatching!

Then I started on my second attempt. No, I didn't swatch this one either, but I should have since I was changing yarn and sizes but luckily it came out great! My pics don't really show it but the colour of the yarn is actually COKE BOTTLE RED!

I love teaming it with a deep purple top or a nicy navy dress. And boy do I love this pattern, I will definetly be doing this one again.

I have cast on a beautiful purple shawl a few weeks ago that I am slowly nutting away at. It's 2 ply! Scary and probably going to take me until NEXT winter to finish but it's gonna be so pretty, I can't wait! but will have to. *sigh*

What are you knitting at the minute?

So much mess

Even well into his 3rd year he still hasn't figured out that the more that is EVERYWHERE, the less that actually goes in your mouth...

It's a SUPER kind of day

Well we are having a SUPER day!

Have I ever mentioned that my kids just LOVE dressing up?

Today's tip: Feeling a little down? try wearing your undies on the outside, it'll make you SUPER too!

A game for the adventurous

Geocahing!

No matter where you live, they are all over the world.

It's kind of like a game of hide and seek, using GPS co-ordinates. Sometimes there are little things you can swap and sometimes just a log book. There are cute little buttons that you can collect called Pathtags and also things like Geo-Coins which you can take and hide in another cache.

I have downloaded the C.geo application for my android, which downloads from the geocaching.com website and we have been finding heaps.Grab a friend or two and let the little kids hunt alongside the big kids (Ha, otherwise known as Mum and Dad). The program has a compass that will point the kids in the direction they need to go and then counts down until you are there.

They boys have soooo much fun looking through the little swap boxes for things to swap out, there are alot of 'bush' hides out here which are good for the kids because their hiding spots are generally pretty easy to find and most of them are swaps.

But sometimes, and generally in town/busy areas it's just a log and more for the Grown-ups. Check this one out...

Cleverly hidden by a friend of ours it is so so tiny that if you didn't know what you were looking for it would appear to be a bolt perhaps. Can you beleive that INSIDE this tiny little thing is a log that you can sign?

So we have just 4 geo-caches left in Cobar to find, we have completed Nyngan and now we are going to take a day trip or two and head out further just for the thrill of the find. Thank goodness those friends of ours are hiding more...

A gift from Granny

On a recent trip to Sydney for 'work', if you could call spending all day wandering around looking at Quilts WORK(!), Granny returned with a gift for the boys and for the Mama as well.

Sock Monkey Kits

Now I had never made these before but think that I managed to turn a pair of socks and a bag of stuffing into something quite extraordinary. The boys helped to stuff their monkeys and Big Bro took his to school for their TOYS module.

The first one took me about 4 hours to make (with Big Bro's assistance), and I was seriously thinking of giving the second one back to Granny to do but got stuck into it anyways and it took less than 2. I guess when you know what you're doing it gets easier.

I love how they both are different and each has it's own personality. So far Little Bro named his MONKEY and Big Bro has names his GEORGE-SOCK MONKEY- LUKE SKYWALKER. Now that's not 4 names that are interchanged. That is his full, must be used in length every time, name.

Have you made any toys before?

One hat made by me - Priceless

I sat down and over the course of 2-3 days alowly worked away on a new hat for ME! I am so happy with how it turned out. I got the pattern from here and the yarn from here. I had never used this cast on method before but just followed the pattern and trusted that my ribbing wouldn't unravel when it came time to remove the 'waste yarn'. *Gulp*

I find it really satisfying to be able to make something myself. Although sometimes it takes me hours and hours to make something I could have brought with less than what it cost me in yarn, it comes with a certain feeling that definetly can't be brought!

I'm back!

I finished a project or two that I have been working on for quite a while today and got them in the mail and all. They are being shipped off to a good friend and I hope they arrive before her new bubba.

I had decided that my blog, or reading all the other blogs on my reading list, were becoming all too distracting and that I REALLY needed to finished off a wedding quilt from almost, not quite, 12 months ago!

I grabbed a favourite, funky layer cake and just started cutting it! I'm kinda brave (sometimes silly) like that. Most times it works out for me and the very rare occasion it doesn't... well lets just not talk about that. It is a little crumpled looking because it has been folded up for a while waiting on the binding to be hand stitched. But I am happy with the end project and wanted to keep it for myself, so I am hoping that means they will love it too!

This one is for her new little Man who is due on the 31st, and today I posted them off. I had started this one a while ago and spent 2 hours echo quilting around the middle block images but decided that I didn't like it, so that meant I had to unpick it. This resulted in the project sitting on my table for a month or two waiting to be unpicked before I could get back to quilting it. I hate unpicking but am a believer that if you are unhappy with the way a project is going you should stop now because it is easier to fix now and be happy with the project, rather than finish it off and never use/look at it again. I do hope that this little quilt will make it up there before the new Little Man arrives. Although I'm pretty sure that she is happy to waiver the remaining 23 days or so.

So now that I am finished these projects I can finally look back into my sewing room and finish off some more projects.