inside, outside

 : : inside

A spot cleared for my craft bits and pieces in the play room. Formerly it had become a spot for everything that didn't have a place (ie a big mess) now it is a breath of fresh air

buntinting I made last week from some peter rabbit fabric scraps, flowers brought in. The tiny posie off daffodills has filled the room with its sweet scent

some of my home spun wool being knitted into a little something. I love the feel of the lanolin

: : outside

our peas got damaged by fierce weather yesterday, they were reaching to the very top of the poles and now they are all blown down(you can see the poles are wonky too!). A bit sad but their still healthy and full of peas so thats what matters the most of course

 bennys parents dropped off about 10 bales (!!!) of pea straw as they were sick of bits blowwing into their pool. The garden and apple blossom kids are appreciative!

 my very favourite place to sit (my $2 garage sale chair)

A dinner I looked forward to all day, leftover babi kecap my by my Opa, the best cook ever (my slightly biased opinion of course)

making and planning

 Last night I was listening to an audio book and cleaning my glass doors that are in the playroom. The old window stars were looking a bit sad and well loved so I made this picture by tearing kite paper (idea from pintrest, my new favorite site)
I also made some soap but its still too soft to take out of the silicone molds. I tried removing one and it broke. Any one know if it will dry out yet or if it hasn't yet would it be no good?

edited to add**

all good, I left them a few extra days and they turned out fine, phew!

 The one at the back is the first one I removed, can you tell why I was worried?:)

They are chamomile calendular, colored naturally with carrot juice. They don't look very bright so i'm not sure I added enough carrot juice. Might add the pulp too next time as I've seen others do. To think I was worried about them coming out bright orange!

 I've been drawing up plans for the soon to be play kitchen in my art journal. Not that I needed to as the alterations will be so simple and straight forward, but mostly just for fun. I found these paints that Mum gave back to me recently and had fun making the plans extra pretty

 I'm still deciding what design to cut into the door, what do you think? Which one is your favorite?

 I made some little oven mitts and plan on making some aprons too

Today I found some things for it at a local second hand shop and got wooden knobs for the taps and stove. I also gathered together some things I've slowly collected for our 'one day wooden play kitchen' at opp shops. These are my favorite pieces so far. The lidded pot this morning was my most exciting play kitchen find yet I think. You know, aside from the actual kitchen the other day. I'm feeling pretty lucky at the moment

'Crafting On'

 The past few days Ive been getting back to working on my hand stitched quilt. I'm just about half way finished the quilt top!

On Saturday night we had a barbecue out the back and I stitched as we waited for it to cook. All day we had been looking forward to having an outdoor fire but instead we got lots of rain which was nice too.

I love the mess of colour that is my embroidery cotton

I had such a nice Monday yesterday. I went to Kadina and was able to get lots of bits and pieces done. I finally took my engagement ring in to the jeweler to get re-sized so that I can wear it on the right finger after wearing it on my middle finger two months.
I also visited with a good friend who id not caught up with propperly in a few years. I spent time with my friend Kylie and my little god son Jayden. I started working full time just before he was born and one of the big down sides was that I had been looking forward to being able to spend lots of time with them and help her with him so we are deffinately both very pleased that I will be able to pop in many Mondays now. I had yummy soup for tea at Mum and Dads and then came home with enough time to do a little knitting and stitching before bed.

 More and more bulbs are coming up around our garden. The day care boys love the green spikes. We also have seeds coming up. The most exciting for us all are the peas, a definite winter favourite here. I only planted a few to see if the weather had cooled enough for them to survive. So far so good! Ill be spending ANZAC day tomorrow putting up poles for lots more peas to grow up.

 Hello calendulars!

For more crafting on visit Frontier Dreams

Our new friend "Bunny"

 I finished off our rabbit and we love him!
I'm not sure if I'm quite happy with his face but ill see if it will grow on me, if not try again.

 Hes been named "Bunny" and has had many adventures already. Last night Josh put himself to bed early like he sometimes does. I went in and he had fallen asleep on top of his quilt cuddled up with Bunny reading a story, with shoes still on no less:) I didn't even think to take a picture but it was so cute

 It didn't take the day care children long to discover what hadn't occurred to me- that he happens to fit the clothes I've made for our Waldorf dolls. So now he has a little blue coat (which I knitted a while ago but don't think I blogged) almost just like I was intending to make him!
 I would still really like to make him a light blue one with brass buttons though. And maybe some grandpa slippers (like peter rabbit)

 I finished the daisies and lavender socks and tonight is even cool enough to wear them (with a summer nightie but anyhow... :) The rabbit likes wearing woolly knitted socks too

yep, hes ready for Christmas

wood and wool (two of my favourite things)

 On Saturday the weather was so nice that Benny and I spent almost the whole day outside working on various crafts and projects and relaxing on the daybed. One of the things I did was add windows to the old doll house . I got to use my favourite tool the trimmer again to round the edges so I was happy:)

 With these warm days wool jumpers (sweaters) at the opp shops are in abundance. Ive been collecting them to eventually make a felted patchwork blanket but this lambswool/angora one really wanted to become a rabbit. After beginning this dear little bunny I realised that I was nearly out of wool for stuffing so he has a nice big bag of rice in his belly which turned out great and means that he can sit on his own. Now I've just got to stitch him together, add a face and maybe a peter rabbit coat

I got the idea for him from a post and a tutorial on Our Ash Grove

Yarn along

 Seems ive been spending my spare moments knitting and reading im joining Ginny and many others for her yarn along!
Im working on some evenstar fingerless gloves , the same as I made for mum last year. She will be thankful that I will stop borrowing hers every time I visit! Im enjoying knitting these this second time round as its easier yet still challenging enough to keep me thinking, although it would have been a bit more exciting to do this second pair if 'id chosen a different colour for myself . I quite enjoy doing the cable pattern as its so much easier to go back on mistakes then lace.
The book im reading, knit one kill two is a knitting murder mystery. Benny thinks its hillarious that knitting murder mysteries exist, he talks about fearing old ladies that might stab him with their knitting needles:) I love this series of books, this is my second time reading them. The charachters in the book are so into knitting and talking about different yarns that its contagious and inspires me to knit. very handy, I needed some knitting motivation

 Ive also been making another pair of slippers, these ones from a felted jumper.

 The soules are different colour at the moment as I made the first one with the intention to leave the seams on the outside but then decided to turn the seams to inside (meaning the black outer soul is on the inside) One day soon I will fix it but for now their so cozy and warm I dont want to take them off

My favourite part was adding these wooden tree buttons that id been saving for the right project. Love them:)

recycled wool socks

Lately as the weathers been getting colder I've been busy re-purposing  wool jumpers (sweaters) that I collected over summer. I got lots from the $1 rack at my favourite opp shop because of course I was the only one wanting wool jumpers in the middle of summer!
Most of them I just altered to fit me better by taking in the sleeves and width if they were too big etc but for a few that just weren't going to work Ive felted them and turned them into other things. Ive made fingerless gloves, the cowl I was wearing last post and here are some pictures of some socks I made tonight.

 I started with this piece which used to be a heavily felted jumper before I used the arms and top for other projects.

I then marked around my foot and then the length I wanted them making sure that the jumpers ribbing would be at the top of the sock. One side was on the fold so that my socks would have less seams

 I cut the fabric allowing plenty of room around my marked line. I then sewed on the line and tried them on. It fitted perfectly but if it was too small I would have had room to un-pick and make it a little bigger

 Once I knew that id got the fit right I trimmed the excess fabric to about 1/4 inch and turned them inside out

 Felty warm socks, as easy as that!

 I also made these silky soft cashmere socks out of the same cardigan as my cowl and arm warmers. Oh and a double layered cozy beanie.Yep I got good value out of that miss fitting cardie!

my first market

 Today was my first market stall. I was nervous and so worn out from a busy week that I considered cancelling but I'm glad I went, it was lots of fun!

Here's my stall. I was supposed to bring a table cloth but I don't own a single one let alone one big enough for a trestle table! so I used a quilt I made a while ago instead. On my stall I had lots of things from my shop, all the things I posted about the other day plus some wheat and lavender bags, lavender draw sachets and little bits and pieces

Both my parents were able to come and help me which was great and my friend Sarah is keen to help me next time so it will be lots of fun too:)

  although I had wanted to be outside in their beautiful garden I enjoyed being inside, especially when I went out part way through and realised how windy it was!

 I was pleasantly surprised at how much of a friendly little community the stall holders are, they made us feel so welcome and were so enthusiastic about all my hand mades which was a much needed confidence booster. Caterina, the lady that runs the markets even swapped a wool felt crown for my stall fee which was great (i love swaps, it almost feels like getting things for free and theres something special about free stuff:) and she ordered a second one for her grandson too.

 she gave me the idea to light some of my candles and lent me this pretty candle holder. The lit candles made my stall look so cute

the rest of the quilts...

 Here are some of the vintage sewing machines that were displayed at the quilting show. They also had cute old pattern books and some other vintage sewing accessories

 This woodland themed quilt was one of my favourites

 Mum loved the fairy quilts

 All the ladies running the display were dressed in their old style Cornish outfits, some had adorable bonnets but I didn't get any photos of them. Look how tiny this lady's hand stitched hexagons are! She must have the patience of a saint

 I love this quilt too!

This is another one that featured beautiful stitcheries

 Afterward we caught up Benny and Dad (who had understandably ditched us to browse the nearby fishing supplies shop;) We had a drink at our favourite Moonta cafe 'Henry on George' (meaning on George street)

This is what our drink and cake looked like, yum:)