tiny happy

little scarves

I found some soft grey wool flannel in town the other day, so I made it into two little winter scarves. Warm and soft on one side, smooth on the neck-side. I don't think there could be an easier project, really. I think adult versions of these would make good Christmas presents for my friends living in the UK right now.

I had a notice up in my etsy shop for a while saying that I'd be updating it with some new bags tomorrow morning. But I forgot that I was on 'Parent Help' at A's kindergarten. So, Monday morning it will be. (Can I tell you a secret? Sometimes I feel like the worst 'kindy mum' ever! I'm always forgetting about parent help, or forms that have to be filled in, and lately, A's sunhat. I will try and do a good job tomorrow morning.)

As well as working on some orders this week, I've been busy having a clean-out of my sewing room. Which sort of spills over into the rest of the house, really. I have contained a lot of the chaos- packed yarn into suitcases, given away piles of fabric, and put books into storage. The newly-organised room is making me feel a lot happier about Things.

I'm going to try to keep it this way for a little while longer.

 

pack holidays n.z.

Found today in the op-shop: Jessie Lee's drawstring Brownie Bag. With two Pack Holidays N.Z badges sewn on neatly.

first journals

We've been looking at lots of these sorts of books with the children lately, in preparation for going away. And so lots of their artwork has been featuring 'maps', boats and planes and, in Keira's case, lots of fish. (They seem to pop up in many of her stories and drawings, and she knows that fish feature largely in the diet of Norwegians.) At the same time, I've been trying to remember to record in a book all of the things that need to be done- cleaning and packing jobs, Christmas preparations and gift-buying, orders and mail to send, friends and family to visit. I thought that K and A might like their own notebook to record their drawings in over this time- so today I found some blank books in town and let them design their own covers on brown paper.

Then they helped to measure and cut the paper to the right size, and hold the pages while I covered the books using glue and tape.

Next, I'd like to try making our own simple books by stitching some blank pages together, inspired recently by this Soulemama post, and, while we pack up our house, gather all of the children's artwork together and make it into an album for safekeeping.

They've been very pleased with their first journals so far, and were engrossed in drawing in them for quite a while this morning. So much so, I didn't even mind them sitting in a pile of my fabric stash while they did so.

weekend notes

{admiring the poppies}

{doing an etsy shop update}

{finding some lovely old fabric}

{building a house outside to read books in}

Happy weekend to you...

log cabinish

I made two log-cabin cushions this week, because I thought they would make nice Christmas presents for A and K to take away with us at the end of the year- something especially made for each of them to put on their new Norwegian beds. It was first time trying out the log cabin method (or any patchwork technique, come to think of it), so that's why the title of this post is 'log cabinish' - I took a lot of liberty with these, as you can probably tell.The placing of the blocks, and thinking about colour and balance was a lot harder than I expected. Hopefully, with a bit of practice, I'll get the hang of it one day.

As a guide, I used this excellent tutorial by Dacia Ray which was very helpful. (She called her tutorial 'log cabin-ish' which I found encouraging.)

It was also a good way to use up some favourite smaller pieces of fabric. This is Arlo's one, and I used some leftovers from some of the clothes I've made him, and some Japanese prints too. I ended up using an old woollen blanket as batting when I was quilting these. I didn't have quite enough quilt batting, and I wanted to finish them right then and there, as usual. But I was quite pleased with how well that worked. I used an envelope-style opening on the back, for easy washing.

And this is Keira's one- using up some more of that lovely brown sparrow fabric from Amisha, and a few other orangey fabrics I could find.

To see the most amazing log cabin pillows, you can view Lisa Congdon's flickr set here. Seeing those makes me want to keep practicing!

nylon flowers

I bought a set of collaged cards from Anemone's Kimberlee and they arrived today. I love them. Each one has a great old-fashioned bird set against a backdrop of some amazing flowers made from nylon. I'm thinking, these must have been made from old stockings? Now that's an unexplored craft. How awesome.

These little ones are cardinals, which really helped sell the set of cards to me. (I happen to quite like them.) Thank you, K, I will treasure these! I think they'll be destined for frames.

Thinking about collage, and how inspiring Kimberlee's artworks are to me, I've been collecting old papers and such in the hopes of making my own collages. So far it hasn't happened though, and I don't think I am going to get a chance to do it before we go away. I have an A4 envelope full of paper scraps (mostly pages from old books and similar bits and pieces) that I thought someone might like. If you'd like them, let me know in the comments. I'll send it to the first person (anywhere in the world) who does.

   

rustic bear

Here's a little teddy I made over the weekend for a friend's baby daughter. He's made from natural linen, and green vintage wool viyella. Soft toy-making is not my strength, I'll admit that. Somehow the ideas I have for toys never quite turn out as they should, but I do enjoy making these little bears, and don't mind that they have a very 'rustic' look to them. I just tell myself it encourages more creativity and imagination in the child who plays with them. Yeeees, that's what it does.

My favourite soft-toy makers can all be found online. I really admire the work of soto softies, Kate at two little banshees, plush-a-holic, and while she naps (especially her birds!) If you need some inspiration for creature-making and/or buying, they're a great place to start.

I found a wonderful gift guide at beautiful blog the glass doorknob yesterday. Shari has interviewed some crafters, writers and artists and included links to their blogs and shops, so there is a lot of inspiration for gift-giving there. And for your own creativity in general- it's a really lovely series.

 

a woodland dancer

I made this little foresty set for my niece P for Christmas. She has a very sweet and mischievious spirit, adores nothing more than playing in the big garden that is part of my sister's rural property, and is not unlike a small pixie to look at. So, a forest dancing outfit it was.

The skirt is just a basic one from light brown cotton, with the last of that tree-print linen around the hem. And the hat is the fabulous 'woodland elf hat' from Amy Karol's Bend The Rules. I used a green felted wool sweater, and some wool felt and a button for the applique.

It's such a great pattern. K thinks so too- and don't worry, I have lots more felted wool to use.

Hope you have a great weekend.

in the garden today

it's raining.

but the poppies are still coming out.

homemade

I've been thinking about making my own muesli bars for months, and finally did it yesterday. I adapted a recipe from an old Alison Holst 'kitchen diary' from the 80s. Arlo takes a packed lunch with him to kindergarten two days a week, and along with his sandwiches, pieces of fruit and raw veges, I was including a muesli bar- which was his 'treat'. Even though i was trying to buy the most healthy ones I could find, I noticed there was still a decent amount of sugar, salt, preservatives, etc. in them. And they were individually wrapped- which bothered me more actually- excessive packaging makes me crazy.

Anyway, these were really easy to make (A enjoyed helping too) and would be simple to customise according to different children or the contents of your cupboards. I'm planning on wrapping them in small pieces of lunch paper, or plonking them straight into the lunchbox unwrapped. Here's the recipe in case you want to try it:

Homemade muesli bars

1 cup coconut, 2 cups rolled oats

Toast these lightly on a flat tray in the oven. Transfer to a large mixing bowl, then add:

1 cup cornflakes, 1 1/2 cups crushed weetbix (or similar cereal), 1/2 cup wheatgerm, 1/2 cup sultanas

Boil together in a saucepan:

100g butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup peanut butter

for about 8-10 mins, until the mixture forms a soft ball in cold water (such as when making fudge/toffee).

Tip the boiled honey mixture into the bowl of cereals, and mix together well. Press into a lightly-greased tin and leave to set, but cut into bars before it is completely cold.

Unrelated to muesli bars, I finished a new set of tote bags yesterday, which I listed in my etsy shop just now. I was thinking this might be my last batch (of bags- some shoes will be in there next week though) because there are many orders, gifts and other things I need to finish up this month. Have you been checking out the sew mama sew list of handmade present ideas so far this month? I loved the look of these bird ornaments last week, and now have to decide if i have time to embroider Christmas ornaments instead of packing and organising our house. I know which I'd rather do.