The Elephants Go Marching

While I seem to have a lot more crafting time lately, my blogging time has just dwindled. Little man has been sick on and off (more on than off) since winter started, and currently he has some kind of tired all the time bug, which means I have a lot more free time, even if I do spend that time worried that he is not eating or drinking enough and is it possible to sleep too much. Also, winter means a lot more time snuggled up on the couch under a blanket, so there has been more time for crochet and finishing projects that require hand sewing.

The elephant project started about a month ago, right before my sewing machine died, so I never got a chance to finish them. Well I still haven’t finished them all, but I am getting there with only three out of twelve left to sew. These are the ones I have finished recently….

Meet Dot, she is a little baby elephant rattle, she has a bell inside that jingles when shaken and crinkly cellophane inside her legs.

This is Elsie, she is MINE. I love this retro print fabric, even though others think it is hideous. She will be the guardian of my craft room (when I finally get a craft room).

This is Annabelle, apparently she is from Antarctica. She is made from a soft corduroy, so nice and cuddly.

And these two don’t have names yet.

I have also had a few trials at making other animals/creatures, but I don’t like them as much as the elephants. In case it’s not completely obvious, that’s a taggie hedgehog and a (very skinny) Scotty dog.

And a bunch of fish, which are almost complete, but some still need to have eyes sewn on or holes sewn up. I haven’t got rods yet, at the moment little princess is using a rather dangerous, pointy ended, too long, make-do fishing rod to play with them.

Don’t ask me what I am going to do with all these softies, I haven’t got a clue, I just like making them. Maybe they will go in my Felt store one day, if I ever get around to setting that up. Or they will just stay in the cupboard until I need a gift for a baby/child.

Linking to Anything Related @ All Thingz Related and Craftastic Monday @ Sew Can Do (see buttons on sidebar).

My Precious…..

This is my precious (ignore the mess around her, in my excitement I didn’t really bother to tidy up, I just pushed everything aside to clear a space).

Isn’t she beautiful. She has been living on my dining table since coming home with me on Wednesday. She has helped me make a few things so far.

Like this dress for the little princess, which is still in need of some embellishment, so we are going button shopping this afternoon (yippy yay button shopping!!!).

  And this little taggie blankie for little man (munch, drool, suck, he seems to enjoy it).

It also made a balloon ball, but I couldn’t take a photo because it was made by request at 11pm last night and taken to work first thing this morning. I will be required to make more of these in the near future. Many more. (they are pretty cool though).

I have cut out a whole lot of softies ready to be sewed (?? sewn ??), when I get a few moments of peace and quiet from my two sick children. And fish for three fishing sets, or maybe just one fishing set with lots of fish…..we will see.

Who knew sewing could be joyful (or maybe that's an exaggeration, maybe “less stressful” is a better description). I’m excited about all the possibilities now that I have a decent sewing machine.

By the way, in case you care, I just want to put it out there that this machine did not come from Spotlight, as it was supposed to. It had been almost three weeks, I had heard nothing about my online order, I emailed to enquire, still heard nothing, then hubby saw this great special in the Noel Leeming catalogue, I could get the same machine, plus a bonus label maker, for less than the one I had ordered through spotlight, and I could get it immediately! So I picked it up on Wednesday, sent spotlight an email to cancel my order and what do you know, later that day I get an email from spotlight to say they had allocated my order to the hamilton store and someone would be in contact with me soon. Well of course the next day someone rang to say they were ready to ship my order, and I said too late, and they didn’t seem to care so my opinion of spotlight has lessened considerably and I now understand why people refuse to shop there. I’m just putting it out there, so you know, for future reference.

Busy as a bee with birthdays

It’s been a WHOLE WEEK since I posted anything on my blog. Every morning I start the day with a plan, what I want to create, what I want to blog about, what I need to do around the house, and anything else that needs to be done. Unfortunately the needs must come before the wants, and there really hasn’t been enough time for the wants lately.

Last weekend the presents were a big hit, with the children and adults (I’m pretty sure the adults spent more time “fishing” than the kids).

Tomorrow my little princess turns THREE! The panic begins because 3 whole years have gone by already since I was just a regular twenty-something girl with no plans to ever have a family. I only have TWO MORE YEARS until my little girl goes to school. That means I have to learn to drive and get my licence within 2 years. Cringe.

So these last few weeks have been all about birthday preparations, and I am so happy that we are nearing the end, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. No more pink cake, discussions on three year old tea party etiquette or hunts across town for tea pots.

Having a little princess who goes to daycare means I am obligated to make 2 cakes (one for daycare, one for home). That could even be extended to 3 cakes, but she will not be having cake at home tomorrow night, because it really can’t be good for kids to eat that much birthday cake in one week, right?? So we created, by request, a pink heart orange cake for daycare (it’s pink on the outside and orange on the inside, with chocolate chips added in just for fun).

I almost like this one better than the one we are having for her party on Saturday, but this took a bit more time and effort, and at this stage I am all about taking the easy option.

So when the little miss wakes up in the morning, this is what she will find.

We wrapped her presents with fabric, because I have LOADS of it, and it is reusable, so it won’t make a heap of rubbish to get rid of. Looks pretty cute too, I think.

Even though I’ve been a busy birthday bee, I have had some time for thrifting and crafting, I just haven’t had time to write about it, so I’ll have to do some catch up after the PARTY!! Still no sewing machine (damn spotlight, why bother having online shopping, it would have been quicker for me to walk there and get it myself, all the way to ROTORUA!!) but when it arrives I will be ready. I am so happy I finally learnt to crochet, it is great to sit in front of the TV occasionally and crochet, so I don’t feel like I’m wasting my time doing nothing because I am still creating.

If you want to do something fun, you should join in on The Envelope Project, I have, and I’m super excited to see what everyone sends in.

Crafty Goodness

I am so proud of myself this week, because I finally crocheted something! I found the greatest instructions here for learning how to crochet a granny square, so yesterday I sat down and watched these videos over and over again until I figured it out, and now I think I can almost do it without the instructions in front of me (almost). The hardest thing I find is keeping track of where I’m up to, with distractions all around constantly, but I think as I get better at it I will be able to see where I’m up to. These are my two itty bitty practice granny squares:

Now that I know I am capable of crocheting (because I really was starting to lose hope), I think I will try a different granny square tutorial that I found here. I would LOVE to be able to make a whole granny square blanket for my little man. When (or if) he gets his own room, the colours scheme is going to be blue and brown, so I want to make a blanket for his bed in those colours, similar to this, but imagine the stripes as rows of granny squares:

Last week I made a couple of things to give to a little miss 3 next weekend for her birthday.

But then I felt like she needed something else, so I spent a few days throwing ideas at hubby, who is her teacher at daycare so knows her a lot better than I do. Well, I went through LOTS of ideas, before I came across one he liked. I had seen this tutorial a while back and thought one day I might make that for my kids, so it was added to my mental to-do list. I altered it a bit, switching things around so the magnets are inside the fish and the washer is the “bait”. I also had to hand sew because I am still without a sewing machine, so I blanket stitched all around the outside, which was way easier because I didn’t have to turn them.

I just love this fishing set, and so does my daughter. I think I will have to make more and give them to every child I know, but that will have to wait until I have a sewing machine to speed up production. Now that I have made them, Hubby has changed his mind and wants me to make her a fabric book cover, but that will only be happening if I get my sewing machine before the weekend, and because it is coming from Spotlight that is highly unlikely.

These are the flowers I made using the knitting needles bought from a thrift store in the weekend. I have only made 5 so far, so they don’t really make a nice “bunch” yet, but I plan to make more. I decided to go with a neutral linen fabric, because there is plenty of colour in the needle stems, felt bottoms and button middles.

So that's two and a half things ticked off my mental to-do list, about a trillion to go ;-p