In progress

I'm hoping to add some dresses to my shop soon.  That is, if I don't keep making them in my daughters size and falling in love with them.

little dresses

I spent a lot of time sewing and watching 'tv' on the computer over the weekend (mostly late at night).  It was great!  Here's my progress, two un-hemmed and not yet zip-able dresses...

     I don't usually do pink, but I couldn't resist this vintage print.

chocolate dipped cake on a stick

 That, my friends, is the essence of the 'cake pop'.  I've been intrigued by these wee things which have been showing up all over pinterest (find me here).   The fact that I'm attending a birthday dinner tonight inspired me to give them a go yesterday afternoon.  There are various tutorials around, so I won't go into that...suffice to say making a perfectly good cake, crumbling it up and mixing the icing IN with it, is a very strange thing to do.  I think they look cuter than they taste, but they taste fine.  If I was to make them again, I'd do a chocolate cake.  I also made the cranberry and white chocolate fudge Fran showed here.  I was on such a sugar overload last night I was up till 11pm sewing dresses (...I'm now on number 3)

I've got the bug

The sewing bug that is.  It seems to be how it goes with me.  I'll knit for two months and not even touch my sewing machine, and then all of a sudden it's over and I have zero interest in knitting.  I move on.  And around it goes.  My current obsession is sewing, and I'm loving the new dress pattern I'm working on.

At the suggestion of my Mum, I'm leaving the dress un-hemmed until summer.  Then I can see how tall my girl has got, and what length I want the dress.  I love having my Mum's sewing experience on hand, it has helped (or saved!) me so many times.
I may have cut out another dress already.  Ahem. 

If the interest is there, I may list some in my shop for summer...

sewing

Today I'm hoping to do a little more work on a dress I started last night.  It's for my daughter (if it fits...)

 Also, check out what Louana sent me!  I was lucky enough to win her giveaway.  I got some gorgeous cards and postcards, a crochet heart and a little patch with a lovely crochet edge (you might recognise the fabric, it's Melissa's).  Thanks Louana! xx

little house

I'd love your ideas for the new paint job...what colour would you pick?
x

a clue

Can you guess what this great summer DIY renovation project is?

drive

We woke up this morning, and decided to go for a drive.  I really should have been studying, but it was one of those days when the sunshine was just too tempting.

So we packed some snacks for the little one and hit the road.  The fresh snow was felt by a nip in the air.

We headed for Mot. 

Explored at the shore.

I wore my new (old) dress (squeeeeeee!!!  thanks Ella!)

Had coffee and the biggest fluffy ever.

And I picked up an amazing fabric score at the market.

Good fun was had by all.
I hope you enjoyed your Sunday xxx

today

I'm wearing this outfit.   Yes, that picture was the best of the bunch.  Hahaha.

The most special part is my grandma's locket.

I've been studying of course.  My dining table now looks like this:

Like a study desk, rather than a craft explosion.  (Also my King's seed catalogue - I'm thinking of trying microgreens this spring!  Yum.)
I caved and did a little baking

But gave most of it to my husband to take to work for morning tea.
I had to show you a little early birthday gift I bought myself at Little Sabine.  It's a key holder.  If it is possible to be in love with a key holder, I think I am.

And of course there has been a little knitting.  There is always a little something going on.

I just passed my first test, so hopefully the rest of my course will go well too.  I'd better get back to it.  xx

I'm studying

And I want to do a good job of it, right!?  As such, I can see I'm going to have a lot less time to be in this space, or to do things that I might want to share in this space.  I'm not going to stop blogging, it's just going to be rather infrequent.  I'll be back when I've got something interesting (ha!) to say.

x

Happy Mail

I have been the recipient of some happy mail over the last week!  Yay!
First up, my brooch swap arrived!  Thanks Cathie!

Next up, a 'pay-it-forward' gift arrived from Fran.  I was a little puzzled as to what they were when I first opened the parcel.

Any guesses?

They are slippers!  Aren't they so cute!!!  Please excuse the fluff on them, I've barely taken them off since they arrived!   The little one loves hers too.  And mine are the perfect colour!  (Check out Fran's shop here!)
And last but not least, my little purchase from Rhiannon's felt shop arrived!  It is gorgeous!

And she sent some little extras too!  She's such a sweetie.

All in all, it's been a good week for mail!
I am resting at home today with a cold (another cold) and hoping for a quiet weekend.  I hope you have a lovely weekend too!
Oh and before I go...pssst...there is a fantastic giveaway on over at Heart Felt!  One of those gorgeous crowns?  Yes PLEASE!!! xxx

Too much of a good thing?

I rugged up my daughter yesterday to take her for a wee stroll.  I looked down, and realised all I could see was knitting.  There is a toddler and a doll in there somewhere.  The details:

Hat - mum

Mittens - mum

Jumper - mum

Vest - me

Blanket - me

Dolly's dress - unknown vintage (she's my old doll, so she's probably nearly 30!)

And no, the mittens did not stay on for long.

Wardrobe Wednesday

Merino - Bendon (hand me down from Mum)

Dress - Max (about 7 years ago!)

Tights - Farmers

Boots - Overland

I think I'm breaking the 'rules' here.  Do you wear a brown belt with a black dress?  Do you wear black tights with brown boots?  Shouldn't my belt and boots be the same shade of brown?  Shouldn't I be smiling nicely instead of grimacing?  Mahahahahah. 

Hope you have a lovely day.  I'm hoping to get in a walk, take some pics for my shop if the sun holds out and just hang out with my girl.  Especially looking forward to Survivor tonight, hopefully with a glass of wine and my crochet.  Man, that sounds pretty 'nana-ish' really doesn't it! 

housekeeping and stuff

Bloggy housekeeping.  Let's bullet point, shall we?

• Got my study info for next semester yesterday.  FREAKING OUT.  Have forgotten how to study.  Have a toddler.  When am I supposed to study again?  Fearing impending loss of time to blog/craft/pin/sleep.
• Toddler is sick.  Again.
• It's COLD.
• Anticipating good mail today! 
• Drinking lemon honey.  
• Hoping to update shop...sometime soon...
• Thinking about birthdays and cakes.
• Have lots of good mail waiting to go out!!!  Very excited.
• I love our heatpump.
• Have cut number of blogs on my reader in half.  Feel much better.
• Am unsure about the future of Wardrobe Wednesdays.  Feeling I'd prefer to do a 'what I wore' post when the mood strikes, rather than every Wednesday.  By all means, keep going if you want.
• That is all.
• No photo sorry.

Wardrobe restyle

After seeing this post of Dee's on Thursday I made up my mind to get over my fear of belts and tucked in shirts (though she has made a dress in this post, it has that tucked in look.)  For some reason I feel like wearing a belt to accentuate my waist is just going to make my hips look bigger.  And while that may be true to some extent, I've gotten over it (or am getting over it.)  Aside from wanting to steal her belt, I really loved the whole outfit.  I wanted to see if I could come up with something kinda vaguely similar....

So I took this too short dress:

And gave it the chop:

 And I declare it much more wearable!   Yay!   It was a really simple restyle, and now I'm hunting through my wardrobe for more things that deserve the chop...

 Ugggh.  That top pic - I'm so over leggings!  Though I am sure I'll look back on this current favourite outfit in a year and cringe!  Such is life!

wip

Those balls of wool have begun to transform.  And I was happy to discover that I should have enough for a decent size blanket!  I must start weaving the ends in as I go...or I'll never want to do it at the end!