Playing along...

with My Creative Space from http://www.kootoyoo.com today :)

For THE FIRST TIME!!!

yay me :D

Anyways, slightly messy craft room / office - featuring the 'only ever used for crafting' ironing board. I hate ironing. With a passion. Some evidence of future Easter crafting potential on the board! A pile of 'things I want to do' over on the right...and other 'stuff'...

The rest of the room, featuring my trusty old Elna and some fabric for a tutorial :) all will be revealed in due course. Promise!

And below is what I like to refer to as The Central Crafting Position - my corner of the couch.

Some wool and a finished block for an afghan I have been working on for, oh, a REALLY long time now...and also the start of trying to teach myself to knit in the round using DPN's. Mixed success thus far...it all seems so...unwieldy. Thinking about trying the magic loop method, so if anyone has any tips / hints etc feel free to share the love!!

So there you go.

Enjoy :D

The Sound of Silence

Oh.

Hello.

*looks around with shifty eyes*

Yes.

Well.

Sorry about the continued and protracted absence.

Crafting has been continuing. Promise. Along with other stuff.

In good news, some of my WIP's are gone, gone, GONE!!

Some more new stuff started. Trying to teach myself to knit with DPN's. Interesting.

One of the lovely men mentioned in my last post (yes, that's right. That one from back in November...last year...) has turned out to be quite the keeper.He's making me very happy. So that's good :)

Had a lovely trip to Tasmania (with the aforementioned Lovely Man...woooooooooo!!) - spent some time in Hobart and also hiked The Overland Track for 6-days. Gruelling. But worth it.

Several more triathlons undertaken. Continuing to improve. Bought a REDONKULOUSLY expensive new triathlon bike. That I love a little more than is strictly seemly. His name is Felix and the photo below does seriously not do him justice :)






Went to a lovely friends lovely wedding. Beautiful :)


Visited my parentals in Albany for Xmas. Fun. Kinda...


Met the Lovely Man's family. And his plethora of friends. Apparently his family think I'm wonderful. They may be right ;)


I think that is all of note.


Promise to pop a tutorial up in the next few days for a fabric canvas thingy I made. So easy it doesn't really need a tute, and has possible also been done to death on other blogs, but I'm very impressed with myself.


Will also update WIP progress.


Pinky swear.

WIP Weekend + WIP Week

Well, in my usual fashion, despite not having done much crafting for some time, my WIP's appear to have flourished. How does that happen.

So have decided to have a WIP Weekend followed by a WIP week.

My list of projects (in no particular order of finishing required, nor actual importance...)

1. The scarf I was making for my former housemate. To give to her on her birthday. In September. Then rescheduled to give to her before she flew to the US for Xmas. Three weeks ago. Now re-rescheduled to finish and post to her by 1 December...
2. Similarly, a scarf for my former housemates boyfriend. *sigh* I probably could've had this finished BEFORE they went away if I had only knuckled down. But not long to go on that one.
3. A paper snowflake mobile for Christmas. Only started this on Monday. Cutouts done. Ironed nice and flat (FYI best done without the steam function turned on...). Just dabbing some KindyGlitz on for sparkle-arkles and then have to thread together and I am done.
4. The afghan. 'Nuff said.
5. Plastic canvas fridge magnets. Long-term, semi-abandoned project fished out of a cupboard yesterday;
6. An aged baby blanket I started about 5 years ago. Oh well, other people are still procreating...
7. The Thimbleberries Quilt. Have finally galvanised myself to buy the backing fabric. I suspect I should have it completely finished in, oh, about 2 years at this rate...
8. Finalising some storage cards for my plethora of DMC embroidery threads.
9. The skirt I started back in July. Which I fear no longer fits me...
10. Some applique to tea-towels which had tiny fraying holes in, but are otherwise perfectly serviceable.
11. Oops. The baby hat for my friends 3 1/2 month old baby o_O
12. Some applique to screen prints I did at the last Brown Owls I attended..
13. I'm sure there's more...

So there you go. In the snatched moments between social engagements this weekend (you think I'm kidding. I'm totally not...), I shall endeavour to finish at least some of this list :)

Wish me luck...I think I'm gonna need it o_O

July, August, September, October AND November update.

Well - I could apologise for not being on here, but, you know what? This is my blog. I post when I can. When I feel like it. When I think I have something to say.

Life has been painful, awkward and busy. And I haven't felt like posting.

So, no apology :)

Well. Things have been happening. Not all good, but as a wise friend of mine comments, "whatever does not kill you will only make you stronger". Without going into too much detail, here's some updates!!

• Well. Bachelor # 1 proved to be a jerk. I moved onto Bachelor # 2, who seemed to have a LOT of promise. Turns out he was an emotional retard. *sigh* think I might have been the only one who got hurt out of that. Thanks again to my friends for their tolerance of my general down-in-the-mouthedness during that period!!
• Got sent to Melbourne for work. Yays!! Meant to stay a week and then fly back on Saturday. Got a last minute phone call begging me to come back the following week. Soooo, work basically paid for my weekend accommodation and meals in Melbs :)
• My friend had a beautiful bebeh girl. Ahn. So cute! Both momma AND bubby that is!
• Work moved into our spanky new building. It is full of awesome.
• Took two weeks holidays. Didn't go anywheres :( My employer has this "rule" where you must take 10 consecutive days worth of leave in a 12-month period. I had not done so, thus was 'forced' to take leave. Darn them.
• Joined some online dating sites o_O I figured after recent dating failures I could hardly do much worse!! It's been fun thus far. I highly recommend dating (casually of course - nobody is sleeping with anyone!!) a slew of men ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It stops one from obsessing why one guy isnt calling you as you have too many other dates to even have time to clean your freaking house :)
• Per the above - have actually met a couple of lovely boys :) We'll see how that pans out!
• Did very little crafting. Started a scarf for a friend. Missed the delivery date. Negotiated a second delivery date. Have still to finish it. Nothing else really of note in the craftiness area...
• Heaps of athletic pursuits! Triathlon Pink over here in sunny Perth. V pleased with my performance. Mucho improvement. All those winter training sessions in the cold have paid dividends. Great Bike Ride last weekend also an improvement on prior performance. Lookin' good in lycra...well, as good as one can look!!!
• Farewelled my BFF and her significant other who are off for a three month overseas jaunt. Not. Jealous. At. All...(miss them already!)

Hmmm. Feel sure that I have missed something...numerous friends birthdays...work...training...dating eligibile batchelors...work...training...nope :) think that's all of note.

I'll try not to leave you so neglected next time!!

More crafty shenanigans to come over the next few days.

Pinky swear.

Hallooooooooooooooooo...

::echo::

::echo::

Hey :)

I'm baaaaack!

*sigh*

Been busy.

Lost my crafting mojo slightly.

But better now!! Back on the rails. Steering steadily. Promise.

Knitting Nana

Have been meaning to post about the lovely nana (making an assumption here peeps - I didn't actually confirm she was indeed a Grandmother...) I saw knitting the other day.

On the bus!!!

Bless :D

There I was, sitting down minding my own biznez on the bus, plugged into my iPod so that I don't have to interact with my fellow human beings...yes, yes, I know it's anit-social, but good lo' you should see some of the people on my bus route...

So there I was, immersed in Beyonce or Rage Against the Machine or Kylie Minogue (or similar) when the bus paused at a stop to collect a vision in blue rinse! Black jumper with gold metallic embroidered rose pattern? Check. The most INCREDIBLE crystal earrings? Check (they looked a little Vegas showgirl, but hey, who really cares!!). Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes? Check and (possibly) check :D. Long strand of metallic silver beads around her neck? Checkarooney. I have almost never seen so much glitz on one person!

She looks at me - I look at her. She reaches down and grabs out a plastic carrier bag full of wool and needles and notions. And then proceeds to knit what looked like the most complicated cable stitich EVER. On a moving bus. Without stabbing herself or anyone else with her non-commuter needles. I wasl almost tempted to ask her to show me the stitch :D

Amazing! She got quite a lot of the scarf completed in the 10 or so stops before I got off, and she was still madly clickety-clacking away when I left the warm cocoon of the knitting bus!

The only gripe I had was the shocking array of wool she was knitting with...but, hey, it's a 'Global Financial Crisis' (allegedly) and needs must!

I love...

...long weekends (how very Aussie of me!)...
...the smell of freshly baked cakes (lemon meringue cupcakes today, banana bread yesterday, apple custard tea cakes for Brown Owls on Saturday)...
...a surprisingly good book that I picked up on a whim at the library...
...and, the feeling of achievement when you finish a project...

YAY!!!!

That's right! I've finally finished the Bento Box Quilt that I've been working on for, ummmm.....

::scampers off to check her project diary::

::footsteps slowly coming back::

...umm, yeah. Appears I didn't write it in the project diary. Lets seeeeee. It would have to be well over 12-months.

Easily.

If not longer.

So, let's not keep the finished project from you for any further length of time.

Taaaaa-daaaaaaaaaaaaa!

It's kind of a crappy perspective, but I did have to stand on my kitchen bench in order to get up high enough to get the whole quilt in shot, so, hey, I took my life into my own hands peeps, just so you guys could see it ;)

The basic construction is small rectangles of indigo Japanese fabrics, combined with coloured Japanese fabrics. Each square was made up of 8 separate rectangles - 2 coloured and 6 indigo. The two coloured rectangles are of the same fabric and are sewn together with the indigo fabrics on the outside.

The backing fabric is a black koi carp all over design, and the borders are plain indigo fabric combined with some spare squares in the corners and the side borders (mainly because I ran short of border fabric...). I then machine quilted the outside row of 'boxes' using white cotton to mimic sashiko stitching. The top and bottom borders are quilted on a 45 degree diagonal, again using white cotton.

I have to say that there are bits of it that I'm not all that impressed with - nothing wrong with the design, just my rendition of it. As usual, my issues with the backing fabric catching were there - it's like I'm cursed!! The front piecing is alright - the main section is the best. I didn't really think out the side borders very well and was also running out of fabric, so (to me anyway) they seem a bit half-a$$ed. But, I am VERY proud of the binding. I hate making binding, mostly because its so time consuming and I usually scald my fingers on the steam iron and such.

Additionally, I generally manage to muff up my binding attachment. I think this is because I was sewing it onto the front and back of the quilt at the same time. What this caused was the back of the binding to not always attaching properly, and it makes the quilt quite hard to manipulate around, and quite frankly its just a drag. And I always end up with binding issues - like crappy corners, uneven hems and such.

This time, I sewed the binding to the front of the quilt using my machine and then hand sewed the back of the binding to the back of the quilt. Worked a freaking treat!!! A bit more time consuming for sure, but a 1000% improvement on the overall binding look. Corners are much neater and the stitches on the back are practically invisible.

So that's one less thing off my (freaking massive) list of 'Things To Do'.

Now if I can only sort out my personal backing fabric "issues" all would be well...

Screen Printy Goodness :D

As promised, screen printy goodness from yesterdays Brown Owls meet.

The apple design is mine. It is quite daunting being presented with a blank sheet of paper, and there was quite a bit of sitting and staring at the page around the table!!

The cute little helicopter belongs to Justine (who organises the Perth Upmarket, which BTW is on next Sunday, 7 June at the Perth Town Hall. Go to www.perthupmarket.com.au for deets).

And check out those two little puppers!!! Too cute, Ebony and Ashy *head tilt* ahhhhnnnn :)

Thanks heaps to the wonderful Kirsty for letting us take over her home for the afternoon (and threaten to steal the puppers away!!!).

Much fun was had by all.

I may be heading off to obtain screen printing supplies...

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Day 31 of 31 (definitely NOT 365!!!) Whew! Kind of glad that those 31-days are over. Not that it was particularly onerous or anything, but sometimes I felt like I was grasping for something to write...But, the exercise WAS good for getting me used to regularly blogging, no matter what the content :). So, whilst I doubt that I will be blogging every day, I will certainly be doing it much more regularly than I was prior to the month.

Brown Owls - hoot! hoot!

Crafty Brown Owl goodness went on today.

!!!!!!!!!!!!SCREEEEEEEEENNNNNNNN-PRINTINNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

*ahem*

So. Much. Fun. Haven't done screen-printing since art in High School (which I took to a TEE level thankyouverymuchandlearntallaboutimpressionistsandthedadamovementblahblahblah).

My last attempts at screen printing seem to have been a tea-towel with a rather terrible rendering of a plant of some description in a delightful primary red and navy blue. My mum still has (and uses) this terrible attack on the fine art of screenprinting. I also seem to recall doing tee-shirts in Applied Art. Sopme trite copy of a surf shirt design slithers through my memory.

Todays efforts? OMG!!!! So much cooler.

Pictures are ready to be uploaded. More on this tomorrow. Promise :D

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Day 30 of 31 (or a not-very-likely 365) Bought a snuggly new jacket yesterday. Wore it today. Mistake. Still too hot. Sweaty. Yech. But I looked cool :)

Crafting

*gulp*

I swear that there HAS been craft content here at the WKDN household.

Honest.

I'm just finishing something up and taking progress photos and when it's finished I PROMISE all will be revealed (ooh...that made it sound a tad more exciting than it really is...)

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Day 26 of 31 (or 365) Wow. I've got a lot of 'stuff' in my freezer. And by 'stuff' I mean food. And by 'food' I mean indistinguishable frozen lumps of what might be actual food...hmmmmm

Marie Claire Idees

OMG.

Yum!!

Just picked up the Spring (I think...) issue of Marie Claire idees, and although my French skills are extreeeeeemely sketchy (I do remember that printemps means spring...I think....) it is just FABULOUS.

::swoon::

Love, love, love.

It has the cutest little knitted vegetables, such as cauliflower, turnips, carrots and trussed tomatoes. I MUST KNIT THESE. I dont need them, but I want them :D

I may be spending a lot of time on Babelfish translating the instructions!!
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Day 21 of 31 (or 365) - finally we have rain here in Perth. And what rain!!! Just missed getting drenched at lunchtime and then spent about 10 minutes watching the rain sheeting off the building opposite. It was practically coming down sideways!! At least my garden wont need water this week.

My Creative Space

Well...my grandly title 'Craft Room' in any case! Realistically, my actual creative space is more often than not the couch in front of the TV.

I am pretty lucky to live in a large-ish town house with 4 bedrooms, one of which is downstairs and therefore more like an office. But with a built in robe!! Yay!

I hate to think what I'm going to do if I move to a smaller place...yipes!!!
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Day 18 of 31 (or 365) - Meh. First day back at work after a weeks holidays. Bah humbug.

Brown Owls - hoot! hoot!

Well, last Saturday was the inaugural meeting of the Perth Brown Owls @ Greens & Co in Leederville. I think I arrived a trifle late after getting a bit confused about which street was Oxford Street (I was actually ON Oxford Street but didn't realise it at the time...street directions are not one of my strong points!).

A bunch of lovely ladies were there, busily crafting away. I had not remembered to bring a small project with me (*shrugs* hey, I had a busy weekend with loads of other things on...) but luckily, there was a small owl stuffy project, provided by the wonderful Craftapalooza.

Here is my little fella :)

What I found interesting is that each of the ladies who were making the owl stuffy, each did it slightly differently ;) and they were ALL good!!

So, inspired by everyone else's craftiness I came home and over the course of the next couple of days whipped up this little bag...(sorry - I forget where I got the pattern from...it was an American website...) It's hard to see, but the lining is an orange toned small floral which I bought from Spotlight during one of their ridiculous "all-the-fabric-you-can-buy-for-$3-a-metre" shenanigans.

I might have to make another one, but this time I think I would make the two straps the same (longer) length. Whilst I do like the ability to tuck the longer strap through the shorter one, I sometimes need a bag with a larger capacity, and the tucking of the strap does limit the size of the bag interior. I still managed to stuff in my purse (one of those long oblong ones), personal mobile, work Blackberry, small container of nuts, lip gloss, house keys, car keys, sunglasses, and about 5 muesli bars...and possible some other detritus. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the bag itself is probably only 20cm wide, so quite small really. I may even scale the pattern up a bit so that the bag would turn out about the size of a plastic grocery bag...hmmmm...

And my first foray into button rings (please excuse the wrinkled hands...ladies, always remember to put sunscreen on the backs of your hands!). I quite like these, and I had forgotten how cool some of the buttons in my stash are!

And (drumroll pls).......my very first Abraham Owl, from the wonderful pattern and instructions provided by Lollychops.

Wow - that's the most crafting I have done in quite some time what with personal life upheavals and all : )

Plus - I completed by 5th (or maybe 6th) triathlon on the same weekend! Phew! Quite pleased with myself as I finished nearly 10 minutes faster than the same event last year! Yay me ;D

Of course, on Monday (public holiday over here in the Wild West) I rested (especially after the post-Tri celebrations involving espresso martinis and drunken texting...but that's a story for another day!).

Ciao bellas xx