Combining blogs

For a while now, I have been keeping a separate blog of all my 'crafty stuff'. I have now decided to combine my blogs together into just one. So, you will start to see more of my little projects on here.

I have been so inspired by crafts and cooking that other people do, and I would love to pass on the ideas. I found that nobody was really reading my other blog and it felt a bit pointless.

If you think this is a bad decision, please tell me! I will see what responses I get. I've imported all the posts into this blog so if you want, you can go back and look at them.

Luke crafts!

Look at what Luke and mummy made! We've hung them in his bedroom window for all to admire!

I just downloaded some shapes (you could draw freehand) traced them onto thick paper and cut them out. Then Luke got to work painting them. He didn't completely cover them, so I went over the white bits with crayon. Mounted them on coloured paper, and all done!

If you are looking for fun ways to involve your children in crafts, I have found The Crafty Crow to be a great source of ideas.

playgrounds with nanna!

At the end of September, we were blessed with a visit from my mum. She flew from Kansas, where she had been visiting my step-sister Jane and family. We were so excited to have her here and tried to make the most of it by getting out and doing some fun things.

We visited Logan's little zoo, which is one of Luke's favourite places. They have some little monkeys near the entrance, and as soon as Luke saw them he got a huge smile on his face and walked around clapping and laughing for a few minutes! Here you can see Luke and nanna trying to spot the turtles in the water-



There is a playground attached to the zoo, so we played there for a while.

In fact, the weather was so lovely that week, we spent quite some time on various playgrounds.

I will be posting more about my mum's visit, I am just breaking it down into smaller chunks. Both of the kids are poorly this week, so they need me more.

PS. The kids have quite a few 'grandmas' (Trev's grandmas and great-grandma are called their grandma as well) so that is why we chose to use the name 'nanna' for my mum. It's kind of an english term, so it fits perfectly, don't you think?

dishy dishy!

Hardly groundbreaking stuff, I know, but I do feel a tinsy bit proud of my first dishcloth. It's a cool wavy stitch that I learnt (basically knit one row, then the next row you knit, slip, knit, slip etc. Knit next row, the knit knit slip, knit slip knit slip etc. And repeat!) So easy!

And the back of the cloth comes out all nubbly and textured, which I'm sure will be effective on those left-from-last-night dishes which I seem to find in my kitchen quite frequently these days.

If you are interested in making your own, just google 'knit dishcloth patterns', you will get lots of sites to check out. Or how about these knitted dishtowels? I think they look just lovely, and I'd love to know how absorbent and practical they are.

Last year's halloween

Please humour me for just a moment. I know that I posted about this costume last year, on my other blog, but I just feel like it deserves another 5 minutes of fame. I mean, it barely even got seen last year, since we didn't really go to any parties or trick-or-treating.



I just love how it turned out, especially since I didn't have a pattern, and basically just dreamed it up in my own crazy little brain.

This year, I have something fun planned for the kids to coordinate. I don't want to give it away, but let's just say, Luke's gonna be a REAL boy :-)

Chair

Remember this chair? Trev and I designed and made it ourselves! The top part, that is. It sits on a barstool that we had lying around. I posted about it a while back and mentioned my plans to paint it green.




Well....here she is in all her glory! I really love the way it turned out. The green paint was a free sample I ordered a while ago, and I just happened to have a suitable fabric on hand to make the seat pad and ruffle.

It's really easy to wipe clean, and throw the fabric bits in the washing machine when needed. I love it lots!

By the way, I wish I could take credit for the ruffle, but I can't. My mum did it for me while she was visiting last week. It is held in place with Velcro.

first of many, I hope

This is my first ever scatter cushion. I used clearance fabric, piped with some from my stash. I didn't put a zip in because the fabric is not washable, so when it gets too dirty, I'll just cut it off and make a new one.

I like how it turned out, and Luke has already started using it as a cover for his cache of cars.