Spangle

Knitting addicts - a new generation

2007-10-04T17:28:00.000+13:00

Yow, has it been that long since I last posted??

After a really, really hard few months, things are beginning to change. Helen and I have left Playcentre and will be spending the time between now and February together, doing stuff we want to do. She starts school at the beginning of the new year, so we're going to be making the most of having time on our hands, together.
Plans so far:
• growing vegetables • swimming • story time at the library • cooking more • reading more • having more fun and less worry.

It's holiday time here again, so we've been doing a bit of crafty stuff. Big news for Jen this week, she's learned to knit!

After she'd done about 20 rows she announced: "I just wanna stay up and knit all night". Spoken like a true knitting addict!

Also knitting related, I finally received my invite to Ravelry the other day. What a lot of fun! I love the way you can browse through patterns using the tags. I was inspired to get the needles out, and whipped up a little shrug for Helen.

Holiday time!

2007-07-02T14:38:00.000+12:00

At last it's the school holidays again. We've been having a quiet time, staying in bed late, doing lots of reading. Lovely.

I found some wool that I'd dyed with food colouring about a year ago, Helen asked me to make wool that looked like lava. This weekend I turned it into a pair of slippers for her, which she's been dancing around in. Oh, how that girl loves to dance!

I made the pattern up as I went along, and for once I seem to have been able to make two the same! I know I really should write things down as I go, but where's the fun in that?

Today I've sent off my application email for the next Craft 2.0 to be held at the Dowse in August. Fingers crossed they let me in! I'm hoping that if I *do* get accepted, I might meet some of the very talented ladies whose blogs I frequent, selling their wares there too.

On Wednesday the girls and I take off to Christchurch for a few days with my sister and her family. So far the only plans we have are for the girls to attend a class at the bead shop in the Arts Centre on Friday. I shall be hunting out some special beads for ring making, I think. Can't wait!

I'm back, at last

2007-05-30T16:33:00.000+12:00

I don't know why I can't seem to keep this blog very current. Goodness knows, I spend plenty of time sitting here at the computer, you'd think it would be easy to write a quick post more often than, say, once a month! wouldn't you? Well apparently not.

Things have been somewhat busy around here. Ian's almost finished his thesis (due June 15th) and I've been clocking up some hours talking with him about that, and editing the document, doing charts etc.

And I've knitted something! No, I haven't finished the 1 skein wonder I started back when my knee popped out (just the bands to go, though). But I did start *and finish* a little capelet for the lovely Chloe's 8th birthday, which turned out quite nicely. Now Jen and Helen want one the same, of course.

I've made some more vintage button rings, one with sterling silver wire which looks terrific.

I've been busy with Playcentre, as usual.

But the best of all this busy-ness is that I've had some absolutely lovely times with my gorgeous girls lately.

Jen will be turning 7 very soon, and she wants to have a paper doll themed party. So we'll be making life-size paper doll dresses with the friend's she's invited. Not sure how that'll go, I guess it'll involve lots of scissors, glue sticks, glitter, felt pens, and maybe staples, or sellotape... Hmmm. I think we'll need a trial run this weekend!

Ouch!

2007-04-23T19:58:00.000+12:00

I had to cancel my button-buying trip to the Hospice shop today. Late yesterday afternoon, while just finishing up some cleaning at Playcentre, I stretched up on tiptoe to pull down some old artwork off the wall and overextended myself, and my left knee dislocated. The patella shot out to the side of my leg. The huge bump in my jeans and the excruciating pain told me exactly what had happened and I managed to push it straight back into the right place.

After a very very long wait at the hospital, I had an x-ray done, then another long wait. Finally a nurse came to say I wouldn't be seen before midnight and very likely later than that so I went home.

Today I can hobble about with the use of a stick, not a good look. My niece, bless her heart, suggested this would be the perfect time to "do a House, fill up a medicine bottle with TicTacs, pop those all day and hobble around being sarcastic". Don't tempt me.

But instead, I've been sat on the couch most of the day, actually knitting!

I tried to knit a few weeks back, after the knife+finger thing. But turns out that injury actually did some nerve damage and even now I have a numb area on that finger. A few weeks ago it was uncomfortable to knit like that.
But now! Not too bad! So I've started work on a version of Glampyre's 1 Skein Wonder, in an as-yet undetermined size. I've added a few stitches, substituted 2 strands of Rowan Botany 4ply, and I'm about 1/3 done. Maybe it'll fit me? Stay tuned!

Happy mail, I've got that happy mail

2007-04-21T16:15:00.000+12:00

Wow, Jo's parcel for the Vintage Button Swap arrived on Thursday. Don't believe a word she says, everything in it is fabulous!

I took pictures, but it was a grey day, and I realised today that the resolution on the camera was on it's lowest setting. So I apologise for the quality of these photos, but I'm sure you can appreciate the loveliness of the buttons + extras anyway!
First, cute packaging, I have ribbon now! yay!:

Fabric+button bracelets for two very lucky little girls:

Wee sewn things for me, a pouch and a new tissue holder which I just adore:

And of course, the buttons themselves:

What cracks me up is how the little red buttons are the exact same pattern as one of the white buttons I sent Jo. I love them all, thank you Jo!

I've been playing some more with buttons and wire, and have a couple of rings available in my Etsy store now. These things are so much fun to make. Next week the holidays are over and I'll have a few more hours without girls. One of the things I'm planning is a trip to the Hospice shop (they have the best selection) in search of some really special ring-making buttons. Can't wait!

Rings and things

2007-04-11T11:10:00.000+12:00

Oooh! I got cool stuff in the mail today, a mandrel! Not "surprise" cool stuff, since it's something I bought on TradeMe, but still, I'm really happy!

I've been wanting to have a go at making rings for ages, since I have loads of wire, beads and buttons stashed around the place. So as soon as the package arrived, I had to give it a try. They are lots of fun, and surprisingly easy, to make (that is, to my <cough> exacting standards). Not so easy to photograph, however.

Now I need to get my act together with some other button "work", so I can get my package for the Shim + Sons Vintage Button Swap in the post later today.

Paper people

2007-03-31T14:07:00.000+12:00

Thanks to Applehead, Jen has spent a lovely afternoon making her own Small People. Here are Maddy and Tom:

I love the library card generator, too. Here's one for all of us who spend way too much time glued to the computer:

Button swap

2007-03-27T12:34:00.000+12:00

I've just signed up for Shim + Sons 2nd vintage button swap. Yay!

I haven't managed to get any knitting done from the Lucinda Guy book yet because last week I had a nasty knife-meets-finger accident while removing the stone from an avocado. My left middle finger has been covered in a fairly serious bandage since then, and it just isn't flexible enough to work with sticks. The girls spent a while browsing through the pattern book, then sorting through the wool, playing with colour combinations. Now they're getting impatient for me to make them some little knitted mice. Me too!

Lazy is nice, but maybe I'm taking it too far

2007-03-19T18:10:00.001+12:00

Good grief. This one-post-per-month thing has got to stop! I'm hoping that the imminent change of seasons will have a revitalising effect on me, and I'll find myself able to post more regularly. Fingers crossed. Or as the Tui ads would say "yeah, right".

On Saturday night, daylight savings time came to an end here, and all of a sudden it feels like autumn. Officially, I don't think that's supposed to happen until the beginning of April, but tell the weather that. It's been cold, wet, windy, hot, windy, cool, and more windy. Pffff. And, I think I'm coming down with a cold, just to top it all off.

On the bright side, the cooler weather makes me want to knit. It's an automatic response for a knitter, I think. And lucky me, I was recently given a big file box full of gorgeous yarn. Exhibit A:

It's mostly wool, and includes some beautiful Rowan skeins (Kid Silk, DK, Botany) in various shades of red, pink, purple, green and blue.

There's not much of each, just enough to get me thinking about turning it into several smallish and (hopefully) lovely things. So I headed to the library on Sunday looking for suitable patterns. Let me just say, it's been a very long while since I knitted anything larger than a scarf. I haven't made anything in an adult size since before Jen was born, so that's approaching 7 years. Anyway, I came across this lovely book of patterns for kids, by Lucinda Guy. I love it, there are flowers, toys, hats, plenty of patterns that I think will be just right.

While I was there, I also picked up Thrift to Fantasy: Home textile crafts of the 1930s-1950s. So far I've only browsed through looking at the photos, but it looks like an excellent read - part family history, part social commentary.

Coming up for air

2007-02-20T14:21:00.000+13:00

Today's not that different to any other day lately. The sun is shining in the most fantastically blue cloudless sky, cicadas are going crazy, the washing's baking to a crisp on the line. What *is* different, is that I'm finally in the right frame of mind to sit down and write something here.

So, what's been happening?
We now have more family living close by - really close, I mean 2 doors down the street, and it's fabulous. Ian's cousin and his family have made a big move from Australia to NZ, and wound up in the same street as us. Our children get along mostly great. And Ian's sister has moved cities and now lives 2 blocks over. I love the pop-in visits, coffee mid-morning, or a wine in the evening.

Craftwerk last week was fun. I wasn't sure I'd managed to make enough stuff for the trip to be worthwhile, but turns out I had, and it was. I met a lovely woman who put me on to a local source of kimono fabric pieces, so I have some nice big pieces to get busy with. As an added bonus, I got to spend some time with my brother and his girlfriend.

Playcentre is keeping me and Helen busy 3 mornings a week.
Jen's happy at school, and rapt that the school pool is now open. We've got a key so we can use it after hours. She's so much more confident in the water now, she's picking things up off the bottom of the pool, and talking to her friends under water :-)

I'm working on these felt flowers at the moment. Some will have pin backs attached, others may yet end up packaged as scrap-booking or card-making embellishments. Better get cracking!

Meet Bill

2007-02-01T11:35:00.000+13:00

We have a new family member. Bill is settling in beautifully, although his default look still says "peeved and annoyed". In fact, he's making himself right at home, as you can see here.
A couple of days ago we melted down our broken crayons in cupcake cases (no, Bill hasn't been helping himself to the baking) and set to work drawing all over a hunk of background paper snaffled from the recycling at Ian's work. Bill and the girls loved it, he was even happy to pose with a crayon Jen balanced on his leg (although, check those ears!) How cute is he??!!

I realise it's been a little while since I posted anything with pictures, so here's a couple of bits and pieces I've made lately.

Another pony-tail holder for Jen made from buttons (I've made lots more like these for sale at Craftwerk).

And a finger puppet for one of Jen's friends, made one wet day while we were at camp. Zac described it and chose the colours for it himself.

This isn't exactly crafty - yet! My lovely neighbour has a gorgeous bougainvillea growing against her house and she gave me an enormous bunch of flowers from it about a week ago. Now fhe flowers are dried and ready to go to Playcentre next week to join our natural collage resources. Aren't the colours amazing?

Lazy, lazy, lazy. Just call me lazy.

2007-01-23T10:54:00.000+13:00

I've been so lazy these holidays. Ian has been slaving away transforming our garden, with minimal help from me.
The girls have been playing, having friends over, going off to play here and there. We've had a few days away at Sixtus Lodge with our friends from Playcentre. So far, so very good.

I've had such a nice long break from nearly all of the things that fill up my days during term-time - Playcentre, school, work, crafting. I'm not ready for the laziness to be over yet, but I can feel normal life starting to creep back in around the edges. There's cleaning to do at Playcentre, the roster for sessions, admin work. I need to get cracking on some crafting, I'll be participating in Craftwerk in February, and need to build up some stock before then.
And Ian's back at work today, the wind is blowing a gale, it feels almost like autumn. Almost makes me feel like doing some knitting!

Feeling optimistic

2007-01-03T12:52:00.000+13:00

There is something about the beginning of a new year that always gives me a feeling of optimism. I sometimes make resolutions for myself, 'tho not just at New Year. Things like spending more time playing with my kids, less time bossing them around. Spending less time worrying about things and more time doing something constructive about them. Anyway this year, I've decided to make only one resolution: I will try to hang on to this feeling of optimism as long as I can.

I'm looking forward to lots of things at the moment, here's a few for January:
• summer weather (it's got to happen some time, right???) • lazing around with Ian and the girls • working in the garden • Helen turning 4 • camping with Playcentre friends • Wellington's Summer Circus festival • getting paid when I start back at work next week • everyone in our family being well again • Bill the cat joining our family • crafting • eating corn on the cob • making Black Doris plum jam ... it all sounds good.

I recently joined the "Use what you have" Flickr group. I love the idea of this, but I know I won't manage it this month. I'm hoping to ease into it this month by buying only the few little bits I absolutely need. I'm applying for a Craftwerk stall at the circus festival and I will need to buy more pin backs in order to finish the items I hope to sell there.

On that note, I should get off here and make a start on the list. Happy New Year!!!

A new look for the new year

2006-12-31T14:39:00.000+13:00

I've switched to the new Blogger, and chosen a new look for this blog. Hopefully everything still works!

I'm supposed to be in the garden, potting fresh seedlings so we can have a few bits of colour here and there, around the deck mostly.

I'm 100% certain it's going to rain later so I'll be back, maybe with some garden pics.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Baking for friends

2006-12-19T10:07:00.000+13:00

Jen and I decided to make cookies for her class on Sunday, which was fun, but so so time consuming. You know what I mean. Bright idea: 10 seconds. Mixing cookie dough: 10 minutes. Cutting, baking and icing cookies: way too bloody long.
They did look great though, with tiny tags courtesy of allsorts (thank you Jenny!)
Next year, we're sticking with *cards only*!

Christmas is an odd time of year for us. We don't celebrate "the true meaning of Christmas", or observe any other religious traditions around this time. As the girls get older, it's increasingly difficult to keep things low-key, increasingly necessary to explain to them why this is. At least, it's a good opportunity to help them learn about what beliefs and traditions and values make different cultures ... well, different.

One thing that I'm pretty sure we have in common though, is that we're all looking forward to the holidays! Only 1 day to go, yippee!

It's too messy here, I can't make things

2006-12-13T15:46:00.000+13:00

It's been a long time since I used to go to work in an office each day. August 1999, I think. Since then, I've been mostly at home. Mostly with my kids. Mostly surrounded by mess of one sort or another. I love being here, but from time to time the mess bothers me. I can't think straight when I have no surfaces, my mind gets as jumbled as the junk on my kitchen counter-top. Remember Edina from AbFab? "I just want surfaces, darling. I don't want this, look, I don't want this. I don't want things on places like that." That's me at the moment. On a good day.

So at the moment my house is too messy for being creative in. I'm trying to get the motivation together to actually tidy it, but even that's doing my head in, I'm afraid.

I'm off!

2006-12-06T11:59:00.000+13:00

One little crafty thing before I go, this bag tag I whipped up for Jen the other night.
I'm off in a few minutes to spend a couple of days at my Dad's place. It'll be a nice relaxing break from normal busy life, I will get in to sleep in! And not be woken up in the night! Yay!

Being creative and expressive

2006-12-03T23:11:00.000+13:00

At Playcentre, we plan for our children using the national early childhood curriculum (Te Whariki). One of the aims of the curriculum is that centres provide an environment where children can discover different ways to be creative and expressive.
So, here's Helen at Playcentre on Friday. We had an excursion to see Ian at work and he took photos of the children for our photo board at the centre. He gave us a huge piece of background paper, a bit tatty in places, but perfectly fine for us. When we got it back to the centre, we set out paints and brushes and the children got to work. Helen painted herself entirely blue (she had help with the pink!) and danced and dived and rolled around on the paper, being a humpback whale in the ocean.
How marvellous it must be to feel that kind of artistic freedom, to literally be able to put your whole self into your creations.

I finally finished some kimono flower pins last night. I gave up on the tsumami folding with these ones. I think the busy floral pattern suits this style of petal better. As I was attaching pin backs to them, I did think they'd actually have made cute Christmas decorations, if I'd made a wee ribbon loop to hang them instead. Oh well, maybe next time.

Windy Wednesday

2006-11-29T13:07:00.000+13:00

This morning I got up early and went shopping. Now and then, EziBuy sell off their returned mail-order clothes and housewares in a retail free-for-all that starts somewhere around 6:00a.m. (I arrived at 6:30 and nearly all the housewares were gone already.) Everything costs $2, so I bought 12 tops and a skirt. As you do :-) Plus a couple of storage tins for the girls.
Two of the tops I bought were so not me, but were embellished with masses of little shell buttons, so I snipped the buttons off and will bag them up to go in my ever-expanding button stash.

Then for a special treat, Helen and I waited for ages at the ENT clinic at the hospital, to be told that she's completely fine, obviously recovered from a suspected case of glue ear. We'd waited 5 months for a referral to the specialist, so I wasn't altogether surprised there wasn't a problem now.

Aren't these old embroidery transfer sheets cool? I got them for 50c at the Arts Recycling Centre on Saturday.
I'm not sure how old they are, I think they date from maybe the 1950s. Maybe even earlier?

The sashiko stitching is finished! Not the best job of attaching it to the canvas, but oh well. Now I need to work out what pattern to use for the other two.

The constant wind here lately is driving me insane. The noise of it, and the pushiness of it gives me the same feeling as when I've had kids clambering all over me, wanting to be carried, needing me, needing something, all day. Aaaaagh! There's a good reason the hills near here are covered in wind turbines.

WIP Friday

2006-11-24T14:13:00.000+13:00

Sorry about that rather whiney post the other day! Playcentre can be a bit all-consuming at times.

A while back I mentioned an idea I'd had of having a go at sashiko, using some motifs common in Pacific Island art. Last night I started the first of three 4"x4" pieces which I'll cover some little stretched canvases with. The fabric is some dark brown linen, stitched with cream wool thread. It's fun! But I'm having a little trouble getting the stitches to finish at just the right spot towards the centre, so there's a tidy little circular gap in the middle. The rain has started again today, so this could be the perfect project for the weekend.

I also want to come up with a couple of quick crafty gifts for two friends with little babies - a wee boy born *very* prematurely (6 weeks) and in NICU 2 weeks later, the other baby still an unknown quantity in every respect, due to be delivered exactly a week from today. Got any bright ideas? I'm thinking tiny embroidered t-shirts...

Playcentre on my mind

2006-11-19T16:06:00.000+13:00

This week I've been so distracted with worries about our Playcentre. Playcentre has been wonderful for my girls and me. It's a parent-led early childhood education service, run almost entirely through volunteer work, with parents working alongside the children. Our adult:child ratios are fantastic (1:4), and our last Education Review Office report was really positive. Children lead the way into the activities they want to do each day, and we do whatever is necessary to bring their ideas to life.
Helen attends 4 morning sessions each week, and so I spend 1 morning "session helping". I spend at least one other morning doing administration work, often 1 night a week at some Playcentre meeting or another, hours cleaning & tidying, writing narrative assessments for the kids' portfolio/profile books, and on and on it goes.

Next year all 3 and 4 year olds in New Zealand will be entitled to up to 20 hours free child-care, which is an admirable thing. The down-side for us at Playcentre is that it only applies to teacher-led services, and it's still unclear how it will be implemented by those services anyway. With the changes already this year to eligibility for child-care subsidies, many at-home parents found it's worthwhile (financially speaking) to return to work, at least part-time, now that they don't have to spend half their paycheck on child-care. Playcentres around the country have already felt the effects of that, with roll numbers decreasing in many urban centres, and some smaller rural centres closing or at crisis point.

I'm beginning to feel that our centre is just about at crisis point now, so I've been worrying and wondering about what to do. That, and wishing I knew some flash marketing company who could entice lots of new families to come along with their little ones.

On a lighter note, I got a wee bit of crafting done. Etsy finally re-appeared on Tuesday (NZ time) and over the next few days I managed to list the new flowers I'd finally finished. I love how Etsy now allows categories in stores, so all my kimono flowers are grouped together, brooches together, etc.

On Thursday Helen and I went to the Arts Recycling Centre and I picked up a heap of remnants of (new) polyester neck-tie fabric. They've been turned into flowers now, and the first one listed in the store.

The rain we've had for over a week has finally cleared away this afternoon, and when Ian and Jen get home from the hardware store we're off to the pool!

Have a good week!

It's raining, it's pouring

2006-11-09T09:59:00.000+13:00

What a dismal day. Thursday is my "lazy, busy day". No Playcentre today for Helen and me, so instead we've been doing some errands round town. In the pouring rain. My list for the day:

Spotlight for pinbacks - didn't make it
Bead Bazaar for Swarovski rhinestones - didn't make it
T'n'T for summer pants for Jen - check
$2 Shop for storage bags (so I can remove some clutter from the girls' room and give/store it away instead) - didn't make it.
De-cluttering the girls' room - you guessed it.
Vacuuming - nope.
Laundry - har!
Grocery shopping - check
Update and run a full check with SpyBot - check
backup this computer - not yet.

So what kind of "success" rate is that? 33%? My report card for today reads "Miriam could do better".

And the dishcloth exchange deadline I thought I had loads and loads of time for is now just a week away.
I wanted to try and finish these flowers today too, but I just remembered I have a meeting at Playcentre tonight, sigh.

Guy Fawkes fireworks

2006-11-05T11:10:00.000+13:00

Today is Guy Fawkes. So that the girls could stay up late enough to watch the fireworks, we actually set ours off last night. Jen's not at all keen on the loud noises, but they both loved the sparklers. Junior pyromaniacs:
.

The launch of Etsy V2 has been postponed until next weekend, so that's giving me some extra time to get more flowers ready for the store. I've got 9 in progress so far, all in varying stages of completion. Pics to follow :-)

Etsy v2 this weekend! eep!

2006-10-31T18:36:00.000+13:00

I'm such a geek. I'm all excited about the imminent release of v2 of Etsy. The screen images of store-fronts look great. And there's some very cool new stuff in the pipelines - a real-time craft fair?!? It's an amazing site. I signed up there way back in July last year, when there were only a few thousand users. Now, I think, it's more like 30,000. I've updated my shop banner for the new format, using a different spangly-sort of font this time.

More kimono fabric arrived in the post this week from KimoYes. I was worrying about whether I'd like the fabric as much as the first lot. Like a teeny, insignificant version of "but could I love another child as much as I love my first-born?" (to which the answer is of course, yes! absolutely!) This batch has some beauties in it. The flowery ones are my favourites (no surprises there, huh?) It's a bit hard to imagine cutting them into tiny pieces. But that's what I'm going to do :-)
I'd love to have a new batch of flowers ready for when Etsy relaunches... fingers crossed!

Phew, what a week!

2006-10-29T17:47:00.000+13:00

This has been a l-o-n-g week. Last weekend, my twin brother and I celebrated one of those big birthdays. You know, the one that starts with a 4, ends with a 0? Many many cocktails and much hilarity ensued. We stayed up much later than was wise, given my last 6 or so years of child-induced sleep deprivation. But it was so much fun.
Helen and I finally made it back to Playcentre on Wednesday, she's pretty much recovered from the chickenpox.
And then last night, my fantastic friends threw a surprise birthday party for me. It was a perfect evening, absolutely still, a starry sky, and we sat outside and enjoyed lots of lovely wine and talking and laughing. It was just wonderful. I am so, so lucky.

On the crafting front, after these two blogs mentioned my kanzashi tutorials I've put some more thought into it and come up with another video and photo set (Threading 1-9). There's also a few more tips on flower assembly over on Craftster.

There's also a how *not* to do it video, which was the first attempt, where things didn't look so good. YouTube clipped off the last 2 seconds, which was me saying "or not!" Har!

Nothing like doing something over (5 times) to get it just right, huh? :-)

Double petal flower pin

2006-10-19T15:25:00.000+13:00

I love that pink and white fabric combination from yesterday's flower.
Today I decided to try something new. Bi-colour petals, using the same pink and white fabric.

It isn't too difficult to do.
Cut your fabric squares for the outside colour ever so slightly bigger than the inside squares.

Fold your first triangle using the outer fabric, and hold it down with the side of your hand (this is how I did it, anyway!)

Now fold your inner fabric into a triangle and lay it on top so it sits inside the outer one by about 2mm or so. Those inner petals will stand out highest, otherwise.

Then just carry on as normal. Lovely!

My first Whiplash entry

2006-10-18T15:32:00.000+13:00

I've been an avid reader of Whipup.net for the last 6 months or so. I signed up way back when the first Whiplash competition took place, thinking I'd enter something myself. I've admired so many gorgeous things produced for the Whiplash competitions, and I've been inspired by so much of what I've read and seen on Whipup. Well, accessories are my thing at the moment, so I've decided to join in this round.
If you read back to one of my posts last month, you'll see I already posted a tutorial (video and pics) about folding fabric petals tsumami kanzashi-style. So I won't be doing another tutorial, they're fun but also time consuming, and difficult to do with only 1 pair of hands. So instead, I'm going for the skill category, with this little flower. Normally, I like the simplicity of just 5 petals on my flowers, but sometimes, as with a two-colour flower, you have to go with an even number. So here she is, a 6-petal soft pink and white flower pin. I've made other flowers in this colour combination before, but using a pink button centre, polyester chiffon and a different style of folding for the petals. I love the softness of pink and white together. This flower is a bit more special, as it's made from vintage kimono fabric, a silver-coloured metal filigree and glass pearl centre.

Hiapo and Sashiko

2006-10-16T13:20:00.000+13:00

This weekend I got some lovely books from the library.
The first one is a book entitled Hiapo, Past and present in Niuean barkcloth. I grew up knowing this as tapa, but as you'd expect, different Pacific islands have different names for it (masi, siapo, hiapo, aute, kapa, ngatu). I love it so much. The colours and patterns are just beautiful. We have a large Tongan cloth (ngatu) hanging over our bed, and a smaller, redder one with turtles and fish, in our dining room.

The next book is The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook, about this modern Japanese style of running stitch embroidery, for quilting and decoration. This book has me itching to find some needles and thread and get started. I'm imagining some wall panels done in cream and brown because...

what really struck me as cool about these books was the similarities in the patterns.
Check it out, flower & leaf sashiko motifs, and detail from a hiapo cloth (dating from 1885):

And since Helen came down with Chickenpox yesterday, I now find myself looking for things to do with my time, that would have otherwise been filled with Playcentre stuff. Maybe Itchy Girl will need a recuperative nap and I might get some crafting done - fingers crossed!

More buttony goodness

2006-10-11T21:57:00.000+13:00

I'm feeling a bit sad. Jen will be going back to school tomorrow, and I'm going to miss having her around. I've even been having daydreams about home-schooling. Then I remember about Helen (ah yes, Helen) and the picture doesn't seem quite so rosy. Tonight I was looking at Helen squirming around in my lap and wondered to myself how on earth she turned out the way she did. I actually asked her "where *did* you come from, Helen?" and she told me "um, from the zoo. No actually, from the wild". Out of the mouths of babes!

In crafty news, I can't leave the buttons alone. While I was attaching a kanzashi flower to a hairpin tonight for an etsy customer, I decided to see how easy it would be to glue buttons to hairpins. Pretty easy! and fun :-)

Last day of the holidays

2006-10-08T16:37:00.000+13:00

Sad to say, the holidays are nearly over. Helen will be back at Playcentre tomorrow morning, and Jen and I will get to spend some unexpected quality time together because Jen has the chicken pox. She's been pretty miserable with them since last Monday, covered in spots and itching like crazy. So no school for her for the next couple of days at least. It's meant our last week of the holidays didn't exactly go as planned. Instead of having friends over to play, going for picnics at the park with the Playcentre families, going to the library, art gallery, shops etc we've been cooped up inside (thanks to the weather, also, which turned foul right after we turned off our night-store heaters. Needless to say, they're back on again.)

The only crafting I've got done this last week was putting together a few more button brooches. Goodness knows what I'll do with them. But never mind, because I love them anyway!

Otherwise, I've washed every item of dress-up clothing from Playcentre, and have a pile of them to mend and some to alter so they are a better fit for little people.

Feeling a lack of craftiness niggle today, I signed up for a dishcloth swap on Swap-bot. The deadline is way off in the middle of next month, and it's only for 1 dishcloth. Just the right sort of little project to keep me busy once the girls are asleep. And a great excuse to look through my Barbara Walker knitting treasury book again.

I've been blogged!

2006-10-01T13:52:00.000+13:00

My etsy store has been blogged on the Craft Revolution site! Cool!

Earlier in the week I was playing with the buttons with the girls - sorting and grouping, counting, talking about colours etc - they're very educational! I decided to look up buttony things on the web and found some gorgeous brooches made by Magpie. I couldn't resist making one of my own:

Last night I finished a scarf that I've been dreaming up in my head for about a year, since I saw this gorgeous Chan Luu one via the crochet discussion board on Craftster.

Now that I've figured out crocheting (is that a word?) the motifs together as one piece of work, rather than heaps of individual shapes stitched together later, I'm thinking of finding some finer wool and attempting something closer to the Chan Luu one. Maybe I can get it done in less than a year this time!

Sakura festival

2006-09-25T14:49:00.000+12:00

On Saturday we went to the Sakura festival at International Pacific College. Gorgeous day, dancers in national costume, beautiful kimonos everywhere, lots of yummy things to eat. And at the back of the campus, the bush was full of tui birds. There must have been at least 20 of them! One swooped down close to Helen and gave her an enormous fright. The cherry trees were in full flower, so pretty.

Our lazy holiday is coming along nicely too. I've made a couple more tsumami flowers, which are in store now. When we were in Wellington recently I bought a packet of unicorn transfers (Sublime Stitching) from Juniper in Newtown (lovely, lovely store). So I'd like to get a little work done with those this week, possibly maybe.

Comfort crafting

2006-09-21T22:54:00.000+12:00

The girls and I have been feeling unwell this week. First, conjunctivitis for me, yuck. Then colds all round, and of course that means a touch of asthma for Helen. Thank heavens tomorrow is the last day of the school/Playcentre term. Next week we'll be lazing around in our pyjamas all morning, going back to bed after breakfast if we want to. I give it 2 days before we're all driving each other mad.
While lounging around watching Monsters, Inc countless times with Helen as we worked our way through the tissue boxes, I managed to get a little crafting done! Some more kanzashi, and a crochet silk belt, which are up in my Etsy store now. I'm planning (OK, more like hoping) to get some more crafting done over the next couple of weeks, along with a heap of work for Playcentre before term starts again and AGM rolls around.

Folding kanzashi petals

2006-09-17T16:58:00.000+12:00

We made a little video of me folding kanzashi petals. It's not the greatest resolution, and I forgot to talk (doh!) but it's up in my Photobucket album if you're interested.
There's also some pics that would work as a slideshow through Media Player or something if you grab them all. Images in my Flickr album if you want 'em.

TGI nearly F

2006-09-14T17:22:00.000+12:00

What a week it's been. I'm exhausted. Nearly the end of term here for us all (1 week to go) and nerves are starting to fray. We need some mornings slobbing around in pj's until 11 o'clock or something.

Good news to share, though - some lovely mail has arrived this week, the girls have been so excited about the parcels with their names on them! I didn't manage to take photos before everything was opened up, but will see if I can get some of the tiny crafting in progress, this Sunday if all goes well.

In not so good news, I finally got my Teeny Tiny parcels away, albeit late, and without one of the items I'd planned to include since first my printer, and then my CD burner, refused to co-operate.

Tomorrow Ian and I are off to Wellington to pick up his photographs from Photospace as the exhibition closes tomorrow. He's looking at getting the works hung in the City Art Gallery here, Te Manawa, so we're keeping fingers crossed that all comes together soon. So, tomorrow night will be Helen's first sleep-over as we are leaving the girls with Ian's parents and having a grown-ups only night away. First time in over 6 years!

Teeny Tiny Chaos

2006-09-05T21:08:00.000+12:00

Teeny Tiny swap day is nearly over and no, I didn't quite make it to the Post Office. I just have 2 little bits to finish off once I can get to the shops tomorrow.

Here's a teeny tiny taste of the chaos that our dining table has become these last several days:

Jen's school is having a special dress-up day on Friday, come as your favourite book character. She wants to go as Clarice Bean, so I managed to come up with these for her to wear:

Teeny Tiny Swap anxiety

2006-09-04T21:00:00.000+12:00

We spent the weekend busily working away on things for the Teeny Tiny Swap. Posting date is tomorrow. Hmmm. So I brought some teeny tiny things to work with me tonight and I've been busy laminating, collating, stapling ...
I still have quite a bit to do tomorrow, which will involve some stressing, probably two trips to Stationery Warehouse, some hot gluing, fiddling with wire, trying to get my computer and printer to co-operate (they are barely on speaking terms at the moment). And maybe, just maybe, if all goes well, a trip to the Post Office. It's going to be another busy day!

Etsy milestones

2006-09-04T20:57:00.000+12:00

Today my Etsy store reached 5000 views, and 50 "hearts" (people who have marked my store in their collection of favourites). Pretty cool!

The real deal

2006-09-02T19:00:00.000+12:00

I've been busy!

The vintage kimono fabrics are lovely to work with. My favourite is the white with red dots. Still more to come in the next few days!

And we're all busy working away on the Teeny Tiny Swap :-)

Gorgeous fabric

2006-08-31T11:53:00.000+12:00

Most of the fabric strips ready to be turned into kanzashi:

WIP - kimono silk flowers

2006-08-31T09:10:00.000+12:00

Last Thursday I ordered some kimono silk pieces from kimoYES. They arrived on Tuesday, and last night I made 2 flowers using a couple of different pieces. It's gorgeous to work with! Now if I can just get this computer to notice when I plug the camera in, I'll post some photos.
Today is our day off from Playcentre, so for me and Helen it's our "lazy, busy day". That means doing washing, grocery shopping, cleaning, maybe some thrifting, a trip to Bead Bazaar for some bits to go in the centre of the flowers.... fun!

After School "Arts"

2006-08-30T11:42:00.000+12:00

Every Tuesday, I take the girls to After School Arts, a programme we run at our Playcentre, essentially like Playcentre for our kids who have moved on to school. It's a chance for them to do some arty, crafty activities, maybe with different materials than what we would provide for our preschoolers. It's different from school curriculum art, at least what I've seen in Jen's classroom so far, in that the children are in charge of the creative process. They choose what they want to do: what paper, what collage materials, what paint, pens, adhesives etc. There are no stencils, or templates, or anything like that.

So, sometimes the kids choose an activity which is decidedly not arty. It might be cooking sausages over a campfire in the sandpit. Or, they might choose to play like pigs in mud on the hill at the back of the centre, which is what happened yesterday. As Jen said to her Dad later "it was totally awesome!"

Teeny Tiny Swap

2006-08-23T19:05:00.000+12:00

So the other day I signed the girls up for a swap aimed at kids, organised by Amanda at Zhinka dinka doo. It'll be so much fun! We've had lots of interesting talks about their favourite things, and how we could share them with our swap friends - books, crafts, colours... heaps of fun, and the actual crafting hasn't even begun yet!

More flowers

2006-08-13T17:47:00.000+12:00

Worked on these this weekend, which was lots of fun. I posted a photo step-by-step on Craftster, lots of people had been asking about how to get the flowers put together.

Fabric flower fever!

2006-08-07T10:22:00.000+12:00

Yes! I've finally figured it all out. Made this other little flower last night. And it actually was quite quick to make this time, nothing like a bit of practice, huh?

Success!

2006-08-06T17:01:00.000+12:00

I did manage to create a kanzashi style flower that I'm actually pretty pleased with!

I love making these tiny things, and now the level of frustration with them has gone down somewhat, I can see myself having another go at it tonight! Cheers!

It's a crafting drought

2006-08-05T14:59:00.000+12:00

Yeah. It's been um, ages, since I actually made any crafty stuff at all. This week we've all been feeling blah (sinus thing, heads on the verge of exploding etc etc). So I've been spending less time running around town doing Playcentre stuff, shopping, After School Arts, (luckily it's break week at the college where I work - good timing!) and more time moping around at home with grizzly children, wishing I felt like doing something crafty. Or, doing anything, really.

A while back I had a go at making some folded fabric flowers in the style of Japanese kanzashi. Really, like the most basic, un-authentic kanzashi ever. It's something that drives me crazy. I can make the petals just fine. I can usually get them all joined together and spaced out so they seem to sit right. The back looks tidy. Then I go and stuff the whole thing up while doing the hot-glue/button centre part. *So* frustrating! I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of the hideous thing. So, I'm thinking maybe this afternoon would be a good time to try to get it right.

I have a bundle of fabric from the Arts Recycling Centre (only 20c, thanks!). Cotton this time, instead of the polyester chiffon I usually use for making fabric flowers.
If I get a result I'm happy with, I'll post some pics. Don't hold your breath ;-)

Creativity

2006-07-21T14:40:00.000+12:00

Last week I spent 4 wonderful days at a workshop on Children's Creativity, at the gorgeous Tauhara centre above the shores of Lake Taupo. The workshop was run by Pennie Brownlee, an amazing woman who's had years of involvement with Playcentre and has an absolute passion for understanding and encouraging children's development. She has a particular interest in children's creativity and is the author of a Playcentre published book entitled "Magic Places".

We were given a journal, pencils, pens, and lovely oil pastel crayons to work with and to keep, along with making finger paint, collages, and playing with clay. We sketched, we 'scribbled', we created, we learned so much, we laughed, we sang, we danced, we ate the most marvellous food. It was a much needed break from the noise and busy-ness of ordinary life, and I loved it. Mind you, I haven't put any new sketches into that journal yet. Sigh.

On the way home at sunset, we stopped on the Desert Road and took pictures of Ruapehu and Ngaruahoe. I don't think I've ever seen the snow so low on Ruapehu, and Ngaruahoe was wearing a cloud cap - so beautiful!

I am so, so lucky

2006-07-05T19:31:00.000+12:00

Well, I can hardly begin to say how lucky I feel today. A parcel arrived from the US, from my "I ♥ Paisley" swap partner - thank you so very much Linda!
Inside were the most amazing things. A huge tote bag for me, made from bright, beautiful paisley fabric. It's so vibrant, you can't possibly feel anything but cheerful carrying it. Also in the parcel were two wee tote bags, one for each of my girls, with all sorts of other goodies tucked inside. And shrinky-dinks! which you can't get here! I feel really spoiled.

I'll try and post pictures of the beautiful things once the sun comes out again, which may not be for a few days. Ugh. Meanwhile, I'm posting a pic of my Paisley swap parcels, although not entirely everything was wrapped up, so it's a sneak peek at what I made.

So yesterday I posted that parcel off for the Paisley swap, and a postcard for the hand-made postcard swap went off to Portugal. Now I'm feeling "swap anxiety" about them. Nervously waiting for them to arrive ...

I ♥ Paisley swap day!

2006-06-30T19:40:00.000+12:00

So, today I finished my crafting for the "I ♥ paisley" swap. Nothing like a rapidly approaching deadline to get me motivated! I'll post pics at some stage, maybe once the things have arrived at their destination. In the meantime, take a look at the lovely stuff other (better organised!) Paisley Swappers have made and exchanged.

And in other news, some friends and I did a little bit of thrifty shopping today at the Salvation Army store in town. Got a gorgeous pink gingham circle skirt for our dress-up box for 50c, which Helen promptly decided is hers and has worn for the rest of the day. Also found a pair of cute etched glass tumblers which the girls used for their dinner-time drinks while I had my customary Friday night glass of red anti-oxidant.

Tomorrow the re-branded Methodist thrift store "Wesley Vintage" opens at 10 o'clock. Through the window we spotted lots of strands of big faceted acrylic beads for just $2, so I'm setting my alarm clock tonight!

Mmmm, lemon cake

2006-06-24T16:15:00.000+12:00

One of the good things about winter is that our lemon tree gives us plenty of fruit for making delicious lemon cake. I've discovered that the recipe works nicely in the microwave, so the whole process, from picking the lemons to eating the warm cake, takes only about 25 minutes.

Recipe
In the food processor, mix 1 ½ cups of sugar with 2 eggs, the grated zest of 2 lemons, and ½ cup of canola oil, until the mixture is thick and pale. Next, add 1 cup of yoghurt (I use 99.9% fat free vanilla flavoured yoghurt) and the juice of the 2 lemons. Mix again to combine. Then add 2 cups of self-raising flour and mix until the batter is smooth. Line a 20cm microwave ring pan with baking paper then pour in the batter. Elevate and cook for 10 minutes on medium high power. Let it cool in the pan for a few minutes then turn out and peel off the baking paper. Serve the cake warm or cold, with yoghurt spooned over the top. So good!!!

Fun with Du-kit

2006-06-22T11:22:00.000+12:00

Packed Jen off to school (30 minutes late) this morning after 4 days off sick, only to have Helen come down with an ear infection. So my busy morning in town turned into a trip to the Dr with Helen and some unexpected quiet time while she sleeps on the couch.

I bought some Pearl Du-kit polymer clay about a month ago to try photocopy transfers. Rather than crashing around in the kitchen dealing with the aftermath of last night's dinner, I decided to try the transfers. It's really fun! But with both my attempts I managed to rub bits of the toner away with the paper. More practice needed...

I'm thinking this will be a fun activity for our After School Arts programme. The children can draw some little pictures to transfer and bake, then maybe make badges or bag-tags with them. Cool!

Birthday craftiness

2006-06-21T19:19:00.000+12:00

So, I'm a little late with this. The most recent things I've made were for Jen's 6th birthday, back on June 10th. Some of them were inspired by my new blog-reads:

allsorts neat little pinspinners. I printed them onto double-sided scrapbook paper (One Heart One Mind) to save me the trouble and expense of adhering 2 papers together. The girls loved them.

Tissue and crepe paper bunting

Flower balloons, from instructions on Martha Stewart's kids website

Edible dough cookies, recipe from my Southern Living cookbook.

A fresh start

2006-06-21T16:29:00.000+12:00

This new blog replaces my old one, which I've just deleted. Reading back through the old blog was a bit weird - the only crafting I was doing was knitting. And I was pregnant with Helen (now aged 3 1/2!).

So I've been inspired lately by so many lovely crafty bloggers. Soon I'll figure out how to list links to their blogs somewhere here :-)

I even have some photos to post of things I've made recently - just need to figure out Flickr and I'll be all set!