I'm back, at last

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!

Happy mail, I've got that happy mail

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

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.

Button swap

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!

Meet Bill

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?

Windy Wednesday

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.

More buttony goodness

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

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!

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!