Phew - Nearly There!!

Wow, I can't believe it's almost mid-January already! I hope the New Year is treating you all well. It has been so busy here, I've had hardly any time to sit down at the computer so I was determined to do it today. I'm looking forward to visiting all my fave blogs really soon for some new year inspiration. My ripple picnic blanket is almost done - yippee! I think another two colours and we'll call it a day. My small folk are bursting to take it on its inaugural picnic outing. So I'm thinking that the next sunny evening we have, we'll pack up my tiny Fiat, grab some fish and chips and slowly tootle to the top of our local 'mountain' for dinner. Dinner with a view over Wellington city - gorgeous!

Oh and of course no photo session would be complete without Bella! I don't know how she does it but she always miraculously appears as soon as I put my crochet on the floor. Don't you love the attitude in this pic!!

As much as I don't particularly like the colours I had left in this wool, it has been a really lovely easy pattern to work on. It does make me laugh though - this project was started with the intention of using up all these colours and clearing out one wool basket . So why is it that I'm nearly finished and the wool doesn't look like it's diminished much at all. Darn it.

The sun came out this morning so I whizzed the small folk off to a central city playground. I've never been there before and it was gorgeous. Our own little Central Park! Unfortunately the rain that was forecast for later tonight decided to come way too soon and we all got totally drenched. I'm kind of glad really because it meant we got to visit a nearby cafe instead which was just lovely.

I think the staff thought I was mad, wandering around taking photos of their chairs! How could I not take pictures, they were soooooo pretty.

Mmmmm flowers or stripes ...... where to sit?

I loved the decorative dangly curtain thingamee. What a brilliant way to use up lots of trinkets. Miss 4 would love this in her room.

Even the lampshades were fabulous. These ones were in the ladies loo!

This was my fave - there were a few of them above the front door. I couldn't take my eyes off them.

I know this isn't nearly as groovy as the ones at the cafe but I'm loving them. I re-covered our dining chairs last week using some very summery, beachy fabric and they look fabulous. A very welcome splash of colour - every bit helps.

The holiday break gave us a chance to have a bit of a change around at home. Out with some old furniture and in with some new 'old' furniture. I bought this gorgeous old oak tea trolley ages ago for only $20 and it has been hidden away in our spare room for too long. It is now in the lounge and I adore it. I love that this really old piece now houses some lovely nana-y flowers in an old jar (and sitting on a doily!!!), while underneath is a more modern gadget. Loving it.

We were also really lucky to find this amazing old, solid Rimu hutch dresser. It is in amazing condition and will be well loved in its new home. We used to have something like this in our last home but it was built in, so we couldn't bring it with us. This cabinet was an absolute nightmare to get into our front door (we managed to smash through the porch floorboards in the process - eeek) but once it was in, it was as if it was made for our room. So this week it has been so much fun sorting through all our op shop treasures and trinkets to start popping on the shelves. I find myself staring at it in the evening - I'm so thrilled that we found it.

I found a recipe recently for this fantastic quiche. This was a total hit at a family picnic last week. The most perfect thing to make when you want to use up any manner of things in your fridge. And any recipe that is made in one bowl and takes 5 minutes has got to be good doesn't it? Even my husband loved it and he's not really into eggy things. Just looking at it now is making me hungry!! Oooh, maybe we need one for dinner ...

Have a fab week everyone. See you again soon.

Leah
xxxx

A little sidetracked!

I got a little sidetracked this week and needed a wee break from my African flower blanket. The blanket is coming along nicely, but sometimes it's nice just to whip something up and get an instant reward. So the other night I sat and had a play around and came up with this. It's a little cutie!

I love the colours and different stitches. Nothing fancy but I really like it.

The little picot edge around the top finishes it off nicely. I just wish I could have taken a better pic of it!

So it was morning tea with delicious ginger crunch in the garden today! It was a classic windy Wellington day but our little back garden was lovely and sheltered and was the perfect warm, sunny spot for a quiet cuppa.

I think I've mentioned before that I own an old, but very sweet little car. It's a 1969 Fiat 500 which is also called a Fiat Bambina in New Zealand. It has been off the road for a while but after a bit of TLC recently, it is now on the road again and making us all smile with its lovely little engine sound and cheerful appearance. You really can't help but smile when you drive it, everything about it makes me happy. I bought this little car before I had children and it cost me the princely sum of $500 which was an absolute bargain. Over the years I have recovered the seats, re-coloured the interior panels and now I have the huge decision as to what colour the interior and exterior should be painted once the panel work is finished. I'd love to hear any suggestions!! Miss 4 wants it to be pink, surprise, surprise!

So anyway - another little project got started this week and this one is for my little car. I have been seeing lots of beautiful ripple blankets on blogs lately so thought I'd better have a go. This blanket is going to be kept on the back seat of my Bambina and will be perfect for either sitting on for Summer picnics or for wrapping around our legs on Winter drives as my car doesn't have much of a heater!!!

I'm using acrylic for this blanket as it needs to be fairly hard-wearing and be able to be thrown in the washing machine without too much worry.

It's going to be pretty big, enough for the 4 of us to laze on. I'm hoping it will use up a lot of the wool that I have in my stash (in NZ, we tend to refer to any yarn as wool even if it is acrylic - sorry for the confusion!!). I wasn't totally in love with these colours as I bought them a long time ago, but the more I look at them and imagine them in my car, they will be just perfect.

We have a fabulous craft event every few months here in Wellington which is called Craft 2.0. I went last weekend and saw so many inspiring bits and pieces - I think that's probably why I felt the urge to start a few new projects!! I treated myself to these pretty earrings. I absolutely love the wee label - it's so cute. There was also a lady selling grown up toffee apples which just couldn't be passed by. I apologise for the lack of photo - but between my dear friend Ange and me, the apple was sliced and devoured so darn quickly, there was no time to get the camera out! Who could resist a tart granny smith apple covered in melted jersey caramels, then covered in sprinkles. We convinced ourselves that it was healthy because it was mostly fruit!!!

Well that's me for another week! I am looking forward to some sunny weather over the next few days so I can spend some time in the garden which desperately needs weeding and replanting. Meanwhile I will make the most of these lovely blooms from the local vege market. This shade of pink is just gorgeous - I wish I could grow these!

Have a fabulous week everyone!!
Leah
xx

A very wet week

It's the school holidays here at the moment and we are having the most blah weather. The poor kids are bursting to get outside and run around but it is pouring with rain. So to try and distract them for a while we started some crafty projects.

I am so in love with these tiny bottles and have lots of them around the house as vases. We also have some in the kitchen which the small folk like drinking milk from with a fun straw. So with some of the empties, we decided to paint them and make a colourful wee selection of them to sit on my little kitchen shelf. So out came all the test pots I've collected over the years. I did have to pop down to the paint store to get two of the colours as I really needed a yellow and an orange. Such a simple job - pour in the paint, turn the bottle over and over to make sure it is well covered, then pour the excess paint back in the pot. Wipe the top of the bottle with a paper towel to leave it nice and neat, then leave to dry. Too easy!

They are just the right height for my wee shelf and they add a lovely burst of colour during these rainy, gloomy days. I love them!!

Ah ha - could it be? Why yes - these are all the trimmed ends from my blanket!! I finished nearly all of it last night while half watching the the All Blacks playing Australia. The last two little grannies were tidied and trimmed today. And wouldn't you know it, within five minutes of finishing my blanket and getting all excited about taking some pics and showing you - the weather took a turn for the worse. It was wet, dark and miserable - definitely not great photo taking weather. So I promise that by the end of the week, when the sun is meant to reappear, I will post pics!

I am thrilled with how it looks and can't wait to share it with you. Thank you for all your lovely comments as I've progressed with this project! Miss 4 asked if she could have it on her bed tonight so I think she may have claimed it as her own already. I am very flattered!

Here's just a quick pic of it folded up awaiting its photo session. I haven't pressed it yet (and don't normally do it) but will give it a go to see how it looks. I ended up changing my mind about the picot edging. I did one side with the picot and my crochet appreciation committee (Miss 4 and Mr 7) told me that it didn't look so great. I had to agree! It's fussy enough with all the grannies so a nice simple SC edge works well.

So fingers crossed the weather improves and is more Spring-y than Winter-y. The Spring flowers at the market yesterday were amazing. I am so in love with these beauties. Bright orange rununculas have cheered up my dining table. I can't stop staring at them - they are so intricate and perfect.

Now this is one thing that I do like about colder weather - comfort food!! I was so proud of myself for making this as it was my very first attempt at making pastry. I like to think I'm a fairly ok baker but I had never ever tried making pastry - I thought it would be too difficult. I was so wrong - it was easy peasy. My family loved this rustic pie so much, it will now have to be a regular addition to our dinner menu.

But I am really counting on better weather and more salads instead! I spent Saturday afternoon making a whole lot of these little newspaper seedling pots with the children. Lots of capsicums, lots of salad mix and a few other surprise seeds that I found in the cupboard - so goodness knows what they will turn out to be!! These wee pots were great to make and they can pop straight into the garden, newspaper and all, once the seedlings are ready to plant.

Well that's enough from me - I've crammed quite a bit in! I will hopefully be back fairly soon with some lovely blanket pics. It's all a bit of a downer, getting it finished and not being able to share it with you!

Have a fab week all - see you again soon.

Leah
xx

Ah - peace at last.

Happy 1st of August! It is the first day of term and both my small folk are back at school and kindy. I cannot believe how peaceful it is after two weeks of full volume! All I can hear is the birds in the garden - bliss. So I feel as if I should being going at full speed trying to catch up on all the things that have been neglected over the last fortnight but I just don't know where to start. I think a cup of tea and a quick look at some lovely blogs is called for before I start on the boring chores!

My blanket is progressing well - I think another three rounds and I'll stop. These delicious circles will form part of the border. I am so in love with this colour combination!! I usually complete the whole square before starting the next, but I just couldn't bring myself to edge them in white just yet - I wanted to see them in a lovely wee stack first. I am dreading tying in all the threads - my least favourite thing. I am using Alice's fabulous pattern and it is exactly what I had in mind. Now I just have to decide on the second colour combination to go with these little lovelies. Then I can start the white borders and get them attached to the main blanket.

A friend of mine needed a new hat for her daughter so I told her to pop over and less Miss 6 choose what colours she wanted. It was brilliant having all my wool out on shelves now - it was like being in a shop! Miss 6 browsed, selected, changed her mind, then firmly decided on "red with purple on the bottom, a pink and purple flower and leaves please". I think she chose so well - it's by far the prettiest colour combo I've used on a hat.

On Friday, the whole family had a day trip to celebrate the last day of the school holidays. Mr 6 is mad about trains and had always wanted to go on a train pulled by a diesel engine, rather than the electric ones that we normally go on. So my husband took the wee ones on the train over the hill to Greytown which is in the Wairarapa - about an hour away from our home. I drove over as the return times for the train were going to be too late for us. Just as well I was there to collect them, because it turns out that the Woodside/Greytown train station is way out in the middle of the country with not a bus, taxi or even a person in sight! Hilarious. It was the tiniest little station and absolutely gorgeous!! We had a lovely time wandering around the town and having a yummy morning tea before heading home in the afternoon.

Wow - on Friday night we had the most amazing sunset. The sky was absolutely stunning! It had been such a wonderful crisp Winter's day and this was just the most perfect way to end it.

I am sitting here at my table with a vase (well actually a lovely old milk bottle) full of Early Cheer. I think these flowers would have to be one of my favourite smells ever. The scent is just lovely and every time I walk past I get a wee burst of gorgeousness. At the vege market yesterday morning, these were everywhere and so very cheap - $2 for a lovely big bunch. I think our seasons are a bit screwy as these are meant to be out in Spring!!

Before I go I just wanted to say a big hello to my lovely new followers! I can't wait to pop over and have a look at your blogs. I am definitely in catch up mode but will get back into my usual routine now. Oh and after my grizzle last week about the gifts on Mollie Makes, apparently from Issue 4 the gifts will be included - yay.

Have a fab week everyone!
Leah
x

Crochet and some vintage loveliness

The books I treated myself to for my birthday earlier in the year have been used a lot this week! I have been making lots of little leaves and flowers for another tea cosy I am working on. This one is for a friend and I can't wait to get it finished! I absolutely love having a little pile of flowers slowly growing each evening when I get a chance to crochet. I've always admired the crochet roses I've seen on other blogs but I've never tried to make them before. By my second attempt I thought they were starting to look like they should!! I'm going to make a few more tonight and then get cracking stitching them onto the cosy.

My scarf is coming along nicely. All the squares are finished now but I still can't decide how to join them. I've had a few practice runs at it but nothing has appealed. So I think I will just sit it to one side while I stew a bit longer! Today's temperature is quite inspiring that's for sure - I could do with a cute woolly scarf right about now!!!

Mr 6 asked if I could please make him a hat "like the skateboarders wear Mum". I made this one last night and surprised him this morning. He loves it because it has a bit of a camouflage feel about it. It seems so strange to make a hat that doesn't have a big old flower plonked on the front though!

I spotted this gorgeous wee booklet as I was walking out of an op shop earlier this week. It was only 50 cents and is full of beautiful vintage crochet work. I love that the booklet itself was printed in 1967 so it's even more vintage than me!!!

And on the subject of vintage ... I visited the Museum of City and Sea yesterday with Miss 3, here in Wellington. It was so amazing, I can't wait to go back and see all the things I'm sure I missed first time around. I spotted this piece on the wall and couldn't wait to get up close to have a good look. It is a knee rug that is approximately 80-100 years old from memory. It was cobbled together with all sorts of different yarn and was quite remarkable to look at. It had been framed so beautifully and then framed again by a packing box making it look quite stunning. It has really made me stop and think how lucky I am that I can make things because I like them, whereas the maker of this knee rug made it for function.

Seeing that artwork reminded me of something, so when I got home I had to get these pretty gloves out of storage. I have had these for years and years, I think they belonged to my great grandmother, but up until now I hadn't really appreciated them. Now that I am doing crochet, I can totally understand the work that has gone in to making them. They are tiny! I thought I had little hands but there is no way I can get my hand in them. Very dainty and lovely to have tucked away as a part of my history.

Hope you're all having a lovely week!

Garden Centre Inspiration!

It has been a stunning Wellington day today - beautiful blue skies with just a light breeze. It's so sad to think that we are on the official downhill run into Winter now - aargh. The evenings are getting darker earlier and the temperature is starting to drop. So I was determined to get outside and make the most of today. Miss 3 and I caught up with friends at our favourite garden centre cafe today - sitting outside in the sunshine having a yummy date scone and a cuppa. Wandering through the centre on the way to the playground I spotted some more gorgeous gerberas (my fave flower) and they got me totally inspired to use some more of my stash of wool to whip up another cushion cover which will go nicely with my other cushion that is still not 100% finished.

I know I should really be finishing one before I start another but there is a good reason why I haven't. I have been looking and looking for a suitable jersey/jumper to use as the backing fabric as mentioned in an earlier post. And bingo, today I found it! A fabulous bright orangey/red merino size XL for $5 at an opshop. It looks brand new and will provide me with enough fabric to back both cushions - yippee! So after a good wash, it is now on the washing line awaiting its transformation into cushion covers. So hopefully it will only be a few more days before I can show you!

Here's a sneaky peek at the granny square cushion so far - it's just leaning against the inner to show you. Love, love, love these colours together. It's weird because I've never ever been a pink girl! Definitely a red girl and even an orange girl - but am warming to pink ...

I do love a nice granny!

A bit of a wonky pic but you get the idea!

Friday is my next chance to get my sewing machine out and I can't wait! I'm terrible at starting new projects before the others are finished - so it will be wonderful to have both of these cushions done. I think it's just as well that I now have two of them - so my small folk won't have to fight over them - they can have one each to laze against.

Have a lovely week!

I love playing around with these mosaics - so here's just a quick little burst of colour to brighten up the day with some pics from the last week or so. It's a beautiful Wellington day today - sunny with just a little breeze to get the washing dried faster. And yet again, I have been busy with my hook making woolly hats. I always seem to pick the warmest days to work on winter projects! The two latest ones are on the bottom row, the red one is for Miss 3 with a matching one in cream for me. These were so very quick to make. The pattern can be adapted for all sizes which is fab - you can find it at McKinley's Closet. The amazing dahlia on the bottom right is from my father-in-law's wonderful garden. I think it is the most perfect flower I have ever seen.

The lovely old bowl in the middle row is a recent op shop find for $1.00! It is now our apple bowl and looks beautiful on the bench. The spotty and stripey mugs were purchased this week, they were so gorgeously cheerful I had to have them. Not to mention that they were hugely discount. I do love a good sale! I'm sure my tea tastes better in a cute mug too.

I am so looking forward to Friday when I can sew the back onto my cushion. I also have the small task of tidying up all those threads at the back. My least favourite part of crochet - but the resulting off cuts are adorable. And like many other folk, I have kept every single trimmed thread - my children call it the rainbow bag!

Anyone for tea?

It's that moment - the excitement of seeing the completed project! But with it comes a hint of owwwww as I didn't really want it to end - I was having so much fun making it.

I have absolutely loved making this tea cosy! It was my first attempt at knitting which I really enjoyed but as my first love is crochet, it was making all the cute flowers and leaves for the top that I loved the most. I got a crochet flower book for my birthday and have had so much fun working my way through it for this tea cosy. I neglected all household jobs last night so I could sit at the table and stitch all the flowers and leaves on. I love the colours, I love the randomness of the placement but most of all I love that it makes me smile whenever I look at it.

Is this my best side?

Or maybe it's this side?

My favourite view is this one. A nice big pile of flowers plopped on the top.

This pic was taken last night just after I had pinned all the flowers on and I was getting set to start attaching them. I was absolutely smitten at this moment!

My teapot was a very short, chubby 2 cup style so with a picture in my mind of what I wanted to make I just had a go at making up the pattern as I went along and I am thrilled with it. I will be popping the pattern in a post in the next few days.

There are so many gorgeous tea cosys I have come across recently that have inspired me. Alice's flowery tea cosies at Crochet with Raymond are utterly adorable and so is the gorgeous basket of flowers cosy by Pearly Queen . I hope you don't mind me mentioning you - I just love what you do!

Right, I'm off to make a cuppa! Have a lovely weekend all. It's Friday evening here, the sun is shining, it's 27 degrees in my house and the cicadas are chirping like crazy. I'm hoping the weather stays like this for the weekend but I'm told it's due to rain darn it. Oh well, rainy days mean more opportunities to crochet!