Time to Rest.....

Time is slipping away so quickly at the moment. My head seems to be spinning as I rush about trying to squeeze a few final crafty things in before bub #2 comes along. Some finishing touches to my niece's Xmas pressie..... A cute little outfit that I'm sure her mother will just LOVE!!!! And another new top for Miss Connie to wear over this festive season all washed and drying on the line....

My bodies really trying to tell me to rest today... Connie is taking a special fondness to snuggling up with Mummy and reading her lots of stories. I wonder how she'll be with the new arrival???? I can tell, especially today, that she senses something is in the air.... :)

My emails are really backing up at the moment and I'm trying my hardest to get on top of them.... Please forgive me if you're waiting for a reply I promise I'll get back to you soon.... I love hearing from you all and feel so terrible that I've been so slack... :(

Not Long Now....

Seen as though I'm using the same pram for bub #2 that I used with Connie I decided to make it a new insert to freshen it up a bit. I cut a heap of 6" x 3 1/2" strips and sewed them all together pretty randomly like this.....All up it was a 2 hour project late one night while DH and Connie were in bed and I was awake til the wee hours nesting..... LOL!!! All that's left to do is sew some button holes where the straps go and it's all done.....

I came across a great little diaper cover pattern on Raverly the other night and just had to give it a go..... It was super easy and only took a couple of nights in front of the TV to complete. I've already cast on a purple one and should hopefully have it finished tonight.....Also speaking of knitting, a little while back I whipped one of these mug cosy's up for someone (can't tell yet) to go with their Xmas pressy.....What a great little project!!!!! I can't wait to make myself one as well, I also like this little pattern too...

Only a couple of days til Xmas, can you believe it???? How are all of your preparations going????? I'm doing a pressy drop tonight before I head down to Cootamundra to my Mum's for Xmas, oh yeah and to have bub #2 seen as thought the closest hospital to have babies around here is 370 km's away from me..... One last belly shot, 3 days before I'm due.....
Take Care :)

Simple Sewing.....

I have a couple of little tops on my list to make up for Miss Connie for Xmas this year and if I'm happy enough with the pattern I'm going to scale it down and make a couple of tops for my new little niece too..... I made a trial one last night using some of this Japanese fabric. I must admit, it's turned out super cute and now I'm itching to make some more.....I used a New Look pattern that I bought ages ago and traced but never got around to sewing up. I still have the traced copy but have somehow managed to loose the original, heaven only knows what the pattern number is... LOL!!!!This project took only 2 hours all up so unless bub #2 decides to come along early I should easily be able to manage another couple of these little tops before Xmas....

I've hung my advent stockings now that the countdown to Xmas is under 10 days (remember I only got around to making 10 instead of 24... hehehe). Don't they just look so cute with the little cheeky chocolate Santa heads popping out the top???? Maybe next year I might be able to get around to finishing off the rest of them....

Take Care.... :)

More Xmas Pressie Crafting.....

I'm so happy that I've finally finished the quilts I had planned for Miss Connie and DH for Xmas this year..... With the count down to Xmas now only 10 more sleeps and Bub #2's due date fast approaching I never thought I was going to get either of them finished.

DH's is a denim rag quilt made out of 8 pairs of his old favourite jeans that no longer fit....I've never made a rag quilt before and am so happy with how this one turned out.... I had no pattern just some basic instructions I'd found on the web. I cut the old jeans into 6" squares and sewed 2 of these together at a time wrong sides facing on the diagonal. Once I had all of my 6" squares sewn together I than had to sew my strips to start making the quilt. I used a generous 1/4" seam allowance when sewing it all together. This was all easy enough and I went for a checker board look like on this denim rag quilt. The trickiest part of the whole quilt was cutting the seams to make the rag's.... I had to cut through 4 layers of denim and my poor old scissors really couldn't handle the pressure so I opted for a butchers knife instead and that was much less painful on my hands not to mention the scissors.....

Miss Connie's quilt is a raggy square quilt that I roughly followed this tutorial for.....

I just used what ever purple fabric I had on hand for this one and some extra thick polyester wadding as I wanted it to resemble a doona, nice and fat and fluffy..... It was really hard to quilt with the extra thick wadding as it kept wanting to pucker up, any tips as to how to stop this from happening next time would be great... :) I'm so glad that I used the extra thick stuff though, it definitely gave me the effect I was looking for... The fabric frayed really nicely after the first wash and I didn't need to trim many threads at all...

I also managed to whip up a little snuggle bunny for bub #2 last night using some lovely soft and fluffy fairy floss yarn that I got a while back from here.....The pattern was a freebie when I bought the yarn and was a little bit confusing. You had to knit the front and back of the head at the same time and than stuff it at the end but once I finished I could barely fit any stuffing in the head.... Very strange????? Maybe I need to make another one just to make sure I was reading the pattern correctly.....

The button eyes look a bit freaky in these pics but I promise it's very cute in real life... LOL!!! I have almost finished all of my Xmas crafting now thank goodness.... I will have to post a lot of my pressy pics after Xmas though as many of the people receiving these gifts often pop in to have a read of my blog.... How's your Xmas crafting coming along????

Take Care :)

Heating Up.....

The weather sure has been heating up a bit lately and being pregnant I swear that I feel an extra 5 degrees hotter than everybody else... LOL!!! Whatever possessed me to decide to have a baby at the peak of Summer???? Am I crazy or what????

You'd think that knitting would be the last thing on my mind with all of this hot weather now wouldn't you but no that's not the case..... I'm still poking along, pumping out the projects for Xmas including one of these little cute singlets for Miss Connie, my little princess.....

I changed the pattern just a little by cutting about 15cm off it's length.

I also cut about 3cm off the moss stitch at the top and added buttons to the back to fasten the straps instead of sewing them down. I'm dying to make another one of these little tops and am thinking of trying to incorporate some kind of lacy pattern into the stocking stitch to jazz it up a bit.....The cotton yarn that I used was an absolute pleasure to work with, once again from here, and I think I may just have enough left over to knit up some booties like these little cuties from the Living Creatively site for bub #2.....The festive season is in full swing here with 'get togethers' every time you turn around.... We had our town 'tree lighting' on Wednesday night which was a great turn out for our little country town. Miss Connie loved the Xmas lights SO much that she insisted we put some up in her room just in case Santa couldn't to find her now that she's in her big girly bed..... Too Cute..... :)I hope everybody is enjoying this festive time of year and spending lots of time with their loved ones where they can.... Take Care :)

Good Intentions......

With all good intentions in mind I was going to knit 25 of these little cutie's to make into an advent calendar. I got a total of 7 done..... Pretty sad hey??... LOL!!!!

So instead this year I've decided to do a 10 day count down to Xmas for the little princess and aim to get the rest of the stockings made for next year......

While I should of been knitting more Xmas advent stockings I was making more wash cloths instead. Here's a pink one the same as the brown one in my last post, pattern from here...I also got a chance to knit up this little moss stitch and cable bib (the pattern's a free Raverly download) for a special little baby girl to go with her Xmas pressie.....The pattern was really easy to follow but for my next one I've decided to change it just a little and put a row of cables down both sides and a fastening at the back instead of the side..... Take Care...... :)

The Outfit and a Little Crafting.....

It was so hard to take a good pic of the little princess in her party outfit on Thursday night... The lighting at the Club was absolutely shocking and I was using DH's camera which wasn't a great idea, it's no where near as good as mine.....

Here's a back view of Connie waiting to receive her pressy from Santa... Isn't she such a good little girly waiting ever so patiently for her turn..... :)

Her she is opening her pressie with Daddy.....

And just in case you couldn't see the little outfit quite good enough here's a pic I took of it after I washed it this morning..... Skirt..... Apron Top... And Yo-Yo Hair Clip.....

On my 'to make' Xmas pressie list this year are a heap of knitted/crochet Washcloths. I whipped this crochet one up last night in some lovely Chocolate coloured cotton yarn I bought from here.....

I have another one on the go as of this morning in some lovely pastel pink yarn from the same place.... I also made 2 of these knitted Xmas tree Washcloths up the other day (yarn for these was also from here) and they're in the post as I write this on their way to a lovely ladies home for an early Xmas treat.....

Here's a better look at the red one... It has little Xmas trees scattered all over it, perfect for Xmas and sooooo super easy.... I hope she loves her surprise.... :)What Xmas crafts have you got on the go at the moment????? I've been seeing some gorgeous stuff floating around blogland of late and it's been such a huge inspiration.... Thank-you all!!!!!

Xmas Parties...

The little princess has her first Xmas party for 2008 this afternoon with Santa and presents and lollies and music and dancing, she just can't wait.... :)

With all of this excitement I thought that a new little outfit was definitely in order.... So with the colour purple in mind, her favourite of course, I hit my fabric stash looking for some kind of inspiration.....

Some cute purple Xmas fabric left over from last year a bit of purple gingham and some delicious deep grape corduroy later I had found my inspiration.... With only a couple of hours up my sleeve I got to work....A few buttons here and a yo-yo or 2 there and the little party outfit was done.....I'll take some more pics of Connie in it tonight so you'll have to wait to see the whole thing.... Now time for Mummy to get herself organised in record time so that we can make it to the party on time, looking at the clock I have just under an hour to be dressed and in the car..... Wish me luck... LOL!!!!

Have the Xmas parties started in your neck of the woods yet??? I'd love to hear all about them if they have..... Take Care :)

Back To Basics Update # 1

I've decided to join in with this great little challenge I read about over at Belinda's blog. It's been going for a while now and Belinda does weekly updates but knowing how side tracked I can get I thought I'd just number my updates instead of doing them weekly just in case...... :)

Sowing/Planting/Harvesting.....
Sowing - Watermelon, Sweet Corn, Zucchini, Tomatoes

Planting - Tomatoes, Thyme, Dill, Baby Spinach, Lemon tree, Orange tree, Lime Tree.
Harvesting - Wheat (DH's 1500 acres), Snow Peas, Radish and waiting anxiously for my first lot of tomatoes to ripen....

Planning for the Future....
Sorted out the freezer and made meal plans to suit what I had. Organised DH to kill a couple of our lambs in the next few weeks to restock supplies. Finished writing up a Xmas pressie list and put aside patterns needed to make most of the gifts on my list.

Working for the Future....
Built a garden bed in front of the kitchen for herbs. Built tree guards for newly planted fruit trees to stop lambs from eating them. Started quilting Connie's quilt and cutting the shag's on DH's Old Jeans Shaggy quilt (inspiration from here) for Xmas. Crochet a blanket for Connie's Xmas dolly (yet to be made). (you can see more pics of the dolly blanket here)

Building Community....Sorted through the families old clothes and bagged a heap up to drop off to the Salvation Army next time I'm in town. Made a batch of peanut butter cookies to drop off to a friend.Learn a New Skill...
Got a crash course on how to operate a John Deere 8820 Header so that I can help DH harvest our wheat crop.

And guess what?????

Less than 4 weeks til Bub #2 is due... Here's a belly pic taken while I was at work last week....This bundle of joy has been incubating for 36 weeks now and our little family is just ever so anxious to meet him/her..... Take Care :)

Stocking Fillers

I knitted up this super cute and easy dolly over the weekend to put in the little princess's Xmas stocking this year.....The pattern was a freebie from here..... I swear it only took a couple of hours to whip up (don't forget I'm only a novice knitter) and the hardest part of the whole thing was the sewing on of the arms to the body. It stands about 20cm tall and the hat and scarf are detachable. The pattern also has instructions for a little sleeping bag to go with your dolly too but I didn't make that up...

You can't really tell but the yarn is a lavender colour, not blue like it looks in the pics... I'm going to knit bub #2 one of these dollies up to for a stocking filler...
I also had a go at crocheting a little pixie type doll too but am not too happy at how it turned out... :(

This pattern was also a freebie from Raverly, not that I'm recommending it thought....I was going to make a heap of these little pixie's in different colours for Xmas decorations, not anymore... LOL!!!

I've decided to try and knit up a heap of these little cuties instead. I'd love to do enough before December 1st so that I can use them as an advent calendar, stay tuned you never know what might evolve....

Take Care :)

Nesting Part 2

Here's the pic of the little green crochet top with matching panties that I told you all about in the last post.....

I also whipped up another top in blue yesterday while waiting in the Dr's clinic... Yes that's right I waited for over an HOUR an that bloody clinic yesterday to see the Doc for 5minutes for bub #2's check up, pretty sad isn't it??? :(

I made this one a little tiny bit longer than the first 2 and changed the edging row ever so slightly, once again.... The little blue panties I made up with the cutest fabric that I bought from Spotlight about 2 months ago for $1 a metre, what a BARGIN!!!!

Now for all of those lovely ladies who may think that I'm having a girl with all of this 'girly' crafting that I've been doing of late I must assure you that I still don't know.... If bub #2 is not a girl that's o.k.... I have 2 girlfriends due over the next couple of months and they both know that they are having girls, or so they tell me anyway, and if I have a boy than these little outfits are bound for their new little bundles of joy....

I also finished the cot/pram quilt last night..... Doesn't it just feel so great when you get to cross stuff off you BIG list of things to do??? Babies quilt, tick... :)I didn't really use babies colours now did I????? I knew the sex with my first bub and when it came to crafting up a storm for her before she was born it was so easy when you knew what colours and styles you could lean towards.... It's so much harder to think of things that will suit both a boy and a girl... Only a couple of weeks to go now and I won't have to wonder any more... :)

Take Care :)