Craft Schmaft

I’m up in Far North Queensland for a little pre-baby break. I’ve come without any sort of craft project… zip… nada… none. Already experiencing craft withdrawals but I do have my sketch book running wild with ideas.

See you next week!

Claire

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50% off all PDF patterns, all weekend.

http://craftschmaft.bigcartel.com/

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Call it a weekend celebration if you will.

Happy Crafting!

Claire

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The woman cave is in full swing. I’ve been trawling the interweb for inspiration and for some reason am drawn to old things, vintage if you like. Actually it’s more than vintage, I think I’m drawn to items that have stood the test of time – things that have character. I’m loving ladders as shelves, this is a project from Sunset Magazine:

I’ve even gone so far as to go to a timber yard to find planks for my ladder shelves but it has to be said that the timber yard men were far less than helpful. They just couldn’t get their heads around me wanting to use timber meant for construction to put between two old ladders. They also seemed to have a panicked glint in their eye, a fear that I may give birth at any time or perhaps go on a pregnant hormonal rampage.  You may think this is ridiculous but I have spent a fair deal of time in hardware stores and other man domains and, before the big bump, got a very different reaction to needing some help with purchases. Fear not, I will persevere. There are plenty more timber yards on the northern beaches!

This weekend I went on a crafty weekend away with the lovely Belinda, Cass, Bianca, Fiona and Jade. There was good food, great company and the hum of sewing machines as everyone dove head first into sewing. I didn’t take my camera so I’ll have to steal some pics from Belinda but I did manage to take this show of the spectacular view from the house we stayed in.

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I worked on creating a new hood for the bugaboo which was probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever done – the actual sewing wasn’t difficult but tracing the hood to a pattern and then figuring out the construction was very tricky. I couldn’t have done it without Fiona’s help. I was doing celebration dances last night when I got home and it fit! Hooray!!! Only problem now is that I don’t like the placement of the pattern so I may just have to make another one. I also whipped together a doona cover and pillow case for Oscar out of Erin Michaels 5 funky monkeys. Such a dream in comparison to that hood, let me tell you! It was greeted with “Wow mummy, thanks!” from the munchkin. Very high praise indeed.

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It was such a treat to have an entire day on Saturday to just sew – no interruptions, no packing things away just pure, unadulterated sewing. Bliss.

All of the love owl kits have now sold out and we’ve raised over $100 for Doctors without borders in Haiti. I know it’s not millions of dollars but I like to think that every little bit helps.

Thank you so much to everyone who bought a kit to support the cause ($5 from every kit went to the charity).

We ‘re back from Melbourne after an amazing wedding on Friday, congratulations Trav & Simone! It was so great catching up with friends down there.  Once the munchkin and very hungover husband were in bed last night I watched Julie and Julia. What a great movie! Have you seen it?  Inspired by all things culinary and weddingish  I’ve been cooking up a storm in the kitchen this morning. All the shops are closed for Anzac day so the challenge was to whip something up out of ingredients we already had.  I made a sweet potato soup with cinnamon and smokey spanish paprika. Paprika has always been a bit of  a mystery spice to me but I’m determined to figure out how to use it. This very cool tin was a bonbonierre gift from Melbourne friends (Belinda and Tyson) wedding over a year ago. Bea does this beautiful roast chicken with paprika mediterranean vegies that I’ve always been jealous of.

I do this experimenting thing with recipes a lot. Sometimes it’s great, other times… a complete disaster! Thankfully this one was in the first category. I think it could use some pancetta or smokey bacon to lift it a bit but Mr Schmaft said “awesome”.

We had it with cheesy damper, just to keep on the Aussie side for Anzac day.

What are you cooking this weekend?

I’ve had a mad few days packing kits and patterns for Stitches and Craft. We’re off to Melbourne for a wedding today so I’m taking the opportunity to get as much stock south of the border as I can. Lots of stitching has also been happening and I have a few new baby owl colours to show you tomorrow when I get back.

OK, two posts within two hours is a little excessive but I’m having a dilemma… what to call the Sausage Dog pattern. It’s all ready to go, I’m just doing the cover art and suddenly I thought that “Sausage Dog” was a bit straight. What do you think… Weiner, Dashy, Daxie (thanks@aussieellen)?

Here’s my cover girl complete with a new collar (diamantes are a sausage girls best friend, don’ cha know?).

Update: What about Sausage Roller? I kinda like it!