Craft Schmaft

I spent today crafting with the lovely ladies of The Craft Room. So great to catch up with everyone, Sophie was making an incredibly twirly skirt, Belinda stitching bunting, quilting and lots more crochet, kitting and sewing going on. Thanks for a great day girls!

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I’m not sure what came over me this week but I had the urge to make a baby Godzilla, or Zilla as I’ve fondly nicknamed him. It probably has something to do with bubba Frankie starting to walk – that cute zombie type walk with his hands in the air, destroying everything in his path. The nearly-4-year-old inspired the monster pattern so it’s only fair that the one-year-old has a softie design in his honour.

Zilla isn’t quite finished yet – I’m not happy with his mouth but the general shape of him and the spikes are coming together. I think on the next version I’ll try sewing felt into the mouth and having little teeth hanging out.  Frankie was delighted with him and even has a bit of a “raaawwwh” going on. Bless.

A whole year has gone past. A whole year!!! I’m not sure how that happened but here I am with my cuddly baby walking, singing and turning one.  Happy Birthday to my gorgeous boy.

I may have overdone it with the table decorations for the first birthday but with a total lack of crafting going on I have to say that it was the most fun I’ve had in a while. The only down side was that all the adults were too scared to touch the display. Luckily the 3 year olds had no qualms about tucking in and got the party started.

This for a new bundle of pink who I have yet to meet. If she’s anything like her mother she’ll be one of the most kind, caring and thoughtful people in the entire world. Welcome baby Annabelle.

Radio silence from me for a whole month. I know. This past month has been all about moving house which is happening next weekend. I will finally have an office/crafting room to myself which, as you can imagine, I’m ever so excited about. It’s kinda my light at the end of the moving hell, starting new job, drowning in mother guilt month.

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Apart from holding back my insane urges to knit or crochet in this wintry weather I have also been out about with family things. My gorgeous brother got married on Friday and we had the most fantastic weekend away in the Southern Highlands of NSW. It was open fires, red wine and lots of love. In exciting news the newlyweds are expecting a baby… hooray… cousins for my boys!! I’m already thinking about a new softie design to welcome the new arrival in January. So you see there will be crafting again, just as soon as I’ve unpacked the boxes.

PS: above photo posted as proof that I’m still alive.

Well it’s about time I stopped by.

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Life got a little bit crazy I’m afraid and Craft Schmaft, along with crafting, has been missing in action for a month now. Never fear, it will all be back, but I have started a very exciting new job which has had my undivided attention for the past three weeks. Then last week we finally bought a house! Hooray! Months of searching and the emotional roller coaster of me getting attached to everything we saw are finally over.Now it’s dawned on me that we actually have to move in 5 weeks time (eek!) but the crafty thoughts of how we’re going to decorate the place are already flowing.

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I’ve been playing around with Pinterest - so much fun. I’ve always found myself drawn to mid-century style and have been planning what to do with our new dining room. I have a thing for 1950s turquoise/blue so you can imagine my delight when I found these incredible industrial lights on ebay. In a moment of being at home on the couch with glass of red watching Royal Wedding I bought them. My other obsession are Vintage Travel posters so I’m hoping to combine the two in the room.

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Where’s the craft, I hear you say? Well would you be horrified if I mentioned the word decoupage? I would have been until I saw a genius tutorial in Frankie magazine (sorry can’t remember the issue) which showed covering old cork placemats in new funky paper by way of decoupage. It was gorgeous and so simple. So I’ve bought some vintage style world map wrapping paper and bargain thrifted placemats (a whole dollar) and will be on my way. Stay tuned. It could be brilliant or a sticky disaster.

This nursery is just stunning, The colours are gorgeous, the furniture is beautiful and to top it all off Cassandra made the cuddliest owl mobile I’ve ever seen. Wow.

See more over on facebook here. Thanks so much for the photos Cassandra.

I had such plans for the Christening cake. There was a perfect picture in my head of two tiers with white frosting and a beautiful string of bunting. Simple – easy to bake, no complicated icing, couple of hours the night before and done.I made the bunting at Sew It Together…

Sadly cake making didn’t go quite so smoothly.

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After a full day at Sew It Together I was whisked off to dinner with the visiting family from Melbourne. Not to worry, I’d do it when I got home. After a few champagnes I was still very ready to make the cake. Unfortunately the Mr had thought it would be a great idea to make a big scrambled egg breakfast with the boys… no eggs. Nowhere open for eggs at midnight. No cake making.

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Cue mad rush the next morning to purchase already baked cake. Do you think I could find a cake without “Happy Birthday” on it on a Sunday morning? No. So ended up buying a cheesecake. Cheesecake smaller than intended baked cake so bunting couldn’t be arranged as I’d planned. None of this mattered anyway as no one really looked at the cake. No candles kinda equals no big cake moment. Still. I was pretty happy with my bunting efforts. Sigh. What a debacle.

Note to self: do not attempt Sew It Together and son’s Christening on same weekend. Do not attempt to bake own Christening cake, order white cake and simply embellish. Do not consume excessive amounts of champagne when out with in-laws (but that’s another blog post).

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Saturday was the big day for Sew It Together – so much to write and show that it may take me a few blog posts to get through it all. I sat next to the gorgeous Marina of Wink Designs and Saffron Craig (who took some great photos – check them out)  along with a bevvy of lovely ladies from Melbourne. It was great to see old friends and make new “real” friends whose blogs I’ve followed for a long time (always love it when the virtual and real meet!). It’s so inspirational meeting other crafters and seeing what everyone is working on. There was stacks of beautiful embroidery happening and crochet that made me green with envy.  There was even some crafting done by moi amongst lots of chatting – I was creating baby bunting for the bubba’s Christening.

I have to say that the swap was a big highlight – love a good swap I do and when it’s a multi swap it’s a bit like Christmas. Cass of Snailblazer did a sensational job organising it and I have to say I was blown away by what I received. Full swap photos to come! But let me tell you that the loot from the goody bag and prizes was just amazing… check it out…

I am particularly taken with the Goodies and Baddies pattern from Jodie at Ric Rac and the Far Far Away FQ from Retro Mummy.These will be put to very good use, thanks ladies!

The only thing I wish is that I’d taken more photos but you can see all the happenings over on Flickr.

Now that Kirsty has her name badge I can do the full reveal… ta dah…!!

The name part of the badge can be removed so that Kirsty can just use it as a brooch after SIT. Oh, I hope she likes it.

I’m working on some teeny tiny bunting this week for Franklin’s christening decorations/cake. You might remember the bunting from the balloon mobile.

Well I thought I’d just make a big stack of it to string up around the place and to go around his cake. I found these cute little adhesive letters that I  might put his name in too. This is the perfect project for sew it together next weekend – once I have the little triangles cut out expect to see me threading away all day (that is if I stop talking long enough to manage any actual crafting!). I’m thinking of going with white and natural colours although I may just be tempted to put in a little blue as well.