Playing catch up

I seem to be chasing my tail at the moment and not getting anywhere, but finally I have some projects finished and on their way. One of them is for a bub that's over 2 months old, and the other is a month late. I just can't keep up with all of the things I want to do at the moment.

I have also received some crafty goodness:


First we have a very cute apron from Kerri from Ontario, Canada. I was totally spoilt with all the wonderful effort she put into this apron, so beautifully made too.


Next we have my doll quilt swap 3 parcel contents - a cute little quilt and a huge pile of Fat Quarters! This was from a girl called Sara in the US, although I don't know her blog address (if she has one) so can't link to her. It is the second quilt she's ever made and despite having trouble with her sewing machine (and trying three others before she was finally able to get the result she was after) she percervered and did her darndest to get me a quilt eventually! Thanks Sara!

And finally, something that put a huge smile when the generous and talented Novy surprised me with a pic on her blog last week, and put a huge smile on my sick little boy's face when it came in the mail today. An adorable little apron made just for him with a cute guitar print that he absolutely loves (and so do I!) Austy's dad thought it was pretty cool too and showed him how the pockets can hold his playdough tools. Austin loves to bake, mostly cupcakes but today it was fresh playdough which he was playing with just before this arrived. He wanted it on straight away, and won't take it off! Austy has a gastric flu at the moment so no cupcake baking for him right now, but when he's better there'll be no stopping him! Thanks so much Novy!!

The Game

I got this off AJ's blog and thought since it's a cold yucky day outside, I'd play too.

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.

Word is out!

I have been extremely tired the last few months, and this has been the culprit. No... not the cardy, that was just a simple project I managed to work on FOR the culprit while my eyelids fluttered and I curled up on the couch each night.

So Austy is going to be a big brother for Christmas! We're all a bit excited now after it being a bit of a shock at first - we weren't planning on trying for baby number 2 until July/August, so this one was a bit of a surprise. Austy is very excited and has decided the baby is called Oliver. We don't know why, but he also thinks it's a sister called Oliver, and asked if he can hold her hand when she comes out.

The scan pic isn't very clear as it took an hour of poking and prodding to get the baby where it had to be for all the measurments and I think the sonographer was sick of me by the end of it all and just printed off the last shot she took. We thought Austy was stubborn... hmm I think we have our work cut out for us with this one! The poor thing was rubbing it's eyes by the end of it, I think it finally decided to lay on it's back out of defeat.

Apron mail

My apron swap parcel is on it's way. I am a few days late but, late is better than never. I hope my partner enjoys the summery citrus flavour! Unfortunately I don't get much chance to see the sunduring the weekdays at the moment so these horrid flash photos will have to do. Hopefully my partner will snap some pics outside in the sunshine for me.

Cars and Stripes!

This little hoodie caused me and Austy a little grief! I decided to use some cute cars print inside the hood, a soft cotton drill that came from Quilt Fabric Delights. It was just too cute to refuse, despite the fact the pattern (Ottobre - Fall 07) called for a cotton knit.

When I went to try it on him the morning after I had made it (a distraction from the tears he already had over the fact I had to go to work), I couldn't get it over his head. Austy was very certain it would fit, tellling me "It's okay Mummy, I can make it fit" and he continued to force it. He somehow managed to get his face through the face hole without actually putting it on and called out "I got my hoodie on!" with a broad cheesy grin. Then he realised it wasn't on properly and he started to get upset, so I broke into laughter... I had to or else I would havecried with him! He was a bit startled by my response but then he started laughing too and I promised I'd fix it. Several hours with the unpicker and then a bit more time at the machine and here it is.

Not as cute as the cars version, and now with the stripes I could very well have used the original embroidery design (a blue tractor) that I had tested out with plans of going on this hoodie until I realised it was the wrong type of vehicle to match the car and roadworks vehicles in the lining. Oh well, I will have to embroider the tractor on something else! The jumper is a good size (I had to do size three) although I think if I made it again I would do the sleeve cuffs much narrower, that way they won't hang in the dirt or in his food when he eats. I had thought this might happen so cut them slightly smaller than the pattern, but as the sleeves are a tad long, I didn't cut them small enough.

I am also working on my apron swap - slightly late (oops) as it was due to post on Sunday, but hopefully it will be in the post on Thursday evening, along with the other goodies the swap calls for. It's very bright and summery, trying to make me THINK it's warm in my freezing cold sewing room at the opposite end of the house to the toasty warm gas heater! My partner is a bit bigger than me, and since I have not much idea about American sizings, I went for a more OSFA approach. A design I made up as I went along with one main criteria, that the ties wrap right around and tie up at the front (as my swap partner requested). I made them pretty long since I don't know how big she is, so they should tie into a nice big bow at the front.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to post again on the weekend after a button hunt - I have some baby knitting to show off!