Old Sheets

I love old sheets. Old sheets are a lot like old friends.

Old sheets are comfortable, familiar. They're worn in and softened in just the right places. They even smell right. Not always good, but never strange.
They have a history - especially when they're yours. Sometimes they have marks and scars as a testament to that history. Sometimes they'll be worn so thin that you could break them like that with a twist of your pinky finger. Sometimes they're still going strong, years and years later.

So I suppose it's not surprising that I love to work with old sheets, refashioning them for new uses. They make wonderful house or pyjama pants - soft and light, and often 100% cotton. They're great for cushion and pillow covers - especially when they're worn thin in the middle, you can piece the edges of different sheets together. Being a simple woven fabric they're usually wonderfully easy to work with, already stretched as much as they will, not overly prone to creasing. And, when there's nothing else for it, they make marvellous cleaning cloths, soft and light, easy to wash and re-use again.

Belated Christmas Sewing

This week I'm racing to finish my first ever batch of bunting - a project I've been swearing I'll work out 'soon' for many months - for a friends' little boy. His whole room is done in primary colours, so the bunting will be too, to match. I bought myself some pinking shears (so I don't have to sew the edges of my flags) and I'm so pleased at finding this Cars themed ribbon, to go with his playmat and bed sheets.
He and his Mum will be moving soon, so I don't think I'll get to see it strung up, but hopefully when they're re-settled I'll be able to ask for a picture.

New Year again!

I managed to keep two of my four crafty resolutions, last year. Considering most people seem to get waylaid about halfway through, I think a fifty percent success rate is really quite good, especially as my final resolution was kind of started in a small way (but got held up for want of decent "making space"- a problem now solved by Nana's gift of a small person table and chairs). So I'm going to do some more Crafty Resolutions, for 2010:

• More of the same; more attention to detail and time taken with finishes. I don't think I'll ever stop being a Hack & Slash Seamster, but just a little more given to making my seams neat and strong has given me BIG results. I like that!
  
• Try to achieve at least a third of this year's gifts for birthdays and Christmas festivities being hand-made. Preferably by me, but by other Real People will do, in a pinch. (And don't waste time on hand-made gifts for those who will not appreciate them, such as my younger brother or sister. It will just give me heart-ache.)
  
• Post here at the very least once per week. And something other than Hot & Not or a similar meme.
  
• Do at least one Toy Society drop per month!
  
  I don't think this is a huge goal to strive for, given that I did four Mirabel softies in just over a month. This goal will also let me fiddle about with softie making, which is great fun, requires only a shortish attention span, and is something I'd like to get better at.
  
• Finally, take part in the 12 month sewing challenge over at My Favourite.
  

Merry Christmas, Midsummer, Yule & Festivus

I know I've been slack about updating. Truth is, I've been panicking; we had a family gathering with 14 people last weekend, for my dad's family, we spent the day itself with my in-laws, and then we're going to Canberra to see my mother and siblings, tomorrow. Plus, all 3 of us are ill (We must have been on the very top of Santa's naughty list!).

My grand plans of a wholly handmade Christmas gift pile have fallen by the wayside. Apart from a bunch of baking for my cousins, the best I could manage was this no-sew polar fleece blanket for my aunt & uncle.

Wait, I guess that's not strictly true - I did manage to make yet another of Two Little Banshees's hippo stuffies, this time in green, a Midsummer gift for my son. I'm hoping it will be the first of a collection of "handmade stuffies by Mummy", not to mention beginning a tradition of one handmade gift opened on the equinox (I'd like to make something for my partner next year too, and encourage him and our boy to make presents for me and each other as well).

At least it's now mostly over. We just have to get over these colds!

Hot+Not

Another Sunday, another Hot & not. To play, post your own to your blog and link to Loobylu.
Claire's been blogging for ten years now! This blew me away until I realised I've been dabbling with the internet since 1994 myself. (Which makes it fifteen years since I taught myself HTML with a clunky book and a text editor, back in the spring holiday break of my first highschool year. Scary!)

Hot:
Figuring it out
I've got this doily my great-great grandmother made. I was named after her, and she died when I was very small. It's the only thing I have of hers. I've been trying to figure out a cool thing to do with it that won't trash it and that doesn't amount to "little old lady-esque decor with doilies under stuff" because that's just not my style.

I think I know what I'm going to do, courtesy of Amy at Grey Grid Paper.

Christmas baking
Mmm, Gingerbread. Mmm, sweet things. Mmm, baked goods generally.

Christmas carols
I can't help it, I love them. Even the super-cheesy ones about snowmen and reindeer.


Midsummer
I love swimming at the beach, thunderstorms, floaty summer dresses, long daylight hours and cicadas singing. Midsummer makes me happy - and it's coming up so soon!

Not:
Crowds at the shops
Ugh. Push, shove, rushrushrush.


Unfinished gift shopping
Every year I swear I'll get organised, and there's always somebody(s) I forget. This year I got my own little family sorted out... and now I have to shop for my siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws, friends...

Christmas baking
ACK! in the summer heat!

Hot + Not

It's been a slow craft week, as I've been prepping for the bellydance hafla I had last night. But its Sunday, so time for Loobylu's Hot & Not again.

Hot:
Christmas trees!

We finally got ours put up today.
I love Christmas decorations. Christmas was always a favourite time of the year, when I was growing up. One of the things I most looked forward to during my pregnancy was making it special for my child, too.

Bellydancing

It's been all about the hip wiggling this week.
I won't lie, I've been loving it. Bellydancing remains probably my strongest passion - SO good for body, mind and soul!

Getting gifts together
I LURVE giving gifts. I love shopping for and making the perfect thing for each person. Even the tricky ones - in some things I really relish a challenge.

Not:
Christmas crowds
I hate how crowded every public place seems to be, at this time of year, and how it's all rush, rush, rush.

Feeling flustered
The rushing going on everywhere gets into my blood. I tend to be fret-catching anyway, but everyone being fretful makes it so much worse. It makes me want to hibernate for the whole month.

Summer sniffles

Is there anything worse than a runny nose in hot weather? (brought on by the fact it constantly goes from almost forty to cold and late teens from day to day, sometimes) Yuck.

Hot and Not

Thought I'd start doing Loobylu's Hot & Not every Sunday.

Hot:
The weather
Apparently it's been the hottest November on record, for our part of the world. Thank goodness we got insulation finally installed, earlier this month! It doesn't stop the heat altogether, but does help some.

This cute fabric

I found it in the flat fats pile at Spotlight, from Manhattan Design Studios. I always think of red and this sort of beautiful green as "belonging" to my son - they're my favourite colours on him.

Book orders from Fishpond
   

I am acquiring the most amazing library of inspirational craft books. My favourites from the last haul are Zakka Sewing and Sock & Glove (yes, it's finally happened - I've succumbed to the allure of "Japanese" crafts).

Bellydance hafla
Next Saturday, wahoo! Got my tickets for myself and two friends, now to spend the week frantically making costumes!

Not:
The way the weather makes everyone cranky and tired
I hate the way we all snap at each other (even the baby is surly and prone to tantrums, lately).

The very sad state of my mint plant

Found the plant in this state, with a VERY fat, happy and fresh-breathed green caterpillar on it! Found another of the cheeky buggers on my basil, last night.

How I'm not getting enough sleep lately

Part heat, part stress, part teething baby. Of course, little sleep makes me more cranky and tired, boo!