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!

Home-made Deodorant

Earlier this year I'd tried sealing bi-carb soda in a jar with a few drops of lavender essential oil and leaving it a few months before using as an underarm deodorant. I solved the "powder on my clothes" problem by dusting myself straight after my morning shower, but when spring hit and I actually started getting warm, the "de" part stopped working so well.

So far as I know the "links to breast cancer" thing was linked to antiperspirant rather than deodorant (and thus I switched to deo roll-ons years ago) and unproven one way or the other, so it's not that which set me looking for alternatives to my Mum.
Rather, it's the fact that the cheap chemical scents some products use can set off my asthma and allergies (not to mention smelling rather nasty to my sensitive nose). The fact I really like my clothes. I don't like so much the crusty, whitish stains I get on them, under my arms, when I've sweated whilst wearing commercial deodorants, though. Plus, I love the idea of making my own stuff (what craftster doesn't?). Finally, to quote my friend Katie "And, commercialism".

So the comments raving about this new deodorant recipe at Smashed Peas and Carrots intrigued me. The ingredients were easy to find, at my local health food store and supermarket (only one I had trouble with was the coconut oil - I had to wait for the next store shipment to come in). I've been trying my new deodorant for the past week now - as luck would have it, including a miniature, 3-day heatwave, and you can add my voice to those singing its praises! Mommabear kindly gave me permission to repost this amazing recipe, so I can share it with you, and talk about how awesome and unstinky I feel whilst wearing it.


Natural Deodorant

2-3 Tbsp Coconut Oil
1/8 Cup Baking Soda
1/8 Cup Arrowroot Powder (can be replaced by Cornstarch)

Things go a bit easier if you combine the dry ingredients, then add the coconut oil. You can throw a few drops of essential oil in there for the smell, too - I added lemon, since it's antibacterial anyway. So my deodorant smells like lemon cream tea biscuits. (Whoops!) Luckily, the smell is quite subtle and dissipates fairly quickly, unlike commercial deodorants.
Since it's summer I also took Mommabear's suggestion and keep mine in the fridge, which keeps it nice and hard in bar form (the heat from my skin is enough to soften it and melt it in, without it smearing all over my hands).

I really don't think I'll ever buy another commercial deodorant, I'm so blown away by how awesome this recipe is! I would recommend you rush out and try it right now.

Matching kimonos

Oh, Habitual "Simple" Kimono, how I love to hate and hate to love you!

These two are a matching set for a friend's two sons - the smallest of whom is only three weeks old, and as big as my munchkin was at birth. They're the fourth and fifth versions of this pattern that I've made, and I've come to the point where I've realised two things;

1. Whilst binding on the edges looks really awesome, it's nasty to sew without pressing and being very, very careful you've got it matched up on either side of the fabric. Inevitably, I end up missing the edge on the underside. (is there some trick I have not discovered?)
   
   
2. My son is just too tiny for this massive neckline! Whilst a size may fit him length-wise, the neck gapes really badly. The kimono I made him at six months sits strangely along the bottom as it tries to reach round his body, but the neck fits perfectly, as an example.

So I think some pattern tweaking is in order, when I next feel the need to make another of these (and I do love them; it's so hard to find interesting, creative clothing for little boys that doesn't consist of insane amounts of tailoring and I'm not about to try getting an 18 month old to stand still for a fitting!). necessity is the mother of invention, after all.

Case in point; I didn't have enough of the gorgeous forest green or pale blue bindings to completely do each of the kimonos, so I took a multicoloured approach. Tiny boy's kimono is trimmed in a darker blue than the background of the fabric, with brown and green for the side-ties that matches some of the cars in the print. Big boy's kimono is trimmed in the forest green his mother and I both love on our boys, with orange side-ties, that again goes with the print on the fabric - this one's not an exact match, but less disparity than the photos suggest. My camera and the light levels just were not happy with me this morning!

Note to my friends with Very Small People

One ought never comment that you need new clothes for your child in my hearing, when I have a gap in my scheduled sewing projects.

Well, unless you want several new pairs of shorts for said Small People!

Sneak Peek

This is a project I've been steadily working on for a friend, the past few weeks. There's been lots of love, time and care taken with it. It went to my friend today - and as I told her "I don't hem chiffon for just anyone!".

Any guesses as to what it is?


(To be revealed in December!)

Finished for Mirabel!

I finished my fourth softie for Mirabel, today!
Four was the magic number I committed myself to, so I'm feeling pretty happy to have made it.
This is another go at the Blinking Flights pattern, of course. Something masculine, to go with the very femme florals of the last softie. Plus, I had visions of using the supercool green and white stripes from my frilly hat in a bug.

I lurve this guy's pink mohawk and his cool older brother air (okay, so I'm guessing, being the eldest in my family!). His little smirk looks very laid-back and relaxed, to my mind. (And how awesome is his embroidered nose ring?)

Chocolate and oranges

I had this sudden craving for these two flavours together, at the beginning of this week, so purchased three likely looking oranges (and checked our cocoa stores. As always, the level was high. Ha!).

I used this recipe for chocolate orange sticks, as it looked to be the easiest. It was still a special kind of hell (that took hours) on account of how fiddly it was, and I have a new-found respect for my mother's efforts each Christmas as I was growing up.

I also decided to try my hand at chocolate-orange cake, using the juice of my oranges. I altered the chocolate orange muffin recipe over here by substituting one of the eggs with about 180mLs of orange juice (all of what my oranges gave up). I ended up with a kind of fudge-consistency sweet and sharp cake thing. It is very tasty, but I think next time I'll use less juice.

Now, does anyone know what I can do with 2/3 cup sugar syrup and 4 litres of orange water?

Silly Frilly hat

Not so much a hit.

Sew Simple Shrug

I made myself one of these from Sew Hip issue 5. My friend Jodie was very taken with it, and asked me to get her some nice fabric at the Stitches & Craft Show, for her own version - which we finally both found the time to make today!

She hasn't sewn since she was fourteen, and corralled into a home ec classroom with a bunch of machines from the age of dinosaurs. Did anyone have a good experience with those metallic behemoths? All I remember mine doing was constantly eating its own bobbin, making snarls I simply could not unravel, that often meant my project had to be cut up, in order to pry the fabric from the machine's maw.
Like me, Jodie says she has spent years thinking she hates sewing and sewing machines, because of those early experiences.

But I promised this was a REALLY easy project, and the results would be fabulous (especially with these fabrics, yum!). So I soothed my friend's nervousness, demonstrated how lovely my sleek, modern machine is, and watched carefully as she sewed her first machine project since the twenty years ago apron.

I feel so cheerful about the result; look at that big smile! She did it! And it looks fab. I'm so proud of her.

Jodie is now the second friend I have introduced to the joys of sewing useful things with the aid of a machine. My first 'student' made her daughter a bag with my help, and got her own sewing machine for her last birthday. I'm really looking forward to seeing what she makes.

Summery top

I never feel as motivated to make things for myself as for others, but after making my Bug with this bright flowered fabric, I really wanted to make something for myself out of it - and then I could not resist this sweet pattern over at Sew Mama, Sew. I was a bit nervous because I'm built rather differently to the models featured, so tunics like this tend to look rather maternity when I put them on. But I left off the ruffle (think Miss Piggy - and not in a good way), and I'm actually happier with the result than I expected.

Seriously, how can you resist this spring-like fabric combo?

(And yes, in case you're wondering, that IS a row of white around the bottom of the top that you can see. Hack and Slash Seamster that I am, I used the selvedge as my bottom edge. Lazy is the new cool, didn't you know?)

Blue Hippo Sublime

I can safely say I feel I'm really getting the hang of this hippo pattern (finally!), though each new incarnation makes me feel even sorrier for the hippos that came before. I'm noticing less tendency to sew folds into their faces, and their bottoms are becoming plumper and more rounded (which, let's face it, is what you want in a hippo behind. Skinny derrieres are Just Not Hippo!). As my first hippo bum was weirdly creased and folded (and I even left off the tail by accident) I hope the other adults with whom I share my home will forgive the fact that I waxed lyrical over my latest hippo behind and don't think I'm too weird for very long.
Best of all, I was able to whip up the latest hippo in a few hours, over a single Friday evening. Yep, us parents of toddlers know how to party!

Bug Softie

I've been a bit slack with the blogging lately, and that's partially because I've been a bit slack with the sewing. To break my sewing drought I decided I needed to add to the Softies I would be sending away for Mirabel (because one is pathetic) and I wanted to do something fun, that wouldn't break my brain. So I picked up the Blinking Flights bug pattern and some scraps of bright, cheerful fabric. It only took me two nights to whip up this island bug.
(Why are my creations always just that bit wonky? Let's pretend, and say it was their Creatrix deliberately imbuing them with some of herself, shall we?)

I'm not really a pattern follower, more what I call "A Hack and Slash Seamster", but the pattern plus knowing what the end result should look like made this a super easy softie to make. I didn't trim the seams round the curve of the head, as advised, and I think it shows, unfortunately, and the antennae were actually quite tricky, because they're so slim and require quite a precise control of your machine. But otherwise, this was a really easy, FUN pattern to make (and I felt very inspired by the bright colours and fabrics used by their original creator).

I'm now also kind of in love with the main, flower print fabric I used, and want to make myself a clothing item from it - and I think I've found the perfect pattern.

Herbs

I often tell people I have black thumbs and they laugh and tell me about how they have trouble with plants too. So I have to explain that I'm actually not indulging in my usual hyperbole (very much); not only have I managed, over the past fifteen years or so, to kill off assorted African violets, roses and sweet little perennials. I have managed to kill off an heretofore thriving peppermint plant. Those things don't go down easy. I once killed a cactus. To date, my thumbs have been the gardener's equivalent of a tactical nuclear strike.

So it's with some trepidation and excitement that I bought these three lovely herbs today. When we lived in a house (by which I mean "when we three humans who existed prior to the Tiny Tyrant's arrival into the world shared space with the small army of cockroaches that generations of Uni students had encouraged to flourish in the foundations of our rental") we managed to keep an herb garden of sorts going. My efforts amounted to transferring the potted plant into a flowerbed and conducting a program of benign neglect until pregnancy made even perfunctory attempts at weed-culling rather difficult, and all was left to grow as it willed.
Now that we're in a townhouse though, I'm going to have to remember to regularly water and pick back my rosemary, mint and basil. Fingers crossed?

Interior Design Personality Quiz

This made me giggle a bit, because my favourite tones for clothes for myself and design are almost always jewel tones, and my partner's are earth tones! You can take the quiz for yourself here.

Embroidered teatowel

I've been on a bit of a craft book buying splurge, of late. It started just before my birthday. What kicked it off was actually a sudden desire I developed, to own Aimee Ray's Doodle-stitching, which I'd seen for months in the shops (but was now not to be found Anywhere. I looked! Bah.)



I finally caved and bought the book on Fishpond. It came with me to Queensland, at the beginning of the month, and I finished a few small embroideries, including this bird on a branch. Once home I paired it with some glorious quilting fabric and this amazing royal blue tea-towel, to produce what I hope will be a very nice small gift for a friend's X-Mas.

Dear Internets

My name's Aphie and I have a problem. It's been two days since my last Spotlight visit. I said I was going for pinking shears, and I came back with a bag of stickers and stamps for card-making as well. The time before, I was going for a metre of black chiffon and found myself leaving with a bag of miscellaneous cotton prints and some knit polyester that was only $3 a metre so really I couldn't pass up such a good bargain, could I?
My fabric stash is taller than I am, and three or four times as wide. I don't have space left for all my cardmaking supplies in my cardmaking drawers.

I need help. I need an intervention.
Or maybe I just need... to craft more?

O Yes, My Pretty!

Way back when I last saw my grandmother (in May) she brought me a bunch of stuff she thought I could use; a Christmas tree, some of my old toys from when I lived with her, and her old overlocker.

I have never owned (nor personally used) an overlocker before in my life, and I am both squeeing and terrified of this baby. So, she has been sitting in her lovely case, with her box of tools and threads beside her, for month now. Last week I pulled her out and edged some wipes for the baby.



I'm starting to feel braver. I think I need a proper project to try her out on.
I also think I'll call her Brunhilda.

Softies

This unnamed hippo is the second I've made from this Two Little Banshees pattern. Her sister's name is Bubbles, and she is a lot wonkier. Luckily, I was always the sort of kid who appreciated the 'imperfect' stuffed toys in shops more than their perfectly balanced siblings!

Unnamed Hippo is not going to be staying with me, though. I'm hoping that she, and a few friends, will be headed off to Melbourne come early November, for the Softies for Mirabel charity collection this year.
I've never actually completed a softie before and once I've mastered this pattern, I'm hoping to try my hand at a few more, so I've been scouring the internet for ideas and tutes. There are so many out there!

This little girl with beret and capelet is super sweet, for instance. But there's also this little felt dolly or their weird contemporary if I'm not in a "sweet" mood.

If I wanted to stick with the animal theme, there's also heaps of options, like a Pointy Kitty, Blinking Flights Bug (designed by a local from my city!) or some of these Beautiful birds. I think I want to have a go at that last one for myself, to put on a twig to decorate my house. But that will come later.

No, I have not done the vacuuming this month. Why do you ask?

The motto of my life is honestly "Why do Housework when there is so much else to do in the world!?" but every so often I come across a blog that makes me seriously wish I were a Domestic Goddess, capable of balancing my contented baby on one hip whilst stirring up a batch of beautiful biscuits as my Made-Just-From-Fresh-And-Locally-Sourced-Produce-Dinner was finishing cooking each evening, in my perfectly, naturally cleaned kitchen.
Soule mama is one such. Kale for Sale a recently discovered 'nother! (Though both are from the US, so their seasons are always upside-down!)

At least my kitchen is cleaned using natural cleaning products... when it's cleaned.

The Winner Is...

Isn't life grand?
You plan something, set up a timeline, count down the days...then find yourself with a case of food poisoning, and when you're better, an overwhelming list of Stuff To Do, much of it "catch up" from when you were ill!

So sorry to those who eneterd my recent Spring Equinox giveaway! To try to get back onto our regularly scheduled program, the winner is actually...

Number 6, according to random.org.



Trish Goodfield, the tiny pink tote is yours!

Thankyou to the few, the proud, who entered. I'm hoping to run more freebie giveaways in the future, so please feel free to check back.

Dear Web-searcher

Specifically, the person looking for the Pebeo porcelaine 150 pens in Australia who came by recently; the art shop at Belconnen Westfields in the ACT has many different colours.

Tiny Tote Free to Good Home

Spring is sprung
The grass is ris
I wonder where
The birdies is?

Going by the calendar acknowledging the equinoxes and such, Spring actually started back in early August. Because professional calendar makers just can't wrap their heads around things not following their calendars exactly, they've tricked us all into believing the season began yesterday.

So in honour of these calendar makers, the fact my birthday is a month away, and the coming Spring Equinox, here's a giveaway!

This cute little bag was one of my earliest attempts to actually complete a project. It's a little taller than A5, but about that length, with enough depth to fit a large womens' wallet, a notebook, some lipbalm, and a pen with room to spare (I know, I stuffed it with everything I usually carry to check it was big enough, when making it).

The outside is a very soft apricot-pink brushed cotton that feels almost like suede. It's all fabric, so folds down very small, and it's lined with vintage flower print cotton, too.

The flowers are acrylic felt and are actually a badge that can be removed and worn, or attached to another bag.

To win this tiny tote, please leave a comment and some way of getting in touch with you - email or a blog. For an extra entry, link to this post and tell me about it!

Entries close on the 20th September, and will be drawn on the Spring Equinox.

Australian Free Things!

Hey, the Haby Goddess has not one but TWO giveaways that close at 5pm AEST today!
Her shop has some really cute stuff (that is always changing) so is worth a look anyway (I just wish there was MORE!). But if you're in Australia, go take a gander, and enter to possibly score yourself something nice.
Me, I'd really love that hippo pattern - my goodness my love of hippos has reignited recently!

Crafting Excursion!

So. Stitches and Craft Show. It was in Sydney, just this past weekend. Did you go?

I was there with (black and white) horns on, along with a carfull of friends. We all had the most lovely time. I got to meet Ethan, did a bit of embroidery at one of the free Craft Bars, went to a great motivational talk on Small Business by Quantum Compass and spent... well, less than I could have, and would have liked!
But I still came home with some awesome swag; some beaded trim for bellydance costumes, paper punchers for card-making, a stuffed hippo pattern (finally) to call my own and waaaaaay too many pieces of fabric from Amitie. You'll probably be seeing more of these babies in future posts!

A spot of Embroidery

This is part of a gift I'm putting together for someone. The pattern comes from an (accidentally - my tracing skills were challenged by the waffled fabric!) altered Badbird freebie.

You read that right, by the way; it really does say 'I poop rainbows'.

I am Sew Hip

I discovered this magazine at the local newsagents' a few months ago, and have become seriously enamoured. It's a mere $10, from the UK, and is called Sew Hip.

Every issue has multiple patterns, for adult and children's clothing, toys, homewares and crafty bits and bobs. There are interviews with professional crafters, fabric and stationery designers. There's so much I cannot get over how cheap the magazine is - but then, I forget sometimes that Australia doesn't have the population to support some of the amazing artisan-focussed things I remember from my time living in London.

It's funky and youthful without having the hipster 'edginess' which can make my teeth ache. Every week now I rush to the one place I know that carries it to check for the next issue, but I'm currently dropping hints about what Santa may wish to bring me for Christmas (in the form of a subscription?). I may have to write him a letter, methinks!

New Toothbrush Holder

I was itching to try my new Porcelaine 150 ceramic pen, when my eyes lit upon the sad old toothbrush holder currently doing duty in the bathroom.



This baby has a tiny hole in the bottom, ostensibly to let water out. It doesn't do that very well. It also doesn't really allow for a brush or cloth to get inside. Which means mould has started to grow. Which may account for the precarious way the toothbrushes are gathered (although it could be the razor. Mmm, I know I love beard stubble with my toothpaste! Thanks, honey!).

A dollar, an op-shop, a few washings and a baking at low heat for an hour later and a new toothbrush holder is ready for me to buy new, unbearded, un-potentially mouldy toothbrushes.



Unfortunately, my new project had a lifespan of only three or four days. My son decided it looked like an excellent thing to grab from the counter when Mummy was distracted.
And so, I'm once again on the lookout for something suitable for holding toothbrushes.