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!

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.

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.

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!

Cool

As a lover of natural fibres and all their glory (thankyou for that, Medieval Re-enactment), I am no stranger to The Burn Test.
Briefly, for those uninitiated, this is where you're not sure of a material's natural or man-made properties, so you take a small sliver of it and apply a flame. Natural fibres burn and create ash, man-made melt and leave puddles and/or beads of crud.

Griffin Dye Works has a nifty little guide to Burn Test results, to help you figure out things a step further than "natural" vs "man-made", which includes an all too important "poisonous fumes" box! Nifty.

P.S.

You have almost no time left in which to enter the giveaway at Little Munchkins for an Oliver + S pattern (yes! awesome, cute giveaway from an Aussie blog!).

Inspiration; Boys from the past

There's heaps of cute stuff you can sew for girls, not so much for boys, it seems. I'm plugging away at this problem, and lately I've started looking at some historical styles for ideas.
Today I found this great found photographs profile on flickr, which is chock-full of inspiration!

I've been playing with the idea of a sailor suit for a little while, and thinking about how the neckline on a top would work. So it was cool to find this collection of photographs from Denmark (I think?) featuring lots of little boys in sailor suit-esque clothes. Check out the pants in that second shot, too! LURVE the button embellishments on the outside of the shorts legs, though I'd like to lengthen the short if I was going to do something similar.

I also really like the front of the coat the little boy in the front right of this photo is wearing - the decorative double-breasted look and the short waist is really sweet, especially with the over the knee, tight pantaloon.

Of a slightly more recent age (but still cute) are these shorts with attached braces (thought again, I'd like to see them around knee length, instead of teeny tiny 60s-style).

And I can't decide if I actually like these two pictures, or if it's the kid's slightly guilty expression that's giving me a fit of the giggles, and making the clothes seem more appealing.

Surely if it were the cuteness though, I'd be wanting reproduce the outfit of the marshmallow baby pictured here? Zie's so squishy! Like a baby marshmallow!

Ooh, bakey bakey!

Excuse me if I'm excited. I have just discovered Bittersweet, a Vegan baking blog. Since I'm living largely dairy-free these days for the health and happiness of my son these days, the sweet recipes over there are filling me with glee. Dairy-free fudge! Egg-free chocolate cupcakes! Nomnomnom!

Ooh, Crumbs!

I'm not the world's greatest cook, but I do enjoy baking. And after experiencing two amazingly iced first birthday cakes in the past two months I'm feeling like the bar has been set pretty high.
I'm currently googling fondant icing recipes, but I'm also taking great joy in the gorgeousness of the plain old buttercream iced cakes in this flickr stream and this craft blog, that my search threw up.
They look so good it would be a shame to eat them!

Just fiddling

I've been dabbling with a few projects in the last week or two. The first of these was a grown-up variant of my rainbow toddler pants - I saw the fabric and immediately thought of my recipient, who happens to currently be 6 months pregnant and thus in need of comfy pants (I don't know a pregnant woman who isn't).

The second project is kind of a recon mixed with some bits and pieces - a gorgeous little card we got from the BIL for Christmas, a wooden photo frame, some mounting paper and white paint (plus the enamel spray I've been hoarding in my cupboards for almost eight years now, and finally got the chance to break open and use).

You know how you pop over to a blog like Soulemama and marvel at the serene, beautiful spaces which the blogger inhabits?
My spaces are not at all like that.
As you can see.

My spaces are more a welter of baby toys, car keys, mobile phones, fabric scraps, tea mugs, letters half-written and letters unfiled, safety pins, jewellery I took off wherever I was and random items that I swear, have a purpose! Sometimes.
(For instance; right now, in front of me at my computer desk is a spare USB cable, a six-sided die, a pin, some nail scissors, two pens, a bracelet, my digicam, a tea mug, a wheat pack, a paid creditcard bill and some leaflets from the Stampin' Up! card party I was at last weekend.)

Anyway, this is the finished project. Very shabby chic.
I think it's going to be a present for my MIL. But I can't decide - random just because, or birthday present?

Crafting to help victims of the Victorian bushfires

Meet Me at Mike's has started a blog to encourage crafters to craft items for the victims of the fires that have devastated the state of Victoria recently. You can find a local drop-off point for your crafted items, or auction off items with proceeds to go to those people who have lost homes, family and friends.
Alternatively, you could contribute a favourite recipe or some artwork themed around "eating together" to the fundraiser book.