Swaparama

It has most definitely been swaparama here lately. We've been involved in two swaps and I can't believe I have been so remiss as to not post pics. *smack on wrist*

Firstly our Children's Book Week Swap which involved gifting a second hand book and a bookmark. We got Fi as our recipient and this is what we gave her. A copy of Tim Winton's Jesse ( we had two copies of this; mine and Lily's which she got for her birthday from her Godmother, so I gifted my copy. When Lily saw me wrapping it up she got very upset about me wrapping her book) chosen as it is a great Australian pictures book and Fi is a Kiwi, Creative Serging (daggy but a useful guide as Fi has just got a new overlocker) and I knitted and beaded this bookmark out of some Jo Sharp cotton.
This was the first time I'd knitted with beads and I cannot for the life of me imagine how people can thread 4000 beads on to be knitted !!!!
My plan was to deliver this while Fi was at playgroup on Friday morning and put some UK stamps on that we had here. I wasn't going to risk trying to deliver it any other time, as I know she'd catch me and her letter box is too small to shove a parcel into, so it had to go on the doorstep. My plan fell apart in two ways, the sticker loving toddler seemed to have knicked some of the stamps leaving me with a 44p stamp (yes, very cheap postage indeed!!!) and Andy decided he needed the car. So the parcel got delivered at 8:15 am. Australia Post that efficient.... highly unlikely!!!! so I was sprung!


And this is the parcel that we received from the lovely Mel. The Golden Book was a favourite of Mel's as a little girl and it has quickly become one of Lily's, she loves picking flowers and thinks it is pretty cool that Big Bird has a bunch of flowers in this. And Winnie the Witch is just terrific!! Lovely and colourful, I think it's pretty humorous too LOL I love it when she turn the cat rainbow coloured and he hides at the top of the tree and the birds laugh at him. hehehe The lovely bookmark Mel made and her son Will helped decorate, which Lily has added further to. I love the inscription she has included on the back
Lily,
Never be afraid to let your imagination run wild. Go where it wants to go, enjoy the freedom and happiness it brings.
And for me, this wonderful aged and musty copy of The Catcher in the Rye; an awesome book.
Thanks again Mel!!! We love our gifts!!


Oh, and here's Lily reading her "little book" as she calls her bookmark.

The second swap is a Small Things Swap, you have to make something from less than 200 grams of wool. Once again, we received some wonderful gifts. This came from Rebecca; a terrific little bag for Lily. Rebecca dyed the wool herself. I love how she researched and knew Lily's love for buttons and so put some on. Lily just ADORES this bag and people comment on how cute it is everywhere we go, and she does take it just about everywhere. You may have spied it in our zoo photos. In it she keeps her matching sunglasses pouch with her baby banz (time for some new sunnies Mum!), her purse and all sorts of weird stuff, usually some wooden fruit or vegies and something she's pilfered from my sewing room. And for me, a sunglasses pouch which is just perfect as I can never find the damn black one that my Guccis came in, ridiculously it's a damn big case too!!!
Again, big thanks Rebecca for such thoughtful gifts.

well, I have to admit to being naughty and only posting my swap out yesterday so my recipient won't have received it yet. I'll probably be up the block when she receives it so it doesn't matter if she works it out LOL
I'll add more of the story as to why it was late when she receives it so it's not too obvious before she gets it incase she reads my blog before then. Anyway, I made a felted oven mitt and pot holder. I then decided to jazz them up a bit with some Kona Bay quilters cotton. I did send some sprigs of fresh rosemary with the parcel too (are you allowed to post plants in Australia?...oops) so it will be smelling lovely! These were really fun to make, I really love felting!! Although the pot holder took days and days to dry!!!!!

customs

yeah some sewing pics at last!!!

As I said in my previous post, I've been working on a couple of customs. I've actually spent a couple of really enjoyable and productive days at the machine, my only problem has been Lily who just loves to try and climb up and sit behind me while I'm sewing (which is just impossible) or try and climb on my knee. She's always asking me if I want to do some sewing, so she can go in the sewing room and play with the buttons and fabric, but sometimes really isn't that much of the "berry berry helpful" girl that she thinks she is. Luckily she's cute as all get out and can melt me with a cheeky grin.

So first a little sneak preview of something that is just about finished, just requires topstitching, hemming and buttons. I really love Kona Bay fabrics and this one is one of my favourites.
And these fleece longies will be winging their way to the UK shortly. They just need some elastic tomorrow. This is a different polar fleece than I normally use, but it is lovely and soft.

UFOs for the finals fever

Last night I watched my first complete game of footy for the year. I've watched a quarter here and there but not a full game until last night and gosh was it nerveracking!!!

It probably has more to do with my "busyness" (sic) than the game itself, I don't mind footy but really don't often maintain the interest to watch a whole game.

The occasion? My team was playing in a qualifying final against my brother's team in Perth. The odds were really against us as West Coast haven't lost to Collingwood (yes, I did say Collingwood LOL) in WA since 1994 and had never lost a final in Perth. Well, that all changed last night after a drawn game and extra time (nah nah nah nah nah David), which means that next weekend we meet my husband's team Geelong in the preliminary final (they have only lost a game or two all year) so it will be an interesting week in this household.

Today I went bridesmaid dress shopping with my sister. When I arrived home this afternoon Andy had made our bed *shock horror* and hung on the bed posts a Geelong and a Collingwood scarf above our respective sleeping sides. LOL He's a bit cute sometimes!!!

You may have noticed a distinct lack of sewing of late. I have been away at my mum's having a lovely relaxing time. Lily cried when we left as she didn't want to come home, she loves her Gran!! Mostly I've been working on some customs but also some ideas for some new pieces and trying to get myself organised to have some stock for the October Mothers' Night Market at our Playgroup.

So as I have no new sewing to show I thought I'd share this picture of Lily in a vintage pinnie. This pinnie actually belonged to me, there's a photo of me somewhere wearing this in my grade prep school photo at age 5. No I wasn't particularly short, we wore dresses very very very short in the 70s. I'm not sure why she's wearing one of my ugg boots though.

And look at this for some bargain shopping!!! I took my mum to the new Geelong Spotlight while she was staying with us and scored these 24 balls of wool for a mere $12, 50 cents a ball!!! Bargain!! I did have to rummage amongst a fair bit of craparama yarn to come up with theses goodies, but it was worth it. I do regret leaving behind a coule of balls of brown Studio Mohair though, although I snaffled three other balls. Other finds here; Cleakheaton Merino Spun, Cleakheaton Cocoon, Cara cotton, bella baby 4 ply (which is a 100% merino baby yarn) and some Panda starshine ~ had to let a little bit of acrylic sneak in.

And because it is UFO month at Woolaholics I feel obligated to share my UFOs and my attempts at finishing them.

Something Lime in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece; the pattern calls for a worsted cotton so I've had to make some adjustments along the way, so hopefully it all works out, but I like it so far.

Hedera socks in Monsterknits Spring Hippy. I adore the colourway of this yarn and the sock pattern but I'm not sure if I love them together. I think I'll actually start a pair of Fools Rush in the other ball and see if I prefer that for the colourway before I frog.

Jo Sharp zig zag rib vest in Jo Sharp DK yarn, colour oak. I just seem to have lost interest in this, but I'm sure I'll come back to it eventually as it is lovely. (so this is not imperative to get finished)

Rainy Day socks that are so embarrassingly close to being finished it's not funny. The pattern does get a bit lost in the colours, but hey when you're trying to see if it's possible to knit a sock between here and Adelaide you have to go with what's on hand.

And this bulky yarn (I'm using some Katia Himalaya that has been languishing in my stash for many a year) poncho from Jo Sharp Contemporary Knitting 2.
I don't feel the need to have this finished until next winter either.

Daddy's taking us to the zoo....

well, actually he took us..last weekend... Lily, Grannie Annie and I.

We met up with Tully, Asher, Megsie and Lachie who were on a quick visit to Melbourne for the weekend for Lachie's mum's birthday. The girls were so stoked to see each other, as you can see. They spent a good deal of time holding hands.

A bit of a dance and it was off to check out the rest of the zoo.
Cute moment #1 (of about a zillion) Lily noticed Tully had dirt on her bum so she sat down in the gravel and rubbed her bottom in it so she would have a dirty bum just like Tully LOL

Our favourites were the elephants, the kids actually prefered the pretend ones they could sit on, to the actual real ones. The new elephant trail at the Melbourne zoo is absolutely awesome, I'm very pleased now I drank lots of wine to donate corks to help raise the funds for it... money well spent.

This was Lily's little boy she found on the elephant trail, he copped lots of cuddles and kisses.

These are only about half the turtles that were all lined up on a log basking in the sun, what they were actually doing I'm not sure. I'm also not sure why I didn't think to ask the turtle expert we had with us.

The seals, tigers, lions, giraffes, zebras and the wonderful butterflies were the biggest hits. It was very cute to see Asher roaring at the lions. Lily wanted to get into the cage with the tigers and really couldn't understand why it wasn't a good idea.
Luckily it won't be so long until Lily gets to see her cousins again as we are all going camping together in a few weeks time.

Artists in training

How funny are these two munchkins!!!!!

I found these photos on the harddrive on my camera,I didn't even know they were there. They're from around the time of Lily's second birthday and the girls are indulging in a bit of near nude painting. I can tell you however, that other shots show they did have their gumboots on for the rain!!!

I do believe that Lily's nose is blue as Tully painted here. She looks a bit like a puppy dog!!!

Late night shots

Late nights are my time. It's usually the time I get to sit down finally and do a little crafting be it knitting or sewing. Usually after Lily has finally gone to sleep (often later than her father LOL) I do the rounds cleaning up her chaos and the scattered parties she's managed to spread all over the house with her various dollies and little people, that I'm not allowed to disturb during the day. Apparently the partying still continues even when she's not actively playing with them. I was thinking how much the house has changed since she was born and how much more tidying up I have to do, it's bad enough picking up after Andy LOL But as much as the little messy parties are sometimes a chore to pick up at the end of each day, it's the little reminders like the following that make it all worthwhile and make me smile.

I found this artful little decorating hanging off the surround sound speaker wires. I thought it was pretty cute and didn't have the heart to clean it up, so it's still there.

Lily's flower vase; that is just inside the front door. This is where she puts her flowers that she's picked after we've been out on our walks. Usually we come home from music on Wednesday morning with a handful of sourgrass. She hasn't learnt the delight of chewing it yet. I remember being told not to chew it when I was little as a dog might have weeed on it, but it was so yummy!! She's also added some sheoak cones, a banksia cone and some shells to the mix. I'm going to make her some felted bowls to keep these treasures in.

Her rainbow rocket from Library last Thursday. After the eclipse the stories were all about the moon. We showed Lily the eclipse and she quite liked it but then said, "Now I want to see the moon shine green."

As I put things away in her bedroom while she sleeps this cute little eggs glow at me. Aren't they the most awesome nightlights. They're three eggs that constantly change colour. They're made from a soft but tough material so you can pick them up and walk around with them and even drop them and it doesn't matter. Lily's godfather, Kenny, gave her these.

And because it seems I haven't being doing any sewing (I haven't) or knitting lately, here's a little picture of something I'm working on at the moment.