Tea Cosy Swap

I particapted in a swap on Down to Earth Blog. This is what Liz at Luv2create made for me. Its been made of recycled fabrics, and has beautiful applique, finished in blanket stitch, my favourite stitch.

This is the tea cosy i made for Liz. If you google rosy cosy, you'll find it.

I really struggled to follow the croctet pattern, because i haven't ever followed a pattern,, so i don't know if it was me or the pattern. I needed to do a lot of figuring out, and maybe even improvising. But mostly i learnt somthing. Swaps are a great way to extend yourself.

Items of need.

Lots of the stuff I make is about need, somebody always needs somthing made or mended.
We are currently covering books and naming pens, and pencils for school, by the time we have finished we will have named/covered approx. 170 items.
I have seen pencil/pen/crayon holders on several blogs, I can't remember which one, but the are all basically the same thing, and some are very pretty, and lots of love and care, has been poured in.
Though I love the children, making these has been needs based, because the crayons in the box were just to hard, for them to manage.
I have deconstructed, the whole thing, to reduce the amount of time, to make them. The fabric, is some 100% poly, matress making stuff, it has a bit of a canvas quality. I just cut a strip, left the fluffy selvedge, folded it, ziz zagged, the edge (I don't overlock) and sewed all the little pockets. Finished with an elastic loop, and a pretty button.
And the reaction from the kids 'WOW Mum thats MAD"

This bit of stuff, is what I have prepared for Church this Sunday. We are doing stuff about the relevance of the bible.
This stuff is for an activity. When the early Christians, were sharing the the word of Christ, they shared bits of letters, stories and stuff, different people had different stuff, and they had to come together to get the big picture.
So in this activity, I got 10 great Jesus quotes, on A3, stained the paper, and tore it up. When people get to Church, everyone will be given a piece, and during the service there will be a time when we all wander around and find the people, with the other bits.

3 Things happening

This is the painting I'm working on. It is huge, about twice the size of anything else I've done -- I've only been painting for 12 months.

This is just my foundation image. I did it last week at about 2 one morning, when I was suffering "busy brain" and couldn't sleep.

I'm just waiting for school to start, so I can get on with it.

These are Beau's feet, she is modeling the little slippers I have been working on. I made some for myself, then the kids wanted some. they just love them. I think that I should jigg my pattern again to make baby ones too.

I hope to finish the pattern and post it in the next few days.

This is the kids breakfast, with Home Made Tomato Sauce, They love it.

I was given a box of tomatos, so many, and decided to do somthing special. I adapted the recipe in Stephanie Alaxanders "Cooks Companion" (one of my fav. recipe books)

TOMATO SAUCE

5kg ripe tomatos, chopped

1 table spoon peppercorns and

1tbs clove wrapped in muslin

1tbs ground ginger

1tbs all spice

3/4 bulb of garlic - chopped

30 salt

500ml apple cider vinegar

Boil all these things together for 1 hour, then add

1kg raw sugar

Boil for 2 hours, stir regularly, so that it dosen't

catch on the bottom of your saucepan. Blend it

with a stick blender in your sauce pan. Bottle in

hot sterile jars/ bottles, I used screw cap wine

bottles.

I am absolutly delighted with this sauce, Handy loved it, and licked out the sauce pan. I am totally suprised that the kids like it, I hated the tomato sauce my mother made, I seem to remember it having somthing icky in it, maybe it was the spice, maybe I had an imature pallet.

some things worry me

Some of the e-mail stuff my friends send me, can be a worry. But then sometimes I need somthing to really worry about, besides, being overweight, and what to cook for dinner. Its the "send this to everyone, or no one will love you" stuff that gets me, especially since I can be socially unreliable, and don't always get people. Any way I sort of like this one, and don't want to send it to anyone, in case my friends think I'm lame, so i'll put it here, where i can be as lame as i like. so there.

So other lame/worry stuff, is that the computer has been sick and at the hospital, quite stressfull for me, I've had to read my news on paper, and got my hands dirty. And even more stressfull, is that the camera, needed a battery transplant, which has taken days to find a suitable doner, because the camera is 3 years old, ugg, but Handy to the rescue, I just had to show up at the right place and say "my husband rang and ordered" and hand over the plastic.
All projects have been on hold pending, photographing. There is a new painting in the works, beautiful crochet slippers, my little girls are learning to crochet, and they have taken over the family scrapbooking.

ONLY 5 MORE SLEEPS TILL SCHOOL STARTS. YEAH. I CAN'T WAIT



I GOT RID OF THIS BECAUSE ITS JUST TO DREARY

MUD

Its raining again, again, again, that means that there is a tank full,

(1o 000 L)

of water.

Which means that the FRACTIOUS children, on the 5th week of the holidays, can let off steam, in mud. Loverly. There was no fighting during this time. The last few weeks of the holidays are hard, -- on mothers, not to mention the kids.

Me, Marilyn, and Andy

It's like the portraits Andy Warhol did of famous celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.This is just one of the many fun activities at 'The Silver Factory: Andy Warhol for Kids' at GoMA's Children's Art Centre during the 'Andy Warhol' exhibition until 30 March 2008. (Admission to the Silver Factory is FREE!)Find out more at: www.qag.qld.gov.au/warhol

Blahh, Blahh, Blahh

Yes this is what we did yesterday. The Silver Factory was great, just to get this fantastic image. You go into a little booth, have the photo taken, choose which color ways you like, and email it to your self. I love it.There was also a room full of floating silver pillows, a 15 seconds of fame, interactive film piece, building blocks, made from packaging, some computer, and drawing activities. Not enough for Cherry, as there was no "craft"

.The whole Gallery (GOMA) is totally a buzz with the AW exhibition. I will go with Handy, some time soon.

Hippy --Sanitary napkins

Its a monthly thing (ha ha),-- the shopping for Sanitary stuff.
Normally I just buy "home bland" napkins, for 2 reasons.
1. I am overwhelmed by choice, I absolutely don't know what I need, with so much to choose from. So I just pick up the generic, because I figure that they will do the job.----- and they do.
2.The outrageous cost, which I don't remember, because I don't look anymore, and the generic are less than $2.

For many years at night, I'v been useing the old nappies, rolled up, and held in place by nickers. The nappies just get a soak and wash. I'v been very happy with this.
I recently say an article on a blog (can't remember which one) with a link to sewing reusable nappies, and sanitary napkins, and decided to make some.

The fabric, at the top of the picture is moroon, polar fleece, for the bottom layer it acts as a barrier. 1 layer The Grey, is an old towel -1 layer, The black is a cotton/hemp - 2 layers. These have been cut to that smaller pattern piece, and zigzagged together.
The cover, cut from the big pattern piece, is a bright cotton, and the purple is a cotton knit. The cotton grip sort of sticks to the gussett of your nickers and stops the pad from moving.
I wear these with firm fitting black nickers, and I have been very happy with the results.