2013 advent calendar (a very late post!)

Hello! Season's greetings! I know I'm super late with a Christmas themed post, and you're probably well and truly over Christmas, if you celebrate it, but please indulge me in posting this, I really wanted to show off our advent calendar.



For several years now I've been making advent calendars using little disposable paper envelopes, but always had it  in mind to sew little fabric pockets, never quite getting around to it. So this year I elevated it to no.1 on the craft project list, did some serious daydreaming, a little Pinterest searching and gathered supplies.



I essentially sewed little pockets to hang from our silver stick (used previously to hang Christmas ornaments) in our corridor. They'd then be filled with treats or suggestions for activities. And as anyone with small children knows, the whole ceremony is quite exciting :-)



The pocket outers are made from one of my favourite oatmeal coloured linens, then each has a contrast colour used for embroidering the numbers and lining the pockets - as seen in the pic above.



Embroidering the numbers took a few days to complete - every kids soccer lesson, swimming lesson and play in the park saw me sitting stitching away, but I loved every minute of it. I find embroidery so enjoyable, particularly freeform style. There were also lengths of ribbon to cut and buttons to sew on - I used a mismatched assortment from my button jar, which worked out fine. What wasn't quite so fun was the production line style sewing of all the linings to the outers, but in the end it wasn't so painful.



And what I'm thrilled about is that we now have something that can be used year after year, creating a little tradition for our family. And with any luck it will be loved and cherished for years to come. The only thing that didn't work out so well was that as I spent so much time making it that the contents were quickly put together and sweets based, little chocolates and lollies mainly, rather than fun activities and outings. But hopefully that will happen next year, when at least one thing will be off my Christmas Craft list!!

Handmade cuff

Last week I was due to start work on a design project for a friend's company (woo hoo, someone's going to employ me to do something useful again! And there's no child wrangling involved... wow). I wanted a new cuff to go with my outfit so I scouted around Google looking for tutorials to use as inspiration. And basically I found that strategically placed cuts were the way to go, and that as the cuff wraps around your wrist it forms a really nice shape.



I've had a few odd shaped scraps of leather hanging around for a little while, which I had bought with bag straps in mind. I found them at a little shop selling all sorts of bits and pieces and the lovely owner told me that they were offcuts from a shoemaker friend of hers who had been planning to throw them out. I only tend to use leather when it comes to me from another life - like the second hand jacket I cut up for slipper soles.



So I got out a few tools (scalpel, steel ruler, cutting mat, wooden button and waxed linen thread) and a short time later had myself a new cuff...



You just wrap it around your wrist twice and fasten.

And of course as tends to happen with us craft nut types, a couple of days later this one appeared ;-)...



...to be an accessory for this dress.

Ah, don't you love a craft where no new equipment is needed, that uses upcycled materials and is fun?! It's so satisfying :-)

My creative space

In my creative space this week I'm enjoying the business of matching...

Starting with a design and then layering colour, fabrics, textures...

Adding all-important details...

And tinkering until it's just right. So much fun and so satisfying.

And any excuse to play with some new hardware is good, right? ;-)

Playing along with My creative space here.

Have a good weekend!

 

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Thoughts on motherhood: not underestimating the littlies

When doing craft with the kids I've often not been as patient as I'd like to be with them, which makes me a bit sad as I really want them to enjoy it. I find they want to try every step of the project at hand themselves. But you know how it is... dinner is running late, there's a huge mess you keep stepping around, the cat is squeeling for food, the washing needs to be hung out, and there's homework and vaccumming to do and someone has smeared yoghurt everywhere and wee'd in their pants... and it would just be quicker if I DID IT MYSELF, for goodness sake!!!!


So when my girls wanted to make some hair clips just before dinner time this afternoon I took a deep breath and told myself to stay calm. My friend Deb showed us how to cover buttons and use them for hair ties and clips recently and we loved it. Deb is so crafty, always has something interesting on the go, great projects and all sorts of ideas. There's something new to explore every time we see her and her family. Have you tried this? It's lots of fun and great for using up small scraps of treasured fabrics.

I knew the big girl (who's 7) would be fine with each step, but the little girl, who's not quite 5 also wanted to do it all by herself. I thought it would be too much for her but she did a fantastic job, even choosing a scrap of marimekko fabric out of the hundreds in my scrap box (a girl after my own heart :-). She held the small scraps and button holder in her small hands and used my big fabric scissors to neatly trim the excess fabric (deep breath!) and she was patient and methodical - teaching me a lesson!! And when I asked if I could take some pics along the way she sweetly agreed.


She's a funny one our little girl - drives us all insane with her craziness at times then turns around and floors us with her grown up ways. Tomorrow morning we're off to her second orientation for big school next year and I'm sure she'll take it in her stride, wearing some very pretty hair clips :-)

Belatedly playing along with My Creative Space again this week. Get your dose here.

Birthday treats

My big girl turns 7 this week and had a get-together yesterday with a few buddies. It was set to be a low key play date rather than a full party (which could not have been arranged with 4 days notice - she had changed her mind at the last minute, but that's another story ;-) So rather than doing party bags I thought I'd make a couple of little things for the kids to take home and also have a lucky dip, which I find is always popular.

The toffee lollipops was an idea that came from Kate at Foxs Lane. She had posted a pic on Instagram, which I've just joined, incidentally (come follow me, I'm bubala_jo, and I can follow you too ;-). They took me back to my old primary school fetes. My goodness, I ate quite a few of those things! Maybe that's why my teeth have given me so many problems! I thought putting a little on a paddle pop stick was a great idea and limits the portion size. Of course I made the girls promise to brush their teeth extra well when they got home (and hopefully the parents won't hate me!).

And the little felt owl came about because I wanted to give each child some kind of badge so I could identify them quickly in the play centre crowd of squealing children. I decided to make it a purse with a zip in the back and a clasp at the top so it could be put on their clothes on the afternoon and then they could clip it on their school bag or wherever later.

After making one prototype I got into full production mode and spent a bit of time cutting, pinning, sewing and finishing. My big girl suggested we have some owls asleep and some awake, which I loved. Then we added in the winking ones ;-) My big girl sewed on the buttons with me looking on proudly.

For once I was organised and took photos at each step, so that I can do a tutorial for them... hopefully soon :-)

Shaking it up

I've been playing around with some new-to-me crafting materials this week with presents in mind - polymer clay and hemp cord.



That along with my relatively new obsession of screen printing and the favourite - sewing, of course. It reminds me of how nice it is to mix up the crafting now and then.

Hope your holiday crafting/buying/planning is going well.

An advent calendar at last

There's been a bit of angst around here about the advent calendar this year. All from me of course, with a little touch from the big girl because she was worried I'd scrap the idea altogether, poor thing. You see I started off excitedly thinking of ideas based around using the stick from last year as a holder for some little fabric treasure bags. Last year the kids loved opening a paper envelopes each day (though the then almost 3 year old didn't deal too well with sharing, poor poppet).



Then during yet another conversation about ideas for the calendar the big girl asked what would happen if someone else bought us a calendar? Now I know she was just angling for chocolate, but when the Mr said something about kids preferring store bought things to homemade I got in a huff and said that if they wanted boring mass produced stuff then they could have it!! I would go and buy them a cheap calendar from the supermarket and save myself a lot of time. So there.



Of course that was never going to happen when there was the opportunity for some craft waiting... but time was slipping away and I decided on something simple. I took some little envelopes and got the hot glue gun out (woo hoo!), got the red and white striped string that I'd bought from Kikki K recently and made numbers on the front of the envelopes. I like how they look like candy canes. It was fun doing all the different numbers (it's all about me you know!) and surprisingly quick.

I planned to fill them with a mix of treats and activity suggestions (bake Christmas cookies together, take a walk around the neighbourhood to see the lights etc.). I only filled a few so that I remembered what they were, taking a cue from Meg that the activities should surprise the children, not yourself! The activities are written on little notes then tied with red thread.



Then I used some little reindeer pegs that we'd been given last year and hung them all on a line of jute from the mantel. I added some fairy lights (which will enhance anything, right? ;-) and hoped that the kids would love it and forgive me for not buying the Cadburys milk chocolate calendar.



This morning the activity was Make berry pancakes with icecream for breakfast. Now if that's not bribery I don't know what is ;-)

Here's hoping your advent activities have been fun and bribery free!

Rag rug riddle

Rainbow rag rug by Waschbear

There's not much creativity happening here this week with the Mr away for work, school starting again, my mum visiting AND the first week of my 'kid swap' happening (where my friend and I look after each other's littlie for one day a week each). BUT there's always some idea that I've squirreled away and am dying to get into...


Festival throw rug by craftzies

When I recently moved furniture around the house I realised we needed another rug or two. I've always found it difficult to find rugs that I like but are not hugely expensive. Then 'ping', an idea popped into my head that I haven't been able to get out - make the rug! Sometimes I curse this 'gotta make stuff' mania, but sometimes it's fun. Hopefully this will be one of those!


Multi-coloured round crochet rag rug by RaggedyAnns

After Googling and Youtubeing (?) 'rag rug making' though, I'm confused... do I weave, braid, crochet, or use the 'toothbrush' method?? If anyone reading has any thoughts, experience or whatever, please let me know. I'm thinking I can buy a heap of old t-shirts at my local thrift shop (the $6 per kilo place) and make this project environment and budget friendly too! I'll let you know how I go. In the meantime, here's some inspiration from some clever Etsy sellers. And this Flickr group is amazing too.