Mandy in Oz

Oh boy, it's full steam ahead on the Christmas crafting! I've done a heap of *making*, with loads more yet to do. But I'm not panicking..... *shifty eyes* Anyway, here's a bit of what I've been up to this weekend. Some dyeing that's currently batching, and some yarn for a swap. I think I'm in love with this one, which I've dubbed 'Dawn's first light'. It's soft and lovely. Wonder if it would be wrong to keep it for me?

how I love thee. I have a couple on the go currently ;) One I'm taking part in is within a great group on Ravelry - we always have the most awesome swaps, thoroughly enjoyable! And.....I've now also received a secret santa brief - I'm so excited! This one will be fun :P Here are some piccies of what I've been working on for my rav swap....anyone who is averse to yellow, you may like to look away.....right about now.

Once again, I'm in great company! Some beautiful work up for grabs tonight, currently previewing here Here is what I created for the stocking - two sets to celebrate the arrival of a new baby, with colours inspired by the elements and a mythical mother and child theme.

Another awesome giveaway from the lovely Corrie here !

A special opportunity has had me crafting my little heart out :P Here's some of the goodies I've been working on......some of these might just be spotted soon, at a stocking near you ;)

but I'm crafting away, nonetheless. Today I've been making soap, yesterday was sewing, applique, fabric painting, stencilling.....about to do a little more embellishment on a bag, but more on that later :) Here's some pics of what I've been working on, plus a shot of where the little guy decided to fall asleep today....very unusual for him, not to mention super cute :P

Well, it appears I may be coming down with something again *eyeroll* The aches and pains set in tonight.....how wonderful, just in time for the weekend :P Nevermind, I'm keeping myself busy *snicker* sketching a bag idea and cutting a stencil (the second time ever!) for another 'sort of' bag idea. Hopefully it works :) Will be back with details once I know.

it appears that project dye painting may be a win! woot! a couple of rinses and some hot, soapy water later - colour still looks nice and strong, lines are nice and crisp (as crisp as it gets, painting with dye, anyway) and I'm feeling pretty confident. I deliberately did this experiment with turquoise, as I've found it to be a bit of a heartbreaker when dyeing. Starts off looking good, after rinse it's a bit faded, ends up looking totally washed out. It's notorious for being difficult to set. So, the plan is to use these as appliques or pockets on some stuff for the kiddies, or maybe on bags and see how they fare after some washing and wearing......fingers crossed!

A little dye painting today......working on technique and using a new recipe. These aren't quite done, a couple more steps and I'll see if it's good or an epic fail :P Some finishing touches added to my alien landscape Twilight inspired on linen

taken at the family gathering yesterday. It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny - just perfect for going to the park :)

The tribe rose early, heading into the city for the annual extended family gathering. Much fun was had by the littles and the bigs, after which we headed bayside for the opening of a fabulous new soap store :) Pics tomorrow ;)

because I'm starting to get that awkward silence feeling, you know - when you're trying to think of something to say :P Here's a couple of pics I took this afternoon, one of baby Jack and an action shot of the elephant skirt of a couple of posts ago.

Here it is :) A dinosaur dress, for my dinosaur obsessed 4 year old. It received the Lily stamp of approval 'I want to wear it for years and years, mummy'. The pattern is a freebie from Oliver + S - very simple lines and extremely generous sizing (A size 3 probably would have been better for Miss Lily). Relatively easy to make and other than the cutting out, I whipped this one up in one afternoon/evening.

Looks like I might have missed another day - oops! I have an excuse, of course ;) Yep. Sick 4 year old strikes again .....sigh. The already pitiful amount of sleep I normally get, just got even more pitiful. Ah well, nevermind. I have coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Take pictures of baby Jackson, in his daddy's christening suit. Yup, J's mum kept it and gave it to us :P So, here is my little guy, in baby clothes that his dad wore, over 30 years ago :)

yep, it's a sick house again....sigh. Missed posting yesterday, too. Whoops! This weekend, in between tending to sickies, I did some scrapbooking! Well, really it was more updating of the kids memory books, but there was a little scrapbooking involved :P This led me down the slippery slope of searching out specific photos, which of course were stored on my *old* laptop. Enter - marathon transfer of photos to new computer, via 2gb memory stick :s Slow and painful, I tell you. But...I found some awesome pics that I'd forgotten about. Lily and Jackson at the Cherub's Kiss photoshoot... Jackson thinking he might eat the DS cord *eyeroll* Lily's 4th birthday cake - Dinosaur Island!

for someone who loves roses ;) Here's one I grew and took a picture of earlier *grin* Just for you Lesley :)

Hot off the sewing machine and currently on the wheel. The skirt was entirely impromptu, I found what appeared to be part of a calico 'practice run' skirt, dyed it up and chopped it into two pieces - this is the small part, with a cute little elephant print to finish the hem. The larger part will become a skirt for me. On the wheel is some lovely hand dyed cotton - I have a few different pastel colours to spin, I'll be spinning them all together, one colour at a time and then navajo plying, to get a gradient yarn. Should be fun!

I just saw that apparently there's a bit of a blogtober self-portrait thingy doing the rounds and thought - hey, that's great! Now I can just stuff around in Photo booth rather than thinking up something to blog about *giggle* I was going to blog about the cute little lime green/elephants skirt I whipped up for Lily this afternoon, but I simply couldn't find the motivation required to take a pic, so might leave that one for tomorrow ;) And here I am, a couple of minutes ago - FAK, as per usual.

Yep, I actually did get to taking those pictures today. So here they are.....Lily in her fabulous new top, which I *just* squeezed out of a half yard of some silky soft Alexander Henry voile. Plus, pictures of the fabric that I dyed over the weekend. My favourite is definite the limey green cotton velvet :)