Friday, April 13, 2012

Happy Belated Easter Everyone



I hope you all had a wonderful Easter time whatever it was that you were doing or where ever you were. Did you go away or spend time with family and friends or just have a nice quiet relaxing time at home?  Myself, I did all 3.  I had a night away to my all time favourite holiday spot, I spent some quality time with family and finally I managed to spend some time potting around in the garden and of course a little bit of some hooky goodness thrown in the mix.

You may have noticed that I have been away for a little while.  I seem to have a problem with balancing my time between blogging and making things, and I am finding that the joy I have in making things seems to be winning.

So let me update you all on where I have been through a little project timeline.

The first thing I need to show you is one little project that I have previously hinted at but wasn’t able to get everyone together for a group shot.  After delivering them to a very sweet little boy, they all decided that a group photo was worth the wait.  So here they all are...my pond friends.


Mr Frog, Mr Dragonfly, Mr Beetle bug and finally Mr Bee.  They love nothing more than to catch up around the ponds edge and have a chat.  Now don’t be confused about Mr Beetle bug.   I made the mistake of calling him Ms Ladybird, and he got awfully offended and proceeded to tell me exactly what his name was.


This is not my pattern so if you’re thinking it might be nice to have your own little pond friend gathering, the pattern can be found here.


A project that came up at the last minute and one that completely took my sole focus for 3 weeks is one that I don’t have photos of.  This one I decided not to take photos of due to its personal nature.   The general manager at my work was leaving to have her baby after being there for over 20 years.   As a farewell and good luck gift I was asked to put together a scrapbook/signature book of her time with the organisation.
      I work for an organisation that helps support families who have children and young adults with disabilities and a lot of the content that I was putting into this book included photos and stories of her time with them.  I came to the decision that as I won’t put photos of my own Little O on my blog (as I feel that when he is older he may not want his photos splashed around out in cyber space), I don’t think it is fair to do the same to others. 
      Have you ever played the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon game?  Well the disability world where I live is kind of like this but maybe only 2-3 degrees.  It seems that everyone knows everyone or knows someone who knows them.  

What I can tell you about the scrapbook was that I used Kaisers Bubblegum Hills range and absolutely loved it.  I added crochet, ribbons, brads, all sorts of textured paper and even took to sewing some of the pages with my sewing machine.   For me it was another way to enjoy being creative.


My next project came in the form of my nephews 5th Birthday present.  With the theme of his party being Star Wars how could I not make something?  I must tell you that although I love the Star Wars movies (especially number IV, V, and VI) the original Star Wars movie and I have a little bad history together.  I still to this day have a little dig at my parents for abandoning me in the hospital (being only 2 days old) for them to go on a date night and see Star Wars at the movie theatre.  Now apparently when I was born it wasn’t that uncommon for the hospital to give a night leave pass for couples to go and do this.  But really I was ONLY 2 DAYS OLD! Ok clearly I still have issues about this that need to be dealt with. 

Anyway back to the point of my ramblings, I decided that with the cold weather approaching a Star Wars themed beanie was in order.  So based on the beanie pattern that I used for Little O’s dinosaur beanie, I made it a bit larger and then added the detail.  And this is what I came up with...









Yes.... it is an R2D2 beanie! 

As I was limited for time I made all the colour parts individually and sewed them on which took forever.  If I ever do this again I think I might try and incorporate them into the main knitted body and then added the extra crochet bits for a bit of 3D.  Although I look at it now and think things could be a little better here and there at least I have one very excited, ecstatic little nephew who is completely in love with his present.  And isn’t this the reason why we make things for others.  To know that it is something that they will love and treasure and truly appreciate it.

(I do have in the pipes another beanie along the Stars Wars theme so when I have finished this I will share some photos).


I do hope that at this point you are still with me as I know it’s been a long show and tell but I do still have a few more things to share.


For all those mine craft fans out there what goes sssshhhhhhh......BOOM!!!



A Creeper!

  Baby L you will be the only one in your Mothers group that has your own creeper.

And two thumbs up to my brother who took it upon himself to find the pattern which can be found here.  If you are big into computer games or know someone who is there are some excellent patterns on here.

And another little present for Baby L on behalf of my parents...


....his own little pair of All Stars. 

I have had this pattern for a while and wanted to make a pair for Little O but just never got around to it.  Baby L you are going to be one cool little dude.  The pattern for these can be found here.

But my most favourite, absolute most enjoyable project I have done over the last few weeks  was when Little O and I sat down and created his own Easter egg basket for the egg hunt on Sunday morning. 



Yes I am one very proud Mumma bear.  These are the things that I used to dream
about doing when having children of my own.

We painted, drew, coloured in and even did a little cut and pasting to create that most beautiful basket I have ever seen.  And what a joy it was to see him on Sunday morning so excited to be using it running around our back yard picking up all the little chocolate eggs that the Easter bunny had left behind.   His basket is now sitting upon our Easter shelf in pride of place. 

This would have to have been my best creative moment.

Anna
XO