Photo a day 28/365 - DINNER

Dinner out with friends and two toddlers. Had a good time and everybody behaved well :)

Photo a day 27/365 - SOMETHING I BOUGHT

A mini bag of gourmet jelly beans. Every tiny little one was a taste explosion, they really lived up to their Gourmet name!

Photo a day 26/365 - FUN STUFF!

Poo can be fun as well! Found these in the toilet of a nice cafe in Freo. 

Photo a day 25/365 - A TASTE OF SUMMER

I scream. Ice cream. 

Photo a day 24/365 - YOUR SPACE

Sadly I can't think of what to take a photo of for this. I don't feel like I have my own space at home or even inside my head for that matter... I will add a photo later if I can think of something. 

Photo a day 23/365 - BEDTIME

A hot day got the better of him. A nice lunch time nap in the cool aircon. 

Photo a day 22/365 - NICE!

+35 degrees and a cider. First one in two years! It was beautiful, golden and cold. A taste of summer that brought back many memories. Perfect. 

Photo a day 21/365 - BLUE

Blue cardboard, glitter glue, stars. My work for today. Sale price tags for our Aussie Day Sale. 

Crochet Mood Blanket - week 3

Here is my progress for last week (on the left). I ended up making four mini squares. Just happy colours that go well with each other inspired by an anticipated visit from a friend. The big colourful square on the right is the first (and maybe last?) square for this week. Energetic multicoloured one for an exciting week with our newly purchased company. 

Playing catch up

Now I should be up to date with the #FMSphotoaday challenge pictures. I have to say that it is quite easy to miss a day or two when you're busy with something else, but luckily it's fairly easy to make up for it. I am being easy on myself and giving me the freedom to use old photos when they suit the theme so that I don't always need to take them on the day. This makes it a more realistic goal which I will hopefully be able to follow through for the whole year. I tell you, I will be so proud of myself if and when I do!!!

Photo a day 20/365 - TO DO LIST

Two done, two pushed forward to tomorrow.

Photo a day 19/365 - BREAKFAST

I have to explain myself... This wasn't the actual breakfast but rather a mid-morning treat. The breakfast was oats with raspberries, mashed banana and natural yoghurt. That is not very photogenic so I opted to feature the chocolate squares instead!

The chocolate squares are home made and the tea is T2 Auyrvedic Passion.

Photo a day 18/365 - HAPPY PLACE

This is my happy place. A nice chair to sit on and surrounded by my projects. A cup of tea is missing but the Tea Cup Notepad Cover can make up for it!

The weekend production line

Here's a quick look at what I've been doing this weekend. I saw a post about an adorable Tea Cup Notebook Cover in Punk Projects and had to make one for myself. Instead of making the notepad and sewing it into the cover I made one where you can change the pad when needed. I'm loving this cute and fast project and might be making a couple more!

I also finished one WIP, the pouffe. I left it a bit soft and it's perfect for Finn to play on. It's been used as a pillow, slide and trampoline so far - oh and a napkin... The last project is not quite finished yet and needs a bit more quilting but it will be a blanket for Finn. I bought the materials ages ago, hence the girly colors. The little man doesn't mind it though, he loves to look at the pictures, give kisses to the owls and smell the flowers <3 I will try and finish it tonight, so we can play with it tomorrow.

Photo a day 17/365 - TINY

I have fallen a bit behind in this #FMSphotoaday challenge. The reason being a bit of a rush after buying a business and doing some sewing (post to follow). Anyway, to the challenge...

Tiny little flowers in our mint. I realised I've never seen mint flowers before!

Photo a day 16/365 - SUN

Here it is. Rising in Monkey Mia at the end of March last year. We are booked in to go there again this year. Yay!

Turn on the lights...

I have fallen in love with embroidery, especially embroidering little messages or sayings on pretty fabric. I made this one for a friend who is having a bit of a rough patch in her life at the moment. I thought a nice encouraging message written with bright colors might remind her to soldier on and bring a smile on her face. I "stole" this idea from the wonderful Muita Ihania -blog. It is well worth having a look at, she is a great maker and knitter (she also writes in English at least some of the time)!

The message in English is pretty much:

turn on the lights

wipe your tears

and

keep going

Photo a day 15/365 - BLACK + WHITE

My trusty Moleskine diary and pen. I had a couple of colorful affairs before returning back to the classic black cover. I use the specially designed Moleskine pen to put some black on white daily.

Photo a day 14/365 - 3 THINGS

My three projects for the new year that will all last the whole year:

1) A Sentence A Day journal from Kikki K. It has a question for every day of the year and room for answers for three years. I love the idea of this especially when I can compare my answers for different years!

2) Crochet hook for my #crochetmoodblanket2014 challenge. You can read more about it in the little info box on the right hand column. 

3) My mobile = camera for the #FMSphotoaday challenge. I have decided to use my mobile to take pictures for this challenge since I always have it with me. Of course for this photo I needed to borrow my husbands phone for obvious reasons :)

Photo a day 13/365 - MAKES ME SMILE

This cardigan. Santa brought it for me saying he hopes wearing and looking at it will bring a smile to my face every time. I think he might have been right, I have smiled every time I have worn this.

:)

Photo a day 12/365 - COLOURFUL

Our lunch for today. We went very light since it was the second day of over 40°C here in Perth.

Photo a day 11/365 - LOOKING DOWN

This was a hard theme for me, that's why the post is a day late. I tried to think of something I could photograph on the day but nothing came up that would have suited the description. Therefore this photo was taken about a month ago; I was standing on our balcony looking at this eager little gardener on our front yard.

Crochet Mood Blanket - week 2

This week I made two big squares; one with different shades of calm blues for the night that Finn slept through and the light icy blue for Friday when we bought a fridge shop! The light blue is a fine mohair yarn which I couldn't help using when I remembered I had it in my stash. I thought it went so well with the other blues and the cold fridge theme :) I seriously need to start blocking this start of a blanket though to make it look better.

Tilda bear

I made this lovely little bear for our niece for her third birthday. I spotted it in Mollie Makes magazine issue 33 and thought it would be perfect. Especially after reading an article about The Art of Giving in the same mag.

"True gifts aren't the easily acquired consumables exchanged back and forth through obligation that we've come to expect. Rather, giving in its purest sense has to embody something of the giver - even a sacrifice - to be considered valuable."

I like this idea and I love to give gifts that I have made myself. Hopefully the little birthday girl loves her new Tilda bear!

Photo a day 10/365 - MANMADE

I don't usually like beer cans but here they have been used to their full potential! I think this is one of the best crafty christmas decorations I have seen so far. Lucky it's close to our house so we can admire it every day during the holiday season.

Please excuse poor photo quality. 
It was taken with a mobile and zoomed in. 

Photo a day 9/365 - NATURAL

Needle book

I have started embroidering a bit more and acquired a few more needles. Therefore I needed a storing solution for all my needles, the pin cushion just wouldn't suffice anymore. I had seen a similar little book for needles somewhere in a blog or magazine and decided to give it a try. 

I'm very happy with how this little book turned out and I think I might have to make one for Popeye as well. That won't have needles inside it though but some nice appliquéd pictures.

Photo a day 8/365 - LUCKY NUMBER

My birthday. His birthday. The day we first met. The day we met for the second time. The street number of the first house we bought together. The day he proposed. Our wedding day... Do I need to continue?

Photo a day 7/365 - UPSIDE DOWN

Early morning fun/training on the beach.

Photo a day 6/365 - HAPPENS EVERY DAY

For the next 3 years at least. I will be writing in this "Sentence a day 3 year diary". It has a question for each day of the year and you are supposed to answer it three years in a row. Will be nice to look back and see what in my life has changed!

Crochet Mood Blanket - week 1

Here is my progress with the Crochet Mood Blanket 2014. As you can see I got a bit excited and made 10 squares instead of just 1 that is my minimum per week for this project. The last four squares (at the front of the picture) are today's squares. Smoky and fiery colours as this morning we woke up to a thick smoke in the air, thanks to bush fires down south. There is also some testing going on in the squares; I wanted to see how a flower square will look like. I will use these to mark special days and occasions. I'm quite happy with this so far!

Photo a day 5/365 - FOUND

From the side of the road at council pick up. It got some chalkboard spray paint on it and golden highlights. Good enough for a balcony side table. The other one serves as a little helper next to the clothes line. 

WIP finished - 'Eat your greens' embroidery

This one never even made it to my official WIP list as I decided to tackle it right after the Baby Socks. Reason for that was that I wanted to use it for my Photo a day challenge today as well. 

This is where I started today and below the finished product. All I have to do now is to hang it in the kitchen. 

Photo a day 4/365 - WORD TO LIVE BY

Green. In everything environmentally friendly. And food.

Photo a day 3/365 - MY TOWN

Beautiful King's Park in the middle of Perth, WA. I have to admit this photo was not taken today but I just had to use it as I love it so much! It was the wildflower season and King's Park was just a riot of colours.

WIP finished - Baby Socks

My first WIP for the year has been finished! Yay! I got these socks for Finn done and he's already running slipping around wearing them. I like the socks, just the knitting and running both colours at the back all the time made the knitting a bit slower than usual. These socks are made from pure wool so they will be comfortable to use all year round. I think they will even be used now in summer since the nights and early mornings have been a bit chilly. What's better than an early morning trip to the beach when your toes are nice and toasty? :)

Below the text for these socks when they were still a WIP.

{WIP Baby Socks} These have been on the needles since July 2013. That would have been an appropriate time to finish them as well and not in summer like I'm now planning to... Anyway, I started knitting these socks with just one colour but from somewhere I got the idea to add the green as well (or I didn't have enough of the blue in my stash; can't remember!). So they became a bit more complicated project to finish as I haven't knotted that much with several colours and it slows me down lots. However I am now determined to finish these and there will be a post of the socks soon! {WIP Baby Socks}

WIP list started!

I have now created a separate page for my WIPs (Works In Progress) that can be accessed from the tabs under the blog header. It's not a complete list yet but it will be updated when I find other WIPs and when I get some finished. Have a look!

Photo a day 2/365 - BEGINS WITH G

A glass of green tea.

Crochet Mood Blanket 2014

I decided to make a new year's resolution this year although I don't really do that normally. It is something just for me and intended to make sure I am happy. It goes:

Do more of what makes you happy!

To me that means more sewing, crochet and other creative and crafty stuff. So... I found this fun crochet blanket challenge on Instagram and decided to take part. It is called Crochet Mood Blanket 2014 and the idea is to crochet one square per day or per week with a colour describing your mood and at the end of the year you will end up with a blanket! I committed to crocheting a minimum of one big square or four mini ones per week and I can make more if I feel productive. This is what I have done so far.

I am using only pure wool for this blanket and will use up my stash first. No doubt I will have to go shopping as well during the year but I'll be ok for now. Here is a quick look at my stash and the colours that can be expected at the start.

I am very excited and can't wait to add to my blanket! I have also made another craft related unofficial new year's resolution which includes getting rid of as much of my stash wool and fabrics as possible and to finish most of my WIPs (Work In Progress). Let's see how we go. I will try to add a WIP list on the blog as well soon just to keep myself up-to-date on all I have to do!

FMS Photo a day 1/365 - LUNCH

A new year and new energy for new projects... So I thought I'd see how long I can keep up with this photo a day challenge. There is a theme for each day which can be seen on Fat Mum Slim's challenge page. I came across this challenge only today so I will have to play catch up for the one lost day :)

Here is the first picture for this year. Today's lunch; a green smoothie with some mango. This would qualify for photo 2/365 as well as the theme for that is Begins with G. But I won't, I will take another picture for that!