More Exciting Post
10:11 PM knitting , socks , Yarn Clubs 0 Comments

It's been a good week for fun packages for me! After the nice parcel on Monday, I got another parcel on Wednesday...

This was my 2nd installment in the Vintage Purls Winter Sock Club. I was hoping there would be some colourwork in one of the patterns this time as I've never done it before and have been wanting to try it. Morag does a great job of her Sock Clubs as I found out in the Summer one and I haven't been disappointed yet.

In the package:

2 Skeins of VP Sock Club exclusive colourways - 'Top Soil' (brown background colour) & 'Beetle' (green foreground colour)

'Bug Out' sock pattern (exclusive to Sock Club members for 6-12 months when she releases it to the public)

A packet of knitting 'gift tags' with spaces to fill in the care details of handmade garments (very useful as I often gift my knitting and wash and care instructions always need to be given as not all wool has to be hand-washed)

A small packet of Cadbury after dinner mints (sorry, they didn't make it to the photo!)
Letter & details about this installment

Then today in the letterbox...

This is my 2nd installment in the Knitsch 'Flights of Fancy' Yarn Club. Tash is running this club with two colourways each month and you either signed up to the 'Plan Ahead' (get to choose which one you want from a description) or 'Mystery Escape' (complete surprise). I signed up for the 'Mystery Escape'.

In the package:

1 Skein of Knitsch Yarn Club exclusive colourway 'Polly'

A very handy pencil with an Albert Einstein quote

A roomy WIP (work in progress) bag in a bright daffodil print fabric

Letter explaining the background for the inspiration of the month's colourways

(The pattern for each installment is emailed each month, a day or so after posting of packages so I'm still waiting on that to arrive hopefully tonight or tomorrow)

Anyone else get nice post recently?

0 comments:

Comments give me the warm fuzzys! Thanks for leaving yours...

A Great Day (and it's only 11o'clock)!
8:01 PM 3 Comments

It started off freezing cold (which makes it extra hard to get up in the early-morning dark).

We were running late (like usual).

LittleMiss remembered I'd said she could ride her bike to kindy on Monday (as it's not a work day so we can walk home also).

I had to have the house spotless before 10.00 (as the builder was coming to look at the house to quote for renovations).

So what made it great?

The frost means beautiful sunshine! And I even have the doors open and there's a nice breeze to air the house out (I should really get a load of wash on to make the most of it!)

The girls were very good at getting ready and helping each other so we were nicely on time for the bus.

The walk to kindy was great - LittleMiss was super good biking. Keeping right next to me and not racing ahead. And I could keep up a good pace without feeling guilty that I was making her walk fast (or have to piggy-back her). We ended up being the first ones to kindy! (This is my first kindy-day-that's-not-a-work-day and the idea of being home with no little person to worry about/pester me is quite nice!)

I had tidied spotless the girls' rooms on Friday so it was just making beds, putting away clothes and a bit of paper rubbish from the weekend play to sort out so had the place very presentable by 10. Then the phone rang and the builder was crook and couldn't make it today and I couldn't get hold of J to tell him not to come home anymore (as he was already on his way). So I made coffee. And J and I got to sit out in the sunshine on the deck having a coffee for no reason before he went back to work. (I don't think we've ever done that without LittleMiss here interrupting).

And while we were having our coffee, the postie went past and put a package in the letterbox. Inside was a beautifully wrapped parcel from Megan at Mousehouse which J insisted I opened before he went back to work again. I had enetered a competition she had on her blog and won! (I was so thrilled when I found out - I'm not much of a winner usually.) So here's a rundown (from Megan's blog) of what was in the parcel and here's a picture of it all unwrapped:

I'll be sharing the stickers, tape, string and cellobags with the girls, but only for giving away (birthday cards etc). They love all things crafty and quite happily spend all day cutting, glueing and sellotaping when I let them, but it's not always worth keeping what they make! I think the purse, notepad and pencil will be quite handy for my knit designing, so I'm claiming them as mine.

So now I have the rest of the day free (or at least until 1pm when I pick up LittleMiss) to do what I want without feeling like I should be doing something else!

3 comments:

Comments give me the warm fuzzys! Thanks for leaving yours...

A Great Day for a Photo Shoot
5:47 PM LittleMiss , Ottobre , Sewing 1 Comments

So LittleMiss was desperate for new pants. And I mean DESPERATE. Her single pair of good jeans ripped at the knee just the other day and all her other pants are kindy pants. (Meaning they either have rips in both knees or are scummy, painting pants not suitable for public wear.) And, like all my girls, LittleMiss doesn't fit shop bought pants unless they have adjustable elastic. And do you think local shops in town sell pants with adjustable elastic? Of course not, you have to travel to the big shopping centres in the city (min. 1hr drive) to find any.

So one day I happened to be child-free and in the city so I bought LittleMiss a pair of jeans. They didn't fit. MiddleMiss got them because they fit her. So what do you do when you can't buy things to fit? You make them. So I did.

I had bought material to make the girls pants ages ago. They'd chosen their own colours. BigMiss chose pale pink, MiddleMiss chose lavender and LittleMiss chose camo "So I can go hunting with Papa in new hunting pants."

I made these using an Ottobre pattern (19 from 1/2006). LittleMiss loves that it has heaps of pockets and I like my sewing to look store-bought rather than homemade so I spend time on the details.

It has metal dome snap buttons at the front fly, contrast piping on the front pockets, small metal snaps closing the back pocket flaps, contrast double top-stitching, a cute farm animal tag on one side pocket and best of all...it fits her perfectly! (I had to make the waist two sizes smaller than her age-size length to suit her measurements.)

1 comments:

Comments give me the warm fuzzys! Thanks for leaving yours...

Why Shouldn't You...
4:42 AM Nattering 0 Comments

...go clothes shopping for the man without the man?

Because you then have to drag the kids to the shops again so he can swap things for the right size (or in his case, length). And getting three kids (that are half-way through the stuck-inside-because-it's-wet holidays) to behave in shops while trying things on is no fun. At least he was understanding enough to say to me "How did you manage by yourself?" (when I first bought the clothes).

So why, you ask, did I do it in the holidays at all and not wait until school was back and I didn't have the two big ones? Only because it was J's birthday on Saturday just gone and half the fun for the girls is in the shopping. Sadly, clothing was the only thing I could think of to get and every item of clothing I got needed to be exchanged. Except the one that got the best reception - his flashy new completely waterproof hunting jacket:

Now, because I'm useless and hardly ever remember to take photos - or we could just say he wouldn't have let me anyway - this pic was taken from their website

He thinks it's great to have encouragement to take the dog out more and would even be testing it this weekend if he wasn't already going on a trail ride. Though, I do have to say that the only reason the clothes didn't fit is because his legs and arms are too long - the width of everything was fine.

But, clothes wasn't the only thing he got (I got him chocolate too, but that doesn't count). He ordered his own birthday present - various parts for the Holden:

Photo taken by LittleMiss

Can you see it rushing past really fast? If you look closely you'll notice it's missing a windscreen - and all other windows - the bonnet is slightly up and it's parked in the shed. Yes, it is a PROJECT that LittleMiss has never ridden in as it stopped working and became a project before she was even in existence!

There was a good variety of different sized boxes of parts to be wrapped so that kept the girls entertained for an afternoon. He hadn't opened the main box to see what had come so it was like a whole lot of 'real' presents in a way. I did feel a bit like a cop-out so put in the effort and made a cake, even decorating and writing 'Happy Birthday' on it!

Sorry no photos - but it tasted yum!