What's been happening here...

I'd best type quickly. I am home alone. No kids to be hassling me about food or wanting their turn on the computer. No husband wanting to do work on the computer. Just me. I should be doing housework. But I am not. I thought I better let you know what's been going on around here otherwise you will all think that Mid-Craft Crisis has become like one of those blogs that has heaps to say and then one day it just stops. *waves* Don't worry. Still here. :-)

This month has been crazy from the beginning. So much going on and so many changes.

~Esther and Ellamay turned 7! There were the usual family celebrations and an un-party for them too. I will have to post some pictures from that at some stage. By the way, an un-party, in my definition, is a party you have when you are not really going to have a party. Savy?

~Tim resigned from his job last month and started a new one on the 14th. It is so perfect for him. He doesn't have to be away on overnighters each week now either. YAY! He is so happy in his new role, which makes me so happy too.

~We got a new family car and Tim got a new car for work.

~I got a new smart phone which is sending me crazy to work out. It is prepaid and I think either my kids are somehow using up the cash on it - or someone has been using the wi-fi connection on it. (Do I sound like I know what I am talking about? Because I totally don't!)

~House culling! I am so proud of myself. I have been letting go of so much stuff. My goal of having the house down to the very least amount of stuff by the end of August seems achievable. How amazing that is going to be! And then we can get down to the fun part of renovating!

I should probably mention that the picture up the top there is of me. It was taken the evening after the girls un-party when their guests had gone home and my sister and her husband had come for dinner. We had some fun with the photo props (from the un-party) too. Ellamay said that we were being too silly and grown-ups shouldn't be silly. Well, being silly was heaps of fun!

I have been keeping up with all the blogs I follow on my reader. It is so bad doing that though, don't you think? One is less inclined to comment on people's posts if one is not reading the blog itself. I think I will have to work on that. Call it a mid-year resolution.

Cushions

Do you like lots of cushions at your house? I like them. I don't like how much they cost for the pretty ones though. Especially with small children around who play with them, fight with them and spill stuff on them. As I mentioned in this post, we are planning some renovations come Spring time. This means a few pieces of new furniture. Goodbye green, blue and brown check lounge suite, hello modern dream charcoal modular suite. I have been reading up house magazines and spotting all the handmade ideas that can be thrown into the mix to soften the modern look I am after.

Back to cushions. We have some on our couch. They are the ones that came with it. They are green, blue and brown check just like the lounge suite. Blerk. I have always meant to make some new covers. We have had that thing for over 11 years now and I still haven't done it. (That didn't even make it to the mid-craft pile!)

Renovation planning is a little boring without action. So I am going to make cushions. I bought this book for myself for Mother's Day and have decided to make cushions out of it. It uses free motion stitching on applique. A more modern way to applique than I learnt way back when I learnt to sew at school.

It is so divine. When I look at the pictures, I almost believe I could just sit down and whip up one of these in no time. Of course, I know I don't actually do that. Maybe one day, if I could sit down at my sewing machine and work with it regularly... I might remember which settings do what and I wouldn't have to teach myself all over again every time I used it. :-)

This is the first cushion I would like to attempt. So pretty.

Here is what I have done so far. I have chosen all the fabric - an old pillow case, 2 of the kids old dresses and some fabric from Mum's stash. Not a bad effort really.

I even went to the sewing machine shop and bought a new foot for free motion stitching. The woman that served me lectured me on the fact that you don't use a free motion foot for applique. I didn't like her. She did show me how to do free motion stitching though. So I guess I like her a little bit. :-)

This is some fabric I bought on a trip to Spotlight recently. It is all meant to be for cushions. It looks so pretty on my shelf. I would like to get the sewing machine out sometime in the next week but then I was saying the same thing last week.

I am mid-crafting a few things at the moment. Some to do with the birthdays that are coming up in our family and some just because I suddenly had an idea. I will have to get some pictures taken so that I can post what has been keeping me so busy. What are you up to at the moment?