Happy Christmas

I love a flash mob video. This one is fantastic. Enjoy.

Have a fantastic Christmas. Stay safe and enjoy your time with family and friends. And remember the greatest gift ever given, the Rescuer who came as a baby and saves us from our sins, if we will just ask.

Making all things new

Hi. I wanted to drop by and let you know that I am still here. I hope to make a return to regular blogging in 2013. Amelia will be starting school then and I will have more child free hours in the day. It is my hope to turn those hours into productive and efficient times of utter domestic goddessness - HA! I can dream.

Anyway, this year has been full of house renovations and lots of driving. Amelia has been at kinder and Esther and Ellamay at school, it seems all I have done is drive.

We now have a new kitchen and laundry. The renovations continue as we try to finish off bits and pieces. We have been making all things new. Changing so many things has been hard work and the kids have had trouble adjusting. Especially since so much time has been spent falling over boxes and tools. I can't wait to find some kind of normal again.

I have painted until I can't paint any more. We are doing most of the work ourselves which means it takes longer and we are limited in our times to work... mostly when the kids haven't been home or if we can manage to be awake after they go to sleep.

It is looking wonderful though and it has made such a good change to our daily lives. Maybe when I get back next year, I will be able to show you some pictures.



I really haven't even been in what you could call Mid Craft because the closest I've been to crafty for a long time is pinning crafts onto my Pintrest boards. And I must agree with the line going around, Pintrest is electronic hoarding. But what fun it is!

I actually managed to catch up on my google reader finally so there is hope that I might get back to this part of my world :-) In the mean time, I hope you are all well and being craftier than I.

Have a wonderful and safe Christmas and I will see you in the new year.

Amelia's new room

Amelia's room has been finished for a while now, and by finished I mean close to done. I would still like to get some kind of shadow box/display boxes for the wall in her room as well as Esther and Ellamay's.

I am really happy with how it turned out. Amelia loves it too. It took a long time to paint this room for one reason and another. Things like running out of ceiling paint in the middle of the ceiling and then finding that the new can was matt when the previous paint was gloss. The wall colour is Fresh Cut Grass by Taubmans if you are interested.

Amelia's new house for her LPS Blythe dolls. And the little cubbie under her bed.

I am always on the look out for cool stuff for the bedrooms but I don't want to hurry to clutter them up with unnecessary stuff either. About 12 months before we did the kids rooms, I had bought a bunch of stuff (on sale - of course!) that I thought would look good in their rooms when we did them. I have put that all out to be donated somewhere because it is not right for their rooms now that they are done (almost). I am trying to be a bit more careful about what comes into the house as once its in, sometimes its hard to get it out. I really wanted them to live in their rooms for a few months or more so we could see what works and what doesn't. Then we can plan how to fix it.

I'll be back another day with some more about the LPS (Littlest Pet Shop) Blythe dolls that my girls are all crazy about.



Owls

Hello. Thought I'd stop by and post something since I haven't for so long. It's been on my mind to do something... but then so have a lot of things! School holidays are drawing closer and my hope is to not have to be going this way and that quite so much. Believe it or not, amongst all the driving kids around, renovating and living, I have managed to do a few things that are just a teeny bit crafty. And true to form, most of them remain in mid-craft condition.

I had in my head before my youngest nephew was born in October last year, that I would like to make something for his arrival. That never did get finished - maybe one day. I started making a hexagon quilt. It was flawed from the beginning though. I made the hexagons too small and so it would take hundreds of the things to make what I had in mind. And sewing it all together by hand is so slow! That will possibly stay in the mid-craft pile forever.

After seeing a picture of a beautiful set of camping owls here, I decided I needed to make my own version for my nephew. I used some of the stack of wool felt I recently purchased off etsy, with great visions of making everything I had on my pintrest felt board.

What do you think of my progress?

I used the pattern from my Fa La La La Felt book and added the gusset piece so the owls would stand up. I think they look a bit blank. I need to stitch their eyes a little I think. Give them some personality. I quite like them. By the time I get them finished, my nephew will be one! (If I get on with the stitching of course!) I am going to make a tree stump house for them. It looks great in my head. Now if I can just translate that into action.

I have a few more things to share. I took a bunch of pictures recently of my mid-craftiness because I was going to write a whole lot for this blog. Still not there yet. And the blog renovation... I am a bit stuck on that too. Seems like it should be a simple enough project, but I can't for the life of me get that figured out. One day you'll stop by and see that I have finally figured it out.

See you another day.

A.W.O.L

You probably noticed my lack of commitment around here lately. I am pretty much thinking that this year is going to be a write off when it comes to achieving even things of a Mid-Craft nature.
I will be posting. It may just be a while in between. I have been in the car constantly it seems and haven't found time for much. And we have been renovating. Tehehehe... I like to say that. It is so great to be make things in our home fresh and new. I also like to say that because as soon as you mention that you are renovating, people cut you a bit of slack when it comes to getting things done :-)

So what have I been up to whilst absent without leave? I have been stitching bits and pieces. I have been getting inspired. I have mostly stopped pinning everything on Pintrest. I am trying to break that habit. For a site so full of inspiration, it has sure wiped my creativity out. There are so many pretty and clever things on there, it makes me wonder why I should start any projects anyway. Anyone else get that?

To kick start my creative juices, I am hoping to do a little blog renovation. I have been researching it and I think I am almost sorted on how to do it. I have no idea how I managed to set up my blog in the first place. Apparently, I have lost some of my tech savviness (is that a word?).

As a photo is always good on a post, here is one of our family on a recent short holiday. We are standing on top of Mount Hotham, Victoria. We hoped to see snow but there wasn't any there yet.

There you have it. I will get my camera out and start taking pictures. I will have something to say about something that I have made. I will have some Mid-Craftiness to share in the future.

See you another day.

Chandeliers to DIY

After being able to buy this chandelier for only $32 I gave up my plan to DIY one. I did however do lots of research on chandeliers (mainly on Pintrest) to find some inspiration on how to tackle it.

I am only a little disappointed I didn't get to make one. I was going to use milk bottles. Every time we finished a bottle of milk, I cut out circles ready to construct a masterpiece. It was going to be a fantastic crafting feat of recycling, upcycling and just being down right clever. I bought jump rings off eBay and had worked out how to adjust the hanging basket I had to suit what I needed. Trouble was, I had no time. Too much to do and I am an impatient crafter. So I admitted defeat before I began and bought one instead. The chandelier really makes an impact in Esther and Ellamay's room and adds a bit of fabulous to the space. And little girls deserve a fabulous space, don't you think?

As I am a hopeless dreamer when it comes to making stuff, I love to see what others have made (I think that is why Pintrest is my weakness!). Here are a bunch of links to some very cool chandeliers that people have made.

Wax paper chandelier from the Design Sponge

Another wax paper chandelier using the tutorial from the Design Sponge

Flower chandeliers

Flower chandelier using white fabric

This one uses a paper lantern as a base and then is covered in flowers

Cherry blossom chandelier. This is very straight forward and the basic idea could be used for so many different ideas.

So there are a few links. I am loving that some of these are more about decorating that actually being a light shade. Some of them you probably wouldn't want near a light globe :-)

A beautiful room for 2 girls

It has been such a long time coming... We have finally finished one room in house renovations. Esther and Ellamay have moved into a bigger bedroom and it is looking fabulous (even if I do say so myself).

After all the hard work was done (mainly done by Tim - Thanks darling) and before we started painting, I decided to be a cool mum and let the kids have a paint brush each and paint some pictures on the walls.

Note to self: Don't let kids paint on walls before painting again. I love that we did it, but the walls needed to be sanded again before we could paint because kids don't care about making smooth pictures when they are putting graffiti on the wall.

Isn't this colour divine? It is called "Mainstream" by British Paints. And can I just point out one of my favourite things of the room... that chandelier! How fun is that? Esther and Ellamay saw it in a shop last year and wanted it. It was over $100 though, and I didn't want to spend that much. I decided to have a go at DIY and found a few tutorials online that had a similar style to this. Then one day I was walking past the shop and I saw they had a 70% sign on the chandelier. Oh happy day! I bought it for $32.

These are some of the boxes from the flat pack loft beds we bought the girls, sitting waiting to be constructed. That was a task I am glad Tim took care of! I tried to put the bookshelf together and only managed to get 2 pieces together before I gave up in disgust!

We are just waiting on a new blind for the window and then I will take pictures of the final result. Plus, having 2 girls in there means it will need a tidy :-)

We have made a start on Amelia's new room but it is slow going. I don't know how people renovate whole houses and keep up the momentum. Amelia is camping in the lounge room until the room is finished. Her old room was just a bunch of things that lived in that room before she was born. Now she can have her own special space too.

Tomorrow I will share the tutorials I found for that chandelier.

If you go into the lounge room today...

We gained a new family member at Christmas. He is huge.

 

Do you know the kids show The secret world of Benjamin Bear? The kids love it and I think its fun too. I kind of think this is what our new friend is like. He secretly comes to life when we aren't around. He hasn't really got a name so far. The kids have come up with a few but nothing seems to fit. We call him 'the big bear' or 'Mr Fluffypants'. Not sure how that one came about.

 

Even the size he is, he still ends up in some odd places and positions. He was lying on the couch one day with his paws under his head and his legs crossed. He was taking a nap I suppose.

 

The kids like to wrestle with him because he is such a big bear. Although if Ellamay is to be believed she didn't wrestle with Bear, "He wrestled with me". :-)

 

He has also become a favourite place to sit and watch television.

One night I had prepared the couch for Amelia so we could do her physio before bed. When I left the room, she was lying on top of the pillows, all sleepy and snuggled up. When I came back, I saw this.

 

I wasn't sure how he would fit into our little house when he first arrived... but he has certainly made himself at home :-)

Button flower hoop

I love buttons. You know that don't you? After I got the family button collection from Aunty Jill back in July last year, I was determined to make something to send her and say thanks. I have been wanting to try making some button flower hoop art. There are so many fun things that can be made in embroidery hoops :-)

One day over the summer, I was looking for something to do. Something fun. This is what I came up with. I love how it has turned out. I think I need to make one for myself actually.

As you could expect, I haven't finished it. I need to finish the back off. (Hopefully, I will get that done before July rolls around again.) I can't wait to package it up and post it off. That will be another project complete then.

Amelia's first day of kinder

So I have been a little more distracted lately than I thought I would be. I was going to post some things at regular intervals between now and way back when I started for 2012. Sigh... anyway, here I go again :-)

This is one of my reasons for distraction lately. Amelia has started 4 year old kindergarten. I was so nervous. My littlest one is all grown up and off into the world without me. I was nervous when Esther and Ellamay started kinder but I always new they had each other. I guess Amelia has been depending on me for everything so much, I was worried how she would cope without me. It's a big deal to trust other people (that I have only just met) to care for Amelia. Truth is though, how would I cope without her around all the time?

I don't know why I worried though. Amelia is so independent now and she was so excited to go to kinder she didn't even say good bye. I had to go and find her to give her a cuddle. She goes to kinder two days a week from 9am - 2.30pm so I have time that I haven't had before. What to do with myself?

I have been trying to get back into the school routine. It is slow going. Then I need to get back into blogging routine. I am so behind I haven't even been reading the blogs I follow!

Is everyone coping with 2012 yet? Am I the only person who isn't?

Well... Good morning, 2012

... You're here already. What shall we do together? Many things I hope. Last year kind of dragged on for me. I mean, it went fast, but I don't feel like I achieved a lot. I guess the last three months of the year were basically going from one sickness to another though. I think I was in survival mode. Now that we have made it to February, I am hoping for mundane and healthy times ahead. I won't hold my breathe.

 

So much has been happening, I had hoped to be back before now. I hope I can get into the swing of blogging again now that Esther and Ellamay have started back at school (Grade 2 people! How grown up!) and Amelia will start kindergarten next week. Basically, I will be in the car rather constantly this year.

I thought about what my goals are for this year and they are just about the same as they have been since I started this blog. I think they will be my constant resolutions. This year though, I am adding to the mix some other creative goals.

-Make one Christmas decoration from felt each month. I really wanted to make decorations last year but it was beyond me with all the sickness we had happening. I hope this way I can have a better chance of reaching my goal of more handmade decorations. I have already made 1 and a half :-)

-Get a new Visual Diary and draw regularly in it to work on techniques. I would really like to be able to draw little illustrations just because I can.

-Paint some of my drawings with the new watercolours I got for my birthday last year.

-Conquer crocheting. I started an apple cozy and I would like to finish it. It is such a ridiculous thing to make. I love it and want to make a bunch of them because I can.

-Do a 30 days of photos kind of project. I would like to work on my photography skills. I want to learn how to shoot in manual.

That about covers it. Not sure that I will get there but that's okay. I will just try again next year. :-)

I can't promise when I'll be back next. I have lots of things to share. Including the first room of our renovation (Yay! We finally started).

Hope your month (and year) has started off well.