Make & Do

Yes I know it's been months since my last blog post! Very naughty but I have been bloody busy :)
Check out the pics and captions below to see what I've been crafting.

One of the things I've been quite busy doing is growing a frikn baby! It's quite tiring work, plus working full time up until two weeks ago. I'm well and truly showing in this pic! This was at my baby shower, I was 33 weeks here. We decided to get one of my volunteers from my Vinnies store, who is an fine arts student, to draw a portrait of us rather than a bunch of cheesy and super expensive photos. This is the pic she is going to use. 

Above are some pics from the shower which was high tea themed, and specified no games! We were planning on doing some crafternoon tea activities too but were too busy stuffing our faces and talking crap!

As our pregnancy is high risk there have been a lot of visits to hospital for check-ups with lots of waiting around. Knitting in hospital waiting rooms is a winner. Especially when your bump is getting huge, it's an inbuilt table to rest your project on! Here I was knitting on joined needles to get continuous horizontal stripes, great for cool looking scarves and blankets. Love that look. My Coles Bay nana Ruth Shelley used to make the most beautiful blankets on these kinds of needles, but huge, to cover single, double, queen, even king size beds. She gave Liam and I one as a wedding present and it is so prized I still have it stored in a cupboard, I'm saving it ok! This one was a small blanket for a new baby. Below you can see my great friend from the Bay Amelia's brand new bubba Margaux enjoying the bright stripes and soft textures. Unfortunately Ruth died last year, she was in her late 80s, but she lives on through the inspiring crafts she created and her strong pioneering Tassie spirit.

Above and below show some of the preserves I've been making.

 The old Hungarian bloke down the road has been bombarding me with the most delicious grapefruits for months, his tree is laden and they don't eat them. They are not bitter at all and require no sugar to eat straight up. However there are only so many grapefruits one can eat everyday for breakfast so marmalade they became! 

And now we are inundated with mulberries from our two beautiful trees. I love these berries, so juicy but not super sweet, the only downside being they stain the beejesus out of everything, so be careful when picking. Don't wear white! They are good to pick with kids too as the lower droopy branches are right at their height while the higher up limbs are perfect for adult pickers. I chuck these babies in smoothies, straight on my cereal or the other day I had enough to make some jam. I also threw in some strawberries which are ridiculously abundant and cheap at the moment and some stewed peaches I had in the freezer from a while ago. I cut down the processed white sugar levels by adding some honey.

    

My unending op shop discoveries continue to inspire, here everything old is new again in this crochet pattern book from decades past. Crochet was so hip in the 60s! Everything from bikini's, dresses and stylin men's vests! I sometimes think I was born in the wrong era.

I love my birdies! I bought this material from Ikea about two years ago and have finally used it to cover the cushions for my rocking chair. The sewing of the cushion covers wasn't too time consuming but as I made up the pattern it required a lot of brain cells to work it all out. I love the overall combo, but that's me, loving my brights! Not everyone's cup of tea :) 

I completely restored the chair itself which was a mammoth project, it's definitely not my favourite thing to work with furniture, far too much work and time involved! A lot of sanding, thankfully I had an electric sander which cut down the elbow grease for that part. Then multiple layers of white undercoat followed by multiple layers of the bright yellow top coat. This of course all involved multiple swear words which I reckon really do help! Haha! They are a necessity when undertaking any craft or DIY project! A rocking chair is also quite tricky as it has movable parts underneath so you have to wait for some parts to dry before you can touch them and move the next bit out to paint.

Husband Liam and I took off on a winter sojourn to Margaret River in August to celebrate 15 years of madcap adventures together. Five days away from busy city life and some time to rest and chill before bub arrives was ideal.

Poor Genki trying to find a spot to lay amidst the chaos of a busy craft day! Once I started my maternity leave from work I got a bit excited! There are so many things I wanted to finish before bub arrives! I realise now I'm not going to get to all of them, but I'll do my best! This large cushion I have nearly finished the cover for, it will be a great support for breastfeeding. I upcycled a 1950s woolen jacket that was pretty moth-eaten  and used lots of my various hoarded bright floral fabrics to make up a patchwork pattern. This takes a lot longer than you think because you are trying to fit random shapes together and work the colours to look their best. Plus not being a pattern follower, making up your own as you go is definitely more time consuming. But worth it!

 

We are always in the garden when time allows. There are never enough hours in one day, I swear! I go out to grab some greens for a recipe and end up staying in there for at least 30 minutes pulling weeds, de-seeding herbs, spraying bugs etc.This day we were getting some spring plantings in the ground, tomatoes, basil, carrots and various lettuce varieties. 

I have been pumping out a few Tummy Time Rugs also for little bubs all over Australia. The blue one here went to little Max in Queensland. He sure looks like he's enjoying it!

Here Genki is modelling an almost complete Tummy Time Rug for little Miri in Melbourne. As you can see below she seems to be quite happy with it!

Beanies were another hit over winter, these snuggly woolly hats were the first thing I learnt to crochet and I have made and sold them all over the world during my travels. An easy and portable thing to make and bring in a few extra bucks. And also easy to smuggle into hospital waiting rooms to kill some time!

This beauty I actually made for myself. It's only the second thing I've ever made just for me! And of course husband has snaffled it a few times, but he has a fight on his hands ;) This was also knitted on joined needles, great for making blankets on as you can cram heaps of stitches onto them. I used the Patons gigante yarn in Rose Quartz for this Beginner Throw, pattern available on their site. 

The next blog will be all about the Festival of Forgotten Skills which is on today, Saturday 22 October. It was originally scheduled for May but the weather was shocking and it was postponed. It's supposed to be 29C tomorrow so I'll have my sunhat and sunscreen at the ready!