Dress A in Sarah Watts Fabric

I made another version of my favourite dress, Dress A from Yoshiko Tsukiori Stylish Dress Book - Wear With Freedom.   I know I should challenge myself beyond the first dress in the book but I can make one of these in about an hour and a half and I'm getting really good at Bias Binding too.    This is the Sarah Watts fabric I brought a few weeks ago, over here.

You see, its ok if I buy new fabrics if I use them and not just stash them.

Tote bag to match???
I don't intend to wear them together just holding for the pic.

Best binding ever.

Long distance action shot as I stalk across the park
to separate my children before something nasty happens.
I think the dress will work much better on a sunnier day,
it was much too much of a grey day to  wear a grey dress.

Crochet Dolly

  I was having a little try at making one of these gorgeous tiny bundles.

This is what I was trying to make -  they are from  Ravely

But at the time I didn't have access to a computer to get the pattern so I winged it best I could from memory.  As you can see below my memory didn't serve me as well as I thought!

This is my one!

As the children hadn't seen what I was trying to make they think what I did make is fabulous.  (They probably would have cried at my dolly if they were ever to see the original.)  Anyway not knowing any better they embraced this little bundle and loved it, and patted it, then needed to create a world for it - which is standard treatment for a treasured item in our house.  I carried on doing what I was doing and when I went into check on why it was so quiet this is what they had made...   

A Mummy and a bed

Complete with a visual guide as to where to lie the doll.

And a room for when the baby stays at it's grandmas and a complete game to go with it all.  Don't you just love how kids can make a game out of anything?  There was some talk of an evil twin being made next. Hmmmmm.

Crafterchef - The Great British Sewing Bee

By Jinkers, by jandy, have you seen it???  The best ever every reality TV competition for all of us who like to sew.  The Great British Sewing Bee - its fantastic!!!  Great sewing, great tips, nice judges and unaffected contestants   Best of all, it doesn't have all of that painful padding that the other reality competition shows put us through in order to eke out a one hour programe from 25 minutes of content.


Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

The Perfect Crochet Accessory

I am plodding along with my Granny Square Shrug.   I am at that uninspiring stage where I just need to do 60 cms of plain granny rows all in the same colour.  I have 20 cm's to go and it's very dull.  I am trying to do at least a row a day.   On Easter day I got 3 rows done!  How, well I had my secret weapon.  My 2 year old niece Miss Indigo.

 For nearly an hour I had her by my side chatting away, telling me all about chickens and dogs.  I didn't want to move and risk her running off to play, I was hogging her all to myself.

 It was just magic and she was so taken by the crochet, so taken in fact she lay down to test out my shrug and I snuck in some pats and a bit of back stroking and she drifted off.  What a lucky Aunty I am.

Plants in Shells

There are some awesome images on Pinterest of plants in shells, so we thought we would have a go.  We didn't have suitable air plants for the Sea Urchin shells so we used a teaspoon to put some soil in and planted little succulent cuttings in them.

Stick covered in an Epiphyte, (air plant) poked into some coral.

Jade cutting in an urchin shell.

Succulent pup in an urchin shell, I think this is my favourite.

I am not sure where to put them now, I am playing with the lounge room and the bathroom maybe I will do a week about?

Spelt Banana and Oat Cake - Yum

I have never been a huge fan of Banana bread or cakes until we had The Great Banana Glut of 2013.  It was one of those weeks when I brought home 8 banans, Mr Daddy came home with 8 bananas and a neighbour gave us a clutch of home grown bananas.  We ate as many as we could, before they all ripened over the same two days.  We had banana smoothies, yogurt, froze some for later smoothies and I knew it was time to make a cake or two.

I experimenting with a few recipes and this one is my favourite.

See, still lots more bananas to go...

2 large bananas (I have discovered that if you throw them into the mixer whole, with the creamed butter and sugar they mash up beautifully)
90g butter
1/2 light brown sugar (I like low sugar but if you prefere sweeter, go up to 1 cup.)
2 eggs
1 cup wholemeal plain spelt flour
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup oats
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 to 1 cup of milk (start with 1/2 and add more if needed)

Beat butter and sugar, add bananas then the eggs one at a time.  Add flour and mix well with milk as required.  Add oats and nuts until well combined.  I like it to look like a cup cake batter so add more milk if needed.  (Spelt flour always needs a little more liquid than normal flour.)  If you add too much milk pop in some more oats to suck it up.

Bake in the oven at 180 for about 40 mins or the top looks golden and you can test with a clean skewer.

Allow to cool, I don't ice this cake, its delicious plain or spread with butter.  It freezes well, I like to freeze it sliced so I can grab a slice on demand.

Lining a Crochet Bag

It's school holiday season in our neck of the woods.  I like holidays, we do a lots of craft, activities, little outings, play dates and the kids ride their bikes a lot.   I supervise the bike riding from the garage. Now it just so happens that my sewing space is in the garage.   So I supervise the shenanigans while I sew, it all works very well.  I have been able to do lots of sewing and have got lots of little unfinished projects, finished.   Like finally getting around to lining this Crochet bag (a good suggestion from another Blogger, so the crochet doesn't stretch.)  I am not sure if I did it the right way, but it works.

Purple Day High Tea Photos

Wow, what an amazing day was had at our Purple Day Epilepsy Fundraiser.  There was purple everywhere we looked, we had over 70 people which just blew me away. Thank-you to all the lovely people that came on the day we raised $2117 for Epilepsy Queensland.  Thank you so much to all the local businesses that donated goods and wares that helped us to put on the event.  Thank you to the Dads and kids that helped on the day, to Jonathan and Pricilla who performed, Deborah who was our MC, to Jackie and Wendy who spoke, to Charni and Kim for the photos. An enormous THANK YOU has to go all the lovely ladies that gave their time so generously to plot and plan, bake, style, create, prepare, serve and of couse, then, to pack it all up again! 

Before
Dressing our local CWA Hall, the children are on pom pom duty.

After

During

Pricilla, our amazing local artist painted a beautiful purple still life

High Tea - Yum ! Thank you to the all amazing bakers

During 

Lots of  flowers on each table

The stage

Lots of great chat, Thanks to our local celeb and
 Epilepsy QLD ambassador Wally Lewis for  coming along.
 Thank you to Jackie Lewis for telling her families story in such
 a genuine heart warming way.  

Wally -  the King - pops into the kitchen to offer  moral support to
some of the amazing girls who made it all happen.