Sniffle Craft

There's always a reason to craft and of late I've been relishing the opportunity to craft things for our everyday doings. The cold goblin is still visiting our house and Big Pickle in particular has had quite a rough trot being now nearly a week into his cold and still heavily afflicted.

Tissues are not my favourite thing at the best of times but they are rendered quite useless in the face of true need I find and dissolve into useless pulpy mess when called upon to deal with a steady stream of snot (a disgusting and brilliant word that one).
I gave him one of Mr Pickle's hankies to use and he was converted. 'Mummy, I think I will always use hankies. They are much better than tissues'. Indeed he's right they are much easier and better for a young man to handle.

 I remembered seeing children's hankies at Spotlight so made a little dash (any excuse will do!!) The retro looking colourful children's hankies turned out to be made with a horrible coarse fabric and the 'boys' ones were the same size as men's.
I happened to spot a range of fantastic fabrics along the bottom shelf of my wonderful Spotlights quilting section. Light weight, quite soft, linen look cottons with children's story and rhyme themes.
They are the same weight and style as a range of country themed ones they did recently, showcased in some gorgeous pants made by a lovely and clever friend here.
Just a little strip of each was really no more expensive than the ready made hankies (by my way of calculating value of remaining fabric, nicer result etc).

A hunt through the stash turned up a wealth of quirky hankie fabrics and before long we had a couple of dozen lovely 'kerchiefs. I chose to make them the size of a woman's one after seeing both boys handle that size easily.
It was also the size recommended by SouleMama in her wonderful book The Rhythm of Family. I didn't use two layers as she suggested though....it just seemed it would be too thick and sort of seemed a waste of fabric to me.

Taking a further leaf out of SouleMamas book and with the memory of a long ago post that had stayed with me waiting to find its moment in my life. I made a 'Hanky Dispenser'.
I'm sure I won't keep to it but at this stage I think I will iron and fold them so I made up my own design/pattern based on the size of a hanky folded into a small square.
A zipper at the back for easy loading, hook at the top and all was complete.

That left just the right amount of time to whip up a household favourite comfort food - meatball soup.
This recipe was a gift from a clever friend and is quick to make and so bursting with flavour and goodness that it always leaves you with a contented smile at the end of the meal. Today we made it with a 50/50 pork and beef combo and it was superb.

Here's to a healthier week to come or at least looking stylish whilst we tend our dripping noses.

Happy Paddy's Day

Stopping by late for Creative Friday to say thanks to Linda again for her wonderful Shamrock pattern.
Our tree was adorned ready to say 'Top of the morning to you' and to start a new tradition to honour Little Pickle's namesakes day.

Soup for the Soul

First it was me and now Big Pickle has succumbed to a nasty cold. Stories and sleep have been the order of the day for him and staying home from both kinder and swimming for the past few days.
Whilst he has dealt with it all quite calmly it has left this mama ready to savour that brief section of the day when boys are resting and the house is quiet.

A pot of Chicken and Sweetcorn soup was quickly made. A steaming bowl topped with coriander, spring onions and some white pepper with a good book on the side and a spot of knitting created the perfect oasis of calm.

The knitting is a Pebble vest project that I started at the end of winter last year and would like to get completed before the autumn is through.

As I lay on the couch recuperating on the weekend I spotted this book patiently waiting on the bookcase. A brilliantly written, completely compelling tale of one man's quest to find a life for his family in the early days of New South Wales. Sent to Australia as a convict after a childhood riddled with poverty and all that led to, he strives to claim a piece of land, a livelihood and a future in the midst of a savage, unknown wilderness.

My humble little Pebble vest seems a very small project compared to Ginny's February Lady sweater and the many other projects on offer at this week's Yarn Along.

There are benefits to doing as you're told......

It's a cruel irony really to have a long weekend to enjoy and be struck by a dreaded cold. As the week drew to a close and I started to relish the idea of three days with no specific plans to catch up on projects around the house and enjoy family time, I also started to feel the symptoms of  a nasty cold creep over me.
In denial on Saturday I got up and headed into the garden for some heavy duty gardening. A quest to reclaim the bed down one side of our yard from the noxious vines and running grass that constantly try to overtake it. It was a successful mission, the highlight of which was finding that actually some of our rhubarb plants are still alive and doing quite well.
Unfortunately, this little gardening session was not what my cold had in mind and left me feeling majorly depleted....and somewhat defeated.
 

Mr Pickle had been against the plan, which I put into action while he and the Pickles were out shopping. He restrained himself from using an I told you so voice and gently suggested....no firmly requested....I spend sometime on the couch on Sunday to recuperate.
Though reluctant at first I then realised this was a brilliant opportunity to work on a little project for St Patrick's Day. I spotted a quirky shamrock pattern over at Natural Suburbia and thought it would be the perfect way to create something for us to explore and appreciate our heritage and Little Pickle's namesake's day. Linda has so many beautiful patterns and sells some amazing ones through her Etsy store but I am constantly inspired by both her handiwork and her generosity in offering so many free patterns like this one.
I'm hoping to get a few more of these done and then to rework the Valentine's tree with them.

I was also able to do some work on the pom pom bunnies I'm helping our preschool teacher with. She is busily producing pom poms at the moment and I'm then joining heads and bodies and adding ears so that the older group children can all get a rabbit in their Easter baskets.
The felt rabbit is for our Easter table and to inspire the other mothers in my Thursday morning playgroup. I think I'll be making a few more of these before we get to Easter and also trying the Bilby variation of the pattern too.

Worth the wait

Big Pickle was very excited when he woke up this morning and discovered that the bean bag fairy had delivered two bean bags to his room while he was sleeping.
This project has been waiting for completion for a VERY long time.

This is Big Pickles serious "check out my bags!" face

 At least 18mths ago I spotted the apple fabric on Sale on Superbuzzy and made my first (and last - due to crippling international postage charges) purchase from this fabulous store.

The pattern was one I found here also a long time ago and I have since found some other great patterns that I perhaps like better, like this one, but as I had already started cutting out I stuck with this and am fairly happy with the results.
Great as a pirate ship, a treasure island....

Or just for lounging about with your brother. I am gradually getting used to the constant rustling sound as they plop into their bags, stand up, plop down, shuffle about....."its sounds like rain mummy" is Big Pickle's explanation for the need to keep doing this. The novelty of that will wear of.....I hope.

Sometimes from nothing can come a wonderful something......

 Two pieces of fabric passed on by a sister and a friend, one from an abandoned stash and the other from an op shop. Somehow they found their way together and became this dress.

After having seen a friends Tova Top I knew I wanted to try one too but opted for the dress version twice. After cutting out all the pieces I realised it was not my idea of a comfortable dress length.
So inspired by my new turquoise shoes I added the contrast fabric.

Sadly, in both these photos the belt is sitting daggily high but I promise I wear it lower usually. It would have been better as a wider belt but sadly the amount of fabric I had didn't allow for that.

Two shirts, two bags and off to the wedding......

Last Friday was not a day to work on creative projects but rather to savour the ones completed in time to travel to my sisters wedding which was held on Saturday.
Originally these two shirts were planned for the boys to wear for Christmas but they didn't quite happen in time.
They were ready to be won on Saturday but in the end only Little Pickle wore his as the unremitting rain that day meant it was too cold for Big Pickle to wear his much lighter weight shirt....and....its possibly a bit wide......or big.....and the collar is troubling me...

I really enjoyed sewing these shirts. It was my third project from the brilliant Sewing For Boys book. Its their Henry Shirt. About two thirds of the way through the first shirt I paused for a breath from the intense concentration that the quite complex pattern required and was somehow heartened to discover that the pattern was classified as Advanced. The quick unpick was put to use a couple of times but there are very few projects in my sewing world that don't require this.

 

The fabrics were purchased a few months ago here. The leaf fabric is from this range and the green is a shot cotton from a Kaffe Fassett range. I have used these cottons for several other things and I can't recommend them more highly, beautiful to sew with, hard wearing and the range of colours and tones is breathtaking.

Little Pickles shirt featured a fabric from a Michael Miller range called Children at Play.

I'll try to get some photos of the boys wearing the shirts to post another time.

 With everything ready and still time left before the wedding I decided the bride and I, her bridesmaid needed a little bag each. I immediately thought of the pouch style Japanese knot bags I have long admired and after some searching on the internet and studying various images I drafted a bit of a pattern and had a go.
I made my sisters first and put wadding inside hers. Whilst this was nice in the body of the bag it made the straps too bulky.

Due to camera batteries that ran out as our hair was being done, this is the only photo I have of the day so far but I will post more when I can.
In this photo you can see the beautiful silk flower I wore in my hair which was made by this clever lady. The ivory one my sister wore was even more amazing.

You can find more creative fun over at Linda's Creative Friday.