Lounge room progress

I am really excited to show you what we have done with our lounge room. It isn't quite finished yet, but it will be a while until we eradicate the red carpet and replace it with something more neutral.

So here we go:

This is what we saw when we first walked in the door of what was to be our new house. The previous owners had already moved out so it was empty. Look at that red carpet and those fancy lights! Not my cup of tea, but what a GREAT space! I could see the potential.

And then we added our own old furniture. So it looked like this:

And this:

Over the last few months, we have:

Painted the room

Replaced the lights

Added new artworks

Replaced the sofa

Replaced the buffet

Added a coffee table

Changed/ added various decorative items such as cushions, vases, frames

And now it looks like this:

And this:

We are very happy with it so far. Here are some details:

 There is no TV in this room. We read, play games and chat in here. Such a relaxing space. Love it!

I hope you have enjoyed checking out our work in progress. Be sure to come back when the red carpet disappears. Thanks for visiting!

Christmas dresses and photos

I nearly forgot about these two dresses I made for Gabby to wear at Christmas.

This first one was made using 'Kumari Garden Holiday' fabric by Dena Designs. I bought it from the US on Etsy. I have made this pattern before- SEE HERE. I love it because it is so simple- just made from  different size rectangles and she loves it because it has an exciting amount of 'twirl' happening.

This next one was made for Gabby's Preschool concert where the theme was 'White Christmas'. Gabby chose the fabric from Spotlight as it was super sparkly. I traced around the bodice of a dress she already owns and then just made a gathered, two layered rectangle for the skirt and sewed it to the bodice.

Each year, I like to take a Christmas photo of the kids and use it for our family Christmas card. This year, I decided to buy a bunch of Christmas coloured helium balloons and take the kids the National Park near our house for some photo fun. We got heaps of good shots- here's just a couple of my faves:

Check out these from the previous 4 years. Look how much my baby has grown!

2012

2011

2010

2009- Gabby's 1st Christmas

 So that's Christmas for another year. I hope you all had a happy one with time spent reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by. xxx

Stairs and front door reno.

I know, I know! It's been months and months since I have had the time to blog anything. We have been working hard on our home improvements and I have a had very little time for craftiness. Here is a quick summary of some projects we have completed in the last few months:

When we moved into our house nearly 2 years ago, this is what our front door looked like:

I was sad to see the bird door knocker and cat flap go.....NOT!!!

That's much better!

And then there were these stairs inside. Don't you just love the strip of red carpet? These were so annoying to clean and looked disgusting too.

So after a bad day at work one day, I decided to rip up that darn carpet! And this is what I found underneath!

So we got sanding, sanding, sanding.

 Varnishing and painting, varnishing and painting. Such a huge job!

And then we began to paint the walls to get rid of that lemony creamy colour. We chose a Dulux colour called Grey Pebble and started the enormous task of painting the whole interior of the house. One job just leads to another in this house!

 

It's looking much better now. And here is a Christmas picture of our freshly painted loungeroom. Decor in this room is my work in progress. Just saving up for some $$$$ for some new carpet (goodbye red, hello charcoal!) Can't wait to show you our before and after shots when this room is complete.

As you can see, we have been super busy- just no time to blog. I have some exciting artworks for the loungeroom that I have been working on. Hope to be able to share soon.

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful and blessed 2014! Thanks for stopping by!

Ella's blanket

I have finally finished another crochet blanket. This one is for my eldest niece, Ella. She is 10 and she asked for a pink and purple one.

I'm happy with the way this one turned out. It's huge and super warm.

Here is beautiful Ella all snuggled up ready for a sleep over at Nanny and Pa's.

I think I'm ready to try something a little more challenging now. Keep an eye out for my next blanket which will be for Miss Olivia in blues and greens.

Thanks for stopping by.

Faux wrap jersey dress

I got the inspiration for my next dress from this photo.

This is from a facebook page called Fashion UK. I love looking at all their styled outfits for inspiration. Here's the LINK if you want to take a scroll through their photos.

So maybe mine isn't as classy, but here's what I came up with. I like it with this scarf:

I

If you have read my blog before, you would know that I don't work with patterns very often. I like just making it up as I go along or using online tutorials. But I thought I'd give a real paper pattern a go. I bought this one from STYLE ARC an online pattern shop. They have heaps of patterns for both woven and knit fabric based on current fashion trends. This pattern is called, 'Slip-on Suzie.' Ha! Cute!

This is the first time I have made a dress with long sleeves. It was easier than I thought it would be and I'm happy with the way they turned out. I added a gathered waistband as it needed 'something' there.

Next time, I think I will make a plain long sleeve dress without the faux wrap, but I'm desperate to find some decent jersey fabric in funky patterns here in Australia. The price of international shipping has gone through the roof so I really need something here. Can anybody help me out?

Hopefully, I will be back soon with another crochet blanket. It's taking me ages to sew in all those pesky ends!

Thanks for stopping by.

Daphne's crochet rainbow rug- my new craft

I'm back at last! My goodness that was a busy term! But we got through it and we're on beautiful, wonderful, relaxing holidays again.

Last holidays, I decided to learn a new craft after seeing lots of beautiful crochet rugs on Pinterest. So I jumped onto Youtube and started to learn the basics. With some help from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law who can both crochet beautifully, I was on my way and I don't think I'll ever give it up! It's addictive.

I made this rainbow rug for my gorgeous niece Daphne.

Here's the gorgeous Daphne when I gave the rug to her:

And here she is snuggling on the lounge with her dad (my brother).

Here are my top 5 reasons why I love to crochet and think you should give it a go too:

1. It's easy and quick! No counting stitches unless you do a fancy pattern and if you make a mistake it's so easy to see and fix because you usually only have one or two stitches on the hook at once.

2. It's relaxing. When you get into a rhythm with your stitches, you don't need to think about it at all- perfect for watching tele.

3. It keeps you warm in Winter. My sewing room is freezing in Winter so it's nice to have a craft to snuggle up with on the lounge. 

4. You can do it anywhere and all you need is a little plastic hook and some yarn. It's amazing what you can create using such basic and cheap materials.

5. It's timeless. These days we have such a vast choice in colours for yarn, the possibilities are endless. I remember a crochet rug that my mum had when I was little. I  didn't like it at all because of the dark, dull, boring colours. Clearly, we don't have that problem anymore!

Now my aim is to make a rug each for two of my nieces and my nephew. I might even get a little bit fancy with the patterns. I hope my nieces and nephew love them and they might even treasure them forever! So stay tuned for some more crochet creations- hopefully it won't be too long.

In the meantime, here's one more pic to enjoy:

'Til next time. xxx

Fleecy scarves for Easter

At Easter, I like to give all my nieces and nephews something other than chocolate as a gift. Don't get me wrong, I looooooove chocolate a whole lot, I just can't cope with the overload that the kids seem to end up with. So here we have this year's Easter gifts.

Scarves for the girls:

Scarves for the boys:

And a cute fleecy hat for Daphne June 'cause 1 year olds don't really do scarves:

This was a super easy project. I bought 25cm of each fabric, folded it in half length ways (right sides together), sewed the long side, turned in the right way, top stitched around the entire thing leaving a couple of inches at each end to cut tassels, and that was it. 10 minutes and $2.50 for each scarf. Perfect!