Cake and hammers!

It was time to celebrate Oliver’s birthday with friends and family today. It was a 10 day wait for Oliver, a long time when you are three four. He requested a rocket party with woodwork and real tools. Here is the birthday boy with his tools, thanks to nana!

 

We visited reverse art truck to get all the wood off cuts and the empty knitting machine cones which the children used. They had a lot of fun making rockets, space ships and even a castle!!

The afternoon finished off with birthday cake and ice cream in cones (It was a very hot day!) This year it had to be a rocket cake with three sparkler jet engines and a space man candle!

   

It is always a great feeling to get to the end of a birthday party and know everyone had a lovely time and there’s a break for a little while before you have to do it again!
 

School is back tomorrow – my 7 1/2 year old can’t wait and has been counting down, my 9 1/2 year old doesn’t want to go back and would rather be on permanent holidays. I think I lie somewhere in between… the school clothes are clean and ready the lunchboxes are out… let the year roll on…

 

Krafty KJ

Sweet Dreams little monkey!

I have a little boy who has just turned 4. He is blessed with a very cheerful disposition, has so much energy for life and so much curiosity for learning, that at times I struggle to keep up! He is happy almost 100% of the time – what a gift! So what fabric does one choose to make a quilt for their  happy, cheeky monkey?

With a summer birthday, I couldn’t resist the bold, bright colours of Malibu Monkeys by Michael Miller. I love the beach ball fabric. It measures 45” by 68”, just smaller than single bed size, but small enough to wrap around the shoulders of my gorgeous 4 year old!

and sock monkeys on the back…



To finish it off I had it professionally quilted with a monkey and bananas pattern. I tried to get it in a photo – sorry it’s such a bad one, but I think you can see the dancing monkey and the red banana!!

    


I do wonder what monkey business this year of being four will bring to my dear boy… Here is a photo of him under his new quilt. It was such a hit that he said he didn’t need his ‘blankie’ anymore. We’ll see how long that lasts!!

 

Many blessings on you Oliver as you enjoy being 4! You are one special little monkey!


Krafty KJ

Bright Sunshiny Days

We have been thoroughly enjoying the Summer School holidays – sleeping in and catching up with precious friends. Jenny and her gorgeous kids came over for a day of sewing and fun. Amy has just started sewing lessons and showed me the selvedge pin cushion she had made. So I got my stash of selvedges out and started sewing them together – it is VERY addictive. I hope to turn this lot it into a bag (eventually).

The kids also found a picture of babushkas in the newspaper and made me a card too, Miss Georgia is the model. Thank you very much, I love it!

Look who is staying with us for the weekend…

DH and Mr smileykylie (Kylie’s DH)

He is over in Perth for work. We had a yummy cooked breaky this morning (which explains the state of my DH’s t-shirt). The boys have just gone off to Hillarys Marina and are going to see Avatar in 3D tonight. There are plenty of Tim Tams in the fridge too (their biscuit of choice).

Katherine isn’t the only one doing some internet fabric shopping :) I managed to get 10 half yards of Rosalie Quinlan's ‘Grandmothers Flower Garden’ fabric (from the fabricbee Etsy store) to go with my Christmas present from DH - ‘a Stitch in Time’ (Rosalie’s 2nd book).

Hope you have a Fantastic weekend

With Love

PS Welcome to the world Jackson Thomas Lane, a precious baby boy born to my cousin Marissa and her DH Matt in London. Isn’t he a cutie.

We’re all going on a summer holiday!!

I am just back for two days of stitching in peace and thought I’d share some of our holiday fun… There was a day picking strawberries and of course eating them. I recommend the chocolate fondue at Sunny Ridge Strawberry farm. Delicious!!

The beach was beautiful and so refreshing after a hot day and extra special when you’ve never built a sand castle there!

  

   I got home to a parcel at the door and waited very patiently until children were in bed to open it… I had spent some Christmas money at Hancock’s sale and it was all sooo cheap (less than $6 a yard!) and look what I found…

Some Moda Lila Tueller Santorini in pinks – this will be the year I finally make a pink quilt… Stay tuned…

Some Kaffe Fassett fabrics, because you can never have enough of those gorgeous colours,

some bright American Jane Snippets Daisy dots in blue and a Chez Moi Swanky honey bun!! What a lot of fun will be had with these. Eye candy for the present…

 

Kylie and I had a lovely day yesterday at Somerset with our hand piecing class. Two reluctant hand stitchers who are addicted to the whirr of their machines, may have found another way… It’s not as hard as we thought it would be… Here’s some proof…



Kylie even looks as though she is enjoying herself!!

Kylie was the student of the day finishing her star first!

I did a slightly different layout and this is all I got done during the class.However, as I have no children at home with me, I sat down today with a long movie and got quite a bit more done… not sure how big I will do it…


Don’t tell my DH, but I may have another addiction – and it’s so portable!!

Happy stitching to you all,

Krafty KJ

Summer stitching…

It is sooo hot today that I’ve contemplated hopping into my freezer on a number of occasions. It is 8.30pm and still 40 degrees! (that’s about 105 Fahrenheit!) We are all enjoying doing very little these holidays – in fact we haven’t really been out of the house other than to get groceries!! I have been reading my new Christmas book – I am hooked on the Elm Creek quilting series, it’s official.  We are due to go down to the beach tomorrow, so tonight it’s time to pack and the book is definitely on the list.

But a little update on our household craftiness… Kylie gave my big girl a craft book for Christmas which has started her knitting up a storm… despite many obstacles in her life!

After two days of knitting we welcomed “Brown Bear” into our famiy…

We were all very impressed with this little fellow and the expression on the owners face tells it all!

I have finally finished the binding on my Recess quilt – I just met the 2009 deadline! I’m really pleased with how it turned out-

The quilting is called “sticky buns” and softens the angular nature of this quilt. If only I could say I’d quilted it, but, alas… in time… in time!!!

Must get packing and enthused about holidays. It’s me and the four cherubs for the rest of this week and then I return on the weekend for some mummy only time as my DH is taking charge by the beach. Kylie and I are off to do a little hand piecing class at Somerset Patchwork and Quilting. Oh that will be wonderful….

 

Happy stitching to you all,


Krafty KJ

Like Mother like Daughter

The apple hasn’t fallen very far from the tree when it comes to a love of bags, my DD Rachel has quite a collection of her own. Today we added to that collection by making a bag together. Do you remember me giving her this book and fabric for her 10th birthday?, well we FINALLY used one of the patterns to make this:

The ‘Slouchy Shoulder Bag’ is reversible, so she gets 2 bags for the price of one – I hope she lets me borrow it :)

With Love

& daughter xx

New Shoes..

Starting a new year feels a bit like getting a new pair of shoes, shiny and new, no scuff marks, potential, no smell, you want to wear them with every outfit….  You look back at that old pair of worn in, slightly grubby last years pair and forget about the blisters, the hole in the sole, they were lovely, but now you’ve got a new shiny pair…

We’ve just arrived back from a week down at the beach house,  it was dreadfully hot and then raining, we still enjoyed some time out, swimming in the ocean, lazing in the hammock, afternoon siesta’s, iced coffee’s, cooked breakfast and a little shopping! Now to deal with the mountains of washing that follows a week at the beach…

While wandering the local shops, a lovely treasure trove of little gems to ooh and ahh over, I spied this lovely Missy Mao Mao bag, hhhmmmm, how can I justify another bag, no must walk away I told myself, until today when I let the family go for a walk down the pier and I went to buy bread…the shop is on the way to the bakery….I just had to have one last look…the rest as they say is history, so now I have a new bag and a new year.  You must check out Marilyn’s blog and website, she has many lovely bags to drool over.



This is one for the dog lovers out there, our DS received a camera for Christmas, we now have a few hundred photos of our dog Lucy, I thought this one was cute :)

Break in transmission as I have a lovely chat to Janellybelly in Perth, can’t get used to them being 3 hours behind at the moment.  Love you precious friend.  Speaking of precious friends I’m having morning tea with Katherine tomorrow, time to plan a few more sewing weekends ;)

Enjoy the exciting potential of the year ahead, watch out for the blisters and enjoy the special people in your life who will lovingly supply the Band-Aids.
Love