Monday, March 24, 2008
Challenge Update
Given this is the last week of the month, I am going to make MUCH more of an effort this week, I really want to crack the $50, but the pantry is already low, so not sure we can make it til Sunday. Off to menu plan now, so hopefully I can make it work!
A few new WIP's
I got my 4.5 and 5cm circs last week and I just had to find out how they would go, so started on Elliana's longies. They are SO pretty, I am just loving how the berry fushia colourway is knitting up :D I've gotta pull finger with these though, so teeny elliana doesn't grow out of them before I have finished! I have grafted the crotch today, so should be able to finish the second leg in the next few days and have them sent off by the end of the week - that is the plan anyway ;)
The days have started chilling, so I also thought pulling finger on some winter woolies for Patrick and Maia is a good idea. I've started with this zoomy vest for Patrick - I already had the pattern book from last year as it was recommended for quick knits, then a few weeks ago found the actual zoomy yarn for $1 a ball at Big W, so figured why not. So far it is knitting up soooooo quick - I love it, a few hours worth of knitting and I am 2/3 through the back piece, just the front and the hood to go then sew it up - hopefully I will be finished in a couple of weeks. Patrick is very excited that I am knitting something for him too :)
Easter Fun!
We did a little easter craft - made and coloured in/decorated some paper eggs, but this year for Patrick, it was all about the chocolate! We didn't really talk about easter/choc eggs etc much, so he must have got the fascination from school or something, actually not so much a fascination, more like an obsession lol - every morning for the two weeks prior we were asked how many sleeps until easter egg hunt day.
Patrick had informed us that the Easter Bunny doesn't just leave the eggs in obvious places like on the kitchen bench or the table - they should be hidden and also the easter bunny is very concerned about kiddies squashing the eggs so they shouldn't be left in beds ;) We had a fun time hiding little eggs through the house in semi hard to get places, they even found a few today. The kids were so excited finding them - Patrick way more so than Maia, he was pretty generous and helped her find some when he realised that he had found more than her which is sweet. Luckily we didn't have chocolate overload either, they only had a few small eggs each, then left the rest for later. This is the booty minus one bilby which is in the fridge with no ears ;)
We had a kind of treat for dinner too - pink risotto! The kids LOVED it which was cool - the same old risotto really, but because it was pink it tasted much better of course. I was just struggling with what to put in cos we didn't have many vegies, but saw a half container of beetroot dip in the fridge that needed to be used up and thought why not. I thought it was pretty yummy too and very pretty to look at as well :)
Patrick also wanted to make a special cake for easter, and this one he did all by himself (with a little help measuring) and it was delicious!! Twas a lovely treat for morning tea today!mmmmmmm
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Finally Finished Maia's Skirt!!
My wool dying adventures
My dying efforts were a bit of a disaster, I have completely ruined a skein of the knittery merino - I still shudder every time I look at the tangled mess of wool. I managed to save my first effort - I was intending some lovely aqua, lilac and pink, but somehow got deep dark almost black purples, deep red and deep blue - kinda nice, but not what I wanted at all. I saved it by rinsing out most of the dye before I put it in the microwave and had 'set', it's still not that pretty and tbh, I'm not sure I would even use it in it's current state, so I am going to have a go at over dying it at some stage to try and make it look a bit better - fingers crossed!
The Save
The Tangled waste of beautiful wool :(
What I sent off in the end to my swapper turned out reasonably nice though - not what I wanted, there was supposed to be bright pink in there, but it kind of disappeared and the blue is a phantom blue - I actually dyed that bit purple, but because I have no idea what I am doing it turned blue - at least it kind of looks like it is meant to be there lol. It looks waaaay better once it is balled up, so hopefully my swapper will like it. I felt a bit bad though, so put in some BBR from monster knits in the night rainbow colourway to make up for my dodgyness ;)
I was soooo lucky to my stunning swap today in the post - my swapper sent me this gorgeous pink and purple colourway on BWM - I love it!
If you did want to have a go at dying with food colours in the microwave - this is the basic gist of it - easy if you are clever - I'll share the error of my ways so you may have better luck ;)
1. put your wool into skeins if not already (I had balls, so wound them around three chair legs)
2. soak in a 50/50 water/white vinegar solution for an hour or two, overnight if you want (I used malt vinegar for one batch cos I didn't have anything else, still worked but it STUNK)
3. squeeze excess water off (I rolled in a towel)
4. make a little bed for the skeins out of glad wrap - I put a length of glad wrap on the bench and kind of pinched the sides up to ensure no dye escapage, I also tried it laying the glad wrap on the bottom of the microwave dish and laying the wool on top as in the deep dark disaster pic above
5. mix up your dyes - I thought you needed a lot for vibrant colours, but no - this just makes a very dark muddy mess - see above ;). I started out with a few drops in say 10ml water and poured a little on, if I wanted it darker I added some more dye. It is easier to get it darker than lighter - so start out lighter and darken if you want to. I have also been recommended to cut a length of wool to test on, before pouring on your dye. Mop up any excess colour, then move on to your next colour.
6. once you have the wool all pretty colours, wrap it up tightly in glad wrap, then put in the microwave for 3 mins, then rest 3 mins, then 3 mins, rest 3 mins, then 3 mins, then leave overnight to cool down
then rinse, put a little shampoo or wool wash in if you want to get rid of the vinegar smell and bob's your uncle, lurvely wool!
If you have made a mistake and want to overdye it, just repeat the steps above, inc the vinegar soak.
As much as I would love to keep on trying to perfect the art, I already have way more wool than I know what to do with, plus trades up my sleeve with two of the best dyers in Aus, so I think I will just leave it to the experts and expand my crafty horizons other ways :D
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Nothing finished yet damn it!
Never mind, I will get everything done eventually! I have nearly finished Maia's skirt though - that's why I love knitting, you can take it with you and a quick 5 mins here and there means progress to be made, slowly but surely. I just have the PITA side of all those lovely stripes - masses of ends to be woven in, but a pic is coming soon :)
I failed again on our $50 challenge, I've spent $67 already and it's not even the end of the week. I was just going to get a couple of things, but I hate supermarkets and figured while I was already there I could just shop for the week. That is very dangerous without a menu plan though - I am pretty sure I could have come closer to the $50 had I meal planned and got only what we actually needed. I think I will end up with extra veg, that we will use just for the sake of using it up. $67 is still not bad though, so I'm not too worried about it.
Just had to post this very cute pic of Maia too. She is such a delicate little thing, normally happy, cruisy and content - that is until you tell her something she doesn't want to hear lol. We have been trying to get 'the look' on camera for a few months now, cos it is pretty funny, but she usually starts smiling when I get the camera out. I was already photographing something this morning when she did the look, so I got it before she changed expression - it's classic. This is a mild version after I told her she had to use the potty if she wanted to keep her big girl undies on - she wasn't so keen ;)
Monday, March 10, 2008
$50 Challenge Update
I'm not sure how we are going to go for the next few weeks, as we have already noticed a big dent in the freezer and pantry - brad thinks it should be at least the $60 challenge lol. Our menu for the week wasn't too bad, certainly not exciting, but OK. For dinners we had: spinach and ricotta lasange (2 meals), tuna and potato pie with steamed veg (2 meals), home made pizza, big fat salad, fritata. Lunches were a bit harder, cos we used the leftovers for the second dinner instead of lunch, so lots of sandwiches, baked beans, scramble etc patrick made up his own dish one day - cheesy eggy rice. We also had some treats - nectarine crumble with custard (crumble was frozen in the freezer from a few weeks back), chocolate brownies - those were good! and lots of smoothies.
Hopefully this week, we can do it!
I didn't get any objects finished this weekend either as Brad got called into work. I have done the last colour change for Maia's skirt now, so on the home stretch, yay! Few more rounds to go, then figure out how to do a picot edge for the hem and I am done - will be glad to get that one finished!!
Friday, March 7, 2008
I've been tagged
Firstly, here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog
2. Share seven facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Righto, 7 random and/or weird things about me:
1. I'm very anal when it comes to some things - like the linen cupboard. Every towel, facewasher, blanket and pillowcase must be in it's correct place or it drives me nuts
2. I'm currently longing for a bubba, hoping our stupidly crazy lives will allow it to happen sometime soon
3. I have a rediculous amount of yarn considering that I have only ever completed 1 scarf, 3 pairs of shorties, 2 newborn soakers and 3 dishcloths in the six months I have been knitting. I always think I will have more spare time than I actually do, and am hopelessly addicted to pretty things and beautiful colourways, I really need to stop buying and start knitting!
4. I am definately a swim person when it comes to sink or swim. I worked as a temp for a few years and often used to take on jobs that I had no idea how to actually do, just so I didn't get stuck with boring reception or straight typing work. Luckily I can pick things up reeeally quickly and was able to pretend like I knew how to do it all along.
5. My 'real' name is actually Susan, but I don't like it at all (no offence to anyone named susan) and as soon as I left school I changed it in all but official documents to Sue
6. I can't have nutella in the house, because otherwise I will eat it all straight out of the jar which is just disgusting - last month I managed to make my way through an entire 750gm jar in just over two weeks, with very little help from anyone else. No wonder my tummy feels a little more squishy than normal!
7. Procrastination is one of my worst traits (along with always being late - probably a result of the procrastination lol). I hate myself for it sometimes, but I just can't help it - like now. I really should be catching up on my outstanding emails, but I am here doing something completely trivial that I should do after I finish work. But hey, I gotta have a break sometimes ;)
Not sure who to tag, being new to blogging and all, but hopefully I got it right and everyone I've tagged hasn't been tagged before. Sooo I'm tagging Mel, Hayley, Tanya, Donna, Kath, Wendy and anyone else who wants to play- have fun :D
My Finish the UFO's Weekend
Also, I have some very belated pressies for friends that need to be sewn up as well as an extra special trade and this week I got a delivery of stunning embroidered minkee cuts from Mel at Wrigglebots, so I am hopefully going to turn these into spectacular nappies.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Our $50 March Challenge
One of the important things for me though, is that I don't want to compromise nutrition just to eat cheaply, so we won't be living on white bread, 2 min noodles and skanky vegies. I guess that makes it a little harder because generally it is cheaper to eat crap food than good food, but I just think we'll have to be a bit more creative ;)
So far in week 1, I have spent $27.50 on a big box of fruit and veg and a carton of milk, so I have $22.50 left, I'll report back in on Sunday and let you know how I go with it :)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Finally A Nappy Made Just for Maia!
Pay It Forward
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Nappies for Baby Wombat
These are some of the nappies for BW that I have been making over the past couple of months. I was given total free reign on the print ones - sometimes a little scary for my wee libran brain lol, but this is what I came up with :)
It's a mix of minkee AIO's, print fitteds and boo's. I loved making these so much, I haven't made print nappies for ages and it made me feel a bit more creative about things again which is sooo nice. I love admiring a beautiful nappy lol.
These ones are mainly smalls.
These are mediums.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Far out - I'm a Genuis!
I mean of course I know I am a genius, just didn't think it came across that way ;)
Unfortunately though, the reality is that I suspect this reading level rating scheme is a little random - the first time I clicked on it from one of the NC blogs I was merely rated at Junior High, but three days later I'm elevated to the grand poo-bah! So what are you?