Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge

Am I up to the challenge? I think so.

I plan to do the Australian Women Writers challenge this year. I'm aiming to get to the Franklin-Fantastic level and in terms of genre, I plan to be a "Devoted eclectic".

Coincidentally, I finished off 2011 by reading a book called "Shifting Fog" by Kate Morton - which I loved, so I am quite looking forward to this challenge!

I have started well - half way through January and I have already completed my first book - "Me and Mr Booker" by Cory Taylor. Stay tuned for a review soon!

School holiday fun

ChingyPingy and I got to spend a couple of days together this school holidays - just the two of us, no little brother, no play dates, just us!

It was so lovely, 5 nearly 6 is a really fun age. We went on a bit of a shopping spree and I bought her lots of random little goodies, an activity book, a bracelet that turns into a cat figurine (weird I know, but it's true!) and a necklace. That afternoon, we kicked back and I read a magazine while ChingyPingy did her activity book. Along the way, I explained multiplication to her and then explained why 11 - 4 is the same as 10 - 3. Unexpectedly fun!

The next day, we decide to renovate ChingyPingy's doll's house. The doll's house was made by her great grandfather for her aunt. It's a great doll's house but it was getting a bit run down - and the lino floors were a bit out of date, so we have been slowly renovating it over the last year or so.

That day, it was time to paint it. This is what it looked like when we started.

We ripped off as much of the flooring as we could, then painted the outside of the house. Miss 5 asked for pink paint of course - so I think we'll have to repaint the roof something a little more subtle, in the interests of our eyeball health!!!!!

I will post a picture of what it looks like with the pink paint on after we do the next coat.

Then in the afternoon, we finished off the kirigami ball we started months ago. It was from a cool little Djeco kirigami kit

The other holiday crafting we did was to make these gorgeous crepe paper flowers from Alex Toys

Trog or Furtle???

More identity crisis. This is starting to become a problem!

Thank you Susan B. Anderson! Itty Bitty Toys is the best!

Identity Crisis

Or a game of cat and mouse?

Loving Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Toys! This book has turned out to be worth 10 times it weight in gold - I've made toy after toy and they've all turned out beautifully.

A few months ago, some good friends of mine had a little baby boy. I wanted to give them a knitted toy and rather than decide between a cat and a mouse I knitted up one of the reversible toys in Itty Bitty Toys. Sooooo cute!!

Look - it's a mouse.

Now it's a catmouse!

 And now it's a cat.

Catching up

How slack am I??

Two and a half months since my last post! Really, really slack.

Well, I have no excuse. I've been crafting up a storm, so there shouldn't have been any problem! Anyway, to make up for it, I'm going to endeavour to do a catch up post every night until I have caught up.

So, today's post is going to be about the beautiful ABA forum. I joined this forum when my Mr McGillicuddy was a few months old. I wanted a bit of support with my feeding troubles and this was the perfect place to go! Two years later,  I am still hanging around there, for the wonderful warm people and the fabulous parenting tips.

One of the ladies on the forum had a health scare last year and we all rallied around to try to do things to help. One of the things we did was to all knit or crochet squares for a blanket. Another one of the ladies was going to stitch all the squares together, but the arrival of her gorgeous second baby meant life got a bit busy so I offered to finish it off.

A couple of weeks ago, a group of us met up to present her with the blanket -

I think it turned out well! The seaming wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I can't wait to make another blanket now!

What comes first? The duck or the egg?

Hey Bubbles had a duck themed party recently - see here.

We were lucky enough to be invited and we were all so excited! I started hatching plans (pun intended) for knitted gifts. I'm really really into Susan B. Anderson's book Itty-bitty Toys - I particularly love her chapter on reversible toys.

But what do you knit for a one year old who is having a ducky themed party?

Why, an egg of course!

But this isn't just any old egg. This egg is just about to hatch. Can you see the cracks?

It's hatched! Look, a little duckling!


This wonderful pattern from Itty-Bitty Toys usually has a little blue bird inside of the egg, waiting to hatch. But I wanted to stick to the party's duck theme, so I made a little modification to turn the little blue bird into a duckling. As usual, it was down to the wire in terms of completing the gift and I was crocheting in the car on the way to the party. You'll be pleased to hear that my husband was driving!

Kanzashi Flowers

I've just come home from a fantastic "Kanzashi" workshop with the lovely Melanie from Kimono Reincarnate. The workshop was part of Saviour of the Lost Arts (SOTLA).

I was lucky enough to be one of the 20 people registered for this workshop and along with two of my friends, got to make one of these.

The workshop was fantastic. Melanie explained how to make the "Kanzashi" flowers very clearly. We started off with some beautiful vintage kimono fabric which we cut into squares.

We then did a little bit of folding and sewing and ended up with this -

A little bit more fiddling, we then added some beads etc and voila!

Thanks so much Melanie! I had a great time and I'm so happy with the beautiful "Kanzashi" flower that I made. I can't wait to make some more!

P.S. The photos with the black borders were taken by my lovely and talented friend who also came to the workshop :) - thank you!