I've said it before, kits are good holiday go tos

Labour day was a little while ago but since I've not gotten around to photographing this until now, here's a new post!  This is part of a cute little bag kit I bought from a patchwork and quilting shop in NSW a few years ago on my travels and it was perfect to throw in a bag and take camping.

I tweaked the pattern a little- I added boards to the boat (it was just an outline originally) and changed the colours of the fish because I preferred the green and yellow.  The boards are a little wonky and uneven but I choose to call it quaint and rustic instead of 'wobbly because you really should've drawn it on before you started'.  The important thing for any project is to know how justify... innovative differences caused through inattention...

Really finished crochet bag

I went to see when I posted the finished crochet for a small bag and was slightly shocked that it was way back in 2014!  At the time it was just the outside, but since it had no lining it wasn't terribly usable.

Well I finally sat down with some fabric and tried to fix it.  I used some light blue/purple silk I picked up at a craft show years ago for the inside and some cream cotton for the outside and lining of the pocket.  It took a bit of puzzling and 'um, if I want the seam there to be inside but that seam to be opposite... ?' but I got there in the end.  Even got the pocket in properly and sewn in such that it is big but not going to lose things in the lining.

Sewing on a few small D rings and adding a chain (as I couldn't find something that would work for a strap and internet says that metal chain handles are in anyway) and it's finished.  There are a few little things that I can see that I did wrong but since I'm not an expert sewer or designer, I can live with them.  I might throw a few hidden stitches in to hold the crochet in place a little better but I suspect that it's one of those things that only I see.

House update

And here is the finished result of the bedroom.  The walls are a white now rather than cream except the feature wall that is 'canoe blue'.  Ignore the cable in the bottom left- it goes to the fan that is only temporary but essential (it only got to 30C minimum last night so the fan is a necessity!).

The heat also puts the breaks on more DIY so I'm back to arranging the house etc.

A new craft challenge- house ownership

I've hit one of those landmarks in life that shows that I'm in adult mode, I've started the next big adventure- home ownership!  It isn't much, a little two bedroom place (or rather, one bedroom and one craft room) but I can do what I want with it and no one can complain.

So to ease into my life of DIY I'm going to start with the main bedroom.  Apart from having a faint to strong scent of the previous tenant's smoking habit (urghhhh!!!), it also has a very... brown... feel.  Plus I won't be into the place properly for a few more days yet since I'm hiring big strong backs with a truck to move the furniture to the new place so the only things over there are things that I can move myself.

Well apart from the piles of clothing, but they are only temporary!

That's a chocolate brown feature wall.  Not necessarily bad, per say but with the bits I can't change easily right now (beige wardrobe, beige window frame and a beigy grey carpet) it's really brown.

So step one is now complete.  I've taken the curtains down to wash (not a pleasant job when I saw the colour of the water after the first few rounds but they came up well), used lots of bicarb on the carpet to hopefully absorb odours from the carpets and I've given the walls a wash to prepare them for paint.  Next step, fill in holes and decide on colours- stay tuned for updates!

More Christmas cards

So I've been on a card making extravaganza- I want to make sure I have enough cards to see me through the season as I'm moving in two weeks and need to pack up the craft stuff.

Oh and then there are these, which include two of my favourites... The dandelion one is absolute favourite which is funny since there isn't any Christmas specific parts to it (aside from the Merry Christmas sticker)

Lessons learnt?  Dies don't like mirror card very much and if it's looking lovely and perfect it's because the gremlins are waiting to put a fingerprint somewhere.  The bottom of the shaker card wasn't going to be like that but the gremlins put a big smear right along the bottom and some emergency additions were needed.

Just a few to go, mainly to use the bits up that I have already cut out.  Then it's back to the fun job of packing boxes... two weeks until moving day (eep!).