Thw Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY 26th of March

Outside my window...
I see birds in large gum trees. I see the kids playing in the school yard. I hear birds twittering. I see the sun shining and a birds egg blue sky. I smell dust. I feel a light breeze.

I am thinking...
About faith and what it means to me.

I am thankful for...

• My children, who are happy and healthy.
• My husband who is my soul mate, best friend and lover. His smile makes my day happier. His love makes me whole.
• My good health.
• My ability and skills to work and support my family.
• My wonderful country and the government who governs it.
• My ability to pay taxes to contribute to my wonderful country.
• I live in a country which strives to provide health care for all.
• I live in a country that knows peace.
• I live in a country which strives to be inclusive of all.
• I live in a country that strives to support those who are unable to support themselves.
• I have a roof over our heads and food on our table.
• My positive happy nature (most of the time :D)
  

From the kitchen...
There's not much happening today. Pre-packaged Lasanga for dinner tonight. There's eleven for dinner tonight!

I am wearing...
Black stretch pants, brown singlet and Ottobre Wind tunic in bottle green.

I am creating...
A crochet skirt. A little envelope clutch from a pattern from Burdastyle

I am going...
to work tomorrow. My second day of Relief teaching in many years.

I am reading...
Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ( listening ..it's an audio book)

I am hoping...
James has a good day at school.
I can learn not to judge others.
I can surrender to faith.

I am hearing...
Michael in the kitchen. He's eating his lunch.

Around the house...
I have lots of cleaning to do, we have visitors arriving tonight. Beds to make. I've cleaned the bathroom and toilet and cleared some clutter from the lounge.

One of my favorite things...
Cuddles from Michael when he first wakes from a nap.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
To pick up my new glasses. To attend the Bundaleer Weekend. To watch my talented daughter dance in her first public performance.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

How I feel after another night of no sleep :D

This exercise comes from Peggy Hostetler's blog

Doggie Doo Dudes

A dog nappy for Scruff.

Scruff is having a hard time settling in to the household. Apart from her indiscretion killing the duckling she also has another problem. She's a secret popper and piddler.
She obviously knows she's not supposed to piddle and poop in the house because she looks very guilty when she's caught and she hides it!

She never 'tells' us she needs to go. Even thought I let her out often to do her business she will still piddle and poop under the beds, stove, behind doors, shower and other places where she can hide.

I'm getting pretty exasperated with her. She's obviously smart and I've had enough! So I sat down tonight and designed her a nappy. When she's in the house she'll be wearing it! I'm hoping this will discourage her from piddling and pooping in the house.

This is my first attempt at making a dog nappy.
I'll see how this one works before I make another.

Ottobre design woman 2/2009

Design 2. "Wind" tunic


Once again the READ THE INSTRUCTIONS wasn't read and...
I cut it without adding the seam allowance and...
I was lucky because I had decided to cut a size up!


I hate photos of myself.
(At least I don't look grumpy in this one)
James took this one. He's 10 and his angle of photography is upwards which highlights my more than ample boosom! ( but hides my jowls)

I bought my subscriptions to Ottobre Woman from Crafty Mamas

Latest from the dye pot

Destined to be a knitted pair of longies.
Knittery 8ply Merino
Dyes: Landscape - Surts Desert Pea and Wallaby and Gaywool Blue
Dye Method: Icecream tub and microwave
I should of twisted the skeins together before I put them in the tub as they have taken up the dye very differently. I'm not sure about the red. It does have a tendency when I hand dye to look a bit pink. Will see how it knits up. These are for a boy so if it looks pinky I'll dye another couple of skein ups.

Knittery 4ply sock yarn
Dyes: Landscape Galah and cyclamin.
Dye Method: Icecream tub and microwave.
(it may be the Cashmere?? I'm not sure I shoved it all in the same drawer)
This is destined to be a custom crochet skirt.

Four seasons Quilt Swap - Ready to send

It's finished! Just waiting for it to dry so it can go in the mail.

It has some piecing ..some celtic knot applique

Some beading and a lot of freemotion quilting.

I can't show you the colour yet as this is a secret swap..shhh we don't want to give it away do we?

Four Little Dickie bows sitting in a row...

I've been busy this weekend sewing. I'm sewing costumes for a dance performance Fern is in during the Bundaleer Weekend. I've blogged most of the costumes over on my Enid blog.
These bows I made with the aid of an e-pattern from You Can Make This. The instructions are very good for making the bow, clear and easy to follow with lots of photos. To be honest I feel a bit silly paying for something which is really simple and there are other places to learn how to make nice bows free on the net. The e-pattern contains instructions on how to attach the bows to alligator clips, but I had a hard time finding alligator clips.
The booklet doesn't have instructions on the the adjustable tie I made to attach the bow's to. I had to work that out for myself.The bow tie hardware is distributed by Birch here in Australia.

Miss Madeline - number 3

Miss Madeline
Designed by The Handmade dress
Made from a sheet and a vintage hand embroidered doily.

The waistline looks a little high to me.
Next time I'll lower it.

Friday Op-shop visit

The Op-shop in Jamestown opens on a Friday between 11am and 3pm. I look forward to my op-shopping treat.

This weeks treasure finds:

A couple of pretty pieces of Japanese crockery. A pile of embroidered doilies.

The suspenders are going to be pulled apart and their hardware reused to make more suspenders for the dance costumes I'm making. The bag is also destined to be a prop for the dance performance.

What's this..... it's wonderful!

IT IS RAIN
Pardon my shouting but it's just so exciting!!
Michael isn't sure what it is.

54 minutes and some op-shop fabric

Miss Madeline
Designed byThe Handmade Dress
The fabric came from a Port Pirie Op-shop there was 3 meters of this for $3

I made this for a special little girl who is about to celebrate her thrid birthday. I redrafted the pattern to fit a 3 year old.

Miss Madeline

Miss Madeline
Designed by The Handmade Dress
Made from two vintage pillowcases
Time taken: one hour and twenty minutes.

Last night I couldn't sleep. So I got out of bed at midnight. Switched on the baby monitor and went down to the shed and did some sewing. I could just squeeze the size 5 pattern onto a pillowcase.

Lilly woke this morning to a new dress! She was very happy and excited. She's worn it to preschool today.

The pattern was US $9.95 and the fabrics cost me nothing. Wendy and her mum gave me these pillowcases a couple of years ago. I bought the size 5 to 10 pattern so I can make this for my older girls too.

Mohair crochet shawl

Eva's Shawl - PDF pattern Designed by Milobo
Bendigo Woollen Mills 8 ply Mohair
8mm hook

This was a very quick project on a nice big hook.

I love how this turned out. The shawl drapes beautifully over the shoulders, as it's not a triangle, it's more rounded. I think I'll make this shawl again. It's quick to make and very pretty.

The Mohair I bought way back in 1996. I had started a jumper in it but it never got finished. I tried frogging it but mohair isn't easy to frog. I had two balls which were intact. One I used to make a shawl for mum last year.

New custom slot

Want your own unique soaker, shorties, longies or skirt?

Made from hand dyed wool, with your choice of colours.

This is the custom slot just for you!

Your choice of knit or crochet.

Your choice of item.


Knit shorties - sample only


Knit Longies - sample only


Knit/crochet Skirt - sample only


Crochet Skirt - sample only

Please allow 4 weeks for completion ( most done in 2 weeks).

To order please visit my store.

The difference a Light tent makes!

Home made light box/tent.
Made using the ideas on this blog
I was lucky enough not to have thrown out these bits they came from a storage cube the kids wrecked a while back.
Thank you to Toria for the link.
and someone on crafty mamas who also posted the link in a thread ages ago.

What a difference!
This is what the colour is like not as it is in the previous photos

That does look so much better.
Now I have to come up with some nice backdrops.

Autumn Longies

Autumn Longies

Yarn: 250 gms of Treliske Organic Merino 8 ply DK Hand dyed by me.
Pattern: DRD Croknit longies
Made For: Zofia from Crafty Mamas

Features a knitted rib waistband.

Crochet makes for a dense fabric perfect for keeping baby's bedding dry at night.

I need to invest in a light box. The colours are more vibrant in real life. I'm in the process if writing up my croknit longies pattern. It won't be a freebie, I'll be selling it as a download from my store. Yep another of my gonna do projects!

The Face of a Killer

Scruff killed the duckling.

We are all pretty sad here. Lots of we should ofs too. I should of locked up the ducking with it's mum when I found it wandering the yard earlier in the day. Peter should of locked it in when he found it wandering in the front garden a little later. I don't think Scruff would of gone into the duck shed and taken the duckling, nor would she have taken it if it was with it's mum. I thought that ducklings like chicks stay close to their mum, obviously not

Scruff had never shown a killer side before. She's gentle with the kids and she only chased the chooks once and lost interest after the chickens started jumping up into the trees and ignoring her.

I can't trust Scruff in the garden on her own now. For such a little dog she can jump! And has worked out how to jump the gates. I have to tie her up now. It's true you really cant 100% trust a dog with another animal or child.

Pot Holders

I'm in a swap hosted by the Down To Earth blog.

So I'm doing some research for pot holders.

Here's the list of links I've come up with:

Sewn
Simple Pot holder
Crazy Patch pot holder
Oven Mitt
Basket potholder
Oven Mitt
Quilted Pot Holder
Six vintage pot holders
A Big List of links here - some I'd already found ;)
Free patterns and Here too
About.com sewing
Made from Jeans
Folded star potholder - an Aussie blog - that I just added to my reader!
Chicken shaped folding one from Tip nut
A simple on on another great blog - PDF on the right
clever washcloth potholder - a photo on flickr
pocket style potholder
Kitten one - very cute
Pieced pot holders- another tip nut
cup cake embroidered potholder
Patchwork potholder
Oven Mitt
Oven and Finger mitts
Oven Mitt Tutorial
Hot Stuff - basic potholder
Crocodile type on Burdastyle

Crochet
Piggy Potholder
Crochet Pattern Central - HUGE list
Tip-nuts Six Vintage crochet porholders
Freepattern - lots of nice ones here
Poinsettia Potholder
Fish shaped ones - really cute
Diagonal crochet potholder - this one I've made a couple of times a favorite
Rooster - So Cute
Frankenstein - one to scare the kids with
Hand strap Potholder -looks clever

Knitting
How Stuff Works
Lion Brand - needs registration
Knitting Pattern Central

After all this surfing I think I may have to make my own up!

Quack

The proud new father. Strutted his stuff around the yard.
Sir Francis is a Muscovy Drake.

The new arrival is being guarded by its mum.
She wasn't happy with me coming into the Duck Shed to get this shot.
We have three hens sitting at present so hopefully there will be more new arrivals soon.

A very protective mum, she had a peck at me.

Learning New Tricks

I recently bought a Ruffler Foot for my sewing machine.
It wasn't cheap $86, but if I can learn how to use it I'm sure it will be worth the price.
As I age I'm finding it harder to learn new things.
I spent hours this morning trying to work out how to use this foot.

I went through a lot of scraps testing the settings.
Sara was kind enough to share a link to a great ebook on You Can Make This.
The Ruffle Unruffled is a terrific resource for learning to use a ruffler foot.
And it's FREE!