Christmas Crafting

Have been so busy making stuff i haven't had time for blogging about it! hehe

Here are some of the decorations i made for other people this year, all embroidered with kids names on the back, except the angel :)

Christmas Giveaway Winner :)

Have been super busy all weekend so haven't gotten around to drawing my giveaway till now but the winner is...............

Comment #48 "kerrykatiecakeskeb43" with her comment: Hmmm.... I think I'd have to choose Sherlock Holmes. Bet he'd be hard to live with though!

Thank you so much for entering!!!!!!!!!!! 246 comments is just insane!!!

I forgot to mention that the yarn is hand dyed by me in my little business "Red Riding Hood Yarns". my business blog can be found here and by facebook page here

I am unconvinced on the merits of the giveaway though, as even though i had 246 people visit and comment, i have only had 2 new followers. So while its great to win giveaways, its pretty obvious that the aim wasn't to discover news blogs now was it? ;)

Christmas Giveaway :)

Well i was too late to join in the sewmamasew bloggers giveaway day, but thought i would have one anyway :)

Up for grabs, some delicious 10ply Luxury hand dyed yarn inspired by Ron Weasley ( my new fictional crush ;) hehehe)

To enter, just leave me a comment telling me who YOUR fictional crush is ;)
I will draw the giveaway on Friday morning (17th) and will happily ship internationally :)

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Bad bad Hanny

yeah, so ive neglicted my blog quite alot lately :(
i am in a bit (!!) of a funk at the moment and not feeling very inspiring or crafty. have been making quite alot of felty christmas stuff, but just not having the energy to upload photos and put on a big festive grin. im just not feeling it. too much stress and crap.

hoping to be back to my usual self soon

Summer yarn Swap first arival!

I was lucky enough to receive my summer yarn swap on Thursday!
Sorry Toshi, that it was taken me this long to post about it. Both me and Hubby have been super sick since Friday. Usually we get bugs one after each other so at least one of us is holding down the fort, but not this time! its amazing what can happen to your house when both adults are incapacitated for 3 days! lol

Here was my kitchen yesterday evening

Dishes (eeeek) yarn would ready to dye, knitting projects, mail, and my yarn swap!!
(No the wine bottles were not the result of self medication lol, they are a collection for a cousin of mines home brew wine)

Here is the gorgeous package Toshi sent me



Some Needlefood sock yarn ( super special as needle food is no longer in business), delicious apricot herbal tea ( my whole pantry smells like apricot when you open it now hehe) some delicious gluten free biscuits ( just like timtams) and some melting oil cubes :)

it was just the perfect package for me thanks so much!
There is still another couple of weeks untill sending, so i look forward to hearing and seeing the parcels as they arrive :)

mY CREATIVE sPACE

I have been a busy little Beaver this week!! PHEW!!!
Amongst all the dyeing i have been crafting up a Christmas decoration storm!

i am taking part in a lot of swaps ( two JUST decoration swaps) this month in the prep for Christmas and here are some delicious strawberry's i have been whipping up

Also, not my creativity, but here is what my husband whipped up for dinner last night.
Barbecue steak, grilled courgettes and onion, sprinkled with Parmesan and balsamic vinegar, and yummy scrummy garden salad. With ice cold sparkling water and fresh lime. we topped it off with lemon sorbet and fresh mango for dessert once the kids were in bed hehehe

So nice to have a barbecue and sit outside in the sun for dinner!
And lovely to see the boys planing nicely together afterwards ;)

I LOVE SUMMER!

you know the drill, pop over to Kotoyoos place for some more creativity!

Wardrobe Wednesday - ball edition

First time Ive played this but with a theme like that i had to!
I spent my 5th and 6th form years in Lima Peru, and formal dances were HUGE! turning 15 for a Peruvian girl was a HUGE deal and 5 star events were held. i went to ALOT of them. proms also started young and i went to a fair few of those too! I don't have many photos from back then as a flood ruined almost all my photos last year :( but here is what i could salvage.

First formal dance i ever went to
2002, i was 15
with my gorgeous friend Jenni


First "Prom" 2002, i was 16
dress designed my me, modeled off a Shikira outfit hahaha
tie around bikini style, COMPLETELY risque for the company and time lol

6th Form Prom, 2003, i was 17
dress designed my me NO idea what i was thinking
with my gorgeous friend Cynthia

so there you have it! :)

man i wish i could get that body back! lol

pop over here for more blasts from the past

3rd Wedding Anniversary

I know its almost a week late but last Wednesday (10th) was my 3rd wedding anniversary :)

It still seems surreal to me that her i am, just turned 24, with an amazing hubby of 3 years ( been together 6 though), two gorgeous children and a mortgage! haha

This is the first year we have ( been able to afford!) bought each other gifts and boy was i a lucky girl!



Rob handmade a card for me, with our fav wedding photo on it, our wedding colour font, quote from one of our wedding songs ( Bon Jovi baby lol) i was totally blown away! so much thought had gone into it xxxxx

For my gift he got the Annabel Langbein's new book "The Free Range Cook". i was been drooling over this book since it came out, and we watch her show every Saturday night that we can. Her recipes are EXACTLY the ind of food we love to cook and eat, and the photography is just sublime!

My gift to Rob is far too R18 rated to share in here sorry ;) so you will all have to take a guess ;)

i know i did this last year, but thought i would share some of our beautiful wedding photos.

THE Cardy

Here is THE cardy.

5 weeks in the making.



First adult sized garment Ive ever made.



First lace project i have ever undertaken.


I ADORE it!!!

And then there were TWO!

Two garden beds that is!!!
So exciting, the boys put in our second vege garden today. Now we have Tomatoes, basil, lettuces, corn, capsicums and zucchinis, and 2 or three different variety's of each :)

That will be all for this year but we will put in another two over winter for potatoes and pumpkins :D



We are going to put some stones over the weed mat too.
Trees got trimmed, two rhodos got cut out ( who plants a tree in the middle of a lawn? honestly?!!)

Man i love owning our own home!!!!!!!!

woops!

Haven't blogged since blogtoberfest ended woops!!

Have been super busy with my cuz staying and making up lots of yarn orders and felt orders.
Here's a few snapshots of my week.

Delicious dessert Loren made us
pears poached in boysenberry wine, pistachio praline and almond ice cream


Felt finger puppets i made


my op-shop finds this week, merino top and Max skirt, for a total of $8 lol


and lots of custom dye jobs

Going to be busy this week too, with our 3 year wedding anniversary, robs birthday, my sisters end of uni fashion show and going down to welly Thursday night for the weekend.

PHEW!

Blogtoberfest Day 31- HAPPY BLOGTOBERFEST

Blogtoberfest Day 31

Today is the last day of Blogtoberfest.
I am so proud of myself that i managed to blog 32 times this month! I only missed two days but had 3 days with two posts so i more than made up for it :)

I have shared with you more about myself, my family, my craft and my business. I have made new friends and gotten to know old friends better.

Ive had fun entering giveaways and having one of my own.

Speaking of giveaways, here is the yarn that i have just dyed and re-hanked up for Joanne, winner of my Blogtoberfest Giveaway.
It is 100g 4ply sock yarn.



Joanne said she liked blues and greens but not necessarily together and this is what i came up with, I've named it "Blogtoberfest" for the occasion hehe.
There are also a couple of other goodies going in the parcel but that will be a surprise ;)

I hope you all had fun reading my posts this month!! it has definitely given me the motivation to blog much more regularly from now on :)

xxx

Blogtoberfest Day 30 - GARDEN!

Blogtoberfest day 30

Here is what my boys have been up to all day


Our very own vege patch in our very own home!!! one of many to come :)
We planted lettuces, basil and tomatoes in this one :)

zucchinis, corn and capsicums go in next weekend!

Blogtoberfest Day 29 - BEST CUZ EVER

Blogtoberfest Day 29

In two days my best ever cuz will be home!!!


This is the best picture i could get ( yes Loren i raided your facebook lol, there was hardly anything to choose from!) hahaha but shows her personality perfectly ;)

Loren has been away overseas in Canada mostly for almost a year now. Before that she was gone for a whole other year in South America aswell with only a month or so back in NZ. I have missed her TERRIBLY!!!

We have been thick as thieves since the week we were born ( yup week, we are only 6 days apart in age)



I cant wait to have her back in my life for good!

Even though she will be starting Uni in Auckland in the new year, i will have her on tap for the next couple of months! lol


LOVE YOU CUZ!!!

man how cute were WE?!?!

Blogtoberfest Day 28 - My Creative Space

Blogtoberfest Day 28

My Creative Space



yarn gorgeous yarn

Pop over to Kootoyoo for some more ;)

Blogtoberfest Day 27 - DINNER

Blogtoberfest Day 27

Dinner

Gluten free pasta, pesto stirred through, with cherry toms, feta and fresh basil
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Thanks Ange for the inspiration!

Blogtoberfest Day 26- BOOKS

Blogtoberfest day 26

I was Blog browsing this morning and came across Estelle's "Five books i wish I had never read, and five books i wish i had read instead" on her blog "Curbside Style"

i had a bit of a giggle because obviously her tastes are very different from mine! Three of the books she wished she hadn't read would rank right up at the top of my "love" list lol.

So i thought i would make a list of my own! not quite the same but here are my favs, and least favs.

Top 5 books

1. Harry Potter series: all of them. total TOTAL genius. I adore these books and have read them over and over and over.

2. Eat.Pray.Love: yes despite the hype i just adored this book. I LOVE true stories and this one had it all, the locations, the beauty, the food, the love story. Super dooper inspiring.

3. Southern Vampire Series AKA Sookie Stackhouse novels. I watched the first season of TRUE BLOOD before i started these books, but then i just devoured them, all 10 of them! absolute fan of the TV series too.

4. Wilbur Smith's Egypt series. i really really got into these a couple of years back, still need to read the last one though.

5. Twilight, Yup not afraid to say i LOVED it lol, have read the series 3 times from start to finish now. TEAM JACOB BITCH ;)

There is a bunch of book i read as a teenager that i cant for the life of me remember their names or the authors??? there was a time traveling series one that had three books i think? That went from modern time to a magical past and the chick could time travel? Her name might have been Tory?? Then there are the thriller ones by a guy author and one was called "The Island" i think? I used to hide them from my parents as they quite gory and had lots of sex in them lol. Then there was one called "Summer of Love" or something like that about two teenagers with cancer who fall in love while getting treatment together. If anyone knows the names of these books or the author i would love to know so i can look them up and read them again :)

So now those are my favs, I'm struggling to think of ones Ive read and haven't liked??? i tend to just not keep reading if I'm not enjoying something and not give it another thought. I think Ive picked up a couple of Robs John Grisham books and not read beyond a few chapters?

Might do a movie list tomorrow :)

Blogtoberfest Day 25 - JAR SWAP

Blogtoberfest Day 25

OK somehow i managed to loose a whole other day? So i have even more to catch up on!

Just before i left on Thursday i posted a gorgeous parcel out to a lovely friend of mine Tammy. it was my end of the bargain for the TNN "Jar Swap". I received her two kiddies to make for and here is what i came up with

For Cody a "message in a bottle" theme i used. I made him a felt treasure map with a treasure "pocket" at the end for hiding treasure in ( i filled it with treasure stickers) then i filled the rest of the jar up with extra stickers, buttons, iron-on patches and an eye patch and earring :)

heres a closeup of the map

For Ayla i made a "Picnic for two" in a jar :)

I hand stitched a picnic blanket and made an assortment of felt picnic food for her :)

They were received well and i have been told that both kids love them so yay! mission accomplished :)

Blogtoberfest Day 24 - WEEKEND

Blogtoberfest Day 24

OK so i didn't make it on yesterday, was waaaaaaaaaay to busy recovering from the weekend and spending time with my boys who i missed dreadfully ( so much in fact i drove home a day early as i was homesick lol)

I did have a wonderful time though. met a lot of people i have "known" for ages for the first time in real life and caught up with some old friends :)

here's some photos from the weekend

Armageddon Cocktail party


Me and Bill Farmer ( voice of Goofy and Pluto :)

Jerri Manthey ( survivor) and me

Me and Owen Black

Me and the girls with Will Hall

After hours of drinking and dancing, just before bed

Me, Jay, Kylie and Chelsea

I also managed to pick up a few pressies for myself at the expo

A gorgeous hand painted t-shirt, some guitar pick earrings, and True blood Season two on DVD. i also got some cool badges which the kids have already lost and a cool glow in the dark Toy Story poster.

LOVE the earrings, wish if gotten some more!

So there you have it! one wonderful weekend over :)