They're in the mail!

Well, here they are, MIL and my contributions to the Softies for Mirabel 2011 campaign.

The little dolls are courtesy of MIL.

Stripy Ted was handmade by me . This was my first attempt at toy making, I'm pretty happy with the result! His face was really, really hard to get right, so while it's not perfect I'm hoping that the cuddliness of Ted will compensate for his facial features!

Give Handmade

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon crocheting. It's been years since I last attempted a crochet project. I was inspired by this lovely blanket, which luckily for me has an awesome tutorial to get me started.

Courtesy of Meet me at Mike's; Larksfoot Blanket. Isn't it gorg!

There's a special occasion early next year for one of my friends and in the spirit of giving handmade, I thought she would love (and I would love to give) a handmade blanket.

Giving handmade is also going to be my theme for Christmas this year. Last year I went with a giving nothing theme as I was feeling a bit down about the excess of our Western lives when compared to how little others have.  I decided to donate some money to Oxfam and kept the actual presents to an absolute minimum. 

I'm keeping some of that theme this year and I've 'bought' a goat and a duck through Oxfam Unwrapped (goat = 'a gift that's gruff, tough and does heaps of good stuff'). For the other presents I'll be giving, they'll be courtesy of my sewing machine.

Giving handmade is great for a few reasons; I get pleasure from making, the recipient knows that I spent time and love making their present, it's a great way to recycle or reuse and it's less commercial, hopefully it means a bit more.

I encourage you to join me and give handmade this year.  If you're not into making stuff yourself, you can always pick up great handmade gifts at Etsy and Made It.

Softies for Mirabel

Courtesy of Meet Me at Mike's

Some of my creative energy over the last few weeks has been spent trying to finish my contribution to the Softies for Mirabel campaign.  I have a really bad habit of leaving projects until the 11th hour to complete them, and with submissions needing to be sent early next week, it's going to be a push to the finish line.

I've been making a stripy teddy bear and hopefully he'll keep a special little person in good company for the next few years.  He's been made with love and I hope that he brings love to his new owner. 

I've also inspired my MIL to get involved and she's been beavering away knitting a few softies of her own.  Unfortunately MIL is a huge worrier; if there is something to be worried about, she seeks it out and worries on it for days.  On our recent road trip to Bendigo (to see The White Wedding Dress exhibition, which was totally wonderful...) she was talking to me about some of her worrying. I encouraged her to find a way to feel like she had some control over her worries and maybe finding a way to give to someone in need could help with this. As a result, we've both been crafting, making our softies and taking back control by finding a small way to make a difference.

I'll be sure to post a few pics of both hers and mine before they get sent on their merry way next week.

Phew

I've been working on this baby blanket since August, when one of my close friends had her first baby. 3 months later here were are... project finished!

It was a real chore to get through all of the moss stitch which makes up the body of the blanket; easy, but tiresome.  Knitting the lace border was much more interesting and was something that I hadn't attempted before.

I'm absolutely in love with the finished product; it's nearly as sweet as little baby V herself :)  

Family and the Holiday Season

Maybe the most dysfunctional Christmas family story!

This week I read this blog post from Gretchen Rubin of, The Happiness Project.  It provides some simple but really practical and sensible advice on dealing with difficult relatives over the holiday period. 

While she's thinking about Thanksgiving, which is approaching quickly, I thought the advice was pretty spot on for some family tension that often plays out for us over Christmas.

Check out her blog post for yourself, I'm sure that there's something that you can take away for your family this holiday season:
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2011/11/9-tips-for-dealing-with-difficult-relatives-over-the-holidays.html

This year, we're spending the holidays in Adelaide with my family; all 3 of us... husband, M dog and me! Should be an interesting 8 hour toad trip with M dog in tow!

Knit, sew and ramble

Hold the press... I might have to change the name of my blog to Knit, Sew and Ramble, as I can now proudly call myself a sewer!

I've been wanting to continue to develop my love for making and giving and I felt that re-learning how to sew would be a great way to help me achieve this.  I've also set myself a new life goal of ensuring that I always create an atmosphere of growth; to keep learning, developing and growing as a person, both personally and professionally ('creating an atmosphere of growth' is something that really resonated with me from The Happiness Project). The first task that I set myself was to get back into sewing.

This weekend, I took steps one and two in this journey...

Step one looks like this:

My new Janome sewing machine! Yay!

Step two looks like this:




My first project; a small drawstring bag to house my sewing bits and pieces. I also think that I've found project number two here; apparently this is the world's easiest skirt... sounds like a good place to start to me! So now to find some funky fabric to make this super easy (fingers crossed!) skirt.

More updates to come!!