A morning of sewing...

Today in stead of my usual Saturday morning ritual of hanging around the house, cleaning, relaxing or shopping, I signed up for a sewing class at Jellywares!

Jodie had asked me last week if I wanted to learn how to make one of her famous "Shirred Summer Dresses" and I jumped at the chance!

Once I got into the shop and we'd discussed fabric options I went with a light blue cotton fabric and decided to make a shirred top in stead.

So we got sewing, with my pattern instructions in hand and Jodie helping along the way, I came up with this cute number that I just LOVE!

(Please excuse the roughly made bed in the background!!!!)

We added a small amount of white lace "ric-rac" looking material to the bottom for a little something extra!

I've still got enough fabric to make some straps if I feel like it, but I'm kinda thinking that I'm loving this shirt just the way it is... strapless!

I had so much trouble trying to take a picture of myself in this shirt, so my photo's mighten do the shirt justice but you hopefully get the gist!! lol

My next sewing project is going to be a little tester for myself. I recently purchased some GORGEOUS small samples of Yardage Design's fabrics and for a while now I have been keen to attempt to make some "yo-yo's" on my own. I'm hoping that they'll look super sweet attached to some bobby-pins as hair clips or as brooches or even attached to a crochet beanie project!

These should keep me busy tomorrow and are suppose to be relatively easy, so we'll see!!

Mmmm someone in our neighbourhood is cooking something super yummy and the smell is wafting in to my house!! I'm jealous, yummo!! hehe Not to worry, I'm off to get ready for my sister's farewell dinner out on the town tonight!

Whats on the menu at your place tonight??

Ellie

x

My creative space

This week in "My creative space" I'm working on another order from a friend and work colleague for a baby flower beanie for her God daughter.

I decided to use The Dainty Daisy's shell stitch pattern again because it is just too cute all worked up and would be perfect for this little baby girl!

I'm using Malabrigo worsted yarn again in a yummy apricot colour. This yarn is sooooo nice to work with and these beanies hardly make a dent in one skein!! (Gotta love that!)

I'm just putting the finishing touches on the beanie and then I'm going to make a start on the BIG flower I plan on adding to the side of the beanie. I can't wait to see it all finished, its so cute already!! (No clucky jokes please hehe!)

Even though my friend told me that this little girl is a newborn I've opted for making the next size up (3months - 6 months) at the hope that the baby will get more wear out of it.

My pictures aren't great but I'll definitely upload some more once its all done!

I'm also still plodding along on my Lady Kina cardi... its working up nicely and will update again soon!

Ellie x

Ooooh I'm loving....

Do you scroll through the pages and pages of the amazingly inspiring patterns on Ravelry and dream about sitting at home in a comfy spot knitting or crocheting all of your loves?

I DO!! I'm guilty of this on many occasions and today is no exception!

There seems to be so many awesome patterns popping up all over the place and it makes me want to buy yarn and hooks and needles and bury myself in craftiness! LOL

One pattern really caught my eye today, and I am loving it to bits! Sadly I think it may be a little too difficult for my "beginner-ish" knitting skills, but I'm still going to dream of making this pattern anyway!

The Cowboy Cowl by Pam Powers

Oh I love!

I think its so cute and perfect for winter. I love cowls and I can see myself wearing this pretty in the coming cooler months.... Ah a girl can dream!

What pretty patterns or projects are you dreaming about??

Ellie x

Oh, P.s If you haven't heard of Ravelry yet... (I'm pretty sure most of you would have!) definitely check it out! Its a whole database of knitting and crochet patterns for crafters EVERYWHERE!

:o)

My creative space

This week in My creative space I am casting on and knitting my Lady Kina cardigan.

I'm loving this pattern and can't wait to be able to wear this cardi for this coming winter!

I'm using some gorgeous Cascades Heathers yarn in a to-die-for blue. I love this blue and think its sooo pretty! I'm really loving blues at the moment!

Here's a piccie of what it should look like once I'm done...

Hopefully this blue beauty will fly off the needles. More to come soon!

Ellie x

A penny for your thoughts...

Lately I have been thinking (once again!!!) about an online store. I mentioned a while back that I was looking into starting a Made It store online and I'm getting very keen to give it a go now! I'm very inspired at the moment and want to try my hand at it. Can't hurt can it??!

I've made a few crafty things here and there over the last few months, some I have kept and others I have given away but I'm wondering whether I should be making a whole swag of things predominantly for the store OR would it be okay to just show pictures of items that I have made and then when someone wants to purchase, I can custom make each item to their likings??

What do you think?

Would you prefer to be able to see something online and love it, click and buy... OR would you rather see something that you like and like the idea of being able to change the colours or buttons or bits about it?

I'm thinking either way may work and maybe I can do a bit of both in the store (have some things made and ready to go and others can be custom made to order)

Hmmmm... any thoughts would be lovely!

Ellie x

On the menu...

Tonight I tried out a new recipe by one of my favourite cooks and authors, Donna Hay! Oh Donna Hay does soooo many amazing recipes, she is a goddess in the kitchen and tonight I attempted to follow one of her yummy recipes to see if I could be the "goddess" of the kitchen for a night!

I love risotto and it was one of the first dishes that Roger and I ever made together. The last time I attempted risotto on my own it turned out a little less than great! I hadn't followed the instructions properly and managed to not put enough liquid in with the rice that the it ended up turning out a lot harder than "al dente"!

Not tonight though! I followed the recipe correctly (I even added a little extra to make the servings larger and it still turned out great!)

Mmmm. This was a winner! It was super quick (only 40 mins in the oven - long enough to have a shower, a glass of red and relax for a bit!) and tasted quite nice. The bacon flavour came through the dish the most, I probably could have added a tad more pepper but this is minor in the grand scheme of things I reckon!!

I would definitely recommend giving this one a try. I found it online on Donna's website.

Bon' Appetit!

Ellie x

The Little Red Beanie

In my last post I mentioned that a good friend of mine had asked me to make her a cute little beanie for a friend's two year old daughter. Well I finished it and here it is....

The Little Red Beanie, made using this pattern. Oh so cute!!

The Malabrigo was absolutely BEAUTIFUL to work with just as I had heard and I hardly made a dent in the ball with this super quick pattern! It feels sooo soft and squishy, I can't wait to give it to my friend to give to the little girl that will be calling this beanie hers!

The beanie flower was made using some left over Alpaca wool from my stash. It Its fluffy and whispy and adds nice texture to the look of the beanie. I decided to add a rustic-y wooden button as well to finish it off. I'm loving this beanie.

The pattern was so simple to follow and comes in sizes for a new born all the way through to a 10 year old child - gotta love that!!

I hope you love it D, and I hope your little friend loves it even more! This was such fun to make expecially knowing that its going to be a gift for somebody!

What have you all been up to this weekend??

Yummy Yarn

This week I am feeling very chuffed! One of my best friends has asked me to make her friend's daughter a beanie for her birthday. This is my first "official" order to make one of my crochet beanies for someone and I feel so happy that I've been asked to craft something special for a friend!

So I got asking... "What size beanie... what colours... pinks, purples, girly??" because I'm so excited to start this little project and get back to my "crochet roots" so to speak. I love to crochet and it was the craft that lead me to be so in love with handmade goodness and also lead me to blogging about all things handmade!

So my friend D informed me that the little Miss that the pressie will be for is 2 years old and our colour scheme is to be red and cream. I'm excited to use these colours because for a little girl its a little different than your standard pinks and purples (even though I'm such a girl and LOVE these colours too!! hehe)

So when I raced down to my local yarn shop Jellywares to load up on the yarn I need to get this baby started I found that Jode had finally received her order from Malabrigo yarns Uruguay and I was really excited! Its always nice to try out a new yarn especially one that is suppose to be really really nice to work with. So I though, yep, I better be getting myself some Malabrigo yarn for my first order project!

This yarn is YUMMY! Soft and squishy and comes in so many pretty colours (hand dyed colours to be exact!)! The red is beautiful and perfect for what I need.

Now all I need to do is get this project started and luckily it happens to be Friday and the weekend seems like the perfect time to get this beanie hat started!

What have you got planned for the weekend??

Ellie x

A new knit...

So as promised, I managed to find some down time here and there between the study and get the very pretty "Leaf" scarf pattern started! I am so in love with this pattern already!!

Susan B. Anderson, you are a genious!

This pattern is so easy to follow and quite quick so that I'm not losing interest and I get to see the pretty leaf pattern form before my eyes!

I'm whipping this little beauty up in a Nundle 20ply, caramel coloured yarn that is so yummy to work with. Since we've had a cooler change in the weather over the weekend I am definitely feeling comfy knitting up this winter project!

The great thing with this pattern is that you can make the scarf as long or as short as you like, you've just gotta continue the leaf pattern over and over as many times as needed.

I can't wait to watch the scarf grow - more pics to come once it's finished!

What are you working on at the moment?

Ellie x

Red dirt, Black mud, Deep water!

Yesterday I got to get out of the office (yay!) and head out "bush" to our property on the Darling River. Well, we got to part of our property on the River. You see, our property has been flooding over the last couple of weeks and is now cut off!

We had strategically parked cars and motorbikes in areas around the property so that our Managers would be able to still take a boat ride to the car or motorbike and continue driving to parts of the property that can't be reached otherwise.

One of our cars that was parked on the town access road was cut off this week when we had another 2 inches of rain on Thursday night and a small creek (that connects to a large creek) filled with LOTS of water. My Dad, our friend Reg and I headed out to farm to try and get the ute moved from beside the creek and take it back to town. But this plan didn't quite work for us!

The small creek that had filled with water was a lot larger than we had expected and the ute was a lot more bogged than we anticipated!

So I took off my boots and we walked through the flooded creek to get to the ute to try our best to dig and push and get the ute out. But she wouldn't budge!

We tried our darnedest but the mud was like thick sticky clay that I even got bogged in a couple of times! It was humid and hot but I had a ball even though our ute is still stuck in the mud! We're hoping that it doesn't rain before Sunday when we'll try again to get the ute before the creek floods completely and sinks it even further!

It might not look too bogged in these pics but believe me, this ute was going nowhere!

So the big day out at Budda was slightly unsuccessful but even though we couldn't do what we needed to do I was so happy to be able to see our farm in flood! It doesn't happen every day around here and after all of this water goes it might not happen for another 10 years, who knows?!

Our land is looking green and fertile and hopefully after all of this rain our cows will look healthy and fat! What a season we've had so far!

Ellie x

All things chunky!!

Lately I have been very busy and slack on the Blogging front and I must apologise for this!! My life has been very hectic with uni and work stuff going on that I just haven't had the opportunities to sit down and Blog about creative goodness or even do anything creative for that matter!! How sad! :o(

So... on my mind at the moment I've been thinking of all things winter-y. Sounds silly I know! Especially since the weather around here has been sooo far from chilly or winter-y its not even funny!

I can't help it though! I've been scrolling through the pages and pages of Ravelry patterns and have been finding some very cute and fun looking patterns that would be perfect for winter. I have also fallen in love with CHUNKY yarn all over again!

I used some Nundle 20ply chunky yarn for my first ever crochet project and last week (when I felt like I had some more time on my hands) I whipped up a gorgeous chunky winter cowl out of some Cascades 20 Ply Magnum. Yummo! I love it! You can get the pattern from Jodie for FREE when you purchase a skein of chunky yarn in Jellywares on Marshall (here in my hometown). I will post pics as soon as I've taken some!

I fell in love with chunky yarn so much that I needed some more of it, and my online shopping junky urges kicked in and I attacked the Nundle Wool Mill online shop and purchased 2 more skeins of the Nundle 20ply!

I love this yarn and after purchasing my first skein from Jodie, I have been hooked! I have some big plans for these two skeins (... if only I could find some time!! lol)

I've been lusting over these cute patterns in particular...

"Leaf" scarf by Susan B Anderson

"Drifted Purls" scarf by Jennifer Lang

I'm thinking I could definitely make the Leaf pattern with the caramel coloured chunky I just purchased! How exciting, I hope to get this little beauty started soon!

Also... (I'm nearly done talking your ear off! hehe) you've probably noticed that I've been making a few fiddly changes to my blog set up as late. I LOVE blogging and really enjoy feedback so if you're not digging the new "simplified" version of You, Me and Miss E please feel free to let me know! I'm thinking simpler is looking good and I have now managed to widen my post sections so I can fit more in along the page! Yay!

Let me know what you think! What have you been up to lately?