Friday, May 29, 2009

Grandchild Number 10!

How could I not make a post of our latest grandchild? Bad Nanny!
As you can see Ethan was born April the 19th, the day after his Pa's birthday too.
No 8 grandson for us and we have 2 grand daughters too.
I think these thank you cards are a delight and would bring a smile to any one's face.
Welcome to the world Ethan!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

My Baby Daughters 21st Birthday

My daughter Danielle on the right with her all time best mate Alisha, sure went all out for the theme of the night which was the roaring 20's! Both girls are wearing wigs, many of the girls wore a wig including myself, but I think the men looked fantastic in their 20,s get up, so nice to see so many in lovely suits and a hat to match.
See the fella in the big white hat behind Danielle? Well that is her boyfriend Nathan of 6 years long. He turned 21 last November. They are in the midst of building their first home.

What a shocker! I'm in the centre surrounded by 4 of my 5 daughters.
A handsome shot of Alisha and her great boyfriend Brian.
Nathan with his big brother Aaron.
Oh this is my SIL and BIL, the best couple in the world! Robyn and Mal, I love them to bit's!
My daughter Terrie makes a great pose, in more ways than one, LOL.This is my son in law Luke, father to 2 of my grandchildren, Cooper and Bradyn.

So the party went on and we were all having a great night, finally the cake came out and with it a very special request from Nathan to Danielle.
Nathan has finally asked Danielle to marry him by way of her birthday cake, the engagement ring sat in the centre of the flower.
Oh boy the excitement hit the room then. All I could say to Nathan was, thank you, thank you, thank you!
I'll figure out why I said that sooner or later.
And here is the ring being placed, they are such a cute couple.

It was a great night had by one and all and a lovely venue too, which Danielle and Nathan plan to hold their engagement there as well. Another party and more fun, goody.

Crochet Slipper Socks

The pattern for the slipper socks came from the 2009 Calendar, Crochet Pattern a Day. I am sure it is free on line some where, when I come across the link I will add it to this post. My Rav friend Shilo made a pair first and I liked them. In the new house the carpet is all cream, so my plan is to have people to take their shoes off at the front door and throw on a pair of my hand made slippers to wear inside. So I'll need a few more pairs I think.
I made the variegated green pair first. with this pair I made a mistake with the directions and continued with 2 strands of yarn in the upper ribbed sock part. But they will be nice and warm to wear.

I think I like the variegated purple/pink colour the best. The pattern calls for every second row to be done in the back loop of the st, but the effect did not stand out so well with the first variegated yarn, so I did not use the back loop method at all in this pair, oh I did do it at the section where the sole meets the sides.



They are quite easy to make up when you read the pattern correctly and use a stitch marker on the beginning of each row, I stuffed up 2 sole's by not using a stitch marker, but I did not frog them, I am going to add them onto my free form afghan.

This pattern is from the same author but a little different.

There is a free pattern on line that is similar to this pattern, but not the same.


Packing For The Move

Well it won't be long now before we actually move houses.
Packing can take up so much room, so this is how I have tackled it.


Guess what is under the tarp?
Yep boxes. I found a bed base that I could lay on the brick work out side under the pergola, this acted like a pallet for me, keeping the boxes off the ground. I only put boxed items out side that the dew would not affect. I need all the room I can get inside the house, we still need to live in a liveable environment and this helped save so much space.

Below are actual wardrobe boxes, they come with a steel bar that sits across the inside of the box and you just hang your clothes off the bar. I filled the bottom with shoes.
Now this is a light weight way of packing, believe it or not I have over a 100 of these bags, so why not use them. They are compact and easy to carry. They are great for DVD's and books too.
More carry bags and the filing boxes to the left in the picture, have all of my precious pattern books in them.
I sold my large 8 seater dining suite, with the 4 stools too. This was just planning ahead. As we are down sizing house sizes, I have to down size some of my furniture too. Oh by the way the tropical fish tank was sold too, one less hassle to move. So whilst I do not have a kitchen suite, I am using one of my out door settings in the kitchen. I do not really like the idea of having the out door setting inside, but I am currently shopping on ebay for a replacement kitchen suite.

This is the house we bought and what it first looked like, it's fine if you like the colour.
But that colour was not my cup of tea, so here is a progress shot of the new colour scheme. If you look closely wou will see my grandson Cooper near the step.
And we have a nice double carport.
But this was the sale clincher for us, the beach is just a stone's throw away and when I took Cooper there, he did not want to leave.

I am so hoping to make the most out of my surroundings, beach walks and bush walks too. A place for the family to come for holidays, a place for a good wholesome way of life for hubby and I. Pity I can't cook scones very well, LOL.

Monday, May 18, 2009

My big Boy Computer is Back!

Oh I can blog again, problem is I lost all of the memory I had on my computer. Lucky I save most of my crochet work in picture form when I blog about it here!
So what is next? Well that is another blog, stay tuned!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Still No Computer

Even though my computer is off sick, I can access my daughters lap top. But it's not the same. I like the big key board, the big mouse and all of my programs. It should not be long now before I get my big boy back, healthy, fast and easier to use.

So I'll just watch some more TV, but which programs to watch?

Crocheted Caps/Beanies

My step daughter Bek' has a friend who admired some of the hat's that I had made for Bek' over time. Her friend asked if I would make her some, as she is about to have chemo therapy for her cancer treatment and can't find any thing slightly flattering or unique. There was an offer of money for payment of the hat, which I refused and explained to Bek' that this year is all about assisting people in need and I would be more than happy to make her a small variety of chemo caps to wear. The lady is about 50, and I sure hope that she likes the styles and colours that I made the caps in.


This first cap is made with black acrylic, which I made with a brim with black eye lash yarn and a glittered multi colour edging that turns upwards so as not to itch the scalp.

This cap has a thinner finished edge which also turns up and is finished off with a yarn that looks similar to small locks of curly hair, a very suttle effect. This cap is a variegated blue, in a very soft tensel and acrylic mixture, finished off with cream edging and a small flowerette with a silver button in the centre.
And just plain cream, but with a lovely simple shell pattern, it almost looks like a cloche hat. I used the same pattern for the cap above, but with out the sc edge.

I made them all in a small size and they took me a casual 4 evenings, I did not write a pattern as I just wanted to enjoy making them, but it was a learning tool for me for future patterns to write.

By doing this for leisure and a cause, I do get great pleasure from it and I do feel better about myself knowing that these will give some one a moment in time to forget about their misfortune, what ever that may be.

Thanks for looking.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

My Computer Has Crashed!

My computer has crashed, so it is off to the computer Doctor.
But I'll be back blogging as soon as I can, cheers Cat.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Crochet Piano Key Wrap

Just wrapped this wrap up in time for Mothers Day!
My Mum plays the piano at church every suday and I thought this would be perfect to keep her shoulders warm whilst playing her tunes.
Although my initial idea was for a scarf, the scarf was too wide, so I made it a shoulder wrap instead. I had intensions to make a few of these to raise funds, but it is too time consuming, I need to make smaller items that take less time, which I have and am still making.
My main computer has crashed and it has the graph pattern details with in it's brain.
So I'll have to wait to share this pattern with you.
Below is the beginning of the wrap, it is all made in sc and an 8 ply yarn. I used a graph I altered for the piano keys. To get the same graph on the other side of the wrap, I simply turned the graph up side down and followed it that way.
I made a full length piano scarf way back in 2007 which you can view via this link.
My #5 daughter is my model in these pictures.
Side view.
Side view.

And just a rear view snap. You can see that the wrap folds down into a collar just so neatly.