Monday, March 17, 2014

Crochet Mood Blanket - week 11


This week I managed to crochet two squares which complete the third row of my blanket. Or complete at least so far; I'm beginning to think I might have to make the blanket a bit wider but that remains to be seen later during the year.

The first square was inspired by Sarah Wilson's new book I Quit Sugar for Life which I bought and already love although I had only started to look through the recipes at this point. My favorite quote in the book is "You can't unlearn this", meaning once you learn about what sugar (or fructose) does to our bodies and health you will always remember that which makes it easier to choose healthier alternatives.


The second square, yellow and white, is for all the inspiration that has been buzzing in my head this week. I've been inspired by all these beautiful crochet blanket projects, pixel blankets especially. This has lead to me starting yet another blanket although I have several in progress. This week alone I have worked on three different ones!


Above the yarn for my first pixel blanket and below some ideas for the second one. Yarn for the second one is still at the shop, this is just for inspiration and to consider. I'm not giving myself permission to buy before the first blanket is ready!


Friday, March 14, 2014

FMS Photo a day challenge

I've decided to move my #fmsphotoaday photos to Instagram from now on. I don't think they quite fit in this blog and also they flood the page with daily updates. If you would like to follow my daily (most of the time anyway) photos, please look up #strawbsinscarbs on Instagram.

Have a happy weekend everybody!

Monday, March 10, 2014

Crochet Mood Blanket - week 10

Black & white. The week was a bit like that mood wise unfortunately. I also felt like making some pretty purple squares and a pretty & bright flower square. 


Sunday, March 9, 2014

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Photo a day 64/365 - SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH I

Internet. We finally got a proper internet connection and a WIFI modem at home. Bye bye mobile internet!


Crochet Mood Blanket - week 9

This is my crochet mood blanket so far. Despite it being quiet here on the blog I have kept up my crocheting - at least with this blanket!

Week 4: Second row, second from the right - four small squares in Aussie colours for Australia Day.
Week 5: Two big squares - pink & multi-color blue and greens.
Week 6: Four small dark grey squares with crosses in the middle - because we needed to take the little man to the hospital this week to get some fluids into him.
Week 7: Big multi-color square in bright happy colors for visiting a friend and a splash of pink for Valentine's Day. Also the four small beige/brown squares just because I felt like testing that color scheme out!
Week 8: Big square at the start of the third row. Colors inspired by The Block and the twins' hotel room artwork. I would have used light/mid grey on the walls, lots of white and light colored timber furniture (birch) and splashes of green. A pretty scandi palette with the green accent color inspired by new birch leaves.
Week 9: Four mini squares in bright colors - Spotlight had a good special on for 100% wool and I bought  lots of bright colors.


Now I'm working on some black & white squares. Let's see how they turn out - stay tuned! 

Monday, March 3, 2014

Photo a day - FEBRUARY RANDOMS

These are the snaps I took in February when I remembered but didn't have the time to update on the blog.

32/365 - YOU
You as in my family. On the beach one beautiful morning.



34/365 - SOMETHING ORANGE
Beautiful Moomin tea from Finland. I believe this one was the last one...



36/365 - SQUARE
Chocolate squares I made. I adapted the recipe to be a bit more healthy by using whole meal flour and replacing all refined sugar - result not so nice. Decision: this is best made with the original recipe and consumed responsibly!



39/365 - WATER
My favorite water; lemon flavored and sparkling.



41/365 - I AM...
...a toddler owner.



Photo a day - LAST OF JANUARY

As I explained earlier, February has been my holiday month from the Photo a Day Challenge. I also noticed that I had missed a couple of photos from the last days of January. Here they are now!

29/365 - WINDOW
Playing in the backyard with Popeye and bubbles. The window shows in the bubble as a reflection.



30/365 - BEST INVENTION EVER
Picture borrowed from my blog boab dreaming. The best invention ever is to store your leafy and other greens in a wet tea towel in the fridge. Read about my experiments in here!



31/365 - POLKA DOT
Lovely markets on the beach in Scarborough.


The February random pics will be updated a bit later.

Back from the dead...

It's been dead over here lately and I apologise for that. Mainly to myself since I really wanted to keep this blog going and regularly updated. That would give me a sense of accomplishment and assurance that I can keep doing something for a long time. Not just get excited, start and then forget about it.

Reason for this silence is two-fold; firstly our little man was sick for about 2 weeks in February and took all my attention and energy. Secondly my mobile plan can't handle all the traffic it was getting with almost daily updates and I was running out of data constantly. Now Popeye is well again and we are getting a proper broadband in the house, so I can continue posting easily. Yay!

I decided that February can be my holiday month from the Photo a Day Challenge and that I will start again in March. I will post a few random photos for February that were taken but never made it to the blog. The first pics for March will be updated in a bit :) 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Photo a day 28/365 - DINNER

Dinner out with friends and two toddlers. Had a good time and everybody behaved well :)


Photo a day 27/365 - SOMETHING I BOUGHT

A mini bag of gourmet jelly beans. Every tiny little one was a taste explosion, they really lived up to their Gourmet name!


Monday, January 27, 2014

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Photo a day 25/365 - A TASTE OF SUMMER

I scream. Ice cream. 


Photo a day 24/365 - YOUR SPACE

Sadly I can't think of what to take a photo of for this. I don't feel like I have my own space at home or even inside my head for that matter... I will add a photo later if I can think of something. 

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Photo a day 22/365 - NICE!

+35 degrees and a cider. First one in two years! It was beautiful, golden and cold. A taste of summer that brought back many memories. Perfect. 


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Photo a day 21/365 - BLUE

Blue cardboard, glitter glue, stars. My work for today. Sale price tags for our Aussie Day Sale. 


Monday, January 20, 2014

Crochet Mood Blanket - week 3

Here is my progress for last week (on the left). I ended up making four mini squares. Just happy colours that go well with each other inspired by an anticipated visit from a friend. The big colourful square on the right is the first (and maybe last?) square for this week. Energetic multicoloured one for an exciting week with our newly purchased company. 


Playing catch up

Now I should be up to date with the #FMSphotoaday challenge pictures. I have to say that it is quite easy to miss a day or two when you're busy with something else, but luckily it's fairly easy to make up for it. I am being easy on myself and giving me the freedom to use old photos when they suit the theme so that I don't always need to take them on the day. This makes it a more realistic goal which I will hopefully be able to follow through for the whole year. I tell you, I will be so proud of myself if and when I do!!!

Photo a day 20/365 - TO DO LIST

Two done, two pushed forward to tomorrow.


Photo a day 19/365 - BREAKFAST

I have to explain myself... This wasn't the actual breakfast but rather a mid-morning treat. The breakfast was oats with raspberries, mashed banana and natural yoghurt. That is not very photogenic so I opted to feature the chocolate squares instead!

The chocolate squares are home made and the tea is T2 Auyrvedic Passion.


Photo a day 18/365 - HAPPY PLACE

This is my happy place. A nice chair to sit on and surrounded by my projects. A cup of tea is missing but the Tea Cup Notepad Cover can make up for it!


Sunday, January 19, 2014

The weekend production line


Here's a quick look at what I've been doing this weekend. I saw a post about an adorable Tea Cup Notebook Cover in Punk Projects and had to make one for myself. Instead of making the notepad and sewing it into the cover I made one where you can change the pad when needed. I'm loving this cute and fast project and might be making a couple more!

I also finished one WIP, the pouffe. I left it a bit soft and it's perfect for Finn to play on. It's been used as a pillow, slide and trampoline so far - oh and a napkin... The last project is not quite finished yet and needs a bit more quilting but it will be a blanket for Finn. I bought the materials ages ago, hence the girly colors. The little man doesn't mind it though, he loves to look at the pictures, give kisses to the owls and smell the flowers <3 I will try and finish it tonight, so we can play with it tomorrow.


Photo a day 17/365 - TINY

I have fallen a bit behind in this #FMSphotoaday challenge. The reason being a bit of a rush after buying a business and doing some sewing (post to follow). Anyway, to the challenge...

Tiny little flowers in our mint. I realised I've never seen mint flowers before!


Thursday, January 16, 2014

Photo a day 16/365 - SUN

Here it is. Rising in Monkey Mia at the end of March last year. We are booked in to go there again this year. Yay!


Turn on the lights...


I have fallen in love with embroidery, especially embroidering little messages or sayings on pretty fabric. I made this one for a friend who is having a bit of a rough patch in her life at the moment. I thought a nice encouraging message written with bright colors might remind her to soldier on and bring a smile on her face. I "stole" this idea from the wonderful Muita Ihania -blog. It is well worth having a look at, she is a great maker and knitter (she also writes in English at least some of the time)!




The message in English is pretty much:

turn on the lights
wipe your tears
and
keep going

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Photo a day 15/365 - BLACK + WHITE

My trusty Moleskine diary and pen. I had a couple of colorful affairs before returning back to the classic black cover. I use the specially designed Moleskine pen to put some black on white daily.


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Photo a day 14/365 - 3 THINGS

My three projects for the new year that will all last the whole year:

1) A Sentence A Day journal from Kikki K. It has a question for every day of the year and room for answers for three years. I love the idea of this especially when I can compare my answers for different years!

2) Crochet hook for my #crochetmoodblanket2014 challenge. You can read more about it in the little info box on the right hand column. 

3) My mobile = camera for the #FMSphotoaday challenge. I have decided to use my mobile to take pictures for this challenge since I always have it with me. Of course for this photo I needed to borrow my husbands phone for obvious reasons :)


Monday, January 13, 2014

Photo a day 13/365 - MAKES ME SMILE

This cardigan. Santa brought it for me saying he hopes wearing and looking at it will bring a smile to my face every time. I think he might have been right, I have smiled every time I have worn this.

:)


Sunday, January 12, 2014

Photo a day 12/365 - COLOURFUL

Our lunch for today. We went very light since it was the second day of over 40°C here in Perth.


Photo a day 11/365 - LOOKING DOWN

This was a hard theme for me, that's why the post is a day late. I tried to think of something I could photograph on the day but nothing came up that would have suited the description. Therefore this photo was taken about a month ago; I was standing on our balcony looking at this eager little gardener on our front yard.


Crochet Mood Blanket - week 2

This week I made two big squares; one with different shades of calm blues for the night that Finn slept through and the light icy blue for Friday when we bought a fridge shop! The light blue is a fine mohair yarn which I couldn't help using when I remembered I had it in my stash. I thought it went so well with the other blues and the cold fridge theme :) I seriously need to start blocking this start of a blanket though to make it look better.


Saturday, January 11, 2014

Tilda bear



I made this lovely little bear for our niece for her third birthday. I spotted it in Mollie Makes magazine issue 33 and thought it would be perfect. Especially after reading an article about The Art of Giving in the same mag.

"True gifts aren't the easily acquired consumables exchanged back and forth through obligation that we've come to expect. Rather, giving in its purest sense has to embody something of the giver - even a sacrifice - to be considered valuable."

I like this idea and I love to give gifts that I have made myself. Hopefully the little birthday girl loves her new Tilda bear!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Photo a day 10/365 - MANMADE

I don't usually like beer cans but here they have been used to their full potential! I think this is one of the best crafty christmas decorations I have seen so far. Lucky it's close to our house so we can admire it every day during the holiday season.


Please excuse poor photo quality. 
It was taken with a mobile and zoomed in. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Needle book


I have started embroidering a bit more and acquired a few more needles. Therefore I needed a storing solution for all my needles, the pin cushion just wouldn't suffice anymore. I had seen a similar little book for needles somewhere in a blog or magazine and decided to give it a try. 

I'm very happy with how this little book turned out and I think I might have to make one for Popeye as well. That won't have needles inside it though but some nice appliquéd pictures.

Photo a day 8/365 - LUCKY NUMBER

My birthday. His birthday. The day we first met. The day we met for the second time. The street number of the first house we bought together. The day he proposed. Our wedding day... Do I need to continue?


Monday, January 6, 2014

Photo a day 6/365 - HAPPENS EVERY DAY

For the next 3 years at least. I will be writing in this "Sentence a day 3 year diary". It has a question for each day of the year and you are supposed to answer it three years in a row. Will be nice to look back and see what in my life has changed!


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Crochet Mood Blanket - week 1

Here is my progress with the Crochet Mood Blanket 2014. As you can see I got a bit excited and made 10 squares instead of just 1 that is my minimum per week for this project. The last four squares (at the front of the picture) are today's squares. Smoky and fiery colours as this morning we woke up to a thick smoke in the air, thanks to bush fires down south. There is also some testing going on in the squares; I wanted to see how a flower square will look like. I will use these to mark special days and occasions. I'm quite happy with this so far!


Photo a day 5/365 - FOUND

From the side of the road at council pick up. It got some chalkboard spray paint on it and golden highlights. Good enough for a balcony side table. The other one serves as a little helper next to the clothes line. 



Saturday, January 4, 2014

WIP finished - 'Eat your greens' embroidery

This one never even made it to my official WIP list as I decided to tackle it right after the Baby Socks. Reason for that was that I wanted to use it for my Photo a day challenge today as well. 


This is where I started today and below the finished product. All I have to do now is to hang it in the kitchen.