granny stool.

A little stool.
A brown leather, slightly wobbly, discarded, foot stool.
Sitting hiding underneath the table at the back of the junk shop.

I visited that stool about five times over the course of the week.
It wasn't the price that made me wonder, it was the clutter.
Was it fair to introduce more stuff to our house when we were trying to have less?
Was a foot stool a necessity, or a comfort, or an excuse for more crochet?

But I was in love.
There was no denying it.
And the little foot stool came home with me.

And I pulled out my basket of colours and crocheted.

I crocheted one big granny square for the front, a granny without the increase for the sides and a granny with a decrease for the bottom.

And my farmer boy got some tools from the shed and steadied the legs.

And I watched the space change when I introduced the newly grannied foot stool.
It somehow makes everything look cozy.
Not at all like more clutter.
And my heart is happy when I watch my farmer boy sit back and put his feet up.
The little foot stool and us, we were meant to be.

I'm on the hunt for another little stool now.
I need to put my feet up too, you know?
You know.

Have a happy weekend you guys. xx

So random.

I'm granny stripping.

I'm aiming to use up a lot of the odds and ends of balls of yarn that I've got rolling about here.

I'm making it queen sized to cover the foot of our bed in the winter-time, to warm our footsies. That means it's 441 stitches long which makes it sloooooooooooow going. I'm not certain how wide it'll be just yet. I think I'll know when I get there.

And I'm trying to choose the colours randomly. Not shut my eyes and grab one random, but more like pick each colour when I have finished the last. No long term plan.

I'm not so good at the old random. I prefer to have an order mapped out before hand. I feel more comfortable when I know where I'm going, what it'll look like in the end.

So this is a challenge for me.

Late last night after I finally popped the hook down and lay in bed I decided to rip it all out and start again in the morning. To hook a blanket that graduates in colour and shade through the spectrum. I know that would look good and it would be safe.

But this morning I changed my mind. I am going to keep going with the random. It's challenging me but so far I like the results and I am hoping that when there are lots of stripes, that the colours will blend a bit and the order wont be so important.

I think I can do it.

How about you? Do you do random? Or do you like a plan? Can you paper bag piece your quit layout ie. take the cut pieces of your quilt out of a paper bag and lay them as they come? (is that right Jules?) Can you randomly choose colours as you go? Do you have the end in sight or do you just make it up as you go along?

Whatever the weather, I hope you and yours have the most marvellous weekend.

Love Kate xx

Yellow.

I am obsessing over the colour yellow at the moment.

It's so strange. Usually I am a bluey, greeny, grey-y kinda girl. Usually I barely notice the warmer side of the spectrum. Usually yellow is just that bit too close to awful orange and has me averting my eyes.

But at the moment I love yellow.

Give me lemon, gold, blond, daffodil, mustard, canary, straw or honey.

I think I must be sunshine deficient or something.

Whatever the weather, I am desperately trying to convince my farmer boy we need a yellow wall somewhere in the house and maybe, just maybe a yellow quilt or cushion.

How about you?
Are you loving the lemon?
Or are you hovering somewhere else on the colour wheel?

Bye! xx

So far.

Oh crochet, I had forgotten how therapeutic you are. I had forgotten that meditative feeling of letting your fingers do what they know so well; yarn over, through the loop, draw up a loop, pull back through, over and over and over and over.

I agonised for ages about colour orders and combinations but decided in the end to go with something watery, it makes sense after all. Maybe I'll keep with the blues and greens or maybe I'll turn it into a bit of a rainbow, I'm not sure yet.

So this is my Queensland flood relief auction cushion so far. Michelle's pattern is so beautifully written and designed and is such a pleasure to follow. Thank you so much again Michelle.

My auction will be starting next Monday but if you are eager for some crafty fundraising action now, you can visit Jodie's softie raffle, Cath's brooch and cushion raffle, Nic's fabric giveaway, Georgie's Sorello and Fratello donations, Tas's handbag raffle, Tracy's quilt auction, Jenni's doll face cushion auction, Wendy's wrap dress auction, Becky's red cardi auction, Jennie's crafty goodness raffle, Lizzie's quilt pack auction, Fat Quarterly's subscription raffle, Sophie's brooch sales, Sarah's wall hanging auction, Alexandra's fabric auction, Michelle's Molly doll auction, Off The Peg's red dress auction, Brydie's t'shirt and dress auction...

Holey moley, I know there are so many more. Let me know if you're having yourself a bit of a fundraiser and would like me to add you to the list.

Stay safe. XX

Preparing & parenting.

Its our boy's birthday tomorrow so today we are busy, busy, busy.

We are drawing and colouring in and knitting and wrapping and knotting and baking and freezing and planning and giggling.

Oh how we love our boy.

Yesterday Miss Wendy emailed me to suggest that my kids might be so demanding at the moment because they sense that I'd rather be somewhere else (ie at my sewing machine). So today I have closed the door to my sewing room and they have my undivided attention. I haven't said 'hang on a sec' or 'not right now' or 'can't you see I'm in the middle of something' or 'careful the iron is on'. I have been available and present. I have listened to their stories and answered their questions. I have made lots of snacks. I have included them in everything I am doing and I have cuddled them and let them sit on top of me until they were begging for space.

I love that Indi has drawn me in my Hunter boots.

So far, so good. Everyone is calm and happy and cooperative. I wonder how long it'll last. I wonder how long I can last.

Its fascinating that one tiny change of thought can make such a huge difference.

So how about you? Have you got any parenting pearls of wisdom for me? Are your kids sitting on top of you as we speak? How long do you think you could focus solely on them before you went bonkers and had to make a mad dash for your own space? Do you remember trying to tell your distracted Mum an important story when you were little? How do your nieces and nephews cope when you tell them you don't want to jump on the trampoline, you just want to talk to their Mum?

have fun out there. XX

Painting wool.

See this gorgeous ball of red wool?

Well not so long ago it was one of two boring, forgotten, natural coloured balls of wool, in a basket in an op shop.

But not for very much longer.

The very same day that those two balls of boring wool came home with us, they went straight into a bath of lukewarm water and vinegar and were prepared to become gorgeous.

The following day we followed Suse's wonderful tutorial and used food colouring to paint and decorate the forgotten wool.

Suse's tutorial is brilliant and fun and easy and so kid friendly and I highly recommend it. My kids loved painting the wool and watching the effects the different colours made. I loved including them in my wool obsession too.

The best part of all was how safe I felt letting them go for it, knowing there were no nasty chemicals involved.

We ended up with two 50 gram balls, the red above, and the seaweed below.

Aren't they gorgeous!

We will definitely be painting more wool very soon, only next time I think we'll paint bigger amounts as I have no idea what to do with these small little balls. Maybe they'll just sit on the windowsill and be admired.

I hope you have a happy Saturday.

We're off to Bendigo to pick up something very exciting for our family.

My creative space.

In my creative space this week I have been crocheting colourful trims.

I'm loving the long rows of repetitive stitches and how meditative this sort of crochet is in the hectic world I've been living in lately.

I started off creating them for the sole purpose of decorating and adding detail to the dresses I have been sewing lately. But as my fingers have been creating the stitches, I have been dreaming up all sorts of different and exciting uses.

I could wrap presents with them, add details to cushions, stitch them to booties or bibs, tie them as hair ribbons, sew them on the cuffs of cardigans and pants and in the layers of a ruffled skirt. Indi thinks the purple would look good as a spider web in a Halloween costume.

To be honest, part of me doesn't even care if they get used in a project or not, I have just been enjoying making them so much.

To check out the other creative spaces or to play along, click on over to Kirsty's.

We're Home.

Just in case you noticed that something was a bit different in the photos in my last few posts, you were right. The light was brighter, the grass was greener, there were pebbles, bare feet and lots of craft in the afternoons.

We've been on holidays right up North.

I guess I'm just an old fashioned gal who doesn't like to publish her empty house on the internet.

That's where we were. Somewhere near the corner of Sand and Tide streets.

I took a gazillion photos but will contain myself and post a couple a day for the next few days.

So now we are back and it's springtime.

My Creative Space.

My creative space this week is all about the bowls.

I love making these bowls.

I start each one with no idea how it will turn out in the end.

How many rounds I will crochet for the circumference of the base.

How many colours I will use.

If I will add a pattern or keep to the single crochet.

They sort of speak to me as I go.

The shell bowl.

The pointy bits bowl.

The bobble bowl.

The bowl Bren asked me to make with a lid.

None of the bowls have had their tails woven in yet but they have already been used as hats, as stacking blocks, and to store little bits and pieces in.

For more creative spaces check out the Kootoyoo blog.

Drawings & Chips.

Most of the time my 3 girls get along really well. Actually, most of the time any 2 of them play well while the third is happy to do her own thing.

Sometimes though, at the end of a cold and wet weekend when they have been stuck inside for too long the age gap begins to show. They all want my attention. But there's not many activities that we can all do together that will satisfy the needs of an 8, a 5 and an almost 2 year old.

It is for times like these that we have The Big Book.

The Big Book is for drawing all together with no judgement and no competition. It is ok to colour in someone else's work and to turn something into something else.

At first there is always a bit of 'do you like what I'm doing?' and 'she scribbled over my best one' but it doesn't take long before we all start working towards the bigger picture together.

2 of my girls are at school now and barely a week passes without a complaint and a comparison between their school lunches and their classmates'. While we will never be able to compete with the zillions of dollars of market research and packaging that goes into making mini packets of chips so exciting and appealing, we do have a couple of tricks up our sleeves.

Hopefully you will forgive me the awful photos once you make these for your gang.

Get yourself a packet of Mountain Bread. It is that flat, thin papery bread most commonly used in wraps.

Paint it with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, cut into squares, lay on a baking tray and pop into a moderate oven for up to 4 minutes.

For a variation sometimes we crush a clove or two of garlic into the oil.

Wait to cool and enjoy.

Pop them into an air tight container and they will probably last a couple of days, but they never really go past the next day's school lunch here.