I’m trying very hard to teach myself to crochet. I had some very grand ideas of making some little Easter gifts and while the pattern says “easy” I think this only applies if you know how to read the pattern. If you don’t, like me, you may find yourself at the beginning of a rather steep learning curve. I have accomplished a few things since starting my crocheting yesterday. They are:

1. I can make a slip knot (always a good start)
2. I can do a succession of chain stitches. They may not look awesome, but the basics are there
3. I’m very close to getting the hang of single crochet stitch

This afternoon, money permitting, I’m going to go to Spotlight to get some crocheting supplies – then the fun will really begin!

One of the presents I made this year was a Birthday Book. I thought it would come in handy for my Mum, Aunty and Sister to keep track of the ever-increasing birthdays that we need to remember each year. Of course it could just as easily double as a calendar if you so desired.

I downloaded page templates from Nichole Heady, cut them all out and glued them onto some lovely patterned heavier guage scrapbooking paper. Although not quite cardboard, this stuff was rigid enough to be a good, sturdy page (I’m not sure what the gsm was). I went to Big W looking for a couple of metal curtain loops to thread through all the pages as a fastener and a hook but they didn’t have any. Instead I found a couple of cheap keyrings, took the rings off, and used those. For the other book I just used a patterned bulldog clip.

I made a label for each book, inspired by the lovely work of Amy Moss of eatdrinkchic.com. Amy offers wonderful, free, templates, labels, envelopes and other cool things. I nabbed an image from her and put it on a round label, cut them out and stuck them to the front.

This project involved me cutting 75 pages – it took a while and by the end of it I was very happy for it to be over. But I think they turned out quite nicely.

So as a part of the whole craft extravaganza last weekend I made this simple garland from Nicole’s instructions. I’ve made it relatively long – about 2 metres I’m guessing but I’m not sure where to put it so I have it draped over my inspiration board (which I also decorated) for the time being. You should give the garland a try – very easy and the templates are lovely!

I actually sat down and did some craft on Saturday – for the first time in a long time. I don’t make a lot of time to create – not like I used to anyway. It was good just to sit down and cut and fold and slice and paste. Simple things.

I spent some time making some cute little bows for the Christmas presents I’m making. Have a look at the tutorial here if you’d like to have a go. I made a lot of them that didn’t look quite right but I think the one above looks pretty cool. I used ads out of some old magazines which I think looks pretty cool.

I also tried making some origami stars. I had the brilliant idea of creating a cascading curtain of origami stars that we could hang in our hallway as a nice festive greeting when people come over. Unfortunately they take a little longer than anticipated but this could be because I was using paper that had a bit of weight to it. I might try using some regular weight paper to see if that helps. They are quite small too – probably about 2cm high. Very cute.

These books really make me miss bookbinding. One of the reasons I gave up the hobby was it was so hard to get any supplies here in Perth. We’re so far away from anywhere that it costs a fortune to get anything shipped over – especially pretty book cloth, glues and various tools. But looking at these lovelies has given me a few new ideas about materials I could use to start creating again. You never know, I might break out the old bookbinding tool kit again!

(via Oh Happy Day)

I celebrated my birthday last week (May 21). All I wanted was a thunderstorm, and while we did get a clap or two of thunder it wasn’t the storm that I was hoping for. Unfortunately the rain and wind that did arrive knocked out power at the restaurant where I’d booked a family dinner so I had to scramble to find another place that could cater for a table of 13 with an hour notice. Luckily it seemed that noone really wanted to venture out into the stormy night so I was able to make alternative last minute arrangements and we had a nice dinner and get together.

(As an aside: my niece Bree shares the same birthdate as me so we share the spotlight for the day. This took a little getting used to at first but now it’s nice to have someone else along side of me that is as excited about ripping open presents as I am )

I made my own cake again this year. I like making my own cake because I get exactly what I want – in this case, a double layer, chocolate fudge cake with chocolate icing and whipped cream in the middle. It was very, very yummy.

As is always the case, I was very spoilt in terms of presents but I wanted to show you one of my favourites. This was from Mum and Dad and shows how clever and crafty Mum is. It’s a plum vase (my favourite colour at the moment is plum) and inside are all different kitchen utensils – a spatula, big spoon, whisk etc. Mum wrapped a tea towl around each utensil to make them look like a flower and wrapped them up with pretty ribbon! So clever and pretty. A week later, I still haven’t disassembled my utensil bouquet!

I can’t tell you how much I love the pendants and earrings made by Brisbane-based Girls Made This. I especially love this one because it’s called “Ducks” and it reminds me of my own particularly harrowing experience with the ducks and swans at the Perth Zoo when I was a little tot (although this pendant is anything but harrowing). If I had a spare $73.43 (what an odd price) it would be mine. Le sigh.

As I started to wrap presents I discovered that I didn’t have any gift tags – rather than going out to buy some I went through my scrapbooking supply stash, found some alphabet rub-ons and made my own. I’m wrapping all presents in a deep red paper I got from Ikea and the starkness of the white rub-ons against the red is quite striking. Better than el cheapo gift tags anyway!

This year’s Christmas cards were a pretty low priority on my festive list. I started looking around for ideas in November but kept putting it off until I actually sat down, came up with an idea and made the cards over a few hours last Tuesday (which incidentally was December 16 – cutting it very fine for delivery overseas). I’m hoping that everyone has their cards by now – if not, Surprise! Here is your card!