Crafty Mermaid

I went to LA in October to be the celebrant at my brother's wedding (so fun!) but only managed to snap a very few photos.  Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well for much of the trip but managed to have a lovely time hanging out with friends and family who were also in town for the wedding too.  I did manage a few quick trips to Mood, the LA fabric district and Joann's.  And there was a bit of crafting for the wedding too (well, just wrapping up the most generous guest boxes for out of town guests). Don't these look great? I got a few stickers from the Farmer's Market at the Grove, two cotton gauze fabrics (peacock feathers and cartoon animals), skeleton quilting fabric and laminated fox fabric at Michael Levine in the fabric district, knickers elastic from the trim shop I love in the fabric district (not pictured) and mint green silk from Mood (not pictured).  All in all, I don't think it was a crazy haul but as I'm trying to destash - not the

I'm loving the envelop matches with some of these :)

Its been a really long since I posted (again).  Its been a hard year healthwise so I've been really behind the ball on a lot of things.  Thank God for time off over Christmas!  We lived in Melbourne for three months (fun and I miss the bubble tea on our doorstep!), came home and renovated our kitchen (should have been 5-6 weeks and turned into an epic 9) and stressful time in work.  But next year should be very different (for a few reasons!).  My computer didn't enjoy playing with me anymore and I'm finally back on top of a new laptop (iTunes installed as of today!).  So trying to work through my crafting backlog as I really appreciate this space as a location for sharing my makes. A few relatively quick card makes using up some wooden embellishments.  I like how these turned out in the end. I even repurposed one for Christmas :) The paper was leftovers from some homemade envelope makes.  I'm going to try to run down my stored supplies a lot

So cute, eh?  Here's my lovely niece in a handmade crochet cardigan.  Much, much cuteness! I made up the cardigan in Melbourne and it was a seriously laborious business.  I ended up having to frog it multiple times.  But I got there in the end! The first version was very ribbed (as the pattern calls for using the front half of the stitches).  I wasn't pleased about how it was looking so redid it again from scratch. I do like the colour combo. The pattern has a really nice finish.  I really like the edging. I managed to find a nice button for the front too. Pattern details:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nias-babyset   Yarn and hook: Morris & Sons Avalon 4 ply 100% pima cotton in Amethyst and Sapphire on a 3.0mm hook

I've been clearing out my stashes since I got back from Melbourne. Its a little embarrassing quite how much stuff I seem to have accumulated.  These globe glass beads were a purchase from 2013 .  Given how simple I'd planned on making the earrings, the amount of time I took to make them up was excessive!  Though I love them a LOT!

So I've been back from Australia for over a month (coming up on two) and once again I have far too many makes to blog my way through. Ah well, why break a habit... I made a baby cardigan using some delicious cotton from Morris and Sons in Melbourne - my first crochet garment.   I made up a few fun dishcloths using the remainder of the yarn. The pattern was: http://www.tangledyarns.ca/crochet/2009/6/11/free-crochet-pattern-nubby-dishcloth.html