draw me september

On a blog hop the other day, I came across a post by bbeingcool, with a challenge to post a drawing a day during September. She’s even provided prompts and all. And, well, you know how Car and I are when it comes to challenges of the creative variety. So it is on like donkey kong. Aided by the gorgeous sketch book gifted to me by Kirsty, I’m hoping to knock out thirty little sketches over the next month. I plan to post mine here once a week, and maybe on twitter too, not sure yet.

Which reminded me that I haven’t yet blogged the LAST drawing challenge Car and I did! One of the very first Car v LWD challenges was to draw a face. You can find Car’s face here. Mine still isn’t completely finished, but for someone with zero artistic ability, I’m pretty happy with the current progress. The ears were being tricky, until I got Boy2 to sit next to me and I could work on the line work by sight.

 

Today is one of the busiest of our week, so aside from yelling at my sewing machine to work, and likely failing miserably, I’m thinking there won’t be much crafting. The one thing I do want to get done is a sketch for the mixed media challenge we are currently working on. Tonight is takeaway and movie night, so I might even manage to ripple a bit while snuggling with the small people under a quilt. What a blissful way to kick off a weekend full of awesome.

visual dare #20 :: cascade

She stared at the falling water, the sounds of people rushing through the streets behind her slowly fading as she became lost in her thoughts. The fatigue slipped away, and she felt happier than she had in weeks. It’s a season, it will pass, she told herself. A hand gently laid on her elbow broke the thoughts, and she lifted her gaze from the water,and turned. Her husband smiled at her, and pressed his finger to his lips as she peeked around the carrier holding their sleeping daughter. Sleep and energy would come. For now, she had them both to keep her afloat.

~~~

Linking up with Angela at Anonymous Legacy for this weeks visual dare. Total word count – 102.

let’s go for a walk.

Since he was tiny, Bear’s constant companion has been his Pooh Bear. Sadly, Pooh Bear mk I disappeared, but Pooh Bear mk II is just as dearly loved. Throughout the last few years, many of our craft projects have revolved around making things for Pooh Bear. The one thing we haven’t yet mastered, is a pram for Pooh Bear. Last week, Bear had a day at home with us, and in the afternoon, he felt like doing some craft. Out came the multiple boxes and glues and cutters, and with the add of some Rolobox wheels and Makedo joiners, we created something that came the closest yet to a proper working pram.

Admittedly, it did need multiple running repairs, but Pooh Bear fit comfortably in it, the seat tipped back so he could lay down for a nap if he got sleepy, and the basket was big enough to be filled with random crap special collected items. And please tell me I’m not the only mama who judges a projects success based on how much the small people bicker over it? Based on that metric, I’m claim HUGE success, with Bear and Butterfly arguing over who’s turn it was, and Boy2 having a tantrum because Cookie Monster wants his own pram. Winning. I think?

 

{since this is the heights of creating around here, I’m linking up today for my creative spaces}

a bit.

Over on Facebook, the And Sew We Craft crew asked, what have we been crafting? I was kind of glum to admit, not much really. I’ve been away from home for two weekends in a row, so I’m madly playing catch up at home, which means less crafting, and thus blogging. But when I thought about it, it’s less of “not much really”, and more of “bits when I can”.

 

A bit of embroidery while watching tv:

 

or some crochet. I actually had to frog a couple of rows due to minor errors that probably could have been fixed, but it was only two rows.
I do LOVE how it looks with the green added in though!

 

And very high on my priority is getting 240 orange strips sewn together! Tonight’s project, I swear!

 

Some fabric delivered ready to make a skirt. A cake that was actually a bit of a flop. Crafting with the small people. Planning a mixed media challenge with Car. A wordsprint here and there to build on the L&P story. Big projects will come with time. For now, this season in my life means my crafting is “just a little bit”. But that little bit is enough. And enough is good enough.

not your nana’s doilies

So a while back, I posted about my adventures in doily making. Despite my husband think I was ready for the nursing home, I had a grand plan in mind. You see, Butterfly has two big brothers. All three children have their birthdays within 3 weeks of each other. So I have this massive stash of boys clothes in the right size, but wrong gender. A few bits and pieces are neutral enough though, like jeans. But after two active little boys learning to crawl in them, the knees were pretty dodgy. Cue the inspiration wave – darning with doilies. Mended pants, and girling them up at the same time? Perfect!

 

(I do have another mini doily to add to the other side, just haven’t gotten that far yet!) I also thought the back could do with some tizziness, so I added some little pocket embroidery.

 

I was quite pleased with the end result!

 

Monday has rolled around, and with the second weekend away in a row under my belt, today is all about catching up. Butterfly is snoozing in a loungeroom cubby house, so I’m going to race around and hopefully even squeeze in a spot of sewing!

Sunday Snippets :: Frequent Flyer edition.

Ok, so I was driving, not flying. But I am just home from another weekend away, just in time to share my Sunday Snippets with tinniegirl.

Bloggers Boogie :: the school reunion edition.

This weekend, I’m having a girl’s weekend at the coast with my girlfriends from school, and so I thought it’d be kind of appropriate to boogie to our year 12 theme songs this week! What songs remind you of the end of school?

HOW IT WORKS: Blog up to five songs between Saturday lunchtime and Sunday lunchtime in your local timezone. Any theme. Any reason. Doesn’t matter. You decide.

Or if you have done a music post during the week, that’s ok too, join the party as well!

Come back and leave a comment to join the fun, or give this linky a try:

Not a blogger? Just join in in the comments – link to the video, and even just list your five!

I will also be popping up some random clips over on the Facebook page if you are a Facebooky type and looking for some fun.

IT WOULD BE NICE (BUT NOT ESSENTIAL) IF:

You hopped around and commented on some other boogiers blogs.

You linked me in your post (or heck, even grabbed the button). Even to the front page is fine if you are wanting to schedule your post in advance.

The button, if you are button-type blogger:

<div align="center"><a href="http://thedovenest.wordpress.com/category/music/" title="Little White Dove"><img src="http://thedovenest.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/button-boogie1.jpg" alt="Little White Dove" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Vitamin C – released the year we were in year 12, so of course it was the theme song for the year!

We also had a couple of “finishing school anthems” at our formal:

An unofficial anthem, one that got played at almost every gathering during year 12.

 

And not quite a year 12 anthem, but every time I hear this, it reminds me of doing our deb in year 11:

 

What songs remind you of highschool?

oh my orange…

 

A quick little progress post, to show that I have been busy creating, and my life hasn’t been taken over by writing and blogging and gallivanting! Boy2 requested an orange quilt – reckon I’ll meet the brief? I’ve spent the morning laying out these 240 6.5″x2″ strips ready for his quilt, now just to sew them all together! I’m hoping the sewing is quicker than the cutting and the laying out. Maybe a spot of lunch is in order first, give me strength for a sewing marathon before naps and quiet-time-in-the-cubby are at an end. I’m hoping to squeeze in some writing time as well, but that will likely be tonight, now I’m on a roll I want to get going, so today is looking like maybe a double post kind of day! Thursday means one day until the weekend, can I be ready to baste by then? Not if I stay sitting at the computer! The minutes are ticking away, time to go get my quilt on!

exploring.

Acrylics and I have a love-hate relationship. I’d love to be able to use them, but I hate that I can’t make them do what I want. I’ve decided once again to tackling, and let go of any preconceived notions of the finished result, and just play and explore. During my play, I was working toward a piece inspired by a photo of mine, and I loved where my play led me.

 

But then I looked at it too long, and I’ve decided while I love it as a starting point, I don’t love it as a finished piece. But I’m too nervous to move on, in fear of wrecking the bit that I’m happy with. Which is really the whole point of this post, to record the bit I like, in case the next stage stuffs it up. But even as I dreaded taking the next step, wonder *what* that next step should be, I started planning this post, and an inspiration burst hit me. I have a plan, and I think it will be awesome. Or not. But I’m playing and creating and exploring. And that, my friends, it the whole. darn. point.

Speaking of me and acrylics, I’ve raided the craft box, and am starting the sketches on not one but FOUR little paintings, that I think I’ll break out the acrylics for. Though the fourth doesn’t really match the theme of the series, so I might put that aside and do a little oil painting. The sun has been shining, and the small people wanted to splash in some water, so I took the chance to sit in the sun with them and do the sketching I wanted to, and even a bit of rippling. We’ve made a cubby house and hung a bit in there, as a distraction from the fact I promised we’d bake patty cakes and then had no flour. Which means grocery shopping is on our afternoon to-do list as well. Joy. Wednesday’s nearly done, close enough to two days to the weekend. Time to bust a move so we can kick back and enjoy it.

the CampK wrap-up

What a weekend! I left home in the semi-dark on Friday, and made the 220km trek to the regional airport in good time. I checked in my bag, hit up the kiosk for a cuppa and Facebooked my quilty girls who were also waiting in various airports. Coffee gone, I headed through security, and was somewhat concerned that 20 minutes from boarding, the runway looked a little, uh, you know, empty.

Then came the announcement. The incoming plane was delayed, and would arrive around the time we were supposed to be taking off. Great. Could have done with less information, though, like the fact the delay was due to technical difficulties. Which made for interesting Facebook conversations…

Dear announcer. Please blame the plane’s delay on the weather. It kinda freaks me out that it’s delayed for “technical issues”. Thanks. Now Nervous Flyer. (PS, husband, might wanna check my life insurance…)

So Car starts laughing at me, my husband checks my life insurance AND recruits Bear’s godfather as his wingman post-plane-of-doom-taking-his-wife. Then, karma did what she did best, and Car was CANCELLED. The incoming plane lands, we switch over, and I very nervously board. Thankfully, the Plane of Doom arrives safely in Sydney, the Melbournites and Baby of Cuteness are awaiting, and we jump in K’s car and Camp K is officially ON LIKE DONKEY KONG. Bee and Car rock in late, and it was time to get our craft on.

There was crafting, a trip to Calico & Ivy, a waterfront lunch and stop in at Material Obsession, back for more crafting, late nights, wine, laughing, dancing, singing, sleep ins, laughing, and then it was Sunday and back to the airport for the home  bound flight. Aboslutely brilliant weekend. Despite the multitude of crap supplies I took, I didn’t manage to complete half of what I’d planned. I did get well into my ripple though:

And also a bit of embroidery:

There may have been a slight craft-ban-breach… but it’s for the girl’s quilt, so I can’t get into TOO much trouble…

Plus, I also got a little swap parcel:

And I also plotted another big quilty project. What Dear Jane?

All in all, an absolutely brilliant weekend was had by all! Now, the countdown until November quilt camp is on.