the week past.

in this last week...



i've stitched some frames after signing up for this stitch-a-long.



i've started working on the edge.



i've lunched.


oh, and i've taken a ridiculous number of photos of my cat.

normal week really...

what have you been up to this past week?

woollies for tassie.

the lovely folks behind the craft hive have organised a drive for some wooly squares, to be joined up into blankies and gifted to tassie peeps in need after the recent bushfires.
i decided to contribute, joining up the baby squares i found op-shopping wayyyy back here to make up 8" squares.



i joined them as i went, hooking a single row of single crochet as the basis, and then finishing them up with a row of single crochet around the finished square.



i finished up with 13 squares...
there were enough squares to make 12, with 2 squares left over, oh and one i'd hooked up and stored with them at some point.
a quick scrounge through the stash yielded up some bits and pieces in the colours i'd used to make that square, so i quickly hooked up another and brought the total to 13!



i'll be popping these in the post tomorrow. hopefully they don't take long to get where they need to be.

big props to the the craft hive folks. they're doing a fantastic thing!

are you joining in with #woolliesfortassie?
do you have lots of squares in your stash too?


ps. joining the squares together burnt through 4 and a bit balls of wool from my stash. yay stash busting challenge!

stash busting - plans.

yesterday, i shared the stash busting challenge, and today, i'm sharing the plans i've made for some of my stash!

first up, the beanies!



this is how i plan out my beanies, grouping some yarns of similar colours together :D
then, i cast one on, and use the rest as i see fit, making sure that there's plenty of variety within the beanie.
they tend to look like this when they're done!

i also started this little project over the christmas period (read: car craft) inspired by tracie.



my idea was to make something big enough to fit all of the cat's toys in, i'm sick of them not having a home :|
however, i'd run out of wool, luckily i found some more in my stash :D
i'm not sure that i've used the right size hook though as it's a little floppy... might need to restart this one...

the other stash plan i've come up with is to use some of the mountains of pink yarn i seem to have...



this pattern has been in my ravelry queue for a loooooong time. wouldn't it look great all in pinks? with a nice light grey background?
i would need to buy wool for the background, to ensure i had enough... but it would be totally worth it for such a cute little blankie!
rest assured, with my granny stripe still on the go, another blankie is a little ways off...

and there's also this wool...



to make a couple of pairs of slippers, one pair for me and one for bb.
i don't have a pattern in mind yet, but it needs to be something cozy :D we have horrid tiled floors that are BITTERLY cold in winter!

i feel like all of these plans should've used up a sizable portion of my stash, but it's honestly barely made a dent!

the little bundles of wool i posted about yesterday have been assigned projects too!
the teal yarn, is destined to become a cowl, this one in fact!
and the pink, i'll knit into a shawl! i've got this pattern earmarked.

i've got plenty to work on for the next little while, and when these projects are all done, i might have another little sort through to see what other inspirations the stash can yield :D

the next couple of days though, i'm going to work on turning these into 8" squares for the tasmanian bush fire appeal... you can join in here if you've got some spare time and yarn :D

how's your stash looking?
do you have lots of plans for yours too?
are you joining in with the stash busting challenge?

stash busting!

the other day, i was dreaming about my wool stash... thinking of how i should go through and sort my stash, and decide on some projects to use some of it up!

then as i was browsing through my blog reader, i came across this post from tammy.
turns out, linda and ana are hosting a stash busting challenge!

perfect!

this morning, i found myself with some unexpected time at home (last minute re-schedule of the work roster), so i dug into the stash...



and this guy helped...



i've now got more than a few plans made (which i'll share here tomorrow) but first, i need some help!
i realised as i was pulling all of my balls of wool out, that there was some that i had fairly sizable amounts of...



these, which are a dusky pink crepe aaaaaaaand



this teal moda vera pure wool.

i have no idea what to do with it!!!
most of the projects i make, are either quite small, like a beanie, which only need one or two balls, or massive, like a blanket, which need close to a million balls.

5-6 balls just throws up question marks to me!

any ideas on the sort of project i could use this amount for?
are you joining in with the stash busting challenge?
is your stash getting out of control too?

meal planning monday.

it's been a while! and it's not that i've not been meal planning... i just haven't been posting (meal plans or anything really at all...)

but i'm back! with some inspiration from this gal!



no christmas dinners this week (i think i might still be recovering from this plateful to be honest, so much christmassy food!)

tonight, we had meatballs with spaghetti. i had some pork mince leftover from a meal i never got around to last week (thanks to an unforeseen moving expedition... 40 degree days and moving do NOT mix. fyi), so i whipped them up into some meatballs, made a tomatoey sauce and chucked it over some pasta. i have much to learn about meatball making... they weren't great...

tomorrow night, i'm intending to cook up some steaks, fresh from the butcher, with a mountain of salad.

for wednesday, i've got some chicken, oh and there's some satay sauce in the freezer. satay chicken with hokkien and garden fresh snow peas? don't mind if i do!

thursday night, i'll grab some of the many containers of delicious bolognaise sauce, out of the freezer, and put some pasta on. easy. delicious. slowly emptying out our overflowing freezer. ticks all of the boxes ;)

friday. i'll get to using one of the spice mixes bb's mum gifted us from christmas and whip up a green chicken curry. can't wait!

saturday night is burger night. i watched an old episode of american masterchef last week and they made these super delicious burgers at a truck stop. that'll be happening over here on saturday night. yeeha!

and sunday, well i think sunday calls for a roast. maybe lamb? it's been a while...


what are you cooking this week?

january.

i've decided not to do a big 2013 post... this list should keep me going!

so i'll just focus on january for now ;)

i'm taking full advantage of my new diary...



and the monthly calendars at the start of the diary...



and the list of "notes" on the side of the monthly calendar...



"notes" no more, that's a list for my monthly goals surely??

i feel like these goals are really achievable :D i'm 3 for 3 with breakfasts already, and 2 for 2 with taking my lunch to work
promising start, no?


what are your goals for this month?