finders keepers.

i managed to get to finders keepers on sunday after work, just in the nick of time too.
some shenanigans at work meant that i didn't actually get to the market until just before 5! luckily i had knew exactly what i wanted and brianna had let me know where to find it...


i have honestly been eyeing off this little recipe book since the last melbourne finders keepers market. i saw it again at the magnolia square market at the start of the month and from there on out decided it would be mine! the lovely ladies at write to me also popped this little notebook in my bag too. so very generous of them and definitely went a long way in cheering up my day!



on my way to finding the write to me stall (although brianna gave me quite good instructions, i'm very prone to mixing up my left and my right...) i happened past the bespoke stand where i picked up my reading material for the week.
i also spotted the notions stall and had a good chat to rosie and picked up a brooch from her newly named 'wanderlust' collection. it's a little cute AND it smells amazing as it's cut from tasmanian pine. takes me back to campfires and oddly, year 7 woodwork classes...
it made me kind of ridiculously happy to pin this on my cardigan and sniff it all the way to the mother in laws and then out to dinner.

missing out on seeing most of finders keepers this time is making me feel i'll enjoy it even more next time. oh and i've just found out, i'll be able to visit a daylesford makers market soon too. i've just booked in for a girls weekend away on the same weekend in june that it's on! very excited to not only spend time with my lovely female family members and have a good old relax. but also to get to shopping and oohing and aaaahing over pretty handmade goodies.
yes very excited indeed.

now i'm off to get organised for ncb! have to make sure i don't fill up on to much dinner before hand... they have quite magnificent desserts.


this is what we had last time... fresh out of the oven!
hope to see you there!

this week...

i'm playing catch up... after 11 days straight working, i'm running a little behind (even in blog posts as it would seem) so this week, i'm playing catch up.

i'm catching up on the housework. washing, dishes, ironing, it never stops piling up!

i'm making plans to catch up with friends and family, ncb is back on tomorrow night AND my mum is coming over for lunch!

i'm catching up on my daily row completion goals for the flood relief blankie.


i have a goal of 4 rows a day to get it to lea before winter as promised. at the moment i'm about 16 behind. eep!

i'm catching up on my cooking! i've been a bit slack with the home cooking efforts, but a few days off work and relaxing at home should get me back into line.

i'm catching up on my reading.



i picked these two up at finders keepers on the weekend and i'm very excited to get stuck into them!

and last of all, i'm catching up on breathing, relaxing and taking some time for myself. major de-stressing happening this week.

my creative space.

this is it today! after a super early and very busy morning cleaning, the inspection is over and done with and we passed with flying colours (not that there was really any doubt).
and with the weather the way it is outside, i think this is where i'll stay for the most part of the day, well at least until i have to head off to start training for my new job! yippee!




so if you need me, i'll be here, under that granny blankie, with some terrible reality tv playing (i do love that tv stations have 'catch-up' shows online :D) putting some rows onto lea's blankie.
more creative spaces over with
kirsty.

progress report.

after a very long morning of cleaning, the oven alcove is completely clean! and the outside of the oven (well the back and sides) are pretty spiffy looking too!



however, my cleaning methods were a little voracious and i ended up stripping a fair amount of paint from the sides of the walls. so i'm off to bunnings on my way to work to get some new paint and some tile or lino to cover up those floor boards too!
the discovery of these floor boards under the oven has made me wonder if they're under all the flooring in the house too? wish it was mine so i could start pulling up our (terrible) carpet to check!

a little progress report on lea's blankie too...



i'm 48 rows in (of a calculated 265! eep!) so i think i'll need to pick up the pace a little bit to get it done and to lea by winter! a fair way to go yet.

this week...

this week i've set myself a pretty big task. actually i'm a bit scared to show you, it's a little horrifying to be honest...
this, is my oven. i know, it is a little dirty, the hot plate needs a clean and well, let's not look at the floor. but that's not the horrifying part...



the horrifying part is what lies BEHIND the oven. it looked like this behind the oven before we even moved in.



i kid you not. i have lived with this little patch of gross for nearly 2 years. BUT i have a secret up my sleeve. you see the other day, i realised (yes it took me nearly 2 years) that the oven isn't actually attached to the wall, well there's a power cord but that's about it!
so my super disgusting goal for this week, is to pull out the oven as far as it will go, and give the alcove the intense scrubbing that it so desperately needs. all in time for the real estate inspection on thursday morning, well we'll see about that...

pop over and see vic to set yourself a goal for the week, or to have a peek at some other peoples plans!

flea market finds.

some finds that i had actually clean forgotten about!
these were found at a little op shop (a lions one i think), in blackburn, a couple of week ago whilst shopping with brianna.



four pairs of button earrings in four different colours, for the very cheap price of $2! 50 cents a pair! an absolute bargain even though i will most definitely be giving them a good soak in listerine before any of them adorn my earlobes.

plenty more flea market finds with sophie.

beanie time!

having temporarily run out of wool for the flood relief blankie (i'll be getting some more in my lunch break today), i decided to set my mind to something that's coming up fast, preparing for the alice springs beanie festival.
i pulled out the beanies i've made so far...




i've made 3 since last years festival and 2 of my beanies from last years festival failed to sell so i got them back. i intent to fancy the 2 that didn't sell with some crocheted flowers as i have a feeling that they didn't sell because they were too plain!
but in any case, half way there!
i pulled out the three skeins of "tracey" yarn that i had stashed from way back in september, and snuggled up under my ripple (i love that it's cool enough at night to be snuggly with mr. ripple) i rolled them into balls. i found that it's MUCH easier when you're not on a train!



so all three balls are ready and raring to be knitted up into beanies, now to find the time...

there's always a reason...

the reason for all of my furniture rearranging over the last couple of days?
lots of new furniture!

this past christmas just gone, my parents bought us a voucher for a furniture store (they like us to be able to buy what we need) as we desperately needed a new bed.
so on the monday labour day public holiday, the boy, who i've decided to refer to as bb from now on, went on a little shopping trip.
we found a bed.



but it was quite below our budget so we still had a bit of voucher left to spend.
so we also found a lovely tv unit (bb has decided that we need a new tv that 'suits' the unit better, i think our tv is fine how it is)



AND we still had a little bit left over so we found some lovely cushions.
they're currently making the couch a very nice place to be. especially snuggled up with some crochet and a nice warm blankie!



so putting together the furniture, removing the old furniture and cleaning around and under everything took me the better part of wednesday and then thursday i spent putting finishing touches on the rooms and trying to trying to deal with the big changes i'd made (not to mention visiting the dentist for the first time since high school). i guess i'll get used to it :D

hope you have an amazing weekend!
xo

my creative space.

today i think i'll be in for a pretty quiet creative space. putting some finishing touches on yesterdays furniture rearrangements, which after some careful planning, went into full swing resulting in a very sleepy crafter at ncb last night.



mostly i think i'll just be plodding along on this blankie today. something nice and quiet and calming to get me ready for the next 6 days of work. ho hum!

kirsty has wayyyyy more exciting creative spaces

making plans...

today i'm sitting down and making some plans....




i'm (hopefully) making a meal plan for the next week or so. i say hopefully as i might just get distracted by all the pictures of the delicious foods and not actually plan anything at all. hopefully, i'll make a meal plan. a fairly large bit inspired by the lovely pink patent mary janes!



i'm planning a bit of a furniture re-arrange. nothing drastic, just trying to incorporate some new furniture which i'm very excited about. promise i'll share more tomorrow! (though not more of my horrible floor layout drawings ha ha!)



and i'm also (less excitedly) planning what housework needs to be done and when. a real estate inspection next thursday and working 6 of the next 7 days is calling for a whole heap of cleaning and some very strict time organisational skills me thinks.

oh and i'm off to northern craft bonanza tonight. can't wait to catch up with everyone! and luckily i've got such a busy day planned otherwise i might run out of wool for the stripy blankie and have nothing to do tonight!

ghosties.

my computer has some ghosties. they've been there for a while.
they make me hiss and stamp my foot and sometimes, make me smile (not often though...)


turning on at awkward times (like when it's closed) and typing many v's,
opening up my spaces when i don't even press the keys.



of all these things, the ghosties do that drives me the most mad,
is mess with my google readings, no blog posts make nicole sad!

my creative space.

features poorly lit photographs. just a heads up. where on earth did that lovely sunshine from the weekend go?
anywho, today i'm working some more on lea's blankie...



giving myself completely over to the random* colour choices and excellent hooky rhythm of this pattern. well that is in between housework and a much needed yoga class....

oh and have a look at what's back on the calendar!




tinniegirl has allllllll the info!

pop in and visit kirsty for more creativity!

*random has rules though... i use every colour within a "section" of 5 colours (i've done 2 "sections" so far) and i won't use the same colour twice. totally random.

starting something new.

i've made a start on lea's blankie that she won by bidding on my flood relief auction!
it took a while (and a few emails back and forth) to decide on the colours, the combination and the size but it's finally off the page and on the hook!




these are the colours lea has chosen, orange (15), fawn (49), red (07), chocolate (24) and teal (37), in the moda vera 8 ply pure wool (from spotlight).
now would you like a little peek?



i'm only two rows in and that canvas bag underneath, is being renamed 'the little canvas bag of random', as lea has requested the colours to be in random order. i must say, this will probably be a bit hard for me, but i'm letting go of the control freak inside and letting the bag make the choices....

now please excuse me, i'm off to go and put some more random rows on a blankie and maybe have some lunch, pancakes anyone?
xo

flea market finds.

a couple of finds from the little op-shop jaunt on friday...


a new pair of sunglasses (the old ones keep falling apart!), a scrapbook in mint condition, a picture book (i have a creative plan for these...) AND a cute little floral pillowcase (destined to be bunting i think).
just a few bits and pieces that made me happy!

oh and something else i bought that made me happy...


this shirt from jeanswest. it looks not too special. but that's my brother on the shirt, biting that record.
makes it quite special indeed :D

hope your weekend has been lovely and you can have a look at some more flea market finds here.
xo

a happy friday.

today, brianna and i met up in st. kilda for the magnolia square market being held in the st. kilda town hall this weekend.
compared to our last visit, it was much less overcrowded and cramped so a little more enjoyable (even though there were no cupcakes...). i spotted a couple of things i liked (oh those dreaded wanties) but the only thing i ended up buying was a birthday gift for someone else! leaving quite proud of myself, we then did a quick google search and found some oppies not too far away from us and had a bit of a browse and a little bit of a buy.
after a lovely lunch and a stroll around to another opshop (we stopped at scout house on the way. LOVE!) we headed our separate ways home.
after getting home and getting some dreaded housework and dinner cooking done, i'm not feeling at all creative or inspired. this weather is making me crave warmth and cosiness and i know just where i'll find it!
in bed!




with this.
i've been reading it on and off for a couple of months and it is the story of a couple who make a 'seachange' (sandchange?) to a small mexican village from la. it's the second seachange story i've read in recent times and boy does it make me want to pull up my roots and get travelling through the world!
in any case, i thought i'd share as i signed up for megan's book list right at the start of the year, and i've yet to actually finish a book yet! pretty disgraceful considering it's march already!
i've got my next book picked out too...


i found this while we were op-shopping today. my cousin lent me another of rosalie's books many years ago (yes i still have it. yes i suck at life) and i LOVED it! so i'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this one!

hope you all have a magical weekend!
xo

at my house.

i was very productive! and so was brianna. she came for a visit and helped me tidy and organise allllllll my craft supplies (she may have been lured into helping with the promise of free craft supplies...). organising my craft stuff has been on my list of things to do for a long time and was definitely at the top of my organising plans list for february. come to think of it, i didn't get many of those plans done... oh well. they can be march plans now!

so do you have big plans for march?
i'm going to finish my table and little footstool, they've both been started just need some finishing touches, like complete the sanding job and paint them and well basically most of it actually.... but this month, it'll happen! i'm also hoping to get some of my kitchen painted too! the inside of the cupboards are really appalling!
i'm also trying not to drink soft drink. it's just soooooooo full of kilojoules, all that sugar, fattening my butt and rotting my teeth, i definitely don't need it! hopefully this health goal sticks a bit better than last months too, i intended to visit the gym at least twice a week, i think i did it one week, and that was it! maybe i'll be a bit more successful at the goal in march too :D

after our successful organising this morning (it went much quicker than i expected actually), we happened upon a few op-shops and i bought a lovely zipper that i'm going to sew into my pouffe tonight so all the stuffing stops falling out!

oh and i thought i'd share a quick little project that i got stuck into last night.
i took these...


and this bag of fabric scraps...


and made these! much nicer than your average fridge magnets i think!


hope your march is much better than your february!
xo