new man in blog-town

i have been loving a newly discovered blog called made by joel. he's a part-time stay at home dad/artist with twins who makes them toys and posts lots of download-able arts and crafts on his visually stunning blog. no big deal. ahem. a craft blog being written by a man is rare and truly, the little games and toys he comes up with for his kids are both creative and often so aesthetically appealing that the adult in me likes the look of them lying around the house. in fact he is allegedly working on a book, which is probably going to be awesome.

recently we cut out his paper city and had fun colouring in the little people. B arranged them into couples (she is obsessed with marriage at the moment, embarrassingly). we were just getting over a spate of illness and had multiple boxes of toddler panadol lying around which reminded us a little of big buildings so we made some tea light candle holders with them by turning the boxes inside out so the writing was on the inside and cut some holes in the sides to let the light through.

colourwheel quilt

i have a big project queue at the moment due to the tiny guy who seems to be nearly permanently fastened to my front, either feeding or in his wrap/carrier. i can get some sewing in if i bounce on the fit ball at the same time (not great for precision, but most of my sewing is pretty basic stuff) but cutting is a no go. i have actually made some things for myself, including a few dresses which has been pretty exciting. haven't photographed due to aforementioned tiny person blocking the views of said dresses.

anyhoo, one thing i do do on the fit ball is bounce in front of the computer while poring over various pages online, daily. as a result i find i am adding more to my to do list
(ahem, and virtual shopping carts) than usual. i'm convinced that i need to make a queen sized quilt. i'm quite sure that normally the man in the relationship isn't all that keen on the same sort of quilts his mate may be, but how can you not love this stack:

via PurlSoho

some colour wheel quilt ideas via flickr

I like the colour wheel effect against black. a quilt with a black background is appealing, don't you think? if this colour wheel ever happens to me, i think i will stick with squares instead of the wheel design. i think.

i did do one thing while bouncing on the fit ball on the computer today which was fun and constructive. i downloaded a couple of issues of Parasol, which is a digital magazine featuring crafters and each issue includes some downloadables such as prints to use with photoshop or illustrator. so i did some mucking about with photos of our new baby in an effort to get together a little thank you photo type thing. OK, i know this is getting dangerously close to digital scrapbooking, but isn't it a cute thank you photo? i like that it allows space to write a little personal message to the thankee. . .

back from the abyss

hi! i have a new baby, well he is now 2 months old and not brand new any longer but still tiny i have been so happily engrossed in him that i haven't been blogging. i have been crafting in spare time but blogging has gone by the wayside. understandably.

lately i have been looking at lots of fabric online because it is an easy thing to do while bouncing babe on the fit ball while getting him off to sleep. i've been back onto the lovely spoonflower busily filling up my virtual shopping cart and then emptying it out again as we are back to one income. that aside, check out this super amazing apron pattern! i think i might actually wear an apron that looked like this:


and here is the yard of fabric that you make it with, complete with instructions.




is this not the most amazing apron/apron project you have ever seen!? check out the rest of Cean Irminger's work via spoonflower. i like a lot of the prints, including this kitty...




could make quite a nice softie/pillow doncha think?