Sewing Smurf

My Smurf never ceases to amaze me. This weekend we collaborated on a craft project I have been thinking about doing together for the longest time.

He drew his own images on fabric and I sewed them into something 3 dimensional and filled with stuffing. Only, my vision was slightly wrong. I didn't do the sewing, the Smurf did.

After learning how to lift the presser foot, manually move the needle, place the fabric and cut the thread he was ready to sew some lines. And then turn corners.

He was busting to bring his fabric drawings to three dimensional life. A tree with bark, leaves and birds to become a soft toy and a tree with an owl surrounded by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a cushion.

And so off he went, after carefully choosing his backing fabrics (flannelette for the back of the soft toy as it will be cuddled and the flannelette is soft!). He sewed some parts completely by himself (foot on peddle and guiding the stitching) with verbal guidance from me and some parts with me physically helping to guide the fabric or sewing a line first for him to then follow on his own.

He could not be more proud of the outcome. Nor can I.

He is busy planning his next few creations. Every time I look at these photos my heart feels like it might literally burst with pride.

Why, hello there

I've been thinking about this space a lot. For a while, I didn't miss it. At all. Now, though, I find I am. When I look back through my archives I am reminded why I started this space in the first place; as a way to track my progress and keep in touch with friends.

My little space has grown so much since the start seven years ago and I can see my craft skills - in knitting, sewing, crochet etc - have too. Heck even my HTML skills have. They have all grown because of this space and the community it exists in. I like that.

I like that I can see old favourite projects, evidence of my extreme attention deficient crafting ways, favourite things baked. I especially like that alongside all of that I can see how my Smurf is  growing.

I also like that this space (and the ever expanding associated spaces) has introduced me to so many friends, many that I now choose to spend time with in "real" life. Well, in my offline life. I now live in the same city as one of my earliest blogging friends and we hang out sometimes. That's pretty cool in my book. She even still has a toy I made her many years ago.

So, with all that in mind and that there are adventures of another wee Smurf, a Smurfette in fact, to keep track of, I'm making my way back here. I'll be treating it as I always have, as my own personal reference. I won't be trying hard to impress anyone.

I'll just be having fun, hanging out and reminding myself of stuff I'm doing with craft (mostly) my reference point. Who knows, maybe I'll find some more friends along the way?

PS My comment system is completely borked. I need to fiddle and get rid of it. Apologies if you feel inclined to comment and it doesn't work.

The Little Merchandise Obsessed Cowboy

The Smurf is three! Yep, I can hardly believe it myself. This year he was quite opinionated on how his party should go. Pink cake (which at times morphed into a rocket cake - which I now know can be not necessarily what it should be), everyone dressed as cowboys and all cousins invited.

So I kept to my brief and attempted a bit of cowboy related stuff....sort of.

But what the Smurf really meant was he just wanted to be Woody. But what that really meant at a 3 year old birthday party is, well, come as you are. Or as you want. Or as you decide after you've eaten lunch and you don't want to wear what you're wearing anymore. Whatever.



Apparently one of our friends used to do facepainting. I never knew. Yes of course I'd love you to bring your facepaints. The kids chose their own thing to be painted and here's my confused Cowboy/Puppy Smurf. Bless.



Who cares about themes anyway? Although, my nephew was spot on and my favourite - chose the moustache himself.



Canberra turned on the most amazing day, sunshine, blue skies and warm weather. The garden even popped up a bunch of new flowers for us to admire and the fruit trees started to blossom.

We sprawled all over the backyard on picnic blankets and lazed the day away eating homemade dolmades, sushi, mini pies, mini sausage rolls, soft tacos with pulled pork or greek chicken and corn salsa. The kids ran around making their own fun - apart from a ridiculous effort at Pass the Parcel.

Then it was time for the pink cake.



And meringues, neenish tarts, meringue rings, pink cupcakes, choc chip biscuits and DIY lolly bags!







Before we all headed back out to the backyard for more lazing about, ready for the big "Cowboy Shoot Out" organised by the 5 year old moustached nephew - in collaboration with Gang Gang (Grandad). The rules were even taped to our back door and all cowboys were required to sign that they had read the rules. These kids are the best!


"Rules of Cowboy Shoot Out. Held at Murphy's Party at 2.30pm. You will NOT punch, kick, bite. Signed ...."

So Happy Birthday my beautiful, crazy, always amazing 3 year old Smurf. Daddy and I love you more than words can say.

PS I'm devastated that I decided to get your haircut, although I'm happy I thought to ask you how you wanted it cut - even if you did decide on short!

The Art of Choosing Your Audience

Recently I posted about my uncertainty about giving handmade gifts and the reception they might attract. I received some fabulous feedback, insightful commentry and lots of cyber hugs. It was swell.

But I've moved on. My best audience is right in front of me and there is no better recipient of a handmade gift than a nearly 3 year old Smurf.

He pestered these mittens right off the needles.


Then wore his new hat around all afternoon despite being inside on a rainy day and then insisted it replace his much cherished pink beanie (also a well received knit) on daily outings.


Stats:
Hat - like these
Mittens - fudged by me and based on 'Later Gator Mitten' measurements in Stitch n Bitch Nation

A weekend of craft indulgence

Photos courtesy of our resident photographer, Tutti Fruiti

Just a sample...1. hub of activity, 2. B + C, 3. J working on her liberty blouse, 4. F cutting out her bag pieces, 5. J + B, 6. Time to leave, 7. New hood, 8. bubbles, 9. happy hour

A whole weekend
For pure crafting pleasure
Great friends
Fantastic food
The best styled cheese platters ever seen by anyone
Personal sewing instructors - there were two of them!
Lots of laughing
Great company

I managed (with the aid of my personal instructors) a fully lined, hooded jacket (pattern: Ottobre 2007/3 Summer Hooded Jacket - sewn in mid weight cotton, lined with flanelette)


complete with pink sleeve lining (a special secret surprise for my little pink loving Smurf)


Some PJ pants using Curly Pops ace 70's pants pattern


As well as some knitting, crochet, a softie and a still to be tinkered with top for me - oh and a delicious dinner (if I do say so myself).

Can't wait for the next one.

An Autumn Sunday Morning

A perfect Autumn Sunday morning; a tea party picnic on the lounge room floor, reading the cupcake book, while eating delicious handmade marshmallows.



And getting a little excited pouring the little cup of tea.



Followed by coffee with friends and kicking the footy in the park and mushroom soup for lunch and later building ridiculous Mad Max inspired duplo trucks.

Perfect.

Weekends are fun

Yep, weekends are fun and kinda hilarious.

Pockets

Turns out pockets aren't just necessary for keeping your money safe, they're also convenient for holding your lollipop and stashing your harmonica. Yes, I will trim those two rogue threads.

Who Wears Short Shorts?

It's hard enough to get a decent clear shot of a toddler.
It's even harder when the toddler has been busy touching up the camera lense.

They say the quickest way to a mans' heart is through his stomach. I say the quickest way to a crafty Mums' heart is to insist that the new shorts made by Mum must be worn right away. And then, later after your bath and while wearing pyjamas, you should endlessly flash your new shorts in front of the web cam so your friends on Skype can see them before insisting you change out of your PJs and into the shorts and model them for all to see.

Shorts adapted from an Ottobre pattern; "frog pants" I believe they were called. But really other than using the size as a guide for cutting, very little else was followed as I chickened out on the fly flap, did my own waistband and pockets (the Smurf's love for money means shorts without pockets are not acceptable attire) and left out the weird longer pants part. They have been sitting without the waistband for months so it was nice to get them finished ready for the impromptu Skype fashion parade tonight.

Happy Smurfday!

September is party season round here, remember this time last year? Having done the invite all and sundry approach we did things on a smaller, more personal scale this year. It was fun and the Smurf was delighted to have so much cake in his life.



The intention was to loosely theme the party around colouring in. The invites* were sent with 2 coloured pencils.



It was great to receive rsvp text messages with pictures of the invite covered in scribbles.

The banner went up again, it's served well, and was perfect hanging in the frangipani tree in the backyard.




It was very windy, so we couldn't bring all the colouring activities outside but we dragged a whole bunch of the Smurf's toys into the backyard along with the cricket set, playdough, watering cans and assorted toys. Over time this turned out to be just about every toy we own as each toddler decided the lure of a different toy inside was too much.

We did set up the Smurf's play tent, only if you look here at this photo we suspect that it may now live somewhere off past the horizon after a wind gust stole it from our backyard. Lucky no skinny toddlers were sitting inside at the time.



The kids loved drawing on the paving with chalk.


I loved making the AWW Train cake. Toot Toot!


That AWW cake book was a well read book in our household when I was growing up. The Smurf has started reading it now too and he loved the train cake. The kids each chose what colour they wanted to eat. Generally I'm not really into all that food colouring, but this was fun!



I kept the food simple, but enough that people could feel like they'd eaten lunch if they weren't staying on for the BBQ/beer component covering Mr Sadieandlance's bday celebrations.

There were some Nigella cupcakes, this recipe is the best.


My favs were, as always, the lolly bags! I decided to go with reusable bags this year and hope they would later be used to carry food to kindy, keep precious car collections, colouring in supplies etc.



The bag was filled with the Smurf's favourite things


Homemade stickers


Homemade colouring books (inspired by LovelyDesign and Hey Bubbles)






Biccie boys (you already know they're the Smurf's favourite) and a small lolly bag.


It was a great day and I hear the kids loved the lolly bags. I had a blast putting it all together, and while it looks like it was a lot of work, each piece was very simple and I really enjoyed it. I'll post the templates for the stickers later this week.

*Images for invites from here

Super Smurf

Thanks to Suzy, the Smurf should now be referred to only as Super Smurf.

Or Wall Climbing Super Smurf


Or Contemplating Super Smurf


Or Carrot Inspecting Super Smurf


Amazing the things you can get up to in your super hero cape.

Pattern care of Suzy. Quick, easy and stash busting.