Pillows for the man

I saw this tutorial for personalised pillow cases a long time ago over at Handmade Romance. I don't keep a coherent list of tutorials I want to try, but this one stuck in my head. I finally got onto it for Christmas as a gift for Chris. I imitated Evie's style but tried to make them look like us. Chris' one has ginger facial hair because we both find it amusing that while he has brown hair, he grows orange stubble.

I thought I would include the above pic too as it has a couple of crafty projects I hadn't documented yet. The "You don't make me spew" artwork is trying to be in the style of Rachel Castle whose work I love. The letters are felt on linen, but I hot glued them on rather than stitch them, probably because I was in a hurry. The quote was something I said to Chris when we first got together about 14 (?) years ago in a "we need to clarify our relationship" talk we had very late at night in my parents' driveway. Kinda awkward, but exciting at the same time as I recall!

The "love" sign perched above I made using this tutorial from Giddy Giddy. Such an easy little project, you could make any word you like.

Ah there we are. I have been writing this post for 3 days! Good to finally have it out there. Hats off to those who blog regularly!

The Chalkboard in the Kitchen Fad

This fun post by the talented Jennie of Mrs Beckinsale, reminded me to blog again about my chalkboard. (A fad, yes, and I love it so!)

A couple of people asked about dust and so on when I first wrote about my chalkboard pantry door, so I thought I might give a little update on the impact of our chalkboard in the kitchen.

We use "dust free chalk" which is not exactly dust free, but there is less chalk dust than your average chalk. I bought ours from Officeworks online. I love stationery. A lot.

When I mop the floor, it is a little bit chalky around the door, but not offensive (to me, anyway- I am no clean freak). We are not rubbing the chalk off the board daily, so that might be another reason that there isn't a lot of dust around.

I have used the chalk board for shopping lists and the kids draw on it periodically, but we are loving it at the moment for Caleb's sight words and he is enjoying writing sentences with his new writing skills. Behind Jemima (sporting 2 little top knots for the first time) he has written, "Do you *heart* pig poo? I *heart* pig poo." Ah, 5 year old boys.

"Quilting" for the Blondie

This is my favourite kind of quilt to make. It's the 3rd time I have made one, and the 1st time I get to keep it in the house (on Jemima's bed). Hooray!

Obviously it is just fat quarters sewn together, then with a vintage chenille backing and tied together (using this tutorial again). This is about the only kind of patchwork I can manage. I don't have what I suppose is a true quilter's temperament. I want my quilt done now!

I bought a fat quarter pack from the Fat Quarter Shop before the bottom fell out of the AUD (what's up with that?) They are Lecien Old New Collection 30s, which are really sweet.

The chenille bedspread was from ebay, and I am trying to get my hands on a white one for Caleb's quilt, but it is proving difficult. Who knew vintage chenille bedspreads were such a sought after item?

The kids will move into Caleb's room a few months before bebe makes her arrival, so these new bedspreads are in honour of that. Much to do!

Old school

I don't know where I first came across this idea, but I am pretty sure that it was in a couple of articles in Real Living over the past few months. We just got the door up a couple of hours ago after painting it with White Knight Chalkboard paint on the weekend.

I made a little hanging basket using this tutorial and there is an old peanut butter container in there full of chalk and a duster (plastic for safety's sake). I changed the tute a little bit, doing a few extra stitches here and there because I was using cotton and a different sized hook- this made me feel like a real crochet pro. Go me! It did turn out bigger than I expected, but I am still really pleased with myself.

We'll see if I regret this project as chalk dust builds, but for now I have a happy-finished-project-glow.