For me or Moo?

I still can't decide if I bought this amazingly beautiful scarf for me or for Moo. I mean I did buy it for Moo, but surely she can let me borrow it.

The scarf was made by Sandy of Hobgoblin House. She has a Facebook page and an Etsy shop. I've also heard rumours that she might be a guest stockist at Gossamer Dreams soon.

Distracted

This going back to work gig and the kids' party have been occupying most of mental space. I start tomorrow. I'm not fearful of working as I really like the people with whom I am going to be working, and I know what I'll be doing. The thing that is stressing me out the most is how bad will the traffic be driving there. This thought keeps occurring because I will hit city-bound traffic on part of the way there. It's normally only a 15 minute drive, but I don't know how peak hour is going to change that. But really I don't need to stress. If I'm 5 minutes late, it's no biggie!

For the kids' party I need to write a list, so that I can feel more in control.

And to add to this crazy list, I have been tormented by a mouse. We have a mouse in our house, and that cheeky rodent will not get itself caught in a trap. It will not eat the bait. We have the plastic traps, and they are not working. It has had near misses twice (trap gone off, but no mouse), and one time when it escaped from the trap). So I'm going to get some old fashion mouse traps next time I'm at the shops. That mouse of ours is wily and quick, and it is crapping all over my house which is completely freaking me out. And yes, I'm pretty darn sure that it is only one.

I also went to Sew It Together on Saturday.

I don't think I talked much about going because to be honest talking to a bunch of people that I don't know stresses me out. I am really, truly an introvert. I'm not someone who just says that. It's a tested fact that I am. In my usual fashion I chatted mostly with people that I already knew. I did get to meet a few people like Kylie and Karen that I've "known" for a while. I also met the very lovely and bubbly Gillian. And a huge thank you to all of the lovely sponsors of SIT. So many amazing goodies in my bag. And as a door prize I scored a couple of things from Crafty Mamas, a Knippe magazine and a Farbenmix Celina pattern.

I've been sewing. I made some PimpiCuffs for the SIT sample swap which was organised by Cass. The swap was excellent. I got a notebook and pencils from Cass, an Iphone pouch from Karen, a casserole carrier from Donna, a beautiful house quilt from Helen, and a lovely appliqued bag with some gorgeous scraps from Anna.

Oh sewing...you want to see some? I think I've been reticent to post photos of this jacket. I wanted to love the pattern, but I didn't. Mollie really likes it though. I just didn't find Little Woo very enjoyable to sew. The neck binding was very fiddly, and I don't like the placement of the button loops. And it's not easy to alter the loops if the length is incorrect, and I couldn't figure out how to know how long/short they need to be until the garment is constructed and the loops are sewn in by that point. Sorry I don't have any modeled photos. Moo's been wearing it, and now it's dirty and wrinkled looking like most of her well-loved items.

Front


Back

8

She had attitude when she was born.


She loved hanging out with Grandma (and still does!)


And here she is almost 8 years later.

I didn't manage to snap a photo of her today, and I really like this one that I took the other day. Yeah, yeah I know you've already seen it! Today was a bit of a whirlwind as I prepared the birthday girl's dinner of rice paper rolls. We had a pavlova for "cake". I also made her those yummy, scrummy cinnamon rolls to take to school.

While doing dinner preparations and tidying the house, I also did some machine embroidery. I made Moo a PimpiCuff and made another that I need for the SIT swap. I've also started the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLIE & WILL!" bunting. I hope I can get through the Mollie & Will part. At least Happy Birthday on its own will work.

Rockin' Rainbow Pants and other news

I'll show you the pants in a moment. The news is NOT that I'm pregnant. Because if you know me, you'd know that I have no intention of having any more children. I like my two very much.

My news is that I am going back to working outside the home. I'm going to work "school hours" a couple of days a week. These would have been days when I would have been doing willow & moo work. I am not stopping willow & moo, but I'm not expanding it either. Any one who crafts for money would know how it can be all consuming. And most items that I make require multiple steps to create whether it's cutting, tying, dyeing, embroidery, stitching on embellishments, sewing. Every time I start to think about doing a market on my own, I find the thought overwhelming. So I'm going to try to balance it all. Having a job where I can work a couple of days a week with a definite amount of money frees me up to be more creative and to have more joy in what I create. This is good for everyone.

willow & moo is going to be similar to when I was doing the renovations and doing mainly custom orders. From time to time I will make things for the Etsy shop, but most of the new listings will be for custom slots. Please feel free to email me with requests too!

If you've read this far, here's some eye candy. For a while I'd been thinking about making rainbow pants, not leggings. I was pretty sure that the Farbenmix Oona pattern would give me the look that I was after. Oona pants have a slight flare at the bottom of the leg. They remind me of the Ottobre "Jump" pants. The pants are made from a French terry type fabric which contains spandex.




Mollie wanted to wear them to school today, but I told her that she would be too warm in them. I'm wondering if 25 (deg C), will be cool enough tomorrow. Then again as we head into autumn, she'll have lots of opportunity to wear them in a few weeks time.

Another party

Another present needed. I followed Cass' excellent idea of making an Ooshka Babushka for a present.


I have to say these make very sweet presents and are very easy to whip up. It's one of those items where I could have drafted it myself and even embroidered a face, but I quite like the design of Lisa's faces, pretty and bright. The birthday girl loved it.

I'm going to

Sew It Together. I know it probably seems odd that I haven't mentioned it yet. Well, if you know me, you would know that I get overwhelmed with crowds. I tend to stick to my friends that I know. I think I've been stressing about going. I'm terrible at making small talk, but at least with crafty people, there is plenty to talk about.

I was in the name tag swap. I made this one for Claire.


I have to say the colour palette for the name tags was a challenge for me. I am not a big fan of orange, yellow and brown and least of all together. Claire makes the cutest sock owl kits which inspired my choice of an owl for the name tag I am actually thinking of taking my pattern with me to SIT as it seems like a nice little project to work on in that environment. And well, if I get stuck, I can ask the designer herself for help!

I received this beautiful name tag from Nic of Small, Dark and Handsome. The stitching is perfect, and I love the design. Even though they aren't "MY" colours, I think the name tag is very me. Thank you Nic!


I have to admit that I haven't been blogging much over the past week. I have quite a few creations to share and a bit of news. Now I must go make dinner.

Birthday season

We are gearing up for birthday season in the house of willow & moo. Within a period of 3 weeks we have my birthday, Will's and Mollie's. Mollie missed out on having a party last year because of the renovations, so this year I promised her that she could have one. The kids decided to have one together which is great for me. Yes, I'll have to prepare a lot more stuff, but it will be only once instead of twice!

I can't remember if I mentioned that I bought a printer. We haven't had a printer in our house for years. This was mainly due to the lack of space. Then it took us forever to buy one because we had to decide what to buy. I bought the printer in January. I love having the freedom to print/scan/copy whenever I want! I used to ask Col to print things for me at work. This was bad because he would know things like I had a Spotlight coupon!

Anyway back to the invitations. I just printed a simple invitation on some white card, and decorated them with my hand carved stamps from Chantal Vincent Art. I adore Chantal's stamps!





And it's almost the 3rd birthday of this blog. Might have to start planning something good for that.