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Friday 30 October 2015

Christmas List Sign-up

Hello everyone,
This is just a quick run through in the midst of everything else I have to get done today. I just wanted to share this Christmas list with you. If you're interested in a pile of Christmas crafts delivered straight to your email inbox then this is for you.

And Sew We Craft is doing a daily newsletter for the month of November offering a tutorial/craft each day. I will have a couple of my patterns available in that newsletter as well as many other crafts. There is quilting and sewing and crochet and all sorts of fun stuff. I've only seen part of the list but it's looking pretty good. So follow this LINK and sign up for a month of free crafts. Who doesn't like free patterns :D

And as I say that I'm going to make sure I sign up so that I get the emails as well.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Wednesday 28 October 2015

WIP Wednesday

It's coming up to Christmas and I'm going to have to start hiding some projects I'm doing again as I know my family read this blog though how often is debateable but knowing my luck they will see what I post only on the day I post something about their gift. That's how it works isn't it?

So this is the first and last post of this project that you will see as you can't tell what it is so make as many guesses as you want but you will have to wait until Christmas to have it confirmed. Maybe I might have to give a prize if someone actually guesses the project properly....


I have also made some progress on my Doctor Who Biscornu since last week.


This piece just makes me happy. Doctor Who and cross stitch all combined :D

What are you working on this week? 


Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Design Update

So.... you know how I've been talking about updating the layout and everything on my blog again and how I wasn't entirely happy with it? Well I sat down Monday and updated the template. It was great fun and I'm much happier with how it looks. I updated the colour scheme a little to a bluer and darker green though I still have the purple throughout it's just not everywhere.

I also updated the cover photo to showcase some of my more recent projects. I also wanted to include a photo with me in it. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

What do you think of the new template and colours?


The last MAJOR update I did was to my commenting system. I need some serious feedback about this from everyone. I have swapped from the blogger commenting system to Disqus because I didn't like how the replies worked on the blogger system. When you want to start a discussion it gets all jumbled and mixed up among the other comments as the hierachy doesn't exist properly. Now we should be able to have some awesome discussions going within the comments without having to find the replies.

But I want your feedback. Do you like the disqus commenting system? Does it load alright for you? Are you happy continuing with the disqus system or would you really like me to swap back to blogger comments? I want to do what's best for my community but I am kinda hoping this change does work.

What do you think about the new commenting system?

Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin

Monday 26 October 2015

Craft Every Day

Join me in Crafting Every Day in November


This has been a thought going around in my head for the last couple of weeks as I know November's NaNoWriMo is coming up and after doing the A-Z challenge I wanted to do something for it. I wanted to do something that suited me and my blog and it came to me in a flash. I should do crafting everyday! I mentioned this to Cate and she said she saw somewhere that was hosting a craft-a-long for November and I knew it was fate.

So I signed up for Makers Collective's 30 day challenge I don't know that I will do any of the projects  they have on offer, I know I need to get my stuff completed particularly with Christmas just around the corner. So each day in November I will be crafting for at least 30 minutes and writing about my adventures each day. It may just be a photo with a little bit of a blurb but I will be achieving something everyday.

My rules for November:


  1. Craft for at least 30 minutes each day 
  2. Share a photo of my before and after progress on Instagram.
  3. Write a post each day sharing my daily project. (I'm technically going to be a day behind with sharing on here so I can craft up until I go to bed and I'll share my progress the next day)

Main Goals:


  • I signed up for an ornament swap so I need to make up an ornament!
  • I need to write up at least 3 finishing tutorials which means crafting the actual finishes so I can get photos. 
  • Christmas Gifts (still not 100% sure what I'm doing here ...) 
  • Afternoon Tea ( I really do want to make some significant progress on this if I don't move forward with anything else.) 
  • Ginger Bread Man No. 3 (It needs to be finished)


Just understand that this is me and it can and WILL change on a dime but there are some projects that I do need to finish. Things like the ornament swap piece are non-negotiable but what it is I'm making for that is still up in the air.

The purpose behind this project for me is that I want to make an effort not to just sit there and do nothing but to be productive and achieve what I want/need to achieve. This project isn't about being the fastest or the best at anything it's about making time each day for myself. My craft is me and I have a lot going on at the moment and I often find I sit down at night and do nothing. I don't want to continue that so I'm going to document next month as I enjoy my crafting and (fingers crossed) hopefully finish a couple more projects.

Will you join me?

I'm not necessarily asking you to sign up for the maker's collective 30 day challenge, though that is one way to do it, I'm asking you to join me in my craft-a-long. 

Whether you post on your blog or instagram I would love for you to share it with me so that I can come and cheer you along as well. I want to end November feeling like I've achieved something awesome. 

So how about it? Join me in crafting everyday in November? Post everyday or once a week but always CRAFT everyday. 

Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin

Holiday Banner Giveaway Winners

This is a quick post, since I only got two comments on my giveaway on here I have decided to give the prize to BOTH commenters. If you could please get in contact with me Jo and Elizabeth with your emails so I can send you your prize. Thank you. 

Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin

Wednesday 21 October 2015

WIP Wednesday

Sooooo our household has become a LITTLE LOT obsessed with Doctor Who over these last couple of months. Before this I had enjoyed watching it but didn't go very crazy over it until I started watching from the beginning and actually getting into the story lines. (by beginning I mean the new series) The kids love the angels and get really excited over those episodes. I on the other hand just love River Song. Now the reason why this is relevant is I have been stitching away at one of the charts from CloudsFactory. I have a few of her doctor who charts and could easily get a couple more. This is the Doctor Who Biscornu and is in only 2 colours. This is important as I can easily stitch without too many mistakes while watching more doctor.


It's stitched on I think a 16ct Aida... It's from a grab bag of fabric from sewitall.com.au so I'm not exactly sure but it is a white. I also changed the colours because I just grabbed two blues from my stash. I used: DMC 803 for the dark blue and DMC 794 for the light blue.

I think that is all the information you really need to know :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

P.S. I'm trying out the disqus commenting system as I didn't like how the blogger system handled replies on the blog and I want to start creating discussions not just single comments. Can you easily reply and use the new system?

Monday 19 October 2015

Lord of the Dance and my weekend.

It seems to have become a birthday tradition in my family for our dad to buy tickets to go see one show or another for our birthdays. Last year my mum, sister and I went to 'The Lion King'. This year we went to 'Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games'



Oh gosh it was an awesome night out. We had a fourth ticket so grandma came along as well. Very different to riverdance! Lord of the Dance is more theatrical. It tells the story of a sprite having a bad dream. It was hilarious when the guys came out at one point with no shirts on and the audience all sighed. 

If you have any experience with riverdance or any of the off shoot shows the most amazing part is the points where they all dance together. It's amazing the precision and work that must go in to land every step at exactly the same time. It is an extreme amount of work and training to dance together like that. I love the effect. 

I was also extremely excited about what I wore last night. I've been hinting at this for a couple of weeks and if you follow me over on andsewwecraft you would have seen my posts about it here, here and here.   But even if not here is a photo of me wearing a dress I made in the last week out for a night out with my sister, mum and grandma. It was an amazing night made even better because I felt beautiful in my dress. 


That was Thursday night. I spent the day running around the kids activities on Friday and then on Saturday I had my concert for MBSO. It's the second last one for the year with only the Christmas concerts left. It went great but left me exhausted, 

Then on Sunday I decided we needed to get out of the house so I dragged everyone for a hike up Ngungun. It's one of the glass house mountains and one of the easier hikes. The view from the top was just amazing. 


 Here we are at the top. A nice lady took a photo of all of us. That is Mt Tibrogargan in the distance.


Just to give an idea of where we are sitting in the above photo. That is the edge. It goes straight down. 

Another view out from the top. There were full 360 degree views.

And the top of the Mountain. It was a long rocky ledge. Quite busy this morning but still worth the walk. The view was amazing and the kids are already asking to go again. 

I'll return on Wednesday for some stitching updates but I thought you'd enjoy these photos. What did you get up to this weekend? 

Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin

Wednesday 14 October 2015

WIP Wednesday


After dropping the kids at school this morning I was greeted by this sight! A Dark grey sky and the brilliant purple Jacarandas in front. They almost glowed against the dark sky. I do love the colours of spring here.

I haven't been doing much cross stitch the last couple of days. I have been sewing a dress for myself. You can find the post over at andsewwecraft tomorrow night. I will link it after it goes up. I actually started and FINISHED a dress for myself. Shock horror!!!! I know those that have been around here a while know that I am terrible about actually finishing projects I start. But it is finished and I'm wearing it out tomorrow night.


I do have one goal that I need to do. I signed up for an ornament swap this week and I have to get a christmas ornament stitched and then finished. It will kill two birds with one stone as I need to write up a tutorial about how to finish it as well. I have so many plans and I am really struggling to actually make sure I get them all done. Actually the struggle is not the plans its that I want to do everything at once! I don't have the hands or the head space the do 10 projects at once. I don't think I can multitask that well.

I will leave you some cross stitch. My local newsagent sells the gift kits/patterns for cheap after the magazine has gone back and I managed to get myself some of them for cheap. They sell them from
50 cents through to $3 or so depending what it is. I'm going to have some fun with these and stitch up some pretty stuff.




P.S. Don't forget that I have a giveaway going at the moment to win my new pattern.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Monday 12 October 2015

Holiday Banners Cross Stitch Pattern and Giveaway

A couple of days ago I made a little cake and shared that with you. I was on a roll and found that I had to keep making something and these holiday banners came into my mind. 




I just had to make them and now I'm sharing them with you. They are available for purchase at my etsy store.

I have all sorts if ideas about how you can use them I can see them working on Birthday cards or Christmas ornaments. All the colours and fun you can have. I can see some amazing designs happening. It would be a great way to add a name to an ornament or just a year!


 There are the simple banners. I used one above to create the Happy Birthday under my cake.

The the slightly fancier ones. Two levels of ribbon and all the jazz.




Then they get really complicated with spots to put names or a pretty bow in the middle of the strip. I can see sooooo many awesome ways to make these amazing.

What would you do with this design? 

It's been a while since I've done a giveaway and I feel like doing one now to celebrate the release of this pattern. To win your own copy of this pattern comment below about how you would use these patterns. What colours would you use? What holidays? How would you make them your own? The giveaway will close on Monday October 19 which is one week from now. Give or take a couple of hours/day because I know there is a time difference. 


So enjoy the cake my sister made me and think about what you can do with these patterns. 

Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin

Saturday 10 October 2015

Around the Web

It has only been in the last couple of months but I have become an AVID pinterest user. Well maybe not to the extremes but I can finally see the benefits. I was getting bogged down in all the negatives and the ways that people don't really use it ethically and forgetting the benefits. Soooo I have found the benefits and one enormous one is a great place to store those awesome patterns you see around and all that great information that gets thrown out on this great interwebs.

I have a store of crochet patterns particularly but I have all sorts of yummy stuff to show you today.

Do you like cookies? I know I do but I can be really bad about cooking them I constantly take the lazy route. Now I have a bit of motivation to bake. Cate over at life behind the purple door is having fun this month sharing 31 days of cookies. It's motivating me to actually try baking something. I was awesome over the last weekend and made some shortbreads and I'm going to make these Jam drops very soon. 




As you probably know (though maybe not) I also write for www.andsewwecraft.com and one thing that happens over there is reader tutorials. I have become obsessed with this outfit. I am going to make myself a bohemian kimono dress. I love this design it just makes me happy. 



Also with Halloween just around the corner I just had to share some fun halloween cup cozies over at repeat crafter me. They are so scary :D 




So tell me about any interesting articles you have been reading around the web? Any new project ideas or thoughts? I would love to know what you have found, or are lusting after. 

Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin


Thursday 8 October 2015

It's My Birthday

Yes it's that time of year again. It's my birthday and I'm always excited about it. Last year I started a tradition that I want to keep going. I shared a cross stitch pattern with everyone and I want to do so again.

It's only a little design but I just had to make a cake :D Because everyone needs cake! If you do make it please share photos with me I would love to see what you come up with. I of course designed it with lots of purple in mind. I'm always in search of the perfect purple cake. I could see it looking awesome using gold metallic instead of the yellow... and beads for the flames. There are all sorts of ways you can jazz this up.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I know I am going to have a ball.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Wednesday 7 October 2015

WIP Wednesday

So what do I have to show for this week. ... Well we went away this past weekend as it was a long weekend here is sunny Queensland. It was a beautiful campsite and was a wonderful night away. We were going to stay for two nights then something happened. Actually lots of somethings ... about 30 million blow flies! They just would not leave us alone. They turned what was a lovely campsite into somewhere we couldn't stand to be anymore. So we packed up early on Sunday and came home after only being there for one night. At least it meant that we were definitely ready for school to go back. 


He wore his shorts :D I was so happy!



And oh gosh I was ready for school to go back! I don't know what it was about this last holidays but the kids were going nuts. Super argumentative and just being plain mean to each other and everyone around them. They would settle for stages and then be at each other again over the stupidest things. I think it's the ages but also the heat. It's only spring here and already it's boiling hot during the day. 


Oh to add to the crazy around here I signed up for another course. This one is a Diploma of Accounting. It's finally what I really need to get the experience and knowledge that I need. It also stops me from feeling so useless. I think I can make a good go of it and I know it is what I really want to be doing. It finally feels right. 


I haven't sewn since last week as we had to get ready and then go camping but I have been drawing and doing some tiny cross stitch. I have to finish this wonderful cross stitch... I will get there! It's the third of my gingerbread men and they have been waiting too long to be finished! It is a big goal for me. 


I was having some fun and created a zentagle art flower. I love how pretty it turned out. I drew the flower and then filled it in with patterns. I will have to work on this and do these more often. It's such a pretty way to do it.


Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin

Monday 5 October 2015

Moku Skorts

So you have seen a lot around here at the moment, I'm on a bit of a sewing frenzy. Well as much of a frenzy as I ever get as I jump from project to project. But it is something very high on my list because it's both a need and a want.

After finishing 5 pairs of the Scrappy Shorts, my next goal was some more shorts for the girl because she actually needs them right now. (They both do but not as much once they go back to school next week, they have enough school shorts.) I used another pattern from Issue 5 of the One Thimble magazine. (affiliate link) Can you tell how much I love these magazines at the moment? It's more because at the moment they have exactly what I want in them and I find the tutorials easy to follow. I think I love the variety and I know for sure they are both loving the clothes. These shorts are different from the others because they are more of a skirt as well as shorts. This means she can girly while still not showing her knickers. (her words not mine).


I measured her and then had a large dilemma. I talked about this before but she measures as an 8 waist but with a 12 length. So I decided to make a 10 as that is the size she wears of everything else. Ooops. So they fit beautifully but don't have any room for her to grow up.

But I digress I want to tell you more about the making process first.

 The instructions were easy to follow and I had no issue until I came to the elastic. Now I haven't ever attached elastic before and I knew that I wasn't going to cut the amount specified in the pattern. Also after talking to grandma she didn't think that I should start the elastic from the side but from partly across the front so that the elastic hugs the hips. So instead of using the pattern I attached one side of the elastic into the front and then getting Lana to try it on and attaching it to the other side. It worked really well and they sit beautifully on her.



I then traced the size 12s so she can continue to grow with the shorts. I have made her a pair of blue ones in the 12. She picked out this fabric and I love the colour. I should use these to make a scrappy pair of pants as well. Maybe a simple shirt for her too??


Sorry about the slightly out of focus fabric something about this print is really confusing the focus on the camera. It just doesn't see it right.

I need to see if I can find a simple top pattern as I have enough fabric I think to make her a top as well.

She loves them and is so excited to wear them.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

This post contains affiliate links. If you end up buying the product I get money but it doesn't cost you any more to do so. My opinions are entirely my own.

Thursday 1 October 2015

WIP Wednesday

Ooops it's Thursday... I had this all written up and I thought I published it but apparently I didn't and now I'm fixing it up on Thursday... oops.

So it's been a week and a half of holidays and the kids go back to school next week. Despite the fact that we are technically on holidays it doesn't feel like we've slowed down at all. that is partly because we go out of our way to get to the park/beach every day that the kids aren't at vacation care. We haven't stopped for very long because the moment we stop doing organised activities the kid turn around and complain that they're bored!

We had a doozy of a storm come through a couple of days ago and we had hail and everything through our backyard. That ice stuck around the next day despite the hot day. It says how cold it stays near my washing line. No wonder it takes ages to dry everything.


 I have been sewing many pairs of pants for the kids. I don't actually have an WIP to show you I do have many finishes.

This is still the scrappy shorts from the one thimble magazine issue 5 (affiliate link). Gosh I LOVE this pattern. This time I made them without the side panels and I'm really excited about the way they turned out. Even better is that he loves them!


I had to take these from the floor of his room so they are a little scrunched up but that definitely says that he likes them as they keep being worn. 


 I do love making clothes when they are appreciated so much.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin
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