Friday Finds: Mini Paper Book

I made my own little book using this tutorial and I shared the book on Monday in the Craft Every Day post. But I thought I should share the tutorial I used, it's really simple and easy. Now I just need to actually work out what to do with it!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day Week 4

We're already on week 4 :D but not sure how much crafting I will do today as I managed to burn my fingers doing something really idiotic! Who would have thunk that a pan out of the oven is hot? Yeah apparently not me!!!

Anyway this week I've done a lot of knitting and blackwork and some random drawing.

 

 To break up the tonne of photos of my knitting day after day I took a photo in black and white.

 Where is the weirdest place you have crafted? I was waiting for the uniform shop to open to get the kids new uniforms.

I drew myself a little witch to go with my new book :D This little girl is so cute :D

It took a couple of days but I managed to finish this week's square from the peppermint purple SAL.
 

 There is a drawing challenge going around instagram at the moment called Toonme ... I would recommend looking it up! The artwork is really awesome. But here is my bad rendition of it. Basically you draw a line across your face and turn half of your face into a toon. I hope you like mine. It's not perfect but for an hour playing on my computer it was really fun to do!

 And lastly I made this little book. You can see the video of it on instagram, but it is a little mini paper book. I found a video on youtube and had to make my own version. I don't know what exactly I'll do with it but I love it anyway!

 So,
A lot of random crafts this week but it's been so much fun :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Friday Finds: Butter Beer

I'm back on a Harry Potter kick recently (see my previous post and my new book) and I saw this awesome recipe that I had to share with you guys.

Butter Beer

Even found a video of someone making the butter beer for themselves... I am highly tempted to try it but I think I would collapse under the sugar overload!

could you see yourself eating this one? Or is it something to admire from afar and avoid the extreme sugar?

Learning French

I decided to challenge myself this year... on top of everything else that I am doing in my crazy world and teach myself French! Tu parles français?

I downloaded duolingo and I've been dutifully working my way through it trying to get my vocabulary and usage up enough that I can tackle this book that came in the mail...

Yes that is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in French! Though it's title is actually "at the school of sorcerors" if I am reading that correctly?? (Please correct me if I am wrong because I want to get it right!)

Is anyone else on duolingo and wanting to add me as a friend? I'll be cheering you along the whole way! My username is CaitlinJor7 I hope that is all you need to add me :D

I started learning French when I was 10 years old at school and continued until I was 15. So I did a few years but never became particularly fluent in it and the way it was used at school I'm not surprised, it was one class a week and we learnt some basic vocab and then when I got to high school it was 3 classes a week but again very basic vocab and even repeating some of what I'd learnt already but not cementing it in daily use.

The thing motivating me now is that I'm tired of not being able to say well I speak two languages. In today's world is there really any excuse not to know a second language? So I'm practicing daily with duolingo. I'm watching disney films on disney+ in French and I have this book to read as well as a couple of others I found on kindle. I also found some podcasts and videos on youtube that I like. I'm slowly going to try and immerse myself in French where it is possible/reasonable to do so and I think that will make a difference and I hope I can become fluent for once.

So if I start writing two paragraphs, one in French and one in English don't be surprised! Because I'm going to need all the practice I can get.

Have you learnt a second or third language? Do you have any advice or help?

Anyway, back to my regularly scheduled program soon.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day Week 3

I have been having such an awesome time with this week :D I have been enjoying seeing everyone's posts on instagram and it's sooo awesome to see so many great projects. This week has been a big one as I released my latest pattern. Just a cute little sloth to make, not the deadlift girl yet. I spend all day on computers at work I am kinda avoiding them at home when I can.

I'm a day late this week as I didn't want to double post yesterday with my new pattern. I meant to post that on Saturday but realised when I came in to write this post that I hadn't so I'm a little late for my self imposed timeline.

I didn't touch Baroque this week but I have done quite a lot of stitching. I have a couple of little finishes, one of which is WELL over due!

I finished this little bird a few weeks ago but didn't show him before, but I started stitching the second of the little ornaments in this collection. It's a tree. 

I have also been drawing a little bit. Trying out a different style for the lips. I'm not sure I like it but meh ... it's cute!

I set up my frame to work on my Peppermint Purple SAL piece on Wednesday. I love how easy it is to work with the frame. 

This blanket got a bit of stitching done on it.... it really needs to be completed. I will get there eventually.

 Then I managed to finish this little sloth in time to release the pattern 

And finish the stitching on week 3 of the peppermint purple SAL

The detail in each week is beautiful and I love how this thread shows it off.

I also have an AWESOME finish to showcase for you. This one is long in coming. When I crazily decided to do the Crazy January Challenge in 2013 this is one of the 15 pieces I managed to start before giving up. So it has been a long 7 years to say the least, and it shouldn't have taken this long but.... it's easy to put things in a box and forget they're there. All it took was one day with it out and it's all done.

So hard to try and capture the beauty of this piece with the sparkles and everything.

 And lastly I have been knitting a little. The hope is I will get this shawl done for when it gets cold but we shall see...

How is your own Craft Every Day challenge going?

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Sloth Pattern

Sloth Pattern

Who doesn't need a little sloth in their life? Well I know I definitely do! I have a friend who is as obsessed with sloths as I am with owls so I just had to make this cute little pattern set for her. It started as a sloth to match the rest of my animals and I made one with the border and everything but I found it's just not as cool as one hanging from a tree! So you have both options available in one pattern. You can make it hanging from a tree branch or add the background and match it to the rest of my animal patterns. You could also turn this one into a crochet blanket.

I even managed to stitch up the little guy.

I love how it turned out and I hope all you wonderful stitchers enjoy this little pattern. 

Question to everyone ... how could you see yourself using this little Sloth? 

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Friday Finds: Into the unknown

I haven't done this for a while but I saw this video and had to share with all of you. While she isn't technically perfect she is only 7! Her rendition is beautiful and shows great potential and I love the video!

I hope you enjoy :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Snow White Biscornu is FINISHED!!!

It's been WAAAY too long and I know I say this all the time but this piece I started just after finishing the doctor who biscornu which was sometime around December 2018 ish ... which is a while ago!At least that is where I can trace it back to. The first post on the blog is January 2019 but the piece isn't just started soo... I don't know exactly. I am trying to get better again about recording properly here but it is hard sometimes.

Anyway enough of the rambling and into the purpose of this post. To show off my awesome finish that isn't just finished stitching it is also FINISHED!!!!!

I don't know what the aida is it's a random dyed one that I had but it's such a pretty green mix. The pattern is the Snow White Biscornu by Cloudsfactory.

I didn't finish the whole back according to the pattern I just didn't want to do anymore. One thing that this doesn't show is I did add my name and the year to the back.

and here I am sewing up my biscornu :D I love how it turned out! It is really satisfying to sew up.

 I finished it at night so I tried to get a photo but it ended up in really yellow light of course...

 And a photo of the finished biscornu. It is impossible once it's turned into a finish to actually get a good photo of every part. Which I really like.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day 2020 Week 2

I am loving this challenge. It is so fun to make sure that I do SOMETHING each day. I will find that it gets harder once university starts but it is making me happier. I also did a fair amount of cleaning and sorting of my threads and projects but I haven't got any photos of it. I feel very good about the progress I've made.

If you want to see the photos as they appear they are all on instagram.
I've done some drawing this week :D While sitting at work this was fun to draw.

I also finished a little more on Baroque ... I really need to finish this square!

I also FINALLY finished this little owl :D I love the difference between before and after backstitching.

Week 2 was released in the peppermint purple SAL and I love the way this is turning out.

 I also finally made my life a little bit easier by setting my frame up. It is so much easier to stitch quickly set up properly.

I've also been test stitching a new pattern. I have a couple of things to finalise but this little one will be out this week.

Then I finally finished the snow white biscornu. I have had this one on the go for WAAAY too long for a little piece.
  

So I have been really productive this week and I feel so awesome. There have been times tired after a day at work that I wanted to just sit and do nothing but picking up my stitching made me feel great. I have something to show for each day.

You can still join me in #crafteveryday2020 I would love to see more of you on instagram sharing with me. Or comment below and link to your blog posts where you are sharing this.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Bush Fire Donation

As most of you would know I live in Australia and while I haven't been personally affected by the fires I keep feeling that there was something that I needed to do. So I am offering this. For every Australian animal pattern that I sell through the month of January I will donate $1 from every pattern to a charity helping out with the bush fire relief. I am not sure which one I am trying to find a good one but I'm particularly looking at the charities helping the animals.

So which patterns are included in this?

1. ANY of my owl patterns (while not just Australian I love them and want to share them with you more) and a barn owl is very Australian!

 2. The Koala and the Kangaroo patterns.

3. Lastly the Australian Butterfly patterns are also included in this.

I hope that everyone reading this is safe and sound at the moment and my heart goes out to everyone affected by the fires at the moment!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day 2020 Week 1

So we are currently at the start of Day 6 and I'm back at work but I can safely say for the first 5 days of the year I have managed to craft EVERY day!

Now these are slightly out of order as I worked on Baroque by inkcircles on day 1 and you can see the photo I took of it on my instagram but I have a nicer photo I took a few days later when I worked on it again so I've included that here :D 

On Day 2 I did a few things but one of the main crafts was designing. I made a big go at this piece. and it's almost done. Needs to be tweaked and honestly I was second guessing everything so I had to walk away for a while.

On day 3 I started a stitch a long by Peppermint purple! This will be going all year and you can join at any point. But it will be maybe 1 hour of blackwork each week. I'm so excited by this one. I decided to use the African Violet on the left and DMC 535 which is a grey for the outlines. I will see if I can get ahold of more African Violet otherwise I may put some plain colours in there that match in with it as I don't think I have enough to get through the whole piece. But I am just using stash I have at home and I'm excited to use all my pretty colours.

On Day 4 I kept working on Baroque. This is the photo I took midway through the day, but I have done a bit more but of course have no photo of it yet. But I'm getting closer and closer to finishing this square! This project is my priority this year because it has been too long since I started it!

And Day 5 we went to GOMA and southbank for the day. Ending with dinner near the lagoon so the kids could go swimming. While they were enjoying that we enjoyed talking and I stitched some more on my barn owl. This piece should be finished by now but I kept putting it down to deal with other projects. But it is my current portable MUST stitch.

Is anyone else joining me in trying to stitch/craft everyday? You can join in at any point of the year. If you use the tag #crafteveryday2020 on instagram I am monitoring it and I'll come and cheer you on!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin