Organising my space

So I've been living in a TINY unit for the last 8 months. Well not that tiny just not much extra room. It has been a big big big step DOWN in the craft room space. Most of my craft stuff is living at my parents house in the shelving under their house because I don't have somewhere to store it here. What craft stuff I do have here is currently living in the cupboard of the little girls room! So I don't have the largest collection of stuff here.

I've been using the kitchen table to spread out my craft stuff and more often than not I will take over the whole table. Since I've been starting to get into basic project life stuff I've been wanting somewhere to easily store the basics so that I can get to it but still not take up the whole area. It is still the kitchen table and needs to look tidy. I don't do tidy very well when I'm crafting.... can you see the awesome mess.

This is what I used to use.

Now I got these drawers from Cate over at Behind the Purple Door. She is an AVID scrapbooker and her stash of stuff is quite impressive. But because she got some new drawers and stuff she no longer needed these so she offered them to me.

They look so awesome on the table.

Yeah one drawer is missing but they will still work like I want them too. I may also be able to put my sewing threads in it too. There is a lot of room for stuff. Much more than I had!!

But I do have one problem. The drawers are too big for all my little stuff, like my stamps so I decided to make some drawer inserts.

 Using some boxes I had around the house. I cut the sides off and then used sticky tape to tape them back together.

I then covered the boxes in pretty coloured paper. Using my washi tape to make them look even prettier.

 I even added a divider to separate out my inks. They look so pretty.

My stamps look so pretty too..... anyone would think that I love owls.....

So that was my craft this afternoon after my assignment was in. I feel so good about having something organised. How do you organise your space?

Now I'm going to disappear into my cross stitching. 

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

WIP Thursday :D Again

I'm not sure what it is at the moment but Wednesdays hasn't been working as a posting day. Though I blame that on the spider. I have a phobia of spiders. It's not something I'm proud of and I'm trying to work through it. I no longer freak out just seeing a spider but I still can't handle touching one or getting too close. Well yesterday I didn't just see it I walked into the web and ended up having to untangle the web and SPIDER from my hair. Cue absolute meltdown with hysterical crying. I don't deal well at all. So posting or anything didn't happen yesterday afternoon.

AWESOME news though. Two great things have happened to me just today.

1. I have finally bought myself a domain name. www.naughtscrossstitches.com :D So it is much easier to find me now! It's all connected the only change is when you check my feed you get directed to my domain instead of the blogger address which is great.
2. As of today I am now a contributor to And Sew We Craft. It is very exciting for me and I'm looking forward to sharing some of my crafting journey on there as well.

 SO What have I been up to this week? Not much.... but a whole lot of thinking. On Friday I DRAAGGGGEDDD (there wasn't much dragging really) my mother down to East Coast Fabrics, an awesome fabric store if you aren't picky on the lines as they stock end of line which means it's roughly $9 a metre but you're not guaranteed to find it there again.


I have a friend with a baby due in March and another with a baby due in July. It's just that sort of year!
The friend due in March I'm making a cross stitch sampler for and it's my secret stitching at the moment. But the one due in July asked me to make her a quilt if I could. I couldn't resist the challenge and along with my mum and sister we're all contributing to make it sooo pretty.

Now I will be sharing my quilting journey as she has said she doesn't mind knowing what it's going to look like before so I'm very very excited to share as I go. I don't do hidden stitching very well. It's killing me not to share my cross stitch but I will stay strong!

I will share more about what I want this quilt to become in another post once I can get my thoughts aligned properly.

I also spent Sunday at an all day rehearsal for my band which was pretty cool but very exhausting. I got an awesome photo of the brass section :D

Now the music we're playing at the moment is fun but it is devoid of a lot of trumpet parts. Then when we do play there are 6 of us playing the same part. So during the rehearsals at the moment I am managing to get some knitting time.

You should be able to recognise this pattern by now. I love it because it makes a lovely easy cloth that doesn't require much thought on my part. I can easily drop my knitting and pick up my trumpet if I have play without losing my spot.

Anyway I'm going to stop rambling and go to band.

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Woohoo! Skirt happy dances!

Honestly I don't know why I always do this but I always put off finishing the last couple of steps as if admitting that a piece is finally finished is the hardest part. I sewed the bottom tier on earlier this week and it's been sitting waiting for me to make the steps needed to hem it.

That said I did kinda want to use the overlocker so I had to wait until I got to my parents house today to stick it through mum's machine. So 20 minutes later because I had a thread break and I had to re-thread the whole machine (not fun at all) the overlocking was done and as soon as I got home I sewed up the hem.

She ABSOLUTELY loves it!

 I could barely get her to stand still to get some photos. But I also wanted to try getting some while the skirt was spinning.... It failed but this look lovely anyway!

This skirt was made using the waist of an old pair of jeans and adding two gathered tiers of fabric below. The bottom of the skirt is quite wide but I love how much it swirls which was the plan.

I didn't use a pattern but I will be making another one as well with a darker fabric so between the two of them I will try and write up some basic instructions.... There really was no particular plan just to use a pair of pants up that couldn't be used anymore.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Voodoo Rabbit Toy Club

I treated myself to a toy club that Voodoo Rabbit are doing. Now if you follow my blog much you will know that if I make a soft toy 9 times out of ten the pattern will be by funky friends factory. I don't have all her patterns by a very long shot actually I have a few that I make again and again. Mainly the honey bear because it's such an easy pattern and so good to give to babies. 

Voodoo Rabbit are a fabric store in Brisbane and they have an awesome collection of cool fabrics. Also Funky Friends is a lady who lives north of Brisbane so they are both local which makes me want to support them more. 
 

 Honey Bear & Stu the Sea Turtle

  

And the latest turtle (not yet finished) It's still waiting for eyes! 

 

I've also made some Ollie Owls but can't find any photos of them at the moment.... my internet is playing up so I can't go back through my archives easily. 


It just happened that the 7 patterns that will be coming with a kit are all ones I don't have so I was very excited to sign up and get some new toys. I do have a thing for her toys. Soooooo easy to understand the patterns and soooooo easy to sew them! You can find them here :D

My mail came today and there sticking out of my letter box was a package :D

 Ohk I'm not sure why the picture is upside down but apparently I'm not allowed to swap it around.

 

My package came today and there was a special little surprise I had a package of bells and eyes which sounds so weird.... but is so exciting to see. 

I'm so excited to get started with this Hippo :D I just have one more other toy to finish.... that I started before Christmas then I can get to it. 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

WIP Wednesday

Well I started off thinking that I hadn't done much. But then I remembered that I hadn't been on since Thursday so I have actually got a couple of projects to show you. Not all of you follow instagram so that is even better :D

I'm this far along with the jeans skirt now. I'm in the process on getting the bottom tier gathered up and sewn on but matching the gathers is taking a while..... I'm trying to work out how to get it looking neat but that will take effort.

I also got some photos printed and I actually put together some project life layouts. I am in love with this method if scrapbooking. It is so easy. 

That is my mum at the top of this layout she looks so lovely.

This was some of our holiday fun. I got some great photos of the kids.

 They are all very simple layouts but they suit me and my purpose.

So happy stitching,
Caitlin