Knit-Wit

I'm about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. I'm going to learn to knit. While I do know how to knit, I don't know how to cast on (my Mum and sister have always got me started). I am a very talented knitter - I can go from starting with 30 stitches, and wind up with 61. Takes a talent, kind of like making something out of nothing, right?

So this weekend, I'm going to learn to knit. Well start to learn how to knit. Good and proper. So I can make more than a scarf (that gets thicker as the knitting continues).

And how good is this? I won a super good giveaway on Knot Sew Crafty (that Alexis sure knows how to put together a kicking fun-pack - will you marry me?) - and what should arrive as part of the goodies? Two balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. Delicious!

And speaking of winners, three winners have been drawn for the Georgie Love Bouncin' Birthday giveaway by the random number generator. I can't do screen grabs, but here are the lucky punters:

- JessicaNeale

- Hoppo Bumpo

- Pepper

Please email me with your addresses and I will post your prizes out ASAP! I will have the Doctor randomly draw the prizes out lucky dip stylie.

Hoppo Bumpo Is My Homegirl

So last night was the first night of the rest of my life. Or at least, the first night of sewing classes. Either way, I was nervous, as I am when I start something new, butterflies brewing in my stomach, it felt like first-day-of-school jitters!

I arrived at 7pm with a young girl, her mother and her brother. She would have been around 16. I realised then that the night ahead could be filled with teenie boppers, and I decided right then and there that I was just going to deal with being an almost 30 year old novice sewer. I had to be ok with it.

Then a couple of women my age turned up. Phew! I didn't have to pretend I knew who the Jonas Brothers were. Or what shade of chapstick I was going to wear so it didn't clash with my braces. Or who I was going to pash at the back of the school oval the next day, like, like, ok? Something like that.

I pulled out my pattern (big ups to Hoppo Bumpo who hooked me up with the right pattern - Simplicity 8493 - kids pjs - awwww yeah!). Thank goodness for this recommendation. Hoppo Bumpo is the goods. This pattern was right up my alley - and a good starting point. The Doctor and I had fun choosing some fabrics (though where I'm more prone to spots and yachts, he's more prone to diggers and dumptrucks - yikes!). We settled on a selection with the pattern in my hot little hand.

Back to the class - it was when I was cutting out my pattern that I decided that I was going to ask questions. Loads of questions. I wasn't to care if people ogled me thinking 'jeepers' this kidult is only just learning to sew' - nope. Not me. I was above that. I was starting out. I had let it be known. I've revved a sewing machine to sew myself some scrunchies back in the day, but that's the extent of it. Ok, ok, I'll confess again - my sister used to do my school sewing projects when she came home from uni, ok?

So pattern cut, fabric cut. Pants sewn, pants overlocked, and the teacher tells me that next week I will be finishing the pjs altogether. A little disappointing for The Doctor who thought he was getting them today (though I gently tried to warn him that mummy was wearing an L-plate for a reason). He also tried to tell me that he should come with me to sewing. And when that wasn't working, he told me that 'Daddy and I can be your teachers mummy, you don't have to go.'

Yes.. And how would that be for my mental health. Not so good. But sewing class - awww yeah, strictly for the hardcore. And Hoppo Bumpo is my homegirl.

This Is.. Show Off Time

I've struggled with this week's theme from Katie. I can't come up with a plum thing. I could have stockpiled all my garbage bin treasure, but - as if I could have waited that long!

I don't have any amazing talents. Unless making a mess counts? I don't have any awe-inspiring collections. I'm not related to anyone famous. And I certainly don't have world record breaking anythings.

So what am I going to show off..? Good question my friends. Good question.

For now I'm still brainstorming..!

Anyway, consuming thoughts at the moment are with the stencil-along I signed up for so enthusiastically with Hoppo Bumpo. I've still not started - but that's not for lack of trying. I tried to purchase the enigmatic freezer paper locally, and you can't blame a girl for trying because - I just wanted to start then and there.. But here's the conversation that ensued (and please keep in mind, I know the woman who owns the shop):

Me: "Do you stock freezer paper?"

Shopgirl: "No. What do you want it for?"

Me: "I want to do some stencilling."

SG: "Oh well we don't have freezer paper, but you can just use baking paper."

Me: Silence. Dead stony silence. "Really?" Madly thinking - hmm, I've been reading all the blogs and no one has mentioned baking paper and really it would make sense to use it if you could - but you know, I just don't think that baking paper is going to fuse with the fabric... Hmmm. "Hmm, ok."

SG: "Or else we have some plastic stuff you can use."

Me: Re-thinking this phone call. Really - why did I bother? I should just get organised and buy it online and hurry the heck up. Then wondering how I can get out of this diplomatically. Decide that I will just play along. I know baking paper is not the key! "Ok, that's great, I'll try the baking paper (not in a million years)."

Seriously peeps, if you don't know about something - don't pretend you do. I am totally clueless about stencils, but have been madly reading blogs trying to get the lowdown. At least I am honest, can you imagine the debacle I would find myself in using baking paper. HA!

On the research front, I've found this cool website choc full of free stencils.. Is this cheating? Am I meant to be designing my own? Because if I design my own, things are going to get ugly. Real ugly. I mean even uglier than if I used baking paper.

Who wouldn't want this on a t-shirt? Or this woman who seems intent on letting everyone smell her armpits? Can someone tell me what's happened to this man's *ahem* appendage?

Anyway, the freezer paper is winging its way to me. I may be able to redeem myself yet. But let's not hold our breath.

Thrift Shifter and the Great Set of Knockers

Please note: title is dedicated to Hoppo Bumpo.

This seems crazy, I know, but I can't keep out of op shops lately. It looks like I'm going to have to set up a shop because my husband is going to hit the roof and then some. But I just won't tell him about this score.

I try and go to my local one at least once a week (and now I've found out which day the big load of booty arrives - hoorah!) to keep check on what's happening in the local world of charity shops.

Today, my dear reader, was no exception.

After looking around and around I felt a little dejected. For the first time I thought I was going to leave empty handed. I thought - how could this be? I can't leave empty handed! No no no, there must be something deep in the bowels of this shop for me.

So I did another circuit. The $25 crochet tablecloth that I love so dearly was still there. But I think that's just ridiculously expensive (in fact katiecrackernuts blogged about the prices just yesterday - and as an aside, I saw this via Mikes). Anyway. I left it there. Again.

Nothing yielded in the linen/crafty section.

I went to the toy section. A whole bunch of real ugly softies. But then further down - a great pair of Italian-made (anything Italian is fine by me) red binoculars. My little dude and I made cool binoculars not long ago out of - you guessed it - toilet rolls. We decorated them, and toted them around the yard, bird-watching. He took those 'knockers' around everywhere, to the butcher, to the supermarket. We bird-watched 'til the break of dawn. It was a fun little activity.

Then in my big bin score, I found some very old school 'knockers' that were a little battered, so he had those. "They might be somewhere," says my son. That means, they're down in the abyss that is the back of the couch.. Or under the bed.. Somewhere.

So today, we've been back out bird watching. Spotted so far with the new 'knockers':
- 1 kookaburra fluffing up its feathers

- 1 currawong harassing the kookaburra

- 1 grey bird high up in some branches

Not much in the way of bird life today.. but we're about to go walking, so maybe we'll spot some more in the 'hood.

I also found some Willow tableware. This made me happy because it reminds me of the unit Matt and I lived in before we had babies. The person that owned that unit had a bit of style and had the Willow print put onto the fridge and the water heating unit. It was cool. Trust me. So this find had nostalgia written all over it.
Some Cuisenaire Rods - awesome. I found some of these a while ago too..

And finally these awesome vintage blue plastic beads. They are heavy! Sorry about the dodgy photo a la Mary Boleyn. It was the best I could do in a mad flap.

Plus these funny little karafes that I found while on holidays. Kind of weird because I bought these two - then after that, every single op shop I went into had either one of the designs. Apparently they've gone out of vogue in Tamworth! Shock! Horror! It was like playing Where's Wally with small jugs (that one was for Hoppo Bumpo too).

- Someone asked a few posts back what oppy meant.. Op shops! Just op shops.. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, I wasn't playing hard to get. I am just sloooooow.