Wednesday 27 November 2013

Vintage Sheet Dress



Remember how I told you yesterday that I had finished TWO projects? Well this is the second one!

Made on impulse out of an old vintage sheet, I followed an approximate pattern of one of my trusty dresses. And by approximate I literally mean I traced around it. But hey it worked!

What didn't work was my cameras white balance! I sincerely hope I am not that pasty but I fear it is true.

I lined the top piece but left the skirt unlined. Lining is not my strong suit so I just winged it and with a few adjustments (read: lots of unpicking) I managed to make it work.







I love the purple floral with a hint of blue thrown in for good measure. The print is really delicate and less busy than a lot of other vintage sheets I have lying around.

So while I still fit the dress (not much room for my expanding belly and other things) you may see me wearing the heck out of it.

xx

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Ripple Cushion


I finally finished a project! Well, I've finished two so far this week. I guess it's because Christmas is around the corner. Although the projects I finished are both for ME! Typical.

This cushion was an idea in my head, I have a large supply of half balls of yarn so this little project was perfect for using up some of that stash.

One of my favourite combinations is black and white mixed with one other colour to make it pop. In this case - gold.


I used Attic 24's Neat Ripple Pattern which I also used earlier on in the year to make this adorable baby blanket.

I made the edges straight and added a border before machine stitching the crochet cover onto some black cotton. I even pulled off an envelope closure with only one lot of unpicking!




It feels good to have completed a project and to have more Amy-made things around the house.


Thursday 21 November 2013

Week 16 Update



This week:
  • Baby is the size of an Avocado! I don't quite know sometimes where he/she is hiding in there though!
  • My belly gets bigger during the day so when I go to bed at night it feels pretty solid. Time to start the Bio Oil I think.
  • Baby can scrunch up its eyes if I shine a light on my tummy.
  • Baby can now hear my voice!
  • Scan is booked in for Dec 17th! 
  • Food faves: Bacon sandwiches on white bread with mayo, apples (of which I am the noisiest of eaters), mashed potato and gravy (always), bread - savoury scrolls from Countdown to be be specific.
  • Food uh-uhs - Minced beef or eggs on their own. Or the smell of either cooking. Not enough to make me chuck but enough to make me need to remove myself from the room. We are having nachos tonight so the sour cream and cheese should disguise the mince taste.
  • Morning sickness is now seeming to only be a weekly occurance as opposed to its usual daily. WIN! I still am nauseous between 6.30-9am but it is way more bareable.
  •   I am starting the hunt for some of the bigger baby items - a cot and a bassinet. We ticked off the pram a few weeks ago (yay for trademe). We bought this one with the carrycot if you were wondering.
  • Overall I am feeling pretty awesome this week, almost enough to forget I'm pregnant until I reach up too far or get up too fast. I won't mention any of the less glamorous symptoms :P

Wednesday 13 November 2013

15 Week Update


This week:
  • Baby is the size of an orange!
  • The 3 teeny tiny bones in the inner ear are developing so baby will be able to hear soon!
  • Baby is dancing up a storm in there but I still can't feel it. Looking forward to feeling those first movements in the next couple of weeks!
  • I am *hopefully* starting to reach that magical 2nd trimester - Nausea and vomiting have decreased slightly and mornings are becoming easier to manage. 
  • I have graduated to maternity shorts - they will be my work staple over the hot summer.
  • I have a cocktail of pills to take each night - iodine, calcuim and asprin (which are in the shape of a heart!)
  • No cravings yet, still trying to get my appetite to resemble normal.  
  • Dave and I are on the countdown to our 20 week scan where we will be finding out the gender (hopefully). This will probably happen the week before Christmas which will be the best present ever!
  • My parents have been visiting and making a fuss over Dave and I: cooking us meals, helping do our major and minor landscaping jobs and will be taking us away to the West Coast this weekend too!
  • Dave has been the most supportive husband and dad-to-be. He has cooked many, many meals, eaten strange food combinations (chips, gravy and cheese) and put up with all my weird and wonderful and annoying symptoms, all with a smile on his face. I am so, so blessed to have this guy by my side.

Monday 11 November 2013

The BAG Bag



These should be a household staple. Seriously! I have seen that many 'bag drawers' or 'let's use one big plastic bag to hold all the other ones' OR my favourite - plastic bag origami.

How about you have a pretty Bag bag on display in the kitchen? Or a pretty one tucked away in the pantry? Or even a mini one under the sink (or wherever).

My point is - these are SO easy to make - so why not use it to pretty up your place? Smart storage CAN be pretty storage!

eek I took this pic funny, the bricks do go the right way normally!



In case you were wondering, fabrics were scraps leftover from:
Quilted Laptop Case
Standard Lamp Makeover

Monday 4 November 2013

Landscaping Adventures

Nearly 6 months has passed since we moved into our own home. It feels like this has been home forever but at the same time everything is still new and exciting and has so much potential.

Since we are waiting for money to come through from EQC for the interior of our house, we decided to tackle some much needed landscaping, especially in the back yard.

Our section is decent sized (600m2+) with a tiny house (80m2) so there is tonnes of space at both the front and back. So far out the front we have taken out a few big bushes and trees that were blocking sun from our lounge. I even used a chainsaw for the first time last weekend to destroy a camellia bush - so much fun! I also did a big weed killing mission so everything is dead muahaha. Our Big Plan for the front section is to turn most of it into a carport with light coloured gravel stones and a minimalistic carport structure. Since we don't plan on using the front section for entertaining we thought it would be better put to use as low maintenance car storage. The best part of this Plan is that we might have to hire a bobcat - FUN!

But every other fine (and not so fine) weekend since we moved in has been spent in the back yard. 2 trailer loads have gone to the dump already with a third loaded up ready to go. So far the majority of the work has been demolition which is fun and accomplishes a lot with very little money!
Here are a few progress pics of what we have been up to!

First up - the aviary. What the cuss? There was a giant cherry tree growing up through the mesh roof of the triangular monstrosity and a lot of chicken wire and plastic wrap. And not a bird to be seen. Last weekend it came down with some power tools, a sledge hammer and some brute force. We decided to keep the planter that was part of it (?) and it turns out it is the perfect sunny place for some strawberries. The sheds behind are staying for now, since they provide much needed storage. I will probably end up giving them a lick of paint to make my eyes feel better.

Such green grass! Thank you spring weather! I think this was a very prolific veggie garden some 10 years ago - when we inherited it, it was a mess of wooden planks and uneven ground. Now it is one very liveable, playable lawn. 

Before - the yard as it was when we moved in - the junk pile is all the rubbish left on the property. The back right section is the part we have made the lawn in. There was an old, cracked concrete pad front left that our LIM report says was for a garage in the 60s that was never built. So Dave decided it was the perfect place for a shed. 

After - Fully loaded trailer. Picnic table that keeps getting moved for lawn mowing purposes. Lush green grass.


The process of creating such lush lawn. A LOT of digging and turning over soil with a shovel. I *may* have found out I was pregnant halfway through this job (but I kept going because it is SO satisfying turning a horrible section into mud!) After that was a few evenings of putting on our gumboots and stomping over the mud patch to make it level. Then came the sowing of the grass seed and daily watering and thanks to the crazy all-4-seasons-in-one-day Christchurch spring weather we had a lawn in a month!

The biggest job was removing these two sections of fence and hedge-covered-fence. It opened up the yard so much after it was gone and we discovered another concrete path. We decided to level off and box up the tiny garden in the middle and turn it into a veggie and herb garden It gets a lot of sun and our broccoli are loving it!

Dave's first job (obviously) was building a very man-sized work shed. We bought a cheap kitset and got to work and of course the pre-drilled holes didn't match up so it took more time than anticipated. Dave ended up enlisting the help of two of his most manly friends to raise this beast. Once it was up however, 6 foot 3 Dave discovered that he could only stand up straight in the apex of the roof. It was perfect for 5'6 Amy though! Dave's solution was to add 200mm of planks along the bottom of the shed and add the same amount above the doors and call it perfect. He is a thinker that guy. I am still not sure how he managed to jimmy the shed up onto the planks though - he did it all by himself one afternoon.

This is our latest project. It seems our fingers have become quite green this year. The most I have managed to grow previously was a pot of basil on the kitchen windowsill which went to seed and died. I am now wise in the ways of basil growing - pull off the seed heads and your plant will keep growing!
After hearing stories of sneaky birds eating tasty red strawberries, I insisted on getting some bird proof netting to save the berries. Now the hard part - waiting for them to ripen.

I hope to have more garden updates for you after summer - we have a few fruit trees and I have no idea what they will produce so there will be some surprises there. We might even get the carport done if things go well!
xx