TropicalSoup

The raspy creative space on the rocks.

Not sure how to explain my absence yesterday - I've lost my voice again in what is the 3rd (4th?) round of laryngitis/tonsilitis melange that I've had since March(!) and somehow that's equated to me not wanting to write!

 

Today's creative space (I'm playing along with Kirsty's - of Kootoyou fame - Creative Space meme) is brought to you by ice. Not the drug, or the questionable '90s singer, but the little cubes that make your drinks drinkable, and your hard surfaces ringed. I like my drinks cold. with ice. A lot of ice. Unfortunately though, one of the side effects of cold drinks is condensation puddles that leave particularly telling rings on all your hard surfaces. I get so sick of those - never mind the damage they do, but I find glass coasters completely impractical (and they stick to the bottom of the glass too!) and bamboo/flax/other woven ones seem to get manky very quickly from all the retained moisture. So, I whipped up a batch of coordinating, (hopefully) non-naff fabric coasters, that do the trick, and can be tossed in the washing machine to freshen up. Ridiculously easy to do, and quite thin (only 1 layer of standard cotton batting in the middle) so there's not turbulence for the wine or the diet coke. As a bonus, my two have also roadtested them as indoor frisbees, with a resounding 2 thumbs up.

...So clearly they're a success.

Morning glory

It's not that I'm not a morning person, it's just that I'd be more comfortable if they started later...like 10 or so. This is not something new - my non-morningness was the bane of my early bird mum's life for a good chunk of my childhood, and I remember her getting so exasperated that I wasn't up with the larks, chirpy and cheery. And though I am just one of those people who is more active, more creative and more productive in the evening and night hours, sometimes I can certainly see what all that early morning fuss is about. These pics were taken a few weeks ago (erm, May - sheesh time flies!) when the kids and I had all been up since before 6, and decided to get all rugged up and go outside to watch the sunrise. It was lovely. And really, really cold.

check out the frost on the field - we're not in a snow zone, but man Rotorua knows how to turn up the chill factor!

Oma rabiti...

Grr...I've spent a good part of the day wrestling with my sewing machine and some insolent thread...but that is a story for another post...

I was recently contacted by someone who bought one of the BahaCoca bunny ears hats from a Wellington retailer a few years ago, and she had hunted me down for another (the act of being hunted made me feel very special indeed!)...a toddler size for her son, as well as a larger one for her 4 year old daughter. Being a 4 year old girl though, the standard yarn choice of grey/brown marle simply would not do...and this was the result. (It's a little pinker in real life, but still with a generous red, and bits of oranges, purples, mauve, lemons and white) It worked up so cutely that I confess to having a rather tough time letting it go. I was rewarded last night though, when an email came through from the customer saying how much all members of the family loved their new hats, complete with a sweet photo of the new bunny wearers. Warm fuzzies all round. 

A quick gift

...a birthday present for a new (and lovely) friend. Based on the fabulous gathered clutch tutorial by Noodlehead, though with a few modifications (because I just can't help myself!) Just the right size for stashing a bar of Lindt Chili chocolate - her favourite!

And a little embroidery and some felt circles made a cut out card blank a little special. Perfect.

My Creative space...on the wall

I was very honoured recently when a high school friend (hooray for facebook!) commissioned a quilt for her nephew and godson. I am playing about with the strips on my pseudo felt wall, and hoping to get the combo right so I can put it together today...toying with the idea of adding more pieced strips in there...but planning a pieced back as well.

See more creative spaces over at Kirsty's place, Kootoyou.

Happy Birthday Cole & Imogen!

What a weekend. What a party. What a birthday. What a desire for a sleep in! My babies celebrated their 4th birthday in style, and we had a full house for the party - 15 friends (and another 5 or so younger siblings and older cousins), and that many parents...all inside on the wettest, wildest day! Needless to say, the planned outdoor activities like coconut shy, cardboarding down the grassy slope and bowling got shelved, but we still had lots of fun with ball toss and *pin the moustache on the strong man*...and eating lollies and only-just-finished-and-iced-by-auntie-at-the-start-of-the-party-cupcakes and homemade pizzas and playing with friends and catching balloons and just generally having a great time. I was rather mortified that the first guests arrived as I was turning off the shower, and the stars of the show were still in their pjs...last minute prep had been very last-minute...do you think anyone will believe my claim that the chaos was orchestrated to add to the carnival atmosphere? Needless to say I didn't get any pics of everything all set up and lovely in preparation (or of the 17 brightly coloured sets of 3 felt balls I had made to give to each guest as their *prize* from the carnival games)...but these pics give you a little idea of the nuttiness that was our house on Sunday (the shots of decorations were taken this morning of the remaining bits and pieces...I think we'll leave the bunting up for a little while)...

 

 

Happy birthday my beautiful, amazing, sweet creatures. I am so thrilled and honoured to have the opportunity to watch you grow into the people you are, and discover all the wonders of the world around you, but goodness, it is a little bittersweet too sometimes, to realise how fast this time is flying by.

My Creative Space...brought to you by french knots and homemade fabric stiffener

A little something for each of my babes to put on their walls:

 

 

Both mounted on ridiculously-cheap-canvas-bases from the $2 shop - the apple blossom tree is 9x9", the sailboat 10x10".

See more creative spaces over at Lacy Kirsty's Creative Space at Kootoyou.

Anyone seen 200?

Oops, my last post was my 200th. I knew that ahead of time, but clearly the short term memory loss is a recurring thing, and I completely forgot to mention it as intended. I thought a little giveaway might be in order to celebrate, but me being me, it will be next week - right at the moment I am up to my eyeballs in party prep, knitting/wool orders, a quilt commission, a ridiculously hard working husband who needs a sounding board (FYI: 1 am is not the right time for 90 minute conversation about the differences between frustration and repudiation of contract and their impact on the case. Don't get me wrong, I'll be very interested and participate fully...in every conversation D and I have about legal issues when he gets home from work - always at insane hours these days - I just won't be able to function on 4 hours sleep several days in a row. Does this mean I'm getting old?) ....right now I'm a little busy and distracted.But the excitement for Sunday...wow, it is definitely there. Any tips for ways to calm things down a little? I'm mildly nervous about the munchkins' blood pressure at this point...good grief...imagine what they'll be like once sugar hits their system?!?

4 more sleeps

The excitement is certainly building around here...the very fact that we're down to counting remaining sleeps on one hand is almost enough for heads to explode. Auntie Ali came over today to donate some fabulous artistic talents that I will show you soon (she also rocks the dumpster diving outside Harvey Norman for the perfect cardboard box!). Painting and felting and crafting and planning...and the stars of the show involved in it every step of the way...even if it results in things finished rather differently to what I envisaged - they're happy, and I'm thrilled!

This is the invite that went out to  their school friends a few weeks ago - low tech, handmade fun...and as a bonus I think I've finally gone 2 days without finding an itty bitty flag pennant floating around!

  

Craft Market @ SkyCity Hamilton

I'm back...it just took me a while to catch my breath. Turns out, a full day craft market on my own after 4 hours' sleep whilst I'm up to the eyeballs with the flu (and numerous medications to counteract the worst symptoms of it) is not altogether the smartest plan. Add in an 80 minutes drive each way and I was over it all a bit by Sunday night. Funny that.

The market itself was not bad - a lovely venue (in the enormous Function room at Hamilton's Casino - smack in the centre of town. Inside!!!!) and well organised, I think it will do really well once people hear of it - Sunday was the first one, so it's not had much chance to gain a presence yet. As a result it was a little quiet on the shoppers and sales front, but worth the trip. I'll be back next month!

I had a primo spot right as people walked in the door, but I think my stall is looking a little overcrowded (not helped by my leaving the hat display stand at home - have I shared that here? D whipped it up for me!) so I need to figure out what I can pare back...somewhat ironic since my main motivation for doing the markets at the moment is to move the BahaCoca stock that is threatening to take over my life!(even if I do keep coming up with new things to make and sell! oops)