Moving... again!

I wish my life looked like this at the moment...

Picture from here

 Alas, it looks more like this...

Picture from here

Yep, we're moving house again.  The exciting news is that we have bought a house - just talking about it makes me feel all grown up and strange!  We are really happy with our new pad and I can't wait to show you my new craft space as soon as I get it set up.  Also, stay tuned for sewing adventures of the domestic kind, particularly curtains, cushions, oven mits and the like.

While we counted down to move-in day I started a Pinterest account to collect all my favourite housey and designy pics.  There is clearly a very Scandinavian influence in the interior pics that I love.  You can see my Pinterest boards here.

Do you have a Pinterest account?  If so, let me know so that I can follow you!

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Remember the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar?  The one who ate its way through everything in the book, from apples to strawberries, then onto more extravagant treats like chocolate cake and salami?

I had a special request lately to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar outfit for our new baby niece.  There are a couple of these getting about online, but I decided to make my own pattern based on the baby's measurements.

The body is basically a big green sleeping bag, and the top is a red beanie with the eyes, nose and feelers of the caterpillar.  I crocheted this in soft, bright yarn and it will be on its way to the baby's mama this week.  Actually I can't claim all the work - after a quick crochet lesson boyfriend took to it like a duck to water and helped to produce the final outfit.

I can't wait to see photos of this on the little one : )

This year's socks

Sydney has definitely turned on the cooler weather lately, and so I've been finding a cosy place to sit (usually on the bed) and picking up the knitting needles again.

You might remember my adventures knitting this pair of socks as I travelled through Europe last year.  Sadly, no European holiday this year, but I will aim to knit at least one pair of socks.  This yarn is even finer than the type I used last year, and I am using teensy little size 2 needles.  Every stitch is so little - it's probably going to take me ten years to finish knitting them.

I do like the idea of this being a slow project though.  Most things I make I feel a sense of urgency about, especially if I want to wear it NOW.  But socks are a good slow project, with no sense of deadline, don't you think?

Garage Sale

On Saturday we joined many other households around Australia in the annual Garage Sale Trail.

The timing was perfect as we are going to be moving house in a few weeks (more news on that soon!)  We had loads of stuff we wanted to get rid of - clothes, books, dvds, video games, my old Big Muff guitar pedal - and what better way to seek a new home for it all then to find some local people who can use it!

It was an incredibly busy day - when we first opened the front door in the morning there were people already waiting!  The morning was continually busy, with many people following the Garage Sale Trail from house to house in our local area.  Many people arrived on bikes, which has inspired me to ride my bike again.  One lady told us that she had already filled up her huge shopping bag and had taken it home to unload before continuing on the trail.

Even when there was a dip in customers in the afternoon our neighbours all came out to chat to us.  I honestly thought that I would have some downtime in the day to sit and crochet, but not so!  We had people at our door from 9am until almost 5pm when we started packing things away.

What's amazing is that we didn't even find time to put up the signs we had made or do any kind of promotion.  All we had done is register on the Garage Sale Trail website and the crowds came!

I consider the day a big win in many departments - we got rid of stuff we didn't want to move with, other people found stuff they could use, lots of stuff was saved from landfill, and we got to meet lots of lovely peeps who live in our local area.