Flea market finds

Braved a trip to Savers with the Kinderboy yesterday.  He found himself a paperclip early on, and used it as a percussion instrument, which certainly beat the usual running away and hiding amongst the clothes!

Came home without clothes but with a stash of sewing patterns for 99c each (here's hoping all the pieces are there!).  I seem to collect patterns, so this week I'm determined to make myself an 'action plan' for using some of them.  After all, why buy maternity patterns if I'm not going to use them in the next few months?

Here's a selection of my purchases:

For me (pre-baby)

For baby - don't you love the vintage pic's?

For me (post-baby or maybe modify for pre-baby if I discover some free time somewhere...)

Daydreaming and (re)knitting

Today I'm dreaming of a quilt combining this fabric:

Master Patch, by Susan Winget

This applique:

Tulips on Gingam by Carolyn King in the Sept 07 issue

And this pattern:

Whirligig from "Quilting from little things..." by Sarah Fielke

... but instead I'm re-knitting the first sleeve of my tealeaves cardigan - got nearly to the end before trying it on and realising it was too tight for my arm!  Better now than at the end of the second sleeve I guess!

More projects to dream about over here.

Welcome to my new domain!

Months ago, before the paid work got crazy-busy, I had grand plans of making craft stuff to sell on-line.  I registered a business name, got a domain name, and started work on a website.  I also made some labels and put them on some presents I made for family last Christmas as well as some fairy skirts for the Queensland Flood Relief Appeal.

Things have come to a screaming halt though, and I figure that I may as well use the domain name for something, so I'm starting the switch over to 'fred-and-cissy' as my blog.  Who knows, maybe down the track I'll get back onto making things for sale, but in the meantime, here's the story behind Fred and Cissy (my apologies if you've read it before...) :

Fred and Cissy (actually Alfred & Gertrude) were my dad's maternal grandparents.  To the best of my knowledge they died before I was born, but I have the letters that Fred wrote to his sweetheart on the boat across from England in 1912-13.  He came to Australia ahead of her to find work and get settled before she made the trip and then they were married.  Dad also has a poem that his grandfather wrote (or appropriated) for their golden wedding anniversary so many years later and he was evidently as smitten then as he was on the boat across.  Since I inherited the letters from my Grandma I've been fascinated with them, charmed by their love for one another and aware of the sense of humour they must have had (this is one of the few photos dad has of them - Cissy is on the right in the photo, holding the silverbeet).

Anyway, I'm going to keep on labelling some of my craft stuff in their honour.  I hope that if you receive anything with a Fred & Cissy label it'll give you a smile to match Fred's in the photo!

My creative space(s)

Today I got crafty indeed in my creative space - I took the kids to an indoor play centre for 2.5 hours while I drank tea and knitted - happiness all round!  I'm now onto the bottom band on my Tealeaves cardigan, so I'll have a finished product to show you soon.

Look what arrived in the post today too - I wasn't going to start any new projects just yet, but the Schoolboy's love for the Eiffel tower and enthusiasm for a quilt involving a map of Paris drew me in to this purchase from Trinkets in the Attic (haven't shown the Cyclist yet, but no doubt there'll be attempted mapping of the final Stage of the Tour de France in our house tonight).  Fell in love with some 'end of stock' fabric while I was shopping, and made a couple of out-of-character impulse buys, but more of them another time.

Yesterday the boys and I spent a rainy hour or so turning ourselves into mini human spirographs (couldn't lay my hands on big enough paper for the full version).  Our results aren't as exciting to look at as these, or of course the original, but we had a heap of fun.

What are you and yours up to in your creative space?  Add your link here to share the fun!