while cooking dinner...

While cooking dinner tonight I taught myself to cast on. Quite an achievement really as I've always had a bit of a metal block when it came to knitting.

Since then I've managed to remember how to knit and to my surprise purl as well! Here is my progress

I used this very helpful video on youtube - super clear and no fingers in the way of the stitches!

Dinner was handmade gnocchi with roasted tomatoes, bacon and sweet onion - Will certainly make this one again - it was awesome and devoured before I got to take a photo of the meal.

Almost a year ago

On Sunday it will be our 1st wedding anniversary. It's been a wonderful year and I still get a kick out of saying 'my husband' and I think I always will it's a great way to start a sentence.

MrG bought me the most beautiful bunch of flowers to celebrate. He took one of the vases that we used for the wedding back to the florist and asked her to fill it with the same flowers I had in my bouquet. They are breathtaking and I just had to share them.

Pin Cushion Success

After staring intently at the pin cushion on my last post I decided I had a fair idea how it was made.

Yep that's me, rather than actually trying to find a pattern I just decided to give it a go and I have to say - I'm quite pleased with the result!


All ready to post to my swap partner - I hope she likes it.

Pin Cushion Inspiration

I've signed up for a swap that Kate from Foxs Lane is running. The response to the swap has been amazing - 115 Swappers!

Tonight I've been searching for a bit of inspiration on flickr

Originally uploaded by rusewcrazy

At the moment I can't decide between some quilting, some crochet or something a bit more traditional like the one above. I just love the simplicity of it and how beautiful the colours are. I will share the project as I go Just needs to be in the post by the 16th - I can do that!

A new diary

I've had my eye on the 365 journal in the new KikkiK store in Adelaide. Even since I saw it I've loved the idea of keeping a journal off my 29th year (starting end of April on my birthday). However MrG and I are try to live off one wage at the moment so things like that are not on the 'need' list.

Instead I've covered a spirex notebook with fabric I picked up at Stitches and Craft last August. I'm thrilled with the result! Though it doesn't have the chic look of the KikkiK version it is covered in some of my favourite fabric and makes me smile each time I look at it. Plus being spirex if I write something I'm not happy with (my spelling is terrible on the best days...) I can tear out the page. I guess that's not true journal style but it suits me!

I got the idea from a tutorial I saw recently but for the life of me I can't find the link... sorry. It was a very nifty idea though using double sided interface (is that what it's called?)

Think I'll offer this idea as a Brown Owls project this year.

My Creative Space

Sometimes plans don't work out like you planned. Tonight was originally planned as a Brown Owls movie night but Mum had been offered free tickets to a show for the Adelaide Festival. A tough choice between Owls and the theatre but I decided I'd go to the theatre.

At 6pm though plans changed again, we were unable to get the tickets and it was too late to make it to the Owls meet so Mum and I found we had a free night to spend together.

We spent the evening learning how to make Kanzashi flowers from Kanzashi in Bloom and watching Handmade Nation.

Here is the brooch I madeNot too bad for a first attempt and I'm hoping to do a Brown Owls workshop on them in April.

Sometimes plans don't work out liked you planned but it's those times are sometimes the most fun! This time it was great - I found time to be a bit creative!

For other creative spaces see Kootoyoo's space

Book Worm

My craft projects seem to have stalled recently but to keep myself busy I've been reading lots more which has been wonderful!

Image borrowed from here

I read My Family and Other Animals a week or so ago and am now reading Emma by Jane Austen.

My Family and Other Animals was fantastic - easy to read, wonderful flow and even had me giggling at some points. I enjoyed it so much in fact that I bought the DVD and have watched that since. It was also very good!

I'm finding Emma a lot easier to read than I found Jayne Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, which I was surprised by as Emma was written earlier and I had assumed would be written in a similar style. I do keep picturing Gwyneth Paltrow though which is a tiny bit frustrating and proof that my rule of reading a book before seeing the movie is a much better way to do things. It lets you imagine the characters rather than having images forced upon you.

Next on the reading list is The Six Wives of Henry the VIII which I picked up at a second hand bookshop today. We've recently started watching the second season of Tudors which has renews my interest in this period. It's so fascinating!

Aiding to my reading obsession has been this site - I know it's not 'Australian' to buy overseas but they are so darn cheap and free postage too...