Hebe flower

Hebe flower, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Yesterday Mat had to work so Hazel and I walked down to the lovely trail that runs along the harbour edge and had a picnic alongside one of the settling ponds there. We call it Lizard Island because the little bronze skinks come out to sunbathe on the rocks of the ford across the outlet. We stopped by the bakery on the way and Hazel got a gingerbread man and I got an apple turn-over which turned out to be an apple strudel when we got there and opened our little paper bags, and we shared a cheese and ham roll. Hazel watched for skinks and I took in the view across to the city, and down to the bridge and Rangitoto. It was very nice and even the gorse was looking its best covered in yellow flowers and making the air smell like coconut tan lotion. There's a line in a poem my Dad's very fond of that goes something like "golden furze, unprofitably gay", that's what it was. Then we went hunting for plants to bring home and draw. I felt a bit guilty walking home with a huge handful of various things but kept reminding myself they were introduced weeds one and all. All except for this little hebe flower that Hazel picked from a bush near the park. Tiny and perfect. We haven't managed to draw anything yet but we have it booked in for tomorrow.

Sweater for Foofoo the rabbit

On Saturday I put this up on Twitter

Hazel "accidentally" cut big holes in the knees of her pants, Lucy's sheepskin and some of her hair. Scissors confiscated indefinitely.

What a debacle! Not only did she cut up her lovely stripey merino leggings (as seen in the bag post below), she lied to me about it. Sigh. Not very effectual lying by any means and I know she'll only get better at it (or learn to hide the evidence) but it's depressing none-the-less. Sigh. ANYWAYS, punishments were handed down from above and we move on. That evening she asks if I can make her bunny Foofoo a sweater to keep him warm at night. I say I probably can and she goes to sleep clutching Foofoo and looking particularly sweet and innocent (sigh again). As I was mooching around waiting for the Saturday murder mystery to start (Jonathan Creek, an early one yay!) I pondered the cut up pants and then it occurred to me that they might make a good sweater for Foofoo and I could do it while I watched tv. So I popped Foofoo into one of the legs with the bottom of it at his waist and started cutting. I cut holes for arms and sewed in sleeves. It came out really well!


(and yes, Lucy was as annoyed about being used as a prop as she looks)

I've never just winged it like that with clothes, even for toys, and I was surprised how well it went - the sleeves even have cuffs! Foofoo was dressed and replaced on her pillow to be discovered the next morning with exclamations of delight.



I feel inordinately proud of Foofoo's sweater and slightly better about Hazel cutting up the pants - they haven't gone completely to waste.

Bag for Hazel

In order to get Hazel to come willingly with me to a couple of fabric shops last month, I bribed her with the promise of a fat quarter of any fabric she wanted. Bad mummy! But hey, I sort of see it as starting off the fabric fetish young ;) She ended up with predictably little girl fabrics - one in purple and one in a peachy pink. What to do with them? Make a bag of course! I had the "Kid Flick" bag over at The Object Project bookmarked for awhile and it looked like an easy one. We even had The Little Mermaid DVD to use as the template! Hazel sat on my lap and with many dire warnings about fingers being sewn we sewed it up together. The only thing I did differently than the tutorial was zigzag all the raw edges before we started. It turned out beautifully! I especially liked that I could use up a couple of old bracelets that were hanging around the house. As a teenager in the 80s I had an armful and Hazel's inherited them, so there's plenty more to make future bags! But even if you are younger than me and missed out on that particularly fabulous fashion trend, suitable bracelets would be very cheap at a $2 store or similar. I think the bag would also look great with boxed corners and it would be easy to make a little larger too as it doesn't take up a whole fat quarter by any means.



I was really keen to make one of the teacup flowers from the same site to go on it, but the peach fabric defied a match with anything in my stash (really not a colour I would normally go for) so today I made a quick felt flower for it from this tutorial here. It was supposed to look a bit like a white camellia but...well it looks flower-like anyways! :D Hazel was quite thrilled with it.



Oddly enough it turns out the bag matches the skirt Hazel chose to wear this morning, not that I realised it until I looked at the photos!

Lawn daisies

Lawn daisies, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

There are fancier (and bigger!) flowers in the world but lawn daisies are one of my favourites. So many of them around at the moment, spring is definitely in the air!

This little piggie...

I made Hazel a little piggie warmer filled with buckwheat a couple of months ago and she loves it muchly and calls it Cupcake. The pattern is from More Softies.



I thought I'd make another for her friend Alex's fourth birthday too and congratulated myself on getting on to it so early! It got mostly done and then sat there languishing in a saggy way for want of enough buckwheat and ill-fitting trotters while Alex was in Scotland for 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS it sat around and when she came back the day before her birthday was it done? No. Was it done yesterday on her birthday? No. Is it done now? Yes! Her party is next week and she got a tiny Ponyville pony yesterday so she's done pretty well actually.

I like the buckwheat in these, it holds heat better than wheat and smells better when heated as well. Win win. The pigs are made from cotton towelling and wool felt, so nothing to melt in the microwave. It's hard when you have to take heating into account when choosing materials!

Button box fail

Button box fail, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

The old button box wasn't able to come up with anything for Hazel's jacket, though we did have a fun time trying! If something was suitable there was only one, if there were four then they looked awful. We ended up buying four pink ones. Personally, I would have preferred brown to match the background; but when you are four there is only one colour and that is pink. Or purple. So buttonholes tonight!

Mouse mug

Mouse mug, originally uploaded by Ansis68.A few days off of everything and a feeling that I need to put something up on my blog means a quick troll through my old photos in search of something appropriate! I found this dodgy photo of a really gorgeous mouse mug I found in a $3 Japanese shop; it went into Hazel's Xmas stocking last year. I bitterly regret not getting about 5 of them for gifts because of course when I went back the next week there were none. Oh well! It's the perfect size for a preschooler and I assume that's who they were designed for. She loves it a whole lot and it gets used for hot chocolates regularly. I should really photograph it properly because it has the cutest little round glaze tail on the back of the mug.