It's Starting to Taste a Lot Like Christmas!

Well there is only a week and a half of this term and we are making the most of it by packing in as many Christmas activities as possible. This week we've already started on the Christmas baking and turned out a batch of yummy gingerbread men and Christmas cookies. The kid's had a great time putting their 'play dough' skills to good use and I let my creative side get the better of me and four tubes of writing icing. In the afternoon we also settled down with a Christmas D.V.D 'Elf' which the kids thought was a hoot!

Both the biscuits and gingerbread men turned out so well that I'm now thinking I should make some myself for gifts. I used the gingerbread man cutter and gingerbread recipe I received as part of a swap package last year. Makes me wish I was part of a Christmas swap this year!

Anyhow I hope you are all well and enjoying the lead up to the holidays, baking your own gingerbread men and other Chrissy delights!

Update on the wedding planning... the dress has been ordered! I'd love to blog about it but I know my fiance reads this blog so I'm afraid I can't mention it here as I'd be giving it away and I want it to be a surprise on the day.

My Engagement Ring, Part 1

I looked and looked on the Internet and in every jewellery store in my area and after I looked some more and went through the 40+ pages of google images I ended up finding the inspiration for my engagement ring in my mother's humble stash of jewellery. It is a man's ring from the 70's shipped over from Greece by my dad's grandmother, a wedding gift in fact. From the moment I first saw it I thought that is it, that's my ring! The intricate star design and the filigree on the band I find divine. Being a man's ring it is quite large and bold so I am getting the jeweller to make a more 'feminine' version of the ring. To do so I am combining my fathers ring with this one.

This is my father's ring with the star design that I love so much

Here is a quick sketch of the way I want to combine the two rings together. The top will be exactly like my father's and the band just like the first ring.

I have found a jeweller who will make the ring for me we just have some design issues that we need to work out. Because I want the ring smaller and the diamond smaller the star shape might have less detail and not look exactly like I want it. Anyhow we have about 5 weeks to get the ring made, 3 before I go back to Germany for Christmas and 2 before Axel returns to Melbourne. As the title suggests this is the first part to the engagement ring saga, stay tuned!

It's Been A While

Hi everyone, yep it's been a while since I've written and a lot has happened since. There's some good news and some bad news to share today. First the bad/sad news... Our friends' dear baby boy Eli passed away last weekend after numerous complications related to his bone marrow transplant. Baby Eli was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 4 months old and had been battling the disease for another 9 months before he left us. He got a transplant and everything was going well, but then other complications occured as they do when one's immune system is down. You can read about little Eli's story at http://www.eli-simpson.blogspot.com It is truly and inspirational story! I never got to give Eli his cross stitch present. I am not sure what to do with it now, should I still give it to his parents?

On the flip side I got engaged a few weeks ago. It was very romantic...not!!!! Axel and I set a date over a visa application form 4 am in the morning! So I've put on my wedding planer hat and at the moment I am running and ringing around to find a suitable venue for the reception and trust me I'm already over it. People just charge so much for a wedding and then there's all the extras! Also we are looking at 80 guests so most places are too big for us and restaurants are just too small. We have heaps of time to organise other parts of the wedding but for the reception we are limited. We only have 4 weekends together in Feb/March 2009 where we can both look at places in Melbourne then we won't be in the country until 5 months before the wedding which is really too late to book a place. One thing that is really peeing me off too is going to see places that look great in their website photos and you turn up and the place is a dump! As I said, I am OVER it already.


Anyhow at least I've decided on my engagement ring and finalised the design I want. I modeled it on a ring my father got from his grandmother. Its quite funky indeed. I'll post some photos when I get it.



Hope you are all well and happy crafting!

Framed Goodies

Yes I've been to the framers! Above is a print by Ashley from Kitty Genius which I bought for my sister and her fiance for their engagement, but then the party didn't happen so I didn't bother with getting the print framed until recently. Since I've already given her her wedding present, (deposit for wedding photos) mum said I can give it to her for her kitchen tea, great idea mum that I will do! I am so jealous now, it looks so good in the frame that I wanna keep it. Ashley has some other brilliant prints so I'll just have to buy some more, once the bloody Aus dollar rate picks up!

As you can see I finally finished the cross stitch for our friends dear baby Eli, mind you it took only a year and a half to complete... According to Eli's blog they are back in Melbourne so I should go and give it to them soon before they head back home to Lakes Entrance. I am quite please with both frames and I hope that their new owners like them too.

Hope you are all well in blogland.

Crocheting up for the Winter

I am going back to Germany for Christmas and the whole of January so I've decided to make a few scarfs and beanies to take with me, keep me warm while I'm walking around Berlin, gallery hopping and scouting the local op shops, second hand book stores etc. (Ahhh man I can't wait) Anyhooo this is the first scarf that I am working on. It is an idea I stole/borrowed from another blogger Inkberryblue who took the idea and pattern from an other blogger Crochetroo who originally wrote the pattern as a bookmark. Click on Crochetroo for pattern. Just like Inkberryblue's mine is also pulling a bit because of the weight of the yarn but I am ok with it, I jusr pull it back into shape every now and then.

I actually spent a bit of money this time and bought the most beautiful Jo Sharp wool which is also 5% cashmere and 10% silk and boy can you feel those two fibers in the mix! At our local wool and tapestry shop there is a lot of tweed yarn and I am not complaining because I love that look. This one has spots of cream and black through it which I really like. So far the scarf has cost 20$ in yarn I hope this ball is going to see me though to the end because I don't think I could justify another 10$ for another ball. 30$ scarf, hmm a bit much don't you think? Anyhow see how we go!

Personalised Wedding Toppers

My middle sister Stefanie is getting married in March next year and she asked me to make the wedding cake toppers. With the some help from my younger sister Annie we came up with these two figurines. The wedding dress is made to look like the actual dress my sister is wearing and being a huge comic fan we decided to give her fiance a superman t-shirt as a shirt. I must say after working out how to sculpt these little people making them was a whole lot of fun!

Sewing Shirts for My Man

I have nearly finished sewing my first male shirt! Just some cuffs and buttons and it's done. This one is of course for my darling Axel, although after our discussion tonight sounds like the sleeves will be too short for him, and maybe the length of it too. Damn 6 foot 3 inch men, just make sewing life more difficult hehehehe! Anyhow I told him I'd finish it and send it to him, he can try it on and then tell me if it needs longer sleeves etc.

I have to admit it's been tricky sewing this shirt. The collar was easy to make but hard to sew onto the actual shirt. The shirt has a double yoke as well but that wasn't so hard to work out actually. Putting the buttons on the collar and on the cuffs has got me worried, actually just doing button holes on the front makes me nervous. I have an automatic button hole maker on my machine but sometimes it stuffs up so that doesn't help me much.

I've bought some other shirt material, more 'evening wear' material. The top one is for me quite expensive 18$ per meter and I needed 3 because it's narrow. The other stuff was on special 6$. I'm saving the expensive stuff until I'm more experienced. The shirt above is actually made from fabric that was on sale, down to 3$ per meter so all up including thread and buttons, interfacing it will cost about 16$ a bargain hehehehe.

Anyhow I sent Axel these photos and he likes the fabrics very much which is good to know. We will just have to see how the top one fits before I go and make the others. Will keep you all posted!