Another great night but not much in the way of craft to show. I totally forgot to show mine (whoops)
Ricki bought herself and as it’s the final 2 month of her MBA she has assignments coming out her ears. I think creating a great future is a good enough excuse for the next month or 2.
Lynda bought herself also. She does jigsaws and mounts them. The are a little difficult to transport so we just get to see the after photos’ when they are ready.
Mel was busy and made me an ear warmer 🙂 Ricki was kind enough to model it for us.
Mel has also started knitting for prem babies. Such a worthwhile cause. Any wool donations will be gratefully received.
Wine glass not included.
I am putting in a belated photo of my second completed stripey strip
Food was Russian this month. Jamie & Ricki did salmon blini’s
This was after we had eaten all the salmon and resorted to tuna from my pantry.
Dinner was a fantastic array
The meat cake was awesome!
Then there was dessert
A great effort by everyone.
Looking forward to our June meeting for which we currently have no venue nor theme haha 😉
As the end of March was Easter weekend we elected to push our gathering out a weekend so that we could all enjoy the break 🙂
As always our guest of honor was avaliable for cuddles and snuggles.
First up was Mel and her Pashmina as modeled by the lovely Ricki
As Ricki has been super busy with the final semester for her Masters she has not been crafting. Due to this Jamie sent along one of his projects which is a pretty spectacular chopping board.
As Ricki isn’t a fan of it (WHAAATTTTT!!!) so Ana scored it to keep and I sulked.
I showed the latest update of my cross stitch
Super stoked with the way its looking 🙂
Amy didn’t bring her project as advancements had not been made due to being a mum 🙂
Unfortunately I can’t show Ana’s project as it was a very cool fairy light lamp that I videod and my wordpress doesn’t support that sorry 😦
The theme for the evening was Spain and wow did we do good on the food 😀
Ricki & Jamie provided a fabulous board for entree
Our mains
Mel made croquettes. Half were ham and half were chicken, all were delicious. Ana made a lentil and rice dish that was yum. I made garlic chicken and a pesto orzo salad 🙂
Desert was very good 😀 Amy made flan and we had rather a blast getting it out of the dish as none of us had ever made one before. It came out in one peice and tasted fantastic.
Wow this year has been busy. Between a record year at work and a very very long hot summer the time has just flown and my craft posts have been few and far between. This shall be rectified right now 🙂
I finished knitting my second bunny well before Christmas but procrastinated way too long on sewing him up. The twins eventually headed for their forever home in mid february.
I learnt a lot while knitting these guys and considering it was my second ever completed knitted project I am very pleased with the result 🙂
February also saw me making a second stenciled Tiki for a friend. He wanted to pay me for it but that’s not how we roll 🙂
The green one is the new one 🙂
During February I decided that there would be no more new starts unless absolutely necessary until I had cleared my backlog of WIPS. With this in mind I spent 3 days cutting up wool for the little rug that I am making. A small amount of progress on this then occurred.
She’s going to need a wee mow when finished as some of my wool is longer than others hahaha
I discovered a rather large error in the back of my teal jersey so that resulted in redo
I’ve randomly become addicted to cooking programs that feature for 1.5 hours 3 nights a week. As I am a kind and loving wife I made the call not to subject my husband to them and have taken my knitted Stripey Blanket to the bedroom where I prop myself up on the bed and knit away to mindless yet yummy looking TV. This has resulted in much progress on my blanket and I hope to finish the second strip very soon 🙂
My daughter and her partner are living in our basement while they save to buy their first house 🙂 They are planning on buy in and moving to Rotorua later this year. It snowed on me while I was in Rotorua last year. Also, she is an avid snowboarder so spends a lot of time on the mountains during winter. With this in mind I am knitting her a hooded scarf for her birthday in August 🙂 I’ve never tried cable before so it’s rather a test
This and a pair of very rude mittens which I will show another day will be my only new starts for this year. I can justify this as they are presents and presents don’t count on the WIP challenge 😉
My sister got engaged 2 days before Christmas 🙂 This means that the whole family will be traipsing off to Perth for a wedding in mid 2019. I am so excited!!! 😀 It suddenly occurred to me that I haven’t done any of her cross stitch since about mid 2017 so it was time to get it back out again. Maybe, if I work very very hard at it, I might just be able to get it finished for her wedding.
To help keep me motivated I have joined a Facebook group for cross stitch that runs challenges and issues badges when you complete them. Always up for a challenge I have achieved a few badges in the past couple of weeks.
Now that’s a lot of stitching 😀
With the long weekend fast approaching, in 6 more hours to be precise, I can’t wait to climb back into all my wee projects. My favourite annual book fair is on saturday and I am helping a friend move that day also plus there is a chocolate festival in Rotorua that we just have to attend but apart from that I home a lot and keen to sit in the sun with my knitting and my stitching while listening to podcasts 😀 Ahhhhhh some days I really am living the dream 😀
Nothing like posting the February update at the end of March, whoops. Things have been super hectic so its been a bit of a struggle getting any of my blogs done and now they are trying to suffocate me and are a bit daunting in their number so I’ve been avoiding. Now that the avoidance basket is so full it needs culling I am going to catch up.
Last months theme was Thailand and hosted by Ricki & Jamie
The theme for this year seems to be finish our WIP’s because that’s what we appear to all be doing 🙂
Melodie is continuing with her crochet Pashmina. Good progress has been made and now it’s also wine scented.
Amy is continuing with her cross stitch and is hopeful of having it completed before Ben goes to school. All kidding aside, she has made great progress.
Ricki is continuing on with her diamond painting of the last supper. She’s a little concerned with the lack of features on the faces but we believe it will look fantastic.
Toni is continuing with the stripey blanket and has nearly completed another strip. The comparison strip is upside down in this picture so the stripes don’t quite match until you flip it up the other way.
Dinner was FANTASTIC and I think we are basically just a bunch of foodies who like to have busy hands now.
Next month is Ana & Craig’s house and we are heading to Spain 🙂
With September only 2 days away I thought I had better get this posted.
July’s evening was at Jamie & Ricki’s place. The dinner theme was Syria which turns out to be a lot like Egyptian but slightly different. It was delicious and mum made homemade pita’s.
She also got started on her Diamond Painting. Apparently her and Mel have figured out its going to take about 8 years to finish.
Ana & Craig couldn’t make it so it was just us Lunam’s in residence. Mel made her world-famous Kiwifruit Jam which I am sure she will be pleased to know that mine wandered past being eaten with a spoon by my daughter the next morning.
And I made this
My mosaic was too close together so I ran out of bits and stole some different ones from my daughter. At least it looks like it was supposed to look like this.
Other Mel phoned her’s in and was once more incredibly prolific in her stitching.
After dinner we adjourned to the new outdoor bush entertainment area. As it’s the middle of winter I had to borrow pants and a jacket. We got the music humming and lit the fire pit and generally had a fabulous remainder of our evening.
You can’t bet an evening with good food, wine (when you aren’t doing Dry July and aren’t the sober driver), family, loads of laughter and several chihuahua’s
Well that month rolled round fast. I was caught on the hop and made my craft at lunchtime that day. The good news is that at least I prepared for the dinner 😉
Ana wins crafter of the month with this spectacular autumnal bowl
This bowl was freakin AMAZING and she is going to store it carefully for the her Canadian Thanksgiving that we are all attending in October 🙂
The Mama (after 6 months I still can’t remember her name #mybad) sent along her latest creation of a crochet pincushion.
My mama Mel made a fabulous shower poof. She then promptly left it behind so it now has pride of place hanging off the back of a dinning room chair. Truth be told, its more to save it from the fat furry bastards that live with us or it would become their latest cat toy.
Amy made it this month so she bought her WIP along too so that we could see it in person. Because she knows she’s having a boy she has changed some of the colours to be more ‘male’ friendly. She’s done a bloody good job of that also as you can’t tell that they aren’t original.
Ricki has been awaiting very patiently for the arrival of her next project which finally arrived that day. She bought it along so we could ooooooo and ahhhhhhhh with her when she opened it 🙂 Now this is going to take a few days to do 😀 :O
Then there was little ole me and my last-minute ‘craft’ and I do use that term loosely. It is not my finest work and a ‘friend’ recently thought it was a monkey with his penis out at first glance so I don’t think this was a win.
Mel kept us updated with her progress on all her stitches throughout the month.
The country for the food was Egypt this month and I forgot to get all photo’s except the one I did well prior for the brining of my chicken. It was all really good though and we are looking to next month when the country is Syria thanks to my darling brother who complained the whole night that I had selected a hard one and then promptly one upped me. Who says sibling rivalry ends when you becomes adults hahaha.
Jamie and Ricki bought yum Koftas with a Tzatziki sauce. Ana & Craig bought a fabulous Coscos side dish that Kayla promptly scoffed the leftovers off the next day while massively hung over (she has asked if you could make it for her again Ana). Amy & Brett bought a stellar Moroccan Chicken dish. I couldn’t make my mind up about what to make so I made 2 different types of chicken, Chicken Shawarma and Sumac Roast Chicken with Lemon & Garlic. Mel made a spectacular Baklava 😀
Well April turned into a bit a fizzer. Half the team was on vacation in Venice and the other half was off babysitting the first couples chickens and chihuahua’s. That along with great flooding across the nation cause the Crafty Bitches to pretend we didn’t have an April.
The May one went much better
We have decided due to this ‘show and tell’ event turning into a drinking session every time that it would be better for all if we make it a pot luck dinner. This was an excellent idea and nobody had to sneak through a drive through on the way home or try to not burn the house down making toasted sandwiches at 10.30 at night.
The crafts were an interesting variety once again. Ana repurposed some toilet rolls into something very un-toilet rolly and fabulous.
I don’t know about y’all but I’m impressed 🙂
Ana’s mother-in-law presented her knitted bed socks, a pair of slippers and a blanket. Very busy with the needles she has been. She tells us that the socks and slippers are all ‘one size fits all’ and she sells the blankets for $60 NZD if anyone is keen.
Mel revisited her childhood and make bookmark using lamination (They used to use clear plastics over greeting cards), hole punches and crochet. Very cool way of repurposing stuff.
Our lovely Ricki finished her long term quilting and stitching project. The stitching on this beautiful. It had a minor wardrobe malfunction in that it had a pocket which is now on the inside against the padding. If she hadn’t told us we would never have known.
Then there was me 🙂 I bought my bunny from last month because I was proud of him even if his arms are on upside down. I also bought my finished ugly mat which was this months project 🙂
Amy and Other Mel both phoned in theirs this month. Amy continued her cross stitch and Other Mel continued with her rotation.
Amy
Other Mel
Because the dinner idea was a success we are going to make it regular and are giving it a twist. We are going to cook our way around the world and each meeting will have a different country for the dinner theme. June will be Egypt 🙂 See you then xxx
This months gathering was at that lovely Ricki’s. Snacks a plenty arrived and way too much alcohol flowed.
We had our meeting on April 1st this time. This also will mean that the next meeting for Crafty Bitches will be in the same month but oh well 🙂
First up was Ana. This month she continued her theme from January and made wine glass candle holders. Very cool they are 🙂
She is doing amazing work with glass at the moment 🙂
Ana’s mother-in-law couldn’t make the meeting so Ana bought them along herself. She had crochet a couple of very cute cushions.
I think they would look great on a TV couch 😀
Next up was Mel (or mum depending on who you are 😉 ) She has been crocheting some christmas bells. They look fabulous hanging from a christmas tree. She has already given away several sets as they are rather pretty. She is trying to get together enough to sell to earn some extra cash. If anyone is interested please let me know.
Then there was me. I am soldiering on with my cross stitch at the moment trying to get it finished so didn’t have much time for a crafty idea this month so made this instead. I picked up the frame which had been gold painted in a 20cent clearance bin at the local thrift shop. The backing is just giftwrap paper and the labels are just cheap stickers. We use chalk pens for the writing on the glass and now everyone knows what the feck is happening every night in my house because we are often stupid busy and never sure who is home or not.
Last, but very much not least, is our Ricki. she has been continuing with her stitching this month. The is her first ever stitching project and I think she is doing beautifully. Is going to be lovely when finished 🙂
After show and tell we tucked into the yacking and the snacking when this happening. You probably can’t see them but there are chickens in the tree’s yelling at us.
For some reason I find this hilarious 😀 half an hour later there was one on top of the garage. I tried to get a photo of that one too but it torpedo’d at me hahaha missed me by an inch and then ran off down the drive 🙂
Next months meeting will be at Ana’s house, possibly April 29 but will confirm closed to the time, and we can’t wait 🙂
We are now known as Crafty Bitches and their Dodgy Bastards.
We had a couple of husbands want to come along in a more male situation so we have set up a crèche area where they can play pool and darts unsupervised. The rule is that they must bring their own refreshments in the form of a craft beer and such and they must have enough to share 🙂 It seemed to work well with minimal crying and no fighting.
Sangrias were of course the ladies drink of the afternoon. We began to worry that it was a fizzer when nobody except my brother and his adorable wife had turned up but the remainder arrived fashionably late by and so relief was mine. Nobody wants to be that party. You know, the one where only one member of your family and no friends turn up.
We were down a member, Amy, due to prior commitments but she as assured us that she will be back next month and phoned her craft in.
Start of the month
End of the month
As you can see good progress has been made 😀
Melly Moo was up first with her cat mat
Its a double sided thermal drape curtain that is being upcycled into a mat for under Johnny’s litter tray. She has been unsure about her edging and was attempting some crocheting for the boarder. We all discussed and are looking forward to seeing the end product.
Next up was the fabulous Ricki and her chicken
And a very cute chicken doorstop it is 😀 I think its adorable 😀 The lace is one of those plastic plate mats that you get from the all good $2 shops. I love when people think outside the box 🙂
Next up was our stunning Ana and her fascinators
They are incredibly lovely! Mum (Melodie) said that she made at least one of them while chatting to her one night. I am in awe.
Then there was little ole me
Very simple. I just trawled some second hand shops looking for patterned cutlery then grabbed a cheap canvas and raided the husbands spray can cupboard. Glue was the biggest problem. I don’t recommend using a hot glue gun when attempting to stick metal to canvas. It has a tendency to let go at night when the family is away and you are watching The Conjuring 2 all by yourself and dropping cutlery loudly all over your tiled floor. This is not ideal for either keeping wine in glasses nor wee off sofa’s. We found a more appropriate glue and have not revisited this issue since.
A good day was had by all I think and we are all looking forward to next months meeting which will be either the 1st or the 2nd of April at Ricki’s home. Yes this does mean that there will be 2 meetings in April but we are all a bit busy and will run out of March this time 🙂
Saturday dawned screaming hot and perfect for Sangria’s on the deck and the first meeting of Crafty Bitches. Sun umbrellas were deployed and cobwebs were removed. We usually use the other deck so this is like the formal dining area of our outdoor placement and the spiders had been busy since Christmas it appears.
We had a couple of last minute cancellations but still I think 7 is a good turn out for our first gathering.
I made the Sangria while all the snack people assembled their snacks and we adjourned to our outdoor wonderland.
Everyone was a bit nervous as most of us hadn’t met before but Sangria quickly sorted that all out and the chatter flowed. They made me go first for show and tell as it was my idea. I apologised profusely that my craft was a bit crap but got good feed back. Ricki, gorgeous sister in law, says its still better that the one she paid $50 for. In fact the girls were wonderful and we discussed improvement options.
Next up was my mum, Melly Moo. I have put in an order for three of these in various sizes for my birthday, Christmas or mid winter Christmas. Which ever one suits her. It really is rather beautiful. We popped a tea light in it and ooooooo’d and ahhhhhh’d.
She did well.
Next up was new friend Ana. Ana is Canadian and moved to NZ for love. She is just gorgeous and going to help me with my eyebrows (because I am looking at changing salon’s so I can go on a Saturday or Sunday. Eyebrows are not unruly nor mono type) as she is a beautician by trade. She bought her mother in law June with her and I think June may be keen to get her craft on for next month.
I love this! Its very similar to one I was given as a gift at Christmas time. She used a placemat for the lower covering of the bottle and the little reeds were from her garden.
Beautiful niece in picture learning to diamond paint
Ricki was up next and she decided to forgo a craft this month as she was in need of inspiration and is now buzzing to get started. She was fascinated by the diamond painting and has gone home to purchase and apparently has a wish list.
Hannah, my gorgeous niece (see above photo), was next in line and we have come to an arrangement. When I discovered diamond painting I went on line and bought 2 kits. One big one for my wall and one little one for practice. Big one arrived first and I couldn’t help myself and started it. Turns out diamond painting is not difficult. Anyway small practice kit arrived in due course so I thought I had better start that one too. I have found that I don’t really want to do this one as I just want to keep going with the big one. So the arrangement is this. Hannah has taken the practice one home and is going to finish it for me. When she is done I will buy her one of her choice as a thank you. She sat at the table and made a start 🙂
Hannah did not drink Sangria. We limited her to orange juice.
Finally we have the lovely Amy. I met Amy last month when the Lunam family descended on the local surf lifesaving club and their quiz night. It was a fun night and we came in second and discovered that PizzaHut will deliver right to your table when you discover that snacks can not be purchased on site only after arrival.
Amy is not going to do a monthly craft but rather is going to continue with her sampler that she is making for her little one that she is carrying. We are going to take photo’s each month and track her progress 🙂 Its a beautiful little sampler.
Start of the month
Amy also did not drink Sangria. We limited her to orange juice and lemonade. As you can see we are a very responsible group 😉
After show and tell we settled back into snacks and I remember to grab my book rat off my mum. I found the pattern online a few months ago and made her make it for me 😀 Its terribly cute and I am rather pleased that I made her do it 😀
Turns out we have a wonderful bunch of ladies gathering for this 🙂 I loved how there was no criticisms or negativity. It was such a joy to spend the afternoon with this bunch.
Ana’s husband arrived to pick them up and stayed for a beer with my husband. I feel that this might work in rather well as later on my brother suggested that the husbands start up Crafty Bastards and begin making, or purchasing and drinking, craft beer while we do the girl thing. This may result in Dial A Driver learning where my house is without GPS.
A Handmade Life 