More Coasters

One of the few crafts I have done recently is tile coasters. I really do enjoy the simplicity of making such a beautiful and useful craft.

I finally made a set for myself using a lovely blue, red, black and white floral paper. The colour theme in our old house was black, white and red. Red is my husbands favourite colour, but blue is my favourite colour and I really am sick of so much red! So when we renovate this house we will have the black and white theme again but our pops of colour will be both red and blue. These coasters are just the start of tying the two colours together.

I also made a set of coasters for my big sisters birthday using a black and red damask paper. My sisters favourite colour is red so I hope she likes these coasters. Originally I found a beautiful wrapping paper to use for her coasters but the paper was too thin and just wrinkled and creased.

And because I decided to make a production line to save on my paintbrush washing I ended up making another set of coasters using the metallic blue paper with the Asian writing on it. I'm tempted to keep this set for myself as well!

A time consuming wedding gift

When Suki died I was in the middle of working on a wedding gift for my sister in law as her wedding present. I had a deadline though which meant I eventually got it done over a few days so everyone could sign their names at the wedding reception.

Now I don't know if I have mentioned this, but I hate painting! For some reason I am just no good at keeping a paintbrush steady. Making this signature tree definitely tested my patience and my husband has heard me say numerous times - NEVER AGAIN! Originally I created the tree and birds on the computer, with the idea that I would get it printed and frame it. But my SIL wanted silver leaves...

I chose to create stencils out of contact paper and where necessary I just touched up the edges with my paintbrush. Doing it this way meant I didn't need to worry about mistakes while doing the coverage coats and I only had to do the edge once. The actual painting time was quick, it just took awhile to create the stencils!

I'm glad it worked and I will be using this method again if I ever have an annoying painting project!

Oh and there were no issues with peeling the stencil off after the paint was dry.

I am extremely happy with how it turned out, but boy was it hard to force myself to do the one craft I hate when I was so upset!

Sweet Potatoes

Did you know it is really easy to grow sweet potatoes? I grew them by accident!

We have a garden bed in our front yard which I decided would be great for veggies, so I started collecting kitchen scraps and burying them in the garden bed as we have really sandy soil. I had a couple of sweet potatoes that were getting a bit old so I buried them in there. So of course one of them starts growing really well! 

These sweet potatoes are the third crop I have dug up!

I have started taking note of the dates I dig them up as it is hard to tell what's happening underground. So far it seems that it takes 2 - 3 months to get good sized sweet potatoes. When digging them up you need to be careful as it is easy to knock the little sweet potatoes off the plant. If you notice raised patches of soil, chances are you have some sweet potatoes nearly ready.

I only allow my sweet potato plant to grow in area about 100cm x 60cm. I have to trim the plant regularly to keep it that size. You can use your cuttings to make new plants or you can eat the leaves like spinach/asian greens in stir fries.

Aren't the sweet potato flowers beautiful! Look for them in the morning.

Yep, I still get excited when my plants grow fruit, veg or even flowers!

Alfie's new jumper

I looked after Alfie recently as his owner was in hospital

I have to say anyone who fosters dogs must be saints! I am lucky in that I knew Alfie and had some idea of what to expect when I brought him home. As for the people who foster dogs from animal shelters without knowing anything about the dog and having the patience to work with that dog until it finds a new home, I honestly don't know how they do it!

I realise now that Trixie is a really well behaved dog. Sure I don't know what she would be like if she was in Alfie's situation, but for now I am going to believe people when they tell me she is a good dog.

In Australia it is Autumn and the last two nights have been pretty cold. Alfie is a destructo dog so there are only 2 blankets left for the dogs. I recently made Trixie a test jumper from an old sheet which turned out pretty good even though it was too long. Because Alfie has such short hair and very holey blankets I decided to attempt a jumper for him as well.

Because I don't have any large  pieces of material hanging around the house, I had to get creative and recycle! I used the cover from an old foam mattress for the outside of his jumper - I have no idea what the material is but it seems like it may be water resistant which will be good if he needs to go to the toilet when it is raining. For the inside I used an old cotton curtain from when we moved into this house. And sandwiched between the outer pieces for warmth I used the polar fleece blanket we have on the couch - luckily I was considering giving those to Trixie and Dash once it got colder!

As someone who still isn't confident with or good at sewing, I am very happy with Alfie's jumper! There are a few things I need to tweak but its good enough. I guess the added bonus is that he kept it on all night without getting it off and destroying it. It really is impossible to get a good photo of Alfie, so here is one where he was at least standing still showing off his jumper! And Trixie in her too long jumper.

All that white fluff is from Trixie's pillow that she has had since she was a puppy. The orange, yellow and grey scraps are from 3 destroyed blankets. Like I said... destructo dog!

And here is a photo where Alfie is looking at the camera!

Time to get blogging... again!

Well it has been nearly 2 months and about time I get everything back to normal. I'm still not quite back to my craft a day, but I plan to catch up by making extra pieces to make up for the days I have missed. I have done some crafting since Suki died, but I just can't focus on one thing for too long. 

I have made a few presents, but unfortunately my brain has been fried and I keep forgetting to take photos before giving the gifts away.

It took me a long time to go through and find my favourite photos of Suki to create a collage. In a way I think spending the time creating Suki's collage helped me get used to the fact that she is never coming home.

We buried Suki in our backyard and have planted a mango tree over her grave. At this stage the tree is still alive even though Trixie ripped it out and chewed it to pieces!

Oh and I am changing things on my blog a little, hopefully for the better!