La Mammina

Nearly a year ago, Tilly's party

As anyone who reads Sweet Little Treat would know, I'm teamed up with them for Back Tack 3. Well, they have been baking the most amazing cakes over there. So in the spirit of sugar craft I'm going to post a picture of Tilly's 1st birthday cake. She is going to be 2 at the end of June, so this picture is a bit old. I made white chocolate cupcakes and the frosting is coloured and flavoured with pureed raspberries. I sprinkled crystallised violets on top.

I can't believe I didn't take photo of the table once it was finished, because we really excelled ourselves with the food. We made little white bean tartlets finished with half a peeled cherry tomato. I made hundreds of the little pastry cased from scratch! (next time  I'll just buy them I think), chicken and home made herb mayonaise sandwiches, baked eggs in mini muffin tins flavoured with goats cheese / bacon / mushroom, served with home made tomato relish, and finally mini pavlovas simply adorned with either strawberries or kiwi fruit (I was trying for a pink and green theme).

It really did look great. Fortunately, we have it all captured on DVD. Not that Tilly took any notice of the food.

Here she is having some birthday cake with Daddy and Mummy

Some results

I have a stall at the Bondi Markets every Sunday. I'm hoping to one day open a baby shop in Bondi Beach, but I'm starting small by doing the markets. My plan was never to make my own products, I was just going to source original products from around the world. However, as fate would have it, the products are taking on a more "hand-made" approach. I never planned to make anything myself, I have left that up to my Mum and my Grandma. A fellow Mum from Playgroup also supplies me with some of her products and I have another lady who approached me at the stall and offered me some of her products to sell too. Well, now I want to join in the creativity! And above is one of my offerings. They are a pair of slippers for the expectant mum's hospital bag. (In case it it illegible, the embroidery says Boy? on one slipper and Girl? on the other). I get a lot of people coming to the stall and saying how much they love my products, but don't want to buy anything because they don't know the baby's gender. So the slippers are a little gimmicky offering that I thought of.

This is one of the flannelette wraps I'll be doing for the winter. Mum kept me supplied with some very pretty muslin ones for the summer, but now it is time to prepare for the cold weather.

I like to try to do some knitting whilst sitting at the stall.

And here is something I am very proud of. I whipped it up last week, a bag for my knitting.

Now, I really must get on with making some clothes for Tilly. Fortunately, we have just experienced a nice summery patch, but that cold weather is just around the corner.

Easter 2006

Here is my poor attempt at being a crafty mum! Tilly lo-o-o-o-o-ves a soft boiled egg and doesn't give two hoots about chocolate, so I thought I'd dye some eggs for her Easter breakfast. I had seen an article in Notebook magazine about using office supply sticky dots to make patterns on the eggs. Well, of course, they meant for when you dye them in cold water - not the bubbly boiling water- didn't they. I was most dismayed to see all my carefully applied sticky dots bobbing around in the water 2 seconds after I had put the eggs in. That was mishap number one. Mishap number two was that I tried to mix a nice purple colour in the dye, but used brown eggs - well, brown and purple just makes maroon. Not really the festive colour I was after! Nowhere near as classy as this little display at Little Birds. Or what about these grogeous, naturally dyed ones at Knitting Iris!

Not to worry. Tilly was very happy to eat the eggs anyway.

I know it is a bad flash photo, but Tilly rises early and there wasn't enough sunlight.

Things on the go

Well, I have a lot of things on the go. And not a lot to show for it.

Above is an idea I'm having for a bib for my market stall. It's a sort of green denim, with a piece of "vintage" lace sewn across the front. The whole things is covered with iron on vinyl and then satin bias binding around the edge. I have already unpicked the horribly puckered binding from the neckline and I think I've solved the problem and will attempt to fix it tonight. I call the lace "vintage" because I found it in a bag of notions in an old suitcase at a bric-a-brac stall at the markets. There were a whole heap of different pieces of lace and I thought this would be a good idea for them.

I'm also working on a knitting project for a little two year old's birthday. I have to get that finished by Thursday and things are looking grim, as I'm using a different size needles/yarn than the pattern specifies and am trying to adapt it (I'm trying to do this on my third ever project, very ambitious I know!!). It is turning out very long and thin!!!!

I have a few other ideas to make some things for my market stall, but more about them later. It is so hard trying to find time to fit sewing into my day. The only time I can really do it is once I have put Tilly to bed, but by that time I'm exhausted and the idea of getting the sewing machine out (it doesn't have a permanent home) is just too much.

Having said that, I think I might go and make a bag out of this (from my local St Vincent De Paul op shop)

We're going away for Easter and I need to take my long, skinny knitting with me. My current solution of a ripped paper bag is not satisfactory!

Slow going

I finished this kitty hat this morning. It has taken a lot longer than I expected, but Tilly has been unwell, so spare moments have been fleeting.

Well, credit must be given to three sources for me making this hat.

1. I first saw one here, and decided that Tilly must have one. It is the Kittyville hat pattern from Stitch'n'Bitch.

2. Then I happened to see how you could unravel old items to knit new things here, and decided that I could do that. Well, it is not as easy as it may sound. This particular yarn was once the underneath part of a twin set. It is a cashmere, silk, cotton mix and is very slippery and difficult to deal with. Add to that the fact that I unwound it in a very non-professional manner (so it is a bit hacked to pieces) and you will see that I was dealing with rather compromised conditions. Next knitting project I am going to use brand spanking new yarn!

3. And just the other day I saw this super cute tutorial at Bella Dia on how to make the pom poms which now adorn Tilly's hat.

I don't think it has come out very robust, and I think it will fall apart under Tilly's rough touch. (In fact the first time she put it on she tugged at a pom pom and off it came). I can't say I really enjoyed knitting this, I like the look of moss/seed stitch but I get a bit mixed up while doing it, I'm sure all I need is a little practice. However, I am looking forward to getting stuck into a new knitting project.

Oh, and here is an action shot to show how well those pom poms swing!