Amanda’s Musings

This post is actually not about feelings but about actual felt. : ) I couldn’t help myself with the title. In amongst the madness of packing and cleaning for this weekend’s move, I still have time to blog. This is basically because I HAVE to sit down for an hour or two after doing anything due to sore hips etc… I think this is probably a good thing, normally I’d be rushing around like a crazy person getting everything done and instead I feel much less stressed due to these breaks.

So, back to what this post is about. I’ve recently started listing hand stitched felt items in my online stores and today I have added 6 new felt items to my Etsy store. The main reason I did this today was so I can pack these items away into the ‘listed’ box ready for the move as they’ve been sitting here ready to be listed for a week now. After listing them I took a few screen shots of my hand stitched felt section in my Etsy store and below are the shots. Don’t they all look happy and bright together! In the range below you can choose from plain luggage tags, luggage tags with a pocket on the reverse side, brooches and pincushions.

I’m still sending the profits to the work of SIM (Bikes for Pastors this month and next month). So far I’m still at 5 bikes but I’ve had a few sales over the last week so the number is slowly climbing. Praise God!

Only two and a half days until we get the keys to our new house and 5 days left before we actually move everything. The countdown isn’t only on but the list of things to do is being plowed through gradually.

Paint Colours Chosen and Bought - CHECK!

Shed Emptied (into Patio) - CHECK!

Kezi’s Room Packed (as far as it can go) - CHECK!

Pile of Boxes in Spare Room Outgrowing Spare Room - CHECK!

Garden’s on Their Way to Cleanup (all done so far by our good friend Karen!!!) - CHECK!

Bought Plants for New House (ok, not a priority but fun to do!!) - CHECK!

Including a Magnolia!

Found a New Retro 1950’s Table (had to find a new kitchen table, just need some chairs now) - CHECK!

Today on the list includes confirming the truck we’re hiring to move with and phoning the amenities companies to change over our address etc…Are we stressed yet? Not yet.

My final act of creativity before we shift house this weekend is this t-shirt. I’ve designed and created it for a competition on one of the sites I sell my polymer clay and felt items on called MadeIt. The theme of the t-shirt was to be around the letter ‘M’ so this one is named after Keziah and entitled ‘My Mischief’. The design came from one of my moleskine sketches as you can see in the picture below:

The stitching was done by hand and changed slightly from the original design but overall I’m quite happy with the outcome. I wanted to have a go at putting one of my designs on a t-shirt anyway so this was a good chance to have a go.

Ok, so here’s the finished product along with some little modelled shots by Kezi. She was a bit sleepy in this shot so she doesn’t look like the mischievous self that the t-shirt is named after!

On Friday we did our pre settlement inspection of our new house. All is as it should be and we got the full tour of the backyard this time. We knew we had a few fruit trees out there but weren’t sure what sorts so we were keen to find out more. I can’t believe the list of fruit trees that we will own as of Thursday (settlement). They include:

5 Grape vines
2 Olive Trees
Mandarin
Orange
Pink Lady Apple
Fig
Apricot
Nectarine
Peach
Banana
Mango

The whole garden is native Aussie except for the fruit trees and we will have gorgeous natives including a white gum, wisteria and wattle plus a lot of others. We also inherit two chickens that are Australorp’s, an Aussie breed.

Michael will be busy painting two of the rooms (equals almost half the house!!!) as of Friday afternoon so he’ll be a busy boy. The main living area is a dark reddish brown colour which we will be lightening up (but leaving some of the dark colour). The room we are going to use for Keziah is currently a bright blue, we have decided on the colours called Eaves and Feather Boa Half. Eaves is a pale vintage green and feather boa is a pale pink. Should look gorgeous!

Anyway, we’re on that downhill run now to moving in, just 7 days from tomorrow till we move properly!

I just love to sit and ‘doodle’ and see where it takes me. Here are a few more of my recent moleskine drawings. I can see some of these ending up on t-shirts or the like.

Feeling Spiralley!

Triangular

Could be good for a kids t-shirt

What do you see here? This sort of reminds me of a suburban block or perhaps computer circuits!

Flamboyant!

All moleskine images are copyrighted, if anyone knows how to watermark my images I’d love to know how!

There are three events that we are currently counting down to in this house. Firstly, our move. When I first posted about us buying a house it was March 13th, around 9 or so weeks ago. We now have just 9 days until settlement and handing over of the keys!! Our packing is probably about 80% done and I’ve done about as much as I can personally do in my current ’state’. There’s still the cleaning of this house to go but its getting exciting!

The next thing that will happen is that my parents will come home from Papua New Guinea. That happens one week after we move house! I can’t wait for Dad to see Kezi as she was 16 months old last time he was in Perth.

Finally, our next little one is due in a matter of 8 weeks time. I’m already quite big due to the little one sitting breech. I’m very ready for it to be over with!! Its definitely looking like another C Section.

So, that’s the update with it all, we’re counting down for all these events and its getting very exciting!

I have started to stitch a couple of new things now that I’m on my way with the brooches and have completed the booties. A few weeks ago I did a survey to which over 50 people responded. I asked what people think I should do with my felt ‘patches’ and I had quite a few suggestions. One of the most common suggestions was to create denim jeans patches (those in the US called them blue jeans patches) and so that’s what I’m trying to do.

I’ve had to put this aside for a week until I complete my t-shirt for the madeit t-shirt competition but so far so good. Here’s a sneek peek:

I quite like them without any stitching on but I can’t help myself. I don’t feel like they are finished without the stitching. The back of these has the glue for ironing onto jeans.

I am continuing to send the profits from all sales to the work of SIM around the world (bikes for Pastor’s still this month). Sales have not moved a lot in the last week so feel free to spread the word!!

After being reminded about the free online pattern for cute felt booties (after reading Anna Laura’s blog the other day) I downloaded the Heather Bailey pattern and have completed a set myself. I’m really pleased with the result and it was fun to use the wool felt I got the other day. These booties are destined for little Amelia Grace who was born to a couple at our church a week or so ago. I can’t wait to make some for our own bubby except I don’t know if we’re having a boy or a girl so I might wait and see.

I’ve been stitching and stitching and have completed and listed a new brooch for the store. I think I would have around 12 or so of these in the pipeline and it also might be time to get another stamp made with a new design. I quite like the colours of this one.

You can also buy this one in my wahmania store.

There is a splash of colour around this week in my house. From the gorgeous new wool felt I’ve purchased to the mother’s day flowers I have in my kitchen! Thought I’d share.