The Day from Hades....

Well they say that bad things come in threes.... and usually I get the awesome luck of having all three things happen to me on the same day...

This was one of those weeks where everything happened.

There were a few good things that happened this week dont get me wrong, but lets face it, it's very hard to be in a happy cheerful mood when you have something happen right after you wake up in the morning...

Monday I got an early birthday present from my wonderful man, I've been a bit whingy lately about being bored and how he has video games to play all the time while I have to sit by myself and watch tv in another room... so he got me three months of world of warcraft time! I have been a busy little bee on there as well my blood elf warlock has gone up almost 6 levels just this week alone (yes I am a wow nerd and I embrace it!)

Tuesday I got invited out for coffee with Lewy's mum, aunties, and grandma. This was when the day went straight to Hades in a hand basket.... I woke up late, and got on my computer to play half an hour of WOW before I had to leave to meet them for coffee, somehow my computer became infected with a virus that had disguised its self as an antivirus protector, which then told me all of my files were infected and wouldnt let me run my actual scanner nor open any programs that would allow me to scan my computer or open firefox to find out how to get rid of the thing... I ended up having to call Lewy while he was at work, we came up with a plan but because I was no going to be late to coffee since my 1/2 hour had turned into almost an hour and a half trying to fix my computer I had to leave the scanner going until we came back home that night...
So I got dressed up a little bit fancy, I was having a bad day after all so I put on a nice dress, some tights, my boots, did my hair and jewelry.... put on my big sunnies, got in my car and drove off hoping that something would go right on the way there and turn my day around. It didn't, it just got worse, I hit every single red light that was in existence, got stuck behind a learner driver on a road where the speed limit was 80, and they would only do 40 and I could not over take them... Then I got there half an hour early after all that, and had to sit in the parking lot and wait for some one else to get there because I didn't want to look like an idiot sitting by myself.
Finally I got up and went inside, everyone showed up about 10 minutes after I got there, we had some cakes and coffees, Lewy's mum did some shopping, and she had hurt herself so she couldn't carry much, so I helped her out, then we all went back to her house for a little bit. She was making tripe for dinner, and OMG the way she makes it is soooooo nice! She cut the tripe up into little pieces, it kind of put me off because cutting it up sounds like you are trying to cut up some sort of squishy wet plastic, if you don't know what it is then believe me you don't really want to know if you plan on trying it, but it is worth eating because it tastes really good. She put in some sweet potatoes and normal potatoes as well and made it like a stew. I spent 90% of my time helping her cut stuff up and peeling things, because lets face it I am an AWESOME daughter in law.
Lewy stopped in on his way home from work because we were staying for dinner, his dad was running a little bit late so he messed around with his brothers and his sister, and stole his brother's hat. I told him he looked like a Nonno (Italian for grandpa) wearing it, but it did look pretty good. He thought he looked more Scottish so he spent the rest of the night talking with a Scottish accent... and darn it he pulled it off!
I'm not sure where but he found a deck of cards and wanted to play 21 so we sat at the dining room table and played cards around the plates and cups, no matter what he ever says to you I am better at cards than him, I can shuffle better than him, and I have a better poker face than him.... he will try and tell you differently but it is all a lie!
I managed to convince him to take some pictures with me though, I surprised him with a big kiss and got it on camera, the picture looks like his eyes are about to fall out of his head!

After dinner we decided to head back home, we had to check on my computer and make sure it was ok, and on the way home I had a guy trying to speed behind me, riding my butt even though I was doing over the limit, he flashed his lights and even beeped at me but never actually tried to over take me, stupid man. The computer ended up being fine, as you can tell because I'm writing this post. But now I have learned to scan everything.

On Wednesday I had to work, and I got lucky because this week was water safety week, next week is the beginning of school holidays so I guess half my kids will be going away and I will have a pretty easy birthday.

On Thursday Lewy got a $50 gift card from his boss as a thank you for trying to fix their internet, he has been running around like mad trying to get it fixed for them but apparently there was a huge problem and now they have to re-cable the whole street! He came home and told me all about it, and how he got a new video game.... I'll let you guess which one he got, its all the rage right now.... yup you got it! GTA 5!

Today I'm home preparing for tomorrow, still trying to find my blond wig which has gone missing... I guess Alice will have to be a brunette tomorrow. Got my outfit ready and waiting, even got my cheshire cat to take with me.

Tomorrow will be the High Tea, the wedding is not too far away, I'm getting pretty excited about it now! I just hope I will be able to take lots of pictures!

I'm still trying to work on my birthday present for my bubby... I dont have much time left to finish it, and with all these distractions I think I will be cutting it very close.... So I think for now I need to turn this darn distraction off and go work on it!

I hope your week has turned out better than mine did!

XxX ~Rah Rah


(PS. Sorry about the small pictures! For some strange reason my computer does not want to add photos to this post, so I have had to copy/paste them and then I'm not allowed to resize them!)

Now I feel just like a kid again!

Meet my new project! Adult sized bunny slippers, and a matching beanie, because apparently this winter needs to test my ability to withstand frostbite...

If you want to try and make these yourself then the pattern is for sale in my Ravelry Shop! they are super easy, and super warm!

They make me feel like a little kid again, running around in bunny slippers... but they do make me miss the summer, and it being August it is supposed to be warm not almost freezing.... but being in Australia means that I get to go to the beach at Christmas instead...

On a different note, I am awaiting the start date for a new job, I got a new (well its an old desk but its new for me) which made a lot more space in my crafty room, we got our oven and hopefully it will be put in this weekend, we have started trying to teach Sade to do some tricks....  Which isn't going very well at all... apparently she thinks that "Shake!" means she should shove her face in your hand or roll over onto her back and kick you... but I'm sure we will get there in the end, and that will be one more thing I can cross off my bucket list! I wanted to put up a video of Lewy trying to teach her, but my blog is being a pain in the proverbials.... it only wants to let me do a video if I have a webcam hooked up and since the laptop died I haven't had the time to get one...

Also I have taken it upon myself to try and make backups of my stuff now, so my desktop is nice and neat and organized, all my pictures are in properly labeled folders, and my loose photos that still need to be scanned have all been filed away in what I'm hoping is chronological order... there are so many pictures I want to put up for family to see.... My cousin over at A Bookworm and a Baby is one of the ones who is in so many of these photos I have, and I'm not sure if she even would remember being in half of them.... but alas I need to get a scanner...

Here's hoping you are all having a great week!

XxX ~ Rah Rah

The Cake is a lie... but my companion cube foot stool is.... er not?

Halleluiah IT'S FINALLY FREAKING FINISHED!!!!

 I've been working on this foot stool for jebus only knows how long.... but yesterday I finally finished it. You all have Lewy to thank for it, he came and plopped it down on my lap while I was watching How Clean Is Your House (rather than actually cleaning it like I should but shhhhh!), told me he was sick of looking at it half finished and that I had better finish it off before the end of the day.

Now lucky for my I only had a small bit left to go, otherwise I might have just broken down and cried right there on the lounge with images of lounge room rubbish tips blaring in the background....

And the best thing of all? You can make this thing yourself.... and no it doesnt have to be footstool size!

 To the left here we have the basic pattern you need... I did forget to mention that the whole big square needs to be in dark grey felt or material... but this is pretty much all you need to know. You can re-size this pattern any way you like... make a teeny tiny one... make a gigantic one... make whatever you want out of it!










Steps:

All my pretty pieces, and sewn the hearts and "legs"on

1. Cut out all your pieces. If you're using the pattern I have given you I suggest cutting out the whole big square first, then cutting out the other pieces from inside, will save you having to print the pattern out multiple times. I made my squares about 1.5 feet because after all I did make a foot rest and it would be hard to rest your achy feet on a pillbox.
2. First of all you need to sew the heart shape into the center of the circle shape. Do this until you run out of hearts and circles.
3. You need to attach the purple "legs" (for lack of a better word to call them at the moment" to the top, bottom, and each side of the circle. It should look like you have sewn the circle with the heart on it into the middle of a big plus sign, and do this until you run out of purple pieces and hearts, you should have 6 at the end one for eac
h face of the cube.

Sewing those corners together!

4. Now you can save time by doing this step now, or you can save it for later. If you have a sewing machine handy I suggest you do it now because it really will save some time! Take three pieces of the Corner shape and sew the long sides together, you will get a pyramid shape. Do this until you run out of corner shapes, you should end up with 8 sewn together pieces. Take the light grey rectang
le pieces and sew one end of the short edges together. Now set these pieces aside, because you wont need them until the very end.
5. Take your heart on a plus sign pieces, and you are going to sew them on to each face of the cube. I found that pinning them in place helped me center them better while I was stitching them on. (Let me tell you a sewing machine would have come in soooooo handy at this point, and this is why this darn thing took soooo long to finish!)
6. After you have stitched all the faces on you are ready to make them into a cube. I found that stitching them all together in a big cross shape was more effective than trying to sew them into shape one by one... so you do four long in a row, it doesnt matter which way the row goes, just make sure that your purple "legs" line up and touch each other. Then on the second square of the row you will sew one on the top and one on the bottom of the row so it looks like a cross shape. (not an "X" cross but more of a "t" cross)

My "cross" shape

7. Now stitch all the edges together around the two prongs of the cross to make the cube, this can be a bit tricky if you're using a machine, but its alright if you round the corners a little bit on the cube because they will be covere
d up at the end. Make sure you leave a spot open so you can flip the whole thing inside out (so the seams dont show) and so you can stuff it!
8. Stuff that thing until your hearts content... but please dont over stuff it, just remember it's a COMPANION CUBE not a COMPANION BALL. Then after you're finished stuffing it stitch closed the opening. I found it best to leave one of the corners open to do this step since they are going to be covered up at the end it doesnt really matter if you have a noticeable seam after you close it up.
9. Time to put those corners on! This bit was also a bit tricky, you dont
want to put them on too tight because they are supposed to protrude from the cube a little bit, stitch around 2.5 of the sides then take a small amount of stuffing and cram it into the corner just to make it a bit more "corner-ey". and continue to stitch around the last side, tie off the thread and viola you have just done a corner!

10. Last step! The rectangle pieces you have laying around will go over the purple "legs" and in between the two corner pieces you have done. Stitch around all of the edges you can put a little bit of stuffing in this bit as well if you like but thats up to you. Tie off all your edges and you're finished!

 Now you may have noticed in my "finished" picture up there my rectangles in the middle dont look as though they have seams in the middle. Don't worry I'm not that adapt at sewing by hand... me in all my smartness didnt cut enough of them in the first place, and therefore had to make do with one to cover the whole distance instead of two thats why it looks a little bit stretched... but still I'd rather have one that I made myself than one that I bought from the shops and paid a ridiculous amount of money for.... seriously it couldnt cost them any more to make than it did you right? So why can they charge $50 for it when it barely costs $15 to make? HUGE PRICE MARK UP!!!! and mine looks just as good anyways!

Now so no one sues, all rights to the companion cube are for whoever made the portal game... i dont take credit for coming up with the design or the name or any of that stuff... I do however take credit for the pattern.... because lets face it you would have to be a freaking rocket scientist to come up with that on your own!

Now if you will all excuse me, I'm gonna go and put my feet up, have a nice cup of tea and watch some more bad youtube videos that make me feel guilty for not cleaning or eating the right foods.... and then I'm going to go to work and deal with some screaming children while I can barely breath out my nose due to my allergies not being able to make up their minds if they want to act up or not....

Yes I am in my pajamas.... but it is not even 9am and I will probably stay in them until I have to change clothes for work..... Don't Judge ME!!!! By the way I freaking love my socks, they have pandas on the toes, and the colors are so bright they almost glow in the dark! I just wish they were a little bit warmer, because it was 2 degrees outside this morning.... 2! I'm bloody freezing here!!!

Now that I think about it actually I'm gonna have to hide my pretty and comphy new foot stool.... because lets face it, it's pretty and comphy and the mario mushroom foot stool that I made for Lewy ages ago has gone a bit... er, flat.

 

Which is pretty funny when you think about it because when I first made it it looked like 

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and Lewy squished it with his big man feet!

Stitches, Stuffyness, and Disney (lol)

As promised in the video here's the link to the turtle! It's actually pretty awesome since most of the amigurumi toys are all crochet patterns and when u turn them into knitting patterns they just dont look right... Google does not seem to see a difference in searching for "knitting" patterns vs "crochet" patterns, and 90% of the time I get so frustrated when I'm looking for things because I cant crochet for the life of me.... would be nice if some one could come and teach this uncoordinated lefty how to do it properly!

And as always please check out A blog Everyone should Read (shameless family blog flogging here!), Like and Love this facebook page!, Buy my knitting patterns here!, and last but not least Check out my other artworks here!

Hopefully my thumb heals soon and I can get back to knitting without sticking to things, and the rest of me better catch up soon because I'm sick of being sick!!!

Everyone please enjoy the turtle pattern, keep on getting down to the Knitty Gritty (love my word play!) and that you are all well. If you like what you're seeing please follow my blog! Lets get some comments going here constructive criticism never hurt any one and at least then I know people care about what I'm doing!!

<3<3 ~Rah-Rah

Cutie Patootie Teddies!

Sorry for the bad quality video! lolz but it's way to early in the morning to care what I look like or sound like at the moment XD here's the link to the free ravelry download! click it now and make this super cute and adorable teddy bear!

CTHULHU!!!!!

So it's finally here! I have decided to let it go for free!!!

Now you can find this pattern with a link to this blog in my Ravelry Shop, or on my Deviant Art Page.

And as promised the instructions to make this beautiful piece of work:

Cthulhu Ski Mask
Single needles (beginner’s ski mask)
Ski Mask:
Start with size 3 ¼ mm needles, cast on 180 stitches, stocking stitch four rows.
Switch to size 5mm needles and continue to work in stocking stitch until piece measures four to five inches long.
Switch to size 9 needles, continue to work in stocking stitch until piece measures approximately 11 inches long.
Switch back to size 5mm needles, stocking stitch two rows. Cast off 15 stitches from beginning of a wrong side row and knit to end. Turn work and cast off 15 stitches purlwise, purl to end.
Continue working in stitch for approximately 3 inches. Cast on 10 stitches at the beginning of a wrong side row, knit to end. Turn work and cast on 10 stitches purlwise and purl to end of row. (This will be the opening for the eyes in the ski mask)
Stocking stitch two rows, and then switch back to size 9mm needles. Work in stocking stitch decreasing on wrong side rows only, decrease evenly across the rows until only ten stitches remain.
Switch back to size 5mm needles and stocking stitch two rows, thread a yarn needle and pull remaining yarn through stitches on needle and pull tight. Use the yarn on the needle to stich closed from the top to the eye opening, and from the bottom of the eye opening to the end of the work.
Bridge cover (between the eyes)
Using size 5mm needles cast on 8 stitches, decreasing two stitches at a time stocking stitch until only four stitches remain, stocking stitch 3 rows, increasing 2 stitches per row stocking stitch until you have 8 stitches and cast off. This will be going in the middle of the eye opening.
Eyebrow Piece:
These are optional, you don’t have to make them if you are afraid they will obstruct your vision, or they will make the mask too uncomfortable.
Using size 5mm needles, cast on 20 stitches. Stocking stitch several rows, increasing stitches evenly across wrong side rows, increase to 40 stitches. Decrease to 10 stitches evenly across wrong side rows. Stocking stitch several rows, increase evenly to 40 stitches across wrong side rows, decrease to 20 stitches evenly across wrong side rows, stocking stitch several rows, cast off.
Fold piece in half and stitch closed all the way around. We are going to sew this over the eye opening for the eyebrows.
Tentacles!
So we will start off with some small tentacles. I used 3 ¼mm needles, casting on 10 stitches. Knit one stitch and increase 1 stitch to the end, purl one row, Knit 1 stitch and increase 1 stitch to end, purl one row, cast off. This will give you a very curly tentacle.
Repeat the same steps by casting on 20 and 30 stitches, this will give you longer versions of the tentacles.
Switch to size 5mm needles, and continue to make tentacles by casting on 10,20,30 stitches and following the same steps.
You can stop at any point when making the tentacles, because each mask will be individual, just keep increasing the size of the needles and continue to cast on 10,20,30 stitches until you have a mask which suits your tastes!

Easy Peasy Sunglasses Bag

So I really REALLY fell in love with the material I got from Spotlight for the back of my Country Kitchen Apron, and I've been trying to find a use for as much of it as possible.

When I carried my sunnies around with my in my hand bag they always ended up really dusty and needed to be cleaned almost every time I put them on (which isn't a good thing when you're driving!)

So there was a pretty long piece of the material left over, and if I folded it then it was just the right width to hold my sunglasses. So I sewed it together up the sides, and using a pink sheet of felt cut out the same size and sewed up the sides of that to make the inside of the bag.
Next I got a small length of pink ribbon and folded it in half tying the ends in knots so they wouldn't get lost inside the bag if you pulled one side too hard.
I flipped the material inside out so the stitches are on the inside, and slipped the felt inside the material (leave the stitches on the outside).
Stick the ribbon between the two layers all the way around the bag, and then fold over a small lip on the material side of the bag. Sew all the way around the bag leaving just enough of an opening for the ribbon to slide in and out of, leave a gap between the ribbon and stitch the gap closed.

Easy Peasy! Just make sure you don't catch your ribbon in your stitches, then slide your sunnies inside and pull the ribbon tight and VIOLA!!! You have your very own sunglasses bag!

Country Kitchen Flair!

So my favorite pair of jeans ended up getting a hole in the thighs. It couldn't be fixed with sewing or even a patch, and I didn't want to throw them away...

Bright idea? Turn them into my very own cooking apron!

So here's what you need:

• old pair of jeans (not too ratty you need to have the legs in decent condition)
• seam ripper
• scissors
• 1.5-2 meters of lace (optional)
• 1 meter of thick strapping
• sewing machine or needles
• 1/2- 1 meter of your own chosen fabric

Now for the steps!

1. Take the seam ripper and rip apart the legs of the old jeans. (you can also cut them apart if you are in a hurry or don't want to waste a lot of time trying to get them apart.)
2. Cut the legs off the front of the jeans, I cut mine off just at the crotch because of the holes in the thighs.
3. using the legs from either the front or the back you need to cut out the top part of the apron. I had a slight flair to my jeans so I cut out just under the knees and measured to the top of my chest. But you need to cut them long enough to cover from your chest to your waist.
4. Decide on how you would like the top of the apron to look and cut the shape out accordingly. I chose a heart shaped top for mine you you can have a square top if you like.
5. After cutting out the shape for the top, sew one side of the legs together, this will be the top of your apron.
6. Open the legs, using pins attach it to the waist of the jeans. Using your sewing machine or by hand sewing, sew the top to the bottom of the jeans. Open it up and this will be the front of your apron.
7. Pin your straps into place. (make sure they are long enough to tie around your neck and waist. Stitch these into place.
8. Pin your lace around the front of the apron, it can be any color you like and any material you feel comfortable working with. Or if you choose you can NOT use lace at all
9. Using your sewing machine or by hand sewing, attach the lace to the front of the apron.
10. Cut out the shape of the apron from the material, if you have enough left over you can make a pocket to go on the front.
11. If you make a pocket (or wish to put on an applique of any kind on the front) do it at this point.
12. Sew the material to the jeans, right sides together. I didn't leave an opening around the edges because I left the zipper open to turn right side out. (If your jeans do not have a zipper or you have sewn it shut then you will need to leave an opening to turn the project right side out)
13. Turn the project right side out and sew up any holes you have left.
14. Iron over the seams to make the project flat. 

TADA!!! That's how it goes! Now you know how to make your very own apron using an old pair of jeans. This is also a great project for children, since its machine washable, you can use it for art projects, painting, or having the little ones help you out in the kitchen.

All the Little Branches

So I know normally I'm putting up photos of everything I do, weather it's finished or not, but this time I have decided to take on a rather different type of project.

I've decided to try and do a MASSIVE family tree with both sides of my own family, all the in-laws and both sides of their families, for as far back as I can possibly go! It's a very big project that I'm working on, but to make it even bigger I have refused to use anything other than Google and my own family members to complete it, these ancestry websites are ridiculously overpriced!!!

At the moment my family tree is waiting on several branches that my mother is working on, lots of missing birthdays and partners names, and I'm stuck at my own great grandparents... Google is being MOST uncooperative in this matter, I cant find a single article on either set of my great grandparents.... Its really hard to find information out about people who were from another country =(

I'm using a simple software called MyHeritage which I found on Google for free, it's nothing fancy pants, but it does help you organize all your information. I can add photos and tag people's faces, birth dates and places, death dates and places, marriage dates and places, where people used to work, I can even link to articles I find online about them! It has a global map, and anywhere you have tagged an important event birth/death/marriage/workplace it will place a pin in the map. So far I only have a few pins, but with my limited knowledge I think I have done very well!

When I have gathered as much information as I can this software also allows you to upload the family tree to a website to share with the world, you can even order a nice wall hanging with the entire tree on it! I think that a lot of my family members would enjoy seeing the finished project, knowing where you come from is important to me.  I think it's comforting in a way to know your own background, I feel like I have a bit of amnesia when people ask me about my Italian background and all I can do is stare at them like an idiot because I have no idea about it...
I know a lot of people out there would wonder why do it at all, why even bother trying to find out things that happened in the past... I love the mystery! I would love to be working my way through my own history and , find out I'm a descendant of some one really famous, or even find out something like my family fled the country as criminals would be interesting to me. It would give some really good stories to tell people... "Did you know way back in the 1600's my relative was in the Salem Witch Trials?" "Did you know that I'm very distantly related to Vincent Van Gough?"  How cool would it be to tell people things like that and then be able to show them proof?!

All in all this task is just for me, to give myself a little bit of a history lesson. But, I know that there are many more people in my own family that would love to see it, to see how the branches are twined together, to know the places we all come from... even to see who's in-laws came from where!

At this moment we are going strong with 145 people, from 48 different families. My Uncle has a bunch of info to give me, and my mother has scrounged up a few different people I can talk to over facebook who have taken on smaller versions of my task previously... I can't wait to see how big this thing will be!!!