Nanoo's Makery

Anyone care to guess the big news in my life right now...? Yep, I'm going to be a GRANDMOTHER later this year - I am over the moon and just so excited - not least because a whole new world of crafting has opened up before me!  As you can see I've jumped right on the grandchildren devotion train. By popular demand I shall be known as Nanoo, which I think is kinda cool as it reminds me of Mork and Mindy which I used to watch a very long time ago, when my firstborn was a only a few months old.  I'm so enjoying getting back to crafting, after a year that was All About The Dog. We got an Aussie Shepherd pup 9 months ago, she's a bit of a handful and ever so time consuming - but things are quietening down a bit now that she's a year old, and I did manage a few crafty moments along the way.

That's our pup, star of this year's homemade Christmas cards. She's getting the hang of snoozing outside my craft room door while I stitch and sew - it's really the only room of the house she's not allowed into, as I just can't trust myself not to drop pins! She's only stolen my knitting from the living room sofa once, and from my reaction I don't think she'll be doing that again anytime soon.  As she took up so much of my life last year, I'll include just a couple of pics below.  Quite a cutie really, isn't she?

And while I may grumble while pulling on my snow boots and layering up for yet ANOTHER dog walk, the sunshine / rain / snow / ice / wind and the gorgeous, soul stirring countryside all around us make me thankful to be alive, healthy, safe and loved. So I guess I have something to thank the little rascal for after all. 

I made a list

Oh summer, where did you go? Ah yes, that was those happy months filled with sunshine and friends and family visiting from the UK - busy, busy busy, and beautiful.  So much fun, many happy hours in the garden, another fabulous wedding and a few snatched hours in my craft room.  I was feeling like I had been slacking off on the creative side and hadn't really made very much, but now I've made a list: Mother of the Bride Hat No.2 for Daughter No.1's wedding (No.1 hat for Daughter No.2 was last February), cable knit gloves and stripey socks for me, curtains and blinds for the house, curtains for the Potting Shed, a bib for an absoloutely darling baby, and my personal favourite, a ScareCrow. Oh, and some dinky little seed packets, which won't win any design prizes but at least I finally found a good use for the butterfly stamp I bought in Amsterdam many moons ago.  So after making that list and digging out the photos, I'm feeling quite pleased with myself and don't feel quite so daunted by the long list of projects I have lined up for the winter. Looking forward to some cosy hours in my craft room, and in the kitchen too - we went vegan this summer (feeling SO good about that!) and I have a stack of new recipes to try.  In the meantime, I'll be making the most of every drop of Autumn sunshine that remains - I'm almost enjoying raking up the leaves this year, even though there are a gazillion of them every day, as I have the time to pace myself, and the view is just gorgeous.

Fits like a glove!

There were some highs and lows at my sewing machine this week: first, I made with great care a dress to wear for my daughter's wedding, and I love it - the fabric is a linen mix which hangs beautifully, I adjusted the pattern so the waist is in the right place, studiously pressed all my seams as I went along and did a couple of final alterations to get it just right. My primary school sewing teacher (Mrs Diaz - no shortcuts under her beady eye!) would be proud of me I think.

Flushed with success, I was keen to make a start on one of the many projects in my 'make do and mend' stash.  With my only pair of oven gloves in dire need of a wash, and spurred on by recently having resisted a pretty and very cheap pair in the local dollar store (on the basis that, cheap as they were, I really should use up some fabric and make them for free), I made a start.  Aiming to keep it simple, I thought I'd just wiggle a bit of quilting on each layer of lining / padding / outer, then stitch together the 2 layers with a snazzy zigsag stitch and neatly trim around the edge - it looked great in my head but turned out - well, see below left! I resisted the urge to throw it in the bin, remembered Mrs Diaz, thought it through carefully, and had another go.  Seems the trick is to cut the padding smaller than the liner /outer, leaving space to neatly stitch and turn - much better!  So now I have a slightly odd pair of oven gloves, which will serve to remind me that mistakes really are ok if I just stop and ask myself what I learned along the way.  Only taken me 60 or so years to really get that into my head!