Friday 15 April 2011

Easter Time Is Here!!

I love Easter!! It's such a great time of the year. School holidays, decorating, drawing, shopping for eggs and most importantly of course making, making, making.

This easter me and mum have been making lots of goodies! Mainly we have been felting colourful bowls and eggs, plus I have been doing plenty of drawing as easter is such an inspiring time. I love decorating my room when easter comes around and making my easter basket very pretty. I always search google for any crafty things but the blogs I read always have the most inspiring ideas.

So anyway here are some of our pictures:

First we have our felted baskets and easter eggs>







And this is my easter basket - which is filled with sheeps fleece and offcuts of wool>


And we have some more pics of our felted things and some chickens that my mum and I knitted>







Last but not least, some of my drawings - not many because im sort of only half way through the rest of them but i'll show you these anyway>



( ^ This one is on its side.)

Anyway I should have some more creations on my blog more closer to easter or maybe after, im not sure, but that will do for now!

TTFN!! ( ta ta for now)

Monday 4 April 2011

My very own tree house!!

On Sunday my dad and I made a tree house! I have wanted a tree house for ages, mainly because I have a fasination for trees and I love being up high.
So, on Saturday night we started planing and discussing what we would make, then we decided on a tree house.


Sunday morning came and when we were dressed and ready to go at 10:00 clock we jumped on my motorbike and set off to look for a tree. We finally agreed on a tree and then we worked out the dimensions. We rode back up to our shed and loaded the ute up with every thing we needed and back down we went. I was so excited to get started!


To start, we cut the first bits of timber to size making it up as we went along then fitted them in place. Our ideas and plans changed alot as we went on but im very proud of our finished product. My dad is a very good builder and has made alot of wooden wares over the years.


At 12:00 it started to rain so we headed up for lunch and waited for it to slow down. We were'nt expecting it to rain and it was a bit of a suprise.
We watched a movie after lunch and when it finished the rain had nearly cleared up. So then at around 2:00 we drove back down, to finish.

We finished off, then added steps up the side of the tree and some rope swings and we had done it at around 3 or 4:00. My mum, Steven and his mate arrived home just after we had finished and we asked her to bring back down a beer for my dad and a book for me. A few minutes later mum came walking down the drive way carrying a beer, book, the camera and a cup of tea.


In the end I talked mum into climbing up the tree to have a look at the top. She was'nt very pleased about climbing the rope but she did it any way.


Steven and his mate walked passed and couldn't resist climbing up to have a look.

When they had all gone dad climbed up and sat with me for a while. He did a great job and im so happy that I finally have my very own tree house.

Its not very big but I love it!!

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Corduroy Creations!

Last weekend my mum and I decided to make some corduroy creations. We made a pair of pants for myself, and also a corduroy dress and corduroy ra ra pants for a very special little girl for her birthday. I'll show pictures of the other two later on.


My pants took mum and I 4 hours in total from cutting the pattern to threading the cord. We first went to Granny Kathleens to find a pattern. We found a pattern for the dress but no luck for the pants. Next stop was Lincraft were we found a pattern for my pants and for the ra ras. Then we bought some red material for my pants and for the other creations.


The colourful cordy that we used for the trims, we found at a small shop in Brisbane called Just Plain Gorgeous, which is an awesome shop that has so much great crafty goodness it made mum and I squeal with delight!


On my pants I thought I could personalise them by adding one of my own designs on them. So I put a cut out of a mushroom I drew on one leg and we made a pocket on the other.


While mum was sewing the pants together I was making a swing behind our lounge room watching a movie and mum sew. We thought it was a pretty good try for our first attempt, especially for the fact that they fitted me perfectly.

On Sunday we went to the local markets where I wore my pants for the first time and I got lots of lovely comments. Also, mum found a big box of fleece to spin on her spinning wheel on our way out of the markets.
 

These pants are very special to me, I cant wait till winter cause I just know I'll wear them to death! They remind me of my mums childhood because her mum used to make her all kinds of clothes including shorts, shirts, jumpers, even undies and now my mums doing the same for me and I can't wait to see what else we will make together! Mum has taught me alot to do with craft and sewing and making these pants has taught me how to read patterns and the patience that is needed to make something great! 


Friday 18 March 2011

My Drawings!

Hey! I thought Id show you some of my drawings that I've been doing. I love drawing and creating my own pictures. Lately I have been right into drawing mushrooms, owls, trees, animals and loads more!
Heres some of the many pictures I love to draw: 










Anyway I hope you like them!

Homemade Pencil Cases!

Lately my mum and I have been making our own pencil cases! We use material and zips that we find from the op-shops or use some that my grannys has, we buy the plastic to cover them from Lincraft which I think costs about $10 a metre and i design the front and maybe the back and then of course we sew it all together. 

These are great homemade gift ideas. We have used them for christmas presents, birthday presents and just made some for ourselves to use as pencil cases for school, making small ones for wallets, long ones for holding knitting, and they are great for holding hair ties or hair clips or even use as a phone case.


Now, in case any of you would like to try making one here's how we do it:-

1.First make sure you have everything you need to get started including- a zip, material, plastic covering, a sewing machine and pins.

 2.You can have as big of pencil case as you would like although it mostly depends on what size zip you have. So to cut the material to size (i recomend ironing it first to get all the crumples out but either way is fine), you can measure any length but the width must be the same as the zip.

3.Then once its cut to size you can start designing the front and back. I think its nice to personalise the pencil cases by putting the name of the person its for on the back but it still looks great without it.

4.Once you have designed it sew it on to the material you cut to size, making sure you leave enough space around the edges for seams when you sew it all together. Then pin the material to the plastic covering and cut around the edge.

5.Next do a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine around the outside of the plastic and material to hold them together.

6.Now comes the hardest part of all! This is where you have to sew the zip on and to do this you must have a zipper foot on your sewing machine which is made specially for sewing zips on. When you have attached the zipper foot fold the top of the front part of the case over and pin onto one side of the zip as close as possible to to the metal part. Then flip them over so that the material is facing up towards the the foot then sew along the zip and repeat for the other side.

7.Now last but not least turn it inside out and sew all around the edges, ( And so that you can turn it back the right way again pull the zip half way across so that it is partly open.) 

Well give it a try! It might take awhile to get a hang of but just give it a go and dont hold back!
Anyway I better go. See you next time!















Sunday 6 March 2011

Crocheting a flower pillow!

Hi! This morning my mum and i finished the pillow i have been crocheting. This was my first attempt at crocheting a square and some flowers, so i decided i would make some use out of them.




I got the instuctions to make these cute little flowers on the blog Attic24 - she has some great craft ideas which has really got me motavated see here http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/crochet-flowers-and-leaves.html.






Friday 4 March 2011

Hello!

Good morning! My name is Emily Dan, I am 12 years old and this is my first time at blogging and I thought that I would like to introduce my family and tell you a bit about my life. First of all my mums name is Megan and my dads name is Jason. I also have 2 brothers, Michael and Steven. I live in a shed on 30 acres and I have a dog - Casper, a cat - Maui, and 2 rats - Precious and Patches. Our acreage has a dam and creek running through it which I love playing in and we have a garden outside our shed with 11 square garden beds and 35 fruit trees. My hobbies are crafting, knitting, crocheting, drawing, sewing, climbing trees, and designing things. I really hope you enjoy reading my blog. Here are some pics of my family:

Michael & me

Steven, Dad & Michael

Mum & me

My Mum & Dad


Me & my brothers dog (Bruiser)

Casper

Me & my Cousin

Casper

My rat when she had babies


The 2 rats I kept (Precious & Patches)


& of course my little Maui!
Well that should sum up most things!