Where have I been? All is revealed!

Hey! Do you like the catchy title? It's intriguing isn't it? And it makes my life sound exciting!!! Well, where was I? Here. At home doing all those things you do with seven children at home. George spent quite a lot of June away for work and when he's not here my job increases because he's a big help to me. The yellow one and giant joe help out with transport so it's not as bad as it used to be, but George does more than transport! The yellow one leaves mid August for 18 months in the United States. We will really miss her, but this is the beginning of a big adventure for her.

Not much has been happening on the craft front. I have been working on improving my workspace. I now have a place for my ironing board to be permanently set up.

I intend to spend a lot more time in my improved workspace!

While op-shopping some time ago I found this cute little jumper. I couldn't resist it and bought it despite the fact that it wouldn't fit anyone at our house. I thought I could turn it into a bag, and it actually worked. The kids call it my neapolitan bag. It reminds them of icecream!

It has a zippy pocket too. I didn't have enough of any one fabric to line it with so I used a couple from the patchwork apple.http://www.patchworkapple.com/

I have been doing some knitting. Only in order to try shibori felting. I knitted fabric loosely then used string to tie marbles into the fabric. Then I felted it. It turned out brilliantly!!! It's so amazingly thick. It would make the warmest coat ever!

This is the back. Cool isn't it! I want to turn it into "something", but I am still waiting for inspiration.

These owls are the work of Murray and Katie. Murray was very taken with an owl Picklesticks designed and made. So she got her to make a pattern for her. Picklesticks is actually brilliant at making patterns. When she did her custom made footwear course at age 15 her lecturer got her to re-write instructions for him because she seems to have a talent for teaching others and explaining things clearly. I've been encouraging her to put some of her patterns in her etsy shop and the first one is now there! So, rush over to her site and buy it!

Once Murray had made her brown owl Katie fell in love with it and used the pattern to make a couple of blue/grey owls for her room. They are so sweet. Katie has become a readaholic and borrowed 29 novels from the library so she can spend her holidays (school holidays start next week here) reading.