Resolution Solution

Happy New Year everyone !!!!

This is also my 50th post which is brilliant, it has come around so fast even with my sporadic posting habits.
I had such a big list of New Years Resolutions that I wanted to make, but I know how unlikely it is that I will stick to them. So I decided to do a little something for the planet, the wallet and help improve my sewing skills. I thought a two month resolution would realistic, so here it is.

To celebrate both these momentous occasions I have decided to take the Wardrode Refashion Pledge!

The Pledge

I, Rebecca pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed Rebecca.

To make it a little more interesting this pledge will include Tessa too.

The Rules

• 1.
  No buying new! (handmade is excepted; So this allows for Etsy purchases etc!!) All clothing must be Recycled, Renovated, Preloved or Thrifted, or Handmade only for the term. Employment related and special needs clothing (ie sports, school), shoes and undies are excepted from the rules, although you are encouraged to have a go at making these.
• 2.
  In extreme circumstances, maybe a special event, or the worlds greatest and most amazing never to be repeated sale that you simply can not pass up, you may use the Get out of Refashionista Jail Free card. You are able to use this card once during the 2 month part of your contract; ie 1 for 2 months, 2 for 4 months etc. Of course you need to fess up on the blog and display the button!
• 3.
  You must post on the blog at least once a week to let the community know what you've been up to. This will not only give you brag points, but inspire and encorouge others! Of course you need to display the button on your blog and have copied the pledge in at least one post, and provide a link to your pledge under the button.
• 4.
  You need to be honest and admit when you've fallen off the Refashionista Wagon! Go directly to Refashionista Jail, do not pass GO and do not collect $200! Apply for parole once there.

a successful refashion

Well kind of anyway. This is my first refashion for the year. It began as a merino skivvy top which I picked up from the local salvation army shop for $6.

And ended up as two pairs of baby pants. The left pair turned out rather well, but the pair of the right might still need a bit more work. I think I will shorten the legs, because I really can't imagine Tessa will grow that tall before next winter hehe.
A pretty good result that used most of the top to create two warm pairs of pants for $6.

oh no

We are mobile. Just in the last couple of days Tessa has found out how much more fun and interesting life is now that she can get to the other side of the room under her own steam.

She dosen't have a traditional crawl yet, it is more like a catapillar crawl. She gets up on all fours stretches and slumps forward and repeats.

She hung out with me in the kitchen while I cooked dinner, now the pantry door stays shut and the cats are fed outside. Much to their irritation. Tessa really enjoyed talking to her reflection on the oven door, good thing I wasn't using it. I think a safety gate will be an excellent idea for next time.

A Paper Bag

The simplest things can be the best sort of baby toys. Much better than the plastic rubbish that society trys to push at parents. Tessa was throughly entertained the other day by this paper bag.

It was great for shaking.

And even better for chewing.

Also pretty good for wacking.

a spot of fishing

A couple weekends ago we had our first BBQ down at the Bach for the summer, it was lovely. A very hot day and I really savoured a beer it was really good.

Anyway while we were waiting for the others to get back from kayak fishing, hubby decided to do a bit of fishing of his own. Poor thing got a bit wet and didn't have much luck, he really needed some decent bait.

But Tessa and I enjoyed watching and really appreciated the seabreeze

Summer

We have had some lovely hot days this week it already feels like summer. To escape the heat Tessa and I spent the afternoon under our trio of big shady trees. A crabapple, flowering cherry and michalia.



Tessa really enjoyed playing with crunchy leaves, the texture as they crumpled feels wonderful, especially in the mouth (woops).

Some lovely cheeky smiles. She is wearing a sweet little op-shop top and a smart little cotton rainbow crochet sunhat.

What big teeth you have my darling and the third one cut through yesterday.

Love the detailing on this sweet top and such a light fabric perfect for toasty hot summer days.

photos

Some more photos from our trip to whangarei.



A somewhat blurry photo of Phoebe the gorgeous family Jack Russell. She kept moving around so the photo just dosen't do her justice or show her vibrant personality. Tessa and Phoebe hit it off straight away, Phoebe didn't even mind the excited wacking and earpulling. Such a sweet little dog. Tessa loves animals and didn't even mind when her Gran's cairn terrior Poppy wanted to give her a kiss, woops. A real farm girl she is turning out to be, hehe.

One of the many pretty daylilies in Aunty Linda's lovely garden, this was my favourite.

The awesome swing set that they built themselves, very study and will last forever.

And the huge sandpit, with a shade sail over top for cooler sandpit fun in summer. They have a lovely home with lots of great stuff for kids to get outside and play, I hope we can steal a few ideas for Tessa gets bigger.

we are back!!!

Tessa and I went for a lovely holiday to Whangarei last week. To introduce Tessa to some of the family. It was really nice to catch up with everyone. Tessa was fine for her first plane ride and even fell asleep on the way home.



Here is my favourite photo, a gorgeous photo of Tessa and her great grandfather. She loved having a cuddle and really enjoyed playing a neat tapping game.

Some more photos of Tessa and granddad.

A family photo of four generations, Aunty Linda, me, granddad and Tessa.

A photo with with my cousin Tyler holding Tessa. My camera wasn't taking the best photos at the time hopefully I can get better photos from the others cameras.

Thank you for having us Linda, Shane, Tyler and Kaleb we really enjoyed.

mmmm

Mmmmm banana after weeks of screwing her face up at banana, Tessa finally decided it was yummy. She had two helpings of banana mixed with baby rice. Here are some sweet photos of Tessa enjoying her dinner.

She really enjoys playing with her spoon too.

She has even mastered drinking out of her sippy cup too, clever wee girl!

The prize has arrived

Here is the blogtober giveaway prize that Sam of Sam Snippets won. I'm so glad you liked it. It was a wedding themed craft giveaway.

With something borrowed........


Something Blue.....

Something old.......

Something new.....

Well the something Borrowed was not really borrowed, a gorgeous rose embroidered tablecloth which seemed appropriate as roses are the most popular wedding flowers.

The something Blue was some lovely blue 8ply wool yarn.

The something Old was a sweet little half finished rose cross stitch with all the thread needed to finish, that I picked up at a an op-shop.

And the something New was a little zip bag I made inspired by tinyhappy. That I lined with silk left from sewing my wedding dress last autumn and decorated with a lace doily from my ever increasing collection.

Ruby Red

How can anyone resist the lucious fragrant ruby red rose 'Ingrid Bergman'. I was in the supermarket last week and it just begged to come home with me.


Not that I need anymore roses. But this rose has long stems and large scented blooms of the gorgeous dark ruby red colour that I was looking for, and its disease resistant too which is a an added bonus.

Now to figure where I can plant (squeeze) it in the garden.

latest fabric finds

My latest finds at the local op-shops, some gorgeous fabrics.

A really lovely fringed seventies single bedspread, its quite a nice heavy weight cotton, I think it will be perfect for Tessa to play on under shady trees in the summer. It was so hot today it already feels like summer.

A gorgeous rose cotton print on one side and a really lovely blue cotton floral on the other side of this single duvet cover. What a find, I think it will be perfect for a couple of summer skirts for me.

Another brilliant find was this very sweet fairy flanellette single sheet, I can't decide if I should cut into it and make Tessa some cosy winter PJs for next winter or leave it for when she moves into a big girls bed. The purple floral is a pillowcase just the right size for a little wee summer dress for Tessa. The green and pink floral is a lovely little tablecloth with a few holes I didn't notice, maybe another little summer dress?

And winner is!!!!!

Tessa was very helpful and chose the winner for the giveaway again.

First she had to look at a bunch of entries, then ....

She chose the winner by tasting, well done Tessa

The winner is Sam of Sam's Snippets her favourite wedding memory was...

Sam said...
my fav memory -- feeling like a princess

Congradulations!

Thanks to everyone who entered, hope you all had a lovely blogtober.

Sam, if you could email me with your postage details to illicium@hotmail.com I will send your prize out as soon as possible.

A sweet little dress

This is the prize for my last giveaway with a baby theme, Chevgirl won it and she chose the pinafore dress. I adjusted an Amy Butler pattern from my Little stitches for littles one's book to an 18m size.

I made it with fabric left over from Tessa's Quilt which is still to be completed. The covered buttons turned out well for an afterthought from struggling to find just the right buttons. I found them at our local red cross op shop and covered them in the fabric from the skirt. (strange lighting made the dress different colours I think its closer to true colour in the top photo).

The cute bloomers turned rather well, I think I will have to make Tessa a set for summer.

Don't forget to enter my latest giveaway with wedding theme which ends soon!

Yay yarn!

My first attempt at crochet and it wasn't as difficult as I imagined. It is the beginning of a grannie square blanket (what a funny weird name).

I used some left over merino 4ply print yarn, which is quite cosy and lovely, that I used to make Tessa a baby blanket with lace edging when I was pregnant. I think this grannie square blanket will be great for using up little bits and pieces left over from other projects floating around my yarn stash.

On tuesday it was pouring with rain and we were in town getting the car serviced, so I had to stop in at the yarn shop to feed Tessa. So of course I had to buy some yarn especially when I found these on sale. A 8ply wool silk blend at $3.00 per ball in the perfect colour I had been looking for to finally knit something for myself. I purchased it thinking I would make the beautiful Backbone vest I found in a Knit1 magazine I got last year, but I think I'm not quite experienced enough to tackle this one yet. So I think I will knit something else probably a cardi with sleeves maybe even a hood as this gorgeous yarn is just so cheap. I looked on ravelry these are couple of possibles I found this one which looks great and this one or possibly even this one. But I still like the idea of one with cables so I cast on for something totally different some mary jane slippers a quick knit to get me motivated.

I also found this lovely 100% wool yarn there was only four balls left and at the same awesome low price of $3.00 per ball I just had to snap them up too. Not sure what to knit with them I think it look good in the yarn stash for now.

Some cute photos of Tessa playing in her toy basket she loves pulling everything out and examining each toy. It has been great for keeping her happy when she starts to get a bit irritable.

More spring highlights

There is some gorgeous spring flowers in the garden at the moment. Here a few of my favourites.
The lovely soldier poppy or flanders poppy is another for it I think. It now self sows every autumn and flowers with brilliant red flowers in spring.

One of our favourite roses of which I am not sure of its name. We four plants in a raised bed next to the courtyard. They finally got pruned late this winter and are looking so much heathier this season.

And these lovely bulbs are in the same garden, I'm not sure what they are called. I think its Peruvian lily, if you have any ideas what it might be called please leave a comment.