Bandit approved!

I made Mr Dog a present this morning.  It was a simple project, sourced from materials on hand.  I'm quite chuffed with how well it came together, though Bandit seems even more impressed!

I'd been thinking of making a dog bed and went into our garage looking for something I thought might work.  It wasn't suitable but I then rediscovered this memory foam mattress topper, which had seen better days. Bandit was happy to be measured and it was easy to cut the foam with a serrated knife. My infamous stash yielded a piece of fleece, which was pretty much the right size.  It was made into a simple pillowcase style cover.  (The short edges of the opening were overlocked but not hemmed, as I was concerned I'd lose too much length).

Nick helped work the bed into the cover.  I had another rummage in the downstairs stash and found some strips of stick-on velcro - purchased from a Romsey op-shop during our Clarkefield days!  They were even the right length.  What a fluke!  I'm not sure they'll hold indefinitely but at this stage they are sort-of working and I wasn't keen to sew them in place.  

I may find more motivation for a better closure method another day but for the moment I'm calling the project finished.  It didn't take long, definitely less than an hour - and all supplies were already here, so there was no cost involved.  How good is that?!

Weighty decisions?!

I think it was late last year that my daughter suggested a doorstop sewing project.  She'd recently moved and needed something to hold her bedroom door slightly ajar for cat access.  (A slipper was the right weight but looked untidy).

There are so many doorstop sewing tutorials online and I became a bit over-whelmed by all the options, so the project didn't advance very far.

Nissa returned home yesterday after a splendid 11-day visit.  We managed many excellent adventures - and some sewing also.  

The infamous stash yielded this piece of printed canvas, which had been purchased many years ago for a different doorstop plan.  

After some YouTube viewing, we decided on a very simple pyramid style doorstop, following directions, here.  

I'd made some of those chickens previously, so we opted to make one (non-chicken) about twice the size. 

Our fabric piece was 30 x 16 cm.  The filling was some rubber-ish pellets bought years ago.  I vaguely remember they were some sort of filter medium for medical purposes but don't recall when/where they came from.  I've used them to fill draught snakes, so knew they worked well for that. I hand-sewed the second seam closed, which took quite a while due to the canvas thickness.  I was very happy with the end result though.

Nissa sent some photos this morning of her new doorstop in place - and an action shot of her cat using the door access.  Success!

Innamincka in-my-house!

There's an obvious overlap between this blog and the original Happy Hamby Campers (which is generally more active cos I do enjoy our adventuring).  At times it's tricky to decide where to post, as is the case today.

Although I haven't shared any progress here, I started revamping our bedroom earlier this year.  Around that time I created a pseudo walk-in wardrobe by positioning two tallboys across one end of the room, opposite our bed - blocking various storage from view. 

After returning from Miles, I very wisely decided our "monogrammed luggage" should be on display at home (as well as away), so our bags sit atop the chests.

It took a little while to effect the next part of my grand plan.  I ordered an extra large (1000x1500mm) canvas print, featuring one of my favourite images.  I took the shot during our Innamincka trip in 2014.  It's an  oldie but a goodie!

In discussions with the lovely printer, I commented that as well as size etc considerations, the print needed to co-ordinate with our luggage (and showed him a pic). I knew he was the right man for the job when he said "we need to match those bags"!  Please consider using Stella Canvas for your custom printing, I'm stoked with the wonderful work they've done!

In early February we celebrated our fourth anniversary as QLDers, still at the same address.  That's the longest we've lived anywhere together!  Ordering the print then wasn't intended to mark the relocation achievement but it's interesting the events occurred close together.

In spite of having images for commission sale (some with Getty and others on my Redbubble account, which is linked on the sidebar), I don't have many hanging at home. It can be difficult to decide on something that fits space/decor and that I'd be happy to live with indefinitely.  I have a few - a Yowah rock stack, some "stairs" from a bushwalk, several geckoes, a frog, a waratah and a sunflower (with bumblebee).  I use my images for custom diaries and calendars, so have those on/beside my desk.  

My Innamincka canvas was safely delivered yesterday, which was quite exciting.  It's about five times larger than anything else I've ever printed - and stunning!  As you can see, it's now displayed in our bedroom, above our Gladstone bags, reminding us of excellent adventures we've had and the promise of more to come!  

In splendid synchronicity my huge canvas arrived just prior to the release of Nick's latest song, which is all about photographs, memories - and me! Well, us and our life together - but I'm the album's cover girl!

Dye-ing to know?!

I've been interested in natural dye-ing for a long time, though hadn't actually tried to do any.  

This week I discovered many YouTube dye-ing tutorials - which led to my first experiments in tea-dyeing.  Finally!

I had tea-towels to play with - two that a dear friend had made and gifted, as well as other, less precious versions.

Some information suggested I could dye with tea only, while others used mordants and fixatives (yep, I've watched lots of YouTube and read blogs also).  

I decided to try the most basic version first - and see what happened.  I made a big pot of tea on the stove-top and then put wet tea-towels in it.  

The tea returned to the boil for a period of time and I then extracted the tea-towels at what I deemed was a suitable interval.  The rabbit/hare pair were fished out first because I didn't want to wreck them!

I started my experiment around 10:00am.  The hares came out about four hours later.  The others stayed in overnight.  I didn't add anything to the tea.  It was just standard, strong tea (a variety that hadn't been popular in our tea cupboard)!  

The tea-towels were rinsed and then hung on the line.  (It was pretty working in the afternoon light, both in the kitchen and in the back yard).

I'm happy with how the hares have dried.  One is paler than the other though they had the same amount of time in the tea.  I think the difference is one was freshly washed, while the other had been re-wet in the sink. Maybe?!

I'm not so chuffed with the other tea-towels.  They had a lot longer in the tea and are definitely darker.  I'd read that it was a good way of revamping stained linen though and it's not been so great for that, or my expectations were far too high!

In any case it was cheap entertainment on a quiet day at home.  I bought some soy milk when shopping today, to use as a mordant for my next fabric experiment.  I'll do some more YouTube research and raid the stash for suitable test materials.  

The hare tea-towels have been ironed, folded and stored in my box of Easter mugs and decorations.  I'm deciding what to do with the other six.  Of course, they are fine to be used and washed, which will be a good test.  

It will be interesting to see if the colour holds and I guess the worst that can happen is that they fade back to their starting colour.  

Happy Easter!

Facebook reminded me this morning that in 2012 I first started using a bread-maker for Hot Cross Bun (HCB) production. I'd made them by hand the previous year with Vaughan's assistance (bottom collage pic) and was keen not to knead so much, given our multiple batches.

(Recent investigations revealed some arthritis and small ganglions in my left wrist but both wrists have had niggles for quite a long time).

The breadmaker was a $10.00 bargain, sourced second-hand.  Such a great investment!  I was very pleased to find it still going strong in 2017 (after 18 months or so in storage).  It gets a big work-out at Easter!  

Quick calculations. Ten years of home-made HCBs with batches made for all but one Easter. I'm not sure how many individual buns have been made. I've noted five dozen in 2019!  I only make them at Easter, so we indulge but we gift them also.  It's rare for Nick to be not-working at Easter and we often send some with him to share with colleagues.  

In 2014 they were made at Yowah on our Cobb Cookers and then in Lui's fuel stove when we ran out of heat beads. 2016 was missed, cos the gazebo kitchen was even trickier than its tent successor!

I've been happily pottering today, baking several batches of HCBs.  Well, technically these were Hot Cross(less ) Buns cos I wasn't feeling up to the angst of failure!

Some years I excel at piping crosses - but most years I don't do so well.  2015 was a good year (see the third and fourth collage pics). You can see Vaughan  wearing the same shirt in 2015 as he did in 2011, which was pure co-incidence!

The house smelled so wonderful as I was baking. By the end of the day I'd made three batches, 16 in each. 

I use the breadmaker to mix the dough, a cycle of one and a half hours. 

The breadmaker beeps at a certain part of the dough cycle for any inclusions to be added.  I haven't had great success doing this.  Chocolate chips have completely melted into the dough, and sultanas have been mashed to a sticky paste!  Given that experience I prefer to knead the fruit and/or chocolate in by hand when the dough is ready. 

I stood at the kitchen window dividing and shaping the dough into buns, watching the breeze in the trees and listening to a few birds. It was quite meditative.  "Mine" were the first batch. Heavily spiced and fruited. Baking in the turbo oven caused the sultanas at the top to swell hugely and candify - perfect! An experimental batch were next. White choc and cranberry. Not so spiced, which meant the dough rose a little higher before added the choc and fruit. Interesting.  

Miss Erin was the official taste-tester of "her" batch and was delighted to declare them "better than the shop's"!  Vaughan prefers a double choc version.  Lightly spiced chocolate dough with choc-chips mixed through.  The chocolate bits tend to melt when baked - which is a bonus!

From time to time my mother baked Hot Cross Buns.  I can remember her doing so at Yowah because they wouldn't have been available otherwise.  I may have made them earlier than 2011 but I can't clearly recall doing so.  Why did I start making them?  Well, I don't like orange peel and am not a fan of bland supermarket offerings. It was tricky to find somewhere that made HCBs how I liked them and then they were usually more expensive, so I decided to perfect my recipe!

Felt brooch fun ...

I like wearing brooches and have quite a few in my collection - some lovely gifts, family heirlooms, op-shop finds, retail bargains and also those I've crafted. 

During our Yowah trip in 2014, I made many owls.  The first of those were made when Erin and I joined the local ladies at their weekly craft group.  I continued to make owls once back home again (in Victoria at that time). A few sold and others were gifted or used on projects.  The last seven sold via Facebook, soon after arriving in QLD.  

Foxes were simpler creations, crafted around the same time as the owls.  I made several foxes as gifts and kept one girl for me.

I revisited felt-work in November, when Erin purchased this ice-block dress and we both agreed it needed something extra.  

I traced one of the ice-blocks from the dress and used that as a template .From memory, three layers of felt were used - and the (new) paddlepop stick was glued between layers, prior to finishing.

Based on the ice-block success, I crafted two felt Christmas brooches for myself.  One features an opal pendant I won on my 9th birthday, when we lived at Yowah!

We very recently had a family outing to a motor museum on the Gold Coast.  I had two lengths of fabric in my infamous stash.  One featured cars and the other, an opshop bargain remnant, had road sign motifs. 

I used the car material to make one a small, reversible handbag.  (I have back and neck issues, so prefer a smaller bag to avoid carrying too much weight).  The reverse bag side features dark grey denim, which I used on both sides of the strap.  There was a tiny red Herbie photo holder in the shed and Nick converted that to a small brooch, which I wore on the handbag strap.

I cut two signs from the t-shirt fabric and backed those with interfacing, to prevent stretching.  I cut two black pieces of felt for each sign - and again applied interfacing to each, for extra body.  I stitched a brooch back to the bottom felt piece, before sandwiching all three together and hand-sewing in place. You might just be able to see my tiny stitches. Once completed, it was possible to see a little of the white interfacing on the edges of the brooches, so I carefully coloured those using a black permanent marker.

This is how I looked on the day of the motor museum visit. (Nick was keen to include the luggage on the car behind me).  I really doubt anyone noticed my handbag and/or brooches but I was very happy to be wearing a themed outfit.

And yes, we all enjoyed the outing (in spite of the very wet weather).

A love-ly bag - for Valentines Day!

Erin spotted a very cute Gladstone handbag on Facebook marketplace last week.  When I made contact with the seller, the bag was already pending collection.  

Fortunately for me, that sale fell through - so Nick and I collected the bag yesterday.

Given it came home on 13 February, the bag was deemed to be a Valentines gift - and a love-ly one at that!

We were aware the bag was missing one of the buckle prongs and had thought we would replace that small part.  

When I was examining the bag on the way home though, we decided removing the second buckle prong would be easier - and the strap seemed to sit nicely without it.

As you can see from the top pic, the bag was otherwise in very good condition.  A few small marks were evident, along with light tarnish to the clasp.  It had a key and really just needed some TLC.

I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the seller at the arranged pick-up time.  She had bought the bag from a vintage shop and didn't know anything else about it.  

There is no maker information but it appears to be  quality, hand-crafted leather. 

I used saddle-soap to clean the bag today and used a damp magic sponge to gently rub at some of the marks.  I then applied a number of leather conditioning coats.  The leather was very dry and drank in the treatments.

There really wasn't much other work necessary.  I went over the tarnished clasp very lightly with superfine steel wool and think it looks better for that minor polish.  

Nick asked if I was going to put an initial keyring on it, like the larger bags.  I admitted I was thinking along those lines!  After pondering, I remembered my baby bracelet, engraved with my full initials. 

There was a long period after my first marriage when I used a different surname.  Since Nick and I married (15 years ago!), my childhood initials are again appropriate to use.

Nick removed the chain from the initial plate of the bracelet and punched small holes in the clasp strap.  

Initially the plaque was pinned to the leather, while we pondered the best method for it's permanent attachment.

At some point Nick remembered a hobby store in Ipswich, so we took the bag and plaque there to discuss options with a lovely gentleman.  Once we showed him our plan, he brought out boxed of tiny bolts and nuts.  He had so many!

Nick fixed the plaque to the bag clasp while I was napping in the afternoon.  As with the larger bolts on the hatbox handle, he made sure the slots lined up perfectly - cos I'm fussy about those details!  

So now the latest baby Gladstone bag has formally joined the ranks of our monogrammed luggage!  Don't they look wonderful all lined up together?!

I'm really not sure how this bag will be used.  It might still serve as a handbag.  In any case (hah!) it was well worth the $20.00 asking price - and I'm sure I'll have a love-ly time using it!

Nick and I called into an op-shop after buying the bolts.  The volunteer behind the counter was very taken with my little bag and praised it most highly.  We spent quite a long time chatting and laughing - so completely overlooked browsing the shop for bargains!