That's How I Roll - Birthday Embroidery

My husband's birthday was on Wednesday.  It is hard to surprise someone by making them something when you live in the same house and he works from home. 

I had this idea in mind for him for a while - I got it one day when he was looking at tshirts online and they had a similar print.  I purchased the hoop one day at Spotlight not sure what it would be used for, but thought of it when I was in my "must make my husband's birthday present" mode.  I had thought it was a darker blue, rather than teal, but didn't mind the colour when I looked as saw matching embroidery floss in my stash.  As for the fabric, I was going to use plain cream cotton but then found the white ripstop nylon which reminds me of parachutes and further ties into the aviation theme.

Unfortunately, my husband was attending a funeral on Tuesday, but it did give me some alone time to stitch this up.  As a bonus, my little girl napped for 2.5 hours which was long enough for me to get the main stitching done.

 And a close up of my stitches.  I'm no expert at embroidery and this was all free-handed, but I think it came out great.  Mainly backstitch, with satin stitch on the planes, and french knots for the wheels and punctuation.

Brother in law Birthday

A brother in law can be a notoriously hard person to choose a gift for.  This would definitely be true in my case, and more so since I had to choose something I could make.  Usually my husband picks the birthday gifts for his brothers but with my project this year, it was left up to me. 

The eldest of the brothers had his birthday about a week ago now, just before one of the biggest lotto draws in NZ history ($34 million which was going to be awarded even if no one matched all of the numbers) so, as an easy out, his present ended up being a lotto ticket.

A lotto ticket!?  You might be condemning me for this one - no I didn't make the lotto ticket.  I didn't even pick the numbers.  Instead, I thought up a crafty and fun way to package it.  Since he had the chance to win a fortune, I decided to crochet a fortune cookie to put the ticket inside and package that in a miniature Chinese takeaway box.

I didn't make the card, but it is a handmade card and it features a scooter.  Fitting since my brother in law rides a Vespa.

  I also made a chocolate courgette cake for after the birthday dinner.  It was absolutely moist and delicious and the kids had no idea there were vegetables in it!

Coming soon, my husband's birthday and Easter...dun dun dun...

Baby Hat and Booties

My good friend Bianca is expecting her second baby within the next month.  She already has a little boy and the new baby is going to be a little girl.  It's always fun making teeny little things so I went ahead and crocheted a hat and slippers for the baby to be.

I started out with soft wool in a strong pink colour and began crocheting a pattern that I'd found online.  Unfortunately that pattern was working out way too small, even for a newborn, so I went ahead and free-styled it into something that I thought was a more realistic size.  The design is a very simple shell pattern which gives loads of texture.  For added interest, I made a contrasting stripe in charcoal grey.  The booties were entirely my own design, based on the hat.  They are grey with a grey and pink shell pattern on the top to match the hat.  No real pictures, just this one from my cell phone.

I hope they fit little Mila when she arrives!

Sea Side Scarf

Another one of the ladies in our family has had a birthday.  It was my mother in law, a woman with particular tastes and the means and inclination to get what she wants and needs.  Needless to say, I had to put on my thinking cap to come up with something that would be luxurious and within my means to make as I've been short on time lately.  Between my husband and I, we came up with making a scarf as the mother in law is often seen wearing one.  My husband chose the yarn (Stitch n Bitch Nations Bamboo Ewe in Eucalyptus) and I chose a classic "granny square" design with a short fringe.  

Lily, our 4 year old, named it The Sea Side Scarf because Dum, as we call my MIL, lives by the beach and the colour of the yarn is like the ocean.  Good name, I thought!  Here is the scarf all rolled up and ready to be wrapped.

And Lily couldn't let it go without modelling  the scarf for everyone to see.

My Ravelry post about this scarf is here.

Bianca's Birthday!

My friend Bianca had a birthday last weekend and in good girlfriend fashion, I gave her a fun gift of something she might not get for herself. 

I made her a mesh cowl from a bamboo/wool blend yarn in a beautiful rich pink colour.  My husband actually picked the yarn and I think it was a great choice and suited Bianca much better than it suits me in this photo.

And a photo of it packaged up before it was wrapped.

 I made a little care label on a piece of pretty scrap booking paper so she'd know what the fibre was and how to keep it looking mint.  I think the colour is better represented in the first photo :)

My Ravelry post about this cowl is here.

Baby Dragon

At the beginning of the week we got an invitation to a first birthday party.  I got the text when I was out shopping and made my way to the toy aisle to see what I might get.  I looked around for about 15 minutes and had pretty much made up my mind when I remembered my handmade gift pledge for the year.  I left the toy aisle and headed home. 
This week I started back to work for the first time in about 16 months.  I was feeling really busy and not sure what I could make for this little boy's birthday.  A book I took out of the library a few weeks ago helped though, and last night I started making a crocheted dragon stuffie.  This morning before the party, I had enough time to finish him off and wrap him up.  Hopefully it is well received by the birthday boy (we don't know if he liked it because he didn't open his presents at the party).
I do know that Lily liked it!

What do you think?

Another gift down!

One of my nieces has her birthday a few days after mine; this year she turned 12.  She is really into horses and plays field hockey but at first I wasn't sure what to make for her. 

I searched my favourite craft site craftster.org using the simple search phrase horse and came up with all sorts of inspiration.  Crochet head covers for her horse, a beanie with a mane and ears made to look like a horse, machine appliqués on a tshirt or bag, etc.  One of my favourite inspirations was a pieced quilt pattern.  I am not much of a quilter so I didn't know what I would do with this great image:

In the end, I drew the design out on a letter sized piece of paper and let it stew a while.  Then I added a mane and tail for more interest.  Finally, after much thought and a little research on what favourite colours the birthday girl liked, I decided to put the picture to canvas, then down the side of the canvas I wrote a birthday message. 

 All done!  And looking pretty cool if I do say so myself.  Thanks to my husband for helping out getting enough layers of paint on there to make it look nice and opaque over the black.