the race is on...

14 days til we head home...15 squares to do...

Do you think I'll make it?

baby proof necklaces part 2

I was so excited about this idea that I posted the beginnings of this necklace last week. So I thought I'd show you it all finished...

And here is the next on that I am working on - it's going to be circles of various sizes (single colour), joined together (rather than on a chain). I am really liking the way it is turning out...  

Oh, and I meant to ask - how did/are you managing to baby proof your jewelry? Have you bothered or have you just stopped wearing it? And do you have any tips or suggestions for me (little-miss-e is definately at the grabbing stage)? (and how many of these necklaces do you think I can get away with making!?)

my unsuccessful blog or blogging good enough

I read a post from Maxabella today that made me annoyed. Which was odd, seeing I usually find Maxabella enjoyable. But this post is titled "How to give good blog." It appears to be the first installment of a series on blog improvement. There was nothing in it that was intended to offend - she talks quite clearly about the steps one should be taking to blog successfully. So it wasn't so much the content of the post but the concept. (Ok so there is a bit of the content I will rant about too, but more on that later).

Blog improvement seems to be in fashion - Pip from Meet me at Mike's is currently running a blog school and there are thousands of posts out there on how to make you blog bigger and better and get more followers and more traffic or how to turn your blog into you job. And I'm ok with people who are keen to improve their blogs.

The issue for me is about they way most of these posts define blogging success, for by most of the criteria marjoryjane is unsuccessful. I am yet to hit 20 followers despite blogging at marjoryjane for years. I still frequently have posts that no one comments on. And when I didn't post much in 2011, I didn't receive a flood of email from my virtual community asking me if I was ok. In fact I don't think I received even one. I am a blogging failure.

Maxabella in her post advises against "just" blogging about your life. Apparently "blogging about yourself and your life" isn't enough to have a successful blog. It won't result in the much wanted traffic that will make you a success. "You have to have a hook"

Well, I blog about myself and my ordinary everyday life. I can't blog about anything else. I don't have an "interesting lifestyle". I'm not interested in "starting a business" and I certainly don't have the time to "curate stuff from around the Internet".

I crochet. I live in inner-city Melbourne. I wear black with splashes of colour. I like to op-shop. I have a lovely husband and now have a baby girl. I like to create stuff. I like to blog about the stuff that I make. I am aware that none of this makes me unique or necessarily all that interesting.

But you know what - I decided long ago that I blog good enough. I am content in my blogging. I am content with what I do and how I do it. I blog as regularly as I can about the stuff I am interested in. marjoryjane is where I record the things I make and it is where I connect with other ordinary everyday life bloggers. And I hope to blog unsuccessfully here at marjoryjane for years to come.

So here's to blogging good enough!

Flea market finds

So we went a-flea-marketing-today. It was so hot and sunshiney here today, that in the end we didn't stay long. Little-miss-e needed a sleep and there was no shade to be seen, so a-home-we-went again.

But not too soon, not before we got what we had gone for. See we wanted to get some handmade Christmas decorations as pressies for my family (as we will arrive back home shortly before Christmas). And we found these - aren't they lovely.

They were hanging from a wire baobab tree, and so we bought the tree too! Its going to be our African Christmas tree.

There is now just the small matter of working out how on earth we get it home...

baby proof necklaces

Ok ok, so even though it isn't finished yet, I thought I'd post about the fun I had today. But first some background. We are currently thousands of miles from home. We have been for a month now, and have about another month until we head home and for reasons I can't quite explain (except for due to baby-brain) I forgot to bring any jewelry. Which is weird because I used to wear necklaces every day. Well, before Little Miss E I did. Since having her, I pretty much stopped wearing any jewelery. Thinking about it, I have realised that part of the issue is that I didn't have any baby proof necklaces - things that aren't hard on her head when I'm holding her, or sharp, or small that she might break and then swallow...

So then yesterday I had some inspiration whilst wool shopping after seeing some lovely coloured cottons. And so today in between feeding and playing and nappy changing I whipped up a crochet square necklace (or I almost did - I've just got to sew the squares on, and do the ends)...

I bought a few other colours and have plans for a few more and I'm sure they'll look even better. And they will be pretty much baby-proof - nothing to pull off, nothing to break, nothing hard and completely washable.

hippos for flights

I'm not sure if I mentioned - by my lovely husband is not from Australia. He hails from far across the seas. So with little Miss E in tow, we packed up and prepared to travel to far away lands to introduce her to the family. But before we left, I was a little nervous about how a 3 month old baby would go on long haul flights.

So being it being the Internet age, I googled and unsurprisingly there was a lot of very useful stuff out there. I won't link it all up, if you are interested you can search for yourself I'm sure. I also won't do a list of tips for travelling with babies - there are already heaps out there (for example: check out this list by my lovely friend Lisa). What I will do it show you what I almost made (my lovely step-mother provided the actual crafty hands for this one).

One of the suggestions I read about was to pack each change of baby clothes in an individual zip lock bag - thus enabling you to take a quick change to the plane toilets. I thought more about this, and decided it would be more useful to have a small bag in which I could put all I needed for a nappy change, so I wouldn't have to wrestle the full nappy bag along with baby in the confined space. Seeing I was staying with my step-mother at the time, I asked her about her fabrics and she came up with this:

So perfect!
We then designed the bag together - with button closings at the top and a little wrist strap (leaving both hands free to wrestle baby / hold onto seats as I headed to the toilets). And ta da:



My step-mother did the sewing, whilst I fed little Miss E. And there you have it - hippos for flights.

NB:  I confess, I have it on good authority that the bag was very useful - it turned out that it was my lovely husband not me who did all the airborne nappy changes!

Hello!

So much to do and say and tell, but with little Miss E stirring in the background, we may have to make do with a photo and the words:

 "exciting new project"

Seriously, how cool is this granny square! Its a test run for my new project (and no, I haven't quite finished my mobile, more on that later - if she stays asleep). See, my good friend is having another baby, and seeing I made her first this rug, I thought I'd make something for this bub as well. But what to make for a March baby? My usual rug or booties seemed too hot for a babe born in early Autumn. But then I found this pattern, and decided why not! A rug is always useful! Now to pick some colours and get going.

And, well, I also thought why not - gratuitous photo of the now awake litte Miss E, gotta fly...

a break in transmission...

With the somewhat early arrival of Little Miss E - I'll be out of the blogging loop for a little while. Just until we get the hang of how to look after her and do everyday things (like finishing her mobile!).

I'll be back sometime, I'm sure...

my creative space

My creative space this week has a finished starfish (mostly I followed this pattern)


and a half done hermit crab!



(sorry the pic of the crab shell isn't great - because of the colours and textures in the shell it hasn't photographed well). I sort of followed medium seashell 4 from  this pattern. Well, I followed it a bit, and then decided that I needed the shell to be bigger, so I went off on my own a bit too...

The issue for me is now whether or not the mobile will be finished before the baby is! I'm having a bit of trouble with making the crab itself now that the shell is pretty much done. Probably I should work on following patterns a bit more before I try to make it up myself - but I just couldn't find a (free) pattern that I was happy with.

I've left the sea horse until last, as I am thinking that will be hardest one to make up as it has much less regular shapes. Still, I do have a pattern to base that one on, so hopefully it will go quickly.

How about you? Are you pressed for time in your creative space today?

wordless wednesday...

my creative space

My creative space has been mobile this week: this is me making the starfish for my mobile whilst waiting for hospital appointments. (at least they were only an hour late today - it did give me time to get all the points done and begin the sewing together).

And in other creative news - I finished the clown fish! Woohoo...

So now I've got a seahorse and a hermit crab to go (once I finish the starfish). And maybe a seagull and some seaweed... My big question at the moment though is - what colour to do the seahorse? The hermit crab will have a creamy/brown shell and a red crabby body, the clown fish colour is mostly accurate, the starfish is a mix of purple and blue, the jelly fish is grey with white tentacles... The seahorse? brown and cream (somewhat accurate)? or brightly coloured (given there are already some neutral-y colours in the others)? I just don't know...

Where has your creative space been this week?