I love the rain!

I've been busy knitting by the window for the past few days as its been so pretty listening and occasionally watching the rain splash onto the leaves of the trees outside. I have some gorgeous photos of some of my favourite plants in our backyard (before the rain started).

Our 6/10 chilli tree, I think its so gorgeous with all the little chilli's on it, but way too hot for me to eat!

Our lemon tree, this is by far my favourit tree, it's finally producing yummy lemons, so far I have made lemon cupcakes, lemon pudding, and lemon and suger crepes. I am hoping to get the chance to make Ben a lemon cheesecake, and perhaps if I'm feeling nice enough I'll make a lemon merange pie! (maybe)

This little chilli plant is my favourite because the chilli's are about as hot as capsicums, when the seeds have been removed. So they're perfect to put in a salad, or some wraps with mexican chille. Oh how I love all the yummy plants in our backgarden!

Anyways, back to the knitting front! I am very proud to announce I have finished my second little sheep, I have decided to call him Harry. He has much longer legs than my first sheep, I thought he would look cuter with long clumsy legs that he constantly falls over! Here is a photo of the little critter:

 Thats about all I have to announce at this stage, so enjoy your day :) Ill be back soon.

That kind of day

Well today has been good, I have been to work, done the first part of my split shift (now waiting to do the next part), been and collected prescriptions, done general grocery shopping and founs a new wool for my pig!

I have been busy knitting my little hippo, his arms and legs are now done, just waiting to sew the little guy up. Unfortunetely this has been put on hold as I've had a request for a little sheep from the lady who sells my toys in her shop. So I've been flat out trying to get him ready for her. Unfortunetely though it does take a little while to put him together, and I'm struggling to get him done, along with getting ready to go away.

We're leaving our babies behind, so they need to have their cages in order and with little Milly still getting used to everything here at home, its a little difficult to try and keep everything clean and ready for us to leave. Poor little thing she got used to living inside the house, while we were housesitting, and now we've had to move her out to our room while we're in there for a few weeks. But then she'll have to go back inside the house while we're away so they get some attention.

Meanwhile Im so thrilled with my new wool. Its bright pink and brown so it will look like my little piggy is dirty with mud. such a different take on the toys I make, Ive never made one with different colours, it'll look fantastic when its finished up against the others!!

Alright well I spose I should get back to some knitting!

Enjoy the rest of your week
Mandie

Red Wine, Heater, Wheat Bag, Perfection!

Hey everyone, back again!

After a long day of housework yesterday I sat down to a gorgeous glass of wine (taylors cab sav '05), a giant steak (which seemed to bring the carnivore out of ben, picking it up by the bone to eat it) and some yummy potato cakes and cauliflower cheese. It was a very satisfying way to end a very very busy day!
Today however has been a very slow day, I've been knitting on the couch with my two babies (Jasper and Milly) running around my shoulders and snuggling in my top. They're rats, Jasper is 7 months old and fully grown now, shes grey and white. Where as Milly is 6 weeks old, brown and white. Contrary to her name Jasper is actually a girl, when we bought her we were informed that she was a boy. Hence the choice of name. However some parts never emerged.. and a name change seemed silly as we'd already been calling her Jasper for many months.

Anyways.. too the knitting side of things... Ive now finished my second little frog, and he's on his way to his new home! How exciting! Im now knitting a little hippo, which is quite bigger than they little frog. I'm using 'Sean Sheep' wool in purple and blue. This pattern calls for two strands of wool to be knitted with, I thought it would be hard, but I've knitted half of the body and it seems to be alright at the moment. Just sounds daunting. :P

Anyway I think thats really all to report at the moment, I'll be back soon with how the hippo's coming along.

Mandie

Another one down :)

Hey,

So I've been busy knitting and I've almost finished my second little frog, he's looking so cute! He's made with 100% wool, which has made him a little smaller, but thats ok :). The colour is much brighter than my first frog, which I love, little animals need to be bright to appeal to young children. Having said that I am planning on using a darker wool for frog number 3, I just couldn't resist the yarn, it's name was Stirling (which is a suberb in Adelaide) not sure if there is a connection there, but its sweet all the same.

I'm counting down the days till my book 'Itty Bitty Toys' gets here, I can't wait to start the elephant and the pig, I already have the yarns waiting! Should arrive this week... Having said that its coming from America to Australia... never know how long that can take!

I'm counting down the days till we leave for Queensland, 28 days!!! So excited, plus I hear you can now take your knitting needles on the plane with you! Finally! Should help to calm my nerves a little.

Anyway knitters, I will have the photos up of my new frog tomorrow :) so I look forward to speaking to you then :)

Mandie

Here we go

Hey everyone,

So this is my first blog EXCITING! My name is Mandie, I live in Australia and I love knitting. I have just started selling my creations to a little shop on Brighton Rd, Adelaide called 'Think Global' I am knitting toys for the store at the moment, the first one is a Frog, designed by Susan Anderson. I've been knitting a lot of her designs at the moment because they are so cute! You can find my toys under the name 'MandieMoo'

Im currently knitting a few different projects, one is a little sheep, this project has taken me 2 days so far, and Im almost done! I will post photos when Ive finished stitching him up :)

Another project Im working on is a baby blanket for a friend of mine (she's 2 months pregnant). This pattern is called the Dream Catcher Baby Blanket. This one Im loving its a patchwork blanket, working with different squares which haave different patterns on them. Adorable, I cant wait to see her reaction!

Anyway thats enough about me for now. Catcha again soon :)

Mandie