My Creative Space: More crocheted baby hats

I've been busy making more crochet baby hats. You can see my original ones here.

These new ones were for a triple baby shower for my coffee group (I'm definitely in the minority of not already having a 2nd baby or being pregnant!). There are 3 mums expecting and due in September and October and I wanted to make 3 different hats to individualise their gifts. Two of the mums are keeping the gender of their babies as a surprise and one mum knows she's having a boy.

First up - the boy hat - a lovely mid-blue shade with a light-blue trim...

Next up is a "cute as a bear" hat - I used two shades of brown and once I'd made the hat made a couple of ears and attached them...

Last up - I was struggling to come up with another unisex idea with the colours of wool I had (given we are moving soon I didn't want to buy more stash before we shift!) but in the end I went for a navy colour and cream trim but made a bright pink flower that can be easily sewn on by mum when baby arrives. I even included a length of matching pink wool to sew it on with...

The 3 mums were happy with the hats and even suggested I start trying to sell some. I've got a fair bit on my plate at the moment but will definitely consider it once we have moved to Wellington.

I'm linking up with My Creative Space this week. Why not head over and see what everyone else has been making this week!

And if you're visiting from My Creative Space - hello!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway :-)

300 Posts Giveaway

Wow - in less than 2 years of blogging (at Mummy Adventures) I have reached my 300th published post :-)
Thanks to everyone that's reading this post and especially to regular visitors!
I started this blog as a way of keeping my mind active when I had a newborn baby boy keeping me awake at night. It gave me a reason to create and do things (words, scrapbook pages, crochet projects, baking and photos) so I had something to share with you all.
Since I started back at work part-time shortly before Mr Mischief turned 1 I haven't had as much spare time to blog but I still enjoy visiting this space when I can and sharing some stories.
I'm hoping I will be able to use this blog to document our upcoming move to Wellington.

So to celebrate reaching 300 posts I am hosting a little giveaway. I have been collecting some cute little things over the last few weeks to giveaway to a lucky blog reader.

The giveaway includes a beautiful "hopes & dreams" notebook and "daydream believer" pencil made by the lovely Emma Makes and some chocolate (including a chocolate spoon and some kiwi chocolate coins). If I find anything else cute between now and when I post the parcel there may even be an extra surprise in there for you!

To enter leave me a comment telling me something interesting! (It could be a fact you just learnt, a helpful hint, a book to read, blog to visit etc). Please make sure I have a way of contacting you if you win (i.e, via your own blog or email).

The giveaway will close on Friday 7th September (New Zealand time) and Mr Mischief will pick a winning name from a hat (or other suitable container!) on Saturday 8th.

My Creative Space: Birthday Thank you Cards

I love making and sending thank you notes in the mail. I think it's because I know I love receiving things in the post so surely everyone else does too!


This year for Mr Mischief's birthday thank you cards I decided to get a photo of him with a sign saying "Thank You". I had plans for a 'photo shoot' (complete with plain background) but then realised 2 year olds and mummy's plans don't always work well together so ended up taking the photos in our hallway just before his bed time.
None of the photos could be called "perfect" but they were fun and it was hard to decide which ones to use. In the end we picked 2 and I printed each pair of photos to one 4x6 sheet.

 I then trimmed them down the middle and used one on the front cover of each card and one inside.

 I really like how they turned out.

And here's a peek at some of the out-takes that I posted to Instagram (@KatieinNZ)...

You can see Mr Mischief's 1st birthday thank you cards here and all my creative space posts here.

Today I am linking up with My Creative Space. Why not head over and see what everyone else has been making this week?

Photo a Day : : July

Aaaah! I have realised I never posted my July mosaics for photo-a-day. Ooops! I know exactly what happened. My phone got poorly and had to be sent back. I posted it off on 30th July and got it back a week later. And that's how I managed to miss posting my mosaics.
It also means I am missing a couple of photos in my July mosaics (and the first 5 days of August too). It can't be helped so I am not going to stress over it. I have been back at it since my phone got home and the blank spaces will be a reminder of my time spent without my phone (I feel pretty daft saying I didn't handle it well at all - how crazy it is that I am addicted to my phone!)

You can see all of my photo-a-day mosaics here.

Scrapbooking: Document 2012: June

With life being so busy lately I have only just got around to finishing my last June page for my Document 2012 album. I'd got the other 3 done straight after my May pages were complete but then all my craft stuff got packed up ready for our house going on the market and the open homes.
I have kept a few things close at hand (but "tidied" away) so I can try and keep up to date with this album until we move.

Here are my June pages:

My first pocket page features my usual Project 365 mosaics, some photos and journalling about the Diamond Jubilee, a magician we went to see, some miscellaneous stuff like the handmade heart swap and reading the 50 shades trilogy. The bottom row all feature hubby's birthday including the crochet Yoda I made him, the White Chocolate birthday cake with raspberry sauce and opening presents with Mr Mischief.

Mr Mischief's page features him at 22 months. Love these photos of him!

My feature page is all about our Kiwiana Afternoon Tea Party.

The top row of my 2nd pocket page is all about our citizenship ceremony. Also featured is a photo of Mr Mischief and one of his buddies, the ice rink we had in Palmy for a while, camping out on the floor of the lounge when our sofas were cleaned, swimming lesson and how cold it was (that's ice from the bird bath hubby is holding!)

And that's half of 2012 documented! Wow, so glad to have these pages done - especially now we will be saying goodbye to Palmy and headed to Wellington. It will be a great way to look back on our time in Palmy!

July photos have been selected and printed - now I just need to sit and get the pages make. I am hoping they will be done by the end of August!

If you'd like to see more of my Document 2012 pages you can see them all here. And I also shared how documenting on a monthly basis works for me here. 

Mr Mischief turns 2!

My not-so-baby boy turned 2 on Friday. How can it be 2 whole years since we welcomed him to the world on a beautiful winter's day?

We had a fantastic day - opening presents, playing with new toys and celebrating with birthday cake.
I decided to keep the cake pretty simple and instantly recognisable as "cake" to Mr Mischief. I made a Victoria Sponge (and unfortunately used the wrong size tins so my sandwiches came out flatter than I'd hoped) with jam and butter cream icing in the middle. Then I made a massive batch of chocolate butter icing and covered the whole cake with that and finishing with a helping of pebbles for colourful decoration. As you can see from the photos it was rather popular with it's recipient!

At the end of the day I asked him if he had a fun day and he said yes so I am a happy Mummy :-)

Handmade Heart Swap :: What I Got

I recently took part in the Handmade Heart Swap hosted by Mary Poppins. It's been lots of fun. I shared the items I made and posted to my swap partner here.

My swap partner was Proby and it was rather exciting when the parcel she sent me arrived :-)

Would you like to peek inside?

She must have listened to me saying I liked rainbows as each item wrapped within the box was wrapped in a different rainbow colour...

There were some yummy pink foil chocolates in the parcel which G, Mr Mischief and I all shared.

There was also some lovely red crochet hearts, a lovely smelling rose heart shaped candle, 2 jubillee/UK themed hanging hearts and a lovely purple critter who is loved by Mr Mischief!

Here's everything I received once it was all unwrapped and exclaimed over!

It was such a fun swap - many thanks to Mary Poppins for hosting and to Proby for being a great swap partner :-)

On the move: Goodbye Palmy, Hello Wellington!

Goodbye Palmy :-(

Hello Wellington :-)

Sorry for my absence since mid-July. It's been pretty busy around here! 

My husband has been head-hunted and was interviewed for a position down in Wellington. We spent the day down there while he had an interview and met the team and Mr Mischief and I wiled away the time at Te Papa.

We took a stroll along the waterfront boardwalk and discussed our options. It was a lot to think about. A BIG decision. And we decided to go for it.

We love Wellington, have visited many times - there's a great zoo, great museum, an amazing hotel and we got married there.

And it felt like the universe had been pointing us in this direction. There were a few coincidences lately that -  for a superstitious person like me  - seemed to be helping to guide us.

Sure you can commute to Wellington from Palmy but it's not an ideal situation for a young family so we decided to all move down there.

So G (hubby) has handed in his notice and has 2 weeks left a work then a week at home (to help get us sorted out!). He will be commuting in the short term until we can shift the house. Our house is on the market and the first open home is tomorrow!

We are going to give the house a month up for sale and if there's no offers by then may re-consider renting it out.

And then we will be looking for somewhere to rent in Wellington and getting settled there.

*Deep breath* 

My to-do list is at least a mile long but I am plodding my way through it. I'll probably be keeping a low profile here for the next wee while but will try to pop in from time to time.

And if you live in Wellington or have stayed there before I would love some tips on places to live, places to visit etc.

Take care x