See Sam Sew

Dinos galore

2012-02-13T14:03:00.004+11:00

I am so happy with Isaac's dino bag.

It is made from some Michael Miller Dino Mates cotton and a 'boyish' stripey cotton knit I had in my box already that I bought at Spotlight. They matched perfectly and I just added some orange satin ribbon and the drawstring bag was complete. Perfect for keeping toy dinos in and off the floor.

On Saturday when cleaning and sorting the girls book cases, I found someDilly the Dinosaur activity books, that Mum gave me when Olivia was little, so now they are winging their way across the ocean to Isaac who loves dinos, along with the drawstring bag.

It is so cute isn't it? and the good news, there is enough material left for another dino bag. Maybe when Noah is bigger he may want one too. We shall see.

It has been too long

2012-02-02T11:23:00.001+11:00

It has been too long since last I posted, and I am sorry about that, but also can I say I am not sorry too, because I had the best time with mum and dad and my sister here. With my sewing things all put away in cupboards and boxes I had very little inkling to sew. Here are a few pics of the rest of our summer.

However, now that everyone has gone and I have recovered from the melancholy that saying goodbye to family for a time always brings to me I am ready and raring in fact to create some things.

School and pre-school have started back with tears from both of my darling girls. One just flat out did not want to go, the other just wary and trepidatious about the move to Year 3 and will she be able to handle the work and the new stage in school.

With the return of routine, for them and for me, it means that I can get a wriggle on with some of the things that I want to achieve this year. So lists are being made and plans put in motion.

I have a custom order for some nappy pants in varying sizes from 3-6 months upto 18mths and a very belated 2 yr old's present of a drawstring bag for his dinos and I think I am going to throw in a car caddy too because I am so late. I hope he loves them once they are done. With these in the pipeline please bear with me and I will get them finished as soon as possible to share with you.

Merry Christmas and what will New Year bring?

2011-12-27T22:36:00.000+11:00

Christmas has already flown by and the count down to New Year is on. What will the new year bring? what does 2012 have instore? Wouldn't it be wonderful to know before hand?

I have had a month off from blogging and so you are all getting caught up tonight. I hope that is ok. This is post number 3 this evening.

My parents are still here and I have loved having them here the last 3 weeks or so and last night my little sister who is now nearly 20 flew into Sydney too. She is here for nearly 3 weeks and we are all hoping, praying and wishing for some better weather. Bring on the sun. More fun is to be had and just being together and bonding together.

I hope that Father Christmas was good to you and the New Year is fantastic.

Teacher Present

2011-12-27T22:26:00.006+11:00

One piece of sewing that I did manage to do before Christmas was a present for Olivia's school teacher Mrs. Weaver.

On Pinterest I saw a pin for free bag patterns so I had a look and decided that they would not be too tricky and that indeed I would be able to manage one. You can find the pattern here and the pin here on my To Make board.

Like the original pattern I decided that a chambray type piece of cotton would be great and then I saw some wonderful striped cotton drill weight fabric at Ikea which I really loved. What do you think?

I would alter this pattern some what if I were to make it again, I would lengthen the straps and thin out the handles a little too. However, it is a really easy, quick pattern to make and did make a wonderful teachers present with a little chocolate inside too.

Olivia loved giving it to a wonderful teacher whom she has had in both Kindergarten and Year 2. We hope you like it Mrs. Weaver.

P.S You can find me linking here at the wonderful Sew Much Ado.

Christmas Concerts and Presentation Days

2011-12-27T21:55:00.002+11:00

The last week or so of school was really busy for us.

Oh I think I should preface the remainder of this post with this, I am going to boast about my children and how incredible I think they are, so be warned ok :).

With that warning firmly behind us that last week or so has been filled with school and pre-school Christmas Concerts, Choir recitals, Jazz end of year shows, and Olivia's baptism. With all of this happening my usual preparations for Christmas have been seriously disrupted and basically I have done none, I finally managed to get my Christmas Cards sent out and the presents that have to go to the UK but that is it. Final Christmas shopping was done in the 3-4 days before Christmas and I have really not liked it at all. I promise to be better next year.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the last few weeks to catch up and let me tell you I feel just a little proud of my beautiful girls, there were many times that just a little tear or two was wiped from my eyes. There has been some wonderful fun times and the build up to Christmas has been lovely.

Balmoral Beach with Grandma & Grandpa

Olivia at St. Mary's Cathedral

St. Mary's Cathedral Christmas lights

St. Mary's Cathedral

Christmas Tree and full moon @ St. Mary's Cathedral lights

Olivia (far left of children) receiving a trophy at Presentation Day

Sophie at Zoe's birthday party with the tiara mosaic she made

Olivia (2nd from left) receiving a Principle's Merit Award

Olivia and her Merit certificate

Sophie's Pre-School Christmas concert singing her heart out

Sophie and 1 of her teachers - Miss Janelle - we will miss you next year Miss Janelle


Temple lights - taken by Olivia

Giveaway link

2011-11-29T11:02:00.000+11:00

A friend of mine called Courtney has her own blog and little MadeIt shop and very kindly offered to do a free giveaway in Australia and around the world. There are some wonderful things to win very easily, you should totally go check it out.

The link to Courtney's fabulous giveaway is this http://welfarewisdom.blogspot.com/2011/11/aussie-handmade-goodie-bag-giveaway.html

As I had some of the things from the craft fair that didn't sell I thought that I would add a couple of bibs to her bags. If you are here from that giveaway hello :) and welcome to my little blog about things that I make and my year so far.

I am looking to start selling some of the things that I make, and am happy to make some custom designs for wraps/blankets, and will add names as I did for my nephew Noah earlier in the year (see below pictures), or bibs, taggy balls, or even a gorgeous elephant which work really well in flannelette, cotton or even cord. If you are interested please leave me a comment with your email address and we can sort it out. On the giveaway page Courtney mentioned that the bibs are normally $12 each. The pair that are in the giveaways were actually $12 for the pair not individually.

Just as a little reminder here are a few lovely things that I have made this year. It is quite exciting really to just sit back and see some of the things that i have made so far this year and 2011 hasn't finished yet.

Teacher presents and a new Christmas tablecloth are still on the to do list as well as a mountain of mending, so more to do yet, plus Mum and Dad arrive in 2 sleeps. So excited. Fingers crossed that the rain stays away and we have a lovely warm dry summer - doesn't have to be boiling just consistently dry.

This Week

2011-11-27T23:24:00.000+11:00

I am a little disapointed as to how little of mine did sell at the fair this last weekend, however, I am told that not a lot of the baby stuff did sell at all. It is a Christmas fair predominately, I guess, but I was hoping that a few people may see something that they would love for a granddaughter or son or niece or nephew. Oh well, lessons learned for next time.

This weekend we did some jobs around the house and what started out to be just a wipe down of a ceiling turned into a monster job. The lights in the kitchen have made black marks on the ceiling and I thought just a wash with some sugar soap or something like that would clean it all off. Oh how wrong I was, all it did was make a streaky mess on the ceiling that just wasn't going away. So we decided to paint the ceiling. Todd decided he wanted it done before mum and dad arrive on Thursday so yesterday was the nominated day to fix it all up.

Paint was bought, drop sheets put down and brushes and roller at the ready.

I thought that I was reasonably good painter, with a great little cutting in tool and a roller and I can knock over a wall in just a few minutes with a good finish too. I very naively thought that doing the ceiling would be much the same. Oh how I was wrong. Trying not to get ridges on the ceiling and covering it all without patches was hard work, and I am not saying that it is a good job either by any stretch of the imagination but I was determined to finish it with 2 coats and we finally did. We finally finished at about 5pm. I knew it wasn't going to be a 2 hour job like Todd thought, but that long!

This is a reminder to myself to never offer to pain ceilings again.

I have a long list of things that still need to be done before mum and dad come on Thursday. They are staying for 2 months and I can not wait to see them. The girls are so excited too. I'm not so sure about Todd as he looses his sofa to other people and well just not having his own space. We shall see how we go.

So the next few days will be filled with food shopping, cleaning my oven, washing, ironing, turning the spare room from a sewing room to a bedroom, cleaning the main bathroom and the usual everyday stuff that I have to do anyway. What can I say except BUSY!

At the Fair 2011

2011-11-21T09:08:00.003+11:00

Here is a picture heavy post of my most of my things, in their places at the craft fair ready to be sold.

You can also find me linking here.

Ready for the fair - Will you sell?

2011-11-18T16:55:00.003+11:00

Everything that I am going to get done is done, and everything is ready to head off to to be sold at the craft fair that is happening next week. As always it has meant some late nights over the last couple of nights but I am happy with what is going, (as a test run to see if anyone would be interested in buying the things that I make) but I would have loved a couple more wraps to go, but hey that's the way it goes, I can't do anymore. Too tired.

Sophie is 4

2011-11-18T16:49:00.000+11:00

Tuesday was the day when Sophie turned 4.

I am still blown away by the fact that my cheeky, funny, 'swirly wirly'(curls) haired little girl has turned 4 and also a little sad that my baby most certainly is not a baby any more at all.

She awoke to a lounge room with a pile of presents all wrapped up except for 1 super special present that we only decided to get her 2 days before and that was a little pink bike. She has been flying around on her trike so fast for ages now trying to keep up with Liv and her little legs would pump up and down so fast and her knees nearly hit the handle bars of the trike so we bit the bullet. She loves it, and has been riding it around the lounge and up and down the corridor as it hasn't been outside yet to get dirty wheels. She needs a helmet before she can ride outside too, I think a trip to the shops to get that tomorrow is the order of the day.

Zoe, her little friend came to play in the morning, which when I told Soph was going to happen she jumped up and down with joy at, and we had dinner over at Nanny and Poppy's with all the other cousins and Aunts and Uncles that live here. Sophie had a blast. She got some lovely presents and as you can see from the pictures had a lovely day all up.

More partying to come as I promised a party with her pre-school friends which is happening on Saturday.

I love you so much Sophie Smophie, you are a delight yet a headstrong little girl who is clingy to mummy but loves to climb and swim and play on swings. You are attracted to water, puddles, like I have never seen before and you recently have discovered snails, you love looking at them as they go for their 'walks' and you pick them up and help them along their way. Your laugh is infectious and you love to cuddle and be tickled. You ignore mummy a lot and she thought you were deaf this year as I have to say things 3 times to you before you answer, but no perfect hearing, you little monster. I love you Sophie.

YWIE

2011-11-17T13:58:00.000+11:00

Wednesday night was our annual Young Women in Excellence, which is an evening at the end of the year where the girls and their leaders show and share with each other and their parents the projects that they have worked on this year and how they feeling and thinking about things, and as promised I had completed the required bunting and tablecloths for our Garden party / High Tea.

The bunting is in 2 sections and I used the 8 colours of the Young Women values. The colours represent;

Faith - white
Divine Nature - blue
Individual Worth - red
Knowledge - green
Choice and Accountability - orange
Good Works - yellow
Integrity - purple
Virtue - gold

The fabrics were all from Spotlight and I believe not any specific designer, though I may be wrong and for that I apologise. Picture me trying to carry 8 bolts of fabric and deal with Sophie and trying to make sure that the colours all worked together and people staring etc. In the end after making a decision on the blue, green, purple and white I dumped all of those with Sophie in a corner and let her entertain herself with the apps on my phone whilst I chose the others.

The red I loved the name of - Chinese Red and doesn't it just conjure images of opulence and royalty and festivities and dragons etc. The gold has a lovely pattern on it and the yellow is a light seersucker. The orange is a floral which was more of a red base than yellow based colour so blended well. I love the colours. The young women cut the fabrics all out using pinking shears so no fraying to deal with and I sewed them all together by lying them on a strip of bias binding, folded it over and one long stitch from end to end secures everything.

The green fabric is just lovely, it is a really light cotton with dobby white spots in it. I would love a kaftan or loose blouse in this for summer. The blue was where I started with a lovely spring floral, white just a cotton and to end a light purple gingham check. I thought they were a bit vintage but fitted the garden party theme.

Sadly the weather had been very Spring like and that means hot, humid, storms, and rain. So after three consecutive days of such weather we decided to bite the bullet and the garden party/high tea had to come inside.

We needed to seat about 17 people so the food was all popped on one table, another table with things that the young women had worked on during the year and then seats all around so that we could listen to the girls tell us of their experiences during the year and watch a lovely dvd that Becky put together from pictures of all our activities through the year together. Songs were sung, Caitlin played a beautiful piece of Chopin that she had performed for her HSC (year 12 music exam) and experiences and feelings shared.

It was a lovely evening, with delicious supper afterwards and chatting with friends.

I am unsure why I took a picture of the table lopsided - sorry, so tilt your head to either side to 45 degrees and it should look ok. Punch, scones, whipped cream, jam, lemon slice, crudites and dip, fruit platters and many more delicious things were popped on this floral table cloth. Yum.

Sadly we had to say bye, but thankfully just for a couple of months, to Taylor as she jets off to stay with family in Salt Lake for the holidays. We will miss you heaps Taylor and your wonderful positive attitude.

If you would like to know more about young women and the values that they try to live by and the theme that they hold dear, go here.

Fine-a-lee

2011-11-04T13:03:00.000+11:00

When I am getting some attitude from Miss Olivia or she is being rather rude generally to Sophie, Olivia will say finally, but there is so much space between the syllables it may as well be fine-a-lee. Of course this attitude is if she is having to wait for something and it has not had the immediate attention that she feels her request deserves. Naturally mummy, me, does not like this attitude at all but especially at age 8, and she gets told that it is not necessary or appropriate to speak so rudely.

The reason that I am telling you this is because yes it is true, Edward Elephant is finished. FINE-A-LEE!

Here he is in all his cord/checky glory and he is rather fine if I do say so myself and yes, ready to be sold.

Next on the agenda? well for Young Womens we are doing Young Women in Excellance next week and the theme of it all is High Tea/Garden Party. So tonight we are sewing tablecloths and bunting galore. The bunting will go above the tables - one string for over the food table and another above the table displaying all the things the girls have been working on all year. Pictures will be taken on the night.

Once these are finished then there are more wraps/blankets to be made, a few bibs and if I get time another snow mum pillow. We shall see what happens.

I knew this would happen

2011-10-28T11:53:00.000+11:00

Earlier in the year I thought that perhaps I would make some wraps, balls, elephants and bibs to perhaps try and sell in an etsy shop or something and I had the end of November as a cut off date to get it all done. November is rapidly approaching and I haven't completed half of what I wanted to complete. I need to get a move on don't I? plus Sophie's birthday and promised party is around 15th November which will distract me for a few days too. I knew it would happen. I knew I would leave things to the last minute and then have some late nights. Serves me right for not plodding along at a steady pace.

Other fabulous news is that I was given this fantastic material as a gift. What a lucky girl I am. They are all cotton interlock/knit material which I love to use as a backing for flannel or minkie for wraps. I really like the warm soft side and then having a more light weight summer side to them. My favourite is the little birds one. It is an incredibly soft knit material and I know Olivia was looking at it. I think she will have to miss out this time. Which is your favourite?

I made a blanket/wrap earlier in the year for my nephew Noah, which I blogged about here and Jemma (my sister) used it in his bed over the summer when heavier bedding was no longer required, and in his pram. They do live in England so a warmish blanket/wrap is still required at night there at times, even in summer time.

I can not wait to get to these gorgeous materials and make them up.

It is craft night tonight and come hell or high water Edward elephant is getting finished. He has been hanging around unfinished for too long now and I want it done. Then I have 3 elephants ready to be sold. Gosh I hope they sell, fingers crossed.

Is it true? Yes, Olivia is 8!

2011-10-26T10:38:00.000+11:00

As promised here are some pictures of the big day which was Saturday 22nd October. Olivia opened her presents and then had her usual jazz class in the morning and then her party in the afternoon. We invited 7 school friends to go ice skating and then come back to our house for party games and food/cake. She had so much fun. It was noisy, full of laughter and girls screaming, dancing, playing musical statues, pass the parcel and eating and drinking tonnes. In other words lots of fun.

Enjoy some of the pictures.

How did this happen already? I am still in shock that my beautiful, sensitive, crafty, freckled girl has turned 8. Time seems to have flown by, and I know that we can't stand still, but surely it can slow just a little more. Before my very eyes she is growing and developing into an incredible person of whom I am so proud, and I am not quite ready for her to be all grown up. I know it is my issue, but really where did my oh so long awaited little girl go? It honestly seems like yesterday I was on my way to the Mater hospital in Nth Sydney to finally deliver and meet her.

Happy Birthday my beautiful Olivia. I am so lucky to be your mummy.

Party Preparations

2011-10-26T10:30:00.002+11:00

It has been party preparation central here this past week. Everyday it seemed that my to do list would have a few things removed from it but would have that many, plus a few more added on to it. Food to be bought, presents bought and wrapped, decorations bought as the planned making of bunting and tablecloth just did not eventuate, party bags made, stuff for party bags and presents for pass the parcel etc bought, ice skating picture laminated for game, plus the usual stuff like dinners, school runs, Youth night on Wed, cuddles with Sophie, washing etc etc.

I have to be honest here in that dinners, washing of clothes, tidying up bedrooms, writing blog posts, all kind of went by the wayside and I am still catching up.

In addition to this I added having my hair cut and coloured one morning and having a YW presidency mtg the next. Talk about busy.

So I thought I would share a few pictures of the preparations, including helium balloon purchases on Saturday morning after dancing classes and the table/party area looking good.

Next was the cake. I bought a packet chocolate cake mix for the left ring and the right one is our favourite choc chip cake that I made.

Light covering of choc icing

Then I sewed these party bags from my collection of cottons that I had on hand. The bags are lined with the material that is at the top of the bag so are great to keep and pop little treasures in. This did take quite a bit of time but by the end I could do a bag from start to finish in about 20 mins when on a roll. I just bought some cream satin ribbon to use on all of them as the handle. I am not a huge fan of bags full of sweets going home so we filled them with rubbers, pencils, sharpeners and a little pencil case with a couple of freddo frogs thrown in. I hope the girls like them. Olivia loved them and was very proud to hand them out at the end of the party and that is the most important thing of all.

Party bags

Filled with loot to take home

Sewing and Farewells

2011-10-25T17:17:00.000+11:00

So very sadly the time for Madi to leave our little Young Women's group and return with her family to the US had come and so we as leaders and the other girls organised a farewell party for her the day before she flew out of Australia. Emotions were high but we were determined to have fun together as a group before the sadness was too much to bare.

Miss Madi, the guest of honour, loves cup cakes, so the theme of the party was naturally all things that Madi liked so I made a pin the cherry on the cup cake blindfold game, other games we played were pass the parcel, cup cake memory game and questionnaire about things Madi loves.

As one of the going away presents I had an adorable printed koala pattern that just had to be sewn together and stuffed, that I bought earlier in the year from an Australian fabric designer called Saffron Craig. You can find all things Saffron Craig here. We thought it would be nice for everyone to sign the koala as a keepsake from us in Australia.

Madi and her koala

Sadly the evening came to a close, group shots were taken and goodbyes had to be said.

We will miss you Madi and your beautiful sweet spirit that you brought to everything we did. Hopefully we will see you again really soon.

M.I.A.

2011-10-21T14:51:00.000+11:00

Yes I have been Missing in Action on here atleast, but it seems that I have been super busy in real life.

There has been lots of sewing, birthday party to organise, we have had school holidays which doesn't always alow quiet time to sit and write and lots of Young Womens stuff going on too.

I PROMISE that I will post more next week, pictures have been taken of the sewing that has been done, as I type now a big girls birthday cake is cooking in the oven, I must say smelling fantastic and very chocolatey. Rather than buying lolly bags I have made drawstring bags for each of the guests to take home filled with loot. I must admit something here, they are not finished yet and the party is tomorrow so that I where I am taking myself off to now, my sewing corner, to whip another one up before little girls and their stories of pre school mini olympics and being the birthday girl in Yr 2 and handing out cup cakes to everyone all come tumbling back home. Naturally mummy is happy to stop all and listen.

So do not worry, multiple posts, which will be picture heavy, of party preparations and the actual thing and other stuff will be up here early next week.

Little Things

2011-09-29T15:45:00.000+10:00

I was pinning on Pinterest the other night and found some great quotes and little thoughts that really touched me and made me think. They were not so much quotes but just 'nice, good' thoughts that made wonder and want to see more. These 2 thoughts had a number in the top left hand corner and it was in the 300's and so I thought well there has to be more right? So I clicked on the link to the original source and wow, I love this little blog, is it really a blog? I'm not sure but I love it, l.o.v.e it!.

The site is called 'just little things' and it seems to be a site where the author puts up a little colour rectangle with some words in it for a day or so. The words are things that she appreciates or should appreciate more. It is linked here.

There are so many thoughts here that made me smile and brightened my day (not that it was bad by any stretch of the imagination) I had the thought umm yes that is wonderful, oh that happened to me just the other day, or I think that too.

I hope you like it too. Which ones did I originally pin? well they are 322. Being called beautiful and 336. Finding out someone likes you.

Following patterns

2011-09-23T18:21:00.000+10:00

I am always so awe inspired when I read of people who can create without the use of a pattern, just draping material over a model or even just picturing a finished item in their mind then making it is astonishing to me and what a talent. Also, obviously, the people who write the patterns that we all use in the first place do this and I am often without words as to how amazing I think this is.

So after feeling like the above why do I then think that I don't need to follow a pattern when I am making something and just do what I do? I do not have the ability and or talent to just 'whip' something up and then I wonder why it hasn't worked out as well as last time I used the pattern? Duh, the answer is of course because I didn't follow the pattern!

This is not the first time that this has happened and when contemplating the reasons behind this last night in bed I came to the understanding that I am impatient when making things and want the project to be finished as soon as possible, why? so that I can sit back feel a little chuffed with myself and perhaps a little smug about how clever I am and what a wonderful job I did.

Last night in my mad rush to finish making Edward elephant I did not mark on the main body 2 spots that were on the pattern. I just 'guesstimated' where they were (as this is my 3rd elephant and I don't need the pattern right) and now as I look at flat Edward before he is stuffed there is something a little off. There is a funny pouchy thing underneath his tummy and after contemplating why this happened it is because I didn't mark the spots to sew too, sewed too far down his legs, and didn't leave enough seam for his colourful, cool, tummy to be attached to. What a huge dill.

So with a pout and a little cursing of my own stupidity I will unpick that seam and all other connecting seams and redo his side and tummy thus removing strange pouchy pocket and making him ready to be sold this evening at my usual Friday night craft night. I will show you pictures of the non pouchy finished Edward tomorrow.

Oh and in case you were worried, yes I have learned my lesson and yes I will remember in future to mark all spots, darts etc on patterns, they are on there for a reason right?!

Have you found it yet?

2011-09-20T11:41:00.007+10:00

I am talking about

I love it, love love LOVE it and um yes will admit to spending maybe more than just a little time on this site.

This post and the whole Pinterest site should come with an addiction disclaimer warning everyone that they may spend an inordinate amount of time perusing beautiful, fun, cute, inspiring pictures that are out there in the world wide web. So be warned ok.

The site is a way to collect, collate virtual boards, with recipes, ideas, style, books to read, places to go anything you want, you make your own boards. I still would like a small board for my sewing area as I am a very touchy, visual person and I like to see and touch fabric before I buy and when deciding what to do with the said fabric. I think this is why I have not really jumped into the whole buying fabric on line, however a virtual world is still very very cool.

Any way I thought I would share a few of my favourite pictures that I have pinned to my virtual inspiration boards, seeing as this is my 'journal' of sorts this is a way to state that on this day in 2011 these are the sorts of things that I am liking and I feel are my thing.

I seem to be technically challenged and I can not load the pictures other than one below, any ideas anyone? I would love some help if it is out there.

If you do join up have fun and you can find me here.

New addition to the family

2011-09-18T17:03:00.000+10:00

No I am not pregnant for those that thought that was going to be my announcement, honestly, family members, I would tell you in person before just putting it on the web.

Now that that is out of the way the new addition to the family, my new car, a 2006 Holden Astra in dark grey. Here she is.

I am absolutely loving the smooth drive (the old car often had me say 'come on car you can make it' to it in the morning as I wasn't sure if it was going to change gear or make it up the road), central locking, electric windows and a great stereo. Todd even took my car to run to the shops. He has NEVER done that before out of choice, mind you, you can't blame him.

However, with buying these new wheels for the girls and I to get around in it meant selling the much loved little Hyundai Excel 1999 model with 3 doors, that I have had since I learned to drive 10 years or so ago, before the girls were even born.

Todd had it cleaned and polished and it looked great, didn't it?, and decided to pop it on the web on carsales.com.au at lunchtime on Sat and by 5pm someone had been to see it, gave us some cash as a holding deposit and came back on Sunday morning with the remainder of the money and took the car away.

It all happened unbelievably fast, of which we are so grateful for, as the registration and CTP were due next month on it and being honest there were some little 'quirks' shall we say, that we didn't want to have to pay to get fixed. Sophie called it my 'broken car' once I had bought the Astra. It is the only mummy car that they have known and Olivia has taken the sale of it not too well. I was a bit sad to say goodbye to my little mobile that has served me well, but, this morning Sophie asked if we were going to school in the broken car and Liv told her that it had gone to live with a new family now and promptly burst into tears. Bless her heart. She is so sensative and gets so emotionally attached to things. When I clear out the girls room I have to do it when she is not around otherwise I can't throw any thing away. Hoarding tendancies - eeekk.

Todd took the money to the bank this morning to pay some bills which is fantastic, and then we can move on with the new car - that does have a few 'dings' and 'marks' on it but it has low km's and the engine is great apparently. Once some new memories have been made, like hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa over the summer and travelling in the new car, all will be ok with everyone, especially Olivia.

Grandma and Grandpa we can't wait for you to arrive, and you too Robs a little later. We are counting down the weeks.

Time to meet Ellie

2011-09-12T16:51:00.000+10:00

Here she is, the finally finished Ellie Elephant. I made Elouise earlier this year blogged about here and I think Ellie may even be a little more gorgeous than Elouise.

I finally chose the correct blue for the eyes and embroidered away and now she is complete. I must say I love her.

Now on to a brother for Ellie, these are the fabrics chosen for Edward Elephant. He is going to be a lovely beige pin cord and his ears and tummy will be this fun blue and orange check, very boy, very cool. I am really looking forward to seeing what he turns out like.

The weekend ran away with me, was it busy for you too? On Friday I was busy busy helping clean a friends house as she and her family had to move out of their rented house at really short notice, and then on Saturday morning it was a ward service project at a local school to help them tidy up and mulch all their gardens. It will look fantastic, there were many willing hands to help and so made the going easier, it was wonderful to see wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow being loaded with mulch ready to cover weed free beds. The evening was a little get together at the Campbells and then Sunday was church and a baptism of a wonderful 8 yr old called Emerson. He is in Olivia's primary class and his parents are friends of ours too. It was a lovely service and if you want to know about baptism and why we do it at age 8 for our children go here.

All these things going on meant not much craft/sewing for me, well actually none, and so I am going to have a tv free evening tonight once both the girls are in bed, and get a move on with all the things that I have planned. Naturally I will share all when I am done :).

I have been busy

2011-09-07T10:54:00.005+10:00

Yes I have, I have been busy, busy doing what you ask? Sewing, yeh!

I have finished a wrap/blanket to match the boy taggy ball that I made the other week and a new girl taggy ball and last night I made this little beauty.

This as yet unnamed elephant went together really quite quickly last night and so I need to get some stuffing today to fill her up and make her nice and chubby and then sew on the ears, tail and eyes. Even though she is blue I think the pattern is still sufficiently girly and not all girls like pink right? or is that not all mummy's like pink? hehe.

So she is a lovely little blue and white cotton that I got at Spotlight last summer and her tummy and ears are some more of the blue minkee that mum gave me, thanks mum, and there is still some left, it just seems to keep on going, never to run out.

The wrap that I finished, just so you know, is the same white and blue flannel with stripes and stars as the ball and then on the other side a very cute interlock with little animal friends on in a beige. I think it works. I hope someone else does too. Cute Christmas present for someone perhaps?

Here is the girl ball that I finished too. I love the bright colours and I went a bit overboard with the ribbon tags, I do love it though.

I am excited about all my sewing plans and yesterday got a message from my sister Kathryn about perhaps making gorgeous Isaac a drawstring bag for his dinosaurs to live in. Would totally love too. Now to find the best material. Hmmm. I think a strong cotton drill may be the best with some fun lining.

A make up day at pre-school for Sophie yesterday meant that I could head off to get stuffing and thread to embroider the elephants ears and eyes. Of course I will share pictures when I am finished. It is looking great so far.

It is a beautiful day in Sydney today. I hope it is for you too.

p.s You will find me linking here today.

Home from Camp

2011-08-30T11:38:00.000+10:00

I am home, rested and clean and I have to say it was fun. The cabins that we were staying in were indeed tin sheds with concrete slab floors and were packed full with 12 bunkbeds in each 'room', so 24 girls and leaders all together. Want to see what that looks like? Here you are.

The beds were quite comfy and after a spray of Mortein just to be sure there were no fleas I was happy to plonk my stuff down and look around a bit. We had arrived at Appin at about 7.30pm and we were eventually all organised and settled and headed to the 'hall' to have the evening entertainment of skits, then supper, information and then finally bed. After others shouting for the lights to finally be put out I decided to try to sleep with earphones in with music playing to drown out the chatter. At 2am it was quiet, 6.30am start aaahhh and another lovely sunny day greated us once the shock of about 4 hours sleep had departed these old bones.

Saturday was full of camp certification stuff so learning how to light and put out fires, cooking on the fires, first aid, finding your way by the stars, learning about nature in your area. Here are some of the girls on their way and 'learning'.

After a quick lunch the girls were put into teams and were to do 'Challenge Valley'. Challenge valley was an adventure obstacle course and it was hardcore. I thought some of them would do it but I never thought ALL of them would make it through, doing all the obstacles, and having fun whilst doing it. I was cheering them on from the sidelines, I was not going to crawl through leach infested water. Here are a few pictures.

These girls that I have the blessing to spend time with and teach them are incredible, strong, spiritual young women. They are fun and funny and I had so much fun hanging out with them for the weekend. We spent Saturday afternoon playing funny games like 'I have never' and when I get a bit competative they think it is so hilarious. A standards evening and then a camp fire and obligatory sing a long finished up the night. It was really cold Sat night so sleep was hard to come by even though I was tired.

I had sent the girls out to play a joke on Brent, one of the male leaders that were there with us, they were going to toilet paper his tent but got scared when other people heard them coming and told them to go back to bed so they thought it would be funny to cover mine and Gell's car in toilet paper instead!

Sunday - another gorgeous day, started ridiculously early at 5.45am with a testimony meeting, then breakfast and then church. Showers over flowed, toilets clogged up and so come Sunday lunchtime I was ready to leave and head home to my clean, hot shower and warm comfortable bed, but what a fun weekend. I'm not saying it was perfect, because it wasn't, but the fun and pleasure it was to spend time with the girls and Gell and Becky (the other leaders from Baulkham Hills) outweighed any deficiencies. I laughed so much and I love to laugh. Funny, fun weekend.

Off to Camp

2011-08-26T08:15:00.000+10:00

Today, well this evening I am off to Young Womens Camp. I am really not looking forward to it, well spending time with the girls I am, but the actual accommodation and the organisation of the event have turned me off a bit I must admit. I am trying to convince myself that all will be fine and we will have a great weekend, so fingers crossed for the weather, fingers crossed that the whole place is not a mud pit and fingers crossed that the beds are even just slightly ok oh and don't forget the weather. Sun please come out to play.

Naturally I will let you know how we go next week with some pictures of the shananigans thrown in. Have a great weekend.

So Thankful

2011-08-25T17:05:00.000+10:00

This week poor little Sophie has been under the weather. She has had a head cold for what feels like months and she seems to be just about over it and then it comes back and we are back to square one with the runny eyes, runny nose, temperature and lots of snot. On Tuesday morning as I was trying to get us ready for swimming lessons (that she loves) she told me her ear hurt twice within about 10 mins. That was a red flag to me as she is never that specific, so off to the medical centre we went and in the meantime she went downhill really fast to the point where I had to carry her (she weighs 20kg @ 3! ) and she just laid on me.

I am so thankful that I live in a country where I can take my child to a medical centre to see a doctor when she is ill and not have to worry about whether I can afford to take her or not. I had to wait for a while but really is half an hour really such a big deal? I am sure that there are so many parents in this world of ours that would give so much to just have to wait for half an hour to see a doctor for free.

A very nice, very friendly doctor looked in Sophie's ear, told me it was cherry red and she did indeed have an ear infection. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and I knew from previous experince with Amoxycillan with Olivia that it really really works and works fast.

I am thankful that I live in a world where incredible, inquisitive, brilliant people such as Alexander Fleming back in the 1920's discovered a substance that killed other germs, penicillin. How thankful I am that I can just spend $17 on a little bottle of medicine and within 2 days a very sad, poorly little girl is back to her normal rambunctious self and desperate to go to pre-school.

I know that so many people in this incredible world that we live in don't have these opportunities and benefits, and this week, I am so thankful for so many things that I know I take for granted so often, but I wanted to say out loud today, "I am so grateful for the freedoms and advantages that this land down under offers my family and I."

I'm back baby!

2011-08-22T10:43:00.007+10:00

Yeeeeee Haaaaaaa I am back!

My sewing mojo has been found again from whence it was lost and I am really happy. I went to my usual Friday craft night last night and with a big smile on my face sat down to lots of laughs, lots of chat and lots and lots of sewing.

Headbands done. A blue spotty with bow, blue spotty with pop of red and black stripey with bow.
Baby boy tag ball done - well I didn't stuff it or sew it all up on Friday night that happened on Saturday, but I am loving it.

What do you think?

Saturday was a good day that included time together as a family, some houses looked at, a car looked at AND an offer put on it AND accepted (well all going well with getting the pre-approved finance organised). Then lovely Thai food for dinner all finished off with The Adjustment Bureau.

Have you seen this film? It is such an interesting premise to me, and I am such a huge Matt Damon fan. I'm not going to tell you what happens in case you want to see it. I enjoyed it but from reading some reviews this film really seems to have polarised the reviewers.

It feels so good to have the desire to sew back again. Tag squares, girly balls, wraps, an Edward and Elouise elephant and another snow mum pillow are all on the cards over the next month or so. Sssshhh promise not to tell, I'm going to try to sell them and see how they go. If they sell well an etsy shop may be on the horizon next year. I'm a little scared incase they don't sell and it is a huge flop so I don't want to build it up too much until I see how they are going. Fingers crossed for me.

Monday is here with lots and lots to do around the house as well as popping out to take little miss Sophie to swimming lessons. Must run.

You can also find me linking here today.

Where has my Mojo gone?

2011-08-02T10:24:00.002+10:00

If you have been popping in here and all you have been seeing is a big fat nothing new, I am really sorry. I seem to have lost my Mojo. It has well and truely gone and I am trying to get life back in order so that perhaps I can find it again. I really hope that that works.

Things have been happening and have been on my mind so I need to write them down, then perhaps I can move forward a bit.

Todd has been gone on a trip, his annual company conference in Phoenix, Arizona and so before he went the house was busy with washing, ironing and packing and lists as he is a real list man. He did most of the washing and ironing himself whilst I had a day out at a conference for the day. I attended a conference for women called Time Out For Women.

It was an incredible day. For those of you reading this that are not of my faith I will explain quickly what it was about - this was a conference attended only by women with speakers who share our faith and whilst keeping it very real spoke to us all and encouraged us all to live a life which is filled with faith, hope, optimism and a love for Jesus Christ. We were encouraged to resolve to change 1 thing in our lives that is stopping us from BECOMING. Becoming what? well what ever we want, a stronger woman physically, spiritually, mentally, a better mother, a better wife. I know that there are a lot of things that I have neglected and don't do and rather than feel guilty about all the things that I am not doing I felt empowered to change 1 thing that will make a change to me mentally or spiritually or physically and once done that then do one more thing. I'm not going to jinx myself with laying all that bare here yet but 2 things are being worked on, 1 for the girls and 1 for me. So far so good. I'm feeling good about the direction that we are moving in, perhaps good habits are starting to be made again.

Initially I was very unsure as to what the conference would entail, I mean I know that there was going to be people speaking to us but only 4 and they were going to talk all day, and I had heard rumours and I thought hmmm not sure about this. Infact my friend and I had a plan B and a plan C for the day if plan A - actually attending the conference wasn't what we wanted it to be. The B and C plans did include visiting the new Costco and Ikea which are just down the road. However I am pleased to announce that these were not even thought about once the day began and we had the best day. I was uplifted, I laughed, I felt a part of something new, I felt rejuvenated and bolstered in my resolve to live the way we do and I had time out with friends. Fantastic. I really really enjoyed it. Apparently there is talk of them coming to Melbourne next year and Katie and I have already said that we would book our tickets and go down for the weekend.

If you ever get a chance to go GO. It was $40 very well spent for me and a fun day out.

Todd is home tonight after being away for 9 days so normality will resume once again until Saturday when he leaves again this time just up to Brisbane but for 10 days. Perhaps I can get some sewing in in the next couple of days.

In conjunction with this awesome conference where I had resolved to change one thing that has become a burden to me for a really long time, I had a bit of a blast from my past contact me on facebook wanting to be my friend. I was stunned. It has been 16 years since I saw or heard from this person, I was really keen to find out what he had been doing with his life and so I accepted his friend request. Not surprisingly I have been a bit nostalgic about years gone by this week and some old music got pulled out which made me smile but also in a good way it has made me think about where I am now. Not literally but am I living fully? am I happy with me? how is older Samantha different to younger Samantha and does some young Samantha need to be found or lost? do I need to reassess and put into action some things that perhaps may make me feel better about me? We can so easily get stuck in a rut can't we and always other people seem to come first before us.

Well I have been in a very deep rut for a really long time and it is time for change. I started the change by cutting my hair and changing the colour slightly. Just this small change has made me feel so much better this week or so. I really like the cut and colour, I feel better and so better choices have been made, I have been to the gym, eaten healthier and I feel good.

Long may it continue and may it help me to find my sewing mojo again.

Alterations and finalisations

2011-07-19T08:25:00.000+10:00

Friday night craft session rolled around again and I had to do some mending/alterations. Olivia's Bedtime Story pyjama bottoms that I blogged about here were just a bit too tight I decided, and even though she insisted that they were ok I decided to alter them slightly. No one wants tight pyjama bottoms, they are supposed to be comfy right? So even though I didn't have enough material in the same pattern to make her some more, I thought that I may be able to alter them and make them just a bit wider in the bottom.

My thought process was, 'how can I add to the bottom to make them bigger just around there?', so I took the waistband off, split the back seam open and decided to put a u shaped panel in the back from the crotch to enlarge them there. Then I added the same width of material to the waistband and joined it all back together again and attached the waistband back together again. I put longer elastic in the waistband too so its not so tight to pull up. Does that make sense? I hope so, well here is a picture of the back so you can see.

After all that, success.

Added back panel

I am rather chuffed with myself with figuring out the how to, and then when I had a picture in my mind of how I wanted it to be, I managed the execution without a pattern or other people giving me a 'how to' guide.

I finally appliqued around the flower and now they really are complete and will last her the rest of this winter and I am sure into next as well.

Then I also finally finished something else. I just sewed a very quick easy little hem onto Olivia's Lazy Days skirt that I started weeks ago and mentioned here because the ribbon I had to finish it with didn't go, so I just put the whole thing to one side. I decided to ditch the ribbon hem as per the pattern and just hem it. Now my big girl is able to wear her skirt and new headband looking very grownup.

Aaah young love

2011-07-15T10:22:00.000+10:00

As I was browsing through my photos on my phone I came across some funny videos that the girls had recorded whilst hanging out with their friends Thomas and Charlotte as we parents were chatting in the other room.

There was lots of screaming, shouting, laughing and blowing raspberrys at the person with the camera (no young Spielbergs' here) and lots and lots of laughing. So after I had watched a few of those I came across a picture that had been saved but drawn from Doodle Buddy. It just made me smile, so sweet and so innocent.

I smiled and asked Olivia (I knew it was her) if she had written this and she coyly smiled and said "yes". I asked her if she did love Thomas and without hesitation said "yes". I think it is wonderful that she has friends both boys and girls that she just loves to be with, and is such good friends with she happily acknowledges that she loves them.

I sent this picture to Thomas' mum and she showed the picture to him and his responce was, "that's good coz I love her too". Fantastic.

I just need to teach her how to spell Thomas now.

Little pop and new bands

2011-07-08T16:21:00.003+10:00

It is school holidays here which still means pre-school for Sophie and the girls still have swimming lessons. Some people don't like the continuation but I do as it means that the girls still have stuff to do but without the hassle of homework to be fitted in and they can play around the activities.

So whilst Sophie was at pre-school and Olivia was entertained watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (I love that I have taught my daughter to love musicals) I finished the doll's dress for Lilia's birthday. It took me about an hour, with interruptions, so not long at all, and I think it looks great and the present is complete, some pyjamas, a big popover dress and one for her doll. Lovely I think. I hope the birthday girl thinks so too.

Big and Little

Baby modelling it

Once we picked up Sophie off to the post office we went to get it all on its way and done for another year.

Last Friday evening at my usual craft evening I started to make Olivia a headband from a ribbon that I bought at the craft show and previously mentioned here. I decided to finish the headband as all it needed was some hot glue to finish some ends off with some ribbon. So here it is the finished specimen.

I totally love it and it is exactly the picture that I had in my mind and will only change two things next time around like white elastic instead of black, and would sew the bow to the ribbon not glue it, but I still think it looks really good and it didn't cost the $13 that I have been spending on headbands. I am glad that Olivia thinks it looks good too.

Sorry about the shadow behind Liv's head, but here she is with it on. It is reasonably tight on her head to keep it on and keep her hair back but not being too tight as she wouldn't wear it. I will hem her skirt this evening and then she can wear them both to church on Sunday. It is such a shame that I can not find her some cream coloured knit tights for this Winter in her size.

More headbands really soon, as they are quick, and for someone who likes results fast they are awesome to do.

p.s. You can find me linking here and here.

Craft Show inspiration and some Sewing Action

2011-07-05T15:53:00.000+10:00

I can't believe that it has been a week since my last post so you have 2 entries in one day, how about that, but it's ok I am not going to beat myself up about it.

I thought I would show a few of my treasures that I found at the craft show last week. I had such a fun day and with a few dollars to spend, ok maybe a few more than a few, got these goodies that I am so excited to create with. Fabric pieces from Kelani Fabrics , Prints Charming colour pack, Owl softie pattern from Saffron Craig and ribbons from Craft Queen and some patterns that you can see below.

Fabric pieces, Prints Charming pack, Owl softie pattern and ribbons

Patterns

Its been a week or so since I did some sewing and I need to sew the final thing for Lilia's birthday presents and so then I can post them this week in time for her birthday. Along with the oliver + s popover sundress free pattern there is also a free pattern of a popover dress for a little girls doll. You can find it here. Lilia got a new doll when her little brother Noah was born a few months ago so I thought it would be cool if she had a matching dress. As I had used all the prints charming fabric on Lilia's I will just use some pink spotty cotton that I had in my stash from Spotlight.

Now I have a bit of a quandry. What do I do next? I have so many ideas and an ever growing pile of fabric in my cupboard but what to do?

At the craft show I got some lovely ribbons from Craft Queen, as I am fed up with paying $13 for headbands for Olivia so I think I will do those next. I have seen a tutorial on the very fabulous Flossie Teacakes site on how to make shirred headbands and that has inspired me. I love how she folds the material into the casing to add the shirred fabric. It looks really finished and you can find the tutorial here. I am, however, not wanting to do the shirring, I just want to use the folding as inspiration. I now have a blue spotty ribbon, black stripes and brown stripes, that I have already started, and this gorgeous flower ribbon to transform into headbands too. Lots to do.

Ribbons

Finds from our Winter escape to Leura

2011-07-05T15:34:00.002+10:00

In some of the blogs that I read the authors often go thrift shopping or op shopping as it is called here in Australia and they find lovely things for ridiculous prices of $1 and $2 or such like. I admit that I have never been one for op shopping and actually have not been for about 15 years. I am not writing this to brag or anything, I am just not into it and can't seem to see past the yuk and the where has that been feeling to see it's potential. Any who I wanted to share the lovely things that caught my eye whilst in Leura last weekend and have sparked new life to things that I already have but I do have to admit that they did not cost $1 or $2 sadly.

Moontree is a shop that I have been in before and with the girls spend most of the time saying "don't touch, that's glass, don't blow out the candle it is supposed to be on" etc. and don't really get a huge amount of time to just look I am always looking at what others are doing. Yet this weekend this caught my eye, with the idea for a gift for someone else but then Todd said would you like one too?

How on earth could I say no to that question? So this beautiful candle lantern came home with us. You put a tealight in it and the light glows through the pattern on the outside. It is handmade and made entirely of wax with the pattern covering over the top.

Well, this lantern has inspired a 'change' in our lounge. Not a huge one as who can afford to just go out and get all new stuff but even just moving photo frames around from their 'usual' spots makes a change and updating some of the photos in the frames. There have been 2 new editions to my extended family, gorgeous Noah and handsome Isaac and I have some lovely pictures sitting in my emails but not printed out and popped into frames yet so that is my challenge for this weekend to sort out/update the photos in frames

Also some cushions in the lounge are in real need of being 'made new' again and I have decided to make the covers myself so now I am spending my evenings trawling through pages and pages of fabrics online and trying to find one that would match the new change in colour accents. This collection is my favourite so far. It is the Aviary 2 collection in granite by Joel Dewberry. I like the blooms in the top left, scrollwork top right and as the backing the middle right. What do you think?

I'm still deciding not sure yet. I do have to say that our sofas are a dark chocolate brown and the chair is a green. Do you think the granite is too much with these colours? Not sure, perhaps I will keep looking.

Another shop in Leura I totally love is called The Cats Meow. Such a fun name and is full of homewares like large comfy sofas, dining tables and chairs, soft faux fur throws, beautiful lamps that I can envisage in my home one day and all sorts of ornaments. It is a treasure trove and again there are a few comments like "get your feet off there and sit still and don't touch that" have to said when in there with a 3 yr old but it is still so lovely. To add to the fabulousness (is that a word? I don't think so but you get my gist right?) the faux fur throw that I have looked at and coveted for a year now was on sale, and it seemed destined to come home with me for my bed. So I had to oblige.

Sophie was rolling on my bed the other day and said, "oooh mummy this is soooo soft and lovely". It is backed with a soft fleece too that you can see in the bottom right hand corner, it is so fantastic to curl up under it whilst reading a book. Trust me.

Finally a silver tree shape caught my eye, like an African tree that has been swept to the side a bit on the open plains. It was called the Tree of Life and I thought it was lovely and wanted to put it on my sideboard (buffet as it is called here in Aus) again something a bit different to the normal things that I like. I got given the wrong one and so have to drive back to Leura to exchange it. These things happen, but I was disappointed. I can't wait to have it all sorted and looking great.

Winter escape to the Blue Mountains

2011-06-28T19:20:00.000+10:00

We had the most lovely weekend away in the mountains and in the little cottage that we had rented for the weekend. Quaint is the word that comes to mind - the decor was interesting but it was warm, cosy and we had lots of fun.

Cottage in Leura

small but very cosy lounge room

some of the 'interesting' decor

I have the title of fire builder and Sophie got over her initial fear of the fire and very quickly wanted a fire built all the time and I happily obliged her. Olivia and Sophie even went outside in the dark with a torch each to see the smoke coming out of the chimney and Sophie did not freak out and want to call the fireman so I think she is over her anxiety there. They felt like explorers going out in the cold and dark to see it. Where we were there was no street lights either so it was really dark, there were so many stars that you just dont seem to see here in suburbia as it is too light. The wood fire along with the gas fires had us so warm and toasty inside. On Sunday evening I was so hot I was sitting watching the tennis in short sleeves and no socks. Outside it was about 1degree C though.

When we arrived on Friday afternoon we headed into Leura and had hot chocolates at the Wayzgoose. We love this little cafe and their hot chocolate is gorgeous and Todd loves the traditional lemonade that they sell too. Then in the eve we headed out into Leura and into Katoomba to see if there were any places we could go for dinner and thought why not, we got to Echo Point just at dusk and saw the 3 sisters as the sun was going down. It was gorgeous and the girls loved running around and Todd and I chasing them and they squealed with delight. It got cold as soon as the sun went down.

Todd and our hot chocs

Echo Point as the sun goes down

Olivia loved going out and it being cold enough to see your breath when you breathed out. It was the coldest that the girls had ever experienced.

Saturday we went to Leura Cascades after Jenny and Lisa had both said to go there and the walk was child friendly. I absolutely love waterfalls and had never been to these little falls and so was more than happy to head there.

Top of Leura cascades

view from bottom of Leura Cascades

It was a lovely walk and Todd and I said to each other as we were going down and down' 'what goes down must come up' in reference to the stairs that we would have to climb as we headed back up. I must get fitter. Poor Todd actually carried Soph for a little way too. She was being a bit of a lazy lump. At the top near the car park was some swings and grass area. Afterwards the girls had a swing and started to play 'it' or 'tip' as it is called here and we said don't run it's slippy and literally the next minute Sophie slipped and fell and skidded along the grass.


One good as gold, one puling faces


My favourite picture of Leura Cascades

We headed home to clean little ones up and then went to the 3 sisters in the daytime to get some good shots. We certainly did that.

The 3 Sisters at Echo Point

Megalong Valley from Echo Point

Then into Leura for some shopping at the little boutique shops in the centre of town, with names like Moontree, The Cats Meow, The Christmas Cottage and of course the Toy Shop.

On Sunday we decided to have brunch and then headed into Leura for a wander, some more and then head up to Clarence where the zigzag railway goes from. We got there at 12.45pm and the train left at 1pm. Todd got the tickets and we piled into a carriage. I think I was more excited than the girls. Literally as a whistle was being blown Sophie said she was not feeling well and Todd jumped up with her and off the train with no hesitation. Liv and I followed. Thank goodness we did. Not 2 minutes later I took her to the toilets and the poor little thing was poorly. She had been complaining of a sore tummy and we just thought she had eaten too much. We said it over and over thank goodness we got off that train as there were no toilets on it. It would have been dreadful. We got our money back and on the way home I saw the sign for Govetts Leap and said lets go there. It was a beautiful bright sunny day but unlike Friday and Saturday that didn't feel too cold, oooh it was cold, the wind was biting. We got rather rugged up just to get out of the car and take some photos.

Me, Olivia and Sophie, cold


Govetts Leap waterfall

We had a relaxing, fun, beautiful time in Leura and feel so relaxed even after just a couple of days. Monday, sadly, we packed up and left our little cottage and before we started the descent down the Great Western Highway back to Sydney we took the girls to a park to just play. On the way home we stopped one more time at Wentworth Falls and looked at the spectacular view one more time this trip. We talked about the walks we would like to do, but they are for when little legs are a bit bigger. Another beautiful Winters day in the mountains and the cold biting wind of the day before had dropped again, thank goodness. So final pictures of my picture heavy post are of girls squealing whilst twizzling on swings, Wentworth Falls and the surrounding valley.

Twizzling

Wentworth Falls

View of valley from Wentworth Falls Lookout

What a wonderful weekend. We must do it again soon.

In the early hours

2011-06-24T10:23:00.003+10:00

I got myself organised and sewed the night away last night after I had watched some of my favourite programs on tv. Not the best way to do things I can assure you, but I finished the promised pyjamas. In the early hours all was done.

Again I used the oliver + s Bedtime stories pyjama pattern. I made the size 8 which is just slightly long in the leg for her which is just what I wanted so that they will last a bit, as she is growing so much lately and perhaps a bit tight getting them over her bottom but nothing major. She is a good size 8 here.

Look how bright and fun they are

Lucky Olivia, do you think she loves them? I'm so glad she does.

I love them mummy

She chose the fabric from my stash, a fun, bright, soft flannel from Spotlight and a t-shirt top from Target with applique that I cut out and fused to the t-shirt using heat and bond, and then a stitch all around the edge. I am really happy with how they turned out.

We are heading to the Blue Mountains at lunchtime today to a little town called Leura. Gosh it is going to be cold (it snowed a few mornings ago) but clear skies so we have walks planned and the cottage we are staying in has an open fire which will be lovely and heat us through nicely. Coats, hats, gloves and scarves are all ready to go. Olivia is so excited about our little long weekend away and started to pack her toys, cuddly friends and dvd's on Wednesday and her new pyjamas are top of the pile ready to go.

Sophie has become petrified of smoke. We have a new firestation that has been built in our suburb and we saw the firemen heading into the engine and she saw smoke from an open fire coming out of someone's chimney as we drove by. She has put 2 and 2 together and made 20 and so if smoke comes out of a chimney then the firemen have to come and "that would be scary coz there is fire!" It certainly is going to make a weekend away in a cottage that has an open fire interesting. We have told her there is no chimney - I know, a lie - to calm the anxiety as she was getting really worked up about it, as she won't see the smoke coming out of the chimney as we will be inside. We will see how we go...

So have a wonderful weekend where ever you are, I will be trying to keep warm.

ps. I went to the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair yesterday with a couple of friends whilst all our 3 year olds were at pre-school together. If you are in Sydney go check it out. It was so fun and I spent way too much money (oopps) but oh my, the gorgeous fabrics and patterns and books that I didn't buy. I will take some pictures of things that I did buy and give you a quick run down of my favourite stalls/designers probably after the weekend.

pps oooppss forgot to add you can find me linking here. Enjoy

Our Weekend - keeping it real, its not all sewing ...

2011-06-20T17:23:00.003+10:00

I am quite aware that this is supposed to be a journal for me but it is also in the public domain and so some things are just not going to make it into type on here. However in the spirit of keeping things 'real' and not in the 'oh she spends her whole time sewing world' I thought I would write what our very normal weekend was like.

This weekend just flew by and when talking to mum and dad last night as it was Father's Day in the UK not here in Aus until Sept, and they asked what we had been up to I had to say not very much at all really, we didn't go anywhere, we didn't have people over for dinner, we didn't go away or anything either. So very ordinary in deed.

I had my usual Friday night craft at Katie's house and off I went with a couple of things to do, a Lazy Days Skirt for Olivia and some pyjama's also for Olivia. The skirt was coming along wonderfully then I realised that I was unsure of her waist size and so I guessed and it looks tiny and then I realised that the ribbon I had chosen to match the skirt really didn't match at all. So my lack of preparation really backfired on me and meant I couldn't get any further. So I decided to cut out the fabric for the pyjamas. Olivia had chosen. She had chosen the very colourful flowers and little bugs one and I had already popped to Target to get a long sleeve t-shirt to act as the pyjama top and will applique a shape onto the top just as I did for Lilia's. I really love my Friday night craft and chatting and laughing and getting a little work done. One minute it was half past nine then suddenly it was midnight. Such fun.

Saturday mornings now that Olivia has started to do jazz dancing lessons are a bit of a juggle especially as we were supposed to be at our church at the same time as Liv was dancing to help clean and tidy the building. So rather than one of us doing the jazz run and the other going to church to clean we decided to all do it together, I was sure we could get our cleaning assignment done in the time we have between drop off and pick up, sure enough we did, Todd did skirting boards, I did windows and any marks on the walls and Sophie even dusted pictures and then a good vacuum and the room we were allocated looked great and back to get Liv we zoomed. She wanted her friend Amelia to come and play so that was organised and Milly was with us for the day. She is such a lovely little girl and I honestly hardly heard a peep out of them except for food and drink all day. They played wonderfully and also included Sophie some of the time too.

Todd started to clean out a cupboard that has all of Olivia's colouring books and pens etc in it. He was ruthless and now it looks empty in comparison but it was so necessary, she can find the things she uses all the time and loves. So I did the same with Sophie's cupboard, old dried playdough gone, used up colouring books gone, dried out felt tip pens (textas) gone, and the cleaning went on, washing load after load, Todd ironed for ages and the kitchen got a really good clean too. What productive day. Not very exciting, but such a good day none the less. Some delicious Thai food was ordered for dinner for Todd and I and we settled into the evening. I had every intention of doing some more ironing to really get rid of it all but I sat down on the sofa and somehow I did not move again. We decided that a light film was the way to go and Todd chose this film. It was totally hilarious, I laughed and cried laughing for 2 hours, I would still be sniggering about something and then another thing would set me off. It has an MA rating here in Australia and I understand why, but gosh I havn't laughed like that in an age.

Sunday was church and Olivia had to give a little talk in Primary. She was a bit nervous as she spoke really fast but she was clear and did it all on her own without any assistance. I am so proud of her and she is growing up to be such a beautiful girl. I can't believe that she is nearly 8. Where has the time gone. The afternoon seemed to hold snoozes for Todd and I and the girls were happy watching a film themselves and relaxing. What a lazy day, but perhaps needed by all of us. It was finished with a quick chat with Dad and Mum to say Happy Fathers Day and see how everyone was. Gosh I miss them so much sometimes but only 5 months until they are here with us for the whole summer, I can't wait.

Monday rolls round oh so quickly some times and today was one of them. Mondayitis is well entrenched here and I have struggled big time to get anything done.

I hope your Monday has been far more productive than mine.

Thank you, Hello

2011-06-17T00:02:00.016+10:00

Thank you all for the lovely comments about the pillow/cushion, it certainly made my day getting beeps on my phone with all the lovely comments.

I started this little blog as a type of journal and seeing as I am quite a visual, touchy person this medium seems to be so much easier for me to keep track rather than just writing in a book. I linked at another site to show off a bit (is it ok to admit that? I hope so) and suddenly, wow, lots more people all over the world reading my blog, and enjoying it, and liking the things that I have been making. It is incredible to me that this can happen and so I wanted to say "hi", and a big welcome to See Sam Sew, and thank you for the comments and support and if you see something that I make that inspires you to have a go at trying something new then fantastic, and that makes me happy too.

I again procrastinated cleaning up my lounge room and doing the ironing yesterday, and made a trip to one of my totally favourite places in Sydney, Country Pickin's at the Corner, which is at Dural, Sydney. I love this shop and the fantastic ladies there who happily let me walk around and touch all the incedible fabric and slowly move up and down the aisles for ages without hassling me except to say hello and chat. I'm not wierd, (well I don't think I am but others may disagree) I just love the colours, and feel of the fabric. I had a voucher to spend and I felt like spending it. This is what I treated myself too.

It is a beautiful book and even though I have no plans to start screen printing my own fabric I am still excited to make some of the lovely projects like the apron, picnic blanket, boys quilts, girls covered books and even the girls kimono dressing gown. Fabulous inspiration inside.

The cleaning can always wait until tomorrow right?

Snow Mum Pillow

2011-06-15T13:04:00.029+10:00

Here is the finished pillow/cushion. I really really wanted to have it done this weekend just gone but no, so as little Sophie wanted to watch some Charlie and Lola and Peppa Pig this morning I took the opportunity to sit and focus and finish it.

Flower completed cushion form to do yet

Finished pillow

Do you like it? I love it, it is so soft and I think will look great on a bed for instance and I really hope that the recipient will love it too.

It is made from a wool blend felt and is just so soft. I bought some felt cushions last winter and they were acrylic and the difference in the texture is amazing. Making the cushion itself was quite a bit of work, especially as I didn't read and understand the instructions properly, cut the leaves out and then realised what I had done and had to do the cutting of all the leaves all over again. What a pain in the behind! So my review of the pattern is fiddly but once all the leaves are cut and sewn in the centre to make them look like leaves it comes together really quite quickly and is definately worth the trouble, and I cut myself on my rotary cutter which isn't good when the material you are using is white. I know dramas, dramas.

The pattern is an Amy Butler free pattern that I downloaded ages ago and even with the dramas will make again. It is called the Snow Mum Pillow pattern and can be found here along with all the other free Amy Butler patterns. Happy pattern finding.

Also along with the pillow being finished I added a little pocket to the Popover Dress that I made last week. All the comments left on the post said to add a pocket and I must admit that that is where I was leaning to aswell. So voila, one little dress for a 4 yr old with a bound pocket added.

Again I am really liking it. So Lilia's birthday presents are all finished and ready to be posted next month. I really hope she loves this dress as much as the last one and getting some clothes is not too boring a present.

Next up is the skirt that I showed you the material for the other day and I think Olivia needs some new pyjamas as she really only has one pair that fit her so some new flannel 'jamas are on their way there.

It really amazes me sometimes how much I enjoy creating something that looks great from a piece of flat material. I grew up seeing mum sewing and her making a lot of our clothes and at times sewing for other people from home. I never wanted to learn or was interested at all. It is funny/interesting to me now though, that 2 of my sisters and I have all started to sew since being in our 30's, and we are actually replicating what our mother did at about the same time period in her life too.

p.s. you can find me linking here, here and here. There are always lots of other fabulous things to see that others have made too.

Long Weekend and a Queens Birthday

2011-06-14T22:29:00.009+10:00

Long weekend yay. Love them.

Queen Elizabeth is still Australia's monarch and so we get a holiday in June, the Queen's birthday long weekend, even though her birthday is in April but it is celebrated in June traditionally as the weather is better in England then. Trooping the colour happens which is such a wonderful spectacle and is such a tradition. This military ceremony dates back to the early eighteenth century or earlier, when the colours (flags) of the battalion were carried (or 'trooped') down the ranks so that they could be seen and recognised by the soldiers. During the ceremony, The Queen is greeted by a Royal salute and carries out an inspection of the troops. Her Majesty then joins other members of the Royal Family on the palace balcony for a fly-past by the Royal Air Force. If you want to know more about it then go here. After the Royal wedding there is certainly royal fever so I thought I would share a picture or 2.

However, here in Australia it is Winter, cold and usually raining so nothing different this year. Todd was really tired after his launch tour and did request that we don't do anything this weekend as he just wanted to chill out and relax. I was totally happy to oblige his wishes and when a family birthday party that was scheduled for Saturday lunch got postponed due to headlice (eeekkk don't want to go back there) we settled in and ended up having a movie marathon. We watched 3 films, Little Fockers, Morning Glory and then later in the evening when the girls were in bed we watched The Next 3 Days.

Little Fockers was funny and a good follow on in the series. Morning Glory had me crying with laughter in one point, the poor weather man Ernie. Then, I am a huge Russell Crowe fan, I usually love his films but I was disappointed this time.

Not in his performance, I just was thinking throughout the film of the other things that I needed to do, it just didn't hold my attention. I wanted it to speed up a bit more in the progression of the story. Lots of people will probably love this film.

Sunday was church and then we had friends over. The plan was to have an early dinner and then head into the city to see the Vivid Festival lights at the Opera House and Circular Quay and Campbell Cove but at 7pm we decided it was too cold, too rainy and we should stay put. The kids were having a great time and playing brilliantly together so we parents kept chatting and laughing and chatting and laughing. When Sophie came into the lounge a bit upset and we realised it was 11pm, it was time to whisk little ones home and into bed. Wow where did 7 hours go. How wonderful to have friends that you can spend 7 hours with and have fun and laugh together.

Thankfully the girls slept in really late Monday morning and so Todd and I enjoyed the morning together without kids. The postponed family birthday lunch happened and so happy birthdays were sung and everyone had a good time. What a great relaxing long weekend.

I hope your long weekend was a good relaxing one too.

Pockets it is.

2011-06-09T10:24:00.012+10:00

The decision has been made, pockets it is. As it is Thursday and all little ones are at school I will take some time this morning to pop a pocket or two on. To be honest I think just one will look really cute, sorry Jem, I know it is for your daughter but ... lets call it creative license :) ok. Naturally photos when finished will be shared.

I also have some gorgeous felt for a cushion but can't share any more details than that at the moment as I know the recipient reads this blog and I need to finish it and get it to her first ok. That is todays main project besides tackling the mountain of washing up, vacuming the house, washing and getting to the gym to get this body moving.

Phhhew I am worn out just reading this, maybe I should just curl up on the sofa in front of a film. Now that is a good idea.

We are having a seriously cold blast at the moment even though it is Winter, but it is really cold right now for the SE part of Australia, a massive trough is bringing Antarctic air to us and it is cold. I don't own a coat, I havn't needed one for years here, until now, yesterday whilst watching Olivia swim I was totally freezing. In the Blue mountains this morning it was -1 and there is snow already on the Snowy Mountains (I know, original name right?!) just as the ski season starts this coming weekend. Lots of people don't know that along with sun, desert, crocodiles, rainforests, coral reefs, beaches, major cities, there are also snowy places here in Winter too. That was one of the reasons that I came to Australia in the first place as a backpacker after University, was so I could see everything I had ever wanted to see all in the one place.

I just thought I would share a few photos (I can not take credit for any of the shots, all from the wonderful world wide web) to show the diversity, power and beauty of nature here in Australia. It is an amazing place.

Blue Mountains NSW

Snow season starting - Perisher June 2011

Whitehaven Beach, Qld


Bushfires

Rainforests - both tropical and temperate

Pockets or not?

2011-06-06T11:24:00.000+10:00

At my usual Friday craft night I did some more of the little popover dress and after the girls left I finished the sleeve binding off and the hem. I really love it and am so happy with how the Prints Charming fabric has turned out. I am rather sad that I don't have anymore of this fabric pattern to do a summer dress for Sophie. Perhaps I will just have to add a little to my fabric stash.

Now I have a little dilemma. The dress according to the pattern is finished, but should I add a bound pocket or two on the front? I'm not sure. What shall I do? What do you think, I would love to hear, leave me a comment.

I wanted Sophie to model for me, and she really was not into it at all. So that is why the dress is just on a hanger. I think I need to get some bribes happening so she will help mummy out.

Now onto a skirt for Olivia for church. She is seriously lacking in Winter clothes, and even though this fabric is cotton I think it will look fine with some wool tights and her lovely new Winter shoes.

I'm using another oliver + s pattern for this one called Lazy Days skirt. I have used this pattern before and made Sophie, Olivia and Lilia all the same skirt but in different colour runs of the same material.

I think I am having a bit of a love affair with oliver + s patterns at the moment. :)

The best or worst place in the world?

2011-06-05T17:20:00.000+10:00

Today Todd came home after his launch tour.

His flight got in right in the middle of church time so we skipped church and took a trip to the airport to pick him up. The girls have been counting down the sleeps until daddy comes home and as he usually comes in really early in the morning, when he travels, we always pick him up and then head to McDonalds for hotcakes and orange juice and hash browns. Today's flight was a lunchtime one so once I had explained why there would be no hotcakes today all was well and we headed on to the domestic terminal.

Have you seen the film Love Actually? There is a thought that is talked about at the beginning and the end of the film, and without fail I tear up a bit as I totally agree, that the airport to me is both one of the best and one of the worst places on our planet. Let me explain. As someone who lives on the other side of the world to her family the airport is generally a place where tears flow for me. I know I am a far too emotional person anyway, but when my family arrives or we arrive over there after 21 hours on a plane, I am usually lost for words, and when we hug, and say hello that is about all I can get out without dissolving into 'ugly' crying. I need a minute to pull it together and collect our stuff and then I am good to go, I am just so happy to see them. Then there is the airport at the end of a trip when either we are leaving to come home or loved ones are leaving after the most wonderful time together. I always feel like my heart is being ripped out a bit, then the airport is the worst place in the world and sunglasses are a must have accessory along with a tissue or 2.

Thankfully today the airport was being a great place to be, and Sophie and Olivia's faces as they saw their daddy was just, well, lump in the throat inducing for me.

Welcome home Daddy/ Todd. We missed you...

The Animal Man

2011-06-04T10:17:00.001+10:00

Yesterday at Sophie's pre-school they had a visitor. His name was Bob Turner and he has a wonderful wildlife show that had the children enthralled. He has been coming to the school for many many years and Olivia loved him when she was attending pre-school and so we had been looking forward to Bob coming this week and seeing what animals he brought with him this time. The show was funny, entertaining and just delightful seeing their faces and how they all reacted to the animals. There were blue tongue lizards, a frill neck lizard and one other type of lizard, 2 green tree frogs, grubs, a giant burrowing cockroach, stick insect, 3 snakes and a long neck turtle.

I managed to get a few photos (again on my phone, I am so sorry, the camera is back on Sunday yay) showing Sophie with some of the differing emotions that she went through in the hour that Bob Turner was at school.

Oooh a blue tongue lizard

I just touched the turtle

Get it away from me!

So fun

Scared, oh my goodness, another lizard

I also thought it would be fun to compare some old pics of Olivia with Sophie. As school finished after the show Sophie walked out saying "bye Bob Turner" over and over. He certainly made an impression.

Olivia at 1st Bob Turner show - no touching too scared

I think the next pictures speak for themselves. The green outfit was Liv's 2nd time seeing the show and she was much more keen to join in as you will see.

Scared but fun

Eeeek

Big and brave with the daddy snake

Liking the mouse

I thought how fun and fulfilling it must be to have a job where you teach little kids some facts and give them knowledge and also bring so much joy and fun into their lives.

The animal man came, saw and totally won these children over and they had a great time. If you would like to get in contact with Bob Turner for yourself go here. You won't be disappointed.

Finished - at last you cry

2011-06-01T11:29:00.000+10:00

Yep, can you believe it? I have finally finished the many times afore mentioned pyjamas. Can I just say I love them. I am rather proud of how they have turned out and I learned new skills too which is always a bonus like the bound hems. I had never bound anything before and I love how they have turned out.

Sophie was not thrilled to say the least about modeling today so sorry for the funny face and lack of smiles.

Bound hems

However I am assured that they are good for dancing in. Great to know! Again photos were taken with my phone, without a flash and in my dark lounge room as it is raining cats and dogs outside.

Dancing but trying to avoid Liv's finished puzzle

Sophie, who has been my size model as she is a bit bigger than Lilia, each time she has put them on has said, "mummy my jamas?" and each time I tell her, "no baby they are for your cousin Lilia". Each time she asks for some of her own so we shall see. I do have lots of cool flannel in my box so I think her and big sister Miss O will get their own set of new 'jamas.' Dinosaur flannel is already in the cupboard waiting for Christmas to roll around so I can make new 'jamas' for Isaac. I think Noah will still be a little small for them. What do you think of them?

Also this is how the Popover Dress is coming along.

Front and back yokes - Prints Charming fabric

Yokes on, sides sewn together but still inside out.

Again such an easy make. The patterns from oliver + s are so easy to follow and come together quickly. I really enjoy a project that gets sewn together quickly as I have a terrible habit of wanting to finish something pretty much as soon as I start it. Then, I sew until I am too tired and do silly things like picking holes in pyjama tops like I did in my last post. A bit of a problem I know and something I have to work on. Anyone else do that or is it just me?

I found some pictures of some things that I had made on my phone so I thought I would also share these things that I made for Christmas last year that I was really quite proud of. Hope you like them too.

Summer Shorts

Piglet modeling - Boys cap

Shorts and Leila and Ben Cap Pattern

Sunday period dramas

2011-05-30T09:59:00.000+10:00

I am a complete sucker for a good period drama. I love them, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Bleak House, Tess of the D'Urbavilles, Gosford House, Sense and Sensibility and the list goes on.

I have to say that on a quiet Sunday afternoon sitting down to Sense and Sensibility is just a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours in my opinion. Great story, wonderful actors, beautiful Devonshire countryside and oh swoon swoon Mr Willoughby the cad, and then the gorgeous, dependable Colonel Brandon. I watched the 1995 version with a very young Kate Winslett, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman long before he became Professor Snape.

It has been such a long time since I had seen the film and even longer since I had read the book. I just loved it. The girls had been pestering me quite a bit and my patience was short (I was tired too) so once I had them settled and sorted this was just a great way for me to recharge. I have always felt I could relate to this story a bit, the gorgeous boyfriends who don't do the right thing by you and then there is the gorgeous dependable guy ready to take care of you and love you and make you so happy. The afternoon / evening was finished off wonderfully with a bowl of corn chowder. Corn Chowder always evokes memories of cold Saturday evenings in England, mum would have made it when we got home from work from our Saturday jobs, and there would also be homemade bread rolls to go with it, smothered in butter. Absolutely delicious.

Another new period drama called Downton Abbey started last night.

If you are in Australia I am sure you have seen all the advertising for it. I did enjoy it but not as much as Sense and Sensibility. I will tune in again next week to see how the story progresses.

Sewing did happen this weekend. Friday night craft happened at my house and it was so fun, there is always one wonderful friend missing who moved to Melbourne but we still had lots of laughs and got a little sewing done. Pyjamas were just about finished and THEN I made a mistake and as I was unpicking I picked a hole in the top aaaahhhhh. I was so cross with myself. So another top has been gotten and I have to redo what I did on Friday night. I did however also cut out a popover dress and decided to use some very precious Prints Charming material called Rainbow Gardens, (some of the colour range can be seen below) that I have had for the yoke and ties. It is going to look great.

Only 1 more week until Todd comes home. I have really missed him this trip, Saturday night was rather lonely. Nearly 3 weeks, a longer than normal trip and not one that I want to replicate anytime soon. Well he is away for 2 weeks in July but we have a long weekend away together before then and we are all counting down. The mountains in Winter here we come, with open fires, hot chocolate, all rugged up with scarves and hats and gloves. Walks on brisk bright days, bring it on.

It is pouring with rain in Sydney today, a cold, rainy, cloudy day. Getting out of bed was rather tough this morning. I hope Mondayitis is not hitting you too badly this morning.

Have you found EveNmore yet?

2011-05-26T16:48:00.000+10:00

Have you found EveNmore designs yet? They are totally gorgeous and so affordable. I found this site not long ago and have been trying to decide which things to order for myself. I am an earring girls but I love studs so when I saw this giveaway I just had to join in.

Go on, go on over to eveNmore you can just click on the button above and have a look you won't be dissapointed. Also if you blog about or post her button on your blog and leave a message on her site you will be in the running to win some studs all for yourself.

Also I have to admit something, I have no idea how to put a button on the side bar of my blog hence the post. Help please. Is it ok to admit that I am technically challenged? I hope I am not the only one out there.

Birthday time

2011-05-25T09:52:00.000+10:00

It is birthday time over at the very gorgeous blog I have to say. This has been one of my favourite blogs for quite sometime and Randi the author runs her own fabric shop called Fresh Squeezed Fabrics. The blog is just beautiful, full of bright colours, beautiful photos and gorgeous fabrics that I just want to touch and feel them so badly. (I have a bit of a thing about wanting to touch fabrics, not just look, I have been told off a few times).

If you need even more incentive to head on over for a look there is a give away of some delicious fabrics, all you have to do to be in the running is leave a comment and say what is your favourite cake. What is it? Mine is cinnamon and choc chip cake that I make. Delicious but dangerous as one piece is never enough and I can't stop at one.

You have to be in it to win it so go on head on over and enter, you know you want too.

Nearly done

2011-05-25T09:25:00.000+10:00

As promised there was some sewing over the weekend and the oliver + s pattern pyjamas are definately taking shape. Legs are sewn and put together and I am in the middle of attaching the waistband. It was nearly midnight when I first pinned it and was wondering why I couldn't get it to look right... upside down ! Yes there is something to be said about sewing when you are really tired and it is late. Just got to do the leg binding and pop the elastic into the waistband and they are done.

Another sorry for the iphone photos. Camera is away on tour.

I think that they are going to look great, of course they are all creased now but will be ironed I promise. I didn't have enough material to do the kimono top that goes with this pattern and so when I was at Target I grabbed a long sleeve t-shirt in a bigger size for just a couple of dollars on sale and have so far cut and interfaced a big snowflake shape to the front in the flannellette that I have made the legs in. If there are some eagle eyes out there, yes you can see some fabric pen on the edges but I am going to applique all the way around it so it will be hidden. I think it works. What do you think? I hope Lilia and Jemma love them.

Next for the dress. I am unsure as to what contrast to do across the front/back top. I am hoping that some pink from my stash will look great. There are so many pictures on the oliver + s flickr site, so may gorgeous dresses and lots of inspiration. My stash is getting bigger and bigger and as the Aus dollar is so good at the moment buying from the US is such good value now, there are lots of fabrics that I would love but have promised myself that sewing from what I already have is necessary first.

Ok must make some phone calls. Last Tuesday I was in a car accident. I was rammed from behind, thankfully Sophie and I were fine and the other driver immediately accepted it was his fault and to make things even better we have the same insurance company which has moved things along swiftly. So I have to book Todd's car, (oh yes did I mention I was driving Todd's car?) in to the smash repair place to get fixed. It is good timing as Todd is away for the next couple of weeks on his TriVita country tour so atleast he isn't needing it, a slight silver lining? perhaps, well if it was to happen at least it is now right?

I am so busy busy week this week, dentists for the girls Monday after school, babysitting nieces after school on Tuesday, Olivia has swimming squads and I have YW camp certification on Wednesday after school where I am teaching 13/14 yr olds how to build 3 types of fires, Car to smash repairers on Thursday, and Friday? well Friday is my day, and will be filled with some SEWING. I can't wait.

Oh and one more thing - how gorgeous is this little face. I so wanted to take her home with me but I restrained myself but only just. The girls were totally smitten with a Maltese Shitzu cross, a little fluff ball. The same line that I have been saying for ages - when we get a backyard then we can get a dog came out but oh how I wanted to ignore it.

Freezing in Sydney today, Winter has suddenly arrived so stay warm whatever you are doing.

What has happened?

2011-05-20T11:31:00.000+10:00

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Ours was good, we celebrated a birthday, Todd did loads of jobs that he has been wanting to do for a few weekends now and I prepared my lesson for church and made a Lime and Mascarpone torte too. The torte was for a certain young lady who turned 18 and lime and cheese are her favourite things at the moment. It was delicious. I didn't take a photo to share with you all. I really must get in the habit of taking photos more often. If Lime and Mascapone Torte sounds good to you it is incredibly easy, takes literally 15 mins to prepare and there is no cooking involved just bashing, juicing, measuring and mixing. Oh and putting it in the fridge to set.

Go here to get the recipe.

It is an old Sainsburys recipe (Oh how I miss you Sainsburys), funny or sad (not sure) little side note here when ever I go back to UK the first place I go is Sainsburys and wander the isles basking in the loveliness that is a light, bright, open supermarket that has everything and buy one get one free deals. I love Sainsburys. Woolworths and Coles here in Aus do not measure up in any way shape or form. So definately try the recipe out, you wont be disappointed. Let me know if you do and what you think.

I started this post days and days ago and time is wizzing past. We have battled head lice eeekkkkk used both chemist stuff and a more natural product and the natural one kicked those little bugs behinds unlike the chemist stuff and didn't leave little scalps red raw. This picture is of little Sophie with her head covered in stuff that had to stay on for 4 hours and then covered in cling film to stop it coming off and then we put a shower cap on her as she kept touching the cling film.

Funny face, I'm smiling mum but not happy really.

All clear was given and so back to pre-school we have gone and thankfully they have not been shared with the rest of the family. Phhhheewww.

The other big stuff that has been happening is with Todd and the company he works for, TriVita. Last night was their official launch here in Australia at the very lovely Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney and a lively, entertaining couple of hours was had listening to presentations from Todd who is the National Sales Director, Micheal Ellison CEO, Brazos Minchew Chief Science Officer, and Terry Newsome International Sales Director.

They are all so excited that the company is launched here and on it's way. They all believe in the products so much and each have personal testimonies of how these products have helped them in some way. The culture of the company is such that Todd has changed 180 degrees from when he used to be in I.T. He hated work, was sad, depressed and uninspired. Now he is motivated, excited, at the office by 7 every day and loving talking to people, selling the products and getting the company running. I went to the evening, got all dressed up, organised a babysitter, and spent the evening talking to people I don't know (not usually my idea of fun) but it was a good evening and a success with the number of people that attended. TriVita Australia is officially here. If you would like to know more and experience wellness for yourself go here.

I got this little book for Mothers Day and I love it.

Every page has a saying and a quote/proverb on it. All are ways to help you be happy. I am happy but I think there is always room for improvement right? Kikki k, the most gorgeous shop, is where we got it.

Todays thought is entitled Remember people's names, perhaps I should have read that one last night haha. The little quote at the end is a Chinese saying and it goes like this, 'A man dies and leaves a name, a tiger dies and leaves a skin.'

Finally, phew you say what a long post, some sewing, yay!! Here is the start of Lilia's (my niece) pyjamas which will be a part of her birthday present.

The bottoms are all cut from this really soft and cute flannel shown above and I am using the Bedtime stories unisex pyjama pattern from oliver + s also shown above. I really need to figure out how to rotate pics before loading them here, but you get the gist right? and so I am ready to sew this evening, I promise. Of course I will show you the finished deal in the next day or so, and then I have this lovely light fabric chambray to make her a popover dress from the free pattern at oliver + s.

Jem if you are reading this I hope you like them all. The dress I made Lilia last year she loves but the pattern doesn't go any bigger than a 3. So I hope she loves this one as much.

Ok that is it for today, wow long one. I hope you are still with me and not fallen asleep. We have another fabulous Autumn day here in Sydney, I hope you are having a great day where ever you are, and final apologies about the dark photos, again all from my iphone 3, and our home is always dark, great in the hot summer not so great in winter.

So much to do

2011-05-11T10:35:00.000+10:00

Birthdays have stopped creeping up and are closing in fast, that is birthdays where I had plans of making things. I really hope this happens to other people and not just me. Does it?

My sewing cupboard has a large pile of projects that are ready to be started - pattern is printed out if from the internet and fabric is chosen, bought and all together in an A4 ziplock bag to keep it all clean and together, but I really must choose the next projects to do on a date requirement basis and not what I particularly 'feel' like doing basis.

Anyway, I have done a couple of little things over the last few days that I wanted to share and so here they are. I have to add a sorry about the state of the photos, all were taken with my iphone as Todd has the camera at work and the top two are too dark. Isn't that always the way when you need things they are not there! :)

You have all met Eloise the Elephant before but I decided that as it was getting so much colder now - hasn't it gotten chilly quickly recently? - that I should make baby Adora a wrap to match Elouise and also keep her warm of course. So I choose 2 flannels that were in my stash and they are so soft and will be so warm. I am meeting her this week, and I hope they like these things. I used the matching floral that I used on Elouise the Elephant and then I backed the wrap with this girly flannel. I think it is one that will also 'grow' with the baby and isn't just a baby pattern.

I was given a blanket when I had Sophie made from this flannel and I loved it so much I went and bought some.

The other fun thing that I have done over the last couple of days is make some ruffles. I was given some old crepe streamers in a box of craft things and I thought aah haa. I saw this tutorial on Made and thought that the old streamers needed to be made 'new' again and given a new lease on life. I am also going to an 18th birthday party tonight and thought lots of ruffle goodness would be fun.

Aren't they gorgeous? I did pink and purple, red and white, yellow and green and black and white. You can just see these two at the top of the picture. They are not particularly long but will add a bit of fun to the decorations that I am sure will already be gorgeous.

I need to get some things for a pass the parcel for tonights party. The birthday girls' name begins with A, so I need to get all things that start with the letter A. Apart from ant and Aero I am struggling at the moment. I will have to get my thinking cap on.

Whatever you are up to today I hope you have fun. Oh and you can find me linking at

and at Made's Flickr group.

Mothers Day

2011-05-10T11:14:00.000+10:00

Happy Mothers Day to all mums, Grandma's, Nanny's, and all other mums out there in Australia and US, as the UK has already had it's Mothers Day back in March.

I had a fabulous sleep in yesterday, a few lovely little gifts and some amazing art works/cards made by Olivia and Sophie. I am such a lucky mummy to have these two beautiful little spirits in my home. Will I still feel that way in 8 - 10 years when they are teenagers? I hope so, I really do.

At church the Primary leaders had all the children print their hands on little canvas' for Mothers Day. What a great idea, and something that will definately go away in a box to keep for later years to look back on.

After church we headed to Todd's parents home where all the sons and son-in-laws had organised dinner for everyone. It was delicious and so lovely not having to cook anything or clean up or wash up. You did an amazing job guys and I really appreciated it.

Sugar and Spice

2011-05-05T13:39:00.000+10:00

Sophie has, since she was born, been, well a monkey. She is sugar and spice and all things nice and is such a conundrum sometimes. What do I mean by this? well, for example when she was a baby she was either happy as a clam or screaming (far too much screaming).

Sophie's blessing day - screaming

Happy girl

When she was older she wouldn't really play with toys she would just LOVE to make a mess, or when we went out she liked to look pretty but I would find her playing in the dirt with the boys.


What else can I get out?

She is drawn to water like I have never seen before, if there is any slight puddle she will find it and jump in it no matter what she is wearing or where we are, and then she looks at you with her blue eyes and blonde curls and you can't help but smile. Well sometimes.

Yesterday I was tidying up and I turned over my linen cushion to find this drawn on the back of it !

I know it is a cute picture, but I lost it, I shouted at her. She is not allowed to draw anywhere near the sofas as she can not keep pen on paper and this wasn't an oops, this was a deliberate let me draw on there picture. After I had well and truely told her off, she burst into tears, and then we had cuddles, and then a more productive chat about where we are allowed to draw and whether mummy likes pen on her sofa or not.

After I calmed down I went to take the cushion cover to the laundry to pre treat it and try and get the pen out and I realised what a funny happy little picture it was and it was silly of me to get so cross over a little biro. Sophie is such a blessing in our lives, just as Olivia is, and it is marvelous to me almost everyday as to how different they are and have been since the day they were born with their own personalities, and yet love one another so unquestionably.

Sisters are amazing and I have been blessed to have 3 sisters in my life. We are so different in so many ways yet similar too and we love one another too. I know they will hate this picture and I don't love it but it was a wonderful day together and the last picture of us all together.

I love you all x


Sisters

May is here!

2011-05-02T10:43:00.000+10:00

It is May can you believe it? Where has this year gone? it has positively flown by. I remember my mum saying that time got quicker as you get older and I never really believed her but now I do! Is it because we are so much busier as we are older with so many different responsibilities? hmm not sure what do you think?

I didn't manage to get any sewing done this weekend, I was so busy with a youth convention that I was required to attend as a result of me being a Young Womens leader (If you have no idea what I am talking about go here and it will hopefully explain some things for you). I really am so very blessed to be able to spend time with these outstanding young women (girls aged 12-18), they teach me so much and they are such fun to be around.

Heather had her little girl this week so it was such a good job that Elouise Elephant below got finished last weekend so I can pop over to see them this week as long as little Adora comes home from hospital. At 2kg she was half the size Sophie was born. What a fatty I had :)

Did you watch the Royal Wedding? I had intentions of just having it on in the background but that went out the window, friends were here and pizza was ordered and we watched so much of it. I remember watching Charles and Diana's wedding and so we watched this one too. What was your favourite part or parts? Didn't everyone look amazing, well except for some of the cousins eekk perhaps some assistance from a stylist may come in handy. The princes in their uniform looked fantastic and 'the dress'! Wow, very Grace Kelly but so beautiful and simple but definately not plain. Todd was rather taken with the bridesmaid Pippa Middleton apparently she looked 'amazing'!! The girls loved watching it and every time we told Olivia to go to bed she said I want to see them kiss so they saw the kisses and then off to bed. Maybe she will will remember seeing a girl become a princess when she is older too. But I do hope that this marriage ends up being a whole lot happier than the other time I watched a girl become a princess.

We are back to normal routines and hopefully that normality will bring me some more time to make some things. Fingers crossed, as there are birthdays swiftly approaching.

Here is a picture or 2 of Olivia and Sophie. Liv's hair has gotten long and has discovered pigtails. Doesn't she look gorgeous? Very cute my big girl, and then a picture of the 2 of them together. They were just sitting at the table hence the big red chairs.

Cheeky monsters the 2 of them, but having fun none the less.

Have a fantastic day today x

Crafting - so much fun

2011-04-27T10:34:00.000+10:00

I am sooo excited about some of the things that I have been making recently. I hope you like it too.

I used Dana's circle skirt tutorial from made for a skirt for Olivia. She loves it so much and feels and looks very grown up in this skirt when she wears it to church. I used a light grey rayon and it is so soft but oh my what a shocker to work with. I need an overlocker if I am going to use this material again as it kept catching as I was finishing the edges, and the hem oooohhh boy. I love that she loves the skirt. It does look lovely and I try so hard not to see my mistakes when she is wearing it, do any of you do that, see your own mistakes too much?

I also made another tag monster this time for a little girl, the very beautiful Camille was getting it. Her mummy Lisa asked me to make it for her. My first paid commission sewing job. As I know that Craft Schmaft's pattern is a freebie and they ask for people not to sell the things they make from the pattern I was sure that the money only covered materials used. I hope that is ok. The tag monster pattern can be found here.

Lisa asked me to use pinks and greens so I used a floral flannel and green flannel and the matching ribbons all seemed to be the expensive ones but that is ok it looks really pretty. I actually used the pattern the other way round but the monster is still cute I think and I hope Lisa liked it. I think perhaps another row of ribbons would have worked but I still love it.

On Friday night at my usual craft evening I cut out some more bibs from this tutorial and also cut out a delightful elephant called Elouise. The pattern is one that I bought years ago from Audrey and Maude and for some reason shyed away from making it but I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. My friend, Heather, is due to have a little girl in a month but her little boy came 6 weeks early so I wanted to be prepared. I used the same floral flannel that I used for Camille's tag monster and then some pink cotton poplin for the tummy and inside ears.

I think she looks like a bit of a diva as I made the knot I used in the embroidery thread to look like eyelashes. I think it works. As she is stuffed so hard it was really hard to sew up her tummy and my hand sewing skills eeek, by no means perfect, but I think she looks great and I hope Heather and her new little girl, when she arrives, will love her too.

I spent just about all day sewing yesterday it was so good. I love my little sewing corner. I have loads of ideas and patterns and material lined up ready to be made. i just need to do it. perhaps less telly in the evening and more sewing. :)

Reflections

2011-04-26T14:31:00.000+10:00

How was your Easter weekend?

Ours has been VERY quiet which has suited us down to the ground as Todd was recovering from another bug that I am sure Sophie has brought home from pre-school. Uuugghh a child starts pre-school and we all share in the germs and takes a while to grow immune I think.

Sunday as well as being Easter Sunday and the thoughts that that invokes of our Saviour and the sacrifice that he made for us all, it was also a very poignant day for my family. 8 years ago my big brother Simon passed away after battling brain tumors so bravely. 8 years. Where has that time gone? I was 16 weeks pregnant with Olivia and it is always a sadness to me that my girls have never had a chance to hang out with Uncle Simon in this life. As the time has past for me I know it is less about the sadness of him being gone but more a day where I reflect on funny things that he did or said or wore, ie his hideous 'carpet cardigans' or his Miami Vice outfits etc. or things that we did together like jumping off scaffolding into builders sand on Buckland Rise or playing ball outside on the patio. Throwing it to one another for hours as he wasn't going to have a sister who couldn't throw a ball properly. I know we all have our own memories and fun things that we reflect on but these were a few that were flying around my mind this weekend.

I also had some terrible news on Sunday about a girl that was my best friend at first and middle school, Clare Johnson. Her husband sent me a message that she died last week of a brain aneyerism. It stunned me. She is my age, has 3 kids 5 and under, one is just a baby. Such a horrific tragedy for her husband, children and family and all those that loved her. It still has me floored and just made me want to hug my girls so much more and make sure that everyone that I love know that I do. We had only just in the last few months reconnected via facebook but wow. If I had been in UK I would have gone to her funeral. So sad for her family.

I felt like I had to tell people that knew her and so I skyped mum and dad. It was a lovely way to finish the day by Skyping with them and talking to them for hours. I shared with them some of my reflections on the day at church, Simon and Clare. It was good to share, be a bit sad but also to laugh about me telling the girls about Simon singing the song 'do your ears hang low' with the words 'do your boobs hang low'. I shared how the girls thought it was hysterical and Olivia said "Mummy I think Uncle Simon was a bit naughty." My responce was, "Well yes baby he was."

After the reflections of Sunday I am ready to remember more, laugh more, live more and most importantly love more. x

Babysitting

2011-04-26T14:05:00.000+10:00

Here in NSW we are almost two thirds of the way through school holidays and it seems like my girls and I have not done very much at all really, like time has just run away from us. I know we have done stuff, and of course to me one of the best part of school holidays is not having a schedule to adhere too, it's just, well, I like to think that the girls love their holidays too. Soooo, when cousins asked us to babysit a baby bunny - over Easter- whilst they went away, what was I supposed to say except "Yes, of course we will".

Now I have to preface these comments with the fact that last year we looked after the schools fully grown, male, rabbit (Memphis) over a weekend and by the end I was very happy to see it leave and was quite clear with Olivia that it wasn't coming home again with us. No one prepared me for the strength of rabbit urine and what it does to carpet! Anyway, another rabbit, glutton for punishment? maybe. However I have to say so far so good. The bunny, Coco, is very cute, placid and and the polar opposite of Memphis. How could the girls not love her? and Olivia and Sophie have happily been having loads of cuddles and have not left the lounge room.

Sophie was absolutely petrified of the thing when she first arrived but as you can see that soon ended and then my Easter weekend was spent saying, "Get off the rabbit", "Leave her alone", and always her retort was' "but mummy I like her" and I would say "I know you do but she won't like you if you bug her all the time." Fun and games, fun and games.

Her family came and collected her on Sunday and I have to say I wasn't sad to see her go as I was very 'over' saying the same things all the time but the girls were great with her and Olivia cleaned up so much of the poos and wee. What a good girl.

Pictures are here at last

2011-04-06T10:03:00.000+10:00

I have been wanting to post the promised pictures for a while and I finally got around to downloading all the photos off the camera. There was photos on there from before Christmas!

So here you are, I really like the things that I made for Jemma and baby Noah, as always there are things that I would tweak to make them perfect like filling the tag monster with a bit more filling and my hand stitching is never up to par, but they needed to get in the post and I hope that they still love them.

Here are the pics for you to enjoy too.

The tag monster - the pattern can be found here plus check out the embroidery! It has been longer than I remember since I did any embroidery :) Then there is the wrap/blanket that I made using a really cute animal interlock on one side and a blue flannel on the other. I decided to cut his name from the interlock and applique it onto the flannel side to add some interest. I really love it but it was difficult getting material that stretches and the flannel match up when sewing etc.

Finally this picture is of the whole package that I sent which included a couple of bibs I made using a tutorial and pattern from homemadebyjill.blogspot.com. The pattern and tutorial for the bibs can be found here. I used some cotton that I found at Spotlight on sale and backed the whale one with some very soft blue minkee (thanks mum) and the apple one with some coloured terry toweling that I already had. I really like how they turned out.

What do you think? a good baby present? I think so and I hope Jem does too. She should get them soon.. will have to skype her.

I am going to do some scrap booking on Friday evening - eek I know crap booking. To say that I have never been a fan is an understatement but this looks easy and not the usual type, so I have to print out pictures and collect together stuff that I want to put in it to make some memories on paper. I am looking forward to it so I will let you know how I go.

Things I like or rather love.

2011-03-25T14:17:00.000+11:00

It seems that time just flies past at the moment and wow before I know it weeks have gone by. Where has this year gone already? Having said that I wanted to share some things that I like and well ok I think we can even say I love.

Todd had his birthday last week and I won't share how old he is but he is older than me :) and actually I realised I was 1 year younger than I thought I was. How cool is that? to actually be younger than you really are, but oh how blonde of me to have gotten mixed up in the first place. The lovely T was booked in to babysit Liv and Soph and a grownup night was to be had in the city at Nick's at Kings St Wharf with amazing friends and then hopefully, fingers and toes crossed, that everyone would feel like dessert at the Lindt cafe afterwards at Cockle Bay. As T was here with the girls there was no need to rush home to let older people get to bed and no stressing as to how the girls were. We knew they would be fine as they were more than excited to see us leave and T stay with them. What a fun evening we had, beautiful, delicious food with wonderful friends and the back drop of Sydney Harbour. It was an evening that I loved. I actually loved getting dressed up and loved the food and the company.

Four days later it was Todd and my wedding anniversary. 14 years WOW! It has gone fast. We never do presents to each other but Todd broke the rules and gave me Champagne trufels - I love them, a Bruno Mars cd - I love that, and some amazing Royal Doulton goblets that I have coveted for a really long time - I love them too. Most of all I love him. Thank you babe for loving me all these years x

After the weekend and catching up

2011-03-15T09:45:00.000+11:00

It has been a weekend which quite frankly I would like to forget. I have felt ill since last Wednesday really if I am honest and without going into too much detail, this little bug that infected us wiped Todd and I out for the count. Sophie was fine by Saturday and Liv was totally cool the whole time. They were amazingly well behaved over the weekend whilst mummy and daddy laid on the sofas and had no energy. Such good girls, well most of the time.

Have you got Skype? I love Skype so much, if you have family away from you that you don't get to see too much you should seriously think about getting a webcam and loading it. I saw my 2 day old new nephew on Sunday evening. What a big boy at 8lb 15oz (Sophie still holds the fat record @ 9lb 1oz) and Jemma (my sister) looked tired but so happy. I absolutely love that even though I live literally on the other side of the world to my parents and siblings I can have conversations with them, and see them. My girls can see and talk to their grandparents and new cousins and aunts and uncles. It really does make distance seem less but oh how I long to give them all a hug and hold these delicious new additions to our extended family. Soon hopefully, soon.

Miss Sophie has gone to pre-school today of which she was totally ecstatic about for a make up day for the days missed last week so the house is quiet. Aah. Well, at the moment the Scissor Sisters are turned up loud and so I need to clean up and then I can get to sewing. Now that little baby boy has been named his wrap needs to be finished with his name and bound and the tag monster I am making him needs to be finished too. Don't worry I will share pictures when they are done.

It is a beautiful day in Sydney after some rain last night, hope you have a fantastic day.

New Beginnings

2011-03-07T13:26:00.000+11:00

As new beginnings go there have been a few for me recently but this is certainly a new one.

I have been thinking for a while about starting a blog about my creating (or lack of it), my thoughts and feelings and me. I guess it is a type of journalling and a way of keeping a side of my little families history, and keeping track as we grow and face new experiences. I am hoping that it will be fun to look back and see how we did, how we faced these things and learned from them, but I think mostly this little blog will be about my attempts to bring out the creative side of me, develop my inner 'Martha' and the fun had along the way.

I hope you enjoy some of the fun had along the way too.