Is it true? Yes, Olivia is 8!

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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.