Les Miserables

Really all I want to say is go and see this film. I was transfixed for the 3 hours that it runs. I laughed, I cried and I jumped (as in I was shocked) and I left filled with beautiful music and touching, heartwrenching acting. Truely wonderful.

Here is a snippit.

There has been lots of talk about the film, but I thought I would share my thoughts. 

Hugh Jackman is faultless, if I had to pick a part of the film I really loved of him was near the end when he realises that Cosette and Marius really do love one another and that he is old and won't be around forever and it is time to let Cosette go to Marius. The emotion in his face and singing whilst at the barracades, loved it, and of course his soliloquy, Am I a man. 

Anne Hathaways' Fantine is heart wrenching, I dare anyone to watch her have her head shaved and listen to her sing I dreamed a dream as she really has reached rock bottom in her life and not be moved. Outstanding. 

Russell Crowe as Javert is stone cold as the character requires. Javert has my favourite song called Stars to sing and even though in the stage show the person playing Javert usually has a lower toned voice than Russell I still loved it and sang along (very quietly).  

Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried as Marius and Cosette were lovely, but Samantha Banks as Eponine, wow. Her version of I loved him, incredible. I had goose bumps on my arms and tears streaming.

If you see it let me know what you thought.

Starting afresh

2013 is here with a vengance.

New Year was warm, full of laughter and fireworks, spent at Waverton with wonderful friends. 

Yesterday was my birthday. 39 years old. Wow it seems like yesterday I was 19 at University, away from home for the first time and loving life so very much, then at 22 travelling to the other side of the world and finding so much joy in Australia. Then for the last 9 years being a full time mummy and loving my girls so very very much.

As for what has been happening here to me, to us, in the last few months of last year and trying to catch up here on my blog I think the best thing to do is just move on. I can't possibly catch up and can't possibly start the year afresh if I am looking backwards - so I won't. So I hope that you my readers (if there are any of you left out there) can forgive me, forget and happily move forward with me into 2013. 

Here we go...

Having said all that I will share with you the 2 things that I did make before Christmas as gifts for Sophie's pre-school teachers, Miss Sarah and Miss Janelle. Sophie 'graduated' from pre-school and so I wanted something other than chocolates and sweets that these amazing ladies who have loved, cared for and taught Sophie so very well could enjoy. Reversible tote bags were the way to go.

Looking at my rather large stash of fabric I saw some black denim and a fantastic Prints Charming cotton that I bought at Spotlight from their range, and a plan blue cotton and a heavier cotton drill fabric from Ikea that looks almost like little brick shapes in blues/beiges/pale yellows. These four fabrics would indeed make 2 great teacher bags that are fully reversible and can be popped into the washing machine if needs be. Miss Sarah got the black bag and Miss Janelle the blue. They were so happy with them and gave me such huge hugs. I really do hope that they love them.

Using the amazing Dana @ Made tutorial I set out to make 2 fully reversible boxed corner totes. Dana's pattern is for colour blocked bags which are so cute but not for the fabrics that I had on hand so I just went with solid fabric choices. 

I do like to critique the things I make so that next time I can be better so, try cutting the fabric the right way around Samantha!

Ok that is the last looking back to last year. Now this year.

Skyfall has been seen this week, I do so love James Bond films especially Daniel Craig and the Aston Martin DB5 swoon swoon, and oh my goodness the man looks a-maz-ing in a suit.

Tonight Les Miserables! Hugh Jackman!! yes he does deserve 2 exclamation marks and out with some friends for the evening. Fun, fun. Maybe being 39 isn't so bad after all.

Lack of material

A lack of material is not something that I usually deal with as my little stash keeps getting bigger and bigger and even if I make something there is always a reasonable amount of left overs to put away.

Last year Olivia had a dress that she loved that Todd had bought for her in the US. She lived in it and was so upset when we found a hole in the skirt and it could not be mended. At the time to console her I promised that I would make her one the same or at least as close to the holey one as I could. We went out together and bought some material, 1.5m infact and was pretty sure that this would be plenty.

I finally found a pattern that I like that goes up to a size 12 and is perfect! It is the brand new released pattern by oliver + s called Fairy Tale Dress and can be found here along with all the other AWESOME patterns by oliver + s. Can you tell I love their patterns? hehe. They are easy to follow, I always learn new skills, look so finished and not like 'homemade' clothes if you know what I mean. I love, love, love them.

Anyway, I bought the pdf pattern of the Fairy Tale Dress and printed the pattern out and cut and stuck it all together and pulled out the material this morning hoping to cut it out this evening when the girls were in bed. I shuffled the pieces around and no matter how I moved them they were not going to fit. If I wanted to make a dress for Sophie then it would be fine but not for Olivia. The size 10 / 12 pattern is just not going to fit on this material. For the first time I do not have enough material. 

A trip to Spotlight is therefore in need of happening so that with fingers and toes crossed they still have the same material and I can buy another metre and all will be well.

A few extra photos Part 2

Olivia attended her first school overnight excursion. A band camp.

This year at school she has been learning the flute and taking part in the Beginner Band. She loves band and thinks it is fun but lessons and practising not so much. Anyway, I dropped her off early Saturday morning at a place called Merroo at Kurrajong in the Blue Mountains, and we were to come back at lunchtime on Sunday to pick her up and listen to a small concert of what the bands had been practicing. We dropped her bag and sleeping bag in her cabin and she was with all her friends in the same cabin and then headed back to the big hall where we had to say goodbye. I made her let me take a photo and it is SO Olivia, trying so hard to be happy but you can tell she is a bit scared and not sure about everything that is going on. 

The following photos show what Sophie thought of the concert, Olivia playing in her band uniform,  and finally the happiest girl, who had a fantastic time. I just love the difference between the first and last photo. It is Olivia to a tee.

You did a great job my beautiful girl.

This has turned out to be an all Olivia post so far but I am just going to add a quick pic or 2 of her heading off to her school disco. Such a cutee, the black cardi was just until she got there.

A Bunnings Warehouse has opened close to our home on Victoria Avenue and on the Opening Saturday there was quite the fun outing - sausages in a roll, face painting, fairy floss etc and Sophie was adamant that she wanted her face painted. Todd took the girls and here are their faces, a butterfly and a dog. I love Sophie in ecstacy whilst having the painting done.

A few extra photos part 1

With the passing of time and not being able to catch up on everything I thought that I would share a few photos that I took of things that happened to my little family. So be prepared for some photo heavy posts.

This is the biggest cupcake I have ever seen and was it was Olivia's choice as a treat.  

Liv's eyes were definately bigger than her tummy as she managed to eat the top of this rocky road cupcake and that was it. She felt special getting such a treat even if most of it went in the bin.

The following two pictures were Sophie as she was caught for the first time on the bench top trying to get to the chocolate stash. She had climbed up herself without me knowing. 

On a lovely bright May morning Sophie and I headed to Rouse Hill town centre for something. In the town centre area they have these fountains and Sophie thought that it would be super fun to try walking through them and not getting wet. However as I have said many times before she can not help herself where water is concerned and had to touch. She had a ball and in the end travelled home in just her hoodie and damp trousers as her tshirt and vest were rather wet.

 

It is Melanie's birthday in May and it was decided some years ago that we don't give each other adults birthday presents in order to save some cash and lets face it we all get what we want and need most of the time anyway. I was over at Mel's house and she showed me some fabric that she had bought at Ikea and had the thought that she would turn it into a table runner for her white dining table. When the table is extended it is super long and bought table cloths and runners just are too short. I offered to hem it all and sew it for her birthday. Aren't I a nice sister in law? :) 

I just cut the fabric and then joined the 2 lengths together to make it longer, then hemmed the whole thing with about a half inch double folded hem and stitched as straightly as I could all the way around. Easy, a little time consuming when doing the folding but worth it in the end. Melanie loves it and it looks great on her table. I believe that the material was a cotton drill from Ikea.

Zoom Zoom

In the many months that I didn't post on here I did manage to complete a couple of little projects and so I thought I would share one more that I am quite pleased with.

Earlier in the year I mentioned a little chugga carrier that I made for the lushous Noah for his birthday you can see the post here, and all the time that I was making that I knew that I had to make one for gorgeous Isaac too even though it wasn't his birthday. Lucky boy :)

I used the same pattern from Homemade by Jill which can be found here that I had used for Noahs one, but of course there was a car on the front and not a train and there was one more pocket as they were smaller to fit Lightening McQueen and his friends in.

I used the same black denim on the exterior as I had used previously on Noah's, the inside was a cool chequered flag cotton drill and the road was a very soft grey felt with a yellow felt cut into pieces as the road markings. I sewed a centre stitch down the middle of the carrier to help it fold better and used black velcro and belting to do it all up. Red cotton check was the material used for the car and I just appliqued it by using a zigzag stitch all around the edge.

Kathryn, Issac's mummy said that he loves it and wants to take the caddy with him everywhere. I'm so glad.

Pepper and Baby

It was my niece Lilia's birthday last month (I know, I am hanging my head in shame) and when I asked Jemma what Lilia may like, turning 5 is a big deal, the answer was, a rag doll ! 

A rag doll!, I have never made one of those and I was pretty sure that I did not have a pattern of any sorts that would be suitable. I was right, no rag doll patterns but I did have a pattern for one gorgeous little dolly called Pepper and her baby. 

Perhaps 5 years ago a lady called Lorraine gave me a copy of this pattern after we had been to the Craft and Quilt fair with her daughter in law Elise. I had seen the pattern there and fell for it immediately. I was put off it as it looked really difficult and it called for lots of applique and embroidery stitches, both of which I couldn't do. So after accepting the pattern eagerly Pepper was put to the bottom of the pile, the too hard pile.

I set to it that I would make Pepper for Lilia and perhaps make some adjustments now that I feel rather more confident with things. The applique happened on the hair but rather than hand stitching the entire face, hands and the cheeks on I used my machine, but the embroidery stitches did not. I did the best I could. After putting it off and putting it off I choose the materials from my stash and the request had been for pinks and purples as the main colours. I had to get some flesh coloured felt and matching thread but apart from that everything was on hand. 

With all that said, here is Pepper. The pictures show her from body completed but flat, then finished and then with her baby in tow.

The fabrics used for her skirt on the far left and 2nd from the right are from Prints Charming, all other pinks were from Spotlight. The yellow seersucker for her head was a gift from my mum and her back is a cerise pink flannelette that was also from Spotlight. All of baby was from Spotlight. She was backed with a matching soft blue flannelette also from Spotlight.

I am feeling rather pleased with myself and quite proud of Pepper. Even the ladder stitch that I used to stitch her and baby up was pretty good too. She is now wrapped up and winging her way via Australia Post to Lilia in England for a very belated birthday present. I hope she will 1. forgive me and 2. Love Pepper and baby lots and lots. 

What do you think?

A strange awakening

This morning we were awakened by a sentence from Olivia that we have never heard before and one that I hope I don't hear again any time soon, it was just so strange.

She said, "Mummy, Daddy, there is a sock in the toilet and I just went and now I don't know whether to flush or not." Hmm.

Naturally the responce from the barely conscious parents was, "What?! what are you talking about? a sock in the toilet?" But yes, indeed, there was a white school sock in the toilet bowl and the toilet needed to be flushed.

Todd's comment was, "Well I will leave that one up to you as I have to go to work." Cheers, thanks buddy.

The not so white school sock has been rescued from the toilet thanks to the handle of a wooden spoon, the toilet has been flushed and just for good measure the bathroom cleaned. I still have no idea as to how the sock got there and all inhabitants of this home are pleading ignorance, but for now, job done and thank goodness Olivia didn't flush the toilet and block the system. 

Where to start?

It has been months since I last posted and so much has happened that I can not even begin to catch up on everything.

I know I have said sorry before about the lack of posts and then no more have materialised so I won't apologise again and just hope that the amount of posts that will spring up here in the coming days will show that I have indeed gotten my mojo back and am excited to share what I have been doing and making. Mum even sent me an email asking when some more posts were happening. I didn't realise that this little blog of mine could be missed.

I thought a few pictures may help to fill some of the time lapse and bring me back up to date. Enjoy.

Sophie swimming in her new wetsuit at Terrigal. Yes it was that cold.

Sasha - Nathan & Kirsty's new Staffy/Malamute cross

Olivia at the park

Sophie at the park

Sophie at her pre-school Easter Party

Pre-school Easter cake

Clever cupcakes

Sophie and friends meeting the Easter bunny

Do you Shazam?

Do you Shazam? Do you know what it is? If you don't then I will fill you in. It is the most awesome app, that when you tap it, it 'listens' to the music that is playing and will then tell you the title of the song and the artist singing it. How totally cool is that? ! Yep, very, I know.

As you may or may not be aware I am involved in the youth program in my church, which is a program that is for girls and boys aged 12-17 where they have their own Sunday school lessons, separate lessons for the girls and boys and separate and joint activities. Naturally the kids want to dance and so such activities are put on and last weekend it was the turn of Baulkham Hills (my area) to 'host' a dance. This means being in charge of decorations, a theme if you want one, food and advertising the event. I am really sad to say that I didn't get any pictures of the whole thing but the kids did a great job. Wednesday eve we spent a couple of hours putting up decorations including a spiders web of streamers across the hall to give a feeling of a lower ceiling, top hats strung up, paper hats on fishing wire across the room, painting pictures of different types of hats, balloons and the food and drink in the hall area. There was lots of dancing, more kids than normal there, groans when it was time to end, and even this old leader got up and had a groove when Arrested Development and Montell Jordan were played. 1992-1995 tunes were just brilliant.

What has all this got to do with Shazam you ask. Well, Friday night was the dance and being 'old' and not having a working radio in my car, there were loads of songs that were played that I didn't know what they were and who they were by. I Shazamed a lot through out the evening downloaded the songs off itunes and now I have a new playlist! Totally awesome.    

So download Shazaam, for free, you get about 5 tags a month for free and get yourself a new playlist. Brilliant.