Mid-Craft Crisis

Well... Good morning, 2012

2012-02-03T11:26:00.002+11:00

... You're here already. What shall we do together? Many things I hope. Last year kind of dragged on for me. I mean, it went fast, but I don't feel like I achieved a lot. I guess the last three months of the year were basically going from one sickness to another though. I think I was in survival mode. Now that we have made it to February, I am hoping for mundane and healthy times ahead. I won't hold my breathe.

So much has been happening, I had hoped to be back before now. I hope I can get into the swing of blogging again now that Esther and Ellamay have started back at school (Grade 2 people! How grown up!) and Amelia will start kindergarten next week. Basically, I will be in the car rather constantly this year.

I thought about what my goals are for this year and they are just about the same as they have been since I started this blog. I think they will be my constant resolutions. This year though, I am adding to the mix some other creative goals.

-Make one Christmas decoration from felt each month. I really wanted to make decorations last year but it was beyond me with all the sickness we had happening. I hope this way I can have a better chance of reaching my goal of more handmade decorations. I have already made 1 and a half :-)

-Get a new Visual Diary and draw regularly in it to work on techniques. I would really like to be able to draw little illustrations just because I can.

-Paint some of my drawings with the new watercolours I got for my birthday last year.

-Conquer crocheting. I started an apple cozy and I would like to finish it. It is such a ridiculous thing to make. I love it and want to make a bunch of them because I can.

-Do a 30 days of photos kind of project. I would like to work on my photography skills. I want to learn how to shoot in manual.

That about covers it. Not sure that I will get there but that's okay. I will just try again next year. :-)

I can't promise when I'll be back next. I have lots of things to share. Including the first room of our renovation (Yay! We finally started).

Hope your month (and year) has started off well.

Christmas

2011-12-24T14:00:00.000+11:00

I don't remember ever seeing the Charlie Brown Christmas. I have seen it mentioned quite a few places lately and after finding this on youtube, I thought I would share it. What Christmas is all about.

Have a wonderful Christmas.

Santa Claus is coming to town

2011-12-23T11:00:00.000+11:00

Joy to the world

2011-12-23T07:00:00.000+11:00

Carol of the Bells

2011-12-22T07:00:00.000+11:00

In the bleak midwinter

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000+11:00

Little Drummer Boy

2011-12-20T07:00:00.000+11:00

Christmas is coming

2011-12-19T22:37:00.001+11:00

Christmas is almost here and I am not ready for it at all. How about you? I had planned to be so organised this year and make so many things and be quite festive but it hasn't happened. I have been pinning things on my Christmas board on Pintrest and have been so inspired to make all matter of delightful things, but not this year.

Remember in my last post when I said that Amelia had been to hospital for the day, in the ambulance? Well, the day after that post, Amelia ended up in hospital. She was in hospital, which meant I was in too. The tummy bug got the better of her. Thankfully, she responded well to the treatments and we came home 3 days later. Since then, the whole family has gotten sick, including me.

So anyway, I am writing this post as a sign off, of sorts. I give up, I give in, I surrender. I haven't been keeping up with the blogging so I am taking the next month off. The run of illnesses we have had in the house has really made everything harder to do. It is summer holidays here starting Friday, so it is time for a break anyway. The kids will be home for 5-6 weeks. I plan to rest up, relax and hang out with the kids. I hope we can do some making together and have fun.

I hope to be back to regular (ha!) blogging at the end of January. I need to spend some time going through the mid-craft list and let go of some projects that are just never going to get done. And I need to re-organise my 'to-do' list into what is achieveable and what is not. And then, I need to set myself some goals (New Years Resolutions?) to work out how to make time for my making. I need a creative outlet to keep sane and I have been getting increasingly frustrated that I am not doing more of what I love.

How's that for a post? A bit deep and meaningful? Well, whatever. Had to be said.

I am going to post a few of my favourite random Christmas videos over the next few days in the lead up to Christmas. I am loving youtube for getting festive while we have been housebound.

Thanks for reading along this year and I will see you in 2012!

Christmassy stuff

2011-12-08T06:01:00.001+11:00

Hi. Remember me? I am the one that pops in from time to time. *Sigh*. I have to say, we have had a run of illness lately. For the last few months, it seems to have been one thing or another. The latest hit - a tummy bug that has floored us. One that had Amelia end up in the back of an ambulance spending the day in the emergency room. Fortunately, we didn't have to stay in and we hope and pray the problem will not happened again.

I thought since I haven't really had the time (or energy) to be blogging for a while, perhaps I should drop by and just give you a few Christmas ideas from the archives. And then maybe one day, I'll actually be back - with actual projects that I am in the middle of. :-)

Paper Reindeer.

Paper star Christmas Trees.

Rolled felt candles.

Decorated tree with recycled card circle garland.

See you another day.

Owl sleep masks

2011-11-21T07:00:00.000+11:00

I think I might have mentioned a while ago that I am an Aunty again. Hooray for being an Aunty! I was trying to make a secret sewing project for my new nephew but now that he is a month old, I have pretty much given up on that project. You never know though. Perhaps I will revisit it with fresh eyes at a later date.

Anyway, I wanted to put together a gift for my sister-in-law that would be useful particularly at the hospital but for later as well. Something that is nearly impossible in hospital (and after you go home) is resting. You certainly don't get rest in hospital. I thought some kind of eye mask would be a great idea. It could be worn to block out the light and might give people the hint that rest is needed.

I found a tutorial for making and owl sleep mask. My sister-in-law likes owls so it seemed like a good idea.

I made the grey one for my sister-in-law and the pink on is for another friend who has just had a baby too.

They turned out really pretty. Even if that pink one is only "mostly" done, it still looks good. It felt good to make them. And so quick. I don't know how practical they will be but I like fun things. The way my family has been lately, if I have managed to do any crafting or stitching I have grabbed it with both hands!

The frog

2011-11-19T07:00:00.000+11:00

Perhaps I should title this "Adventures in mischief and dirt." My darling girls can find adventure in our yard without any effort at all. This day it was a frog. A frog that they were touching and wanting to keep. Nothing against frogs, but I am not as game as I was when I was a kid to be touching things like that!

I told them they could all get their photo taken with the frog and then they had to put it back. I don't think the poor thing would have survived if they kept "looking after" it.

Cornflour slime

2011-11-17T07:00:00.000+11:00

So what do you do with kids home from school and feeling generally lousy from whooping cough? You make slime of course! I found this recipe here. We talked a little about liquids and solids and then they got right to it. It was funny to see how each kid played with it. They are all individuals that is for sure!

And the mess I was left with. It kept them happy for an hour or more though so really it was a small price to pay. :-)

Lincoln's notebook and pen roll holder

2011-11-15T07:00:00.000+11:00

Amelia's best friend turned four recently. Amelia thought they were like twins now because they are both four. :-) Isn't that cute. Anyway, we decided Lincoln needed one of my notebook and pen roll holders since both his older sister's had one and they use them all the time. I haven't made a boy one before though so I wasn't sure what kind of colours or fabrics to use.

Amelia picked out the fabric. That made my life easier. It looked a little plain so I added the felt circle on the front with Lincoln's name stitched on there. I really like the way it turned out. I think if I make anymore of these with the plain fabric, I will have to add some stitched felt on top.

I have to make one for his little sister now. Her birthday is at the end of the month. Nothing like a deadline to get some motivation! I just hope I can get it done!

Echidna makings

2011-11-13T07:00:00.000+11:00

This year Echidna Day crept up on me. We have all been feeling pretty lousy still trying to recover from whooping cough (which is taking forever I might add!) and virus' that seem to keep attacking our family.

Our Echidna makings were limited to the above this year. Esther and Ellamay made some Echidna's from foam eggs and pencils or sticks. And Ellamay drew the awesome Echidna picture above.

Usually we make some kind of Echidna cakes but we didn't this year. We made do with our "sticky" food of chocolate malt sticks and chocolate raspberry bullets.

Stay tuned. I might be able to find something crafty to share soon. :-)

Echidna Day adventures part 2

2011-11-02T10:32:00.001+11:00

More Echidna Day adventures. If you recall, I said I don't like reptiles. The snake above... perfect example of why I don't like them. It is a Red Bellied Black Snake. Actually, nothing against the snake above, I actually just don't like any snakes.

This lovely, sleepy lump of an animal is wombat. These things were huge and sleepy. I think it must have been afternoon siesta time when we went to see all the animals :-)

Our emu friend.

Kangaroos in mid bounce.

Eastern Grey and Red kangaroos. I don't think I have ever seen Red kangaroos before. We have lots of the Grey ones around here. The Red ones are so much bigger than the Greys. I don't think I would like to get too close to them. They are pure muscle.

The cockatoos were fun. Two of them took a liking to Tim. One was chewing on his jumper and the other quite liked his shoe laces.

Esther loved the cockies. She was so excited she could pat them. When we left their enclosure, one cocky said to us, "Hello, Cocky". So of course we stood there for a bit longer to see what else he had learnt to say.

These parrots were really enjoying the seed they had to eat.

This is a Bearded dragon. We counted 6 of them in the enclosure and they were just sun baking on the branches.

The kids were particularly excited to see this animal. It is called the Spotted Quoll. They have been watching a wildlife show on TV and it has been featuring about Spotted Quolls. They are an endangered species. Very exciting to see live ones - even if they were sleeping.

This is a Tasmanian Devil. Also, sleepy. I think the thing that struck us about this enclosure was that there was a chicken carcass up on top of the fence guard. They are supposed to be ferocious little things so we assume it got thrown there in a feeding frenzy.

This is a Brush Turkey.

We got to the last few displays and the kids were tired from all the walking. One of the last displays had Flying Fox bats and Blue-tongue Lizards in it. Ellamay was completely freaked out by the bats and Esther saw a lizard that was shedding its skin. This completely freaked Esther out. She has seen skins off snakes on the TV before but the fact that the lizard was walking around with some skin sticking out was too creepy for Esther.

We left the main park for their playground/picnic area and had some afternoon tea. We ate some "sticky" kind of food in keeping with our Echidna Day idea. Raspberry chocolate bullets and chocolate malt sticks. That seemed like good food to celebrate a "pointy" kind of animal.

Another year gone by and another year celebrated that we have abundant blessings. We thank God for the life we have and even though it has its ups and its downs, we are blessed beyond measure. I hope you have given some thought to what you have in your life to be thankful for.

Echidna Day adventure

2011-11-01T12:42:00.000+11:00

On Sunday 16th October, we celebrated Echidna Day again. This year I really wanted to go somewhere so we could see and actual echidna. I made a phone call and found that they had one at the Kyabram Fauna Park. I remember going to the Fauna Park when I was a kid but the main attraction then was we use to go to the kiosk to buy mixed lollies. :-) I had only been in once that I remember on a school trip. That was probably when I was about the same age as Esther and Ellamay.

My very vague memories of the place when I was a kid was looking at displays and not being able to see anything. It was exciting to see things so close up this time. I guess a lot of things can change in 25 years. :-) Perhaps I am a bit taller too. This koala barely moved in the 5 minutes or more we stood there looking at him.

The animals there are very use to people being around. The emu above, for example believed it owned the path and we had to move out of its way because it wasn't stopping or changing its path for us. The 3 girls were in love with it as soon as it walked past and without a word they turned and started to follow it bobbing up and down just as it did. So cute and so funny.

This kangaroo was quite happy to ignore us as we stood nearby in awe of how close we could get.

And here is the creature of the day... an echidna... bottom. It was asleep with its head in the hollow log and did not care that we came all that way to see him. We asked him to wake up and pose for a photo, but he didn't hear us.

I got a little emotional having my family all there to see this echidna. It was a perfect way to celebrate Echidna Day. Having our family together, enjoying (reasonable) health and having fun.

These guys are called Tawny Frogmouths. They look like they own the place with their chests all puffed out like that.

I can't remember what this one was called but he (or she for that matter) was an owl.

Pretty sure this one was a Barn Owl. Really know my fauna don't I? :-)

We went into the reptile house... I don't like reptiles. I was glad they were behind glass.

This was the crocodile. It hardly moved the whole time we stood there looking at it. I wondered if it was real. Then it slowly came up and opened it's eyes above the water level. That was creepy.

Amelia was happy to have Daddy holding onto her while she looked at the crocodile.

I have another post to come of our trip to the fauna park. I hope to share that in the next couple of days.

Amelia's 4th Birthday

2011-10-22T07:06:00.001+11:00

Pretend if you will, that it is still September and I am actually posting this on time. HA! Not likely with the way things have been around our house lately.

This is how we started the day, way back when Amelia turned 4. Present opening in bed with the family.

We were going to have lunch at my parents house and tea at Tim's parents house so we decided to sing happy birthday to Amelia at breaky. I made her a little jam toast stack to put the number 4 sparkler in. Big hit - breaky birthdays. Might have to try and keep that up I think.

The birthday girl at Nanny and Parpy's for lunch. And candles in birthday trifle.

Chocolate cake I made, under Amelia's instructions, which we had at Nan and Pa's house. The aunties and uncles were all there for that.

Here is Amelia with her big present. She had to wait all day for this. I felt mean but we had to give it to her when there was time to ride it! All Amelia really wanted for her birthday was her own "Shakey bike". It took a little while to work out but Amelia wanted a bike that had streamers on the handle bars. We found out that you can buy the streamers separately so when we found the bike but no streamers, the problem was quickly sorted :-)

When Amelia started riding, she had real trouble turning the bike at the gate so she would stop, get off and pick it up and turn it around. Esther and Ellamay bought their scooters into town so they had great fun on them while Amelia rode her bike.

The expression on Amelia's face was priceless. She was so proud of her new bike. And she was concentrating so hard.

Okay, so I am biased. She's a cutie. Cheeky monkey. She has been through more than any child should have to go through by the age of 4. She is still a happy and healthy little girl who loves things that 4 year old girls love. Hello Kitty, green, dressing up, riding her bike and scooter, playing with dolls, talking on her pretend phone and making things.

She also knows that "God is the biggest". If she is afraid or if she sees that someone in the family is upset she will tell them "Don't be scared, don't worry, God is the biggest." I pray that her faith will always be so straight forward and obvious to her. It will see her through all her days.

So better late than never, right? Amelia's birthday was over a month ago and I can hardly believe I am organising Kinder for next year for her!

Once I have uploaded all the photos from last weekends Echidna Day, I will share the all about the animals we saw on our adventure, including the sleepy echidna.

Have a great weekend.

Yesterday, on Echidna Day

2011-10-17T11:35:00.000+11:00

Amelia finally got to see an echidna yesterday. She has heard so much about them. She was only a baby on the first Echidna Day. We went on an adventure to Kyabram Fauna Park for our Echidna Day. I rang them last week to make sure they had an echidna for us to come and see. I was really glad we could see one again. I must admit I got a little emotional to see this.

I will share some more photos of the day soon. We saw lots of Australian animals and it was a great way to spend the day with our family. I love family adventure days like this.

Happy Echidna Day

2011-10-16T07:00:00.000+11:00

We are celebrating Echidna Day today. It is our special day for giving thanks and counting our blessings. Echidna Day is a family time, but it came about as a way to stay focussed on the happy things, like an echidna wandering into our yard, rather than the day the dreaded phone call came with Amelia's CF diagnosis.

You can read all about what Echidna Day is on this post from last year.

We hope you have a happy day today. Take some time to count the blessings that you are surrounded by and give thanks for what you have.

I am thankful for another year of joy and tears. I am thankful for the great health Amelia has enjoyed this year. There has been just the normal coughs and colds. Our children are growing older and understanding more about all areas of life (and Amelia's CF) which can make explaining things to them difficult at times. I am thankful we can help them understand things even though it's difficult. I am thankful for children who support and love each other (even when they fight). I am especially thankful God blessed me with such a wonderful and supportive husband. We have trials in our life, but we are so blessed too.

So what are you thankful for?

Buttony deer head canvas

2011-10-15T12:23:00.002+11:00

While the kids were sick, I was desperate for some kind of crafty break. I haven't really had much time lately on the crafting and it is really sending me crazy!

I sent the kids outside to play and get some fresh air, then I set to work. I don't know if I have mentioned this before but I am completely addicted to Pintrest. It is just the way I would like to view the internet. I found a great picture on there of a button covered canvas making a picture of a deer head. I thought it would make a great addition to my deer head wall in the office (which only has one deer head at the moment).

I had a canvas, buttons and I was given a big container of mod podge for my birthday this year. I googled deer head patterns and came across this one for a cushion cover (now also on my to-do list). I printed it out and traced it onto the canvas with pencil. I went over it in black marker and then got to the buttons.

I think I'd like to make another one, in reverse, but with only brown buttons. That would be fun. It was a nice quick craft and I am a fan of that!

I showed it to Tim and he described it as "interesting". Ha! I don't think he quite understands my fascination with the deer head. I think they are just so weird and ridiculous and that to me is a perfectly good reason to have it on my wall. Get it?

I have so many things to post... Tomorrow is Echidna Day again. Can you believe it is 12 months since the last one? I am hoping we will get to go on an adventure for it... but it will depend on the weather a little. The kids have been creating a few echidna type things today that I will have to get pictures of. Hopefully, I will have some pictures to post of the day at the start of next week. Until then, have a great weekend.

Amelia's birthday

2011-10-15T12:05:00.002+11:00

Amelia celebrated her fourth birthday at the beginning of September. (I am so far behind in posting!)

And guess what her big present was?

Our baby girl is getting big!

Daddy time

2011-10-10T11:31:00.001+11:00

Having to get through a dose of whooping cough in house full of people with lung conditions (Esther, Ellamay and I all have asthma and Amelia has cystic fibrosis), was a little stressful. The whole family was given strong antibiotics to get on top of the infection. Tim and I had tablets which were easy enough to swallow but about an hour later left a yukky taste in our mouths and made us feel a bit queasy. The 3 girls had some pretty horrible suspension mixture, the kid version of what we were taking. It had the same affect on them too. It required lolly bribery to get the kids to take it. Orange tic tacs were the best. Medicine, drink, tic tacs.

Amelia though, was not so easily convinced to begin with. We struggled and strained with her. The antibiotics she usually takes are apparently "yummy" and the new ones were "too yukky". It was horrible to have to force her to take it when she has to take medicine all the time. After one particularly terrible episode with medicine taking, Tim took her into her room and they lay on her bed talking about her art works to settle her down. Daddy can make things better some times. One benefit of being in isolation for the week was having Daddy time.

We were so relieved when Amelia realised that she had to take the medicine and started to take it quickly and without complaint. She is our super brave girl.

Esther and Ellamay went off to school today for the first time in over a month. HOORAY! I hope they have a great day, get exhausted and go to sleep early tonight. What do you think my chances are?

Deer head making and other catastrophes

2011-10-08T08:38:00.001+11:00

Well. We have hit October. I managed one post in September. That is fairly poor isn't it. September was a pretty crazy month here one way and another. I am hoping October is much more straight forward.

I will be playing catch up for a bit, so many things have been going on!

Here's a quick run down on life up to now.

- Amelia had her Broncoscopy at the start of September. This is a routine procedure for CF she has each year to check the condition of her lungs. We thank God that this year's was uneventful unlike last year's.

- Amelia turned 4.

- We had a clinic visit to the big building for Amelia's results. Everything came back clear and she is as well as can be expected. Thank you God again.

- Esther developed a cough which got worse and eventually affected all of us (except Amelia!!!). Esther had weeks off school and we finally found out, after 3 trips to the doctors, it was whooping cough! That is a horrible condition and if you can be immunised against it or need booster shots, do it. We were in isolation for a week! After the whole family had a course of some really yukky antibiotics we were no longer infectious and could go out again! Esther and Ellamay are still coughing but it has improved a lot fortunately.

- School holidays with sick kids! Need I say anymore about that?

- Squeezing in a little bit of me time crafting to make a few random and quick projects to try and keep my sanity! The deer head photo above is one of those projects. I started that about a 3 weeks ago and it is still in that same state of mid-craft. I did actually finished a couple of things which I will be sharing soonish :-)

- We just welcomed to the world a new nephew. I have been working on a stitching project for him but it is probably too ambitious for me to be doing at the moment. It has already had a change of design once, it might need a second just so I have some hope of finishing it before he is a teenager.

So there you have it. Really, everything has been ruled by the kids lately. Esther and Ellamay were given a clean bill of health by the doctor yesterday so they will be off to start the new school term on Monday. HOORAY!!! It will be a "just you and me" day with Amelia at home. I have a terrific friend who has offered to have Amelia on a couple of days next week just so I can get some extra kid-free time and try to turn my house the right way up again. My friend is the bees knees.

I hope to get back to some kind of regular posting in the next few weeks but we shall see.

Book Week 2011

2011-09-21T13:27:00.000+10:00

I had high hopes of posting this on the Friday this happened. Or at least on the weekend after. Here I am, in September and I am sure this happened in August. I am so tired at the moment I can't be bothered looking up the right date. Better late than never. Life has been full lately. Trips to the big building (Royal Children's Hospital) with Amelia and since then sick kids and sick kids and just for good measure, sick kids.

Esther and Ellamay's school celebrated Book Week.

Ellamay went as Pippi Longstocking. We recently read the Lauren Child illustrated version. The kids loved it. I am a fan of Lauren Child. Her work is so dreamy. (I'd love to decorate the kids rooms completely inspired by her work.)

I had to wire up Ellamay's hair and I started early in the morning because we hadn't managed to have a trial run. Fortunately, it worked.

Esther decided she had to be a skeleton. Not exactly story book motivated. Don't know if she has read a book about skeletons before. Whatever. It was a last minute decision. She just wore black clothes and I cut out a skeleton from white card and we stuck it to her with double sided tape. Is there nothing that stuff can't do! I had quite a few comments about how much work I had put in and being clever, which is all very pleasant to hear but I had to correct them. "I love the internet!" If you would like to print a skeleton to cut out (and wear) here is a link to where I found it.

Amelia was dressed up for getting messy at daycare, but insisted on wearing a crown. She wasn't so keen to talk to the principal.

So there you are. Completely late. But I had to post something to tell you we are still around. Posting may be pathetic for another couple of weeks. Can you believe I have had kids home for 2 weeks now because of this nasty virus that has settled on our house and now it's time for 2 weeks of school holidays! Sigh. How am I going to entertain them!?

New books

2011-08-26T07:08:00.002+10:00

I have been hitting the online shopping a little bit lately. Okay. Just the bookdepository.com. I am loving it. These are my most recent purchases. I love making things from felt because it can be (in theory) so quick and easy to stitch up. I have seen these books around on other blogs too. And I am influenced by what other creative people are saying is good. :-)

Felt Friends from Japan - I really want to make the deer on the front. Only its head though so I can make a new deer head for the office wall :-)

Fa la la la Felt. Tis nearly the season and I would like to make some of the decorations in this for our tree and also as gifts.

Palm-Size Softies. I think these would be such cute things to make.

Illustration School: Let's draw happy people. I love this book. I have never been much of a drawer and and I would love to be able to improve this. This book has step by step instructions and I am determined to work my way through the book and draw it all. There are two other books in this series as well which I will own one day too :-)

I should probably admit too that I have some more books to add to this list. I did get a great crochet book for my birthday and I have some kids craft ones too. I'll share them another day.

In keeping with my effort to declutter our house, I have had to cull some books on my shelf to allow space for the new ones. So far some recipe books have been given the flick. I had bought them years ago because they were pretty but have never used them. I ended up taking them to a friend who loves to cook. At this rate I will have to get more ruthless though.

Do you have any suggestions for books that I should consider for my collection?

Button obsession

2011-08-24T07:03:00.001+10:00

I have a thing about buttons. They are useful for all the usual buttony type uses but also for things like entertaining kids and for making pretty things. I had a small stash of buttons. We have looked through them a lot. We use them for pump time entertainment. Buttons are quite a happy thought to me. If I have trouble sleeping or I have had a bad day, I like to think of a quilt shop I went to a couple of years ago that had a huge tub of buttons there. You could buy buttons by the scoopful.

I put the suggestion out months ago to my in laws that I would be perfectly happy with a bagful of buttons for my birthday. Didn't matter if they were new or old. I just wanted more buttons. On my birthday, they certainly delivered. Look at the great supply I received. That terrific buttony bag above which is a perfect project size.

New buttons in all different colours, shapes and sizes.

I was handed this old biscuit tin which felt kind of heavy. I was a little bit excited because old buttons often live in old biscuit tins. It was from Auntie Jill. And it was the family button collection! I let out a shriek. Because isn't that what you do when you discover old buttons in an old biscuit tin?

These are some of my favourites. That dog one is so cute. I wonder what it use to live on?

And those green buttons with the flowers painted on are so pretty.

There were some still on their cards and other interesting treasures in there that often end up in button collections.

I love this sparkly blingy button. What could this have been for? Something super glamorous perhaps? Or maybe it was bought and never used? Now I am hunting out all the things I can make with these buttons. Can't wait to start. :-)

Do you have a crafty happy thought?

Matchbox house and doll

2011-08-23T11:19:00.000+10:00

As I mentioned in my post here, I am trying to cut down the mid-craft pile so I can start some new projects. I have actually managed to do some stitching of late. Oh my, it does drag on! I try to do some stitching at night after the kids are in bed but that is not working because I keep falling asleep! I decided I needed to get back to stitching during the day. I do find it hard to be motivated when the kids decide they need to do sewing at the same time. Sigh. Oh well. It is actually what I want. I want them to be interested and learn about sewing. Can't have it both ways I guess.

This is the first matchbox house that I have almost, just about, nearly completely finished. This one is just about the same as the one I found on the this post here. Oops! I didn't mean to do that. I tried to change things a bit for the next two I made. Which I don't have photos of yet because - not finished yet.

I created a tiny felt doll to go inside the little house too. So that means I have to make 3 tiny felt dolls to go with the 3 tiny houses. I have also now made 3 tiny quilts and have prepared 3 tiny pillows. The tiny possibilities!

Esther, Ellamay and Amelia all seem to think these are pretty cool. So do I actually. Wish I could get away with wearing one. Soon I will have to find some ribbon to tie them with. And get some photos of the kids with them too. I really like matchbox crafts (remember the camera for Esther and Ellamay's birthday un-party) I will have to find some more crafty ideas. I was excited to find you can buy blank matchboxes from the craft shop back when we made the cameras and now I have restocked the supply so bring on the matchbox ideas.

Penguin foot cozy

2011-08-17T15:22:00.009+10:00

This is what a foot cozy might look like if the world was ruled by me. Actually, it's a cheap black beanie that I got with visions of turning it into something ridiculous to cheer up my sister-in-law. She had broken her toes in a quilting accident (it happened at the time of quilting and was quite unrelated, but it makes a good tale). She had to sit with her foot up and couldn't do too much. So I made her a foot cozy to keep her foot warm and to give her a giggle.

I used some felt and buttons and the penguin foot cozy was created. Hopefully, that foot is well and truly on the mend. How's it feeling, Rachel? Now the foot cozy will just be another silly thing I made because it's fun to be silly and bring smiles.

Currently in the Mid-Craft pile

2011-08-15T07:00:00.011+10:00

Currently in my mid-craft pile is the following:

- Matchbox houses with dolls (above - inspired by this one)

- Rosette headbands for the kids that I actually started before school began in January!

- Felt hair clips. I always have some felt hair clips on the mid-craft pile.

- A secret gift for my new baby nephew, due in October. I hope it turns out like it is in my head.

- Crochet. I want to finish the granny square I am working on and then start on some new things.

- Dresden plate. Still haven't done that one. Sigh.

- Cushions. As above. Sigh.

Things I am trying not to start:

- Notebook holder for myself. I have the perfect fabric ready to go...

- Button flowers. Something like these.

- Felt eye masks.

- Button embroidery hoop hangings.

I just have to cross off some of the mid-craft list so I can start on some other fun stuff. I am bored of what I am doing already. :-) I have a low attention span for projects. If they can't happen fairly constantly and quickly, I really shouldn't start them in the first place.

What's on for your week? I am going to try to stay out of the rain and try to achieve some decluttering and some crafty stuff too. And hopefully some more blogging.

Err... 31 again

2011-08-13T12:09:00.000+10:00

It happened again. I turned 31. Actually, I turned 33 but I have decided to stay 31 from now on. It doesn't seem anyone is that convinced my plan will work. Whatever. I am not really that worried. If you see my hair suddenly change though - you'll know the few grey hairs I have got the better of me and I've started colouring. :-)

I had a perfectly wonderful day. I woke up to Tim remembering to wish me happy birthday (you only forget your wife's birthday once in your lifetime!). After the kids gave me all their precious creations (I must remember to get some of the pictures on here), the kids had their breaky and we hurried off to school and daycare. I went to town because I booked myself in for a hair cut. That is such a treat. I love to doze off while I get my hair washed. I love the smells at the hair dressers and all the snippets of conversation you hear. And most of all I love how lovely my hair feels when I come out of the hair dressers. I get the hair flick thing happening then :-).

Anyway, I managed to wander some little shops around the hair dressers too. And bought myself a little bird ornament for my growing random collection of cute things. I met my great friend for lunch and we sat and ate chicken wraps while we chatted before she needed to go grocery shopping. I picked up Mum then and we went to Spotlight to buy some random crafty/sewing things.

When Tim got home from work, Tim and the girls carefully carried out a gift for me. It was a new laptop! Spoiled! :-) That kind of distracted the rest of the night then. Tea was late. It was an easy tea and yummy sponge cake for dessert (and candle of course).

So all in all, a great day.

Here are some of the goodies I got for my birthday...

Notice the quilt under the books? My sister-in-law made that one for me. It is so toasty and pretty. I snuggle under it every night on the couch while doing Amelia's physio and after she has gone to bed.

Some cake books, one new, one vintage. The vintage one is so great and shows how to do all manner of icing techniques. When the kids are bigger, I hope to get back to some serious cake decorating again.

Also, I put out the call for buttons for my birthday. I didn't care if they were old or new, I just wanted buttons. I have a slight obsession. Well, I think I have got more than enough buttons now. Although, maybe buttons are like chocolate and you can never have enough?

The buttons are a whole other post :-) So there you have it. It was such a great day. I loved it.

Can't believe we are at the weekend again. The weeks are going by so quickly at the moment. Stand by for a very buttony post coming up soon. Enjoy your weekend. Stay warm (or cold if that's what you need :-]

Dresden Plate

2011-08-02T10:22:00.000+10:00

A couple of months ago, I signed up to receive a newsletter that I came across on one of my regular reads, One Crafty Mumma. It is called Teapot. You can read all about it and sign up for it over here.

The first issue included a tutorial on making a Dresden plate. I have seen these around but didn't know what they were called and they are always in the more traditional quilting colours. I like bright and colourful these days. It seemed easy enough and seeing it in more modern patterns made it look more appealing so I decided to give it a try.

I printed the templates and traced up the wedge pieces. Half of the pieces of fabric are from my new stash. The other fabric was from dresses the girls used to wear (like in this cushion cover I started) and some was from my mum's vintage stash.

Once I got going it came together really quickly. I numbered all the pieces so I wouldn't get the order wrong.

This photo is not as bright as the real thing. I really like this colour combination. I am actually using it for the colour inspiration for Esther and Ellamay's new room. I might even make this into a cushion for their room. Maybe.

I haven't finished it yet. Everything got busy at home right after I got this far and I am still trying to get back to it. I would like to make another one of these too. With all the hand stitching involved I found it quite relaxing.

I bought some really awful cushions on sale a few weeks ago for only $2 each just so I could use the inserts out of them. I really should get on with the cushions again. Now I have them I shouldn't be making excuses about them. You know except for all the other stuff I am mid-crafting :-)

Have a great week.

Windmill

2011-08-02T09:50:00.000+10:00

Matchbox cameras and party craft

2011-07-29T06:44:00.001+10:00

I love that when the kids friends come over now, it is just expected that they will be making something. I always wanted to be a mum like that. And what do you know? I am here. So it was natural that we would be doing some kind of crafts while Esther and Ellamay's (un)party was on. I started with the photo booth idea, which lead me to camera's, which seemed like a good theme. Here I was "planning" an (un)party and I now had a theme. Typical. Anyway, this is the main craft we did. It was a big hit.

We used a matchbox, ribbon, card stock, scrap paper, double sided tape and scrapbooking bling.

I cut out some scraps of white card to fit the tray of the matchbox so the kids could draw their own "photos" onto them.

"Say cheese!"

Other (un)party crafts we did were decorating photos mounted on mat board. We used stickers, markers and bling for that one. I had photos of all the kids from another play day together and had them printed for everyone. That was very exciting to everyone because it was pictures of another fun time together. :-)

As a stand by, I printed some frames from here onto A4 sheets and then everyone could make their own masterpiece that was already in a frame. I am keeping a few of these on hand. You never know when someone will need to create a framed artwork.

Learning to crochet

2011-07-22T07:38:00.001+10:00

One of my new years resolutions from last year which carried over to this year was to learn to crochet. I keep seeing all these very cool things that are crocheted and I haven't any idea how to make them. Last month, two things refreshed my determination to learn this craft. Finding this book for $2 at Spotlight and seeing this post about how to crochet an apple cozy. Now I feel an apple cozy is kind of pointless. But it does make ones apple not only cute but a bit silly and different and I am all for that.

Also, the book I mentioned above fills me of visions of whipping up little critters to leave around for Toy Society drops. I would love to have a go at that.

I got myself some necessary supplies and went to both my mum and my mum-in-law and got some lessons. My mum was a bit rusty. She got me started though. I practiced all that chain stitching above with help from her.

My mum-in-law got me started on a granny square. It was a bit tricky because she is left handed and I am right handed so we had to keep turning over the granny square to work out where we were up to. :-)

Not bad? I did another round on this one and ran out of yarn so I decided to have a go at starting one myself. It's fun. Things I've learnt so far though - I should really wear my glasses when I am doing this, I should have really good light to help with seeing what I am doing too, and it is going to take just a bit more practice to be able to work on the other projects I have spotted. :-) Also - No more projects, Glenyce! You are in the middle of enough now!

If you would like to have a go at crochet, here are a couple of links that may be helpful to you. Here is one with step by step photos. And here is a link to Meet me at Mike's which has a full run down on how to crochet a granny square. The other alternative would be to search out someone who knows how to crochet and have yourself some lessons off them. Happy hooking :-)

Little shoes

2011-07-19T07:02:00.005+10:00

How cute is this picture? Amelia is holding some little shoes. She is so in love with them.

They don't quite fit though :-)

A little fabric situation

2011-07-18T07:40:00.004+10:00

I have been having a little fabric situation. More of a big situation. I seem to have suddenly accumulated a lot of fabric. It was falling down out of the shelves and the big plastic box that I was using for storage was suddenly full too. It sounds like I have been buying up on it too much doesn't it. I will admit I have probably bought a bit extra lately. I have been sewing more too. (I was anyway.)

I saw this great idea to make mini fabric bolts. Mine are quite so neatly cut. I think they still look pretty good though.

I used foam board for the bigger pieces of fabric and small mat board for the fat quarters. I am not done yet. I still have some more to wrap around their new home but it already makes me feel like I have achieved something with the mess. I guess I will just leave the scrappy bits in a box for the moment until I can work out what to do with it.

Once it's all done, then I can go and buy some more...

Have a great week

Grey

2011-07-16T07:40:00.001+10:00

The weather has been grey and cold. We have had sick kids and Tim has been feeling miserable too. We need a good dose of health around here. Esther and Ellamay are back to school on Monday after 2 weeks school holidays. I am glad to get back to routine again. I probably say it every time school holidays roll around. The girls like their school routine! So do I actually. Hopefully by the time the next school holidays come, we will have their bedroom finished. Tim is still working on their new beds and I am excited to see the finished product and get on with the fun decorating part.

I have been working on a few different projects lately, all of which I need to photograph and work on more. I am afraid I am still creating more mid-craft projects. I was trying really hard to resist starting anymore projects but have been unsuccessful. I keep finding all these fabulous ideas on the internet. How about you? Do you have that trouble?

Anyway, I hope to get a few more posts up in the next week. Don't hold your breath though :-)

Call him Art

2011-07-15T07:42:00.004+10:00

It was my younger sister's birthday the day before Esther and Ellamay's. She is an artist. She is at university studying fine arts. Least I think that is what the course is called. Anyway, she is an artist. So for her birthday I made her a notebook and pen holder. It needed something else though. Here is what I made for her last year. We kind of have a running moustache thing. So I found out her favourite paint brushes and then turned it into a him. Meet Art.

He took me quite a while to stitch. Too many lengthy breaks in between. Anyway, I quite like him. I stitched on the face last and he suddenly had some personality then. Thankfully. I was terribly worried I was stitching him in vain and he would be neither funny or friendly.

I love the texture of his bristly hair. And the moustache of course. :-)

Photo booth fun

2011-07-14T14:02:00.003+10:00

For Esther and Ellamay's birthday, they had some friends over for a little (un)party. See, it wasn't really going to be a proper party. There was no cute invitations. No party games planned. No big lead up. I just planned with my friend (who happens to be the mother of the kids friends - convenient, yes?) to have 3 of her kids over, if every one was healthy and we weren't busy.

My (un)party idea got out of hand of course because how can I look at all the cute stuff on the internet and not get inspired to just make a little bit of stuff? Okay, so I might have went a little overboard. Especially for an (un)party. It's what I do. I planned some making things for the kids to do.

I thought a photo booth would be fun too. I saw these photo booth props linked on facebook. I spent the tedious task of sticking them onto mat board and cutting them out. In hindsight, cereal boxes probably would have done the job... but they were pretty sturdy which is what you need with bouncy kids playing with them.

They went over well, although I think more fun was had with them after the kids left and the grown ups had a turn. :-)

Turns out chocolate malt sticks work as moustache's too.

I will get around to posting the crafts at some point too.

Esther and Ellamay turn 7

2011-07-07T16:49:00.000+10:00

I can hardly believe our little baby girls are 7. They are acting so grown up now but are still happy to watch little kids tv shows. They still like to get a cuddle of mummy and daddy, though they are referring to us more as Mother and Father these days. I think that has come from watching Mary Poppins.

Here is Ellamay opening the felt sewing things, hoop and book. All "cool" presents apparently.

Esther opening the Littlest Pet Shop Blythe doll. I was on such a winner with that! The girls have been in love with all the Blythe dolls they have seen on the internet so it was pretty exciting to get their own little ones.

Here is Amelia with her new book. Not her birthday obviously. Does anybody else have to do presents for younger kids on siblings birthdays? I only gave Amelia a couple of things - I hope that by next year she will understand that it isn't her birthday so she doesn't get things.

Here are the birthday ice cream cupcakes the girls had that night. They wanted an ice cream cake. In the middle of winter! My hands were frozen by the time I was done! I saw some ice cream cupcakes that had brownies as a base. Yum. I kind of ran out of time to try that one though. If you are interested, here is the link.

It has been a month since their birthday. I am so slack with the blogging lately. The kids are on school holidays at the moment so I am still fighting for the computer. Perhaps since my birthday is coming up, I can drop a few hints for a laptop of my own (that works) *pretty please with sugar on top*. :-D

More birthday stuff to blog and some other crafty endevours too. See you another day :-)

What's been happening here...

2011-06-22T10:34:00.000+10:00

I'd best type quickly. I am home alone. No kids to be hassling me about food or wanting their turn on the computer. No husband wanting to do work on the computer. Just me. I should be doing housework. But I am not. I thought I better let you know what's been going on around here otherwise you will all think that Mid-Craft Crisis has become like one of those blogs that has heaps to say and then one day it just stops. *waves* Don't worry. Still here. :-)

This month has been crazy from the beginning. So much going on and so many changes.

~Esther and Ellamay turned 7! There were the usual family celebrations and an un-party for them too. I will have to post some pictures from that at some stage. By the way, an un-party, in my definition, is a party you have when you are not really going to have a party. Savy?

~Tim resigned from his job last month and started a new one on the 14th. It is so perfect for him. He doesn't have to be away on overnighters each week now either. YAY! He is so happy in his new role, which makes me so happy too.

~We got a new family car and Tim got a new car for work.

~I got a new smart phone which is sending me crazy to work out. It is prepaid and I think either my kids are somehow using up the cash on it - or someone has been using the wi-fi connection on it. (Do I sound like I know what I am talking about? Because I totally don't!)

~House culling! I am so proud of myself. I have been letting go of so much stuff. My goal of having the house down to the very least amount of stuff by the end of August seems achievable. How amazing that is going to be! And then we can get down to the fun part of renovating!

I should probably mention that the picture up the top there is of me. It was taken the evening after the girls un-party when their guests had gone home and my sister and her husband had come for dinner. We had some fun with the photo props (from the un-party) too. Ellamay said that we were being too silly and grown-ups shouldn't be silly. Well, being silly was heaps of fun!

I have been keeping up with all the blogs I follow on my reader. It is so bad doing that though, don't you think? One is less inclined to comment on people's posts if one is not reading the blog itself. I think I will have to work on that. Call it a mid-year resolution.

Cushions

2011-06-06T10:45:00.000+10:00

Do you like lots of cushions at your house? I like them. I don't like how much they cost for the pretty ones though. Especially with small children around who play with them, fight with them and spill stuff on them. As I mentioned in this post, we are planning some renovations come Spring time. This means a few pieces of new furniture. Goodbye green, blue and brown check lounge suite, hello modern dream charcoal modular suite. I have been reading up house magazines and spotting all the handmade ideas that can be thrown into the mix to soften the modern look I am after.

Back to cushions. We have some on our couch. They are the ones that came with it. They are green, blue and brown check just like the lounge suite. Blerk. I have always meant to make some new covers. We have had that thing for over 11 years now and I still haven't done it. (That didn't even make it to the mid-craft pile!)

Renovation planning is a little boring without action. So I am going to make cushions. I bought this book for myself for Mother's Day and have decided to make cushions out of it. It uses free motion stitching on applique. A more modern way to applique than I learnt way back when I learnt to sew at school.

It is so divine. When I look at the pictures, I almost believe I could just sit down and whip up one of these in no time. Of course, I know I don't actually do that. Maybe one day, if I could sit down at my sewing machine and work with it regularly... I might remember which settings do what and I wouldn't have to teach myself all over again every time I used it. :-)

This is the first cushion I would like to attempt. So pretty.

Here is what I have done so far. I have chosen all the fabric - an old pillow case, 2 of the kids old dresses and some fabric from Mum's stash. Not a bad effort really.

I even went to the sewing machine shop and bought a new foot for free motion stitching. The woman that served me lectured me on the fact that you don't use a free motion foot for applique. I didn't like her. She did show me how to do free motion stitching though. So I guess I like her a little bit. :-)

This is some fabric I bought on a trip to Spotlight recently. It is all meant to be for cushions. It looks so pretty on my shelf. I would like to get the sewing machine out sometime in the next week but then I was saying the same thing last week.

I am mid-crafting a few things at the moment. Some to do with the birthdays that are coming up in our family and some just because I suddenly had an idea. I will have to get some pictures taken so that I can post what has been keeping me so busy. What are you up to at the moment?

Guest Post on HomeSpun-Threads

2011-05-30T21:12:00.000+10:00

As I told you a few posts ago, I am guest posting over at HomeSpun-Threads.

You can see it over here. I completely missed when it was put up and then I have been having trouble getting computer time. (Again!)

Check out the other ideas for the Summer Soiree while you are over there. Heaps of great ideas for entertaining the kids.

Have a great week. Hopefully, I'll be back soon with another post :-)

Another box cubby house

2011-05-22T08:01:00.004+10:00

I love when we get a new appliance that comes in a big cardboard box. These boxes housed our new split system air conditioner. After we watched the electrician drive out of the drive way, Amelia and I raced outside and dragged the boxes inside. I was really hoping the boxes would be left behind. We haven't had a box cubby for a while.

The girls made the window boxes out of rice bubble packets and I struggled with the roof. We did make paper flowers for the window boxes but they didn't survive too long. After the cubby spent about a month inside being used as lots of different things, the girls dragged it outside to use in the yard.

It has gotten so cold out now and the kids all have colds so they haven't been able to be playing in it much. It gets dragged under the car port in the late afternoon so it doesn't get wet overnight. Once that happens it will be off to the recycling! Cubby houses are so much fun! Do you make box cubbies at your house?

Thinking about birthdays

2011-05-21T07:46:00.002+10:00

Esther and Ellamay are going to be 7 in June. As they are about to be 7, they no longer want "baby stuff". Yikes! Trying to work out what will be good gifts is a bit tricky. I decided to go with some creative gifts. I like to encourage their creativity because I want them to grow up being able to look at something and have the skills to make it themselves if they want to.

Using my vast collection of acrylic felt, I cut out some simple shapes that they can practise their sewing skills on. I also cut out some Little Pink Houses and some owls. Follow the links to find the patterns for them. The owl is actually a pattern for a teething toy. I thought if they don't feel like sewing some of these, the shapes can be glued onto a canvas as a cute picture for the wall. I have packaged each felt project in little click bags and even printed the little house picture out so Esther and Ellamay had a reference for it.

These are some other bits and pieces I have bought for their kit. I am including some coloured elastic head bands that they can sew some of the felt shapes onto.

I have also bought some kids stitching books. I will share those another day though. (Need to take more pictures).

Silent listener

2011-05-20T07:38:00.001+10:00

Tim took this photo at the little cottage at Campaspe Run when we were there recently. "God is the head of this house. The unseen guest at every meal. The silent listener to every conversation." What an important thing to remember. God is always there. Mum and Dad have this on their wall too. I saw it every day when I was growing up. I think I get it more now though. God is there not only keeping us in check but taking care of us too.

Scraps of a birthday project

2011-05-19T07:40:00.001+10:00

Craftiness! Hooray! I do still have a little bit of craft left in me. I know it's been lacking around here. I hope I have got my groove back now. Esther and Ellamay are turning 7 next month. My wee little babies aren't babies anymore. I have been trying to come up with suitable presents for them but have had a hard time this year. They are getting so grown up apparently.

I have been working on sewing kits for them. It was a great idea because I have such a huge stack of acrylic felt to use up and it is perfect for them to learn to sew with. And I can whittle away the stack. Everybody wins! :-)

My next project is to take photos and post them here so you can look at all the pretties.

Hopefully, I can steal a bit more time on the big computer to do that. :-)

Summer Soiree at Home Spun-Threads

2011-05-18T15:52:00.000+10:00

You might have noticed this button pop up over the side there --->

I am extremely late posting this (of course - still trying to catch up!) but I was asked to do a guest post over on Home Spun-Threads. There is a great craft each day of May, for kids. Now we aren't coming into summer here in Oz but winter. Plenty of these crafts could be used in the winter time too. So pop over and check out all the crafts that are featured. I am going to be up some time next week I think... I have to work out how to send the post first! (Sometimes, I am not so tech savy.) And make sure you visit all the clever people featured.

Royal wedding watching

2011-05-18T15:35:00.000+10:00

Did you catch the Royal Wedding at the end of last month? Our little darlings were excited that it was on telly. Can you believe I let them stay up until 10.45 P.M. to watch it?! Madness is what that was. I paid for it the rest of that weekend too. They were a bit tired.

You will have to excuse the mess. In between watching intently on the TV, they were busy making royal flags, playing with Princess Kate paper dolls and Esther made a letter E fascinator which she wore for most of the night. Unfortunately, not in any of my photos :-(.

I painted their nails, they dressed up in sparkly material and we had a royal dinner of chips and pasties. The kids loved it. And the thing about royal weddings? You remember what you were doing when you are older so you can tell the story to your own kids.

I am glad royal weddings don't happen too often :-)

Campaspe Run, Elmore

2011-05-18T09:49:00.000+10:00

Wow, do I have the slows lately on posting! The truth is I have to fight to get time on our big beautiful computer because our children all want turns on it. And if it's not them, it is my darling husband. I am stuck with the unreliable dinosaur of a laptop. I think I will put in a suggestion for a nice shiny new one for my birthday or a "just because" kind of thing *grin*.

Anyway, here are some photos of part 2 of our adventure at Elmore from my last post. This place is called Campaspe Run and has a history of the area and the Sunshine harvesters that were invented on a farm in the district.

It was an interesting wander. The kids really liked seeing all the "olden days stuff". Especially the old cottage they had set up with old wares, table and bed.

I have so much to catch up with. (Ahhh!!!) I will get another post up later today hopefully. Have a great day!

Riding on the trains

2011-05-12T08:01:00.003+10:00

Over Easter, we had a 5 day long weekend because Easter Monday and Anzac Day fell on the 25th April, which meant we had Tuesday off as well. Does that make sense? We had hoped to go to the Fair in Bendigo but we ended up not making it. My sister-in-law took the 3 kids out on Easter Saturday for a shopping adventure and Tim and I went out (alone!) for lunch and to look at furniture shops. Totally off topic at hand. Sorry. So anyway, because we completely missed the Fair this year, we took the girls to the Elmore Miniature Railway to make it up to them. If you are into trains or even if you aren't this is a great time out. The railway is open on school holidays and weekends. We use to take Esther and Ellamay there when they were little. We haven't been since before Amelia was born.

I believe the tracks are 1 kilometre long and the ride goes for about 8 minutes. It cost us $10 for the family. Bargain!

The kids loved it. We went 'round three times. On two different trains.

And back to the station, ready to begin some more fun.

I found a video of the railway on YouTube if you would like to see what it's like there. This was taken a few years ago and I have to say it is much more fun in person :-)

Train story...

2011-05-11T11:33:00.000+10:00

I am still playing catch up. Isn't this photo too cute! Tomorrow I have an adventure to share about riding on trains at the Elmore Miniature Railway. See you then :-)

Easter egg hunt

2011-05-11T11:00:00.000+10:00

On Easter Sunday, the three girls were treated to an egg hunt in the yard at my in-laws place. The kids do love an egg hunt. Who doesn't? All that chocolate for a reward. Mmm... There was the usual mad rush around trying to get as many eggs as they could get their little hands on.

A little bit of comparing to see who did the best.

And then of course, proudly showing off the haul.

If you are wondering about this photo, these are empty capsules for Amelia's enzymes she has to take whenever she eats anything with fat in it. One part of having Cystic Fibrosis means that Amelia cannot digest fat which is why she must take these enzymes. Amelia has one capsule per 4-5 grams of fat. I saved most of the capsules for the day to see how many she had taken. I think we are about 5 short. She would normally have between 10 and 14 in a regular food day. Easter Sunday she had approximately 20 and most of that was for chocolate. After studying the nutritional information on Easter eggs so much now, it almost makes me feel bad about eating chocolate. Almost. :-)

3D Easter eggs that became other things...

2011-05-11T10:01:00.000+10:00

Okay. I know Easter was last month now. You will just have to smile politely while I catch up :-) Got your smiles on? Here goes the first of the late Easter posts. Call it preparation for next year.

This craft is from the Disney Family Fun website. If you haven't seen this site before, it is an excellent resource for kids crafts.

This is the one I made. It started off being Amelia's but she lost interest because it was "a bit too twicky, Mummy". We decided to make them with only two sides of the folded paper because it was a bit harder than we thought it was going to be. The one I made could hang on the art string in the kitchen easier then too.

Ellamay and Esther both turned theirs into bunny houses. Ellamay's had staircases and striped floor boards.

Esther went with pink flooring.

And a bunny inside. The photo below he was having a sleep I think. He looks a little sick. Perhaps too many Easter eggs?

Ellamay ended up creating a pathway off the side of her egg bunny house.

They dreamed up all kinds of stories to go with them too. I think they had a lot more fun making these than playing with them. And a lot more fun making them this way than the original idea. It's great to see the kids take an idea and make it their own.

Pretty cottons and other distractions

2011-05-10T13:24:00.000+10:00

Hi. I didn't mean to have a blogging break for so long. It just kind of happened. I am mid-craft so many things at the moment. Aside from the crafty things, I am trying to get back into the decluttering of the house again. I was going strong and then one thing and another came up... like boredom. :-) I have managed to get rid of quite a few more bags of old clothes and toys though. I have a goal in mind now so I must get serious about it. More on that later.

The kids holidays finished just after Easter. School holidays were quite full on here. Heaps of kids making. Easter crafts and anything else they could come up with. We even managed an adventure. It's good to get back to some kind of routine though.

I have just picked up a stitching project again which I started a while ago. I am having trouble concentrating on it though. A lot of sleepless nights lately. Amelia has a cough again and so I have spent a lot of nights up with her lately.

Lately, we have had sick and miserable kids - the wintery weather has brought with it the coughs and colds we hate. The kids have been creating - I have been working on lots of things for the kids to do on the pump with Amelia. Tim has been crazy busy trying to catch up at work because of all the short weeks because of public holidays around Easter. And there has been a lot of changes going on around here one way and another.

I have been completely distracted lately too because I have been googling around for inspirations for a renovation. We are planning to start working on our house, room by room, to update everything and make it lovely. Tim has started building Esther and Ellamay some loft beds which will help with the limited storage situation at our house. I am very excited and so are the girls. And I think Tim is loving to be out in his shed again.

Anyway. I should go and do something else. So many things to do and so little time. Sigh. I will be catching up with posts in the next few days (hopefully) about our Easter and adventures.

Easter Sunday

2011-04-24T10:55:00.000+10:00

Happy Resurrection Day to you and yours!

This is a song from Veggie Tales - a kids show but I think it sums up Easter beautifully.

Cardboard hand bags for Easter

2011-04-23T07:15:00.002+10:00

The kids put these together on the pump the other night. I had previously cut out and assembled the cardboard base. The girls then chose their favourite scrapbook paper to cover it and made the beads on pipe cleaners for the handles. I hope they last until Easter morning because they have been loading them up with things that shouldn't go in a bag made of cardboard and we have had to repair them with sticky tape a few times. I think I should have used some thicker card for the gusset.

In case you want to make some of these, I first saw the idea over at ikat bag. This blog is a favourite of mine especially for all the cardboard creations... but then I love all of it. There is a printable template and instructions on how to make them. We will be making some of these again.

Good Friday

2011-04-22T07:15:00.010+10:00

Easter is not about a long weekend, chocolate and bunnies, although that is all fun.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
Luke 23:39-43

Happy Easter.

Easter crafting

2011-04-21T20:26:00.000+10:00

These are some of the things we have been making for Easter at our house.

Easter egg carton chicks found here. The kids enjoyed this but got frustrated when they cut out the paper pieces. The shapes they came up with didn't fit properly. It might be a good idea to work out the size for your kids first if you are going to try this one. My kids are like Tassie Devil's when it comes to crafting though so maybe you'll have better luck :-)

I found these glittery foam eggs on sticks at a junk shop in town. They were 10 for $2. When I saw them I thought they would be perfect as flower centres. My mum cut up these flower shapes ages ago (thanks Mum) and I have been getting out only a few at a time so they didn't get wasted (some of us don't have the fancy cutters still). This was a pump time craft. They look pretty. I am hoping they survive so I can pack them away for next year.

Here is the finished plaster eggs.

These chickies (or duckies for that matter) I found at Spotlight a couple of months ago. They were clearing last years Easter stuff. I got 4 of these for $1. They are supposed to be door hangers but I thought they would be great picture frames. Don't you just love how Ellamay has called hers "Alien Ellamay"?

This is a craft that Mum made up for the kids. (Thanks Mum again). Two sheets of black card with the window cut into it. Cellophane, double sided tape and the picture of Jesus is printed on vellum. The verse on top is just printed on normal paper. Ignore the finger prints on the window behind it ;-)

This last one, I made up for the kids to make for Palm Sunday. All I did was photocopy the story out of a bible story book onto card and cut out the pictures. They have little card props at the back to help them stand up. The palm branches I printed from here. This one is Ellamay's I like how she has added some orange paper robes on the ground. It's all mounted on photo mat board.

Still more crafting to go over the weekend. I will probably still be sharing after Easter! If you are looking for some last minute Easter craft ideas, check out One Pretty Thing.

Bunny ears

2011-04-21T08:59:00.002+10:00

I like to stitch things. Especially felt. There is something very satisfying about it. Probably that for the most part the projects I make with felt should in theory be quick turn around projects so I should feel like I have achieved. This is the latest of these kinds of projects. The kids have, in the past, had the big bunny ears on head bands that seem to flood all the shops in time for Easter. I decided to make them some that were a little more understated.

I had in my mind what I wanted to make and hoped it would work out. I printed off a bunny outline from a kids colouring page and cut it out. I folded up the face of the bunny and used it as a pattern for all the felt. After I stitched it all together, I sewed the ears onto hair combs. It was fiddly but satisfying :-) I think maybe they might have worked better if I had sewn them on the other way around. I'll know that for next time I decide to make this kind of thing.

The kids have been wearing them around in the lead up to Easter. I have been tempted to make some for me. Maybe not. I will just stick with last year's hair accessories. I will have to try to get a photo of those up. Have a great day.

Plaster eggs

2011-04-21T07:58:00.001+10:00

What to do with children on school holidays in the lead up to Easter? Making and painting and all things creative in our house. We recently went to a country market with my sister in law and found some plaster eggs to paint.

I am sure if you could be bothered, making up some plaster and using some chocolate moulds would be easy enough. Messy though. And since someone else had done the messy part (or some of the messy part anyway) for me, who am I too pass that up?

The 3 kids had fun painting them and I got some peace to get some laundry done. Everyone happy. It didn't occur to me to take pictures of the finished product. Amelia's ended up all brown because she mixed her paint together. Esther and Ellamay seemed to be quite concerned about this. I pointed out that she is 3 and does things like that. And that they are Easter eggs so it is quite alright that they are brown. They just look like chocolate now. :-)

School holidays...

2011-04-20T10:46:00.000+10:00

Did you miss me? The kids are on school holidays and I am having trouble getting a turn on the computer. Sigh. It was so much easier when the little darlings weren't computer literate. Still another week to go before school starts back. I was hoping to share all our Easter makings but obviously that plan is not working out. This photo is of creepy smiley loaf that the kids think is wonderful. I got some for a special treat for lunch last week. Not sure of its nutritional value. Considering it smiles at you and all... We are going with easy as much as possible (notice the paper plate under the creepy faces?). Esther and Ellamay have now both had ear infections which has upset their time off a little. And yesterday I took the three girls to have their flu shots. I think Esther and Ellamay will be glad to get back to school!

I am looking forward to the Easter weekend. We hope to go into town and wander the Easter Fair as is the tradition. Hopefully the weather holds out. It is a little dreary today. I am having some kid free time today so I had better make the most of it. Hope to be back before Easter with some things we have been making.

Celebration Saturday Part 2

2011-04-09T08:07:00.003+10:00

After our picnic in the park was over, we went for a short walk to the Chinese Gardens to explore. After living in and around Bendigo for most of our lives, we had never been to visit here before. Always the way though isn't it? We will have to try to visit some more attractions around the place. The kids love exploring.

There is the Chinese Museum there too but we didn't go in this time. The kids would like to go back again though. It houses the Dragons that are used in the Easter Fair parade.

I loved these paper cranes made from old catalogues.

And this guy looked really angry but I loved the texture of the carved stone.

We wandered back past the park and spotted these bats that are famous for being pests there. I couldn't believe how noisy they were. The girls thought they were cool but kind of creepy. I am glad we weren't any closer to them I must admit.

We walked up to the old Post Office building which now houses the tourist information centre for Bendigo. Inside there was this exhibition of dresses made from farming waste that is a feature of the Elmore Field Days (a farming show) every year. As you can imagine, Esther, Ellamay and Amelia all thought this was great. It reminded them of the dresses we saw at Floriade last year.

They were made of things like old bags, fencing wire, shell casings, weed matting, bird netting, electric fence tape and my favourite, the yellow dress made from plastic banana bags. I was annoyed when I got home because I realised that I didn't get a picture of the whole dress only the back lace detail. How cool are they though? To be made of rubbish but too look kind of pretty... not that you would really pick them to wear out to party but you know what I mean.

After all this exploring it seemed like a good time for ice cream so we packed up and went to McDonald's and had ice cream and a cuppa. The kids played on the play ground and we sat and relaxed. Then everyone had frozen cokes and more playing.

By the time we went home, everyone was worn out. What a day though! To me, it was perfect. Lots of fun, lots of time together and lots of treats. We don't know what the future will bring. Our plan is to always celebrate moments like this.

They will celebrate your abundant goodness

and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Psalm 145:7

Celebration Saturday

2011-04-08T11:39:00.000+10:00

I am finally posting about last Saturday's celebration day. If you missed the post from last week, we had Celebration Saturday because Amelia had results back from her specialist saying she is the healthiest she has ever been in her life! Perfect excuse to celebrate, don't you think?

We went to Bendigo and had a picnic in the park. It is such a beautiful park. We had our wedding photos there (almost 11 years ago) because the park has such beautiful trees and the autumn leaves are divine. There wasn't lots of leaves on the ground but they are starting to fall.

The kids had so much fun running around doing cart-wheels and flips and pretending to be super heroes.

We took bubble mixture and there was lots of bubble blowing. It was a perfect day for that. Quite breezy so the bubbles travelled all the way across the park and everyone looked to see where they were coming from.

Even Tim joined in :-)

I managed to take a couple of hundred photos of the day but the kids didn't stay still long enough to set up for a family photo that I could be in. I love this one of the 3 girls. They were playing trains and stopped long enough to pose for me. Little posers :-)

This is the cake I made for the day. I had grand plans of icing it with chocolate icing and decorating it with a little paper sun and making a little "HOORAY" banner for it. I ran out of time though. And you know what? It didn't matter. We stuck the sparklers in and the girls cheered and were just so excited that we were celebrating, stuff like the way the cake is decorated is so irrelevant. It took Tim using half a box of matches and some careful cake box placement to get those sparklers to light. When they were lit the girls started singing a song they made up as they went along about how great our family is and how happy we are. After all this time of stress and being unsure about how things were with Amelia, it felt so good just to forget all that and be excited about that day. That day. That time. Everything was well and happy and perfect.

Things will change in the future. We know that. But at the moment we are going to keep being excited about this time of great health.

I have another photo heavy post about our Celebration Saturday with the second half of our adventure so stay tuned :-)

Up above

2011-04-03T07:49:00.001+10:00

Big sun, big moon

2011-04-01T07:53:00.002+11:00

I am a bit late posting these pictures. Things have been busy one way and another. These photos are from March 19. The big moon night. We didn't see it in all its glory because it was cloudy and smokey from all the burning off that has been happening around here. Look how pretty the sun looks in this picture though.

And this spider just hanging around with some tumble weed in its web. We have tumble weed every where. That time of year I guess.

And here is the moon. It would be nice if I knew which settings to put my camera on. One day. Meanwhile, this looks kind of cool anyway, don't you think. Especially the lens flare off the moon. I do like lens flare.

That is all. Have a great day. I will be back soon with some kind of crafty thing. Or maybe just some kind of mid-crafty thing. :-)

Rough places smooth

2011-03-31T23:07:00.001+11:00

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;

I will turn darkness into light before them

and make rough places smooth.

These are the things I will do;

I will not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16

I found this verse the day we found out Amelia's cystic fibrosis diagnosis. I had not much idea of what CF was. I knew it wasn't good. This verse has helped me through the last 3 and a half years of Amelia's life. We have had our ups and our downs along the journey. We have worried and been scared. We have also had fun and gotten a huge amount of joy from having Amelia in our lives.

We went down to Melbourne last Thursday for Amelia's latest clinic visit with her team at the Big Building. It was an excellent visit. We had some results back at the start of this week showing that Amelia is absorbing her enzymes properly and after all this time she is the healthiest that she has ever been in her life.

In. Her. Whole. Life. As you can imagine, we are pretty excited about this. It is a relief to know that for the moment, things are great. We don't know how long things will stay this way, but we are going to celebrate anyway. We are going to go out this weekend and do something together as a family. We are going to breathe in the fresh air and laugh and enjoy life. Who knows what will be in the future? But for right now, I am enjoying the fact that my family is healthy and happy. Life is good.

They cried out to the Lord in their trouble,

and he brought them out of their distress.

He stilled the storm to a whisper;

the waves of the sea were hushed.

They were glad when it grew calm,

and he guided them to their desired haven.

Psalm 107:28-30

I will be sure to share what we get up to on the weekend. I hope there will be lots of photo taking to remember this great occasion.

Making things out of Zoobs

2011-03-31T07:03:00.003+11:00

Esther and Ellamay got a set of these things each for Christmas. They are called Zoobs. I had never heard of them before. They played with them for a bit at Christmas time and then they were packed away and forgotten about. They found them again a couple of weeks ago and have played with them every day since. They come up with all kinds of creations.

This is Ellamay's camera

Esther decided she needed glasses.

It came with a book showing how to make different things and also the other sets that are available. They have added more of these to their ever increasing list for their birthday's in June. I think they are really quite fun. I don't like having toys in the house that don't get played with so these are a winner here.

Burning off

2011-03-30T15:54:00.000+11:00

We are enjoying some lovely Autumn days here. Cool nights and warm days. The farmers are preparing paddocks for crops and burning off the dry grasses before the wet weather returns. This is in the paddock across the road from us. It is great to watch. The flames crackle and dance around as the grass all burns away.

The heat rises leaving a wavy horizon.

The vigilant farmer watches over the burn making sure it all goes to plan.

And the smoke floats across the paddocks and joins up with the clouds in the sky.

Stitchery

2011-03-24T22:17:00.000+11:00

I have been going to my local fabric and craft shop a little too often lately. They had that spotty fabric on sale there and I had to go back to buy some more and, well, it's nice to feel inspired by fabric at the moment. My latest purchase was 1.6 metres of this osnaburg. I only just found out what osnaburg was from this post at Wild Olive. A fabulous stitchy blog I have recently stumbled upon. I was terribly excited to find the fabric and bought the remainder from the bolt. Now I am planning all kinds of stitching projects.

I have been sketching up ideas and screwing up paper and starting again. I have photocopied pictures and adjusted pictures and I have finally started one small stitching project. It won't take much of my fabric for this one :-) True to form, I have also starting making a couple of other things at the same time though. I will get around to sharing them. At the moment, why don't you just look at all that pretty cotton. Perhaps I need some more of that too :-)

Dancing Doodles book

2011-03-23T15:22:00.000+11:00

I bought a couple of these books for Esther and Ellamay when they had their grommet operation back in February. They have been pretty popular, even though I think they don't quite get the concept yet.

I bought some more copies to go with the notebook and pen roll holders I have been making up for birthday presents. So far they are going over well. It's great to hit on something that is popular with kids. I just hope they don't all get sick of getting the same thing by the end of the birthday's this year :-)

You can find the Dancing Doodles book here. There are a variety of other books in the same style which I think would be especially suited for older kids maybe. Or grown ups. I did my fair share of colouring and drawing when I was stuck in hospital for weeks waiting for Esther and Ellamay to be born. One of these kinds of books would have been just the ticket!

Green spotty skirt

2011-03-14T13:39:00.000+11:00

I am in recovery mode at the moment. I had a terrible migraine at the end of last week so I have been sick and suffering all weekend. I am really over feeling so off too. Today I am pretending not to have any headache at all (even though there is still a little head soreness going on) and I am trying to be useful. Tim took care of me and everything else while I was sick so today I am trying to achieve some things around the house. I am on a break at the moment though :-D

During the last week, I have been sewing. First I made Amelia's green spotty skirt from the fabric she had claimed in the previous week. It is such an easy skirt to make. It took me under an hour but I am sure it could be made faster if I didn't have another pair of hands helping me. It turned out great. Amelia tried it on when it was finished and didn't want to take it off.

She is such a poser! Do you recognise the birdie top I made last year? I still haven't attempted anymore of these tops. Like everything, it's on the to-do list still. I also made Esther and Ellamay a skirt each last week (photo's to come) and another notebook and pen roll holder. Not a bad effort for my week I thought. Not sure that the momentum will continue now that Tim starts back at work tomorrow :-(

Here are some photos I had to share. I bought a cheap remote for my camera and so Amelia and I had a play with it. I took the one above. (That's me with Amelia, by the way. *Waving*) I still have my glasses on after finishing sewing the skirt.

This one Amelia took of herself. You can see the remote in her hand. She thought it was fantastic to be able to take photos with Mummy's camera and not even touch it. I thought that was good too. It's such a heavy camera for a little girl to hold. We walked around the yard together and she would just stop and point the remote at the camera and start jumping around and posing. Most of the photos were pretty blurry but it was fun. Maybe I will get in some photos more now.

I guess I had better finish up. So far today I have only managed a little housework and I have baked some brownies. There is still lots to do before bed time though.

Have a great week.

Tim in the garden

2011-03-14T13:35:00.000+11:00

Tim is back to work tomorrow. It has been so nice having him around the last couple of weeks. He has been trying to get the yard looking nice because it has been neglected for a long time. We have had so much rain over the summer that the drought is over and we are now off water restrictions so getting the garden in shape is a priority again.

He bought a big garden shredder (which I am afraid of) and he has been pruning back all the trees and plants around the yard and making everything look tidy and loved. The girls think it's wonderful because it is carving out all kinds of interesting cubbies under the trees and Tim has got a massive compost heap down the back.

Tim planted a little row of hedge plants around the gazebo out the front. It is all mulched around now and they are growing beautifully. I can't wait to see it all grown up and needing a trim.

New notebook and pen holder

2011-03-08T07:20:00.001+11:00

Here is the latest project I have been working on. My new (hopefully improved) notebook and pen holders.

Actually, I am calling them notebook and pen roll holders. Does that make sense? Now that I have typed that it kind of looks like it's a holder for notebook and pen roll's. Hmm... Oh well. Maybe you can see what I am getting at when you look at the pictures.

When I made the notebook and pen holders for Esther and Ellamay's birthday's last year, I followed a couple of tutorials I found but mostly just made it up as I went because I wanted the notebook to be held in a different way. The way I made the last ones only had space for ten pens too. I had bought packs that had twelve pens. My solution to this last year was to leave out the grey and the dark blue pen. I figured they would use the other colours more and they could have the extra pens if they wrecked any of the ones they had. This time though, I decided I would make the holder have enough spaces for the full set.

I measured and figured and made a pattern. I wasn't really sure how it would end up but I didn't let that stop me :-) Once I had finished the sewing I put in the pens and notebook. It didn't look right just having it folded in half so I just folded the pens on top of themselves to put it away and think about it for a while. I kept coming back to it and decided that it looked pretty cool they way I had packed it up. So there it was. I attached the button and smiled. A finished project.

I made two pretty quickly (aka: over a couple of days - I had help from Amelia you see) and have two more cut out ready to sew. I now have an excuse to go and buy some more colours of this fabric. The little girl who received the pink one loved it which makes me happy that I persisted with the project and that it didn't disappear into the mid-craft pile (as so many projects often do). And Esther and Ellamay told me that everyone in their class wants one now. It looks like I will be getting a lot better at sewing these too :-)

Meanwhile, don't you just love pretty pens all lined up. I do. Stationery is lovely. I think I might add one of these for me to the list. I deserve one too. What colours to make it though?

Ready to sew

2011-03-07T11:40:00.000+11:00

This is some of the fabric I am using to make the new notebook and pen holders I am working on for upcoming birthday's. So pretty. I hope to go back to buy some more this week. I have been so productive making things that I really need some more. :-) Well, almost. I don't usually make things so quickly when I buy fabric. Usually it sits there until I can think of what to do with it. There was lots of colours and I want to buy more. And thread. I never think to buy matching thread. Amelia has claimed the green spotty fabric for a skirt. I guess that is on the list with the other stuff to do.

I will post the notebook and pen holders in the next couple of days. Have a great week.

Outside

2011-03-06T07:44:00.001+11:00

A lot of gardening has been going on at our place. Tim has been pruning trees and giving everything a good tidy up. The girls have been out there right in the thick of it (aka: in the way) trying to help.

Such little sweeties. They love to be around Daddy.

Paper cup lighthouses

2011-03-05T15:20:00.000+11:00

This is a quick, last minute craft I came up with for the kids to do during Amelia's pump time.

I love lighthouses. I have a collection of little wooden ones from souvenir shops. This craft was from a sudden inspiration that hit me when I was trying to decide what we could make using these LED battery operated tea light candles. I found mine at the Reject Shop in a pack of 4 for $3.

We used a paper cup, a plastic cup, coloured paper, glue, markers and our LED candles. You can probably see how we made these. We covered the paper cups in white paper first and then added strips of red paper. Using our markers we added windows and a door. Then we added the bottom half of a plastic cup (which was a little smaller than the paper cup) for the top. We coloured the top with the black markers, added the LED candle and we were done!

Ellamay added a Barbie sticker to her lighthouse because apparently Barbie can be a lighthouse keeper as well as all her other careers :-)

The kids loved this. They have their lighthouses in beside their beds now. The candles flicker just like real candles so it makes the lighthouses look great in a dark room.

This would make a cool craft even with out the candles. Perhaps you could use some al foil in the top for the light. Or stick it over a torch. Just a few thoughts. (I probably don't need to point this out - but I will. These LED candles are not suitable for small children. They are a choking hazard.)

Have fun. If you have any great ideas for pump time activities, let me know :-)

In the garden

2011-03-05T15:01:00.000+11:00

You can see when kids have been around. Things start appearing in different places :-)

Button sorting on the pump

2011-03-04T07:47:00.002+11:00

Even though I try to have really super fun activities for the kids to do while Amelia is on the pump in the afternoon, it is hard to come up with something new every day. Especially if it is getting late and I need to be getting tea ready and kids bathed and what not. Our afternoons and evenings are crazy trying to fit it all in. Anyway, fortunately for me, buttons are still fun.

They sort them into colours using their tea sets.

They like to pick out their favourite buttons and talk about what they would like to use it for.

And anything that keeps Amelia happy while she has her medicine can only be a good thing. Not that the little monkey will keep the mask on!

Still green and other things

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

Autumn is here and I am waiting for the leaves to turn. The weather has been so cool lately. Not at all normal for this time of year. We are still usually hitting 30 degree C days at the start of March but its been in the low 20's. Not that I am complaining. I prefer this temperature and I love autumn. The kids are disappointed though because they were hoping to go swimming once their ears had healed enough from the grommet operation.

I am so behind in my posting of stuff! I will have to get a couple more photos taken so I can post some actual crafty projects. I have managed some lately. The girls have friends with birthday's this month so I have been sewing like crazy trying to make something for them. And I am proud to say - I have achieved! I made some note book and pen holders slightly different to the ones I made for Esther and Ellamay's birthday's last year. Now that I seem to have hit upon an idea with them, I am going to (try) to sew up a couple more to stash away in the cupboard for birthday's later in the year. Won't I be terribly organised then?

It's been grand having Tim home on holidays this week. I am a bit sad that it's almost half over already. We went out together yesterday without any kids and investigated new heating and cooling options for our house. Might sound boring but it really was a nice day. And I did drag him around a few shops I wanted to look at too :-)

How's things at your end of the world?

Golden Orb Weaver

2011-03-02T07:37:00.003+11:00

This is creepy cool. I hate spiders but love to photograph webs. This spider has been living on our front verandah and obviously enjoying life there too. I told Tim the web looked a goldy yellow colour and he didn't seem convinced. So I googled around to find out what kind of spider our little friend (or foe) was.

It is a Golden Orb Weaver, one of the largest spiders found in Australia. I think that it has a dandy web. Look at the intricate pattern. Amazing. I don't like bugs but you have to admit that is a pretty amazing thing. According to one site they like to eat locusts. Well, plenty of them around here! I read that their web is so strong it can even catch small birds and bats. Blerk, no thanks! When I first noticed the spider making a web out the front I left it grow because I wanted to see what the web would look like but now that it is over a metre big, I think it's time to go. Don't really want lots of little baby Golden Orb Weavers around. They grow into big ones eventually.

God certainly put creativity into all things.

Tea party anyone?

2011-02-28T21:17:00.000+11:00

Thanks to Aunty Sarah and Uncle Steve, the girls have shiny new tea sets. They are pretty and came in little cases. The kids have been having a grand time using the felt food with them to have picnics on the lounge room floor. When I see it all spread out it makes me want to make some more felt food. I have such a list of things to do though... Oh well.

I thought I should be over the busyness that has been going on in our neck of the woods by now but I think it may still be a little longer before I am back to regular posting (not that I am regular much). Some of the problem has been me being slack. Seems like I am always fighting for my share of time on the computer these days. It was easier when the kids weren't computer literate!

The next two weeks are going to be wonderful. Tim has time off work and we are going to enjoy having him around the place. We (as in 'he' by the way) are going to work on the garden and get our house looking spiffy outside. It has been neglected for a long time and Tim is getting things lovely out there again. I am also hoping for a lunch date at some stage. (Hint hint Tim) What extravagance! We don't get to go out without the kids too much. Especially for a whole lunch with grown up food. You know the kind of food that doesn't come with fries :-)

Have a great week :-)

Cardboard box kitchen love

2011-02-22T11:18:00.000+11:00

I love a bit of love for my blog. More on that in a minute.

I have been a bit absent lately because we have had lots going on. Esther and Ellamay both went to hospital for a day to get grommets in their ears (finally! YEAH! They have had trouble for years) and so there was a little bit of stress leading up to that and then the recovery time afterwards. Also, I am on a mission to help our house lose some serious weight. We are approaching Autumn and with every season I get frustrated with our little house and try to get rid of stuff. Of course, in the past it has been thwarted by lots of other things. Mainly because I am easily distracted by all the pretty things I can make. This time though I am determined to achieve. So far, so good. I am losing interest though because I haven't made anything exciting for a while now. I am having creative with drawl.

Anyway, back to the blog love. I was pretty excited to find that my box kitchen has been featured alongside eight other very cool play kitchens. I have been featured on Craft Gossip before for my play farm fences. That was quite a while ago now. I have just been thinking about making some more things for that set again. Ideas are always stewing while I am doing other things. Go on over to see the other cool kitchens that are featured. I do love a play kitchen :-) Much more fun than the real thing :-)

Also, if you would like to see the first cardboard box kitchen I made, you can see it here. As we live in a small house, with only a corner of the living area for playing, the play kitchens only stay as long as they are played with and then out they go. Now that the weather is cooling down and we will be inside more, it looks like it might be time for a new one :-)

Needle books

2011-02-19T16:06:00.000+11:00

How do you store your needles? I have a pin cushion that use to take care of them but I was having trouble with little people pushing the needles right down into it. Frustrating, but again one of those things that I remember doing to my mothers pin cushion so it makes it hard to be too cross about that. :-) (Sorry Mum). This felt cloud is what I have been using lately. Although it looks kind of cute (to me anyway) it wasn't really doing the job. I have wanted to make some kind of needle book for a while now and even had a couple in the mid-craft pile (recently culled).

Since the three girls are now sewing with real needles, we are going to start working towards making up a sewing set for them while improving their sewing along the way. Good idea, don't you think? I searched flickr looking at all kinds of needle books that might be easy for kids. There were lots of great ideas and this one isn't exactly kids beginners level but the girls had an idea for what they wanted. Mostly, it had to be quick. I had seen this tutorial for a child's sewing kit a while ago, which includes a pattern for a needle book and pin cushion and thought it would do the job.

Mine is the pale blue, Amelia's is green, Ellamay's is purple and Esther's is the pink ballerina. Sticking with our regular favourite colours. Everyone got to sew the line in the middle of their needle book. I know that's not much but when there is three little girls all wanting to do theirs at the same time, you have to go with what works easiest.

They all did a pretty good job with the sewing machine. I am hoping to get Esther and Ellamay back on there some time soon to make some little bags. We have been dreaming up all the other things we need to make or buy for their sewing set. We aren't going to make the sewing box that goes with the tutorial at the moment, though I would like to try it some time.

This is the inside of my needle book. By the time we got to sewing my needle book, some one had fiddled with the sewing machine and the tension was wrong (again!). True to form, I didn't stop to try to fix it. Waste of time. It takes me forever to get it sorted out. I am an impatient sewer (sewist? Sewing type person? Whatever the word is).

I will have to get some photo's of the latest stitching the girls have done. They are pretty proud of it. Little felt hearts that turned into cushions for their Barbie's and little felt rectangles which have become mattresses for the Pony house. They want to start doing things that are more advanced. I might set them up with an embroidery hoop next and have them just do lines of stitching and perhaps learn some new stitches. They think using a hoop for stitching is a very exciting idea.

Echidna Cupcakes on a cupcake blog!

2011-02-14T16:37:00.000+11:00

Sometimes you get to have a little piece of awesome handed to you in your day. I just got featured on a cupcake blog! Little ol' me! And completely out of the blue! If you want to see who I am being featured next to, click over to Party Cupcake Ideas. Very cool. There are some seriously clever people in this world and my cupcake is right in between them. Yep. That is pretty awesome.

Have a great week. :-)

Kite flying

2011-02-12T07:48:00.001+11:00

After school on Wednesday, there was the slightest breath of wind and Amelia decided she wanted to go kite flying. Esther and Ellamay got these octopus kites for a birthday or Christmas and they don't come out much because we never remember to take them with us when we go to good kite flying locations and because we have power lines just outside our yard.

Aside from a few issues because Amelia doesn't have her own kite, it was quite fun. Esther jumped on the trampoline while Amelia had a turn of her kite. Sometimes there is harmony amongst our children :-).

First day of Grade One

2011-02-11T07:41:00.001+11:00

I know I am biased - but could this be one of the cutest back to school photo ever? Amelia had to be in it. And she had to wear her party hat from Daddy's birthday the night before. Esther is wearing her school hat and Ellamay looks like she wants to get going. They were pretty excited to go to school after all the weeks of "boooring" holidays. I was pretty glad too. I think my children do like the school routine.

See them on their first day of prep here. They have grown up so much in that one year. Sigh. I wonder what this year will bring.

Tim's birthday

2011-02-10T22:38:00.000+11:00

We celebrated Tim's birthday last week. We made a mower cake. Tim loves to mow the grass. He has a collection of mowers (I think that is kind of funny). Anyway, I came across this idea for father's day cupcakes and thought we could use it for the cake. The kids iced it and then attacked it with forks to make it look like grass. I made the mower from a fun size Mars bar, a few M&Ms and a piece of licorice.

So glad you were put on this earth all that time ago. :-)

Web

2011-02-10T12:40:00.000+11:00

Hi. I'm still around. Just not so much here. I am trying to get some more pictures uploaded so I can get back to the Crisis. So this is just a quick catch up post.

Esther and Ellamay went back to school on Friday. (Ridiculous day to start back - just sayin'). Already they are starting to get to sleep just a little better which is a relief. The next couple of weeks will be a little interrupted for them with different appointments and things happening so I will try (ha!) not to let their school stuff stress me out too much until we are properly into the routine.

Tim, Amelia and I went to the Big Building on Friday also to see a different CF specialist. All good reports which was a relief. Amelia is doing well. She is back on her pink medicine for a cough but I am sure that won't take long to sort out again.

We have had more rain here. There was more flooding on the weekend, it wasn't as bad as previously. We could still get into town. The rain has made it bug central around here. Mozzie's are terrible little dive bombers and there are crickets and all manner of creepy crawlies getting about. Blerk. And spiders! I just have to walk outside and all of a sudden I start jumping around like a silly girl because I've walked straight into a web! There are webs everywhere. Everyone does that silly dance don't they? Webs do make for pretty photos which is nice (if you haven't destroyed them from walking through them of course).

Stuff I am in the middle of at the moment - school hair accessories for Esther and Ellamay, clearing out my mid-craft pile (even throwing away or giving away), trying to finish up some mid-craftiness and being inspired for Easter. Shh... don't tell anyone. Doing Easter stuff in February is a bit early don't you think? Anyway, since the kids are back to school, I am hoping to get back to my other life. The one where I can actually have a turn on the computer, get things done around the house (a little bit) and do some fun stitching or crafty stuff (a whole lot).

Enjoy the rest of the week and hopefully I will be back soon with some cool stuff we have been doing lately.

Paper town

2011-02-01T07:37:00.003+11:00

In some of our Esther, Ellamay and Mummy time, we made this house and cars. I found this paper craft site called Canon Creative Park. It has heaps of great paper craft stuff on there. The kids and I decided to go with the Craft town option. We printed the pages out and I cut it all out after the kids were in bed. We spent our time together the next day, folding and gluing it all together. Now they want to make some more things to go with it. I have printed out the school but only half cut it out. Just as well we only have cheap ink in our printer is all I can say. :-)

I want to make quite a few things off this site. I found a cool camera that holds a photo and a matryoshka doll that I would love to make. Though the doll takes 17 pages plus 6 pages of instructions. I will have to make sure we have plenty of ink before I start that one.

I wanted to add this photo in to show you my photo tent that I got for Christmas. I ordered it. I am responsible for the fact that it is ridiculously huge. I need to work out how to use it best now. I think my lamps are not quite right. It's still pretty fun though. I can add it to my growing collection of stuff for photography that I am not entirely sure how to use. :-)