Ready to sew

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

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

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

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

Button sorting on the pump

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

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

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.