Go Mama!

The wait is almost over

2011-06-09T18:31:00.005+09:30

Cars 2 is almost here! My boys have been extremely keen to see this movie since they first glimpsed a teaser preview for it at the movies over a year ago and I'm happy to finally be able to answer their question, "Mum, when is Cars 2 coming out?!!!!"

The trailer will have to tide them over for only a couple of weeks now, it will be at the cinema from June 23, 2011. I have to admit it's a very close contest between my children and myself as to who is getting more excited about seeing it ;)

Natalie

Anita Bag? I Think Sew!

2011-04-06T11:50:00.003+09:30

I was so excited to be chosen as a pattern tester for the gorgeous Anita Bag by ithinksew. Here is my version:

I chose a heavy weight fabric from my local fabric store that suits my current favourite wardrobe combination and complimented it with a plain quilter's cotton for the lining. I was lucky enough to find the lilac coloured handles in another local sewing supplies store that set this bag off just perfectly. I chose the zippered pouch option for the internal pocket and used the main fabric as the pocket lining. This is a quite a large bag, the biggest I've made in fact - it measures 42cm wide by 34cm high. It is perfect for trips out with my 3 year old daughter Cheriese, as it is big enough to hold a spare outfit, wipes for sticky hands, both our drink bottles, reusable shopping bags, purse, keys, phone, notebook and even a light cardigan or two! The pattern is very easy to follow with each step explained in detail with lots of photos to show you the way. The curved gusset and pointed shape of the sides are slightly more fiddly then a bag with a flat shape, but still manageable for a beginner willing to take a little extra time.

My only problem now is trying to decide what pattern I want to buy for myself next, I'm thinking one of the adorable clutch patterns would suit me to a T!

Natalie

Queensland Flood Appeal Auction Total

2011-01-28T09:29:00.004+10:30

I have to start this post of with a huge THANK YOU! Thank you to everyone who has participated in this Flood Appeal, whether you bid on an item, entered a raffle, donated an item or shared the link on your blog, facebook or email - and especially to Toni from Make it Perfect for organising this! Without any of you we wouldn't have raised such an amazing total, I had to re-read it several times when I first saw it..... without further ado the grand total raised..........

Outstanding!
Nataliexx

Queensland Flood Appeal Auction Winners

2011-01-25T09:19:00.003+10:30

Congratulations to my two lucky winners! Belinda was the highest bidder with $65 for the dress and the necklace set has also been won with a highest bid of $65! I have sent out an email to you both, thank you for being so generous and I hope you love your items.

Toni has just put up the master raffle list here. These are running until Wednesday at midday so there are still plenty of chances for us all to win something even if we were outbid on the auctions.

I can' wait to see what the grand total raised will be.

Natalie

Queensland Flood Appeal Auction #2

2011-01-16T18:05:00.005+10:30

Here is my second item up for auction:

I made this dress loosely following the Handmade Dress Miss Lilly pattern, except that I changed the sleeve and the skirt bottom. I would say it would be a size 3-4, Cheriese will be turning 3 in April this year and usually wears a size 3. This dress would fit her for a couple of years yet I would think. The fabric is a gorgeous quilters cotton that I purchased from Spotlight and I have been saving it for something special. This will be a hard dress to part with as I just adore it, but I'm sure it will go to a loving home! This dress is brand new, it has only been worn for these photos.

How this auction works:
1. Bidding will start at $20 (Australian).
2. You can place a bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount and email address. Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder.
3. Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.
4. This auction is open to everyone, I will pay for all postage costs.
5. The auction begins NOW and will END at midnight on Monday 24th January 2011.
6. At the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (please make sure your bid comment includes your email address). The winner will pay the winning amount directly into the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and send me proof of payment via email. Once proof of payment has been received, I will post this dress to you.
7. Thankyou for participating and happy bidding!

Good luck!

Natalie

QLD Food Appeal Auction #1

2011-01-13T13:45:00.003+10:30

Here is my first item up for auction:

Necklace and earring set handmade by me. I have used white glass pearls, czech faceted glass rondelles and all components are bali silver. The necklace is a choker length, but I am happy to lengthen it if the successful bidder would prefer something a bit longer.

How this auction works:
1. Bidding will start at $20 (Australian).
2. You can place a bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount and email address. Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder.
3. Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.
4. This auction is open to everyone, I will pay for all postage costs.
5. The auction begins NOW and will END at midnight on Monday 24th January 2011.
6. At the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (please make sure your bid comment includes your email address). The winner will pay the winning amount directly into the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and send me proof of payment via email. Once proof of payment has been received, I will post this set to you.
7. Thankyou for participating and happy bidding!

Over the next few days I will be adding some more items - at least one of them will be a raffle so that everyone has an equal chance to win something.

Don't forget to check Toni's blog on Monday for the full list of bloggers who are participating in these auctions - I hope I'm able to be a successful bidder myself!

Natalie

The best reason to get back to blogging

2011-01-12T11:18:00.004+10:30

I've been meaning to get back to my blog for a long time now, I didn't intend to take such a long break but family life as been busy and I haven't set aside time for editing photos and updating my blog. Today is the best day to set aside some time to get back to blogging: 75% of Queensland is currently affected by flooding - streets are under water, crops destroyed, homes lost, people are missing and there have been deaths. This is just devastating. I sat in tears yesterday watching videos and photos of this horrific event and then again hearing and seeing it on the news last night. I felt a sudden sense of helplessness and then grabbed my laptop on started searching online knowing that the craft community would band together to do all that they could do to help.

I first noticed Toni's blog from Make it Perfect is co-ordinating a list of bloggers that will be auctioning off items. You can read all about it here.

I will also be taking part in this, so please check back on my blog later today. I will be running several different auctions, some jewellery will be going up first and I'll see what else I can come up with. All of the money raised at these auctions will go directly to the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal.

Please pass this on to your families and friends.

Natalie

Across the Story Bridge....

2010-09-02T17:29:00.005+09:30

I love Book Week. It takes me back to when I was younger and dressing up in something that my mum had made for either myself or my sister and getting to parade around with all the other excited children. The costume I most remember was a colonial dress that my mum originally made for my older sister, I couldn't wait to grow taller so that I too could one day wear that special dress for my own book week character. I know there are some traditions that have gotten lost along the years, but I'm very thankful that Book Week hasn't been one of them.

This year's theme was "Across the Story Bridge" which was interpreted as being any story book character. Jai showed how similar he is to his big brother and wanted to dress up as Rascal from Paul Jennings "Rascal the Dragon" series. This is the same character Jordan chose for his own very first book week years ago. I followed a basic Burda pattern for the pull on pants and my trusty Burda hooded top pattern for the top (the one I used for Jordan's last top blogged here). I sewed the spikes down the centre of the hood and also in the seam I added into the middle of the back pattern. The tail is a separate piece which I attached to a belt I made so that he could take it off if he wanted too (but he didn't). The wings are also removable, they attach to a button in the middle of the back and then have an elastic wrist band. Seeing Jai love this costume so much was the best reward for all the time I spent sewing it - he barely took it off after the days that followed.

Jordan took a bit longer to decide who to go as, I think it's harder for the older ones as they don't want to choose a character that is seen as being 'babyish'. Around a week before the big event, I walked into Jordan's room to see him reading Roald Dahl's book "The Twits" and I mentioned that Mr Twit could be a good option (Jordan had previously rejected my earlier suggestions of 'Captain Underpants' or David from "The Fire Within") Jordan thankfully thought this was a good idea so off to the op shop we went in search of a suit and then I bought the wig from Spotlight and made the beard from wool and some off cuts of the wig as it was originally too long.

I got off quite lightly for Jordan's costume, the only sewing was attaching the elastic to the felt base for the beard and some hand sewing to hem up the pants!

Here is Jordan's very first book week in the Rascal dress up I made for him. Gosh, that was so long ago now, I didn't even own a sewing machine. I bought the top and pants (I remember orange being quite the "In" colour back then). The tail is all hand sewn and I ended up buying fairy wings and spray painting them and adding the spikes down the middle. Interesting to see how far I've come in 5 years!

Hee hee, he was quite the poser back then!

Natalie
xx

I finally finished a WIP knit!

2010-06-22T12:07:00.004+09:30

I am an incredibly slow knitter - and as my children grow bigger, my knitting just seems to feel even slower, so I am very happy that I have finished one of my knitting works in progress. I fell in love with the Spring Garden Tee pattern when I first saw it. I hunted around for the same yarn (as whenever I try to substitute yarns it never works out!) and finally found some from an international ebay seller and off I started.... until I got to a tricky part, then I put it away for a little while until I could work it out.... then I'd pick it back up again.... then put it away.... had to re-do the neckline twice as this was the first time I'd had to 'pick up' stitches and my first attempt ended up in a baggy neck that had way too many stitches in it! Finally got the time and courage to do it again and finally I had a top! Granted there are a few mistakes, but most of them aren't seen when it's on. Next time I really need to start at a size or two bigger as by the time I finished this one it only just fits her.

I couldn't choose just one photo, she was really having fun with this little photo shoot!

Now to find the jumper I started for Jai two years ago...........

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothes Week - wrap up post

2010-06-22T11:17:00.008+09:30

I just realised that I've had this post as a draft, I just needed to add in a photo of the top I made for Jordan - all done and have finally been able to hit 'post'!.........

Yes I know that the Kids Clothes week was AGES ago, I am in catch up mode here - I just can't seem to find the time to blog lately!

In the end I didn't get as many items made as I really wanted to. I was off to a great start, but at the end of the week was my birthday, so I was spending one of my afternoons having a lovely lunch with my close friends, dinners out and then a weekend with my family.

I did get some another pattern traced off - two long sleeved hooded tops for my boys. I used Burda pattern 9664. Jordan was first as he seems to miss out from my sewing lately. He chose the fabrics from my stash and we flicked through some magazines for applique inspiration. In the end he wanted the skateboarder from Ottobre 1/2008.

I have some modelled photos, Jordan chose to wear this top for his birthday party with all our family, so will show those in my next post as it will end up being a bit photo heavy!

I have Jai's size traced off, just need to let him choose the fabrics and applique. I haven't been in a big rush as he has quite a lot of clothes at the moment. I was tidying up my walk in robe and found a vacuum bag of Jordan's old clothes that will fit Jai now. It is always nice to have new things though and I love how much my boys appreciate the clothes I make for them.

Natalie xx

Holiday Fabric

2010-06-22T10:57:00.005+09:30

I find it hard to believe that I actually went away on my holiday - it feels as if my time away went so fast and at times it feels like it was a dream, but I have fabric to prove otherwise!

I found it hard to find fabrics close to where we were staying in Phuket, the markets were mainly filled with various knock off designers bags and clothing. In the end I only found one 'real' piece of thai cotton, it was in a small little market where the Wat Chalong temple was.

wishing that I had found more, but perhaps now I have another excuse for a return trip!

Speaking of return trips, I really have to go back to Singapore - I was in fabric shopping heaven down Arab Street! The whole street is lined on both sides with gorgeous fabrics - I could have spent all day there, but decided not to kill my brother with boredom lol! In the end I was running out of space in my suitcase and also spending money, so was quite restrained. As it was most of my fabric traveled home in my brother's case.

Lovely Japenese cottons, ranging from $8 SGD to $15 SGD

Thai embroidered silk - planning a skirt or dress for Cheriese, I just love the pretty scalloped edge (no need to hem this one!)Pretty printed cord - I may make something for myself out of this, it was only $5 SGD a metre!

Hope to find the time to use some of it soon!

Natalie
xx

Make it Perfect Giveaway!

2010-05-18T08:37:00.005+09:30

Ooooh look at this new adorable pattern by Toni from Make it Perfect

If you want to have a chance to win a copy for yourself, head over here..... actually on second thought, please don't as I really want it all to myself ;)

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothes Week - Day 3

2010-05-13T17:15:00.004+09:30

After braving Spotlight with 5 children (my three, plus my niece and nephew) I was able to get the much needed elastic required to finish off Cheriese's skirt that I had been sewing yesterday afternoon.
It is from Ottobre 4/2007, design #4. I made a size 86cm which I think is a great fit for now and also has enough length to last the year too.

Cheriese loves it and was happy to show off her new outfit's versatility.

It's great for pondering what she wants to play on in our backyard that closely resembles the local park
It's great for jumping on the trampoline
Even great for dinosaur loaded sandpits
Also great for playing with the sand
and most of all, perfect for blowing kisses in.
Seeing something you have made being enjoyed in this way is just one of the best feelings!
Now to work out what to make for my boys, so far I've spent my hour today taking both Jordan and Jai's new measurements (they both really have grown!) and flipping through my Ottobre magazines trying to decide what top to pick for them first. Planning on doing some tracing and cutting out tonight, so fingers crossed I have some progress photos tomorrow.

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothes Week - Day 2

2010-05-11T15:53:00.006+09:30

I'm happy to report that I have a finished top!

This pattern came together so quickly - I didn't even have to use my unpicker once! This is a record for me. I did change the method of attaching the neckline binding though. I have previously used another Ottobre pattern that called for sewing the sleeves to the front and then one of the sleeves to the back, attaching the neckline binding and then sewing the back to the remaining sleeve. I found this so fiddly and hard to get this seam even and didn't think it looked nice. So I attached the binding for this top in the same way I would with my other patterns by attaching the sleeves to the front and the back and then sewing the neckline binding into a circle and stitching it, folding it over thus enclosing the neck edge and doing two rows of top-stitching to finish it off. I remember when I first started sewing I would try to follow the instructions to the letter and often found it a lot harder, but now I'm finding the confidence to do things my own way.

The only shame about this top is that it is just fitting her now, I made a size 86 but should probably use a 92 from now on...... my little girl is growing up.

Close up of the decorative flower hem edging, been wanting to branch out and start to use some of the 100 odd different stitches I have.
Here she is showing off her latest 'artwork'
good thing it is on the new door that hasn't been painted yet.... sigh......

I have her skirt all ready to sew up, but that will have to wait until later this evening or will be tomorrow's afternoon project.

There's also still 2 spots free if you would like to be part of my Pay It Forward too.

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothes Week - Day 1

2010-05-11T09:38:00.003+09:30

I am so excited about this week and am hoping that the 1 hour a day becomes a habit as I've really missed my regular sewing time. Last night I traced off a skirt pattern that I have wanted to make since I first saw it - it is from Ottobre 4/2007, design #4. I've chosen a pretty floral pattern drill with a solid pink cotton for the apron part instead of the cord fabric the pattern called for as I didn't have any complimentary cord fabrics. I really want to use up as much fabric as I can for this challenge and will try to only buy things like matching threads and elastic as needed. To go with the skirt I've chosen a top from Ottobre 6/2008, design #3 "Elly" raglan-sleeve blouse. I have some nice dusty pink knit that is a perfect match to the pink florals in the skirt fabric.

Can't wait for Cheriese's afternoon nap today so I can start sewing!

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothes Week

2010-05-10T14:30:00.002+09:30

Kids Clothes Week has started this week over on the Elsie Marley blog. I found out about it from Ingrid's blog and I must say it is the perfect timing for me. Jordan, Jai and Chereise all desperately need some new clothes and I keep seeing lots of lovely new fabric but have promised myself to use up some of what I have first. (mainly because I really can't fit too much more in my cupboard!)

So I can't wait to get started, off to check my fabric and pattern stash and decide what to make first......

Natalie
xx

Holiday wrap up

2010-05-09T09:17:00.006+09:30

I am finally back from my holidays - ok, I have been back since the 23rd April, but I really needed some time to myself with my family to settle back into everyday life and just now I feel completely relaxed, settled, and energised to jump back into every aspect of my life - which includes blogging!

I had a fantastic time away! My brother Shaun and I went to Thailand, we spent 8 nights in Phuket at Patong beach and then 2 nights in Singapore before coming back home. I have always wanted to travel, but since having the children I thought it was something I had missed out on doing on my own. I'm so glad I had this chance though and as hard as it was initially to get on that plane and hug my darlings goodbye - it really was the best thing for all of us. I got to relax, recharge and have some wonderful adventures. Steve had a fantastic time with Jordan, Jai and Cheriese too, he works long hours and having the time off work to be a full time daddy was a very special time for him and the children as well. Coming home was great too, being greeted by eager smiling faces and getting wrapped up in great big hugs - followed by lots of cuddles on the couch, catching up on each others adventures.

Here's some of my favourite photos.

These were taken on our Phi Phi island tour:

My favourite spot on the tour, we stopped off at this beautiful cove on the way to our last beach and jumped in for a swim - I was even brave enough to dive in off the front of our speedboat. The water was so warm and clear, it was just perfect.

Snorkelling in open water, couldn't believe how many fish there were. This was my first time snorkelling and I just loved it!

Wat Chalong temple

Gorgeous sunsets every night - photo taken from the rooftop cocktail bar of our hotel

We took a day tour of Phuket, this is from one of the view points where you can see Kata, Karon and then Patong Beach in the

On the same day tour we stopped off to feed elephants on the side of the road.

My brother and I at the Thai new year dinner - our hotel put on this massive banquet with singers, dancers and even a fire twirler! Was a great night.

I still have more photos to go through on my laptop and camera, so there will probably be a part 2 to this post!

Natalie
xx

A 2nd birthday for my little miss

2010-04-11T21:38:00.010+09:30

Hard to believe that one of the most amazing days of my life happened 2 years ago already! My sweet little Cheriese seems to have gone from baby, to toddler, to a true "little miss" in the blink of an eye (ok, well maybe two blinks!) We did things a bit backwards this year, as we decided to have a small party for her with just our immediate family the weekend before her birthday, with a special day just for us on her actual birthday the Thursday after. I am going to have a little tea party for her with a couple of my closest friends when I get back from holidays (reminder to self, send those invites out!!!)

Here's a few photos of Cheriese in her party dress. I could've made 5 dresses in the time it took me to pick a pattern and the 'just the right' fabric for her dress, but decided on a Spotlight "Get Creative" pattern I had in my collection - it is called "Little Girls Summer Dress" you can see a photo of it here. The fabric is a pretty floral cotton that had little silver shimmery threads through it to give it just the right touch of sheen. This is a fully lined dress, with a gathering of soft bridal tulle between the skirts layers to give it a sweet touch of fullness. I found the side zip to be very painful, but go there in the end (after countless attempts!)

I 'cheated' with her cake design and re-used my idea from the cup cake tower I made for my friend's baby shower. I love these towers, very nice and easy!
Of course the best thing about cupcakes is eating them!

We even got a very rare photo of both Steve and I together with our little party princess!

For her birthday we bought her a doll house and Jordan and Jai got to give her a prety gift box set filled with furniture and also a set of wooden dolls.

So far it's hard to work out which of my three little darlings enjoy playing with it the most!

The day was then spent with a picnic at the park, feeding the ducks and a big play on the playground.

Special "Thanks" and credit goes to Jordan for taking this photo, I just love it as I don't have many photos with me in front of the camera lately!

To my dear sweet Cheriese, Happy birthday darling - I hope you enjoyed your special day and thank you so much for bringing so much joy to our lives!

Natalie xx

Paying It Forward........

2010-04-11T21:22:00.003+09:30

Having been lucky enough to have recieved a gorgeous table runner from Ruth from her Pay It Forward (PIF), it's now my turn to host my own. For those that are new to this, here's the details:

The way a PIF normally runs is that the first 3 people to comment will each recieve a handmade item within the next 365 days. They then have to agree to send out 3 handmade goodies to the 3 'winners' from their PIF and so on and so on - so all in all it's a big ongoing lovefest of gorgeous handmade gifts. I think the best thing from this is that you never know what exactly you are going to receive or when you are going to get it and often it will turn up just when you need a little something special to brighten your day. I'm going to be a bit naughty and change the rules a little for mine - seeing as I've been a bit MIA from blogland recently I'm not going to pick the first 3 people to comment, but instead I'm going to leave it open for two weeks to give all the former readers of my blog time to notice that I'm actually blogging again so that everyone has an equal chance to be part of this! I'm going away on holiday tomorrow, so will draw a winner when I get back.

Good luck everyone and I already can't wait to see who the lucky 3 will be so I can start planning on what to make for them!

Natalie
xx

A Wonderful Surprise

2010-02-17T15:02:00.005+10:30

With everything being so busy here lately I really haven't had much time to myself and very little time for my crafts. This has been getting me a bit down recently and one day in particular last week I was feeling really sorry for myself. You can imagine then what a wonderful surprise it was to go to my mailbox and find a parcel sitting in there. I haven't ordered anything online for ages now so I had nothing to expect, but as I turned it over I saw Ruth's name down as the sender. I quickly dashed inside as I realised it must've been her Pay It Forward (PIF) gift to me! I had signed up for it last year and completely forgot about it.

As I got inside Cheriese was excitedly yelling "present, present" as she helped me to open it. Inside I found the most gorgeous table runner! Before I could even say anything Cheriese seemed to read my mind and started ooohing and ahhing and saying "look mummy, it's pretty".

The best thing is that it fits perfectly on the chest of drawers I have in my entrance hall. The plan is for all the day's bits and pieces to be placed carefully inside one of these drawers, but lately they have been just thrown on the top of it, burying my digital photo frame and generally giving visitors and eye sore as soon as they walk in.

Not anymore, now is looks just stunning

Ruth has some more details about the runner on her blog here too.

Thank you so much Ruth, you seem to have just known the perfect gift for me. I adore the colours and the design you chose and not only did it brighten up a bit of a dark day for me, but continues to brighten up my entire home.

Stay tuned as I will be putting up my own 'Pay It Forward' here in the next day or so.

Natalie
xx

Christmas in February

2010-02-17T13:33:00.007+10:30

Yes I know, how terrible is it that I'm about to post my Christmas photos in February!!! Life has been so hectic here - Jai started reception this year and for the first two weeks and every Wednesday of the first term he finishes at 12:30pm, so I feel like I've just been spending my time running to and from the school, and trying to fit in all the other 'mum stuff' like food shopping, cooking, cleaning, playing, homework etc etc in between. Hoping that things will start to settle down now that Jai has 4 full days at school, I might even find a bit of my old routine, yay!!!!

So without any further ado, finally here's some photos from Christmas.....

Photo taken in front of the tree, I had to use the flash as they got up so early and it was still dark out!

I wanted to include more handmade elements to the present lists this year, I didn't get as many made as I wanted to do, but was happy with what I did make. Each of my three love drawing, so I followed the tutorial by One Red Robin for their drawing folders - Blue for Jordan, Yellow for Jai and Pink for Cheriese

I searched everywhere for an older style pram for Cheriese, either wooden or cane and found this one in an op-shop for the bargain price of $10!!! Steve touched it up with some pink paint, a few flowers stickers and then I re-made the mattress insert. I didn't need to make a new quilt for it as the one I received from Mands from one of the EB Doll quilt swaps fits perfectly and looks adorable in it!

Thankfully it's good and sturdy, Cheriese spends more time in it instead of her 'babies'

I think they liked the rest of their presents too.....

Jai with his DS, the only thing he asked Santa for, I love the shocked look on his face!

Jordan's present from Santa was an off-road RC car

They are both crazy over Star Wars lego!

Cheriese tired for awhile to fit in to her new doll's highchair and finally settled to give Sweetie-belle breakfast!

For Cheriese's Christmas dress, I used the Miss Lilly pattern from "The Handmade Dress" again - it is the same one I used for her 1st birthday dress. I really love this pattern and this second one came together even easier and quicker than the first one. I found the fabric in the quilting section at Spotlight, even better it had been reduced from $15 to $5 per metre!!!

Learning to accessorise early!

I ran out of time to make the boys' shirts this year. I was a bit sad about this as I've made them their outfits every year since I started sewing. But thankfully I found these ones in Pumpkin patch, in their right size and with the green and purple checks they matched in with their little sister's dress too.

The big day itself was just perfect, presents and breakfast at home - then off to Steve's parents for a big family lunch, and the afternoon was spent splashing about in the pool. It was so relaxing, we even stayed an extra couple of days!

I will be aiming for more handmade gifts for this year already have lots of ideas. Hmmmm think I'd better make a list and get started so I will be nice and organised for next Christmas!

Thanks for looking,
Natalie
xx

Pre-Christmas Wrap Up

2010-01-18T19:29:00.009+10:30

Phew, what a busy time it has been here! I've sent my lovely husband off to the park with our children so that I can sort through all the photos I have here of all my pre-Christmas creations that I didn't have time to blog. It's funny how when I first started to think back to last month, I didn't feel as if I got many things done, but it's wonderful to have these photos that prove otherwise!

December saw Jai's last month at kindy, with a big end of year kindy concert and I had volunteered to help out with face painting. One of the other kindy mum's, Linda, has her own face painting business and she ran a morning workshop to teach us the basics. As I'd only used the face painting kit I bought a couple of times at home with my boys I needed lots of tips! I came home and practiced on my two boys and nephew Copper, they all chose designs from the book that came with my kit.

Jordan being a robot

Jai wanted to be a crocodile

Cooper chose to be a shark

I had hoped my little miss would let me practice some more girly things like butterflies, but being almost two and sitting still for more than 30 seconds at a time just doesn't go together! Thankfully the few girls I did paint on the night liked the butterflies I did for them and most of the boys wanted to be tigers, which I found the easiest.

Jai as a tiger for the concert

We were asked to donate some food that could be sold on the night so I made some reindeer cupcakes
For Christmas gifts I decided to make some yummy peppermint fudge for Jai to give out to the kindy teachers as well.

Next there were costumes to make. Cooper needed a dinosaur costume for his end of year concert

Unfortunately I didn't get photos of the others I made, I helped out with some sheep, cow, and donkey dress ups for Jordan's school play - one of the mum's made the hoods and I attached on the ears. Jai was also a donkey in our church play, so I made up a hood with donkey ears and a donkey tail as well.

I made a pair of little baby shoes for my friend's adorable little Emily (these match the outfit in this post). I used the cloth shoe pattern from the Meet Me At Mikes books - these were nice and simple to make, I wish my little miss would fit them still.
I sent Jordan on a mission to find out what his teacher's favourite colour was, and he reported back that she liked red and black. I've been wanting to try out the Buttercup bag pattern by Rae for awhile now, so I found some lovely red and black floral quilters fabric in my stash and I love how it turned out. I think I need to make one (or a few) of these for myself.

I also made her a wire wrapped necklace with earrings to match.

I also finally finished off this skirt for Cheriese, all it needed was the ribbon hem and waistband done - I had it half done when I made the larger size for a friend's daughter a couple of months ago.
Finally here's a photo of me and my three little darlings while we waited for the Christmas pageant to start.

I'll leave the Christmas day post for later, this one is already long enough and if you've gotten to the end thank you so much and I promise that I will try to be more regular with my blog updates this year.

Natalie xx

I'm still here!!!

2010-01-06T12:42:00.002+10:30

Sorry for being away so long, the time leading up to Christmas was frantic! There were costumes to sew for church plays, school plays and carol nights, presents to make, shopping to do, food to cook, parties to attend, the list goes on and on! As a result I have hundreds of photos I now need to go through so I can make sure I get to blog most of what I have been making.

We've also had a birthday here, my beautiful little boy Jai turned 5 last Sunday - he had a wonderful day with some family and friends and his having some of his kindy friends over for a pirate party this Saturday - so we have a few busy day's of making party food and decorations here!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year brings you lots of love, laughter and happiness..... oh and lots of crafting time as well.

A baby girl is on the way!

2009-11-02T10:55:00.008+10:30

Not for me, but for one of my bestest friends, Jenni! We had her baby shower yesterday which was hosted by her sister and I offered to help out with some of the food and party games. I've been eyeing off cake photos in flickr for quite awhile now and have loved seeing all the cupcake towers so knew that was what I wanted to make for the cake.

I followed a tutorial on Cake Journal to make the stand and trawled through You Tube to find some demos on how to use fondant to make a ribbon bow and voila.....

There are vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, topped with pink butter cream frosting and I made the chocolate hearts by swirling together white chocolate with some pink chocolate colouring. The top cake has a layer of the same chocolate and vanilla mix from the cupcakes. Jenni got to take this tier home to share with the Daddy to be!

I also scrapped the front of a paper mache journal and the party guests got to write a message in it for Jenni.

And you can't have a baby shower without gifts! I used Ottobre 4/2009 design #3 for the dress with a quilter's cotton contrast for the band, then used the same fabric for the applique

and also for the matching bloomers, which are from Ottobre 3/2007 design #2.

I also made my first MCN, I used the Darling Diapers pattern and made this in their newborn size, once again with the same quilter's cotton to match. It was great to finally use my new snap press too, I was suprised how easy it was. I'm so happy with how this nappy turned out, my sister even said it looked the same as the one's I've bought, so now I can't wait to trace and cut out the bigger size for my little miss. I can see lots of matching dresses and nappies for summer!

Minky fleece outer

microfleece inner, with a 2 layer bamboo fleece snap in trifold booster
(try saying that 3 times fast!)

You also can't go without giving a mummy to be a bouquet of flowers:

Little socks, singlets and a face washer all rolled up.

It was a wonderful day and now I just can't wait to meet the new little miss, I hope to have some baby photos to show off in around 6 weeks or so ;)

Natalie xx

Sewing for a litte miss 4

2009-10-23T11:19:00.004+10:30

One of my friend's daughters is turning 4 and I had a long list of things that I had in mind to make for her. She loves dressing up, bags, jewellery etc and in the past I've made her necklaces and bracelets so I thought this year I'd come up with something different. In the end I decided on following the Lazy Day's skirt tutorial on the Oliver + S blog. Melissa from Day to Day recently featured a 5 day Lazy Days skirt sew along and I loved seeing what everyone else had made. I wanted to use some broderie anglaise fabric that I bought an end of roll from Spotlight last year, so decided to make a two tier skirt so that there was a lining fabric for all those little eyelets.

Jai was a bit of unsure of modelling this for a photo, he was happy to test it for me earlier to check the waist but got a bit shy when I asked him to pose for a photo (sorry darling!)

I've been eyeying off the Bow purse pattern from Ottobre 3/2008 ever since I saw it and thought that it would be perfect for this little miss and found some fabrics that would compliment the skirt as well.

I then made a heart yo-yo hair clip to match and added in a couple of extra hair clips as well.

In the end I couldn't leave it without any jewellery so made a little sterling silver charm bracelet as well.

It was lovely to see her open it, she squealed with delight at each new item she found beneath the wrapping. I think that is the best part of giving a handmade gift.

I fell in love with the skirt so much that I have another one the same almost finished for my little miss as well!

Natalie
xx

Kellie's workshop at Hettie's Patch

2009-10-22T20:50:00.004+10:30

Having been away for the weekend has made this week pretty hectic with lots of things to do around the house and other sewing that needed to be competed, but I've finally found some spare minutes to post about my wonderful weekend with Kellie. It was lovely to meet her and to see her gorgeous quilts and pillows in real life. I thought they were stunning from her photos, but to see all the details up close was a real treat. I don't know if I'll ever get close to the perfectly stitched appliques that Kellie has mastered or even get my free motion quilting to resemble anything spiral-like at all, but I'm happy with the progress I made and am eager to keep practicing at it. Unfortunately I ended up with a terrible migraine on the Saturday and had to leave early, but thankfully I was able to shift it and felt 100% the next day, so got right to work on my dummy quilt getting the feel of free motion stitching and then was even able to get to stitching down all the applique for the practice piece and even started quilting it. I didn't get much of a chance to have a good mingle around with everyone and barely said more than a few words to both Emma and Andrea that were there too, so I hope I didn't seem rude, I was just so disappointed that I didn't get as much done on the Saturday that I really needed too, which meant for head down over my sewing machine as much as I good on the Sunday. Silly me didn't even think to take my camera with me, so I only have the two photos I snapped of my progress so far - but if you head on over to Hettie's Patch and Kellie's blogs, you'll see lots of lovely photos!

My dummy quilt sandwich to practice on

My practice piece which Kellie has called "Wish you were here!"

We each had a lovely bag and embroidered name tag made for us!

I really had a great time and would love the chance to do something similar again. A huge thank you to all the staff at Hettie's Patch for making it so enjoyable - all the little touches were just lovely and thanks again to Kellie for being a fantastic teacher! Now to set aside some time to finish up my practice piece and get tracing, cutting, fusing and stitching on the main project, "Willow".....

Natalie
xx

Fresh from the shops today

2009-10-15T16:35:00.007+10:30

I had already intended on going to Spotlight today, so imagine my delight when I heard they were also having 20% storewide today as well! I had a detailed list, mainly supplies needed for Kellie's workshop at Hettie's Patch this weekend and thought that maybe an extra thing or two might come home with me as well. Somehow more than that ended up in my take home bag though......

This is what we will be working on in Kellie's class

and this is some of the fabrics I bought today that I plan on using - I will also be raiding my fabric scrap boxes too.

cake boards to make a cupcake stand for my friend's baby shower in a few weeks

these patterns were all $2 each, I just couldn't pass those up!

Suiting fabric in the remnant bin that will make lovely pants for Jai - I ended up getting these for $4.40 and $3.60 each!

These jacketing remnants cost only $2.40, $2.00 and $1.60!!! I'm thinking cute skirts and maybe a jacket out of one of the larger pieces, for Cheriese.

more extras.....

I know I keep promising photos of my new cutting table and work bench, but I just can't seem to get it all neat and tidy, maybe this photo will explain why:

as always, lots on the go - you can see the outfit for my friend's baby that I'm currently working on. I spent this afternoon sewing some more and hope to have a final photo in the next day or so, just some hand embroidery and the hem to do!

Natalie
xx

School Holidays - Day 1

2009-09-28T14:27:00.003+09:30

It's been a lovely lazy day here, day 1 of our school holidays is always set aside for doing as little as possible! We did manage to get changed out of our pjs just before lunch and even did some quick baking..... well, not sure if 3 minutes in the microwave is officially called baking, but it's the closest thing I'm going to get to today. I used this 5 minute Chocolate Mug Cake recipe.

Fresh out of the microwave.

Jai was the last one to finish his serve

"mine's all gone" Jai realises......

Hmmm, wonder if there's anymore left?

nope, all gone!

Natalie
xx

The "I just need to sew SOMETHING!!!!" sewing.

2009-09-23T17:45:00.004+09:30

I'm sure you've all had those days where you've had a couple of busy weeks where you don't get the time to do the thing you love to do? I've been planning on getting some sewing done for the last week now, but just haven't been able to spare the time. Well today nothing was going to stop me, I decided I was going to sew. I have a baby gate at the door to my craft room, so I set Cheriese up just outside it on her table and chair set - gave her a bowl of snacks: cheese, strawberries and banana and her cup of water and quickly decided to make up a dress for her out of one of the remnant pieces I bought at Spotlight last week for only $2. I've had this ruffled sleeve top tutorial bookmarked and left open in my browser for over a week now - so quickly jotted down the measurements and started cutting. I used my overlocker for the seam and finishing to make it even quicker and had it finished just in time for kindy - with a quick stop to make some lunch for Cheriese and Jai in between pressing, sewing, trying it on for fit and snapping some photos! This is a great tute, so quick and easy - I can see a few more tops/dresses from it for Cheriese. She ended up wearing it down to kindy, I just added a long top and leggins underneath as it's another cold day here.

In my haste I forgot that I wanted a dress instead of a top, but only cut the length given for the top, so I added the ruffle.... but now I'm not sure if I should leave it as it is, or if it's too much and should take the ruffle off and just leave it as a long top? What do you think?

Natalie
xx

Dress-up sewing

2009-09-23T14:55:00.008+09:30

I really need to be making more clothes for my 3, they are all growing so fast, but we have had a couple of dress up events to go too, so costumes have become more of a priority!

First up we had a movie themed quiz night for Jordan's school. We chose the movie "Star Wars" for our table and seeing as Jordan already had his Commander Cody costume, I just needed to whip up something for Jai, Cheriese, my nephew Cooper and myself. Jai has part of a Darth Vader costume - well really only the cape left, so he wore that with some black pants and a black top and I only had to print him out a mask and the voice changer thing and he was done! Cooper wanted to go as Yoda, so off to Spotlight I went and came back with a metre or so of brown polar fleece and made him up a robe and then I got out my face pants to complete the look. There was was enough fleece left over to make a robe for Cheriese - we couldn't all agree if she was a young jedi Padawan or one of the jawas! I decided to go as Princess Leia, so just made a simple tunic out of a white panne velvet in my stash and put my hair up in the side buns. Here's some quick photos:

Jordan and Cooper

Jai, Cheriese and me

Jai's teddy got to come along too. He was still in his ewok costume from the Star Wars day at the library last holidays!
It was book week at Jordan's school a couple of weeks ago and this year's theme was "Safari". Jordan wanted to go as a lion, so once again off to Spotlight I went and decided that the double bonded polar fleece was the best option, with one side being a tan colour and the other a dark brown. I found a Spotlight "Get Creative" brand tracksuit pattern that goes from a size 3- 12 in my stash that I forgot I even had and used it for the lion costume. I added strips of the two tone fleece around the hood for the mane and sewed a tail onto the pants. Jordan loved it, but as it was so thick and warm he could only keep it on until the end of the parade - it was one of our few warm days and he was getting too hot! I'm sure it'll be worn again though as all of my three littlies love playing dress up. Jai didn't quite understand why Jordan got to dress up and he didn't, I pointed out that it was a special thing that Jordan got to do at school and that he would be able to join in next year, but he got a bit sad about that so I said that I could make him a quick dress up to wear while he watched the parade as well. So another trip to Spotlight where I scoured for 'cheetah' fabric as that was what Jai wanted to go as. I ended finding only one piece of cheetah printed felt left, so I grabbed it. By the time I finished Jordan's costume, it was after midnight, so I decided to make a quick and easy cheetah tail and then a simple polar fleece hood with some cheetah ears sewn on. In the morning I quickly cut up the remaining scraps of the felt, grabbed one of the tunic tops I'd made for the church play and asked Steve to hot glue gun the scraps to it while I was getting everyone ready in the morning. Phew! was a busy night/morning, but they both had a great time at the parade!. Here's the photos.

say "Roar"!!

Lions can play piano too!

Cheetah's like to climb

and pose too!

Cheriese loved seeing all the costumes and was clapping and saying "yay" as each class got up on stage.

Hmmm, wonder what the theme will be for next year? Hopefully I can find it out earlier and get a head start next year lol.

Natalie
xx

Sewing for Jai

2009-09-23T14:43:00.003+09:30

Jai desperately needs some more long sleeve tops, he has just had a big growth spurt and has grown out of most of his size 4 and 5 tops at the same time!!! There are so many tops in my Ottobre magazines that I want to make, but decided to use the same one I made in the EB kids clothing swap earlier this year, Ottobre 4/2008 design #25 "Pekka" t-shirt. Jai loved the car print so luckily I had some left over.

According to Jai it is "really awesome" to swing in too.

I've been going through and re-organising my craft room. I know have one side of my cupboard just for my fabrics. I didn't realise how many different knit fabric I have, lots for both the boys and my little miss, so hopefully I will be blogging some more Ottobre tops soon.

Natalie
xx

Swap goodies!

2009-07-25T21:28:00.004+09:30

I did a swap with Cass and she sent me the most gorgeous package of goodies!

I had seen the travellers on her blog and immediately wanted one of my own -
I used it for shopping today, it was fantastic - I crossed off all my items as I went and didn't forget a thing, yay!

She spoiled me though by adding in all the beautiful fabric, srabble tile pendant and adorable key ring.

Thank you so much Cass!

While I was taking the photos, miss Cheriese grabbed the key ring and started dancing with it.
The tutu she is wearing used to be mine, it was the first tutu my mum sewed for me for my ballet concert when I was 3 years old. I'm sure I've seen a photo of me wearing it, I will have to look for it when I'm at my Dad's house next time.

Natalie
xx

My Little Party Princess

2009-07-23T11:09:00.006+09:30

Well time has run away from me again, we've all been battling a round of colds here so there hasn't been any time or energy for creating or blogging. But we are now on the mend and I've had a chance to finally go through the hundred or so photos taken from Cheriese 1st birthday party!

Here's a photo of the invitations. I decided on a gate fold style and then spent a coupe of days fiddling around in photoshop adding in all the different photos for the inside - I think it took me longer choosing which photos to use than it did to add them in!

Now for the party photos, here she is with her Daddy - Steve did a wonderful job with all the decorations outside. I had wanted to make some bunting, but just ran out of time.

With her presents

Her cake, every princess needs a castle!

I think she liked it!

and of course, you can't have a party without cupcakes!

We all had a wonderful day.

Look at the bag that my 13 year old nephew Mitchell made for her! He wanted to make her something for her birthday and his Nana helped him with this:

It is just gorgeous and sits hanging on her bedroom door. I am so proud of him, it must've taken him ages to do and we both just adore it. I think it will make the perfect library bag for her, she will look just adorable toting it around the library on our next visit!

Natalie
xx

Just window shopping

2009-07-01T16:34:00.003+09:30

I'm on a bit of a fabric ban at the moment, I really need to use up some of what I have before I buy anymore. It's taking me so long to get what have all folded up and put away in my newly organised craft room. But this doesn't mean I can't go window shopping! I've just seen some lovely new fabrics on the Quilt Fabric Delights blog! Look at this gorgeous girly range:

you can buy it here

I can see so many pretty dresses and stip patchwork twirly skirts in these pretty prints for miss Cheriese.

I just adore this "Robots" range, so adorable for the boys:

You can get it here

I can see this being made into a lovely lap quilt for each of my boys actually....

Ok, off to go use up some fabric so I can be able to buy some more ;)

Natalie
xx

Sweet little shoes for a sweet little miss

2009-06-25T17:02:00.004+09:30

I've been wanting to make some little cloth shoes for ages now - I always planned on making some for Cheriese when she was a baby, just another one of those things that I never got around to making. Thankfully I found a pattern that goes beyond the 3 month old size I had found previously, and actually ended up buying three different ones from this etsy shop: ithinksewdotcom. I bought the mary jane, button boot and baby ballet shoe patterns. I finally had an afternoon to myself the other day and managed to get the mary jane pattern traced off, cut out and pinned and as of yesterday afternoon I had a pair sewed up and on my little miss's feet!

I couldn't decide from the variations in the pattern which style to use, there is just the standard mary jane style bar strap, one with it elasticised, another way to have the whole opening elasticised or to have just ribbon ties, which is what I decided to go for.

The only way I could get her to stay still for me was to let her play with her new jewellery box!

Overall the size is pretty good, I did the largest 12-18 month old size. I did have a bit of trouble working out from the photos what part was supposed to be sewed to each piece, but kind of got there in the end - still think I made mine up a bit differently but they appear to work. I used some microsuede type fabric I found in the furnishings department of spotlight to make them a bit sturdier in the sole. I think next time I might try a different interfacing, I would like them to be a bit stiffer. I can't wait to try the button boot pattern next, perfect accessory to a nice wintery outfit!

Before I go, I have to add this photo of my little miss! It's so hard to get her too look at me when I get my camera out these days.
Natalie
xx

Look over here for give away...........

2009-06-21T09:06:00.003+09:30

Novy said to stay tuned for a giveaway, and wow what a fantastic one she's running now - 2 Oliver + S patterns, one for the girls and one for the boys. I have heard so many good things about this pattern company, I have a "Sunday Brunch Jacket" pattern here for Cheriese waiting for me to find the time to get started on it, but I would just adore the little boys set, these 'sandbox' pants would be great for Jai as he is always playing in our sandpit!

Good luck everyone!

Natalie
xx

Better late than never........

2009-06-20T18:16:00.006+09:30

I'm very late with this post, my oldest son Jordan turned 9 on May 27! He had a wonderful day with opening presents in the morning, a good day at school and then dinner with all our family at his favourite restaurant, Red Rock Noodle bar - he does like noodles, but he's more a fan of the indoor playground and video games they have there lol! Jai wanted to make something to give to him as his present and we decided to make him a teddy. He went through my teddy patterns and picked out the shape he wanted and then the fur he liked best from my stash. He was a great helper in helping me trace the pattern onto the fabric, passed me the pins, and sat beside me patiently while I sewed it up. He then carefully started to push the stuffing in (he got a bit bored with this so said that I could finish it off for him!)
He then helped me picked another pattern and some different fabric to make one that Cheriese could give to Jordan.
Jordan just adores these - he even said they were better than ones from the shop as they were made just for him awwww

These were just simple teddy shapes that I found searching google images, and then just cut two and sewed them right side together leaving a gap for turning them the right way. I still have to make another one for Jai as he wanted to keep the one we'd made for Jordan, but I promised to make him one of his own. We went off to Spotlight for some more fur and I told him he could pick whichever one he wanted. Typically he picked one of the more dearer ones at $40 per metre. Luckily I only needed about 4ocms. So stay tuned for a blog post about a fluffy rainbow teddy soon ;)

Jordan asked for a Star Wars cake for his party. I used a Christmas bell shaped cookie cutter for Darth Vader's head, and used it as my chocolate mold. The star wars sign is also chocolate, and then I used icing to decorate them. The cake is chocolate, filled with chocolate cream and covered in chocolate ganache (Jordan is as much as a chocoholic as I am!).

Speaking of birthdays, it was one of my friend's daughters birthday a couple of weeks ago. She was turning 2 and I had no idea what to buy for her, seeing as she has 2 older siblings already I figured she'd have enough generic toys to play with. I decided to make her a cloth doll, and used the One Red Robin pattern "Happy Chibi Girl" I had ordered from Crafty Mamas a month or so ago. Here's my version:

and I popped some hairclips in for her as well:

Cheriese grabbed her while I was stuffing her and didn't not want to let her go! She just kept hugging her and kissing her, I just had to take some photos. So I think there'll be another Happy Chibi Doll to make soon ;)

Natalie
xx

Brown Owls in Adelaide

2009-06-19T13:39:00.002+09:30

I'm really excited about my good news today.... I have just discovered that Brown Owls now has an Adelaide group. Their next meet is next Wednesday night. I cant' wait! I've been looking for a craft group to go to for ages now, but the few I've found are run during the day which isn't suitable for me with my two of my little darlings still at home with me. Steve bought me the "Meet me at Mikes" book for mother's day and there are so many projects that I have on my to-do list, so it's very apt that the theme of next week's meeting is crochet! I've been eyeing off the granny square project in the book, so now have a good time to tackle it. I was blog surfing last night and stumbled across Gillian's post with all the details, then jumped on over to get my membership. Poor Steve took awhile to work out what I was rambling on about when I told him all about it, I had to slow down and explain it properly. I think he's almost as excited as I am, he's been encouraging me to get out and about more for some "me" time.

I am a bit nervous though, I don't think I will know anybody there...... oh well, one of the nicest things with the crafting community is that friendships are fast to form.

Natalie
xx

Double chocolate muffins and trips to the park

2009-06-18T13:52:00.005+09:30

It was a hectic day here yesterday so I didn't get a chance to blog my good thing for that day. I am secretary of the Parents & Friends group at Jordan's new school and we had a meeting there last night. I bring in cake for the evening, and initially decided on a nice banana cake. Well I don't know what went wrong, but this was my first offical flop - I took it out from the oven and after a few minutes it started to sink in the middle. To my horror, it wasn't cooked enough (despite a couple of skewer dips to indicate otherwise) and so I had taken it out too early. I wasn't going to try to savalge it to take it to the meeting, so instead refered back to my trusty chocoalte cake recipe and whiped up some muffins instead. To make them a bit special I added some white choc chips in them. Thankfully they turned out wonderfully, but by now it was 7:15pm, the meeting was due to start at 7:30pm - luckily I only live a couple of minutes away. Being too hot to put into a cake carrier, I popped them into a towel lined basket and set off like little red riding hood. I felt really good after everyone had tasted them and said how yummy they were.
But that's not even the best part of my day yesterday......... the best thing is that there are 3 left over, just enough for Jordan, Jai and myself to have after school today.

I'm going to get in early to blog about the good part of my day today. It is a beautiful sunny day here in Adelaide so Jai, Cheriese and I walked around to the park nearby. They both had so much fun on the swings, climbing up the chain ladder (yes, even little miss tried to have a go!) and going down the slide together.

But the best part for me was watching them entertain each other running around on the soft grassed area. Jai is such a character, making up funny dances and pulling funny faces to make Cheriese laugh.
She even stood still long enough for a quick cuddle from him and even for a few seconds or two so I was able to get a photo of her beautiful face.
Jai as always was happy to be the perfect model as well.

Thursday is also one of my favourite days, well evening to be exact as this is the one night that have booked in to go to the gym (other days I just get there when I can). But Thursday nights are the best as my favourite class is on at 6:30pm, which is body combat, and lately I've stayed for the second class which is body pump as well. My brother goes to these two as well, so it's great to have a catch up with him as well. I love it as I get two hours all to myself, a great workout and when I get home am feeling exhausted but also really good about myself too.
Natalie
xx

Re-discovered memories

2009-06-16T21:51:00.007+09:30

At Jai's kindy they have a folder called the "Family Book" and in it the children are asked to put in photos of their family. Jai was so excited when he brought it home the other day and today we spent most of the morning going through all our photos stored on my PC (I still haven't managed to print any off yet!) It was lovely to go back over the last few years and to see all that we had done and how much my three little darlings have grown, but the best part was watching Jai's reaction to seeing himself in the photos and him re-living moments such as his birthday, christmas, trips to the park, zoo, mother's day, father's day and even Cheriese's home birth. I was especially touched by how careful he was to pick just the right photos he wanted to print out to put in his kindy's book, he wanted to make sure he could find as many photos of all of the people in our family as he could.

Here's some of the photos he picked:

Jai as a baby:

his beloved big brother Jordan:

his cherished little sister Cheriese:

his extended family

a few days old with his Uncle Shaun (my little brother)

At his Grandpa's (my dad) birthday last year

With his Daddy, Jordan, Grandma "Marni", Papa AJ (Steve's parents) and Cheriese

At the zoo with his cousin Cooper

And he said that his 4th was his favourite birthday!
This was the good part of my day today.

Natalie
xx

Feeling lucky

2009-06-15T21:59:00.002+09:30

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you who have commented and sent me messages. Your thoughts, encouragement and admissions of experiencing some of the same feelings has really helped me these last few days. It's been quite exhausting pretending that everything is ok and always saying "I'm fine thanks" to all the "how are you going" questions. It's quite liberating to confess that no, I'm not ok, I'm having issues, but I'm working on ways to get through my sad moments and am feeling just so lucky to have such wonderful people out there who genuinely care how I'm feeling and encourage me to find and focus on all the good things in each day.

So that's exactly what I'm going to do, from now on I'm going to blog one good thing each day.

Today it's my friends. You all know who you are and you're all helping me in feeling good today.

Natalie
xx

I miss blogging.....

2009-06-10T13:52:00.002+09:30

I thought it was time to post about my recent lack of blogging. I really didn't intend to be away from my blog this long, but I've hit a bit of a slump, ok, I should probably be more honest and just say that I'm really struggling at the moment. I thought I was just having a couple of bad days, then those days turned into a week, then weeks. I really thought that if I told myself that I'd feel better tomorrow, that this time would pass, but I've been telling myself that for almost two months now. The most annoying part is I really don't know why I'm feeling so down, when I analyse what I'm struggling with it doesn't really look like much on it's own.... but with all of it together has me feeling so overwhelmed. It might help if I write it down...

I'm really missing my mum lately. She died of leukemia 15 years ago and although I knew I wasn't 'over it' (you can never be over the loss of someone so close) I really was doing ok. Since having Cheriese her loss has really hit me again. Maybe it's the new mother/daughter bond I have now that makes me reflect on my own mother/daughter bond that I had with my mum, but isn't there anymore. I know that if she was still alive that she'd be such a huge part of my

I feel like I'm drowning in housework. My house is constantly a mess. I can't keep up with the dishes, washing, tidying up bedrooms, toys, even my new craft room is still in shambles. I've found going from 2 to 3 children to be a huge jump, before I know I had days where things were a bit untidy, but nothing like now. I just can't get it all done. In amongst the kindy run, the school run, breakfasts, lunches there's hardly enough time to play with my children, and trying to tidy up around a 1 year old is just impossible - while I'm putting away something my little miss is behind me pulling it all back out again. I don't have anyone that can help me out here. Steve does what he can, but by the time he gets home from work there's really not many hours left in the day, besides he works enough as it is. I don't have other family that I can ask to come help out. This just makes me miss my mum even more. I know how much she would've loved to come play with Jai and Cheriese while I got some things done.

I used to be a lot more social, these days I hardly ever go out. Jai has kindy in the afternoon and Cheriese has her afternoon nap, and I find the time in the morning is so short to plan activities. Then if I was to go out and do something, that's time I should be spending tidying up around the house anyway. I'm really missing my friends, we have changed Jordan's school this year and I've yet to make any real friendships at his new school. I miss the daily chats with the other mums that I used to have. But here I'm a bit of my own worst enemy as while I'm feeling this down I don't want to organise catch up with friends either at the moment. Arrghhhh, it's all so frustrating.

I'm so annoyed with myself for feeling this way. I'm trying to come up with words other than "depressed" as I just hate that term. I suffered from clinical depression several years ago and was on anti-depressants and I hated it. It took me a lot longer to get off them than I first thought and don't ever want to go down that path again. I don't want to feel like this anymore, I shouldn't be feeling so sad. I have so much joy in my life, especially my beautiful healthy family. They can bring a smile to my face just from a look and sheer delight from one of their prized kisses and cuddles. I wish I could bottle those moments.

I have other exciting things happening in my life too - I love my creative side and really hope one day to have more time to work on my little business. While re-organining my new craft room I've found so many lovely fabrics and patterns that I can't wait to make into wonderful things. Recently I ordered some of the gorgeous 'far far away' fabric by Heather Ross and just today my postman delivered the new "Kaleidoscope" book by Melly & Me. There are so many projects I want to do, I just wish the motivation and confidence to get started would come. I know that when I'm creating things I feel so much better about myself, but when I'm feeling so down I find it hard to do anything. Basic task like cooking dinner and making sure the dirty clothes are washed all seem hard.

This has actually turned into much more of an essay than I intended it too. I've actually been wondering, as I type, if I will even hit the 'publish' button. I'm not one to reveal such personal feelings on the www. I'm just hoping this will give me the push I need to try to accept some of the things that I can't change and to focus on the things that I can. If you have gotten this far, thank you so much for listening and if you have any good tips on getting out of a slump then I'd love to hear them.

I have been (slowly) editing some photos from recent events: Chereise's birthday party, mother's day and Jordan's birthday last month, so hopefully I will have some much nicer posts to blog soon

Natalie
xx

Happy Birthday to my little Miss Cheriese!

2009-04-10T22:56:00.008+09:30

I really can't believe how quickly the year has gone, my little girl is one year old already. I don't feel ready to leave the baby years behind just yet... but they have gone, I officially have a toddler now - especially since she has been walking now for the last month already too!

There are so many things that Cheriese is doing now:
- Walking and climbing
- talking, says "mama", "dada", "buba", "pretty", "Awww" (when she gives kisses and cuddles), and sings the "la dee da dee da" part to the d'glumph song and lots of general babbling which I wish I could understand as it sounds very interesting
- gives lots of cuddles and kisses, and can even blow kisses
- loves feeding herself and often refuses food if she can't have her own spoon
- is still happily breastfed
- laughs lots, especially at the funny faces Jai pulls for her
and generally delights us all constantly

Here's a photo diary of how we spent her special day.

Present time! She loved the card and walked around looking at it saying "bubba" for a few minutes - I made her card with photos of her on it.:
Cuddles with her new special dolly, you can see her better on Donna's blog here:

Kisses this time:

More kisses with her 'everyday' doll:

Jordan trying to get Cheriese to model the dress I made for her:

Bouncing around on her Fisher Price 'bounce and spin zebra':

Fun on the swings at the park with Jai later in the morning:

Her first cupcake - a very mini one that Jai helped me make with the left over batter from her cake:

Photo shoot in the afternoon in the dress I made her. The pattern is called "Milly Lily" and you can get it from the Handmade Dress site here:
While using some flowers to try to keep her distracted (and still for more than 1 second!) I snapped this photo which shows that this pattern would also make a gorgeous flower girl dress:

Front view:

Back view: (I trimmed the ribbons after trying it on her as they were too long at first)

Close up of the adorable Cinderella ribbon:
Then after dinner it was time for the birthday cake. Jai picked out the heart shaped cake tin and I topped it off with some yummy cream cheese frosting. I couldn't believe my luck when I found the cute little unicorn candles:

We all had such a lovely day - I boycotted all housework, except the bare necessities and spent lots of time cuddling, kissing, playing and chatting to my special birthday girl. With this weekend being easter, we are having her party next Sunday - so there'll be lots more photos to come yet!

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothing Swap - My Items

2009-03-30T21:39:00.007+10:30

After a(nother) very hectic week, I'm finally getting the chance to post some photos of the outfits I made for the EB Kids clothing swap. I will warn you though that this post is going to be very image heavy, I made three outfits and am so proud of each of them, this is my best sewing to date and I really want to show it off!

First I started on an outfit for Esther's daughter Bethan. She is similar age to Cheriese, so I was able to pick one of the patterns that I've had my eye on for ages. I used Ottobre 1/2008 design #2 "Susette" Sash pants and #4 "Maya" blouse. I fell in love with the fabric for the top first, I loved all the nice bright colours and thought that finding a nice small print to use for the pants would be easy... but I was so wrong - I tried so many different shades of green, but none were right, then tried pinks, still no. Finally with the help of a lovely Spotlight staff member, we scoured the quilting section and found a lovely peach coloured fabric with the tiniest little spots. It is totally different to the colours I would normally choose, but I really love the end result and think I should branch out of my usual colour palette more often!

Some hair clips to go with it too:
Seeing as Cheriese is almost the same size as Bethan, I cut out an extra set for her as well ;)

Next I made an outfit for Marie's daughter Jalissa. Again I chose an outfit that caught my eye awhile ago and one that is on my to-do list for Cheriese. The skirt is from Ottobre 4/2007, design #14 Pleated Skirt and the top is from Ottobre 6/2008, design #13 Raglan Sleeve Blouse.
I found the pretty floral drill first, and then the nice pink jersey for the top. The top has shirring on the sleeves with little taffeta ribbon bows and I added the floral applique with ribbon trim as well.

With some hair clips as well:

Lastly I made an outfit for Milly's son George. I took so long deciding what pattern to use, I've been eyeing off so many for Jai, I really was spoilt for choice. In the end I settled on Ottobre 1/2008 design #25 "Frog" pants and Ottobre 4/2008 design #25 "Pekka" t-shirt. I chose a chocolate brown wide wale cord for the pants and then decided they needed some contrast for a bit more pop, and found the lovely dot quilter's cotton for the pockets, waistband and also line the bottom of the pants in case they were too long and needed to be cuffed up. This was my first time making a proper zip front and I'm so glad that I took the plunge as although my attempt isn't perfect, it wasn't too bad either - so now I can't wait to make some more for both my boys! I love the car knit I used for the top, and then couldn't decide between the two stripe knits I had bought, so asked Jordan which one he thought looked better and he picked it for me!
A huge THANK YOU to Ingrid for organising this fantastic swap! I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and now have so much more confidence to tackle all the patterns that I've been wanting to do for so long now.

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothing Swap - Opening Day YAY!!!!

2009-03-20T21:01:00.002+10:30

Whoo hoo after countless hours of pattern selecing, fabric hunting, tracing, cutting, pining, sewing, unpicking, re-pinning, re-sewing, pressing, wrapping, sending and then waiting........ it's finally opening day of the Essential Baby Sewing Group Kida Clothing Swap .

I has been a hectic afternoon here, we had to duck out to do some shopping after the school pick up and were late getting home. I was barely even through the door when the boys had grabbed their parcels and began trying to rip them open. "Wait for me to get the camera!" I yelled as I dashed off to get it. It was like Christmas, 3 excited little children desperately trying to rip into their presents.
Look at all the wonderful items that were inside our 3 parcels today:

First up is Jordan, modelling a funky set with caramel colour cord pants, with lovely button up back patch pockets and groovy matching embellished tee - all fantastically made by Amy.

Next is Jai, sporting a very cool hoodie jumper, in his favourite colour embellished with his favourite cars, along with lovely pale brown cord pants with cheeky sock monkey pockets and even wearing cute little boy boxer shorts made from the same adorable knit the hoodie is lined with - all fantastically made by Marie. She even thoughtfully included some extra sock money fabric pieces allready interfaced, ready for me to use to emellish a tee to match!
Finally Miss Cheriese is gorgeous in so-pretty pink twirly skirt (with some extra fabric thoughtfully included for me to emellish a tee to match!) and again in an adorable ruffled capris and cross backed pini set in beautiful Heather Bailey fabric - all fantastically made by Carolyn.

Phew, three outfits amongst three cheeky excited little models makes for a lot of photos to edit lol! It is getting late here now, so I will update my blog with the items I made tomorrow.

Thank you so much to my swappees for being part of this swap! We all adore everything, the patterns chosen, fabrics, workmanship and attention to detail is all so perfect- this has been my favourite of all the EB swaps and can't wait to do this one again! Special huge THANK YOU to Ingrid for organising this fantastic swap xxxx

Natalie xx

Photos for Marie

2009-03-19T17:41:00.003+10:30

Well my little miss hasn't been in as much of a hurry to grow up big and strong like her big brothers, so there have been a few outfits that were given to us when she was born that have been sitting in her 'too big for her just yet' drawer. Every now and then I keep trying things on and discovering that certain things can move up into her 'proper' wardrobe.... and finally I can show off some photos of the gorgeous romper that was beautifully made by Marie:

Cheriese pretty much lived in these last month, especially when we had that bout of extreme hot weather. I have gotten so many lovely comments from others, mainly asking where they could buy one as well! So sorry for not posting these photos earlier, I was going through my blog photos folder on my PC today and embarrassing realised that I hadn't put them into my blog yet!

Thanks again Marie.

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothing Swap - sneak peak #2

2009-03-19T17:31:00.004+10:30

Well the time has passed quickly, almost too quickly for me as I only just managed to get all 3 outfits completed and posted in time. I know that one has reached it's destination, so praying that the other two get to their new homes tomorrow, in time for the big opening day!

Here's a sneak peak of each of the 3 outfits I made:

Hope I'm not giving too much away!

I both love and hate this part of the swap.... the waiting until opening day, the stressing about whether my items will be liked/good enough/fit, and then the sheer excitement in seeing what everyone gets, the joy of watching my children opening their parcels and all the lovely posts getting updated on everyone's blogs!

Natalie
xx

I love parcels!

2009-02-26T10:46:00.002+10:30

especially when they contain my latest Crafty Mamas order:

and this wonderful purchase from Pink Lizzy Sews

I first saw a photo of this gorgeous skirt on the Crafty Mamas forum and fell in love with it. Then when I read on her blog that she had just opened an etsy shop, I raced in and to my delight found the skirt for sale there. I bought it right away and before I knew it, it was in my letterbox and being modeled by Cheriese moments later! Lizzy calls these "arty skirts" and I think that they really are a work of art.

and they are perfect for riding on unicorns too ;)

Natalie
xx

Kids Clothing Swap - sneak peak #1

2009-02-23T21:25:00.004+10:30

I'm taking part in the EB Kids Clothing Swap, which in a nutshell means I'm making and sending an outfit to 3 children and my 3 children will get a handmade item sent to them! I love these swaps, nothing like a deadline, lots of chat, new ideas and sneak peaks on blogs to get you motivated.

I'm a little behind some as I have yet to start some real sewing, but here some photos of some of my fabric choices. So far I have decided that 4 of them are definite, the others I'm not sure if they will get used or not ;)

and one pinned and ready to go!
Natalie
xx

EB Habby Swap - Opening Day!

2009-02-15T20:50:00.004+10:30

Yesterday was the opening day for the EB Haberdashery Swap and Becci completely spoiled me!!! Look at all the lovelies she sent me!

Here it is all wrapped up, complete with beautiful hand made card:
and inside I found more lovely wrapped parcels:
Here's the fabric all unwrapped:
gorgeous ribbon and trims inside two of the parcels:

Buttons, hairclips, ring pincushion, pretty quilters pins, button covering kit and tailors chalkMagazines and adorable patterns for my miss C
Thank you again so much Becci, I adore everything. Huge thank you to Karen for organising this wonderful swap too xx
Natalie
xx

Play that funky music!

2009-01-28T14:48:00.003+10:30

I am trying to add handmade items to part or all of my gifts this year, I succeded with Jai in making and gifting him his Lightning McQueen outfit, which he was thrilled with. I decided to do an applique tee for my nephew Cooper who just turned 7, to add to the toys my boys had picked out for him. After flicking through my fabric stash I found the Michael Miller guitar fabric I bought awhlie ago and knew then I HAD to do a guitar applique for Cooper.

Best of all he loved it too! (so did Jordan and Jai so I think there'll be another 2 made up very soon.)

Natalie
xx

My hairbows

2009-01-23T20:57:00.003+10:30

I started making hairbows ;late last year, just a couple to start off with and then (like most crafty things) I found myself addicted and had so many ideas running around my head. So then started buying up ribbon like a mad woman! I made a whole lot up for my market last October and they were really popular. Since then I've been trying to get a nice collection together to put up on my webstore and to take to future markets, but I keep giving them away as gifts to friends, or they end up in Miss Cheriese's hair. I know she hardly HAS any hair, but I found these teeny tiny snap clips that hold onto the slightest wisp of hair. They just look so darn cute on her!

So I figured I'd better gather up those that I have left so I can show them off:

small, dainty bows:
bigger, bold bows:
Too cute modeled shot:
There's quite a few that didn't make the photo, I think there are some in Miss C's jewellery box and some more scattered around the house.....

I am also going to putting the hairbows and my children's jewellery under a new label too, but have to double check that the name I've chosen is available and then talk DH into letting me register it ;)

I have a market stall at a fundraiser in March - I'm going to be amongst the "big boys" for this one, ie Tupperware, enjo, nutrimetrics etc. So I have to get a lot more made up for then.

Natalie
xx

Sewing for Miss C

2009-01-13T16:36:00.005+10:30

I really thought that I would've done more girly sewing by now, it's quite shocking that all I've made Cheriese so far is a pair of pants and her Christmas dress. Well, thanks to Daddy Care Day on Friday, I was able to spend the entire day in my craft room and was able to constuct a whole garment. I traced off my pattern McCalls 9407 in the largest size left (fingers crossing all the time that it would still fit my rapidly growing baby!) cut out my fabric and by mid afternoon I was finished!
Modeled shots :Look at her latest 'thing', constantly sticking her cute little tongue out!

I just adore this knit fabric, was surprised to find it in Spotlight as I haven't been impressed with the quality of their knt fabric in the past. This one is lovely though and I think I have enough left over for one more item..... maybe a cute puffy sleeve tee I've been eyeing off in one of my latest otto magazines.

Overall the pattern was easy enough to follow although I hate following the pattern's instructions - I feel that they always over explain how to do a simple seam or hem, but when it comes to trickier things like applying snaps or binding a slit in the back view to form the legs.... well their words and diagrams just confuse me! Finally worked it out and it seems to work ok. Might have to raid my fabric to see if I have another knit print I can use to quickly sew up another one.... this one fits her perfectly, but will be too small in the next month or so :( I also wonder if I can convince DH that with all this snap sewing that I really need a snap press too ;)

Natalie
xx

Happy Birthday Jai!

2009-01-12T15:25:00.006+10:30

My beautiful baby boy turned 4 (already!) last Saturday (3/01/09). It is such a hectic time after Christmas and I never feel ready for it, usually because I never am! The invites are sent out last minute, and the 2 days before were spent up late sewing and baking. But I love parties and all the hard work that goes into them.

Jai picked the Disney movie "Cars" as his theme this year - last year it was "herbie", so he is still into cars lol. I remembered buying some pre-cut Cars fabric from spotlight about a year earlier so dug it out of my stash and whipped up a pair of shorts for him (burda pattern again!) and did a matching tee. I thought that I'd wrap the set up and add it to his presents. I thought he'd like them, but never guessed he'd appreciate my efforts this much (he made me feel so proud!):

Here's some modeled shots:
One of the main activities we had at his party was getting the children to make a 'derby car' - I went to Toys R Us to get some cardboard boxes and then cut out circle shapes of card: black ones to be wheels and white ones for the headlights. Then we used white ribbon for the straps and then they were decorated with textas and foam stickers. Even the adults got involved with Steve helping Jai with his - he even made a steering wheel, and Steve's mum was running after the other children adding the stickers that hadn't been used yet.

I planned to take more photos of the actual race, but I got busy getting the lunch ready and served and then after lunch it was a bit too hot for derby racing - we ended up handing out water pistols instead. Before we knew it time was flying and some guests had to leave, so we quickly bashed away at the lightening McQueen pinata and then it was time for cake! I wanted to do a 3d cars one like I did for Jordan's birthday, but Jai insisted on a flat one lol.... which in the end was quicker so I was happy for that (yet still managed to be working on it until 2am).

Oh and here's the photos I used for the front of his birthday invitations too:
Awww, those 4 years just went by too fast......

Natalie xx

Christmas Outfits

2009-01-05T14:38:00.007+10:30

I can't believe it's already 2009 and I still haven't had a chance to show off the Christmas sewing I did for my children! It has been so hectic here, Christmas came and went with a wonderous blur and then it was my darling Jai's birthday last Saturday too.... but that's a whole other post lol!

I usually make my boys matching collared shirts to wear on Christmas day but this year Jordan asked for some christmas shorts with a matching tee. So I used my trusty Burda patterns 9800 and 9641 (I love Burda!) and even cheated by not tracing out the next sizes up and just added a bit extra here and there, mainly in the length as my two boys have been sprouting up quickly. I made Cheriese's dress from Newlook pattern 6575 but ended up mixing up a bit of each view, but realised when I finished it that as I added the bottom ruffle, that I should've shortended the skirt, so it is a bit too long but then again she'll only just grow taller won't she! Next time I'll do it quite differently, the zip was very fiddly and kind of defeats the purpose of having a lovely lined dress if then there's a zip (well in my opinion anyway) so next time I think I'll allow a little extra fabric in the centre back and do buttons (easier and prettier!)

We took them into the 'magic cave' to see Father Christmas, as we do each year as that one is the 'real' one, and here they are riding on the carosel:

Cheriese DID enjoy the ride, this is probably the only photo she wasn't smiling in, but the one that was the best in focus one - the lights made for terrible photo taking.

These were taken on Christmas day just before lunch, I made them do some quick poses for me before they got all dirty!

back view

Finally a 'nice' shot of me and Cheriese (I'm usually behind the camera!)

Natalie
xx

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T21:34:00.003+10:30

Wishing all my readers a very merry Christmas, hope that this festive season is filled with lots of love, laughter and happiness for you all! I'd like to take this time to thank everyone out there for all your lovely comments and support throughout the year. I look forward to continuing my creative journey with you all next year.

My Christmas post is a bit belated, but the lead up to the big day was so frantic and involved (too) many late nights sewing and gift wrapping. I have some photos to show of the outfits I made my children, but will include those with tomorrow's post Christmas update. For now I'll just show off my two favourite photos that I used in our Christmas cards this year.

Natalie
xx

EB Secret Santa

2008-12-20T11:46:00.004+10:30

I was totally spoilt by my secret santa, Ali! Look at all the gorgeous goodies I got:

Pretty covered notebook set (which will be perfect for handling my sewing 'to do' lists!)

Complete with pens, notebook and very cute small notepad (it's hiding in it's pouch!)
Funky covered large notebook
With handy side pockets both front and back

Cute initial ornaments for our tree. I LOVE this idea and Ali has matched up Jordan and Jai's favourite colour perfectly! I've hung the children's initials next to each of their special first christmas ornaments.Pretty fabric, butterfly embellishments and ribbon for things for Cheriese:
Plane model for Jai to paint and play with:

The discovery tube was immediately snapped up and put together by Jordan:Thank you so much Ali, we love everything, all your special thought and effort is truly appreciated. Thanks to Andrea too for organising this years EB secret Santa!

Natalie
xx

Christmas Things

2008-12-17T10:22:00.005+10:30

I was doing a spot of blog surfing last night and found Tanya's blog, and while drooling over all her beautiful creations I noticed her gorgeous Christmas background and thought that I'd give my blog a holiday makeover as well. "The Cutest Blog" has so many adorable things that you can add to your blog to pretty it up (beware, I got addicted scrolling though all the options!)

Now onto some sewing updates! I'm finally getting around to blogging the advent calender I made. I ended up finding the perfect place, hanging from one of Steve's guitars on our lounge room wall!
The all important "goodies" shot, a mix of Freddo frogs, peppermint creams, sherbets, chocolate money, chocolate Santas and starburst fruit chews! (yes, we went a bit overboard, Steve picked most of them out!)
close up of the quilting, finally got there in the end, but I found the silver metallic thread very difficult to sew with. Luckily you don't get to see the back lol ;)

More things Christmasy - it was opening day for the EB Secret Santa on Monday and my postie has yet to bless me with my parcel, but I can show off what I made for Andrea... well actually I can show you most of it as I realised when editing my photos that I forgot to take a photo of everything all together. So in addition to the photos below, I also made some hairclips for Ellyse and two fabric Christmas trees, a short one and a tall one in the same fabric as the apron. I'm hoping to get some time to whip up some more of these trees and scatter around the house, you can find the pattern here.

Here's my package all wrapped up in pretty cotton fabric (I bought extra to make a dress for Cheriese too, I think it is so pretty!)

Christmas ruffle apron for Andrea, modified a pattern I picked up from Spotlight. Think I'll have to make one for myself.

Embellished tee for Ellyse, I used my new heart shaped yo yo makers and played around with some buttons and ribbons (they are supposed to be butterflies!) Not quite as good as I had pictured, but close to what I was trying to achieve!
An appliqued tee for Ashton. I found the cute puppy picture while googling for applique templates. Jai saw it and immeaditately asked if the 'blues clues top was for him' so looks like I'll be making another one very soon.
I HAD to do the cute paw prints on the back too.
I love swaps, they are so much fun. I always try to do something new that I've been meaning to try for awhile. I love seeing what eveyrone else has made, gives me lots of ideas and adds to my ever growing 'to-do' list!

Thank you so much for organising this swap Andrea, hope you like your gifts!
Natalie
xx

Haul photos!

2008-11-28T10:21:00.004+10:30

I've become a slack blogger again..... I really want to keep this blog updated, but at the end of the day photo editing / uploading has become a low priority. Finally had a chance to get all the photos together of my recent hauls lol. First up was the Craft and Quilt Fair, which came to Adelaide on the 5th November.

1. Too cute fat 1/4 from Quilt Fabric Delights 2. ribbons 3. more ribbons
4. Advent calender panel (almost finished this too!) 5. bias tape maker (I had to get one after reading how much Cass loves hers! 6. large yoyo maker (I already have a small one) 7. 30cm piece of Heather Bailey Freshcut from Quilt Fabric Delights (thinking skirt for Cheriese) 8. Earring components (a couple for me, the rest for the shop) 9. Adorable little polymer clay rose beads 10. Wire Stars, my boys will love helping me thread these with crystals to then hang on our tree.

Then a week later my local Spotlight held a VIP night - I really wanted to get some fabric to make Cheriese a Christmas dress, and was quite proud of myself that I didn't go overboard on lots of unexpected extras, altough with 20% off storewide I HAD to get a few little goodies lol.

1. Fabric for Cheriese's Christmas dress, lovely quilting floral which had gone done to only $3 per metre, with some cotton sateen 2. Michael Miller also on sale for $8 per metre (think will make a gorgeous pinni for Cheriese!) 3. Felt for Christmas crafts 4. Christmas fabric for Christmas crafts 5. Another cute quilting cotton down to $5 per metre (thinking shorts and appliqué tee for Jai) 6. more ribbons (want to make some Christmas themed hair bows) 7. Ribbon storage box for my growing ribbon collection (this box is now jam packed this taking this photo!)

So lots and lots of lovely goodies, now I just have to hope I can find time to use them all lol. My advent calender is almost finished, just doing some quilting with silver thread to finish it off. I am in the middle of some hairbows and have some Christmas crafts, earrings and tracing off Cheriese's dress pattern on my weekend to-do list!

Natalie
xx

EB Secret Santa

2008-11-09T23:25:00.002+10:30

Whoo hoo! It's swap time again, this time a nice and easy Secret Santa swap with the EB sewing group. Here's my answers to help my swap partner:

Would you like something handmade as a gift?
I would be happy to receive absolutely anything!

Do you have a favourite Christmas Colour?
not really, I pretty much love them all! This year the boys picked out a new decoration for the tree (am going to do this every year) - Jai picked out a bright lime green one, Jordan chose a bright aqua mirror ball style one and I got a hot pink one for Cheriese. Our existing decorations are all a mix of red, gold, silver, purple etc!

Do you decorate the whole house or just a part of it?
I like to decorate as much as possible.

Do you have any Christmas Traditions?
We always spend christmas eve going on a small drive around the neighboring suburbs to look at all the christmas lights around. Then we come home and sprinkle magic reindeer food on the front lawn to help them find our house easily. Out the back we leave out some water, carrots and apple for the reindeer too and of course some milk and cookies for Santa on the table next to the tree. Of course we also have "the Night Before Christmas" as our bedtime book too.
This year I want to do a lot more Christmas crafts with my boys too - we ran out of time last year, so will be getting an early start for this year. Making Christmas chocolates is always a favourite activity

What sizes are your children?
Jordan is a size 10 - 12, Jai is a 4 - 5 and Cheriese is just starting to go into 0

Do you like quick projects or things that take a little longer?
Probably prefer quick and easy, but I still love the feeling of completing something that has taken many hours of my time too.

Is there anything that you like to collect?
Currently obsessed with anything unicorn for Cheriese's room. I am also finding myself obsessed with pretty ribbons too

Is there anything you don't need?
Not that I can think of, you can never have too much of a good thing!

Natalie

My EBDQS quilt

2008-11-09T11:05:00.005+10:30

My swap partner was Emma, who requested a quilt for her darling son James. To be honest when I first read that I got Emma I completely freaked out..... she is a published quilter and her quilts are just stunning!!! I found myself stuck for inspiration and ended up designing a few different quilts before settling on my final design. I saw so many quilts I liked in lots of my magazines, but being a beginner quilter I found it hard to work out how to modify the final size - most of the quilts I liked were large ones. Then I thought I'd better not fiddle with a pattern too much as I wouldn't be able to work out how to cut and piece it.

So between a couple of books I have: "Quilt for Baby's" and "Alex Anderson's Baby Quilt's with Love" and using equilter to merge a couple of different blocks together, I came up with this:

close up the star quilting I did in the middle (first time not "stitching in the ditch"!)

back view

close up of the label (these are so fun to make!)

Thanks again to AJ and Helen (sorry I forgot to thank you in my last post, I've slapped myself for you lol!) These swaps are just wonderful to be a part of.

Natalie
xx

EBDQS2 Opening day YAY!!!!!

2008-11-07T10:05:00.004+10:30

I'm so excited, it's the official opening day today and I was totally spoilt by Mands with just the most beautiful, gorgeous, utterly adorable quilt! (Am I conveying how much I love this!!!)

Time for a few quick photos this morning, will try to take some nicer ones outside later this afternoon (it's very overcast and rainy here today!)

playing peek-a-boo!

Ok, got to dash, off to the Adelaide Craft and Quilt Fair, but just HAD to pop these photos up before I left.

Thank you so much Mands, it will be a most treasured and well loved little quilt here. Thank you AJ for organising such a wonderful swap too

Natalie
xx

EB DQS#2 sneak peak

2008-11-04T21:59:00.004+10:30

I'm part of the second doll quilt swap with the EB quilters and it's almost time for them to be all revealed - national opening day is Friday 7th November!! I have my parcel already and have been very good in not opening it, my sender didn't put her name on it so blog surfing hasn't revealed any clues to me either - so it will be a much anticipated day on Friday!

Here's a sneak peak of the one I've sent:
Now the nerves start to set in too..... hoping that my quilt is 'good' enough, hoping that my quilting novice-ness isn't too obvious and hoping that the child it is for will love playing with it too!

Natalie

My first reconstruction!

2008-09-30T10:17:00.002+09:30

Cheriese had grown out of this cute little bodysuit and only got to wear it a handful of times, so thought I'd turn it into a t-shirt. So it went from this.....

to this.....

to this......

It's still 'just fitting' her, but will look cute with a little skirt so she can wear it another few times at least!

Little miss ruffle butt!

2008-09-26T17:55:00.005+09:30

I am in love with these pants:

I think they are just so cute with the little ruffles on the butt! I used this pattern (oooh, even took the photo with the intended fabric too lol!) and thankfully it was super easy and nice and quick. I traced and cut out on Wednesday afternoon and sewed them up yesterday afternoon, and Cheriese has been in them pretty much since then!

Here's some modeled shots (there's a few, need some excuses to show off my adorable little girl!)

Hoping to get some time over this weekend to continue with some more sewing. I've really missed it, and I love that wonderful proud feeling of actually making something that turns out and looks so cute! Plus I bought 2 metres of this adorable fabric, so have around 1 1/2 metres left to use: think I'll make a top from the same pattern, and maybe a romper too - I already have a bib cut out that I will back with pink terry towelling.

I realised something too earlier today while editing the (bazillion) photos that I took.... quite funny that when I found out I was having a girl, I immediately started imagining sewing all these pretty little dresses but in the end the first item of clothing I make her is a pair of pants!! lol!

Natalie
xx

long time between posts

2008-09-26T15:55:00.006+09:30

Well despite my good intentions, it has been far too long since I updated my blog. Life is hectic here with 3 children - I forgot how time consuming newborns are! In between all the usual 'mum stuff' I've also been re-organising my craft room - and unfortunately this has meant pulling everything out, going through it and putting it away properly! I probably should've taken some 'before' shots, but that would've been way to embarassing too - I could barely get myself in the door. These progress shots were taken after I hauled everything out and dumped it either Cheriese's room (she is still in our room) or the hallway!

My sewing area, I really should fold the table up when I've finished, but as you can see by the almost finished PJ pants on the corner, that I didn't actually get to finish, but got called away. (The pjs have since been hemmed!). Stacked up in the corner is about a million and one craft magazines that I found.

My shelves have gotten so messy :( I have bought new storage containers to help cut through the clutter (the purple boxes on the top are full of fabric!)

The left side of my cupboard, see how everything has gotten totally out of control!!! The purple drawers are new, think they'll be perfect to house all my notions like ribbons, elastic, snaps and also one for my new scrapbooking supplies that I've been gathering lately too.

Right side of the cupboard, all the fabric that doesn't fit into my storage boxes on the top of my shelves - mainly things that I've bought and washed, but haven't sorted yet. The plastic storage tub is full of scraps.....

Here's the stuff that has been kicked out into the hallway for now - the tub is full of washed fabric, and the bags on top of that are things to be mended (most of it has probably been outgrown by now!)

Close up of the box on the right - it is full of fabric to be washed, some of it still in the postage packaging *oops* I can't wait to go through it all - I know there are some lovely pieces in there, will be lovely getting my room all organised again.

So with all this chaos around me, it hasn't been easy to keep up with my crafts. It has been really getting me down as my crafting had become to special to me. Lately I've struggled to find the time to finish cleaning up my craft room, and anything else for that matter - baskets of laundry decorate our house, the sink is always prettied up with dirty dishes, and I seem to be missing out on playing games with my boys. All up I've felt like a total failure as a mother and wife. Luckily I had a bit of a whinge about it to the lovely ladies in the EB sewing group. They are all so beautiful and supportive and Karen had the best advice for me, to concentrate on what I HAVE done instead of what i haven't. I can't believe I didn't look at it that way before, but as soon as I thought of it in that way, I immediately began to feel better. I have done quite a lot during these last few months. I'm never sitting around idle, always cuddling someone, feeding someone, putting something away, have something in the wash.... AND still found the time and space to do some sewing! (BTW I'm very jealous of Karen - with two year old twins and a newborn and you should see all the stuff SHE gets done!!! she is just amazing!)

PJ bottoms for Jai, haven't taken a photo of Jordans, just need to team up with a plain top I can applique.

and a pram liner for Cheriese - soft dotty minky on one side and adorable unicorn quilting cotton for the other.

And now I can finally add 'updated blog' to my long list of accomplishments today too
;)

Brilliante Weblog Award

2008-07-20T23:11:00.004+09:30

The very talented AJ nominated me for this award, and I'm still blushing! I must admit to feeling a little guilty as my little blog has been getting a big neglected lately - I have quite a few things that I want to update in here, and hope to get around to it soon.

I never expected to get into blogging as much as I have - initially I set mine up as a way to share photos of my sewing with the EB sewing group. Now I find myself completely addicted to reading what everyone else in the blogging community is doing. It is wonderful to learn more about each other and I love seeing what everyone has been creating, it is so inspiring.

Here's the rules:
Put the logo on your blog.
Add a link to the person who awarded you.
Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
Add links to those blogs on yours.
Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I nominated the following:
Tigerfilly - I love reading her new posts, I can't believe how she gets the time to do all that she does in being a wonderful creative mama and a uni student too!
Karen from "And so, I sew" -Busy mum of twins and now counting down the days until her 3rd baby is due to arrive and she is still sewing up a storm!
Novy from "Little Munchkins" - I'm so jealous of all the sewing Novy does and how well she keeps her blog updated! She is also one of the first to answer the call of help to others too.
Marie from "Quirky Threads" - I was sad to hear that Marie wasn't continuing with her own clothing business as I enjoy seeing all her creations - Thankfully she is still sewing up a storm for not only her 2 children but herself as well!
Millipede from "Tin Whistle" - I am in awe over how much Milli gets done!!! Plus it's wonderful to see her 8 year old daughter sewing along too.
Lisa Barrett from "Homebirth: A Midwife Mutiny" - I love reading my wonderful midwife's blog, I find myself nodding away while reading her posts. I love reading about everyone else's homebirth stories and hope that more women will seek out an independant midwife and have an amazing homebirth just as I did.
Natalie from "Sweet Blue Photography" - Natalie is an amazing photographer who I was lucky enough have to do some maternity photos of me and some newborn photos of Cheriese as well! She has just started up her business so if you are in Adelaide make sure you make an appointment soon before she gets booked out!

Hmmmm now I'm really feeling quite inadequate, I feel as if I haven't made anywhere near enough to be in the same league as these lovely, talented ladies. Well I'm indeed all inspired and motivated now to get back into it again, so expect to see lots more posts in here from now on!

Natalie
xx

My Table Runner

2008-07-20T18:54:00.004+09:30

Now that AJ has received the table runner I sent her I can show it all off in here!

The front:

The back:
Close up:
Label:
I was really happy with how this turned out - I'm only a novice quilter and was impressed that I didn't have to unpick as much as I thought I would lol! The pattern I used was the "Moda Marbles Star Tablerunner". I had a wonderful time working on this and want to start working on a quilt for each of my boys now.
Thank you AJ for organising this swap!

Natalie
xx

Table Runner Swap Time

2008-07-16T17:58:00.004+09:30

I am part of a table runner swap with the EB Quilter's group and I received mine yesterday from the very talented Emma!

Close ups
I love the flower stitching!

Full view on my table

I absolutely love this runner, it is completely my style and the colours look fantastic against our deep chocolate table - I'm so lucky! Thank you so much Emma and also huge thank you to AJ for organising this swap.

Here's a sneaky peak of the one I made which is currently on it's way to it's recipient......
Natalie
xx

Finally a little sewing......

2008-06-11T10:10:00.003+09:30

I was so happy when my midwife had commented on the handbags on my website, she likes them to be a bit bigger than I usually make, so it was the perfect excuse I needed to get back to my (much missed) sewing machine.

In the end I picked out the Kaffe Fasset 'Paisley Jungle' print, as I think it suited Lisa the best. I quickly drafted a new pattern, based on the same simple rectangular one I always use, just made this one taller and wider. In the end this one measure 36cm tall, 26cm wide and the base is 10cm too, so it is nice and roomy!

Complete with my now standard zippered pouch, inner pockets, key chain holder and magnetic snap closure.

I was so happy with how this bag turned out, I really love the bigger size and actually need to make another one for me as I think it would be perfect for quick trips out to the shop instead of taking my really big nappy bag. This bigger size would easily fit in my purse, phone, keys, a couple of nappies, wipes and a change of clothes! Now the hard part....... deciding which fabric I want for my own lol!

Natalie
xx

In fabric heaven!!!!!!!!

2008-05-22T17:02:00.005+09:30

It has been lovely to get so many little parcels in the mail for myself - I'm part of the EB quilter's birthday fat 1/4 swap this year. What happens is you buy one fat 1/4 for each person and send it to them on their birthday, so then when it's your birthday you get all these beautiful fabrics sent back to you! It has been great to pick out different fabric for everyone and lovely to have other's carefully pick out fabric for me too.

Here's all the beautiful fabrics I was spoilt with on my birthday last week:
Top Row: Kylie, Helen, Cylie, Bec
Middle Row: Leah, Lily, Cass, AJ, Xena
Bottom Row: Emma, Adds, Joy, Mands (she also added the two pieces of animal and bugs fabric which will be great to use as a pocket piece or applique for my boys!)

Joy and Mands also sent along a quilting magazine each too, I've been reading them when I feed Cheriese on the couch - found some lovely projects I'd love to do one day.

Adds also included a present for Cheriese:
I love the little romper, the stitching on it gives it a 'quilted' look even! Jai keeps trying to take the rattle toy, but he tells me he's just "borrowing it, OK?" lol!

Thank you so much everyone, I love EVERYTHING and can't wait to start using it - I have so many ideas in mind now - just need some time!

My lovely DH surprised me with fabric yesterday too!!! He had to go into the Adelaide Hills for a customer appointment and I asked if he could go to the Patchwork Apple shop in Woodside as I have a cold at the moment and didn't feel up to driving in the hills feeling all tired and stuffed up. I wanted a specific fabric I bought there ages ago, as my midwife had eyed off a handbag but needed it to be larger. I want to make her a bigger one, so sent Steve a photo of the bag from my blog and instructions to get 1 metre of it for me. Sadly they had sold out, only had one fat 1/4 left, so when he rang me I asked him to just buy a metre of something similar. Well, he came home with a paper bag instead of a parcel and inside held FOUR metres of different fabric!!!

Amy Butler Lotus and Midwest, Michael Miller Ginger Blossom and Kaffe Fasset Paisley Jungle

He said he couldn't choose between them and so got them all. He said that I deserved something special as he'd had a very late night at work the night before (bosses were in Adelaide from interstate so meant a bit of a boozey dinner!) so e wanted to get me something to make up for his absence - note to self, email his boss to encourage MORE boozey work dinners ;)

Natalie
xx

Missing my skirts.........

2008-05-22T16:49:00.004+09:30

I am a BIG skirt girl - Hmmmm let me rephrase that, I mean I really love skirts and wear them whenever I can - which hasn't been much lately as mine don't fit me anymore (so I guess now I really am a BIG skirt girl lol!). I'm being very impatient, and have already tried on the bigger ones that I have here from my pre-pregnancy days, but of course 6 weeks after a baby I shouldn't expect to be able to fit into my cute size 8 - 10 side zippered skirts (Sad that I even tried!) So I was searching online for some easy patterns, was thinking of making a wrap skirt, but ended up finding a tutorial for a circle skirt. This tute was so easy, I had my fabric cut out in about 15 minutes and all up the sewing would've only taken about a 1/2 hour (although mine took several hours as I had a certain little miss to feed / change / feed and settle in between!) With the soft band (I used rib for this one) they are nice and comfortable and practical for (hopefully) soon to be shrinking waistlines!

Here's my first one,

Please excuse the dodgy photo, Steve snapped it quickly at the park on Mother's Day.

I have checked my stash and have about 3 different fabrics marked for some more too! Hope to whip up 1 or 2 over the next day or so.

Natalie
xx

Another beautiful gift!

2008-05-07T22:55:00.003+09:30

I got the most beautiful surprise in the post yesterday! The lovely Helen sent me a gorgeous baby quilt for Cheriese - I got all teary as I opened it up and read the card, I am just so touched to receive something so special. I was busy admiring all the lovely different fabrics she had used and then when I turned it over to see the backing fabric, I noticed that Helen had thoughtfully printed Chereise's photo onto the quilt label - what a wonderful idea!

Here are the photos I took today:

Thank you so much Helen! This is just such a beautiful and thoughtful gift. Cheriese will be enjoying many hours snuggling under this quilt, and even my boys have been squeezing themselves under it too. I feel so lucky to have such caring friends - I am so happy to have found this wonderful group of women of the EB sewing circle!

Natalie
xx

WIP Wednesday

2008-05-07T22:33:00.004+09:30

I haven't had much time for sewing lately, so I have been working on my knitting instead. I find it great to be able to pick up during the day or evening, knowing that I can easily put it back on the table if I need to do so quickly. I was able to finish this little cardigan on Sunday, it was a great feeling to finish stitching on the buttons and have Cheriese wearing it moments later! This is from the same Lincraft pattern book as the first cardigan I made.

As soon as I finished this, I was eager to start another knitting project. Cheriese doesn't really need anything else, I've had a few knitted cardigans and hats given to her -so decided against starting another thing for her. While shopping in Foodland (highly unlikely place to buy crafty items!) I came across this book:
So I had a quick look while in the aisle, picked this jumper pattern for Jai:
found the wool I needed and promptly got started the next morning, here's where I'm at so far:
I'm really excited about this pattern - finally not just a plain garter stitch one! Jai keeps looking at it saying it's not a jumper lol. I'm trying to explain that it gets bigger with each row I finish, but his expression tells me he's not believing it just yet! Now I just have to hope that I can finish it in time for him to wear when the weather turns really cold.

Natalie
xx

More beautiful handmade gifts!

2008-05-01T22:09:00.005+09:30

The spoiling continues, I received some more beautiful handmade gifts this week!

Firstly the lovely Joy called me on Tuesday asking if she could call in as she had something she wanted to drop off - adorable hand-dyed, hand knitted pants. They are just gorgeous, and can be seen on their own on Joy's blog here, and modeled so cutely by Cheriese below:

Thank you so much Joy, these are just so gorgeous - Cheriese will be getting lots of wear out of them!

I also got given some too cute beanies from my friend Alison. I had knitted one using the same pattern, but chose the smallest size which sadly is almost too small for Cheriese, so Alison gave me two more in the next size up:

Another friend, Jodie, gave me the cutest knitted cardigan I've ever seen! She made the same one for her own daughter when she was a baby. She also made an adorable beanie - it is a bit too big for Cheriese at the moment, but I'm sure it won't be long before she'll be able to wear it.
Unfortunately Cheriese was too tired for any more photos, so will have to get some more modeled shots later.

I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends. Handmade gifts made by beautiful people that enrich another person's life - it is very special.
Natalie
xx

Beautiful Gifts!

2008-04-22T21:33:00.005+09:30

I am feeling very spoilt at the moment. The other week I received a surprise parcel from the lovely Cass. She made me this adorable quilt, one that would be perfect for Cheriese to lie on with some toys. Cass cleverly thought of adding a tie to the back of it so that it can be easily rolled up, meaning it is nice and portable from room to room or house to house! Here's the all important photos.

All rolled up

The front

The back

Close up of the beautiful hand quilting

Being enjoyed by Cheriese!

Then today I received another surprise parcel! Jai brought the mail in and excitedly handed me a present from the lovely Karen - a gorgeous bib with a matching appliquéd long sleeve top for Cheriese! I was just admiring a similar set on her blog last night, so it was quite funny to have my own set in my hands today.

Exhausted after her photo shoot!

Thank you so much ladies, receiving these truly made my day. Knowing that someone else has taken the time to carefully make a gift with their own hands just for me is just a wonderful feeling. I feel very lucky to have met these beautiful people.

Natalie
xx

My little girl is here!!!

2008-04-16T10:39:00.005+09:30

Sorry for the delay in this announcement, but it has been quite hectic here the last week!

Cheriese Adrienne was born on 8th April (her EDD!!) at 2:30am weighing 3.375kg (7lb 7oz) 49cm long with a head circumference of 32cms. Our homebirth was just beautiful, totally amazing and perfect in every way, with Jordan and Jai in awe at seeing their little sister come into this world.

I will get around to writing my birth story properly later on, for now I'll do as Helen suggested and just fill this post with her gorgeous photos!

Now I just need to find some time to do some lovely girly sewing for my new little miss!

Natalie
xx

New Curtains

2008-03-16T15:22:00.001+10:30

I have some new curtains to make now, one set for the baby's room and another for Jordan's room. I just can't find the right size in the fabric I like in ready mades, so hoped I wasn't tackling too much of a big job being so late in this pregnancy. I'm happy to report, that so far so good - it has been as straight forward as I hoped it would be. I started on the pale pink ones for the baby's room, here's one down,

and the matching one is almost finished, (just have to fold down the top hem and stitch on the pencil pleat tape on that one). Then I will get Steve to put up the curtain track so I can check the length before I sew the bottom hems on both of them.

Then I'll get started on Jordan's too - which should come together even a little bit quicker as I now know exactly what I'm doing!

It feels so good to be regularly sewing again!
Natalie

Sewing for the nursery!

2008-03-10T16:54:00.008+10:30

It's is amazing the wonderful feeling you can get from doing something so simple. I bought a new bassinet for the baby (our other one had gotten damaged in the shed from mold) and trimmed it with the ribbons I'd bought:

think I'll add another pink bow to the canopy part as well ;)

Yesterday I finished sewing up the baby wipes I'd started cutting out earlier in the week. I had a bit of a chuckle to myself at how careful I was being, I mean in the end they are just going to be used to wipe a dirty little bottom, but I was as proud of them as any other outfit I could've been making lol.

After looking online, I went with what I saw as the most popular fabric combination, soft flanelette on one side and terry toweling on the other. Might get another half metre or so of the same fabric to make up a few more, think I might need a little bit more than 20 of them!

And here's some progress photos of the nursery - still not 100% finished (you can see some boxes waiting for assembly still in the corner, one is a shelf and the other is a toy/storage box) but the painting and wallpaper border is all done. Steve is just about to start putting the cot together and I need to get some curtains - will check out the Spotlight sale tomorrow!

Close up of the border and paint colours

Can't believe I'm 36 weeks today, only around 4 weeks or so and my little girl will be here!

Natalie
xx

WIP Wednesday

2008-03-05T11:11:00.007+10:30

I've been meaning to do WIP Wednesday for ages now, but I ususally only remember when it's Thursday, so wait another week lol!

Two main WIP for me at the moment are the baby and our renovations. I'll start with the WIP baby progress!

All going great with this pregnancy, although little miss has decided to take her time to settle head down, so I have been doing lots of different exercises to encourage her to turn and also have an appointment with my chiro on Friday to do the Webster Technique which is supposed to have around an 80% success rate in getting babies to turn the right way. This week I've been busy doing all the clothes washing:
And still have this lot to do:
I had my baby shower on Sunday, thrown by one of my best friends Jenni (who was also the best woman at our wedding).
She went all out with the decorations, there was pink balloons, streamers, baby confettii and she even made this gorgeous baby cradle cake:

I too went crazy and got all excited about having an excuse to make PINK cupcakes!
I had such fun making up the baby shower invitations,
and made up matching thank you gift boxes, that had scented sachets, a small candle and candle holder that I decorated with ribbon trims and ribbon roses and also some handmade chocolates.
My friend Jess was also my photographer for the day and I love this photo she snapped of me checking the fit of one of the little outifts!

Jess also made this amazing nappy cake! It was so pretty I didn't want to unwrap it.
But I did and amongst the cute photo frame, keepsakes, booties and elephant teddy and under the lovely blankets I found these lovely terry towellig flat nappies that she'd dyed pink and purple:
to go along with the rest of my MCN stash:
(top row: Baby beehinds magicalls size small, baby beehinds bamboo fitteds, bubblebubs size newborn and small, yellow swaddlebees, pink bumgenious, hot pink itti bitti delish and bamboo baby greens, printed cushie tushies and red pea pod. Bottom row: baby beehinds pul covers in small and medium size, baby beehinds magicalls in medium size, orange tots bots pul cover and gorgeous bubblebubs wetbag)

Now for our WIP renovations!

The builders are on schedule and so far we have the floor, internal walls, windows and today we are getting the internal doors fitted. All that's left is a bit of plastering, cornercies, skirtings and the floor to be sanded and polished. Then we can do the painting and move Jordan into his new room. For the moment we have put his bed into Jai's room so we can start re-paining his old room ready for the baby. My dad has been helping and has done all the undercoating so we are ready to paint the colours this weekend!

Here's some progress shots:

new sliding door replaced the window that was in the dining room

Back view, Jordan's room - window getting put in

View from Jordan's new room into the backyard

inside Jordan's room, space ready for the built in wardrobe

cutting the doorway through to the lounge room

view from the lounge room, door way cut through

Front window put in - this room will be the new home office for Steve

So it is all so close to being finished and I can't wait, as you can imagine it is total chaos inside the rest of my house!

Sewing wise, I'm also in the middle of making up some baby wipes, sewing the ribbons onto the new bassinette liner and hoping to get some time in the next day or so to trace off the pattern pieces for the nappy bag I want to make. So looks like it's going to be another busy few days ahead!

Natalie
xx

Valentine's Day Swap

2008-02-21T11:18:00.005+10:30

Time for another swap with the EB sewing girls! This time we were doing a direct swap and my partner was Marie. Here's the lovely things she sent me:

A gorgeous short sleeve romper:

and a too cute purple set - Marie is so talented, the clothes are so professionally made, much better than any bought piece!
A lovely vintage pattern, a fabric covered photo album (this will make a lovely brag book for the new baby!), and some adorable fabric (the green one is just adorable with the little baby in the cabbage!). There was also a block of Cadbury Maccadamia chocolate, that the boys have been helping me eat too! Thank you so much Marie!!!!

Here's what I sent Marie:
In the end I was really stuck as to what to make for this swap. After flicking through some of my magazines for inspiration I decided to make an apron, I ran with the valentine's theme and found a lovely red floral fabric and then used it to applique the hearts onto the pocket:

Lovingly modelled by Jai:
I loved making this and really need to make one for myself!!!

I've been making some hairclips recently so wanted to make some up for Jalisa too:

And I didn't want Scott to feel left out, so appliqued a heart shape onto a face washer for him.
I also included some red buttons, pink heart buttons and these adorable butterfly embellishments that I found on a US ebay site.
I've been using the butterflies on the hairclips I've made but think they would also look adorable sewn onto tops and singlets!
Hope you like it all Marie! Thanks for being a great swap partner (again lol!) and thanks to Kylie for organising the swap too.
Natalie
xx

New Fabric!

2008-02-21T10:54:00.007+10:30

I just love new fabric!!! I try to buy with an item in mind, but other times I see something that is just too cute and just have to have ;) Here's some of my recent lovelies:

All of these from Retro Mummy - Jack and the beanstalk I think will be some shorts for Jai (next year), lovely retro fabric for a bag for me, the skipping girl fabric (I already have the skipping boy one so want to make some matching applique tops for the boys and their sister!), Jungle fabric - mainly bought it to cut out for appliques, maybe some bibs too, and a cute little nursery rhyme print too.
And also this adorable cupcake fabric - one that I'm not entirely sure what I'll make with, but it was just too cute to let slip by.
I think it would look very cute as a little pini and maybe some bibs with what's left over.

Here's some from a recent trip to Spotlight:
This is a lovely knit that had gone down to only $6 per metre, so bought 2.5 metres. I plan to make the top and ruffle pants from the pattern first, and then look at the other items on there too with what's left over.

Unicorn flanellette!!! I just HAD to have this as I am doing a Unicorn theme for the baby's room. I'm a bit stuck as to what to make from it, only ever used flannel for pjs, but think I will start off with a padded change mat cover, maybe some bibs (looks like I'll be making lots of bibs lol!) and perhaps a few cushions to scatter around the room.

This was on the clearance rack for only $3 per metre. Think it will make a lovely dress and pini.

This shirred fabric was in a remnant bag with a few other pieces - will make a lovely dress!

I had intended on covering the baby bassinette I bought for Jai, as the one I got for him was all blue, so I went off to Spotlight, found the vogue pattern and then picked out the fabric and ribbon trim to make it. Unfortunately when Steve got the bassinette out of the shed we found that it must've gotten damp as it had gotten mouldy. So I ended up going out and buying a lovely plain white one, so will use the ribbons to sew around the top and bottom, just like the pattern and have decided to use the fabric to re-cover my glider chair cushions instead!

Lastly, the lovely Ingrid from Lottielulu had gone through her pattern stash and offered some up to us EB sewing girls. I was lucky enough to pick the Simplicity pattern, I thought it was just so adorable! We had gotten some bad news about Steve's job, along with 600 other employees nationwide, he was made redundant. So Ingrid sent along all these other lovely extras as a 'cheer up' package for me. It also ended up being a 'good luck' package as Steve signed an offer with a new company the next day!
I can't wait to use the fabric, it is all just so beautiful. Ingrid even included some of her postcards, magnets and calender too - I just love her logo. Thank you so much Ingrid, I'm lucky to have such a caring and thoughtful friend!

Natalie
xx