Roar

We went to the zoo

A small tiger followed us home

I think I'll keep her.

Super stuff

I got my first paid job!!

A friend asked me to produce caped-T's for her son and daughter's joint birthday party.

She's going with a superhero theme so all the little guests will be given a shirt when they arrive, girls and boys alike.

I had a great time selecting colours of shirts and fabric to make up this lot of 11 appliqued T's with capes and two additional capes in sparkly fabric, one each for the birthday girl and boy.

I used one of my favourite Michael Miller prints, Retro Rockets, for the birthday boy's cape and pink gingham for the little girl.

Can't wait to see them all on.

Plotting and planning

My husband says I am strange.

But surely I am not the only one who lies awake working out which of the pile of new patterns they bought from Crafty Mama's they will try first;

or what project to make with the stack of gorgeous coordinates from the Andalucia range by Patty Young that their mum (and dad, but let's face it, this was mum's doing!) bought them for their birthday;

or which of the projects currently underway will be set aside in order to dive into this Joel Dewberry Ginseng fabric from Amitie destined to be 2+2 blouses from Oliver +s.

and surely thoughts of making up this gorgeous top from Ottobre with some sweet Amy Butler fabric would be enough to make anyone toss and turn just a little...

I am normal aren't I??

Let's dress up

Justine Clarke is a big favourite in this household.

You may remember we went to see her in concert and then 'Santa' had me make some giant cutlery for the two big girls to use as a prop when dancing to one of Justine's tracks, Mrs Knife and Mr Fork.

This came about as they insisted on getting something to use with every track.

Umbrellas and boots for It's starting to rain; rabbit ears for Hop Hippity Hop and a teddy for If my Teddy Bear could talk.

That was all tolerable.

It's when it came to using a real knife and fork for dancing, that things became a bit dangerous. Hence the big soft ones.

Justine has a lot to answer for really.

These pics are the result of her song Let's dress up.

(Make sure you check out the footwear)

And Miss A insists her hat is a 'witcher' hat, and nothing will convince her otherwise, after all Justine sings "When the witches went to the witches ball there were 100 witches in the hall"

Sing that and see what the word witch sounds like!

I *heart* swaps!

My lovely man and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day so the gift I received today came from someone with a similar love to mine..... sewing!

I was paired up with Fiona and she sent me a fantastic bundle of goodies as part of the EB sewing haberdashery swap.

You know haberdashery - the cute stuff we all love to have in our stash; like ribbons, ric rac, cute buttons and motifs and the practical stuff; like pins, zips and elastic.

Fiona sent me the bunch of loveliness shown below;

Handmade magazine featuring a One Red Robin softie, ric rac in two colours, three different ribbons/trims (look at that lovely cherry one), a retractable tape measure - doesn't that just scream out to be in your handbag for measuring on the run, self-cover buttons, red snaps and pins.

Super-cute Hello Kitty buttons, a pattern with frilly knickers (which I can never resist), some cotton, and gorgeous five funky monkeys fabric which made Miss L's jaw drop as her fave song at the moment is "Five cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed".

It was all wrapped up in a bag that Fiona made from an Oh Fransson pattern which can fold within itself to fit in your glovebox or another bag when you head to the shops.

Thanks so much Fiona, it was a lovely start to my day.

What to include is based on a little list of likes and dislikes, and because I am not sure that my partner has a blog, here's what went Jess's way.

I made her a babushka pin cushion and thankfully she likes them too!

A pack of buttons with lots of blues, purple and aqua which she said were her favourite colours, some pins, iron on tranfers motifs, a cross-stitch, some ric rac and braided ribbon and a pile of small fabric pieces as she said she was trying her hand at softie making.

The hard part with swaps is estimating what to send so you don't send to little or too much - I hope Jess was happy with it all.

At last, she sews!

You were probably starting to wonder if the title of this blog was really appropriate - but here's some proof that it is.

We have a huge number of birthdays between mine on Feb 4 and my oldest two girls, Misses L & A on March 9, so there are lots of handmade gifts to be created for this period.

These were for the 3rd birthday of twin friends who had their party on that super-hot Saturday we just experienced.

First off, a round-necked retro-styled top.

I love, love, love this fabric (as you can tell by my header) - it is of course by Sandi Henderson from her Farmers Market range.

I often struggle with what to make for little boys so I whipped up a pattern for a tool belt and filled it with plastic play tools and a real carpenter's pencil (not sure his mum will thank me for that!).

And just to finish things off an appliqued T for them both.

The 'Mary had a little lamb' one has a little lost sheep on the back as well, is was a great idea I saw on some shirts made by Leah of the blog Mummy Made It - it's a lovely little touch. I hope you don't mind Leah!!

As well as these, I appliqued a few T's using fabric that features the characters from the Eric Carle book 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?'

Eric Carle is probably best known for the classic book of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.

'Brown Bear, Brown Bear' is an absolute favourite of my two older girls, and if you have kids aged between 0 and 3 and don't have this book I would highly recommend you go and get yourself a copy.

It's a simple rhyming book with fabulous big colour illustrations off all the animals mentioned, blue horse, green frog, yellow duck and purple cat among them.

I also made three tote bags using this fabric - two for my girls and another for a friend who started kindergarten last week. Pics of them another time.

That's enough for one day I think!

Some numbers

46.4
The number of degrees celcius the temperature reached yesterday.

115.5
The same temperature coverted to farenheit

2.5
The number of minutes it took for the house to heat up where we were attending a 3 year-old birthday party in the afternoon.

640
The number of homes lost in bushfires today - with the number still rising.
Unfortunately the number of lives lost is also rapidly growing.

Like most in this state I am tonight thanking the powers that be for the fact that my family and home are intact after a terrible day of fires that tore lives apart.

On a much more positive note, this number
28
the number of the comment that won my giveaway.
Congratulations Kylie, I will be in touch to ask a few questions and get together something appropriate for you.

Happy 100 to me!

Wow, 100 posts, who'd have thought it!

To celebrate 100 posts (and the fact that it's also my birthday today!) I thought one of you lovely people out there in blogland should get a present.

I don't really know what it will be - depends on you and what suits you. But I will get together a little something and send it your way.

So leave me a comment and I will randomly draw out a winner on Friday who will get a surprise in the mail.

Don't just leave an "I want to win" comment, tell me a funny story or something great about your day or what the highlight of your week has been. Anything really, I don't mind.

I'll be celebrating with cupcakes in the park and two very excited little girls who will no doubt make me wear a party hat.

Enjoy.