Oh me oh my!!

Look what the postie brought to my house ...

Putting time and effort into sewing an item for a swap is always a bit of a risk.

Will the person you sewed for like what you've made, will you receive a parcel at the end of it all and will you like what you have been sent?

The answer for me to that last question is a resounding YES!!!!

I was lucky enough to receive a parcel from the lovely Ingrid of Lottielulu and I have to say that when I saw her name on the parcel yesterday I did a small happy dance on my front porch!

Having seen the sneak peek she had on her blog I couldn't wait til this morning to open the parcel, and it is every bit as divine as I anticipated.

Tha cape is of the most delicious raspberry red baby-wale cord and is lined with soft velvet in a bright pink Oilily reprint, and it is teamed with a denim and pink/Oilily print reversible pini-style dress!

Keep in mind that Ingrid drafted her own pattern for the cape.

It has little slots for Miss G's hands to come through and shaped shoulders so it will sit just right.

Divine.

I want the weather to turn cold immediately so I can dress her in it!!

Thank you so much Ingrid - we feel very lucky to have a Lottielulu creation in Miss G's wardrobe and really appreciate the time and effort that has gone into it.

Thanks also for organising the swap - no mean feat I know. I will definitely be in for next year.

And then they were three

Two lovely ladies turned three last week.

Because of circumstances beyond their control it's become a birthweek instead of a birthday with the celebrations concluding on Sunday, a full six days after their actual birthday.

Still who minds having to eat more cake, not them that's for sure.

I didn't make new birthday dresses - they looked sweet in the ones I made for Christmas so they did the trick.

I did however get stuck into the two cakes and having the girls request two of their favourite storybook characters made their book-mad mum very happy to oblige, and so Olivia the pig and Maisy Mouse joined the party.

I posted more pics last year on their birthday if you want a trip down the lane of my memory.

My lovely girls, you were super-cute as babies and every day you grow more and more gorgeous, spirited, bright, happy and fun-filled. You light up my world and I am so proud to be your mum.

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!

Little surfer girls

Happy New Year - 2009 - wow!

We've been enjoying some sun and surf and have discovered that since last summer our sand-bunny has turned into a mad surfer girl.

Subsequently I can't get that Beach Boys song "Little surfer girl" out of my head - it's probably stuck in yours too now.

We've been picnicing with family,

learning to toast marshmallows on the fire,

driving off into the distance in a sand car,

playing on the beach with dad

and of course tackling the waves.

I took a break from the sewing machine for a good ten days (possibly a record except when giving birth), and am now deciding what to tackle next.

A bundle of new Oliver + S and Indygo Junction patterns from here has got my mind ticking over again.

I'll be back with a list of things to try/do for the year to come - hopefully you'll join me on a few.

Here's hoping 2009 is a good one for you all.

Crazy Christmas Crafting

If I got as much crafting done all year round as I do just before Christmas, I'd be able to generate enough stock for that much dreamed of market stall.

Though my lovely husband would probably leave me...

With three kids under three to care foron my own...

So then I'd get no crafting done at all...

I'll be finished with this madness soon... I promise!

That said I love every minute I spend at the sewing machine making presents and if I had the luxury of a full-time housekeeper/cook (or was happy to live in utter squalor), I'd sew the days away.

There are lots of pics to follow, so take a deep breath and dive on in!

First some stencilling

I'm loving doing these and have been learning lots of new things;

Like make sure you don't use the steam setting on your iron or the freezer paper won't stick and your image will bleed at the edges.

(aaah - thanks Hoppo Bumpo)

And the tip from Lisa to put a piece of cardboard between the layers to absorb the paint and then switch that for wax paper as it dries.

This is for my trumpet-playing 9 y.o nephew

These for my friend's 2 y.o son

and this for his 4 y.o sister

These are the Pink Fig tops I have been making, have I mentioned how much I love this pattern? Yeah I thought I had!

I made these two for friends and loved them so much I repeated the colour combos; for one for Misses L and G.

This is Miss A's - the yellow lover.

This was for a friend who saw the original one I made Miss L and loved it. No more of that fabric left unfortunately - but I will be trying to get somemore - maybe in the bluish colourway as well as I love it for this shirt.

Here's Miss G in her new shirt - and wearing jeans just like the big girls.

Thanks again Cass for the floral fabric in G's shirt, I love it It is some of what you sent me as part of the big Bulldogs vs Swans bet (just had to mention it one more time didn't I!).

And lastly another caped-T - in the reverse colour-combo to the first one.

OK - breathe out now, I'm done.
For the moment.

Guess what???

Someone has cut their first tooth.

And is feeling pretty pleased with herself about it.

I'm not.

She's tested it out on me a couple of times....

Hopefully just a phase.

The man in pink????

We're doing the rounds of Christmas parties at the moment and the fat guy in the red suit has made appearances at two in the last two days, much to the two big girls' delight.

(though sitting on his knee is a serious business!)

But before we get to that, let me tell you about the big 'Santa Suit Saga' that started on Thursday.

I made a Santa suit about nine years ago.

My husband insisted it be the real deal - lush red velvet and white faux fur trim, despite the heat of an Aussie summer.

And no cheap and straggly beard for him, no sir. A genuine theatrical wig and full beard - again not great for the heat but very nice to look at.

For the first seven years it was only my man who wore the suit as we had no kids so he was happy to dress up and and play the role for other family members.

Since the red coat has now been handed on to others, it was decided the suit (which was only ever worn about twice each year for about 30 minutes each time), was in need of a scrub up.

So I washed it.

And all the lovely fur trimmings turned PINK!

Yep, I looked in the machine on gentle cycle to see pink suds. I cried a little, then headed to Spotlight for more white fur and got out my trusty unpicker and started the task at hand.

It had to be ready for a Christmas party Saturday lunch.

It could only be worked on when the girls were napping or in bed for the night. (Mummy why do you have Santa's suit???)

There was fur on pants cuffs, hat edge, hat pom pom, coat centre, neck and bottom edge as well as sleeve cuffs.

I also had three tops to finish for our girls to wear.

There was swearing.

There was much appreciated assistance from the man of the house.
There was a little blood (damned sharp things those unpickers!)

There were two very late nights in a row.

But it got done.

And it looked great.

And the wonder in my girls' eyes when Santa arrived at the parties ringing his bell made it all worth it, every sleepless minute.

Gratuitous baby shot

The title says it all really!

One for the little chick

It's late, and I should be sleeping rather than blogging, but I finally finished a pair of rompers that have been slowly coming together over the last week and wanted to share them with you.

(Excuse the 'flashed' photography of this shot - it's night time and I haven't ironed these either, the legs actually are even!! The colours are also richer than this shows. But you get the idea.)

Sometimes there don't seem to be enough hours in the day - a common problem I know, but it frustrates me that a somewhat simple project can take a number of short sittings over a few days to complete rather than a straight out 1-2 hours.

Regardless of how they came to be, I am really happy with the result.

Yes they're bright - but that's the way I like it!
No soft pastel pinks for my little chick, it's bright birds all the way.

The orange spot is just from Spotlight but matched perfectly with the Erin McMorris birds.

The pattern is from Ottobre 3/2007, design 5. See, they started life as pink rompers.

Here's the haul!

OK I've been promising for long enough, so here are a few pics of the haul!

Purchased pre-Aussie dollar crash I might add - hooray, for once I bought at the top of the downslide rather than the bottom.

These are from the Farmers Market range by Sandi Henderson as mentioned in the last post.

Destined to be more dresses and skirts and maybe some shorts???

Here they are in a pile - just 'cos they're pretty like that! (OK excessive fabric love is an illness - I know!)

These I adore, they are from the Park Slope range by Erin McMorris.

I can't begin to tell you how rich the colours of this range are - you can't begin to appreciate them til you hold them in your hands because pictures don't do it justice.

And here's all the loveliness that Cass sent me for our bet on the footy! She overpaid me - it was for 1 metre of fabric (what else would sewing girls bet on!) and she sent all this great stuff.

Looking forward to sharpening up the scissors and cutting into it all.

We've been busy...

... catching up with family from interstate.

There have been cousins to meet for the first time;

Sudsy Lux bubbles to play with;

Daisy chains to make;

dressing up to do;

and running, lots of running;

with a few naps thrown in for good measure;

Then there's the challenge of getting eight children to smile and look in one direction at one time, well almost!

There has been some sewing recently too - but that will have to wait til next post, once we've all recovered!

Sunny days

It's happened again.
All I can say is "wow".

Someone I've never met IRL has been kind enough to create (and send from overseas) a handmade gift for our new baby girl.

Charity is a very talented knitty-type girl from Canada to whom I sent a couple of sewing patterns a while back (yep she can sew too).

She has four children of her own, including a new baby, yet took time in all that she does looking after her brood to make this super-cute hat for Miss G to wear this summer.



It's the softest, silkiest thing I have felt in ages and it's the sort of vibrant colour that just makes you happy. The design is called "On the Sunny Side". How perfect.

It's a little big for her noggin at the moment, so Charity said it would be OK to use the pic she took for her blog.
Considering the current growth rate of our little lady it will be a perfect fit this summer.

If you're another clever knitty-type person who wants the details of the hat - check out Charity's blog entry here.

Experiences such as this through this blogging thing really restore your faith in people and provide a wonderful sense of community.
Thanks again Charity.