Filling the void

Hello!!

Yeah, it's been a while...

This year has taken us by storm. Lots of things new and, mostly exciting, things have happened.

It took me a while to get into the swing of being a stay-at-home parent with no kids at home during the day.

Someone turned six!

Once I got used to that I found my feet and a number of job opportunities each as diverse as the next have, serendipitously, come my way.

I've become part of some really wonderful communities; at school, groups that are an extension from school and of course my gorgeous crafty friends and am enjoying some amazing friendships and experiences  from such.

We did the snow in style, with snow cones!

We've had road trips and holidays and play dates, seen stage shows and exhibitions, celebrated birthdays, had dress up days, taken up new hobbies and interests and welcomed a new fluffy member to our family, and these three fabulous people continue to make my heart sing and amaze me every single day.

Our new family member at the beach for the first time

And then of course there's been sewing - quite a bit of sewing, none of which is never enough, and most of which I don't have photos of.

Bright eyed and enthusiastic about the world and learning like never before

But I have missed this little space.
A place to share and to record my experiences and to offer advice or opinions or just have a little rant as the case may be.

I plan to be back here more often in the future.
I hope you might be too.

So, what have I been doing??

Days for Girls kits provide vital sanitary supplies for girls in developing countries

Despite the lack of blogging there has certainly not been a lack of sewing here - just that I either forgot to photograph it or didn't think it was interesting enough!!

I made a bunch of things for the kinder fete, then the school fair, some skirts for a lovely friend to give her daughters for Christmas, a special parting gift for the smallest child to give to her kinder as her foray into school brings an end our association with them.

Then I made my first ever Men's shirt for a "summer Santa" to wear at the school market which lead me to make my Father-in-law a Negroni shirt for Christmas (I got the pattern from the lovely ladies at The Drapery in Adelaide).

As well as that, in the last week, with the help of my lovely niece, I completed the remainder of the bags for the Days for Girls kits we started working on back in October and the first very colourful ten kits are now on their way to a group of girls in Zanzibar.

There's new sewing on my table too - summery shorts for long-legged children!

Starting anew...

                     

People often use the New Year as an excuse to start afresh - and I am doing the same.

It's time to rejuvenate my poor neglected blog and in some ways, apply the same thinking to my life.

I spent a lot of 2013 serving the needs of others and while there is always good to come from this, it left me feeling like there was not much space left for meeting my own needs... from a health perspective, from an intellectual perspective and from a creative perspective.

The Christmas break has provided me with time to reassess my goals; for life, for family, for me.

I'm kicking it off with a fresh new look for my blog.
Hope to share the highs, the lows and the challenges that 2014 brings with you.

Could. Not. Put. It. Down.

I love it when I find a book that is so good all I want to do is hide myself away and read.

(Of course finding it during the school holidays was not ideal given this, at times, almost overpowering urge!)

This is one such book. It's an 'Oooh a red light, I can squeeze in a paragraph or two', 'read-while-you-stir-the-porridge', 'just-one-more-chapter-then-I'll-go-to-sleep' kind of book.

It was literally the thriller of the year, well so far at least.

There were times when I both loved and hated each of the lead characters, sometimes both at the same time...

The author is apparently working on the screenplay.

All I can say is I will be keeping an eye out for further works by Gillian Flynn.

Staking my claim

I'm jumping on the Bloglovin' bandwagon and have claimed my blog over there.

I hope that you will continue to follow along with my blog by clicking that little button with the blue plus sign over there on the right under the WHO, WHAT, WHERE and WHY section.

If I'm not back in a few days maybe send a search party as I could be buried under this mountain of zips, part of a huge haul of sewing gear that I am sharing with a few lovely friends.

This is just some of the dress zips, there are also open ended, chunky and jeans zips!!

PS - Follow, follow, follow, follow should be sung to the tune of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" from The Wizard of Oz for the most mirth!!

Super Swapping

I love it when I find something for the girls that I remember fondly from my childhood, so I was particularly pleased recently when I found swap cards at my local newsagent.

The Seasons set

The FOREVER CLOVER cards are made in Australia, Melbourne in fact, and feature a group of six friends called Abbey, Kate, Olivia, Maddi, Emma and Matilda.

Each girl has a card that introduces them and tells you their favourite colour, pet, school subject, sport, hobby, food and the like so you get to 'know' them.

Some are glitter cards, which are favourites.

The girls also have certain real -life traits that endear them to their audience such as fair skin that needs lots of SPF 30+, a peanut allergy and the need to wear glasses.

Very happy not to have them underfoot anymore!

You can get albums with plastic sleeves to keep them in which are far fancier than the elastic band I used to wrap around them as a kid!

These have proven in our house to be the ultimate reward, something I much prefer to use than food or money.
If the task completed needs a small reward a single card or two will do the trick rather than a pack of six.
They don't get them every time they do something as we believe there are some things you should just do as part of being in a family.

They encourage discussion, compromise and negotiation when swapping in in order, and now they understand the concept of swapping and have stopped simply giving them away, although that was quite nice too.

The full set of friend cards with each girl's likes and dislikes.

I must admit we have given a pack to a few of the girls' friends to see if they are interested in them, as our little swappers are running out of people to swap with!

I love these cards because they show regular girls doing regular things such as sport, school, hobbies and having fun together.

What do you use to reward or encourage certain behaviour in your children??

PS - I have no affiliation with Forever Clover, nor was I given anything for free for doing this post - I just really like this product.

Thirsty??

Miss A and her friend Miss A decided they wanted to have a lemonade stand and after about a month the two mums realised they weren't going to forget about it so we planned a date.

Yesterday the exciting day came.  Rain in the morning resulted in tears but by afternoon it was a lovely clear sunny day.

So chalkcloth bunting was hung...

Everyone helped with the decorating

Signs the girls had made were put up for all to see...

Lemonade, Anzacs and choc chip cookies on the menu

Straws and cups had been decorated...

Fantastic free printables came from this fabulous site

And of course lemonade had been made...

Love me a striped paper straw

The weather stayed fine and the customers started to roll in...

Yes that is Cookie Monster on the sign - they are six years old after all!

The two little shopkeepers worked hard for two solid hours...

Serving all who came - including their school Principal who they decided to invite!

Counting the money and making change was a bit of a challenge!

They were friendly and kind to all who came...

Two little buddies

And worked really well together to serve customers ...
"you hold the cups and I'll pour this time..."

They quickly discovered teamwork was the way to go.

And everyone had a great day.

More fabulous free printables cut with a pinking rotary cutter

Half the proceeds will go to the Social Services collection at school and the other half two little girls split.

And the next lesson is spending versus saving!!

Love in a brown box...

Last weekend we took another little road trip.

We went for a visit to somewhere I have been meaning to go for a while, Millrose Cottage in Ballan.

Apart from wanting to peruse their gorgeous fabric collection and have lunch in their cafe I wanted to meet up with my bloggy friend, lovely Lizzie.

While we were there we saw Jan taking a class just outside the store, printing images from nature onto fabric - just one of the courses available through Millrose.

This stamp is made using five erasers on a block of wood

The girls, of course, showed an interest in what they were doing and before we knew it they had been invited to join in, were aproned up and stamping and printing to their heart's content.

Jan was such a patient and welcoming teacher!

They used rollers and stamping blocks and printed leaves onto fabric...

All dressed up and ready to print

They told me all about the techniques they used and how lovely the ladies were...

Using a cardboard roll to print was one of the techniques used

They proudly showed me their work - each having a large piece of fabric to take home with them...

They thoroughly enjoyed their printing session under the trees at Millrose. 

And so did I, because it gave me the time to sit down with the shop owner, Sue, for her to teach me the basics and get me started on the lovely thing that came home in this box...

Love really is a brown box tied with a red ribbon!!

Here's one example of the results of their work, pretty good for their first session...

So thanks to these three lovelies...

This ace guy...

and the very lovely Lizzie and Sue from Millrose for enabling me to have such a great day.

I think all my Christmases really did come at once!

All the fun of the fair

I seem  to have missed the last day of Blogtoberfest - oops sorry about that!

I had a great time posting for the month of October, I posted 24 times - so missed the equivalent of a week - not too bad I think - I wasn't quite as tuned in as past years but it was fun.

Now onto the present...

On the weekend we went along to an agricultural show with a real country feel - The Whittlesea Show just beyond the far northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Ready for blast off!!

Miss G was invited by her kinder friend, Master L (seen in the background of this pic) to join him on this special outing that he goes on with his dad.

Master L choosing to invite a little girl it made it tricky for his dad, after all, as a father of two boys, what would he do when it came time for the loo!
So 'The guy who lives here' went along with them and I travelled up separately with our two oldest, leaving the small kids to explore together.

They flew...

And away we go!

and jumped...

A personalised session in the jumping castle

and spun...

Just watching made me dizzy!!

around and around...

Glad this was before ice creams and doughnuts!!

had a win on the Laughing Clowns, and yes she did wear these as we walked around - much to the delight of passers-by...

Pretty pleased with herself don't you think!!

they slipped and slid...

Emerging from the shark's mouth

and literally drove their Dad around in circles!

Small kid at the wheel - pedestrians beware!!

There were new experiences to be enjoyed, tentatively...

I think she liked it!

and with gusto!

Flying high - in her element

Of course I couldn't go past the homecraft section without having a look.

This dress made entirely from recycled business shirts, by a secondary school student, really caught my eye...

Why didn't we do things like this in textiles when I was at school???

There are crafty ladies I know who might like to enter something next year, my girls are keen to have a go like I know Tan's kids have (just couldn't find the post on her blog!!)

Lara - you must have many projects worthy of an entry??

and there were the works of others to be marvelled at.

A worthy winner

And what would a country show be without some woodchopping and show jumping (which I didn't get a picture of!)

What the real blokes were doing!

This guy demolished the log - it was amazing to watch, he was so powerful.

This guy would make short work of getting firewood!!

There was an animal nursery...

A cute chick with a cute chick!

and of course some vintage machinery that I couldn't resist checking out!

Fancy a spot of sewing anyone??

It was a really lovely day and we fully appreciated that Master L's dad, having done it all before, had the details all sorted and gave us the excellent advice of, get there early!!

When it was time for us to leave, the queues for the tickets were huge - to say nothing of the ones for the rides themselves.

Do yourself a favour and check out the ag shows local to you - or take a day trip and support the great primary producers this country has - after all it is The Year of the Farmer.