Day 287 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all. About 9 hours of the year left here. Wishing you all love and happiness in 2013. And maybe a little adventure too. x x

 

Day 286 - Edgar the Elephant.

Hello! This is Edgar he loves reading, cuddles, and riding down slides. xx

Day 285 - Hat gets new life.

Someone complained that they had the most boring hat in the family. So today we rectified the problem.

Before:

After:

Happy Camper!

Day 284 - Food Craft

Today is a food craft day, followed by a big day out with my family. A lovely relaxing day which was exactly what we needed.

She requested pancakes for brekky so these are the pink pancakes of love. She also wanted a 'flower and strawberry' cake, so I made marshmallow and jaffa flowers. It's an orange cake inside.

Day 283 - Birthday stuff

Princess J is turning 6 tomorrow! So today is birthday craft. These are her presents and homemade card, and a huge rainbow I painted for her with some gold coins at the end that I am going to hang in her room while she is asleep for her to wake up to in the morning.

Day 282 - A doll - hospital inspired :-)

While Dylan was in hospital the nurse gave the other kids some plain calico dolls to draw on and keep them occupied when they visited. Liam was quite inspired by this and ended up making his into superman.

He asked me to help him to make another one today so we did this together. It's a quiet day to be with my family and share activities with them.

Photos of the hospital doll, Liam cutting out a pattern which I then sewed, Liam stuffed it and decorated it.

Now he has a new toy. :-)

Days 279 - 281 From the hospital

Hi everyone. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying some quiet time.

Unfortunately I have been absent from my blog not for good reasons. My little man Dylan woke up from a long sleep a couple of days ago with a strange lump and redness on his neck and I quickly rushed him to emergency. We have been in hospital since then. It has been the worst Christmas of my life but I am happy to say that he is now on the mend, and we are home and could not be happier to be here.



I was at the ironing board on day 279 pressing these pjs when Dylan woke up, so these are 3/4 complete.

I came home for an hour to locate all the presents for my hubby on Christmas eve and did a little bit of wrapping -  experimenting with paper doilies on day 280. I had already painted some doilies a few days earlier with this idea in mind so it provided a half hour distraction at an intense time when my brain felt like it could barely function.

On Christmas day the family came in and we made paper planes and had a flying competition in the hospital. That was day 281.

Other than that I have spent days cradling my baby, and I am so thankful that he is ok, and life with soon be back to the everyday chaos that is my beautiful family.

Peace and love to everyone. :-)

Day 278 - Doggie Pjs

This is my second last pair of Christmas pjs. How cute are these dogs? I found this fabric in an op shop a few months ago. I love them. These are for Dylan.

And here is a photo of a very cool visitor who came right up to our front door and snuggled up to our door mat this week. It was very exciting!

Day 277 - Pillow case turns pjs and pj bag

Only a few days until Christmas and I am still sewing presents. Today I turned this pillowcase into pjs and a little pj bag. Cute hey?

In less than an hour school finishes for the year. My little girl has finished her first year of school. Well done gorgeous girl. Now to get the others well for Christmas and get more than 4 hours sleep in a night.

Have a great day all.

Day 276 - Note book.

Tomorrow is the last day of school before our 6 week break, and I have everyone home today with a couple of sick kids. A lot of Christmas movies have been watched and now we have Chrissy songs blaring too.

The gorgeous bath bombs I made last week for Juliet's teacher did not fare well in the 42 degree heat so they ended up going a bit warped and look a bit sad. I couldn't bring myself to make the same thing twice so today I made her something else.

A notebook and fabric cover with green patchwork.

Front.

Inside.

 Back.

She is also getting some of this delicious Christmas bark (melted white chocolate and crushed candy canes).

I also re-did mum's family tree and I'm much happier with it. The leaves were too dominant in the last one.

Hope you are all well and not as exhausted as I feel.

Day 275 - Embroidery Hoop Notice Board

I have seen some embroidery hoop notice boards around and admired them, so I decided to make one today. This is also for my mum for Christmas.

Here's how I did it.

We had these old cork mats that were in the house when we got here. I knew they would come in handy.

I glued them to the embroidery hoop.

Filled in the gaps with some old pillow stuffing.

Covered the front with fabric and the back with cardboard.

And here it is.

Day 274 - More Pj's

Here is another of the Christmas PJs I am making for presents for the kids this year. These are for my Little 3 year old Aidan. I used a transfer for the top and the rest of this scrap of satin fabric with skulls for the boxer shorts which I also used to make pjs for his older brother.

Day 273 - A doily patch

I bought some new organic cotton pants a few weeks ago. They were not cheap, so I was most upset to find that after the first wash they had two tears in them after one of my dogs dragged them from the washing basket out through the dog door. It was impossible to fix them without it being a noticeable repair job, so I decided on patches.

After trying out many options I decided on feature patches using a cut up doily. I'd already used some of this doily for a brooch earlier in the year. Here's the result.

Day 272 - A journey tree

Today marks one year since we took possession of our wonderful house on 7.5 acres in the bush. It's been a huge year, with a 40th birthday celebration, a first birthday, experiencing the always amazing journey of a newborn to a toddler, a first year of school for my daughter, and many other milestones. It's amazing how many memories we have already made here, how many thousands of photos we have already taken, and how truly happy we are to have found this piece of perfection.

This is the third house my husband and I have owned together, the first being an almost hundred year old house that we absolutely adored with all it's flaws but soon outgrew. The second was a larger 1950's house with family extension which we never really fell in love with. This is the first house we have really felt is our family home. We love where it is and can't believe how lucky we are to have our own patch of Aussie bush, beautiful to us. We love listening to the birds sing, watching the wildlife come and go, and can even tolerate the incredible number of creepy crawlies and dirt that come with it, although our first snake sighting was a bit terrifying. After 20 years of living in Melbourne, most of those years spent never imagining a return to the bush, I feel truly blessed to be a country chick once again.

Today I decided to make my craft a tribute to this home we now have and the journey of the year that is now behind us. I have made a word tree, just a stream of consciousness really. I hope you don't find it too self indulgent and enjoy it a little. Thanks very much for sharing part of this year with me and helping to make it special.

Day 271 - Vintage Maxi Dress Refashion

A party for Ms Juliet this morning. Her first real party and what a happy girl she was.

Some pics here with her requested rainbow cake.

Then onto some refashioning for me. I picked up this vintage maxi dress a couple of weeks ago from a vintage pop up shop where a woman was selling off her vintage clothes collection. I love the colours and the fit was lovely.

The long sleeves and high neckline were a bit too severe for me so I decided to make small capped sleeves and lower the neckline a little.

The sleeves came in handy for a wine wrapper and a vase sock. Wouldn't want to waste that awesome fabric.