Blogtoberfest - The End

Sorry I went missing there for a few days but I've been away, more on that later.

So another Blogtoberfest is over and I thought I'd end with a bang. I'm having a craft book destash so leave a comment on this post indicating which book you would like to win (you can leave a preferential order if you like). I'll keep it open until 8pm Tuesday night and draw a winner for each book then. This is open to Aussie residents only due to the weight, sorry.

Blogtoberfest Day 27

More fabric arrived today.

The one on the right is Robert Kaufman Quilters Linen

Some Kona solids and the one on the left, which is actually a light pink is an organic cotton.

Blogtoberfest Day 26

Finally one of my fabric orders arrived. This is from Quilt Taffy

5" and 10" squares of Tufted Tweets

2 more charm packs of Bliss

2 more charm packs of Dream On

This cute deer fabric I'm going to use for some bags for Lucy's birthday

Blogtoberfest Day 25

I feel very lucky to have made some wonderful friends in the crafting world through blogs and online forums. One of these is Novy from Little Muchkins. Novy has been doing some pattern testing for Toni from Make It Perfect and she very kindly made a skirt each for Charlotte and Lucy but at the time I wasn't allowed to blog them. Now that Toni has announced that she has written a book the pattern testers are revealing their garments I assumed it was safe to blog mine.
This is the skirt Novy made for Lucy which coincidentally she wore to pre-school today. She loves this skirt and says she is a ballerina every time she wears it.

Some dancing moves
Not happy to be sharing the spotlight

It's all about me!

I'll blog Charlotte's skirt later this week.

Blogtoberfest Day 24

Rainy, lazy, lego-filled Sunday

Blogtoberfest Day 23

In preparation for my weekend of crafting I've been cutting in to precious fabric today while the storm has been raging outside.

Blogtoberfest Day 22

Karen and I both love our footy teams and we often have a bet when they are playing each other. Unfortunately for me it seems that Karen always wins as happened the last time during the finals.

So I put together a package for her featuring this pillowcase to go with these Barry Hall related items she won in an earlier bet with Sal

Of course the package also included some different fabric bits and pieces.

Blogtoberfest Day 21

This is going to be a boring post, sorry. I don't think my blog posts are showing up in bloglines (not sure about google reader). Cam mentioned something the other day and then I noticed I wasn't getting any updates in bloglines either. So I play around and now I am hoping it is updating.

If you are reading this through a reader can you let me know if you are getting the updates. If you happened just to check it and you have a reader can you let me know if it's not working. Thanks

Blogtoberfest day 20

Luckily I had a few posts all ready to go as I had a little health scare this week. I had some chest pain last week after having a cough for a week or so, which kept me away from the last Craft Room so took myself off to the doctor on Saturday. She did an ECG and everything seemed ok but she also did a blood test.

On Monday the results came back saying I had an elevated reading for a pulmonary embolism so I had to rush off to have a lung scan which involved breathing in and being injected with some radioactive stuff. Luckily the results were clear although that doesn't shed any light on what is wrong.

Needless to say I went home and gave my girls lots of cuddles and kisses.

Image from here

Blogtoberfest Day 19

Saw this on Adds blog so thought I would give it a go seeing there are lots of days in October

99 Things about me
Things you've already done: bold
Things you want to do: italize
Things you haven't done and don't want to - leave in plain font

1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band
4. visited hawaii
5. watched a meteor shower
6. given more than you can afford to charity
7. been to disneyland/world
8. climbed a mountain
9. held a praying mantis
10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped
12. visited paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the statue of liberty - been there but didn't walk to the top
18. grown your own vegetables
19. seen the mona lisa in france
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden a gondola in venice
29. seen a total eclipse
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run
32. been on a cruise
33. seen niagara falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. seen the leaning tower of pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing
40. seen michelangelo's david in person
41. sung karaoke
42. seen old faithful geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited africa
45. walked on a beach by moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance - been in a paddy wagon though
47. had your portrait painted
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen the sistene chapel in person
50. been to the top of the eiffel tower in paris
51. gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud
54. gone to a drive-in theatre
55. been in a movie
56. visited the great wall of china
57. started a business
58. taken a martial arts class
59. visited russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold girl scout cookies.
62. gone whale watching
63. gotten flowers for no reason
64. donated blood
65. gone sky diving
66. visited a nazi concentration camp
67. bounced a cheque
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy
70. visited the lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in Times Square
74. toured the everglades
75. been fired from a job
76. seen the changing of the guard in london
77. broken a bone
78. been on a speeding motorcycle
79. seen the grand canyon in person
80. published a book
81. visited the vatican
82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible
86. visited the white house
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone’s life
90. sat on a jury
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the alamo in person
96. swum in the great salt lake.
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee

Blogtoberfest Day 18

Whipped up another one of Lisa's Babushka's for a party Charlotte went to today. I love this one as it's one of my favourite colour combos.

Blogtoberfest Day 17

Charlotte decided to do some sewing on Friday night and she wanted to make a bag. So I sat down with her and went through the right way to do it.

This is what she ended up with. Needless to say she was very pleased with herself. The blue lamb fabric is a pocket.

Excuse the pyjamas it was a lazy Sunday morning.

Blogtoberfest Day 16

We just got home from Charlotte's first swimming club races. The girls have plonked themselves on the lounge and I looked over and saw this.

Charlotte on my ipod and Lucy singing very loudly on Charlotte's nano.

Blogtoberfest Day 15

Hopefuly this package arrived at it's destination today

Blogtoberfest Day 14 - Self Portrait

Ok so I'm a day behind, nothing new there. Cathy suggested yesterday be self portrait day but by the time I got on the computer last night I had already blogged and I missed it.

Blogtoberfest Day 13

Belinda posted about this app the other day so I decided it might be a good time to start getting fit so I started yesterday while Charlotte did touch footy. It was tough going with Lucy taging along so I'm not sure I'll be doing 5K by the end of it but if I'm fitter and lost a bit of weight I'll be happy.


Image from here

Blogtoberfest Day 12

What do you do when your child puts a bottle of apple juice in your bag and the lid isn't closed properly?

Buy a new bag of course.

I ended up buying this bag

and this wrislet.

Something different to use for a while.

Blogtoberfest Day 11

I'm thinking of getting one of these bags

from here

Baking - Blogtoberfest Day 10

It's been a day of baking here. I've made some chocolate chip biscuits. I bought same pre-made cookie dough from a teacher at work as her son's school was doing it as a fundraising. They taste quite nice not as nice as homemade but they are quick and the kids do it themselves, I just pop them in the oven.Then I made some of Bianca's sausage rolls. I love these especially cold so I'll be taking these to work for lunch this week.

Lastly I made some banana and cinnamon scrolls. I used a recipe from Food for Fit and Healthy Kids but I changed it a bit. We haven't tried them yet but I'm hoping they are yummy.

Finally there is a chicken roasting in the oven as we speak.

Productivity - Blogtoberfest Day 9

We've had a quiet Saturday here today. Charlotte went to a sleep over last night at her best friend's house and didn't come home until 4.00pm so it meant I could be a little bit productive today as there were no arguments to referee.

I made Lucy 3 pairs of simple elastic waist shorts for pre-school.

Sorry about the dodgy photo taken very late on an overcast day

Hoping the productivity continues tomorrow

Blogtoberfest Day 8

I just realised I made a mistake and I have two day 5's so if you are trying to keep up just ignore that little blooper.

I'm just scraping in tonight at 11.15pm. Don't really have anything to post and I've just been out to dinner with a couple of mum's from Mother's Group. Charlotte is at a sleep over at her BBF's house.

I promise I'll try and do better tomorrow

Blogtoberfest Day 6

Yesterday I took the girls to the Sydney Childrens Festival. We went last year and had a ball but this year we didn't do any of the paid activities we just went were we felt like it. As soon as we walked in the girls were lassooed.



They then decided to do some singing lessons which meant I could sit and have a cup of tea with my mum, who came with us.

We then trotted off to Hickory Dickory Rock. The guy who did this was great not only did he keep the kids entertained he had some jokes for the big people too. In the same room was some little kids dress ups. Halfway through Lucy decided to dress up in a clown outfit and she insisted on donning an orange wig. Next thing I know she's up on the stage encouraging other little kids to get up as well. She's definitely my little show off.

We met some dinosaursAnd did some circus tricks
All in all a great day. There is still time to check it out if you are in Sydney.

Blogtoberfest Day 5

I finally got a chance to use the Mod Podge Fabric I got a while ago. I've got a few ideas for it but decided to start small to see how it went. Adds sent me a tin recently that had Aunty Cookie fabric on the lid so I thought I would give it a go.

I didn't want to waste any good fabric so just used this dress up bunny one. I used the Mod Podge Fabric over a larger piece following directions from here. Then I cut it up and used normal Mod Podge to stick it to the tin and seal it.

I've been using this tin from Claire to hold my Moo cards now I just have to get some more tins as I can see them being used for everything.

Blotoberfest day 5

Woodsy Peg People Doll House Cottage
Originally uploaded by anniescupboards

I am in love with these little doll houses.

Blogtoberfest Day 4

Day 4 and I'm struggling already. It's been a rainy weekend here, I took the girls to a play centre for 4 hours yesterday to get them out of the house and to let Jeff watch the footy in peace. I whipped up these little chicken pies with some leftover chicken a few weeks ago luckily they went down a treat so I think they will be on the menu again.

Buy Nothing New Month

October is a busy month, not only is it Blogtober but the Salvos have also declared it Buy Nothing New Month (I also saw this mentioned on someone else's blog). I'm going to try and buy nothing new but surely they don't mean fabric, surely. The dollar so good it's going to be hard not to buy but I promise not to buy anything else new, ok well maybe promise is a bit of a strong word but I will try!

Zoo

We had some free passes for the zoo so we took the kids over a few weekends ago.

We always take a photo of the girls with this giant Koala. The girls are getting bigger and he is getting more tatty.We just happened to turn up at the elephants when the show was on. The babies were very cute trying to do everything and at the end the elephants sprayed water everywhere. This one even sprayed the trainer when she turned her back.

We were pretty lucky all day as the animals were out and about and it was feeding time at lots of the exhibits, including the lions and tigers so they were very active.