Justine Clarke rocks!

Miss E and Master O loooooove Justine Clarke. And I have to say, I am quite partial to her as well. Her songs are great for kids and they're groovy as well so I don't mind listening to them ad infinitum - I know all the words! We were lucky enough to go to her recent concert two days ago and it was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it - great musicians and a great time.

Here we are waiting for the concert to start.

Miss E sat on my lap the whole time :-) I can understand that it must be overwhelming for a 3-yr-old. But she sang all the way home in the car.

A shot of O at the front of the stage - can't *really* call it a mosh-pit. He had a ball - showed Justine his newly lost toothy gap and got the thumbs up. He was very excited.

These inflatable balls were O's favourite - as evidenced by multiple pictures taken.

And there she is! With her dancing pants on. I highly recommend going to a Justine Clarke concert if you ever have the opportunity.

Tooth Fairy!

What a momentous occasion! The first visit from the Tooth Fairy! Master O has lost his first tooth - we're just not sure where! I think he must have swallowed it during the night or it's somewhere on the floor of his bedroom :-) He wasn't upset though, rather intrigued at the thought that he could have swallowed it. "Cool, mum!" he said.

The following photo is his favourite, needless to say :)

Can you see it mum??

It's amazing how one little tooth can change how they sound as well. There's the slightest whistle now :-) So cute!

Sewing with Knits

Recently I've been inspired by a bunch of Crafty Mamas to start sewing with knits. Here are a few of my adventures.

This is Ottobre 4/2009 LIttle Maid shirt. Lovely pattern but the horse print is a rib and I think I stretched it a bit while sewing so it doesn't sit perfectly. I am going to try it again with a sturdier knit.

This is an IMKE from Sewing Clothes Kids Love. This is becoming a favourite and I've already made three! I only have pics of two though as the third one was a present for someone and I forgot to photograph before we gave it!

Here is Miss E's IMKE

Purple is Stella knit from Crafty Mamas shop and the pink is from the op shop :)

And here's Mr O's IMKE

And yes, he *wanted* to look like a stunned mullet in the photo. With milo on his face. The pattern knit has ninjas all over it so he loooooooves it.

I think I have to learn more about how to use my overlocker though - it's not being nice to me :)

Making do with what's in the shed.

Miss E has been very helpful with hanging out and bringing in the clothes lately. After I picked her up for the 2nd time yesterday to peg a washer on the line, and heard my spine creak under the pressure, I decided it would be better Workplace Health and Safety Practice if I made her a clothesline her own size.

I My initial thought process was "Where will I get one? How much will it cost? Maybe there's an second hand one on ebay? I'll scour the markets next Sunday morning?" None of these thoughts were satisfying as I needed (or, rather, my back needed) a child-sized clothesline *immediately*!

I caught sight of some garden stakes and I had an A-ha moment! "A-ha!" I thought. "I shall build one myself!" So I did, with two timber garden stakes, some galvanised wire, electrical tape (to cover pointy bits), pliers and a sledge hammer. Within 5 minutes she had her dream clothesline and was happily pinning up socks and undies.

Then Miss E said "I need a basket Mummy" and I remembered that I had an old basket with two handles, not unlike a laundry basket, that we had got a Christmas hamper in many years ago. Perfect! So there *is* a good reason to keep things :-)

I am loving myself sick over this! And more importantly, MIss E is in hanging-out heaven. Win-win.

Thanks for looking.

Oh my!!

http://oh-write.blogspot.com/2010/06/marens-kitchen.html

I don't know whether to be glad or sad that I didn't see this post before buying E her kitchen over 12 months ago for her birthday. Glad probably - otherwise she probably would have had bits of old furniture only half completed into kiddie kitchens scattered about her bedroom :)

Awesome-ness, yes?

I forgot the cake!

All year E has wanted a Peppa Pig Fairy Cake. This is what we came up with. 1/2 slab from Woolies with fresh whipped cream and sugar icing picture on top. We copies a pic from the internet and made each section individually. I'm quite impressed with the quality of the colours, if I do say so myself. We were loving ourselves sick over it! Then on the birthday morn, Miss E said to her father . . .

Daddy: Are you excited about your Peppa Pig Fairy Cake?

Miss E: *frown* I want a turtle.

Needless to say she got a Peppa Pig Fairy Cake.

Miss E's 3!

I know! She got a scooter for her birthday and loves it.

Loaded up with the necessities . . .

Here she is burning pink rubber up our driveway.

Mum: Smile E so I can get a photo of you with your new scooter.

E: *look*

This photo makes me laugh and then involuntarily I shudder. In about 8 years I'm guessing that look won't be so cute!

And because she is an Extreme Sportswoman - some drawing with helmet.

You just never know when a colouring pen might jump up and give you a noogie.

Do you think it will last?

I live in hope.

:)

Want to win something?

I thought you would!

Head over here to win some beautiful Farbenmix fabrics. Crafty Mamas is where I "hang out" online when I've got a moment. It's lovely there :)

Go on. Get!!

What have I done lately?

I've made a shirt for Miss E! Gearing up for her 3rd birthday on the weekend so will have lots of posts to do with that soon!

I used this pattern as I love Indie Tutes and follow her blog. Always so inspiring and down to earth.

Thanks for looking!

A shirt for me

Well I finally finished this shirt for myself. Hmmmmmm. Jury is out. Well actually no it's not. It has decided, beyond reasonable doubt, that this shirt makes me look pregnant. Not a look I"m going for at the mo! What do you think?

Here is what it looked like on the beautiful model in the latest Ottobre women's mag . . .

I got rid of the shirring - five rows thank you very much! Because it gave my muffin top a muffin top. I also have made the skirt but it is a bit big. I'm thinking the shirt is too big as well - should have made the size down. Instead of shirring I just put ties on the side - a suggestion from Lissy on the Crafty Mamas forum. But I think, if I'm going to keep it, I need to take in a lot of the fabric in the side seams. What to do, what to do? You can see all that extra material that would have been taken up in the shirring. Any suggestions?

Some wire work

For a while there I thought I'd lost my bead-jo :) But it turned up again, said "I missed you" and settled in for the winter. Ahhhhhh, comfy!

So I thought I'd share some of my latest fascination for wire, especially copper wire. I love copper and recently just bought a Huuuuuuuuge lot of it at 50% off so will be using it a lot more. It's soft but strong - love it!

First up, copper wire (18 gauge cuff and 26 gauge wrapping) with Czech glass. I love the tone of the mint glass with the copper. This is quite a chunky piece so I put a safety chain on it as well - but it makes it hard to put on by yourself. Hmmmm, what to do?

One of my fave colour combos is red and blue - coral red and turquoise blue. These beads are red coral and synthetic Turquoise. I played around with my hammer and anvil that I bought last year at the bead show. You can see the slightly hammered/textured look on the copper wire. Safety chain on this one too though it's more petite.

This is a big mama! With same gauge wires as above but for some reason it just feels more stable so I didn't put a safety chain on it. Perhaps because there are more beads? Don't know really! Beads are glass focals and lovely lovely Swarovski crystals in jet, clear, light colorado and fire opal. Fireopal would have to be my favourite colour of Swarovski I think. It's just gorgeous - these photos don't do it justice at all!

And this is my favourite I think - same beads as above - twisted wire pendant. Freeform - I love seeing what comes out of my hands. So much fun!

This is some lovely quality Chinese crystals (not as nice as Swarovskis but very very nice all the same) and twisted coppe wire. I think this sparkles beautifully but the photo doesn't pick it up too well.

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday . . .

. . . to Uncle Ash!!!!

Have a fully sick day!

lots of love from all of us :-)

Oh and by the way . . .

. . . somebody is very happy with their new doona. See this post.

Too cute.

Our latest set of wheels . . .

. . . well it doesn't have wheels *yet*.

But it is a two-seater, with a baby seat (for a baby pony of course) and seat belts. It has had some minor bodywork done - some limited edition graffiti by Miss E.

All in all - it worked out pretty well and they do love to play in it. So far it is standing up to rigorous playing without falling apart. The only thing is Baby Pony's seat sometimes gets overloaded and the bulldog clips give out. Might have to book it into Kidsafe House for a safety assessment :-)

I was going to make a tutorial for it but ended up making it in the 30 minutes before dinner last night after the kids had been begging me all day to make a two-seater cardboard car - and I kept putting them off because of gardening. So my guilt kicked in at 5.30 and it was done by 6! Nothing quite so satisfying as crafting by the seat of one's pants! I do have more cardboard though so sing out if you think you might like a tute.

Do you think she likes it?

Something Scrappy

One of my loveliest friends had a birthday in January and I decided to make her a framed scrapbook page. She and her husband are fantabulous with our kids so I put photos of "Aunty P" playing with the kids. I've never done the collage/paper tearing thing but have always loved the kids' books that have illustrations done this way, especially "Hattie and the Fox" by Mem Fox. Goodness Gracious Me!!!

So here are some pics of what I came up with. I decided that the journalling would emphasise the ripped paper, when I probably could have done something with ink? But I just wasn't brave enough! Next time.

The journalling has lots of words starting with P - P for Aunty P. I was quite proud of how it turned out. And considering Aunty P is a very talented Art teacher I am, in hind sight, quite impressed with my bravery at giving her something "arty"!

And Aunty P loved it! So that's the main thing.

Thanks for looking :-)

Someone is going to be *very* excited when they get home from school this afternoon!

Hopefully 'twill be dry so I can put it on his bed ready to go.

He's been such a wonderful, wonderful boy with all this school business. So when he saw this in the latest Big W catalogue the other day I went and got it. He used to have pyjamas with a glow in the dark skeleton on them which he loooooooved to pieces. So he was very excited when he saw this doona cover.

This photo is from winter 2008!! So I guess E will have the skeleton pj's this winter!