Looky Looky What I Found

Published in 1985 with totally gorgeous patterns - brilliant! Although have I confessed yet that I can't read patterns? That could be a small problem...
Today is a very exciting and scary day for me because...I am off to the sleep clinic with my baby. Did I mention I have a 8 1/2 month old little boy - that doesn't sleep! We will be there all day, and it will be tough love for my little man I am afraid.
Then tonight, hopefully, depending on Jacquie boy, I am off to stitch n bitch at Sarahs place, with Hazel and other crafty friends. It's always a lot of fun but I haven't been able to go to anything for months now because my son has been so unpredictable. If I do make it, I'll be getting back to that dolls crochet blanket that I really want to finish off. So I can justify buying more wool to start my first ripple blanket.
And my daffodils are just getting prettier and prettier by the day, look at this one stem has three flowers from it.

Sew Pretty

Soo..I spent the night making these flowers for the skirts. They went OK, a bit of shoddy craftsmanship here and there. I made the three little ones to go on a bag I am making my daughter.
What do think? The inspiration was from the kids label - Oobi.
I think they are rather sweet, and so does Isabella! Result, you say? It would be if she would wear them, but she still wont even try them on. We are off to a birthday party this afternoon, so I will see if I can talk her into wearing one of them.

Ezy Pezy Skirts

A dear friend of mine down the road has sewn her daughters whole winter wardrobe - I know - legend! She made some of these skirts and gave me the pattern, it's so easy to do, believe me I am really just a beginner at sewing and I managed to whip these up in a couple of hours each. The pattern is simply rectangles. I may try and make my first tutorial to show you all. However, I am not entirely happy with how the waistband works, so would need to tweak that somehow. Do you see each skirt has a slightly different sized waistband?
I started off with the two tier then gave this three tier a go. The only problem is my daughter wont wear them. She wore the top one once, and wont even try this one on. So I think I need to make them prettier some how? Any suggestions?
On the weekend I went and bought these buttons to do something with. I may try crocheting some flowers or make some fabric flowers, not sure, we'll see how we go.
Aren't my miniture daffodils lovely? I saw them in the supermarket and knew I had to have them. I was at the checkout when I spotted them, left the supermarket put my shopping in the car and went right back for them.
I never buy myself flowers. My husband was wrapped when I came home with them, he's always telling me to spoil myself. He's Dutch and has a strange affiliation with flowers and thinks that people just buy flowers. I must admit his mother and grandmother always have a couple of bunches of flowers on the go at any one time.
Ahhh, lovely...

Cath Kidston Applique

I got the lovely Cath Kidston Make! book and have been dying to give the appliqueing a go.

I have done a bit before but always on the sewing machine, I have never finished it off by hand, and I have to say the end result is lovely.

I bought this second hand dolls cot for my daughter and have been wanting to make her a new quilt and pillow for it.

I am a sucker for making everything reversible and the fabric I used worked really well for that. One side was the large floral pattern, which I then used to cut out the flowers and applique them on the polka dot side.

Here's another quilt set I made about a year ago, funnily enough it fits perfectly. I used the same pink polka dots so that it can all mix and match. Actually everything I do for my daughter usually involves these pink polka dots. There's also a baby bag I made for my daugther that matches this quilt. I might take some photos and post them later.

Again, it's reversible!

Thank you Cath...you rock!

Just For Today

I get sent daily parenting emails and thought this was a nice one to share...

Just for today, tell your kids: I'll forget about the laundry and take you to the park. I will silence the cell phone, turn off the computer and sit with you and blow bubbles. Just for today, I will let you wear whatever you want and smile and say how perfect it is. I will skip my favorite TV shows and snuggle beside you for hours. I will let you stay up late so we can sit and count the stars.

Just for today, I will think about the mothers and fathers who no longer have their children, and I will be thankful I have you... just for today.

Afternoon Tea Party

The kids had a friend over for afternoon tea today - yippee! I love an excuse for an afternoon tea party. I have been trifting around the last few months for fine bone china, in the hopes that for my daughters next birthday we can use all mixed matched fine bone china.

We baked some afgans - my husbands favourite at the moment.

As you can see there were differences in opinion on how the table was to be set.

My daughter took particular interest in icing them. Isn't she sweet, at any point in time she would try and have a quick lick of the spoon :)

My thrifting efforts so far on the tea cup front...

Easter

Well we had a fantastic weekend, and I hope you did to. Our pockets are lighter but the kids had a ball at Royal Easter Show. The kids just had to (or at least I just had to) have a go with the clowns. My absolute favourite! Didn't see the painting spinny thing, which was also a childhood favourite.

Easter craft finished - at least one thing ticked off a mile long list :)

We made five in total to give away and they turned out better than expected. Family were well chuffed to receive something from the kids.

A family tradition continued with the two older kids staying the night at their grandparents to paint eggs for the Easter egg hunt and then Sunday lunch.

Easter Crafting

It was a hub of activity in our house this afternoon, with Easter crafts underway.

I got my daughter painting old egg cartons that we are going to decorate and fill with Easter eggs. One space will have a real half egg and a cute little chick in it.

And I got busy cutting out my fabric for my bunting. In case your wondering about the pink ribbon tied to my scissors, that's to remind my sweet husband that they're my scissors, just before they are used for cutting electrical wire or the likes :)

Do you see my cutting mat? That was a gift from my husbands grandmother, and it doubles as a little ironing board, you just flip it over - how cool is that!

And a small bit of progress today, baby steps, baby steps :)