Christmas

We are back home after trekking around the countryside after the hottest Christmas ever. Thanks goodness Chris' parents and sister both had pools so that's were we spent a lot of Christmas day. The girls had a great Christmas - far to busy with their presents to look at the camera.
Afternoons at my parents were spent sitting around and in the blow up pool.
Some of the great handmade presents I bought from Etsy
Stoneware Ram from Seaurchin
Hairclips from Cutecumber
Baby Singlet from Jiah
Earrings from ESDesigns
Pendant from OrangePeelEnamel (ok it was for me - not technically a present, but I really wanted it)

We have all spent the last 2 days with a vomiting bug - it seems to have gone now, but that has put a stop to all our New Years Plans ( not that they were doing lots, but we were leaving the house for a change). I hope you have a wonderful New Year where ever you are and a fantastic 2008.

Jitterbug Socks

What do you do when you are meant to be packing for the Christmas trek around the countryside? Have a go at knitting some toe up socks using some Jitterbug sock yarn.
Much more fun than packing and thinking about a week away. Every year Chris and I say we are staying home for Christmas and every year we trek around the countryside. Maybe next year.
I'm not really big on Christmas, especially one where I can't even have a drink, but I'm going to make an effort as the girls are getting very excited. I finally felt a bit Christmassy last night watching the Christmas special of Rockwiz. So I might put some music on and face the inevitable packing.

Christmas Presents Finished

The Christmas presents are finished and wrapped. I can post pictures as my Nan doesn't read. Here are her finished socks.

A bag for Mum's birthday. She chose the fabric so it's no surprise.

Now I have two whole days to relax and get organised for our Christmas trek around the countryside.
I hope you all have a wonderful enjoyable Christmas wherever you are!

Girls, girls, girls

I have had a few days without a computer - I'm not sure what happened but it wouldn't turn on. Luckily it is all fixed now. This gave me lots of time to finish my Christmas sewing. Skirts and pants for the girls and my niece in lots of girly colours.

And our house is getting even more girly. One good thing about having an amnio was finding out for sure we are having another girl. I am so excited! I have two sisters and we all get on so well. I love to see Grace and Amelia playing together and so excited that they will have a little sister. The one good thing about not having a straight forward pregnancy is the extra ultrasounds and getting to see her more often.

Thanks to Shannon at Minifashionista some of my little curly haired girls are in Junior magazine this month.
I have just a few more Christmas presents to finish - I love the idea of handmade for Christmas I just wish I had of planned for it through the year.

Change Mat

I think posting pictures of things I need to do is a good idea - it make me get stuff done. I managed to turn the pile into a change mat for Madison. I haven't used chenille for backing before, but I definitely will be again and I think I need to try some bibs with it too.

Madison

The girls have a new cousin! Chris' sister Carolyn had a baby girl called Madison last Sunday. the girls are very excited about meeting her at Christmas time. In the absence of pictures of her here is a picture of one of the piles on the floor which could become something for her.

Socks for Noma

My Nan Noma loved the socks I made her last year, so I thought I'd knit some more for Christmas for her. I know I've said it before but Lorna's Laces Worsted makes the best bed and boot socks. I have 12 days, I'm pretty sure I can get the second one finished.
A new challenge for next year. I bought some Addi Turbos from Yarns Galore and this arrived in the mail yesterday.

Easy Skirt Tutorial

I have made a few skirts for the girls recently. They are so quick and easy to make so I thought I'd write a tutorial for the easiest two year old skirt. I have made a few that are all one fabric and some that have two different fabrics. This skirt fits about a 48cm (19") waist and the girls are about 86cm (33 1/2") tall.

1. Cut two fabric pieces - the top one is about 28" by 9" (sorry all my measurements are in inches as I use my quilting board and rulers to cut)
- the bottom is 34" by 5.25"

2. Sew the hems to make two circles and overlock or zigzag stitch the edges.
3. Increase your stitch length on your machine (I turn mine to 4) and with a long tail of cotton sew around the top of the bottom piece. leave a long tail at the end as well. Pull the top tail of cotton at each end gently to gather.
4. Pin to the top piece, matching seams and easing to fit.
5. Sew and then overlock or zigzag. I iron towards the top and then topstitch.
6. Overlock the hem and fold up and sew.
7. Overlock the top and sew down leaving enough width to thread through elastic and a small opening to thread it through. I like to top stitch as well - I think it stops the elastic twisting.

8. Thread the elastic through - I use big safety pins and sew it up. Then sew up the opening. The only elastic I use now is non roll ribbed elastic and for children's clothes I use 3/4" (20mm).

9. Finished!

Sunday

This gorgeous little rabbit arrived in the mail this week from Maggie of Maggierama. I sent her a curly haired doll a while ago and in return I got this gorgeous rabbit (which for some reason the girls think is a puppy dog).

The girls love their art wall - maybe a little too much. Anything that goes up with glitter, feathers, anything glued on gradually gets picked and torn apart until there is bits of it all over the house, but they love sticking their work up there.

A trip to the Wiggles

It seemed like a great idea 6 months ago. Tickets to the Wiggles in Perth - the actual concert was not too bad and the girls loved it. I just don't think I thought about the rest. I'm soooo glad I got Mum to come and help me get there and back. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I planned to do the rest of the Christmas shopping in Perth I hadn't done on the internet or made. The big shops were just too much for the girls especially combined with the chocolate milk we kept feeding them so they wouldn't scream at us constantly. Even a short trip to get more vegetable seedlings didn't end well. But we are home and they were so tired today they had a big nap which meant I could watch the end of this and not think for a couple of hours.

A couple of pretty packages from Aunty Cookie and Kirinco made me feel better too.

Thimble

I can't believe I only just discovered these little stick on thimbles this week. My fingertips are very grateful.

Flat Elephants

Flat elephants waiting for some filling.

Swimming Weather

Summer was definitely here this weekend. The girls were very excited to be able to go swimming in their little pool. The only problem is they want it to be swimming time all the time.
I was sewing some bags this weekend. This one was starting to look a little too orange. So I kept a bit of it orange and added some denim to tone it down a bit.

Echidnas and Bag

Not a lot to write about so here are some pictures.

New Socks

I've started some new socks. Hedera in Claudia's Handpainted Yarns - the colour is Blue Fields. I think these might take some effort to finish.

It was a pleasant surprise this morning to get an email from Lisa saying she had featured me on Craft Boom today. This is such a great site - I have got so much useful information from it.
I forgot to mention during my not so good week last week that Molly featured me on here - a great parenting blog.

Comfy Shoes

There is nothing like comfortable shoes, especially when you are pregnant and your feet swell like mine. And there is nothing better than ordering online and then casually picking them up from the post office rather than having to drive to somewhere with shops and take 2 two year olds shopping.

A little mouse I was trying out on the weekend. It now has the original name of mousie and belongs to the girls.

More wombats and a giraffe now in the shop.

Good Yarn

A while ago I saw some great felted totes that Jennifer had made and was quite excited when she wrote up the pattern and was selling it on Etsy. Then I was even more excited when she wrote and said I'd won three skeins of Peace Fleece just for buying her pattern. It arrived this week, just when I needed some cheering up and Jennifer was so generous, lots of lovely fabric bits and the most wonderful skein from misshawklet.

There was also some fantastic washable markers for the girls. They did actually manage to draw on some paper too.



I was playing around with patterns last week and decided that putting a wombat's head on a koala's body might make a good dog. According to everyone else in the house it looks like a rabbit. And with the addition of some ears they were right.

Sewing

Some sewing from this week.

Good News

Thankyou everyone for your comments this week. I've had some good news and it seems everything is ok.

You know there is a problem when the obstetrician rings you on a Sunday night as soon as he gets your referral. Apparently my GP had looked at my 12 week ultrasound report and seen there was a low risk of Down's Syndrome and I was told everything was fine. What they didn't tell me was that there was a really high risk of a few other chromosome disorders, ones which have quite severe consequences. No one should have to be told this at 17 weeks and then be told it will take a few weeks to get the results. So I was booked in for an amniocentesis as soon as I could get there. Luckily I was then told there was a very quick test they could do and I would have fairly reliable results in a few days and those results were good.

So I am feeling so relieved and very drained, but I just had a good nights sleep and the world looks a little brighter again. I am still pissed off (to put it mildly) with my GP, but I don't want it to fester and I'm pretty sure he will never make that mistake again.

I really enjoyed just hibernating at home and doing some sewing, I think I might do a bit more of it.

A Small Break

It is amazing how great things can be one minute and it's amazing that with one small bit of news things can turn to shit. I am hoping things can sort themselves out really quickly, but until then I think the girls and I might hibernate in the sewing room (it is amazing how sewing and creating can make you feel so calm at times) and take a little break from here. I might post some pretty pictures and hopefully I'll be back with words soon.

17 weeks

Well it's not something I can hide around here any more and Amelia tells everyone she meets about the baby in Mummy's tummy. So I thought it was time I shared here too - we are having another one - just one - I've made them check several times and the ultrasound person said she'd checked absolutely everywhere.
It is a bit scary to think that these two will be big sisters as they throw their dolls on the ground when they have had enough. Here are they are last weekend wandering around in Daddy's shoes.

Kaffe Fassett

The best mail arrived today. Lots of Kaffe Fassett fabric - most of these I have had bits of before. I love it how it doesn't seem to get discontinued so I am not afraid to use what I have as I know I can always get more. I always seem to get inspired by his fabric - they have such great colours and wonderful patterns.