Christmas Lights

With our regular 'santa' house no longer lit up, we needed to find a new place to visit Christmas lights and we did - Chestnut Ave, The Basin. The whole street is lit up - amazing.

Farewell Kinder Teachers

Rachael was the boys teacher .

Jan was the assistant who is leaving after 16 years at the kinder.
Oh I was a bit slack on the picture front. Each teacher got two gifts one bigger and one littler in a denim drawstring bag with applique triangle tree on the front. (As per usual they always seem more entertained by the packaging than the gift ) Anyway I did manage a picture of the teacher gift - this skirt and necklace.

The skirt is from a remnant piece from the now defunct Frou Frou. You know when you see something that is just right well this was it. Spencer helped me choose it. Then I went to my present cupboard to get a necklace for Jan and I expected it to be yellow. Out came this green one, that I could remember buying but it wasn't what I thought I had. Low and behold it matched the skirt fabric perfectly. I couldn't have done any better if I had it with me. Fate told me this was to be and Jan got a scarf and I found a fabulous little Alice in Wonderland brooch which was perfect for the brooch loving Alice fan.
Rachael loved the skirt and the fact that it was handmade. She told me in an email later that not only was it a perfect fit, but that she was wearing it that afternoon. She had literally whipped off her existing skirt and pared it with the red tshirt she had on and rocket it that afternoon. Shame I sulked out and didn't see!!

Last day of Kinder

Where have my babies gone? Here they are on their last day of kinder. It seems only yesterday I was packing them off to start it. In fact I dressed them in the same tops to celebrateThey have grown so much over this past year - both physically but also maturity.

Their teachers put together a lovely book which has their first day of kinder photo. Thanks to pinterest I managed to have the picture with the first and last day together.
Almost different kids.
This is the very last time they were kinder kids... so happy and ready to take on the world. I however was not. I had my big glasses on and did the quickest kinder exit ever. It was also my last time at kinder - a place which has been my life for the last 5 years is no more. I don't do well at goodbyes so for me it was a quick see-ya and I was outta there. Such a big sook!

Stained glass biscuits

I was officially too sick to go to the party of the year - I even went to the Dr for the second time in a week! On top of that I had a serious attack of mother guilt and that in being sick so close to christmas the boys were missing out. (I didn't say I was feeling rational)

So I dragged myself off the couch in small bursts to do some cooking - yes something easy with a cast of three. The boys rushed to put on their new aprons that they had made at kinder:

And got straight into it. I have done this before and know to make double quantity so both of them have something in their bowl. Just seems to work easier like that.
Then we all had some basic biscuit dough to roll out and cut out the holes and filled with the crushed lollies. I think my favourite bit was crushing those lollies with the hammer.
The end result was some very pretty cookies. I have put them in plastic bags and they look lovely.

Ironing Tables

Today's craft project is again brought to you by pinterest. These little beauties are ironing tables - designed for the sewer or quilter to have beside them as they sew. They are a lower height and smaller design so fit quite nicely into a sewing space. Better yet - they collapse.
We started with some wooden side tables - purchased from Aldi (of course)
Then we set about covering them.
For all of them we used ikea fabric in their heavier weight as the outer fabric, then two layers of wool wadding and one layer of insul bright which is a heat resistant product. Thus the table has protection and padding. We bought an electric stapler to stretch the fabric over and onto the table. This was easier when we removed one of the table legs.
To finish it off we trimmed back the layers of fabric and glued down some tape to hide the edges. We used furniture tacks to secure the tape and complete the look.

Mission accomplished - presents for Mum's bosses at work and one each for her and I.

Quilt

This was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. I was the kinder president and we had a staff member leaving after 16 years. She had also been the only assistant that had taught any of my boys, working in both the 3 & 4s for all three boys. I wanted to get her something special to mark her resignation but also something special to her. My suggestion was a quilt - like I had seen Naomi do. With this in mind the wheels were set in motion and it was all a surprise. The children all did a drawing with fabric markers on white homespun. I picked the fabrics and we were away.

The design was set by the number of drawings and a simple alternate pattern was borne. The squares were finished 6 inches and I learnt the power of being exact - with my cutting and using the 1/4 inch foot. All new concepts to a rather impatient sewer who bends the rules.
No bending here - the top went together quite quickly and then I had to decide on a backing fabric. I was originally thinking about a blender but then I found this floral and it had to be.
Up to this point, I didn't understand the difficulty of quilting. Realistically it was a big basic pattern, but it all went together like a jigsaw. That is until you actually quilt! Even just getting it all together with the wool wadding is an issue. Geez - now I get it. I quilted in the ditch and then a cross pattern through the florals. This gave it enough stability and it felt quilted.
The final touch was on the front.

Best bit - she loved it - no really L O V E D it. That makes it all worthwhile. You know how you get when you are in the depths of a project and you start to question yourself. I didn't think it was good enough etc etc but the look on her face - the way she cried and the way she hugged that quilt - I knew it was the right gift.

Has it made a quilter of me - well not yet. I do have some fabric for a quilt for my bed. Another set of squares - thinking 2 inch with white - but that can go out to the professionals for quilting!

Christmas Kid Craft

Thanks to pinterest I did manage some christmas crafts this year. First off some decorations which were given with a card to each of Benji and Spencer's kinder friends. These were made out of a cornflour and Bicarb soda concoction that was fairly easy to make. I found it cracked if it was too thick and we had to wait a few days for them to dry. Once they were dry I decorated the boys trees with texta and their initial and the girls star with a simple initial. The lettering was from old rub on letrasets that I had in my stash.
We also made the teachers cards. These are expertly photographed on the seat of my car as they are about to be given away but you get the idea. They are felt trees which the kids helped stick the star and base on. Alexander was happily sewing on the bells and then each little boy put together the final look.
Finally, another favourite doing the internet rounds this year was the reindeer noses. I was quite happy with how these all turned out - the only issue is not melting those malteesers.