Paper

I am hosting a party tonight for a girlfriend whom I met at high school. Actually there are a group of us who still stay in touch who will all be over tonight (8 girls bringing 5 babies under one) Of this group, I need to give three birthday gifts. Two are getting the bags and a heat pack like this one. I like to wrap my gifts in brown paper. I like the simplicity and that I can dress it up however I want - and I have a lot of it. I borrowed a cutter from a friend and bought this great adhesive paper today at Big W. It looks like scrapbooking paper, but it is adhesive at the back.

So it became a simple card. I would have used it to stick the brown paper - but today nothing seems like it will stick it down. I love the look and am off to get a circle cutter of my very own.

Playing shops

I bought this at Christmas and it has been hiding under my bed. With school holidays, all the kids have colds so we are staying home a bit - and playing shops. There is something in it for everyone - communication skills for the twins, fine motor skills with colouring and even maths for Alexander. What's better is this shop even serves dogs!

Just tell me what to do...

These are my new shoes - lovingly teamed with my PJ pants and a dirty floor(obviously I don't stage my photos!!). These are the shoes the internet made me buy. I had to have them- and I needed them too.

I was reading Julia's blog about stumbling around on blogs when I stumbled here and specifically to this post. I did not enter the competition - my chances were just too slim. Instead off we went to chadstone to FIND THOSE SHOES. Originally I wanted the champagne ones but they are not in stock - but I am just as happy with the practical black ones. They have runner soles and leather tops so they are comfy and practical - no more slippery shopping centre tiles. So apparently I am an easy advertisiting target - who knew?

Fabric

I don't know what my compultion is to keep punishing myself, like life isn't hard enough already. I think last nights alcohol consumption may have killed off a few vital brain cells. or is it the constant sleep deprivation that makes my hungover self think that it is a good idea to take three boys to Spotlight on a Saturday afternoon?????????????????????????

Anyhoo - I got what I needed and we got out virtually unscathed. Spencer is currently obsessed with Harry and his bucket of dinosaurs and as such must wear a vest and carry a bucket of dinos everywhere, Benji had no shoes on and wanted to be carried and that was only the way in, so you can just imagine what a tornado we were - like the tasmanian devil in the old looney tunes cartoons. The blurry picure is of the fabric I needed for a gift - but now I think I will hold it over and make/give it to someone else! Stay tuned

Easter Bonnet

I had a busy night last night in preparation for today's kinder Easter Bonnet Parade. Of course I had forgotten about it and actually hadn't prepared or bought anything so I really had to be creative. WOW - look how creative I was...

when Alexander was in 3 year old kinder!! Luckily or lazily I put it up high on a shelf, perfectly preserving it with a thick layer of dust - but that was easily fixed. Now all I needed to do was make a pair to it. I found a painting of Spencers (he has been quite prolific with the roller) and folded it to make a crown. I cut out some egg shapes which we decorated at Playgroup as an activity. An aside - an easy way to get decorative glitter is to use double sided tape, and then dip into a pile of glitter - much cleaner and more effective than other methods. - and simply stapled them on. Spencer was happy to model the hat at home and even on hte way to kinder, but this is the image of them at the PARADE!

Benji was eventually coerced to wear his hat and parade, but I am glad I didn't make a bigger effort!!!!!!!!!

rOCK ME

(sorry, Alexander did an ABBA medley at school this morning and it has been in my head all day) This is my latest little project - guitar rattle. Not an original idea but this i smy take on them. I saw large ones in LMNOP magazine (No. 10) and I thought iit would be a perfect rattle for the newest little boy (who's dad plays guitar) In the magazine there were kids with large size padded guitars, so after a trip to spotlight for some spots and stripes my idea was coming to fruition. I dre a pattern on a piece of A4 paper (to give you an idea of size) and cut two of them out of the red spot fabric. Then I used felt to applique the squares on to indicate strings etc. I sewed these on with the machine before I sewed the main parts together.
Before I turned it in the right way, I trimmed around it with pinking shears - then turned and stuffed (hard stuffed particularly around the end of the neck) I left the base of the guitar open and hand sewed it up. However before doing that I made a little bag into which I put three little bells (christmas style) but they rattle rather than jingle but for a first attempt I am pretty happy.

(lovely hand modelling to show you about how big it is finished.)

Mens PJs

(kwik sew pattern 3044)

A dear friend of mine has recently been dealt some shocking news and all of a sudden her husband is in hospital undergoing treatment. This was really out of left field and no one was prepared - least of all him.

Of course everyone has rallied around to help them in anyway that they can, and my way is at the sewing machine. A different (male) said that most men don't have any PJs and the only time they would need them was in hospital - and this is what I did.

He is only young and I know that buying any kind of fabric for boys is hard. I also wanted cotton and a stretch as if you are in bed you need comfort and light weight, but also to look ok if you have visitors. I found this one at spotlight - it is a knit and made in burda pattern 8187 which is a track pants pattern. This is the pattern that I did but the length is pretty good and a bit interesting...

The next ones I am a bit embarrassed about. I actually went and bought good quality cotton viscose fabric from a boutique - then I prewashed it and it looks like they are 20 years old. SO I think these look a bit ordinary but knowing him they will probably be his favourite. I used a basic Kwik Sew pattern 3044 which is a one piece pattern (ie no external side seam) Really the less this fabric was sewn the better - I was worried it would fall apart around me. THis is why I don't normally prewash fabric (dont tell anyone)