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floral tribute

 

 

We are full-tilt Christmas here this week. It's the last week of school so I'm trying to get all those one-kid-only jobs out of the way, plus there's concerts and picnics and all of that other end of year fun stuff. 

The Christmas frenzy seemed a good excuse to make one of these flower garlands (found via one of my current blog favorites, You Are My Fave). The directions call for tracing the petals using a cotton reel, but since very low time input was my main criteria for this I traced the petals for mine from a ribbon reel (about 8cm diameter) so I could make fewer, larger flowers instead of lots of miniature ones. It still worked, and they are now festooned over the door to our kitchen. Please excuse the very classy blue masking tape on the half-painted door, it was impossible to get a half-decent photo of the garland in action.

Also, there's a few words about me & my toys over at the lovely Progressive Pioneer blog this week. Thanks Amy!

advent-o-rama

 
It's the first day of December! And yes, I am posting another picture of the calendar I made three years ago. (Is there a statute of limitations on this? I hope not - sorry!) This year we're filling the stockings with a fairly even share of small treats (hair clips, bubble bath, matchbox cars), miniature chocolate santas and fun christmassy activities. At least, that's the plan - I am still gathering activity ideas, particularly for when the school holidays hit. I found myself madly bookmarking ideas over the last couple of days and thought I might post them here just in case any of you are in the same boat:

- Lots of great activity ideas here. And here! Also, here.

- Kids Craft Weekly has two wonderful issues about advent calendars and activites.

- An online advent calendar with suggestions for crafts and things to do each day!

- The very talented Meg has made an advent colouring book to download.

- A lovely advent calendar how-to here, and more advent calendar inspiration at at the Crafty Crow and Whip Up. 

november girls

 

I had a child-free day on Tuesday. What did I do? Clean the house? No. Knuckle down and answer my emails? Sadly, no (that job is for the weekend). Do some paperwork? Nup. Sew two girl dolls? Yes. Ginger and Minnie Poppy dolls went into my shop this afternoon with a few others, and have happily found new homes now. Thanks so much to the nice peeps who re-homed them.

Well. It's Friday afternoon and we were all set to take a trip up the hill to the Stirling Christmas Pageant tonight (main attraction for the big kid: staying up late to see the fireworks afterwards). But it's suddenly very dark here and there was just a massive crack of thunder and now some very ominous sounding raindrops, so I think we might be needing a new plan to start the weekend. I hope yours is a happy one!

hot or not

Hello! Thanks for your nice words. I'm out of hospital and home taking it easy. I had to stay a little longer than I'd hoped because I had a wacky reaction to one of the drugs. On the up side, I am now minus a gallbladder and minus a bit of extra weight as well (woo!) How about a game of Claire's Hot or Not?

hot

1. Seasonally themed gumdrop-pops from Martha. Audrey and I will so be making these this year. 

2. Dawn's fantastic clouds. I want them all.

3. A heatwave in November. November! Very hot, but not necessarily in a good way (see 'not').

4. Very pretty flower garlands. I've been trying to come up with some toddler-friendly Christmas decorations this year. Wouldn't strings of these look great around a christmas tree?

4. A nice husband who has taken the week off work to look after the kids while I recover from the chop. Lovely.

not

1. A heatwave in November. We've had days of temperatures around the 40s, and today parts of the state have the dubious honor of a first ever 'catastrophic' fire warning. This kind of heat at this time of year is not only foul but makes me fearful of the summer ahead.

2. Weirdy medications. Though I am grateful for their pain-reducing effects, it turns out I am not so good at tolerating anything stronger than a panadol. What a wuss!

PS - the Marmalade cat is one I made last week. She's winging her way to a little girl right now.

bertie-dougal

Another Dougal dog! This one, Bertie with the patchy eyes, looks a little stunned and not terribly bright. But loveable, too, hopefully. I'm very fond of him.

For the past few months I have been thinking about craft markets, and seriously considering hauling my wares to Melbourne to participate. But suddenly! Adelaide is coming to the market-party:

-Bowerbird Bazaar last month was fantastic - really fantastic (yay, Bek!) We were supposed to be away (but that was cancelled due to illness, natch, so I didn't have a table), but I'm looking forward to the next one, next year. And,

-the Stitches and Craft show is coming to Adelaide in March. Exciting!

So there is plenty to think about and potentially lots of sewing to be done.

But the fun stuff will have to wait, because at the top of my mind is a stay in hospital later this week (urgh, hopefully a short one, fingers crossed). Things might be a little sporadic here until I'm back on my feet. x

something fishy

Audrey turned six last week. My little girl, not quite so little any more! She's been asking for fish since the beginning of the year, so over the weekend Nibbles, Flappy, Bubbles and As-Yet-Unnamed joined us. It's a terrible photo, I know - the tank, while quite lovely, has a curved outer edge and reflects everything. But you get the idea. Fish!

So we have been talking lots about fish care, and the dangers of over-feeding. Every time we do, I'm reminded one of my favorite childhood books:

"When you feed a fish, never feed him a lot. So much and no more! Never more than a spot, or something may happen! You never know what."

This is the dog-eared, sticky-taped copy my brother and I read when we were young. Audrey and I pulled it off the shelf and have been enjoying it again lately. Mr Carp is, I think, one of the under appreciated legends of modern literature. ;)

Happy birthday, Audie!

handmade home

I've had my copy of Amanda's wonderful new book Handmade Home for a couple of weeks now. It will be no news to any of you, I'm sure, but this is a beautiful, inspiring book, full of projects that look not only fun to make, but that will mean something to you & your family, too. 

There are a ton of beautiful ideas in here, but as soon as I saw the pattern for the sweater hats, I knew that it would be a keeper. An old felted cardigan of mine and fifteen minutes later, Henry has a new hat. Perfect for the freezing, wintery walks to school and back we're taking at the moment. As an extra bonus - he's actually keeping hats on, now (hallelujah!) - as if I needed any extra impetus to make any more (Audrey has one lined up, as well). I think this pattern would work equally well using an old t-shirt for a milder Spring-type hat, too.

Oh, and the arrival of this book was doubly exciting as one of my cat dolls is on the cover, hugged by sweet Adelaide, none the less. Yay!

Nina

Another doll from my production line. Having fun with these. Nina here has a shirt made from a tiny, treasured piece of upholstery fabric by the wonderful Cloth. I wouldn't mind one like it myself.

We are a bit bleary-eyed here today. Henry was awake for a marathon 2.5 hours last night. For the first year of his life, he was a fantastic sleeper - we couldn't believe our luck! Audrey didn't start to make it through the night by herself until she was 3, so we were quite familiar with living with broken sleep. For the last few months, though, Henry's sleep has been patchy at best and, as any parent knows, the cumulative effect of sleep deprivation plays havoc with your ability to think straight and feel, well, good. So I am off now to pull out our well-thumbed Elizabeth Pantley for wisdom and advice.

week of giraffes

Last week was supposed to be giraffe week. I had three of them cut out and was feeling particularly on a roll. But then both kids came down with ear infections and giraffe week turned into week of sleep deprivation, antibiotic dispensing & cuddling feverish little people. Hopefully this week will be a better one for the giraffes, and with any luck they will be ready for the shop by the weekend.

Also, this past week, we tried to buy a church! A very run down old church in the shape of an octagon with no kitchen/bathroom/heating/21st century comforts like running water. I've always loved the idea of turning a church or old hall into a home, but unfortunately we missed out. Very exciting to give it a go, though.

So for now, back to tending to the convalescing sickies - and giraffes.

friday

It's Friday afternoon. Henry is asleep and I've just pulled some cupcakes out of the oven for Audrey's play date this afternoon. I'm hoping H will continue to sleep just a bit longer so I have time to put on a load of washing and make fishcakes for dinner. 

I've had the urge to make another cat doll recently (it's been a while!), and Marmalade here is the first cab off the rank. Her face is too pointy. A visit to the fabric store this morning yielded some fantastic lilac coloured wool flannel, though, so a round-faced Marmalade is waiting in the wings.

Hope you're all having a good Friday.