Christmas 2010

From us to you, Merry Christmas

sorry about the dodgy video work, we're getting better at it, i promise!

Owl Pillow, is called snuggly owl and I found him on oneprettything.com, and on Make it, Love it, its a downloadable pattern and instruction set, I found him pretty easy to make, he is pretty big and takes a fair bit of stuffing. Emily loves him, she quite likes birds, her room its getting a make over based on the little blue birds quilt im making her, that i have been making her for a long time, its so almost finished its not funny! I can't wait to see all the little things i have altogether. Matts for the floor, bunting for the shelves, art work based on her quilt and a few table runners and things, very cute. Right now thinking about adding curtains as well. Don't know yet. But the nursery feel her room has had is on the way out, welcome the girl room..:) Sigh, no more babies here..:(

I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas, and has an even better new year.

A gingerbread house!

well it started out like this. i got excited then. lol. i had expected it to fall apart before this point. but it didn't. ARGH on the windows, i read the instructions last night, and wasn't really thinking about what they said, and i really should of listened to the voice in my brain that didn't understand the instruction because when it was cooked i couldn't get the windows out, of course! now i knew that, but followed the stupid box anyway! i won't next year. i bought a box with all the cutters, which wasn't expensive at all, and took the guess work out of it all. but i did find heaps of templates on the net, the kids enjoyed using the cutters though.

And the complete details. there was a tense moment when i took away the roof supports, but the icing so far is holding..:) The recipe in the box of cutters for the gingerbread is very nice to eat and work with, it was all pretty hard so i had no issues with collapse.
The chimney, its three chimney cut outs stuck together with icing. Works a treat.
THe roof, sliced allsorts, hanging royal icing loops, easier than it sounds, i swear but effective too.
And our complete 2010 gingerbread house. I LOVE IT. let hope its still standing saturday for the centre of the table.

right now i feel like one big piece of royal icing, its everywhere, im covered in it! Going for a shower

jacqui

its been a kitchen sort of day

The best thing to do with fresh bread?

Cut it for lunch while its still hot! YUM

still bread making here, though we have changed a little. Does anyone watch River Cottage? British show, on lifestyle channel. I got quite the few tips from the Bread making ep.

Attic 24

how i love thee...:) hehe

i have been sent to this blog a few times

heres my bag, and the link to the pattern

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/crochet-bag.html

Its very easy and quick, this is lillys. She wants to learn to crochet, so i bought her some wool and a hook for christmas and this is her bag to put it all in. God help me when I have to teach her christmas day, cause you know she will want to get into it right away!

any tips for teaching a seven year old appreciated, she can finger knit like a pro, its this years tinsel on our tree.

christmas present glore

More sewing from Janelle winds book. It really is fantastic. I love this bag, it is so very cute. I made one for lillys friend earlier in the year and the girls totally fell in love with it, so here is emilys for christmas. Hers has a magnetic clasp. It will be good for the plane when we go and visit my mum after christmas.

I found this quilt on moda bake shop. (Picture frame or frame it or something of that nature, i would share the link but its stuck on my out of commission lap top) It was very easy, though i found the squares didn't quite match up, but within the overall effect you can't really pick it out. As said, it was easy and quite quick. Its also rather large! it should of had another round of large squares, but it was getting out of control for me. But i can so see it bigger and on a bed. Anyone this ones intention is for a picnic blanket. the owner of this quilt would of no need for warmth from it..:)

details, im still learning about free motion quilting. But i have discovered the lumpier the better for me..:) A wise lady also told me that it can't be wrong if i like it. Im going with that theory!...:)

The shopping tote from Janelle wind again, gotta use these pattern books up as much as possible..:) it goes with the picnic quilt.

five sleeps till the man in red....eeeek, we are so not organised, the only thing stashed in my cupboard is an xbox and kinect kit, dear me

updating the pillows

i shared the link to this quilt ages ago, heres my quilt. i first found this blog of janelle winds blog and let me just tell you cluck cluck sew is a fantastic blog full of tutorials to create things, all sorts of things. its all easy to follow. i loved the scrappy ness of this quilt. we use this mainly at little athletics on a friday night. its our picnic blanket. it gets quite the few comments too, i've led many to the tutorial. i knocked it all up over a few days. i did add an additional boarder to mine.
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2008/09/petal-pillow-tutorial.html

heres the pillow tutorial. i've been looking in a few stores at pillows, ours were in desperate need of replacing. I saw very very similar pillows to this one in designer stores starting at thirty dollars. just between you and me this didn't cost me that at all, and it was quick and very easy to sew and has given me all sorts of ideas for the other pillows. The felt is by the metre and it was very nice to work with, softer than the craft variety. Lincraft i found by the metre felt, but i bet its in spot light as well, somewhere. I used a demin for the base of the pillow.
My girls are totally in love with it, so i can see a few more of these in my future, i would probably make a slightly smaller base next time, esp for the girls beds.

Currently working on an xmas present quilt, i finished the quilting part yesterday, just the binding to go, will share shortly..:)

sewing sewing

so its been a week of sewing, of finishing things off and in some cases starting things. Much of my sewing came from Janelle winds book. Its fantastic, everything is funky and easy to follow and a pleasure to sew. The iphone pouch is for Jen Emilys hand therapist, emily and jen play with her iphone while Jen does her stretches. A part of therapy emily hates, so we found this to be a fitting present..:)

Lilly has two teachers this year, and this is what they got. I also followed a pattern from Janelles book, however there should be eight stars and I went for four as a middle of the table runner. I love these stars. I want one for my house too..:)

in the middle of a bag and quilt and some other bits, will share later

Merry Christmas to me..:)

This is my new baby..:)

I LOVE IT!

also got the ipad pictured..:)

its a happy little apple family...hehe

we always do something for the house at christmas

last year i got a fly screen for my front door so we could have it open, we get an excellent breeze right through the house when its open.

this year i got a toilet, yes you read that right, i nice white one.

i mean really who has an apricot toilet? I did heh.

and well because that present sucked nuts and we had been basically sharing a laptop for months after the kids fought over dans and broke it we splashed out and bought the mac. its

fantastic. so fast. I LOVE IT, did i mention that..:)

And just to prove im still kind of scrapbooking heres some art I made for our hallway.

Lilly took one look at it and went thats our family tree. YEs yes it is...;)

I made this for Lillys room. Its above her fireplace., its an apple tree.

and the bunting, well once i saw Mel Goodsells I just had to have some, its pretty cool and very easy

i just googled How to Crochet a three sided motif.

The snowmen

well here they are a little snowman army for emilys preschool christmas party tomorrowthey were very easy. Much easier than you would think.
I rolled two balls of white icing and stuck them together using water. The scarf was rolled icing that i coloured with wilton christmas red, i used the very expensive tool of a butter knife...good for everything hehe. and wrapped it around the snowman neck, i used water to stick it together again.

the hats i used a small circle cutter and stuck to it a cylinder shape, and a hat was born. The icing was colour with wilton black. The nose is just a little icing shaped as a carrot. kind of..:)
I gave them a little glitter, its an eatable powder and the eyes and mouth were made using a pen for writing on cakes.

I used orchard icing, bought from any supermarket. If I was actually making something like this for someone esle i would of used an icing modelling paste....but quite frankly kids couldn't give a rats about it.

i buy alot of my cake supplies from

the raspberry butterfly http://www.theraspberrybutterfly.com.au/store/pc/Simply-Sugarcraft-c2.htm

postage is ok, and the store is very fast, turnaround was just a few days. all the cutters, colours, glitter dusts, paints, you name it and its in this store....lots of great ideas as well.

I also use my local kitchen shop in Ballarat, LeKitchen.

i have a more detailed look at how I craft with sugar for cakes coming, just had to get all this out of the way....the end of the year is coming at frightening speed huh

fete cupcakes

my creation for Lillys School fete tomorrow.

i discovered glitter dust for cake decoration, i love it the stuff, its pretty cool.

ive been using the cupcake recipes from joyofbaking.com its a fantastic site. i want a reason to make the red velvet ones, they look so cute.

all the flowers and butterflies are just fondant with royal icing. its easy as. they have been through all sorts of conditions this week to. it was hot when i made them, sweating type hot, not fun, in fact YUK, and now its freezing and been raining for a few days, which made everything extra fragile!

i managed to get a cupcake carrier half price last week. it will get quite the work out between now and christmas.

next cupcakes will have snowmen on them for emilys preschool christmas party. wish me luck

mc happy day

it goes without saying that tomorrow is an important day for us.

most of us go our whole lives with no need for a facility such as ronald mcdonald house, but words rarly describe whats its like to actually need it, more than once.

its the simple things, from access to a kitchen, to a washing machine...the normal life stuff you still have to be able to achieve while your little one is in hospital. A safe affordable place to stay for extended periods of time. A place to retreat to on days outside the walls of the hospital, where even your sick children are welcomed. A location either within hosptial grounds or very close to for those times when your needed asap.

its so much more than a house. its understanding. where all going through similar experiences at the same time.

give what you can, buy a big mac, it really does make a difference.

its a barbies life

what to do what to do, three nude barbies, one unhappy four year old.

collect one scrapbag of material for her to look at, and maybe 20 cents worth of elastic, 30 minutes of my time at the machine and we have barbie fashion happening.

seeing something that excites her as much as my minimal effort with the clothes was pretty priceless i have to say.


this poor barbie, is Attitude Barbie. Nice tats...hehe...she had to have trashy clothes to match...seeing as we can't get the pen off.

Do your kids barbie hair look like this too? i wish they would find something bettter to make barbie hair out of

pleated strip skirt

i found this on moda bake shop, its very sweet.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/08/strip-pieced-pleated-skirt.html

its a pattern for a jelly roll, but strips of fabric do the trick. most of this material was made up of letf over bits and pieces and a fat quarter here and there. i had two 14 strip panels with six pleats in each, made for lilly who is seven and not a small seven.

it was easy stitching. and a great way to use up left over strips of material. its one i will make again.

i love moda bake shop, lots of patterns for all sorts of things. its a great blog.

sewing again

so i've been sewing again. a whole quilt which i had my first go at free motion quilting. and while its not perfect, it looks like. i found th epattern i used on janelle winds blog first. a link she shared. the quilt is easy and i love the scrappy look of it. heres the link. http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/12/raw-edge-circle-quilt-tutorial.html
i will share pics of mine later, its not a nice day here for pics today. i did add a boarder to mine. but i found the whole thing easy and quick. i had it complete in less than a week to use. its currently the rug we take to little athletics on a friday night.


today i woke with the urge to sew clothes. god knows why. i came across the link to this dress on one pretty thing. http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2010/08/solar-dress-free-pattern.html
the dress is easy to sew and i had it in less than an hour. way less. and emily loves it, it gives good twirl, very important in four year old world. the pattern has multi sizes and im thinking it would also look great as a top, which i think i will make for lilly so their clothes are just a little different.

the back, emily is in the four/five size of the pattern. its a little big on her, but i hope she gets to wear it next year as well.

and this one is just cause she is so damn cute..:)

garden birthday cake

While lilly may turn seven on the weekend, this is (thankgod) the off year for birthday parties, yes im one of those mothers, every second year is plenty if you ask me.

but that didn't mean in lillys eyes that she still couldn't have a cake worthy of a party. This cake was meant to have a crown instead of a seven, but the crown met an untimely end, i droped it. swore up the kitchen and then dan presented me with a seven and all was well once again..:) hehe. Anyway this is to share with her class at school tomorrow.

excuse the bench that is still covered in corn flour and icing sugar. i just finished the mother things. i have spent all day putting this together and lets not forget the days prior actually making the damn flowers! i tell you who does this??


im happy with it but. way to cute.

have any of you looked at cupcake wrappers lately, there are so many on the market, and they r all so damn cute! i got these at my local house store in ballarat and went with the pastel because of the garden look on top, but they had some really very cool ones.

Last Week

What did you get up to last week?

ME? Well it seems it was a mixed matched bunch of things.

Emily learned to write her name. How cute is that. She forms all the letters without help, we only told her the order. Now she writes it on everything. Not bad for a just turned four year old.

I love old bus scrolls, but have you ever priced the things. Reproductions are a ridiculous price. so while i loved the look i was unwilling to spend that amount on something that would so easily be placed on a wall and only appreciated once in a while.

until i watched better homes two fridays ago and watched her make one. How easy was that!

IM one for cost cutting and bargins, so the whole thing only cost me a bit of glue, white card and two tubes of paint.

i had the boards sitting in the garage from something else that were actually taking to the tip. a bit of retrival, a double coat of black paint, and using my trusty electrontic cutter all the letters were cut and glued in place. And there you have it, a london bus scroll.

this one a more personal one, all the placed that dan and i have lived during our relationship. the bottom half is blank ready to fill with places to come. It was fun to remember and think back on all these places and we r looking forward to placing some more interesting names on the list.

We filled the cookie jar with choc chip cookies and apple muffins. Needless to say they never last long!

We were kept warm by this. I heart this thing especially as we suffer or enjoy depending on your preference the last surge of winter this past weekend and coming week. We have had hints of spring promise, its coming.
I planted out the green house with seeds for the spring garden in a few weeks. We have an onion crop to look at in a few weeks hopefully. but its been an especially wet winter down here, the wettest in fourteen years. There are now full dams in our district that haven't been full in that long, its kind of amazing really. It also shows us that to much rain is as bad as no rain at all as the walls of dams crack under pressure. Anyway we r not all the confident in our crop because of it. what can you do? :)

We have been toying with the difficult decision on moving these past few months. Since emilys op actually. wondering if living in melbourne would help us cope during those times. but between the both of us we just couldn't get fully on board with the idea. we do love our house and the things a small town provides. Anyway last week dan accepted a new position with a very large pay increase in a town about 50 minutes away. so he is going to communte and we become a two car family again. its an odd feeling to get a car back, i have been without one for so long, but the wet weather makes the school walk largely difficult so the decision was made. Anyone own a suziki alto?? very effecient and lots of saftey features. and a pretty good price as well. we test drive it on monday. but it looks like it will be the winning choice.

this week life is all about lilly turning seven. will share pics of her soon.

Crochet fun

I love to knit and crochet during winter down here. I first learned to crochet in Mitchell, small country town in QLD where i did my country teaching service. I made the traditional granny square blanket that everyone has. YOu know the type that goes around and around that you add to every year.

Making things for the kids while Emily is in hospital calms me. I sit beside her and knit, I knit or crochet during her operations, something mindless that keeps me from pacing a hole in the floor of the parent waiting room.

After emilys stay eariler this year I walked away with a poncho for Em, and a shawl for myself as well as something for Dan that isn't quite finished yet. Its nearly done. BUt I also started a blanket for lilly to use at night in front of the TV. It tends to go to bed with her as well..:)

So I started my crocheting in long lines and then edged it, it is so very warm. She now wants a bigger blanket for her bed and im inclined to agree that it would make her bed toasty warm during the winter months so its on the list for nextu years winter projects.

Not to be left out of course is miss emily who wanted a blanket as well.

I found this pattern
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60689AD.html?noImages=&r=1

i love the colours in that pattern, but do you think i could get the pattern to work, no way. but i also couldn't get the hook they used or the wool. im guessing that had something to do with it heh!

so the pattern wouldn't leave me alone and so i went searching on google, gotta love that thing and found a how to video on crocheting an octagon and off I went. 4mm hook and regular 8 ply wool and here you have it.

it could do with another two rows added to the width, but right now im calling it done, i am sick to death of crocheting around eight sides. it has taken weeks and weeks, but emily loves it and i have to say it is warm as. so i figure in a few weeks i might look at it again and feel like adding the extra rows to it.

if you have never crochet before and you want to learn google how to crochet in a square and video a million will turn up. With easy to follow steps to watch. Start with a granny square which is the traditional round and round blanket and go from there. They grow pretty quickly and are super warm.

Organised Chaos.

Almost two years we have lived in this house. Two years without a linen cupboard. Thats a long time! I have had two metal garage shelving units in this perfect spot for a built in cupboard in the hall way to our bathroom with all our linen stacked on it, including our drinking water from the rain tank. Yes our tap water isn't the best to drink. Its the country what can you say.

Anyway, below is what it looked like, well not quite I had started the big move out of this spot so its missing a shelving unit that was relocated to Emilys room, and actually has the cute industral look going on now. I hated this spot. It drove me nuts. But by the time I had people out to make the cupboards and paid travel time etc, it was becoming an expensive problem to fix, so we sat on it and just put up with it. UNTIL!


This! Same space, only fantastic now. Flat back cupboards that installed ourselves, all built in and attached to the wall. And the best bit, just for 300. Our kitchen is white, and just off this hall way and it all matched perfectly. And thankgod too, because I hated the way it was! I even have the perfect spot beside the cupboards where our heated floor switch is for the vaccum cleaner.

We have had a birthday girl this week and what does this little girl want for her, her ears pierced. So off we went on her birthday to have it done. Both ears at the same time, and thank god too, cause i don't think that she would of let us do it a second time.

We had told her it would hurt, she all like ok, i know i'm brave.

she was a little nervous, but it didn't stop us at all.

and lets just say she was shocked when it happened and for a few seconds i didn't think she was going to cry, but oh did she. Sigh, beauty is pain! Anyway, she loves them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY, four, how did that happen??

They somehow make her look so old don't you think? But still so sweet.

Lilly is a no go on the earings, she took one look and went i don't think so. hehe

Some making

Well thats what emily calls it..:)

I have had the softies book forever. And this is the first and only thing I have made. Polly. For my niece. She is so soft. And i love that amy butler fabric.

Next is a change mat with pocket, that i found on one pretty thing. The pattern was easy and the whole thing was done in a matter of an hour. It to went in the baby present..:) Ps i really had to talk myself out of buying the Amy butler baby book...oh my god, its so nice!

And a card to go with the gift..:)

sorry about the pics, camera needs new batteries so its just an iphone in this house atm.

Later

Jacqui