Festive Much?

So ignoring the in-laws ‘here is 2 placemats with an IOU for 4' more’ and the fact that mum’s present isn’t even started and Glen’s shirts didn’t get past the fabric buying stage I can’t wait for Xmas. Last day of work today and ignoring the flu symptoms because I have 2 weeks off – so excited! Now I just have a few holiday projects to keep me going.

Hope you have a great festive time and enjoy those loved ones and doing lots or little - whichever works for you best and thanks for popping around and keeping me company and giving me inspiration and friendship – appreciated more than can be expressed.

Super Six

It is official, we made it to 6 and the first year of school. The last few months have been a challenge with all the change and expectation catching up to my little man.

We took him after 2 years to the psychologist  and she was so pleased and said with what he has learned he would probably wouldn’t even be considered on the autism spectrum. That doesn’t mean he is ‘cured’ just that the early implemented techniques have really made a difference. It was a really proud moment for not only him but I even let myself have a little ‘yay me’. Lots of work and time and tears and still weekly challenges seemed worthwhile.

He did a great job at school with another ‘Student of the week’ for trying hard and a report card with beautiful compliments about the sort of person he is. He is super excited about Grade 1 and his teacher and has done a great job making some really good friends. A huge relief after our 3rd school to find the right fit.

There are not words to express how proud I am of Caleb and how well he has handled himself and how excited I am to see the man he is going to be – all to quickly for his Mum’s liking! If you are a parent dealing with the early stages (that are really hard) it is not easy but it can get better.

Holiday Plans

Only 2 more days of school and Prep is done – wow. Poppy is finishing up all her activities and one more week of work for me and then 2 weeks off – YIPPEE.

I do have some holiday plans though

• making bread at least once a week
• kids to take a photo a day (I expect lots like this one)
• bike riding, park visiting, zoo, you get the idea
• wrapping lots of presents and putting together lots of unwrapped presents
• sewing for MYSELF
• fixing up the kids bedrooms
• feel like I am having a holiday even though we are staying home
• lots of baking with the kiddies
• hope to build a walking/exercise routine (hopefully to help with the above point)
• more Melbourne kid ideas
• looking forward to having some time to waste

What about you – any plans for the hols?

Dinos Rule

Caleb had so much fun at his Dinosaur Diggers party, while it isn’t cheap it was worth it. He was in heaven and even the non-dino obsessed were enjoying it - mainly due to the fact that Sandra was fantastic. At fossil dig time, Caleb was still madly fossicking after 20 minutes!

For the goodie bags (sewed with dino fabric of course) I did some gingerbread dinos and the dinosaur eggs of questionable appearance made it in and have received glowing responses.

For the cake I wanted to do dino foot print cupcakes that made out a 6. It didn't quite turn out as good as the head vision (that seems to happen with me and my limited cake abilities but unlimited ideas!) but the kids didn’t care and the birthday boy loved it. One of our guests was allergic to food colouring so the lovely Katrina at Windsor Deli extracted the colour for me out of parsley and spinach for the icing, so cool.

Plans for a mushy post on Sat, his actual birthday and 6, how did that happen!

My Creative Space

So it has taken me this long to get round to uploading the photos as this last weeks creative space! While madly trying to finish the teacher gifts that have made there way to creative space before I am also working place mats for the in-laws. I used this fantastic tutorial to make the spider web block. While the result is gorgeous I am thinning I may make this a centre piece and then make the actual place mats strips or I am just going to run out of time.

I also finished up the lap quilt for Caleb’s teacher this morning. As soon as he saw it finished he had to take it in today so a quick snap fresh out of the dryer was all I could manage.

And most importantly I really wanted to thank Kirst for being such a great host.

When all else fails …

What better fall back for some instant gratification after some sewing frustration than a pink summer dress for Poppy - You are guaranteed love at first sight. Pattern from new favourite Japanese book.

Pleasant Surprise

Have you seen Emily Martin of Black Apple fame’s new book? Since I have loved her artwork and dolls forever I HAD to get a copy – for Poppy of course and $20 odd dollars seemed pretty good value. When it came it was so lovely that I thought I would share it. There are so many gorgeous characters and even scenes, and at the back are a stack of make your own clothes and people as well as other ideas for your paper doll family.

For a pleasant change there is lots of boy characters too so I am going to cut out  half to Poppy and half to Caleb. Caleb is loving drawing shirts and pants that we cut out and add heads and funny names too so he should really enjoy it. I ordered another copy for a classmates birthday coming up as a good school holiday present.

*No-one has asked me to write this, I just wanted to share. You do have to cut all the pieces out and unfortunately the pages aren’t perforated or spiral bound.

My Creative Space

  Caleb’s birthday is just around the corner (6!!) and the party is in a couple of weeks – eek. It is dino crazy and we are having a ‘planned party’ but still wanted to fit in a little hand made fun with Caleb. I found a tut on how to make your own dino egg that they could chip away at – if you squint really hard it looks like an egg doesn’t it – no still looks like poo. It is also made with tonnes of coffee grounds and stinks so perhaps 20 6 year olds don’t’ need additional stimulant. Drawing board again.

Bet there is more classier spaces at Kirst’s.

Hi

While there has been a lot of sewing there has been some ‘not quite rights’ of late. Things not quite fitting, blah – blah – blah. Here are a few things that have passed.

This is the hat from Pip’s book, while it didn’t fit Caleb it is a very cute addition to the present pile.

I adapted a long sleeve pattern to make this circle yoke top, the arm holes are pretty airy but I am happy to ignore that. The Heather ross was a donation from the lovely Kate. 

Shark on your ass swimmers and white binding at legs. The camo material was from Melanie (thanks very much!).

I was really happy with this dress from a few creative spaces ago, the pics aren’t the best, temperamental model! I am working on a pink version (as requested by temperamental model)

The lead up to Christmas is feeling a little daunting, but I am trying to ignore it and keep ploughing through my handmade gifty list. (Note to anyone planning children – don’t have them the week before Christmas!) I am thinking a little cookie baking from Windsor Deli (her choc chip cookie is being modelled by Caleb at the beach). Have you checked out her blog - lots of cute recipes and I really love “the cook and the chef” using in season ingredients that she is doing in conjunction with Mish.

Next up some placemats for the inlaws. Congrats if you actually made it this far!

My Creative Space

Still lots of bits and pieces going on.

  Handmade gifts for young blokes are hard work. Hope that he likes the shirt and it fits! I am on a button search - thinking little wood ones. The fabric is Kaffe Fasset Ikat and pattern is another Japanese one. Glen wants one too.

Some little stitchy inspiration.

And a hat for Caleb from Pip’s new book.

More Creative space gold at Kirst’s.

I promise next week a really long – lot’s of crap I have finished but haven’t had time to blog – post, these things really do get finished I promise … except the dress from last week which I still haven’t started (why do your own projects always get put to the bottom of the list?)

My Creative Space

Got the quilt top finished from last week so just need to sandwich it all together and attack it with the Perle.

Then hoping to get a start on the Colette wrap dress, the pieces are all cut.

More creative goodies at Kirst’s.

My Creative Space

With all the drama trying to find a school that worked for Caleb his current teacher is such a lovely lady that I really wanted to make something a bit special for her Christmas / Thank you present. I don’t really enjoy making bags so a lap quilt it is. The majority is scraps with my new found love of solids (quite a bit of Kona solid has been purchased thanks to the AUD) in her requested colour palette of blue and green and tufted tweets for the backing. To be honest, it took forever to decide on a pattern and there was going to be much more detail in the blocks but time isn’t my friend so hope it is still interesting enough.

More creative wonders over at Kirsty’s.

Simply Spring

  Inspired by the lovely Kate and her tutorial these appeared in 2 hours last night. You have to love that, from half a yard of fabric no less so 2 very cute skirts for around $5. I used 5 inches for the top and 10 inches for the bottom to fit Poppy. The flowers are an Alexander Henry and the pink is a really nice cross weave. I was expecting it to be like a shot cotton, which it isn’t at all but has a gorgeous texture to it. The hem detailing is one of the fancy stitches on my machine that never get used.

I was lucky enough last night to make it into Pip’s book launch (even if it was with both the kidlets who were thankfully pretty well behaved) for Sew La Tea Do, and it is a really lovely book. There are plans – like there needed to be more – of hats and embroidered pillow slips and other lovely things that you expect from the lovely lady herself. (bad blogger who took no photos)

Yay Sunshine!

Poppy and I were so excited for the arrival of some sunshine yesterday we hit the beach. She is wearing her yellow jacket from My Creative Space a few  weeks ago, because seriously if you have a bright yellow jacket – it NEEDS embroidered bumble bees.

Short Cut

I am not sure if it is the first really lovely spring day but I have toying with the idea of a new short do. Apparently it is the Hollywood trend. I do like these starlet’s new locks. Images from here.

My Creative Space

This week some new swimmers for Caleb. The blue camo print from the lovely Mel and the plan is a little shark appliqué action. I am going to ditch the velcro fly for just an elastic waist, not sure how that experiment is going to go? The dress for Poppy is one of the patterns from the Japanese pattern book and nearly finished.

I am waiting on some fabric to arrive to get into more of those Christmas presents and despite telling myself different have yet to make myself a dress for summer. Hopefully I can get into it soon! More creative goodness at Kirst’s.

Too Busy to …. Blog

I have been sewing lots and finished up a skirt for me but haven’t had time to photograph it. I seem to of fallen out of the photo taking habit which I am trying to get back into. 2 new pants for Poppy as they both have managed to grow out of their pants by an inch a month before they wont need them anymore. Gees even this post has been sitting in drafts for a week.

My Creative Space

I have about 300 WIP at the moment which isn’t my natural state at all, I much prefer to start and finish so I am trying madly to maintain order. Over the school holidays we had a train trip to the city so I ‘happened’ to make our wanderings pass Tesutti. I have wanted to make Poppy a yellow coat all winter but couldn’t find any wool so settled for a linen spring coat (until next winter anyway).  It is from the same Japanese pattern book as the winter coats from earlier in the year and with the strong AUD this other summer pattern book has come to live with us too.

More peeps at Kirst’s, the light to the creative moth types.

My Creative Space

The quilt is finally finished so now thoughts are already turning to Christmas. At Poppy’s child care she has up to 8 carers, and this simple scarf tutorial is the answer. All the strips are cut and ready. I really want to make a homemade Christmas this year so hoping if I give myself enough time that I can achieve it this year.

And another pair of pants that fall into “love a little more than I should” category. It is the Oliver + S pattern with the pockets and front panel left out, it is also full length not 3/4 with a linen trim on the bottom. After searching for some suitable fabric for the dino obsessed boy, I decided to do a little triceratops sketch and embroider it on the back linen pocket.

More creative peeps over at the lovely Kirst’s.  

Japanese Summer shorts

Occasionally I make stuff that I love a little more then perhaps I should - these definitely fall into that category. A standard elastic waist pant that I made a little longer and  curved the bottom and finished with white binding. Really easy and only half a yard of fabric  from here. Lots of summer sewing at the moment and am really loving the quick projects! 

My Creative Space

The quilt managed to find its new home on Sat night but has taken me this long to make it to the blog. (School holidays while trying to work is quite a juggle) I feel like I am cheating a little as it isn’t really a work in progress but there isn’t much else creative happening at the moment. After a year, and having changed the design lots I am really happy with it and Poppy loves it. Thank goodness it didn’t go on her bed and then she demanded a Dora one.

So many lovely ladies have helped me out as I plodded along. The border and binding fabrics are from      Central Park Patchwork and the service was really good.

More creative goodness over at Kirst’s, even if she is school holidaying I took the liberty of spacing anyway – I am that kind of guest.