Made a Shirt

Remember back in March when I learnt to make a men's button up shirt? Well, I had enough fabric left over, so I used it to make one for my nephew for his birthday. Check out that pattern matching! 

He loves these kind of loud, button up shirts, and I was pretty stoked to have been able to make it for him. I just sized the pattern down slightly based on his measurements. 

I think he liked it. 

Camping Memories

 Last camping trip. Maybe ever.

It sounds very fatalistic, but in the lead up to camping at the start of October, I started to realise that even though I would love for us to be a camping family, we just weren't. Camping wasn't a priority for us. Steve was happy to camp, but it was never something he would actively suggest or be excited about. While I loved going camping, I had to admit, I wasn't advocating for a four wheel drive, or to go off an explore places that were any more than two hours away. 

So while I was a little sad at the realisation, I was also ok with it too. We aren't a camping family. 

That said, we did have a great time camping with Steve's mum, brother and all the kids for four days at the start of October. 

We took everyone back to the property at Fernvale where we had camped in 2020. Steve's brother had bought a four wheel drive (he's committed to camping), at the start of the year, and as soon as I heard, I booked us in to camp together. It was perfect. I was a little worried the kids would get sick of each other, but they had a great time playing together. 

We hired the kyaks and paddled around on the river. The days were warm enough to get in the water, at least a little anyway.

Everyone tried fishing. 

Rachel caught a fish. 

We played card games, we had campfires, we ate all the food. 

The last night, we watched the grand final of some sports ball game, which I never would have even though would be something we would do while camping, but it was important to John, and it was his birthday, so we did it. Glad we were in range for the wifi to work, or I think he would have packed up and driven home. 

I loved waking up to these little girls in our tent. 

And it was over at just the right time. We packed up and came home. 

I have given away most of our camping stuff since then. Camp chairs, the four man tent, the huge twelve man tent, the cast iron saucepan, the self inflating mattresses and all sorts of other stuff. I'll admit, I haven't got all the way yet. We still have one box of camping related things in the garden shed; plastic plates and cups, the lantern, the bread toaster thing, as well as one two man tent, which packs flat and easy to pop up. 

So if I did feel the need to take the girls for a one nighter again, I've got the means for a little while longer. Our street people are talking about a group camping trip too, but I figure, if we go with people who camp - they will have all the stuff right?  

Halloween 2021

Just because one day I know I will want to look back and remember these things, this is Halloween for 2021. We just used costumes that we already had for the most part. 

Sophie is a generic Jedi, using Steve's Jedi shirt and her own brown pants from her Clara Costume. Easy. Rachel is a green globby monster from the book, Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman. Her costume was again, very easy, because it was my dressing gown and a lot of green face paint. 

Steve is wearing the costume that was the only one created specifically for this event - he is the Milk, from Fortunately, the Milk, which is very scary since it expired in 2014. We were cleaning out under the house for the impending build and found some old paint and a box. Costume made. The Wheat Bix box he is holding adds to the costume, but also hides all the lollies we were giving out. 

I am a generic Rock and Roll chick/Rydell High student, which is a costume I made in the Time Before Children. I look at it now and think the skirt is way too long, but since I literally dug it out the morning of Halloween, and no one noticed it, it really didn't matter and I couldn't be bothered to fix it now. Maybe if I'm intending on wearing it again. Maybe. 

Halloween is really taking off in Australia and I think because this year, it fell on a Sunday, there was a huge turn out. People were out on the streets at five, and there was a lot of families walking around. Living on the best street in the world, we had heaps of people to walk with and visit, and we all went back to our neighbour's house for sausages and bread for dinner and a quick happy birthday to one of the kids who was five on Monday. 

The best thing about this Halloween was meeting the newest member of the best street ever, four day old Sebastian. Can't wait for you to grow up a bit so the girls can baby sit you. 

Made Rachel Some Shorts

Did the usual cull of clothes in the girls wardrobes at the end of the winter season and the subsequent shuffle down of clothes that they have grown out of. I was on the look out for gaps and things they might need, but was surprised to find these were rather few indeed. Rachel just needed shorts. 

I suppose I could have made more than one pair, but to be honest, I'm not sure she'll wear them too much, given her history of dress/skirt loving. Still, these are pretty cool and she does love them. Especially the pockets. 

Legacy (or Painting More Things at School)

People often seem confused as to why I volunteer so much at the girls school, or maybe they are confused as to why I enjoy it. I'm not sure. Either way, I'm quick to remind them that I don't do everything, and it just happens that the things I do do, like making sure information is shared via an email or on Facebook, are the visual, easy to see things. So even though it looks like I'm doing a lot, there are loads more people working hard in the background. 

I guess a lot of my motivation is the conviction that God has put us here to work for the good of others, not just ourselves. That contributing to a larger goal is actually something that gives us more purpose than doing things for our own benefit. Also, I want my kids to see me doing these things, so that they learn how to love others in the same way. And if their school needs something done, I don't want to be someone who just grumbles about it. I want to be a part of the solution.

All that said, here's a look at a little project the P&C did this term, which again, I had very little to do with, but I'm proud to be a part of all the same. 

We painted the besser block walls near the hall where the local Community Garden group has their set up. I did lots of the green (because it was the worst paint to deal with, and since I was barely painting, I felt I could handle doing it when I was there). It was designed by, Lis Gillet, one of the Community Garden members who turned out to have design skills. 

And I think it looks fantastic. There was lots of detail, compared with the prep area, so it felt like it was taking a long time, but the results are really beautiful. 

This is the kind of thing I want to leave behind. Doesn't even matter if my name is mentioned at all, but I want to have done something that's made things better, that has helped people move forwards. To have contributed to things that last. Things that change for the good. This is what God wants for us too: positive forward motion, towards love and relationship. Towards faith and hope. 

I'm often overwhelmed by my slow progress, by the way I'm not doing enough, by the weight of a world that is so self-driven and competitive. But this is what I want to be working on, little by little, leaving behind small changes that make the world that little bit brighter for those who come after. 

It's Never Finished: Building a Shed

Buying a home might seem like a great idea, and don't get me wrong, I do love owning our own little bit of paradise, but the confronting reality is that house stuff is never finished. Sure there are breaks where things appear to be complete and you relax for a bit. Sometimes even you start to get proud of how things are going along, and the improvements you've made. Just as you are feeling good about that though, something new comes along to tell you there is more work to do. 

So the back story this little grumble begins with a granny flat. Steve's mum was alone in Bundy and we were concerned for her, and on and off for the last few years, we've talked about building in under our house to make a place for her to live that's just a bit closer to us all. Turns out this year was the year that Steve's mum decided this was the right idea for her, and we found ourselves talking to architects and having plans made. 

All well and good, except now that we were planning for under our house to become another house, all the stuff that we had stored under the house needed a new place to live. So time to cull, and get people who were storing their stuff under our house to take their stuff back, and also to build a shed to put what we were actually keeping in. 

Build a shed. Sounds easy right? Except that where we want to put it, in the back corner of the yard, is currently a garden bed, and the swing set would block the door. So we are not just building a shed, but also relocating a swing set, a garden bed, digging everything level, putting up a retaining wall, laying a slab and then building the shed. 

I went to bed a few  nights thinking the whole task was insurmountable, not to mention that we hadn't even started on the granny flat yet. Sigh. To be perfectly honest, moving the swing set, which was the first on the long list of things to do, seemed to be the hardest bit. It's laughable now, because Steve got into his head to do it one afternoon and that's all it took. He dug new holes, he dug the old ones up, we walked it forward and into the new spot it went. 

I relocated all the plants we wanted to save from the garden bed and then Steve and some street friends went to town digging out the area where the slab was going to go. We took that dirt out, put it back in, took it out and put it back in again. I can't even remember half the reasons we had to do so much repeat business with that dirt, but it took ages to get that ground where it needed to be for a slab. 

At last, we put the footing in for the retaining wall around two sides of the shed (including re-mounting one of the fence posts into a stirrup), and were ready to cement a slab. 

Again, with the assistance of some work friends, Steve did some solid work with this cement slab. Double, triple and quadruple checked for the correct size and after it dried, we were good to go. Steve did so much research and work on this whole project. Every now and then I got to clip something in, or hold the screws, but it was really Steve. 

We cleared nearly a whole weekend to do this shed, and it's pretty lucky we did. For the most part, everything went together ok. Walls lined up and things snapped in. Thanks to Sarah's Steve who came round to lend a hand with that first bit of the day. 

Just when you think it's all smooth sailing though, you put the roof on and notice that things are not lining up. And it seems that the walls of the shed are in fact, too big for the slab, and too big for the roof. 

Which presents a few problems to say the least. So after 12 hours of working on this shed (not to mention all the prep time on the swing set, garden bed, retaining wall and slab!), we had more work to do. When does it ever end!?!

Here we are, a few weeks later, trying our best to make the most of what we have, and not spending a moment more than we need to on this shed. Tonight, at about 5:30 while I was making dinner, Steve happened to look at the weather for the weekend and realised a storm was on it's way, so he did a quick last minute fix of adding a final bit of roofing to the end gap. So thankful my Dad had a bit lying around that we could use rather than having to buy a new one.

I've been filling the shed over the last couple of days. All the shelving units that we had previously stored stuff on under the house have been moved up and fit. The things we want to keep are also fitting, though I've come to the end of stuff I can move on my own and I'm waiting for Steve to give me a hand with the rest. 

Better get cracking though, because we met with our builder this afternoon too and the ball is rolling for a granny flat to be built pretty soon. I'm trying not to think about the more work that entails, or that it includes the relocation of yet another garden bed, some well established trees and a recently installed water tank. 

Reminiscing: Rachel's 7th Birthday

When Rachel told me she wanted a sewing themed cake and not an insect cake, I was shocked, as you know. Well, we ran with it, and not only did Rachel get a sewing cake, she also got a sewing party. 

These were the invites. That ribbon was wrapped around and stuck with a safety pin. We got it free from someone in our community who was giving away a bunch of them conveniently just as we were discussing invitations. 

It was the end of June, which was probably the busiest month of the year and feels like a life time ago now. We did a fruit platter, veggie sticks, some button biscuits, poppers and the cake. Sewing basket cake. Pretty simple party fare really. 

We played pin the buttons on the dress (which all the kids cheated at), 

pass the parcel - fabric wrapping for reusability (each layer the kids got a chocolate and a spool of thread), 

and then we sat down to do some sewing. Rachel actually wanted all the party to be just sitting around teaching kids how to sew, but I managed to talk her out of it. I prepped a set of ribbon and felt bookmarks for the kids to do, and they managed to whip stitch around the edges with degrees of success. 

For the rest of the time the kids all just ran around in the yard, playing games, climbing on things and blowing bubbles. 

Rachel's party bags were fabric (of course), and full of sewing supplies; thread, buttons, safety pins and fabric. She wanted to give the kids needles too, and she wanted to hand sew each of the bags, which I again, managed to talk her out of. She did cut the fabric and the ribbons to size before I sewed them together. 

Sewing Basket Cake. Steve had to make an emergency trip to the shops to get an extra bag of chocolate bullets when I was running out, but I feel it was worth it. Some of the sewing items in this "basket" look a little funny, but kids were happy to eat it. 

The next day, we had the fam over for a bbq lunch. Pretty casual. I had told Rachel I could make her a sewing machine cake, but in the exhaustion of June, I reneged and told her I would make whatever flavour cake she would like, but that it would just be round. 

Rachel asked for a lemon cake. Too easy. We had leftover button biscuits, mars bar slice and the usual BBQ lunch and salad. 

Happy Birthday Rachel, as you make another year around the sun, I wonder if your next birthday will be variation on theme or a new song all together. 

When Life Gives You Lockdowns