Cot Bumper

The cradle is set up in the nursery, and despite my initial reaction to Cradle/Cot Bumpers (adding to the risk of SIDS and what not), I thought I'd make a set give that a) this bub will probably be in the cradle longer than Sophie was and b) it's winter, and thus cold. I don't feel there is much else to say, and given that this is yet another sewing post (which I'm sure is what makes people come back to this blog day after day) I don't want to go on too long anyway.

I used up some scrap squares from the 2013 Block of the Month Quilt that I had left over (even some horrible Spring Bloom blocks :P) and backed it with some fun animal print fabric I picked up at Spotlight ages ago for $4.00/m. I bound it with left over scraps from the backing of the Log Cabins Quilt. Good to use up stuff.

Also took the opportunity to practice some quilting techniques (of course) nice and easy on the smallness of each one (there are 3, each 50cm by 20cm). The triangle piece has just straight lines, the one to the left (which you can't see) has some flowers and then some free motion to fill in the gaps, and the last one was just free motioned all the way. Got to love that Free Motion Quilting. Overall, I'm well pleased with the result.

New Shoulder Bag

The last few weeks have felt a strange mix of lazy and productive. Some days I'm just lying around watching time pass, napping and supervising Sophie play. Other days, I'm cooking, vacuuming, doing loads of washing, making play dates, running here and there. It's been a bit strange. That said, I still have things that need to be done, and only four weeks until bub is due to make an appearance, so I sat down yesterday to get serious about it and wrote my to-do list.

This morning, I've crossed off three things. Hooray! This post, long overdue, is another thing. Excellent.

About six weeks ago, I noticed that my handbag was beginning to fall apart and thus Operation New Shoulder Bag came into being. Something I've noticed about sewing, especially when sewing from scratch and making patterns up as you go, is that the more thinking you do about what is going to go where and how it's all going to be cut and come together in the end before you actually do the sewing, the easier it is to actually do the sewing part.

For example, I tossed around the idea of the bag in my head for at least a week. Just in my head. Thinking about what I wanted to get out of it (pockets/zips/straps etc) and how I would do it. Then I spent a few days actually getting that down on paper. I've been sketching what I want the end product to look like and noting things. Then actually drawing what each component will be made of and out of what material and what dimensions etc. Seems a bit ridiculous, but it's so helpful.

That done, cutting the material is the next (and generally last) really time consuming thing. Once those pieces are cut though, I labeled them, stacked them up and was ready to sew. Because I was again cannibalizing my old bag (reusing the zips and piping and strap buckle things), I needed to sew it pretty quickly so I wasn't actually without a handbag for any momentous occasions, like leaving the house.

Now the bag is done. I feel it does have everything I wanted, though the top didn't turn out as awesome as it did in my head. Not quite sure why, but that's what happens when you are experimenting and learning and stuff. It's got pockets on the back, for easy key and phone access (see the next picture for that). It's got an adjustable shoulder strap. The inside has a zip pocket on one side and slip pockets on the other for tissues and lip balm.

The top of the bag is inset, so that on normal days it's a standard bag size, but when I need to stuff extra baby/kid related things in there, it expands to be a super-mum bag size. Sorry for all the close up photos. I was taking them while on the phone to the electricity company and the table is a bit of a mess.

The bottom of the bag is quilted - free motion style - yay! and also surrounded by piping that keeps everything in ship shape. Material is scraps from what will one day be a super cool tent for Sophie (hello 2nd Birthday present!) and the inside is fully lined with leftovers from Steve's Aladdin costume. This bag cost nothing but my time and effort. Brilliant. No shopping required.

I feel this last photo shows off the inset top bit as well as how much better I am at putting in zips than ever before. Though Steve can attest to the number of times I cursed zips as I sewed it in. :P Will they ever be easy?

 

Welcoming Winter

Well  hello Winter! I sit here to type this with my socks on and my fuzzy green hooded warmth-giving dressing gown doing it's job. I'll be changing the sheets to flannelette tonight that's for sure. Sophie was wearing three layers this morning, but she makes a fuss about getting into them and her little hands are still freezing, so I'm wondering how we will survive actual winter. Meh. She's got to harden up or freeze I guess.

I've noticed lately that I've been very slack about taking photos of the little girl. She moves so fast and often the camera is in a hard to get to spot so I don't feel it's worth trying to get it before she's distracted again anyway. Sigh. I guess I'll just have to do what people in the olden days did and remember things, rather than photograph them.

That said, here is one I did manage to snap on the way down to Sydney two weeks ago. Don't be fooled by the smiles, about ten seconds after this shot, she noticed me and had a cry about not getting to sit with me. :P I hope Aunty Fi is proud of the way we have her infant seat belt securely attached.

Before Sydney we went to Caloundra for a few days with some friends too. The weather was perfect and it was lovely to just have chill time. So great to share child-watching with Steve too.

This weekend was really back to reality. Bub number two is only approx. six weeks away, so it was time to set up Sophie's room so that we could vacate the nursery in preparation. She has settled in well, though we haven't tackled the challenge of moving her to the actual bed yet. There is something satisfying about looking at that room and seeing the bed covered by a home made quilt. 

And these are my Mother's Day Flowers. So bright and cheerful. Thanks Steve for remembering and being organised in advance this year. Love it!

Sleeping Bag: Quilting Practice

I mentioned a few days ago that one of the things I had ticked off my to-do list had involved quilting. While I know that this made some people cringe, and others wonder if I had truly lost my mind, I have not actually begun another quilt. Breath a sigh of relief people. What I have done is made a sleeping bag for Sophie.

Coming into winter, I'm noticing that my a-bit-over-one-year-old cannot stay under blankets very well at night. On the advice of other parents with similar problems, I thought I'd make a sleeping bag for her to keep her all nice and warm, with the added bonus of me not having to get up and check that she is indeed still tucked in. Given that it was specifically for the winter season I wanted to make sure it was as warm as could be, so I not only chose flannel material for the lining, but also decided I'd put some wadding in. This also gave me the opportunity to practice some quilting on a much smaller scale, so bonus!

I used a pattern from sewmamasew for the base and just made it a little longer and bigger so that it will fit her all though the coming growth spurts. I had the cute turtle fabric in the stash, I think I got it sometime last year for $4 a meter (bargin!) and the yellow flannel on the inside was a hand on from some Church thing. I think I spent $5 on the zip, so all in all, this sleeping bag cost about $10 in materials. Of course, it cost a lot more in time, but we won't go there.

On to the quilting! I thought I needed to practice just straight quilting, so I did the back in this (fairly boring) cross hash quilting kind of way. It was good to practice moving all the layers together, following the lines and trying to get even spacing between each row, but all in all, pretty boring sewing.

I feel it also made me a bit angry, because I just wanted to get it done, and going straight across the material from point A to point B was so easy I would just push/pull it through the machine as fast as possible. Despite my intentions to try to keep a calm even pace. :P Maybe that's why I put off doing the front for a while. Who knows. Anyway, when I did sit down to do the front on Sunday, I had the sudden thought that I'd try some Free Motion Quilting.

You just put the material in, and start sewing. Squiggles, curves, waves, anything goes. My goodness it was delightful. I actually sewed at a reasonable pace, and, like driving, slowed down for the corners! It was like sewing a boardem drawing. I loved every minute of it and felt amazing when it was done.

As always, there are difficulties. When doing Free Motion Quilting, you have to watch out for either over-doing the sewing, or not doing enough and ending up with "white space". I suppose with a boardem drawing, I'd just go back and fill in those bits, but it's harder on a machine, so some planning (or maybe just more practice) is required.

I bound the arm and neck holes with the flannel from the inside and even managed to put the zip in myself (thanks to the confidence I gained from the Travel Backpack). It's not perfect, but I'm getting better and I love it. Sophie is going to be so snug and warm. I can't imagine Free Motion Quilting on anything bigger (like an actual quilt) but it was a fabulous experience that I would love to repeat!

Travesty

Can you have a private faith?

Pastor Matt spoke on Sunday night at church and, it being Palm Sunday, the topic was Jesus entry into Jerusalem (taken from Matthew 21:1-11). For Christians, this is it. This is the week that our faith really relies on. Jesus has come to do what he came to do: die for our sins. He is entering Jerusalem with this purpose in mind.

Pastor Matt drew our attention to the fact that at this point, the disciples who have been following Jesus around, could have entered the city with him in silence. Rather than shouting: "Praise God, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna!", they could have made the decision to keep their faith out of the public sphere. They could have decided that even though they knew Jesus was sent from God, that it was wrong to impose their beliefs or faith so blatantly on others.

What a travesty it would have been if they had done this. How Jesus would have wept even more at his silent disciples. And how can we be silent? Coming into Easter, we are faced with the same choice the disciples had: to declare Jesus to be the savior sent from God, that the world might hear and be saved, or to keep our faith to ourselves.

Can we have a private faith that does not infringe on the everyday? Is it possible to remain silent when we have such news? As the disciples were convicted, I pray that we are all convicted this Easter that that would not only be a travesty, but also an impossibility. It is not an option to remain silent when Jesus is coming as the savior king.

Travel Backpack

It occurred to me sometime last week that as we are going to Sydney, it'd be great if Sophie had her own backpack to put the stuff to keep her occupied on the plane, rather than just trying to cram it all into my bag like I'm prone to do. Even though I had a list of other things to do, half of them sewing (and half of those things that were half sewn to begin with and just waiting finishing touches :P), I decided I'd be crazy and really push myself and add another thing, with a very quick deadline.

Thus, Sophie's travel backpack was born. I did a search on the internets and found these two tutorials (one from Crazy Little Projects, which I took most of the instructions from, and one from Birch Fabrics, which was also good reference). In hindsight I wish I had cross referenced the sizes a bit more closely, but on the whole, I'm really pleased with how things turned out.

Of course, I added changes to things to enhance the carrying capabilities that the bag has, and added piping because I had some lying around. I used material from my stash, rather than enduring a trip to Spotlight. The animal print was a remnant that mum gave to me a while back and I've no idea where the red came from.

Those straps on the back are long, but adjustable. They are a little far spaced for Sophie's small shoulders, but she will grow into it. On the front, I added a pocket which has a simple flap with velcro closure. Inside the bag is a fully lined pocket. (Sorry about the nappies in the background of these photos!)

The bag was tested Sunday night for church and holds Sophie's water bottle, snacks, bibs, nappies, wipes, change of clothes and the essential blanket of comfort-plus-two. Excellent.

Catch Ups

So last Sunday (not yesterday Sunday, but the one before that), I was feeling so overwhelmed with my to-do list. I thought it would never be done, and that I was seriously running out of time to do it anyway. The more I pushed myself, the more exhausted I felt but the less seemed done. Sigh. It was a very teary night.

This Sunday after a super restful weekend where Steve took such great care of me (being married just rocks. It's seriously the best.) I'm feeling like it's a little more achievable. Things have even been crossed off! I've got a load of things to post about even, including some fun quilting stuff. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. :) Yay!

This is rectangular bunting I made out of Steve's old bed sheets. Because they were made out of bed sheets, old bed sheets, they are super light and blow in the breeze nicely. Yay for bunting! 

Hat Breakthrough

In the last two months, we have finally had a hat breakthrough where Sophie will actually tolerate a hat on her head for longer than six seconds. Hooray! To celebrate this momentous event, I decided she could use a super cute bonnet to wear in the evenings when we are outside or getting Steve from the bus stop. I was originally going to put a brim on it, for shade potential, but given that I'll be using it in the evenings when sun is not so much of an issue and I didn't really think of it when I cut the material out, meh. Maybe next time.

I did use this bonnet tutorial at sewmamasew for my basis, and then did a few changes from there. I am really happy with how it turned out, and Harriett the Husqvana even got to do some fancy stitching to finish it off. The whole thing is reversible. Sophie likes to try to lick the bow that sits under her chin. I don't know why.

Painting Apron Presents

We are fortunate enough to live next door to some pretty lovely neighbors. The ones on the left have two girls and were very generous with hand-me-down clothes when Sophie was born. I've made them dresses for their birthdays in the past, but this year I thought I might go for something more practical. I've noticed the girls on the deck painting a bit, so some nice painting aprons seemed to fit the bill.

I got all excited and looked at online tutorials and found some old business shirts of my dad's in the stash that I could use. Hooray! Reusing old things to make fun new things! Unfortunately, I got so excited and carried away, that I had one finished apron and one cut-out-ready-to-sew apron before I remembered that the girls next door will be two and four years old this year. Here is the first one on the pedestal fan which is pretending to be a dress form.

As you can see, or guess rather, this painting apron is big enough to fit a child that is around ten years old. Not two years, or even four years. As I'd already cut out the second, I figured I may as well sew it up anyway and both aprons can be worn in about six to eight years time. Until then, they can either gather dust or maybe just be used as dress ups? I don't know.

In the end, I did make a smaller one for the two year old (because her birthday is in May) which can probably be worn fairly soonish. All in all, great sewing practice (bound the edges of the aprons with self made bias-binding and stitched on the girls first initials to the fronts), but rather disappointing result, given that they are pretty useless for a long time. Oh well.

Party Food

The heat wave this week has made me feel the full effects of being pregnant. Being 27 weeks pregnant to be exact. Steve says to me this morning that it's all down hill from here, and given that it's 9 am and I'm wanting to have a nap, I am inclined to agree with him. Despite the heat I did manage to finish a few sewing things yesterday which made me feel slightly better about myself (well, finishing them did, the actual sewing, not so much :P). But that's a post for another day.

Today, I thought I'd just share with you that I was really blessed on the weekend as I celebrated ten years of faith. I had spent a lot of time during the week thinking about this and getting ready for it (lots of cooking) and I really enjoyed seeing the people who came along to my strange idea of a celebration.

So glad Melissa had time to take some great photos there, because despite my best intentions, this was the best photo I took of my food (and the only food I took photos of).

That Chocolate Honey Cake was pretty amazing. Second time I've made it (the first being for Chaela's Baby Shower last year) but the perfect glaze still seems to elude me. This time I managed to sift in the flour, so it wasn't lumpy, but I didn't boil the honey and water long enough to start with, so it was nowhere near as tacky as it should have been. Oh well. Here is a better photo (Thanks Melissa!).

You can see the small Blueberry and Cream Cheese Tarts in the back ground of this photo. I also had White Chocolate and Cranberry Biscuits, as well as some delicious fruit. Highlight of the sweets was probably the Caramel Macadamia Slice. So delicious! Savories wise I did the Potato, Pesto and Ricotta Squares (sorry no photos), Cheese Twists (always a favorite) and some dip/dried fruit and nut platters.

The only other thing I have to say about the general ambiance of the party, was that we put up most of my bunting (too bad I didn't get to make some new stuff for the party). I could look out the windows in the dining room and there was a carnival happening in the yard. Yay for bunting! Again, a lack of photos, but you can see it in the background here as Sam waters my herbs.

 On a completely unrelated note, Sophie reached a milestone yesterday and broke her first plate. Well done!

Finished Treats

Come tomorrow, will all this be as delicious as it looked today? I hope so. Special thanks to Gloria for helping me with the Potato, Pesto and Ricotta Squares. YUM!

Enough

I often wonder if I've done enough in a day. Have I been productive? Do I have something to show for the time spent? Maybe it's my task-driven nature coming through, but I often don't think a day has been worthwhile unless I can list of four or five things that are done.

Today, I'm feeling really tired. It is Grumpy Thursday for Sophie which always makes things trickier. We have people coming round for a thing on Saturday which I'm getting ready for. I vacuumed the house and spent an hour and a half starting to cook sweets for Saturday. (Check out the best Caramel Macadamia Slice I've ever made. Yum!)

At about 12:15, I was feeling fatigued and as I lay on the floor next to Sophie playing with duplo, I may have been wanting 1:00 to come faster so that Sophie could go to bed and I could have a nap. Then, inevitably, as 1:00 rolls around and Sophie is in bed, I'm suddenly struck by the thought: "Have I done enough to warrant a nap now?"

Have I done enough?

I've still got things to cook. I could be organizing dinner. There are three different sewing projects that need finishing, lying on the table waiting for me. Surely I should be doing these things. I could tidy up Sophie's toys (again). The hedges at the front need trimming and the lawn could use a mow. Is there something I could read? Then at least I'd have some progress to report on when Steve returns.

I wonder why I'm trapped by this desire to do things. Why am I continually deriving my worth, or the worth of my day from the list of things I can tick off? I long to hear God say to me: "Well done good and faithful servant." but am I trying to get that affirmation the wrong way?

Lord, help me to put aside the things and do what pleases you.

"The Lord has told you what is good, and what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

Reading

I've been doing what feels like a significantly increased amount of reading in the last few months. I suppose it started towards the end of last year, when, after not reading anything much for a long time, I decided I'd read Sara Douglass's Axis Trilogy. It had been a long time since I've read it, and the three thick books provided a lot of depth to my otherwise quite shallow reading experiences (Where is the Green Sheep?, Ribbit Ribbit and of course, the Eric Carl classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (both Japanese and English versions)).

After finishing those in I think about a week and a half, it was time for something similar. I hadn't read the David Eddings stuff for a while. In fact, I hadn't read the Elenium and Tamuli Trilogies since I first read them a few years ago, so I started there. There are (quite obviously) three books in each of those and when I finished them, I began on The Belgariad, which has five books. This was then followed by The Malloreon, another five books, and then just this last week, I rounded off with the two companion books for these series (which I'd never read before), Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress.

If you do a count, in the last two and a bit months, I've read eighteen David Eddings books. I don't think I'll be reading them again for a long time. Furthermore, I don't think I'll ever be reading Belgarath or Polgara again. Ever. If you are going to read David Eddings, the Belgariad and The Malloreon are excellent collections. Don't waste your time with Belgarath or Polgara though, because not only do they not add anything (I found) to the story, they also show a number of inconsistencies that I found very frustrating. Not only that, but the style of writing (journal-y style, summarizing around 7000 years of history with a casual wave of a fist :P) is also irritating. I probably would have given up on Polgara (especially after Belgarath), but my OCD and task driven nature would not let me put it aside unfinished. :P

Yesterday, I began and finished Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. It was beautiful. A little slow in parts (mostly due to the nature of it being a re-telling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, so you do know where it is going), but very well done with just enough depth to the characters to give them substance, but not enough to take away from the original. Lovely.

What I'll read next I'm not sure, but maybe I'll take a break and make some bunting. That could be fun.

Baby Shoes

Despite what I said two weeks ago when I blogged about making some Pleated Mary-Jane baby shoes, I stumbled across a pattern for baby booties on This Heart of Mine which I thought looked fun. They were much easier to put together because of the style of booties that they were. Given that I'm about to have a winter baby and my first bub will be walking around on the cold wooden floors this coming winter, I thought I'd give it a go.

I took the original pattern which I think will fit a new born to about three or four months, and enlarged it twice to get some bigger sizes to play with. I wasn't sure how big I needed to get for my 18 month old, but I thought I could just make both of the bigger sizes and see how I went.

I used some old hoodies that a friend from church had given me to cut up for material. It was the perfect material for these booties because they are soft, stretchy and warm. Excellent. The biggest size (which will fit Sophie perfectly come winter) felt like they were booties for giants when I made them, and especially compared to the tiny sized ones.

These are so fun. I'll have to put some puffy paint on the soles of the bigger ones for grip so that Sophie doesn't slide around on the floor too much, but that's an easy fix. It took a lot of effort to get this photo of her wearing them today. The moment she knows I've got the camera, she is all about coming to claim it.

Multifunctional

Awhile ago, I mentioned that I was making some cardboard car-track boxes to slide under our TV cabinet. That space under the cabinet was big enough for a lot of things to go rolling and missing under. Admittedly, it was also fairly easy to get out again, unless they rolled just past elbow length, then it was tricky.

Excitedly, I came up with the idea of cutting down and reshaping some cardboard boxes to fit perfectly underneath. These could not only keep the things from rolling under, and little hands away from pulling the cords out, but also serve another purpose. I could draw car-tracks on them! Hooray!

So far, the boxes are just covered in brown paper and I haven't drawn anything on them yet. Given that Sophie is only just over one, she doesn't care in the slightest! I put the toilet paper rolls in the boxes because one day I dream of making something like this: 

But until then, Sophie just likes to play with the pain toilet paper rolls. She throws them about, stands them up, knocks them down, chews on them, all the usual things really. I'm really glad I reinforced the boxes, though it seemed like overkill at the time. My little girl's spacial awareness is not so great just yet, so it's nice to know that the boxes are tough and will make it past this discovery time. 

I feel like there are so many things I could hide in these boxes too - every day could be a fun new discovery! And when the time comes to actually draw on the boxes, getting a new picture or road map would be as simple as a new sheet of brown paper. Talk about multifunctional. 

Log Cabin Quilt Part 4 - The Finished Product

I finished it last week, and let me tell you, that binding hides a multitude of sins, as well as highlighting some of them. Tell you what though, I love that it's made from scraps. I love that I used up material and in the process, discovered just how much I have. I love that it's warm and snuggly. I love that it perfectly fits a king single bed (tested by Steve's mum last week).

I know the people who will use it won't be looking at the stitching and commenting about how the stitch lengths are uneven, or the lines wobble. I know that the bright colors and backing fabric will make me want to look at it for a long time and feel good. I know that despite it's mistakes and inaccuracies, I've made a quilt that I love and I learnt a lot doing it. Yay!

Click for Part 1, Part 2, an Interlude and Reflections on the journey that was making this quilt. 

Quilting: The Real Story

While it appears that I have taken the brave plunge into the world of quilting over the last year and come up swimming like a pro, I have a confession to make. I'm not that good. Turns out, that quilting is actually far more complicated than I had first anticipated and though I've tried to hide it, I'd just like to let everyone know it's true, I'm not that good.

Let me clarify some things for you faithful readers out there (and if you are not interested in sewing in the slightest, feel free to stop reading now, because that is what this post is all about). Firstly, making a quilt is actually something more like a three step process. Firstly, you need to piece the cover of your quilt. The bit that has the different fabrics and patterns and fancy stuff. The part that will be on display. Doing that is called "Piecing".

I'd say that in the last year, I've gotten much better at piecing. From my first attempts at getting things straight with corners matching up and what not, to my most recent experiences, the piecing is the most satisfying part of making a quilt. I like using up the scrappy bits of fabric, starting with small sections that eventually come together to make something fabulous. Piecing. That's where it's at.

The next step of making a quilt is actually sewing your lovely quilt top, the wadding and the backing fabric together. This is the part that is called "Quilting"; where you sandwich all those layers together with lots of stitches to hold everything in place. To me, this is the most difficult part. It's not the most time consuming (nope, that's piecing, because you've got all the cutting and pressing as well as the sewing), but it's certainly the trickiest.

All those layers need to be stuck together, either with pins, basting stitches or basting glue and then the entire thing has to be put through your sewing machine. It's difficult to juggle a 1.5m by 2m quilt through that little space on your sewing machine. Actually, the word difficult doesn't really seem to cover or explain just what it's like. This is where (for me at least) things go wrong. The bottom fabric pulls in ways you can't see, the wadding is so thick that it's taking forever for each needle strike to actually get through all the layers, the top fabric, despite all the basting and pins is shifting as you try to pull it through.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, maybe I'm not going slow enough (actually, that could be part of it :P), but at the end of the day, I've got puckers and pulls and nothing is sitting quite as squarely as it was when I first put all the layers together. It happened on the Block of the Month Quilt of 2013 and it happened again last week when I quilted the Log Cabin Quilt.

I have to admit, I was quite depressed to see what happened after I pulled it through mum's sewing machine (Harriet the Husqvana) that one last time.  Especially given that I'd spent and hour doing it with just this much of a Mary Poppins Song in my head:

"Jelly isn't jelly 'till you set it, anything can happen if you let it!"

Talk about irritating. I did wonder for a while about how to get better, but aside from practicing (which btw, seems like a very expensive way to make a lot of rubbish before you making anything good), I've got nothing.

Anyway, the final part of making a quilt involves putting a edge on your quilted sandwich of fabrics and wadding. This is called "Binding". This part is all I have left to do with the Log Cabin Quilt. Maybe I'll do it today, maybe I'll do it tomorrow. One things for sure, the sooner I do it, the sooner Sophie will be unable to come along and pull out bits of wadding from my lovely quilt sandwich. That'd be nice.

In summary, making a quilt on the whole, is something I can do, and enjoy doing, especially the piecing. Actual quilting, is not.

Children of God

Last night at Church, Stefan Hall spoke on a bible verse that means a lot to him. Though he did end up referencing five verses all up, Romans 8:15&16, which talks about us as the children of God. Oh what a small thing that I've heard a million times, but how wonderful to hear it again. We are not slaves or servants. We are not visitors or renting in the house of God. We are Children! We are loved, welcomed and we belong.

I was reflecting this morning that in the modern world, this may not give great comfort to people. Families change, people leave, and often for children there is no sense of security in the home. But to be a part of God's family is nothing like this. God's family is always welcoming, always loving, always accepting us. God is always calling us home and the door is never closed.

How great is our God that he has called us his sons and daughters.

Heat Wave Procrastination

I cannot believe how hot this week has been. It's more the humidity I guess, but when I'm walking Steve to the bus stop at 7:10 in the morning and I feel disgusting before we have even left the driveway, you know it's bad. While the heat wave lasts, I think I'll take a break from doing too many productive things and rather escape to the air-con at my parents and play with the duplo... I mean my daughter. :)

Days like Today...

I feel like I've had a super productive week. The top-secret Birthday Present for my Dad is complete, the house has been vacuumed (twice!), I'm currently on book four of five in the David Eddings Mallorean Series, I've gone through the stash of material that was stored in the end room, culled and organised it and I've also quilted the Log Cabin Quilt (click for part 1 and part 2 of the journey).

I did have a huge post stored up in my head about the quilting of said Log Cabin Quilt, but today, after a terrible nights sleep, I've a headache, I'm fatigued by the heat and all I want to do is lie down.

So that's what I'm going to do.