Duplo Bag

As Sophie has increased in age, her collection of duplo has also increased such that it finally exceeded the box we had it in. Thankfully, the internet is full of wonderful ideas about what to do in such a situation, and I had stumbled on this idea recently, so I looked through the stash and did it.

The outer fabric was left over from the back of Rachel's Quilt. The inside is from who knows where. I did buy the cord at 90 cents a metre from Spotlight. All up, a $3.00 play bag. I call that winning.

It's only about a metre around, but it fits all of the duplo very comfortably and there is room for growth too, so it will do suitably for now. Hooray!

Sophie's Tent

My dear Sophie turned two a few weeks ago, which was celebrated with much gusto. 2nd birthdays are considerably more fun, in my opinion, because the child can actually participate and understand the situation. Perhaps not fully yet, but certainly a great deal more than a one year old. Sophie was quick to understand that "birthday" meant cake and friends. She also had much fun opening presents. Maybe she's yet to grasp the fact that an entire year of her life has passed and thus is the reason for this celebration, but that's small potatoes compared to the other stuff right?

The birthday present for this year was a tent. I've made these before (one for Sophie's cousin Cooper (here and here) and also for her friends Sam and Jimmy (here)) so it was an easy and quick thing to make this one. They really are fun. Sophie likes to put her stuffed toys in hers. And also play peek a boo. One day I'm hoping that she also likes to just lie down and read in there too (which is what my tent activity of choice would be).

The outer fabric was from my mum (a Spotlight bargain apparently) and I lined it with some sheer material that had a silver star print on it (also from mum funnily enough, but a hand-me-down one). So glad I did actually, because Sophie is all about stars at the moment. Here is Rachel completing a structural check before allowing tent entry. 

I again, drilled all of those holes myself and varnished the wood. Steve stapled some ribbon onto the top of the tent poles to stop them from slipping outwards on the wooden floors (good work Steve! Sorry I don't have a photo of your good work.) The top has a few rubber bands on the dowels to stop things slipping off (another good call Steve). 

Different to the previous two tents, I actually bought two extra pieces of dowel and put them down the bottoms to help things stay straight. It helped immensely with keeping the tent fabric from sagging in on people's heads. I feel a little bad for not having done that with the other two, but in my defence, I didn't know how it would all work as an inside tent (and outside it's not really a problem because the grass keeps the legs stable). 

I strung some battery powered star lights along the top beam of the tent, which Sophie loves. Hooray! What a great handmade birthday present. :D

Car Roll Procrastination

In the lead up to Sophie's Birthday party, I was supposed to be making Teddy Bear headbands for all of the kids to wear at the party. When things started to look a little bleak though, I found that sewing those was the last thing I wanted to do. Thus procrastination began.

Luckily, Sophie is currently in the process of learning how to do her business the "grown up way" and we are giving her little cars as rewards for her success in this venture. So I decided she needed a place to keep her cars. Again, something I've made before. This time, I just used up some scrap fabric (some of which you may recognise from a tent, or a quilt ;)).

There is nothing like a good hour at the sewing machine to make you feel like life is not as bad as you thought after all.

Less than Fabulous

Less than fabulous really sums up for me the last few months of my life. Many wonderful things have happened, a few sad things too, but thought it all, I've just been feeling less than fabulous. While the rest of the world is getting on just fine, I'm struggling to be positive and get through each day. There is no way of pinpointing a start to all this, or way of saying exactly when it all began. It crept up on me like Simba learning to pounce.

Though I struggle with a bit of depression every now and then, what I'm currently going through is much more extended, and so far, much harder to come out of. I don't want to be quoting Joyce Meyer,  but I'm really feeling like my mind is the battle field that I'm fighting on every day. The smallest thing can make me think it's all over and there is no point to going on. I know this is not true, and try to counter strike, but it's a tough fight.

This is probably the reason I've been posting with much less frequency of late; come 7:00 when the kids are finally in bed, I'm not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally exhausted. For the record, I'm not trying to hide how I'm feeling for the sake of "putting on a good face". I know I'm supported and prayed for by many of the stellar people in my life. I know that God is good.

This is where I am though; at less than fabulous.

So if you're still with me, oh people of the internet, hang in there. One day, fabulous will be back. It's jut not here right now.