The House is Now Warm

I suppose the internet is probably sick of me writing posts about our house. But we are still excited about it! We recently had a causal street gathering to use the deck for the first time, and then last week had a bigger official Extension Warming party with a wider circle of friends and family.

It was so lovely to have everyone here, and have everyone fit! Wade again took amazing photos for us of our ribbon cutting ceremony and even just looking at them now, I'm so happy. Yes, we did make everyone stand in the old section before we cut the ribbon. It was very squishy.

We want our house to be a place where we can invite people in, foster community and care for people comfortably. It's always been that, if a bit squishy, but now it has so much more potential for it. This house warming was the first moment of realizing that dream.

So we are thankful to all the people who made it happen, our neighbors for putting up with the noise and damage to the bitumen on our street, our family and friends who let us have showers and stay the night when we needed it, anyone who met up with us at a park or their own house because ours was under construction for a good while. Mostly to God, who so graciously provides everything we need and abundantly overflows the blessing time and time again.

May the community we build here in our new extended house continue to be grounded on the same extravagant love that God has for us.

P.S. I did not make any new bunting for this party. Missed opportunity.

K.I.D.S. .... Well, Kinda...

So you might be wondering what on earth the title of this post is all about. Well, I didn't realize quite how long it must have been until I was searching for the original idea for this post, but a while ago, I stumbled across the Kids Inspiration and Design Series (K.I.D.S) in the land of sewing bloggers. 

It was something brought to life by a sewing mum who wanted to create one of her daughters drawings, and you can read about that initial excitement here. The idea was that you had your children design something and you would make it into reality for them. Cool for everyone because it was a challenge for the mums and delighting for the kids.  

That initial idea grew and the blogger subsequently challenged other sewing bloggers to join her, and ran a series for three years. Somewhere along the line I saw it and also loved it. My girls were too  young at the time to even think of participating (Rachel wasn't even born actually!) but I tucked the idea away in my mind for later. 

This Easter holidays, I decided to give it a whirl. I actually managed to get photos of their drawings before they were recycled. To be honest, their drawings are not really very detailed, but they do give you an idea. The girls both talked more about what they wanted than they drew. Maybe next time I'll give a bit more design coaching. 

Anyway! Rachel was the first to take up the challenge, and immediately started drawing dresses (of course) that were covered in lady bugs (of course) and had pockets (of course) for collecting things in. She also wanted a shirt with a lady bug (and pockets) and a skirt with lady bugs (and pockets) and shorts underneath. Sophie jumped on this bandwagon with a similar request of a shirt with pockets and a bunny on it (because it's Easter and she was in bunny heaven). 

I quizzed them on what kind of shirts (fitted or loose) and we did a hunt through my material stash for fabric. Sophie loved this pale blue fabric with the white floral detail, which I've used before in her unicorn shorts here and here. It was free from Aunty Sue in Sydney and is so beautiful. She also loved this other floral print which I picked up from a fabric swap at the local sewing studio, Sewing Adventures, early in the year. There was not enough for anything else but this bodice lining, but it's still beautiful. 

There was no ladybug fabric in my stash (sorry Rachel), but we did find a white with blue floral butterflies that was nearly as good. Also a pick up from the fabric swap, with the intention of making something for Rachel with it, so I felt like it was a win. I ask again: free fabric, is there anything better? I wanted to make the girls something for Easter, so given the time constraints, I told them I would just be making them a shirt each (to start with), but that it would have their desired pockets.  

The pattern I used was the Izzy Top which I've used before (here), but can't seem to find the original pattern anywhere on the internet now. Thankfully it's still safe on my desktop, but sad for all the internet who probably can't find it. Anyway, before I made the tops, I stitched on some felt applique which also doubled as the pockets.

Sophie's is a bunny, as requested, and Rachel's is a lady bug, to try to bring some of her lady bug dreams come true. Rachel's is also lined with the same fabric that Sophie's is made out of (the blue and white floral).

Rachel was so delighted with hers that she wore it before I could get photos of it and what you see here is post-wash. Sophie's turned out a little big, and even though I offered to pin it in, she was content to grow into it and wear it next year.

So that's my first attempt at Kids Inspiration and Design Series. I do hope to do it again (or make a ladybug dress for Rachel to climb trees and catch bugs in at least). Aside from the design aspect, I think I did a good job of taking something that the kids inspired and made it into a reality.

More Reading

I have found a friend at church who is steadily supplying me with books to read each week. Hallelujah! I can not explain how wonderful this is. I think she was surprised when I read the first two in a week and returned them to her promptly, but now she knows. I can do it. I am a reader. Not all of the following books are from her, some are still from the library, but it's good to have a supplement.

So I've read:

Wonder by R. J. Palacio
The Power of Three by Diana Wynn Jones
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Master of the Grove by Victor Kelleher
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine
Ash and Quill by Rachel Caine
All the Wrong Questions (Book 1) by Lemony Snicket
The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende
The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene
Daughter of Nomads by Rosanne Hawke
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Goldenhand by Garth Nix

And that takes us to the end of April. I hope I can keep reading through out this next term, though Steve is off to Seattle again (for a two day conference) and we have two Bundy trips planned, so maybe not. Even so the more reading the better. It really makes a big difference to my life overall to pick up a book and not be wasting time scrolling through absolutely nothing on my phone.

Here is an older photo (from either late January or early February), of these four just hanging out on the couch "reading". I love it so much that they do this spontaneously and are excited by books and engaged in reading together. May this continue for the rest of their lives.

For an update on what we are reading together with the girls, we've started The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I've actually never read it, and to be honest, the girls are struggling a little again with the language, but we are getting there. As with The Hobbit, it does help to have an illustrated copy on hand. I would so love to read some Redwall next, but I think the girls are still just a little too young, so I might go back to Roald Dahl again; we shall see.

One of Those Cakes

It's been a while since I have made one of these cakes. Possibly because I've made a lot of biscuits instead, and didn't bother blogging about them. Oh well. For whatever reason, yesterday morning called for another of these cakes.

By these cakes, I refer to the kind of cake I make when things just seem a little bit too much; the holidays are finished, work has begun, the kids are driving me nuts and testing my patience like mad. You can read about two other cakes just like this one here and here, if you are really bored and have nothing more to do than check out backstory in my little blog-land. None of these cakes look the same, but they all have the same feeling.

And they all taste delicious and even if it's a grim rainy day and the Chrome Cast is not working; this kind of cake helps you remember things are going to be alright in the end.