Rachel's 5th Birthday

She turned five! I've been a Mum of Two for five years! Unbelievable. Rachel started the day by crawling into bed with Sophie for a cuddle. Such sweetness.  

We were in Bundaberg for Rachel's actual birthday, so after a play at the park, much of the day was spent driving home. This was us all on the trampoline at the front after a six and a bit hour drive, happy to be home at last.

A week later and things were in full swing for a little celebration. Rachel helped me to ice and decorate her cupcakes.

Which we made into a caterpillar cake for her. I'm now officially running out of bug cake ideas, after having done a ladybug, butterfly and snail already. Maybe a stick insect next year, or a bee? I a little bit dread to think about it, but maybe she won't like bugs any more by then.

Her "party" was an incredibly causal affair in a park, similar to Sophie's in January, so just poppers for drinks and then standard fruit and veg, some cheese sticks (courtesy of Megan) and sushi for savory, as well as some mini macrons for sweet. She wore her new snail dress from Yia-yia. Special.

As with Sophie, we opted for an experience for her birthday present this year, and got tickets to see a Possum Magic show at the Brisbane Powerhouse. It was really fun, Steve took the day off work so we could all go, and afterwards we had a picnic and a play in the awesome play area at New Farm Park.

Perfect. Happy Birthday little Rachel. Every year you surprise me with even more character and generosity from your big heart.

Pokémon Dress

Our girls, thanks to Steve's efforts, really love Pokémon. Possibly more than is healthy. They have soft toys and small plastic ones, we borrow Pokémon DVDs from the Library, we have Pokémon books on the shelf. There is so much Pokémon. 

A friend of ours gave the girls two Pokémon doona covers as hand me downs from her brother, ages ago now. I took them apart and used half for sheets for their bed, and the other half was stashed away in the material cupboard. These holidays I took out that material and decided it was time to make something of them. Behold!

Pokemon dresses!

I used the same pattern as the other dress up dresses I've made the girls before. Not because I think these will be only dress up dresses, but because that pattern does not require any zips or buttons. So easy to make, and it will grow with them so be quite long lasting.

The skirt I cut as a circle, rather than gathering it, because I had so much material and a circle skirt is really twirly; something both girls love. Rachel's is bound with the yellow bias tape that was given to me by a lady who helps out at our playgroup on Tuesdays. Sophie's was bound with some blue that I had lying around.

The girls were both super excited about their new Pokemon dresses. I made them on the very first Monday of the holidays, which made for a very productive start to the holidays. Good feelings all around.

Holiday Planning

We are now half way through the holidays, and have been having loads of fun. The girls and I did our usual planning day at the start, and our holidays filled up a lot faster than we anticipated. 

I have also been productive with actually doing some paperwork, rather than avoiding it, and a stack load of sewing that had been sitting on my to do list for ages too. Might get around to blogging about it all sooner or later. Maybe.

Hopefully you are enjoying the midwinter in a similar way to us.

The Real Tea Bag

A long time ago now, I made the confession that Steve and I have become official tea snobs, and pretty much can't travel anywhere without a well stocked supply of loose leaf teas. The trouble with traveling with said teas, is that you need something to carry them in. You can read all about my first attempt at a solution to that problem here.

That was 18 months ago now. We have still been using that initial solution, which was always meant to be a prototype. I did, in fact, start cutting a real deal version fairly soon after with left over fabric from this project, but I didn't have any rip stop nylon to line it with, and neither did my numerous attempts at finding it in Spotlight leave me successful.

The material, half cut, languished for a year and a half. I am ashamed to admit it.

But behold! I give you, The Real Tea Bag!

I finally found some rip stop nylon at Spotlight (on an incredibly rare, kid-free visit), and a mere three weeks after purchasing it, I was suddenly struck with the desire to sew, and this was at the top of the list!

I probably could have procrastinated sewing it another month or two, by telling myself it would take too long, but we have a trip to Bundaberg this weekend, so it was a little bit now or never. Also, I didn't want to do any paperwork. I cut it out in a half hour and after one and a half hours of sewing, bam!

Is it not glorious?! It fits all the tea with style. Such shiny fabric. I could have made the handles a touch longer, but it's pretty perfect and I love it.