When we Celebrated

 It seems weird to have had a celebration in 2020, but even in the midst of a global pandemic, life continues and there are things worth celebrating. One of these for us was our 12th wedding anniversary. Steve and I are pretty low key about presents and celebrating in general, but given the year, and the way our travel plans for January were absolutely on hold, we figured why not. 

We just booked a night away in town. Steve took the day off, and after I had dropped all the kids at school we were free. We did simple things; went for a walk, saw a movie, had a swim, I read three chapters of a book without interruption, it was wonderful. 

Dinner out, looking fancy, at a Japanese restaurant, and breakfast at a local cafe. It was lovely to have uninterrupted time together. After 12 years, Steve is still the person I want to spend life with, and I am still excited to be married. 

Thus ends the year. Here is to whatever 2021 brings, calm, crazy or chaotic. 

Seven Years Late

When Sophie was nearly one, she had her first Christmas, and I made her a felt Christmas tree. Turns out I never blogged about it. Weird. Anyway here it is:

I got the pattern/idea from a blog post I'd seen on the internet somewhere. I don't remember where it was now, but I have a vague recollection of actually emailing the original creator for a pattern, and she was Italian. I think. Moving on, it was a pretty simple: felt tree and lots of ornaments. 

Cute baby Sophie loved it. 

At the time, I got it to stand up with lots of bubble wrap that I had lying around. Any year that I put it out, between then and now, I did the same thing. This year, I didn't have any bubble wrap lying around, because I was cleaning out all my family day care gear and had donated it to the local school prep classroom. I tried to stuff it with pillows, but given the round, conical nature of the tree, and the square/rectangular shape of the pillows, it really didn't look great. 

Time to actually bite the bullet. The problem was, I didn't want a huge tree shaped pillow to have to store all year round. That was the reason I didn't make one in the first place. So I considered things, thought about it, procrastinated some, and came up with a solution.

Solution: Make three pillows. Seems complicated, but I figured if I cut the tree shape into three sections, only the top section really needed to be cone shaped (and thus a useless pillow). The bottom two pillows, or tiers, if you will, could just be circle pillows. These circle pillows I could actually use in the lounge room all year round, so I'd only have to store the top conical pillow.

As far as I could see, this solved the storage problem, and also gave us some more pillows for the living room, which were in short supply. 

So I made three pillows. I have plans to actually cover the bottom two with really nice fabric, probably this awesome fruit and flamingo stuff that I made shorts for Sophie out of earlier in the year, and the rest of the whale fabric that became Rachel's first school bag, but I ran out of time before Christmas. Too busy culling toys and selling all the day care things that I no longer needed since I was all finished with that. 

The good news is that inside the Christmas tree, you don't even notice that they aren't covered with fancy pillow cases, so I've still got time. 

The last thing I did was make Rachel her very own stocking. When I initially made the tree, Rachel was a small bump inside me, and we used to call her Yuka Lei, just for fun. But now that she's out and grown into a regular sized small person of six years, it was probably time she had a stocking for the tree to match the rest of the family. 

Better late than never right? 

Small Things

I have had a huge lull in sewing lately. A combination of finishing lots of projects and then just being generally busy with other things. The girls haven't had a growth spurt in a while, so there hasn't been a real need, but friends of mine are having their second baby next year, and while I went and bought them some practical baby presents (wipes galore!) I also wanted to make something a little special. 

I'd forgotten how small clothes can be. Even sewing the girls shorts now, they are starting to be fairly decent sized. There was something nostalgic in making this. Even though the girls are only six and seven, sewing clothes like this that they would have fit seems like a life time ago. 

The beautiful frog fabric had been in my drawer for ages, bought on special at Spotlight, but I never got around to sewing it when the girls were little, and now they don't particularly care for it. I used a dress pattern I had made when Sophie was nearly one, for her first Christmas Dress. 

It's so small. Just like the baby that will wear it one day. And that baby will grow, just like mine did. And that baby will wear it for such a fleeting moment, but it will be beautiful none the less. Maybe more so, because it is so brief. 

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday Jesus.  It's been a delicious day this year. 

Girls One Nighter

The Queensland Government graciously gave all students two pupil free days at the end of the final term for 2020. I decided to use this extra time to the best advantage and take the girls camping for a night. Solo. No other adults, no extra family with kids to entertain each other. Just the girls and I. 

They are just so into camping and I want to make the most of the time we have together. So I booked a night at Springbrook for us. I figured one night would be pretty easy, and Springbrook has a BBQ facility, so I didn't need to pack as much kitchen stuff. The weather was absolutely against us though. So much rain. 

I still feel like we made the most of it, and had a great time. As is usual for a camping trip, I've come home with more good things that outweigh the bad on my list, and I'd be happy to go again. 

We got up to the mountain about 10:30, and set up a very basic camp. I had just brought the two man tent - which the girls kept insisting was actually a "three girl tent" for us. It's a very simple pop up tent, which was fine for a night, but I wouldn't want to do any longer in it. We also popped up the gazebo, which I was very thankful for in all the rain. 

Two years ago, when we took the girls to Ceader Creek with our friends the Pans, it was rainy and wet. The red dirt there turned to mud very quickly, and the five kids had no trouble forgetting about it and tramping it all over our picnic mats and into our tents. Despite our best efforts to remind them to take their shoes off at the door, or on the designated towels, the red mud was everywhere. 

This time, I saw the same red mud situation about to happen, but it seems the girls have levelled up. I only had to explain once, and every time they remembered to use the towel and take their shoes off. It's a small victory, but it made a significant difference. I feel we can camp so much more now, just because of this tiny step. 

Anyway, the rain was clearing, so we took off for the Purling Brook Falls walk. 

Again, my memory of doing this walk six years ago, when Sophie wasn't even two and Rachel was only four months old, is very different to how it played out now. We had a great walk. Sophie kept saying: "This feels so enchanted, Mum!" and Rachel was super at spotting small things. 

We went all the way down to the falls and had lunch and a paddle before starting back up again. 

We were right at the top and the girls asked for another paddle when the rain started up again. I called the girls over to hurry them back to the campsite and unfortunately slipped on a rock. I was mostly fine, but both of my shoes were completely submerged in the water. So annoying. Still, we made it back to camp and played some games under the gazebo together while we dried off. 

Given that I was going solo with the girls, I had planned the most basic and easy meals for the trip. Dinner that night was two minute noodles, which the girls loved. In the morning we had shaker pancakes on the bbq. Too easy and still delicious. 

Given the rain, after our dinner, we just crawled into the tent together. I had packed a chapter book to read to the girls called My Side of the Mountain. It's about a boy who runs away from home in New York to the mountains to live. Perfect for our camping trip. We cuddled in and read until bed and when we woke up in the morning, we read some more. In fact, thanks to the rain, we read about two thirds of that book. 

I say, "when we woke up in the morning we kept reading" like it was a great 8 hour sleep for us all. It was mostly a good sleep for the girls, but I had the worst time of it and it felt like the longest night ever for me. We all fell asleep about 8, but then I woke up at 9, and 10, and 11. It was the wake up at midnight that convinced me to pack up all the outside things (picnic mat, food box, stove) into the car and shift the gazebo so we were more directly under it. The rain wasn't getting in, but it was still directly on our tent. 

Also, because the tent was so toasty warm inside, and the rain was so cold outside, there was a lot of condensation happening on the sides of our very small tent. The girls were on the edges, so I kept pulling them in towards me whenever I woke up, but Rachel woke up at about 11 completely saturated despite my efforts. 

I gave her my sleeping bag and tried to get back to sleep sharing with her, but it was very squishy. At 2am I gave up, and moved to the car with Rachel's wet sleeping bag. Compared with the tent, the car was absolutely freezing, and the wet sleeping bag I had with me didn't really help much. I slept there rather brokenly for an hour and a half before returning to the tent. 

Good thing Rachel's sleeping bag had dried out in that time, because Sophie woke up on my return and discovered she was wet. The three of us cuddled back in together under the two sleeping bags that were still dry and slept until 6, so not too bad at the end there. 

We crawled out for breakfast at 7, and then back to the tent for more reading. There was a break in the rain shortly after, so I figured that was as good a time as any to pack up. It was a bit of a shame to have to leave so soon in the morning (we had been hoping to do another hike that second day), but the rain had really set it and there was no chance of it clearing. 

We took the long way home, with a stop at the Gold Coast for a play in the park and a walk on the beach. Even in the terrible weather, the girls still had fun running around on the sand and chasing waves. 

I just loved the time I had with the girls for this short camping trip, and I'm feeling pretty confident that I could do another, longer one, with them again soon. 

Suddenly It's Christmas

More so than other years, the sneak attack of December is most startlingly upon us. Maybe the pandemic has caused us to forget that time marches on. Or, prehaps we thought that with all the other cancelled things that happened this year, somehow Christmas might be cancelled too. But it is not. 

It is here. And while I was wrapping 24 Christmas books last night in preparation for advent, I was glad Christmas had come. 

For what is life without the celebration of wonderful things. Things that can't be explained because they are so mysterious, and yet we are drawn to them in curiousity and awe all the same. What would the year be, with out the mystery of God choosing to become a tiny baby? To start a life that would take time to grow until just the right moment for the kingdom to come. What is this plan that unfolds each year, reminding me of God's careful timing and faithful planning, that one day, I would come to know the love of the Father. 

I'm so thankful for Christmas, more this year than possibly ever before. And I'm looking forward to reading each one of these 24 Christmas books with the girls, one a night until the 25th of December. There is something special about this time and this moment, and I am glad to be here. 

I am also glad that I decided to wrap all of these books in fabric this year, rather than the recycled paper I have used for the last three. This could be the start of something new for us all. 

The Life and Death of Our Guinea Pigs

Back in July this year, we became the owners of three cute guinea pigs. It was spontaneous and fun. These little creatures gave us a lot of amusement and love. The girls loved to take videos and photos of them, and feeding them each day was always a highlight. We dutifully took them out to their grass enclosure each morning and brought them back onto the deck at night. These daily trips meant we had lots of time to bond with them, and love them more and more. 

So it was a terrible shock to come home one day, and find that two of them had passed away unexpectedly in the day. We still don't know what happened for sure. It wasn't a hot day and there were no signs of heat related stress digging, so we don't think it was that. Our best guess is that a neighbourhood cat might have visited and they got stressed about their survival.

Jupiter was still alive and well, but Marmalade and Westly, were very much gone. The girls were distraught. I think the shock more than anything else, but they did love their little guinea pigs, so it came as a blow. Both Steve and I felt quite underprepared to suddenly have to guide the girls through their grief, but some how we managed.

We wrapped them up in some scrap fabric that I had, the girls chose which they thought would suit the guinea pigs best. Steve dug a hole and we buried them in the yard. Afterwards we talked about them, Sophie drew pictures, Rachel needed lots of hugs, I found pictures of each of them to print and show the girls we would remember them. 

It was a strange time. We passed a week going through the motions, listening to the daily reflections from the girls that they missed their guinea pigs. But slowly, the missing became less as the reality of the new normal set in. We were thankful to still have Jupiter and worried about his now lonely existence.   

Neighbours of the best street ever to the rescue. Across the road had three guinea pigs, who didn't particularly get along with each other. Their eldest child offered her guinea pig (the most trouble making of the three of them), to us, on the hope that he would get along with Jupiter better than he did is current friends.

Thus we went from three, to one, to two guinea pigs in residence. Taco and Jupiter had a few tussles while they decided who would be in charge, and thankfully they were both happy with the status quo at the end of things. In the enclosure, Jupiter is the big boss. If they escape, it's usually Taco who initiated and out on the grass, he becomes the alpha. It's a bit funny to see the balance shift, but I'm glad they have decided to be friends; it's worked out for both us, our neighbours and the guinea pigs.

Now that it's warmer at night, and since we have adjusted the outside enclosure to include a roof (no more escaping!) we don't need to move them as much any more. I kind of miss the daily interaction, but we still find time to feed and cuddle them most days. Live long and good lives little guinea pigs. You have signifigantly impacted our lives more than we knew.

Costumes Again: Halloween 2020

Any excuse to dress up. 

I don't know why, but the girls never put a lot of thought into their Halloween costumes. Maybe becuase it's not a huge, hyped up event in our house, but more a causal, hang out with street people, kind of affair. Either way, I kind of like their spontaneity. They literally chose these on the day. 

This year, they decided to be a frog and a cat. It had been a very rainy kind of week, and day, so it was surprisingly cool enough for Rachel not to die of heat exhaustion in that onesie. Sophie is wearing the pants I made for her Clara costume, along with a size two vest, that some how still fits. She wore that vest last year when she went as Hiccup, so it's very versitile. 

Steve whipped out his Jedi costume from May the Forth a few years ago, and I grabbed out this Chinese outfit from my stash. I think my Mum bought it from Hong Kong, or Singapore on a trip she and Dad took before we were born. Funny, wearing something that is older than me, and really hasn't been worn in all that time at all. At any rate, it made for a passable Mulan costume, so I was happy. 

Clara of Wrenly

Sophie chose rather unexpectedly for Book Week this year. After being Sophie from The Tiger Who Came to Tea last year, we had thrown around the idea of her being Sophie from The BFG this year for quite a while. Out of the blue one day, she said that she didn't want to wear a nightie all day at school, and so would not be that Sophie after all. 

When Book Week was going to be in August, Sophie told us that she wanted to go as Aslan, from the Narnia books. Pretty cool choice, and so easy, since we already had a lion costume. But with the move of Book Week to October, we reaslied that not only would the lion onesie be way too hot, but also, Sophie wouldn't fit it any more by then either. Back to the drawing board. 

When we read the first Kindom of Wrenly books, which has a fairy Queen named Sophie as one of the characters, I thought for sure we had a winner. That's when Sophie surprised us all, and said that she wanted to go as someone from Wrenly, but not as the beautiful fairy Queen, but rather as the pesant girl Clara. 

Clara is Prince Lucas's only friend in the story, and they go on an adventure together to find the Queen's lost emerald. She has a crown braid and is friends with the mermaids. I can see the appeal. 

Her costume was pretty basic however. Just a blue shirt and brown pants. Not exactly awe inspiring, or an exciting sewing challenge. What she does have, however, is a satchel bag that the two characters use to carry things around in on their adventure. Now there was something I could work with. 

The first thing I did was add embelishments. Clara's satchel is brown, but I figured I could add a sea shell feature for her. If you read the story, you'll know why, and I don't want to spoil it for you. 

The other thing I did, was make it completely reversible. Why have a brown satchel, when you can have a reversible stachel that flips out to some magnificent black with gold arrows when you aren't being Clara? Exactly. 

The gold arrow fabric was left over from making the Tea Bag last year. I picked up the brown at Spotlight and then used scraps to line the pockets and for the scallop shell embellishment. 

This is Sophie showing me one of her pockets eating her hand. 

The bag is made using the Nature Explorer Bag pattern that I used for Rachel's bag a few years ago (apparently the original link doesn't work any more though sorry!) There are pockets on the sides of the bag, and the front as well, so lots of places for Sophie to hide her treasures. 

I also added a lanyard clip thing, just becuase I know the girls love to have them. Rachel has a compass clipped onto hers and I honestly thought I had a second one, but couldn't find it. Oh well.

The rest of Sophie's costume is a $2 t-shirt from Kmart and a pair of brown pants that I literally whipped up in 15mins while the girls ate dinner one night. I just used the go to Sycamore Shorts pattern and lengthend it like I did for her Lana pants two years ago. Too easy.

Ready to adventure. Sophie has been taking her stachel bag a lot of places, which makes me pretty happy. All the pockets are great for stashing snacks and storing things she finds on the way. Perfect. 

Bertha the Bee

Rachel's chosen book for Book Week was Bertha and the Bear, by Australian (Queensland!) author Christine Sharp. Bertha is the bee in the story who has to find a new hive for the Queen. Perfect character for our bug-loving Rachel. Remember her birthday this year? Exactly. 

I thought a bee costume was relatively easy, but after looking at a few different costume ideas with Rachel, she managed to complicate things. I should have just stuck to the simple dress, but the tulle was on special and Rachel loves a good twirly skirt, so I caved and made both.

Everything is just tied, no zips or buttons, and the main dress is based on the R2D2 dress design that I had used for Sophie a few years ago. The underskirt is just strips of tulle tied around a waist band. It should probabaly have more tulle for fullness, but meh. I think that it will be the first thing to come off, becuase Book Week is in October this year, rather than August, so considerably hotter all round. 

One of the things that Rachel was really excited about, was having a stinger. I made it detachable, so it just slips on and the waistband ties with ease. She got to stuff it herself too. 

It's hilarious. Anyway, a yellow t-shirt and a set of wings and she is ready to go. 

Book Week!

It's happening again! Much later in the year than usual, thanks to the global pandemic situation, but we are excited none the less. 

The girls chose somewhat less famous books and characters this year, but are so stoaked with their costumes. And I, of course, had fun making them come to life. Stay tuned for the costume breakdown!