Camping 2019

I want to camp more. Some days I don't even know why, because there are so many things about camping that are hard or inconvenient that it's hard to justify that the pros outweigh the cons at all. But I still want to do it. I want to be out in nature, unplugged and offline for even just a little while. Breathing fresh air and enjoying God's creation.

Steve had his fair share of camping as a kid, so he's probably more experienced, but less enthusiastic that I am. As the girls get older though, I think it's much more doable, and certainly an experience that I want to give them while we can. While I appreciate that it's not particularly Steve's holiday of choice, I'm still so keen.

So, this September holidays, I took the girls camping.

Steve doesn't get as many holidays as I do, working in the corporate world, and he is saving those up for Christmas, so I took the plunge and took the girls. Before you start applauding (or worrying) I'll let you know; I didn't go solo. We went we with a family we know. Sophie goes to school with their son. Three of them, three of us. The numbers were good, and the overall adult to child ratio was a fabulous 1:1.

We went down towards Mt Barney on the boarder of Queensland and New South Wales. It was great. The campsite was busy, but didn't feel crowded. A little rain but mostly fine, chilly at night, lots of animals to see and barely any phone signal at all. Perfect.

The second day we all did a 14k hike, which was pretty tough, but so worth it. It was seven k's to this waterhole (sourced from an underground spring), where we splashed and cooled off before heading back the way we came.

We also did all the things you usually do when camping, like sitting around in the shade eating, collecting sticks for fires, cooking marshmallows and playing card games. We saw wallabies, Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos, a Bower Bird, Kurrajongs and a goanna. There was rock hopping at the creek and torch games after dark. Rachel's Nature Explorer Bag was in full use.

In the end the fun of going and the good memories definitely outweigh the trouble of packing even the kitchen sink to get there. Let's go camping more! Maybe one day I will even feel like I can take the girls on my own, but I think they would need to be older and more able to help out first. In the mean time, we will enjoy the time with friends. And the marshmallows. 

Holes in the Cupboard

At the change of season I do a cull through the girls wardrobes and I notice the holes. Gaps where they won't have enough clothes to get through the next few months. This brings on a subsequent sewing binge, which never feels bad because it's all unselfish, totally practical and using up material in the stash.

Enter September 2019. It's hot again, and the girls need shorts. Rachel mostly because she was down to one skirt. I think Sophie only got so many because I think she'll have a growth spurt soon, and so though she's still got two pairs from April, I don't think they are going to last long.

Sophie's haul was a skirt and two shorts. I did actually intend to make the skirt out of the pink and orange material, because it's so light and flow-y, but then accidentally cut shorts out of it instead. Oh well. The blue flower print (that has previously been shorts and a dress) is the skirt. I've used the pink and orange fabric before too (thanks Aunty Sue!)

The castle and knights fabric is new on the scene. I bought it on sale at Spotlight at least four years ago now, and every now and then I dig it out and see if the girls fancy it. At last they said yes! It's so cool right!? Can you see the bunting on it? :D

Rachel got the castle and knight material as a skirt over a surprise pair of shorts. Two in one! That red fabric is the one that has caused me much trouble in the past, but this time, I pre-washed it. Twice. Here is Rachel loving her skirt with it's surprise shorts.

The girls both love wearing their new gear, which makes me pretty happy. I know there will come a time that they won't like wearing what I make (in fact I probably won't bother making stuff then) so I'm loving it now.

I know it's because they are my children, and I love them so much, but could they be any cuter!?

Rachel's other garment was a skirt out of the crazy floral fabric (again, donated from somewhere), that was put on as soon as it was sewn. Straight off the sewing machine. She did help sew it, sitting at the machine, putting the presser foot up and down and pressing the reversing button too.

And she's such a character that I don't really mind.

Dress Up Dress Gift

I'll say it now: Photo do not do this dress justice. At all. Maybe I should have gone outside to take them, but in my defense, it was really rainy.

Anyway, I've made my girls lots of dress up dresses in the past, which have been very well received, and used by lots of kids when they come over to play. So when our best friend's little girl had a birthday coming up, I knew it was time that I made one for her too.

I am again thankful for the donations of material I have received, because much, if not all, of this dress was sewn from those donations. It's the same standard dress up dress that I usually make. I used the last of the pink fabric from mum that I used to make the very first dress for the bodice and over skirt. That over skirt is gathered up a bit to show the blue and pink floral sheer material underneath, and trimmed with some blue floral trim that was given to me by a lady at my playgroup.

The underskirt is some more of the white gathered stuff that I used in the yellow dress variation, and I don't know if I'm getting better at gathering, or what, but it was surprisingly easy to gather all three layers of skirt and attach it to the bodice. Is all the practice finally paying off?

Even though the birthday wasn't until September, I made this dress in the June/July school holidays, because I had time on my hands, and I knew if I left it, it might not get made during the crazy chaos of term. So glad I did. Rachel tried it on for me and approved whole hardheartedly. Hopefully the birthday girl likes it just as much.

Slower Reading

The most recent reading I have done has been at a much slower pace to the previous set. These have taken me since June. I've read them in short bursts, sometimes two books a week and then nothing for a couple of weeks before starting up again. The later half did happen in quick succession though, because I hurt my back and had to spend a considerable amount of time one Sunday lying down, and then Steve went to Melbourne for a week, so what else was there to do in the evening hours?

Anyway, you'll note that Newt's Emerald again makes an appearance. I can't help it. Even though I've now read it four times since discovering it in May, if I see it at the library, I just grab it off the shelf again. It's too freakin' good to leave there.

Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
Accidental Heroes by Lian Tanner
Dancing the Charleston by Jacquline Wilson
City of Fear by Andrew Beasly
The Undercover Secret by Colin Thiele
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt by Rhiannon Williams
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
The Name at the End of the Ladder by Elena De Roo
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Atlantia by Ally Condie
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

What we've read to the girls has been Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. The Broadway show is coming to Brisbane and my parents are champing at the bit to take the girls to a show at QPAC. I'm hesitant (though I love live theater), but I thought if we prep them, they'll be able to sit through it. I saw it on the shelf at the library last week and picked it up.

I was expecting it to take a couple of weeks to read, but the girls were hooked by chapter two. We started on Thursday night and finished on Sunday afternoon. The excitement and joy that the girls expressed in great leaps around the room and cheers when Charlie finally got his Golden Ticket was unbelievable. I wish we had videoed it.

When I'm sitting on the couch, reading aloud to the girls a chapter book with very limited pictures I can't help but feel rather old school, but also unbelievably proud and excited that they too are drawn in to the wonderful world of reading.

Gift Sleeping Bag

It seems that all of my sewing of late has been for gifts or the girls. Maybe I need a new dress. Hummm. Anyway, the latest is again for a friend who is having a baby. This baby is a Third, similar to the friends I gave a quilt to a few weeks ago.

Sometimes I really feel for those second and third children, because the assumption is (perhaps rightly so), that when it comes to those second and third children, the parents already have everything they need for child raising. Even if this is the case, I still feel that an upcoming baby deserves some recognition, and it's always nice to have something that is a little bit special just for that one, whether they are first, second or third.

With that in mind, I had think and dug out this pre-quilted Japanese fabric that mum had given me, oh, at least four years ago now. It was lovely, but there was really only enough for something small, so it's been in the drawer. The babe it is intended for will be born in March, which means she or he will probably need a snuggly sleeping bag for the winter.

I used the Sew Mama Sew sleeping bag tutorial, that I've used before here. It is for a zero to three month old, so I made it a little bigger and longer, and had exactly the right amount of fabric for it. All I needed to buy was the zip.

I bound the neck and arm holes with the same bias I used on the gift quilt, because it was left over and matched fairly well. I'm pretty happy with how things turned out, and whether the baby is a boy or girl, this is cute and warm, so will serve it's purpose well.

Book Week: Round 2

While Rachel decided exactly one week before the day what she would be, Sophie's costume and preparation was a little more generous on the timing. We talked about books that she liked to read and let her know I would make a costume for her. When she went to the bookshelf to start getting books out for a shortlist, I started to get worried, because she chose a lot of elephant books. Like Elmer.

So I drew a line and suggested that I would be happy to make a person costume, but not an elephant costume. Luckily, she wasn't stuck on the elephant idea and we managed to find something else. Whew.

Sophie decided to go as Sophie.

Kills me every time. The main character in The Tiger Who Came to Tea, is a little girl called Sophie, who is having tea with her mum when a Tiger knocks on the door. I won't give away any spoilers, but it's a really cute and fun book. I don't know why more people don't know of it! Sophie went to see a stage play of it when she was three, and has a beloved Tiger toy as well.

What makes it even better is that Sophie's costume is very easy. Long sleeved blue shirt, purple tunic, tights, blue hair ribbon and black shoes. Sophie herself even thought about it and told me she had a blue shirt that would work, just when I was all resigned to going to the shops. We colored in some white tights to match, and I just picked up a metre of purple fabric for $4.00 from Spotlight for the tunic. Done.

Sophie and Star Tiger had a great time at school for Book Week. What a successful first year of Book Week!

Star Tiger

I'm yet to post about Sophie's Book Week costume, but her Tiger was an integral part. As you can see though, Tiger is looking a little worse for wear. 

Even more so than when we celebrated his birthday in February. Stuffing is now coming out of almost every paw. I mostly blame the very low quality felt that I originally used for all the white, which was certainly been the first thing to go. But, he has holes in other places too, which were from my inexperience in sewing soft toys. Poor Tiger.

We debated heavily about what to do, but I just couldn't figure out how to resurrect the original without taking him completely apart, and there was no way of telling if the stripy tiger fur would last that and be able to be reused. So in the end, we began again.

I had just enough of the original tiger fur left for another Tiger. For the white, I found a flannel cot sheet with stars on it in the stash, as well as a white t-shirt that we really were not wearing. Sophie loved the idea of her Tiger having stars; sold!

I also decided to line everything with multiple layers. Even if this meant a lot of extra layers to sew, I figured it would help Tiger last the rigors of playing a lot longer than his predecessor. For his tummy, I cut one of the flannel and two layers of T-shirt fabric and stitched them together around the edges. His inner ears are two layers of T-shirt fabric, as are his eyes, and the white patches on his paws are sewn directly over the tiger fur.

I think he looks pretty good, despite some minor errors in sewing. (Time pressure people, I had less than a week!) I feel his white paw parts are a little long, so they really do look like someone has sewn socks on him. Meh. The real problem was when I sewed the eye patches to the face pieces incorrectly, and then had to rotate the face pieces to make the eyes face the same way. Then they weren't fitting into the pattern correctly any more. But I just tucked and eased and made do. His face is definitely a different shape, but he's still a tiger right?

He is fluffy and cute. I am not 100% happy with his eyes, but I had stupidly put moisturizer on my hands before hand sewing them and the needle kept slipping. Doesn't matter. Sophie loves him.

We call him Star Tiger. May he live a long and happy life.

Gift Quilt

Some good friends of ours recently announced that they were expecting a third baby for their family, and after two boys, this one is going to be a girl. My mind instantly went to the quilt top I had made last  year, which you can read about here. I've been working through material in my stash, and it felt good to get this quilt top out and get it ready to gift, knowing it will be going to a lovely home of it's own.

Because the quilt top was done, it was a fairly easy job to finish it off, although quite time consuming. I decided to hand quilt it, as I still don't have a walking foot and results with machine quilting have thus far been questionable. I had recently read a tutorial by Meredith at Olivia Jane Handcrafted, which was pretty encouraging, so I took the plunge.

Overall, hand quilting is pretty fun, and it does not feel time consuming at all, because you can do it while you watch/listen to a movie or whatever. Two birds, one stone right? After quilting, which took a good two movies, a I also hand bound it with some self made bias binding tape, using a tutorial from Make it Love it. The binding took nearly as long as the quilting I think, but man does the quilt look so swish now.

These photos are so much nicer than the shots I took of just the quilt top last year. You'll see what I mean, if you look at the original post, about the color difference. I recently read a post on gifting a quilt and how you should always make sure to take photos of it, and I'm glad I have because even as this quilt goes to a new home, it's still special to me.

Mum donated me some fabric for the back of the quilt, again in the name of using up what's on hand, rather than going out to buy more. She had this lovely Japanese cotton bear print in her stash for I think at least five years, with no real idea of using it soon. The creamy background color suited the front of the quilt quite nicely, and matched the binding fabric too. I also figured if my friend gets sick of pink, it's a nice break for her to turn it over.

I embroidered the words "Love Wins" onto the quilt top, because it was made from a time when I needed to remember that God's love would always win, and I wanted this quilt to reflect that. Parenting is hard, and adding another child to the mix is absolutely going to bring lots of joy, and just as many tears. I know the family who will receive this know God's love already, but we often need the reminder.

Goodbye beautiful quilt, as you go on to live your life, may you remind people there is good in the world, even as a baby pukes on you.

Book Week: Round 1

I feel like Book Week really encompasses pretty much all things I love, because it celebrates reading by encouraging people to dress up in costumes. What a great idea. Why can't there be book week for adults too? Maybe that's why teachers get into it.

This year, Rachel wanted to be Peter Pan. I think she just found her old Peter Pan hat in the dress ups and suddenly remembered she loved it. Although, I did also take her to a Peter Pan play day in the park and we did watch the movie that week too, so maybe it's more than an old costume.

Anyway! All we had for a Peter Pan costume was the hat, so we needed to add to it pretty quickly. Luckily, I had purchased a bit of green fabric from Spotlight for this exact purpose, I would say probably two years ago, but had never got around to making it. So now, all I had to do was find the material and make the tunic. Done!

Rachel sat at the machine with me and guided the material through. She also got to press reverse and lift and lower the presser foot. A budding seamstress! Hooray! Given that Peter Pan is a boy who runs away to Neverland and never grows up, I felt justified not lining or hemming this at all. For the pattern, I just traced around the top part of an Izzy Top Pattern and then extended it. I assumed it would work because the one Rachel has been wearing from Easter is really big. I was right.

She's also wearing her belt from her Luke Skywalker costume from last year's May the Forth. We attached a little jingly bell to the belt, so it was kind of like having Tinkerbell with her the whole time.

The day of Book Week at kindy, Hugo decided he would be a crocodile to match Rachel's Peter Pan, and Mia changed from being a Princess to a Fairy. It was really cute to see them team up together like that so they could play.

Sophie's school Book Week parade is actually next week, so even though I've made her costume, we will wait until then to go into it. She's pretty excited though.

Ongoing and Never Ending Reading

I seem to have started a number of posts about reading of late and it seems to be remiss of me not to mention a book that I am always reading. I've read it countless times now, and I'm still going back.

It's The Bible.

Since I committed to following Jesus in 2004, I've read The Bible fairly consistently. Sometimes with a plan, sometimes not. In some seasons of my life, I'm there every day, other times, not so much. I'm still amazed that I can read it and find new things, and that I'll still be learning new things.

The times in my life that I've been doing a quiet time (which is to say, intentionally spending time reading God's word and praying each day), are absolutely the times that I have had the most growth as a person. It seems strange to me that there are times where I prioritize other things above it, and then usually decline, but I'm only human I guess.

After reading The Bible through chronologically (did you know that it's not actually chronological to start with?), in 2012, I had a huge break from reading with any kind of system or routine. I guess that's what having a baby or two will do. In 2017, I completed a "Through the Bible" reading plan with the help of being accountable to a friend and an app that told me what to read each day.

Last year I did a Bible Project reading plan, again, through the whole book in one year. I think I did the Psalms twice actually. If you've never heard of The Bible Project, I can not recommend their videos enough. For beginners or old timers their resources are so fantastic. Go check them out. Do it now.

This year I'm doing another Bible Project reading plan, but this time just the New Testament. It's a lot slower going than I'm used to. If you go through The Bible in a year, you are reading about four chapters of the Old Testament, a Psalm and a chapter of the New Testament a day. Only doing the New Testament means so much less daily reading.

But it's been good, to go slower. To spend more time with Jesus directly. To really think about what he is teaching, and how it is so upside down and counter cultural, both then when he said it, and now today.

Next year I'd like to go through the whole lot again, but read the Message version, which is a different translation of the original. Just to mix it up.

Have you ever read The Bible? It's pretty full on, but has so much to say about the story of a creator God who loves his people, and time and time again, wants to build a relationship with them. It's something that I will read again and again, because I need to be reminded all the time.

This quote that a friend shared a while ago really resonates with me now as I reflect on this:

"Some truths we only need to hear once, and they sear themselves across your soul like a red-hot iron, changing your life forever. 

Other truths we need to hear again and again, like water dripping on a rock, slowly washing away the sediment of lies that keep trying to build up, until finally the lies are forgotten and only the truth remains. 

The Gospel is both kinds of truth."

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.