Tiger

I have exciting news. I have ventured into the land of soft toy making. Okay, I know I've kind of been there before with the Dolls, but on the whole I stay away from soft toys. I like to make practical things that have long life and many learning outcomes. Soft toys don't always fit that criteria, I'm sad to say. But I've gone there now. Behold!

The Tiger.

For Sophie's birthday, we gave her the book "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" and took her to see the show at QPAC. She loved it. Ever since, every possible tiger related thing has been connected back to this. So, I made her a tiger.

I used the Racoon Tutorial from Ikat Bag as my base and adjusted it for a Tiger with reference to the other animals from the Menagerie Pattern. Pretty excited to finally use this pattern because even though I'm usually not a softie fan, all of these animals just look so cool.

She was pretty excited to see him. We got the fabric at Spotlight on Tuesday and I managed to sew him up Tuesday night. Since the moment she saw him Wednesday morning that Tiger has been everywhere with us.

It's been very hard to get good shots of him, because the girls just see him and want to give him cuddles. I've been pretty delighted with how the stripes lined up on the back there. I've never sewn with fuzzy animal fabric before, so maybe I should have read a tutorial, but I think I managed just fine. Now I'll have to make some soft cuddly animal friend for Rachel. Thankfully, it's a quick sew.

To prove my point about the girls just wanting to cuddle him, here is a photo of it in action.

Play Board

Over the Christmas holidays, Steve and I got a bit handy with the water play board we'd made in October last year. It's still not totally finished, but we are pretty happy with how it works right now. It's a little more permanent than the containers that were staple gunned on originally.

I'm hoping to add another pipe that runs down from the right side of the top pipe down to where Rachel is standing. The idea is that it will have small holes in it for water to trickle through to the big leaf catcher that's below, but still be able to feed balls to the pipe on the left.

Coincidently, that pipe on the left (in the middle) is actually completely level. We aren't exactly sure how it happened, but the momentum that the balls have going into it mean that they tend to roll down it just fine, so it's ok! Hooray!

Disbelief

I really can't believe I have only posted once this year. It's almost mid February already! Maybe it's a sign that my blogging goal for this year should be drastically decreased to one a month. Maybe.

I have been pretty busy with getting a solid routine for my Family Day Care work, and getting routines down. All kids sleeping right now - win! Must be doing something right. Now that Sophie is three I can actually do cool activities and crafts with her, but it's this really tricky balance of things, because the other kids can't do those things. In fact, the one year old's mostly just like to knock things over and chew them. There is a vast difference in their learning levels.

It's been a challenge but I'm ready for it. I've done a stack of risk assessments, so now I can go out of the house with the kids too. Oh, the freedom. Words can really not express how great it is.

Anyway, I was thinking about having not posted for a while and I realised I hadn't made a cool lunch for the girls in a while either. I've been slack and just making peanut butter sandwiches (cut into train shapes of course), but nothing special.

So this week, I've made lunches!

These were Sophie and Rachel's lunches for Wednesday. Yoghurt, boiled eggs (in car and fish shapes that didn't really work out so great), tomato, flower cut cucumber, olives, watermelon, grapes and star shaped jelly.

The little pick things are so cute! Right? It makes eating fun. 

Anyway, today's lunch was something similar. Yoghurt, grapes, watermelon and peach, boiled eggs (star and heart shapes today, much more successful than yesterday), cucumber (flowers and sticks), tomato and cream cheese sandwiches in little round bite size bits on toothpicks. 

Yesterday's lunches lasted morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, but today's didn't make it past lunch because we were out at a park and I was running them around to make them tired, I mean, build their healthy appetites. Yes. Lunch was good today. I even made myself lunch too - an egg sandwich. Not cut in any fancy way at all, but delicious none the less. 

Finally: Published Again

Yes. If this were a New Years Resolution, then I'm way ahead of the game and have ticked it off two days in. I have finally published again.

It's not a New Years Resolution, just something I've had on the to-do list in the back of my head for ages. In fact, I even told you about it, six months ago now! I don't know why it was so hard to sit down and actually get it done, but somehow, most nights, when the kids were finally in bed, either something else ranked as more important or I just didn't have the brain power to pull it off.

The good news is that earlier in December after our trip to Bundy, I got to skip down to Melbourne for three days with my sisters (YAY!) and how I got there started with a six hour train ride from Bundy to Brisbane. Six hours of uninterrupted time, otherwise known as bliss. It was on this train ride that I got to get to it. Finally finished the last check ups of the stories and considered them worthy of publishing.

Hooray! These little stories are now out there for the world to read. I am well pleased. These stories are different to Just as it Should, which I published 18 months ago now. They are short stories. Think classic fairy tale type stories, and that's what you are in for. These are the stories that I love to write, because the good guys win, and everything works out just right. The cover art was done by Ellie of Taffy and Twine, who did my last cover too. She's so talented!

Anyway, I think that's enough of me babbling on. if you go to amazon.com and look up Spellbinding Stories, there it is. You can get it in the Kindle store too, Yay! I've published again!

Rachel's Doll

The Christmas present I was most excited about was Rachel's. I'm so glad I made it only two days before Christmas otherwise I might not have been able to wait to give it to her. I made Rachel a doll.

Rachel plays with Sophie's doll pretty often, so it was possibly past time I made her one, but I'd been a little busy in the last six months, so I was a little late. I made her the same way that I did Sophie's with a few differences. You can see them. Again, she had some great modesty undies just in case she is left without clothes. 

There she is with Doll, best friends already. Mum made Rachel a dress out of this material and then a dolls dress too so Rachel's doll was lucky enough to even get a shiny new dress for Christmas.

I haven't asked Rachel what we should call her yet. I don't really want to end up calling another doll, "Doll".  

Space Capes

When someone hands you the bed sheets from your husbands childhood, I suppose the usual reaction would be thoughts like: "Why have you kept this? I think I'll throw them away." I'll admit, I may have thought the first half, but it was followed with "Free material! Awesome!"

It's moments like these that I know I've gone over the edge with sewing.

So earlier in the year, Steve's mum did in fact hand me some old bed sheets from his childhood. Two full sets, pillowcases included. Complete with doona covers. That's a lot of material. A lot. I was a little excited.

It was all space - planets and rockets and spacemen and what not, so I was inspired by things that fly. It will take me a while to get through it all, but I made a dint a while ago by making some capes for the kids to use as dress ups. While I was at it, I made some matching shorts. And not just for my kids, but also for five others. Mass production is really addictive.

They made good Christmas presents.

Quiet Book Blog

I've been featured on the Quiet Book Blog! Hooray!



I just submitted my ABC Book for posting. It's posted and it's there! I'm excited!

Memory Game

Another thing I made for the travel trip to Bundy was this awesome memory game. It was really perfect for Sophie to play with while Rachel was asleep. She understood the matching concept and had enough memory to actually play to win.

I had the jeans squares cut out already (I guess last time I made a quilt I cut too many (actually, I just had a look for the quilt that I would have cut them for and it's from August 2013! Yikes!) and then used some left over bed sheet scraps from the ABC Book. I used an old fleece Jetstar blanket that I had lying around for the batting and then just fun scrap material for the squares.

The exciting thing about these is that Rachel sewed with me for the first time when I was making them. Yep, Rachel sat on my knee while I sewed the straight lines and then helped push the reverse button and lift the presser foot. She didn’t last long, but she did sew with me. Yay!

Sophie helped with the zig zags on the edges sewing it all together. Fun times. I love these. They are a great way to use up my scrap fabric and were a quick sew. I might be making many more sets of these as presents in the future. Yes!

Travelling Mice

Last weekend we were in Bundy for Steve’s sister’s 21^st birthday, which was a stack of fun. Then I got to take myself off to Melbourne for three days with my sisters. My goodness fanstastic! In the lead up to the Bundy trip, I made these little mice to travel with the girls and keep them company during the long hours on the road.

They were a little under appreciated because the girls were not old enough to really want to play with them too much. Oh well. They were fun to make and are cute. Here they are living in their little houses. 

Cardboard Castle

The latest cardboard creation in our house has been a castle. Man was I so excited to make it. I’d been under the house and seen just how much cardboard I had stashed there and came to the realisation that I could really go crazy with this and it still have a huge stash of cardboard. Hooray!

This meant though that I really saw this cardboard castle as a bit of a rough draft. I cut things without measuring them, or drawing them on. I didn't measure anything at all. I just kind of went for it and figured I’d learn from the experience for next time. And I did.

One of the biggest things that set this castle apart from the other cardboard things I've done, is that it’s open. There is no roof. I've found that the kids really like to be able to see out, and play hide and seek by popping up over the edges and out the windows. They don’t care too much for the roof. Also, I wanted the cool turret/castle roof edge look which wouldn't have worked so well with a roof edge anyway.

The next most different thing is that the castle itself is not a fixed structure. The walls are not really joined in a conventional way, so the castle could be moved around as needed. At first it was just four wall sections (one awesome cardboard box from Dad’s new speakers) that could be concertinaed or set at right angles so that it stood up in the room, but then I had the idea of using weighted boxes to keep it more stable (the wind was not friendly to the original castle). That led to being more than weighted boxes, but also joiner boxes, so other sections of the castle could be joined on. Win!

The castle itself ended up with three sections, all of different heights. I did a drawbridge type portcullis gate thing for the front door, and the girls could pull it closed with a bit of rope, which was good. But because it was going up and down and being walked over, it came off fairly quickly. The girls didn't mind though because they just like to be able to get in and out when they wanted.

There was another door in the shortest section of the castle, which we referred to as the “Secret Door” because it stayed closed really well, and I didn't put any holes in it. It was really fun for Sophie to use it, and for her animals as well.

I did push open windows and just some window holes in the cardboard too, although they were less fun. When the three sections were finished and together, the castle stood most of the time with the bookshelves serving as the back wall, because I could tuck the two loose ends of the castle into the spaces between the bookshelves and the wall and the two bookshelves respectively which anchored it really well. It also meant that it took Hugo much longer to get at the bookshelves to everything off them, so such a win.

The girls loved to have picnics in the castle with their animals and read books there. We took them outside and gave them a paint job with some home-made paint (I'm so thankful it was home made because Hugo took one look at it and decided it had to be edible). I just had them do the inside walls, thinking I’d do a brick pattern on the outside ones with a sharpie, but then I ran out of time, and they didn't really care anyway. Maybe next castle.

All in all, the great thing about this castle was its flexibility. We could set it up anywhere, inside or out. It was such a win. I would love to do a big version one for a birthday party. Maybe with catapults. 

The Truth About Rachel

I know that the vast majority of my posts have a tag of Sophie. Sometimes I get to tag both girls, but more often than not, Sophie takes the limelight. It's probably because she's older, and just because of that extra year and a half, she's doing things first. But Rachel does fun new things each day too, so I thought I'd share some of them here.

Rachel is fun. She's a real daredevil. She loves to jump on people and be tossed about. Rachel was the first to put her head on the ground and look at the world through her legs. She likes to go upside down.

This little girl climbed things before Sophie did. She had more hair than Sophie in the first year and a half. Some days I think she still has more. Rachel tolerates things in her hair far longer than Sophie does. She likes the clips to be put in and out, and likes to tie it up at the back. I'll have to get it cut soon.

When we are outside, Rachel loves to find bugs. (Can you spot the yellow bug on the tree above that she's looking at?) She loves to look at them, to watch them move. She is unafraid of touching them, but respectful of their mystery. If we find some in the house, Rachel shows them off to the others, she likes to share like that.

 

Sophie, The Artist

We have been colouring and drawing lately, and I thought I'd share this with you. These are Sophie's illustrations to the classic "The Incy Wincy Spider".

The Incy Wincy Spider

Climbed up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain.

So the Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the spout again.

Yes, I did help with the house outline, the clouds and that rainbow shape (under her direction). The rest of the rather purpley-swirly shapes are all hers.

Shared Three Ways

Two weeks ago now, I took the kids to the park for a play and a picnic. This was their lunch. 

I wanted to share it because I realised that even though the majority of the bento I make for the kids are in cute containers, you can still make fun lunches is rather boring old take away boxes. And you don't even have to be super amazing with cutting the veggies either. It still looks like a fun lunch because of all the colour, and it's easy for the kids to eat, because everything is small.

Please, go out and make fun lunches for yourself. It's achievable even on a time and finance budget. :)

Date Night

Steve and I had a date night last Tuesday. It was his birthday present. I got us tickets to see Les Miserables at QPAC. It was pretty phenomenal, even from the very back row of the top balcony. Being that far back really makes you appreciate the costume designer, because with out those signature colours or dress styles, it would be really difficult to identify the characters at such a distance.

I love Les Miserables. It's what I grew up listening to, and what I resonated with in my strange depressed teenage years. Even now, I love the musicality, and the general genius of the scoring. Each time I hear the motifs and themes I am taken to the revolution.

Steve was more excited about seeing it live than I was actually. I mean, I knew it'd be good, but I was a little hesitant because of a) the hype and b) the expense. But I'm well pleased that I was convinced to get him the tickets for his birthday, because we both loved it. Sometimes a night out is worth dipping into those savings.

Steve and I were talking after about how similar the music is for Jean Valjean and Javert when they have their crucial character dilemmas. I've been thinking about it more too. Jean Valjean and Javert are both offered life when all they expect is death. They are both offered freedom, when they deserve jail. What they do with what they are given though, is entirely different.

While Jean Valjean, when offered the chance at freedom decides to take it and live his life always repaying the memory of the one who gave him the freedom, Javert cannot bear to live with the idea of his undeserved life. I think about this too in relation to what God offers us. Sometimes I want to take what he has given and do my best with it, and other days, I just can't handle what he has been so abundant with. Why would he give me life, when I deserve death?

It's too much for me to take.

I guess I don't really know where I'm going with this. Just that I'm thankful for what God has given me and I'm trying my best with it. Last Tuesday was a great reminder that.

Storage

All is quiet on the sewing front. We had a big week of doing lots and giving Steve a great 30th Birthday. The week before, I did sew this rather quickly, but it then got busy and I didn't get around to taking photos or doing anything with those photos for a while.

Still, I thought I'd post it, because now it looks like I have done something of late.

It's a fabric storage box/basket/thing that fits under the play kitchen in the living room. The kids had been putting all that food stuff into shoe boxes (actually, they were rather better at taking it out of said shoe boxes). I went to a conference about early childhood and one of the speakers challenged us to rethink our play spaces and make them more accessible to the kids. Like putting things in baskets or bags so they can take them to where they want to play with them, rather than having them on shelves or in huge boxes. That was kind of my inspiration for this.

It's got a handle on the front so the kids can pull it out easily, and because it's fabric, it can fold as well. So if they want to take some food for a picnic - can do! Made of some lovely soft old denim jeans from the stash and some rather appropriate cake fabric from my mum, it's everything it needs to be.