A Different Garden

Back in March, I made this cardboard house for the kids.

They had lots of fun, but the outside walls always seemed to be wanting more to me. I ummed and ahhed about what to add, and how to do it, but then it got stored away under the house for a while and I forgot. At the end of last term, we had the cardboard houses out again (the white one and this big blue one) and I was struck with sudden inspiration. It needed a garden. A garden that the children could paint.

So I painted their palms and got them to press them on the walls (in Hugo's case, it was more like hit the walls) and I dipped their finger tips in for different sized flowers too. They loved it. I got to add the green grass and stems. It's a win.

Car Painting

Thank you to whoever it was on the internet who gave me the idea for this activity. Set up a cardboard ramp. Put paint at the top. Let the kids push the cars through the paint down the ramp. 

Brilliant.

And afterwards, another activity, wash the cars.

Things that Grow

It's the middle of winter here, but things are still thriving in the garden. I've got to work at watering them a little bit more regularly because it's been dry (and we don't really notice, because it's not hot). The weather has been so great though, even though it's the middle of winter, the temperature in the sun outside is still shorts and t-shirt weather! Got to love that, although last week had a 28 degree day that had me actually put the sprinkler on for the kids. Crazy!

Anyway, here are some pictures of what is growing at the moment. For the first time ever I planted snow peas. I had this great idea of using the swing set at the trellis for them to grow on, and it's kind of working. Steve said it makes mowing the lawn hard (and it does make the whipper snipping hard), but I think it's worth it.

The ones that are doing the best though are these in the yellow box, because they get full sun all day, while the others are in the shade for part of it. The basil is going nuts there too, and the capsicum plants have been putting out flowers again. All very exciting stuff!

These ones in this green pot I didn't transplant so well and thought they wouldn't make it, but they've made a comeback, so who knows. The girls like to look at the little curly tendrils as they cling onto things. I'm glad I planted the snow peas everywhere (seriously, there are some on each side of our garden!) because the ones near the chickens in the back corner have been eaten by something. The same something that I suspect is eating the sweet potato leaves (green jumpy things that Rachel likes to catch). I don't think that particular bunch will make it, but the others really make up for it.

Can't believe I didn't take photos of it, but our mandarin tree is also full of ripe fruit. It is just the bees knees to pick off a mandarin and share it with the kids for afternoon tea - straight from the tree!

Look, They Use it!

It's the bowling bag/mat I made over a year ago! They use it!!

My delight overwhelming.

Cardboard Signs

Every now and then I get taken by a sudden idea and an hour later have something to show for it. More often than not, that something is not much, but in this case, it's something!

The kids love to play driving games, so I thought some signs would be in order. Thankfully, my favourite blogger had already made some for her girls that I could copy. You can see them here.

It's hard to tell, but that traffic light actually changes. The top spins to change the lights! YAY!

What I didn't anticipate was the girls desire to change the lights themselves. I made the post too long, so they really had to reach (or pull the pole down) to get to the top to spin it. As a result, the traffic lights came off the pole. :(

Flowers

From the garden. 

Because sometimes you need some pretty flowers on the table.

Dressing Up

Have finally made the girls more dress up dresses. I love it. Even though gathering is pretty much the bane of any dress sewing, making fun costumes for the girls to put on is possibly the most therapeutic sewing there is. It's a dress up, so it doesn't have to be perfect, and it's pretty, and I know they will love it. Winning.

These ones are pretty stunning, if I do say so myself. I made them exactly the same way that I made the first Cinderella Dress for Sophie nearly a year ago now. They look a bit the same because of that fact, but I feel they are different enough. No need to get too fussy when it's a dress up for a three year old right?

I'm rather lucky with sewing, because most of the material for theses dresses was just given to me. I did pay 50 cents a metre for the yellow stary tulle (of which I used two metres so a grand total of $1), but that was it. The rest of the yellow material was a gift from a lady at church who I know through prayer.

The gorgeous blue is from my friend Ruth who's mum is a dress maker. I think it's from her sister's formal dress (which her mum made). It's simply beautiful fabric.

It was much harder to take good photos of the girls this time, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the best camera we have in the house now turns out to be my phone. Ugh - phone photos right? Secondly, the girls just wanted to play together, rather than pose for photos. Thirdly, there is loads more in our backyard now. Swing sets, sandpit, music wall, play wall, and shop front. Not to mention the ghastly plastic monstrosities I've acquired in the name of family day care. So very hard to get a decent background. Oh well.

Both girls loved running around in them (though I'm not sure why they needed their fairy wings on). Rachel spun and spun until she couldn't stand up and fell over. It was rather amusing.

I hand stitched up the top layer of sheer yellow on her dress in parts so you can see the stars on the underneath layers better. The white underneath was already pre-gathered by someone who possess an actual gathering foot for their sewing machine. I dream one day I'll have such a magical tool, but until then, I'll just continue to gather the old fashioned way. Badly that is.

During the week, the girls wanted to wear their dresses and Hugo was not to be left out. He was lucky enough to score the pink dress. Loved every minute of it, the cheeky monkey.

Running Out of Time

I don't even know where May has gone, but it's nearly over. Reality hits me every time. The to do list is still long, and even if I had a day to finish it all, there'd still be stuff to do the next day. I often wonder who wins. More often than not, I feel like everyone loses.

I mean, if I did take a day to do the "things-that-must-be-done" on the to do list, sure, that'd be great, but I'd be missing out on time with Steve and the girls. So then, I've got to do it in the evenings right? Only then, I'm missing out on Paula and Steve time. Maybe I can do it during the day? But then I must be neglecting the kids in some way shape or form. Sigh.

And the first thing to go when my life gets busy and crowded is my time with God.

See what I mean about everyone losing?

Not sure there is a point to this, and I certainly don't have an answer, but it's out there now. Life is busy and I don't have the answers.

What I do have though, is pictures of fun lunches. Made these for the girls morning tea at playgroup on Tuesday.

Yum right?

Superhero Fairy

Our nephew Harrison was three last weekend, and for his birthday, he had, like many other little boys out there, a superhero party. The invites had Avengers from Captain America to Iron Man and Thor, the cake had Spider Man and Batman. So many superheroes. Of course, the kids going to this party were all going to be sporting their superhero-of-choice costume. So naturally, our girls wanted to wear costumes too.

Trouble is that our girls really have no idea about superheroes at all. Mostly, they are just too young for us to show them anything that is superhero related, but they are also not really interested in them yet either. Steve and I did a big brainstorm of good female superheroes that we could suggest to them for the party. There is a sadly short list, but we finally settled on Sif (from Thor) for Sophie and April O'Neil (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) for Rachel (arguably not really super, but good none the less).

Then I presented the girls the ideas and hit a snag. Sophie was not keen on Sif. No matter how I phrased it or how many cool photos I showed her, she was not having a bar of it. Back to the drawing board. I googled female superheroes and showed Sophie the photos, thinking she might like some generic Wonder Woman or Super Girl costume. No. Not a bit.

Finally, I asked if she'd like to be a fairy. Yes. Yes she would. Fairies are not really superheroes, I think, but at least they help people right? So Tinkerbell it is.

Rachel's costume was easy (partially why we chose it). Yellow shirt, denim shorts and boots. All of which I knew were already currently in her wardrobe. (I did take photos, but none of them were very good. Sorry Rachel for not having photos of you. I'm sure you will wear all the elements of your costume again though, and maybe I'll take some good photos then.) Sophie on the other hand now needed a green Tinkerbell costume, the night before the party. Sigh.

Luckily my love of sewing and hoarding any hand me down fabric comes in handy. I had a bit of a green table cloth from a friend's wedding that would serve as the base of the skirt. Some shiny see through green from I don't know where for the next layer and lastly a scrap of some cool embroidered blue-green stuff from my (hold your breath!) formal dress (that my mum made).

Make these into a gathered skirt that I can just tie around her waist and put it on a green top that I accidentally washed/tried to soak incorrectly last year rendering it unwearable but that I kept because the material was still beautiful and hello Tinkerbell.

I'm not sure why my sewing stories need these epic lead-ins, or how it always seems to happen that I have them, but oh well. This costume is so far from accurate it's not funny. The greens are wrong, the style of dress is wrong, the fit is wrong. But did my little girl love it? Yes. Did it take me an hour and a half one night to knock it together. Yes.

Was she too excited (and also slightly high on a party food overdose) to stand still for a photo? Yes.

Shopping Time

Here is where I finally show you what the shop I was making actually looks like. It's been finished for a while now, a few weeks actually. But it took me forever to get it painted and then set up to take photos.

I was also dreaming that I'd be able to put some kind of awning on, but my attempts and thoughts on that haven't progressed very far at all. My Dad did offer some solutions, but it's not really coming to reality yet. Maybe in another six months or so. 

Anyway, I did end up with leftover paint from Dad, so it's a cream colour. He also had some brown, which I did the bottom of the legs with. The black chalkboard paint was the part that took the longest, and the shop was actually in full use before I even had the first coat on. Just goes to show that the kids were keen to use it right?

Sorry for the unco-ness of these pictures, the girls were champing at the bit to wipe the chalk off and dismantle all the food stuffs. Steve was a champion and took the girls to Ikea to get that cash register last week. It's really cool because it's actually a calculator, so it works and makes no annoying noises. Totally worth it. 

Even though most of these photos are inside, the shop actually lives outside now and will probably continue to do so. The tricky thing with it living outside is having to make sure the shopping things inside each night, or they will quickly get ruined. Oh well. Challenge accepted. :)

Additions

I've added some tin can drums to the music wall. Now it's really loud. I hope the neighbours forgive us.

I'd bought tins of Milo in various sizes as we needed them and hoarded them for ages. They were inside being used as stacking tins, but the kids weren't doing that much any more, so I thought it was time to give them new life. Hammer some holes in with a nail, thread the wire through and then onto the fence and hello drums!

Humbled

Wednesday night is bible study  night. Probably the highlight of the week really. It's great time of hanging out with people and sharing food and talking about God. I love it.

We usually all pitch in to help out with the meal, but this week there were a few people absent, and we were a bit last minute in deciding what we were actually going to have. So I said I'd make a pasta bake, thinking I'd pick up the things I'd need from woolies after taking the kids to the library on Wednesday morning.

But I forgot. I'd packed the kids back into the car and was on the way out when I remembered. Sigh. No way was I going to go back in, get another park, unload three kids and find a trolley. Let alone push them through woolies with no snack bribery on hand.

So I resign myself to making a pasta bake out of whatever I had on hand at home. Surely I could scrounge enough to feed eight to ten people right? Someone else was bringing garlic bread, so there would be that at least to fill up on. No pressure.

On getting home, I dig out 500 grams of mince and another box of pre made pasta sauce from the freezer. I've got pasta in the cupboard. I've got carrots and zuccini in the fridge. There are tins of tomato and tomato paste in the cupboard. I don't have enough pre grated cheese, but I do have a half a block in the fridge that is easy enough to grate.

I end up with enough pasta bake to feed fifteen people.

As I'm making this, I'm really struck by how God has provided for us. He has given enough to make a last minute meal with the stuff that is just in the cupboards and fridge already! There is enough pasta bake to feed everyone with left overs. And I still have cupboards and fridge with stuff in them. It's not as though I used my very last scrap of cheese or bit of pasta even. I've still got tins and packets of food, just waiting to be used.

We have been blessed to overflowing, and yet I've somehow missed it. I've gotten complacent and demanding. I want more all the time. What I have isn't enough for some reason.

I'm reminded of the Israelites after fleeing Egypt, when God gave them manna in the desert to eat. They were instructed that they didn't need to collect more than they would need for one day, because God would always provide. The bible tells us that there were some people who disobeyed this and did collect more, but that it went bad. It's like we doubt God and feel the need to hoard to survive, rather than trust our creator.

I'm unbelievable humbled by this simple experience of God's provision for our bible study. Thank you Lord for the abundance you give us every day.

Fighting Tears

So Sophie is three years old now, so we've started introducing her to Disney movies. It's a little hard, because they all have their scary moments, and some of them have some really tough things to explain (Lion King - Simba's Dad dying - perfect example). I'll want to show her those, but not just yet. Anyway, last week we bought the original 101 Dalmatians, the animated version. It's lovely.

The first time that Sophie sees a movie, you've really got to talk her through it, or her attention span ins't going to last, or she's going to miss something and give up. I don't mind because I like Disney movies too. I'm there explaining things and prompting her with questions. It's going great.

And then, I'm in tears.

That's right, even though I know the ending, there are tears streaming down my face and my voice is wobbly as I talk her through it. I know those puppies will be all right, but I'm suddenly feeling terrible emotion every time I see them, or Perdie and Pongo. Heck, just the entire movie. Tears.

Thankfully we made it through and the puppies were safe and the bad guys were dealt with. Sophie didn't even ask me what was wrong, whew, because even I don't know the answer to that one. I thought it was over and done, and I'd be perfectly normal from here on. Unfortunately not so. Last Sunday we were having a lazy afternoon and Steve suggested to Sophie that they watch a movie together. She choose 101 Dalmatians.

"This will be fine," I think. "I've seen it before and I don't have to talk her through it this time. Steve is here in case she has any questions. Nothing to worry about."

Not five minutes in, the tears had started. So I got up and did the washing up. There, tears are gone and I'm feeling much better. Sit down again and it's like a tap turns on. I look at Steve and he bursts out laughing. I almost don't blame him. It is ridiculous after all.

I couldn't sit through one more moment of this emotional roller coaster of a movie, so I went under the house and got out some wood and power tools and set my mind on something else instead.

I'm building a small shop front for the kids to play with in the yard. Entirely out of scrap wood that we already have. It's mostly done, but for one leg and a brace. I've used the power drill (so much power in that corded drill compared to the little battery operated one), the sander, the measuring tape, the saw, the saw horses, even the clamps.

So far, everything is going smoothly. I might even see if my Dad has some old paint lying around, so it doesn't end up being the same colour as the play wall and the sandpit. Just for variety, you know?

And while I did it, not one tear was shed. Whew.

Music Making

Steve and I have had this random branch that came off one of our trees under the house for a while now. We kept it because it was almost perfectly straight, and quite long. Surely it would have some future purpose in our garden, we rationalized. I don't know what happened really, but for some reason a few weeks ago now, in the afternoon, I was suddenly taken with the notion to use that long straightish branch.

I'd seen a bunch of music wall things on the internet and had been tossing the idea of making my own around in my head for a while. Where to put it and what would go on it were always the biggest stumbling blocks. Anyway, I ended up just taking hold of that long piece of wood and drilling some holes into it. I used some wire we had (I don't quite remember why we got it) to loop it up to the fence and then proceeded to raid all of the spare bits we had lying around near Steve's manly tool chest of manly tools.

It was really cool to see I could actually get things that would make noise out of stuff we had lying around. A lot of it came from our old bathroom that we reno-ed when we bought the house nearly five years ago now! Talk about saving things for the right moment. My favourite things are the old tap handles that actually ring when you spin them. So lovely.

The seed pods were from down the street - I think we had cracked them open that afternoon. I'm not sure how long they will last, but they are provided good contrast in sound and visuals at the moment. The next day I added the jingle bells onto things (that were a hand-me-on from my friend Melissa who went to Canada).

It was really a work in progress, because I didn't add the plastic Ikea knives until a few days after that too. I found them in a drawer and realised we'd never used them. The music wall needed some colour so on they went.

The kids like to play on it, but I'm thinking I need to add some tins down the bottom that they can bang on to really get some noise out of. There is another branch that has kind of come off a tree down the street that I've got my eye on. I went down on Sunday arvo to try to pull it off, but it's still hanging on by a thread.

I realise now that none of these photos really show you where this is in the backyard or in relation to the play wall or the sandpit. Sorry. It is up the back and I am planning on revamping the garden bed up there to make it into a fairy garden and add some stepping stones for the kids to sit on, so maybe if that comes to fruition, I'll take more photos and it will make more sense.

In any case, it's in the back corner, under the shade of a big tree and a tall fence. Win.

Cardboard House

Sophie's bottom drawer was broken, and while it was out and we were fixing it, the girls climbed in and out like mad. So I got them a box out from under the house so they could continue to climb in and out of things without me pulling my hair out. It was from my parents new air conditioner, so very good quality cardboard - perfect for children to climb in and out!

After it had been in the house for a while, I thought I'd better actually make it into a proper house, so I did! It's a little bit of an irregular shape for a box - much longer than usual, and no door (it came with a removable lid, which I didn't use here). Still, I think it works as a house. I used some random sample tin of paint I found in the laundry to do the outside and some of Fiona's old student acrylic paint for the roof.

Wall paper on the inside is just wrapping paper. I managed to rip it getting it in there, so I don't like our chances of it staying too long, but oh well. The kids are kind of confused as to why that smaller set of windows don't actually open out. I'm pretty happy with the windows, because they are double layered for strength.

That said, I think the frame of the window needed more strength because Hugo got over excited about looking out and managed to make the whole box fall over and ripping the wall in the process. I was thinking I'd just use the green pop tape to fix it up, but then we were resilicone the window fly screens last week (can you believe ants eat silicone?!?) and had some silicone left over so I just used that. Should last a long time right? And now that rip is water proof.

I'll cycle the houses back under the house next week so that the kids don't get bored with them. Then, next time I take them out, they are new all over again!

Library Visits

I've started taking the kids to the library once a week. I should have started it long ago really, but I've only just now found the right time for it in our busy schedule. And since we are visiting the library, that calls for library bags right? Yes!

Sophie was pretty delighted when I told her I'd be making a library bag and was ever efficient at helping me pick out material. Unsurprisingly: trains. It's a green version of the blue train print I made a dress for her out of way back before Rachel was born. I've had it in the drawer for a year or two now, so it was good to see it get some use.

Speaking of fabric that had been in the drawer for a while, that denim was a remnant that my mum picked up from Lincraft, when it was still at Garden City. If you are any sort of south side local of Brisbane, you'll know that Lincraft haven't been at Garden City for about 15 years. So it was about time that denim got used really! I also used a fun animal print for Rachel's bag that I had grabbed at Spotlight (a year or two ago now as well!) for $4 a metre. I've used it before in a cot bumper.

Yay for using up stuff rather than going out for new. On that note, I also went through my bag collection and found one that was simply falling apart and helped it fall apart some more so I could reuse the magnetic snap. Yes! I also, cut up the first backpack I made for Sophie (which unfortunately was made with the same red fabric I used for mum's ill-fated birthday present, that turned everything red rather than washing like normal fabric) and reused the velcro and the adjustable strap thingys too. I also managed to scavenge another set of adjustable strap thingys from a backpack Sarah and her Steve were throwing away too, so not a penny spent!

I had a look at some backpack tutorials, as well as referencing some great bags made by my favourite blogger, ikatbag, (that's where I copied the shoulder strap shapes) and then just winged it from there. Overall a good turnout. I wanted the shoulder straps to be padded, but I didn't have any scrap quilting batting, so I just stuffed them with stuffing and quilted over them (patterned on Sophie's and free motion on Rachel's). They are a little puffy but they do the job.

They are a bit matchy, but not too much. They also have inside pockets (made from scraps) which I kinda thought for library cards, but I'm not sure about trusting the girls with them yet.

The girls are pretty delighted with them and I let them pick some iron on motifs (also from the stash - honestly, I've no idea where they came from!) to add afterwards. The day I finished making them, the power had been off all morning and I'd done as much prep work by hand as I could. When the power finally came back on at 1:00pm, (thankfully three out of four kids were sleeping) I skipped gleefully off to Sally. The girls put them on and wore them all afternoon. I wish I had photos.

To the library!

Pi Day

It was Pi Day yesterday. Did you celebrate?

We did.

Felt Puzzles

A few weeks ago, I was looking for something to do with my hands while there was a bit of down time that didn't involve getting Sally the sewing machine out. So I looked at my pintrest board (one day I want it to be full of pictures of things that I've actually done, rather than just put there and dreamed about. :P) and noticed this little activity.

Dug through the felt box and came out with enough stuff to make them up. Lots of hand stitching and a little bit of machine sewing later and they are done. I actually finished them about two weeks ago, but forgot to take good photos and then totally forgot to blog about it at all. Thankfully I sat down on Thursday night and wrote an extensive list of things to do, digging from the far corners of my mind, which included blogging about this. (I say thankfully, but really, that very long to do list is quite daunting, even if crossing things off is satisfying.)

So here we are! That alien space craft does actually match up properly by the way, I just didn't notice when I took the photo and couldn't be bothered retake a photo when I did realise. I pre cut the back pieces of felt but managed to loose one the day I came to sew the backs on. Alas! Even though I've since found it - I still haven't sat down at the machine to sew it on. Maybe tonight.

Anyway, even when I'd thought it was lost for good and I'd always have one puzzle piece that wasn't backed, I didn't mind at all, because it reminded me of the story of the Tin Solider. I mentioned it to Steve who said he didn't know the story!

Shock! How can you go through child hood without reading the story of the Tin Solider who is short a leg because he was the last made in his regiment and there wasn't enough tin for him to have both legs? He lives in the nursery and the little boy loves the Tin Solider and plays with him even though he isshort one leg. And then he falls in love with a Ballerina, who, pirouetting on one leg, the Tin Solider mistakenly thinks only has one leg as he. Enter the villain as the goblin pushes the Tin Solider off the window ledge out into the street where he is unfortunately knocked into the gutter and down into the sewer. Just when his luck can't get any worse, he is swallowed by a fish!

At last, when we think the Tin Solider is no more, the fish is caught, sold and cut open by the cook of the house he came from! Hooray, our hero has returned to the nursery, reunited with his love, the Ballerina. Then (is it the wind or that nasty goblin again?), the Tin Solider is again blown from his place on the mantle and this time into the fire, where he melts in the heat. Some versions of this tale, and in fact, the ones I love the best, have the Ballerina jumping into (or falling by the same gust of wind) the fire as well, thus the lovers die together.

Steve told me it was not a very uplifting story. Maybe not, but not every story can have a happily ever after.

Besides, my puzzle story does have a happily ever after, because I did find the backing felt for that aeroplane piece. And even if I hadn't I still loved the puzzle and the pieces just as they were, just like the little boy loved the Tin Solider and played with him even though he was short one leg.