2010 is just ONE sleep away!

Richard and I have had numerous talks and I am deferring uni this year in favour of spending the year at home with the kids. I'm really looking forward to getting really involved withe the kidlets and getting them immersed in the things that I love.

Taylor has asked for a sewing machine for her birthday in 2010 which I think will be a great lifelong present and to go with it, I think I'll make a little pack for her with her own scissors, fabrics, threads, and I already have some patterns for her :)

James has been so reluctant to be involved in craft for a long time now. At the op shop a few weeks ago, I bought a craft pack with Thomas on it which he is excited about so we might open it next week after swimming lessons and get to making something!

Ellie and I are going to be spending a LOT of time together hehehe. She is up to so much mischief at the moment getting into cupboards and the fridge lol. I can't wait to start doing things together :)

I'm planning on being very creative this year and as such, I've joined in Carolyn's 2010 challenge to make something each month in order to challenge myself.

I'm really looking forward to coming up with set items to make each month! I think with being home for the year means I'll be able to really participate in this year long challenge to the best of my ability :)

My new year resolutions:

• Organise my sewing area and keep it that way
• Use a different pattern every month to sew
• Ride the kids to school whenever the weather allows (James and Ellie in the trailer to begin with)
• Use the cross trainer weekly
• Setup and maintain a cleaning and tidying schedule (I will be blogging this and the eventual results too)
  
• Menu plan at least for weeknights
• Establish a reasonable budget and STICK WITH IT
• Home make ALL  Christmas presents this year - including the kids (our focus is shifting to appreciation instead of collection of crap hehe)
•  More may be added.....

Some homemade chrissy present snaps

Ok, so I didn't get pics of all the presents I made but here are some :)

Mel's cooler bag
Front:

Top:

Inside:

Gen's mini-cooler bag
Front:

Inside:

Nanna's wine cooler bag
Front:

Top:

Dad's 50th Birthday Present
Middle strip:

Brown outer & fleece backing:

I also did a batch of around 100 biscuits in jars for extended family, coin purses for Caitie and Lilly and this for Mum that I made earlier this month. Oh, I also made my brother and my Mum cooler bags as well. Jason's was blue drill with a contrasting strip of computer office scene cotton which was also used for the drawstring section. Mum's was black drill with the drawstring section in grey ocean-ish themed poplin.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with how they all turned out :)

Another trip to SL!

Another trip to Spotlight this morning resulted in another craft bag being purchased along with 3 patterns and 1m of Thomas the Tank satin (James came with me lol).

This craft bag wasn't quite as good as the other one I got but after rifling through all of the bags marked down, definitely the right choice!

Bag contents:

The patterns are for tops/dresses for me and pants and shirts for Richard and James. Can't beat $2 for a pattern!!!

Patterns:

Pattern backs:

No sewing but great news!

Today was playgroup's Christmas party so I adorned my youngest kids in their matching Christmas clothes, myself in my new homemade top, grabbed the now wrapped secret santa gift and container with cookies and away we went. Planned was a Dora bouncy castle as well as wonderful face painting by Nikki-Marie.

I'd like to explain that James (almost 4yrs) has had numerous issues with sensory sensitivities including application of sunscreen, hairbrushing etc which we have been working with this year. It's been a hard slog with slow progress.

However, today James astounded me and made me SOOOOO proud!!!!! He had his face painted!!! What an awesome difference it was to the boy we started the year with. We started off with a spider on one forearm (with me verging on fighting the resistance that is James) which progressed into another on the other arm with a web and then - ON HIS OWN ACCORD got another spider painted on his face!

Here comes the web!

Showing off all three spiders!

 More showing off lol

He was so proud of them! When we got to daycare, he showed his carers as well as showing Taylor about 100 times after getting home!!




 

So much to do!!

Ok, thought I'd make a list of everything I need to finish before Christmas. I am hereby pledging NOT to make anything not on the list until two things on the list are completed!

• Complete and wrap secret santa present for playgroup tomorrow!!!
• Jason's Christmas present (sewing)
  
• Mum's Christmas present (sewing and making)
  
• Mel's Christmas present (sewing)
  
• Dad's Christmas present (sewing)
  
• Nanna's Christmas present (sewing and making)
  
• A little something for Caitie and Lilly
• Gen's Christmas present
• Dad's 50th present - needs to be completed!

Gee, not much at all there!!! The upside is that I have started most of it and at least know what I'm doing for all bar one. Ok, off I go to finish the present for tomorrow! Playgroup goes from 9am-1pm tomorrow and I'm hoping to be able to cross something off my list before dinner tomorrow. I think probably Gen's present and maybe cut out Jason's too!

Something for me!

Ok, so I'm always making things for the kids because they are so quick and easy and I am VERY much an instant gratification person when it comes to creating :P

Tonight however, I made something for me!

I found the black print at SL months and months ago knowing that I would make something with it for me but just never got to it till now. I got the green knit from an op shop and I honestly never paired them up till this afternoon when I was perusing my stash. My stash is MUCH too large so things sometimes get lost for a while hehe.

Front:

Side:

Back:

What will I do differently? I needed to cut the neck hole bigger so that it sits under my boobs properly instead of kinda at nipple line. That's why I added the elastic under my boobs - to keep it there lol. I'd also cut BIGGER so that I can alter easier! I do love how it looks from behind! I am still tempted to turn it into a little shrug instead of the top but will leave it as this top for the time being at least! If I do change it, I'll add a black band underneath and probably a couple of snaps to do it up :)

Sausage rolls for dinner!

I bought some sausage meat on clearance a few weeks ago and chucked it in the freezer with plans to make sausage rolls with the kidlets.

Tonight, Taylor and James both helped me to make satay sausage rolls!

The mix (looks oh so very appetizing lol):

Ready to bake:

Taylor doing the egg wash:

James doing the egg wash (can you believe it!!??):

 We also put up the Christmas tree (finally!) So will put some pics of that up later :)

Tom's backpack

Ok, so as I type, Taylor is at Tom's sleepover party so I assume presents have been opened - hope he likes it!

Taylor picked the fabric from my stash and away I went. I changed it from my other backpacks by lining it, adding firm interfacing to the exterior and I used strapping and adjustable clippy things (lol) for the straps. I also changed it to an angled opening instead of straight which I really like.

What didn't I like about it? I forgot to increase the length of the two front panels so they don't overlap much at all! I looked high and low for my snaps so that I could add a snap or two to the front to hold it all together but they seem to have gone walkabout! :( So, I'll keep looking and I'll let Deb know :)

Front:

Back:

Opening:

Advent Blog -A-Long Day 11

Ok, so I'm cheating because I haven't actually blogged every day this month but it is the 11th :P

Taylor has a sleep over party tomorrow night and she doesn't have a toilet bag - bad mum I know! So, I thought I'd just whip something up for her big enough to hold her brush, toothbrush etc. The exterior is a cotton print from TT that I laid eyes on and just knew I had to get for my girl! It's been sitting in my stash for a few months waiting for me to do something with it! The lining is some satin from SL's remnant box for $1 that I really did NOT enjoy sewing with lol.

Outside:

This is the truest to the lining colour:

The lining:

 This is how bright the colours are IRL:

Leaving presents

The main carer for Elise has her last day today and of course, I left making her present till the very last minute!

I made her a messenger satchel and some cookies so I hope she likes both! (I'm going to let her know that if she doesn't think she'll use the bag that I'll happily keep it hehe)

I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially given that I didn't use a pattern and made it up as I went hehe. I got the denim as a remnant for $1 and Taylor picked the paisley-ish print from TT a while ago (hope she doesn't get angry that I used it!
Front:

Open:

Pen Slot:

Phone pocket (elasticated):

Closed showing the strap:

Cookies with the card:

Showing the cookies:

Will be dropping them off in half an hour :)

$5 later....

I went to SL today as some fabric I got yesterday had a fault in it and I also needed more black thread. I was doing REALLY well and only got what I needed until I noticed that their lucky dip bags had been reduced to $5 each!!! What's a girl to do right? So, I got one! Yes, only ONE!!!

Here is what was in it!
Part one:

2x Papier paper and wood paints
2x 200 silver photo corners
slick writer (permanent marker for slick surfaces)
memory system texta (thick one end, thin the other)
10pk silver heart charms
6pk scrappy christmas tiles
love theme brads
5pk pirate ship die cut outs
2x puffy stickers packs
Hannah Montana Applique label
2x Hannah Montana iron on transfers
10pk square cards
10pk punch out cards
3pk paper mache luggage tags

Part two:

2x Halloween reusable decals pages
blade storage tray
scrappy tile embellishments

And there was also some scrapping paper and a few (5) trick or treat bags too... oh and a plastic chair cover lol

How awesome is that for $5!!??

A black cheery bag

Ellie's main carer at daycare is finishing up at the end of the week to go on holidays and then going back to uni in the new year. I want to make her a leaving gift and originally thought a little basket bag with some chocolates in it would be lovely but then I found this fabric in my stash that I had forgotten about and just had to use  and I ended up making a little tote with an external pocket and internal phone pocket (which I forgot to stitch down the sides!)

I love that its black but just that bit cheeky as well!!

Bag:

Inside:

Close up of phone pocket:

Not sure Hilda will actually get this! I might tax it for myself hehe

Fishy pants

Ok, so here is the evidence of the only sewing I did today :)

I bought both fabrics from Spotlight yesterday. The grey is some sort of light weight suiting from the remnant box for $2 and the fish is just a poplin print that jumped out at me as I walked past.

I wanted to make James some long shorts so I altered what I normally do for lounge pants and went from there. Oh except that I did all of my topstitching in zigzag which I really like the look of. I'm happy with how they turned out EXCEPT I twisted the elastic!!!!! of course, I noticed AFTER I stitched the gap closed and I am a most reluctant unpicker at the best of times so at almost 12:30am it's truly not looking likely to happen tonight! I hope James likes them! It's the first time I've done applique with vlisofix and it is definitely the start of a new addiction hehehe I think I'm going to have to start making shirts so that I can applique them to match!

So, here they are!

Front:

Back:

Close up pocket and trim:

Close up applique:

The name tag:

I have zigzagged everywhere as my overlocker needs to go to the doctor!

Advent Blog -A-Long

I've decided to join the Advent Blog-A-Long. I will be endeavouring to post daily until Christmas with something that I've created each day.

We had some cream in the fridge that needed to be used today and the kids had icy poles this afternoon (made with cordial) which was apparently a big let down lol. So, today's effort was ice cream!

'Recipe'
600ml cream
1 tin condensed milk
1cup chocolate melts chopped up
4 scotch finger biscuits crumbled

I mixed the cream and milk until thick before adding the chocolate and biscuits. I then put some in icy pole molds and some in other containers for me and Richard!

Adding the chocolate:

Adding the biscuits:

In the icy pole molds:

The end result:

It's yummy but oh so very sweet :P I plan on doing some sewing tonight but not sure what yet! I'm still yet to start on Tom's backpack so I really should get onto that but realistically I know that won't be tonight!

So, what am I going to make?? Off to browse blogs and craftster for inspiration!