I'd like you to meet a friend of mine...

So there's a new rule in our house: no TV from 9am - 5pm! I came up with this brilliant solution for both myself, and my 17 month old daughter. It's actually working out fantastically as we have a new routine: take it easy having breakfast and catch up on news until 9am, then shower, morning tea, and then get out and do something for the day. Today it was going on a new walk to explore our local area, and going to bunnings to buy a hedge trimmer! Then comes lunch, and when I am lucky a 3 hour nap (AKA sew time)! After that it's pure playtime until 5pm, when on comes ABC2 and mummy can get everyones dinner, and we settle in as a family for the evening. Anyway, I digress...

This morning at 8am I had a real urge to finish off a bucket hat that I've been working on, so I put on a show for Emily (seeing as it's in the allowable hours) and headed downstairs. When I got there, I took a moment to appreciate my space!

No longer am I crammed in a corner of the dining room, but I really have my own space. I have my OWN table to spread out whatever projects I wish, but I also have a (here comes my friend...) a SewEzi table! This thing is truelly amazing. In the interest of full discloure, my in-laws (Just Patchwork) are the Australian distributors for this item, however I really do think it's a great poduct. It's a small table just for your machine. You get a template that matches your machine so it slots in perfectly, and then you have a greater flat surface to sew on. Plus it's seperate from your other piles on your regular table, so you don't have to be moving your machine constantly (or was that just me... dinner time, when visitors were over..)

The other thing I love is when I go to visit my parents, if it's going to be for a while, I can take my machine & table with me. It's so portable. I know this is turning into a blatent product plug, but this table has made my sewing life SO much easier. If you sew all the time, maybe it's worth looking at?? Anyway here's the link for those that are interested.

In other breaking news... Mothers all around the world have been advised to not leave 17 month old little girls unsupervised with crayons  :)

It's hard to tell from the pic where this lovely artwork took place, but it's one of the legs from my beautiful table in the top picture!

A special quilt for an amazing girl...

I thought I would share with you all my favorite gift that I have made for someone... although this post is about 6 months late! It's a quilt that I made for my daughter for her first birthday: it's made from her clothes (and one bedsheet) from her first year of life. I got the inspiration from this post one of my favorite blogs; Wee Wonderfuls.

I hadn't made a quilt for Emily yet, and wanted it to be something special. It was a diffficult decision to cut up my little girl's favorite, and most special outfits from events like coming home outfits, weddings etc. I am not sure that all around me agreed with my choice seeing as we will be having more children, however my theory is that now those clothes and memories will be caputred forever.

The design process took me a while, because that just comes hard for me. I wanted something simple though because I was going to be working with all different kinds of fabrics (and some were super stretchy), so squares worked a treat! I also wanted to keep the background fabric as simple as possible so that the clothes could be the star of the show  :) I missed this in the pics, but I backed the quilt with hot pink oh so soft dot fabric. I also added a large heart in the center out of one of her bedsheets, and some ducks from her first pair of jeans, and another special pair of pants.

A lady on my facebook fanpage said that the gifts that she likes making the most are those that are used, loved and enjoyed. I have to say that I totally agree. For now, Emily's quilt is mainly used for snuggling under with her mumma when she happens to wake in the middle of the night  xo

Mathilda's Market - Canberra!

Well... it's been a long time to say the least! I have been super busy gearing up for the Mathilda's Market, completing my first wholesale order, and also working with Snugglebug to create some beautiful bucket hats in their French Broderie Anglaise.... along with being a mum, a wife, and trying to find a little time for myself!

So I completed my first Mathilda's Market in Canberra on the weekend, and what a Market it was! There were almost 50 stalls there, each one just as amazing as the next. I was certainly in fine company  :)

I hope you enjoy these pics of my stand, and if anyone who was at Mathilda's is reading this.... HI!!!

BTW - We are about to jet off to San Francisco tomorrow, so it may be a little while before I blog again. However, when I return I shall be well rested (hopefully), and ready to go with some new ideas!!

The cutest skirt and nappy pants you'll ever see!

This gorgeous skirt is from a pattern by Oliver + S and was quite simple to make (apart from my drama with the elastic - ARRGGHHH). I lined the inside with the grey & white flower fabric shown on the nappy pants. It's just super cute, even when teamed with a plain white singlet.

The nappy pants were very easy to make, and the pattern comes from Bettsy Kingston. I am sure you could email her to find out how to get your hands on this pattern. She also offers a priceless description on how to sew the elastic on the legs without casing!! I will be making many many more of these. I am thinking some plain ones (black, white, pink etc) to go under skirts and dresses, and also some out of gorgeous fabrics such as these for wearing on hot days with a singlet!

Some food and a winner!

I have decided that seeing as we have purchased a new home, and moved into a new neighbourhood, where we plan to be for a long time... I am really going to make an effort (perhaps for the first time) to get to know our neighbours! So early on Saturday morning I made some delicious Apple Spiced Sour Cream Muffins, and off we went next door! So turns out, we have lovely neighbours!! They really seem so nice and friendly, and have a very healthy sized family of nine children! (I thought I had seen a  few children, but was thinking about six!). Anyway, I am very excited. Isn't it great when everything seems perfect, and then things get a little more perfect-er  :-)

And speaking of food, we have just finished on Sunday night tradition of pancakes for dinner! Yummo!!

But now to the important business... the winner is.... (drumroll...) number 15!! MJELLY! I will contact you for your address so I can send off the lovely Owl. Thanks to everyone who participated. I really appreciate the feedback, and got some great advice.

Moving, Moving, Moving...

We recently purchased a wonderful family home! We have owned an apartment before but this is different. We plan on being here for a long time... We plan on adding to our family here, watching our kids swim in the pool, growing older, hosting lots of dinners, both the regular kind and special ones. We have grand plans  :-)

Moving though, is quite naturally a nightmare! Between all the packing and unpacking, losing things that you desperately need, not being able to set up the new washing machine so it doesn't leak, the cleaning of the rental house...  But alas, it is all done! And how happy we are  :-)

We invited friends over a week after moving. Best idea ever! It meant we got everything unpacked and organised... even if it almost killed us, we did it. And now we can just relax and enjoy!

N.B. When we were unpacking, I found some paintings of mine from when I was in preschool! I decided they were perfect for adding a little colour to the wall of Emily's playarea  :-)

Heather Bailey Scrap Flower!

So I seen this interview/tutorial months ago, and have been meaning to try it and finally today was the day! Initially my plan was to make this flower to jazz up one of my daughters singlets - so I went with the small sized flower. The flower is super easy to make - although it did take me longer than the 10 minutes Heather suggests in the interview  :-)   You only need a scrap piece of fabric, some felt circles, a button, scissors and a needle and thread! Visit the tutorial for instructions on how to make the flower - it can be made in 3 different sizes.

So how did it go? Well I think I pulled the fabric too tight to make the flower, and hence I have more folds in the fabric than Heather's pictures do. It also made the flower quite high: 3/4 inch as shown below. So I guess I could either not pull it as tight, or probably next time I will shorten the length of the strip I use. I also think I will change the diameters of the felt circles so that there is an evenish space between the fabric and two layers of felt.

So what did I do with it? Well as I said, it was going to decorate a pink singlet of my daughter's, however I then realised that a 15 month year old would just try to pull it off! It wouldn't last long at all. So I decided to add it to my plain old black hairband. Often when I am at home I simply throw my hairback in a ponytail and put a hairband on at the front. At least now I can feel a little stylish! I will definately be making more of these. I might also add a pin to the back so they can be added to skirts, tops, a handbag, one of Emily's hat, hair clips, the options are endless!

Thanks for the tutorial Heather!