In The Mail

Everyone waiting "something" from me, it's in the mail! New fabrics pickes, the last snaps hammered, labels in place (not sure on the positions though) and all wrapped and posted. I hope everyone likes the colours I chose and would love feedback. So Andrea, Anja, edward and lily, CurlyPops, Natasha, Gilly, TinnieGirl, Rebecca, and Marita keep an eye on your mailboxes. I didn't get a chance to photograph them all nicely wrapped up.

New colour options now in the shop here.

Ottobre Babushka Dress

The latest Ottobre Kids arrived last week and there are some patterns I really love in there and will definitely be making. I haven't had a chance to make any of the beautiful baby outfits from any of my Ottobre's yet so when Mum mentioned we need to get something for my cousin Nikki & her hubby Jack who welcomed their third child, a baby girl named Jessica, I knew exactly what I was making!

The Babushka Pinafore Dress from the 1/2009 Ottobre in a fine cord from my local fabric shop with a plain deep red/purple inside. No the pins won't be the buttons but I'm thinking I may do simple press studs for it? Much easier for dressing squirmy little ones.

Daycare Bags

New bags for daycare from Kokka fabric and denim. First attempt at an adjustable strap too which came out really well.

Matroyshka's for Isabella with strawberries on the inside. I made this a while ago but I decided to pull out the original denim strap and replaced with the adjustable one when I made Liam's... much better, now either she can carry it, I can or it can go on the pram handles.

And Robots fabric for Liam with black and white striped interior.

I just love this style of bag, if only I needed more bags I'd make myself one!

Baby T Quilt

A new quilt for a little baby coming in May. I still find unisex quilts and gifts hard to pick fabric for so went for a Moda Recess Jelly Roll which covers covers all girly and boyish at the same time.

Backed in a plain mustard yellow and binding in a mustard yellow flower and machine quilted in really basic/simple lines. I'm very excited though because my new walking foot arrived yesterday and I can't wait to try it out.

Sydney Aquarium

Sydney Aquarium has a Dugong/Mermaid exhibition running until the end of January so we headed in on Tuesday.

Isabella met a real life singing Mermaid, but I think shewas a bit confused why she didn't have red hair like Aerial. She was desperate to meet the Pirate who was playing the keyboard but he disappeared while she was getting her photo taken.

The big fish tank and the sharks were definitely still a winner. Considering how hot it was outside, I think I would have preferred to be in there swimming with the sharks.

Toot Toot Thomas

Just home from 2 nights in the Blue Mountains to visit Thomas the Tank Engine and friends at the Zig Zag Railway. What a blast!

We stayed at one of my customers in a huge house and it was perfect, 3 bathrooms, 4 double bedrooms, toys provided for, cot provided for even drinks and food in the cupboard and fridge of the big kitchen. Our friend Greg, Sarah & our Godson Sam joined us for the first night and then to see Thomas the next day. Highly recommended.

We stayed another night, just the four of us and relaxed a bit with a slow cruise home. Both Liam and Bella had such a ball and were snoring by 7pm tonight when we finally rolled in the front door home.

Liam is now a professional "tooooot"-er. He got some practice on the 30mins there and 30mins back train ride. Poor people sitting behind us. I am so sorry.

Bella & Liam with friend Sammy

Bella as Spiderman. Yes it's PINK. Sammy went for the "traditional" red Spiderman.

The aftermath, two Spider-people, very tired and a tired daddy. Liam was fast asleep by the time we got back to the house.

Addicted to Bags..

Another bag. I know, who needs this many bags?

Fabric is from Ikea and the handles I picked up from Lincraft are a d-shape. The pattern is this freebie from Little Birdie Secret's which was fantastic and so quick to make, 4 Peppa Pig episodes or in non-Mummy speak 20 minutes. I cheated at the last stage though and put the zipper foot on my machine and just sewed the handle in place that way instead of hand stitching.

Ava Bag

New reversible bag using the Ava bag pattern from Grand Revival. I love the shape and the fabrics came up just as I hoped but not keen on the finish of the handle. But that's just me and my old nemises... binding. 

The fabrics are Olive Rose by Valori Wells with a handle in Manzanita by Joel Dewberry and the other side is all Aviary by Joel Dewberry. All of this WAS intended for clothes for the Princess but oh well, she has enough clothes for now.

Liam's Big Day

Friday was the first day back at daycare for Bella and the first day for Liam. After an intial upset at seeing Mummy & Daddy leaving he apparently was brilliant all day. We only called in to check oh 3 times, but he was having a great day, making a new friend, have a big sleep and eating all his morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

So I had my first day on my own in 15 months. A whole 8 hours. Jealous much? With no "work" to be done, I headed straight to one of my fave fabric shops and actually browsed. Then I quilted a baby quilt which turned out to be a full single bed size, then cut out a bag pattern. Bliss. Next week of course I'll be busy working on a new customer's website but gee it was nice. Just the binding on the quilt to be done and then I'll be back with photos.

A big thanks to Penny Carnival for the shout out about my tutorials list and hello to anyone stopping by from there. I am still adding to the list when I come across tutorials that catch my eye and have added a few more tonight. Check them out here.

I wonder if people would like to see photos against the tutes? What do you think?

Rosa e Chocolate Wreath

I was lucky enough to win something in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway from the lovely Rosa e Chocolate. When I signed up for possibly winning her little wreath I thought it was adorable but my goodness when I opened it up this morning it is one of the most beautiful made things I have ever seen!

There is gorgeous fabric, the little knitted roofs, the ribbon, little bells (see them at the ends)... it's so lovely. Rosa had it listed as a "Christmas Wreath" but no way this is going in the box with Christmas decorations, the beautiful pink colours go so well above Isabella's bed it's going on the wall in her room.

Check out her website because the things she makes are beautiful.

Powerhouse Museum

Today we headed off to the Powerhouse Museum to check out the Stars Wars exhibition and the rest of the sites. We came home with an annual pass for the whole family it was so much fun!

Star Wars

The Magic Garden

The Cyberworld exhibition

Off to build

And building lego worlds while all dressed up

Can't wait to go back and check out the Space exhibition.

Don't you love how when we go to something like, oh I don't know, a special New Years Eve dinner hubby takes 1 photo, but let him loose in a Star Wars exhibition and we come home with almost 90. Maybe I should just get Stormtroopers to come along to all family events and pose for photos.

Christmas & NYE Wrap Up

(Finally my camera is back from it's unintentional stay at my parents). Christmas and NYE is gone for another year, no doubt it will be back around just as quick as it is every year!

Christmas started at home for presents from Santa...

Then off to my parents for Christmas lunch...
Our New Year's Eve is always spent with good friends Greg and Sarah (for the past 15 years) and now their son, our Godson, Sam. We normally cook up a storm at one of our places, the kids run riot for a couple of hours and then they are thrown into bed at a "reasonable" hour while us old folks try and make it to midnight.

This year, a couple of days before NYE my Mum called up out of the blue to say that they wanted to take the kids. Every year NYE is big for them, they head away for a couple of nights with their good friends but this year after some sad losses of friends too close too Christmas they felt like a quiet one. Some how the planets aligned and Sarah's Mum was free to take Sam. We booked into one of our favourite restaurants (which happens to be walking/staggering distance home) and had an outstanding degustation menu with plenty of wine to go with it. A fantastic night to remember.