Yes Please Thank You - A Quilt Calendar!

Image from Linda & Harriett

This 2013 quilt calendar by Linda & Harriett is truly beautiful - and at a whopping 26" x 40" - they would look stunning scattered throughout the house as artwork when the month is over.


Image from Linda & Harriett

Image from Linda and Harriett

Image from Linda & Harriett

 You can read more about how this calendar came about on their blog or purchase one here

Sick days & A Blogger's Tip

one sick boy takes one sick lizards temperature

I got that call yesterday, the one where you are at work and your child's little school (child care) number comes up on your phone screen and you think, S^&T, are they alright? What's happened?? This time it was a temperature of 38.7 and the policy is if it is over 38 they have to go home. So then the guilt set it. That guilt where you feel bad that your child is sick, but then guilty that you have to leave work and go home to care for them, and then the guilt that you even feel guilty about it! The joys of being a working mother. Unfortunately in our house, we only have one car which i use to get to work three days a week, so if anything ever goes wrong - I am in charge! Anyway - that it my little rant about that. 

Now - on to my blogger's tip. Everyone in the world may have already worked this out, but just in case there is one other person who hasn't i thought i would share. So - you take the majority of your photos with your phone, and you then want to use them in  blog post but it is a pain to email them, save them, or hook your phone up! Well - all you need to do is download the bloggers ap, load the pics up on your phone into a draft blog post, go to your computer, bring up your blogger account and hey presto - all the photos you need are already saved into a nice little draft blog post. How easy is that. Now you could go super high tech and write the post from your phone, but i am not a huge fan of typing long things on my phone, and i haven't quite worked out if you can put the images amongst the text. But for what i need it for (upload the pics) it works pretty damn well! Did everyone else work this out ages ago - or i have come up with a brilliant way of doing things???

The Old and the New Backyard Sandpit

The old humble backyard sandpit..... We have had some of those shells for the last few years but the sand was always wet, a bit festy and not somewhere that I wanted to hang out in! So whilst contemplating a section of dead flower bed - i figured we could create our own sandpit, free up the deck and hopfully create a useable space for the kids. Initially i had intended to dig out the soil from the flower bed and just put the sand in there - but after about 20 mins of digger through roots, I gave up and came up with plan B. Minus the sand (it took about 10 bags to fill) the "pit" cost about $8, some pink chalkboard paint that I had lying around, some old carpet i had lying around as a weed mat, and about 30 mins of my husbands time. It is actually the first bit of pink that I have used in the house since little miss arrived, and i have to say - i kind of like it!  

Trying out the new sandpit for the first time

A post roll and a bit of Macgiver ingenuity adds a new element

What's a sandpit without a bit of water

The old sand pit gets a new lease on life - a car wash

Do you have a sand pit at your house? Does it actually get used?

Paper Flowers and an Apology

Let's start with the apology - I am sorry i kind of went AWOL for a while there. Apparently 2 kids is way more work than 1, who would have thought, and I kind of got addicted to sewing, so any time I would have spent in front of a computer was spent in front on a sewing machine - so my apologies for abandoning you lovely readers. I am hoping to do better - even if it is to drop in once a week - so I hope you have stuck with me and i am not writing this to myself.

Now - more excitingly - Paper Flowers. My little man and i worked on these this morning while the little miss slept and it was miserable outside (not just wet, but cold too - ridiculous!). They were super easy to make - no instructions necessary!

The ingredients

Action shot

And the result (the bottom 2 are mine!)

The Flowers planted in their garden. I had planned to plant them in the new sandpit - but it was a little bit wet outside!

 Did you get up to anything creative in the rain? Or do you have anything creative planned for the weekend?

Ombre tights

Despite it being all the rage at the moment, I only recently learnt what "ombre" meant (for those that don't know either, it is an adjective that means shaded or graduated in tone), and whilst I would never have the guts to wear these personally, I do love them.

All images via BZR store on etsy

Available from BZR Shop on etsy and ranging from $25-50

Animal Air Head Balloons

These would be great staked around a garden for an animal theamed party - or just cute to have around!

Images from My Sweet Muffin

Apparently the balloons can last for up to a month. Each animal consists of a balloon on a wand, plus pre-cut colour features which are attached with sticky pads and colour stickers for eyes and features. Available from My Sweet Muffin for only $11!

Must Remember.....

I really do need to remind myself of this regularly. It is way too easy to fall into a rutt. This lovely free printable is available over on A Smith of All Trades

Apologies.... and cardboard houses

Firstly - a sincere apology for my prolonged absence from blogging land. I am going to blame this one on the baby who decided to go with the whole 4 month sleep regression stage with gusto. I didn't even know it existed til lo and behold she hit 4 months and stopped sleeping! I have also developed a bit of a sewing addiction which has kept me away from the computer a bit. Anyway - enough about that. She is still not sleeping, and I am still addicted to sewing, but I have too many things I wanted to share. Starting with this gorgeous cardboard house. As soon as my little lady learns to sit I am making one of these!

images via Ambrose Creative

Head over to Ambrose Creative for some more gorgeous photos and a how to

Around the World on the Wall

I am a little obsessed with world maps at the moment, and i would love to have a framed one for the kids to look at and hopefully gain a better knowledge of geography than I have. Some of my favourite finds:

Map of the World by Alex Latimer

Fine Little Day, French illustrator Steffie Broccoli poster "Fine Little World"

Personalised World Map by the lovely Janette of My Sweet Prints

World Paper Wallpaper via Wallpapered.com

I think the first one by Alex Latimer could be the one for me as I think the animals might pique the interest of the kiddlets. What do you think?

Yes please thank you - Rock Art

How amazing is this rock art

 For more photos of this beautiful work by Waii Waii - check out the flikr stream here

Quick Personalised Wrapping Paper

Looking for a quick finishing touch to grandma's mother's day present. Easy - just grab some brown craft paper, some of your childs artwork and some bakers twine and voila. Or if your paper is large enough, or present small enough, you can skip the craft paper and just wrap in the artwork. And why not make a matching card while you are at it.

To Heat or Not To Heat

Image via Purl Soho

With soaring electricity bills now a fact of life I have become one of those people who sits with a hot water bottle on my lap on the couch and a scarf around my neck before I turn on the heater. Have you become one of those people too? But I have questioned my penny pinching when it came to heating the kids room. For whatever reason I intially thought the kids rooms needed to be nice and toasty all night and so we used to have the oil heater on low all night long in my son's room. But then we received a bill (!) and had to re-think. So next we put the oil heater on a timer so that it was toasty when he went to bed, then switched itself one and off a few times during the night to reheat the room. When the next electricity bill came around - it was manageable. But with two kids rooms to now heat I have had to re-eveulate my way of thinking for fear of the next bill. So now I am going down the flannel sheets, lots of blankets and toasty PJ's route and only heating the room for 30 mins before bed time to get it nice and toasty. As long as the kids don't get colds or wake up at 3/4 am (apparently the coldest part of the night) I think this is the way we will go. What do you do at your house and for your kids? (on a side note our bedroom is like a freezer at night as I like fresh air so the window is open and my hubbie can't sleep without a fan on!)

Pottery Week 2 - Coil Pots

Last night i had my second of 9 pottery classes and this week it was Coil Pots. It is a pretty simple concept - all you need is a slab base, then you make long coils and wind your way round, joining them as you go. You can go up, in and out - but I was not quite that adventurous. I think my final product is reminiscent of Pooh Bears Honey Pot. I wasn't quite feeling this way of working with clay but apparently it can be used to form the most amazing shapped pots both super small and super huge.

No idea what i am going to use it for as it is a wierd size. Too big for small objects and too small for big objects. Any suggestions? Next week is glazing - bring on the pretty colours.

On a side note, we were talking in the class about what other classes we would like to see offered. My suggestion was a sewing class for children's clothing. What classes would you like to see your local community centre offer?

To Sleep Or To Play - Tough Call for a Two Year Old

Last month on facebook I posted this:

"Question for all those with kids- once they were in beds they could get out of how did you get them to sleep and not play at nap/ bed time? He is doing my head in!!!"

Well the good news is (touch wood) - we appear to be back to normal and he is usually asleep within 20 minutues of us saying good night. How did we manage this I here you asking? Two things:

1. We went on holidays. Not sure if the change in environment actually made a difference, but the first night we were away (at my parents farm) he went to bed like a dream.

2. Removed all the toys from his room with the exception of the ones he sleeps with. Now that sounds like mean mummy tactics - but he does sleep with a woody doll, buzz doll, soft Lighting McQueen, soft Mater, frog cuddly blanket, and also about 6 hard Cars toys, plus 2 torches, and a Percy torch - so the child is not really without toys, it is just that now he does not have every single toy he owns which inevitable ended up dumped on the floor. Only down side of this is that the lovely ikea shelf / storage set I bought less than 2 months ago now looks like this,

  and the playroom looks like this.

Hopefully as he "matures" we will be able to introduce the toys back into this room

Interestingly enough, just as he got back to normal, I read this article by A Mom with a Lesson Plan (via Modern Parents Messy Kids) about letting your kids decide when they want to go to bed. This is essentially what we have done. We do the nighttime routine of dinner, bath, story and then say good night, but let him play for as long as he wants and he eventally goes to sleep like a dream (touch wood!). I now also do the same for his bed time nap. Sometimes he will end up just playing in his room for 2 hours, othertimes he will have a 2 1/2 hour plus nap. And i have stopped going in every 10 minutes telling him to go to sleep which just ended up annoying the both of us.
Have you got any tips you can share on more peaceful bedtimes? If you want to read about some other bedtime / night time antics by little ones - head over to Amanda's Homely One blog for a bit of a giggle (sorry Amanda!) and to offer her some advice

The Ultimate Hostess Gift - Little of This, Little of That

I am thinking you could combine this

Image and details from Sinnen Rausch)

with this

Image via Laura Parke

to make the ultimate hostess gift. And if you added a little something in the inside bottom of the mug like this

Image and work by Mrs Petterson Pottery (found via Mon Carnet)

 it would be that extra special surprise when the herbs are all gone and they use the mug for tea!

A New Craft to Tackle - Pottery

Last night I had my first pottery classs. The last time I did pottery i was about 8 years old, but it was amazing how quickly it all comes back to you - the cutting of the clay with fishing wire and buttons, making pinch pots.... It is quite a soothing craft and it was nice to be able to pack up at the end of the night, walk out the door and know I will be back next week. So - my efforts for week one.....

A mask

Boob pinch pot (i didn't intentially make a boob - it just turned out that way)

I will do my best to show you what i come up with each week for the next 9 weeks. Have you ever tried your hand at pottery? I can't wait to get to the wheel work in week 3.

My Little Quilting Helper

After the success of my first quilt I am now making a bunny rug quilt with some left over fabric I bought for the embroidery hoops on little ones wall (which reminds me I still need to write that post!). But I couldn't make it without my little "helper"!

Quick Pinspiration Post - Flowers and Beads

Huge flowers anyone?

Image and details over on Mon Carnet

Or how about a DIY painted wooden bead necklace:

Image from Laura Parke

Click on the image caption links to find out the how to's. I am also thinking those beads would be great for garlands or even a mobile.... hmmmm.... now where to find wooden beads. Anyone know?

My First Ever Quilt

This week i finished my first ever quilt, and i must admit I am just a little bit proud and already planning my next one.
It went from this:

to this:

to this:

Small confession - i didn't do the actual quilting myself as i couldn't justify a quilting foot for my machine when i hope to get a new machine mid year - so a quick google search led me to Kim's Quilt's who can quilt your quilts for you - and better yet - she is only 30 mins down the road from me!

I used a few excellent tutorials along the way including Diary of a Quilter and Retro Mummy (who I also bought the charm packs from at a market in sydney). If you ever wanted to make a quilt - charm square quilts are the easiest ever - just start and you will be done in no time.
If you are feeling inspired and want to check out some other creative spaces - head over here