Plummeting towards her eighth birthday

My husband reminded me this morning that it was three months until my daughters 8th birthday.

Where does the time go?

I took these pictures on our last school holiday family trip to central Australia.

I am constantly amazed at how fast she is growing up and how her mind is developing. She has amazing ideas about how the world operates and she isn't afraid to ask the questions.

She has recently discovered Doctor Who and is devouring the complexity of the episodes and back stories to the Doctor and the aliens that he comes across.

Happy Halloween!

.. and Happy Blogtoberfest!

I hope that you had a great time catching up with everyones blogs. It was interesting to see who achieved 31/31 and who fell off the wagon towards the end (including yours truely!).

But fear not, as we are approaching Christmas there are so many crafty opportunities out there. Take care!

Tori's Witches Costume is courtesy of an old work shirt of my husbands and a bit of purple Ric Rac!

Toys for the Doctors kit

I managed to score some toys for Tori's doctors kit. It has a variety of plastic and realistic props from years of doctors and hospital visits.

The next thing that I have to do is re-vamp her doctors kid.

I love these cases from Lark Handmade, lovely red case with a white cross on it. Or perhaps I should have another crack at a Nicole Mallalieu bag. What do you think? Do you have any ideas for a medicine bag?

Kicking back during the school break

We managed to steal a few days away during the non-teaching period. It was wonderful spending time with no expectations on my time. Now we start Term 4, the business term.

Talk like a Pirate Day

It's "Talk like a Pirate Day, and Tori is off to Kinder dressed to the hilt in a costume that has nothing handmade on it except for a cardboard Scimitar Sword that my hubby made last night.

If only I was more organised (and less tired) I would have probably have made the day more eventful!

A wooden weathered sign by pattisprimitives

Some lovely stamps by Enchanting Stamps for craft projects

Ahh the opportunities! Have a great "Talk like a Pirate Day!"

A perfect day for flying a kite

The weather was gorgeous today and the sun lured us out of the house into the backyard for some overdue Vitamin D recharging. The girls wanted to fly a kite, but the only one that we had was a double string super-dooper kite that required a bit more hand eye co-ordination than two four year olds could handle. 

So we grabbed some plastic bags, drew some pictures on them and tied them to string. A perfect solution for two kids with too much energy.

Today was the first day that I have been out of the house in close to two weeks. I came down with a horrible cough about three weeks ago, but little did I know that the pain medication that I was on for my broken foot interfered with and made the cough ten times worse.

A chest X-ray, some high grade anti-biotic and a wonderful steroid inhaler and I am feeling remotely human again. I have had a week and a half off work, the longest I have ever taken. I literally couldn't function, or breath, the diagnosis was severe Bronchitis. I still have "crackling" on my lungs, so I will be on medication for another two or three weeks.

Nine Patch Quilted Cushion and Bunting.

Ahh Easter Weekend, time to spend with family and friends and perhaps finish a few of my one thousand projects! Lovely Leanne hosts the blog, one thousand projects and I can definitely relate. I might not have 1000 projects kicking around, but ask my hubby and he will tell you that I probably have too many for my own good!

I knocked over another UFO, cushion for daughter and bunting from left overs. This project was finished before the "sarah" project, I've just posted them in reverse order!

When I started to decorate my daughters bedroom last year I wanted to make her as much handmade stuff for her room as possible. I started patching this pillow and then changed my mind about the type of sashing. I unpicked and then used the lovely Kokka linen that I found at GJ's in East Brunswick.

I quilted it with a layer of cotton batting, using calico as the backing fabric. Then I did some simple stitching around the outside of the nine patch using Perle. I used 4 different fat quarters for this plus 1/2 a meter of linen.

The cushion is made to fit a 50cm Ikea feather cushion insert.

But what about the offcuts? Well, I decided to make her some matching bunting for her bedroom wall.

In hindsight, I would swap around the bunting so that every second one is linen. I could even over-engineer it and do a matching linen love heart on every flag, but it is up on her wall now and looking lovely.

Another project done and dusted .. oh did I tell you that I am moving house on the weekend ... best pack a few boxes in between finishing those projects!

On a memory card

Working through an old memory card, I came across this one!

My daughter is quite expressive and it is wonderful to capture something like this that I can use against her on her 21st ... it would have been such a lovely photo with Nanna if she was smiling!

Heh! I have no idea where she gets it from ...

I should clean my memory card more often ... things like this get done when you have an essay to complete!

Happy Birthday Nicholas

The 18th of February flew past at a rapid rate in our household. I ended up with Gastro, then Nicholas had a ruptured eardrum and then I ended up going over on my ankle at work. I think that we have had all of our 2012 health bad luck in one month! Blogging and Konstant Kaos have both taken a hit with me returning to work as well. On top of all this, we are moving house in 5 weeks ... yep, we live life to the fullest!

So I am only now getting around to posting pictures of Nicholas' First Birthday.

The fist is in the mouth because we have tooth number 9 coming through. His first two teeth fought through at 4 months and for the last 8 months it feels like he has been constantly teething.

Even though it was Nicholas' Birthday, Victoria felt that it was her duty as a big sister to help him blow out the candle. We struggled to get a picture with him and the cake because it was a "big sisters duty" to help.

After the cake was demolished he was rather happy with himself. Tremendous amounts of fun and lots of mess for Mummy and Daddy to clean up.

Mummy and Nicholas looking quite tired.

At 1 year he was 78.5cm and 10.775 kg. He is well into size 1's and is mostly wearing 18month and 2 year clothes (compared with Tori who at 4 1/2 is still wearing a size 2 skirt ...).

Such a different baby to Victoria. With Nicholas we battled through 12 months of breastfeeding. He is a lazy feeder and baby who suffered lots of respiratory problems early on in life. Since our stint at Mitcham Private Mother Baby Unit, he has been a happier baby (and a happier Mummy).

He is cruising and trying to stand by himself. We have had a few steps away from furniture, but mostly towards someone. He finds pegs fascinating and loves to hide things under the rugs and then go back for them. He is a relaxed, laid back little boy who has adjusted to childcare as if he was born into it (for that I am blessed). We are babbling and every so often we hear Dadda and Mamma, although not with much intention.

I'm looking forward to the move and getting back my sewing "happy" space. Crafting is mostly limited to playing around with Jewelry at the moment due to space restrictions. My creative space at the moment is developing curriculum for my Year 7 and Year 11 classes!

Next Birthday will be my 40th in 5 weeks time *gulp*

Through the eyes of a four year old

My daughter has claimed my old battered digital camera and spends lots of time taking pictures of odd things. But every once in a while she takes some gorgeous (in focus) shots of Nicholas.

On the change table, the picture previous to this one was a close up of the inside of Nicholas' nappy ...

In the high chair.

Then mummy had to grab the camera and take a picture of the both of them. It is true what they say that you take less pictures of the second born. Not because you don't want to, but because you are so bloody busy running after the first born!

Playing with Goo

The theme for Camera Club this month is "Fluid in Motion", so we took the opportunity to play with Goo this morning. When you leave it, it hardens, but when you pay with it, it goes liquidy. My hubby could tell you scientific name for it, for us it was just fun!

Ingredients

1 packet of cornflour
1 cup of warm water
Food Colouring

Instructions

Add water with a few drops of food colouring slowly while mixing to get the consistency needed. The water doesn't have to be warm, it is just easier on your hands! If the goo dries out, add more water! For something different, you can make it white and then experiment with food colouring.

---

Thank-you to the emails about Nicholas and his sleep (or lack of), last night was another shocker with him waking every 45mins or so. Sleep School can't happen fast enough for me!

---
Why don't you join us for Blogtobergest? It's not too late to join, head over to Tinniegirl and sign up and start blogging. What? You don't have a blog? Then sign up!

Tori discovers Photo Booth

A while back we got ourselves a brand new spanky iMac. Initially it was for my hubby to do Photoshop on, but since then he has discovered World of Tanks and it has therefore become my study Mac for Uni given I can't get near the PC.

We are a mixed family, with both PC's and Mac's and I see the merit in using and being familiar with as many operating systems as possible. Not just because my background is in ICT in schools, but because each OS has it's own strengths and weaknesses. I believe that students need to be familiar with both environments as it allows them to be more flexible when they get out into the workforce. After all, we don't just teach students to write with pencils, they learn with a variety of tools and they learn the strengths and weaknesses of each one.

Anyway, I digress ... Tori and I were playing on the Mac this afternoon and she discovered Photo Booth. Here is a selection of what she created ...

Look Mum! It's me on the screen!



What if I make a funny face?



And another ..



If I close my eyes will it still work?



Oh look, special effects!



I'm a ghost!



We are all underwater!

Long Weekends

Long weekends are for sleep in's and watching TV in your Jimmy Jams ...

Hugs from big sisters on the couch while watching Playschool ...

Or kicking back and having some fun .. who is that gorgeous boy in my mirror?

What are you upto on your Long Weekend?

Farewell Autumn

Can't believe it is June already, almost half way through the year ...

Tori is enjoying the show that mother nature is putting on at the moment. Collecting leaves and playing with them along with glue and paint.

Melbourne Aquarium

We found ourselves at the Melbourne Aquarium on Sunday to celebrate the third birthday of a friend. Victoria had been waddling like a penguin all morning ...

Tori and her friend with their "dolphin bouncy balls" ...

Afterwards we had cake near Enterprize Park and then Tori and her friend ran around like lunatics ...

Nicholas enjoyed the crisp autumn air, he has his three month Maternal Health Nurse check this week.

When we got home and did the bedtime routine, I had to sing many verses of "Old MacDonald".

Old MacDonald had an Aquarium, e-i e-i oh
And in that Aquarium, she had some penguins, e-i e-i oh
With a waddle, waddle here and a waddle waddle there ....

.. you get the picture!

More fairy shots of Tori

A friend, Kerri, took my hubby's camera for a test run the other night. We dressed Tori back up in her fairy gear (no argument there!) and Kerri snapped away.

I think that the fairy costume looks even better with a black top, rather than the pink one that she had on at the fairy party.

We were rather chuffed by the results, Kerri is a talented lady!

I am hoping to get into my sewing room today to finish off some bags for a custom order. Pictures soon!

Fairy Party

Never one to dodge the opportunity to get crafty ..

armed with some coathangers, a roll of gaffa tape, some elastic and lots of glitter tuille ...

we made an outfit for Tori to wear to a 4th Birthday Party today.

Mother's Day

I loved the way that my daughter told me what was in my present as she handed it to me. The smiles from my little boy who is becoming more aware of the world around him. My husband for giving me some time to myself and the laughs shared with the grandmothers to whom I am indebted for the way they support, encourage and nurture my role as mother in my own family.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Mother's Day last weekend.

Another Butterfly ...

Flipping through some of my iPhone pictures .. this one was taken at the recent "Black Market".

Victoria was so excited to see that there was a face painter there, and was even more excited when she saw her butterfly face. Some days I can't believe that she is almost 4 years old.

Easter Sunday

I love the innocence in their eyes as they discover that the Easter bunny has been ...

I love that belief in magic as they tell you that they saw the bunny hop away down the street ...

This will only last a few years and then they will have to try and understand the true meaning of Easter.

May you have many special moments with your families this Easter.