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!

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.

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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!

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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!

Over the Rainbow

She wanted a Wizard of Oz party for her birthday. But we were not too crash hot on a big gathering. Birthday #5 can be big, but the rest can be smallish. So she was given the opportunity to identify a handful of friends and we held a small afternoon tea in the local park.

Even though not many came dressed up, she had her Dorothy dress and that is all that mattered.

The difficulty was actually getting a picture of her, she kept on running away to play on the huge playground.

But we did get a few snaps of her!

I had the most amount of enjoyment with the baking. Making a cake for her on the theme Wizard of Oz. I'm no good at the fondant stuff, so I opted for a smartie rainbow and a meadow of flowers on a vanilla cake with cream and raspberry jam

Outfit Notes:
The blouse and petticoat was from the German Dirndl outfit that I made last year. I popped some light blue Ric Rac on the blouse and I unpicked and sewed up the petticoat so that it was more flouncy. The dress was a simple pinafore style dress with an invisible zip up the back and interfacing in the waste band. the pinafore used about a metre and a half of fabric. The skirt was just a length gathered, no fancy half circles or anything. The top is similar to an apron with straps that crossed over at the back.

Happy Birthday Victoria

I still can't believe that my baby girl turned 4 today.

The last 6 months have been jam packed with learning curves for her and now we are having full intellectual conversations with her. Now she is a little girl and this time next year we will be preparing her for school in 2013.

We picked her up early from Kinder, washed her, dressed her and decided to take a few photo's early knowing that she probably wouldn't be up for it later on in the evening. She has been battling a low grade fever for the last few days and was understandably tired. This is not unusual, we always seem to be sick around her Birthday. Two years ago she ended up at the Royal Children's with dehydration due to a bad case of gastro that we all ended up getting.

She has been wonderful with Nicholas, rarely showing jealousy. She sings to him, gets down on the floor with him and is quick to put a dummy in when he cries. She takes her big sister responsibilities seriously and likes to help at nappy change times.

Victoria is quite crafty and loves to create things and then play with them. Her craft desk is always a work in progress and once when I was doing hand sewing she came up to me and asked me to teach her. So I hope when she gets a bit more dexterous I can teach her to hand stitch and crochet.

And of course she loves to sing and dance. She has wonderful memory recall for songs and wants us to sing to her each night. She is always excited to learn a new song. Her favourite CD's are the Justine Clarke ones at the moment.

For my reference, here are the blog posts for her Third Birthday and Second Birthday.

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.

And the winner is ...

After a jam packed weekend, Victoria and I got around to "drawing" the winner of the book. Yes, I could have done a random number generator thing, but then it wouldn't have been half an hour of excitement for my 3 year old!

So we both printed off all the comments, cut them out and scrunched them up into my hubby's hat.

Victoria mixed all the scrunched up bits of paper together and then .. drumroll ... Heather from A Quilting Mother's Journey in Colorado.  Heather, if you want to email me your mailing address, I'll pop the book in the post for you this week.

Stay tuned in the next few days for another give away for April to celebrate my Birthday Month!

7 weeks on

7 weeks on and somedays it feels like my house is a circus. Tori has a genuine love and affection for her brother, but sometimes it can be smothering. Her rambuncious nature can sometimes result in a crying baby, when of course Mummy wants him to sleep.

At 7 weeks on he is 5.5kg and 59cm. He gained 700 grams in two weeks at his last Maternal Health checkup. He is a good feeder, but doesn't seem to understand the concept of long sleeps during the night.

Maldon Steam Train

We took off bright and early this morning to the Maldon Steam Train to celebrate Sarah's 3rd Birthday.

There was lots of fun for the kiddles ...

The train was going nice and slow with lots of whistles and even conductors!

But it was the biggest kid of all, who had the most amount of fun ...

my Hubby .. who easily took 8Gb of train photo's!

Victorian Goldfields Railway is open during the school holidays. I think next time I might leave the hubby to ride the rails while I make my way through the Maldon antique stores!