Happy Birthday to you, and you, oh and to this little blog too!

We started off on the 23/01 making cupcakes for Laura to take to preschool the next day.

Then on the 24th January Laura turned 5!!!! (please excuse iPhone pic we had issues lol)
She freaked opening up her leapster explorer, and has been playing it quite often ever since!

She was at preschool all day having a blast with all her little friends, when it was time to have the cupcakes, she insisted on passing them out to all the kids! Then after dinner, we had her cake of choice, choc sponge with whipped cream in the middle and on top, and don't forget the strawberries mama!!!

This has become a new tradition, an eating the cake all by myself pic!!

Then... on Friday (11/02) It was Imogene's turn!!  8! how did that happen!!!! Honestly she really did love her presents (as do I! I want one for myself!!) I just missed the happiest face!

Imee requested a fish and chips picnic on the town green, it was a lovely evening, the food was great and the girls had a blast, (and yep I made that quilt, it is my first and honestly that's the most you will see of it, eek!! what a mess it is!)

Imee asked for a pavlova, and who am I to deny a gorgeous girl a bit of pav? Berries and smarties topped this one off, and what an awesome combo that turned out to be, yummmmmmmmy!!

Had to put this pic up too, so lovely <3

Imee had a birthday party the next day, we had 4 girls from school and my besties daughter, they were such a lovely bunch, we had a great time! This cake was a bit of a hit, when I cut it to reveal a rainbow the girls squealed! (I did a 6 colour marble cake) oh and I tricked Imee when it was time to blow the candles out, the are "magic re-lighting) candles, lol it was soooo funny!!

And now this little old blogs turn, the 12th of February marked 2 years!!!
So Thank You to everyone out there that has read, is reading, and will ever read!!
This mummy is going to keep on making for a long time to come!

Fussy, Fussy, Fussy...

Amy of Seven Stitches requested square/rectangle in a square blocks for February in the Australasian Bee.

I love the gorgeous Retro kitchen fabric she sent out for us to use as the focus, very very cool!

I can't wait to see what the girls make for her, I love this style!

I should of posted this last time! Here is my FMF sandwich, yep that's the entire lounge room floor covered, much furniture moving was required to create that much space!

And (not that you can see it that well) here is a pic of my new earrings bought from Early Bird Creations, Skip over and have a look at her Etsy shop, to see the gorgeous and funky stuff she makes! I'm lucky enough to get to see her beautiful jewellery regularly at my local Artist Markets. Oh and I've just found her on Facebook too. No connections, Just a very happy, repeat customer!

A Bee Block and a Back.

A bubble block for Ange, Australasian Bee.

And the back for my flea market fancy quilt, I wanted it to be reversible and I'm pretty sure Ive achieved that, The fabrics are all from the Flora and Fauna Range by Patty Young, The binding will also be from the same range, ta dot in ebony. The quilt is sandwiched, thanks to my wonderful husband Mark, who helped me, this one is rather large at 90" square, and it took 1.5 hours to pin baste it, I dread to think what state my back would be in if I had of done it all by myself!!

Not much else happening here, The big girls have gone back to school, Charlotte is in year 4, in a 4/5/6 enrichment class, with a very fantastic teacher who we have known for a very long time. And Imogene is now in year 3, in a 3/4 with a new teacher to the school, who seems to be absolutely lovely! Laura has settled back into her 2 days of preschool, and has already brought half the sandpit home with her!! Miss Jocie is at home with me again this year, and I'm looking forward to some fun days together. I'm in the process of filling out enrollment/application forms for a diploma in architectural technology, so it should be quite the year for education!

I've been a wee bit busy......

Firstly, We cleaned our room...... That sounds like a fairly normal, regular type thing to do, yes?
Well no actually, our room is was the last room in the house to get cleaned/tidied, and it was a pig sty.
I'm determined not to let it get like that ever, ever again! I like it clean, and tidy, though to be honest it looked as boring as, well you get the idea.......

How better to make a room look amazing then to add that hand made touch? And what's a better hand made touch then a flea market fancy quilt?  So I took the layer cake and the charm pack (that I purchased an entire year ago!!), added in some beautiful Kona solids (tomato, medium pink, school bus, corn yellow, lime, robins egg, peacock, medium grey and coal) and did an alternating, checkerboard sort of pattern, but totally random, there are clumps and diagonal stripes here and there but I love it! And at a whopping 90" square it covers our queen sized bed quite nicely!

I decided I wanted this one to be reversible, don't worry I will show off the back once it's made, I'm just waiting for the fabric to arrive!!

I also whipped up this lovely heart garland, while watching a movie the other night (Pretty in Pink!) You can find the pattern Here.



Next up are some bee blocks for December/ January for Lizzie.



Bliss with Kona Ivory.



and Eden with white quilters muslin. These where fun to make, and Lizzie went super easy on us, with all the fabric pre-cut, so super quick too!



And here is a huge, massive Thank You, to the wonderful, amazing, talented and generous Jo, of Sparkly Green Knickers. I won a giveaway a little while ago, and as happens, completely forgot about it! So this prize was extra exciting! I love the cushion cover, it fits in perfectly with the rest of mine in my lounge where bright and colourful is king! And when I saw those fabrics.... I screamed!! Mark looked at me like I had 2 heads lol!! but come on, Flea Market Fancy... wouldn't you scream too?? And that adorable Umbrella fabric? Well clearly its gorgeous, but you should see the selvage, instead of dots, they are sweet little bows <3

Now stop reading my boring, look at me, post and get your clicking finger over to Make it Perfect, and have a look at all the auctions and raffles, all the funds raised are going to the QLD Flood Relief, You can also donate directly or donate to the Victorian Flood appeal Here.

Handmade Christmas round up!

There's always one!

This is one of those, crazy, picture heavy, epic posts, enjoy!

Charlotte in her Insa Skirt (from sewing clothes kids love) It took me several go's around the local shops to find a top to go with her skirt, I found this "twofer" on my last attempt before making one!



I don't know if you can see it, but right around the hem of the top layer is a pleated ruffly bit, and of course around the bottom hem is the red ribbon, I was feeling pretty blah about this skirt until the ribbon was attached, it really set it off.



Imogene's dress turned out so well, and it fits her perfectly too!



Those ruffles broke me! None of the other girls have real ruffles only pleaty things lol!!
I already blogged this dress all the way back here.



Miss Laura got a Feliz as well, this super bright poppy fabric fits her personality to a tee!



I kept the back of her dress plain, and with the stripes I'm really glad I did!



And here is Miss Jocie, singing to the ocean!! Another Insa skirt, and a T-shirt from Target appliqued with a "Bambi", She looks like a little doll in this outfit! (and wowser!! check out her hair!! Honestly I will have to post a photo of it out, there is so much of it and its so long!)



Next up, a "Pup tent / Ground cloth" from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross, There hasn't been much chance to play in this yet, the weather has been bizarre to say the least! I also made one for my little sister, and this one was a joint gift for the kidlets.



I also made 6 sets of ribbon rings, using some old curtain rings from the oppy that Mark painted for me, and metres upon metres of ribbon! A pair each for my girls, a pair for my sister and a pair for my besties daughter.



Laura and Jocelyn each got a set of 5 little bean bags, we've had some interesting balancing acts already! Charlotte and Imogene each received a set of 60, 5" squares of Nicey Jane fabrics, they have already sorted out the layout they want, next step sew them together!



And last but certainly not least, A fabric crown each to match each outfit! These were a huge hit and really simple they close at the back with Velcro, and have a layer of heavy duty woven interfacing, the letters were appliqued using that steam a seam stuff, and a single line of machine stitching through each letter, the circles were pinked and then just pinned and sewn.

So, they say that getting Tattoos is addictive........

I think they were right! (for me at least!)

It took me months to decide what to do about Abi's feet, they needed more, but I wasn't sure what, I didn't want to get her name, not sure why, just didn't really want to. My bestie, suggested I get something from the poem, and as soon as I read that line again, "I am the soft starlight at night." I knew that was it! 

Hello 2011!!

(Quilts of 2010!, 5 completed this year!)

Wow!! 2010 sure did fly on by! November and December went so fast it wasn't funny!
So while I'm waiting to get a couple more pics for my Christmas round up post (hopefully tomorrow!) I thought I'd do a 2010 into 2011 post :)

The Good: 

Our "Staycation" in January, we did a lot of fun things with the kids that week, and during one of our day trips I found some FMF! We also did an overnight to our nearest city, on a whim which was fun, as well as our Winter Holiday to Victoria, which was down right super dooper awesome!! 

Jocelyn finally started talking, now she talks our ears off! and according to Laura's speech therapist, she is quite advanced for her age! Speaking of speech, Laura's dyspraxia has improved greatly and we are expecting to be finished with speech some time in the next couple of months.

Imogene has found her feet, and has begun to read chapter books, and continues to amaze me with gorgeous new pictures she has drawn!

Charlotte has had a wonderful year academically, and has been invited to join the enrichment class at school, which means she will have the same teacher for the next 3 years, and will have more opportunities to work at a higher level, yep shes a smart little cookie!!

Both the older girls changed schools mid term four due to ongoing bullying and (lack of) friendship issues. They are so much happier now, and have already made friends!

Mark has been getting back into playing his bass guitar, having weekly jam sessions with his best mate, and any drummer they can rope in.

And me? well I was UN-diagnosed with bi-polar, yeah..... thank goodness those 3 years of my life are over, generalised cycling type depression is way easier to deal with (for me at least!).

The Bad:

I must admit the overall sense of last year was that of a bad year. Nothing too drastic just a few annoying stresses, like the time I ducked out to spotlight for thread, and the door on my old van fell off.... yes fell off! did I mention this was one week before we were taking a 2 week driving holiday to Victoria? hmmmpphhh Oh well I do like my new (used) car a lot more!

Then the 6 mths that the Dr's had put me on some hardcore meds that made me sleep.... all the time. Oh oh oh and while we were away getting calls from mediation as my ex was chucking a wobbly that was fun, NOT!

And yeah gaining more weight, (partly due to above meds) that sucked too, at the worst point I was 1 BMI point off Obese, that scared the living daylights out of me, and I'm 4kgs lighter then that now, still have 6 kgs to get back to what I was this time last year, and 19 kgs to be my perfect healthy happy weight *sigh* I'm not used to having weight problems :(

The Ugly:

Only 2 things stand out as being this bad: The week of solid Gastro, yep no more needs to be said about that!

and most recently, My darling girl being forced to suffer through the separation of her bio father and step mother over Christmas, doubly worse was that it was his year to have her, so she was witness to the whole fiasco, Her Christmas day was spent with people that she didn't even know (except bio father).

So that's that then, on reflection it doesn't seem so bad, there was a whole lot more good than bad.

As far as resolutions go, (seeing how last years totally bombed) only 2 for me this year:

Learn to be happy within myself.

Finish 4 quilts.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2011 is full of love and Joy, and sewing!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Lights off.

Lights on!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Dear Jocie......

Happy 2nd Birthday to you!!!! (for the 9th)

You've got to love those first thing in the morning, still in your pj's surrounded by your birthday presents photos! Little Miss Jocie, adored all her mummy made presents, especially her ruby doll!

And her Daddy made cradle has been an absolute hit!!

Here she is wearing her mummy made dress, holding ruby, and a super cute hand knitted 'hello kitty' made by her Great Nan, I suppose birthday photos with Christmas trees in them are just part of having a December birthday, adds to the excitement I think!

We finished off a very busy day with a super yummy Choc mousse cake!

Shes pretty awesome my littlest girl, cute, sweet, funny, (and compared to miss Laura, impeccably behaved!).

So there we go, that's it the end of the baby days in our house, I'm so unbelievably sad about that, yet also deliriously happy at the same time. 

Sorry that post's are still few and far between, I'm crazy busy finishing all the Christmas sewing!! I'm not sure if I'll get to fit another post in before the big day, so if not, take care and have fun in the lead up.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Want to grab a bargain?

Blue Carnival, was $55, Now $44!

Denim and Lime Phone pouch, was $22, now $17.60!!

Denim and Lime Camera Wristlet, Was $28, Now $22.40!!

20% OFF until sold!!

(Sorry for my absence lately, from here, from replying to comments and from commenting on your blogs, I should be back to my normal self soon, I even got some sewing done on the weekend!)