I've got so much to catch up on. I really should get into blogging more regularly but I can't find the motivation or inspiration. So, here I am with LOTS of photos. Lots has been going on here. Sewing, landscaping, bargain hunting and lots more but this is all I have time to share at the moment...
The 'Lily' Dress(es). I love this pattern so much. I've made about 7 of them already and 4 of them reside in Emily's wardrobe! Below are 2 that I made for Emily. I liked the blue fabric but she liked the pink so I had to give them both to her LOL!
This one is a present I made for a daycare friend for her birthday. Unfortunately the presents weren't opened at the party so I've no idea what the reaction to it was. Emily did get a thank you card a week later thanking her for the dress and pencil roll set so that is something at least. I absolutely LOVE this fabric. I would like to make one for Emily but really, how many dresses does one girl need??
Here is a brand new sewing table that I found at KMart (not a 'Horn' cabinet but it'll do the job). It was on the 'throw out' table for $30! All that was wrong was the box was damaged on the corner. When we got it home and set up there was nothing wrong with it at all. So, sewing table in fantastic condition for $30! Mind you, I don't actually use it as a sewing table at the moment. I have a sewing area all set up in my family room. I have a large solid wood table (family heirloom, was my Grandmother's. I remember when I was little they, my Grandparents, would have their friends over and they would play bridge and other card games. I remember the sounds and the smell like it was yesterday.. but I digress...) and I have shelving and cupboards next to it so I don't use the new sewing table as a 'sewing table'. Maybe a craft/scrapbooking table?? Not too sure. At the moment it has my Nativety Scene set up on it!
Landscaping. It's very hard work! It's even harder when you are trying to deal with storms and flooding (which seems to be a regular thing up here on the Gold Coast these days). It started out with us digging up the rocks around the poolside. There were weeds and grass and roots growing out of the rocks and it was just getting far too hard trying to control them. We decided to just dig out all the rock, place some ag pipe down and then wash the rocks and put them back where we dug them out from. Sounds easy? Well, we started digging. Hmmm, this is a lot harder than we thought! The rocks were all matted down with weeds and roots. DH had to dig down so far and then lift them all out. That took a full day and we still weren't finished. Of course, that evening we got a massive storm. You can see in the photo below that the water pooled up like a moat around the pool (and also all under our patio up to the house!). So now we had a lovely muddy water feature beside the pool!
Anyway, we get the ag pipe down and we start to wash the mud/clay etc off the rocks. Well, that's not going to happen in a hurry! We admitted defeat and decided to go and get some new rock to replace it. With limited time (and money!) we found some new rock and organised delivery and got started right away (there was limited time where we could both be working out there as we could only do it when Emily was at daycare and that is only 2 days a week). I didn't want DH to be doing it all himself so we were trying to get as much done while she was at daycare. After a few hours I went to get Emily and came back to find DH asking me where I wanted the leftover rock. I thought he meant did I want him to put it in a bucket or something but no, for some reason we WAY overestimated and we had so much left over that we were able to finish off the WHOLE garden bed! I was so happy because the garden was so drab and boring.. Now it looks fresh and lovely.
There are a few plants that need to grow and get more established but I'm so happy with how it looks and I can see the potential. It's nice to be able to look out my back doors and be faced with a lovely garden instead of what we had before!
My favourite frangipani at the moment. There are 6(or is it 7?) different species in the garden at the moment. I can't wait until they get bigger!
Another Lily dress. This time in a Christmas fabric. I had originally made this for 'Breakfast with Santa' at the shopping centre and I was going to get some different fabric to make for her 'Santa photo' and her Christmas Day dress but after I had finished it I realised how much I liked it. I just used stuff that I had in my stash so I wasn't sure how it would all work out.
Don't you just love the poses?
My beautiful girl...
This is what you get when you grow up and throw your dummies in the bin (only had them for bed at night). A new glow teddy. I wasn't ready to get rid of them. One day I noticed a hole in one of them and I showed her and she said, "We'll have to throw them in the bin". I asked her if she would throw them in the bin and then have no more dummies. She was a bit hesitant but she threw them in the bin herself. I wanted her to see them gone so she knew there were no more dummies at all. I could see she was a bit torn about the whole situation so we took her out to the shops to choose a toy (or 2!) so she would have something to cuddle at night instead of her dummies. She chose an Iggle Piggle and an Upsy Daisy even though she is not really interested in 'In the night garden'. When she went to bed she asked for her dummies but we told her that they were gone now because there was a hole in it and the germs would get in and now she has lovely new toys to cuddle. She took about an hour and a half to settle (usually goes off to sleep within 10-15mins) but she didn't cry. She just talked to herself (and her toys). The next day we told her that because she slept a whole night without her dummies she would get a 'special' present. That is how 'Glowy' came to live with us. Now she doesn't even ask for the dummies and has gone back to settling reasonably quickly. It was easier than I thought it would be!
Mummy brag time. One day we asked Emily to write down the numbers 1-10. Well, she went further than that and wrote 1-12! All without assistance. I was blown away. She is not yet 4years old. She can recognise and write her own name. She can spell and write 'Mum' and 'Dad'. She can even understand and recognise words that we spell out when we're talking about things that we don't want her to hear (like 'iceblock') LOL! I'm so very proud of my little girl although it just makes me realise that she is growing up and is not a baby anymore...
Onto some more sewing news. I have wanted to make a quilt for ages but I've been to scared and I've always found it a little too daunting. But, I mustered up the courage and found a little bit of motivation and got started. I had no pattern as such I just grabbed a whole heap of fabric out of my stash and started chopping. I wanted to use up some of my fabric that I already had so I called it my stash buster quilt. I have to say that a quality rotary cutter and an extra large cutting mat makes this job much more enjoyable. I took the advise of some lovely girls in my sewing group and headed for Spotlight with my list. I ended up just getting some flannelette for the batting and some fabric on the clearance table. It ended up being a reasonably cheap quilt and just the right weight for the climate that we have here. I'm going to make a matching pillow case too. My first attempts at quilting were not too shabby. It helped that I have a walking foot and a nice sturdy machine too.
Here it is all finished (minus a label but I have to figure out that part!). the backing looks red but it is actually a nice watermelon colour. I didn't 'bind' it as such, I just brought the backing over to the front and stitched that to make a border.
So, there you go. Congratulations if you have managed to read through this entire novel. There is still heaps that I haven't blogged about but there is just so much going on between now and Christmas. Emily's 4th birthday is in a few weeks which means a party must be had. I admitted defeat on that one too and opted for a McDonalds party. Not something that I would usually do but there is just no time and we just don't have the space here for lots of kids running around. I'm sure she will have a great time anyway..
The kids finish school in 2 weeks so I'm going to attempt to get them into their rooms for a major pre-Christmas clean out. Hmmm... cleaning out 2 teenage boys bedrooms... What have I gotten myself into?? If I am not back out of there within a week, call for reinforcements LOL!!!
