Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Advent Calendar

So I bought the Advent Calendar from my local KaiserCraft outlet before the start of December and I have only just managed to get it finished. We get a few days use out of it at least! I bought a little wooden Santa card holder and I am going to use it to hold a Christmas photo in every year. I think I will take the base and the spring off the santa so that it fits better inside the box.


Photobucket

Christmas Nappy is in use!

Well the newborn nappies I made for my scrumptious baby boy have been packed away and out have come the small size! My gorgeous son is 6weeks old now and he's been in the small nappies for the past two weeks, since he hit approx 4.5kg. Excellent timing as with Christmas only a few days away it means he fits into the one and only Christmas nappy I made for him, awesome!



Photobucket

Sunday, December 12, 2010

A Christmas Wreath

I was in my local Kaiser Craft outlet recently and came across these Star Wreaths. I thought it would look great and my older boys bedroom door.

I covered each star with various Christmas themed paper, tied some green and red ribbon on for some bows, glued it all together and project finished!


Photobucket

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Secret Santa again!

I was part of the Secret Santa on a parenting forum I am a member of. My recipient liked hand made things and the colours blue and light purple, among other things. I opted to make a photo album using one of Kaiser Craft's Beyond The Page albums. I was really happy with the result. I also added some scented sachets to the gift.







Photobucket

Secret Santa!


One secret santa I participated in was with some lovely mums and a dad all of which had babies due in November! I knew that my recipient liked reading and cooking (particularly curries) so I put together a cook book, some spices and a wooden spoon. I decided to add in something else special for her gorgeous newborn daughter, so created a Beyond The Page photo album. using a Kaiser Craft "baby" album. I made it so that there was space to add some small photos but also so that it doesn't have to have photos added to it. I posted my secret santa gifts off last week, my recipient has received them and loves them which I am really pleased about :)







Photobucket

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Christmas is fast approaching!

We are now into December and it wont be long until Christmas is here! I love love love Christmas time, plenty of festivities with family & friends!

I participated in two secret santa's this year and posted off their gifts today. I hope both my recipients like their gifts. And I can't wait for the postman to deliver my surprise packages too!

I always like to put the Christmas tree up on the 1st Dec however we were so busy yesterday and today that it is still sitting in it's box in the roof. The next few days are just as busy but hopefully we will have our Christmas tree up by the end of the weekend.

Photobucket

MCN gift


I have sent one of the small nappies I made to a lovely friend of mine who has also recently had a little girl. I hope that it fits her gorgeous daughter well. I also sent with it a matching ribbon blankie.



Photobucket

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Our baby is here!!!

Our 3rd baby boy was born only a few days ago on the 10th Nov. He was 3 days overdue and after being induced he was born after a speedy 46min labour! He is of course absolutely gorgeous, very much like our eldest two boys.

This is one of my fav pics taken when he was only a few minutes old.


Our two oldest boys having their first kisses and cuddles with their baby brother. Adorable.


This is another of my fav pics so far :)


AI2 newborn nappy with PUL print fabric from Nappies Covered.


Fitted newborn nappy, outer layer is a very cute teddy bear flannelette print. Then an elephant walk PUL cover over the fitted nappy.


I am pretty pleased that the newborn nappies I made for him actually do fit, and fit well :)

Photobucket

Friday, October 29, 2010

Babies Nappy Stash Finished!!

With just over a week till my due date, I have finally finished off the newborn and small nappy stash for this bubba!

This is the newborn stash - 16 x fitted nappies, plus 1 x AI2. They are tiny, so I am sure they will only last a few weeks!



Newborn covers. I am not 100% happy with them as I am not too great at sewing FOE but they will do. They look great from a distance but the zig zag stitching is a bit dodgy close up!



A comparison of a newborn & small AI2. The outer is a gorgeous PUL cotton print from, the inner is lined with suedecloth (both fabrics from Nappies Covered) and it has both a sewn in hidden bamboo booster and a snap in bamboo booster. I love this print and they would have to be my fav nappies so far!



This is the small stash - 21 x fitteds plus 1 x AI2. I made a couple of covers as well but haven't taken a pic yet.



I thought I would try and make a Christmas nappy as I had some red fleece that has been sitting in my cupboard for a while. It's an AI2, has a hidden layer of PUL, an inner of suedecloth, sewing in hidden bamboo booster and a snap in bamboo booster also topped with suedecloth. The Christmas tree on the back of the nappy is an iron on patch from Spotlight, though I have sewn it on to ensure that it stays in place! I was really happy with how this nappy turned out!



Photobucket

Friday, September 17, 2010

Indiana dress up outfit complete!



As it was our oldest son's 6th birthday yesterday he got the finishing touch for his Indiana dress up - a hat! He was thrilled. You can see in the pick the Indiana bag I ended up making for him too, it has an adjustable length strap.

Photobucket

Saturday, September 11, 2010

6th Birthday Party!

Our eldest son is turning 6yo during the week and today was his grand birthday party at a local Gymnastics Centre. He had a joint birthday party with one of his school friends who is also turning 6yo during the week, so there was a birthday girl and a birthday boy in the spotlight! The party was for 2hrs, the first hour was of fun on all of the different gym equipment, then a half hour break for food, then the last half hour on the BIG trampoline! We had to cater ourselves but as it was in the late afternoon we kept it very simple with fairy bread, chips, pre ordered pizza delivery for dinner, frog in a pond and birthday cake! All the kids had an awesome time and it's definitely a place I could recommend for a party!

Both birthday children were having their own special cake for the party. Our son had initially asked if I could make him a birthday cake of a rectangle with his toy dinosaurs on top, which then became a more elaborate request to include a volcano! I was very happy with the end result and most importantly our son loved it.




To make his birthday cake, I made two vanilla cakes, one in a square cake tin, which I used as the base of the cake. The second cake I baked in a Pyrex mixing bowl so I could get some height and slope for the volcano. I cut the second cake into the shape for the volcano and then placed that on top of the square cake toward the back, scooping out a little off the top of the volcano. Chocolate icing with rice bubbles mixed through gave the texture for the volcanic mountain. The lava was created from red & orange sparkling cake decorating gel purchased from Spotlight. I iced the remainder of the cake, as well as most of the exposed cake board with green icing for grass. I left a small area for the lake, which was made of blue icing surround be chocolate rocks that I purchased from the Nut Shack. I placed 3 Schleich dinosaurs on the cake, and sprinkled some more chocolate rocks on the cake at the base of the volcano. I randomly placed tress and small plastic dinosaurs on the green icing on the cake board, as well as more chocolate rocks and some crushed up Cadbury Flake. The writing was done using the same sparkling red gel that I used for the lava. There was just enough room for 6 candles at the front right of the cake, in front of the Triceratops, and I also stuck some sparklers into the centre of the volcano for further effect!

Photobucket

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

More Nappy Creations.

I have finally finished off the newborn nappies yay! Only 8 and a half weeks to go before I can try them out on our newborn! I have made 12 all up now, and I have even started on some small nappies too, just need to work out what size booster to put in the small nappies as I am not too sure. The outer fabric is either flannelette or cotton print, all from Spotlight. The Inner stay dry layer is suedecloth from Nappies Covered. The bamboo boosters are made from bamboo fleece from Snaps Australia, which is also where I purchased the snaps from.

Here are my finished newborn MCN's.

And the first of the 3 small nappies I have made, compared to the newborn ones for size.

Photobucket

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Indiana Vest take 2

The vest was a success and my son even took it to school for show and tell! He tells me that it's not a cowboy vest in reverse though, it is a Woody from Toy Story vest!

So yesterday I managed to make another vest for my youngest son, and I can't believe that I started and finished it in one day!! I changed the cuddlefleece to flannelette cowprint instead which made it a lot easier to sew. Now both boys want an Indy bag, so that is the next sewing project for me to whip up. I have never made a bag in my life so here's hoping I can make something up that will look half decent!

Here is a pic of the 2nd vest and my kids playing in their vests this morning, I thought the 2nd vest was going to turn out a bit bigger but it's a great fit on my little man. My guess is that it's about a size 3. They both worn them for most of the day today, even out to the shopping centre!


Photobucket

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Reversible play vest

It's coming up to my eldest son's 6th birthday and I thought I could make him an "Indiana Jones" dress up vest. Now I have never sewn much in the way of clothing - a dress in high school and an apron for each of my boys and that's about it! So I thought this would be a good challenge but also not too over the top and difficult. I didn't have a pattern so I just made one up, it is about a size 6.

I purchased some brown corduroy to make the vest out of, but then I had a thought that I could make a reversible vest, one side being cord for "Indiana" and the other side being a cow print for a "Cow Boy" vest, as I had some cow print cuddlefleece already. I used snaps for the closure at the front and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. My son has already seen it partly finished and he has been pretty impressed so far so that's a good sign! I finished it tonight after he went to bed so he will be excited in the morning, an early b'day pressie for him how lucky!. He has told me that I will need to make him Indiana's bag to go with it though, so will wait and see what happens. I picked up a brown hat in a toy store last week so I will give him that to go with the vest but he can wait till his actual b'day for that one!




Now I will just have to make another one for my youngest son!

Photobucket

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Newborn nappies & Ribbon blankee

So I ended up buying a new overlocker to replace my mum's, as the motor had died *sigh* which is apparently not very common for a Janome overlocker! I could have had it repaired but as it was not much more to buy a new one I decided to just replace it.

After a few tests at sewing a newborn fitted nappy with snaps, I have finally tweaked my pattern to one I'm happy with. I have made a few testers that are now having good use on my boy's teddy bears, and I also made a PUL cover with fold over elastic which turned out much better than I anticipated as my last attempt at sewing a cover with FOE was not that great!


The fitted nappies have a flannel outer and suedecloth inner. The flannel is from Spotlight and the suedcloth from Nappies Covered. I love the suedecloth for it's trimness. I have sewn a two layer bamboo booster into the inner of the nappy and I will add a snap in bamboo booster as well. I am still yet to finish the snaps on one of the nappies. The cover is made from a polyester PUL and FOE both of which I purchased from Nappies Covered . The PUL is lovely and soft and stretchy.


I also thought I'd give making a ribbon blankee a go. I've never made one of these before and was hoping it wouldn't be too hard. All of the fabric and ribbon is from Spotlight and I am really happy with the result. The front side is a printed cotton and the reverse is a plush cuddlefleece. I hope our newborn will like it!


Photobucket