Day to Day

Hearts for Mirabel

I made this heart last week and have only just remembered to take a photo of it.  It's for the Meet Me at Mikes window.  For more information go here and join in the fun to help raise money for the Mirabel Foundation.

Little painter & patchwork bath mat

Auntie Beth gave Bella this canvas today when we went down for a little visit.  Her tiny fingers have been working on it ever since.  She began with a sketch in pencil and then patiently painted on each colour until her masterpiece was finally unveiled after dinner tonight.

The paint set is by Junkitz (Laguna Paintz) - such a petite and pretty mix of colours.

On my crafting front I've been oohing and ahhing over some patchwork bath mats at Flickr for several months now.  Especially this one - love the colours and the embroidered feet!  Last night I decided to whip up a quickie and now I want to make 100 fabric bath mats for the bathroom.  This one is a little crooked on the edge and not as perfect as I'd like, but once it's down on the floor all the blemishes are pretty well hidden.  The fabric is Amy Butler.

Feeding the ducks & Amy Butler

With the girls gone we've been slotting back into a normal routine around here.  The house is so super quiet - we miss them already and they've only been gone a day!

This morning we popped down to visit and feed the ducks (as well as the friendly birds that were more than happy to share the bread).

Bella was a little hesitant of the ducks, running to me for cover when they became too demanding for bread - she was nipped on the finger as a toddler by one and hasn't forgotten it.

I've also been meaning to post a photo of my new Amy Butler patterns that were so generously mailed to me last week from a lovely lady at Amy Butler.  These are 4 of their new patterns and are so so cool!!  When school goes back and I track down some nice fabric to use I'd really love to try and sew the Lotus tunic and cami or the Anna tunic to begin with - I've never sewed clothes before but the patterns look fairly straight forward and I think the tops are seriously cute. 

If you're looking for inspiration you really need to check out the Amy Butler website too - beautiful photos, gorgeous fabrics and even some yummy free patterns - quilts, fabric leaves (gorgeous), fabric silhouettes (which would be very cool on my wall), etc.. and the most adorable fabric necklace that I'm dying to sew for Bella.

Salmon Ponds/Mt Field

Yesterday we hired a van (big enough for the 6 of us) and took the girls to the Salmon Ponds and Mt Field.

The weather was kind to us, perhaps a little too hot for walking up to the top of Russell Falls - Rich, James, Bella and Clare submersed their heads in the creek on our way back down to cool off.  We ate a nice picnic lunch (including Kate's chockie slice that I'll post the recipe for tomorrow) in the national park and spotted a few wallabies on our walk.  The girls were so tired on the way home - all three of them going to sleep in the van and Bella had 15 hours  sleep last night because she was so exhausted from the day.

Tomorrow the girls go home :O((

Up the mountain we go...

Today I took the girls (plus my two) up to the top of Mt Wellington.  We left early to catch a glimpse of the view before the clouds came over.  It was still a little misty but you could pretty much see for miles and miles.

Home for some music playing - Kate plays the violin beautifully.

Then Kate and Bella did a little bit of chocolate slice cooking in the afternoon (yummy!).

Kids holiday craft - pom poms

Bella wanted to make some pom poms today.  These are fun, I can remember making them with my Mum when I was little. I think I was pretty slow at them though.....Bella made both of these in half an hour....much faster than her Mummy was!

Here are the instructions if you'd like to do some with your little ones and aren't sure how. Super easy and a quick craft to fill in the afternoon (or half an hour lol).

Use something to draw out your circle and a smaller circle on the inside.  Make them all sorts of sizes (our outer circle measured 9.5cm and the inner one was 4cm).  You need to use some cardboard for this (so it doesn't bend too easily when you are winding).  You also need to cut out TWO circles from the cardboard.

Cut out the two circles and sit them together.

Start winding wool around the two circles (that you've sat together)...remembering to keep it nice and firm as you wind.

Keep winding all the way around the edge of the pom pom until you can't see any more cardboard.

Cut the wool all the way around the top of the circle.

Lightly seperate the two pieces of cardboard and slide another piece of wool in here.  Pull it all the way around the circle and tie it in a very tight knot to hold the pom pom in place.

Once the pom pom is secure, pull off the cardboard circles to reuse for another pom pom.

The pom pom is finished! Use the long end (left over from where you knotted the pom pom) to tie the finished creation on something (Bella tied the pom poms on her school bag). 

Cousins!

Oscar, Bonnie and Kama came up to visit us today - it was great having the cousins altogether.  Six big and little kids was serious fun!  We headed off to the beach after lunch so everyone could have a swim since the weather was so warm.

Here's a little button wreath tutorial for next Christmas...so cute! I made one and added some wired stars around the outside.  Super quick and easy.

Tutorial - fabric hair clips

Since some of you asked for more tutorials, I thought I'd share some steps for making these easy hairclips.

Cut two lengths of ribbon - 11cm and 7.5cm.

Trim each end of the smallest length on a slight angle (to prevent fraying and also look nice for the bottom of the bow).

Roll up and adhere the longest length to make a circle.  I used Ribbon Stiff (by Strano) for my adhesive.

Squish the circle down flat to make the top part of your bow.  Position the smaller length of ribbon as shown in the above photo.  You may wish to pin these two lengths of ribbon together to hold into place nicely ready for the next step.

Using a needle and thread wrap the cotton around and around the bow pulling it nice and tightly.  Knot the cotton off to finish.

Cut a third length of ribbon - 3cm in length. 

Fold the length in half.

Roll the small length of ribbon around the bow.  Adhere at the back and hold in position with a pin until dry.  Alternatively you could hand stitch the ribbon together.  I used Ribbon Stiff to hold mine in position.

Now cut a small length of ribbon to hold the hairslide in position on the  back of the bow (approx. 1cm).  Slip the hairslide onto the ribbon as shown above. 

Hand stitch the ribbon/hairslide into position on the back of the bow - ensure you stitch either side of the hairslide to hold it firmly together.

Have fun :O))

Giveaway winner

Wow...so many comments for the giveaway (it took me 13 pages of printing to print them all out!)....Sarah Latham was the lucky winner - Sarah if you could email me your address please that would be great(goodsellmx@internode.on.net). 

I'm sorry that there weren't more prizes for you - I'll try and have another giveaway in Feb.

Thankyou for all the blogging suggestions, there were some great ideas in there. I can't believe the number of people that asked for more children's craft (about 1/3 of the comments).  More scrapbooking, cards and recipes. More tutorials/step by steps, sewing ideas and low cost gifts.  Lots of people suggested more themed projects (like my 25 days of Christmas craft) too.  Many other topics too that I've written down in my diary....wow, all these things should keep me busy blogging for a while...so thankyou :O))

We have my two nieces staying with us at the moment from the mainland - such lovely girls, really really lovely girls.  We went to the beach this afternoon when the chill eased a little in the afternoon.

Crab finding

Yesterday afternoon we went down to the beach to fill in a couple of hours before a barbecue at Mum's house.  It was warm but the clouds were becoming darker by the minute while we sat and searched for crabs and other seaside treasures.  Our greatest find was a little starfish that was clinging to a rock as the tide went out......I don't think we've come across one of these before at the rocks, usually finding only crabs and sea snails. 

Thankyou for all your lovely suggestions for blog posts too - I'll leave the comments open until late tonight incase anybody else would like to be in the draw for the giveaway.