Day to Day

More swap goodness

It's been really fun receiving all your photos and emails about the children's sewing swap.  We had 41 children participate in this swap and most packages have been received now (just 14 still travelling around the world waiting to arrive at their destination).  Cool hey! 

A few more photos to share:

Here is Miss C receiving her goodies from Miss B.  There are more pics of these delightful swap packages on their blogs if you would like to have a closer look too.

Plus the sewing package that Miss B sent to Miss C.

Also we have Nature Girl's swap package that she received from Georgia (care of her Nanna Beth).

 

  

Plus Georgia's swap parcel from Nature Girl:

Next up we have Laura's swap package from Talia.  Laura also enjoys scrapbooking so there were some yummy scrapbook products included. 

Here is Talia receiving her goodies from Laura.

Talia has a sister who has also taken part in the swap - but I'll post those pics once her swap partner has received the package :)

The Theatre

We all huddled around the radio listening to the school announcements this morning, James anxiously hoping school would be cancelled due to the snow so he could have a veg out day at home.  Good news.  The school was running on skeleton staff and put a call out asking parents to keep their children home if possible.  YES!

Seemed like a nice opportunity to make a puppet theatre (now named Goodsell Theatre) together.  We used an old postbox, cut it up, covered it with cardboard, added some cuteness and I made a little pair of curtains (every good stage needs curtains!).

 

James and Bella set to work making puppets for the theatre.  We're resting up to have lunch at the moment (and do a quick blog post lol), but this afternoon they have big plans to make more puppets.

We also made up a mini batch of freckles with some organic chocolate and hundreds and thousands.  They're cooling in the fridge - we'll eat them this afternoon with warm tea and hot chocolate. 

Yep, Bella is still wearing her pyjama bottoms with that jacket - she was so excited to know it was snowing (although it didn't settle at our house) - "yay Mummy, can I stay in my pyjamas all day and have a pyjama party?"   Sure you can Bella :)

 

Random

Quite a while ago Melanie and Maxine both tagged me and I've been a bit slack at completing the tag....so here we go (finally).

1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

six random things about myself
1.  I hardly iron anything.  Most things come in off the line, get folded and put straight away.  This helps keep my laundry tidy too.

 

2. I refuse to buy frozen chips anymore.  Instead we cut up potato into chunks, throw in some fresh basil, tomato chunks, garlic and cook them in a little oil.  I finish them off in the toaster oven.

 

3. I'm on day 15 of washing my hair in bi-carb soda.  It feels great and I won't be going back to normal shampoo.

 

4.  I'm currently reading 'the ethics of what we eat' by Peter Singer and Jim Mason.

 

5.  I'm a pen chewer.  Right now as I type I have a pen in my mouth and I'm chewing it. lol.

 

6.  I'd really love a stash of knitted dishcloths, but so far I haven't found the time to make any.

 

Once again I'm not going to pass on the tag, but if you'd like to join in on your blog then I'd love to read your random things.

Sheer Delight

Sheer Delight - August Tarisota Collection (SO yummy! Inspiration & I want it all collections are all sold out, but Addiction & Obsession are still available, so don't miss out...it's a fabulous month).

Here are a few of my projects for the gallery:

A layout using some of our snow photos from the weekend just gone.

A fun layout that I did using a random pic that I found of Bella.

Some old photos of James at an athletics day that really should have been scrapbooked last year :)

One of sweet Bonnie for her album.

Plus, a canvas class that I created.  It's an 8" x 8" canvas that I put together for Bella's room.  You can do the class here (I am pretty sure Tamar is putting up the details etc.. tonight).

Tonight

Tonight we're having homemade chicken schnitzel with vegies.  It's a favourite that everybody enjoys (which is rare in our household).

We usually make/have dessert once every couple of weeks, but after seeing this yummy cake-in-a-mug on Tamar's blog, I think some are in order for tonight - with dusted icing sugar and icecream.

We'll swish it down with a glass of homemade orange cordial (made a fresh batch today) and finish off with a good pot of tea. Yum.  Sounds like I'd better get off here and start cooking :)

Oh and James and Bella's finished salt dough creations for our winter display.  All painted and now sitting on our window sill.

More swap photos

More swap pics from the children's sewing swap :)

Here are a couple of photos of Taylah receiving her swap package from Claire.

Plus some of Claire's goodies from Taylah:

Then we have Emma's parcel for Thea:

Emma with her parcel from Thea:

Sarah's parcel for Emily:

Sarah opening her parcel from Emily:

Okay - I hope I have the links and pics correct.  This is probably the most confusing part of the swap (loading the photos and links) lol.

Winter craft for a lazy Sunday

I have more craft swap photos to share - but I haven't quite finished the post yet, so I'll do that tomorrow :)

A lazy home day today.  Rich built some more of the side gates (to keep little Trooper in) while we stayed indoors and crafted.

It's a little late, but we took down our autumn window display and started on a winter display with some snowflakes out of Japanese silk paper.

Followed by a bit of canvas painting.  Bella sticking with our winter theme and James was working on an Egyptian canvas (that he only finished tonight when it was too dark to take a pic).

Then we made up a batch of salt dough.  Tomorrow after school they're both looking forward to painting the penguin, igloo and snowmen that they created.

James also completed his coaster kit (from his sewing swap package).

That was pretty much the day.  I'm off here now to do some scrapbooking :))

Our Day

The sun was shining so we started off with a bit of quilt washing.

Followed by some soap grating ready for the next batch of washing powder.

Then headed off to the mountain for a play in the snow.

 

James and Bella before a snow fight.

It turns out gumboots aren't the best for snow days - the snow fell straight in the top making some very cold little feet :(

Daddy and Bella.

Mummy (that's me) and Bella.

Exploring the mountain.

Too much fun!

The quick snowman that Bella and Daddy built.

Skidding down the hill on their bottoms :)

Home for homemade pumpkin soup followed by apple crumble (using some of the bottled apples from last week).

I hope your Saturday was a good one :) 

I'll load some more swap photos tomorrow to share.  So far this swap has fallen into place nicely with lots of happy and excited children receiving gorgeous sewing kits. The next swap is going to be just for grown ups and following that one I'll run another children's one.

Some swap photos.

A few swap photos from the children's sewing swap.  Please let me know as soon as you receive your swap package in the mail so that I can mark you off the list.  As soon as this swap is completely finalised (ie everyone has received their package) I'm going to open up the next swap :))

Also if you have a photo of your swap package that you would like me to share on my blog, please send it through.

Alycia sent this package to Meghan.

Here is a pic of Alycia with her goodies that she received from Meghan.

Here are the goodies that we sent Sarah  (Sarah is a very confident little sewer so we sent her a project instead of a sewing kit).

You can see the photos of the swap package that Sarah sent James here.

Rory sent this package to Jemima:

Here's Rory with the swap goodies that she received from Jemima:

Here is Sam's package that he sent to Aaron:

Here's Sam opening his swap package:

Tutorial - felt food ravioli

This week's posting is an easy one (well, I think they've all been super easy, but this one is really fast). Pasta Ravioli.  Bella has been begging for me to make her some pasta for a little while now.  I was going to finish it off with a small felt bag to keep the pasta in, but then found the brown paper bag in the cupboard, stamped the title and closed it at the top with a sweet teeny tiny peg.

Step 1:  Cut out the ravioli (5cm X 5cm square) using pinking shears (crinkle cut scissors) for the edges.  I fancied the finish that the pinking shears gave, but you could always use normal scissors if you didn't have any handy and just have straight lines.  Remember little ones won't mind if it's straight or crinkle cut, just so long as it resembles ravioli.

Step 2:  Machine stitch around 3 edges of the ravioli.  I used my machine foot as a guide, keeping it on the edge of the felt as I sewed around.  Basically the finished machine square measures 3cm X 3cm - you could always draw this on before machining with a fabric pencil or pen if you are super fussy :))

Step 3:  Lift up your machine foot once you've stitched the three sides and carefully poke a little stuffing in the ravioli.  Machine stitch the fourth edge closed.

You now have ravioli ready to play with :))  I made 16 ravioli squares in various shades of felt (cream, soft tan and a slighter darker tan) which seemed like a nice quantity to have when we popped them in the bowl for monkey to munch on.

Before I sign off for today I wanted to share a very yummy plate of food that Martine from Belgium made using my tutorials.  They look fabuluos Martine :))