Done and dusted

Another Christmas done and dusted. We had a great day in the Snailblazer shell beginning very early with the girls up to open their presents and ending very late after dinner at the in-laws. I did a full on hot lunch, turkey, pork and ham for my family and then we just had seafood and salad in the night.
Santa bought Ruby and Molly into our house made by the very talented Jodie.

They are the most gorgeous dolls even Jeff thought they were great. They come with lots of clothes all reversible and made beautifully with attention to small details. Lucy has slept with Molly for the last two nights. Along with lots of other small gifts Charlotte's MP3 player and Lucy's plastic food were the most popular.We gave the girls a trampoline which has been getting a great workout.

I made the girls a new dress each from the Madeline pattern, which is very quick and easy to whip up.
And finally the Amy Butler Swing bags I made for the carers in Lucy's room at child care. They loved them and even other staff were commenting on them.

Merry Christmas

I was going to have a great post written but things have gotten on top of me but finally everything is done, just need to get the Santa pressies out.

Thank you all so much for visiting my blog this year. I hope you come back again. I will be off-line for a few days having a self-imposed computer break to spend time with the family.

I hope you all have a great Christmas

Hot Potato

Today we went to see The Wiggles, courtesy of a guy Jeff knows through his work. We had fantastic seats on the floor with no-one in front of us so the girls could dance. Charlotte also high-fived Jeff. I told her she would never be able to wash that hand again but she just looked at me like I was crazy.

Also it was the Toy Society Christmas drop this weekend. You can check my drop out here and everyone's here.

Teacher Gift

Only one more day to go and Charlotte finishes kindy for the year. She has had a great year and her teacher has been wonderful, kind, caring and all the kids love her. I decided to make a quilted wall hanging as a special gift for Charlotte to give her.

Charlotte picked all the fabrics. She picked the jelly roll Adds sent me for organising the box swap for the front, some Michael Miller Dandy Damask for the back and some pink dots for the binding.
I printed the class photo on some fabric and got all the kids in the class to write their names on strips of paper which I then traced onto the fabric and stitched over using some embroidery floss. I then quilted it along each strip. Charlotte wrote the label on a piece of calico using fabric markers.
She gave it to her teacher today and she absolutely loved it. When I went to pick Charlotte up I even got a big hug. Thanks Miss H for making Charlotte's first year of school a wonderful experience.

Lucky, Lucky, Lucky

The postie has been very kind this week. First up was this fat quarter from Saffron Craig. You can get one for yourself just by signing up to her newsletters.

Next up I was lucky enough to win one of Kirsty's planners from the lovely Mixtape girls. If you know our house this will be well used.


Lastly I'm don't think I posted a photo of this swing bag I made for myself. I had originally used this fabric for a dress for Charlotte but it didn't sit properly and didn't like it so I decided to use it for myself. The reverse side is some Amy Butler.

And finally Charlotte received a school award this morning. She got the Christian Living Award for her class which recognises a child who continually demonstrates and lives out Catholic values. Let's just say we are very proud.

Rolf Harris

Jeff finally got his birthday present tonight, Rolf Harris live! For the first time in 10 years Rolf performed at the Sydney Opera House. Jeff and Charlotte love his songs and we often have to listen to the Best Of cd in the car so as soon as I saw the tickets on sale I knew it was the perfect gift.

Here's Charlotte on the way with a typical Sydney shot

He say lots of all-time favourites including Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, Jake the Peg, Stairway to Heaven, Sun Rise and one of Charlotte's favourites Six White Boomers. Interspersed were stories about his life and he also did some drawings.

Not a great shoot but the best I could do as we were near the doorman and he was very eagle-eyed

It was a late but great night, for Charlotte anyway. She fell asleep on the way home listening to the Rolf cd, clutching her mini wobble board, which I am sure we will regret buying but will make great news at school next week.

Mission Impossible

Your mission should you choose to accept it is to take 2 children to the Remnant Warehouse Sale on a 35 degree day. This message will self destruct if you stop reading!

Yes I chose to accept. Of course it was crowded (although not as bad as their Marrickville closing down sale), I had Lucy in the pram and Charlotte wandering around. Do you know how hard it is to push a pram, and a dodgy one at that, while holding blots of fabric!

2 Amy Butler fabrics Denise Schmidt County Fair Cheaters Quilt fabric. I actually went for this and got the last 3 metres.
Didn't actually need that much but I am sure I will use it

So it was a quick fire mission today. I grabbed some fabrics I particularly wanted, including the last of the denim I love for more S-cargos. I managed to have a quick chat with a fellow agent and then we were gone.

Heather Bailey (Charlotte picked this for a Christmas dress)

Some more D & J panels

Last night I popped into the Finders Keeps market. There were lots of people around but I did manage to pick up the Frankie Afternoon Tea book. I have been eyeing it off on the web for ages but I like to look at cook books before I buy them.

Lots Happening

There seems to be so many things happening lately it's doing my head in. Today was Lucy's play group Christmas party. My brother was Santa and the kids all had a great time chatting to Santa and telling him what they want for Christmas.

This week we have also had Lucy's child care Christmas party, Lucy happily played in the sand pit all night and Charlotte ran around with some other girls from school who were there.

Since the Mathilda's Market I have had a couple of orders to do. The first one is a larger version of the Traveller. I made a few smaller ones of these for the market and they sold like hotcakes. I am hoping to have some more in the shop soon. The small version has a pocket Moleskin notebook and 4 pencils. They are great in your bag when you need to keep the kids quiet. You can also put pens in and keep them for yourself. They were based on something I made for Ingrid's kids in last year EB Secret Santa Swap.

These photos have caused so much hassle so sorry they are small. For some reason they are huge and I had to adjust them in photoshop

I've also got some S-cargo's to make too.

And finally if you live in Melbourne you will soon be able to buy some of my things in person. The lovely Gale from The Local Shop in Northcote will be stocking some S-cargos and some scrabble tile pendants very, very soon. So if you are in the area pop in and check the shop out. (262 High St).

I nearly forgot look what arrived in the mail yesterday.

Next week is a busy one including a concert (don't all laugh Jeff and Charlotte love him, I'm just tagging along for the ride)

Secret Package

My secret package from last week has arrived at it's destination.

Yes last week's package was the prize for Blogtoberfest and it finally arrived at Juddie's.

This is what I sent her

An Amy Butler SwingBag

It's reversible

Some ribbon

And some twine

A scrabble tile pendant

Hopefully she liked it

Christmas Parade

We took the girls to Christmas Parade in the city yesterday. We must have gotten their earlier than last year because we got a great spot near the start. I don't think there were as many floats as last year but the kids still enjoyed it.

Playing along with Kootoyoo

This one's for you Kirsty

Still feeling totally inspired by the handmade issue of mankind mag from my favourite design blog.
Q What is the blog author's first name? ANSWER: Erin
use the first letter - LETTER: E

We like to keep lunch casual, I've found some fabulous BBQ recipes for the big day.
Q What type of meat is pictured on the rotisserie? ANSWER: Lamb
use the first letter - LETTER: L

Getting some great ideas for upcycling (my favourite craft) & enjoying the revamp over at this fabulous craft website.
Q They list everyone's favourite Portland based author mama as one of their inspirational sites. Which Portland based author mama is she? ANSWER: Amanda Blake-Soule
use the second letter of her last name - LETTER: O

Looking forward to being able to buy handmade at the shopping shindig with the craft book Queen.
Q What type of car is pictured? ANSWER: VW
use the first letter - LETTER: V

All these letters unscramble to reveal:
WHAT? is all you need. LOVE

On my fridge

I've decided to play along with Amy's on my fridge but I'm not sure I really want to show you my fridge because it's not as neat as Amy's.

There's lots of kid related stuff - party invites, Charlotte's news schedule for school, old receipts, photos, Lucy's child care Christmas party invite, Kindy mum's night out invite, drawings, word whammer and lots of stuff hiding in the next layer.

I really should tidy it up.

And a sneak peek of a parcel going off to the post office tomorrow.

Good Food Affare

On Friday my mum, Lucy and I headed off to the Good Food Affare after dropping Charlotte at school. Luckily we got there early as I don't think the stall holders were anticipating so many people on Friday. We wandered around as we usually do planning to come back and buy just before we left but lots of things we wanted had sold out by 11.30am, no pies, no strawberries, no peaches so that was a bit disappointing.

The had an old carousel so Lucy had a couple of goes on that which she loved.

We tried to have devonshire tea at the Country Women's Association but they had run out of scones and cream by 10.30 and were busy trying to make more and find some cream. Their cupcakes were good though. We left at 12 and the crowds were huge, definitely not easy to push a pram through.
It was a great event though and we would definitely go back.