A Lego Mat

I've kept hold of a box of Lego that has been hanging around our house for years. It usually comes out when we have visitors and each time I take it out I'm reminded how difficult it is to pack it away, how much it hurts when you step on a stray piece of Lego and how the box that it's in is just not doing the trick. The Lego only just fit in the box and because the box has handy handles, bits of Lego would inevitably escape through those handy handle holes.

Last week I was given a couple of dinosaur doona covers for a single bed. Hamish is a long way off using a bed and it was a lot of free fabric. I decided that I would cut up one to make into a Lego mat. It looks great! The Lego is now nice and tidy, hanging from a hook on the top of our bookcase.

I've done a step by step photo tutorial below. Pretty much I folded the fabric in half, quarters and then eighths and then cut it in an arc. I hemmed it and measured the circumference of the circle and then bought 5.5m of blue cord and a toggle. I used a safety pin to thread the cord through the hem. Attached the toggle and then tied the cord afterwards. Tipped the Lego into the middle of the mat and then pulled on the cord to tighten the bag around the Lego. Hung the bag up. Simple!

Craftiness

I've been trying to organise a craft day on a Thursday since last year and it really hasn't gotten off the ground. Part of the problem has been this stinking weather and then the other part of the problem is crafty stuff is just plain old daggy! But I LOVE it!!

So over the last two weeks I've made some stray twine covered balls and a recovered a couple of cushions. I'm very happy with what they look like and the way they've made my home a little more homely!

Here are the photos.

Craft and firsts

Today Isabella was drawing beautiful pictures for the family and also wanted to write some letters and numbers which we worked through together.
She needed a box to put her precious things in. Thank goodness for cereal boxes!! They make perfect boxes for precious pieces of paper and are fairly easy to cover and decorate. We used contact I had lying around from covering school books, ribbon I had from making hair clips and a little person we tore off of a greeting card.
And with all of that business Hamish has decided that learning to crawl is a waste of time and he is now standing at every available opportunity. That means when I put him down to sleep he's like a jack-in-the-box and a spring loaded one at that! It took 2 hours to get him down last night. Such a fun game standing up in the cot. He stands, can't work out how to get down, screams until someone saves him and lies him down and then up he gets again. He thought it was very funny. Me, not so much.

Yesterday was the first time Hamish crawled properly for a distance. I think it was because he had a play date with an older friend who has the crawling thing down pat. They were very cute together and I'm sure will be great mates. They'll be going to the same school when they're finally ready in another 4 years or so. I'm sure the time will fly by.

Hair clips and a timetable

A new menu

I've been very busy settling everyone into school and blogging has been right at the bottom of my todo list. So I thought I'd try and get back into it.

Today I made a new menu board. The last one was just made out of the biggest photo frame I had lying around at home. This time I actually went and bought a frame. It cost $10. Pretty cheap and nice and big. I was finding it hard to fit our weekly menu into the space I had!!

Well I rummaged through my scrapbook supplies and found some letter stickers, flower stickers and paper. It took me about 10 minutes to put the board together and it's made it much easier to write on and see. The kids actually noticed it as soon as they got home from school today.

I've been plodding along with my menu planning and only missed a week when we got back from our holidays. I should try and write them down so I can reuse the meal plans that worked. I'd like to plan a whole terms worth of meals for when I'm back at work. That's 10 weeks worth. We'd probably do a 3 week rotation of easy meals that just work. It'll be one less thing to worry about! I need to find some more no-fail recipes now.

Work...

I don't even want to think about going back yet. I'm just enjoying being a mum who coffees, lunches and organists play dates. Lol it's not quite as easy as that, but that would be the ideal.

Ikea craft

Waiting to be ironed so that they will stick together.

Isabella creating three at once. None finished!

The last two days have seen the girls doing craft stuff I love it!! Here's Sammy's lovely creations. And here is Isabella's craft creations.

Christmas Craft 2011

Each year I just have to make a little something new for Christmas. This year the internet was instrumental in many of the crafty things that I made. So here goes...

1. Christmas skirt made after seeing this one on Miss Mustard Seed. It was divine, but I wanted to be able to stick mine in the washing machine. So I needed to sew it. Here is her tutorial. I followed it and modified it as I went.
2. A felt bauble that I saw on Zakka Life which even had a very easy to follow tutorial.Very cute. I must make these with my students when I go back to work next year. Easy and so pretty.
3. A white felt bauble with a red snowflake on it. I got the snowflake design from a snowflake on a door that I found on Pinterest. When I clicked through to the link on Pinterest it took me to Ucreate with Kids. I've had a look around and the site looks great.
4. I made this ruffled Christmas tree from this tutorial from Miss Flibbertigibbet. My ruffled tree doesn't look as nice as this one, but my dear Sammy loves it!
5. I've also started making a coffee filter wreath that I saw on the Nester. I've run out of coffee filters and so it's only half done. The unfortunate issue I had was that I had bought the wrong sort of filters. I made do with the ones I had and it is looking good. I'll be glad when it's finished.
6. A made a little felt covered present to hang on the tree. I haven't actually seen one on the internet, but did see a badly made one in Myers which gave me the idea to use my left over sponge from covering my chairs here.
7. Activities for my advent calendar. I got the idea for it here  at Heather Renz and here at Tip Junkie.

Wow I didn't realise how many things I've made for Christmas. Go me!!

11 sleeps - craft and cards

Two home made cones.

Ruffled, pink, feathered and silver ribbon cone.

Lime milkshake and donuts.

Sammy dressed as Miss Walke.

Hamish and his two tooth smile.

Bella had to share today.

Sammy with her card list.

I made an over the top pink feathered tree for Sammy today which she loves!! I got the idea from here at Miss Flibbertigibett. She did an amazing tutorial on a shabby pink one, which I loved. Mine is more pink vomit. I also did a little more of my snowflake ornament. I hung the present ornament on the tree. I made two cones out of cardboard. I also did some pressie wrapping and then quickly packed up so I could go and pick the kids up. I took them to Top Ryde City to get new shoes and out for arvo tea. Today's Christmas activity was writing Christmas cards. Sammy was the only one keen. She had a list and checked them off as she went. So sweet!

How are there so few days left?

All my craft stuff out on the dining room table. OMG!! What a mess.

A red-eyed special of the kids in the cinema.

Present ornament.

Snowflake ornament half done.

Ribbon container finally started.

Monday was such a busy day of Mothers Group and Christmas tree decorating at Granny and Pa's house (with the biggest real tree in history) followed by no sleep and then a day of craft on Tuesday with my mum followed by picking up kids from school and then fitting in a Christmas countdown activity. Well it's left me feeling like a walking zombie. And here I am at 10:48pm still on the computer (well my iPhone) and all you'll get tonight is a few fuzzy late night photos. Oh, and you must see Arthur Christmas if you're over 5!! It put tears in Dave and my eyes and the older kids loved it!! Hamish loved it too. No crying from him. Isabella loved parts of it but it was quite scary for a little person. She'll love it next year though!! And what is left on my dining room table so I can finish my crafty stuff tomorrow. The kids will have to eat breakfast in the lounge room!!

15 sleeps and getting ready for a party

A sad face because it was too sunny for her eyes.

A forced smile in the car! Very over-tired!!

The finished skirt under the tree.

Haamish loves his 'cage' and so do I!!

A close up of the skirt in action!

16 sleeps

Car got a new wheel bearing today. Dave went to the dentist. Bella, Hamish and I went to Sammy's year 6 presentation assembly. She didn't get anything, but we got to share a morning tea with her which was special. Josh didn't do dance class today. I didn't do tutoring today. We took the kids to their dad early today which meant that it was still daylight when we got there and a decent time when we got home. Usually we leave about 6:15pm and only drop them at 8:30 or 9:00pm. We usually get home just before 10:00pm. Not fun!! Christmas activity today was to eat dessert first. We didn't actually do this as Isabella was the only one that felt like eating something sweet first. Oh well. We'll have to make up for this on another day. Finished cutting all the threads off my skirt!! Yay!!

17 days until Christmas, a finished skirt and a Christmas menu

A sneak peak of my beautiful Christmas skirt.

Sleeping peacefully in his new sleep suit.

So today I finally finished that Christmas tree skirt that I've been making. Well finished the sewing part that is! I've still got to cut off all the little bits of thread all over the skirt and that's going to take quite a bit longer than 5 minutes. So at the moment the skirt is keeping our lovely rocking horse warm and I'll try and get around to it tomorrow. Hamish was a good little boy today and slept for nearly four hours. I was sorry that I didn't take the opportunity to have a sleep myself, but lately he's only been sleeping for an hour or an hour and a half at the longest. Not enough for me to have a sleep! So instead of a sleep, Isabella and I watched 'The Story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer' snuggled up together on the couch. It was lovely. We were so cosy together and I almost fell asleep. Isabella had spent the night at Granny and Pa's house last night and arrived home around lunchtime. She then played 'Barbie' so nicely while I sewed. I could hear her making Barbie and Ken have lots of conversations that sounded strangely familiar. Kind of like someone had been recording our conversations. We must be very careful of what we say infront of her! She's just at the age of taking everything in. Very funny too though! Do we really sound like that?! Once the Christmas skirt was finished we played Barbie for a bit. Then we played 'shops'. I wasn't such a fan of that game as most of the stuff that had made it into her shop were things that I didn't want to go missing like my car and house keys. We had to have a little conversation about what things she can sell in her shop!

Tonight was the task of making a menu for Christmas Eve brunch. The older two kids and Dave were at their last Scout evening of the year. They went to laser tag as an end of year celebration and so I was left to my own devices this evening. I decided to go to Pinterest and see if I could find some nice ideas for brunch and also for Isabella's fairy party that we're having on Sunday. Once I started looking around Pinterest I couldn't get off. There were so many different things to look at. I love Pinterest!! If you haven't had a look around then you need to check it out. What a great way of organising pictures of things you like the look of. Here's my boards.

Here is the menu so far:

Muesli

Greek yoghurt/Vanilla cream yoghurt

Mixed berries

Orange segments

Fresh fruit platter

Nutella dip

Ricotta dip

Pancakes

Crepes

Croissants

Ham off the bone

Shaved cheese

Mini omelettes

Zucchini, tomato and gorgonzola puff pastry tarts

Tomato and basil quiche

Bacon and Zucchini quiche

Oven dried tomatoes

Asparagus spears

Salad

Fresh baguettes

Orange Juice

Champagne

Mineral Water

Tea

Coffee

You can go here and see my pinterest brunch board.

18 sleeps and a movie night

Today Isabella was at preschool and she was going to be picked up by granny and pa and go toy shopping for her birthday. She was given the choice before her birthday of getting a present on her birthday or going shopping with granny. She chose the shopping trip! I think all the cousins have chosen this option. I think it's exciting to do the choosing with a budget. So cute!

Our movie 'The Rep' and lollies and popcorn.

My trusty Janome!

So today in between housework and playing with Hamish I did some sewing of both the Christmas tree skirt and Dave's Christmas stocking. I managed to finish the stocking today. Yay. Another step closer to Christmas. Dave's stocking has a little Christmas 'emblem' for each year we've been married. It's taken me 7 years to decide to do this for him. I have a stocking that my mum made me and Dave didn't have one at all. I kept saying that the stockings were just for the kids but he really needed one. So I finally caved and made him one. You know how much I love you honey!! Today our activity was a DVD and popcorn. Since Bella was at Granny and Pa's for a sleep over we decided to watch a favorite of Dave's and mine. It's called 'The Rep' and is very funny and filled with way too much swearing. We had a chat to the kids about the swearing before watching it and said that we expected never to hear them use the words they hear in the movie, but we know they've heard them before and if they ever use them they better never use them around us!! We made microwave popcorn (we usually just make air popped popcorn which is very healthy, but we needed the buttery salty stuff tonight) and got out a selection of left over lollies from Bella's afternoon tea yesterday. I don't think the kids enjoyed the movie at all! I think we'll just watch the regular sweet stuff with them next year. We always watch 'The Santa Claus' one, two and three and are looking for something sweet to add to our Christmas DVD collection. Any suggestions?

Twenty-two days, a sneak peak and a house

My rolling hem foot did all the hard work.

All the cut strips.

The strips with a rolled hem on one side.

Last night I decided to do something with my calico. And just like a good book once I started sewing I couldn't stop!! I measured, I cut, I even rolled hems!! Not much to see yet but it will be beautiful when it's finished.
This morning was an early start!! I had to take Bella to dance class. The usually good thing is that I get almost one hour of child free time!! I get to drink a coffee while it's hot all the way from start to finish and nurture my inner paparazzi by reading Who or Woman's Weekly and catch up on uninterrupted gossip. Just like bubble-gum for the brain. Delicious!! Only this morning I got to get my coffee take-away and watch her dance class. It happens once a year and today was the day. There was an audible sigh from all the parents who suddenly realised that their little bit of respite from their dancing queen was gone for the week. We all looked at each other and one of the mums said,"oh I guess you'll only need us in half an hour won't you." and before Miss Ellie had a chance to say anything we all chimed in with, "Yes. In half an hour we'll be back" before she could clarify that we could stay for the whole class. We all needed caffeine and that was the end of that!!

Bella wearing her jazz shoes and a little tutu.

Showing me how she can touch her toes.

Here are some adorable "dance class" photos.
Straight after that was a visit to Macquarie Centre where Sammy had an ice-skating party to attend. That left us three hours to search for outdoor furniture. We had lunch and afternoon tea and bought bits and pieces we probably don't need and then picked up Sammy. Off to Parramatta Rd for a look at more outdoor furniture and then a quick Costco shop before heading home.

The box and the goodies shared out into bowls.

Josh's lolly and icing mess.

Sammy's smile matches her gingerbread man.

A bowl of baked beans awaits finishing.

The house ready to decorate.

The finished house. The kids had to wait a day to eat this!

The usual feed, bath and dress Hamish before putting him to bed and then Dave made dinner for us and after we did advent activity number three. Make a gingerbread house. When I say 'make' I really mean 'construct' a gingerbread house because all our stuff came in a cardboard box. Here they are enjoying themselves.
They did a great job!! I added some little swirls to use up the last of the icing. They have to wait until tomorrow to eat it. The only reason I get away with this is that they get to eat the little biscuit they decorate after they finish with the house. Good all around!