Favourite thing Friday

My Organised Kitchen Cupboard

I love looking at my one really tidy, white crockery cupboard.

If only the rest of my cupboards looked like this :)

Merry Christmas

I want to wish all you blog readers out there a very merry Christmas.

In the words of John Lennon "So this is Christmas, and what have you done. Another year over and a new ones just began" (sorry if this is not word for word).

This is a great time to reflect on the past year, count your blessings and remember JESUS is the reason for the season.

Mini albums

Another gift finished. For a few family members who wouldn't appreciate a photo key ring I have made these mini albums.

Very simle but effective.

Favourite things Friday

RETRO TEA TOWELS

Here is just a small part of my collection. I love them because they tell a story of yesteryear. These ones I use.

but, these ones are purely decoration.

What a day!!!!

Miss Lulu (nearly 3) climbed onto her brothers highchair and promptly fell off, head first onto out tiles. There was screaming (and that was me), and blood, and more screaming. My husband had to take her to the doctor as I was too upset. Anyway, Miss is fine and nothing broken, just bruised.
Then, in the pm my husband rang to see if we could look after a 6 month old for a couple of nights as the mum is on drugs and the dad in jail.
So we have a very cute addition for the next couple of days.

AHHHHH! The lead up to Christmas. You gotta love it :)

Favourite Things Friday

Dee of sew-funky is doing Favourite things Friday.

So I decided to join in.

This week it is MY BED

I love my fluffy cushions (or as we call them Emu bottoms)

I love freshly laundered white cotton sheets.


But most of all I love bed time.
I LOVE MY BED!!!!

Felt Pen Holders-blog roundabout

Last year my two girls were giving felt holders made by Dee of Sew-funky who saw the tutorial here on One Red Robin.
They have been taken on car trips, to church and anywhere else a little colouring is required.

So this year I am making some for my nephews for Christmas. I hope they get as much use out of them as my kids do.

Funky Orange Aprons

For the tweens in our family I have made these aprons and I am including a boxed cookie mix for Christmas.

What kid doesn't like fresh, hot cookies straight out of the oven :)

More Santa Sacks

These are the last 2 santa sacks I needed to make. Well...half make, as they are pillowcases and I just monogrammed them, as we wouldn't want santa getting mixed up now, would we?!!!
Now all 4 children have new santa sacks. HO HO HO.

Christmas Santa Sacks

My husband was brought up on the tradition of having a santa sack on the end of the bed that is filled with little (cheap) gifts that can be played with straight away. So we have continued the tradition. I have never wanted Santa, Father Christmas, The Jolly Red Man taking the credit for the gifts our children get. So, this is a good compromise. Santa brings the little gifts and leaves them on the end of the bed and mum and dad get the kudos for the real pressies.

Is it just me who thinks having a fat man in a red suit sneaking around your bedroom late at night is a little scary.

Pajama pants blog roundabout

I saw some children's easy to make pants on rookiemoms.com who saw them on red current and thought "I can do that".
My 12yr old daughter really needed some pajama pants and I remembered these pants that I had seen (they were made for a toddler though) . I used a pair of pajamas shorts as a template and whipped these up in about 5 mins each. I can honestly say these were the easiest thing to make ever especially with the detailed photo instruction that rookiemoms.com gives.

Christmas stockings

I have made some Christmas Stockings for our 2 new children. I am really pleased with how they turned out. Our other 2 children have stockings that I brought at a craft market and they look similar. Not long now before Santa slips in the cat door (we don't have a chimney) and fills the stockings with yummy goodies.

Homemade Holidays

If you haven't already checked out Sew, Mama, Sew! blog then do.
Over there you will find a fabulous list of tutorials and present guides all in one place.
If you wish you can also participate by sending in your great ideas for a handmade Christmas.

So please, please, please check it out. You won't be disappointed.

49 Sensational Skirts

If you haven't seen this cool book yet by Alison Willoughby, I recommend you do. My friend Dee from sew-funky lent it to me and I love it. It contains great ideas for making and accessorising skirts. I am so going to make something and accessorise it with sushi rolls (pg 59).

Piggy Love

Those who know me well, know I am a Porcine fancier.
So, it came as a lovely surprise today, that two of my friends gave me piggy stuff.
My friend Dee gave me these gorgeous materials inside a homemade piggy bag :)

This one above is my favourite and it says Exercising is good. Accessorising is better.

Dee made this gorgeous bag below out of a top. How clever.

Then my friend Vicki gave me this adorable hand painted pig that has a new home on my bookcase. Please excuse the mess on the table ;)

Dogs look up to you. Cats look down on you but pigs treat you as equals.

Our Christmas tree

I always put my tree up on the 1st of December and this year was no exception.
I have to admit that I am a bit anal when it comes to my tree, so I decorate it
and the children get their one to decorate.
Because of our 2 new kiddies (and 1 naughty kitty) I have enclosed our tree this year :)

Advent

Advent started this Sunday. This is my Advent wreath (not quite traditional).
Each Sunday the children take turns lighting a candle, we have our reading, prayer and fun activity.
What family traditions do you do?

Photo Christmas Presents

This is my latest idea for christmas presents for the family (so family, avert your eyes now).

I printed out passport size photos of the children and grandchildren etc. and laminated them.

I then joined them together with these keyrings (10 for $2.00).

I really wanted to make some mini albums that I saw on sew-funky's blog back in January, but sadly, I realised, I am not going to have enough time :(

So, this is my compromise.

Sisterly love

I had to get this photo. Miss A and peanut cuddling on the couch.

The reason this is so special is Miss A has Aspergers(Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and doesn't always like people (children) near her.

After this Miss A fed peanut a bottle and he nearly fell asleep.

TOO SWEET ;)

Knitted Christmas Presents

These are the gifts that I am making my children's teachers.

I made a cotton dish cloth using a pattern from sew-funky's blog. Then added a non-scratch scubbie using knitting cotton and cut up manderine/orange bags. Then I thought all teachers need something sweet so I added a candy cane (it was the right colour).

Two down, one to go :)

Cake in a cup

I have started thinking and making pressies for Christmas. I saw this recipe for a cake in a cup on sew-funky's blog and I have to admit have made it a few times myself ;)
It is so DIVINE and I thought it would make a great gift.

-I purchased some white cups, new off trade me (such a good deal).
-Added the dry ingredients to a cellophane bag (FYI - you can seal cellophane bags by folding over the top and ironing it on a low setting).
-I then typed out what wet ingredients to add and how to make.
-Then as you see, popped them into another cellophane bag and tied with a red ribbon.


These would make great presents for teachers and anyone else who deserves a thank you.
Who wouldn't want a cake in a cup :)

Bibs, bibs and more bibs

SCHOOL GALA TIME: Its miss J's first school gala and I put my hand up to do some sewing for the craft table. I have made some funky bibs using sew-funky's tutorial.

I have also made a heap of tag blankets but forgot to take a photo before I packed them off.

Fingers crossed that they sell.

Finally - some crafts

How do people with lots of kids ever manage to craft?
I only have 4 ankle biters and I'm forever trying to play catch up. Washing, cleaning, feeding, changing etc etc.
Well....I have found time to craft but the housework has suffered. Oh well ;)

I am trying to get a handle on Christmas and have started making presents.
For the younger members of the family I am making activity bags. The idea is that everything you need for the activity is held in one zip lock bag.

I got the idea from Chasing Cheerios and ran with it.

I know, horrid photo. Starting at the left side is a threading game for 3yrs and older, then an open, shut them bag, a felt bag, an under 3's threading bag, threading straws onto pipe cleaners and a fishing game. I have made heaps more of different ones and will load them all when I have finished.

So, as I said I was on a roll and found this website that sells books about activities in a bag. The great thing is that if you go to downloads you can find out what is in each bag and what skill it helps develop. So I am going to include this helpful information with my gifts.

Happy Christmas Present Hunting :)

Our new children

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!!! We have been having the children for overnight visits and I have never been so busy in all my life. This is such a big change for them as they have been with their caregiver for nearly a year. Things are going well though and I love them like my own. No time for crafting though, tooooo tired :(

Overlocker

My mum lent me my grandmothers overlocker. I think you need to be a surgeon and a member of mensa to thread the thing. Anyway I got it going and it was COOL :)

I made this stack of baby face/bottom cloths from old hand towels (reduse, reuse, recycle). I was having the time of my life when the machine lost power, made a popping

sound and wisps of smoke appeared :( It hadn't been used in 13 years, so perhaps a service was in order. l did know this but was impatient to get going. Also it was working so well. I am sad now as I had a heap of projects I was going to work on. So off to get fixed then 'I'll be be back'.

Washing Day

You are probably wondering why I am showing you a photo of my washing. You see, this is our first fine weekend in 9 weeks. YES!!!! 9 weeks. In the Southern hemisphere we are just heading into spring. Today felt like a beautiful spring day. For the first time in months my washing got dry on the line. We don't have a dryer so I have a 3 step process in place. First it gets line dry (if you can call it dry) under shelter on our deck. Then it moves to the drying rack in out lounge (to make use of the heater) then step 3, into the hot water cupboard for a couple of days. So it was lovely to have a one step process today.

New Brooch

This is my new yoyo brooch. My friend Dee from Sew Funky

lovingly shared a piece of this gorgeous material with me. My husband thought it was hideous but I say he just has no taste. Oh well.... each to their own.

We met the children

Yey!!!!! We met our new children today. They are so gorgeous, but boy, does the little girl have attitude. We have a challenge in front of us. Our new son is very placid and fell asleep on my husband. Too cute. We now work towards us having our new children full time, so I wont be blogging much. Take care and we will talk soon.

Knitting for children

I know I haven't been posting much lately. This week (and last) I've had a nasty cold and Miss J is home as well (she shared her germs with me).

Sometimes all I have time for is the boring craft stuff, like mending etc that really doesn't deserve to be blogged about. BUT...... finally I have made something.

A SENSORY SNAKE

I knitted this and popped different stuff into each colour pocket. One has bean bag balls another flour (all enclosed in a balloon of course), then there's cellophane and stuffing. I hope our new little boy will like it :)
I made these finger puppets again for our new little girl. The pattern for these can be found here. I love these puppets as they are quick and easy to make even for a beginner. We get to meet our new children on Wednesday and hopefully these will give a little bit of joy.

Good news!

We are getting the children we applied for. I posted how we were hoping to get 2 children through Permanent Placement (kind of like adoption). I'm so excited. All going well we should have them with us in about 6 weeks.

Retreat (part 2)

On Sunday Dee and I went to the markets. Some nasty weather was setting in and the sellers were pretty scarce.

Not to worry lets go for coffee. We had heard about this great french cafe in Browns Bay and so off Dee and I trotted to consume some of their wares.
Oh my goodness it was divine. French music, french food, french chefs. OH LA LA!!!


If you go you must check out the bathroom. Its a hoot.

Well...... it's all over now :( Thanks Dee for a fantastic time yet again. I can't wait for the next time.

Retreat

Last weekend I went on retreat with my friend Dee. About 3 times a year we get to go on retreat because we have special needs kids. We have wonderful accommodation and all our meals are cooked for us.

Dee and I have a tradition, that we give each other a retreat gift.

This is mine. A knitting needle holder, dish cloth, yarn and a gorgeous teacup napkin ring. Thanks Dee.
We always go to the markets and op shops while we are away. We found these divine cup cake aprons and matching tea towels. Modeled by us of course (I'm taking the photo) :)


After a fun filled morning of shopping what can be better than an afternoon rest with a good book.

Oh yes! This is the life.

Tutorial on Diaper Clutch a NO GO :(

I was going to post a tuorial on my diaper clutch. I even had a request to do so (thanks rj). But I made the mistake of deleting the pictures off my camera before I downloaded them onto my computer.
But I promise that if I make another one I will do a tutorial.

More baby gifts

A dear friend of mine had a baby girl on Monday. I have put together another baby gift for her new arrival.

A lunch sack, tag blanket, bibs and a ball.
Welcome to the world Emilee Giselle.

More baby gifts

On a earlier blog I wrote about applying for permanent placement children.
We haven't found out if we are successful yet, but, one of the other couples on the course who lives around the corner get their child this week.
So I made their new boy a little gift.

I got the lunch sack tutorial here, and filled it with a wet bag, bib, blanket, ball and cream holder.

I thought I'd show you a close up of the cream holder. This multi-layered container is one that you can put beads etc in. I used it to put different creams in (not my idea) so you always have what you need on hand.
I think this is cute quick gift and so handy.

Card Making

Just whipped up a few cards for those times when you think "I wish I had a card!!!!"

First grandchild

My husbands oldest daughter just had her first baby. A beautiful BOY named Dante'.
It's amazing how perfect a new born baby is. No one has damaged their little souls with all the nastiness of the world.
I wish you love, health and happiness all your life, Dante'.