i've been tagged!

thanks kylie lol

5 things found in my bag:

1. chapter 3 of the book my psychologist has me reading
2. the kids' swimming cards
3. aquim anti-bac handwash
4. elastics & clips for the girl' hair
5. lip balm (moogoo, mmmm)


5 favourite things in my sewing room: (or what I would have if I had a sewing room!)

1. ikea expedit shelf
2. window to back yard
3. ottobre mags
4. tv & dvd so i can put on old movies to listen to and keep little fingers away
5. my daylight lamp, thanks mum!

5 things I have always wanted to do:

1. travel more
2. lose weight *sigh*
3. have more money lol
4. have a great job with great people (i'm very close now, if only it paid more lol)
5. have a cleaner


5 things I am currently into:

1. stephanie plum books
2. choko bai jo (see my food blog for details)
3. writing policies lol
4. being online
5. checking my kids' hair for nits *sob*


5 people I am tagging:

1. will do this later, need to get ready for work now!
2.
3.
4.
5.

a princess dress?

emelia has been invited to a princess party (on mothers day of all days) so i thought i might make her a dress.... am i insane? lol

anyway, i already have this pattern - a garage sale find.i'm thinking of doing the dark pink dress on the bottom right, it looks the easiest. i think. lol

i already have the blue or green organza left from the mermaid skirt (which hasn't been very popular incidentally, as it's too hard for the kids to find the middle and put it on without my help) which i can use and i'm thinking of trying to use another fabric other than a slippery satin.

what do you think?

everything old is new again!

I dug emelia's overalls out of the mending pile this morning, pulled all the snaps out, undid the stitching and stitched them together all through the crotch. perfect fit for her and so cute! she'll get a lot more wear out of them than emelia did, especially with the poo sagas of recent weeks lol

will add some pics shortly...
ETA, my pic is corrupted somehow, this is one on flickr though

what a nightmare

i have just spent the past hour trying to get my overlocker to work, even called the store for advice, and have now given up.

i'm trying to do a rolled hem (with a variegated thread) and the lower looper thread just keeps breaking. i have rethreaded the whole thing probably 12 times or more, no kidding. i have also changed the needle as they suggested.

i just don't have time to take it down there for them to look at as the party is at 1pm. i wish they'd bothered to call me back about their beginners class last year (or was it the year before? lol), i can't afford it now :(

thank goodness i found a cute handbag i'd bought for rory's birthday but not given as the girls don't really play with any of the handbags they have already...

birthday gift

on wednesday ryan got his first preschool birthday party invitation!

i realised yesterday that rsvp was yesterday, even though the party wasn't til june (very early to send out invites i thought, especially with one day to rsvp!) anyway, called to rsvp and the party is on THIS saturday, someone got confused lol

i meant to have a quick look at the shops this morning but forgot and with our new tight budget i decided i should really try to make something.

the birthday girl is turning 4 and seems to be the youngest of a few children. she is quite tall and slim and seems to be from a european background and has a very individual style which is a bit funky and lot like ottobre. lucky eh?! lol

so i found some nice soft indigo denim and am making this skirt - luckily mum already traced off the wrong size for emelia which happens to be the exact right size for lejla :) i'm going to top stitch with either red or hot pink, i'm not sure if she's a pink girl...

Emelia (3y 7m)

waist 53cm
chest 55cm
height 110cm

ryan - height 113cm

community service announcement LOL

i have just set up a food / kitchen blog, to share my kitchen experiments and favourite recipes.
http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/

done!

wooooo! not only did i finish something in a day but it was something for me too!!! yippee!! (the kids are just about sorted for winter, i want a whole new wardrobe i can't afford though so i need to be sewing...)

the jacket doesn't fit quite right - it's actually a bit tight across the shoulders and i'm not really sure how to fix that. other than that it's not too bad, could do with an extra cm all round perhaps.

i didn't put elastic on the arms as i decided i liked them as they were. they are also shorter than i expected, but luckily i love 3/4 sleeves ;) i haven't done the ribbon tie yet as none of my ribbon is the right colour.

i don't mind the style - it's probably not quite me for casual wear but suits very well for work. i'll probably make at least one more (i have several more velours waiting lol)

PS: do you like the photo ryan took for me? i asked him to take a photo of my jacket so he did exactly what i asked lol i supposed i shoudln't complain, at least there's no double chins lol!!!

nice rainy day for sewing...

i'm trying to make myself a jacket to take to melbourne - something new :)

yesterday i drafted teh pattern to fit and cut it out. hoped to sew but didn't. today i'm sewing...

i'm making this jacket from Ottobre 2/08 design #10 in a chocolate brown stretch velour. interesting to sew lol

seven things meme

I’ve been tagged by Dani

Firstly, here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog
2. Share seven facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven Things :
1. I am hoping to sew myself a jacket to take to melbourne today.
2. both my girls are getting sick, only 4 days before we fly out, i am just dreading that it could be tonsilitis :(
3. too much is never enough
4. i am craving a decent cup of coffee - aldi coffee is good enough most of the time, but i want something better atm
5. i desperately want to be organised but never seem to get close
6. i can't stand whinging whining children - aaagh
7. half of the filling in the tooth i've been procrastinating on having refilled, fell out last night

I’m tagging
7 people who i will work out later today lol

ok, tagging...
dani / dsk
the crone
lynn / dreamweaver
helen / mini-grey
karen / phreespirit
traceyleigh

and i just can't think of a 7th person who i don't think would get annoyed with me lol (not that i think anyone on the list will actually do this lol)

Ryan's Library Bag for preschool

still in shock that my boy has started preschool (and that he loves it so much!). even though i checked the list the week before it started i'm positive a library bag wasn't mentioned on it so i didn't have one organised when the note came home on wednesday saying that IF they had a library bag on friday they'd be allowed to borrow a book (if not, too bad so sad!!)

i work weds & thurs so no chance of making a bag on those nights, i am exhausted.

so i made it today. i used this blog tutorial for inspiration and a search on eb to get the idea and dimensions etc.

i totally stuffed it up but love it anyway LOL i haven't been feeling well today (dizzy & nauseous) so was having trouble concentrating. it was suppose to be blue on the outside and green on the inside, with the handle sewed into the seams hehe

i handstitched ryan's name on the label, and did the button more for practice for him than practicality.

mermaid skirt

today i hosted a craft open house - only eilleen was able to make it but it was lovely to chat and catch up with her, and i achieved my aim of getting something done!

i had planned to start some winter clothes for ryan but hadn't tidied up in time (plus hadn't washed the fabric) and remembered i wanted to make a princess skirt for rory for her birthday. i found the instructions on a blog (i forget where :() last week.

I had some gorgeous green and blue glittery organza already and decided to combine the two, not realising that it would make a skirt that looked like a mermaids! the idea was to make a loop of elastic slightly smaller than the waist (i used my usual wide waist elastic but recommend you use as narrow an elastic as possible, as long as it's strong enough). you then cut strips of any shimmery / see through fabric and simply knot them around the elastic - voila!

the only downside is that there is glitter EVERYWHERE!

the photos show emelia modelling it for me :)

Heights January 2008

Ryan - 111cm
4y 7.5m

Emelia - 102cm
3y 4.5m

Rory - 85cm
22.5 mo

heights October 07

A - 82cm (nearly 19mo)
E - 100cm (3y 1m)
R - 106.5cm (4y 4m)

Tagged!

Fiona (Deeva Gal) tagged me (lucky she told me as i don't read my own blog let alone anyone else's these days LOL)

Here’s how it works:
1. Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of their first or middle name.
2. When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.
3. At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag.
4. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them that they have been tagged, and to read your blog.
5. If I’ve tagged YOU (see below), please join in on the fun!

K - krazy, this is how i feel most of the time (plus i can't spell)
A - angry, is how i spent a lot of the past 18 months. luckily i am feeling much less that way now...
R - rich, i wish i was!
E - eating, i do far too much and need to cut it back
N - nerve, that's what i've got at the moment, a pinched one :o(

Now, I choose to tag the following:
Ingrid
hmmmm i'm not even sure who still writes their blog, i'd better go and check!

sewing at last

i have just been too busy to sew - and not really in the mood to be honest. yesterday i decided to sew, as rory needed some between seasons pants. i started by repairing some pants that needed new elastic, as a warm up activity, and then moved on...

used ingrid's easy pants pattern and some brushed cotton from an op shop. then i cut up a worn out 2nd hand shirt from kmart and used it as a pattern to make the little purple shirt (the white shirt is also an ottobre shirt i made earlier in the year)

rory is sick atm so she wasn't really cooperating...

Inspired!

started to catch up on blogging friends tonight - didn't get far before i was inspired by helen's blog and her disappearing 9 patch quilt.

i think I've quilted once upon a time at school - 20+ years ago! but i tend to have a bit of an 'i can't fail' attitude *sigh*

so i dug in my cupboard for scraps that i wouldn't use for anything much else and sat on the floor (being too lazy to clear the dining table after dinner) cutting them out. i have decided the cutting is the bit i hate most! but then again i don't have a rotary cutter etc, i was using a template and cutting 2 at a time with regular scissors. perhaps next time i'll borrow mum's lol

the sewing was easy though i've only done one and it's bedtime! the rest will have to wait. this can become a little blanket for emelia for her birthday - she loves to put things over her teddies, little people, the cats etc (hehe) so this can be for that.

the colours don't do it for me (i'd love gorgeous fabrics like helen's) but they'll do for this purpose.

i'd love to make a nice one for ryan ... one day... maybe !

Ikea long weekend gtg!

how about 10am or 1030am?

shirts for rory

it's been so long since i've sewn, what with being flat out with TW, having the kids home sick (and totally unable to sew when rory is around these days) and being sick myself...

I'd cut a heap of stuff out for rory on the weekend and yesterday got one shirt sewn before crashing into bed to sleep for hours. i cna't seem to get the neckline right, but I think i need to stretch the banding before I sew it on and that should work better.

the shirt is an ottobre one but i can't remember the details!

thanks for tagging me helen :o) i'll get to it later today i hope...

and will put my pincushion swappee's parcel in the mail express today :) (log in and see my flickr for a sneak peak) thank you again to ingrid for a gorgeous parcel and pincushion which I think you can see on her blog by now :oD

Op Shop patterns - 20c a piece!

unfortunately the two i like best are size 10, which i am not and never will be LOL

who wants them?