More Wildlife Warriors

Here is a full view of Lill's new outfit! Details below.
The back of the singlet and yes, the square and heart is supposed to be wonky!

Cute little Croc girl!

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These are...wait for it... Burda 9793 shorts in a size 6 that I've made a million times already this year! I think I could make them with my eyes closed now! Lilly picked out this fabric when she helped me choose the fabric for Joe boy's shorts so I've finally made them for her.

Of course I didn't buy enough for her size so I had to use pink spot for the pockets and a camo print for the waistband, which as it turns out looks great. Half a metre only does the front and back on these shorts for a size 6, must remember that!

I had this Australia Zoo badge in my stash which is perfect for these shorts. Now to make a matching singlet.


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This is an appliqued singlet with ROAR in jungle animal print and leopard/camo prints for a little 4 year old boy's birthday!

I am hoping to make mostly handmade gifts this year for my friends kids birthday's...trouble is they are all mostly in April!

I'll give it my best anyhow.

Wildlife Warriors

Here are my little Wildlife Warriors wearing their new Jungle Party Animal print matching shorts, well kind of 3/4 length shorts. I love love love these shorts. They are trusty Burda 9793 just lengthened a little.

I did leopard print pockets. We had a great day at Australia Zoo on Australia Day! We saw Bindi and Robert and watched John Williamson sing!

My Mum's Garden

A bit back I mentioned that my Mum was very clever at sewing but doesn't have much time for it anymore because she is very clever at something else as well...

So she has the most amazing garden ever and just loves it! Actually Mum and Geoff, my step Dad have the most amazing garden ever. I took these pics the other day when we spent the day swimming in the pool and checking out all the tracks and hidey places. This place was once an overgrown 3 acre horse paddock with a dam in the corner. And now about 11 years later it looks like this!!

She has always been good at gardening even when I was little and we lived at 'Inverness' in the cottage, there was always a garden with flowers everywhere in beds surrounded by rocks, so neat. With stuff that grew in that area. She is good at that. Drive around your area and see what's growing is what she says and then buy that. She turned up at our place yesterday morning with a load of flowering trees for us and today we walked around our yard and figured out where they will all go.

There are ducks on the dam, pet ones, that get fed bread, and wild ones that join in too. This is the one and only duckling that managed to hatch and survive from 9 eggs in the nest on the bank of the dam hidden in a nest amongst the Bromeliades. We are hoping it survives, there are eels in the dam, so far it has escaped them and also bad dogs or foxes we think that usually get the ducklings or eggs before they hatch.

There are ducks, chooks, dogs, a cat, lorikeets and possums to feed, and... the birds...so I won't remember all of them but roughly: 4 eclectus parrots with babies Jim and Bob, Sun Conures, Finches, Red Rumps, Cockatiels, Burkes Parrots, Splendid Parrots, I forget the rest, they deserve a post of their own! But there is a whole lot more than what you see in these couple of pics, stay tuned...

Kindy Shorts

I have been on a shorts making frenzy these last few days! I just couldn't stop...and you know I could probably do more.

Actually I have to do more, since Lilly picked all this fabric with me last week for Joe boy's kindy shorts, she managed to throw in a couple of rolls for herself as well! The best fabric she picked is an all over jungle animal print which I have made into 2 pairs for each of them. Will blog that later when they are wearing them.

But there is also a pink version of a camo print she had to have which I have to make up.

Then I'll tackle the kindy sheets, matching bag and pillow.

So this pattern is the famous Burda shorts pattern that I love so much in a size 2, a generous cut and scant seam though. I did varying lengths just for variety. I love these cause they are so easy to pull on and off and using cotton makes them super comfy for lots of play at Kindy. Joey loves the pockets and with the contrasting pocket yoke they look a little less like PJ pants!

And here is my other trusty sewing companion, my kitty cat, Miss Pinkee. Her favourite place is the ironing board. She's a nice cat, doesn't cause any problems, puts up with the Fox and keeps me company at night. She's turning 9 years old very soon.

Sunflower

Not so long ago we planted some sunflower seeds. And now look at what we've got!

This is the first flower of probably another 20, which are too close together, so next time we'll grow them in a line and make a sunflower fence.

This is a bag I've had in the UFO section since before Christmas, its a gift for my friend Sue. If she reads my blog before I give it to her tomorrow...SURPRISE!!! It's a bright yellow with colourful butterflies and an orange spot lining, making it very bright and happy.

Singlets

These are for a friend's little girl who just turned 1.

I drew this little bird and used the font Cheri for the girl singlet. She is going to look very cute in these.

And this is my faithful ever present sewing companion. You can guarantee if I am sewing, then this little dog...Flossy...is by my side, actually behind me, squeezed between me and the backrest of the chair, always, always! Actually she is always, always by my side. She was supposed to be for the kids, to follow them around the yard etc, but she stays with me! You cute little puppy dog Miss Floss (aka The Fox!)

Christmas Time 2008 Overview - this is long!

Me and my kids at Carols by Candlelight wearing our homemade goodness.
Lilly's singlet said 'nice' and Joe boy's said 'merry'.

My excited little kids on Christmas morning.

Santa had brought them exactly what they asked for- real baby chickens hatched by Mrs Claus in the North Pole for Lilly and a 'water feature' for Joe boy! Both items chirping and spurting water in the bedrooms when they woke, don't ask!!!!!!

Been a bit slack with blogging lately! Well, I've been busy. We had a great christmas followed by a little holiday to Bargara where we saw the most amazing spectacle of nature that has been occuring since the Dinosaurs. Of course I am talking about the nesting and hatching Sea Turtles that come back to their birthplace at Mon Repos to lay their eggs but not before they reach breeding age of about 30 years of age, so for every 1000 hatchlings only ONE makes it to breeding age. Loggerheads and Leatherbacks (I think) are critically endangered but thanks to the work and research that started over 30 years ago, hopefully the future will improve and we are doing our part by making a resolution for no more plastic! I was thinking, when I get some spare time, to make some more of these (I've done one), or at least form a group to make alot and do my part for our world. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

The amazing Loggerhead we saw laying her eggs, what a priviledge to witness this!
In front of the stats for the night so far with their turtle shirts I made them.
Mon Repos beach in the morning, we could see the tracks from about 5 turtles from the night before, but there was many more.
I'll have more on the turtles in another post as we are going back to see some hatchlings in a few weeks.

...Back to Christmas!
This year I made something I have been thinking about for a few Christmases but have never gotten around to doing---a Rocky Road Christmas Tree. It was delicious and so easy, yet looked a million bucks!
I also made a baked ham using a treasured secret recipe from my old friend Renee's Dad. It was delicious as well.

And when I returned from our holiday I had some very lovely mail! Elissa from Kelani had sent me some Sandi Henderson Farmer's Market Apple Dot in Spring, which she completely didn't have to and I am so touched at her generosity. So there are no pics of that, but when I make it into something or other I will blog it and send it into her inspiration gallery for all to see. If you haven't checked out Kelani Fabric Obsession for the best range of designer fabrics around with free postage then you just must! Thankyou so much Elissa, I am yet to spend my latest gift voucher from you, but I am feeling some of this is in order!

So for this year, I am hoping to continue sewing, helping in some way continue renovating our house, send Joe boy off to Kindy, start Miss Lilly in Grade 1 and keep enjoying life and my family.

The next sewing projects are a couple of UFO's, including appliqued singlets to go with some sets and them get them on Etsy or MadeIt, a glam green bag for a gift (1/2 done) and a whole lot of those fantastic Burda shorts for Joe boy for kindy and of course kindy sheet sets.