A Bag for Felix

We recently had a Christening to attend for a baby that usually lives in the UK.  What do you give as a meaningful gift that is light weight and folds up to nothing for the trip back home?  Something made from fabric of course.  This is the little drawstring toy bag I made for baby felix.  Using the most adorable vintage man print flannelette fabric.  I used a stitchery pattern from The BirdHouse and altered it slightly to suit.  Last year I made a similar bag for my Mater B and it is still one of his favorites.   

Chooks - Our Girls

Its winter and my chickens are getting old.  We have had these girls for about three years now and we are getting some strange eggs, it is amazing really they are still laying at all.  We get about 3 eggs every 2 days from 4 chickens (which is chopping block time by my usual standards.)  Last week it was like lucky dip, what kind of eggs are we going to get today?

Lots of different colours...

An enormous egg and a tiny, tiny little one...

The biggest egg ever, normal size and the smallest egg ever.

What a fabulous week of eggs, great work girls.

Paper Chains

Do you remember making paper chains as a child?  I spent some formative time in the UK as a kid and we made paper chains there ALL the time.  On any and every occasion we would get out the paper strips and chain up.

Here in our house we have a mountain of scrapbooking papers, as pretty as the are, they are not being used.  So bring on the paper chains.  We cut them into 6 x 1 1/2 inch strips, the kids had a stapler each and raced to see who could make the longest chain fastest.

It was fun and no-one was accidentally stapled
(which was a great concern of mine given the frenzy of activity.)

Perfect decorations for Master B's birthday.  

Bugs on a Leaf Cake

It's birthday time at our house.  Birthday cakes are a serious business in our family, but this year Master B kept coming up blank when we asked him what kind of cake he wanted.  We were out and about recently and found this great Insect cake mould in Wheel and Barrow.   (Long story short - Kmart have the same mould for lots less than I paid in W & B.  I am not sure if the Kmart one is of a lesser quality but for the amount of times it will be used I doubt it matters.)

So here is what we came up with: Butter Cream Leaf Sponge with Chocolate Ganache Insects.  I am not as excited as some years and I always struggle with my control issues when the children want to help...

Marshmallow Flowers by Miss M, heavily decorated bugs by Miss S.

Overall it did look very fun and the bugs and flowers were in huge demand.  

Happy 5th Birthday Master B

Miss Molly Makes Dolly

Did you see this Dolly pattern in issue 14 of Molly Makes?  Well my children and I did and they all said "please Mum, please can you make us one, please we will help, oooh she is so cute."  They were right it is a seriously cute doll designed by Laura Hunter .  I thought it looked uncomplicated enough and really it is, I was just silly and tried to make three at the same time, with three children helping.

It started off ok they all choose their fabrics and cut out their pieces then left me to do the rest.  So the project dragged on a bit.  But they are done now and are infectiously cute.  I especially like Beau Bottomly the only chap in the trio.

Mr Bottomly still has a couple of pins holding him together where I need to hand stitch.

All in all my frustrations  aside I think they are great and so do the kids.

What We Have Been up to

It's been a busy week or so at our house.  For a few days there was nothing exciting, creative or crafty just normal Mummy business.  I was saved from monotony by my friend Suze (Ms Corporate.) Suze had a day off, so came over for some creative time.  It was great and it got us both doing fun stuff while having a good natter.

I got started on a Birthday cake for Master B (yep its that time of year again.) And Suze got cracking on an Uptown Girl jacket for her Miss Z.

Can you tell it's going to be a leaf? He wants a bug and leaf cake???

The icing gives a more leafy feel.

Pattern cutting

How great is this polar fleece, Love it.

Can't wait to see the finished jacket.