Christmas Clothes

The Children's clothes are all made, thankyou Fabritopia your fabric is great quality. All three boys will get a patchwork snake and Alice, if I finish it on time, Sheldon the knitted turtle, of course I will finish it who needs sleep, right!.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas,
may peace be with you,
Kerrie

All is quiet

Well, It's midnight, the turkeys are stuffed, the tables are set and now all is quiet. Dan took the children around Ballarat to look at the Christmas lights, and I got the chance to take these photos.

Christmas Merrymaking

Alice helping to make, or should I say taste the christmas cake.

I was lucky enough to come across some open weave wool fabric at the Woollen Mill in Creswick, I picked it up for a song. I thought it would be perfect to use for dry felting. My neighbour Sue, dyed some tops for me, thanks Sue, and I made some pencil rolls for my nephews and niece. My eldest Jim was impressed, so he got to work and felted one for his Kris Kringle present at school. His is the last picture and I love it so much, so much that I thought it was too good to give away, but I bit my lip and said nothing, because what would that be teaching him. I did make him promise to make make another one to keep, which he agreed to. Hope it finds a nice home.

And in the giving theme, if you can think of another use for this fabric, I give you one metre of it. even overseas. I have quite a few colours.

Well, I'm a lucky girl, I've got a brand new, whiz bang sewing machine. I bought my first machine at age 17 for $1500, funny isn't it how I managed to save this much money so young, and now I can't save a cent. It was the first of the computerised machines 20 years ago, It finally gave up the ghost and this is what I replaced it with. A Pfaff. I always thought my next machine would be a Bernina, but I hear not so many good things about them now. The built in walking foot sold me on the pfaff. It's a very clever little machine, the presserfoot just goes down and up when starting or finishing no manual interferance necessary.It also has this clever way of pivoting when doing curves or corners, so when you are sewing and stop to pivot, the needle automatically stays in the fabric but the pressure foot just comes up slightly so you can turn the fabric but when you press the foot pedal again the foot goes down. It makes for quick and fun sewing. I actually thought I would buy an embroidery machine, but decided they lacked a certain 'something' that handiwork has, hands down.

In the first photo I'm making Alice her Christmas outfit, It has some lovely built in cross stitches patterns.

Now that Alice is crawling, pinnies are appropriate I just LOVE pinnies on little girls. The fabric is a fine cordoroy made by Hilco in Germany, the main reason I love the net- fabric stashes. The colours and quality of this fabric is superb. the patterns are out of Ottobre, a wonderful Finnish patern magazine that just know how to dress children like children. I realised after making the generous pants that she could wear them as knicker bockers when she is two or three.

The last photo of Miss Alice in her smocked bishop blouse and bloomers that I just made up. I much prefer bishops over square yokes, so much more freedom to move. I adore smocking, I tried to get Flynn my 3 year old to wear a smocked peter pan shirt, he did let me put it on him, then he said a definite No. But it looked soooo cute on him, I chased him around the house, bribing him with all sorts of wonderful goodies but to no avail, I so should've been born last century!

I can stand

How proud Alice is of herself, as a mother, these firsts are so very wonderful.

A new addition to our family, "cheepy" named by Flynn

More additions, Joseph, my snugly boy.

Hexenhaus

The children and a dear friend, Evelyn, busily decorating our Gingerbread House, the tally for the lollies, one for the house, two for the mouth.

The finished house, no sooner had it been finished, a little voice said "can we eat it now?" "funny" I said, "thats what I thought you had been doing all afternoon."

Spring in the garden

Crab apples in spring, Edna Walling once said, sitting under these trees is like sitting in fairyland. I do hope so.

Flynn found some baby potatoes this morning, they are Nicolas, my favourite spud. He washed them, scrubbed them, then I steamed them and covered them in butter and seasalt, and Flynn had a lovely lunch. Through his eyes a productive morning.

Teepee

Funny isn't it, how one minute there is no wind at all and then when you start putting up teepee's it gusts and blows. I had bought this lovely duck canvas last year on ebay in America for a song and finally got the urge to sew it up when Jim was having his birthday. 25metres of canvas! It's an easy thing to sew, just a lot of fabric to be carrying around under the machine.

The children are desperate to sleep in it over night, I just need to get around to sewing a door flap to make it mozzie proof. It took forever to put it up, I'd like to know the American Indians secret, I just kept saying to Dan " there're must be a trick to it,Dan". The boys love it.

Right, I'm going to blog three times this week, I really like bloging once I start, but I'm always too busy doing or lurking around other people fabulous blogs for inspiration.

Home life

Everyday I sit Alice with the chooks whilst I hang the washing out, I've done this with all of my children and they love that early morning "took took" with the chickens, it's so very grounding. We now have a rooster, standing to the left of Alice. And what a mightly fine rooster he is!, He is a true gentleman, always stands back and lets his girls get the first pick of tidbits, never crows before 5am (or at least I don't hear him) and sorts the girls out when they need sorting out, but he is never aggresive although his talons are huge.

Joey with a beautiful smile, I knitted the jumper on the knitting machine, I'm into raglan sleeves at the moment.

Two new additions for our family, Flynn is quite the mother. Every year we end up with some orphaned lambs and everyear they end up inside even though everyear I say 'they won't be comming in' to the children. I still can't figure out how to put a nappy on them -what to do with that tail. Any suggestions? So I end up just chasing them around the house with my paper towel and cleaner.

I love packages in the post. the other day the postman dropped off a parcel to our neighbour, only to be told that the ebay queen lived next door, whoops!. This fabric came from "from Holland with love" and I love it and that it came from Holland.What shall I make with it? any ideas? For now it will go in my stash .

First Birthday

Happy first birthday my sweet Alice, that first year, goes by so quickly, how I wish that it would take two years to get to one, and six months to get to six weeks. I'm not denying that it isn't hard work, but there's something about newborns that very addictive, for me anyway.
The top photo is Alice 3 weeks old, all 11 pound of her!, it's a good thing they can't tell you your babies weight till after there're born, I would have just keeped my legs crossed.
Alice is such a delight, she never really fussed as a baby, if she was in my arms, she was happy. Her big brothers look after her very well, and she has got them well trained in getting her what she wants.Alices gives the best hugs , but don't expect a smile, but she is very ticklish so we resort to that when we want to check that she can still smile:)
Alice had a lovely birthday with all our family and friends, Her birthday cake was a heart shaped black forest cake (omit the alcohol) and she had way to many slices of it. Her duck pinnie and pant was her present from me. I cheated and knitted it on the knitting machine. I love little girls in pinnies, you won't see any denim jeans on my girl! Although I did buy some beautiful wool denim this winter, so you might see a pinni!.
Happy birthday Alice, may the wonder of the world be yours...

Teepee birthday cake

I made some long bread sticks for the poles, I overcooked them so that they would be hard. I made a round chocolate cake and put the sticks around the edge, tied with some string at the top. The tee-pee is made from white chocolate(lots and lots) and glucose so it is bendable, I then wraped it around the sticks and magically it stayed. I then decorated the edges with jelly snakes.

The children enjoyed eating it.