My creative space...

Don't you hate it when you have a "simple" job to do, but for some reason you can't bring yourself to do it, even though you know you will love (and truly want) the end result?
Maybe I'm the only one who suffers from this?
Yes, no, maybe?
But anyway... for some reason I kept putting off making some vinyl wall art, and the knowledge that I was putting it off was stifling my creativity big time! (hello negative cycle!)

I wanted it done... In fact I really wanted it done like a month ago.
I needed it done, to list on my website.
But for some reason I couldn't quite bring myself to actually DO it... The idea was there, but the creativity required wasn't... *sigh... - {It probably all comes down to the fact that I have to use a program that I'm not particularly fond of or fluent in - and as you will know by now I am a big time procrastinator every time something is even a teensy bit out of my comfort zone... }

... but anyway I got there. It took me about 500 times longer than it should have, but I got there:

And I love it!

Relief!!.

And thankfully now the creativity to do the rest is flowing again too... Phew!
{It's never as bad as you think it's going to be, once you've built up the confidence to start, is it?!... }

PS linking up today with kootoyoo's creative space. Come over and play along...

PPS - pretty ironic the verse I decided to start with isn't it lol... - how funny!

Tuesday Tidbits

 

**  Today I put on my constructive mummy hat and did some baking with Hannah while Abbie napped...

**  We baked New Zealand cookies - some in the shape of the country, and some kiwis. Plus some hearts and flowers thrown in for good measure...

**  It worked a charm and kept us busy for a good hour...

**  They got a bit "crisp" - but since they are not for masterchef I'm pretty sure we can be forgiven - they still taste good...

**  Afterwards I had Hannah "help" me with the dishes...

**  Which translates to - Hannah stood in front of the sink playing with water and getting us both wet while I did the dishes around her lol...

**  I did not mind one bit because it kept her so occupied that she did not have time to whinge at me, and I had time to put the washing away and hang another load out after I had cleaned up, while she continued happily playing in the sink...

**  Day 1 without Neil went ok... 1 down - too many to count to go - boo hiss!!

**  Abbie is getting worryingly close to walking

**  She is only yet capable of walking holding my hands - but seems determined to let go and make a run for it...

**  It leaves me wondering what am I in for once she is capable!!

**  I still can't believe that she is doing all this but is not yet 8 months!! - Hannah was still 2 months away from crawling at this age let alone close to walking!

**  Abbie is a good eater...

**  So great in fact that in the last few weeks I have caught her eating all number of goodies if I turn my back for 2 seconds - stickers, slaters, dog biscuits, Hannah's dropped crumbs, sand... Yummo!

**  I really want to sew or make something tonight...

**  I really need to start sewing or making stuff for my business tonight...

**  I can't decide what - so I am procrastinating and doing this instead...
 
**  I am in a bit of a creative slump...

**  Creativity - where are you? - please come back!!

**  I am wondering what you do to get back on the creative wagon?...

**  I just ate half a bag of lollies

**  Now I have a sore tummy from eating too much sugar...

**  you would think that I would learn!! LOL...

**  That is about all...

Monday $$$ Matters: The launch...

Happy Monday everyone!! & welcome to the launch of my new series:

Those of you who are regular readers may have read my recent Family $$$ Matters series, where I showed you my 5 part money management system. At the end of the series I touched on the fact that I didn't think I was quite finished with the $$$ Matters theme... So here is the next installment:

As a young family on 1 very irregular income there are times (ok - so pretty much all of the time!) when we find it hard to balance the incoming income and outgoing expenses and make it work. We have to plan our spending extremely well and get very creative at various times so that we can make the accounting work. Just a hunch, but I'm pretty sure that we're not alone in finding it a struggle make ends meet in this economy!...

So - I've decided to launch this series, in the hope that we can all pool together our money saving ideas, and inspire and help each other in surviving this economy without racking up a bunch of new debt...
- Because I don't know about you but I could definitely use a few new ideas to help me keep a fresh approach (for example so that I am not dishing up fried rice every night for dinner!)

Here's the deal -

Every Monday for the next wee while I will post a different $$$ saving theme on my blog. The themes will be very diverse so that hopefully there will be something for everyone (and suggestions are very welcome!)
I will then offer my idea/suggestion/option for said theme
You lovely people will then have the opportunity to offer your ideas/suggestions/options in the comment box

But here's the catch:

** This series will rely on you to make it work... **

The whole idea will be a great big fizzle if it's just me talking to myself... and that will kind of suck if I'm honest - because I know you guys have a lot of wisdom and it would be great if we could all inspire each other... That's my hope anyway :)

So without further ado lets get going on Week 1:

This week I'm going to make it simple, because I realize that I've kind of sprung this on you...

As you know, this week I've committed to spending more 1 on 1 time doing more focused activities with Hannah. So:

What is a unique, great idea for a low cost, fun activity to do/make with small children (preferably which holds their attention for more than 2 minutes)?...

The favourites in our house are:

• Making a cubby house
• Having a "tea party"
• "Painting" our nails (which involves a small container of water and a paintbrush)
• Drawing all over the chalkboard with chalk and then "painting" it with water to see what we can pain (our less messy alternative of painting, since my daughter has been known to take to the nearest piece of furniture/wall/herself with paint as soon as I turn my back!)

So here's how you can contribute:

• Leave a comment in the comment box with your suggestion(s)
  - If you have never made a comment on my blog before then don't be scared because it's not hard - so I encourage you to give it a try. You don't need a blogger account, you don't need to jump through any hoops. All you need to do is type in your suggestion and hit post (no pesky word verification even) (just don't forget to include your name).
• If you blog about it then please put a link under your comment so that we can go check out your lovely blog
• If you blog about it then please use my button and link back to this post

Easy huh!

I really look forward to hearing all your great ideas!

(and just so you can get your thinking caps on for next weeks theme - next week I will be asking everybody to share their favourite low-cost meal idea...)

Sorry...

if you visited tonight and thought - HUH - what the? Then I apologize!!
....I am done messing with my blog (for now), so all the crazy looks should have settled down:


Let me know if my new look does/doesn't work for you... I just felt like trying something new.

(well would you look at me: I did a short blog post!! LOL...)

Recognition...

I am pretty terrible at receiving recognition... I get shy and never quite know how to react! Which is why it has taken me SO long to write this blog post... (as well as these both coming at really busy times). So I'm very sorry Tammi & Marianne that it has taken me so long to publicly thank you for the following awards!! I really appreciate both of you honouring me with them!!

At the end of January my very sweet friend Tammi awarded me the stylish blogger award:

... and at the end of February the wonderful Marianne from The Quilting Edge kindly awarded me the Liebster Award:

I would highly encourage you to check out both of their blogs, because they are both super lovely, immensely talented & creative women!!

The criteria for the Stylish Blogger award is:

• Thank and link back to the person who awarded me this
• Share 7 things about myself
• Pay it forward to 10 great bloggers
• Contact those bloggers and tell them about their award
•  

So: 7 things about myself... that is tough!!

1. I will always be a kiwi girl at heart, but I am very happy in my new home of Perth,Australia, and don't know that I will ever go back to New Zealand...
2. I got married to my English gentleman when I was 19 and we are still happily married nearly 10 years later...
   ...
   ...
   ...
   (just waiting for you to get over the fact I got married so young - it usually causes most peoples eyes to glaze over for a bit while they ponder it LOL...)
   
3.  I have 2 lovely daughters: nearly 3 years and 7 months
4.  It surprises most people to know that I have a tatoo...
5. Neil and I have only ever been on one very short holiday as just the 2 of us. I felt sick the whole time and we found out a few days after we got back that I was pregnant with our first child... so we really MUST go on a proper holiday soon!!
6. I'm not really into must of the current vintage trend (shocking I know!)
7. I dream of one day having a little self-sufficient farm, with a wind turbine and everything {until I ponder the amount of work involved in tending the garden, look down at my completely brown thumbs, and think how unrealistic it is ;) }

The criteria for the Leibster award is:

• Tell your readers who tagged or nominated you.
• Add a link to their blog.
• Pay it forward!!! Award 3-5 bloggers who you think deserve this award.
• Inform then and post directions to your blog
• Pick blogs with under 300 followers

It is impossible for me to decide between all my favourite blogs to award so I decided to list some of my favourite crafting blogs (since technically this is my crafty blog, and those tend to be my favourite ones!):

As well as Tammi & Marianne's blogs which I have already mentioned, I also love:

Rachael over at Blue Mountain Daisy

Sarah over at Pings and Needles

Kerry over at VeryKerryBerry

Tonya over at Ok,here goes...

Em over at {Duck egg blue & teacups too}

Shay over at Quilting in my pyjamas

Clare over at Clare's place

Bronwyn over at Taylor Made

Felicity over at Felicity quilts

Sorry if I've missed anyone! Those are the ones I can think of right now...
Edited to Add:

I knew I'd miss people (which is why I put off choosing in the first place) - I find it hard to choose my favourites because I love all the blogs I follow - hence I follow them! LOL...

- So - I have put a blog roll of all the blogs I follow down the right hand side, so that you can peruse all their loveliness at your leisure. Thanks :)

Happy reading!

{and thanks again for the awards Marianne & Tammi!!)

BEYOND Exciting Mail....

Wow, wow and triple WOW!!

Some serious squealing and silly behaviour was witnessed in my house this afternoon when Hannah came home from a shopping trip with her dad and called out to me on arriving home "mummy... we bought you a present..."
...When I saw that it was a box from the USA I knew it could only be one thing and one thing only - my highly anticipated Doll Quilt Swap package - and I was right!! ... (Not the one I had sent off to my partner, but the one that my secret stalker designed especially for me.)

Boy oh BOY I could not wait to rip that box open and see what quilty goodness had been sent to me!! Talk about feeling like a little kid on Christmas morning!! (Ok ok, so I know that to all you people who aren't involved in doll quilt swap that I am completely strange - I accept that.... but it was seriously seriously exciting!!)

I could NOT believe my eyes when I opened the box and was greeted with this absolute masterpiece:

Sorry guys - this is a terrible photo!!

Made by the uber talented Carol, who goes by the name Mamacjt over on flickr.
- I highly recommend that you check out both her blog and her flickr pool, because she is one incredibly talented women!!

Isn't it absolutely breathtakingly incredible? So detailed and creative!! I will show you some of the detail in a minute, but first let me just explain something about the Doll Quilt Swap... There are about 200 people from all over the world involved. That means 200+ quilts for this, the 10th, round. There are some seriously SERIOUSLY talented people in the group (as you can see from above) - and I felt rather intimidated to be a part of it I must say...

...Well out of all the quilts that I had seen finished, this was without a doubt at the top of my "want" list and it was added to my Flickr favourite photos as soon as I saw the photo (and long before I knew that it was coming to me)!! This is my comment that I made 2 months ago under her finished photo in the photo pool:

"OH MY GOODNESS are you serious!!?? This is freakin amazing!!!
I hope I'm your partner!! :D Am I above begging? Hmmm..... NUP - Please, please please please puulllllease LOL...."

Haha - so as you can see - sometimes completely shameless begging does pay off ;)

But the awesomeness of the package did not stop at this breathtakingly quilt. No no... Here is the entire package:

As you can see - a certain person could not keep her hands off my goodies bless her :)

I must say that Carol is a freakishly good stalker and also a very comprehensive swap buddy!! She really went above and beyond with the extras and thought not just of me, but she also had presents for both of my girls - WOW!!
- There is a beautiful dress that she made which was addressed to Abbie, a charm pack of fabric, a gorgeous doll (that I'm also guessing she made), some candy, a pattern that she wrote for a Christmas tree skirt, and lastly a princess sticker book for Hannah (which didn't get included in the photo because they had already found a new home in the toilet - for Hannah's toilet training reward chart - and I forgot to get it back for the photo )
I am feeling so SO lucky (and kind of badly guilty because I didn't sent my swap partner any extras - I could not afford the postage otherwise - So sorry partner!!!!!)

Here is Hannah already sampling the goodies:

Abbie - "Hey that's MY dress..."

- I let Hannah try on the dress briefly before putting it away for when Abbie is bigger... (and by the way - that is the offending bean bag).

The quilt kind of tickled Hannah's fancy as much as it did mine - and in no short time just from her "looking" one of the car buttons fell off - typical... So as a result the quilt was prompty rescued from her clutches and now hangs in pride of place on my pin board, to inspire me as I sew:

And here are the promised close ups of the detail... although apologies, these are yucky night time shots because I ran out of time to take daylight ones (and I'm far too impatient to wait until tomorrow to post this ;) )

haha these remind me of home...

love this little dog - kind of looks like it could be Izzy!

Pretty blessed huh. I loved this quilt from the moment I saw the photo of it - but never even dreamed that I would be the lucky recipient!!

Thank you SO much Carol!! It will be treasured!!

More than one use....

... for a sewing desk...

That's what we found out this morning... Did you know that my sewing desk could also double as a cubby house? Well you do now:

I've always wanted one of these Fisher price doorways for the kids (well ever since we used to borrow one from our local toy library anyway) because we found out very quickly that it was one of those toys that Hannah just never seems to tire of. However, at $200 it was always too far out of our budget...
But on Thursday when I was on our local Facebook baby & toddler buy & sell page, I stumbled across this one for only $25. Bargain I thought!! Only catch was - none of the sounds worked... doh!

But I decided that for $25, as my grandmother would say "beggars couldn't be choosers," and we bought it anyway.

Well, apparently my trusty "bright spark" husband is as good at fixing pretend houses as he is at fixing real buildings, because in no time at all, armed with only his multimeter, he got it working for us.

- 3 cheers for being married to a clever man - WOOP WOOP WOO HOO!!!

So now I get to have hours of fun listening to the same sounds over and over and over and over - YAY! (ok as you may have guessed that might be slightly sarcastic.. but if the kids are happy then I am happy!)

So this is one of the few toys we are enjoying this week, along with a couple of others that have been hiding in the shed for months and months...
No mess & happy kids = happy mummy

Hope you are all having a nice weekend too!

Project 52 - Abbie's quilt finished

I've been so slack at posting my Project 52's of late that I've lost count of what week I'm up to... oops... (and since I'm too lazy to count - oh well...)

This week has been pretty productive really. With Neil being home I've had more time than usual to spend crafting, and I've loved it!! But since 2 of the projects that I finished are top secret for a little while longer, today I will just show you the finished version of Abbie's quilt. Although when I say finished - I'm kind of neglecting the fact that I haven't appliqued her name on it yet... that will be a job for later on, when I've got over my can't be bothereds!! (applique tends to be one of those put-off jobs for me that I love the result of once I'm finished, but find it hard to muster the motivation to start!).

Here it is hanging out after it's first wash in all it's crinkly glory:

Despite the fact that I actually started out keeping this blog as a quilting blog, I haven't actually made a quilt larger than a mini/dolls quilt for AAAAAAAGES!!! Way too long! (whoops) So it was really nice to have a very simple, quick and completely mindless quilt to make that I could put together in an afternoon. It's not very big - small cot size. And it's just made out of scraps from my first quilt, so nothing fancy (not even all quilters cotton). But I love it! It's so bright and colourful, and it will always be special to me that these are the fabrics that I started my quilting journey with!

Trying to photograph Abbie enjoying her quilt was pretty hopeless - the distraction of being able to see out the front window for a change (we usually have the nets drawn to block out the light/heat) proved too much, and she wouldn't look at the camera or keep still despite my copious amounts of silly noises... ;)

Here is one where she is somewhat sitting still (a rarity these days)...

For the quilting I decided to match it to Hannah's quilt with all over free motion "stippling":

So now my girls have 2 matching quilts, and I have recaught my quilting bug... Hmmm... what to make next!! :)
I have another finished quilt top in my drawer just waiting to be sandwiched, quilted and bound - so perhaps that would be a good start!!

How are you guys all going with your projects?

PS if you read my latest post and wondered why the end didn't make any sense - that's because what I MEANT to say (before it got randomly deleted) was that with all the drama Neil's supervisor kindly rebooked his flight for Monday morning - so the upside to the whole bean-up-a-nose situation was that we have 3 more sleeps and days of him at home - wooo hooo!! - I sure am glad there was an upside!!

oh Hannah...

... It's been an eventful couple of days here in the Flutter house!! Let me set the scene for you and explain the events leading up to today... (Sorry another long post!)

It's no secret that I've been a bit over mothering recently... in fact tired & worn out may be a little of an understatement! A large part of that (ok a seriously HUGE part of that) is Hannah's little "habit" of throwing a tantrum... or two... or three... She throws them regularly and in quite a spectacular style and after a while it wears me down! They never work - as in she never gets what she wants - and thankfully any tantrum phase is usually short lived because of that. But unfortunately, with the stress of recent toilet training and her dad returning temporarily to working away, these spectacular tantrums have become increasingly regular. Ok that's probably a total understatement as well - but enough said!

This week I decided that drastic behaviour called for drastic action!!

Inspired by one of my lovely friends Gemma, I decided that since Hannah's behaviour has deteriorated so magnificently, it was time for some major changes... As well as stress and some major life changes, I'm pretty sure a big part of her problem is over stimulation. I'm sure Hannah has so many toys out that she finds it hard to focus and therefore gets bored and destructive. So yesterday, while Hannah went on a daddy date to playgroup, and later while she slept off a tantrum:

Apparently the floor was much more comfortable yesterday!

I began "decluttering"...
Our house is now looking VERY empty of toys and our shed is now looking like this:

 

All toys from inside and out, except for the bear minimum, have all been taken away and now reside in our shed. (I have to say I'm enjoying the lack of mess and the extra space!)

Why?

I've decided that from now on our house will operate like a toy library. Once a week I will put this weeks toys away and pull out another couple of options from the shed to replace them in the hope of combating the over stimulation.

But the changes aren't all going to be Hannah's - I'm also going to make changes! I'll try and spend more time with her doing more one on one activities. Now that she's older I need to make more of an effort to teach her to play at the next level. Pretend play, baking, drawing, craft... etc... I will try and do at least one long, focused activity (as well as the more general playing) with her on the mornings when we don't go to playgroup or mothers group and also encourage her to help me with things like chores, so that we can spend some more quality time together.

So watch out folks - because you'll need to help me... You'll find out how you can next week!

Ok, so that's it for the Hannah excitement for now we thought after a long days work yesterday - and Neil & I went out to enjoy some 1 on 1 time together:

But nope - we were wrong... Not the end of the Hannah excitement!

Today was the end of Neil's R & R (Rest & Relaxation week) and he was scheduled to fly this afternoon. Hannah wasn't aware of this - we made sure if it to avoid any meltdowns! - We were planning on telling her today at lunch time, a few hours before he had to depart to the airport. So this is how I know that the following actions can't have been planned (because truly she is a smart girl and I wouldn't put anything past her!)...

This morning she found the outside cover of a Dorothy the dinosaur (her favourite character) bean bag in my sewing drawer. I had never got around to putting the beans in it and had decided to maybe sew something with it instead. Anyway we had some beans in the shed so we thought "what the hell" and decided to transfer the beans into it... We transferred them, cleaned up the mess (so we thought) and went on with our morning...

Cue about 10 minutes later I hear my brother say to Hannah "Hannah what have you got? Did you just put that up your nose?"... Just what every mother wants to hear while she is getting dressed from her shower (on one of the rare occasions that she doesn't have both children in the bathroom with her while she gets ready)!!!

So cut a long story short Hannah did in fact "save" a few of the beans when we were tidying up and put one up her nose... which resulted in her 6th trip in her 2 3/4 years to the emergency department (yes that's right - I said 6!!)

After a couple of failed attempts trying to retrieve the bean, and lots of scary talk about sending us to the main Perth children's hospital for general sedation from the specialist team (because of Hannah's history of respiratory problems they won't consider sedating her anywhere else but in case they encounter respiratory problems - scary!!) the very nice doctor decided to try one last time with a catheter. I am SO pleased to report that he (and the 2 nurses plus me it took to hold Hannah down) were successful and the bean was safely removed.

Hopefully the experience was traumatic enough for her (because it certainly was for me) to avoid a repeat performance!!


So as a treat (for surviving hospital AGAIN!) we took her to get her first hairdresser haircut:

 

She loved every minute of the beautifying process! They even gave her a bright pink cover - the hairdresser sure knew the way to a 2 year old girls heart !!

The only benefit to this situation is that Neil's supervisor rescheduled him to a Monday flight because Neil rung him to let him know that he may not be able to make his flight. So thanks to all the drama we get to spend another 3 mornings enjoying this:

YAY!!! At least there's some benefit right?!

PS I have my Project 52 finished but I might have to post about that tomorrow...

A Quilt for Miss Abbie...

At 7 months old my Miss Abbie is very definite at letting me know what she wants:

For the last week I have not been able to keep her away from my sewing corner!  -In particular my fabric...

... then this morning Abbie and I were the first up (which is the polite way of saying that Abbie woke up early and would not go back to sleep) and we had some time on our hands...
So after trying to drag her away from my fabric numerous times I decided that maybe she was trying to tell me something... "Mum - make me a quilt... pleeeeease mum!... make me a quilt!..."

...And then I remembered that I had an quilt top buried at the bottom of my work in progress drawer which I had started for my cousins daughter but never finished (I made her another one instead). Conveniently it is made out of the scraps of Hannah's quilt. - So an *ahhh HA moment followed of me thinking "yes! A "quick to finish" project that will mean that my girls have matching quilts on their beds now that they share a room."

So I pulled it out and tested whether it met Abbie's approval:

"Yep this one mum... I want to be just like my big sister!!"

"In that case lets choose a back I thought:"

"Yep, I want this one mum..."

..."It goes perfectly don't you think?..."

So while little miss Abbie made herself busy with trying to pull all my hobby fill out of it's drawer...

... I got busy cutting the back...
(Is it any wonder that I'm tired - this tornado of a daughter is only 7 months old?????!!!!!! - I am kind of shuddering to think what she's going to be like as a toddler if this is what she's like as a baby!)

Ok, back cut & ready to get the "roll around test":

"Yep, perfect thanks mum!"

At this point I was started to have wonders in my head of whether I should actually make it for Abbie, or maybe list it in my shop instead...
So just to "help" me make up my mind Abbie decided to "spill" a bit of her morning bottle on it not even just once, but THREE times... oh brother... I guess she figured out that no one else will want it if it has her regurgitated milk on (and this is why I don't make a habit of sewing while my kids are around!).

How pleased does she look at herself!

"Haha mum, I've got you all sewn up!" Giggle Giggle

Since she was so intent on having this quilt made for her I decided to try putting her in jail just so I could safely iron the quilt top and back.
But she wasn't having a bar of it!!...

"WHAAAA WHAAAA WINGGGE!!"

So we decided to have breakfast instead...
I guess I will have to work on it later during naptime as per usual lol...!

On another note - I finished the last secret project for my Modern Swap partner last night. It's SO cool and I absolutely must make myself one ASAP. And even more exciting - now I'm finished all my swap projects and almost ready to send!
I took some photos of my secret project to make a tutorial, so stay tuned...

Time out...

The last couple of days this mumma has been treated to some time out. It has been much delighted in! ...

A relaxed Sunday sleep in (well till 7.40am - that counts as a sleep in!)...
Some relaxed Sunday Sewing...

This afternoon I got to put the finishing touches on the sewing machine cover for my modern swap partner. It looks pretty snazzy. This is the only sneak peak you are allowed until after she has recieved it though - I don't want to give the game away and spoil the surprise...

Tonight I was lucky enough to escape for the evening with some lovely gal pals. It had the perfect ingredients...

**  Great company!
**  Yummy cocktails:

**  Chocolate:

**  Relaxing and comfortable ambience:

... But at the end of the night it wasn't hard to forget we were a bunch of Mummies going home to our real jobs... We got back to Megan's car at the end of the night and look what greeted us:

We had driven all the way to the restaurant with her son's shoes stuck onto the back windscreen wiper of the car!! - We just about wet ourselves laughing... hilarious!!

Now that I've been spoiled and had my bit of time out, it's my turn to spoil my family...
So bring on a few days of family fun...

Hope you are having a great week too!