Monday Monday SC

Self Control

A big thing. It plays a huge role in our lives. Today I struggled with it and also did really well with it. There are certain things that really push the limits of my SC, like brownies...mmm. I see them sitting there on the bench waiting for me all day. But usually I'm good and they stay there. Sometimes they do get the better of me though and I have the shape to remind me. But really, SC is so important when it comes to bigger issues. Morally and not, if we don't exercise our SC it gets weak and soon enough we become a slave to the wrong things and the longer we leave it, the harder it is to get back on top.

Anyway, I still have fabric all over my floor, ask my sister, she was here to witness the large piles of sorted and folded fabrics ready to find their new homes.

I should go. I leave you with my photo of calm...nighty night!

Gentleness.

First, today's photo. "Last thing you bought".

Groceries...Yay!

The fruit for today is Gentleness and our sermon at church this morning was all about attitudes and how the decisions we make are based on our attitudes. Sometimes we feel like we don't have a choice, but in a number of those times our attitude is stopping us from seeing the real situation. The other thing about the decisions we make is how they are perceived by others. One thing that stood out to me in the sermon was how some decisions we make and actions we take can really offend/upset others. So we need to consider the feelings of some people before doing certain things. I know for me, my Nana never liked me to wear black things because of things she learnt earlier in her life, and when I was growing up it was really annoying to me and so I would still wear black because I could. I know now (not just from today) that this may not have been the right thing to do. It may be something insignificant, but people are important and relationships are delicate sometimes, so we should respect these little things and do our best to make people around feel loved/respected. Anyway, being gentle is one of those decisions. I always find myself telling my assistant to be gentle these days. She's little and doesn't quite understand why B-man can't play with her yet. She'll get it soon but I get so frustrated with her sometimes. I know she doesn't mean anything by poking him or whatever, but I snap. Sometimes when I'm tired it's pretty full-on. Today made me think about how I need to choose to be more gentle in my dealing with her (like Mary Poppins, firm but gentle) and I guess learn to deal with my frustration better. And that sort of leads into tomorrows fruit, but I'll leave that for tomorrow.

See you then! xo

Sorry little miss. I love you lots! 

Super Saturday Stuff

I have so many fabrics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You wouldn't think I could really fit them all into my teeny tiny house. I tell you what, it's certainly squeezy in here at the moment. Anyone want to organise my extension??? (And by organise I mean fund...)

Nah, it's fun trying to (re)fit it all in. It does fit, the challenge is making it fit in a practical and neat kind of way. A bit like Tetris, which I love. I spent all of yesterday and today moving things around, folding and stacking fabrics. Not only is it fun to fit them in, but I'm uncovering some little treasures that were hidden previously.

I made these teddies years ago. The one on the left I made before I was married using real joints and soft fluffy fur. The blue one I started before I was married and finished after, way after. They both used the same pattern, believe it or not, what a difference the choice of fabric makes! I prefer bears not to be fluffy, I think. I made a couple using corduroy when I was in high school and loved them, but I gave them away as gifts, so I can't show you those. I wonder what other treasures I'll find in my sorting...

Oh, today's photo is "cup" and this is another cheat photo. Actually my Aunty took this pic at craft one Wednesday. It HAD hot chocolate in it BEFORE he got a hold of it, in case you were thinking I was a terrible mother.

Has anyone actually looked up the fruits with me? Well, we're up to faithfulness today and it can be tough. The definition: Adhering firmly and devotedly, as to a person, cause, or idea; loyal.

I'd like to think that I'm faithful to God, but I know there are many other people/things in this world that I sometimes give my loyalty to and times when I don't feel particularly devoted to Him. I'm so good at being human, not so good at being anything else...I guess most of us are the same though, and that's where Grace comes in. Where does your faith lie?

Anyway, happy Saturday! I hope those of you watching the Olympics are enjoying it. I'm going back to do more folding. I wonder what other goodies I'll find.

I'll see you tomorrow!

Friday (not so) Fun One - The Big Goodbye

Yay it's Friday, right? Well, maybe. I don't know. Today was a big day for me. My little man moved out. Boohoo... He's 9 months today! Now, having him in our room has been causing some tension with my assistant, so the time came to move him out. It's a strange feeling. Coincidentally, my assistant has gone for a sleepover with her cousins, at Normal Nana's tonight. I spent the day saying goodbye not only to B-man and his cot, and my assistant, but also to...

...my sewing room. I know, I'm devastated! 3 big goodbyes in one day.

Humph! It's been really strange feelings all day for me. I'm a bit excited about having our room to ourselves again, but knowing that B-man is all alone is sad. I really wanted the 2 to share a room, but it just isn't an option with such small rooms and also my assistant is very much against the idea of B-man sharing with her. Actually, she doesn't want him sharing with anyone. I guess if she can't sleep in our room, no-one can.

Anyway, I took a couple of pics of my new sewing room(s)...

Bed/library/fabric room. (This is a teeny sample of my fabric stash...mmm). Very organised-looking scraps above...

Lounge/fabric/pattern/sewing room.

I guess it's not all bad. Now I can look at my fabrics whenever I want without having to move half the house around to get into the sewing room. But, it's still sad. I feel like I've lost something very sacred or something. Everyone will be able to see everything I'm working on all the time now too, so I'd better stay a bit more organised.

So that's it about my goodbyes. Now onto something a little less sad, the fruit for Friday. When it comes to goodness, does doing the washing and vaccuuming count as being good or goodness? If so then I guess you could say I was good today. What sort of things do you think of when you think of goodness? I don't think I'm so great at being good sometimes. I definitely have good days and bad days.

Oh, I nearly forgot the photo for today. "On the road". I'm cheating for this one, that is, I didn't take a photo today for it.

Ok, so you can't really tell, but that's me on a motorbike, on the road!!! It's from a few years ago while i pregnant with my assistant. I just really wanted to go for a ride with someone on a motorbike, and the time just happened. I'd been on bikes before, but each time was really slow and round in tight circles, so it always felt like I would fall off. I needed to do it properly to know that it was ok. Strange, but today being a day for big stuff I though it was sort of appropriate. The person in control of the bike is AWESOME! I had a great time and hope to do it again someday...not just yet though.

Only a few days left in July, so I won't be continuing with these photos. Is there something else I should post about here? I might try and do some more craft, a few people have requested that, but if there's anything, please leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Nighty night!

Thursday Thing - Kindness

The thing I was doing today was pattern testing and adjusting. I'm almost done with a particular pattern, but I really don't want to show you until it's finished. Sorry.
I really like the idea of designing things for myself, even though I have well over 1000 printed patterns. I don't know what it is that makes it seem so rewarding, but it does and I love doing it. It's can be so frustrating though. It takes a long time to test some things, but without testing them properly you just can't know if they'll be ok. So I spent the day sewing and then trying, then editing and then sewing again. I can't wait for it to be finished so you can see it too.

The title for today's photo is Sunshine, so I've had this song stuck in my head: "Sunshine on a rainy day" by Christine Anu. There was rain this morning and then sun this afternoon, enough to dry the clothes too. But then there was more rain for my next load...oh well.

Today's fruit is kindness and only last week I was reading this wonderful blog, Grace Full Mama and more specifically this post, A Kind Wife. It was really interesting and helpful. It's definitely worth a read if you haven't seen it already. Sometimes all we really need is for others to be kind to us. All of the posts on her blog are great, so maybe check out a few others while you're there. Leave her a comment and say hi for me too!

Wednesday

I had a great day today! Firstly I'll say that the fruit for today was patience. I feel like I had a fair amount of patience when my 2 year old was reading. It's slow and really frustrating when she gets tired, so I think patience is completely necessary.

Nextly, we went to craft this morning and there were only 4 adults there. Normally there would be 8-12. Another member visited for a few minutes which was lovely, but for the most part only 4 of us. We ate furry friends chocolates from my sister and had a hot chocolate from my aunty. It was so cold outside, so the hot hot chocolate was very welcome!

Third, we went to Grest Nana's, like usual, only this time my sister also came, as did my aunty who comes every other week, and Normal Nana! That is truly rare and very exciting for all of us. So we had a different opponent in Scrabble and she put up a good fight, but it's always a challenge to beat Great Nana. She just finds niggly little nooks to stick in point-heavy letters and smashes the competition. Certainly makes for an exciting game though!

The photo for today is supposed to be "heart" and I didn't think about it until tonight, so this is what I saw and what was missing?

The Heart. Sort of how I feel sometimes when I see certain people. Mmm...

ANYWAY, For those of you that have been following along with my blog, you might remember that I mentioned doing some sewing yesterday, well I did. I completed a whole project. It was a gift for someone very special to me and my kids. Here it is. It's a mobile phone cosy.

I gave it to her and she likes it, so that's a plus.

I thought I could show you how I did it.

So first you need to choose the thing you want to cover, in this case a mobile phone and thankfully the person who received it has the same type as me, so that helped. I just used a plain piece of paper and drew around the phone so I had enough length to fold over the phone with a little flap. Here is my template.

I wanted to use a method similar to foundation piecing, but the lazier version. Basically, I didn't want to measure and pre-cut fabrics, so I made a foundation piece to sew odd pieces of fabric onto until the shape was covered. I thought it would be a good idea to use wadding, but I only had 2 narrow pieces, so I sewed them together with a zig-zag stitch. You can kind of see the seam, but you won't when it's done.

Next I chose some fabrics to use and I thought some of the off-cuts from other projects would be good.

I ironed them and made sure they were all going to be big enough to fit across the width of the wadding. Then I started to attach them.

I laid the first piece onto the wadding right side up but I didn't stitch it on.

The next piece I placed right side down matching the raw edges of both pieces to sew.

I sew most things using a 1/4 inch foot, which I did here too, but this red piece still had the selvage, so I just sewed in a bit from that edge.

I trimmed the seam back to 1/4inch, and the pressed it open.

Then I added a couple more pieces, one at a time in the same way, right side down, stitched them on, trimmed the edge and pressed them open.

Because I was using left-overs, some of the pieces were pretty big and the wrong shape, so I just lined the next one right side down across the middle of the previous piece and stitched it at the angle I wanted. Then I trimmed the excess off the previous piece.

After a few pieces were attached, I turned the whole thing over and trimmed around the edge of the wadding, roughly, just so it was easier to handle, no long dangly bits everywhere.

This is an example of placing a piece where you want and stitching and trimming it.

Using odd shapes and angles, I had to be careful that each piece was still going to cover the whole width of the wadding once it had been stitched. I checked this by first placing them right side UP to check where they would sit...

...and then turning them back over the previous piece to stitch them on.

I needed to do this so many times because of the irregular angles and shapes I was using. More due to my laziness and stinginess RESOURCEFULNESS (using off-cuts) really.

I added a few more pieces and here is the last piece going on.

I pressed the whole thing.

I turned it over to trim it.

Then I decided to stitch along the edge of the flap section to hold the fabric to the wadding. I thought it would help to keep it still while I sewed it to the lining. I just did it really close to the edge though so you couldn't see it at the end.

I though now would be a good time to double check the size. It was ok, so I kept going, but if it wasn't I would have just added another piece of wadding in and some more fabric.

When I was satisfied that it would still fit, I added a button to the centre at one end and a little elastic loop on the flap end.

And then it was time to cut out some lining, so I just laid the main piece onto the lining fabric right sides together and cut around it.

Then I sewed the 2 ends together. I went straight along the bottom, but the whole way around the flap end, so it would stay a little bit separate from the rest when I turned it.

This next bit might be a bit hard to get. I pulled up the wadding part only and laid it together again with the bottom seam against the bottom of the flap section seam. I pinned it so the lining was folded in half and the main piece was in half. It's easier to understand once you can see where I stitched.

Here it is stitched. I left a little opening (maybe 1.5 inches) so I could turn the whole thing through. Something I learnt from someone about leaving this kind of opening was to stitch out from the seam line to the raw edge, that way when you turn it out, the edges you need to sew up by hand are more well behaved ie. the opening doesn't open itself so much.

I trimmed the corners of the flap so it would sit flatter after turning.

Then I turned it through and poked out the corners of the main piece and the flap with a pencil. Sometimes I use a knitting needle, but it depends what is in reach, really. I didn't bother with the corners in the lining because they turn back the other way when it's done.

I stitched closed the opening in the lining with a matching thread.

And then poked in the lining. Woo! Then to test it...

Yay! It fits!

I know there's a little gap, but I didn't want to block the sound completely. I probably could just do a ribbon or elastic over the top next time, not a flap like this, but this will protect the phone more, so I'm not sure.

Anyway, I hope that all made sense. It was pretty quick to make, maybe just over 2 hours including fabric finding and stuff. It was fun doing it all wonky. It's hard for me to do random sort of designs, I like things symmetrical and even, but I think using the scrap pieces of all shapes and sizes helped. If you like it let me know, or if you want me to show you how I do other things, please let me know.

I hope you had a great Wednesday and a Triumphant Tuesday too!

See you tomorrow with the next photo and maybe other stuff.

Goodnight!

Triumphant Tuesday, Peace and a stranger.

Hi!
Today was great! My sister visited, my friend and her daughter visited and I even started and completed an entire sewing project, and I might do another one before I go to bed. But I'll tell you more about that in another post.

Before anyone came to visit us today there was a stranger in our yard. A man with a BIG van. I think it might have been for the neighbour, but he parked across our backyard. It  wasn't very good. But oh well, can't do anything about it, I guess. Here is the picture of his van, I thought it would be rude to take a picture of him, even though he was a bit rude parking in our yard without asking us.

The grass looks nice...

The rain helped the morning to be quite peaceful and also reminds me of God's hand on everything in our world. I had to explain that we need the rain to make the grass and plants grow so that we can have food. Plus, we need the rain to fill up the water tank.

Anyway, I need to cut it short, the kidlets are not cooperating tonight. Maybe, just maybe I'll get some peace before I need to get up tomorrow, but who knows, it's going to take some effort...
Goodnight!

Monday Mirror and Where does your joy come from?

Rain certainly doesn't help in my feeling joyful. I don't mind it really, but there's something about sun in the morning that seems to bring joy. So, on a rainy wintry Monday, a visit from our friends was a great mood lifter. My good friend and her daughter who is the same age as mine dropped in for a couple of hours and it was lovely to catch up. We have similar backgrounds and our main life choices are similar too, so we have a lot to talk about. It's really encouraging to have a friend who supports you no matter what choices you make and offers gentle words of conviction to open your mind to other ways of doing certain things. Whenever we catch up (not often, unfortunately) I always feel uplifted and I hope she feels the same. It actually gave us both joy to see our beautiful girls talking (with real understandable sentences) and playing so well together. I know they are a big part of our lives and I hope we are of theirs too.

So, where does your joy come from?

The photo for today is "mirror" and I love looking into our only mirror, which is in the bathroom, at night. If you look in it at the right angle, the reflection shows the lights from the road through the big oak tree which gives a gorgeous silhouette. It's really pretty...problem is, it's hard to get a good photo of it. I tried though and here it is.

I'm hoping to get more craft done tonight, so if it works out I might be able to show you tomorrow, but things don't always go to plan around here.

So I'd better go while both kids are asleep. Goodnight!

Sunday and the week that was...

Upside-down

I washed up today. Feels like an achievement considering how little of anything else I seem to be doing these days.

This week was a really good one and made me remember a few of the reasons I fell in love with my Hubby all those years ago. We spent his week off working around our house and just getting a few little niggly jobs done and out of the way. Spending extended periods of time together sometimes isn't great, but this week was fantastic and I'm not really looking forward to him going back to work in the morning and neither is he. So my week in short involved weeding, clearing, sweeping, digging, pulling, grinding, shopping, roofing, chopping, moving, fencing, chucking(rubbish not vomit), laughing and sleeping. It was pretty successful and we got more than we had planned done. Less sleeping though. It was a lovely week! 

On a completely different note, I think I want to design fabrics. I've thought about it for a couple of years now and every time I think about it or see a new range of fabrics released I want to do it more. So I guess the next thing to work out is how to go about it. Then I guess I need to actually have some designs to print. The other thing I want to do, but already sort of do, is design patterns for sewing. I have designed quite a few patterns already, but have never had them printed professionally or anything like that. I'm wondering whether PDFs might be a good idea though. I've purchased a few patterns in that format before and they seem to be pretty good. I like the idea of not needing to go to the post office when someone buys one. What  do you think? Are PDFs a good format for patterns?

Anyway, I was invited to join a fruit challenge starting today. The fruits I mean are listed in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22. The first is love. Thinking about love makes me think of my family. I'm always reminded of a verse that I, like many others, had read at my wedding, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. The challenge for me is to try and remember all of these points about love and live by them. There are one or two which are harder than the rest, so it's definitely a challenge. A good one though. Hopefully it will help me to be more Godly.

Tomorrow is all about Joy, so we'll see what happens then. I'll be back with another photo too, so I'll see you then.

Goodnight!

Super Saturday with the Family

9 O'Clock.

Somebody I met today asked me how life has changed since we had kids. I don't think about it too often, but some things are very different. The activities we do have changed. The way we plan for different events and outings has changed. There is no such thing as spontaneity anymore (except when it comes to nappy issues). There is more planning involved in every activity we choose to participate in. Shopping is more tiring and generally much slower. There is no such thing as privacy. Nothing is just mine anymore, including the shower. Time doesn't seem to work the same, there seem to be about 8 hours less each day. And the people we see are different.

It's all very different for me. I'm trying to work out how to be a mum. I know it's already been happening for over 2 years, but still, I feel like I have no idea what I should be doing. I used to have a full-time job with other people around all the time.Now I'm at home more often than not and don't see many people at all.  I hardly drive at all and usually not in traffic. I see more aeroplanes than I've ever noticed before and helicopters are really exciting. I point out trains wherever I am and sirens are fantastic. Did you ever stop and think about where snails go when you stop looking at them and how the gnome in the back garden might feel when it's cloudy? These are the kind of things I spend time thinking about now, rather than how to explain the importance of following the instructions when setting up your new sewing machine or which knitting needles are better for each yarn.

Somedays I feel less intelligent. I listen to people around me talking about current affairs with no clue as to what they are saying. I sit and try and keep up with conversations but often can't think about one thing for long enough to really understand what people are talking about. I find it hard to relate  to people who talk about new movies and music because I don't watch or listen to anything that isn't appropriate for infant ears to hear. I spell out words more often than when I used to do  spelling tests in primary school. And I do more loads of clothes washing than I can fit on our 2 clothes lines, which causes problems in winter sometimes.

Sometimes I feel like I'm doing the most important job in the world. I think of myself as a trainer, coach, mentor, manager, chef, kitchen hand, cleaner, facilitator, banker, secretary, judge, jury and pillow. It's a versatile position. I don't know that it would ever hold up if I put those things on my resume, but it really has been the most challenging position I've held.

Sometimes I feel like I'm completely out of control. I'm overwhelmed and have no clue as to what to do next and when 9 o'clock comes around I'm just about ready to collapse into a deep sleep. But most nights I don't. In-fact, I don't remember the last time I went to bed before 10.30pm.

I'm not having a whinge, just stating how it is. For those of you that don't have kids, it's different. Life will never be the same once you have them. Part of your brain dedicates itself to thinking about them all the time and you rarely get a break. But watching their face light up when you look at them, teaching them how to do the things we take for granted and helping them to understand what life is is worth it. I know, sounds sappy, but it's true. Having kids changed us and we're not going back.

And now it's after 10.30, I should probably head to bed. I hope this was helpful to anyone else wondering about being a mum or dad. If you have anything you'd like to add let me know or if you have any tips about the job requirements, please drop me a comment and I'll try and use it to better my performance in that area. Thanks for reading! I'll be back tomorrow.

Friday Fun One - Eyes

Hubby had this week off and to end a great and very productive week we decided to do the second half of the garage roof. Yay! Only problem is I now feel totally wiped out. Probably from being out in the sun all day and climbing on and off the top of his very tall 4 wheel drive (We didn't have a good enough ladder and it was wider than scaffolding anyway). So thinking about what to blog about has been a bit tough. The photo for today is supposed to be of eyes and trying to work out what to take a picture of and what to write about, hasn't been so simple. I was thinking through everything I've been doing this week and when I last did some stitching so I could tell you about the eyes in the needles. I couldn't think of anything with the eyes of needles, but I did remember that I went to craft on Wednesday and was actually working on the eyes of the Ragdolls. I have only done part of the eyes on one of the dolls, but hopefully when they're done they'll look good. I did a couple of different styles to test which would look best and the eyes and face I'm in the middle of were my favourite. It's a big decision, how to create the right face. There are endless possibilities and only a few of them could work. In the case of real people, I don't know how God has the patience to design every single one of us differently. He is Amazing! I am not.

But thinking of eyes and differences, have you ever tried people watching. I love people watching, something my sister (and apparently cousin) also enjoys doing. I wonder about how each person is similar or different to their families and whether they ever think about me and how I might be similar to mine. I often think about what got them to the place I see them. Whether they were on the way to or from somewhere in particular or just wasting time. I'm constantly reminded of the fact that there are more people on this earth than just me and those around me. The lives and stories of each of the people are so complex that I can't even begin to imagine them all. But somehow and for some reason we were in the same place, doing the same (or similar) thing at the same time. Isn't it great! Once I went to Australia's Wonderland and met a girl who's Grandparents were my Great Uncle and Aunty! That's fun!! I will never forget that. We were both there on school excursions from different schools, in opposite directions from the park. We "just happened" to be waiting in the same line for the same ride and decided to say hi to each other. I just love it when that sort of situation happens. Has it ever happened to you? Have you ever bumped into someone you are related to, by accident?

But anyway, I've been trying to get the face on the dolls right and it's not simple. So let me know what you think and hopefully they'll be done soon. Thanks for reading.