The End

I was going to start by saying that I can't believe there is only one more day of October, but I can believe it, it just feels like it has passed so quickly.

We have had a very busy month! It started with holidays, moved on to job interviews for Hubby, my birthday, Hubby resigning, B-man's birthday and Hubby starting his new job. Plus a few other projects scattered around (I'll tell you about those soon). So I feel like it was the right decision not to post everyday in October...

Hubby took a couple of weeks off at the start of this month so we took the kids away for a few days. We stayed on the farm with my Uncle and Aunty and the kids had a ride on the pony, Tango.

One of the days we set off for Canberra and this was some of the countryside on our way. Isn't it magnificent! There were heaps of these canola fields on the way and they were so yellow. It was stunning!

Floriade is an annual event in Canberra which we have wanted to go to for a number of years now and finally we made it there. Fields of tulips all planted in specific designs, beautiful!

There were poppies too!

After Floriade we went just out of Canberra city to Cockington Green. If you haven't heard of it Google it. It's fun there. They have immaculate gardens with miniature replicas of some of the most famous places around the world. The kids had a great time too with miniature trains and people everywhere and a playground with some life-like animals to play with.

Last time I posted I was telling you about "Swaptober" and I would have liked more time to post about it again, but I'll just tell you now that I managed to get heaps done and drop 2kgs through the month of October, so it wasn't a complete failure. I would have liked to lose double that amount, but given the amount of birthdays and parties and holidays and eating out that happened, I'm not a bit surprised.

Ok, so the little projects...I spent a day with my SIL helping her to make my niece a new skirt and afterwards I was so inspired and came home to make some more clothes for the dolls. I made 2 more skirts and little blouses to match, so now they're all dressed then only thing I need to do is work out their faces. Mmm, the hard part!

I also made a new skirt for my assistant which she won't take off except to sleep.

I FINISHED THE DRESS!!!!

It has the best zipper I have EVER inserted and I only used my un-picker on 3 occasions for the whole process, 2 of which were removing the basting stitches (and none on the zipper!!), I only un-picked once to redo a small section. This is a monumental achievement for me!!

We sold a car! Another big deal for my car-collecting Hubby! It was so sad to see this particular car go, but necessary, I mean who really needs 6 cars with only 2 drivers...? That's 2 cars we've sold this year!! Yay! They paid for the new wall/fence and will pay to fix up another one of our cars...mmm...then maybe we can sell another one, but not one that will actually get much money.

I mentioned that I had a birthday too, which was not all that fantastic, I kinda feel older now, but something really exciting was a gift from a close friend who knows exactly who I am and what I love. She actually designed some fabric (AWESOME) and had it printed by Spoonflower and gave it to me! How special is that!!! I have awesome friends! My parents  bought me some gorgeous fabrics for my birthday too and a cute owl wallet, while they were IN JAPAN so that was really special too! My siblings gave me a charm pack of one of my favourite fabrics "Salt Air" and a replacement bottle of my all time favourite perfume which ran out recently. How my family know me...Sigh...I love them all so much and they made me feel so special over my birthday.

The day before my birthday it SNOWED! For the first half of that day it snowed at our house. They were huge snowflakes too, but unfortunately we're a tiny bit too low for them to settle. It was still pretty exciting though. Odd though, it's the middle of Spring and in the weeks before and after this it was really hot!

The following Wednesday we went to visit Great Nana and her snowball flowers were ready for us to play, so we had snowball fights there instead of in the real snow. It was a lot of fun and a bit of a tradition now.

B-man turned 1! I love seeing my kids grow and change and learn how to live. In this past year B-man has gone from a boring and icky baby to a walking and talking(ish) little person. He can do so much more now and is so cheeky. He is even starting to actually play with my assistant which is really cool.

Oh and I made him a special cake for his party. Never doing one like this again!

  

I spent a whole week sorting out my house in readiness for B-man's party. I ended up taking loads of girly baby/toddler clothes to a friend with a baby girl, put a few things aside for when my sister or someone else very special to me has a baby, and turned some really tatty and un-wearable things into rags for Hubby to use in the garage. It helped so much in making space! I didn't get rid of fabrics though, and instead gained a few bags from various friends and relatives. But you can't tell there are more here, I have a really good way of storing most of them so no-one else can tell...I am starting to use them more though, so that's good.

 Anyway, I think you've probably heard enough about my month. I'll post again, hopefully more frequently, in November. I still have a long way to go with Christmas gift making, so you'll probably see a lot of those projects.

Sewtember Day Twenty-Four - Monday

I did some much needed catching up today. I have a couple of friends who live about 20 minutes drive from here and we used to catch up all the time. But there has been SO MUCH going on for all of us that we haven't had a chance to see each other for ages. So today we did it and it was so great! I really miss seeing them and I wish things would calm down a little so it would happen again. I should have taken photos of our three girls running around and playing with each other. It's cool to see how they develop and change the way they interact with their friends. Today they would have little conversations of their own, not prompted or assisted by us. It actually made for some really good (uninterrupted) chatting between us too.

Talking about catching up, for those of you who I haven't seen in a while, here a some pics of the kidlets from the weekend. They are growing up so fast!

 This is Alleyne entertaining the kidlets at Great Nana's on Saturday.

Here is my assistant looking so very grown up.

  

My sister also came with us which was exciting. We used to spend more than a few hours a week catching up and hanging out, but she has since moved about 40 minutes away from here and is completing her final year of university and so again it has been hard to fit in those times. Today we were able to chat for 2 car trips and it was fantastic. I miss seeing her too. It can get pretty lonely staying at home with a baby and a toddler. We can go almost a week without leaving the house sometimes. Mostly it's good though, just every now and then I realise I haven't had a real conversation with a friend and I feel a tad isolated.

Here is B-man learning to drive steer. Such a Daddy's boy!

How cheeky is that face?!

I was going to add a photo here of the sewing that I did today, it's the applique on the "C" emblem from the other day, but the photo is not really good enough to see the stitching, so it looks just the same as before. It's almost done and ready for me to assemble, so that's exciting. I know it's not a huge or detailed project, but finishing things is always exciting. Also the idea that finishing one means starting a new one. Yay! This one should be done by tomorrow and then I'm back on to those place-mats and all the other things on the Christmas gift list. I can't believe it's so close. I went to the shops yesterday and there was a whole aisle of Christmas decorations, gift bags and glitter everywhere(I'm so glad I don't work in retail anymore). I used to spend days trying to get all the glitter out of my hair and off my clothes. I don't envy the people who have to deal with it everyday.

Guess who found Mummy's sunnies.

Anyway it's pretty late and I still haven't recovered from my busy weekend, so I'm off to the land of nod.

I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully with better photos of the work I've been doing.

Sweet dreams!

Sewtember Day Twenty-Two - Party Time!

Ok, so we celebrated 2 birthdays in our family today. One for my sister Annelise and the other for my cousin Alleyne. We went to Great Nana's for a party and caught up with everyone and ate a lot of food.

I know, everyone just wants to see the presents...Ok, seeing as Annelise was born first, here is hers.

 Annelise already has a couple of these shirts, but she said if I kept making them she'd love it, so that's what happened. Happy Birthday Annelise! Love you lots!!

Now, here is the one I've been working on for Alleyne. It took some time to get the design just how I wanted it and I think it was totally worth the effort.

Do you remember the gift I made for my Dad? Hint: It was a mini-quilt... This is related to that one.

Ta-da!

I love it!

I'm not really into Dr Who, but I'm totally tempted to make one of these for myself. Haha.

Maybe I'll try some other forms too. Postman Pat's van was suggested, or maybe something else. Who knows. Maybe one day when I get the time to make something for myself I'll think about it a little more.

I had the just enough thread to complete the phone cover. Phew!

Here they are with there presents. They loved them! It was such a great afternoon!

Tonight was our 10 year high school reunion...more about that tomorrow.

And this is what I was working on this morning before all of the party stuff.

Next step: applique! But that's a job for tomorrow, I think.

Shouldn't be too long before it's complete.

Yay for semi-quick projects!

Oh, our fence is back up and the wall is done! Looks so great!!

And the puppy is home. Awww. Isn't he cute!

Anyway, it was a big day and I need some sleep. I'll see you all tomorrow!

Sweet dreams!

Sewtember Day Twenty-One - Family Friday

We spent the day with my brother's family. My assistant loves spending time at their house and now she has worked out how to get on and off the trampoline unassisted she loves it even more. I think we might need to invest in some kind of outdoor play things, like swings or a tramp or a slide. Or we could re-hang our tyre swing.

Better suited to adults though.

(This looks like an ad for toothpaste or something, but it's really our tyre swing being used by some of our friends).

On the way home I needed to tend to someone's garden while they are away and I found these. They're little rhubarbs. When I looked at them the other day you could hardly see them, so I feel good that they're growing. I'm thinking about getting back into my vege patch soon too.

Our landscaper was working so hard today. I think the fence needs to be back by tomorrow so that Oscar can come home, poor puppy. It's looking really good. I only just got out to take a photo though, so it's a bit dark, but you can see it.

I think it looks great! What do you think?

Seeing as I was out all day and got so much done over the last few days, I've taken it easy with the sewing today. I haven't pushed for more time on a particular project or anything. But I have done a little bit of work on that order I mentioned the other day. Here is the drawing of the emblem I will applique onto it.

Here are a couple of others I made recently. Well in the last 6 months anyway...

I'm feeling so much more positive today, it's amazing. I love hanging out with my family. My brother and his wife are just so encouraging. They have great kids too, so it's really easy to stay at their house all day...the time goes by so fast and it never feels like long enough. 

Actually in the coming weeks I might be making skirts with her too. I'm totally pumped for it! I love skirts for little girls because they are cute and fast to make, so it gives a great sense of achievement when you finish one.

I really should head to bed though, I have a big weekend with birthdays and my high school reunion (I'm starting to feel old). I'll be back tomorrow with photos of the presents for you.

Sweet (sewing) dreams!!

Sewtember Day Twenty - Ugh!

I had a really good day today. My assistant was visiting her buddy next door for most of the day (Thanks Rach) so I was able to start and complete a whole project. It was fantastic. It's a present for my cousin's birthday though, so I won't be able to show you until Saturday night. I think it's great, so I hope she likes it too.

Our landscaper did a huge amount today too, almost all of the fence post are in and ready for the fence now. There are a couple more rocks to put on to bring up the level of the wall in a couple of places and then it's done. Unfortunately I didn't get out to take a picture before night time, so I'll have to post a new one tomorrow.

Tonight my parents and I had set up a skype date, but they couldn't hear me at all. Apparently the microphones don't work on my computer, so that sux.

And just to boost my mood (not), I felt a piece of fluff on my chest and when I grabbed it, not even thinking twice, I realised it wasn't fluff.

It was a grasshopper!

YUCK!

So I went from having an excellent and productive day to spending a couple of hours tonight trying to fix a problem that is not fixable (apparently) and feeling totally bummed out plus I now have the heebie-jeebies (shiver).

Boo hoo!

Oh well, hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'm going to see my big brother. He'll give me a hug and make it all better, I'm sure.

Thanks for reading, I'll try to be more positive tomorrow night. 

Have a good Friday!

Sewtember Day Thirteen - Starting out

If you've been following along recently you might remember that I have been asked to make a bridesmaid's dress and yesterday the quote I sent was approved, so today I spent some time working on a practise dress using an old sheet. It's going really well, but sewing with cotton is much easier than silk...mmm, I'm a tad nervous about it, but I'll be ok. I'm talking myself into it...

Here are some pics of my progress so far.

This is the bodice, but it doesn't look that great on the table.

That's a bit better on "Modelle".

While I was starting to get this going today, my assistant went for some play time next door again.

She had such a great time and loves that there is no fence to separate them at the moment. I got a lot done while she was over there too, so it was a win win for us really. I have awesome neighbours!

Anyway, the wall below the fence is really looking great. I can't wait 'til it's complete. It's going to look fantastic!

I'll put up some pics tomorrow. Have a great Friday!

Night!

P.S. Can people please try and comment on here and let me know if it's not working via facebook or email. A couple of people have mentioned they were having issues commenting, but I can't see a problem in the settings. Thanks!