Green pie

I made 'Green Pie' the other day.

Most people would know it as Spinach and Feta pie.

Master M is not that impressed.

He eats as many carrots as we can give him (he does LOVE carrots).

Little Miss R eats her share of pie, then eats her brother's (he eats her carrots).  While I'm getting the bath ready, Little Miss R chomps on a third piece of pie.

She states that she's having pie for school lunch the next day and NOT a boring sandwich.

She eats another piece of pie for breakfast and then two more pieces go to school for lunch the next day.

Mummy is now in trouble for eating the last piece of pie!

Looks like GREEN pie will be on the menu in the near future again....as well as carrots.

I can post this now!

My sister has had her birthday so I can show you this now.

I've made some shopping bags that are fully lined and I'm very proud of them.  I had originally bought the material to make a shopping bag for my sister and ended up having enough to make 3 of them.

I'm so proud of one of my first efforts at sewing and I will admit that it was making the first one of these that my good old trusty Janome sewing machine died.

The outside was made in a pretty bright, happy sort of material and then I lined it in green gingham which I had intended to make some baby clothes for Little Miss R.  Obviously THAT didn't happen!

The bags are so easy to make and I sewed extra bits around them to give them some more structure.

So I'm very happy with my 'homemade' gift for my sister and added with some of the art supplies I gave her for her birthday I hope that she enjoyed her present.

Happy Birthday Sandy

March 29.

Happy Birthday to my sister Sandra.

I hope you had a fantastic day and especially cake after school time with your nieces and nephews.

Cake and candles (and hyperactive children playing well together) certainly can make an afternoon can't they.

Love you my gorgeous sister and best friend in the world.

xx Susie



Kidlette stitching

I've finished a few things for the kidlettes over the last couple of weeks.  I've made a couple of pretty easy things although some of them could have been made a LOT better.

As I seemed to be making heaps of things for Little Miss R lately, Master M wanted something for himself.  He wanted a pair of shorts and since I only had the Thomas material suitable for little boys, we went shopping. 

He picked out some Robot material.  There was plenty of other boy stuff there but this is what he insisted upon.  He carried the roll up to the counter to be cut then carried his folded up fabric to the car and all the way home so he could cuddle it.

I think I need to get a different pattern for boys shorts as I really wasn't very happy with this particular one.  It's not brilliantly made either but he LOVES them.  I'm thinking they look a lot more like pyjama pants so who knows what time of day they'll end up being worn.

I also made another cute little A-line dress for Little Miss R.  I decided to make really easy things to help me master the basics.

This dress has a little ruffle around the bottom which meant I had to learn how to gather.  I can't believe I'd avoided making things that have gathering in them because it's sooooooo easy. 

And then there's another quick and easy gathered skirt for her in some cute material.  She wants to wear this for non-uniform day at school tomorrow so I made it for her this morning.

I just love this bright and happy lady bug fabric.  I bought it YEARS ago and it's just been sitting with my other fabric in a box but now it's finally seeing the light of day and getting used.  I've still got plenty left over for a cute little dress for her as well, I just need to find a pattern that will be perfect for it.

I've got lots more projects in the pipeline too.  Some are finished, some are half made and a LOT projects are zooming around in my brain just waiting for me to make them. 

I just need to find the time and plenty more fabric of course!

xx Susan

Lets go for a drive

My Uncle called me just before lunch yesterday and said to me "I'm bored, lets go for a drive."

He didn't need to ask me twice.  I didn't have any pressing plans, just unpicking my latest sewing disaster and avoiding the housework, so Master M and I got ready and off we went on a surprise drive.

It was a beautiful day and we ended up down at Toorbul on the banks of Pumicestone Passage.  I haven't been there for YEARS and luckily for us the tide was in because otherwise you look at pretty smelly mud flats when it's out. 

Master M loved seeing the pelicans and the view across to

Bribie Island was lovely too.

After that we headed around to Donnybrook which is a little further north along the passage.

We grabbed some lunch and had a picnic in the park next to the water so Master M could have a play.

It was a lovely couple of hours out to two coastal towns that are NOT on the tourist trail.

Then it was back home to pick Little Miss R up from school.

What a perfect afternoon.

xx Susan

Sleepover

The weekend started out pretty hectic.  On Friday afternoon my brother and his wife came to visit and somehow it was suggested that Nephew R (who is 4) have a sleepover that night. 

I ended up with three VERY excitable children.  My kids had never had any other children around their age over for a sleepover before.

As well as the usual playing with the scooters and bikes outside, then cars and trains inside, there was a very noisy game of hide and seek after dinner.

Did I mention noisy?  When I say noisy I really mean N.O.I.S.Y!!  It really wasn't difficult to find anyone and it was also one of the roughest games of hide and seek played because there was lots of tackling and wrestling going on.  I think it was more of a Rugby type hide and seek!

We did eventually get them to sleep at a pretty reasonable time considering the three of them were in the same room together.  I admit I did have to stay in there awhile with them because Nephew R was starting to miss his Mummy so I settled him down.

I was up a few times in the night, mainly because Nephew R kept waking up in a strange room and calling out to me which in turn woke the other two up.  It wasn't too bad though.

Of course we had to have pancakes for breaky the next morning too.

My brother turned up in the morning to pick his little man up and we spent the rest of the day just chilling out around home.  Lovely hubby left at lunch time to go back to work so the kids and I were on our own again for the rest of the weekend.

The kidlettes played in the mud again...and again.  I did some crochet rather than sewing as it's sort of been a bit neglected over the last couple of weeks and we just had some lovely Mummy and kidlette time together. 

The kids also had heaps of fun with the teenage kids next door.  They tied a tyre to the rope hanging from a tree in their back yard and the swinging fun began.  They are so good with our kids and have so much fun playing with them and I love it too as I get a little help in looking after them as well as two tired kids who go to sleep pretty easily at night.  Now what's not to love about that!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

xx Susan

Covering up

For about the last 5 years, the cushion on this chair hasn't had a cover.  I've been using an old sheet tucked in under it to keep it protected but have never got around to making the cover.  (Something to do with the scarey sewing machine I suppose).

Well I've bitten the bullet and decided that while I'm on a roll I may as well cover it.

It's not perfect but I'm happy with it.  I still need something to close it up with and I didn't want to use buttons this time.  I know what I want, I just have to get them so in the meantime I'm using safety pins.

It also slides down the chair a bit but that's the cushion not the cover doing that so I think I'll make a couple of ties for the back so I can keep it sitting up better.

I've also been making a lot of other things.  Some are working out brilliantly, some are pretty dismal I must say. 

I'm trying some easy things to get me into the swing of sewing and getting used to the techniques etc. 

Really EASY patterns and things are great because you can finish a project in a short time and feel proud of yourself because you've accomplished something.

The very basic gathered skirt for Little Miss R is an example.  It took me 40 minutes from measuring her to giving her the finished product to wear and during that time I had to referee a few fights as well as answer a million questions.

She looks very cute in it but my girl is NOT a  girly, girly sort of girl.  She has her moments but most of the time she'd rather be dressed in plain old shorts and t-shirt. 

Other supposedly EASY things to make are certainly NOT turning out but it's all a learning curve.

Will update you soon on some of my other projects. 

xx Susan

P.S.  Sorry for the pictures.  It's been raining and flooding around here for what seems like months so it's a bit hard to show the colours in the fabrics properly.

Lurking and posting comments

I'm confess that I'm a lurker!

I'm one of those statistics on your blog page that you know has been to visit but never left a comment.  Shame on me I know, especially as some blogs I've followed for years.

That's all changing though and I'm now starting to comment on other people's blogs.  I know how lovely it is to receive comments, no matter how small or inane, so I'm dusting off my shyness and am ready for a chat.

My biggest problem now is that I can't seem to comment on a lot of people's blogs under my blog name.  It's obviously something to do with my settings because I've worked out that when the comment box is embedded at the bottom of a page, I can only comment as Anonomys.  If the anonomys setting isn't enabled by the blogger of that post then I can't comment at all. 

If the comment box takes me to another page then for some reason I CAN comment under my blog name. 

I'm not tech savvy enough to work out how to fix this, maybe it's something to do with blogger but then other people don't seem to have this problem.  If you do then please let me know so I feel better and not so lonely!

xx Susan

Reply to a comment

I've had this in draft for a couple of days and after reading my sister's post about ME yesterday, it's definately PAYBACK time......

I recently posted about my parent's 45th Wedding anniversary and I received a comment which I really can't let pass without letting more of the world knowing.

You see my sister Sandra, over at Heart's Landscapes replied with this comment:

I know 'groovy' aren't they! I laughed so hard when I found the bottom photo - thank goodness I was taking the photo and my own spectacular fashion spectacle is hidden behind the lense!!!

Well she is no longer behind the lense but in FRONT of it:

(early 1970's)

Truly magnificent!

Love Ya Petal!!!

Bob vs Thomas

You may remember from a previous post that after seeing the bag I made for Little Miss R, Master M decided he wanted one but it had to be Bob the Builder and blue.

While at Spotlight the other day I searched for some Bob fabric but to no avail.  There was nothing even remotely like Bob the Builder but  I did find Thomas the Tank Engine. 

My boy LOVES Thomas and loves playing with his trains.  He's got a couple of train sets, including a Thomas one and a HUGE wooden one which we can keep adding to.

I thought this would be perfect and would be a great compromise to Bob.

When he saw the fabric it was certainly love at first sight for him.  He squealed, stroked it, cuddled it and didn't want to let it go.

This is a hit I thought.  That's when I mentioned that I could make his bag out of that and he could have a nice Thomas bag to keep his treasures in.

He just looked at me and said:

'No mummy,  I want Bob the Builder in blue!'

I've now gone through the colouring books and it looks like I'm about to learn how to applique!

xx Susan

Mud, mud and more mud

Shane left early to head back to work on Saturday and I thought that to make the weekend go quicker I'd better get out and about with the kidlettes and DO things with them.

When I woke up, it was raining.  Not heavily but it was still wet so my outdoor plans sort of changed a bit.

The kidlettes decided that playing with the train set was a good idea.

I REALLY  wanted to get a new sewing machine so we ended up going for a drive up the coast to buy one.  We were on our way home  by 9.45am and halfway home the rain started to fall down.

It didn't stop for the next 24 hours at least.

That meant mud.....and lots of it.

Mud splattered on the walls of the house.....

....mud all over the driveway, on the kidlettes.....

......on the kayak (so glad Daddy's not here to see this).....

...and of course all over the crocodile.

It was a very wet and muddy time.  The kidlettes got stripped off outside, their clothes are still soaking in a bucket, and then they were marched straight into the shower where they soon became squeaky clean.

We will NOT be talking about Sunday.  Lets just say...more rain...kids trapped inside....kids REALLY feral...Daddy away....Mummy not coping very well.  A very basic summary of an extremely stressful day.

Hope you all had a great weekend, even if it was a half good, half completely insane weekend like mine.

xx Susan

45 years!

Happy 45th Wedding Anniversary to my parents.

On the 18th March, 1967 they were married while a Cyclone battered Queensland.  Luckily for them they got married in the eye of the storm so they had a pretty good day but they were both lucky to get to the church because of flood waters.

45 years on....it's still raining and flooding around here.

(I wish I had a photo of just the two of them but sadly I don't.  You'll just have to put up with me in the middle!)

xx Susan

Edited to add:  I've got a couple more photos of my parents.  What trendsetters!!!!!!!!

Cushion cover

Do you remember me working on this little project recently?

Well I'm very happy to say that my cushion cover is finally finished.  The old cover was looking really faded, stained and pretty well awful so it definately needed a pick me up.

The cushion was pretty squashed and flat so I made up my own pattern for this particular one.  Just a basic double crochet (UK/Aus), stripe pattern the whole way.  Once I sewed it up I then did a couple of dc rows around the outside, one in blue and one in bright pink, then I did the shell edge in pink to finish it off.

We can't forget the buttons of course.  I didn't want to go out and buy some as this has pretty well been a using my stash project.  I had these buttons and they look pretty good and do the job so I'm happy.

The weekend is coming up and lovely hubby will be heading back to work early tomorrow morning so it will just be the kidlettes and I for the whole weekend.  I have no idea what we'll get up to but I'm sure there'll be a little less sewing and crochet than there has been this week.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

xx Susan

A child's messenger bag

Well I seem to have really caught the sewing bug now.

I've just finsihed having a go at making a bag for Little Miss R in some material that I had in my stash.

Girly without being too pink and just cute.

I lined it with a lovely lemon coloured material and sewed a pocket inside it for some special treasures.

I used to be a bit of a slap happy person, just putting it together and if it was a bit messy, untidy, wonky then who cares.  I'd use the excuse that I was only learning.

I'm now taking a lot more pride in my work so I'm really LOVING the really straight stitches that I've made on this bag.  Funnily enough, it really wasn't that difficult!

..and this is the finished bag.  Not the best of photos (sorry) but you get the idea.

Master M wants one of these too only he has requested Bob the Builder in blue.

I have no idea if Bob the Builder fabric is available, if not then I may soon be scouring the internet for tutorials on how to applique!

xx Susan

What I've been up to

A word of warning to people that actually do know me...sit down while reading this.

Lately I've been wanting, Needing and so much HAVING to have a go at something that all else gets put on the backburner.  (Mainly housework but who really wants to do that anyway!)

What I've been wanting to do has a LOT to do with the following:

After tidying up and decluttering the spare room a couple of weeks ago as well as reading some wonderful blogs of very talented ladies who make lovely things..I decided that I really needed to sew.

I've been working out what I want to make, cutting out patterns, cutting out material, pinning things together and basically getting a pile of things ready to sew.  If you want the truth I was really putting off the sewing side of things because that meant I had to get out the big, scarey sewing machine.

I think I was 7 or 8 months pregnant with Little Miss R last time I used mine and that was to make some very dodgy curtains for the baby room.  They looked great as long as you didn't get too close to them.

In the end the need for sewing outweighed my trepadition and even though hubby was at work and both kidlettes were home, I started.  I have to say that the kidlettes were fantastic.  The were fascinated and asked 20 zillion questions but then they ask that many questions on just about everything you do anyway.  My children are definately NOT shy or QUIET. 

I spent a very happy afternoon zooming the fabric through the machine and being so unbelievably surprised at how much I was thoroughly enjoying it. 

...and then it had to happen.  My machine made a few clunks and then started to chew holes in the fabric.  Everything I did to try and fix it wouldn't work and it just wouldn't sew and kept breaking the cotton off.

The above picture is not my old clunking machine, it's my Mum's who has lent me hers so I can finish some projects.  Funnily enough, this is the machine I learned to sew on when I had a bit of a flutter during my teenage years.

I am now researching sewing machines to buy.  There's probably no point in getting my old one fixed as it used to me my Grandma's and she passed away 20 years ago.  My Mum and I worked out that the machine would at least be 40 years old so no wonder it was making some clunking sounds.  I just wish it didn't have to give up the ghost just when I was starting to enjoy myself.

So do you want to see what I've made?

Of course you do.

It's not terribly difficult, just an easy-peasy A-line skirt with an elastic waist.  Truly not glamorous I know but it will do me for an 'everyday' skirt and I already know what I'll be doing different next time.  Isn't that the important thing...to learn from your mistakes?  I just hope I get a new sewing machine soon and do some more sewing so it's not another 6 years before I start on another project and completely forget what I'm doing.

An impromptu model in my very messy room with such stylish rubber 'pluggers'  (they do match the colour of the skirt though).  I also thought that the photo was really blurry and it is to a slight degree but I've taken this in the mirror and realised that Master M has been kissing, licking, painting and who knows what else down at his height. 

Looks like I really do need to clean the mirror.

Oh and so I don't quite give up the sewing gig after making one item, I've got the fabric ready to go for a bag for Little Miss R.  My ploy is that I've shown it to her which means I will be HOUNDED until it's finished.  More sewing to come it seems.

I now just need that new machine I've been looking at which means I need to convince hubby this is not a 'one off' whim but something I mean to go on with.

Perhaps I should cut out a lot more material and pin them up ready to go...

xxx Susan