10 years!

it's our tenth wedding anniversary today!
amazing how time flies, it certainly doesn't feel like we got married that long ago :)

i was really lucky to meet B, what an amazing man - i'm not very good with words especially when it comes to emotions & sentimental stuff but he's been the best thing that's happened to me & i love him dearly


what a day it was!  it seemed to go by so quickly, too quickly!
i had my dress delivered that morning, it was made by a lovely friend of my mom, she was incredible - did it in about two weeks!

lau helping with a gazillion buttons :)

thanks for the last 10 plus years baby, i love you!

x

cranky pants

so i'm feeling cranky today, mostly due to "womanly business" but also because it's been raining again (what happened to spring?) & the kids are going stir crazy - not helping my current "fragile" state (of mind)

anyway!  i was going to do a fun activity with them at some point today but didn't get around to it because i was finishing up more soft blocks for my shop & trying to take half decent photos in the kitchen at the table...  sigh...  rain is good, we need the rain (repeat)

so the fun activity will have to be postponed until tomorrow, at least i will just have one kid to entertain as matthew is going to nanna & pa for the day  :)  one is so much easier than both of them squabbling over the same toilet roll insert/raisin/piece of thread one of them found on the floor (can you tell i'm a leetle beet over eet?)

here's a little sneak peek of what we're going to do, i'm pretty excited about it i'm even thinking of doing another tutorial!  woo hoo!

i know the "e" is upside down,

the magnets were being freaky :)

check back tomorrow for more, gotta go now - james has done something & matthew is screaming his head off (again)

adios amigos

x

PS  thanks for stopping by if you found me via one pretty thing!

PPS  there is an awesome tutorial on there today for fabric alphabet magnets, definitely going to give that one a go!

PPPS  more soft activity blocks available in my shop now :)

hello thar!

hi gang!

i'm so excited to be on one of my favourite websites today!
in fact, rachel's site is such a favourite, that it's permanently open on my browser :)

if you're here for via oneprettything, welcome & thanks for stopping by & the tutorial is the next post down :D

i mentioned i'd get some photos of the pirates up so here they are in all their rascally rapscallion glory

they are in the shop now & i am taking custom orders too (hair colour, eye colour, facial hair, shirt stencil) so go! go now!  :)

been in the city this morning with matthew, we went down the road to the pharmacy & i had an idea for B's wedding anniversary present (on thursday, it's our 10 year anniversary - crap! where does the time go!) so we hopped on a tram into the city & i picked up his present, more supplies for sewing, a book for $3 from the Salvation Army shop & a toy shop register for the kids at Target (on sale) so all up a productive day :)

matthew asleep (hooray for nap time!) now & i'm going to finish up some more activity blocks so later alligators

x

finally finished & a little tutorial to boot (arrrgh!)

hi!

i've finally finished the 3 pirates, but as it's night now the photos i took are shockin' so i'll do more tomorrow

thanks for your feedback guys, i decided to keep all three types of facial hair & let people choose which they prefer, along with eye colour too :)

i also stenciled a pirate-y skull & cross bones design i came up with last night after trawling the internet for ideas!  another late night to bed (around midnight) & then i couldn't sleep properly because i was thinking...

anyway, i thought i'd do a little tutorial for the stenciling as it was SO easy & SO much fun :)

so, firstly we have a little list of "ingredients":

• a printer to print your image (or you could do a free hand drawing)
  
• fabric paint
• fabric item to stencil onto
• a small sponge (in this case, but depending on the size of your stencil you may need a bigger one)
• freezer paper (apparently this is readily available in the supermarkets in the states, i had to order mine from this quilting shop here in oz)
• a pencil or a marker to trace your image
• nice sharp scissors, i like to use these 
• an iron
• a clean piece of fabric for setting your image with the iron once paint is dry

i've done a photo tutorial, but it's my first so please let me know if something doesn't make sense :)  here goes!

trace your image using an

extremely high tech light box

well, it's not really a step as such but

here is your (my) traced image :)

carefully cut out your image

place your stencil on top of the item

you're stenciling & iron on with a hot iron

(not steam)

add any extra bits (in this case the

eyes & the nose are added)

once the stencil is in position,

insert a piece of cardboard

to prevent the paint seeping

onto the other side

again, it's not really a step, but here

is your (my) cardboard inserted behind

my fabric with the stencil on top

prepare your paint & sponge

take a small amount of paint onto

your sponge & dab in onto/over

your stencil - you really don't need

a lot for this small image & a little bit

goes a long way

stencil covered with paint

now wash your sponge etc & wait

for the paint to dry (i hung mine out

on the line as it was a sunny day today)

once the paint is dry, take your spare

piece of fabric and place it over the image

have your iron set to hot (no steam) & iron

the image over the spare fabric for a few

minutes*

 voila!

(my first time ever so please excuse the

not-so-good bones) :)

 here is one of the pirates

with his new shirt, terrible

photo but it's late & dark

and there ya go, i'll do more photos tomorrow hopefully (if it's not raining again as it did every other day i wanted to take some before) & the guys will hopefully be up in the shop in the next couple of days - hooray!!

*my paint instructions said the iron should be

at 100C but i don't know exactly what that is on

my iron so i just set it to hot, & then to iron the image

for 3 - 5 minutes to set it

i'll leave you with some photos from our day yesterday after we lost out on yet another house at auction (it's becoming quite funny now, i can laugh or i can cry & i think it's less exhausting to laugh)  :D

 

two happy crazies at the gorgeous green edinburgh gardens (result: a good loooong nap for both of them, yeah baby!)

night kids

x

a pirate predicament

hello thar!

i have a little problemo that i need your help with peoples!

here are the pirates i've been making, not all are completely finished as i've still got to make two more outfits & do eyes etc...

that brings me to my problemo

dilemma 1: i need a child friendly/not-too-scary skull & cross bones image for the shirt, any suggestions where i can find one that's free for commercial use or should i just make one up myself?

dilemma 2:  do i go with offering the option of a combo mustache/beard (see above) as well as mustache alone or just stick to mustache?

dilemma 3: do i keep the pirates eye-less or embroider eyes on as in the black haired pirate above?
(he looks like one of the village people donchya think? :D)

all feedback would be most appreciated!

i'm off to finish sewing the other blokes' clothes, we can't have them running around in the nude now can we?

ta ta!
x

thursday follow up

so we took james out for dinner tonight at The Restaurant as he calls it, only to find that he wanted to go to The Sand Restaurant, which we finally figured out was a restaurant down in sorrento which we went to for lunch in august when we were on holiday in point lonsdale!

are we there yet?

we had caught the ferry across from queenscliff to sorrento for the day & played on the beach, digging & making castles & trying to prevent matthew-the-turtle from getting to the water :)

matthew before he discovered the water

on his way to the water

cracking it after i told him no for the

7 millionth time 

about going into the water

we found a colossal jellyfish

(not really, but it was pretty big)

be free young jelly!

purdy water

(reminded me of a beach back home

in cape town & i got all sentimental & weepy)

that's The Sand Restaurant behind the kid

pork chop of note

(saying cheese for the camera)

his memory amazes me all the time! 

here are some more photos from today, james played inside & outside today & had a 3 hour nap!

 

(bear in mind, this is the start of play,

i won't frighten you with the "after" shot)

and here is another pork chop of note, thinks he's invincible

(bad camera phone shot)

all that mess is luckily confined to this room, the "office" slash "playroom" - i trained them to keep their toys in one place & only take one type of toy out at a time...  so i figured i was safe with just the farm, but no, because you can add blocks to it, the blocks box had to come out too...  they are pretty good though, & pick it all up (with our help) at the end of the day though :)

that's all folks, it's 11:30pm & i'm pooped!

x

thoughts for thursday

i have no idea what my thoughts for thursday are, i just like how it looks - all the th's & yesterday was w's...

ramble, ramble, ramble...

so anyway, i'm down one kid today as matthew has gone to nanna & pa for an over-nighter so i'm hoping to get some more sewing done :)

the plan for today is:

1) no more coffee (two cups should be enough, i hope!)
2) no snacking (unless it's a cucumber or such)
3) fantastic activities to keep james occupied, mostly consisting of sand & these great things (which i love packing away as i can play with them myself, ssshhh don't tell)

we LOVE pirates & we LOVE dinosaurs, and we LOVE PIRATE DINOSAURS!!!  and this is the current favourite most best book in the world, ever!

anyway, this took way too long to find decent pics of the playmobil so i'd better get sewing - arrrrrrrgghhhh!!!

:)