Why I love New Zealand...

Just a few photos from our beautiful summer. The weather over the past few months has been amazing and for the first time in a long time, Christmas day 2009 was a cracker! We all swam in the pool and celebrated our Kiwi Christmas in the best way possible. We tried to make the most of the best weather by getting out and about with the kids. I am usually itching to get back to work by mid-January, but this time, I enjoyed every minute and reminded myself why I love NZ so much!

Lemon Sour Cream Sprinkle Cupcakes

I had a lonely half used tub of sour cream sitting in my fridge just begging to be used. Add to that, a box of Dutch fruit sprinkles which I received as part of a large package of Dutch goodies from one of my students at the end of last year. I decided to make some lunchbox treats....cupcakes!

Google was my friend and I soon found this http://www.ourcave.biz/smf/index.php?topic=2271.0 recipe which looked quick, simple and most importantly, used up my sour cream. I halved the recipe and they were a cinch to make. I used fresh lemon zest from our tree and instead of using the lemon icing in the original recipe, I put a few sprinkles on the top of each cupcake before placing them in the oven.

A few minutes later, they were done and my favourite baking tin was full! Give them a go, they are delicious.

A new blog direction?

It has been more than two months since I last blogged and I have missed the opportunity to write. I find blogging a relaxing way to get my thoughts down and I really just do it for myself. Bearing this in mind, I have decided to widen my horizons and blog about pretty much anything that I feel like. During term time I find it so hard to keep up with my sewing projects due to lack of time so for a while I think I might use my blog as a diary of sorts. A way of recording the day to day "regular" things we do as a family. I hope I can keep up with my goal of posting more often! :-)

Amy Butler Placemats

I have been wanting to make some washable placemats for a while now as I absolutely hate wiping down the table after the kids have eaten. I'm not sure what it is but they make a huge mess and the food always seems to harden and become a nightmare to get off. I figure that with a washable set, all the liquid spills (of which there are many!) will be absorbed and most of the time they will just need a quick shake off and then every few days, a hot wash in the washing machine. I am hoping their McDonalds and Nemo vinyl placemats will no longer be needed now. :-) I bought this Amy Butler 'In Stitches' book at Liberty's in London on our last trip and have read it many times but never done any of the projects. I simplified the pattern a lot (though being a placemat, it wasn't exactly a difficult project) and just used some fabric I already had (Camille, the white backing is made from the fabric I got from the "garage sale" at Nana's!), filled them with a layer of wadding and top-stitched around the edges. Hopefully they can withstand the rigours of messy childhood meatimes!

Accidental PJ's

These are the accidental PJ's as I only realised AFTER making them, that I used the wrong pattern! I was hunting through boxes in the sewing room last night and pulled lots of things out. I found this Treehouse bee fabric to make into PJ's and used what I thought was the 'Dummies' pattern. Turned out I had left some very similar vintage pattern pieces lying around and I accidently cut out the set using those! To be fair, it is very similar but this pair didn't seem quite as easy to make. The neck was a bit trickier this time round. :-) Rose tried them on after lunch today and has been wearing them since, hence the action shots!

Rose's Cath Kidston Inspired Room

After visiting the Cath Kidston store in Guildford, I fell in love with this look. Check out http://www.cathkidston.co.uk/ and absorb the gorgeousness of all things "Cath"! lol. I stumbled upon some Ikea Rosalie 100% cotton fabrics on Trademe, apparently designed by Cath Kidston for Ikea a few years ago. The seller had bought them in the UK for a bedroom project which never happened. They formed the basis for Rose's new bedroom look. I made a duvet cover out of the blue rose fabric and backed it in the pink check fabric. There was enough to make a pillowcase out of the check and rose fabrics. There was several metres of co-ordinating paisley fabric, a small amount of which I made into bunting to hang from the roof. For the past 3 years we have really overdone the whole pink look (Rose's favourite colour, naturally) so I was keen to tone it down just a little. I also picked up an old white candlewick textured bedspread from the Hospice shop and appliqued Rose's name on it in the matching fabrics, to create a rectangular cushion. It certainly wasn't perfect applique but was a fun project anyway. :-)

The paint dilemma...

We decided to paint the room in Resene Double Alabaster, described as a "bisque white, delicately shaded towards grey". We spent an entire week discussing and debating this and even now, are not sure we made the right decision with the colour. Take a look at the photo of the white chair with the wall in the background. You will see our test pot patches in the background, they all look remarkably like the white chair! It seems ridiculous that we spent so long choosing what is essentially just a white paint! After ripping up the carpets and laying new charcoal carpet, we now have a very neutral base. Rose has been so keen to get back up to her room and have her own space so she is chuffed to be back there again. The only downside is that the sun streams into her room (venetians don't provide the best blockout unfortunately) early in the morning and she wakes up before 7am!

Rose's Room: Before...

As you will no doubt be aware, we have been working on the house for a little while now and are slowly making some changes. Rose's room was covered in bright blue wallpaper and had dusty, threadbare old carpet. There is also some large windows in the room, meaning placing furniture can be tricky. Here are some shots of the room before:

Sewing Patterns for Dummies...

Yep, this range of patterns sounded like they were made for me so I purchased this simple kids pattern which I thought had a good range of items and was versatile. I used some fabric which I have had for a while now and had always planned to use for PJ's. Based of Eden's aforementioned rose PJ's, this was my attempt to replicate the look. I used the same vintage shorts pattern I used for the upcycled PJ's and used the top from the "Dummies pattern".

All was going well until the top was near completion. I kid you not, this top was ridiculously short! I did think that it looked a bit short when I was cutting it out (I used a Size 5) but I blamed it on my inexperience. Well, if you look at the floral fabric on the top and where it finishes, that was the finished length! I had even hemmed it and was very unhappy with the finished product. I decided that I had to fix it somehow, so resorted to the old faithful "adding on a panel" trick. I toyed with the idea of using the same fabric but I had a very small remnant of pale pink polka dot waffle fabric so decided to use that. I stitched it on and top-stitched it and was so much happier with the longer length. Rose surprised me with her enthusiasm for this new pair of PJ's as I really thought she would prefer the puppy ones, but no, these were chosen to be worn for the first night. lol. I am looking forward to making at least another pair just like this, but with the longer top, of course! :-)