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! :-)

Upcycling!

I love upcycling! I learnt about this term a few months ago from some fellow online crafters and loved the concept. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products. It is so satisfying creating something this way and also a great way to reduce the consumption of new raw material and become more environmentally friendly!

I managed to acquire a used Designer's Guild breakfast pillowcase from their 'Puppy Love' range quite a while ago. Although it was small and didn't match Rose's room, I couldn't bear to throw it out and tucked it into my storage basket until I could find a use for it. Inspired by Eden's gorgeous pink rose PJ's, I decided to turn it into some PJ's for Rose. This was the simplest project ever! I used a vintage 1970's shorts pattern and just lengthened the leg length (you know how short everything was in the 70's!) to make them as long as the fabric would allow. I also had a new little white singlet in my stash which I was going to use for another project (I am planning on making a doily singlet for Rose) and that came in handy for the top. I made the shorts and used the last puppy square of fabric for the little applique on the singlet. Rose (a big puppy fan) was very pleased and I love that this beautiful 100% cotton piece of fabric now has a new lease of life. :-)

Harry's 'Rip'Stop' Shorts

Nothing exciting, but yes, more shorts! A navy and an army green pair. I made these two pairs of shorts from Nana and Karen's 'Rip-Stop' stash of fabric! According to Wikipedia, rip-stop is a "lightweight nylon fabric with interwoven ripstop reinforcement threads in a cross-hatch pattern. It is woven with coarse, strong warp and filling yarns spaced at intervals so that tears will not spread". Anyone who has had experience with a little boy will know about worn knees in their trousers! :-)

I have had these cut out for ages but have been so busy that I haven't had the chance to sew them up till last week. The floor sanders were working upstairs so we were "trapped" downstairs for a few days and I was able to dust the cobwebs away from my sewing machine. It felt great! I used a Burda pattern which I bought for Harry a few months ago and they were super easy to make. Harry has worn both pairs already and loves the soft elastic waist. There is another pair cut out and sitting by my machine for the next snippet of time I have!

Toilet Training Friendly Shorts

We have been working on toilet training Harry in the last few months but have run into some difficulty with him removing his pants! The preschool tell me that he often makes it to the toilet but takes so long pulling down down his pants due to the buttons and zips, that he doesn't quite "make it".

He is quite a skinny little guy so needs pants that have an adjustable waist, elastic waists from stores just fall down on him.

I decided to make a pair of shorts for him and bought a large roll of really soft elastic from the Hospice Warehouse. I used a Burda pattern I bought a few months ago and left off the pockets.

I cut up an old pair of my jeans to use and whipped these up and they work a treat. He can pull them down more easily due to the soft elastic waist and I have already cut out more pairs for him so he will be set for the Summer.

Chair Bag

Well, it has been a while since I posted! We have moved house, our holiday has been and gone and Rose has started school. Needless to say, sewing has taken a back seat to other activities lately! :-)

Last week I decided to make Rose a chair bag for school. Her teacher told me that they had taken them off the stationery list as they were becoming increasingly hard to find in stores. A trip to the local stationery store confirmed this for me. It seems that most of the kids in her class had been given bags from friends or older siblings and I was determined that she would have one too. :-)

After a bit of research on Google, I made up my own pattern and used existing fabrics from my stash. I had picked up the cute pink print fabric from a curtain store as a remnant, not knowing what I would do with it. It was perfect for the chair bag!

It didn't take me long but I felt a great sense of achievement upon it's completion! I cut out the blonde curly haired girl from the fabric and appliqued it onto the bottom of the bag, Rose thinks it looks like her. :-)