A Sketch of Milla

I was super enough to have Sarah Gauntlett (Blog | Instagram links) do a sketch of Milla a few days before Christmas.

How delicious does Milla look on paper?

As usual, I think Sarah nailed her subject, and in only a few hours as well! I'm hoping she will be able to squeeze in Katie too, but i'll keep my fingers and toes crossed in the mean time!

If you love Sarah's work, you can buy some of her talent for your own portraits. I've seen the rest of her work too, she wont let you down! She completely amazes and inspires me in every way.

Thank you SOOO much Sarah! This portrait will adorn our walls for the rest of our lives x

((photo:: from earlier this year, I photographed both my girls in my wedding gown))

The Press Summer Starter

A few weeks ago MrMoo and I walked 10km in The Press Summer Starter.

I was a bit dubious going into a "fun run". Running / dodging scooters and prams is not fun.

I really wanted to ace the training for this, since I only trained for 2 weeks leading up to a 14km at the beginning of the year which I ran alright in. I wanted to see with proper training what I was capable of!

Unfortunately. Life. That thing that gets in the way of good intentions. Sickness, busyness, holidays. Training was put on a hold and a week before the event we re-assessed our goals and decided to go into aiming to have fun and spending some time together.

We borrowed an extra buggy so we could both push the girls, went for a quick walk the night before the event and that was about all the preparation we had! Oops.

[[That's MrMoo there with the buggy. What a hottie.]]

And you know what? It was actually FUN!

The organisers had a different live music station every 1km, and on most of the lampposts inspirational messages. There was selfie stations and dog water bowls along the way. The girls sat happily the whole way. It was a great atmosphere!

And then we hit the bagpipes about 2km in played by two young boys.

Bagpipes man. Back in my home town they are played at nearly every funeral. I cant shake a feeling of emotion and grief when I hear them, and from that point on I had a lump in my throat as I walked the course.

I felt like crying nearly the whole way, there was just so much emotion around, walking next to my fellow cantabrians, down broken streets with joyful families waving us on in their dressing gowns. *gulp*

Surprisingly, I have continued to exercise following the summer starter, I have been for a few walks and runs since, and I hope to work on my fitness and strength over the summer time too.

It feels good to move, to release the days stress, to work my lungs and feel my muscles stretch. My body and mind feels much better for it.

Thanks Press for putting on such a great event!!

Mindless Sewing

Welp. It appears I'm not much of a "relaxed sewer". So many of my IG friends rave about their love for sewing straight line after straight line, letting it relax them with mindless sewing. 

I've found through this scrappy quilt that I loathe mindless sewing. I find myself grinding my teeth, hunched over, trying to sew as fast as possible, and then becoming frustrated that my last hour of sewing produced only a small square for a very laaarge quilt. 

Um. Sucks. 

I do love sewing, and I feel like it generally releases tension in me (unless I'm unpicking). But I think I need instructions, steps, different lines to sew, things to piece together, garments appearing before my eyes, satifaction! Ah yes, that all sounds SO much better than teeth grinding mindless sewing.

But alas, I plod along with my scrappy quilt, its not getting any smaller so that's something to take comfort in.

I have also started a luggage weekender bag (which is an insane pattern. The most complicated thing I've ever attempted.), and am re-doing all the cushions at Kindy, so I've got plenty to help me procrastinate from this mammoth scrappy quilt! Hehe.

Baby Shower Dress

I told you I had made yet -another- Savannah Dress, they are just so easy you see.. If you're sewing for little girls, I can definitely recommend it!  This is my 5th time making it *cough*. I need to get out into the pattern world more.

Anyway, can I toot my own horn when I say I think this one is the best yet??! 

I gave this as part of a baby shower gift a few weeks ago. The baby shower was unlike anything I had been to before! WE knew the gender of the baby, and the new Mum walked in and found out what she was having when she saw us all in pink! Crazy huh!? The Dad managed to keep it a secret from her for about 10+ weeks! 

Along with some other goodies, I sewed this dress up for her little girl the night before (the fastest I've been able to make one)! 

I had been to a clothing swap that weekend and found a dress using this fabric, but the elastic had gone in the dress and I couldn't wear it, so I thought I would turn the skirt part of it into a wee girls dress! There was -just- enough to make it work! Thanks to who ever ditched the dress, I hope you like what I've done with it! :)

The hem of the dress had a pre-made ruffle in it which is an adorable detail on a little girls dress so I kept it in.

 And the wooden buttons and size labels (not pictured) I got from Pattern Postie. I love fun buttons and size tags are really helpful on handmade gifts!

I can't wait to see this little girl (arriving soon!) toddling around in the sunshine next summer with her dress on! 

READ MORE:

Click here to view more versions of the Savannah Dress pattern

When I'm giving clothes to a new mum I always give a Size 1 - I figure the little people are in them longer, and there always seems to be an abundance of baby clothes, but not much given for the bigger sizes. Do you have any rules you follow like that? Leave a comment and let me know! 

More Zipper Practice [stuff I've made]

Two wee zipper pouches to go with two baby shower presents. Handy for all sorts! All the pads, the pain killers, the make up, the snacks, the... everything! 

And, little pouches perfect for zipper practice! These ones were much faster and easier, but definitely prefer the method of putting them in with the wee bits of fabric at each end like on this one. So much neater and nicer that way :)

The Green one had an interfacing lining, the red one has cotton batting and was quilted together.  

I used an invisible zipper for the red one because it's all I had on hand, but one of these days I'll learn how to insert in invisibly. Hahaaa! (oops, and forgot to topstitch the red one!) Off to search Pinterest now for zipper inspiration...

[[Other Stuff I've Made recently]]

Dragonfly Dress for Milla

A few months ago Deb gave me a supermarket bag full of scrap fabric, inside was this purple dragonfly fabric. I had no ideas for things I could use it for, but as soon as Milla spyed it she declared "Isn't is soooo beeeautiful Mummy! All those purple butterflies!" as she looked at me sweetly! The purple force is strong in Milla.

I made the dress in one night a few weeks ago, but it's taken me until today to make the button holes and sew the buttons on. I just really really suck at button holes. 

But! Milla absolutely loves her dress. She has been patiently waiting for it.

Once again its the Savannah Dress pattern, which is now my 5th time making! (I have another to show you next week...) 

It's such a simple dress, and the pattern comes with different neckline and sleeve options. So versatile! Although when I first showed her she said "Thats just like my birthday dress!" So I think I will need to deviate from this pattern eventually to keep it exciting! 

Yay! I love sewing pretty things for my girls!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today xx

READ MORE:
Click here to view all my Savannah Dress sewing

Our Humble Container Garden

I planted strawberries on a whim a wee while ago. I decided we needed to have them, after keeping a few alive last year (but not for much longer), they were great to have with toddlers, so I went out and bought the plants, soil and pots, even though we couldn't reeeeally afford anything extra that week. but MAN! I am SO GLAD I DID. These little plants are bringing me the greatest of joy.

I love them so much I went out and got some old recycling bins and made a little container garden for ourselves.

Cherry tomatoes, capsicum (I'm not really expecting these to grow, christchurch is too cold for them), strawberries... and now raspberries!

We were given some raspberry canes from a beautiful family in our church when I asked if anyone had any spare on FB. I had a few extra, and was able to give them to some other friends. Huzzah.

And these are our plants, just a few weeks later. Our strawberries are growing like crazy, the tomatoes are starting to creep up the stakes, and the raspberries have flowered and are sending new shoots up from the soil. Its completely satifying in every way, seeing my little plants grow. I'm even measuring my tomatoes growth week by week on the stakes. YEP. So exciting. 

I've seen some epic container gardens on Pinterest, but I'm pretty happy with our wee humble collection of growing things. It's about all I can keep alive right now! 

A Little Yellow Table

Errrm so I didn't "make" it exactly. However, I have spent the last few weeks ducking out to the garage in little spare moments to put layers of white and yellow on this wee coffee table. 

This is Resene's Paris Daisy, I bought a 1L of it to do up our bedside tables, so I have heaps of yellow left! Everything is going to be turning yellow around here...

I didn't do the greatest paint job in the world, but I'm trying to finish things rather than get stuck in the "it doesn't look perfect" rut. My builder and perfectionist brother won't be impressed by it, but I am. 

And, its the perfect (wee) size to have in our (wee) lounge, and can be easily moved about.

I love our new happy table!

(big thanks to our Fretty friends who generously share their thrifty finds with us)

The Beginning of our Training #moo2fitness

Well, that winter was long. I've been waiting for months for it to be light enough and warm enough to tighten the sneakers and get out on the pavement for another run. 

I really enjoyed training for the City to Surf, and when MrMoo announced that he wanted to train for a 10km fun run at the end of November I jumped on the bandwagon!

It is SO. GOOD. to be outside, sweating, huffing and puffing. It's a stress release and therapy time, a time to pray and zone out and focus in. It's just a good time for everything.

I'm looking forward to upping my fitness and acing that 10km. I'm actually considering not running in the fun run, and doing it on a different day so I can time myself. And. Well. I was really bitter about having to run with scooters and prams during the city to surf. It was dan.ger.ous. Apparently I'm not much of a "fun run" type. Oops.

I live around such a beautiful area, there are lovely parks and walk ways I can run down. 

I use the Nike app to coach me in my training - you put in how many km's you want to be able to run by a certain date and it works out a daily training schedule for you. In the early weeks I really like that there are some walks to loosen up your body in between runs.

[excuse that shoe pile]

MrMoo and I take advantage of the walks by going out together after dinner before bedtime. It's a lovely time bathed in sunset light, the girls sit happily in their buggy with their tummies full, sunglasses on and we get to chat about our days, which isn't something we are usually very good at making time for.

And, it's really hot seeing your hubby working out in such a perfect scene.

[I'm sharing on Instagram #moo2fitness ]

Moon Gazing :: A Note to My Children

[source]

Dearest Children of Mine,

This week your Dad and I sat up late at night, staring out our window watching the bright moon change colour. It was absolutely beautiful. 

We felt like such oldies, taking the time to stargaze. We joked about Googling something, "Do young ones still use Google these days, love?" "Whats a Google?".

But, I hope that you'll always find to look up, into the nothingness and everythingness that is our universe. She's big, but somehow that makes me feel big too. Not little or insignificant like you might presume. Instead it makes me feel loved, and special. That in all of the years, and all of the people, God knows me, and you. It's pretty incredible, really. All of that everything only makes me believe more. 

I hope you'll find some comfort in that too.

Love, Mumma and Mimimimi.

xxx x

Amanda's Baby Shower Quilt

About a month and a half ago I hosted my first ever baby shower for my darling friend Amanda. I met Amanda 3 years ago at our Plunket new parents group and we have continued our friendship into toddler and second-new-baby hood.

At her baby shower I had the guests (with a lot of encouragement needed!!!) design up a quilt block on freezer paper (bought from Spotlight), they cut out the design and ironed it on to pre-cut quilting cotton.

At home I painted each of the blocks with a glitter gold fabric paint. It's actually quite sparkly and the photos don't do it justice here. In hindsight, I wish I had chosen a different method of doing this, because the glitter is a bit rough and probably not very practical for a nice soft snuggly quilt.

But I wasn't to know that, and I really wanted gold (for some reason). So I continued on, and built the quilt. The yellow around the outside and on the backing has little white dots in it which are hard to see here. 

I love each of the designs and they are all so different. When I showed Amanda the quilt today she had remembered each and every quilt block and who had made it. Impressive!

The back has a wee stripe of mini squares to jazz it up a bit and was hand quilted and hand binded together. Binding I think is my favourite part of making a quilt, its so satisfying all those tiny stitches and smooth edges and corners.

So here is my second ever quilt, not a bad effort, but I'd definitely change some things if I were doing it again.

I'm sure Amanda will do something with it though (and hopefully enjoy it), and it was a joy to pass it over to her and her family. (The new Pepe is doing great by the way :) I got snuggles today! Melt!)

READ MORE:
My first everyday quilt
My current scrappy quilt

I'm Joining In:: Scrappy Quilt Along

The last week, thankfully, flew by as we made our way through our first school holidays with Milla home from Kindy.

It was relaxing and I felt the pressure of being out of the house by 8.20 in the morning ease, along with packed lunches and tired cranky girls after busy days.

I've been sick for the last three weeks, trying to get over pesky swollen throat glands and headaches and last week I finally found some relief in the monotony.

As a result, I missed my Stuff I've Made blog post, but I did instead get the absolute honour of guest posting on Deb's Works In Progress blog.

I wrote to her readers about joining the Scrappy Quilt Along and showed off my first blocks and a little video of the process that the hubs made for me. You can jump over to the post to see it if you want to :) :: (Scrappy Quilt A Long Sophie Slim Guest Post).

So that's what I focussed on last week, a basket of some 1000 little fabric squares that are being sewn into rows and large squares. It's time consuming, repetitive, colourful, and just what I need right now.

Peace x

Zipper Pouch [stuff I've made]

I told you last week that I would make something new each week, but I didn't promise it would be anything amazing!

I knocked this pouch up in between house chores and child distractions one afternoon last week. I broke 3 needles on it, (trying to get over the zipper in the side seam), so it took until a week later (today) to get new needles and finish off the last 2 seems until it could be completed!

At the beginning of the year one of my goals was to master a zipper, so I'm thinking a few easy zipper pouches will give me some practice, so this is the first! And I -finally- found a zipper foot that would attach to my machine (for anyone that wonders, I have an old Globe 510 machine, and have bought a low shank adapter and a clip on zipper foot from Direct Sewing)

I love that it is fully lined, it makes a great wee make up bag (and can now replace my too small, moldy one!) 

I'm pretty happy with my first proper zipper attempt! I could do with some sharpening of skills (so I will keep working on it), but its definitely useable and something I am very proud of. 

Hurrah! 

Thanks for stopping by :) 

xxxx

Sycamore Shorts for Milla

I really enjoyed showing off my poroporo blouse last week for Milla, it spurred me on to spend an hour on Wednesday night whipping up these little sycamore shorts. [link to free and easy pattern!]

I made them with chambray, which was my first time using. Its so light and so easy to work with, I think I'll definitely be making more out of this fabric! 

If you're just starting out sewing this is a really great pattern to try out. I found all the instructions to be very thorough and easy peasy. And you're only having to work with two pattern pieces. Score. Do try it and let me know if you do!

After I had cut out my fabric it took about an hour to iron and sew all the pieces. MrMoo left for indoor cricket and by the time he got back I had a pair of shorts to show him! It was like magic!

There is still lots of fabric left over from what was required so I'll definitely be making more, maybe some little ones for Katie?

Milla keeps telling me she has apples in her pocket. Super duper cute.

[[I thought I'd try and make "making something once a week" a regular feature on my blog. Hopefully it'll spur on my sanity, motivation and blogging regularity! Thanks for stopping by each time xxx]]

Millas Frozen Party

Last week we celebrated Millas 3rd birthday with a party for her select few little friends and their parents. She requested a "Frozen and icecream party" and that's exactly what she got. (I pre warned the parents we would be feeding their little children icecream!)

I didn't go overboard on decorations (infact, I spent 79c on them). Some borrowed blue bunting and some pom pom yarn on sale was the sum total of Frozen themed decorations, but it was enough to surprise the little people attending and let them know that something special was happening.

First we played pin the nose on Olaf - a happy little snowman who gets a carrot nose in the movie. Being 3 year olds, party games are a bit risky, but you've got to learn this classic some time right?! It was turning into a bit of a flop, none of the children wanted to take part / didn't know how. Luckily our fun friends stepped in and made it a hoot for the kids. They found great joy in leading their blind Daddys to Olaf.

Milla requested plaits like Anna for herself and also me! She also wore her Elsa cape (a birthday present made by me!) throughout the party, and each guest got an Elsa crown after pin the nose on Olaf.

Even Monkey got a crown!

Ice cream time! We set up a little ice cream "bar" inside. i had pre scooped the childrens into bowls to make it faster for them. I forgot the fruit and jelly in the fridge, I'm always forgetting things at the last minute. 

After ice-cream we smashed Elsa's Frozen Hands (water frozen inside gloves, and then the glove removed once solid). The bigger kids handled the hammers really well and were very safe with them and spent 5 minutes smashing up all the tiny bits of ice. 

While the big kids were doing this I had filled our water table with water and star shaped ice cubs with glitter frozen inside. The little babes had great fun splashing around with that and were none the wiser of the hammer and ice chaos happening metres away.

At our parties I like to have a few little activities planned to keep the kids on some sort of focus - rather than going free range about our house. I think it centers them and helps contain the chaos. 

Activities need to be age and stage appropriate. I think pin the nose on Olaf went over their heads, but was worth doing. Maybe they'll be a bit more ready for the next party that does it! 

I like to keep food simple, it was great doing it in the afternoon and offering ice cream, I just wish I had remembered the fruit and jelly in the fridge. I'm not big on the "food tables", food isn't really my strength and I don't think kids pay too much attention to the food tables, so that made my life much easier. 

After most of the guests had gone Milla said "I'm just going to go have a rest" and laid down on her bed for a few minutes and then made her way back out again when she was ready. Parties are big tiring occassions for our little introvert and its important we take that into consideration when planning. 

This was a simple but fun party that only took a few days to plan! We had a great time with our guests and Milla was the happiest 3 year old in the whole world. 

And finally, a HUGE THANK YOU to Jared and Georgia for taking these beautiful photos. We will treasure them forever xxx