Milla's Emergency Dental Visit

This week Camilla has been complaining of a sore tooth when she has been eating her relatively balanced diet. "Ouch! I have a sore tooth!" she would say and clutch her jaw in pain.

I booked her in to an emergency dental appointment, and then I realised.... She watched the Berenstain Bears a few times a week, a sweet little show about a bear family. In one of the episodes Brother Bear gets a sore tooth and can't eat anything, and Sister Bear gets a lose tooth. They both end up at the dentist and get a special treat and have a great time!

Could this be a co-incidence? It seems not. 

The dentist confirms my little girl has perfectly healthy teeth, and Milla says "My teeth are all better now".

TV has a much greater influence on us than I realised...

Because I'm Happy

Just a regular ol' sunny Thursday morning here. You'll often find me on a Thursday morning desperately trying to finish off my EziBuy blog post that's due every fortnight. 

You'd think that since I have a fortnights warning I would be much better prepared, alas, I never am. This week I took my tutorial photos BEFORE Thursday (amazing), but still find myself scrambling in my 1.5hr slot of child free time. The dishes, washing and vacumming are waiting for me too. But here I am, checking in at Sophie Slim, my favourite place.

SO. JUST BECAUSE. Here are some things that make me happy (I waited all winter for someone to nominate me for one of these grateful challenges, but no dice.).

My whanau. Aren't they adorbs? Life is much busier with Kindy in the mix, and for the first time I am appreciating slow weekends and more opportunities for quality time with each of our family members. 

New hooks I've ordered from EziBuy. These require screws in the wall, a luxury we don't have in a rental. So they will be squirreled away for one day when we are able to purchase our own home. And then we will screw all the screws! The idea of having something for "later" excites me to no end. 

I think I have FINALLY cracked my presser foot woes. I have an old Globe machine (my Nanas), it is great, but I've never been able to find a presser foot (zipper foot) that will fit it. They are all clip ons these days. 

Whenever I have asked professionals they have looked at me and said "they don't make those", HA. You're no help Mr Sewing Machine Man. So finally after a few years I turned to google, accidentally ordered this industrial foot (on the right)(it did look strikingly similar in the photo so I thought I would try my luck), and after a bit more searching found that my feet are called LOW SHANK. Hallelujah. The internet knows they exist!! 

So I have now bought a low shank adapter and a clip on zipper foot (you can get low shank zip feet, but I thought an adapter might be easier for more feet later on...). I'll be trying them out tonight, all seems good so far. Booyah. 

[[Thanks for all your super kind comments on the Poroporo Tunic. Your encouragement saw me finishing another garment last night!]]

Poroporo Tunic

Last weekend I put a call out to find out everyones tried and tested favourite kids and womens clothing patterns.

I had a great response on my Facebook post and also my blog, and Jenny of Mend and Make New did a dedicated blog post in response! I pinned my favourites of your favourites and set about to make something!

First up is this super cute "Sandy's Tunic" by Lily Bird Studios. 

Out of all the PDF patterns I've used (which is the majority of any of my sewing), this is the most comprehensive pattern I've come across, it explains every detail and has great photos. Because of that I would say it is suitable for a confident beginner. There are a few techniques to practice in this top - binding, gathering, button holes (ACK), plackets and top stitched "pleats" (I've forgotten the name of them). Plenty of techniques to keep it interesting, but as I said, it is all step by step instructions. 

I'm going to aim to make a couple more of these because I think it's just so stinking cute, and would look great all in one colourway me thinks.  

Milla is on a huge purple buzz right now, so she is pretty stoked with her "waiporoporo summer top".

What to sew next? Maybe some shorts, or a peasant dress? I've officially put an overlocker on my must get list, so I'm going to tackle fun knit fabrics once I have one, in the mean time, cottons it is for us!

Frozen Party Eve

Like I said on Monday, I forgot Milla was having her Frozen Party this weekend!

It's not that I make a habit of forgetting such important details in a 3 year olds life, it's just that things have been busy. I just threw a baby shower for a friend, and I kept thinking "I'll start party prep after the shower". And I still thought I had a few weeks up my sleeve. I need to get a proper physical on the wall calendar me thinks.

Anyway. As it turns out, you don't actually need more than a week to throw this kind of party (assuming all goes to plan of course!). I'm a simple party kind of gal I think. Most of my effort goes into age appropriate activities it seems. I don't have much finess in the kitchen so the "food table" that looks so glam on Pinterest doesn't do much for me. 

Camilla requested ice cream (has she been browsing ice cream bars on Pinterest??). So yesterday we went to the super market and bought a bunch of toppings for said ice cream. Tomorrow I'll put it in bowls. Boom. Food done. Keep it simple people. There's not even a cake, I'll put the candles in her dessert. We are totally cool with that.

We only have a little living area, so numbers of invited little people were very limited and I have taken all the toys out of the lounge (except for the important play kitchen), to make room for the extra adults.

BUT. I do know she is going to have a blast. 

We are all good to go! Frozen party countdown time!