All Things Mum

Oh wow, I actually started and finished my first Crayon roll for my niece. The tutorial is wonderfully published at Little Munchkins and it was sooo easy to make. How could I botch it up, you say? Well, see the white Ric Rac on top? That's to hide the selvedge that I included on the inside fabric. D'oH . I thought it was going to disappear within the seam allowance but it didn't. I think the ribbon could have been shorter so if you're out of the full 40cm ribbon, don't worry, it goes around twice, so even if you had 30cm that would be fine. Anyway, moving on, I really love how easy and pretty this project was. I have to make another one for my other niece. Lucky for me the Crayola Twistables were on sale at Target so they were only like $4.49 each for 12. I had the fabric in my stash so it was a really inexpensive gift.I used a blue/white dot on the outside and a pretty flower fabric for the pocket from Spotlight. There should be more completed gifts in the upco...

Found another competition giveaway at Simplify by Camille Roskelley . I've been drooling over quilts lately. So beautiful. Christmas is inching it's way over here and I've not cut out patterns or anything. My fabric (pictured) has arrived from the U.S. They're for my skirts. The pattern for that is on backorder but on it's way to me as we 'blog'. I am so in love with them. Both by by Heather Bailey, the first is Bijoux Tiles and Pop Garden. To tell the truth I've been busy with some study in Children's Services. It's been taking up lots of my 'spare' time (whatever that is). I've learnt quite a lot about children's development and I'm a lot more confident in the child care system here in Australia. Which reminds me, must look for a place for Little Miss for preschool. I've been putting it off. I need to visit a few places and put her on a waiting list. I found a free bag pattern at Oh Fransson . Elizabeth is sooo talented....

This is a little something close to my heart. I haven't heard back from the lady about my last post about crafting for charity so I decided to go ahead and do something on my own. I contacted Geraldine Cox of the Sunrise Children's Village in Cambodia asking her about how to go about donating some crafty things for the children in the orphanage. I was really happy to recieve a response from her and she let me know that it was a good idea, however, some times their packages get stolen : ( so there was no guarantee that they would actually recieve them. My heart sunk and I was disappointed for the children but it also gave me an idea. It would be good to auction off items on e-Bay for this wonderful cause with 100% of the proceeds going to the Sunrise centre. It is close to my heart because my family background is from Cambodia. Dad (God bless his soul) arranged for us to migrate from the war-torn country back in '77. We didn't arrive in Australia til 1978 where we re...

I have seen a few things that come with the territory of 'blogging'. You probably won't have them all but they are helpful tools. Here are my two: * Camera : comes in handy because, well, you will want to show people what's happening. * Photoshop : so you can adjust those pictures you've taken that didn't turn out the way you want, or you don't have a snazzy camera like the rest. I've been searching in earnest to find Photoshop tutorials because it's hard to use if you don't have to time or patience to learn. Finally , I came across Pioneer Woman , who not only blogs so beautiful and inspiringly, but she takes fabulous shots and is willing to share her Photoshop secrets. I've just tried the tricks on my two photos above and I'm so relieved to say that each step did work on my version of the software (CS2) which usually never happens. In the rose photo I blurred the background and did the hard light overlay. In the dad and bub photo I blu...

If you've got 15minutes of spare time you could try this... No not laying around, it's what she's on... We bought this change mat when Little Miss was born about 2 yrs ago. It is now in this condition. Still clean but you can see it's tearing away from the foam. We really put it to good use unlike other things you buy for babies. I had a glimpse at a design from Amy Butler's Sewing for Little Ones. It was green and stripey and soooo.. well... Amy Butler , complete with an overhanging piece to include lotions etc. I knew I could never replicate anything so pretty but I would at least try to do something decent, if not for me, for Little Boy who always requires a nappy change. I had this material ready for my niece's curtains but that one would have to wait. I promised I'd make something and here it is. The cover for the change mat. So simple, easy, rather pleasing to the eye. I was thinking of trying to sew in the panels to match the depths in the change mat...

She doesn't call it Shir Madness for nothing. I found a shirring tutorial on Sandi Henderson's site PortabelloPixie . I thought, ok, why not give it a whirl? Here are my tragic results. I had to hand gather as no 'shirring' occured. Very difficult as thread breaks, elastic breaks, my patience reaches breaking point. This is my next attempt where I tried to get my thread tension right. You can see that some lines have elastic that is a bit loose and curly. I tried to blast the elastic in an attempt to get some gathering happening but all I ended up with were wet blotches. I asked some 'blog' friends for advice but none of which worked for me. This included: using a tight tension = straight lines and straight elastic but no shirring winding the bobbin using the machine = no more needle thread getting jammed in my bobbin case but still no shirring using the longest stitch length = yeah, ok.. still no shirring Not to say that it won't work for you... it pr...

So, so, so sorry that I haven't had time to show you anything new. I really want to create but well... it's the little things that get in the way. On a recent trip to the farm we had lots of fun. I even had some adult conversation. It was very refreshing to say the least. I should get out more. We don't have kangaroos or koalas in our backyard, honestly. You have to travel out into bushland to see any. Continuing with our love of wood cut-outs Little rabbits Ouch, I'm posting while he's pulling my hair and she's laying on me. I'll have to sew during nap time. I will really will try to get something made by tomorrow afternoon. Promise.