Today I had two mummy fails. One was kind of embarrassing and funny [unless it is you!], the second was just heartbreaking.

Last night [Sunday] I decided at 6pm that I would leave for my trip to Ballarat in the morning [Monday], and not on Tuesday as planned. So far so good. I packed everything up, put away my precious sewing stuff and left this morning, the house still messy but Andrew assuring me he'd be happy to clean it. Who am I to complain! Addie and I arrived in Mildura at lunch time. She needed a nappy change and was still in her PJs, so I popped her in the pram and went to the shopping centre where they have a nice parenting room. 

I'm using disposables for the trip, so off came the nappy, I wiped her bottom and put it all in the stinky bin. I reached in my bag for the new nappy. Uh oh!! No nappy! I'd put the nappies in the OTHER bag which was in the car a LONG way from where we were. I had a nudie baby in a shopping centre. What do you do then? 

I hoped desperately that someone would walk in just then and I could beg a nappy from them. I mean were the tables reversed, I'd give someone a nappy. However at this time no one was using the room, and no one walked in. Damn!

So I scouted for something to use. I grabbed a wad of toilet paper, and realised that Addie had just done a big wee on the change table. Well at least it probably gives me a few more minutes!! So I cleaned her up, stuck the toilet paper under her bum and put her PJ pants back on. I stuck my portable change mat under her in the pram so as to not ruin the upholstery and went to Woolies where they conveniently sell WOW nappies in a sample pack for 60c. Thankfully there was no big accident and we averted the disaster that could have happened.  I could just imagine pushing the pram and leaving a wet drippy trail in my wake.

The second fail was tonight. This is the one that is breaking my heart! I put her to bed in my parents rather large house and turned on the baby monitor. I'd tested that it worked and was on all the right settings earlier this evening and I was confident that she'd be ok.  I heard a few small tired cries through the monitor and then there was silence, so I assumed my baby had gone to sleep. 

A few hours later as I was going to our room I realised the monitor had somehow been bumped off. I found Addie sleeping in a crumpled heap in her cot. She'd ripped off the bottom sheet and it looked like a disaster zone. The poor baby must have screamed and screamed for mummy, and I never heard her. I have tears in my eyes as I speak. I can't bear the thought of her feeling hopeless, afraid and alone. I know she will experience these things in life, and I can't stop that. It is my job to teach her how to deal with these things but not to cause them. When I lifted her up to fix her bed and give her a better position to sleep she awoke with sobs. The poor baby!!

Its not like the worst thing ever, and maybe its pregnancy hormones making me extra emotional, but I feel like I really failed her. I'm quite sure that in the morning all will be forgiven, and I'll feel better about it too. 

Better times with Addie and Me!

When two straight lines change your life - again!

I've been having some difficulty with Addie's feeding and sleeping the past few weeks. Constantly feeding, but screaming at the same time, not going to sleep, waking often and being generally unsettled. I tried to give her some formula to see if she needed something extra but she refused it in every form. I was feeling so defeated, frustrated and a little bit angry. We have a clinic that can help with things like this on Thursdays, so last week I decided to take her and see what they advised. While I was thinking about it I remembered that pregnancy can sometimes cause funny reactions with babies, and so I did a test so I could rule it out.

Wrong. There were two lines. Not one, two.

Ahhhh!!!!!! I had some worries late last week after some spotting - very common but also a bit scary! This encouraged me to trot off to the Dr on Monday and get a blood test. It came back with good high levels of HcG the hormone that helps keep the developing embryo alive. We're not sure of exact dates but we estimate that I'm about 5 weeks pregnant and due in January 2011.

Sure its early to be sharing the news. Things can go wrong and the highest percentage of miscarriage is before 12 weeks, but we'd rather share the sweet or bitter with the people that we share the rest of our lives with. We're pretty excited about this addition to our family!

My Place & Yours - And it was all Yellow

MPAY hosted by Hello Owl is brought to you today by the colour Yellow.

1. Addie and the tub. Obviously Addie [not being a cartoon character] isn't yellow but this 44l tub that is her bath is very yellow. I originally bought it years ago to hold my paper pulp. It worked well for that too.

2. Pretty yellow teapot on a pretty yellow net curtain.

3. Not so pretty yellow gloves on the back door step. They are there near the hose I use to rinse Addie's sticky-poo nappies. At least I know the poo isn't in my fingernails. Ewh.

1. Wild sunflower. These grow wild all over Broken Hill almost all year. Its a great wildflower! This one is beside our driveway.

2. Yellow in some fabric flower that sit on my window sill.

3. Yellow modular playpen gate thing. This is blocking off my pantry which is in the livingroom area. So far so good.

1. The biscuit jar. Its not really a jar because it is plastic. Its very cheerful, and currently empty.

2. Bananas. When all else fails, I feed Addie a banana. Its amazing how much banana fits into her little tummy. I get the leftovers. Num nums!

3. Plastic Yellow dishes waiting to be washed. Guess who eats with these?

1. A favourite yellow dress. I didn't get to wear it much this year because its size 10 [it makes me feel little, lol] and for once my boobs didn't fit into it. Thats never happened to me before :)

2. Yellow quilting pins. I like these on account of they are yellow, long and have heads that look like flowers.

3. Measuring tape. I have one or two of these, but this is my only yellow one. It is nice and long and makes me feel 'professional', especially when I wear it around my neck.

Hop skip and jump [or click] over to Hello Owl's. She has the links to all the other Yellow My Place and  Yours.

Clean your sewing machine!!!

Let this be a warning to you! This is the underneath of my sewing machine bobbin area. As you can see there is thread, dust and lint clogging up all the gears and parts. It took only a couple of minutes to clean, and only required a lint brush.

My machine is a Janome My Excel 18w. I bought it for my 21st birthday and have used it much since then. I've been very good about cleaning out the lint from the bobbin shuttle area, but until now I'd never looked inside the machine. I've never had it serviced either - which is to my shame I know. We don't have anyone who does it in Broken Hill, and I don't want to have to send it to away. Thats part of the reason I've decided to fix machines myself. She runs smoother and quieter now - though it is always going to be a noisyish machine. 

I know some people are getting rid of their basic model machines like this in favour of the computerised fancy-pants machines which are quite affordable these days, but I can tell you now I will never part with this girl, no matter how many machines I get, win or are given.  You can't beat the reliability of a metal mechanical machine.

While I'm on my little soapbox here I have something else to say. There are plenty of abandoned machines around. Even if you have only $200 to spend here is what I think you should do. Get an old machine - you can find them at garage sales, opshops, tips and from friends and family. Then go get it serviced. You will end up with a little beauty that will last a life time, unlike the cheap plastics out there today.

Heating our home

Most of us in Broken Hill are more worried about air cooling than we are about heating. But for the couple of months that it is cool it is nice to feel warm. Now that we have a baby it feels like it is more important to keep the temperature warmer than we would otherwise.

Our rental like so many here has no insulation, is made from tin and has no gas bayonet. So we have to go with electric heating, knowing already that much of our energy will be lost to outside. There is a reverse cycle air conditioner in the living are which heats it quite well. The bedroom doesn't get any of that heat though and I've been trying to find out the most cost effective way to heat it.

Here are a couple of useful rescources that I found.

This article is by the Victorian Government in 2004. Note that the per hour cost to run these will be higher than the chart shows because energy prices have gone up since then, but it still gives you a good comparison.

I also found that this Choice article is excellent. It explains the different types of heating and how they work best. I found that it explained thins very clearly. It even includes a calculator to help you determine the best options based on room size. You have to be bothered to measure your room though! [I didn't but still got the best info from it]

I've figured from these that the best thing to do will be to get a medium size oil heater for our bedroom. I feel like they're expensive, but there is no point in getting something cheaper that will be more costly in the long run - both to my bank account and to our planet.

Baby/Toddler Reversible Crossover Pinafore

My sister sent me a couple of very cute toddler popover/pinafore patterns the other day. They were nice vintage patterns, back when patterns were one size only, so two are size 2 and the other size four.

The size four really interested me. It is a toddler's crossover reversible pinafore, with buttons in front. The pattern says it is McCalls 3566, yet google tells me this is a swimsuit pattern? It surprises me that they would reuse the code from out of print patterns. I digress. 

I wanted to make the pattern for Addie as now she is crawling all her dresses get in the way but I still wanted her to look cute. So I began by making the pattern in it's original size. Once I'd done this I had a fair idea of how it fit and how I would need to modify it to fit a size 0. Here is the size 0 modelled by Addie reluctantly sitting still.

The font fits her fine and looks cute, but the back while lovely doesn't suit a crawler.

It sits fine here when she's sitting up, but see how there are big gaps between the crossovers and the arms? The crossovers tend to fall to the side and it goes wonky.  Even still, on the first day she was wearing this I got orders to make them for 3 babies her age!

The next day I modified and enlarged the pattern a little. The enlargement makes it fit with a couple of long sleeved t-shirts and or jumper underneath, important as we're coming up  to winter.

Pretty much what I did was thickened up the crossovers and also made the bottom of the back wider so that it is less gappy when she crawls. It works perfectly and looks just as good from the front.

Its really hard to get a good picture of a kid who won't sit still! If you want the pattern that I made feel free to email me and I can post it to you. I haven't quite figured out how to make a nice looking pdf printable pattern and also haven't figured out how to host them, so unless anyone can give me some ideas on that it'll have to be a snail mail deal.

If you want to buy a multisized pattern Butterick have one in print that is very similar and excellent value. It is pattern # B3846

I also found a tutorial by The Stuff I Live For on how to make one without a pattern, if you're game. I think this is a good tutorial, but I think that it would be better to make it all as one piece if at all possible, instead of 3 pieces like she does. Thats just a small detail though. To do that join the back and front pieces together when you lay them out.

Softie Swap

Softie Hall of Fame

Last post I moaned about missing out on swaps. The answer, do my own! So if you want to be in a cool, fun softie swap, I'm doing one.

Sign up by emailing me via my contact form [follow the link or click on the contact tab] and give me your name, postal address and website [if you have a blog]. Please make sure that you will follow through though!! Australian participants only please, postage would be too $$ otherwise, no?

Here are the guidelines:

1. Sign up by May 22 [gives you 1.5 weeks from now to find out about it and decide]
2. Make a softie for your swap partner. Have a look at their blog etc and see if you can do something that they will love! Don't tell them what it is because it will spoil the surprise.
3. In regards to quality make something that you would love to get - 
4. Send it by June 22nd. This gives you a whole month in which to make your softie. 
5. Put a picture of it on your blog and I'll put a linky list here after June 22nd for you to link to, if you want!

PS you'll find softie making resources and ideas at http://www.softiemaking.com/ and a ton of patterns at http://www.clothdollconnection.com/FreePatterns.html  or google softies.

Better late than never.

Its been a couple of weeks since I received these, and I meant to blog them... I just didn't get around to it until now.

I was excited in early April to find out about Sew Mama Sew's Fat Quarter Swap before it ended!  I always find out about great swaps too late. Any tips you have for not missing out would be great! Anyway this one was pretty simple, send out 4 fat Quarters and you'll get 4 in return - like those chain letters that you used to get but this one actually works and there are no curses attached.

Here's what I got!

I've used at least some of the top two already. The top left I used in a keyring wristlet, and the top right I made a purse out of. Its so pretty and I love it! The other two are just beautiful too, and I'm thinking that they will make their way into some toys that I am going to be making. It was fun getting the little chocolates and ricrac that were in various ones. I sent ricrac and other trims with mine so it was lovely to receive some too. All the senders had nice little businesscards/tags that went with their offerings, making me think that I want to have some cute cards too!! 

It was much fun being in a swap and I'd love to do one again. Softies, aprons, bags, whatever. 

My Place & Yours - Proud Moments

I love the movie The Castle (1997), who doesn't right? Anyway, one of the best lines in that goes something along the lines of "Trace was always giving Dad proud moments". MPAY this week is on the subject proud so these are my proud moments.

Fixing a broken sewing machine. My friend Kylie bought this from the tip. It didn't really work, so I had a look at it. I've been wanting to learn to repair sewing machines for quite some time so I was excited to give this a go. I'm pleased to say that it now does a very nice straight and zigzag stitch. That was a definite proud moment when it made those nice stitches.

I feel proud moments when I make pretty things. 

I'm proud of my hair. Its not everyone's cup of tea, and they are in the early stages still so I know that they will look much sleeker in the end, but I love having dreads and I feel proud of them. I'm proud of Andrew too for being happy to be seen with me too.

Andrew gives me proud moments. I'm proud of how he plays with Addie, sings her songs and enjoys her. He even tries to stop her whining sometimes which is a godsend when it works! I'm proud of how he works hard delivering pizza even though its poor pay and not the kind of work that he wants to do, and I'm proud that he has almost finished his 1st semester of uni - a step which hopefully will help him provide for his family as it grows.

How could I not have proud moments every time I look at her! Ok. I do NOT have proud moments when she's whining, doing massive poos, wrecking stuff and refusing to sleep, but you know! She is so beautiful, quite loving, very cheerful, most inquisitive and better than anything I could have imagined. 

You know the drill, other posts on the topic proud are linked @ Hello Owl.

Little Black Apple

Pelly likes to dress pretty, but she also likes to run around and climb things, so she ends up getting quite grubby - but nothing a good bath can't fix. 

Introducing my first Black Apple Doll. If you are thinking "Black Apple Doll, what is that?" read on. Black Apple Doll is the creation of a clever cookie named Emily Martin. She is so clever and good at everything that it makes me want to hide under a rock in shame at my own crusty offerings. I won't though.

I first heard of Black Apple Dolls on I Heart Sunny Days, thought it was a cute doll and went a-googling.  Turns out that Emily let Martha have the pattern and Martha let the whole world have the pattern for free. Yay! So now these dolls are populating our planet at a rapid rate. Seriously, they're everywhere. I've also noticed that this simple style of toy is quite popular in softie-land around now too. There are heaps of cute photos of these dolls made in all different ways on flicker, I've linked them here.

So, this is my first and probably not last doll made with this design. Pelly's little face is painted on. I feel like painting doll faces is one of my weaknesses but apart from looking surprised I think she's ok. Her Mary Janes and pink socks are painted too. I have made her about 60% of the size because thats how it printed from my computer, and I though it might be cute. It is! Addie was keen to eat this little cutie, but I saved Pelly from a soggy mauling. I will make one for Addie though, but I'll make sure it is double sewn when I do.

Story Apron and Anything Puppets

One of my besties, Jewels is an infants teacher [K-2] and is a really good one I think. She told me that she'd really like a couple of things to help her with teaching stories. The first is a story apron.

A story apron is basically an apron with lots of pockets. Story props; pictures, dolls, and other objects are all hidden in the pockets and the brought out to tell the story at the appropriate time. I made this one kind of massive. I like massive aprons. I like the feeling of being encircled by fabric, and at the time of sewing I was wearing a rather full skirt! Ooops. Jewels is quite petite so they may have trouble finding her under here.

The apron features 7 pockets. I've used different textures and shapes and closures for each pocket. There is a teeny tiny one made from sateen, one bound with bias binding, a zip closure, a button closure, a v-shaped pocket, a faux fur pocket and [hidden around the side] a Hello Kitty pocket.

The whole apron is edged in bias binding which gives it a neat and classy feel. I'm a bit in love with bias binding at this moment.

Above is a set of 10 Anything Puppets. They are a basic glove puppet with no features. In this way the puppeteer has to use their story telling skills to give the puppet character and features. The kids have to change their voice, move the puppets in different ways, adopt different poses with them to give them their own character. Its a very clever concept. 

Both the Anything Puppets and Story Apron come from a book called Storytelling with Puppets by Connie Champlin. Google Books has some of the pages of this book available to view here.

 

Lastly, here is Addie spending some time just hanging with her dad. They were having a lovely time together!!

Hello from me to you

Hello Owl is a fun girl. She had an idea for people to share what they're wearing today. Thats a good idea! So I took a quick pic with my web-cam. Its a bit grainy but, oh well. See I'm waving hello?

Tab is dressed by
-Her friend Jayne's off-cast jeans. The button is missing and she's too lazy to replace it so she just wears belts. No belt today because she's to lazy for even that.
-Red Cross Op Shop - Stripped cardigan. It is perfect. The arms are long enough, it covers her kidneys [very important] and is warm. Could only be improved if it was made with a hood.
-Target end of season $5 rack - red undershirt. Scooped neck makes for easy boob access for Addie. She likes swift service.
-Homemade Crochet Tam - Dreads need some care, so until then they are hiding under the hat.

Mmm, and in the background you can see our recent childproofing of the kitchen and dining/mess area and my slightly cleaner kitchen. 

Wow that was fun. Want to do it too? Post a pic of your outfit and leave the link with Hello Owl, she wants to see you too. Now I'm off to make some anything puppets and a 1920's dress. TTFN

My Place & Yours - Your favourite spot in the house?

Hello Owl has asked us to share our favourite spot in the house. Um, a hard question! I love our bed because its comfy warm and I get to cuddle my 2 favourite people. I love the kettle, the bath, the couch is comfy and I like it...

Well before I reveal the favourite, have a look at my most unfavourite right now. I love cooking for sure, but I HATE dishes. I hate the, I hate them, I hate them! You know how it goes, you don't do them because you're busy, then you add more to the pile and it looks daunting, so you decide to do it tomorrow... I haven't done them for 3 days. They're mostly rinsed-ish, and I did one load just before, but I still have a lot to go and I'm not looking forward to it.




And now to show you my favourite...


My sewing spot!!! This moves around the house, so wherever it is, is my happy place. Its where I go to escape the kitchen spectacle, make fun stuff, relax and be happy.

I didn't stylise it at all - can you tell? The stuff around it is just bits and pieces that I'm making, nothing even remotely interesting that I can brag about.

Now you've snooped in my messy house, go snoop on the rest of my blog, or better yet go to Hello Owl and see everyone else's fav places.

D-ring Keychain Wristlet [also known as Keyfob Wristlet]

Keychain Wristlet - D ring version - More DIY How To Projects

I've written the tutorial for the 2nd version of Keychain Wristlet using a D ring. The advantage to this one is that it uses D rings [obviously] which cost about 25c each, making it super cheap. I think the other ones look sleeker, but they both do the same job.

Keychain Wristlet Tutorial

After a number of requests and encouragement to make a tutorial for the keychain wristlets [as seen in previous posts, My Place and Yours and Bubba Keys], I've written one using Instructables. I found it's structure guided me through the process quite well, and it makes it easily accessible.

Keychain Wristlet - More DIY How To Projects

I also have it in PDF, so if you would like it that way, just email me [use the form in the Contact tab] and I'll send it off to you.

In the next few days I will also post a tutorial on making these using the more readily available D rings.

Playing gardener.

I think gardening and growing vegies is maybe a bit trendy now. Just like blogging, knitting and using MCNs. Thats ok, they're all really good things!

Addie and I have started a garden. Like many babies, when it all gets to be a bit too much inside, some time spent outside can calm her considerably and instantly console her crying. The only problem is that we don't have a very interesting outside. Hence the garden.

My plan is to have a couple of things growing at a time, nothing big, but what I can maintain with maybe 15 min work a day. I can garden and Addie can eat bugs, crawl around and generally make a happy mess.

So we've dug up a patch of dirt near the fence [probably not the sunny spot all the plants I've chosen ask for!] dug some mulch through the sandy red soil and poped some seaweed fertaliser in it. While digging I realised that I must watch too many crime shows, because I was thinking "oh, what if I find a corpse?" just as I had that thought, my trowel pulled up a bone! Oh no! It looked a bit like a lamb roast kind of bone, and seeing as I didn't find any more, I won't be calling in the CSI any time soon [plus they'd only screw up my nice garden!]

Today we planted beetroot seedlings, and later we'll plant brocolli, onion and pea seeds from D.T. Brown.