that's not a fish!

I bought this plain sleeveless white tee for Hannah last summer and of course she had to go and play in the dirt when she had it on. No matter what I did, the dirt would not come out. So I got out all my novelty buttons and came up with this idea to cover up the dirt and spiffy up the tee.

christinas

Received the giveaway from christina's today.
( http://christinasetsyshop.blogspot.com/2008/03/drawing.html )
Emma was very excited to have her own set of colouring things in a big girl's bag. She was so engrossed in her 'painting' - as she calls it - that she threw a monster tantrum when it was nap time. I hung the bag near her bed so she could see it and that appeased her a little.

reversible hoodies

The local Salvation Army Op Shop is a truly magnificent place. Hannah (before she started school), Emma and I always pay it a visit after mainly music, which is held in the Salvos church hall right next to the store - how convenient :)

Last week, I found a huge stash of knit and heavier weight cotton fabric in nice prints, pleasing plain colours and good, usable lengths. I bought them and could hardly fit it all in the basket underneath the pram.

I made a sleeveless hoodie pattern to fit the girls using some of their t-shirts as a basic guide. I made the body piece wider, the hem longer and the armhole larger. I wanted them to have a few sleevelees hoodies to run around in, as Queensland winters are fairly mild and they can often get away with only long sleeved tees all day and night long.

Today I managed to finish one for Emma and one for Hannah. The hoodies are reversible so they don't have to look like matching twins, or worse. (I never liked having to dress like my sister when I was younger and so do not wish either girls to experience that sentiment.)

easter hat parade

Hannah's prep class and the adjoining classes held an Easter Hat Parade today and all parents were invited to attend. It was very nice to see all the kids with the hats they had decorated themselves. There was also a simple play on the story of Easter followed by the Easter Egg Hunt. The kids all seemed to have had a good time judging by the amount of noise they made :)

fat quarter clothes sets

(Please excuse the picture layout. For some reason blogspot has rotated them automatically no matter how I saved them on my computer. Darn technology ...)

When I received the fat quarters from my swap partner, the little nut in my brain started whirring non-stop ... all the possibilities.
I finally decided on making sets of clothes for Emma. Being the second one, almost all her clothes are hand-me-downs from Hannah. Not that it was a problem as Hannah's clothes were in quite good condition when she was done with them. It's just that Emma has a birthday in a couple of weeks and I thought it would be nice for her to have something new, just hers, to celebrate turning two.
Although the pink polka dots is the best looking, my favourite is definitely the orange.

first ever swap

Participated in my first ever swap this month. I joined this group on flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/fatquarterswap/ and was partnered with SrapStampSew who has a shop here on etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5432361
I really like her choices!

in the mail

Look what I found in the mailbox today! I am in absolute raptures, so it'll be a while before this is made into anything :)

two weeks' shopping

Well, I tried out the bags today and they were perfect! This is two weeks' worth of shopping for my family. I ended up with only one shopping bag - and that was for the meat. Feeling quite chuffed :)

fabric grocery bags

I stumbled upon this recently : http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177482.msg1837265;topicseen#msg1837265 and decided to make some.

I already have some from Woolworths and Coles but I find that they tear quite easily near the mouth. I also wanted something more unique and let's face it, I was looking for excuses not to clean the house :)
So I raided my linen closet and found quite a few quilt covers bought long ago from op shops that have either never been used or rarely so. After a factory-style assembly, I made 10 bags in a day. These bags are so easy to make that they're very addictive! I think I've found the 'generic' christmas/birthday present to make for this year :)