Take a torch, a cup of coffee and a smoothie cup...

Family crafting 101



OK So the only point of the coffee is to keep the parents sane and rational during the experience of crafting with young kids.

Our task last week was for the kids to make some lanterns as we were meeting up with other kids at a festival.
I was fired up and started sussing out exotic options such as origami lanterns while hubby was dispatched to find cheap, little torches. Naked flames did not seem an option of choice for 3 children under 7 in a crowded place. Where is our spirit of adventure you say? Probably in the same as the strength that my pelvic floor muscles used to have...but that's another story.
The he had a light bulb moment (oh c'mon- love a pun!) which involved the closeted proof of my addiction to Wendy's coffee chillas. Closeted proof being the containers in the kitchen cupboard that I keep for possible upcycling. My addiction being 1 a week (OK, sometimes 2) for, well, a long time- given the number in the cupboard.
The torches fit into the end perfectly!
Voila. Home crafted lanterns.
I took to them with my very best glittery, trashy nail varnish.
He spent hours refining the use of kitchen paper (or not) and sticky tape (or not) and cellophane (or not). As men do.
The kids and I glued on lots of bright, sparkly things.







There was minimal altercation between adults and offspring and between mummy and daddy.
And daddy was involved which was cool because he is usually a bit of, well, OK, a full-on crafting dud and leaves such things up to me!
And the end result was more than fair.



Well, the kids liked them (and mumy and daddy secretly thought that they were pretty cool)

But someone help us when we have to help make an exploding volcano or a model of the solar system or a 3d representation of the life cycle of a praying mantis. My artistic and perfectionist (anal) tendencies and my husband's scientific (anal) tendencies will get the better of us. Better start stockpiling the coffee now.

Gross National Happiness

Let's remember to stop and smell the roses.

Today when I was avoiding the inevitability of another day of domesticity, hiding in bed reading the paper with the telly on, I caught part of a program made by Michael J Fox, yes, vertically challenged actor of "Back to the Future" fame, sufferer of Parkinson's Disease. It was called "Adventures of an Incurable Optimist"

Now I am not an optimist. Natural born pessimist, that's me. Stress bunny. Glass half empty type of gal. I wish that I wasn't like that but it is hard to change.

Michael has had Parkinson's Disease for 20 years or so. There is no known cure. His attitude is that the disease is a fact but his response to it is a choice.

"Try to accept it; the extent it is fact, you don’t have a choice that you have it, but you have a thousand choices of how to respond to having it. It does not define you. You are still you. You may change physically for the worst, but you may positively change emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. Inform yourself, take care of yourself, and roll with the punches"
Michael J Fox in an interview.

He doesn't feel sorry for himself. He believes that for every thing that Parkinson's Disease has taken away from him, another opportunity has come his way as a result. He celebrates life. I am guessing that he makes the most of the joys of each day that we often pass over in our hurry to get from point A to point B before C o'clock.

In the show he travelled to the small country of Bhutan in Southern Asia to investigate the concept of GNH (Gross National Happiness) which was instigated by the then King in 1972 as part of modernising Bhutan but retaining the country's Buddhist culture and spiritual values at the same time. Basically his belief is that modernisation is not solely reflected by economic values (ie money) The Government also focuses on preserving the environment and being responsive as part of this policy.

In 2006 Bhutan was named the happiest country in Asia (Business Weekly) In a survey in 2005, only 3% of the population reported being not happy (the rest was "happy" or "very happy") What do you think the result would be if that question was asked in Australia?

I have spent the day contemplating what I saw.

Firstly I applaud Michael J Fox for his mental attitude to what he faces and his appreciation for what he has. I believe that they (they being those scientific people who know these things) have said that having a positive attitude will not improve life expectancy in the face of disease. I'm not sure that I believe that. But at the very least, it would certainly improve your quality of life in the meantime. And Michael seems to be able to find the joy and happiness in all facets of his life in the face of his illness.

Secondly I think that I like the king of Bhutan. There is criticism of the GNH policy of course. It cannot readily be measured like Gross National Product but who cares?

Anything in this time of haste, tension and worry that helps us to slow down, that makes us stop and smell the gorgeous roses we are passing, that makes us leave the washing and give our kids some tummy raspberries has to be a good thing, right?

I don't think that I am a natural born optimist but I'm going to try harder. Because well-being and happiness is worth it, don't you think?

Saving the best till last...

Last but not least...

...and any other appropriate sayings that come to mind!

As glad that I am to be at the end of my marathon tee production, I have to say, that I am darn proud of this one. For the most, nothing went wrong- which I never thought I'd be able to say with knit sewing. I have nearly perfected the lettuce hems- just stretch the fabric as much as you can and voila! The Matryoshka doll got bits of ribbon added as the applique progressed. She will be more attractive when she frays up a bit more. Mae adores her new tee (points to her new "baby")

Pattern- main tee- Ottobre Workshop 301.
- tiered sleeves- Ottobre magazine- 4/2006- Phoenix top adapted

Fabric- as always Stella from Crafty Mamas (Australia) and Kokka Trefle (Japan for the Matroyshka doll fabric

Approval rating- The little goddess is rapt and Mummy is pretty happy with this one!







Some of the Crafty Mamas have made the Phoenix top from on older Otto mag. I loved the sleeves, bought the mag then discovered that it was sized for much older kids than my daughter. So I re-sized the pattern and changed the Creative Workshop sleeve to adjust it. Very happy with the result.



Farbenmix paisley ribbon is from the Crafty Mamas shop. The blue grosgain is from my stash. Crocheted flower hand sewn on.



So endeth the tees...for a while at least.

7th Heaven

(7 tees down; 1 to go)

This was fun to make. Mainly because I got to play with my overlocker stitches again. I think that I ended up using one meant for lacy lingerie but my 2 year old doesn't know that and I"m not telling.

Pattern- Farbenmix Antonia base with a secondary pattern called "Cut It"

I changed the sleeves that were suggested in the pattern and did my 1st lettuce edged hem. They turned out OK but the next try will be better.

Fabrics- solid Stella colours from Crafty Mamas (Australia) Rosebud knit from Fabric Fairy (USA)

Approval rating from recipient- 10/10 Tried it on for photos and has left it on!







(Either I have mentally beaten her into submission or I have just managed to make things that she approves of lately!)

A collective noun for T shirts?

T shirts numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

During the week as I sewed up my 5 tee shirts and cut out another 2, my mind wandered into la la land a bit. So I started wondering what the collective noun for a group of Tshirts was...or should be...

Something cool like a bloat of hippopotamuses.
Or cute...like a mischief of mice.
Or just plain weird...like a sneer of butlers...or a flange of baboons...

But I didn't get far. Nothing witty, meaningful or even practical. Ithink that I just need to stop making tees and get a life so that I can think about more meaningful things!

Anyhow here are the tees- 2 for each of the boys and another for me!
Pattern- Ottobre Creative Workshop 301 (kids) and 303 (womens)
Fabric- Plain - Stella from Crafty Mamas (Australia)
-Patterned - Fabric Fairy (USA)





The boys chose the fabric colour for the arms to go with the robot fabric.





(Lots of praise and "ooh-ing and aah-ing for the double hems please)





I'm halfway through 2 funker styled shirts for my daughter then I am moving onto other projects of the non-tee shirt variety!

Familiarity breeds contentment

Not to be confused with "familiarity breeds contempt"

The second saying, of course, is one that I, as a stay at home mum, am on very good terms with. I think that this saying was coined by a SAHM. I believe that my children would be less contemptuous of me if they were at boarding school and only saw me in school holidays or maybe even just at Christmas time...

But I digress.

Familiarity breed contentment. I bought my overlocker, my very first overlocker, 18 months ago. And I have been scared of her ever since. She is complicated, picky, moody and noisy. And she gets really snootish and defensive if I swear at her.

But tonight I rethreaded her from scratch in 5 minutes. Perfect. 1st time. Hence- familiarity breeds contentment.

Not that I will be ever able to achieve this again. But for now I will glow in the aftermath of the achievement...

Quote of the Week

From "Flash Forward" Ep 1:

Conversation between the mother of a girl and the mother of a boy:

Mother of boy: "You are so lucky that you have a girl"

Mother of girl: "Are you kidding? You only have to worry about one penis. I have to worry about all of them"

Too true!

Way cool!

And I do mean, WAY cool!

What's that saying about the smallest things and the smallest minds?

OK So now that I am 40, there isn't much that makes me bounce around like a Labrador puppy talking like a teenage, dread-locked surfer dude, but this really is, well, waaaaaaay cool!

Look what I did!



When I got back into sewing 2 years ago, I took up where I left off when I was about 20. With my trusty Pfaff given to me for my 18th birthday. Sewing wovens. Full stop. End of story.

So of course in time, as I got into things and as I learnt more, I decided that I needed an overlocker! Yes, NEEDED! Long story but I ended up buying an ex-demo from Spotlight in Tasmania who posted it home to South Australia for the princely sum of less than $8 ($8 post; the OL wasn't THAT cheap!) So it was one of those spiffy ones that does the assorted hems (oooohhhhh!) but marked down heaps as it was a discontinued model and an ex-demo machine.

So it has taken me more than 18 months to get comfortable with the basics, mostly using wovens. But now that I am sewings knits, especially for my boys, it was time to explore the capacity of my machine. So after lots of fiddling, false starts, swear words, manual reading (amazing what you learn reading instructions!), taaa daaaaaaaaaa! My 1st cover hem.

Way, way cool!

Sunday Funny

To lift your spirits on a cold, rainy Sunday!

I have 3 favourite jokes in life. A pink gorilla joke which would take me about 2 hours to type so sorry! A shark joke which requires singing in the punchline so you are going to have to wonder about that one too.

Oh, there is a 4th but it uses offensive language and I haven't shared it with many people in my life- they either have to be really close friends or I have to be really drunk. Needless to say, it's not appropriate to post here!

But this is one of my all time favourite (albeit a tad tasteless) jokes. It is a miserable day here so I hope that this can give you a chuckle, even if you have heard it before.

Q. What is the last thing that goes through a bug's mind when he hits your windscreen?

A. His butt.

Have a great day!

School holidays : Day 1- Part 3

Update- 9pm :

4+ (+++) tantrums (yes, some were mine, alright?)
3 children asleep
2 white wines downed (well, OK 3 but then the countdown wouldn't be so clever)
1 day over

1 down; 15 days to go...I'd better go and check the stockpiles of coffee and wine.