Crazy Days

Things have been busy here the last two days. I ended up taking my youngest to the hospital emergency department last night with wheezing. We got home at about 1am. She's fine, although still not 100%. A good excuse for not making anything yesterday.


The day before, she was a little bit wheezy but not as bad, so I didn't want to leave her alone after she went to sleep - so couldn't use the sewing machine. I did sew a yo yo flower in bed beside her though. Forgot to take a picture so I'll have to show you that tomorrow.


And for tonight ... ANOTHER WRAP! Just kidding. Finally did some undies for my daughter. They are the Jalie panties pattern.

I have made two other pairs of knickers for her, using a different pattern - from Ottobre, 4/04, but those knickers aren't available for photographing at the moment so I'll have to show you them later.

So - checklist of things for follow-up posts -

• flower yo yos
• knickers made earlier

I was going to make undies for my boy tonight too, and have started them, but I'm really tired after last night and I think I should just get some sleep.

The final wraps - Thank goodness

Here are the final wraps - again, two the same. I promise, no more wraps tomorrow.

And for completeness, I'm adding pics of the only wrap that I haven't already shown here. I made quite a few of them before Christmas, and have made more of them in the same fabrics for all except one, so you've seen pics of all the fabric combinations except for this one.

And these are the cards that I put into some that we gave away. The pictures were drawn by my two older children - the dragonfly and the butterfly by my 5 year old boy, and the dinosaur by my oldest daughter when she was only just 6. I think that 5 to 6 is the best time to collect cute pictures from kids - things my oldest daughter (now still only 7) draws now are excellent, but don't have that same simpleness to them.

Anyway, these are the first things I've printed using my print gocco set, and it was so easy and fun. I'll have to try things in colours next! We did do a Christmas card that my daughter drew in colours, but I'd love to have more of a try of it.

Being school holidays, the older two kids (5&1/2 and 7) did some craft again today. They made tissue paper flowers and some little "zoomy crazy bugs". The bugs came in a kit. The picture of the flowers showing lots of different ones were all made by my daughter, who kept going with making flowers after I had to stop, so she played around with it a bit, and wanted to make a vase full for her bedroom. That left only the two daffodils (perhaps more like jonquils) that my son and I made for the dining table.

And by the way, those "crazy bugs" actually do go and are quite fun. They are styro shapes that the kids covered in paint and shiny cut outs, etc and then stuck wheels into.

Getting sick of wraps yet?

Didn't make anything yesterday. My toddler was fussing - perhaps a little bit unwell, and then at night the older kids took ages to go to sleep, so I just couldn't get anything done.



Would like to have something different to show you today, but I just have more wraps. I did two in a completely different colour scheme to the others - black, white and a light brown. I actually really like them. And incase you're wondering when I'm ever going to sew something else, I'll tell you. I have two more wraps cut out which I hope to do tomorrow just to get them finished, and after that I'm onto sewing undies for the kids, then shorts and tees. I don't usually do the same thing for so many days in a row.

Because its school holidays, and because I have kids to keep busy, I have a pic of another craft. Wouldn't normally bother posting pics of this sort of thing, but I did commit to getting crafts done, and also, it might give others ideas for things to do with their kids. This morning we painted paper fans. The fans were bought but plain white (from a craft shop) so I just put them out with paints, and the kids loved it. I didn't try and do anything particularly special with mine (just to do it quickly as I knew a baby would need me shortly).

Origami frogs

Today was a very busy day. The morning was spent tidying the house and fussing with a toddler who wouldn't have her sleep - so no chance of much in the way of crafting then! But look at my beautiful, clear dining table!







(I know that most people always have a clear dining table, but my table is one of my really bad areas - I do leave stuff on it a lot. And leading up to Christmas, the kids were making cards and lots of other stuff was going on, and it got really bad.)

My older two kids had been away for a few days and just got home tonight, so that made the evening busy. I let them stay up and watch a DVD, and I watched some of it with them. While they were watching they were doing some origami, so that is my craft for the day. I made an origami frog for my boy.



And this final picture shows the frog I made with the frog my daughter made beside it.


That's it for crafting for me today.

More wraps

Today I made four "wraps". I hesitated to post pictures of them here because they're for gifts, and I don't want anyone I give one to, to think that I'm just giving them something that I haven't given any thought to (like I just grabbed it from a stash of gifts waiting to go to anyone or something). But you know, I find that with homemade things, even if I make them for lots of different people, that is impossible.

Usually, if I make the same thing for a few different people, its because I've found something I really like and I want others to have them too. That's certainly the case with these wraps. I've made three for myself (one for my diary, one for cards and one for drawing stuff/activities for taking to cafes and the like to occupy the kids), and my oldest daughter has asked for one for herself. I also plan on making a variation of them for each of the kids to take on holidays - with all sorts of things to occupy them either in the car of if its raining while we're away. So I don't just give these away because they're easy to make, but because I genuinely like them!

The other thing about giving away these wraps to people, is that I spend time trying to decide on fabric that would suit each person and also on what to put into them. I do often make a couple of each fabric (sometimes just because I don't want to part with them, so I make an extra for myself - I'm sure I'll find more uses for them!), but that's only when I've found a fabric combination that I really like.

So anyway, here goes. These are the wraps that I made today, and I actually have a few more planned before I stop with these for a while.

I made two in each fabric combination, so I've pictured one of each closed, and one open to show the inside fabric.

What I made the first two days of the year

Today is the perfect example of why I may have problems getting something made every day. When I finished the last post earlier tonight, I was all set to sew quite a few things - they were all lined up and ready to go. Then my bub woke up and needed a change, a feed and a cuddle. So I didn't have as much time as I expected.

Still got something done though! This is what I made tonight.



Its a "wrap" for either a diary, notebook and a few pens, or for cards, notebook, stamps and pens to make sending thank you cards, etc easier, or for notebook, activity books and pens to take when you need to keep the kids occupied (eg in a cafe).

Here is a view of the inside:



And here is one I made earlier, filled with just a few cards and things.



Yesterday (1 January) I made a hat for my toddler. Its the first time I've used this pattern and I'll make a few changes before I use it again, including using softer interfacing - the top part looks so stiff.

A New Year and a Fresh Start

Its been a while since I have written anything here, but I thought that after a long break, I'd try to post more regularly again. Not sure how it will really go, but its my aim at the moment.

To start the year I'm setting myself a challenge. I want to complete something handmade each day. I don't really think it will be possible to do it every single day - I have 4 kids, including a 19 month old and a 3 month old, so nothing can be planned that well. But I'd like to average one thing a day - if I miss a day I can make up for it; if I know I'll be busy coming up, I can make extra things earlier. And importantly, I want to use mostly materials that I already own.

Why am I setting myself this challenge? I already feel that I make plenty of stuff - I sew all of the kids' clothes and some of mine as well as dabbling in other crafts.

Mainly because I waste too much time at the computer finding new things that I want to do. I love new ideas and seeing what others are doing, but over the last year I've gradually spent more and more time working on ideas, and less time getting things actually completed. I figure that by aiming to complete something each day, and then posting a pic in my blog, I'll be forced to do the making part first and head to the computer after its finished.

And by using materials I already own, I'll be making things that I've planned on making already, rather then getting carried away with more and more new ideas. By the way, I have said, "mostly materials that I already own" because I want to allow myself to buy things like zippers, buttons, etc to match fabric I own.

So, I have modelling clay, shrinky dink plastic, print gocco supplies, beads, embroidery threads, tons of fabric, and I'm sure a lot more. If I really run out of time some days, perhaps all I'll be able to do is fold an origami swan or a good luck star.

I'll be back later to post pics of what I made yesterday, and what I'm about to make today.