Don't look now!

Six years ...

I can hardly believe that is has been six years that these two little people have been in our lives! They were so very tiny, well at least Jessie was! She was only 4lb 5oz and Ben on the other hand was 6lb! They escaped 6 weeks early after giving us many horrific scares of even earlier arrival in the 14 weeks before they were finally born. I barely remember any of their first year and only a precious few moments of their first 3 months. These guys have been both a delight & a hell of a lot of work!

They are so very different not only in physique! They adore each other and annoy each other to the point of distraction. Not so long ago when something would go wrong in the life of Jessie she would promptly bop Ben on the head! Thankfully I have been able to abolish this habit! Benjamin is such a kind and loving child. Just this morning on the way to school he pledged his undying love for Jessie, which apparently lies "deep in his heart". 

I am so very pleased to have you both in my life! I have been so very grateful every day of the past 6 years that not only the Dr chose you both but also that you managed to hang in there where others had not. I love you guys so very much!

Happy 6th Birthday Jessica & Benjamin!!!!!!

Thanks for indulging my loves!

Kellie

PS I would love to share the recipe for these delicious cupcakes! Which I can most certainly confirm are so very yummy, however, Betty Crocker has sworn me to secrecy! Sorry! There you have it I am no domestic goddess!!!!!!!!!!!

An Art Smock anyone?

Or maybe 9!

Thats what I have been doing this past week ... among other things of course!

The kids return to school tomorrow, it's a 'pupil free' day today .... what is that? I never complain about 'no school' days as I am always up for a sleep in! But a pupil free day ... they never had those when I went to school!

Jessie's birthday party is planned for Sunday fortnight & Ben's is the Sunday after so I have a heap of things to do between now and then. Plus they have been invited to a Star Wars birthday party this Saturday, so I will be making costumes for this later today. I'll actually be at a class on Saturday so my poor husband who 'doesn't do girl hair' will be left to make Jessie's somehow resemble Princess Leia :) ... I haven't told him yet!

It is the most beautiful, mild & gloriously sunny day here today, by far the nicest day this winter! The children are all out running around, yelling, screaming, giggling and generally annoying the neighbors ... at least they got to do this one day in their holidays! 

Have a great week!

Kellie

Monkey Business!

So now I am sure you will remember Shelby ...

She has shown little improvement in her housekeeping skills. The ironing basket is overflowing to the point that I fear entry into my laundry. Beds remain unmade until after lunch and when I asked her to clean the windows last week she just laughed!!!!

So why do I keep her on I hear you all asking ... well it's the kids! They love her and she's very good with them. But the real concern are all the 'family' members that she has 'visiting' with us. It seems that every time I turn around there is someone new sitting up to the dinner table and you know it's just gotten TOO much. And just between you and I, I've started to wonder if their legal! The last thing I need is the immigration police knocking a my front door.

Take a look at what I mean ....

First there was Shelby's younger twin sisters Lilly & Milly ...

Then came Sophie who we managed to farm out quite quickly ...

Then Lu-Lu turned up who is Shelby's second cousin on her mother's side. Jessica and Lu-Lu are inseparable so I doubt that I will ever be able to find alternative housing for her!

On Monday Amy, Annie & April moved in. These guys were also easy to re-house! They found new homes and new identities over at Lululollylegs with her lovely girls. Louise made us a lovely afternoon tea and the kids had heaps of fun playing together. Benjamin was in good form and helped himself to half a loaf of fairy bread, I kid you not!

Yesterday these two guys showed up. This is Thomas & Timothy and I have decided that these delightful and very well mannered boys are going on a journey far, far away!!!!!! Sorry about the frightening background colour they are actually very sweet boys.

But the last straw was this ...

How can I tolerate this? I now have a sock stash ... we need to buy a bigger home!

Have a great weekend!

Kellie

PS.  You do realise that this is all your fault Kitty!!!

A Slumber Party with little sleep!

Thank you everyone for your kind birthday wishes for our sweet Megan! This photo was taken on Friday the night of her actual birthday.

Her party started on Saturday afternoon at 4pm and for all intensive purposes was a great success. We kicked off with a craft activity where the girls were to design a pillow top for a 50 x 50cm pillow insert using Megan's birthday quilt as inspiration (by the way we have called this quilt Garden Party). I provided the girls with pattern pieces, fusible web, a perminant marker, sissors & a huge pile of fabric choices. I also made up a sample to help them in case they got stuck which they most certainally didn't need. 

The girls first traced the pattern pieces onto the fusible web then roughly cut out the shapes. They then selected fabric for each piece, I then ironed the fusible to their fabric.

They then cut out the applique shapes and began auditioning them on their background fabric. Once they were pleased with their design they removed the backing paper and I ironed them in place.

I then made a quilt sandwich using each of their tops and secured the applique using free motion quilting. I then intended to then quilt the backgrounds and finish off the pillows so that the girls could take them home in the morning. Well, when I staggered to bed at 2am only the applique was completed. I am never good at recognising achievable targets!!!!

So now I will finish them off over the next week and Megan will take them to school with her when they go back after the holidays. So far the quilting has been done on one of them :) . 

The girls really did a great job of this activity and I was amazed at how enthuastic they were even though their part of process took 3 hours! 

Once we had finished the pillow tops we all went out for dinner. The girls sat at a table by themselves and did their own ordering and generally behaved like delightful little ladies! Other than this they watched 2 movies (one of these twice) ate lots of popcorn, painted their nails, did eachothers hair and chatted and giggled and giggled some more until around 4am. I made them French Toast for breakfast and they headed home at 11am. And I felt like a zombie for the remainder of the day!!!! 

Instead of lollie bags I made the girls a denim tote, lined with the same fabric that I used for their PJ's and appliqued their names on the front. I also made them a sock monkey each. 

These guys are begining to take over our lives! They are multipling like flies!!!!

This little cutie is Lu Lu and she has become Jessica's closest companion!

 

So that was Meg's party ... now I only have 16 days until Jessica & Benjamin's!

I hope you are all well and for those of you who are in the midst of school holidays I so hope that you are enjoying them as much as I am!!!

Kellie

PS. This is the second time that I have written this post and it is only through absolute determination that I am actually writting this again. The last time I wrote it I was at the spell check stage and the page froze! So I wont be checking the spelling again this time so I appologise in advance!

It's all about Megan!

Happy 9th birthday my big girl!

We received Meg's half year report yesterday and the first sentence was "Megan has a heightened sense of the ridiculous". I must say I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry at that comment ... I don't mind admitting that I don't really know what the teacher means but I have come to the conclusion though that it can't be all bad as further on she said that she had a spectacular imagination and she is a pleasure to teach. What more can a Mummy ask for?

I have spent alot of time over the past few days thinking about what I wanted to say about Megan in this post. I have come to the conclusion that I haven't a hope in hell of reflecting what this person means to me. What has struck me though is the enormous impact that she has had on my life. She has been an incredible catalyst for change how amazing that one little person could have totally altered the course of my life. She has brought us all so much happiness, pride and pleasure.

Mind you she has a very strong personality and we tend to meet head-on on a lot of occasions and I swear that she already suffers from PMT ... but really I wouldn't have her any other way! Happy birthday my big little girl I love you more than you could possibly imagine!

I have made a start on my Doll Quilt. I must say that I was pleased when my swap Mama suggested that my partner might like a tree ... so now I have the perfect scapegoat should my partner not like the tree! :)

  

I am also loving Kaffe Fasset at the moment it cuts up so beautifully. These pictures don't really do anything much for this little quilt. I am sure the sun will come out again sometime soon so that I take a photo out side!

I am using a Floriani product called Wet & Gone to achieve a turned edge to the applique pieces. If it works as well as it claims, it will eliminate the hardness that is left behind when you use a fusible product. I have been using the Appli-Kay Wonder for all of the machine applique that I have done lately. I just love it's self sticking surface as it makes rehearsing applique pieces so very easy when you work I like I do .... with out any real plan :) .

I also spotted this new Michael Miller fabric in one of my new American magazines, isn't it lovely?

I still have at least a million things to do before Meg's party on Saturday so I will go for now.

Have a fabulous weekend! Oh and by the way HOORAY for school holidays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Kellie

Waiting for the sun ...

I have spent the last week waiting for the sun to get a decent picture of what I have been working on. I have now resigned myself to the fact that if I continue to wait I may well be here until September!

So no more waiting just do it ...

 

                         Compulsary funny faces!

I shouldn't totally bag our crap weather as it was beautiful on Sunday so we took the children to the Diamond Valley Minature Railway . We had a lovely time and the kids just loved it. Mind you I think that they had almost as much fun running like mad animals around the oval beside the tracks!

I have been working on the quilt for Megan's party. I have managed to convince her that there would not be enough time for them to make a quilt each at the party. She is now pretty hopeful that I will make them each one ...

We have chosen this gorgeous handbag fabric for the backing and the Kaffe for the binding.

Mind you the thought of making 2 extra lap quilts is far more appealing to me than the thought of making 10 Jack Sparrow costumes, which is what I did last year.  

   

Regardless of all of this negotiation we do plan to make pillows using the quilt as an inspiration.

This lovely stack of fabric will become pajamas for each of the girls.

Thank you all so much for the comments regarding my last post. It was my first time to break that elusive 20 mark!

Have a great week!

Kellie

PS. I have got no idea how to make the photos smaller when they are selected now that Typepad has made itself more 'user friendly'. Sorry Lorraine I know you like to take a closer look ... but I guess not quite this close! :)

Everything but quilting...

I don’t know about you but the minute I’m told (or in this case I tell myself) something has to be done by a certain date this is the time I find a million other things to do! So this is what I have been sewing and the miscellaneous things that have been happening in our house this week...

I finished the Tissue Cozies for the Mothers day stall ... and forgot to take a picture of the completed lot ... never mind ... but ended up raising $120 from the sale of these alone. I ended up making 30 and if I do say myself there are going to be some Mummy’s with some pretty stylish tissues on Sunday morning! I’m really pleased that they sold as I don’t really get the chance to help out with many of the ‘attendance required’ voluntary activities at the school. Of course I do specific things with my own kids and their classes like reading, helping out with swimming and things like this but no general voluntary ‘stuff’. So it was nice to find an activity where I can contribute in my own time ... ie. once everyone is in bed!

I've made some pillows which I love. Do you recognise the Monster design? He will make it onto a quilt eventually but for now he resides here!

I made a pin cushion ... and you know it was funny because I had this plan in my head for its design and not realising that its size would be so ridiculously large. I spent a whole afternoon drawing, cutting, and sewing only to come up with something that was too small for a pillow but way too big for a pincushion. It is a pity that I hadn’t visited Fiona a day earlier who had just made a pincushion that she refers to as a pin ottoman!! J

After all that I readjusted my design and came up with something more like the right size...

I made a little library bag for a little person...

I have plans for modified versions of these bags for the kids birthdays. I also have better pictures of these but I will share them later.

And right now under my machine there are the makings of a magazine tote...

 

Benjamin lost his second tooth last night. He wandered down stairs long after he was meant to be asleep and of course I grumbled at him. Then that delightfully innocent little boy said to me ... “but Mummy I have some good news for you”.... what a meanie I am! Anyway the good news turned out to be the loss of his second tooth and I felt entirely crap for grumping!

And to make matters worse Jessica had a bad dream in the early hours of this morning. She then went around and put every single light on up stairs ... and I mean every single light including the heating in the bathroom. This of course this isn’t the tragedy ... however, the result of Jessie’s little ritual was that the Tooth Fairy was ‘frightened off’ and was unable to collect Ben’s tooth or leave a financial reward ..... mmmmmm Mummy is very pleased that she can think quickly on her feet and that sweet Jessie is such a scaredy cat J. Oh and look what I found beside his bed this morning ... please Tooth Fairy, you slack woman, put Ben on your list tonight!!!!!!

We also celebrated our Lisa’s 21^st Birthday last night. What an intellegent and beautiful young woman you have become Lisa! We all love being around you! ...And I am sure that your Dad’s speech on Sunday night won’t be too embarrassing!

So now I almost have all of that procrastination out of my system I am going to go back to my quilting... soon!

I actually started writting this post on Friday but unfortunately I never finished until after midnight so please read it as though it was posted on Friday ... I don't have the energy to rewrite it now!

Have a great weekend!

Kellie

PS. Has anyone seen the sun? If you have please tell it that I am missing it very much!

 

It's all about the food & the kids ...

Last night we celebrated the 'other' festival that we celebrate in our home at this time of year! I enjoy the Seder and the kids get so very excited about all of the yummy food & the family gathering together ... plus they get to stay up late!

Megan has read the Haggadah along with the adults for the last two years. It never ceases to amaze me what a proficient little lady she is becoming ... I think it is that first child syndrome. Either way she makes me so very proud.

The kids spent the afternoon making portraits of our guests to act as place cards. This is a great distraction on days when I am flat out cooking and have no time for them. It is also a great source of entertainment for the subject! Ben's were great this year ...

On the front of my outfit he wanted to write the number of people that I look after but he couldn't settle on one so he gave me three. First he wrote 5 - because I look after 4 kids & Daddy. Then he wrote 8 - to include me & my husbands two kids as well. Then he wrote 3 - this version included only the 3 littlest kids and not Megan, Mike or Lisa because "they are all too big now"!   

Daddy got stars & love hearts!

And Granny got extra special red love hearts!

Josh ended up with two Ben's version and his own 'Jackson Pollock' styled self portrait!

I got some beautiful flowers for the table from Camberwell Market and I could resist taking some photos...

including some with my secret project ... matching colours and all, you know how it is! 

I have had little time for crafting this past couple of days but I have managed to do some binding ...

that is when Tiger will let me!

Now I am going to go and make a start on the label ...

Good yom tov!

Kellie

A little appliqué & a tag ...

Anyone who knows me will know that appliqué is my ‘thing’. I prefer it to any sort of piecing as my accuracy is not fabulous and I always seem to spending my time ‘making’ things work! There is a fabulous quote from a book by Piece-o-Cake designs I just love which goes something along these lines ... it will all quilt out in the end! This is my motto ... I wish it wasn't’t as I would love to be Ms Accuracy but I never will be ... so I make another plan.

Anyway, I was talking about appliqué. The lovely Lisa, who has just become an Stay at home Mum for a bit longer than she had first thought (yay for her!), recently asked me some questions about appliqué & tagged me at around about the same time so I thought I would combine the two, so here goes ...

Originally when I first started appliqué I used needle turn. I love this technique and would always use it if I had the time. It leaves such a perfect finish and you don’t need to muck around with fuseable web. I taught myself this technique using The New Appliqué Sampler by Piece-o- Cake Designs. Their technique is great and the diagrams & explanations are second to none. They also provide explanations and tips for left handed people which I have found invaluable.

This quilt is the first project that I did using needle turn ... as you can see it is not finished. I baisted it and I rolled over the edges & it has been sitting on Megan bed like this for at least 2 years. Now that my machine quilting technique has improved I will finish it ... some day!

These are pillows that I made for the girls also using this technique.

 

The next method that I have been using a lot lately uses fusible web combined with finishing off the raw edge with either sketchy machine quilting or a machine blanket stitch. Fusible web is a pain to use. I have always used vilsaflex, not because it is fabulous, but because we don’t have many other choices in Australia, that I know of. The web tends to lift off the backing paper if it is folded or crushed or older, so I tend to only buy it in small lengths. You have to be careful not to get it on your iron as it makes an awful mess. I have a separate iron that I only use for my quilting. I have also tried keeping a piece of the backing paper after the web has been removed to use as a pressing sheet ... but it takes longer so I never end up persevering. I also find that the appliqué pieces tend to lift off the backing fabric if moved around too much before being secured. It also can make the shapes ‘hard’ but you can overcome this by cutting out the center of the fusible prior to adhering it to the applique leaving only a couple of cm's of web around the edges of the shape.

I have recently read about another product that i am going to have a go at later this week called Floriani. I will let you know how this product compares.

I used sketchy machine quilting to secure the appliqué on both Jessica’s Garden

& Rainbow Lollipops... 

I used machine blanket stitch on the kids PJ's

& the 'secret' project that I am currently working on.

I had a bit of trouble trying to find an example of hand embroidered blanket stitch, all I could find was the first quilt I ever made which was Joshua’s original cot quilt.

I don’t do well with this stitch due to my 'anal' personality ... the length & evenness of these stitches drives me mad!

And now to the Tag!

1.       Why did you start your blog?

I started the blog on a whim. We had not long discovered that my husband was sick and while he was hospitalised I found solace in the beauty and creativity of the crafty blog world. So, I started one .

2.       How did you come up with your blog name?

I don’t know ... I felt quite self conscious at the time thinking that I didn’t really want people to look at my things or more to the point that no one would really want to look at them ... and dontlooknow was the name that came to mind. It has been a source of huge embarrassment though as my step kids & husband have not stopped teasing me as I also used dontlooknow for my flickr account and they managed to tack on a couple of numbers to the end (my year of birth) which I took no notice of at the time ... so now my flickr account is dontlooknow69 ..... I’m blushing!

3.       Do your friends & family know about your blog & what do they think?

All of my family know about it. I know that my current mother-in-law & ex-mother-in-law check it weekly .... for the photos of the kids. I think they like it. I know my husband is happy that it is providing me with a distraction.

4.       How do you write posts?

Usually I will have thought about it in the time leading up to writing it, then I just sit and write. Not a lot of thought goes into it ... should I admit to that?

5.       Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?

The other day I got a weird comment left on the post I made regarding the kids PJ's. It was all very strange and had a very strong new age religious push to it ... I skim read it, deleted it and bared the URL. I don’t need that crap in my life! As for trolls ... I don’t know what they are ... although Megan is reading a fantastic series of books called The Spiderwick Chronicles and there are trolls and stacks of other strange beasties in them.

6.       Do you check your stats or care how many people read your blog. If you care how do you increase traffic.

Yes, I do check my stats. And yes I do care ... only about the usual visitors though. Don’t get me wrong I am pleased that lurkers take a look. I love the comments and I am thrilled that you guys have relieved some of the pressure from poor Louise who was my first regular! The only way I can think of increasing traffic would be to make sure you have good things to look at that are updated regularly ...

That must be it, other than to tag a couple of others; firstly I’ll tag Lacey who is a gorgeous girl all the way around the other side of the world and my other two Lisa’s Upstatelisa who has just got herself a pretty nice new banner! & Spoonfullofsugargirls the prolific mother & daughter team. Play along girls, if you like, otherwise don’t feel obliged.

Enjoy the rest of your week ... I have got some serious cooking to do for Saturday night!

Kellie

PS I never did get back to the hand quilting on the weekend ... my machine was just tooo tempting!