Don't look now!

Rocket ships ...

Have you all recovered from Christmas? I'm still full from Christmas lunch! Mind you that hasn't stopped me eating ... way too many yummy things in my house at the moment!

So this is my Rocket Ship Pillow that I've made using the applique shapes from the Art Smocks ...

Not quite the Starship Enterprise but what the heck, my little men like it anyway! :)

To be in the giveaway for this pillow you will need to leave a comment between now and the 3rd of January. Anyone who has left a comment on any of my last 10 posts will get an extra entry for each comment (not including the last post for the Flower Garden Pillow).

I have also made a down-loadable pattern for this pillow so if you ask for it in your comment I will send it off to you.

Thanks for the feedback about the Flower Garden Pillow! I'm very pleased that you like it.

Good luck and I'll see you back here again on the 2nd of January with the winner of the Flower Garden Pillow.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and hope you all have a happy and safe New Year!

Kellie  

Edit: You can find the tutorial and pattern for this pillow in my side bar listed under tutorials. Thanks for stopping by!

A little something from me ......

I so hope that you all are having a wonderful Christmas!

We have had a great day! The children were spoilt by Santa, we enjoyed their delight, shared it with family and friends and had a whole lot of very yummy food! What more could anyone ask for?

 

This is my Grandmother with the kids today.

I thought that this would be a good opportunity to take a moment to thank you all for visiting with me and taking the time to look at my creations and for all of the encouragement that you have given me.  This little distraction has helped me so very much this year!

So, how better can I thank you all than by having a little give away ... where everyone gets a gift! (well sort of anyway)

You may recognise this appliqué design. I have taken the appliqué that I made earlier in the year for the kids art smocks and turned them into 20” pillows.

I have made one using each of the two designs so there is a distinctively male and female version.

 

If you leave a comment here between now and the 1st of January you will have a chance to win this pillow. Just like the previous giveaway I will give an additional entry to everyone who has left a comment over my last 10 posts.

And just to make sure everyone leaves happy ... after all it is Christmas ... I have made a tutorial so that if you don’t happen to win you can make your own! Just ask for the pattern in your comment and I will send it off to you in a downloadable format.

Oh and one last thing ... as I said I've made a Rocket Ship version of the pillow ... but you will have to wait until the 27^th for that giveaway ... sorry it’s not quite finished J.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kellie

Edit: You can find the tutorial and pattern for this pillow in my side bar listed under tutorials. Thanks for stopping by!

What are you doing tomorrow ?... episode 5

Do you rememberer my three trips earlier in the year where my husband totally indulged me and sent me all the way here for a class to make a Tree of Life ... which by the way I have not looked at for a very long time now :( ....

Anyway digress .... tomorrow morning I will be getting up so early that I will be most likely meeting my self going to bed. I need to have all four of my little people and my husband packed and ready by 7am so that we can get to the airport in time so we can then sit in an aeroplane for a VERY long time as we are off to America!!!!!

We will be visiting many places ... but of course the children are most looking forward to going here ...

As for me ... well I am looking forward to going here most of all!!!!!!!!!

But before all of that I have to survive that very long plane trip with the little people ......

As for what I have been up to this week well ...

I met Sharon on Tuesday for morning tea. I thoroughly enjoyed our chat and I am looking forward to doing it again when she next visits. Make sure you take a look at her blog she makes our town look so very inviting!!! Joshua joined us & ate & ate & ate ... then proudly cleaned his face using his yet to be patented hygiene tool ...

The Tongue Face-washer!!!!!! (I am ever so proud!!!!)

The twins made it to their breakfast at school on time and on the correct day, looking rather flash in their new PJ's. Ben's journal entry about his experience was published in the school paper this week ...

I had 4 pieces of toast. One had jam on it, one had honey and the last two had Vegemite and butter on them. I like toast. I also had two bowls of cereal! It was fun but I was still hungry!

... my boys love their food! :)

Earlier in the week I popped over and visited Lara and noticed her two beautiful girls swinging together in their back yard. Beautiful picture ... but now how could I ever send her the boy's art smock that she had won????? So I whipped up another and it was dropped with a distinctively girly monkey on her door step today. Firstly I hope you found them and secondly I hope you like them Lara!

This whole process was actually very useful. I suspect that this design will be the beginnings of my next quilt ... so thank you Lara your little girls inspired me :)

Monkey's have again invaded our house this week ... I was hoping that they would do some house sitting while we are away .... but alas they all have prior arrangements ...

 

Hannah is coming with us. She is looking forward to doing some sightseeing ....

   

... but by the look on her face she is obviously quite fearful of the long flight!

 

Jemma has gone to live with Lara and her beautiful girls ... but Mia (who has a slight weight problem but don't draw her attention to it please she is already quite self-conscious!) is going to live with blogless Janet who achieved the auspicious Don't Look Now title of ...

"The person who left my 1000th comment"! 

Hooray for Janet!!!!!!!

So I'll be off then ... I have at least a gazillion things to do between now and 7am! The old laptop will be coming with us so if all goes well I will be back next week with my Houston round up!!!!!!!!! Yay!

Enjoy your week!

Kellie

PS Thanks again Rachael for including my tutorial in your Daily DIY! :)

And the winners are ...

Soo!

 

and Lara!

 

I am so very pleased that two regular visitors won! Thank you both for letting me know, on a regular basis, that I am not hanging out here by myself!

You will also find a sock monkey in your packages ... well if you didn't notice already I haven't quite made Lara's yet but it will be in fine monkey shape by Monday. Could you both email me your postal details and I will get them off to you. 

It has certainly been a busy week here and I think that Outlook Express may well never recover. Thanks to a girl who is one of the kindest people I have ever met who mentioned my tutorial to Craftzine which has led to mentions on One Pretty Thing and Mom Advice. There were also a few other message boards who also included a link to the smocks.

Thank you so much everyone! I have been totally blown away by the response to say the least!!! I have a few other things that I want to share with you all at some point in the future including a puppet theater (no photos yet sorry) & the tents that I used recently for Joshua's party ... but for now I have some other pressing jobs to finish before we leave for our holiday in three weeks.

This week I have perfected my procrastination skills ... achieving nothing much before midday. I have rarely gotten to bed before 3am. I have repeated this line on occasions too numerous to mention ... "please kids you have to go and let me finish this quilt!". I have given my Bernina a run for her money to the point that she bit me on the finger on Thursday night ... OUCH!!!!!!! And all I can show you for now is this ...

   

oh and maybe this too ... is this too much Catherine??? :)

For the life of me I am unable to settle on a binding ... you have no idea how many stripes I have in my stash ... and not one of them is quite right! So brace yourself Jenny you will be seeing me Monday morning as soon as I off load the kiddos! Mind you it is no hardship to visit you ... things are looking pretty nice across that side of town!!!!! 

Our Miss Megan got to have a play with her new toy and look what she has made herself!!!!

Anyway I should go and rev up the old machine again ... thank you all so very much for your support! 

Happy 'back to school Monday'! 

Kellie

PS I have not visited Bloglines this week ... but I will take a deep breath and pop by in the morning and make myself known to you all again!!!!

Kids Art Smock Pattern!

OK so here is the Art Smock tutorial as promised. I have included it in PDF format for you to download as I would have been here until next week trying to get Typepad to cope with it!

 

 

It was a little tricky trying to work out how I would include the pattern pieces but I finally decided that a PDF file would have to do.

Oh and I almost forgot ... because we have enough art smocks here to sink a ship I am going to give away the two that I made for this pattern. If you would like one then leave me a comment by midnight (Australian EST) Friday the 3rd of October. Don't forget to let me know which one you would like! Also for all of my regulars who would like to join in you will get an extra entry for each comment that you left over the last 10 posts. 

 

You will find the link to the download of the tutorial here and if you would like the pattern pieces they are here;

Smock - front & back pattern pieces

Smock - sleeve pattern pieces

Smock - applique shapes & placement guide flower garden

Smock - applique shapes rocket ship

Once you have this file you will need to take it to a copy center capable of printing plan sized copies and have them print it out at it's ACTUAL size - this is the only way to print this pattern

I hope that you enjoy making these smocks they really are easy & quick to make. I would love to see any finished ones that you would like to share and I will put together an album of them.

Please remember that the smocks are intended for your personal use only and should not be sold or used to make a profit in any way, thanks! 

Have a great weekend

Kellie  

A promise of better to come ...

Last week I told you of my fingers that had fused into some bizarre appliqué pose due to all of the sewing on of dots that I had been doing. This week I have only this to show you....

 

Isn’t beautiful??? Don’t you just want to sit down right now and get cutting???? This is all tongue in cheek by the way ... I do realise that I am just showing you what I should have been put in the bin long ago, however, I have nothing else that I can show you ... just that pile of scraps and this pile of paper ...

 

Oh and a referral to the Orthopaedic Surgeon ... as I have brought on Carpel Tunnels! I'm only kidding of course!

So what do I do to keep you all coming back while I am heavily bogged down in all of this secret Don’t Look Now business??? How about something to cook for tea tonight???? With our weather taking a definite turn for the better why not cook this yummy salad for you and yours and sit out on your veranda and enjoy the evening before it gets too hot and the mozzies hit us in a few weeks time J!

Thai Lamb Salad

600gm of lamb back strap

2 Lebanese cucumbers, halved, seeded and sliced

X 1 punnet of baby roma tomatoes halved

100gm of baby salad leaves

X 1 green & 1 red capsicum thinly sliced

¼ red onion thinly sliced

Dressing

¼ cup of lime juice (approximately 1 lime)

2 tbs kecap manis

2 tbs sweet chilli sauce

1 tbs of brown sugar

1 clove of crushed garlic

¼ tsp of chopped chilli

1.    Spray pan with oil and heat to high. Cook lamb for approximately 5 minutes each side for medium or to your liking. Set aside and cover loosely allowing the meat to rest for 5 or so minutes.

2.    Combine all of the remaining salad ingredients in a bowl and toss gently.

3.    Place all of the dressing ingredients in a jar, replace the lid and shake well.

4.    Slice the lamb thinly. Add the lamb to the salad, drizzle with the dressing and toss.

(this recipe was inspired by a beef salad that I found in Woman's Day Everyday Food, issue 1)

All of my little people love this meal except for Joshua who calls it the “yucky meal!!!!!” ... well you can’t please them all!

Remember the Art Smocks that I made for Jessica’s birthday?

 

I have decided that I will put together a pattern and tutorial for these and if all goes to plan ... which of course little does ... you will find them here after next weekend. So if you have asked about these head back here then!

It is my littlest boys birthday next weekend and I have done very little for this party yet so I had best go get my skates on!

Have a great weekend and to all of you in Melbourne enjoy our beautiful sun! J

Kellie