Archive for the 'The Kids' Category
Until a few days ago, we had in our house this scary looking thing:
(I refer to the one on the right, not either of the others, though the one in the middle scares me a little too!)
That weird koala-headed thing is a doll stroller from years back - best guess is it belonged to my sister. The frame is still in good shape, however the cover has never fitted well, and, though I don’t think you can make it out clearly here, has been held together with string, rubber-bands, a nappy-pin and a big wad of blutac. When Finn started trundling his teddies around in it a couple of years back, I promised I would try and make a new cover. So… now you see how bad my procrastination can really be! 
When Niamh started getting interested in Baby Jack (Scary Doll), I idly thought of buying a new stroller. A quick trip through Toy Kingdom assured me that I could have a new dolly pusher, as long as I wanted it in, lets see… pink, pink, or, oh yes… PINK! Anyway, I bit the bullet and decided it couldn’t possibly be that difficult to sew a new cover, after all. Oh yes, and some bright spark decided it might be fun to have a reversible cover, what’s more. (That would be me. D’oh.)
Some time and many curse words later, after staying up until midnight on Monday finishing the thing… and then finishing it some more on Tuesday while Niamh was napping… aaaand then finally finishing it some more after picking Finn up from pre-school, we have one super-dooper swanky new cover (and one cute boy who isn’t too cool to be photographed with his teddybear):
(yes, I know. It’s pink. Oh well.)
But wait, that’s not all:
Ta da! It’s also green and blue. Hooray! (See - I’m not really anti-pink, I’m just pro-choice 
)
I tried to convince Niamh to take it for a test drive, but she decided to go with a mechanical inspection instead. That’s my girl!
October 19 2007 | Family and Other Craft and Sewing and The Kids | 7 Comments »
The examination of a freesia she picked moments earlier from our front lawn. (Yes, lawn - they’ve gone wild, can’t get rid of them… thinking of just strewing more seed around so that it looks purposeful!)
This is my favourite of the bibs I’ve made for Niamh - the Spotlight lady astutely observed ‘you must be a green person’. Well, yes, yes I am. I love this little apple print, I should go back and buy more for a summer dress. There was rotary cutting and piecing involved with this bib… d’you think I’m getting ever more closer to that ‘quilt within’?
Before I made the sewing machine give up its place at the kitchen table (having no permanent sewing spot is a bit of a bummer), I made a half dozen more bibs - a couple for a friend of ours and more for Niamh. She came out yesterday morning to discover the pile, and was most distraught when she couldn’t wear one immediately - I hadn’t hammered in the press studs the night previously for fear of waking the kids. Life couldn’t continue until I banged in a press stud and popped it on her - I think we had six changes of bib yesterday, the little fashion fiend!
October 03 2007 | Family and Other Craft and Sewing and The Kids | 5 Comments »
(Aka a-very-boring-blog-post)
Stuff 1
My order arrived a few days back, and the bits I couldn’t remember were a couple of Elizabeth’s Designs charts: Red Door and Nature’s Alphabet. Nice! I saw Junette’s finished Nature’s Alphabet ages ago, and liked it then, but when I saw Carol’s finished fobs (here, here, here… and more…), I was completely sold. So pretty!
Stuff 2
It appears Niamh suddenly prefers bottle to boob at bedtime. I am simultaneously saddened yet relieved it wasn’t difficult. Only snuggly-in-bed-morning-feeds left now, and who knows how few of those to go 
September 04 2007 | Counted Stitchwork and Family and General Ramblings and The Kids | 2 Comments »
With the exception of today, Melbourne put on a lovely show of weather this week. Yesterday afternoon, while Niamh was sleeping off a bad case of the grumpies (please let it be teething, oh please let it be teething - I can’t cope if she’s going into the tantrummy-twos already), Finn and I sat under this:
Finn (with liberal amounts of help) worked on this:
I worked on this:
(which incidentally I finished off tonight, but the photos I took were a bit on the crappy side, so I’ll have another try in some decent light over the weekend).
Later, I went along to this (you can spot me in one of the pics on the blog if you squint), and I stitched on this for a bit:
Fun fun. The design is an ‘06 Christmas freebie by Hillary Lang, and there is a matching boy-elf, so I’ll be stitching the pigeon pair to make up as Christmas gift bags for the kiddos. Cute, huh?
Have a great weekend - we’re off up north to celebrate Fathers’ Day with multiple fathers!
August 31 2007 | Counted Stitchwork and Family and General Ramblings and In Progress and Kid Crafts and Other Craft and The Kids | 8 Comments »
“Will report back with photos, hopefully.”
That last word of the last post may have been a bit premonitory! Important events in this family’s life seem to be marked by a distinct lack of decent photographs. (Don’t even ask me about our wedding. Just don’t.) In this case, as with Dermot’s 30th birthday three weeks ago, we were so busy trying to keep people fed and happy that neither of us got behind the camera much. We did, however, have a really lovely time, and everybody was well fed and happy, so that and the memories really are all that count. I did manage a few photos - this first one is on party day - the day before her birthday.
Legwarmers, courtesy Babylegs. These things are great!
Cute red dress, courtesy my wonderful friend Jane
Wiggles DVD, courtesy Uncle Stu
Dinky red cap, courtesy Grandpa
Backwards-cap-wearin’-style, all her very own 
And here we have our gorgeous 1 year old and big brother on her birthday - note the Russian dolls we gave her. I must get a good photograph of these to show you, they’re beautiful.
And then there’s this last one - which is something I wouldn’t normally show you, as it is such an unattractive shot of myself (note bags under eyes, and yes, my eyebrows need serious attention - and yes, if you look closely, you can see Niamh has inherited those same crazy eyebrows, poor girl!) But something about this photograph really works for me - it was taken the afternoon of her birthday, after we experienced a pretty rough night following the party, and I think it sums up the feeling of the last year pretty succinctly, don’t you?
For what it’s worth, she went on to sleep eleven hours that night, so all is forgiven again
June 05 2007 | Family and The Kids | 7 Comments »
Be wary - the little people, they strike when you are least prepared. And nick off with your latest finish!
Haha. Moments after this shot, Niamh was ‘posing’ the ornament up against the wall, just like Mummy 
I have photos of that too, but they’re just too blurry, and besides, this one captures that glint in her eye just perfectly!
So here then is my latest finish - Scissors Keeper (only it isn’t) from the book ‘Hardanger Embroidery’ by Jill Carter. It’s stitched with one of my hand dyed #8 perle cottons and a couple of DMC pinks which I don’t think were perfect choices, really. I just grabbed whatever I could find because I was itching to start this. Both sides are identical, and it’s finished this as a pillow-style Christmas ornament instead of a fob.
Can you spot the suspended beads in the Dove’s eyes? How about now:
Good trick, no? I like this a lot, and I’m planning to do another in a different colourway, and with larger beads (again, I just grabbed what came easily to hand). There are a couple of other pieces in this book that I’d like to stitch, too. Next up - the Pincushion, I think.
May 16 2007 | Counted Stitchwork and Family and Finished and The Kids | 12 Comments »
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