It finally arrived!

No, not baby.

Baby is still happy and snug in mummy's tummy. We are at the end of 39 weeks and the obstetrician has told us everything is ready to go, it is just a waiting game now. But, oh, how excited we are getting to meet this little person!
Our Stokke Crib finally arrived (and thankfully beat baby, who would have been sleeping in a draw if it came early). Adam set it up last night. We think it is so pretty and can't stop staring at it! Most of the bedding comes from Natures Purest which makes beautiful, soft and natural products. The bamboo blanket is so soft, it makes me want to curl up in the crib for a nap.



I also finally finished this little bath robe I started sewing quite a while ago. It is the first baby item I have sewn using a pattern and I am quite proud of the end result.

Now I have a few more projects that need finishing and a bit more cleaning that needs doing before baby makes its arrival. I just need to find the energy!

A lot has been happening

But I haven't been blogging! I blame the millions of photos I have that make loading any new ones onto my computer a slow and tedious process. However yesterday I spent a few hours cleaning my computer of old files and storing some of the photos on disc and now the computer is running a little better, so no excuses! I need to prepare for the millions of baby photos which I am sure will soon grace the blog!

Things are starting to look ready for a baby around here. We have bought everything we can think of needing for now and have started organising and cleaning in preparation. We are just waiting on the crib we ordered to come in. I definitely have the nesting bug and am forever finding new things to scrub, even the doorknobs haven't escaped my frenzy!

The spare room/ baby room has an amazing bed in it for guests. See the stripy box, it has a bed folded up inside it. What a great invention! So we are ready for all the guests coming from Queensland to meet the new addition.
I have also been doing a lot of sewing, knitting and painting.I can't stop making things for baby, it is so much fun to create and dream of the little person I am making it for. I made this quick little quilt one cold Saturday. It has an op-shopped fleece blanket on the back and was sewn up quickly with minimal measuring. So we will call it a modern baby quilt, not following any strict rules.

While I am mentioning op-shopping I have to show these shoes I got the other day for $1. I think they are the cutest thing in the world! I hope they will be the right size for when baby starts walking.

And lastly, me and the bump at 35 weeks pregnant. Feeling very full of baby. We think he/she will be great on the monkey bars because it feels like it is constantly swinging on my ribs.


Well there you go, a random post, with a lot of rambling! I will have to try and get back in the habit so my posts are more succinct. Hope you enjoyed the hapazard update. Maybe it is just showing how my pregnant brain is operating at the moment!

thank you sewing

With all the knitting my 'Stitch and Bitch' friends are doing for me, I thought it only fair to thank them. So a few home-made- thank-you presents were in order. I made some very easy bags.
All the material and doilies are sourced from second-hand shops. They were very quick to make and fun to choose the colour combinations for each one.
I thought they would make good knitting bags for my fellow knitters.

Christmas came early

I got my christmas present from Adam early this year. A brand new sewing machine. It is a Janome DC3050.

The first thing I made was this cushion. It was quick and fun to make and so satisfying to complete on the brand new machine!

A knitting bag

One thing about being an Art/Textiles teacher is that I am so often inspired and itching to create something for myself. However by the time I come home and do all the chores and extra work for school I feel to tired to do any creating. Yesterday having finally finished at Vacation Care, and having two glorious days to myself at home, I decided to whip something up to fulfill my need to create. It was a disaster! I tried to make a top, it was looking good for the first three steps and then disaster struck. The facing wasn't working for me and the instructions were confusing. I finished the day without any finished product and a whole lot of frustration.

So today I was determined. I decided to make something I knew I could do: a bag (I wonder how many bags I have sewn in my life? It must be a lot!). I have started knitting, I am not knitting anything in particular just a bunch of squares, but I love the rhythm and the bit of warmth it generates for my cold, cold hands on these freezing winter nights. Plus, a group of ladies at work are starting up a knitting group for next term which I am excited about. Therefore a bag to hold my knitting supplies was essential!
The fabric is all repurposed: A sheet and a tablecloth from an op-shop and some scraps from my Textiles classroom. It is a bit rough but it I love it none-the-less. The colours make me happy and it does the job.


It feels so good to have made something, now I can go back to chores and preparing for the beginning of school next week.

new job=new bag

Because I have a new job I needed a new bag. It may only be a few shifts working over the holidays but I still thought it deserved a whole new bag. I am working for vacation care for a few days over the summer holiday. It sounds like a blast, my first shift is helping with a gymnastics workshop! Fun.

Anyway, the bag. I needed a bag that was big enough to carry sunscreen, a hat, a folder, towel and bathers and my lunch. I also wanted the bag to be slouchy and follow the shape of my body when not filled to the brim. Hence this design was born.
It is made from three different kinds of tablecloths all sourced from the op-shop. The old yellow tablecloth on the outside was embroidered by hand. I love the idea that someone worked hard on this and now it has been re-purposed, re-loved and is
back on display.

There is a zipper pocket for my wallet on one side for my wallet and keys.
And a few pockets on the other for pens, paper and a mobile phone.

Yes, I think a new job definitely deserves a new bag. It is so hot today, I am off to lie under the air-con and have a snooze. Tonight I am off to the city to meet Adam after work for some shopping, dinner and maybe a movie. The perfect opportunity to try out the new bag I think.

a gorgeous weekend and some sewing

Before I get on to those wedding photos I promised, I want to share our weekend. Saturday AND Sunday at the beach. Warm weather, so warm, just perfect. The only way to describe the weather and give it justice is to use the word gorgeous.



Everything was sparkling.






And look what I made.



It is a beach blanket. I have a slight problem when we go to the beach: I get sand everywhere. And I mean everywhere, in my hair, my bathers, on my behind, arms, legs, face ( you get the picture). I decided the problem was that my towel was just not big enough to sit on. I also have a need to wrap myself up in my towel after a swim for warmth, which doesn't leave anything to sit on! So seeing there was a need I went about making a blanket perfect for the beach. I used some old towels thrifted from a op-shops for the top layer. I cut them up into squares and made a rough patchwork. The underneath layer is a second hand cotton tablecloth. I sewed the two layers together into a kind of giant pillowcase and then tied it off in a few different spots. It is by no means perfect. Some of the squares don't quite match up ( the towels stretched a lot more then I expected when I was sewing them) and the hand sewing is atrocious and not to be examined closely.


However for a beach blanket, it does the job quite well I think:)