Preparations

December 16, 2011 at 12:04 pm (Family Life, Fun, Gratitute)
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We are about to journey north to see our relatives for Christmas. I am so looking forward to it! Our house is busy with washing and packing, last minute sewing, wrapping, gardening, playing, singing, and roaring. It is hard to believe that another year is coming to a close and a new one is knocking at the door. Finnegan is ONE! Today I finally finished off his birthday book. (My thanks go out to Amanda Blake Soule for the idea!) I was impressed that Finn poured over it for quite some time, pointing at the pictures of us all. The girls also enjoyed reading it. It is not so often you see yourself in a book I suppose!

Recieved with glee!

Finns Birthday Book

From all the Family

 

 

Such pretty wings!

We spent some time painting angels to give away as cards and wrap presents in. The girls loved getting their hands dirty and feeling the paint – as did mama! Finn was sleeping so missed out on making all the mess. He did get into the vacuuming at clean up time though! It’s very hard to take housework seriously with such little helpers. The machine kept going on and off and on and off, and the floor is still pretty dirty! Best not to worry about that though!

Finnegan Helping Vacuum

Christmas Angels

 

We have also FINALLY finished Grandad’s birthday belt. Avalyn suggested sending a pair of shoes or a belt for his birthday. As much as I am up for a challenge, I thought shoes might be a bit beyond me, so a belt it was. If anyone were to suggest a smurf belt might not be well recieved they would get a very well thought out reply from the girls. (As ifGrandad wouldn’t like it!)

Grandads birthday belt - the girdle of love

All up, it’s been a lovely week. Despite a gruesome head cold and some sleepless nights, life is worth being joyful in!

Here is my list of things to be grateful for this week.

The anticipation of seeing wonderful friends and family again soon. Finishing off all the Christmas presents and wrapping them up in preparation for Christmas day. Watching my childrens joy in exclaiming that THEY MADE the presents as they give them to their friends. The promise of warm weather. Hankies. Secret hiding places for Dada’s presents. The smell of wet grass. Spontaneous visitors from Germany. Chilli Chocolate. AISOI concerts. Children, Children, Children!

 

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Our Nativity Play

December 6, 2011 at 9:53 am (Family Life, Fun, Gratitute, Knitting, Crotchet and Felting)
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The Nativity - the center of our Christmas celebrations

The build up to celebrating Christs birth has begun! With all the family around on the weekend it was the perfect opportunity to get the children involved in telling the Christmas story. Each child was given two small felt bags, each containing a character from the nativity.  As we read the story aloud, they listened for their character and placed it into the nativity play. It was so lovely to see them helping the little figures plod along the path from Nazareth to Bethlehem, be turned away from the Inn and settle into the stable. The girls were especially excited as they had built the stable with Dadda the week before on his day off from work. Jesus is such a special part of our lives and I love that this year the nativity is in the centre of our loungeroom, and is the centre of our play. Perhaps we should leave it up all year! I hope your Christmas celebrations have begun with such enthusiasm too!

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Birthday Buttons

December 5, 2011 at 10:47 am (Family Life, Fun, Sewing)
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Personalised Buttons for a birthday treat!

We had a lovely day celebrating all the December birthdays on Saturday. (All except for Christ of course; He gets his own party!) I felt so incredibly organized the day before. I had done all the cooking, cleaned, vacuumed, and polished the silver…(cough).  It wasn’t until quite late in the afternoon that I realised I had forgotten about the PRESENTS! Oh my! You can’t have a birthday without a little gift to celebrate the ones you love. So I hitched my skirts again and headed into the Craft Nook. (The hope is that if I give the room a real name, it will manifest itself into my desired studio space – a bit like Peter, “the rock”.) Hey Presto! I bought some of these little self covering button kits a while back thinking I would put them on some of my children’s clothes, but of course other ideas and plans buried them under the garden of my craft bed. It was the perfect time for them to sprout. They are SO easy to make and are SO effective. I planned to pick an appropriate piece of material and throw them together into a little posy of hair bands…BUT then I had the brilliant idea of embroidering them. I’m sure someone else has had this brilliant idea before, but it hadn’t occurred to me until just then. Because buttons are so small there is not much time involved in making a gorgeous personalised present for someone. The perfect gift for a busy mama to give to her precious nieces.  I really hope they enjoy wearing them as much as I enjoyed making them. Happy Birthday Jaqui and Meg! (and Finn, and Greg, and….me!)

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Ode to Flourbags

December 2, 2011 at 12:03 pm (Family Life, Fun, Re-purposing, Sewing)
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The humble flourbag reinvented

Oh the flourbag, the flourbag,

the humble faithful flourbag.

The dusty handprints on my dress

remind me of the daily mess

that comes with having bread and tea

made fresh and hot with littlies.

All because the flourbag,

the flourbag, the flourbag,

is overflowing with the soot

of stone ground wheat ready to cook.

And then the bag? What shall we do?

Lets make a pair of pants for you!

Who’d have thought the humble flourbag could be so useful? Todays flourbag feat was to turn into a pair of trousers for little Finn. We can add that to the list of flourbag wonders… potato printed placemats, party bags, napkins, library bags….and trousers. I was very impressed with how these ones came out. My crawly aroundy baby can now have organic stone ground wholemeal plain flour protected knees as he makes his way around the carpet. I love this pattern for baby bloomers (pg 49) from Making Children’s Clothes by Emma Hardy. It fits an enormous cloth nappy in, and looks just as good with a weeny disposable bot! ( I left out the leg elastic so they looked a little less girly for my son.

   Sorry this photo is a bit blurry – it’s so exciting that Finn is getting FAST!  Today he spent the morning zooming around the loungeroom while I pottered about sewing birthday presents for my nieces and a christmas present for the girls. Shhhh! Don’t tell them what it is. I have hidden it in a bag in the top of my cupboard. Don’t think that will stop them unwittingly finding it. It is amazing how inquisitive they are, and even though they haven’t got to the age where they actively go and seek the presents out, they still manage to somehow find them. The other day Yasmin came out of her rest time with a little suitcase packed with her dolls clothes. A little suitcase that I had hidden on the top shelf of my wardrobe and earmarked for a paint job and metamorphoses into a nurses kit… needless to say it was surreptitiously UNPACKED and put inside a pillowcase under the bed.

Tomorrow we are having all the family around. I am going to send the children out to find a christmas tree and then get them all to decorate it. I am looking forward to seeing all the decorations hanging down low! Perhaps Dada can get up high to put the star on the top! I love this time of year. The nativity scene on the table reminds me of our own small piece of peace. Thanks be to God.

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