...harem pants...

....these pants (for my two 2year old nieces for Christmas - mama's don't spoil the surprise) are made from a rectangle of fabric (plus waistband bits)... really good use of fabric and easy to cut out!!! My mum bought some back from her Europe trip and we had a play around with how they were made a little while back... I'm really excited how these turned out...hopefully will add photos of the girls IN them in a month or so?!?

...fishing game...

...birthday present for a lil boy who loves fishing (and orange!)... and I'm sure who's mama waiting in NZ for us to arrive end of the week won't spoil the surprise!

...based on a game I had as a child... my son and I made this version from air-drying plastic clay (a really lightweight version) with safety pins for 'mouths' and goggly eyes from my collection (?!? am I the only one with goggly eyes in her collection!)... I made the seascape barrier to make it harder.. and rods out of florist wire, pipe cleaner, string and magnet secured in blob of craft glue...

... we had so much fun making and testing this one that we decided to make one for ourselves!

...bonnet...

...walking to school with her in the sling gets the sun in her eyes.... no longer!... recipe from here...VERY easy...even with my usual not-following-instructions way of doing things... ;)

...and working on matching/ co-ordinating dress and bloomers... maybe even shoes... I LOVE this print from Spotlight... even though not my usual colours... I'm having to expand my horizons since she's such a different colouring from me and my boy...

...bag tags...

...our friend Ty turned 5!!... we bought him his official school issue school bag for his present...and since all the bags look the same (obviously).... I made him bag tags similar to ones my boy has...and like ones I made my entire family for Xmas a few years back... Ty loves Transformers (again stating the obvious?!) so I used the pictures from his invite... the back of the tags has his full name on one and his address/ phone number on the other... a great 5 year old gift idea I think...

....while I'm thinking about Ty and his family.... I love how my 7 year old plays with Ty despite the age (and size difference).... reminds me what a loving, good kid I've got....

...also... Ty's family lives about 200m away from us - but across one residential street... this street is not busy per se... but my boy walked himself to the birthday party on the weekend (including crossing the road by himself) because mum and lil sister weren't quite ready and he didn't wanna miss out on ANYTHING!.... he ended up staying at their place for about 8hrs that day.... anyway - my question is.... what do y'all think about letting our kids out in the neighbourhood to play with their friends... including road safety stuff?? My training and research tells me kids can't judge car speed/ cross roads safely til 8 years old... and I'm infamous for getting my knickers in a twist over carseats/ using crossings/ road safety... but I think I'm almost comfortable with letting do this much by himself now...

...christmas cookies...

...mmmm.....spicy crunchy cookies...he helped me roll these out and cut them out and EAT them!!... they're from a recipe my mum traditionally makes with a hole punched prior to baking to thread with ribbon and hang on the tree... since we not having a tree until get back to NZ didn't bother with the holes....might have to make another batch before we go though - they're disappearing pretty fast..."Who ate the cookie from the cookie jar?!" - remember that song/ rhyme!

...random crochet flowers...

 ...have discovered I can crochet and breastfeed at the same time...I'm so not good at sitting still for that long without something to do with my hands (and don't really like watching TV much)... anyhow... if you can't tell I'm loving crocheting flowers... to the point where I've started using all kinds of random things... the necklace above is 6-strand embroidery thread/ cotton/ whatever you call it... the brooch below is twine that my mum bought to stake our cherry tomatoes with.... yeah, random...

...oven cloths/ mitts...

...I've decided I actually do like quilting random little things like these... although I'm still too scared to try a real size quilt... or anything actually all-that-structured in fact....anyway...my mum volunteered me to make oven cloths for our family farm Christmas this year... I was procrastinating over it something terrible because felt like didn't have the right stuff in the stash to do it... then the man of the house asked me to cut off couple pairs of his jeans for shorts... and VOILA!!! - suddenly I have the perfect fabric precut perfect size!! I also recycled op shop jerseys for the heat protecting insides... with inspiration for the woven detail from my cousin and her wedding invites nearly 8 years ago!!! (Wow cuz!).... and can you tell how much fun I had with the patterns on the machine.... :)

...baby wearing...

...more baby wearing... she much prefers this sling by Nature Sway to the red wrap... probably because the wrap is too hot for Aussie summer... I bought this sling for my boy but he didn't really like it and only used it about 3 times... then it got passed around several of my friends/ cousins and back to my sister... don't think anyone elses bubs liked it much either... so it made it's way back to me and I'm so glad!!!.... getting lots more done now can keep her happy and have 2 hands free...