My first foray with Oil cloth..

So, I don't think I've ever even touched Oil cloth (and I'm the the first to acknowledge that the feel of the fabric is just as important as how it looks) - but I think I'm about to take a leap of faith and order some online.

I love the way it looks on these chairs over at MADE (by Dana)

Photo from Dana-Made-it

We have a bench seat on our new outdoor area, and I need to make a box cushion for it. I think this black and white pattern from Oil cloth Addict will be just perfect

My only concerns are how it will feel under backside - and whether it will fade badly under our relentlessly sunny Queensland sky?  But I think I'm going to take that leap of faith, and buy some.

new dress pattern - thanks to Soulemama :)

I'm a bit excited (although I feel like a bit of a stalker whenever I talk about Soulemama) but she's blogged about a dress today - and it's something I've been looking for.

I made Lola a 'pinafore' dress recently (which I drafted up from one I bought) and I love the style (I blogged about it here and here). It's the type of dress she could wear all year round (only a few months here in Queensland require any warm clothing).

Only problem with the dress though, was that it didn't cover her bum. Which is all cute, and sweet when she toddles around in her cloth nappies - but I wondered whether I could modify it or find a new pattern where it was more of a dress/dress (if that makes sense).

And today while I was doing my daily check of Soulemama's blog (yes I know, 'daily' - sometimes even twice daily) - I found that she'd made this dress for her daughter:

Image from Soulemama's blog

And I linked off and found the pattern at Nearsea Naturals:

image courtesy of Nearsea Naturals

image courtesy of Nearsea Naturals

So of course I had to order the pattern. I wonder how long till they sell out now that Soulemama has blogged about it?

Friday craft days - put your hand up if you like Fridays!!

So, this was our second week of craft day (with damn Easter ruining last weeks meet up!).

We each had a few projects on the go - but our attention was diverted for the day by the newly discovered Serger (Overlocker), and the words on everyones lips - "differential feed".... 

We'd attended a demonstration the night before on the new Husqvarna sergers.. purely to A) understand what they were meant to be used for (my mother-in-law has very generously loaned me hers for me to learn on) and B) for Hsuey to work out whether one was worth buying (which totally depended on the answer to A). I wasn't sure whether we'd actually learned anything on the night though (although my notes were exceptionally well taken :)) but it turned out the next day - that combining the theory with some playing - made us fall in love with the serger (I know I'm not North American - but Hsuyin is Canadian and that's what she calls it, so I get to call it that too).

So with a little guidance from Kat, a few quick looks in the manual, and some trial and error - we made our first garment on the serger - the 90 minute shirt from Dana at Dana-made-it.

It was definitely a joint effort - I drew it up and cut it out, Hsuey serged most of it - is serged a verb? - and then we both patted each other on the back for the rest of the afternoon.

This was probably the best photo I got of the shirt (the sleeves were a bit too long), followed by my favourite photo of the day:

And here's another 90 minute shirt which I made this afternoon out of one of Simon's FAVOURITE shirts. It was a shirt he got when he bungee jumped 216 mtrs over the Bloukrans River in Africa, and it was torn and threadbare - yet he wouldn't let me throw it out (I guess I do understand that). So instead he agreed that I should make a new shirt out of it, so here's version 2 of the 90 minute shirt.. 

Lola was less than impressed when I tried to drag her outside for this photo.Hence the tear stained face, and the icypole she's got in her mouth which worked as an apology..

Easter Egg hunting with 18 month olds...

I've got to say - I was soooo excited about Lola's first Easter Egg hunt.  I will admit to having thought to myself - 'what pure joy must there be in finding golden foil covered balls of chocolate hidden in the depths of the garden'.. through the eyes of an 18 month old of course :)

But I'd have to say Lola's favourite part of the day was putting the eggs into her basket - then taking them out - then putting them back in again (repeatedly..). 

My favourite part of the day was laughing at us parents demanding our children 'focus' and 'get out there and pick up as many eggs as they could (for them of course, not for their Mamas at all??) 

The kids were content to wander aimlessly and eat the foil for the better part of the afternoon. Which, while it was cute, kinda frustrated me a bit. I couldn't get past the fact that there was chocolate out there to be found!!

Oh, and everyone loved their Easter baskets. There was definitely an adequate amount of 'ooh-ing and ahh-ing' from the wee ones and the parents to make the job worth it.

The cute kids

and the cute Dads