Graduated

I could say so many things, but the only thing that matters is that Darling, I couldn't be more proud of you.

It was a great day; lots of marching, hats thrown in the air and great friends sharing their special day together. I am so grateful to all the many many friendships he made during the training and that we've got him back home.

I've got nothing else to say.

For my butterfly girl

 
As we were making the hearts (seen in the previous post), Emma kept saying that they were butterflies. I felt bad that we didn't do any butterflies so I wanted to make her something with butterflies in it. I wanted to use the same rain drop shape stamp that we used for the hearts since she obviously saw butterflies then already.

It was also her name day last Saturday so this was also a present for her. Name days are something we celebrate in Finland and I'm all about traditions so of course we are celebrating them here too. I put aside the fact that I'm not a big fan of butterfly shapes and pink and used both of those things in this shirt.

I tried using semi-homemade fabric paint, but haven't tried washing yet, so I have no idea how it'll last. I'll share more info about it when I know if it works.

First of I made the butterflies using a raindrop shape stamp and then the antennas with a paintbrush. I also put one butterfly for each sleeve and at the back. She loves the ones on the sleeves and keeps looking at them. Well she loves the shirt all in all very much which makes me happy.

It looks very springy to me but then again maybe it's just the brightness we need for this cold winter that's ahead of us.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I will have a lot to share again after it's over. 

Heart means I love you (a little tutorial)

... or I lylyy as my darling daughter would say.

Yes mothers day has come and gone, but I haven't had any time to share what we made with Emma for the women in our lives. I had a great vision of Emma pressing her fingerprints into heart shapes. So here's our idea that you can do with your kids for any occasion! We are sending these out as birthday presents and Christmas presents too, so not just Mothers day presents. Actually they would be great for Valentines day too (thinking ahead is always a good thing).

Turns out Emma is still a bit too young to make heart shapes with fingers. We did try and managed to do five hearts like that. Then I decided to do a stamp out of a piece of cardboard and that was easier and quicker for her to do. So I've put together a little tutorial of how to make these lovelies.


You get the idea from the pictures, but I've added a few lines of extra insight if you want to read them too.

What you need is:

• some light coloured material
• fabric paint
• a cap of a bottle to draw a circle (and a pencil of course)
• some felt
• fray stop (optional)
• cardboard for a stamp if you want to use a stamp
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• sewing machine
• safety pins 

First of draw some circles on your material. This helps your child to know where the hearts need to be and will save you a lot of material since they won't be making them randomly all over the place. It'll also help you to cut the hearts out in a circle shape, dah!

If you want to use a stamp instead, you could cut out a heart shape straight away. I wanted to make it a bit more challenging for Emma so I made a rain drop shape and she had to stamp twise to get the heart shape. I did have to help her out with the other half of the heart but it was fun doing it together.

I placed the stamp I made of cardboard on top of a pen with double sided sticky tape.

 Once the hearts are dry, you can just cut out the circles of the material.

You can make a patern for the flowers if you want them all to be the same shape.

My material was fraying a lot so I used a fray stop around the edges of the circle. It's awesome stuff and helps out a lot in small projects like these. After applying fray stop around the edges it was easier to sew the circle on the flower.

Now I know that all you people in Finland won't find fray stop in the shops. I've tried and the sales people haven't had a clue of what I've been talking about. So the best way is to order online if you want some. And in Australia, you can buy these in almost any craft/material shop.

I sewed around the circle twise.

It depends on how old your child is, but obsiously the older they get the more they can do themselves. Cutting the flower, and even sewing is not a problem for older children. But even though my kiddo was only able to do the hearts and even in them she needed help, I'm still writing in the cards that it's made by Emma.

Here's still the ones with the finger print hearts:

 How cute are they! A little piece of love for someone special.

Airshow

What a weekend. I have so many things to share, but we'll take it one at a time. And the first thing I want to share is the airshow we went to during the weekend. I have never been to one, but it sure was many things. Here's the few photos I thought were the coolest out of the 200 pictures we took:

I couldn't be bothered editing these, there are just too many.

Lot's of massive planes, small planes, noisy planes, planes that did tricks and planes that had smoke coming out of them. Also a lot of sun, people and did I meantion noise!

Some of the tricks were really cool, hearts, loops and some that looked like fireworks:

And some a bit more scary:

All in all it was a great day. I had a massive head ache by the end of it, caused by the noise and the sun, Emma was full of beans even though she'd pointed the planes all day going "WOW" and hubby was so pleased to see B-52 (sorry if I got it wrong hun) which is the biggest bommer in the world or something like that. We had a fun family day and it took us 12 hours at the show, out of which 3 were spent in the car waiting to get out of the car park. Yay for these days.

Sport fans

I'm sure every country has that one sport that everyone gets excited about. I know that in Finland it's ice hockey and we're living exciting times as the world championship games are on. Yes I'm very much excited and following what's happening there even though I'm on the other side of the world.

For Australia that sport would have to be footy, aka Australian football. Yes I do like that game too though not as much as ice hockey. Everyone has their team that they support and merchandise to go with it. So as Emma's grandad turned a year older again, I thought you can't go wrong with some handmade fan stuff.

Yes all that mambo jumbo stuff about sports and ice hockey and footy was there just so I could show you these socks that I made for Emma's grandad. Haha, very poor effort, I know.

The team that Emma's grandad supports is Collingwood (as all Aussies would know after seeing those socks) and yes they look rather big, but I did test them on hubby's foot and they were just perfect. Hopefully he'll like them.

Funny thing about Aussies and knitting that I heard; they can't knit with 5 short knitting needles (what you use to knit socks or mittens), or it feels overly challenging to them. Now all you Aussies you can correct this because I don't know if that's true. Though one lady did ask me if it were easier to do these with the round needle thingis. Oh boy I said and rolled my eyes.

About being a mother...

It's been 6 months since my husband went to the police academy and in 2 weeks we are getting him back. Don't get me wrong, we've still seen him every weekend, but it's been a rollercoaster ride. People ask me how I do this, how can I be a mum with a husband away for a week at a time and still have time to make things. Well the answer is simple: humor.

1. Oh dear the shorts don't go over your head.

 2. Did you not get enough breakfast darling?

3. And this is why I tell you over and over not to touch the nappy cream.

4. An art project not gone like I planned, maybe the paper that I taped was too small for her ideas.

And there has been many many more things that I can't but laugh, like drinking vegetable oil, feeding her lunch to the toys so that they are covered in tomato sauce and brushing her teeth with daddy's tooth brush.

Yes sometimes it's not so funny and sometimes I have cried, but if you take everything too seriously and only worry about a clean house and a clean child, well then you're going to miss out a lot. Children, funny ones as they are, need to try silly things, need to do the opposite of what you tell them to and need to be allowed to be children. And being a child just happens to be all those things, messy and dirty.

And don't get me wrong, she still helps me to clean up after she's made the mess. Just because we let them be children doesn't mean we need to be slaves as mothers. I am very greatful that she knows how to put her toys away (and everything else she's pulled out), take her dirty clothes to the laundry and get the towel when she's spilled something. Cleaning can be fun too when you do it together.

 So when do I have time to do crafty things? Well they do sleep too!

It's all because of autumn

Autumn makes me get my camera out and wander outside. I love the colours, I love how warm the sun feels on my skin. So I took a tour around our yard and had a look what the autumn looks around here. Tomato plant is still trying to grow it's tomatos and two snow pea shoots are reaching out for the sun. Also our very small apple tree surprised us this year by growing a few big apples in it. And I was already thinking of pulling it out, shame on me.

I don't understand how such a small tree can do that. But then again it is the small ones that always surprise us, whether it's the small seed that still keeps growing even though it's turned freezing cold or the small tree that you thought to take out because you thought it couldn't produce anything or the small child who sees all the ants going about and hears all the birds singing in the trees. I am amazed and I love it.

 Oh how deep, I know. It's all because of autumn. What can I say, I love autumn!