Foxes are the new owls

As much as I like owl patterns I think they have been way over used in prints and products. So I think it's foxes turn to shine. I found this super cute fox print jersey fabric here in Finland and made quick t-shirts for the kids from them. I don't normally like making matching clothes for them, it's just not my thing, but I thought I don't have to dress them in these at the same time after these pictures were taken. My too little cutie pies.

I made both of the shirts extra long at the back, so that when they are playing other people don't have to see their backs and bottoms and also that they could be more comfortable. Pattern is invented by me, yay. 

Little dinosaur boy

We were very fortunate to be able to go up to Perth on Saturday and celebrate Casey's 1st birthday. He is the most gorgeous little boy, as cute as they make them. And when his mother wrote on his birthday how lucky she is to have such a beautiful, happy, loving, caring little mr mischief, I knew exactly what to make for him.

I saw a while ago this text: ROAR, that means I love you in dinosaur. I think it fits with so many little boys. All the loudness and mischief, all the energy they have and trouble they get in to... all a way to get our attention and to tell us that they love us.

I haven't drawn in a long time and I feel it's definately not one of my skills, but I had a lot of fun trying to draw this little boy inside the dinosaur outfit. And now I'm planning on drawing some more, I got so excited. What do you think? I also put the orange dinosaur beanie with the gift to match the t-shirt.

What rain can do to you.

I'm lying in bed under the warm covers not wanting to get up. Then I start to listen, am I hearing what I think I'm hearing? Is that... I get up and run to the window. Yes it's RAIN! Rain is here, my darling friend rain! My muse, the thing that kicks me in the backside and gets me working, rain. My daughter is outside running around in her pyjamas, no shoes. I call her inside and tell her what a good girl she is. We take her soaking wet pyjamas off and put her clothes on and a rain jacket and gumboots and outside she goes. I go with her, in my woolen socks, I'm not a very good example to her. We're using all of our senses, feeling the rain, listening the rain, tasting the rain and smelling the rain. I try to take a few pictures, but it doesn't work. You just can't capture the beauty of rain with an iPhone. I go inside and I smell something else, something burning. It's a horrible smell. It's our breakfast porridge. All burnt and ruined, I was too overwhealmed by the rain that I forgot the whole porridge. Oh well I thought, open the windows, let the bad smell of burnt porridge go out and welcome in the lovely smell of rain. Now bring out the materials I need to make something.

Beanies; little ones, big ones, girly ones and some for boys. Thank you rain. Do come again.

Quick, I got to knit something!

It doesn't matter how much I'm trying to have a break with knitting and focus on my heatlh, when I find a bargain I can't just walk past it. And when I've got the yarn, I have to see what I could make out of it. This was a quick knitting project among all the walking and exercise. Yarn cost me 3 dollars all together for this cute little piece. Want instructions on how to do it? Well just knit two squares and stitch them together, simple as that! I also added the heart to make it a bit girly. Loving it.

Cousins out for a walk. They are so cute together when they get along.

Owl dress, shouldn't have even started...

Sometimes things don't go as we see it in our head. Something that seems like such a great plan, doesn't work when we put it into action. That's what happened with this little owl dress. A very special girl turned one and she had an owl party. I wanted to make her an owl dress and saw this idea on pinterest. Oh the wrinkles, poor owl.

Movember and my little moustache man

Few more days left of Movember and I think it's time to show our moustaches that we've been growing all month long. Here's my little man's moustache. It truly has been in the making for the whole month. In the beginning of the month I cut the pieces for the onesie, then the second week I was able to make the stencil and print the moustache. Third week I sew the neckline and the sleeves and yesterday I was able to finish it off. For some reason making things seems to take a long time at the moment. But he looks pretty handsome with his moustache if I may say so.

Oh how he grows, he's even smiling now!

Spring Festival hulabaloo

Hey ya'll! I haven't been posting much lately, not because I would have been relaxing with our little prince, but because I've been busy busy sewing. Couple of weeks ago I tossed an idea to my mum of going to the Narrogin Spring Festival. She loved the idea and that was the start of two weeks of madness in our house.

For two weeks all the tables in this house were covered in fabric. I don't know where we ate.. Did we eat at all? No recollection on that one. We lost 3 pairs of scissors in that madness and had to buy one new pair (two of the scissors have since been found again). We got a new, though second hand, sewing machine to help us out so we could both be sewing at the same time (thank you hubby for that). We started as soon as we woke up and didn't finish until our eyes were closing in on us. We sew without thread (so tired), sang kids songs and had a blast.

 The day was amazing! So many friendly faces and so many lovely comments and of course some sales too. We had reversible dresses, reversible hats (for girls and boys), reversible headbands, nappy wallets, travel drawing kits, animal masks, bags, shorts for boys, dresses for girls, hair clips.

Most of the products were made (at least partly) from recycled materials, old curtains, sheets and such. Very nice I say.

My favorites were the animal masks and the boys pants that have the funky pockets. Gotta keep couple of them for Noah I think. People loved the reversable hats and the travel drawing kits as I sold most of them. Also the animal masks and the dresses got a lot of attention during the day.

Noah was hanging out with me all day and did so well. Many people were asking if I'm on facebook, so as of yesterday, you can see a button on the right collumn of this blog. Click that and you find me on facebook! Yay!

Thanks mum for going insane with me over the two last weeks and for helping me out. You are the best!

First converse shoes

Every streetwise newborn needs a pair of converse shoes, am I right!? I have few, my daughter has two and now our little man has his very own pair. We make a very cool gang walking down the street. I actually made these while still in the hospital. FREE pattern found HERE (ravelry download), the instructions are very easy to follow!

Not that I planned this (too much), but look how we match now!

Told ya there would be pants

Didn't I promise pants? I was going through all the baby clothes we were given and there were literally no pants.Yes, this still unborn child didn't have any pants. So mum and I started a production line. She did the cutting, I did the sewing. Materials are old linen and mens shirts. The same materials I used to make these buntings HERE, so very well recycled. I think we'll make a few more of these after we've tried them on the baby. I call them groovy clown pants.

Crafty shower

 
I'm so lucky, I have such an amazing sister-in-law. She threw me a crafty baby shower, just my kind of thing. And the best part was that she let me be a bit bossy and say what things I wanted to do. In fact she let me organize all the crafties.

I had to think of a crafty activity that would be easy for everyone to make, even if they thought they weren't crafty at all. So I made these origami stencils using THIS free font. Everyone got to choose which one they wanted to make and what colour they wanted to use. The onesies were all the plain secondhand ones that I've been given.

I thought they turned out amazing! I love them all and can't wait to dress our little one in these. Hopefully he/she will fit into some of these as some of them seemed so so tiny. I love the bear and the elephant and the birds, oh I love all of them!

And it wasn't just my darling friends who got involved.. After all the stencils were used, I had an onesie left so one of the guys wanted to draw a little something for the little one. How cute is this little chick onesie.

Thanks Shelley, you truly are the best! And thank you all my lovely ladies who stepped out of their comfort zone for me and did something crafty. I am so ready now to have this little baby. Oh no I'm not actually.. I still don't have any pants for the little one. I shall do them next.

Cpr for an apron

One of the latest finds from our little op shop was this cute apron. Well, the only cute thing about it was the materil. I do not understand the point of these half aprons. I, at least, get all the flour and dough on my shirt so why would I want an apron that covers my pants? Oh well, the material was too cute to leave it there. I think I paid 50 cents for it.

As I looked at the apron closer, I realised that it was handmade. Oh how could I make something new out of it knowing that someone had created this apron with their own two little crafty hands. I felt like I was taking away it's life, and that is just too brutal. All this old apron needed was a bit of cpr. I had to keep it's original purpose alive. I just modified it a little bit and made it into an apron for my little helper in the kitchen.

She loves to "mix, mix, mix", as she says herself, and it does get a bit messy everytime. So she really did need an apron. I'm thinking of wrapping this as a Christmas present though. I think it would be perfect as that. First Christmas present of the year, done!

I want to be like daddy - dress

It is Father's day in Australia and it is needless to say (but I'm going to say it anyway) that our little girl is her father's biggest fan. Last night we made him a card, we made him a goodie bag for work with all his favorite treats (as he had to work today) and wrapped the presents. Then after daddy's little girl was fast asleep, I thought what next? And so this super easy and quick I want to be like daddy - dress was born.

I thought, how nice would it be for her to prance around all Father's day wearing a dress that is made of daddy's old shirt! Perfect way to also recycle a shirt that he isn't going wearing anymore. And daddy thought she looked super duper cute.

Here's a how to picture:

1. As you can see, I used her other dress to get the right size. First thing is to cut it the right length.

2. Then cut the sides and the arm holes. I wanted this dress to be a sleeveless. Remember to leave about 1cm-2cm seam allowance.

3. Finish the arm holes. I just used an overlocker, because I was lazy and wanted to finish the dress quick. Then sew the sides together, remember to have the right sides together. And lastly finish the hem. Again I just went around with my overlocker.

That is it! How easy and quick was that!?? Well I did make a belt for the dress too which took a bit more time, but that's a totally different tutorial. You could just use an already existing belt or not wear a belt at all, looks cute that way too!