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Thursday, September 8, 2011

Fathers Day (a belated post)

Fathers Day was last Sunday here in NZ so I thought I'd post about what we did ..

We dropped off some goodies to my Dad-in-law the day before because hubster had to work on Fathers Day!  We got some DELICIOUS smelling coffee beans from these guys:

You can see their Facebook page here 

They smelled so good it's lucky they even left my house!
And also some soft licorice for the licorice fan :-)

Fathers Day morning I had a small helper in the kitchen to make some waffles!


Add to that some bacon and cream cheese (we usually would have bacon, banana and golden syrup, but there were no bananas)
Turned out pretty darn tasty I have to say (I had tomato with mine which was divine!)


Then he opened his present (actually he did that first, but hey who's keeping track here!)
A dozen beers from around the world from here.


Then in the afternoon I went to my Dad's (aren't I lucky to be near my parents!!)  and delivered some more licorice and some licorice slice (recipe from PaisleyJade here) and had lunch there.


  

I am blessed to have a fantastic Dad who has always been here for me - and now in the next generation what a blessing my husband is being to my kids too - lots of loving all round :-)

Sima J

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

My Blue Owl ..

Wow.  Check it out .. TWO posts already this month and it's only the 6th!!  Must be a record for me lately!

Probably has something to do with the fact that hubster is at squash, kids are in bed, and there's nothing on tv hehe!

AND also has something to do with me being CRAFTY again today!
I finally got round to making Master 8yr HIS soft toy (since I had told him I would make him an owl when I had time).
It turned out pretty okay I think!?  (again, no pattern was used, I just made it up as I went along!)



He has been named Bilbo Baggins, Bombur, and Bob alternatively.  (We are currently reading The Hobbit as an out-loud book in the evenings - hence the first 2 names .. dunno where Bob came from though?!)

Sima J

Thursday, September 1, 2011

A rabbit and a cow ..

Wow ok so I really have to stop making a habit of this posting once a month.  Although I guess it's better than posting once every TWO months right?!

Anywho I have been doing a little bit of creating!
After dreaming all night about buying red-with-white-polkadot things for Leonie (her fav colour combo) I woke up with the inspiration needed to finish off an idea I had had a few days beforehand.  Sadly for NZ the lovely Leonie from Kiwi At Heart is moving back to aussie :-(  BOO HOO!!  She has become a great IRL friend after meeting originally at a Whangarei Bloggers Meet up back in February (thanks to Jacksta-B's organisational skills .. seen here)  So I thought, being the crafty person she is, I'd better make her something to take with her .. and help with moving in some small way!

After thinking about what I could make, and looking up at my stack of suitcases .. I remembered what was handy when I was travelling .. red ribbon tied to my bag made it really easy to spot and differentiate from all the other bags as they came through the conveyor belt.  

Luckily I had some red-with-white-polkadot fabric already so I whipped up a pattern for a tiny rabbit to attach with ribbon to her bag (one of the MANY bags aye Leonie hehe).

Here is the first draft:


 I thought I was being really clever by sewing the ribbons in from the ears .. what an egg I am .. I sewed them to the INSIDE of the ears (if you look close Leonie, you'll see remnants of the ribbons hehe)

So .. DON'T DO THIS: (if you wanted the ribbons to come out of the ears, pin the ribbons ON TOP of the fabric, not between!)


Here is the finished product pre-ribbon attachment .. with his little pearl tail (you can't really tell his size, but he's about the length of my hand .. I have small hands so about 15cm:


Hello I'm Leonie's rabbit!


 I sewed on a long piece of ribbon so it can be tied securely to the bag:


 Of course, when my kids saw what I'd made THEY wanted one too!  I thought to myself "sure thing - it didn't take too long to make that one .."  BAD IDEA!

I went to sort through my fabric to make another teddy and found some left over cow-print fabric from a jacket I made LONG ago and thought it would be a GREAT idea to make a cow for Master 2 1/2.

REAL clever me thought it wouldn't be too hard to make a quite large one.  (said with sarcasm)
It took me the rest of the morning to make Mr. Moo aka "cuddle" - and halfway through I was thinking "why oh why did I ever start this!!"

Luckily for me it has been well loved already and it's pretty good if I do say so myself considering I had no idea what I was doing and made it all up as I went along!
Here is the final product (this one's about 60cm from toes to head):



SOoo that's enough posting for me today!  Hopefully I'll get a bit more on to it this month and do at least ONE more before the month is over!

Sima J