crayons and paper

The girl's conversation went something like this the other day:

Grace- "Me and Maeve never stop drawing, we love it sooo much! We never stop drawing, do we Maeve?"
Maeve- "Well.....we do stop for lunch sometimes"

And that pretty much sums it up at the moment. Two girl's in love with their crayons and paper, endlessly drawing at every possible moment. The house littered with trails of artworks to be found in one room and then the next, and so on...and so forth. Paper everywhere. They love it.

Maeve has taken to copying whatever it is that Grace is drawing and I find it interesting how her attention to detail has come along in the last two months. We went to look at some Chicken's with friends of ours recently, they were hoping to buy some new hens. We were merely dreaming. One day when we are some place bigger and quieter, yes indeed we will have chickens! For now we will just continue to dream and of course draw.

Top: 'Rooster, chick and hen' Grace 6 1/2yrs

Bottom: 'Rooster' Maeve 3 3/4yrs

Left: Grace's butterfly

Right: Maeve's butterfly

They are both big on butterflies at the moment. We have many of these drawn then cut out carefully around the house. We are trying to photograph their creations to keep a record, without having to keep all that paper! I would be interested to know how other parents keep their children's artworks. Do you file them, stick them in scrapbooks, keep only the best, bin it all? Don't forget, if you have the time it's always a nice idea to turn them into an embroidery that can be enjoyed for years to come. Remember this post and this one?

edited to say: I also forgot to mention the art wire for displaying favorite drawings. Clearing it at the beginning of every term is always a good way to keep it fresh and uncluttered.

cot bumper

With the sewing machine set up in its new corner, I have been trying to tackle a few old and forgotten projects that needed finishing. A cot bumper was one of them... probably a totally useless item for a umm, err, now 15 month old (!!). Yikes, time has flown. The poor boy has been sleeping in a port-a-cot since he outgrew the bassinet, because I refused to set up the cot until I had the bumper finished. Oh the relief to pack the port-a-cot away! I feel like he had been camping out in the bedroom. His cot now has a small space in the girls room which is working out quiet well. Next job on the agenda is to paint the room that will be his and set it up. I am thinking a soft gray would be nice. Don't hold your breath friends!

update

Life has just been flying by, so sorry once again for the long absence between posts. At the moment we are rather caught up in the every day busyness that comes with having a family, which at times can be very difficult and tiring. How can parenting be so frustrating, delightful, tiring, rewarding, emotionally draining, incredibly fun, demanding, hilarious, heart breaking and heart bursting all at the same time? I don't do the roller coaster very well. However, I do feel like one of the richest people on earth having been blessed with these three little people. I wouldn't choose to do life any other way. A little more sleep would be nice though.
Needless to say, I didn't get very far with the Kids clothes week challenge. 2 out of 7 days...hmmm will have to try a little harder next time.

We are in the middle of trying to de-clutter the house and clear a bed room for Jude. He still sleeps in with us, but I think its time he had a space of his own. We were going to put him in with the girls in their poky little room, but after trialling that for a few nights we realised that 2 poor sleepers in one room was probably not a good thing. The only room left for him is my sewing room, so I am going to have to say goodbye to that space for a while. I will still be sewing, just not as regularly. We will hopefully find a space for my machine in the office...the relocation of fabrics could prove to be a challenge!

The rain has just been bucketing down here the past few week. We have spent a ton of time indoors enjoying and enduring each others company. I have pulled all the winter woollies out of the cupboard and put them to use. Maeve and I have been baking and crafting while Grace is at school. My Maeve loves to bake and loves her aprons! The morning school run has proved to be a bit of a mission amidst the torrential  downpour. The girls see it as a bit of an adventure though. I am so grateful for good friends and car pooling, so I don't have to repeat the 'adventure' in the afternoons!

Hopefully I will be back soon with photos of room changes, or maybe even a little knitting. Hope you day is a great one!

kids clothes :: day 3

Well, yesterday wasn't quite as productive as I would have liked. Nothing got sewn, or even cut out for that matter. I traded in my sewing hour for a nice dinner out with my man, which was totally worth it! I will probably have to put the next few days on hold as well, as we are off the the Blue Mountains for a weekend away with only one child!
Anyway, here are some fabrics and pattern I have out to get creative with. Its easy to see what season we are coming into just by looking at the fabrics and colours I have chosen. Only 18 days till Winter!
I am thinking of Sewing the Oliver + S Sunday Brunch Jacket for Grace. I would also like to sew her a floral gathered top of some sort to go with the Jacket. Maeve seems pretty well off for clothes at the moment as I just unpacked all Graces old size 3 winter clothes. I might make Jude some pants similar to the ones I just made for Maeve, and he needs some fleecy sleep suits to wear over his pj's with the cooler weather coming. Hopefully I will report back Sunday!

wordless weekend

today

 

Todays objective:

• To find the floor in the sewing room (I kid you not)
• relocate all the fabrics, sewing supplies and sewing machines strewn throughout the house, to their rightful place
• claim back the dining table to be used for what it was designed for. Yes, we are all a tad sick of eating our dinner surrounded by piles of my stuff!
• by the end of the day, having a room I can actually sew in

 And to achieve all this with a crawling babe underfoot (yes, the boy can crawl!), will be nothing short of impresive.

Wish me luck!

 ['mousie' is a childhood friend of mine. Trust me, her picture is much prettier than my sewing room right now. Isn't she cute!]

tinkering

We have been doing a bit of much needed organising and cleaning around the house. So when I was clearing piles of junk and paperwork off the top of the piano, I had the sudden urge to pull it all apart and see if we could find out why middle C was no longer working (all after midnight I might add). We found the problem, and with a little felt and glue were able to fix it.
The poor piano has been so neglected as of late, and it was so nice to have a little tinker on it. Its been years since having lessons, but it's amazing what comes back. Sort of like a long lost friend.
And then I felt a little sad for all the years gone by that I haven't played, and the skills that were forgotten. I would be so nice if I could find/make the time to play, especially for the kids. I would really love to be able to play songs they could sing along to.
It's funny the whole parenting thing. When you are expecting your first child, you have such grand plans of what you are going to teach them, the life experiences you will share. And then all of a sudden you find yourself with two, then three children and the days somehow become very full all on their own.
Just to keep on top of the washing, have the children fed, clothed and happy, with dinner on the table every night is a real achievement. And the finer details of parenting, the extra skills and creative experiences you were going to teach have slowly slipped into the background and you realise that these things are no longer as important as you first thought, for now anyway.
I guess eventually we will get there. And in the mean time we will focus on loving relationships and growing together as a family. Its a beautiful thing watching the bond form between the children, how they care for each other, the jokes the older two share. Of course its not all love and laughter, there are plenty of 'moments' to be had.
But I do like how the precious moments between them are the ones I remember and hold on to.

organising our art

It feels so good to have accomplished something around the house today. I finally put some hooks up in the kitchen to hang all the kiddy art on, thanks to a little inspiration from Soulemama's book and my good friend Lissa. I always hate the thought of putting holes in the walls, since we spent so long painting them...but it did look good once it was all done. I stretched the string from hook to hook, and threaded a whole bunch of mini pegs across. Now we have the perfect spot to display all those colourful creations!



While we were pinning up all the paintings, we came across a bag of gumnuts/pine cones/seed pods. We collected these a while back to make a natural mobile, but somewhere never found the time to make it. So we did that too, and hung it from one of the beams. Its so simple, but the beauty of the natural objects speak for themself and somewhere I find myself endless staring at them.