Wishing you all the happiest Christmas as we remember the birth of a very special baby, Jesus!

   In the words of a favorite hymn:

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
~ O Holy Night 

We are heading out of town for a couple of weeks, for a much needed break. So it could be a while between posts. So I hope your Christmas is a special one, and somewhere you get to spend time with loved ones and friends.
I have been sewing like mad trying to get things organised for the trip. New covers for the sleeping bags, repairs to another. I have also made a 'bed-in-a-bag' for the port-a-cot and one of the camp stretchers. They have a fitted bottom sheet and top sheet all attached to a drawstring bag (thanks to the preschool sheets for the idea!).  They are going to be great, can't wait to get them into use!

I will be back sometime in the New Year, Happy Holidays!

festive buntings

240 triangles sewn.
30+ meters of bias tape.
12 buntings later,
and my Christmas sewing is complete!
They are now all handed out, so I can finally upload photos.

They were all slightly different. Some just red and white, and others with Christmas fabric mixed in. Do you realise how difficult it is to find decent Christmas fabric? The holly print was the best I could find that matched what I already had.

We are having a lovely holiday so far.
Precious time spent with family, and plenty of steady rain which is much needed.
Just beautiful.

christmas 09

Sorry again for the huge blogging pause, things around here have been so hectic!
I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas yesterday, celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends. We certainly did, despite both the girls being unwell. Poor Grace was running a fever all day. She spent most the time lying on the couch, but still managed to enjoy the day.
Hasn't my baby boy grown! He is such a sweet little man.

I had wanted to sew the kids an outfit each for Christmas, but didn't quiet get there.
Here's the skirt I made for Grace, I ended up buying a top to go with it. Pattern is from Ottobre 1/09 with a few changes. Fabric is by Kaffe Fassett. I am so in love with his fabrics right now! Fresh, summery and gorgeous.

Here is the skirt for Maeve. Fabric is also Kaffe Fasset. The lace was some I found at the Op shop, and was a perfect match.

I also made her a top to go with it on Christmas eve (not really something to write home about, but she loved it all the same). There is a giraffe appliqued on the front.

And some new gear for Jude.
The baby essentials, plenty of cute bibs and a sleeveless bodysuit. These ones were so fun to make!

I stenciled the designs on using freezer paper. The wolf and crocodile were from this book, and the fish were my idea.

The clouds on the bodysuit were also from the same book.
This was also my first attempt at fold over elastic on a garment. It was quiet easy to do, and turned out fairly neat.

Another suit the same I made a few weeks ago and he has lived in.

envelope necks are great!


And this is a little pen and notebook wrap I made for my sister in law Kate.
I made up my own pattern for this one, to suit the notebook and pens I had.
Fabric is a beautiful natural linen, with a small piece of vintage floral fabric.

Phew! I really should update my blog more...sorry for the long post.
I have lots more to show you, but we are heading off for holidays in the morning (yay!!).
Then we will be home and getting things ready for Grace's first year at school. Lots of changes coming up.

Happy holidays and New Year to all of you!
xx

christmas photos

We had such a top Christmas this year. Every year we alternate between Luke's family and mine, and this year it was my family's turn. After seeing my brothers photos, I wont embarrass myself by posting any of mine, but you can go have a peek on his blog if you like.

Go here if you want part of the Christmas day action.

And here if you want to check out our awesome table tennis tournament, which unfortunately I didn't make past first round! The Grand final was so close and highly entertaining, Tim only just came in ahead of Amanda.

home

Sorry for the big break in blogging, but we are home now and all rested up. Such a great holiday! Even the girls didn't want to come home and when we pulled in the driveway, Maeve got rather distressed and said 'no, no, no...holiday!'. She didn't want to get out of her seat.

The only bit of crafting I did all holidays was to sew these monkeys for the girls. Thanks to my friend Ansia for the link and inspiration!

The only thing I changed was to shrink the pattern to 75%. It made a very nice sized monkey.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and new year.

busy and tired, and not quite ready for Christmas

We have been so busy around here, but I guess who isn't at this time of year. Luke and I were up extra late last night packaging what seemed like hundreds of these biscuits for friends. We also had to put together a wooden kitchen for the girls that came in kit form. It proved to be rather frustrating with limited instructions...luckily, it came together fine in the end.

The girls (with much mummy supervision) have been doing artworks to give out to special people. Oil pastel with watercolour. They look so pretty drying in the sun.

I also finished this shirt for Luke's Mum, the same pattern as one I made earlier in the year but shorter sleeves. There is so much sewing I had wanted to do for the girls for presents, but I can see that its not going to happen, so I will deal with the disappointment and hopefully catch up on sewing in the new year. It's always special to be able to give handmade.

And here are some of Grace's card she made for Luke to give to friends at work. A Christmas tree, Jesus in the manger with animals and the star, Santa (we don't give out presents from Santa at Christmas, but its funny that she still knows who he is and thinks he has something to do with Christmas), and another Christmas tree with presents under it.

We are off for a much needed 2 week break tomorrow, so I wont be around for a while. Actually really looking forward to not sitting in front of the screen daily! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends! 

Naomi xo