Thank-you gifts

Back in December Jack finished his first year of school. He had a great year, and I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer in the classroom for one day a week, most of the year. We wanted to do something as a thank-you to his teachers, and as there were two part-time teachers and a teacher's aide, we needed three.

I feel pretty strongly that a thank-you gift for a teacher should come from the child, so we had a think about it and Jack wanted to make something with fabric from my stash which was fine by me. We decided on a cushion for the main teacher and pencil cases for the others (I only had one cushion insert handy).

We found some fabric dye crayons at a local craft shop and some cream fabric, jelly roll strips and a bag of bright scraps in the stash and set to work.

Artist at work

The first step was to draw on some squares of cream fabric. I taped the fabric to some cardboard to stop it shifting, wrote the names on a bit of paper for him to copy and left him to it. The names were my suggestion but Jack decided on the rest. He drew a picture of each teacher surrounded by flowers and love hearts.


I love how each teacher is drawn with a big heart taking up most of their body

 The next day Jack picked out fabrics to frame each drawing and then sat on my lap to sew them together. By this stage he was running out of steam, and a bit bored by all the pressing going on, so he picked out fabrics for the backs and found something else to do.

He was particularly adamant that the two pencil cases needed to have the spider fabrics on the back "cause that will freak them out, Mum". Charming child.



Photobombing

The pencil cases turned out much larger than intended, but that may just make them more useful? The cushion cover was all jelly roll strips, so was easy to put together. I made an envelope back with a velcro closure, and really loved the way it turned out. (Jack's Dad even liked it enough to request we make some for his family for Christmas. We made two but forgot to take photos. The picture Jack is drawing in the photo at the top of the post is one of these.)

We finished off the gifts with cards Jack made by drawing a Christmas tree on the front of a pre-cut blank card. He wrote his own message to each teacher inside the card and I so wish I had taken a picture of them to put in his scrapbook.

The only thing I purchased specifically to make these gifts was the set of fabric crayons, everything else was from the stash so they weren't expensive but there was quite a bit of time and effort from both of us to create them. The look of pride on his face when he carted them off to school was more than worth it.

Happy smurf and grumpy smurf

Can you tell them apart?

Advent countdown

Pillowcases - and another January finish

I bought some pillowcase kits about two years ago and when they arrived I was dissappointed to find the main fabric was cut so that the directional print would end up running in the wrong direction if I used the pattern provided. The pattern also didn't have the 'flap' inside to prevent the pillow falling out.

Lets face it - pillowcases aren't exactly difficult. My challenge was to use the lengths of fabric provided in the kit without any unnecessary joins and patches. They got put away until I had time to think.

I unearthed the kits while cleaning up a few weeks ago. Yesterday I pulled out the tape measure and the overlocker and got stuck in.

Within a few hours I had two very nice, very bright and very neatly made pillowcases that will look great with Jack's I-spy quilt (which is what I was meant to be working on instead of making pillowcases!). I also wrote out measurements and a rough pattern so I can do it again without all the thinking :).

And as you can see Jack was straight into a game of 'What's your favourite, Mum?'.

More pre-Christmas craft

This one isn't really my handiwork - but I helped with the paint and the glitter (mainly cleaning up the mess afterwards) and the pins and paid for the whole thing...

On a pre-christmas trip to the shops we spotted a lolly Christmas tree in the window of a local craft shop and Jack decided that we needed one as well.

A foam cone, a foam star, a pack of glitter and some wrapped lollies found their way into the shopping trolly. When we got home I had a few goes at making one like the shop one but gave up in disgust before deciding we could do a better one ourselves.

It looked great on our new table runner!

And this was one of my favorite 'Christmas Moments'....

...Doesn't every nativity have a racing car and an excavator right in the middle?

I didn't manage to get a photo of baby Jesus going for a ride in the back of the jeep although it happened quite often. I also regularly had to find him inside one of the babushka santas during games of 'hide and seek'.

The advent calendar - despite best intentions it wasn't finished to use this year, but I got the last few ornaments sewn together and hung on the tree in time to pack it away for next year. I'm hoping to get a few years use while Jack is still young enough to enjoy it.

This was given to me (partly made - got to love other people's UFOs) a while ago and I've been meaning to finish it of for a while. There are 24 ornaments, each with a ribbon loop. I sewed gold ornamental buttons to the tree for the ornaments to hang on.

I'm thinking of adding a row of red buttons to the bottom border so all the ornaments can be on display while they wait their turn to go on the tree on the correct day.

I still need to add a hanging sleeve but that will wait until next Chrismas when I know where I want to hang it. I might add a bit more quilting and a bit more bling as well - we will see how I feel in November!

Halloween dress up day

seems to come around faster every year.

I took the easy option this year and the only sewing I did was to insert some elastic at the wrists and ankles.

But seriously for about $15 total who is complaining. Certainly not this little boy. Doesn't he think he is the bees knees!

Swap opening - Jack's new outfit

Please excuse my photograpy. We opened the parcel when I got home from work and it was starting to get dark so the lighting is pretty bad. I took the photos straight away so everything is a little wrinkled from the mail, and I put them on Jack straight after his bath while he was in the mood to pose.

Look at what we got!

We opened this great package from Jen this afternoon and what a wonderful bundle of clothes she has made for us.

A fantastic button-up shirt covered in tow trucks, other trucks, motor bikes and cars. I think this is a Michael Miller print and there are lots of fabulous details like the faces of the drivers and the names on the trucks. This is perfect for Jack as he is rather obsessed with tow trucks, broken down cars and mechanics at the moment.

The shirt pairs perfectly with a pair of denim shorts with the same print for pocket trims. There is a huge amount of contrasting top stitching and they are really well made.

And my favourite part, a white t-shirt appliqued with a tow-truck towing a car, based on a design from the printed fabric.

The applique wraps around the shirt and the whole think is free-motioned appliqued.....very impressive!

As you can see, Jack thinks he looks rather special!

Thanks Jen, you've done a great job and they will all get lots of wear.

Ah-hoy me hearties...!

Pirate day at day-care - we've been reading pirate stories and talking pirate-speak for the last week!

I thought it would be easy to buy a pirate hat but everywhere was sold out, so we designed our own from black cardboard, glue, tape, staples and gold braid. It took much longer than expected but turned out rather well.

The parrot was non-negotiable. The pirate in the book (I wish I had a pirate suit by Pamela Allen) had one, so we had to have one too.

Thankfully there was a parrot finger puppet in the toy box (from Ikea). Some pipecleaners for feet, some green feathers for wings and two big safety pins to attatch it to the shoulder and the pirate parrot was ready for action.

Every pirate needs some treasure. Our gold and silver coins were made from bottle tops flattened out with a hammer. They smell a bit beer-y but that's okay.

The pirate sword was cardboard covered on both sides with some sticky-backed foam found in the 'useful stuff' in Dad's shed. Apparently it is used for concrete slabs? It made a nice soft sword that shouldn't cause any damage.

One of his mates had a telescope. Of course Pirate Jack noticed, turned to me and said "Mum, where's my pirate-scope?".

Colour Swap

Well, I couldn't help myself and signed up for another swap!

This time it was a colour swap. Each person listed a favourite colour and then their secret partner put together a pack worth $30 including fabric, trims, threads etc.

Today was opening day and Jack was convinced the present was for him.

It didn't take him long to realise that it was intended for someone else...he got this far and said "Oh look Mum, its for you".

And here is my lovely pack. I listed blue combined with cream or green, and mentioned that I have a soft spot for paisley, and my clever but very secret partner didn't dissappoint.

There is a fantastic frog and paisley print with a matching border print, that co-ordinates perfectly with the brown, green and pink print beside it. I'm tossing up between using it for a bag or a quirky wrap skirt. There is also some blue sock monkey fabric that is already earmarked for Jack's I-spy quilt and a lovely spotty fat quarter. Some fantastic coconut-shell buttons, some thread and a set of three hand-made felt flowers made up the rest of the parcel.

Jack immediatley found a use for the thread, and then turned his attention to the flowers...

However, I quickly rescued them from his clutches and will be using them to embelish a bag or hat or maybe even a quilt.

Here is the only photo I took of the pack I made up for Emma. She asked for fabric for her boys, suggesting blues and greens and I took the opportuinity to grab some great rocket fabric that I've had my eye on for ages, added some co-ordinates and then wrapped the whole lot up in some very boy-ish flannelette.

She has some photos on her blog so drop over to http://emmafaye-emma.blogspot.com/ and have a look!

EB New year swap - part 1: look at this!!!

Wow - Jack and I were the lucky, lucky people who got a wonderful gift from Susan. She was a bit sneaky by not putting her name anywhere, even on the card, but I'm an efficient blog stalker so she hasn't tricked me!

I know everyone was drooling over the sneak peek she posted weeks ago and now I can show you how wonderful the whole thing is!

This was a 'mystery swap'. We had to provide a list of three things for our partner to chose from. This was a bit hard for me because there wasn't really anything I really, really wanted to have made for me. I just started writing a list and kept adding to it as I thought of things. I figured that my partner would be able to pick something she really liked making without too much pressure. In hindsight I probably made it much harder for her to choose something - there were about twenty things on the list in the end!

Firstly our wrapped parcels - one for Jack and one for me.

This is the lovely embroidery that was featured in Susan's sneak peek. She made it into a drawstring bag and it will make a perfect library bag. I've been thinking about making one for Jack for some time but now I don't have to! And how cute is the monkey!

Hiding away inside the bag was Mitch the monkey.

He is made from fleece fabric and Susan has done an amazing job. Check out his ears and his adorable face.

Mitch was very well recieved here - I'm not sure how Susan and her boys managed to let him go. I had quite few hugging photos but Jack had his eyes closed in all of them so I finally got one of Mitch 'driving' the bike. He is now outside helping Jack and Dad pick tomatoes, and hasn't left Jack's side since he was liberated from his wrapping.

And as a bonus there were a few goodies packaged up for me. Yes, that is Jack's little hand trying to pilfer the peanut butter rocky road while I was taking the photo. He was very good and put it straight in the fridge for 'later'.

Thankyou so much Susan. This has been a wonderful package to open!

Getting out and about

We have had a busy week this week, but oh so much fun.

First up was trip to 'The World of Music' toddler show at the QLD State Library. While we were there we made a pretty cool hat and took part in the musical procession around the ground level. Here is Jack modelling his hat and practicing with his musical instrument before the parade.

Afterwards we checked out the art gallery and the museum but a rampaging dinosaur terrified us and we had to hide in the gift shop until he had moved on. (Actually it was a guy in a dinosaur suit but try explaining that to a two-year old!)

Today we went to the Railworks Museum at Ipswich for the 'Day out with Thomas' and got to meet the Fat Controller which was the highlight of Jack's day.

It was perfect weather and we had a really lovely day. If you are looking for something to do with kids aged between about two and eight then I highly recommend it.

And so this is Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Okay, so I'm a week late but the thought counts, not the time frame.

Our Christmas tree. It was only a small gathering this year, but look at all the presents. And there were even more under there on Christmas morning. The tree may just last another year if we don't water it too much!

There is a little table to the side holding our nativity scene. It gave hours of playtime fun, and it is unusual to see all the people in a straight line. Most of the time they have been 'dancing' in pairs. Jack managed to break both the camel and Joseph in a very short time (ceramic figures and tiled floors do not get on very well). He now thinks Dad can fix anything but is a little young to fully appreciate the magical powers of superglue.

'Santa Claus is coming to town' has been sung from dawn to dusk in our house for several weeks. Finally he came to town and look at the sack full of goodies he left behind.

I made the sack for his first Christmas and the ducky pj pants last year. After I let down the cuffs this summer we've managed another year out of the pjs.

The prize gift this year was a Thomas the Tank Engine umbrella. Rain every day for the last week has made one little boy very happy. Again, last years monster pjs are peaking out at the bottom of the coat - cuffs let down and still fit perfectly.

Another hit present was a kit containing poster paints. We finally gave in and let him loose. Here he is creating some thankyou letters that will be going out in the mail over the next month.

I hope your Christmas was as wondeful as ours, and wish you all the best for a happy 2010!

How to celebrate a birthday

November brought a birthday so Jack made his dad a very special birthday cake.

Step one: Mix

Step two: Lick

Step three: Decorate

Step four: Celebrate!

Pre-Christmas crafting

We didn't have much time for crafty pursuits during November and December mainly due to flu, tonsilitis and other unhealthy afflictions.

However Jack and I did manage to create some very personal cards for all his carers at daycare. There are 14 including one who recently left on maternity leave. As Jack goes five days a week he is looked after by all these lovely ladies and we wanted to say thankyou.

Here is Jack displaying the results.

We painted some sheets of paper then cut out christmas tree shapes and glued them to pre-folded cards. Shiny gold star stickers added a bit of bling, and Jack pilfered a few to decorate his hands. Jack wrote a message inside each card, and I added a translation :)

Beach day

Hey Auntie Suze - notice the Jinormous Jack beach bag?!

I'm a dingle, dangle scarecrow

...with a flippy, floppy hat...

...I can shake my hands like this...

...and shake my feet like that!

Halloween daycare dress-up 2009 - my little scarecrow!