Daddy's-Old-Shirt Dress

We're getting into the spirit of buy nothing new month a little early here. Nick and I had a clear out of our wardrobes and I decided to turn this old shirt of his into a little sundress for Ella. 

I made the front by cutting a dart along the bottom of the gold, with the yolk the right width and the skirt with extra width which I gathered before sewing the dart back together. This meant I could leave the original buttons and button band and not have to cut through it. 

Ella loves this dress - mostly because she knows it used to be Daddy's shirt and she thinks that must mean she's as big as Daddy! She's very keen on growing up my little girl. Would that I could be so pleased - while I love watching her grow and learn, I'm still really struggling to come to terms with the fact that my firstborn is 3 already (where did that time go?)

Buy Nothing New Month

I went shopping this morning. I mean proper fun shopping, clothes shopping. I can't tell you how excited I was - I practically skipped out of the door, eager for a few child free hours of me-time. 

The trouble is that I don't actually enjoy shopping - i just don't seem to have fully realised that yet.  By the time I left I was thoroughly grumpy and felt like I had just wasted a whole morning. All I wanted to do was get home and spend the rest of the day playing in the garden with the little ones.

So perhaps it wasn't such a waste of time really; after all it did give me a wake up call to what is actually important in my life and where i get my real pleasure from. Perhaps next time the kids are driving my crazy i'll be able to remember that i'd still rather be home with them than out shopping on my own. Plus i did manage to find a couple of VERY nice pairs of shoes...

October is buy nothing new month here in Australia, so my shopping trip is a timely reminder of how empty and unfulfilled this culture of consumerism leaves me feeling. 

If you've not heard of 'Buy nothing new month' it's a fantastic initiative that encourages people to question whether they really need something and to beg, borrow, swap, rent, buy second hand those things that they do. By reducing the amount that we buy, repairing things that might otherwise be thrown out and reusing / sharing things we could make a huge difference to our world.  

But i think that my favourite thing about 'Buy nothing new month' is the creativity that is born when you have to start thinking outside the box. I love the sense of achievement when i'm able to come up with a good solution to a problem which might otherwise have been solved by simply saying 'lets just buy a new one..' 

What do you think? Will you sign up too?  Check out the link below.

Buy Nothing New Month

Suncatchers

I love these sun catchers. Ella started collecting 'lovely' leaves and flowers on the way home from the park this morning.  We added some paper bark from the tree outside our house and a few more flowers picked from the garden.  We arranged them between two laminating sheets and passed them through the laminator. I think they look rather pretty, especially when the sun shines through and shows up all the veins in the leaves and makes the petals glow. 

Rainbows and Birdies

How was your weekend? We were finally able to get back outside which was lovely. Ella and I made some bird cakes to hang in the garden. Something that I remember doing with my own mum when I was little.

I love this last photo by the way, a rare moment of cooperation - Ella helping her little brother to reach up.

I think Ella has enjoyed thinking about the birds - she woke up on sunday asking "mummy, where's my birdie gone? My tweety birdie?"  I had no idea what she was talking about until she found it. Turns out her "tweety birdie" is actually a toy Pterodactyl! Crazy kid (with crazy hair to match!) x

Rainy Day Mayhem

It's been a very wet week, and today was more of the same. Rain, rain, rain.  Rainy days are always a bit of a challenge. Jacob especially struggles on the days when he can't get outside and run around. He's like an outdoor magnet that boy - one whiff of fresh air and he's off like a shot.  Quite often we've not got the door open more than 20cm before he's out and running off across the front garden!

So when we get a day like today he's always a grumpy pants, as if being confined in a small space for 10 hours with two toddlers wasn't enough of a challege at the best of times!  I did my best; today we had fun playing with the animals (and sorting them into those that live in the water, on the beach and on land), singing, dancing and playing instruments, we had friends over for a playdate, we did some painting and baked cupcakes, we hoovered and we did the washing up, and yes, we even watched a bit of TV. Yet no matter what we did it inevitably descended into chaos. Cupboards were emptied, paint was eaten, children were painted, flour was thrown on the floor, water was thrown on the floor, yoghurt was thrown on the floor... you get the general idea! 

But somehow we made it to 6 o'clock. The kids were clean after their bath, toys were packed up, the house was (reasonably) tidy and dinner was not exactly made but planned at least. All that remained was to snuggle up on the sofa and wait for a very soggy daddy to cycle home from work.

Look Mummy! I'm a Blue Girl!! 

Then, while we were cleaning that up, this happened.... 

At least he was using it I suppose? 

Springtime

It's spring! It's spring! And oh my goodness is it spring! The first of September ticks over and suddenly the sun is back and it's a beautiful 25 degrees and I feel like anything in the world is possible! Don't you just love that about spring? It always feels like a new beginning, a time to make plans and dream big. It fills us full of hope and positivity.

Infinite possibilities. That's what spring is to me. What does it mean to you? 

A breath of fresh air

This weekend we were introduced to a potentially new favourite place to escape from the city - Plenty Gorge. I say 'we' when really I mean Nick and the kids. He and a friend very kindly took the kids out for a breath of fresh air, leaving me and a friend to get a bit of much needed quiet sewing time - bliss! 

Anyway, more on the sewing soon, here's some pics of Plenty Gorge for now.. 

Jacob apparently spent the majority of the time perfecting his throwing technique by tossing stones into the water!

Post - throw effort face

Is there anyone in the world more content than a kid with a stick?

Glow bath

How do you brighten up a dull winter evening? With a glow bath of course! I've been wanting to try this for ages but got a bit stuck over all the technicalities of it; I couldn't find a black light and I wasn't sure about pouring the contents of flourescent markers and glow sticks into the bath water etc. In the end I got bored of waiting to get it just perfect and we simply lit a few glow sticks and turned out the lights - I'm sure it was just as much fun as any of the more elaborate set ups. The kidlets were blown away by the magical light and played happily until long after the bath water had gone cold.

Once they had gotten over their awe they started to experiment with making patterns in the air by waving the sticks, naturally this quickly progressed into throwing them and before we knew it we where being hit in the heads by glowing missiles flying left right and centre. It was certainly a memorable bath time - we will most definitely be doing this again - although possibly while wearing head protection.

Snow...

Snow snow snow.. So much snow! We've just returned from a lovely few days up in the mountains. It was wonderful to get away and spend some quality time with friends and our lovely little ones.  

Is there anything more magical than the way in which snow transforms a landscape? Except possibly for the looks on the children's faces when they look out of the window in the morning and see that IT SNOWED!!!! 

I think that just being up in the snow would have been enough for me but as an added bonus we even managed a bit childcare tag team-ing to allow us all a bit of free time for snowboarding.

Ella and her little friend had a go at skiing (the size of their skis and boots was alarmingly cute) and both did so so well. It was amazing to watch their confidence grow and see their pride in all their acheivements. We were pretty proud of them too and it made the enormous effort involved in getting everyone dressed and ready and down to the ski slopes completely worth it!

We built snowmen, made snow angels and caught snowflakes on our tongues. There was also plenty of tobogganing although not enough for some and too much for others