Alphabet Cushion

I had seen a cushion like this on some design blog (sorry can't remember where) and the person was selling them for well over $100.00 and I thought it looked so cool and I knew that my little words and letter man Oscar would just love it, and that I could make it for a fraction of that price.

It was very easy to make - I just enlarge a basic font in word and printed that out, traced the letters onto some Steam a Seam 2 and then ironed them on to various colours of felt, cut them out, pealed off the second layer of the steam a seam and then positioned them evenly across a piece of Essex Linen in Natural and ironed them into place. I then free motion stitched around each letter in the corresponding coloured thread attached a zip to the backing which was a navy blue and white polka dot cotton that I had, stitched the two together and it was done.

Very easy and yet very striking. It was originally going to be a Christmas present, but I ran out of time so it was more of a new year surprise.

He was so happy with it and of course the older sister wants one now too, which of course I should have known.

I have decided to include it in the Bloggers Pillow Party over at Stitched in Color, so if you want to check out some other very creative cushions then go and take a look!

A Catch Up

Haven't posted for a while, I am just so slack, get so caught up in reading that I never end up writing, so I thought I would just do a bit of a catch up of the last little while. Everyone has been sick which is horrible especially when it has been so hot here in Adelaide, and is meant to be a consistent 37∘c all week - yuk! especially when the air-conditioner is not working the the agent/owner has now taken over 6 weeks to replace it(apparently it is happening this week - yeah right, with this weather I doubt it will get done as every man and his dog will be wanting air-conditioning installed now!).

Other than that nothing much else has been happening,

this is our haul from a recent trip to our farmers market,

the kids had their first dip in the ocean - which I might add was at 6:00pm seen as though it was way too hot before then. (N.B The Hannah Montana board was not by choice it was just in the clearence bin at Big Dubs for $5.00 so we thought it would do for now.)

(Even Indy got in on the action! How cute in these little toggies!)

I started a diet (will let you know how that goes!), had a visit from FIL- nothing much more to say on that one, and all my sewing time has been taken up sewing dancing costumes for Stella's upcoming Dancing concert - might I just add I hate sewing lycra! especially when I don't have an overlocker. Will post some pics of the final product once they are all done. So that is pretty much all the news, I went to the Quilt and Craft Fair on the weekend so I will post some pics of some goodies I got later.

The last few weeks

My blogging has been dismal! I must make a big effort to actually post something more regularly. So what have we been up to? hmm well, it is hard to remember what I did yesterday let alone over the last few weeks but I will give it a go.

We went to Brisbane the weekend after my birthday and it was so great to catch up with everyone. Stella and Oscar both had terrible coughs and I fear we may have left some of our germs with the Brisbane crew (sorry everyone). Spent the first night with Stu and Lav in their great big new house which is big enough for about 10 people I think - luckily they are adding to their brood to keep filling up all those rooms - congrats guys. The kids loved playing with their 2 in the morning and there was a bit of dress ups happening - so cute!

Went and checked out the Boutique Markets at Portside, mainly to say hello to Christine from Little Diva and Jo from Lovestamp. Was lovely to meet Jo after all our bloggy conversations.

Caught up with all the school friends and threw around the footy and ate some beautiful food and had a couple of vinos, which was so relaxing.

Saw all my Girlfriends and their families and the kids got to have lots of play time which was great. They really miss their little Brissy friends and I am glad that they just fall back into place after not seeing for months.

Drove out to Scarborough and meet up with Mum and Dad for a play in the sunshine and some fish and chips (was an ekka holiday, out there so needless to say Morgans was packed!), Stella told Mum that she was her best friend which Mum loved. looking forward to her coming to stay in September.

Stayed the night at Fee and Todd's and she is due tomorrow, so I am so excited to hear the news. Can't wait to see Fee as a Mummy, I know she will be great.

The next day we headed down the coast, via the Dr for the kids - cough wasn't getting any better, and checked in to our lovely super modern apartment, prompted Paul to say that when we are older he wants to live in a similar apartment in the city - I think maybe somewhere more like Noosa might be our final resting place hehehe.

Was great to just relax on our own for a few days - obviously we were too relaxed as we missed our flight home! Bloody Tiger - I was hesitant booking them in the first place and I will certainly never be booking them in the future - won't go into it, because I really can't be bothered, but $500 later and 6 hours at boring Coolangatta Airport and we were winging our way home. We flew Jetstar and when we got off the plane, I said to Paul, in future if we can't afford to fly Qantas then we aren't flying at all. I know that is a bit airline-snobby but there really is a difference in the classes especially when you are flying with kids.

So got home and had lost a whole day. But some nice things in the mail when we got home. Love opening parcels!!!

Ok, got to go make lunches so I will write a bit more later...

Her First Day

Well, it has been a while since my last post, but I'm not sure there has really been anything too exciting to blog about. My Sister Erin and My Niece Erin have been down from Coolum to stay, so that was nice to see them. The kids loved having Mia around and it was nice to see Erin interact with them in a more affectionate way than I was expecting. Wish she was more like this with me, but it is a work in progress and is always improving - ( our strained relationship is due to her being the middle child in my opinion and perhaps she has never gotten over the fact that I came along and ruined her day? - it's ok for me to say this as I am pretty sure she is not reading this and if she is well that's ok too, nothing she doesn't already know)... But what does a 13 year old do with her 3 year old cousin????? Well she gets out the GHD's and straightens my beautiful baby girls beautiful curls!!! Needless to say Stella loved having straight hair and thinks she might like this on a semi-regular basis, HA! yeah right - not on my watch!

Indi has been lacking a bit in the weight-gaining department (not so her Mother!) but after lots of monitoring and testing and visits too the doctor and the clinic and the pediatrician, I think she is finally starting to pick up, tomorrows weigh in will be the test, but hopefully my little 19 weeker is on her way to 5KG - come on girl you can do it!

Oscar is moving up to his "Big Boys Bed" this weekend and then Indi will finally get the cot and will be able to move out of the port-a-cot. I am looking forward to getting her room a bit more established once the cot is in the room.

And today my little girl Stellsie started Kindy! Wow time flies. She was super ready for it though and though there was lots of tears when I dropped her off - not from her though, from Oscar who didn't want to leave, he wanted to stay with Stellsie too. Poor little man. I am definitely going to look into getting him into Day Care one day a week, just so he gets some extra stimulation and interaction with some little people other than Stella. I too would love a day or two where I don't have all 3 of them, wow I won't know what to do with myself if they are both out of the house. - Ha, who am I kidding it would be bliss, and I would have heaps to do!

I have been buying up a storm on lots of beautiful fabrics to start a whole array of quilting projects, can't wait to get all my parcels in the mail - I will be sure to post once they all arrive. I could just look at beautiful fabrics all day long. I am justifying all the spending as it being part of my birthday present which is coming up soon, and also hopefully I might start selling some cot quilts and other bits and pieces once I get going. I have signed up to do a Doll Quilt Swap, so once I find out who my swap partner is I will get started on it and will keep you updated on my progress. My Cocoons are still going well, have had a bit of an influx in the last week, so have been kept busy knitting, but am glad that I have had a bit of a stock pile at the moment so that I am not knitting breakfast lunch and dinner!

Anyway, should get to bed sometime before the clock strikes 2:00! But I think there are a lot of us that are up late, I often get newsletters and blog updates sent to me at all sorts of ungodly hours of the morning, and I just go - yep I know how it is!

"Sweet" treats in the mail...

I love getting parcels in the mail and lately I have been getting a lot - well a lot of supplies, but this one is something fun that arrived for me and India. She gets the Camille Softie and the "Just a Matter Of Time" print for her bedroom and I get the "Laughter is Contagious" print. They came from Sweet William who have some really wonderful pieces in their etsy store, and as I was their 100th Etsy customer I got one of my prints for free! Got to love that! They also have a great blog which you can visit here. Can't wait to set Indi's room up properly and put up this print. (We are picking up Oscar's "big boys bed" later this week and then Indi will have a cot - at last!) Aren't they just the *Sweetest*...