Fashion Queen

Hmmm. Not doing a whole lot for my standing as a kid's clothing maker! This is how Chloe would get about every day if I let her.

Psycho Baby

Awww, just look at that little face. You could be forgiven for thinking he's a little angel.

Uh, uh. This child seems to have been (temporarily we hope) possessed by an evil, psycho baby.

Yep, Mum and Dad would really love to listen to you cry half the night and, hey, why eat a sandwich when you can sit on it. Don't let Mum wipe your bum, why not rub poo into the carpet instead. It needs a good clean anyway. Now, just pretend your going to give your Mum a cuddle and then headbutt her in the teeth instead. Ha, ha, ha, how funny. And you know, Mum does love the Tamar Valley, how about a night time tour - make sure you stay awake and yell at regular intervals the whole way. Hell, some places are probably better in the dark. Mum and Dad haven't been drinking much lately, they really could do with upping their alcohol tolerance levels and lets see if we can make Mum break her all time chocolate gobbling record.

Teething??? We hope so. We also hope it's over soon!

PS Don't worry I haven't hit the grog yet! The chocolate - yes.

Grrrr...

My good friend the other day commented that she tries to concentrate on the positives in her day. I am the kind of person who needs to be reminded to do this so it was great that she said it. I seem to get tangled up in the nitty gritty and forget about the big picture too.

It was a well timed comment. It's been one hell of a narky weekend here at grumblebum central. I'm wondering if the kids are getting sick again (or maybe are sick already). Arj is almost walking so perhaps he's just frustrated. He's raring to go but can only make it about 5 steps.

Some good things:

Enjoying sewing, sewing, sewing. I miss it when I'm not busy.

Listening to Sia - great sewing music and good for drowning out grumpers.

The almond tree next door has started to blossom (negative point: it's the only tree they didn't knock down with a backhoe a while back in their quest to have the largest, flattest, greenest lawn in our suburb - see I struggle to hang on to the good points).

Arj looks so, so cute toddling around.

Chloe has been singing lengthy songs about singing songs and having a lot of dvds.

Hot cheese scones.

Not having to cook the dinner (negative point: because the sink is leaking into my sewing room in a huge and scarey way and we don't want to wash up in the bathroom).

Red polka dot racing swimsuit I saw at the pool today. I may have to get me one.

This handbag

From Anthropologie. If I do OK at the market I may have to think seriously about this. The buttons are embroidered. Cute.

Today I lost my temper.

Properly I mean. Not just a little bit. I didn't yell or shout or kick anything but I did feel shakey for about half an hour afterwards. Not nice. This has maybe happened about 6 times in my life.

I wasn't going to blog this as I sometimes think bitchy blog posts can come across pretty badly, but well, this week has been a bit of a shocker and I maybe just reached the end of my tether but I also think I stuck up for my kids and myself in a way that was completely reasonable. I'm pretty tough on my kids in shops, I don't like them touching and playing with things, in fact I sometimes think I'm too tough on Chloe. So, shop owner, if you don't want young kids in your shop don't have a crate full of toddler toys for them to play with. My kids were happily playing and Chloe just brushed her hand along some merchandise that was right next to the toys. The shop owner (who has been rude to me a number of times in the past) told her off, I said "I am watching them," then she backchatted me to another customer. Needless to say we won't be going back there ever again.

So, it sounds like a tiny thing now it's written down. It didn't feel like it at the time.

Poor little Arj has been sick for what seems like weeks now. He's been going up and down with an ear infection that is proving difficult to shake and probably a virus on top of it. He's on his third lot of antibiotics for this infection. The last one took three lots too. Have any of you had experiences like this? I think he's teething too and the doctor said that some kids have this trouble until they stop teething. I really hope he doesn't. He's so, so miserable.

Poor little Chloe got her thumb stuck in a door this week too. She's OK but it was horrible anyway.

Now, that's the bad things out of the way. Time for the good things. We had a lovely Brown Owls meet up last night in the Wood Design Centre. It's the most beautiful building with the most beautiful collection of furniture. I met one of my old flatmates from Uni there for the first time since Uni - a long time ago now - and it was so nice to see her.

On the work front, I've got an exciting stockist lined up for the sewing kits. Considering how little time I've had to do anything this week that's amazing!! The GIVEAWAY is still open. Make sure you enter. Go on, you know you want to.

Uptown Girl

First off, don't forget! There's a giveaway down below. Go enter!

A while ago I made Chloe a version of Make It Perfect's Uptown Girl jacket. Here she is modelling it and her new fringe which she's terribly keen on. She spends a lot of time checking herself out in the mirror these days. Putting lip balm and jewellery on and flouncing about in her Cinderella dress. Unfortunately she doesn't want to wear the jacket, in fact she doesn't want to wear anything I've made her except said Cinderella dress. I made the jacket a little large anyway and I know she'll come round. It just takes a couple of months and all of a sudden it'll be the best thing since sliced bread so any day now I suppose.

So, anyway, if you're wanting to make any lovely little jackets I highly recommend this pattern. It was well written, constructed and fun to make and I've just noticed it comes in larger sizes now too. I'm really happy with how it turned out and the fabric choices. Being reversible makes it more exciting for Chloe too.

Oh, and you can sorta see behind Chloe the toy kitchen Sam and I made in a combined effort. He did most of the work, I did the sewing, purchasing of fittings and "creative direction." It's very strongly based on this pattern but we scaled it up and used MDF instead of cardboard.

Sweet Tooth

**

Both my kids have definitely inherited my sweet tooth. Their Dad is much more restrained when it comes to fattening sugary things. Arj was in his element with the cakes at his birthday party. He was spotted determinedly licking his plate after demolishing a lump of birthday cake.

**AAARGH. Not again. I must be doing something wrong but I swear I already rotated this photo! I give up.

New belts

A few new belts are now available on Etsy and Made It. Cute!

One

So, he's one. I'll follow the usual convention and say "Wow, I just can't believe how fast this year has gone." Totally true.

Arj is the happiest little boy you could imagine (apart from some occasions between about 2 and 4 in the morning and certain days when he crawls around behind me complaining.) He loves dancing and banging things. He loves a good wrestle and is completely adoring of his big sister. He makes me laugh even when my mood is pretty low and needless to say he provides me with a lot of cleaning, tidying, washing (note huge pile of laundry in photo background) and cuddles.

Mmmm, sausages!

Is there anything better than sausages cooked on the fire followed by a gentle walk in the bush? I love it. Three toasted marshmallow hyped girls enjoying a walk to Liffey Falls.

Food explosion

I'd forgotten just how messy mealtimes can be. Lucky I have Cinderella living with me.

Turn your head sideways now

Why, oh why does my internet connection dropout almost every single time I click upload photos in blogger. It drives me crazy so we're having sideways photos tonight. I swear I would blog more often if photo uploading wasn't quite so frustrating.

So what's news?

The kids are growing up so, so fast. Arj is 11 months now and I'm starting to think about birthday cakes. I love making cakes! Chloe has a thing about lighthouses so we went to visit one last week (and the fabric shop on the way!) and Arj has been getting in touch with his feminine side. And, oh, how cute he looks.

I'll be having a birthday very soon too. I'm hoping to have a celebration this year as last years got cancelled as my heavily pregnant self was sick.

I've been sewing but for ourselves and presents mainly. Still no work to speak of. The kids and I have been tag teaming with various illnesses. Not much sleep, a couple of late night trips to emergency (all fine now) and many trips to the GP. Fairly large amounts of cash have been handed over to pharmacists and tissue manufacturers. I'm hoping for a break now.

I've been dieting and exercising and am feeling so, so, so much better (apart from the colds) that I just can't stop telling everyone. Yay for online Weightwatchers. I never thought I'd join something like that but it has been so worthwhile. My clothes from before Arj fit now and it feels like I have a whole new wardrobe. I'm full of energy too and have been going for long walks and even the odd run.

I've been doing a lot of fabric buying in the (maybe deluded) hope that I'll get some work done soon.

We're getting weekly veggie boxes from Hilbarn and loving them.

This, if you know me, is pretty amazing news - I cook the dinner EVERY night (almost). Sam mustn't know what to do with himself now. This weird transformation coincided with the Hilbarn boxes, my diet and the realisation that cooking the dinner is something I can do myself without feeling guilty about not doing a jigsaw/colouring in/ sticking/ drawing etc, etc. Does anyone else have a child who doesn't want to do anything by themselves? It makes me feel terribly guilty as I feel like I say no all the time.

I seem to spend a vast proportion of my life folding washing. Ironing only when absolutely unavoidable.

I'm off to fold some now. Whoopee.

PS. I met a couple of very, very beautiful boys.

Back to the seventies

Anyone who lived through some of the seventies will probably recognise what Chloe is up to in this photo. One of her favourite books is a kids cookbook that was mine. She has spent hours and hours of her short life poring over it so when Sam suggested she make the orange and cheese hedgehog (from the party snacks sections) she was incredibly excited. We now have an aging orange attached to chunks of dried out cheese taking pride of place on the kitchen table - because of course she didn't want to eat it.



Everything is going well with Arj. He's a good eater and sleeper (so far) so we're cruising along quite well. The only downfall has been battling bad colds and headaches for Sam and I. So far Arj has remained cold free which must be some sort of minor miracle given the amount of snot around here.

Thanks for all the lovely messages on the last post. I'm getting around to thanking everyone personally - it just might take me a while!

Moan, moan

There's been a lot of painting around here recently. Lots of it in various spots around the walls and floor and some on the paper.

We're having a rocky time sleepwise at the moment. Chloe stopped her daytime naps most days in early January. Sometimes she still has one, if she's in the car or the pram, but that means she's up until 9.30 or later. I'm going slightly bonkers as I've lost my 2 1/2 hours of worktime everyday and am not getting any free time many nights either. It felt fine until about 6 weeks in and then I started to realise how little time to myself I had. To add to that I'm struggling to sleep at night and often end up lying awake for an hour or three in the middle of the night. This happened to me last pregnancy too and by the end I was a grumpy mess. Eek!

So all my plans for new designs have still not happened and I've struggled a bit just to meet orders. I do have some belts to show and some softies I made at Gemma's craft night in aid of Handmade Help. I'll load them up tomorrow.

I've just been to aqua aerobics and attempted to enjoy being shouted at for 45 minutes whilst bouncing around. I do feel better for it but have the chlorine sniffles now! Perhaps this explains my whingey post. I'll do a nicer one tomorrow!

The BIG BED

What a milestone! This is maybe odd but for some reason I feel more excited about this than a lot of the other milestones we've had. Perhaps it's because Chloe can communicate verbally so much more now. She's thrilled about being a "big girl."

I love Chloe's room. It is so restful and calming. I'm a little tempted to take over her bed some quiet afternoons.

Birthday Girl

Chloe turned 2 on Thursday and had an afternoon tea party yesterday. She loved it and has really got the concept of presents now ("more present, more present?").

Sam and I did a team effort on the birthday cake and made a copy of Chloe's favourite sleep toy. We call him Seagie (short for Seagull). Everyone else thinks he's a duck or a goose - too bad! He's Seagull.

Not quite sure what Chloe's opinion of seeing her favourite rendered in butter cream. She looks a bit bemused. She did enjoy eating the cake.

I indulged myself and the kids and made chocolate crackles and fairy bread, sausage rolls (I did mean to do homemade ones, honest I did) and 2 shaped biscuits (someone should have told me in my tired and addled brain state that saying "Do you want a Number 2?" could be quite amusing). My Dad made a huge and wonderful trifle that was completely demolished by all the adults and the only concession to healthy eating was a fruit platter and I'd be prepared to bet Miss Chloe didn't go near it. I know I didn't!

Thanks for all your help Mum.

Gemma, the dress was a hit again!

Cheesey Stars

Firstly, a quick reminder to enter the giveaway in the post below.


Chloe and I have been baking again. Or at least I've been baking and Chloe has been rubbing flour into the cracks between the floorboards. We made some cheese biscuits in little star shapes and they were a huge hit with Chloe. She normally refuses anything involving cheese (I do remember Sam and I having the somewhat deluded idea that we'd have a child who would even like olives - oh, how wrong we were she lives on peas, corn, beans, pasta, fish patties and chicken).

Cheesey Stars

100g plain flour
50g butter
50g cheddar grated
1 egg beaten

Preheat oven to 200 degreed C. Rub the butter into the flour then mix in the grated cheese. Mix in the beaten egg - you may have to use your hands for this. Roll out, using plenty of extra flour (all the better to make a mess with) and cut into shapes.

Our stars were very small and about 4mm thick and took just under 10 minutes to cook. So keep an eye on yours.


This is an incredibly simple recipe and whilst, not particularily healthy, I think we'll make them fairly often. Chloe enjoyed cutting out the stars and the finished product made me want to rush out and buy more cookie cutters. I may try using parmesan and cracked pepper for a grown up snack.

I got to sleep in!

Don't forget to enter the hair tie giveaway below!




Sam and I spent our first night away from Chloe on Saturday. I must admit I felt very strange to be without her. We didn't go far. Just to a historic farmstead called Brickendon about half an hour (or less) away. We had a tiny one bedroom cottage with an open fire, we made ourselves a picnic for dinner and drank merlot in front of the fire then slept in until 9.30. Ah, remember the days when a 9.30 rise was fairly normal for the weekend!

Chloe had a great time with her grandparents but was very unhappy after we returned. She cried and cried and didn't want anybody near her but me. I felt terrible about how vulnerable she must have been feeling.

We went to see Playschool live this morning and Chloe was so, so excited it was amazing. I've never seen her like it before. She still wanted to be on me the whole time and I'm exhausted. I was pummelled, trodden on, shoved and bashed for the entire hour. Crazy. Nice to see her so happy though. She said "happy, happy, happy."

New things

A couple of new dresses. Not new designs, just new fabrics. I'm desperate to get onto some new ideas at the moment but I have to work through my current orders first. Then I may need a little rest!

Little Jenny Wren

Little Jenny Wren is an Etsy seller who makes stunningly beautiful dolls. She was featured in the same Babyology Storque article as Black Eyed Susie and I recently discovered she lives in the same city as us. I think it's just great that two Launceston sellers were featured and I'm really very tempted to comission a doll for Chloe's birthday or Christmas. The dolls are eco-friendly which makes them even more tempting. The only difficulty would be deciding on the details as you'll see if you have a look here. Jenny also has a blog here.

Mmmm, yum.

Chloe and I got our aprons on this morning and did some baking. We made these.

Banana, Date and Rolled Oat Cookies

125g butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1/3 cup mashed banana

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarb

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped dates

extra rolled oats for coating

Heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Beat butter, sugar and egg yolk until smooth.

Add banana, flour, bicarb, rolled oats and dates. Stir until combined.

Roll small tablespoon sized balls of this mixture in the extra oats and place on lined baking trays. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Give them a go there perfect for a winters day with a nice cup of tea. I know I've had my share already!

And don't forget to lick the spoon.

And please quietly ignore the mess in the background of this photo and the lack of camera skills in the next photo!