Keep your Photo's safe

Ok so i'm a little drunk a the moment so please disregard any spelling or typos

I just had a wonderful night with my girlfriends. We get together once a week and play a board game (Ticket to ride........Look it up......it is awesome) one of the conversations we had today was about some people who have lost all there possessions in the floods of Queensland in Australia. There was one story of a man who had lost everything.....his house was washed away, his furniture, his clothes everything he had.........As well as his wife and kids.

One of my girlfriends wondered if this man woke up in the morning and wondered if his life before were just a dream as he had nothing no photos, no clothes, no baby blanket that smelt like his kid.

This brings me to the point of this blog. Every couple of months we back up all our photos and send them to relatives out of town. We say it's so they can see the girls grow......but really it's so if our house burns down we still have that beautiful photo of the girls blowing bubbles.

So i say to you......back up everything and don't just keep it in your house because i know if anything happened here i would want all the memories i could have.

Volunteer!!

So i just went down the street to Vinnies to see about volunteering some of my time and i found it really sad.
The people down there seem lovely but at the sight of a new volunteer there was nearly a (friendly) war over where i would be working ie. sorting, serving etc. I found this upsetting because it is sad that there are not enough people willing to volunteer there time. I must admit i only thought about doing it so i would qualify for the childcare rebate but i am really excited to contribute in some way. All i will be doing is a morning a fortnight but they were so happy to see someone wanting to help.

So here is my challenge to you.......just think about the people who have less then you do and the good work that some organisations do.......and if you have time see what YOU can do.

Random Blogness!!!

Hi all

I have been busy lately doing lots of crafty things but nothing that is worth blogging about so thought i would show you a couple of tips i have used in my many ventures over the last couple of days!!

The first thing i want to share with you are some aprons i have recently made.......i got the design from here and here. So if you want to know how to do them you can look there. I am just going to post what mine looked like when finished......

I decided to pretty up my kitchen as well so i have put some hooks on he pantry doors to hang them on as a feature!!!

They Look So cute!!!

Another tip i would like to share is about dinner the other night.

I decided i wanted to MAKE chicken snitzels so when i rang my husband at work and told him what we were having for dinner all he could say was ....."we don't have a meat mallet........how are you going to flatten the chicken"........ etc.......he can be negative at times!!!!

So me being the ideas girl i am made do with what i had in the house.......

Please don't judge my choice of wine!!!!

It worked really well......i put some lemon juice on the chicken and left them for 10 minutes, then put some thyme and garlic in the bread crumbs. They were great!!!

One plate of Tasty Tasty Schnitzels!!!

So if you have a negative Nelly in your house think out of the box........(helps that i'm a bit of a plonk)

Anyway until next time i hope you have fun!!!!

Sun Dress.....Model Awake

My model woke up so thought i'd post........

Sun Dress

Hi All (Which I'm Still Pretty Sure is still no-one)

Today I made another Sun Dress So thought i would share.

First thing i did was get a rectangle of material the height is roughly how long i wanted the dress. Next measure across the back, Under the armpit from side to side. Then across the chest. Now cut your rectangle of material into 4 peices like this.......

The 2 on the left will be the straps, This middle is the front....To cut this piece take your front measurement and add 10 cm or so (for the pleat) The one one the right is the back this is the same as the back measurement.

Next i cut the top off the front and back to create a band at the top

Then Attached it to the 2 body pieces

Make sure your bands are the same size.

 Sew Up the sides

Next mark out the center of the front piece and put it on your model!!! Now here is the best tip you will ever get when making clothes for children..........

LET THEM STAND ON THE TABLE!!!!!

They think it is such a treat that they stand still and don't run!!!!

Now Work out the pleat so it looks good

I then Sewed a little line down my pleat.....NOTE: Do not sew your pleat down or you won't be able to get the dress on. I just sewed a little so when it goes on the pleat knows where to sit.

I then put buttonholes on the pleats to put the ribbon through. I actually used a tube of the fabric but a pretty ribbon would look good as well.

Then Get your straps. I pleated my straps as i think it adds a little class.

Again put it on your model (Mine was trying to watch the princess and the frog at this stage) Attach you straps and fix the hem. (Just so you know it does fall nicer once the straps aren't pinned)

Then You Get .......

A Pretty Sun Dress!!! (My model was feral at this stage and was put to bed!!!!)

Hope you enjoy!!

Budgeting......The Beggining!!!!

As i said in my title i have recently become a stay at home mum which means only one income coming into the house!!!! Last night my husband and i sat down and worked out what we could afford and what was a luxury. All i can say is it's a good thing i can make cheap clothes or else my kids would be naked!!!! Ok so it's not that bad but still we need to budget!!

We have started by taking an inventory of our pantry and freezer. We are then going to plan our meals around what we have so our first shop should be cheap as we should only have to buy fresh stuff (veg, fruit, milk.... etc)

I thought i would share this tip with anyone who is listening as it has helped me in the past and when i was working although we didn't do it i told a few friends who found it saved them alot of money! so here goes..........

WORK OUT A MEAL PLAN!!!

IE sit down on Monday or whatever day you shop work out what meals you want for the next week/fortnight and make your shopping list for whatever you are eating not whatever you feel like buying!!! i have modified this concept a little because i also make sure i have 1 meal of mince and 1 meal of sausages for those nights I can't be bothered sticking to the meal plan and want to make bolognaise or sausages on bread!!! However the meal i missed carries over to the next week and we replace the mince.

Another way to expand on this is to have the supermarket catalogues with you when making your meal plan and plan around what's on special.

I am going to create a page (if i can.....i'm still not very good) with some budget recipes on it to help find cheap meals!!!

Recipes!!!

Hope this helps you!!!!

T-Shirt Dress

I made a pretty little sun dress for my 3 year old the other day. The only problem is she can't wear it to day care because it has no shoulders in it. People keep telling me to put a T-shirt under it but i don't see the point in adding an extra layer to clothes that should be cool and light........ So i decided to add half a T-Shirt to it. 

I have recently been through my cupboards and collected all the clothes that no longer fit me. So i found an old workout shirt that matched really well!!!

My Old Shirt And the Summer Dress I made (I will Show them later or there are plenty of patterns on the net for Shirred sun Dresses)

I Cut Out 2 Half Shirts ( About the size of a crop top) My Pattern is traced from one of Flicks shirts.

See!!!!

Now Sew the shoulders together then cut out 2 sleeves

Then Sew them Onto The Crop Top.

Then Sew Under The arms and down the body of the shirt. This is how you make a normal t-shirt as well it would just look longer!!

This is the first T-Shirt I made (i mainly put it in because i don't want the next picture to be the first picture you see of my 3 year old!!!!)

I Then Put the dress and the shirt on my model and pinned it so it looked good, Sewed the two together, hemmed the sleeves and neck line. Then Woolaa This is what you get!!!!

One Feral child in a pretty, practical, sun smart dress!!!!