Thanks so much to Natalie for sending me these gorgeous organic cotton and bamboo wipes. They are really soft, very sweet colours, and great value. I just love them, great for babies, kids and big people. Have a look for them in Natalies etsy shop.
I also got this teeny ‘gratitude rabbit’ with the wipes, seriously cute, this bunny lives on top of my sewing machine.
Well after many changes of dates we have finally booked our trip to the US…SO excited!! We leave on the 4th December for about 6 weeks. We are visiting Rick’s family in good ol’ Milwaukee and then 3 weeks in Brooklyn, for Christmas and New Year followed by a week in Quebec to give the kids a really snowy experience. It’s a trip we have wanted to do for so long. Mia is in Year 10 next year and we figure this is our last year where she can miss 3 weeks of school.
Rick and I spent some time in New York a few years ago and knew we had to take the kids next time. We have rented an apartment that is costing us around $AU150 a night! New York has a reputation for being expensive but we havn’t found it to be so far. And with flights so cheap at the moment, $AU900 return for us to Milwaukee, it turns out to be excellent value for such a long trip. Our hotel in Qubec is $AU109 a night for four of us with a hot breakfast! It does all add up though so I am trying to save elsewhere.
So I need a bag to take on the plane and after much searching and realising that everything I like is around the $300 mark I decided to go really basic and make one myself. It cost me $6.00 in fabric and it’s nothing like the $300 ones but it will do the trick and give me $294 to spend in Brooklyn!
I didn’t even line it because the fabric which is from Ikea is so heavy it didn’t need it. It’s just a draw string bag with the corners squared off and a piece of covered cardboard in the bottom. I added a handle to carry it (genius). It does close right up so no embarrassing moments at the security checks in the airport. I made a draw string simply because it needed to close all the way and I hate doing zips. I am going to make a few little bags to go in the bag of different colours to make it easy to find all the bits when we are on the plane because I know I will be carrying everyones stuff.
One of my google alerts alerted me to this good news this morning. The awesome Nicholas Kristoff and his awesome wife Sheryl WuDunn have a new book coming out in September, ‘Half the Sky, Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide‘. It will be a must read for me, I have pre-ordered it, booko told me it was cheapest at Amazon US at $AU36.20. Not bad. You can find out more from the website. There is also a special issue of the NYTimes magazine titiled ‘Saving the Worlds Women‘ which is well worth a read.
I am still waiting for my sponsor sister to be assigned to me from Women for Women, it does take about 4 weeks but I will post all the details as soon as I get them.
Today I had planned to do a load of work. I was up at 6.30, at the grocery store by 8.30 and finished shopping by 9…went to the fabric store and stumbled out with my bags about 10.30, home by 11, check emails and I’m still here at 1.30! I have to leave to get kids at 2.40pm. So, what to do in an hour? What happened to my day?
Well I found this… Feed Your Soul, (a free art project) and love it!
Printed this one and put it above my desk. (and a few others!)
I read this blog post, Feeling Joy and all the comments and realised that it’s okay to let the day be.
And I remembered this…
awesome painting by my amazing and talented daughter, Mia.
And I felt better.
We have had some super cherries around recently and I just had to make some cherry muffins with them. I used this basic recipe and just added a handful and a bit of chopped cherries. Very good. Even better I made a crumble type topping with almond meal, brown sugar and butter and sprinkled it over the muffins before I baked them…really really good.
Guessing the kids wouldn’t eat the cherry I made half the batch banana by adding one mashed banana (whatever!) and topped them with the almond meal mixture to which I added some meusli. I’m yet to try the banana ones but they look pretty good! The basic recipe is a good one. Wholemeal flour would be nice and also butter rather than oil is another way to go. If I had some coconut I would have added it to the cherry topping.
I didn’t have any muffin cases so cut some from baking paper, which you would think would be a pain in the … but it was quick and easy to cut four at a time.
I have been desperate for a new handbag for about a year now and really struggle to find any that i like in the shops, plently online but for some reason I have just never bought one. I finally made this one in one of my favourite fabrics, red micro cord (I don’t even know if that’s what it’s called). Anyway it turned out awfully cute and is working out a treat.
I made a zipped pouch to go with it for all my bits so now I’m not fumbling about like a lunatic every time my phone rings.
Another little project for Mr.Henry, a cushion to cuddle when going to sleep. Made with some gorgeous Joel Dewberry Deer fabric, pre-loved chenille and soft flannel on the back. He loves it.
And on the back I stitched a little greeting for when he wakes up.
About a week ago I looked at my total for the Women for Women sponsorship and felt a bit frustrated, (I have no patience) I wanted to sponsor a woman NOW. I then realised that I could pay my sponsorship monthly and I had already made enough to cover the next eight months, so then I thought, “Why not start now, I’m sure in the next eight months I will sell enough to cover the other four months of the annual sponsorship?”, so I signed up! Now I wait for my “sister” to be assigned to me and we can start writing to each other. JOY! It worked. I would like to thank the girls who bought my blankets, Jemma, Kezia, Pia, Stephanie, Melanie, Annette, Leesa and Katherine. I’ll post a photo of my “sister” when I get it, it’s SO exciting!
I also ordered this book by Zainab Salbi who is the founder of WFW…
Thanks to booko.com.au I was able to get it for AU$15.00 from The Book Depository which is UK bookshop that offers free shipping worldwide (I love the internet!). Can’t wait to read it.
I don’t know what came over me. I made this apron, it’s true. It’s so strange, made up of some old chenille I actually found in the yard, (the boys were using it as part of an elaborate cubby house) and just stuff lying around the sewing room. I thought the idea of a chenille apron was pretty good and I still do, maybe not this particular chenille apron.
At one point Henry (8) asked me if I was making a pair of giant undies, here’s why…
Too funny! And here is Henry’s efforts for the day, two softies, a glove, a wallet and his own craft apron. My boy loves to sew. The little wallet is from Angry Chicken’s Bend the Rules with some alterations.
Every now and then I love to indulge in some really trashy food. I recently read a recipe (can’t remember where – sorry) that has three ingredients, Tim Tams, condensed milk and coconut – smoosh, roll into balls, fridge, eat. Mmmm. Here’s another one that I occasionaly make for my son Henry. Ham and Cheese Vol au Vents, sadly I took one bite and my body said “No thank you.” An eight year old can eat six of these however!
