He Couldn't Care Less But I Love It

Yep, Definitely Hooked

Buoyed by my recent success on my first applique attempt (yes, I did rate it as a success) I was keen to try some more adventurous projects. I started with a mending job which I was quite pleased with - patching the knees of a pair of pants for Angus.


Next I moved onto a t-shirt potentially for a gift and liked the little giraffe so much I did one for Angus too. I'm still not sure how I managed to get it to face the other way though (well I guess I know how I must have done it, just didn't realise I had at the time).

Just need to add a tail to the little guys now.


















And then I made my favourite so far, a little grey elephant on a t-shirt for Angus. The shirt is an old one of Rohan's and the grey fabric is from a thrifted linen shirt. I'm particularly pleased with the ear which I satin stitched with the machine. Next time I think I'll try using a walking foot on the machine, I think I read that somewhere.

Shame I haven't managed my February challenge to make my own pasta but I have at least tried a new thing and I'm enjoying it a lot!

Applique

OK it may not be on my list but I've tried a new thing...


...this is my first ever attempt at applique. Yes, it is a bit wonky. Yes, the stitching is a bit average and the cotton is the wrong colour but the applique was on and I was too impassioned to wait until I had the right colour cotton. Yes, I did choose a square for the most simple sewing because I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to sew around the shape with any kind of accuracy at all.

Verdict: I think I'm hooked - I love it!

Tomatoes

What can I say... after the bushfires and the devastation they have left I am so thankful of the small things as well as the big things. Everything reminds me of what others have lost - the ducted heating coming on in the chill of the morning (so many have lost their homes let alone the comforts and trappings that come with that), the earrings I bought when I was 16 (the bushfire victims have lost their history), the tomatoes ripening despite the weather conditions even they have faced.


I am thankful for these things and so much more, at every turn I am reminded how fortunate we are.

Victoria Burns

Victoria Burns

Saturday was the hottest Melbourne day on record, it reached 46.4 degrees (115.5 F) in the city and was hotter elsewhere in the state. Marysville has been destroyed, every building in the main street gone. Kinglake was hit hard too and there are still fires burning out of control across the state. Last night it was reported that one fire had an 80km wide front. I heard the death toll was up to 108 this afternoon but they expect that could double. My heart goes out to everyone affected by these terrible fires, it's just devastating.

And as suddenly as the heat was upon us on Saturday, just as suddenly the cool change came and without rain the temperature dropped dramatically in the evening. I have heard that in 24 hours the temperature dropped 30 degrees and that hasn't been recorded anywhere else in the world.

1. Victoria Burns, 2. Victoria Burns, 3. Victoria Burns

Burst of sewing

I achieved my January challenge of sewing a cushion for the bakfiets! The picture was taken in a hurry, I would have liked to attach the cushion properly to the seat, make sure it was fluff free, have a nice backdrop etc but you get the idea. I used entirely thrifted/upcycled materials for this so I am doubly pleased. It means that the piece of foam in the back rest is not quite the right size but it's just fine for the boys and they love it.


On Saturday I made a small stuffed elephant, Olga, from More Softies (pictured) but I finished so quickly and was in such a hurry to give it to a friend's daughter that I didn't get a picture of the finished Olga. So this is the Olga in the book pictured with the fabric I used for my Olga.


And today I decided I needed a pincushion so I whipped up this one from here during the boys' nap. Cute!

Is that someone waking now? I think so.

Feeling hot hot hot

I really like this image from here, it says 'hot' to me!

It's been a really hot week here in Melbourne, breaking 100 year old records. The last three days were 43.4, 44.3 and 45.1 degrees celcius (that's about 110, 112, 113 fahrenheit), a cool change of sorts has arrived in some parts - that is we're only expecting a top of 37 degrees today (98.5) but out our way it's still 39 (102).

I can't complain when we never lost power completely (just had reduced power so the one little vintage aircon unit we have didn't work) and we didn't have threat of fires looming over us like so many other Australians this week. And for a couple of days we were each in the air-conditioned comfort of work or daycare. The nights were uncomfortable (with lows that didn't drop below 25 degrees) and we will have lost a lot of plants; the heat isn't over but hopefully it will be another hundred years before we get another three days of 43+ in a row (somehow with global warming I doubt that).

Cool cool water

What is it about boys? I just adore my boys!

Our new cargo bike

We have been thinking and researching and drooling over options to carry the two kids around for some time now. The option that we felt suited us best was the Dutch Bakfiets however they are very expensive to import to Australia and they only have three gears which would be difficult in our hilly suburban surrounds.

We considered a wee ride on the front plus a seat on the back, we were consistently told a trailer was our best bet but we really didn't want one. Safety, manouverability, communication with the kids, the fact it's a pvc sweat box were all downfalls in our opinion and even though you see them advertised everywhere we haven't seen many being used in our travels and the people we know who've had them say they're horrible.

So when Tavis came across a bloke in Ballarat doing his own import of what looks very much like a Bakfiets but with 8 gears at about a third of the cost it didn't take us long to place our order and the glorious "big bike" has already arrived and been built.

I love it, Tavis loves it, the boys love it (so far). I can see a lot more cycling in our future and a lot more blog posts too :)

Change

My baby (12 months old) started daycare today. Rohan (3 yrs) has been going there since he was 13 months old and loved it from day one, he was excited this morning to be going back to 'school' and was happy to now be in the big kids' room (3-5 yrs).

So today Angus just went in for a few hours for orientation, he was an angel the whole time we were there and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I left the room for half an hour or so at a time so he got a chance to know the carers which was great. At morning tea he enjoyed sitting at the table with the other kids, in a special little chair rather than a highchair, and he fed himself chunks of fruit. At lunch he was happy to be fed by one of the carers and ate three helpings of lunch and two of dessert! Then I whisked him home and straight into bed as he usually has a morning sleep. Three hours later and he is still asleep!

I have the day off work to take Angus in for orientation so during this unheard of only-one-child-at-home-having-an-amazing-three-hour-sleep thing that's happening today I made a padded seat cover for our neeeeeeeew bike! The seat part is only half the job, I need to do a backrest as well, so I can't say I've completed my January project yet but I'm half way there. Here's the seat cover. More on the bike later.