Two days in a row

How bizzare that I hardly ever blog and now its two days in a row.
Well done Me!

Today was the christmas party for Bob's Kindergym and wouldnt you know it also the same day as our mothers group christmas lunch. We got to the kindergym very early and he had quite a good time, then about another sixty kids turned up, cant believe how many kids and pregnant ladies you can fit in one hall. Toys were at a premium by that stage so its lucky Bob only has a two minute span of attention. Some little girl stole his car off him, she was draging a petrol bowser behind her, pushed him out of the way and said "Thats my car" Bob gave her the Ninja look and just walked off. Way to go Bob cause I wanted to smack her. Father Christmas turned up and all the kids ran over to him to collect a present so that gave Bob a chance to take his pick of the toys again because he wasnt interested in getting a present. Then we sat on the floor and had some morning tea, Bob picked himself two pieces of chocolate slice, one for each hand of course.
He was pretty tired by that stage as he had been up since 5am so he then layed down and ate his slice. Soon every kid in the building was around the snack table and I cant believe how much food these little kids were putting on their plate and their mothers seemed to be encouraging it, surely they were not going to eat it all. (Greedy Greedy Greedy)
Once Bob was finished with his slice he got up and walked to the door because he was ready for home, I picked him up and took him over to Santa to collect his present ( a lovely little book about colours) thanks Santa and thanks Kindergym, then we collected our shoes and went back to work. He was very tired so layed down for a few minutes and drank his bottle of milk.
Alas by lunch time he was way to tired and grumpy to go to the mothers group lunch so I bought him home and put him to bed. Mind you I cooked little cupcakes this morning at 7am for our lunch party and bought a present for the chris kringle, I guess we will eat the cakes tonight and the little monster I bought for the chris kringle will come in handy for another party some other day



Yummy cupcakes

While Bob was at work he decided that Poppy Bob needed some help fixing a baler, it was obvious Poppy had no idea what he was doing so Bob had to take over and tell him what to do. I call it gingerising, this is what little boys do that have red hair and know everything. It was very cute though and Poppy loved it, he was very excited that Bob was interested in fixing things. Sorry Poppy but he is too young to be your next apprentice, I hope you have retired by the time he is sixteen.


I think this is broken Poppy



Poppy why arnt you listening, I know what Im doing

Both Bob and Esther are in bed sleeping now so thats fantastic, it gave me a chance to fiddle with some fabric and do a dummy run on a babushka doll, it was pretty rough but it was only a test run but it actually turned out pretty well so I put a rattly thing in it so now Esther has herself a cute rattle, its about 16 cm high and 5cm wide. Because it turned out ok it now opens the floodgate to perfect it, I will make a few and hopefully sell them at the next market. Babushka's are very trendy at the moment but I also want to do a similar thing but for boys, perhaps a pirate or a robot.


Babushka rattle proto type

Last night I also used some little scraps and made a little bunny, it was very cute but I didnt like the dangly ears so I tied them in a knot, of course Esther has another toy, it will go in her cot with all the other pretty little creatures. Its about 20 cm tall when standing but is the perfect size for a little girl to hold or chew on. Not sure I would make another one that small because the logistics of turning the arms and legs out the right way just does my head in but it would be very cute made as a bigger toy, another option for the market I guess.


A star is Born

Not sure what I will do tonight, should I tinker with these two proto types or experiment with something new? Oh the stress of it all. At least I have lots of pretty fabrics to choose from, Spotlight had a lot of fat quarters out for one dollar and then a lot of cheap quilting fabrics and Mrs Greedy bought a heap even though she didnt really need them. Also went in and bought a heap of felt this week, they had a new lot in so there were lots of colours to choose from, cant wait to cut them up into little bits.


Esthers new friends



To Market to Market

Well I certainly didnt buy a fat pig, didnt even see one unless I count myself but then I didnt actually see myself at the market. To explain, I participated in an arts & craft Market at our local library, Sara had made heaps of quilts and some very cute monsters and a few other bits and pieces so just to compliment her stall I made some felt food. Chocolate coated donuts, some felt biscuits and some cute punnets of strawberries and some gingerbread men and a couple of little cup cakes. Everything was made of felt and coloured thread, I didnt use any beads for embellishments because I wanted the youngest child to have a tea party and play with the felt food knowing they were safe in that they couldnt eat any beads off them so nothing would get stuck in any orrifices or cause any chocking hazzards. Everything was received very well and quite a bit of it sold so that was lovely. Now I have decided to concentrate on making little felt cupcakes etc to take to the next market with Sara which I think will be a "Mini Me Market" a new concept coming to town especially for babies and kids.
I dont enjoy sitting at the market all day or the selling part but I absolutly adore the creating and making part. I can create, snip, handsew, knit, glue, sew anything and Im happy, however I have terrible trouble just sitting still at night and watching TV, Im sad when Im not creating, not slash my wrists sad, but just not happy to watch TV unless my hands are busy, If Im not creating or making I usually fall asleep.

Ginger bread men and a few little cakes

iced vovo's and chocolate chip cookies to name a few

I wouldnt say I make something new everyday but if Im not making something Im thinking about what I can make and how Im going to make it or Im surfing the net for ideas and tecniques, this of course wastes a lot of my creating time but if my hands arnt working on something at least my brain is.
I hope everone who bought something enjoys it for a long time.

                                                     the chocolate covered donuts

                                                       And plenty of lovely strawberries

anyway Im off to create something now, well I have to feed a baby first and then Im off

Getting Closer

Oh my! dosnt time go fast.........its nearly Christmas........well its getting closer anyway.

I spoke to Santa the other day, he says he has things organised, well you cant leave these thing to chance when you have two kids in the house. I had a nightmare the other day, it was xmas eve and no one told me. No one had spoken to Santa so nothing was organised, it frightened me so much I woke up in a cold sweat and sat bolt upright very traumatised I had missed christmas. What sort of mother am I? It took me about 20 seconds worth of muddled thoughts to work out what day it really was and that I hadnt missed christmas at all. WHAT A RELIEF!!!!

Having said all that, Im still mystified as to what I should be organising for the rest of the family though. I have two nieces totally sorted, one niece half sorted and one nephew half sorted but that still leaves me with a mere 2000 presents short of a full christmas. It sounds terrible but I think it comes down to giving money, the bigger kids always appreciate that but it just sounds lousy when you have no presents. You have twelve months to think about it and you still leave it till the last minute, that takes the cake dosnt it!

On a totally different note, the ginger ninja seems to be teething at the moment, looks like three or four are on the way out all at the same time. certainly isnt sleeping as well as usual and the temper is that of a true ginger child. Of course being 17 months old also makes him want to be very independent and wont accept any help from anyone which makes for some very interesting tantrums. He is a beautifull boy but is as stubborn as his father, his father is also the most beautifull person I know except for his stubborn streak he is almost perfect.

My greatest hope is that Esther dosnt have the same stubborn streak, she seems very interested in me when Im sewing so hopefully she will have a lovely temper just like her mother. When she wakes up in the morning she seems very glad to see me and cant hold back the smiles, its really lovely to see.  Not that Bob isnt glad to see me in the mornings but Im just his way of getting out of bed so he can go and do more ninjaring.

Its now been three or four days since I started this post, as a mum you just dont get the time to finish anything when you want to. Anyway I had a little bit more inspiration of what to get for a few people for xmas so thats always a good thing. Jensen is now totally sorted so thats a relief, its more important for the little kids to have something exciting they really like or want because thats what christmas is all about.
Our local christmas parade is on this weekend so Im very excited about that because then Im free to put up the christmas tree. Actually Im a bit distressed about the tree this year as I have some beautifull decorations and some are very fragile and I know as soon as the tree goes up the Ninja will be doing his thing......Ninjaring and so I fear for the lives of my pretty decorations. Of course this christmas also means I have to decorate two new baubles for Esther, one for our tree and one for Nannies tree. We all have our names on a decoration and at Nannies house there are enough people in the whole extended family to have nothing but name baubles on the tree, it actually looks really nice because all the baubles are the same except for the names and the styles of decoration but I think Esther will be the last addition for a while. Anyway lets see what happens after the christmas parade which I hope Bob enjoys, he slept through it last year as it just wasnt his thing but this year is a whole different ball game. CHRISTMAS........BRING IT ON!

Poor Bob

Saturday 16th October, Bobs first vist to the Hospital as a patient since he was born. On Thursday he had to have a blood test to see what allergies he has that is causing his nasty rashes, well this maybe an easy exercise for an adult or a bit older child but for a 17 month old its very traumatic to say the least. They put an anesthetic patch on his inner elbow so he wouldnt feel the needle, that was bad enough getting that on. We returned in an hour and had to wait for both nurses to be free, he threw an absolute tantrum in the waiting room because he wasnt allowed to open the doors and drawers and frankly he just didnt want to be there, I ended up ringing his Dad to come down as he only works down the road. By that time Bob was hysterical then we had to go into the room and pull the patch off his arm to take a blood sample. It appears he is also allergic to the numbing patch but anyway it takes three of us to hold him down and one nurse to get the sample. He was so traumatised I had to take him straight home and he just couldnt stop sobbing all the way home. That night he kept on waking up screaming, apparantly having nightmares about the whole nasty event.

Friday night was much the same, woke at 2am crying but I just left him and he went back to sleep, woke again at 4am hysterical, nothing would console him not even a bottle of milk. I had to take him into the lounge and lay on the floor with him just to calm him down. He had a small amount of milk then stood up and walked to the door that leads to his bedroom so I took him back to his room and put him back into his cot where he preceded to scream his head off. I ended up just walking out and he soon settled.
5am he was screaming again so I went in and he was again hysterical, I carried him into the lounge and told him he could stop crying because it was morning now and he didnt have to go back to bed. Then he started screaming and flicking his head in pain like someone was stabbing sharp needles through his ears. He was throwing himself all over the place in pain and my worst fear was he would crack his head open on the floor or the toy box. I called out to Stephen to take a look and we decided to go to the hospital.
I rang Nanny to come and sit with Baby Esther. Stephen rang the hospital to say we were coming out and they asked him had he tried contacting his regular GP. Well who can see there regular GP at the best of times let alone at 5am. That comment just takes the cake!
Nanny arrives and we head out to the hospital, Bob is strangely quiet but looking out the window. We see a ute pulled up in the middle of the road and a Police car behind it and a large black labrador dog in front on the road with blood on its back hip. Somebody ring the dog an ambulance for gods sake.

We arrive at the hospital at 7am and wait around an hour before being seen by a Dr. of course Bob wouldnt cooperate with anyone but it appears he has an ear infection which was what I suspected. He may have had it a couple of days but I thought he was having nightmares from the blood test two days earlier. Am I a bad mother? Well how are you meant to know these things when they cant talk yet, I suspect the poor Labrador was having the same trouble comunicating this morning telling them where it hurt and where he came from. I hope he was ok. he was sitting up but he wasnt moving much.

Anyway we came back home with free medicine, you gotta love that. But Bob just wanted his Nanny so he went off home with her. Maybe I am a bad mother but he wanted her more and who am I to argue..... hope your better soon baby Bob.

A Whole Week

Well nearly a whole week has gone by since my last blog, what can I say other than Im a busy lady with nothing much going on to write about. We did just have a long weekend and I had planned on doing some gardening amongst other things but alas the three days flew past and I really got nothing done other than the usual tasks like washing etc. I did get to spend one afternoon with Sara though or Crafternoon as she named it. I didnt do anything other than supply the venue and the dinner though. Bob thought it was great having someone over who thinks he is pretty cute, he enjoys the whole attention thing but then who wouldnt. Esther on the other hand dosnt real know that someone has come to visit her and is still only interested in milk and being held. Well Im sorry Princess but there's more to life than those two things, wait until mummy shows you SHOPPING.

Although I didnt do much on the weekend, Stephen did cut the lawns and whipper snipper the edges so that all looks nice, my front garden does look very pretty though even if on close inspection its full of weeds. Its a lovely spring garden that is filled with brightly coloured freisa's, tulips, iris's and renaculi's and sundry other little flowering things, it really is looking very lovely and it does it all on its own, spring and nature are amazing things. I really should go out this weekend and have a tidy up out there though, it would make me feel better even though it still looks stunning with the weeds. I also need to prune the little hedge, sadly its been very neglected during both my pregnancies and now I feel rather sorry for it because it should be nice and straight and pruned regularly instead its just lots of little bushes in the lawn and no pruning has been done since a stray goat munched away at it a couple of years ago.
The hedges out the back look a lot better but are surounded by many many weeds so maybe I should make a start there, yesterday I cleaned the family room windows, its amazing how something so simple can make it look like you just finished renovating your house. Even the grass looks greener but unfortunatly so do the weeds so perhaps thats the best place to start. Trouble is.....no sooner I make a start and someone starts crying for attention.

The sun is shining this morning so after lunch would be a perfect time to make a start outside but I have organised to pick up Kelsey for some quality time, she is bringing her quilt and we may do some of that or ........maybe not. I guess its a crafternoon so to speak only I still wont be doing anything, my quilt is at a standstill, lack of motivation gets in my way all the time, I guess Im just stalling because I have no idea what Im doing and after I have cooked the dinner and bathed Bob and washed and steralised all the bottles and then done the dishes by the time I sit down I only have time to dig myself a hole and then fill it in, there is no time to do hand sewing in between. I must confess I did make another bib for Esther on Sunday even though I said I wouldnt start any new projects until I finished an old one, I like the bib but its got some pretty bad sewing, well not bad sewing but the bias binding wasnt really wide enough so it hasnt really caught the edges enough to be totally secure for the rigours of babyhood so I will have to come up with another plan there. The red fabric with the cutlery print does look extra special on a bib though and they do soak up the Esther overflow very well. I also made a couple of little Blankies for Bob I thought it might stop him from stealing the washing of the clothes line but apparantly that is a lot more fun than holding a blanket your allowed to have.

I Worry!

I worry about my niece who is obsessed by her own creativness, not that she is creative but more so that when she isnt she goes into melt down, I remember being being exactly the same, I always had to have a special project on the go, sometimes even two, now Im just happy to have a thought about one. Just something to scratch the itch, to take my mind of the fact that TV is boring, I dont even care if its knitting a blanket, of course Im more excited when I have created something new or improved on something old but seriously even darning socks is interesting now. Well maybe thats not so true but at least I have a needle in my hand and my brain is occupied

Now I love to share a skill with someone else, does that mean Im old now? A couple of years ago I taught an auntie how to knit a knee rug, this apparantly made me "the Guru" but it was wonderfull reading her emails about where she had bought wool on sale, what colour it was and how cheap it was or how nice it was, then that would be followed by photos of what she had made. I had created a monster but it was GREAT! Knowing I had inspired someone to have a passion for something as much as I would myself. Then someone showed her how to crochet and now she also crochet's knee rugs then she taught another cousin how to do that so now she is their "Guru"
Craft and inspiration and the willingness to share ones skill is really a special gift, not necesarily something you use all the time but a gift you always have for life and I love sharing mine. I cant wait to share it with Bob and Esther, I want to be a Mummy that has time to show my kids these things, Im an older mum so I need to share with them all these skills that they can use when they are older, it will be my gift for them to share with their kids. Yes I know its rantings fron the crazy lady but even if they arnt interested its something they will always have.
I remember my Mum teaching me to sew, I sat on the lounge and sewed a piece of fabric, I dont remember what I was sewing, I think I was just practicing stitching and I accidently sewed it to my trouser leg. Now I wasnt about to ruin my sewing so I got the scissors and very carefully cut my trousers where my sewing was attached then proudly displayed to my mother what I had done. I dont remember her yelling at me....she probably did but I had just done in my mind the Da Vinci of all sewing and I wasnt going to let a pair of trousers get in the way of art. Then there was the highs and lows of knitting,I was knitting my first piece and I had of course dropped the odd stitch as you do and my little sister sat in the corner behind a chair and unpulled it, I was absolutly devestated that she could do that, it took me so long to do and she seemed to be proud of herself for helping me out because it had dropped stitches. Well I knit and sew and she does nothing, she is as useless at craft now as she was all those years ago hiding in the corner with someone elses knitting. She didnt get the gift

I Worry!