My Newly Organised Pantry

Some of my regular readers may have read about my excitement when Bradley announced that this summer (okay, last summer now because with all the wind and rain today it is definitely feeling winter here!) we would definitely be building our new kitchen. A preliminary wall was built, and demolition started, but due to unforeseen circumstances that's where it all stopped. I have been waiting on this new kitchen for some time now and had been ignoring the old kitchen because a new one would be coming! Well, it didn't, and my cupboards were such a wreak that using the old kitchen became a nightmare. I have decided that 2008 is the year of sorting and getting things organised for me so I have spent the last two or three weeks organising all my kitchen cupboards. And this is how beautiful they look now!

The labeller and I have been having a lot of fun! I managed to fit kitchen things into my pantry that have never fitted in there before and still have room for new things! (Yes, It was sort of like magic.)

Oh, and I did have to go to Ikea (I know, any excuse) to get a new stool/step ladder because the old one was broken. (Really!) This stool is completely brilliant. I am extremely happy with this purchase and love my new Ikea stool passionately.

So, the new kitchen is still happening - just not as quickly as we would have liked. And in the meantime it's easier to use the kitchen again! Ahhh..... my newly organised life is going to be so good!

The Dollhouse of Horror

This is what happens when Barbie leaves home! Dead horses! Guns! Action figures down!

It's all a bit CSI Rosemary Hill! This is the sight that greeted us when we came home from our high school tour tonight. (High school tour? Yes, we are homeschoolers but Miss 15 has decided she'd like to give high school a go.) Last time I looked at the dollhouse this afternoon it had a lovely family atmosphere with a mummy and a daddy and kids. Very G rated. Then tonight it had this dreadful MA15+ rating! I think Mr 7 was the last one playing with the dollhouse. Boys are interesting, aren't they? He loves his action figures!

Remember this?

I finally got to my sewing machine today. First time in more than a week! I know, how did I survive? I was not well last week and busy too. There always seems to be so much to do. This photo was taken last year when I finished sewing the first cushion covers for the window seat Bradley built me. (Did you always want a window seat? It was my fondest dream from a young age, and Bradley made my dream come true!) My window seat is quite wide because the window it sits infront of is 2.7 metres long! So I needed five cushions, not one as you see here. I made the five back cushions and four of the seat cushions (so nearly finished!), but seemed to get stuck on the fifth seat cushion. Nearly 12 months later I've finished the fifth seat cushion! I'm not sure why this cushion was so hard to do, it wasn't hard to make today so what was my problem? I think it's something to do with my superhero alter-ego, the Procrastinator. (Ever watched the Amanda Show? "I'll save you.... e-ven-tu-ally!") I'm so glad to have them finished! Now I want to make another set of covers so that I can wash them easily!

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of March! This year is really rushing by. Thank you for your kind comments about Miss 11's bunnies that she made! She was thrilled by them! She was worried that her bunnies wouldn't get any comments, I don't know why, because they are so very sweet. Well, here's looking forward to April. In April I plan to shun the Procrastinator and sew lots of warm clothes for my kids to wear. (It's finally thinking about being cool!) The weather bureau is forcasting 'rain' for Wednesday. I'm very excited! They haven't forecast 'rain' for a long time. Normally they only forecast 'showers' so I'm hoping for more water this week!

Last week when it was easter.

I know it's a little blurry, but this photo shows the excitment and enthusiasm that Mr 7 has for easter. Well, maybe I really mean chocolate. We had our traditional easter hunt last weekend. The easter hunt remained the same for a long time at our house (about 20 years!) with the easter bunny writing rhymes as clues along the hunt and each child finding a small egg with each clue along the way.

This finding of a clutch of eggs has taught our children to share (we hope!) and the finder makes sure that everyone has an egg. The easter bunny (Bradley) must be getting tired at our house. Last year Miss 21 did the hunt. She used rhyme and the scriptures to link the chocolate to Jesus Christ. This year the easter bunny and I collaborated on the hunt. I decided on one word clues. Yes, we are getting tired!

This is how Miss 11's easter baskets turned out. Beautiful.

(We apologise for this break in transmission. The camera was misplaced immediately after the hunt and I figured that makes it ok to do an easter themed post one week late!)

Bunnies!

These are the bunnies I talked about more than a week ago, that Miss 11 made. She was also the photographer. Mrs 23 designed the pattern. Mr 19 made the first one - for a girl! - that inspired everyone else. Mr 13 also made one and we sent it to Miss 21 who is overseas.

They were all very cute. Cute, but different! Mr 19's was light brown and Mr 13's was a white rabbit with red accents. The boy's bunnies escaped our house without being photographed!

Goodbye bunnies! They're hopping off home!

Inspiration Rearranging

Everything came down, was sorted through and I started again from scratch. This is what is inspiring me at the moment. I have had a busy week and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Ahhh..... time to create!

It Rained!

And here is the proof. A total of 8.8mm yesterday and today. Such excitement at our house. Mr 7 grabbed a golf umbrella and paraded around on the paths out the back. Miss 11 and I were much more civilised. We waited till the rain stopped and tiptoed out in our bare feet to feel the puddles. Everyone else is much too grown-up to get excited about rain. Rain always used to be such a given. Growing up in Adelaide autumn and winter meant rain. Galoshes, raincoats and rainhats, rubber boots, walking to school and wearing slippers in class once you got there. Dad watching football on tv and Mum knitting whilst it rained outside. Washing drying infront of the gas heater. All of them happy memories. Now we wonder and talk about rain. I think we talk about it much more than it rains! We are expecting more rain over the next week or so and we're talking about it a lot. Maybe we talk about it so much because we can't water our gardens and our reservoirs are half empty. Maybe this winter it will rain so much we will complain! I hope so!

Easter Weekend

It has been a lazy easter weekend. Not sure what we have done? A little bit of 'love the house' and not much more. ('love the house' is when you clean and tidy! The daughter of a friend of ours decided to have a 'love the car' day once a week and ever since then cleaning and tidying has been 'love the...') The photo below is Miss 17. When we were out looking at Northern Lights she decided that her legs looked like doll's legs. (Apparently they often do!) And so she did a doll pose for the camera.


A short week ahead. I will still be busy with 'love the house'. And hopefully some sewing and knitting too.

Easter Baskets!

Miss 11 has been busy making chocolate eggs and easter baskets to put them in. She was initially planning to sew felt baskets, but decided this afternoon to experiment with woven paper baskets.

Her first basket turned out beautifully. She had so much fun that she decided to make a bunny tonight too. Her bunny is so cute (I'll have to take a photo tomorrow!). How are your easter plans going? Now that the weather is a little cooler we went out and bought some easter eggs. Can you imagine what they would have been like hidden in my room at a temperature of 41 degrees? Flat easter eggs! So now the hunt will go on!

Woodside (the things you do when it cools down!)

My favourite quilting shop is in Woodside. Today I felt the need to go to a quilt shop, so we headed off to the patchwork apple. There were five of us on the journey. Usually the kids aren't that interested in quilt shops but today's trip was mixed with a trip to the library, a picnic on our favourite bench, a visit to the playground, and a visit to the lolly shop in Hahndorf. We have been stuck at home keeping cool for 2 weeks now and we all just needed to get out!

The playground.

And the fabric.

Traditional patterns with blue, brown and green. (A combination I love at the moment)

And dots and dashes. (The little brother and sister of spots and stripes!) Ahh! Fabricy goodness.

More Tops!

I did it! This afternoon I started unpicking the mistakes of yesterday and finished the tops. Today was 41 degrees, but there is meant to be a change tomorrow. Can't wait. Miss 11 is very happy with her tops and is now wanting new shorts! I was hoping to be sewing winter clothes at this stage of the year, but it's still hot! Tomorrow I cut out shorts!

One of those Days...

I have a basket of goodies which I am working my way through. Here it is on Saturday. I really dislike cutting out clothing, which is kind of sad when you consider how much I like to sew it! My loved ones quite often take pity on me and help me out by cutting out for me. (I have taught most of the kids and the husband to "cut out".) In the basket I had the shirt that Mrs 23 cut out, pajamas that my Mum had cut out, skirts that Misses 15 and 17 cut out together, Nighties I cut out (yeah, wonders will never cease), and tops that Mrs 23 cut out. The basket is part of my new getting organised strategy, sometimes I "misplace" things that have been cut out, but no more!

Today I finished a pair of pajamas for Mr 7. They are a second pair of zebra summer pajamas that I started, but didn't finish at the beginning of summer. I think I had mentally given up on them because it's no longer summer. Of course our 200 days over 35 changed my mind! (Okay, maybe it's not 200, but I am so over this heatwave it certainly feels like 2oo!) Today was another 40 degree day. (104 F) Back to the sewing! After the pajamas I started on another top for Miss 11. I made one last week, but today I just couldn't get it right! After unpicking for the fifth time I gave up. I think I'm tired. I guess I will sew another day!

Northern Lights

Okay, so my photos are dreadful. I thought I had my camera in my bag when I ran out the door, but it wasn't there! Bradley took these on his trusty phone. I think the kids took photos on their phones too, but getting photos from them is difficult! (Theirs may be better cause teenagers tend to have fancier phones than their Dads do!) I just thought I would post these so you can see (sort of) what the effects on one building were.


In real life there was a lot less blur! The lights were just so beautiful! Great vibrant colours. This building also had a couple of other effects on it that I didn't have photos of. One of my favourites was one with printed music on it. There is a lawn infront of this building and we sat down amongst many other people and gasped when everyone else did when the lights changed. As they changed it was a though one set were turned off and the building was in darkness for a little while and then the new colours jumped out at you!

These lights gave the building a "sketched" appearance.

This one was very disney!

A sunburst!

Another of my favourites, a vine covered building. Sorry for the blurry photos! If you want to get a better idea of how wonderful these lights actually were go to Comfy Cosy (link in my blogs I visit!) and look at her great photography!

Maternity Patterns

There aren't many. Maternity patterns that is. Being the mother of eight children I am somewhat of an authority on maternity patterns. Of course, I haven't been pregnant for about seven and a half years now and things have changed. Most pattern companies now only have a choice of one or two patterns. Some have a choice of none! So when Mrs 23 needed some clothes to cover her bump it was quite difficult. I have a lot of maternity patterns in my stash (have I ever mentioned I'm a collector of sewing patterns?) but for some reason Mrs 23 didn't like the power dressing patterns from the 80's! (She's so picky!) We got some patterns eventually from the only pattern company with any sort of choice, Burda. I have been working on a shirt for Mrs 23 and today I finally finished it! She likes it, so it's a winner, and there's not a hint of power dressing! We used (I say we because she cut it out and I sewed it) a stretch poplin that I have had in the cupboard for some time. She really likes it in a stretch weave because it has give and is more comfortable.

Here's a side on view of Mrs 23 and her bump. She's wearing it over her shirt! The skirt she is wearing is a bias cut skirt she makes from her own pattern. It is made for her unpregnant, but fits her pregnant (although she is wearing it higher up). She made another skirt like this one today in our sewing day.

A front view. Next on the maternity clothes list is another shirt from the same pattern. This time in a satin print. Hopefully I will be sewing again tomorrow after church!

Northern Lights

Just got home from Northern Lights on North Tce. It was wonderful! Have any other Adelaidians been to see it? It's so worth it. Photos tomorrow

I Love This!

I have been busy tidying and organising my sewing room. I have also been working on some clothes too. This is one of my favourite tools. I use it in just about every room in our house. I label things in the hope that it will help someone put things back where they belong! As you can see, I'm an optimist! I go through metres of plastic tape and feel just as excited as I did when I used my mother's old-school dymo label maker as a child. (I think I bought this brand because I remembered my Mum's old one!) Just holding it makes me feel efficient. Anyway, back to the labelling!

Playdough

We are a much older household than we used to be. I miss little kid things. Sometimes we have an "athon" of little kidsness. You know, a duploathon, a legoathon, a playdoughathon. Everyone gets involved and plays together. Mr 19 had a yearning for playdough so he made some and played with it. As part of the playdoughathon Miss 11 and Mr 7 became playdough bakers. They made pasties, sausage rolls and pies and photographed them! It was a very quiet day today. It was 39 degrees and I think we are all really sick of the heat. We seem to be getting slower and slower. Today, rather than sew, I spent time cleaning and sorting my sewing space. Mrs 23 came over and cut out a pinafore for her and two tops for Miss 11, so I have things to sew for this week. Tomorrow we are supposed to get a cool change but the forecast maximum is anything but cool. I think we have a slow week coming up!

Inspiration Board

This is the sample board at my friend's house. I find it very inspirational! These are some of the things they have been trying. I love all the texture! I fixed the unfitting nightie today, but instead of taking a photo of it I put it on. Today was 41 degrees and I didn't do much beyond trying to keep cool.

W I P & Sewathon

Here is the baby rug I'm working on at the moment. I think it's the only crafty thing I worked on last week. It's growing little by little. I think I'm about halfway there.

The first photo shows the "right" side. I think I like the "wrong" side better. Dots and dashes. Which do you like?

I was inspired by Amanda Jean's quiltathon weekend (Crazy Mom Quilts) last weekend. She finished an amazing amount of quilting and I thought what a great way to get some concentrated work done! This weekend is a long weekend in Adelaide (Adelaide Cup day) so I decided to have a sewathon this weekend. I guess I really should be sewing now, but I have 3 days so I'm pacing myself. Last night I started cutting out and began sewing. It's a hot weekend (39 degrees at our house today) so today I split my time between sewing and swimming (ie cooling off!). I made a top for Miss 11 from $3 a metre quilting cotton from Spotlight. I also made a nightie for me, but there's no photo because it doesn't fit! I am most disappointed. I have figured out how I will fix it, but thought I would do that tomorrow when I'm fresh. I am also working on a shirt for Mrs 23. Hopefully I will get some more garments finished before Monday night! Stay tuned!

Beautiful Quilts!

Miss 21's pday (preparation day) changed this week to Wednesday, so I got an email from her today! It was a surprise because I didn't know when her pday would be. She is serving a mission on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Today she sent me a photo of her at a pioneer museum last Saturday. (Her former pday.) She sent photos to her brothers and sisters too and after we pooled the photos we received we realised they were person specific. I got photos of her smiling sweetly next to old quilts and pioneer clothes. (Am I that transparent! I guess she did live with me for 21 years!) She sent the silly photos to those of her brothers and sisters who appreciate silliness!
Aren't these quilts beautiful? I think I like to make quilts because they are beautiful, but these would have been essential as well as lovely. I love that "essential" thing. It's lucky that I do because with six children at home there's an awful lot of "essential" to be done. So far this week I have been caught up with "essential". Tomorrow I look forward to doing some sewing. I will be sewing clothes. Just a different kind of "essential" I think. More my favourite kind of "essential". (I'd like to hire a cook and a cleaner for the boring - to me - "essentials" and I could provide the clothes and quilts and soft furnishings and...)

Ultimate DIY - Making Our Own Eggs

As I mentioned before the kids are preparing for Easter. Miss 11 has already made all of her Easter cards. She has a list of loved ones she would like to make felt baskets and hand molded chocolates for. I'm still not quite sure how far away it is. It's sad for such a dynamo to have an organisationally challenged mother. She came in to talk to me this afternoon. (Her latest batch of cookies were in the oven)
"Mum, Mr 7 thinks we should make our own eggs."
Hmmm..... Ok. I'm thinking, "How would we do that?". My mind is a blank. Then I see the light. Mr 7's favourite friends have chickens. He loves to help look after the chickens.
"Oh!", I say. "He thinks we should get chickens!".
She just looks at me strangely. I have the feeling that there's something I'm missing, yet I can't seem to work out what it is.
"No Mum! He thinks we should make Easter eggs for us too!"
Oh. And I thought I had a grip on the situation. So, when is Easter?

Mt Lofty and Koalas

On Sunday evening four of us went to Mt Lofty. It's the highest point in Adelaide (I think technically it's not quite a mountain. More of a big hill.) and the views are beautiful. From this side you can see the city and suburbs. From the other side you can see Piccadilly Valley which is all farmland and orchards! Mr 7 wasn't that impressed.

While we were looking out over the Valley we heard some noises and saw a koala walking along one of the hiking tracks. (Mt Lofty is in a national park) Mr 7 was suddenly interested! We watched the koala walk along the track until we could no longer see him. (It was at this point that Mr 7 asked me how I knew the koala was a boy! Hmmm...... not a koala expert! Just didn't want to call it "it", I guess!) A little while later I heard some more noises and walked along further to investigate. I found our koala about to climb up a gum tree for a snack.

Mr 7 was surprised at how fast the koala could climb the tree and it's big sharp claws! We were really close to it and the kids were thrilled to see a "wild" koala. It was a lovely evening and we had so much fun!

Happy Birthday Tim-in-law!

Miss 11 was the photographer on Saturday afternoon at Picklesticks' bloke's birthday picnic. These photos are her view from the picnic rug. It was a beautiful day. Warm, but it never feels too warm under the trees at Tusmore Park. The energetic played cricket. And had a wonderful time! The ball only went over the fence once (the perfect "backyard" cricket game!). They also played frizbee. The not quite as athletic ones sat and knitted and crotcheted. Rugs for the forthcoming Picklesticks baby grew a little more. The sci-fi inclined "talked Dr Who". All in all the perfect birthday picnic. Today is the "actual" birthday. Happy Birthday Tim!

Spinning Wool

Isn't this wool beautiful? I love the colours and the texture. It's the work of my knitting friend. I just love the way she has it "hanging around". It's a better decorative touch than anything from a shop! Decor by the spinner! I am going to sew this week. I have a plan and I think it will work! Here's hoping!

Tuesday was Knitting Day

On Tuesday we went to a friend's house to knit. This is something we talk about doing, but haven't done for about 3 months. It was a wonderful day. The first thing we did was spread our knitting and latest knitting book finds all over the table.


I guess knitting day is just an excuse to catch up with each other, but I really enjoy all the knity goodness I learn too. I watched my friend "magic loop" a jumper she is knitting in the round. (Very cool. Seams are the worst and with magic loop you can avoid quite a few of them!) We all bring food for lunch. My friend made little quiches, I made soup and Mrs 23 (Picklesticks) made sticky date pudding. Yum!

None of the boys knitted. (Sometimes they do) They were too busy playing. Miss 11 embarked on her first ever knitting from a pattern. She is making some booties for her nephew. This is a big step. She was quite overwhelmed by the knitting language, but is persevering.

I am still working on the rug I'm knitting. I hit the halfway mark yesterday so it's going well.

I'm having trouble believing that it is March already. This year seems to be flying by. The kids are looking forward to easter, but I can't seem to get my head around it!