Mattress protector to dirt-busting baby pants

My precious Adele started crawling one month ago. I had forgotten how messy the crawling phase is!! Wet Winter + baby who loves outside + dirt/leaves/moss/grass/mud = A LOT of washing and lots of stained clothes! I had the idea a while ago to make her some pants with feet built in that she could wear outside over her clothes. I also didn't want to spend much on pants that I knew were going to get absolutely trashed! So I decided to use an old cot mattress protector. I had one lying around that had a few holes in it so i decided to use it for this project.

Her pants turned out really well. I made LOTS of mistakes when making them. I will be making a second pair so will hopefully perfect the design on my second attempt. :) I did use a pattern for the shoe part. The pattern is from a shop on Etsy called Twirly Bird Baby. I used some of her pants to work out the sizing for the rest of the pattern.

Ok...

I started with a mattress protector

The pants!

Precious Adele

Dirty goodness!! :)

Isn't she sweet?!?!? And no, I'm not referring to myself.

Front of pants. When designing the pattern last night I forgot to add the crotch part so had to sew some in. FAIL!! :)

foot section with elastic sewn in so that the shoe part stays on her foot.

back

I bought soling fabric from a shop on Etsy called Shoeology. It's water/heat/cold proof and has great grip for little people who are learning to walk.

Hmmm... think i'm going to have to make a top also! That is a VERY dirty jumper. :)

Ok, see you next time,

Kerryn

1 bag for me, 1 bag for you...

After 2 terrible attempts at making adult sizes handbags I finally gave in and bought a pattern. I bought the pattern from a shop on Etsy called Sewing with me 3 After much deliberation I finally settled on The Penelope Bag. I changed the pattern slightly to suit me. I lengthened the straps so the bag could be worn over my shoulder. I also added a pocket on the inside of the bag. 

Here it is...

Inside the bag with the zippered pocket

And here's the one I made for my sister. I love the dotty fabric...

Magnetic snap and pocket

Inside the pocket, also with a magnetic snap

Ok, that's all for now...

Kerryn

Origami seed raising pots

Ok, I love craft! I also love gardening. So wouldn't it be great to combine the two for a super fun experience!! Well, I am happy to tell you that I have found the coolest craft/gardening (craftening??) project. It's super fun and VERY inexpensive. I visited No Ordinary Homestead and found Tiffany's video tutorial for making origami newspaper pots. The best part about the pots is that the seedlings can be planted pot and all once they are mature enough to plant in the garden. Hoorah! The video tutorial is very clear and really easy to follow.

Here's a pic of some of the pots I made

Once you've made a few they are really easy and quick to make!

Thanks Tiffany for the great idea and the clear and easy to follow tutorial!

Ok... see ya!

Kerryn

rainy day good-times

Over the last week Sydney has been very, very rainy!! I have tried a few fun things over the week to try and keep 'cabin fever' at bay. I'm not sure if I was overly successful, but we did have a bit of fun.

Lachie LOVES to cook and since he is on an elimination diet at the moment (trying to work out his food allergies/intolerance's) he is quite restricted in the food that he can eat. We can make cupcakes though and so we cook them fairly regularly. I decided this week that we would try and make him a man shaped cake with a gingerbread man cookie cutter. I greased the cookie cutter and baking dish very well so that all the little arms and legs would come out as easily as possible. And guess what?!?!? It worked!! Hoorah!

Here is my little man... we iced him but i didn't take a pic of that...

 has anyone heard of the little kids book "go dogs go"??. It's such a cute book, Lachie loves it. At the end of the book all the dogs climb up a massive tree and have a party with hats on. So, Lachie and I made some party hats. Lachie really wanted to have a party up a tree with the hats on... so... why not?!?! We got some cupcakes & our party hats, called in Daddy and Adele then climbed our tree... :)

Towel trunk, table cloth and napkin foliage

Precious Lachie with his party hat and cake. Please ignore half chewed cake in his mouth. :)

Sweet Adele.

Ok... that's all for now.

Till next time,

K xx

Crayon goodness

Marbled crayons!! I guess they've been around a while but I have just stumbled across the idea (cannot remember where). I nearly fell off my chair with excitement when I first saw them and had to make them immediately!! Unfortunately I did not have any broken ones to use so I went out and bought some. :) We also bought some bug and train silicone moulds. unfortunately the train moulds were a bit big so we only used the bug ones.

After peeling what seemed like a billion bits of paper off the tiny little cheap crayons we melted them in the oven. I found they took a lot longer than the tutorials I saw. I put the oven on 150 deg Celsius and checked them every few minutes. It took at least 15mins. My oven is pretty old so maybe that's why we needed longer... Hmmm...

So here's how they turned out...

Ok... that's all for now.

Happy crafting,

Kerryn xx

31 days of thanks

I decided last month that it would be really great to write a thank you card everyday in July. There are some truly remarkable people in my life and some great organisations in my community. These people and organisations deserve to be recognised for their wonderful gifts and for the fantastic job they do.

Why start in July?? Well, July is the middle of Winter here in Australia and so I think that's the best time to write a thank you. Whether you like to admit it or not, I believe the weather can have an impact of our mood and general feeling of 'happiness'. So, what better way to brighten up some one's winter than with a heart felt thank you card.

Once you start thinking of people to thank you soon realise how many tremendous people there are in your life/community.

Here's some people that I'll be thanking...

Parents, parents in-law (don't hate me, but I have the best in-laws ever!!), husband, friends, playgroup leaders, local police, local shopping centre security team, Doctors, free medical services... etc...

Here is a pic of some of the cards I've made

Let me know if you decide to start a '31 days of thanks' month. :)

Bye for now,

Kerryn

Lachie and Daddy pyjamas

When a friend of mine made her hubby a pair of PJ's out of this fabric I discovered some very serious and unrelenting 'fabric envy'. I finally found it at my local lincraft store. Hoorah!! I even broke my 'fabric diet' to buy some. Some may call this a lack of restraint breaking my 'diet' on day 2, but I call it necessity! Some fabrics just belong in the 'need' and not the 'want' category... right?!?!?

Anyway, I set about making some PJ pants for my 2 favourite boys. I also cutout some of the images and turned them into iron on transfers. My boys look so handsome in the matching PJ's. :)

Tim's shirt

Lachie's shirt. P.S. If anyone can tell me how to rotate this photo I will be eternally grateful!! The photo on my computer is rotated the correct way but when I upload it changes orientation!! HELP!!! ;)

LOVE these two... :)

 Aren't my boys handsome!! :)

See you next time,

Kerryn

Mother's group mystery night dinner

I absolutely LOVE my Mother's group!! I met them at our local Early Childhood Centre when Lachie was born. We have shared lots of ups and downs together and have been able to laugh together as we walk (or stumble) down the path of parenthood. I feel very blessed to have such a great group of women around me during this journey

As Mum's we are always doing things for our kids/husbands and we rarely have time to do something for ourselves. So... I wanted to do something for each one of the Mum's in my mother's group... just for them! Not their kids, not their husbands/partners... JUST because they are worth my time and love.

I roped in another Mum from the group and we got to work. It was a surprise event, so no one knew what we were doing. We designed/made and sent out invites and then went to work making the event super special. We went out for dinner at a local restaurant. These are some of the things we did...

I made each of the Mum's a set of earrings with their favourite colours.

We made chocolate filled boxes/place tags

We asked each of the Mum's to answer a set of 'get to know you' questions then made them into a book.

The invite

We collected 30 gorgeous glasses from vinnies/thrift shops then made some of the larger ones into candles for the table centres. I also bought hundreds of pearls and made some into strands and poured the rest into the bottom of the glasses. We also cut out a stack of stamped butterflies and 'perched' them on the top of some of the glasses.

We also made paper scrolls for each of the Mum's which had a poem written by Janet and a letter written by me explaining the reason for the evening. That was my favourite part. The Mum's were so touched by the encouraging words that were written.

It was an AMAZING night! Now were getting ready for mystery night #2!! Hoorah!! :)

Ok... that's all for now... :)

Kerryn

Sweet Adele

In my mind Adele is sweetness personified! She melts my heart with just one smile. :) As with Lachie, I love to create for her. Here are a few of my favourite things I have made for her...

Her very first winter hat.

Another hat in a slightly different style. It's a bit hard to see but she also has matching boots on.

My sweetness!

Dress and matching bow.

Bow closeup.

Stay tuned for more crafty goodness... ;)

Kerryn

Lachie-loo, I love you!

I love my boy!! He is smart, cheeky, full of life, inventive, focused, generous, drives me crazy, makes me laugh!! I love creating for him. There are so many fun projects you can do for boys. Here are a few of my favourites...

We call this his 'jumper full of pockets'. I started out by making a basic jumper then used up some scrap fabric and made lots of pockets for him to fill with his treasures.

We also made sock puppets that day. Affectionately named Pup and Nun.

I made matching Lachie and Nana aprons for my Mum for as a Mother's day gift.



See you next time.

Kerryn