Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

Here's the lovely birthday girl, quite impressed that her bikkie is now a 'moon'. She's quite taken with the moon and the stars that she looks at most nights after dinner with Dad. So much so that when her 2nd birthday was approaching and I saw this moon shaped cake, I knew it would be perfect.
To counter her very plastic, commercialised Fisher Price Little People parking garage, we also gave her this (photographed here before the second coat of white gloss). I found this at St Vinnies, looking tired and unloved in cacky pink and blue paint. I also made I think what's called a cheater's quilt? Well, all I did was sew the fabric together with some pink gingham for the back, and the wadding, turned it the right way around and voila! It's hard to see in this picture but I then just sewed along the lines in the pattern. Too easy!
And just so it's not all about the birthday girl, here's her very lovely older sister.

Decorating on my mind

I will get this quilt finished eventually, but thought I should post to my progress so far. I have stalled a bit after having to unpick a whole row. I didn't realise the blocks were mixed up by a little munchkin (Louisa). The below pic is Louisa's room where the quilt will go. I quite like the room as is. I thought I was very clever leaving the navy feature wall and adding the red but pink is Louisa's 'favourite and my best', so the navy wall will soon be candy pink, I think.

The other room I'm looking at at the moment is Jake's (stepson - just turned 12 - visits in school hols). He's stuck with a purple feature wall at the moment, so I'm keen to redo that. Green has always been his favourite colour, so I'd love to transform this into something more 'Jake-like'. The bed base is actually a futon we had downstairs, but decided to swipe the single bedhead he had to put in Louisa's room for when Lizzie is old enough to share with her (it is the same shape as Louisa's but solid and needs some gloss white paint.

The colour in the photo below is kind of what I'm aiming for with Jake's room and I really like this bed linen:

http://www.boodalee.com/trees.html

Not sure if it's too 'young' for him though.

There are a lot more things I'd like to do around our house, but most of those are more costly and will take more time (redo kitchens, bathrooms, put a deck out the back, etc). These projects should keep me busy.

Bits and pieces

So yes, I've begun working on a quilt. The above is just a play around with the fabrics I've cut out so far. I was procrastinating terribly about it, looking into lessons, etc But I've just decided to 'have a go' and if it turns out terribly, I'll only have wasted a bit of fabric. One of my husband's favourite sayings : ' it's not brain surgery, if you stuff it up, noone's going to die'. Well, I may die of embarassment, but anyway. At least I'm feeling happy now that I've decided on a pattern and have actually started work. I 'm basically using the lotus brick path Amy Butler pattern, just doing a slightly smaller version. I don't like the lace print fabric I put in this picture, so I'll leave that out. I bought a few more fabrics today at Spotlight (all on sale of course) including the backing fabric, so hopefully the progress on this won't be too slow.

This is the bag I made for our little friend Charlee who had her birthday party yesterday. I gave her this along with the top I'd made previously from the same fabric. Although it's by no means perfect, I'm rather happy with it, given I'd never made one before and didn't use a pattern. The recipient loved it too! I guess 3 year olds don't mind a few flaws here and there. I'm now keen make myself a bag, properly with a pattern this time.

While my parents were staying with us, we did the shops in Redcliffe and Scarborough. I was surprised to find an op shop I'd never noticed before in Scarborough and even more surprised to find some great patterns. Who knows when I'[ll get around to using them, but I'm especially happy I was able to find a baby pattern. I wasn't sewing when either of my girls were babies, so missed out on making bibs and sleeping bags, etc. But now I'll be able to make gifts for any friends or relatives that have new additions.

Here's some play clothes for Lizzie. The top's from Target. The applique isn't the best, and I didn't line up the checks, but I'm not too worried as these are intended for messy visits to the park, beach, etc. and were made very quickly and easily.