Lizzie's Kids Swap

Well done to Kylie for organising this Kids Swap. We enjoyed making some clay decorations and cutting out some paper dolls, as well as choosing some cool craft stuff to send to another mini crafter.

Mollie's received her parcel from us. We hope she enjoys it! We hope our other little recipient recieved hers in one piece too.

Lizzie was so lucky to get some beautiful things from Alice. Unfortunately my camera's playing up so no photos, but there was so many bits and pieces, and a drawstring bag full of things that tinkle and sparkle. Lizzie loves it! And is painting her little clay santa as I write.

I hope to be back with a load of pics soon!

EB swap

I've been participating in the EB swap and we opened our packages from Faye and Susan today. Wow, have we been lucky in our household! I'm so impressed with the items we received from both swap partners, and the way they both were able to figure out the right items for each girl.

Lizzie was spoilt by Faye with a pink cord outfit (jacket and skirt and hairband) complete with embroidered butterflies and flowers - perfect for her! Also, much to her delight she also got a monogrammed apron which she adores and sent her immediately to the kitchen to 'cook'!

Louisa's outfit from Susan is perfect for her also. She love love loves the dress with the stripes and spots and leggings that match. So versatile and perfect for our climate. The package included an embroidered cord skirt as well. Louisa loves the colours in that so much. Not to mention the horsie themed fabric which it was all wrapped in.

Thanks so much to both very talented ladies. There's only a couple of quick pics, but I promise more to come when the weather clears, also pics of Lizzie's apron and Louisa's skirt to come.

Pay It Forward

Look at the generous parcel I received from Karen. I absolutely love it all! The girls adore their pencil rolls (they're both the little artists, and love to draw each night before bed) and are thrilled with their letter Ts, and have already worn them several times. The appliqued singlet matches Louisa's twirly skirt and hadan outing to a boy's party last week. The coasters are on my coffee table and getting quite a workout, and the tissue pouch has been added to my handbag. Such lovely and useful things! Thankyou Karen!

So now it's my turn. I'm thinking I'll need at least a month for there to be enough responses for me to pick out some lucky winners.

Here are the rules:

I will send a handmade gift to 3 random people who leave a comment on my blog
requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift
will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week… LOL… but you will
receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in
return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Now I really have to start blogging regularly!!

I must share some of Louisa's birthday fun soon. Next post, I promise. I can't believe my little girl is 5!

Long overdue...

Here is Elizabeth with one of her favourite toys. I have been very remiss in not posting photos of Tiger Filly's fabulous handiwork which we received as part of our Valentine's swap. Mainly as it quickly became a favourite with my mermaid obsessed daughters and it's been tricky to wrench it out of their hands. So here it is, still in Lizzie's possession, maybe a little worse for wear. I also received some beautiful cord, which you will be seeing very soon in the form of another pinafore dress, and yummy chocolates which quickly made their way into my mouth and onto my hips!

Thanks again for such thoughtful gifts, and apologies for not posting images sooner.

December the 12th!

Today was an exciting day. Finally us EB sewing gals got to open our Christmas swap. I was lucky to get this bundle of goodies from Jacqui! Very thoughtful and useful gifts! Thanks Jacqui!!The felt Christmas decorations look wonderful on our tree:

The other excitemnt for the day was Louisa's kindy concert- a nativity play in which Louisa played a very lovely angel This was followed by a selection of Christmas songs (the highlights being Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and Six White Boomers) and a feast!

Lovely fabrics and swap stuff!

These fabrics were purchased at Spotlight yesterday. A nice little collection, although I'm not sure what I'll be doing with them. Obviously the Christmas fabric will be used for something Christmassy, but whether a gift or something for our table on Christmas Day, I'm not sure. The transport fabric I have no idea, but I loved it so much I couldn't not buy it! And the spots will be something for Lizzie for summer.
I was also lucky enough to score some great goodies from IngridK in our EB thrift shop swap. Loads of patterns, especially useful will be the rash vest pattern with long sleeves! My little Queensland water babies need lots of sun protection.
This fabric she sent is just beautiful. Lizzie in particular loves it being such a little bird watcher and has taken to stroking it and saying 'pretty birdies'. She's a big cutie, that one.

So a big thankyou to Ingrid for all my goodies.

Dress up swap

Here's the items we sent to Kylie's Amelia for our EB dress up swap, modelled by the petite Elizabeth.

We hope Amelia has lots of fun playing around in them!

Swap Tease

My EB dress up swap parcel has been sent. Who is it for? You'll have to wait and see!

Kitchen themed Swap

Kylie's received her swap now, so I can post the items I sent. An apron (which my husband thought was 'saucy'), an oven glove and some criss cross coasters.

Some sewing materials: And some knitting patterns I found at my local op shop which I thought were too lovely to leave though even though I don't knit! But there was a link to our kitchen theme. One of the books contained this pattern:How cute is that!

A good day!

Well, it is a good day when you have a birthday party at the lagoon for one of Louisa's kindy friends who turned 4 (Louisa is quite the baby of the group). A fun morning, eating way too many cupcakes and sausages and lollies. It was all too much for Lizzie.

Louisa was trawling through her party bag on the drive home and found a lollipop, opened it, had two licks and decided she didn't like lollipops and handed it to Lizzie who promptly popped in her mouth and fell asleep. A bit too much like a dummy, only even worse for your teeth!

Then we arrive home and find a lovely parcel in the mailbox from Bec.

Very lovely and useful things, and very happy to finally have some silicone bakeware in my possession in the form of these lovely cupcake/mini muffin ones. Louisa has decided they're perfect, but I don't think her sugar levels could handle anything today. But we'll definitely be trying Bec's Banana, Date and Sour Cream Muffins very soon. They sound delicious and just the kind of thing we love.

Thankyou Bec! And wishing you all the best for the birth of your precious bub.

Swap questions

For the benefit of my EB sewing group 'swappee':
1. What colours are your kitchen? I have a daggy 80s kitchen with bones and browns, but a burgurdy feature wall the last owners did in an attempt to update it. I'd love a new kitchen, and it's on our list but a few other projects to do first.

2. What is your favourite appliance? Definitely my kettle. I'm a huge tea drinker and the kettle is in constant use all day. None of these fancy chai teas of anything, just plain old Dilmah usually.

3. What do you love cooking most? I love to cook sweet treats, but as I have a bit of a health nut for a husband, I don't bother much. Otherwise I'd eat it all myself! Muffins are a big hit with myself and the girls.

4. What item would you love the most from your swap partner?
Not fussy, really. I'll be happy with a nice surprise.

Here's a couple of pictures I have already. We've since bought a new dining setting and the cane table is now my sewing table in another room!