Holiday fun

We've just returned from a lovely time in Victoria, catching up with the girls' both sets of grandparents and extended family. We also had time for some sightseeing too.


We loved dipping our toes in the icy cold Tarago River at Noojee, a great antidote to the unexpectedly warm days.

Meeting some new friends at Gumbuya Park -that placed has certainly changed since I attended the opening at age 7 . There's a lot more emphasis on rides for the older kids, and less animals than I remember. Here's the girls meeting the sole emu.
Here we are on the City Circle Tram, which Lizzie enjoyed a lot. Louisa was less impressed, after being bonked on the head by a man's bag as he disembarked. I loved seeing how the city has evolved over the last decade since Peter and I moved to Brisbane.

We also managed a visit to the Melbourne zoo, which we all enjoyed. Here's Lizzie bug exploring, and making the acquaintance of a butterfly friend.

Sorry this post is not very sewing related, although Lizzie is wearing some upcycled pants in the pics. I added a toadstool patch and elastic waist on the morning we left, after I realised her wardrobe mainly consists of skirts and dresses!

Louisa's new skort

During the year I've done very little sewing for Louisa, as she's been in school uniform most of the time. Over the holidays, though, I've seen the need for a few more play around clothes. So here's a skort suitable for climbing trees and jumping around while still looking pretty: I did use a pattern but basically it's shorts with a flap of material sewn into the right seam and waistband.

Apparently it's (they're?) very comfy and has been worn non stop for the past day and half since I finished it!

Fun in the sun

We're enjoying our holidays, spending time boating and swimming and generally having fun.

Not much time for sewing, so nothing to report, although I do have a couple of dresses for the girls in the planning stages.

Here's the Tshirt I stencilled for Louisa for Christmas. I think it's groovy enough to wear all year round actually.

Happy Christmas, a little late

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas break. We had a lovely quiet family Christmas this year without any interstate relatives. We had a lovely time and are still enjoy the lovely weather and relaxed atmophere in our part of the world.

Catching up a bit, I had a nice meetup with two of my sewing friends from EB recently. While it was a shame that Marie couldn't make it this time, it was lovely to meet Sue for the first time, and so nice to catch up with Andrea again, who very generously made us each a gift. Here's my beautiful bag: I'm looking forward to more catch ups, and also meeting more of our Brisbane based sewists.

Due to our Christmas being a more casual one, I decided not to make a special dress, which was probably just as well as the girls very quickly changed into the dressups Santa gave them on Christmas day! To wear to a couple of catch ups before the big day, I decided to have a go at stencilling. I'm loving this process. I made Lizzie a simple 'Joy' stencilled on a bought Tshirt, but she argued it 'didn't have enough pretty things on it'! So I added some ricrac and yoyos and made a matching skirt.

I don't have a finished photo of Louisa's, but hers is much simpler. Here's the initial stencil and then I've since added a gold dove onto it. I'll get a pic later.

I hope you enjoy any extended family time you might get. My husband is home for a couple more weeks, and we'll soon be joined by his son J. I'll have to ask him very nicely for a photo of the 'You Rock You Rule' Tshirt I stencilled for him as part of his Christmas gift while he's here.

My favourite Christmas book

I'm so lucky to have this beautiful book in my possession. It brings back such beautiful memories of my own childhood Christmases.

Our Grandma would come over to our home every Christmas Eve after my Pa had passed away and stay the night. Her piano was at our house (no room where she lived) and she would play Christmas tunes from this book. Later Dad would read Twas the night before Christmas from its pages.

Having Grandma stay over meant my older sister would sleep in my younger sister and I's room on the floor. It was very exciting, and we would be determined we would not be going to sleep, but instead we would play games to keep us awake until we heard Santa.

Here's a few select pages. I have scanned the entire book, as its getting a little the worse for wear, which to me adds to its special magic charm.

The Kimono

Here's Louisa's kimono dress up for a Multicultural celebration at her school.

I did use a pattern as a base: McCalls M4953 but made loads of changes, reducing the material significantly by making the sleeves and the body shorter, and doing away with the lining. I felt that in the Queensland heat, extra fabric is not a good thing.

Of course I got a little carried away and cut it too short, so added a contrast band around the bottom rather than the neckline, and I really like the effect. By the time I got to the sash/obi part, I winged it with a rectangle of fabric and some velcro. I have no idea what the pattern required as I'd tossed it aside by that stage. That's one of the things I enjoy about kids' dress ups. There's no real rules and you can experiment without feeling too bad if it doesn't work out! But in this case I really like it and it's a great addition to the girls' dress up box.
The fan was a gift from some friends who went to Japan recently, and the drinking straws in the hair were Louisa's idea, which I think look very cute.

Some online games to play over Christmas

I'm not much of a gamer, so I prefer my games to be a bit chilled and relaxing. If you need a break from sewing or online blog trawling, here's a couple of Christmas themed games that you (or the kids) might like:

The Crossing

The Winterbells

Plenty of other, non-Christmassy games too at http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/ Lizzie's favourite for us to play together is A Daily Cup of Tea

Enjoy!