A Peek

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It is a cold, rainy and incredibly dreary evening here in Melbourne. The other half is off at a Bachelor Party, the kids are about to have their stories and bed and I am going to enjoy spending my evening making bias tape and also sewing some more bunting triangles.

I thought I would share a not-so-sneaky-peek of that new product I'm making. I might get a few more photos up in the coming days so you can have a real looksy!

 

There's also a new WeePantz OSFM Nappy review over on Daily Mothering with a giveaway too so head over and have a read. 

 

Hope you are all having a warm snuggly evening wherever you are…

 

Self Portraits…

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When it is forecast to rain, we tend to get out the sidewalk chalk and let the kids decorate the driveway. 

a flower by miss R

A flower – Miss R

Dora the Explorer, by Mr O

Dora the Explorer – Mr O

The other week, in such a situation we sent the kids out and they decided to draw self portraits.

Self Portrait by Miss R

Self Portrait – Mr O

I love having a look at the different stages of my kids' drawing because it really is a massive developmental thing. The way they put shapes together to draw "people" tends to change and get more developed as they get older. (unless you are me, I still draw stick figures :p) 

I also love the way that our kids view themselves.

Miss R sees herself as a gorgeous bombshell princess.

Mr O views himself as his smiley face and hair. 

Miss R has used lots of colours to express herself.

Mr O has used blue "because it is for boys". 

 

I love being a mum and getting to experience the joy of raising little people and watching them develop and grow. 

 

If you were going to draw yourself, what would you pick to be your main feature and inspiration?

I think I'd draw a lady in glasses sitting at her sewing machine.

Enjoying…

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Today I am enjoying the fact that someone invented multiple colours of Sharpies.

 My uni outlines are up so I've spent a bit of time marking in a few things on my study/life planner. I am a big fan of having my plans and calendar on paper rather than on a computer screen. I like to be able to hold it rather than have to stare at a screen.

Perhaps I don't like relying on technology too much…

I am also working on something very secret.

Have a happy Saturday, stay cool, we are relaxing in the air-conditioning.

It is meant to be 37 here today,  so we aren't risking the outdoors to find out how hot it really is until later when it should cool down a little bit.

Slightly Biased…

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Today I am making bias tape. I am a sucker for handmade bias tape and I am about to need a whole lot of it. I am making some bunting for SIL's wedding in a few weeks, and also that new product I have mentioned a few times will need it also.

I have been experimenting with different ways of making bias tape as bias tape makers can be so fiddly when you don't have an automatic one and I stumbled upon a tutorial on French (or double fold) bias tape.

single fold bias tape  French (double fold) bias tape

I had a bit of a play with both techniques, but I definitely find the double fold method much better for my current projects.

What about you? Which type of bias tape do you use/make?

(p.s. ignore my ironing board cover, I have the things here to make a new one, but that isnt anywhere near the top of the to do list)

The return of the blogger…

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I was a naughty girl and didn't really blog for a while…

I had a good reason I promise… Here's a bit of an overview of the last few weeks…

 

 

 

 

It's been a fairly busy February with school going back, markets, calisthenics resuming and other basic mum stuff.

I've made the decision to go part time at work (my other job) which will mean I can take Mr O out of daycare 2 days a week and spend time being a mummy. I think I miss him as much as he misses me. I also wont be exhausted all the time from doing 5 night shifts a week, only having 4 hours sleep every single night and never seeing my kids and my partner.

I am also going back to uni next week (first public announcement there). I am only doing 2 subjects, but I am really looking forward to finishing what I started years ago and becoming a teacher.

My more predictable hours is also going to hopefully mean I will get more time to do this… make nappies… update the website… blog. 

I am putting my foot down and spending less time on Facebook. I will still update the WeePantz page, but I feel that as I get more involved in it, Facebook really is a massive time suck, and I can use my time in much better, more productive ways. 

I am doing less markets this year. My original plan for 2012 was to do more different things, try new markets, really get my stuff out there etc etc. But upon reflection, I have decided to only do 2 markets a month, sometimes only 1. This way I can keep the website stocked and up to date, and also keep my retailers happy of which there will be a new one in the coming weeks. And a new product will be featured soon too.

I am looking forward to being awake, refreshed and happy doing what I love, being with the people I love and enjoying learning new things.

Midnight Inspiration…

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I spent a bit of time on Pinterest last night. I love it over there, as it is so easy to get lost amongst the beautiful things I want to buy or make and the words and images of inspiration I can use to feed my creative soul.

 

There are so many ways, I find, to inspire my creative side. I love looking at things filled with colour. To me they invoke many feelings of fun, play & happiness. 

That is a massive part of my "style". Perhaps my style is inspired by my gorgeous kids who fill my life with joy, love, happiness, play, colour & crazy.

 

I need to fill my mind with colour to make me WANT to sew new things and think of new designs, and patterns.

I feel ready to jump in front of my sewing machine and forget the housework again after a refreshing bout of internet surfing fun.

What inspires you? 

All Image links can be found on my Pinterest Inspiration Board.

Inspiration & Focus

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I am spending some time today (with an A rated priority) designing new appliques and sorting out fabrics for designer nappies.

 

I am so lucky to have some beautiful fabrics to work with for my products which helps me to get inspired to make gorgeous things. I have some very nice new fluffy and soft minky fabric to play with and also some designer cottons and my brain is going into dream mode.

I will be making up some new applique designs. I LOVE applique nappies. I almost prefer them to the spliced ones as they are better for my incredibly heavy wetting son Mr O. I also think that EVERYONE makes embroidered nappies now days and I don't really like to do what everyone else is doing…. So I think my hand appliqued nappies are a bit different and a whole lot more special because they are hand made, hand stitched and can be customised because a lot of the time they are one of a kind.

I also have some beautiful fabric in my studio to make some bunting for my Sister in Law's wedding. I am really looking forward to getting my scissors into that!

So much gorgeous fabric and so many ideas. What kind of things are you into at the moment??

I am very much into BOY things. I find that there is so much around for little girls which I just want to grab as soon as I see it even though Miss R is way too big for it, but nothing cool, funky or cute that I want to impulsively buy for my son. So there are lots of pirates, sharks, lightning bolts, tractors and planes being dreamed about here at the moment. 

These times call for…

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ORGANISATION!!

there has been a lot of talk of late in bloggy land about life organisation. I WOULD like to say I am a super organised person and I always have taken pride in my ability to have everything in its place.

Since about this time last year though, I have noticed though that I am starting to fail in the organisation stakes. I missed a lot of markets simply because I forgot to apply for them. My house looks like a bomb has hit it 5 days a week I forget to pay bills simply because I didn't notice they arrived or put them somewhere that I thought was a good idea at the time and then forgot where that really awesome place was.

Over Christmas, and in December in general, I started to re-organise my sewing studio. I put a hook on the wall for a to-do list and put in yet another lot of shelves to contain all my patterns, stationary, scrap bucket etc etc. It feels a-lot more like a creative space now as much as I know I could do so much more in there.

This month I am focusing on organising my life. I need to stop being so forgetful because being forgetful and disorganised is just plain old depressing!! I am such a busy person too so I really do think that organising my brain, and my life means that I will have more time to do things that I want to do and there are many!! (How is it that being busy makes you want to do more things, which in turn, will make you even busier?!?!)

I know there are a million things I could do to clean out my life, label the pantry, keep special baskets for different washing so its easier to sort, etc etc. But I feel like I need to organise the mental part of me, the million things going around in my head, before I can start on the physical. Its important to me to remember where I am meant to be, what I am meant to be doing, who I am meant to be calling, emailing or going to visit. And also where the kids are meant to be at any given time of the day/week/month.

I was off at Officeworks the other day ( I love Officeworks, as a stationary addict, I could spend hours in there just smelling the aroma of paper in the air) Officeworks is right next to my butcher, and I had to go in to buy pens and notepads and they had a few discount bins out one of which had Day Planner/Organisers in it and the other had Desk Calenders in it. A lightbulb clicked on in my head at this point in time and I grabbed one of each (you might have noticed them in my post yesterday)

Day Planner & Desk Calender

The Day Planner encourages writing down everything that you would like to get done in a day and then prioritising them into 3 categories:-

"A" – things you need to get done today.

"B" – things you'd like to get done today.

"C" – things that you could get to if you had time.

FANTASTIC for me.

I am always thinking a million things that need to be done on any given day and then get overwhelmed, start them all at once and then finish none of them! After 3 days of using the day planner, I've noticed a difference. I know what needs to be done first and that makes for a happier me!

The Desk Calender is going to help me to keep track of everything I need to pay, my appointments and also my due dates for projects, orders etc so I can transfer them into the day planner to get everything done on time… I am of course only one woman, but there are many hours in each day for me to fill and this is going to help me fill them effectively and prioritise my tasks. Best $5 I've spent this week (yeah, that's cheap hey??)

I have promised myself to be sure to organise each day and prioritise its tasks to ensure I get everything done I need to as I will be doing extra tasks this year to keep up with my work load and parenthood. I'm not going to "See how I go" at this, as it is super important to me to be organised as I feel it leads to a less stressful existence. I think its important to remember that a lot of the time, things don't just fall into place, you have to put them there and keep them there for things to get better and successful.

What about you? What do you do to create a balance between work / study with family life? Does it come naturally to you or do you find you need a system too? I'd love it if you shared :)

Photo – A – Day Monday

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As promised, my week's worth of Photo – a day photos for this week.

Photo a Day Jan 17 - 23

I am awfully quiet due to working, school holidays and general distraction… I hope to be back a little more this week since I have a few extra free hours. Enjoy the photos. Play along here.