day eighty five: stuffed owl

this is a REALLY cute owl!

day eighty five and its time for a little more sewing ... last night i repinned this gorgeous little owl with a pdf pattern from lisa at stubbornly crafty onto my general crafts board and thought he was too cute not to make today!

i gathered my supplies and some heat and bond so as not to test my ability to sew in circles ... not too keen to take that step at this stage ... at all :)  there are a lot of circles to cut when you decide to make one for spring decor and one for the christmas season but i thought this little owl was worth it.

the materials and the very good pattern

the making of the owls in my case involved a lot of ironing!

the pdf pattern prints out on an a4, so this little bird is about 6" when complete.  the instructions on the website are great as they cater for the supremo sewers who will sew and not bond and those of us who just want to bond and then sew the back and front together ... i love people who know there are less capable people than them and are happy to make allowances for them!

my two new little friends

this little guy is obviously destined to be used at christmas!

outcome: tomorrow i will be making at least two more!  i ran out of time today, but polly has asked for a pink one for her bed and i want to make one for halloween as well!  this little one is such a cute size for placing on a sideboard or a little peeps bed ... they will happily add to any season's decor and i am absolutely in love with the christmas owl we have affectionately named mistletoe :)

the tutorial for this little owl is brilliant and i am so grateful to lisa from stubbornly crafty for putting together such an awesome pattern and tutorial ... and she's right, its priceless watching the peep's face when you give it to her to cuddle!

day eighty four: me on the map

ben on the map and where he fits :)  fantastic learning
project ... thanks to pinterest or i never would have
found jenn's awesome learning idea!

day eighty four and we have social studies this afternoon.  i wanted to incorporate some web research, some art, and also provide the kids with a really good understanding of where they fit in the world.  i figured this idea by jenn from finally in first could be adapted to my older kids with regards to adding some research to it :)  my kids love visual learning so i am hoping the increasing circles will really resonate with them :)

the circles i cut out for today's project :)

i cut out the circles for both children and then asked them to do something different for each of the areas according to their abilities:

pollyanna (year two)
me - draw a picture of yourself
home - draw our home
street - draw our street and write down the name of it
town - using the internet, find some pictures of our town to print out and attach to the circle
our island - find out what the biggest city is in our island, draw our island
our country - find out what the capital of our country is and print out a map of new zealand to attach to this circle
out continent - find out all the continents and print a picture of the one you live in
our planet - draw our planet and research two interesting facts about our planet

pollyanna's project :)

benjamin (year five)
me - draw a picture of yourself and on the back describe you :)
home - draw our home, write down your favourite place to be at home and one thing you would change to our home if you could
street - draw a map of our street including a compass indicating north
town - find out when our town first became a town and what its main industry was
our island - draw our island and find out what the five most populated cities in our island are
our country - find out what our national flower and animal is and draw them .. print out a map of new zealand to attach to this circle
our continent - print a picture of our continent and name five countries that below to it on the back of the circle
our planet - draw our planet and research five interesting facts about our planet

benjamin's project ... they looked so cool finished!

outcome: this project was totally awesome ... i gave the kids the labels and i helped polly organise hers by size focusing on just adding one more circle at a time, discussing that and then moving to the next largest circle.  it was really exciting seeing ben researching with such interest, i guess because he could see instantly what the project was about and he was very inspired by the little size of his world compared to the ACTUAL world he belonged to ... visually and conceptually this project was outstanding for the kids with regards to identifying and comparing themselves to others and their communities because on geographical reasons.

my sincere thanks goes to jenn from finally in first for this outstanding idea, it really helped with understanding the world as a whole and how towns and countries fit into that space ... especially for pollyanna.  its wonderful teachers like jenn that make the little peeps of today so successful later in life :)

day eighty three: roll up shopping bag

the shopping bag ... its actually much bigger
than you think because of the gusset
sides :)

day eighty three and given my new found knowledge of interfacing, i decided to undertake another project that involved the stuff today!  i found this roll up shopping bag tutorial from needle and spatula that used interfacing so that was all the inspiration i needed to start this creation :)  the tutorial is also pinned to my general crafts board on pinterest.

you need two fabrics and some ribbon ... and of course
a little bit of interfacing!

you need two contrasting fabrics, some interfacing, and ribbon for this project ... i see this bag coming in very handy but i shall have to check my sewing quality at the end before i am game enough to put anything heavy in it!  when i looked at the tutorial more indepth i panicked a bit because it called for french seams and gusseted sides ... neither of which i had sewn much if at all before!  however, the tutorial, once you start sewing and following the instructions, tells you exactly what to do and then has plenty of reference pictures and in the end it was all straight stitching ... perfect as i need the practise!

adding the handles and ribbon

the finished bag ... so cool

the rolled up bag ... this bag will be so handy

outcome: i made handles ... with interfacing (insert pride here) and attached them to a bag that has french seams and gusset sides!  the tutorial is so good, this is a perfect project for beginners at sewing and i really enjoyed making this bag.  not only that, i even trust it enough (because of the reinforced seams) to use it :)  ... oooh i could make christmas and halloween ones!

many thanks to kate for putting together such a wonderful sewing tutorial, i feel like my sewing improved heaps today and i learnt so much from making this bag, so again a big thank you to you.

day eighty two: cute wallet

the very cool card wallet :)

day eighty two and we are heading to my sewing machine for today's creation.  this very cute wallet by kellie from the my so called green life blog will be today's creation and you can find it pinned to my general crafts board.

my first objective for this creation was to find some interfacing and actually determine what that was ... my local sewing shop was very helpful after laughing at me .... my sewing tuition continues thanks to pinterest!

add a sewing machine and this is what you require

the tutorial is brilliant once you get through the fastening options and it actually helped reading it once and then reading it again from start to finish with the cut pieces of fabric in front of you.  i chose the hair tie option for closing the wallet because that meant no hand sewing!  i also love that there is no hand sewing to close the insides because it all happens magically with the flipping of the pocket ... so CLEVER, well it is when you are a novice like me :)

the clever inside out pocket to finish the wallet :)

finished wallet fastened and it worked ... how cool is that!

the opened wallet complete with cards!

outcome: i was surprised at how little time this actually took to come together and immediately i thought this is a gift i would be proud to give!  i was particularly excited when my cards fitted into the wallet and my sewing looked almost straight!  these are fantastic and for the sewing guru's amongst you, this is a 10 minute sewing job with most of that involving cutting, for the rest of us 20 minutes and the creation is done from start to finish ... i have a very proud face on right now!

my sincere thanks goes to kellie, the tutorial made me feel empowered to sew this wallet and i am totally not surprised the tutorial for these gorgeous little wallets is the most popular post on your blog every week :)

day eighty one: soft and chewy chocolate chip biscuits

pollyanna's favourite cookies so far from pinterest :)

day eighty one and i am baking cookies ... the cupboards are bare mother hubbard!  there are two things i missed for my creating while i was away - my kitchen and my sewing machine ... so this week i aim to use both a lot! today its the turn of the kitchen with these delicious looking soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies by martha stewart.  i also really liked the combination of chocolate chips by katie at have stand, will mix, so i am going to do that as well!  you can find this creation on my recipe must do's board.

this recipe does require you to haul out the heavy mixing machinery, but as i've discovered all the best cookie recipes seem to require this step!  apart from that, the recipe was really easy to follow and the baking time is small, which is great for people with limited time :)

ben sifting the flour and baking soda

this is way my biscuits are never beautifully round!

soft and chewy chocolate chip biscuits :)

outcome:  i had little helpers with the baking today and i'm sure that's helped them taste oh so good :)  as a white chocolate lover, i totally love the combination of both chocolates, but if you are a real chocoholic you may just want to stick with the milk :)  pollyanna declared she thought they were the best cookies we had down from pinterest yet and actually its hard to disagree ... they were easy and tasted yummo :)

my thanks goes to martha and her crew for another outstanding cookie recipe and also to katie for adding in the variation of the two types of chocolate ... this totally worked for me and hopefully it will for you too :)

have a happy start to the week everyone, tomorrow its time to spend some quality time with my sewing machine!

day eighty: baked potatoes in the crockpot

baked potatoes for dinner ... so good!

day eighty and its time for the crockpot to come in handy today!  we are out most of the day and i know after a really busy sunday no one will feel like cooking dinner tonight, so i started making dinner this morning in the crockpot thanks to a wonderful idea from skip to my lou.  pinned to my recipe must do's board is her cool idea for baked potatoes in the crockpot, what a perfect easy sunday dinner :)

its almost too simple to be true, just turn the crockpot on low and place in foil wrapped potatoes, walk away for 6 hours and return to a cooked dinner!

what you need ... 

... yeah it couldn't be easier!

and like magic dinner was ready bar some quick toppings :)

outcome:  and return we did, we were tired, but we arrived home to some well cooked potatoes!  we added kransky's, pesto's, cheese, and sour cream to the top of them and they were delicious.  the potatoes were really really well done so in future i will only put them on for 5 hours on low ... this is totally a personal preference but they really probably only need half a day in the crockpot if you a using small to medium spuds :)  obviously if you are using BIG ones 6-7 hours will be perfect!  i am definitely going to do this again especially on nights when the kids have sport because this provides instant, hot nourishment for the tired troops :)

many thanks to skip to my lou for this inspired dinner option, who knew that making dinner was going to be SO easy tonight ... not me, but it totally was ... so now the kids are fed, in bed reading, and i can sit back with a hot coffee (and maybe some of the chocolate i brought my mum back from singapore!) and relax into the evening ... oh and the dishes were a DREAM :)

day seventy nine: flip flop/jandal buckets for summer and nz bottle winner :)

jandal/flip flop bucket :)

day seventy nine and it was a gorgeous day and felt like spring was coming ...  i felt inspired to start getting ready for the change in seasons :)  for most of the year i live in jandals (as we call flip flops here) except winter when my toes would freeze, the rest of the time i love my toes poking out of my footwear!  and today was a day worthy of having my toes free to the air and the warm sun ... and actually so did everybody else in my family, which caused an overflow of jandals by the front door AND the back door :(  i hate clutter and decided this was all the inspiration i needed to make the flip flop bucket i pinned to my ideas for organisation board on pinterest.  this wonderful idea is from jeri's organizing and decluttering news blog ... this blog is like heaven for those that LOVE being organised but don't have enough time to come up with cool ideas ... me!

it was late in the day when i discovered the mess at each door, so the shopping time was limited :) i tried my hardest to find some metal buckets so i could give spray painting a whirl but that will have to wait for another day.  what i did find was some very summery coloured plastic buckets for $2 that were the ideal size and price!  i also purchased some american crafts thicker letter stickers for the naming of my buckets so no family member will be left wondering what the buckets are for!

happiness is organisation ... right!

outcome:  i made two, one for the front door and one for the back door ... love the colours and while its a little early for summer i think the colours will work for spring as well.  i am a happy lass with my buckets holding the jandals, its cleaned up each door and ... even better i feel like some spring decorating now!  i just have to hope my delightful family remember to use them.

hoping these colours will work with the spring and summer
decorating i plan to do!

today's thanks goes to jeri and the wonderful decluttering and organising idea for jandals/flip flops, i am totally loving all the wonderful ideas for all sorts of storing and organising, this will not be the last one i use ... far from it!

it was really late last night when i realised i had not organised ben to find a winner for the nz bottle of mailed goodies ... so we did it today .... and the winner is DANIELLE :)  congrats to you, please send me your postal address to kahoonz@clear.net.nz and i will mail off the below drink bottle (this one is unused!) with your goodies.

it was early ;)

this is the bottle of goodies!

have a fabulous day everyone :)