You can't protect them from everything

Liam is very sad and sore right now.
He had an accident on his bike.

The Damage:

• 1 broken nose
• 3 very wobbly teeth, 2 of which are adult ones
• lots of cuts and ahole that goes all the way through his top lip, currently being held together by tape.
• abrasions to hands and face
• Lots of pain
  

He'll be having a few days off school. There will be no Futsal for 3 weeks at least. He'll also not be allowed to run around and play sports to protect his nose from further damage. He has to eat soft foods only as the teeth are very insecure. Hopefully there is no nerve damage to the teeth and he'll get to keep them.
We have to go back to the doctors on Friday to check on the nose.

Holding your child's hand while he is in pain is one of the hardest things a mother must ever do. You really can't protect them from everything.

Joy

The simple joy of chocolate cake mix.
He's such a cheeky little imp.
Full of smiles and mischief.

When do we grow up and forget the simple joys in life?
When was the last time you just smiled and laughed just because you're alive?

When do we unlearn the simple truth of life?
That it's a beautiful gift to be rejoiced in every moment.

The only time we really have is the present.
And it really is a present.

Happy 9th Birthday Rose

Nanny was able to attend the cake ceremony via SKYPE and my laptop.
She took part in singing Happy Birthday to Rose and watched the candles be blown out.

That's my nan's chocolate cake, a tradition here.
The recipe is HERE it is very easy, yummy and never fails.
Rose shares her birthday with a friend from school and went to her party this afternoon and we had the cake for dessert.

Homemade LCM bars

The recipe for theses comes from HERE

I varied it.
I used 2 and 1/2 cups of rice bubble. 1 cup of Cocoa pops and 1/2 cup of M&M mini bakes.
I cut the mix into 12 good sized bars.

All up I estimate them to cost $5.50 for 12.

Going Grey Gracefully

I like 'growing up'. I like being the age I am. I'm turning 43 this year. And I say that proudly not with regret of the passage of time. I'm certainly not a fan of the "Cult Of Youth".

I started going grey in my late 20's and feeling I was too young to go grey. I coloured my hair. About 2 years ago I made the decision to go grey gracefully. I was having some reactions to the chemicals used in the dyes and was pregnant. After a little internet research decided that dyeing wasn't safe for me to do. Why would I place myself and my babies health at risk just for the sake of my appearance.

Hair Dye Horror Stories
Hair Colour to Dye For
Hair Dye and Pregnancy

Grey to me signifies wisdom and I hope with age I've gained a little, grey hair may help by at least giving the illusion of such! Grey says to me I'm happy with who I am. I'm comfortable in my own skin I don't need to dye my hair to feel good about myself.

Really look around at women who do dye their hair. Have you noticed how it looks sort of mismatched with their skin and highlights their wrinkles? As you age your skin tone changes if you continue to dye your hair the same shade it will no longer match your skin tone, which has the opposite effect of making you look younger!

If you don't believe me then have a look here at these photos of women who have gone grey! Can you honestly say any of them look older because they have grey hair?

A nice article here on selecting hair colour to match your skin tone.

I've had a few comments on my now ever increasing grey locks.

"Oh you're too young to go grey, you should dye your hair!"
" I wouldn't of known you were in your 40's if it wasn't for your grey hair."
" I wish I was brave enough to just go grey."

Since going grey I've been amazed by how rude other women can be. The peer pressure even at my age to conform. Somehow by not choosing to colour my hair I've offended them.

I find it really sad we live in a society that doesn't value age, that wants to hide it. What is so awful about growing old? I love growing old. It means I'm still growing, still learning! I'm looking forward to seeing my grandchildren, watching my own children become parents and the only way to do this is by aging. And really what is the alternative?

Every grey hair God gives me is a blessing, it's a badge of my experience. I've earned everyone of these glorious steaks of colour and I'm displaying them for all to see not hiding them under chemicals.

Other articles on going grey Gracefully you may enjoy:
The Age - SBS presenters going Grey
ABC Radio Life Matters - Going Grey Gracefully Challenge
Going Gray - Anne Kreamer
Best Hair Color: natural or Grey

A spinning we will go, a spinning we will go.. hi ho

My second skein of hand spun yarn
A little more even than number one.
Still lots of overspin, underspin and very uneven drafting.
But I'm still in love with the whole procedure of spinning wool.

When on my retreat in Victoria I visited the Bendigo Woollen Mills famous Back room and picked up 500gms of Readyspin.

This is about 350gms of it that is left to spin.

All spun up, twist set, some sever maltreatment had to be administered to fix some of the excessive twist.

But look, it's really starting to look like an even yarn.
Not really 100% there yet but I think I'm starting to get the drafting part.
Now I need to learn more about spin and wheel ratios I think.
Lots more reading, learning and spinning coming up!

Lucet braid

I was reading a Rav forum and came across a post from Rosie about Lucet braid.
I'd never heard of this before. I found one on ebay The technique is easy to learn. The braid works up quickly. I make ties for my longies and I prefer an icord as it looks nice and neat, the lucet makes a similar cord much quicker.

It's on again!

Once more I'll just be making and collecting the projects rather than swapping. With another bub on the way and a few commission to finish, I don't have the time and would hate to let a swap partner down.

I'm Spinning

The girls and I took a trip to visit Nanny and the cinemas in Adelaide. The boys stayed home with dad. Pete and I find it easier to take half the family each when we go on outings to places like the cinemas. That way Michael who couldn't sit through a movie can stay home, it's also easier to keep your eye on 3 children rather than 6, especially in busy shopping centers.

The girls had a great time being spoiled by nanny and they loved the movie Ice Age 3.

I finally made a visit to the Walking Wheel Studio. An amazing shop and studio which specialises in spinning and weaving supplies. Bella spent a long time explaining to me the basics of spinning. I bought a secondhand spinning wheel, an Ashford Traditional. Bella is really lovely and it was really nice to have her help. I drooled over the weaving looms and the handspun yarns but resisted. I did buy a niddy noddy, spindle and the Ashford Book of Spinning.

I couldn't wait to get Michael into bed last night. I can't spin when he's around he likes to try and catch the wheel. Armed with the Ashford book, the new wheel and beautiful tops from Suzannes House of Wool. I got spinning last night.

It's not the neatest yarn. It has lots of thin parts and lots of thick parts, it's overspun in spots and underspun in others. I half filled two spools and then plyed them together. Then did it again for a total of two skeins of completed yarn. My first novelty yarn.

Now I need to decide what to make with my yarn.


A hat or a scarf

Pascal's Wager

I came across this when studying Maths in my teaching degree.

Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. It was set out in note 233 of his Pensées, a posthumously published collection of notes made by Pascal in his last years as he worked on a treatise on Christian apologetics.

Quoted from Wiki- go learn some more about Pascal

I really love to ponder this in other areas of belief. Take Global Warming. To me the debate isn't whether it is real or not. Like Pascal's Gambit on the existence of God, if we do nothing we will pay the price, where as if we act then we may have a chance of saving our precious planet. To me it is better to act than do nothing.

I'm not a scientist. I have not read all the extremely long and complicated science papers out there on Global Warming, neither have I read the arguments against. And I think to argue against Global Warming you at least need to have read of a few research papers as to why scientist believe it exists.

I have enough going on in my life, to make me not want to spend months doing this research, to argue the case either way. And it would take months to research something like this and just gain a small amount of expertise in the subject to make my comments worth considering.

I think I'll follow Pascal's greater mind and go with his Gambit.

Babies first gown

Pattern: Baby's first Gown
Book: Baby Book
Fabric: Fine poplin.
Embellishment: Embroidered Lazy Daisies.

Construction Details:

• French seams.
• Bodice is gathered to a yoke.
• Raglan sleeves
• Binding at neck.
• Hand hemmed.
• Shirred at wrists.
• Grown on facings which I interfaced with iron on interfacing.
  
• Snaps at Center back.

This design is in many of the baby books.

FARBENMIX "ANNA" Wrap Dress For Fern

Pattern: FARBENMIX "ANNA" Wrap Dress
Made for: Fern
Size made: 136/140
Fabric: Navy Drill
Embellishments: Iron on Enbroidery Motifs, Daisy chain and Ric Rac

The length is ok but it's too wide for Fern.
Fern is petite.
One more to make!
I've run out of the Daisy chain so will either need to buy some more or try something else to embellish with the Rose will like.

I bought the pattern from Crafty Mamas here in Australia.
If you haven't seen it this is the first one I sewed for Lilly.

Learning something new.

I visited our local op-shop on Friday, they had a lot of craft books in.
I found this great book.

In the book was a how to make hairpin lace.
A technique I've never tried before.
It was popular in Victorian times and the 70's.
I'd bought a couple of the hairpin lace forks on a previous op-shopping excursion.
So with book, a Youtube video, wool, frame and hook in hand I got to work.

The hairpin lace frames are to the left, I used the smaller of the two.
My very first go at hairpin lace.
It didn't take very long to get the feel for this technique.
It's really just crochet around a frame which creates loops of an even size.
Just a little sample. I enjoyed making the band.
I think this could be another craft to add to the list.

You make lots of bands and join them together to create, what looks mostly like shawls in the vintage pattern books.
If I made a few in fine crochet I could use them as lace inserts on garments.


I sewed the ends of my sample together and made a headband for Lilly!
Pardon the hair she took to it with scissors and it's all different lengths.

FARBENMIX "ANNA" Wrap Dress

Pattern: FARBENMIX "ANNA" Wrap Dress
Made for: Lilly
Size made: 98/104
Fabric: Navy Drill
Embellishments: Iron on Enbroidery Motifs, Daisy chain and Ric Rac
Time Taken: 3 hours 30 minutes

Lilly is pretty happy with it.
I bought the Iron on Motifs from Spotlight when they were on sale.
The girls choose them and I've finally found the prefect design to use them on.
I bought the pattern from Crafty Mamas here in Australia.
The instructions were a little light on but there is an online tutorial which is very helpful.
The fabulous ladies at Crafty Mamas Forum finally got me to sew this wonderful pattern by holding a sew-a-long.
I think I'm the first to finish!

Fern helped by pressing the garment as I sewed and finding the embellishments, which were shoved into a drawer.
I read that the Anna can shift a little so it was a good idea to add a loop of ribbon to thread the ties though to help the dress stay in place. I did this to the back and also the lining of the front.

This is really a very clever design, there are no side seams to sew.
The dress is two aprons which wrap around each other. and tie under the front and at the back.
It took me just over 3 hours to sew, that included tracing the pattern out.
The next one will be faster as I know what I'm doing now!
Rose and Fern also want one.

But now I better go cook the tribe some dinner.
I've been sewing all day and it's now 6 pm.

Oh and how do I get time to sew with 6 kids?
I have a shed and if you look at the photos of Lilly you can see how the kids have occupied themselves as I have sewn! Lot's of cleaning up needs to be done.

Sweet Little Dress - leila & ben

Pattern: Leila & ben Sweet Little Dress
Fabric: Vintage Sheets

I made the above two in about an hour.
This is a very quick simple to sew pattern.
You can buy the pattern from YOU Can Make This as a PDF download!
I like you can just print cut and tape the pieces together, no tracing.
If I want to make a larger one I can just print another copy, I've not destroyed my pattern.
I bought the 3mth to 12 month pattern and there is another from 12 months to 5 years.
The instructions were very clear and easy to follow.
The pattern pieces went together well.

I did a little modifying to create this night gown.
I lengthened the dress and sleeves and added elastic in the hem.