John and Leah's little girl Susanna turned 1 in June. Happy Birthday Susie! For Susanna, I made Alice.

I used Wee Wonderfuls' Olive pattern to make Alice. It was one of the most challenging projects that I've sewn so far. Getting the legs in was the hardest part. You have to sew already stuffed legs into the body and there isn't a lot of room. I had to get advice on the pattern instructions from my sewing expert (thanks Nat!) and even then it took me 3 attempts to get it right(ish). On the 2nd attempt I sewed the legs in backwards (oops!).

Alice hung around in our living room for a while before I packaged her up and sent her to her new owner in Vancouver. She freaked out Andrew one night when he fell asleep on the couch and then awoke to find Alice staring down at him.

I'm happy with how she turned out even though she has some very obvious flaws. They just add to her charm (that's what I tell myself anyway). I'm looking forward to another go at the pattern. I might try the Archie pattern next.

Eliana Veitch turned five on Monday. Happy Birthday Ellie! In the time of uni stress, we also missed the twins' birthday. So, we invited ourselves over to dinner at the Veitch's the other night and we brought presents!

For the girls we picked up three Belly Dancing scarves while we were in Egypt. They have lots of coins on them that jingle as you move. The girls loved these! They spent the better part of the evening "belly dancing" around the living room. I also put together a CD with a few belly dancing songs so they had the appropriate theme music for their dancing. To go with the Egyptian theme, we included a book called The Egypt Game. I haven't read it but it's a Newbery Honor winner so I'm hoping it's good.

Instead of wrapping paper, I made drawstring bags to put the presents in. On each bag, I embroidered one of Allsorts' Pretty Maids. There is an Irish, a Japanese and a Spanish girl in traditional dress.

I did manage to fit in quite a bit of crafting during my uni break. Lots of the kiddies had birthdays so I had lots of birthday gifts to make. I'll be showing off what I made over the next few posts.

First up, a birthday present for Isaac who just turned three. I made a personalised towel cape for Isaac. I've got heaps of mileage out of this craft idea. This is a very easy gift to sew. (thanks LJC!) This time the towel cape also doubled up as wrapping paper (thanks for the suggestion Sarah).

My standard kid's present seems to include a t-shirt, a book and a toy. The t-shirt is from Threadless. My favourite t-shirt supplier also has a kids' range. (I have way too many Threadless t-shirts. I should really count them.) The book is City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems. A recommendation from book scout, a great blog about books for kids and teens. The toy is from Playmobil. I love Playmobil. All of this was wrapped in the towel cape and then put in a kid's envirosax bag.


Do you like our personalised Happy Birthday gift tags? They are from Moo.com. I used to make my birthday cards. I'm now so lazy I don't even write on a birthday card! But really, what three year old reads a birthday card? That's my excuse I'm sticking with it.


Happy 3^rd Birthday Isaac!

Little EddyG turned one on Wednesday. Happy Birthday Eddy!

We were lucky enough to spend the day with the birthday boy. We snorkelled at Gordons Bay (we saw a couple of rays!). We followed that little bit of exercise with grilled fish and chips at Coogee. It was a great 1st birthday celebration. It was also a 29th birthday celebration as Eddy shares his birthday with his Dad, Goldy. Poor Goldy. Nobody is ever going to make a big deal out of your birthday again. We promise we'll make a big deal out of your 30th birthday. Well, we'll call you old at least.

For Eddy's 1st birthday I made him a lambykins. Like the one below except from different material.

Usually, I have to explain what the present is after it is opened. It's a soft toy but it also doubles as a pillow. We didn't have to explain it to Eddy though. We put lambykins in front of him and he put his head straight down and gave it a hug. Everyone there went "awwwwwwwwwww". It was very cute. It's nice to see your presents in action and being appreciated.
Thanks to Nina for the photo. I stupidly forgot to take my camera on the day.

This year, to celebrate Andrew's birthday we went to see Avatar 3D at IMAX. Here we are in our 3D glasses. Don't we look sexy! The movie was pretty good. The story wasn't anything new (um... pocahontas anyone?) but it was well-paced and there were enough action sequences to keep me amused. The 3D technology was impressive. Andrew gives it 4.5 stars out of 5 (which is a big recommendation from him).

After the movie we headed to dinner at Wagaya in Haymarket. We'd picked this dinner spot for one reason... sushi roulette. How does it work? Well you order a plate of 6 salmon nigiri except there is a catch. One of the nigiris has double the amount of wasabi than normal. So, one lucky diner cops a fiery mouthful of sushi.

The participants in our round of sushi roulette were Sue, Andrew, Simon, Clare, Brendan and Adam.

Who was the lucky winner? You'll have to watch the video to find out.




Thanks to GrabYourFork for the restaurant recommendation.