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!

Here is a cute photo of Hamish and an action shot of lambykins. Thanks for sharing Sarah.

Well, hello there! Sorry I disappeared for a bit. This semester at uni I bit off more than I could chew. At the beginning of the year I signed up for 3 subjects (which is one more subject than a part time load). When I did that I forgot that I had still had a 2-week prac and a prac-related assignment to complete and two supplementary exams to sit. So, 7 assignments, 3 exams and one very stressed Jess later I'm all done for this semester. I have a little bit of a break before next semester starts and I'm planning to fill it doing stuff I love.

First up, I had some crafting to catch up on. Sarah and Duncan had a little boy, Hamish, in March. I was already 3 months late with my new bubba gift. For Hamish, I put together the following gift. It has some of my favourite new bubba stuff in it:

• Lambykins - one of my favourite things to sew for a new baby. Lambykins is very easy to put together but he is so cuddly. I must admit that I had a few cuddles here and there while I was stuffing him. I'm sorry Hamish, lambykins comes to you pre-cuddled and pre-loved (just a little bit).
  
  
• My Place by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins - this was one of my favourite books while growing up. It is the story of a house in Sydney and the area around it as told by the children who lived there from 1988 back in time to 1788. Each decade has an accompanying map with lots of little tidbits. I used to spend hours poring over these maps. The book has great reread value. You discover something new everytime you read it. (Can you tell I'm a fan? I just used it for my latest English uni assignment.)
  
  
• Mr Messy onesie - an impulse buy. But seriously, what baby isn't a Mr / Lil Miss Messy?
  
  
• Giraffe wrap - I've sworn off wrapping paper. Although wrapping paper makes presents look awfully pretty I decided that it was very wasteful. The present is only wrapped for a little bit and then the paper is discarded after only one use. I've been looking for better things to wrap my presents in. For adults, I've been using tea towels (I brought about 50 tea towels home with us from our travels). For babies I decided to use swaddling wraps. Now I just have to come up with a solution for the in between ages. Any ideas?

ugh, sorry for the blurry photo. I only just finished lambykins before heading out to hang out with Sarah and Duncan (and the rest of the badgers). Unfortunately, it was late afternoon by this time and the light was not the best for photo taking.