The Wilson family visited with the Veitch family on the weekend. Sarah and Hannah recently marked their 9th birthday so I decided to make celebratory cupcakes (any excuse for caaaaaake.) I went all out girly and decorated the cupcakes with pink icing, love hearts and ballerinas.

My theme ended up being particularly pertinent as Hannah and Sarah had completed a ballet exam the day before. For the exam the twins had to have their hair up, plaited into a bun. The twins liked it so much that they had kept it in and were planning to wear it to school to show it off. I can understand why; it looked very elegant.

We also gave the twins a birthday present. I usually try to hand make something but unfortunately I'm a little time poor at the moment. So instead we gave them a t-shirt, a book, some earrings and a little coin purse. I solved my no wrapping paper conundrum by turning the t-shirt into wrapping paper. It actually worked quite well so I'll be reusing that idea in the future.



More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

It's all about hand made presents at the moment. I figure that you have to get in early and give them hand made gifts while they are still young. At the moment kids still like my presents. I'm sure that by the time they are teenagers they will be thinking "I wish she had just bought me an iTunes voucher." Even now it's pretty hard to compete with Zhu Zhu Pets!

Leo started kindergarten this year. I noticed that his library bag was just a plastic bag, so I decided that this would be a good birthday gift for him. Not very exciting for him but it solved my whole gift-wrapping conundrum. (Although, when we gave Leo the present he asked "Why aren't my presents wrapped?". Apparently 5 year old boys aren't environmentally conscientious.)

I used Ali Foster's Flea Market Tote Sewing Pattern to make the library bag. I'm still a bit of novice when it comes to sewing from patterns, so I was happy just to be able to follow this pattern. Then I took it a step further and made adjustments to the pattern. Actually I just left a few steps out. The pattern is for a shopping bag so it includes a few pockets inside. I figured that a library bag doesn't really need pockets so I didn't do those. It also includes interfacing which makes the bag a little more rigid. I decided that since the bag was going to be scrunched up in Leo's school bag that it would be better without interfacing. Look at me! Getting all over-confident in my sewing abilities. This is usually when something goes wrong to bring me back to earth. (In this case, I sewed over a pin, broke my machine needle and was nearly blinded by flying debris.)

I figured that the library bag was going to be the handmade part of Leo's gift and I'd just put the usual stuff - toy, book, t-shirt - in it. Then I saw a tutorial for a dinosaur hoodie on Pinterest. It looked so cool and the tutorial looked pretty easy so I decided to give that a whirl too.

Now Leo can be Leo-saurus. No action shots yet as it was quite late when we gave Leo his present.

The Veitch family came over on Sunday for a visit and a swim. It was the opportunity to finally give the girls their Christmas presents.

For Eliana I made a tutu using this no-sew tutu tutorial. It was as easy as tying pieces of tulle to an elastic. There really is no sewing necessary. (I did sew the elastic band rather than stapling it as the instructions suggested).

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's very pretty and poufy. I stayed away from pink and picked purple and teal coloured tulle. I think this colour combination works really well together. (I find when there are three little girls in a family it's best to try to avoid pink so as to prevent any possible arguments over who gets what.)

I also made a bag for the tutu to go in. I used a very pretty fabric that has little twirling ballerinas on it. I've had the fabric in my stash for ages! I finally found a project worthy to cut into the fabric. You really couldn't ask for a more perfect bag for a tutu.

Originally the twins were also going to get tutus but since they got tutus for their dancing concert last year, I had to come up with a different idea for Hannah and Sarah. When I did my prac last year, a little girl in my Kindy class brought in a cute hair clip holder that her mother had made for her. It was a little pillow with a ribbon hanging from it on which you could clip your hair clips. I had filed that one away in my inspiration vaults for later use. When the tutus were a no go I decided to give this project a go. After a little bit of research on Etsy, I whipped up a couple of hair clip holders for Sarah and Hannah.

Then I kind of overstretched myself on this project. I've been trying hard not to use wrapping paper anymore which means that we actually have no wrapping paper in the house. I've found substitute wrapping paper for adults (tea towels) and babies (muslin wraps) but still haven't found an easy substitute for the kids. Late on Saturday evening I realised that I didn't have anything with which to wrap Hannah and Sarah's presents. So I decided to sew a couple of drawstring bags to put their presents in. The bags only take half an hour or so to make but I have to make my own cord which is a little bit fiddly. I'm going to have to find a better (easier!) wrapping paper solution for the kids.

Tutus and hair clip holders. I really wish I knew more little girls because I'm not going to be able to recycle these present ideas for most of the children I know. I don't think Oscar or Leo are going to be requesting tutus any time soon.

Carlie and Mark are off to Egypt and Jordan for their Honeymoon. We know they are going to have an awesome time. As a little wedding present, we put together a traveller's pack of all the stuff that we found useful on our trip to Egypt and Jordan.

The pack included:

• Paracetamol and Ibuprofen (in cute little travel packs. I love cute little travel packs.)
• Paw Paw ointment (Great moisturiser for lips but also works really well on insect bites.)
• Antibacterial hand wash (they don't have soap in the toilets in Egypt.)
• Sunscreen
• Toilet wipes (they don't have toilet paper in the toilets in Egypt.)
• Band-aids (useful for when you cut your foot while swimming in the Nile.)
• Earplugs
• Fan

All of this was packaged up neatly in a Kathmandu padded cell.


We also let them know about the wonder that is Antinal. Antinal is an antibiotic that is available over the counter in Egypt. At the first sign of tummy trouble you take one of these miraculous pills and all is right with the world.

Have fun in Egypt and Jordan Carlie and Mark! We sure did.

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.