Sydney / Melbourne: Sunday arvo
"Evie has well and truly reached the independent toddler stage. She likes to "help" a lot around the house. Whenever I try to do some sewing at my machine she asks to sit on my lap so she can help. I usually have to give up my attempts at this time because little fingers and pointy needles don't really mix.

There are two ways where she can actually help with my crafting. She makes an excellent softie stuffer. She has helped to stuff many a lambykin. Her little hands are perfect for reaching into the opening to shove stuffing in.

She also very good at road testing all the things I make. I don't think there is anything I make that leaves the house without being played with or cuddled by Evie. She thoroughly road tested Elliot's car caddy before we gifted it to him on his birthday. I know we should probably be saving these gifts for the recipients. However, I figure that if Evie likes the gift then the birthday boy or girl will too. It's been given the toddler seal of approval. "

Check out Tash's day at jouljet.

Melbourne / Sydney: Sunday lunch time
"Happy Birthday Leo! I joked with him that it was really the Festival of Leo as he had a party for his friends on the Saturday, an extended family party on the Sunday and then an immediate family celebration on the Monday, his actual birthday.

I generally volunteer for dessert duty so had offered to make Leo's birthday cake. We had such a busy weekend planned so I decided to make him a trifle birthday cake. Trifle is pretty easy to whip up and Leo loves it. I knew it would be a winner with him (he's definitely a Daley when it comes to desserts). I personalised it with an L made out of the leftover jam rollette and chocolate finger biscuits. We also decorated it with some sparklers at Happy Birthday time. Leo was a bit disappointed he wasn't able to blow out the sparklers. "

Check out Tash's day at jouljet.

Sydney / Ballarat: Sunday morning
"Here is a happy Evie on Easter sunday with her bunny Flossie.

To get Evie to smile in photos now I say "Smile! Show me your teeth!". In the beginning we would get her to say "cheese!". She would concentrate on the CH sound and end up with a strange expression on her face in photos. Then I started to say "smile!". That only resulted in her repeating "smileeeeeeeeeeee!" and still no smile in photos. Show me your teeth seems to be working at the moment. Although recently Evie has started to point to her teeth when I ask this. I will have to try a different approach soon I think. "

Check out Tash's day at jouljet.

Tash has been busily blogging our Project52 and is completely up to date. Me... not so much; I'm terribly behind. I figured it would be better to just start blogging again and catch up the missed weeks later. I couldn't resist blogging this one. When I put these two photos side by side I had to laugh. Cocktails and embroidery... couldn't be further apart.

Dehli, India / Sydney: Saturday night
"Last year for Wilson secret santa I asked for a ticket to Urban Stitches. It's a craft conference held at Darling Harbour. I spent the day hand sewing and chatting with other ladies who also love to craft. We were given a few projects to do and were told that we could probably finish all of them by the end of the weekend. I picked the embroidery project as I can usually multitask enough to talk while embroidering. I didn't even get halfway through this project though. Obviously I'm still a newbie.

I love crafting and was hoping to meet some other like minded ladies (or guys... boys craft too... I think) from Sydney. There is quite an active online craft community but not much happening in real life. Unfortunately all of the ladies at my table were from out of Sydney (Dubbo, Newcastle and Nowra). Maybe I'll have to start a Dully CWA chapter to get some irl craft action (although would that have to be the UWA - Urban Women's Association - as Dully is hardly the country). "

Check out Tash's day at jouljet.

Sydney / Bangkok: Friday morning "Packing to go on holiday to Hawaii! Yay! I don't mind the packing bit. Not really a fan of the unpacking because it usually means lots of laundry and then putting that laundry away.

I'm trying to improve my packing by writing lists these days so that I don't over pack. I've got an extra motivation to pack only what we need this time. Andrew has said that this is all the luggage we're allowed to bring back. I need to make sure there is enough room for all the shopping I plan to do in Hawaii. "

As I catch up on Project52 I might also try to squeeze in some Hawaii posts.

Check out Tash's day at jouljet.