Craft 2.0

I thought that I would do a quick post on Craft 2.0 which was held here in Christchurch for the first time last Saturday. You can read an article about it here. It was great to see so many different crafts on display by some very talented people.

I didn't go too crazy (and believe me I could have...), I bought some magazines. A copy of the new mag Good which is fantastic, all about sustainable living and the first issue of World Sweet World mag, another great read about craft!

I also bought an embroidery kit, it looks so cool. I completely fell in love with the design and as the pack included everything you need to complete it, needles, hand dyed thread, instructions for dummies, etc, I thought I would give it a go! I have never done embroidery before so we will have to wait and see what it turns out like. The lady I bought it from said that if I have any problems I can go around to her studio and she will help me out, how cool is that, crafty people are just so friendly! Anyway I have put it away for a bit as I think that I have enough projects on the go at the moment.

I also bought a gorgeous little butterfly (I love butterflies) brooch by the ever so talented Millie from PinkPaperPinafore, check out her blog as she also makes the most adorable sock monkeys. Somebody is definitely getting one of them for Christmas this year, probably Talia.

A bonus on Saturday was that Felt, which for those of you who do not know is like a NZ version of Etsy, where clever crafty folk can sell their wares. Anyway, Felt were having an exhibition in the same place that Craft 2.0 was being held so it was 2 for 1..brilliant! I am really hoping that the Craft 2.0 becomes a regular thing, it seemed like it was really popular on the day so fingers crossed. Maybe one day I will be able to sell something there myself........X

Lolly-Bell

Our little Lola is 6 months old, actually 6 months and a bit, I'm a bit behind with my blogging! Lola is such a delight to us all, she is such a sweet, happy little soul. We are all besotted with her, Kalem and Talia are in the bedroom as soon as they hear her wake in the morning, both desperate for one of those gummy smiles. It is hard to imagine a time when she was not with us, she is just what we needed to make our family perfect. She is so much fun at the moment rolling all over the floor, taking great delight in every new thing, giggling, squealing and blowing raspberries. She is a bit wary of new people, but just a quick look at mum or dad for reassurance and she is all smiles.We love you our little Lolly-Bell, you have been our little ray of sunshine through a long and dreary old winter. How blessed we are to have you in our lives!

Pretty as a picture.... Fun with Daddy....
Lola the roller........Smiley, happy girl....

Big brother love....

You have had one or two mouthfuls of food, but you are just taking your time with this food thing, there is no rush.....

Now if only we could find a way to stop you from waking every 2 hours at night............................... X

BAKING WITH BOO

This is 'baking with Boo daddy style'.........On Sunday while Lola slept and Kalem and I snuggled up on the couch and watched 'Under the Mountain', Daddy and Talia made some Anzac biscuits. They worked very well together and even tidied up after themselves.

A bit of singing to help the biscuits cook.....................

Ta Da.... the yummy finished biscuits ready to pack up and take round to Nana's for afternoon tea! They were crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle, perfect Anzac biscuits, a job very well done!

Note to brother Paul - do you remember watching 'Under the Mountain' when we were younger??? Quite a lot younger actually as it was made in 1981, here in NZ..... X

Hair today...gone tomorrow!

Kalem has always had longish hair, when he was really little he had the most amazing long curly blond locks. We thought it was adorable, other people seemed to think that it made him look like a girl. This used to drive my parents crazy and I know that they struggled often with the desire to get out the scissors and cut it off when I wasn't around. Luckily they never gave into those demon urges. Anyway, kalem has been wanting his hair cut short for a few weeks now and at the weekend Julian took him to the hairdresser. This is the cool little dude that came home to me...............

Errrr... and this is how he wants to wear it to school!

Apparently I now have to go and buy him some 'product' (????) to make it spiky. I have caught him looking in the mirror a couple of times since the cut, which is hysterical as he has never shown any interest in what he looks like before. Does this mean my little man is growing up? While we were out yesterday a couple of little girls waved at him and I nudged him to say that it was probably due to his cool hair. He just shrugged and told me that the hairdresser had warned him that could happen......................okay then! X

A day off school....

Thank you for your kind birthday wishes ladies..... You will all be pleased to know that I did not fall asleep in my soup when I WENT OUT on Thursday evening. I also did not have soup, but a great big veggie burrito which was delicious! It was such a fun evening hanging out with the girls and actually managing to get through a whole sentence without jumping up to sort out kids.... An evening full of talking and laughing, just what the doctor ordered, those lovely girlie's spoilt me with lovely hair products and a voucher for a pedicure.....how lucky am I!

During the day Kalem did not go to school as he was apparently feeling unwell and had two (yes he has 2 heads don't ya know) headaches..... I let him have the day off and miraculously he was feeling fine and fighting with his sister by 10am. I decided a day out was what was needed so off we trotted to Lollipops playground, the kids had a ball and even Lola was happy just to sit and watch all that was going on around her.

I love this action shot, look at that hair fly..........

Kalem and Talia didn't want Lola to miss out on all the fun....

In knitting news.... No I still have not finished my shrug, what was that I said about not knitting anything else till it was done??? There is so much knitty temptation out there, what's a girl to do! Anyway, I have just finished the below item called a Calorimetry, I came across this item while looking through the Pimp my Longies blog. The actual pattern can be found on Knitty .com. Once I had finally gotten my head around the pattern and read all the comments about them on Ravelry, it knitted up pretty quickly. I only c/o 100 sts not the 120 sts the pattern advises and it fits perfectly. I can't quite believe that I am putting up another photo of myself, but here it is........

This afternoon I am off the the Craft 2.0 show in Christchurch, I can't wait to see what crafty goodies are on offer! Will report back......X

Another year older.....

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a wonderful day.... My lovely hubby had the day off and after dropping Kalem at school and Talia at pre-school we headed into the city for some brunch. It was so weird just being out and about with only Lola, she was a little angel the whole day, must have know it was mummy's birthday!!! We had a lovely brunch and I even got to have a birthday beer....
Lola was completely happy chewing on her little fabric book and smiling at passers by.

It was such a beautiful day that we even got to eat outside, this considering we had SNOW the previous day was a definite bonus!

After we had picked up K and T we headed to the beach where Talia had fun making sand angels....

We took silly photo's of ourselves....

Completely CRAZY children actually paddled in the water, it must have been freezing, as I mentioned it did SNOW the day before...brrrr!

Then it was home to ice and decorate mum's birthday cake.....

Perfect, what a lovely job they did....., this was one of 2 birthday cakes as when my in-laws all came round in the evening my lovely sister in law had made a banana cake. She is famous for her gorgeous banana cakes in our family!

I had such an amazing day and I got spoilt rotten. My favourite gift of the day was an AMAZING book which I am going to treasure about wild animals from Kalem. He loves to make people books for their birthdays, last year I had a book about space. It is so sweet as he works really hard on them, here are a few of my favourite pages. There are also drawings of Koala Bears, Lions and Elephants to name a few........

I also got a couple of fabulous crafty books....what a lucky girl!

Tonight I am off out for dinner with my twirly girly friends which I am very excited about, it is the first time that I have been out in the evening since Lola was born. Hope I don't fall asleep in my soup...................................X

MEME

THINGS TO DO IN MY TOWN FOR (ALMOST) FREE MEME from the lovely Ingrid. Here are the rules (because it wouldn't be a meme without rules):

1. List (at least) five things to do for free in your city or town, not just well publicised touristy things, but things YOU might do too!
2. Write it with a visitor in mind.
3. Tag three people* - extra fun if they live somewhere you'd like to know better or you're going to sometime soon.
4. If you're anonymous/coy about where you live, choose another town or city that you know.

Okay number 1 - As a family we love to spend a Sunday walking through the Botanical gardens ending up at the Art Centre market. You can browse here without spending any money of course, but be warned there are some serious temptations and the food court has some fantastic choices from around the world. My favourite has to be the felafel's!

number 2 - the museum is a great place to go, I know that it is touristy, but the kids love it there. They do ask for a donation. The art gallery which is just around the corner from the museum is also donation only and they have a great area for children to do crafts.

number 3 - We love the beach, our favourite is Sumner. It is pretty small, but there is a great cave to be explored and if you walk to the end of the esplanade there is also a brilliant park with paddling pool for the warmer months. So this is basically 2 for 1. Of course not totally free as the day would not be complete without ice cream.......

number 4 - Bottle lake forest is a great place for walking and bike rides. This is a favourite with Julian and Kalem as they love to go biking there, you should see the muddy state they come home in.......

number 5 - Christchurch is a great place for walking/hiking, the port hills have some great tracks. This is something that we want to do more of as a family, but with little legs that tire easily, we may have to wait a while. There are absolutely loads of walks to choose from with some stunning scenery.

Righto ..... I am going to send this meme on to:

Emma from Lavenderhouse
Abi from Little Grubs
and Janelle from Heart Felt

Charlie and Lola

We all LOVE the Charlie and Lola books and DVDs in our home, all the more special as we have our own little Lola.... The stories are so sweet and simple and I adore the way that Lola speaks and Charlie, well he has to be the most kind and patient big brother ever! Charlie and Lola NEVER seem to fight..... I am constantly pointing this out to my kids, but they don't seem to get the hint! Anyway we have just received this new book from the school book club about recycling which is really cool. In the book Charlie, Lola and their school friends all work together to recycle 100 things, then they are given their own tree to plant. We have decided to do this at home and once Kalem and Talia have recycled 100 things on their own, then we are going to get them their own little tree too. The book comes with a fold out tree poster where you can stick little leaves for each item recycled...cool idea hey! I am a big fan of Lauren Child's collage style artwork, it's brilliant!
This Friday was FRUITY FRIDAY at Kalem's school, all the children had to go dressed the colour of their favourite fruit, they made smoothies for lunch then had a fruity hat parade for the parents in the afternoon. Kalem wanted me to blog his super cool fruity hat, of course little miss T had to be in on the act as well! Pear is his favourite fruit and he chose the outfit he is wearing himself, you have to use your imagination a little bit............

A fruity work of art........

Here is my poor little angel (can you spot her??) lost in a sea of toys thanks to her big brother and sister. She doesn't seem to mind, just sits back and chills out, bless her little cottons!

Some earrings and a fairy doll.......

Today these gorgeous earrings arrived for me in the mail. The lovely Kimberley who writes the blog Special K, had a giveaway and I won a pair of her earrings.......lucky me hey! I love receiving mail and am hoping to be receiving some lovely LARGE parcels next week from my kind and generous brothers for my birthday. Well a girl can dream I suppose...............

I couldn't resist posting a picture of the fairy doll that I am making Talia for her birthday, she just needs some fairy wings and she is all done! I also have to knit a baby fairy, I've got plenty of time though as T's birthday isn't until October. I am using the pattern from Claire Garlands book Dream Toys, which has got some great stuff in there. I also love the unicorn, but am not going to even attempt that, well not yet anyway...

Pink Playdough...

Today while I made hummus, which is our household favourite... Talia (with a bit of help) made our very first batch of playdough, pink of course!!! Thanks to Jannelle who writes the lovely blog Heart Felt for the recipe......

Talia and Kalem had great fun making lot's of pink creations, kept them busy for ages and Lola really enjoyed watching them. Of course now there is lovely pink playdough spread all over my house, it is EVERYWHERE but I suppose (????) it was worth it.......... X

Bead and Button Bracelet

Well I know that I said I wasn't going to knit anything until I had finished my shrug.....but just couldn't resist this cuff that I saw in the latest issue of NZ House and Garden while at my MIL's. It is knitted with 1ply mohair and beading wire, it took me a while to get the hang of kitting with the wire, but I am pleased I kept at it. See here for the link showing how to make one.



Hmmm, seems that my link is not working for some reason, if you want to check out how to make the cuff go to nzhouseandgarnden.co.nz. The article is called What a Purler........

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK...

Thought that I would share this cute photo of Talia feeding her baby (also called Lola) in support of world breastfeeding week . Please note the lack of bottle, as you can see she already knows the benefits of breastfeeding your baby. I often find her doing this and also speaking sweet nothings into her baby's ear just like a do when I am feeding Lola. It is moments like this that remind me, that I am constantly being watched by my littlies. They take in the good and the bad and are always learning from my example, it's hard to be a good role model all of the time. It's easy to slip up now and then, you know.... a word slips out of your mouth that is not for little ears, but you look down and yep.... there are those little ears and 2 pairs of big brown eyes staring up at you.

Of course sometimes you can get it just right, I love that Talia thinks that this way of feeding her baby is normal.....X