New things...

Inspired by our success with making our stepping stones last year, I have been keen to do some more mosaic work - especially more traditional mosaic. At school I've been helping Emma's class with a mosaic tabletop for the school's 60th anniversary art auction. Lots of fun - photos will come. IN the meantime at home I've had a little go myself - here is my effort so far - not quite finished with the tiles yet, and obviously not grouted, but I was pretty pleased with the result so far! I think it will end up being a heat pad for the table.

The girls also had fun making some more stepping stones featuring shells that they found on our holiday down south. As above, photos will come - they haven't found homes in the garden yet!

Some time ago I cut out fabric to make a jacket for Miss Lucy - and now that the weather has suddenly turned cold realised I really needed to make it up!  And so i did just that - I'm really pleased with the result, and so, it would appear, is Lucy. I saw the lining fabric which is a fabulous thing called "Lolouthi velveteen" on another blog and thought that I just had to have some. Combined with a fine corduroy I think it makes for one very cute little jacket - that Lucy is going to live in this winter!

It is proving very difficult to get a good picture of Lucy at the moment - she's not much into smiling at the camera, and is much more keen to look at the pictures on the screen than pose for any. Besides that, she's fast these days!

But oh so cute!

I've also been quite intrigued lately by Polish paper cuts with their intricate patterns like this -



 I found some instructions for making them myself  here and gave it a go the other day - the results were amazingly good, and amazingly simple to do. Obviously mine aren't a patch on the professionals, but I like them nonetheless, and am keen to give them a go with the girls.

Well I must get myself off to bed - I have more to say and show, but it will have to wait.... Soccer is far too early tomorrow morning and I have had far too many late nights of late! And I have to locate the field we need to be at before going to sleep otherwise it could get very ugly in the morning!

Easter Holidays

Oh my goodness - I am not doing very well at keeping up to date am I??!! I think I even said that last time I posted. Oh well. Here I am now.

So we've just finished school holidays, so I might put on a few pictures about that first...

We had a lovely break from school and the hectic routine of term time. This year it feels like things have really ramped up with school, pre-school, Early Ed and things that the girls are doing. I've always resisted being really busy with scheduled stuff, but with 4 little ones, I've realised that even without lots of extra stuff just getting through the days and weeks is busy!

The girls and I enjoyed a lovely couple of days down the South Coast at Orient Point with my brother Dave and his family. We had fun bike riding, playing at the beach and even fishing. Jasmine and Madeline caught squid in Jervis Bay which they were particularly pleased about!



Early morning ride



View from the house we stayed in!

Group bike ride!

Honeymoon Bay

Look who caught a squid

2 year old pottering at Currarong Beach

The second week of the holidays was quite wet, but Emma and Jasmine had fun at an Early Ed sibling day where they got to visit the Imax theatre at Darling Harbour. While they were there, Madeline, Lucy and I went to the Aquarium - my first visit! Madeline was obsessed with seeing the sharks, and wasn't interested in looking at much else. There were lots of great lego sculptures around the Aquarium, and even if Maddie didn't appreciate all the other fish (and Lucy was much more interested in eating lunch and then falling asleep in the pram!) I had a great time!

One of the other highlights of the holidays for the girls was being able to stay in their pj's until after lunch - and only then having to get dressed as they were going out. Love that in the holidays!

We've launched back into term 2 - a funny week this week with Anzac Day (aka my birthday!) in the middle - I had a great day - breakfast with friends from church, lunch with my family and dinner with 3 beautiful old friends. Needless to say I was very full of LOTS of yummy food by the end of the day.

Summer Art

Well there has certainly been a lot of plaster painting around here this summer. I received a huge bucket of plaster and so I thought I'd launch in and make lots of little figurines for the kids to paint, and they proved a huge hit  - with the girls on their own, when friends came over, and as I mentioned before, on holidays with lots of kids of all different ages. It's my plan that this year I will make up kits of plaster things with paint and brushes etc for birthday presents for all the parties my girls go to. With 4 now on the party circuit (does it slow down as they get older???) I will be sent broke financing all the presents so I'm hoping this plan will be a winner all round.

Just recently I've been looking around the web for some arty inspiration. There are so many great sites and blogs where people have uploaded whole lesson plans for art projects with kids. A new  favourite of mine is http://useyourcolouredpencils.blogspot.com.au/. Millions of great ideas which I'm busting to use with the girls. Sadly the routine of school and all that has overtaken for the moment. Need to carve out some art time soon!

We recently had a go at some cow portraits - inspired by this. I did a directed drawing of the cow with Jasmine and Madeline - they are a little wonky, but I think it adds to the charm. Upon finishing her basic drawing Jasmine promptly asked if she could make hers a bull - and added horns and a ring. I just love her creative little brain - always just has to be a little bit different.

Anyway, here are their end results -

Jasmine's bull

Madeline's cow

They kind of forgot the bottom of the cows face and tongue, but I love them just the same. Emma did one too, but I failed to take a picture and they were given away for a gift. The best part of it all was that they were very proud of their pictures.

I haven't been doing much sewing of late, but 2 weeks ago I pulled out the machine and spent a quiet Sunday afternoon putting together a quilt top for Miss Lucy, who will no doubt want to be in a big girls bed before the year is out, and I'm hoping to be prepared. I've had the bubbles fabric probably since she was born (it's a Prints Charming one!) and I just love it. Now I've just got to work out how I want to quilt it.

And all this happened just in time as I recently bought some absolutely scrumptious fabric to make pj's and a little jacket for Lucy for winter. Not that we've really been out of winter pj's much this summer, but Madeline and Lucy especially are growing like weeds and need new jarmies.

Anyway, here's the quilt top - the question - do I machine quilt (ie quickly finished) or hand quilt (possibly never finish but potentially better results if I do).

 

And my gorgeous tribe going back to school/pre-school/early ed!

I'm on a blogging roll tonight!

Screen Printing success

Something I've been meaning to get into for a while is screen printing. I've been eternally inspired by Prints Charming, whose fabrics and beautiful creations I've been guilty of ogling over for years! Anyway, I got the book, got the supplies and finally got to give it a whirl. So fun! It's probably lucky that it's a bit painful to get set up and pack up and there is fabric ink involved because otherwise I think I'd be a bit addicted. There's something wonderful about putting down the screen, playing with the gorgeously thick and oozy ink and squeegying it about, then lifting the screen to see what's happened! Anyway, here are my first attempts!

My photography isn't very good, but I was pretty pleased with how these turned out. I am going to make a kimono style lightweight bathrobe, and these are printed around the bottom. In true Liz fashion I managed to print half the designs on the wrong side of the fabric, but a quick scrub and line dry later I was back on track..... I haven't got to sewing up the robe yet - it looks fabulously simple but will post a picture when I do. Maybe saying this will inspire me to get it going! All the details, instructions and patterns I got from the book:

You can also check out Prints Charming at http://www.printscharming.typepad.com/

I had another go at printing and these were the results....

 So fun! I'm really looking forward to doing more and trying out more different designs and mixing colours. Will keep you posted...

One Mile Beach and Summer Fun

Oh goodness, so much has happened since I last posted! I'll stick to highlights which included a lovely beach holiday with gorgeous friends, and then launching back into school and pre-school and everything else the last few weeks!

First things first, the holidays. Well it was a pretty soggy summer here in Sydney, but thankfully the week we went away with friends to One Mile Beach, despite of forecasts for a week of rain, was pretty fine. Not to roasty hot which was great, and only about a day of rain with more at nights which was just perfect for us. Lots of boogie boarding, playing in the spa, bike riding and eating! I panicked the week before we went away and made a whole load of plaster animals (3D - the cutest things you ever saw) and packed them up with paints to amuse the kids. We did use them, but not because it was raining - just for fun. And everyone, from an 11 year old boy down to 4 year old Maddie loved them! I think Lucy would have too if she could get her little hands on them.

I had a little dream come true while we were away - riding bikes with all my girls - no training wheels in sight (yes Lucy goes on the back of my bike!). Just gorgeous, and Madeline, our most recent graduate to 2 wheels was VERY happy with herself.

I was even lucky enough to be able to go quad-biking with Brendo, Steve and Josh. It rained the whole time, but it was unreal! The sanddunes at Stockton Beach are just unbelievable - and we all want to go back for more. Josh (who's 11) was the biggest daredevil of the lot of us!

Tormenting a poor koala who decided to sit very low down in this gum tree!

Chillaxing in the spa

Riding to the beach 

Quadbiking at Stockton Beach

We opted for full blockout protection with zinc - that wouldn't come off. I think the girls started school with remnants of pink and blue in their eyebrows!

The lure of the beach in the evening

The rest of the holidays passed all to quickly - but we did squeeze in a little trip to the mountains to see the Noakes before they went back to Adelaide. We even managed a bushwalk with all 7 children!

We had a few other fun outings in the holidays, including a fun trip into town on a ferry (called "Friendship" - reminding us of Justine Clark's song...). We went to the Opera House where they had free activities for the kids including hearing stories read and made up by authors, and making bugs and flowers to contribute to the display in the foyer.

Special bike ride and park outing with Maddie.