Ventilator Pouch 2

I didn't realise how big the ventilator was and so my previous pouch was a tad too small.   Here is the next size up!   Ample of room now :)

I even had room to turn it into the box shape as per the tutorial.

Ventilator Pouch

It's that time of the year again!  WINTER

It means my oldest has started his coughing again!  Last year it led to Bronchitis... This year I decided to take him to my 'good' doctor after three weeks of coughing...  Now he's back on antibiotics (get rid of that fluid out of his lungs) and on a preventative ventilator. 

Now that he needs to take this to school with him I thought I'd make him a zippered pouch to keep it all together.     The tutorial is from here. 

Dr Suess

 

Remember those floor cushions from a few posts back.....

 Well I made a few more!   Not for me this time but for my boys lovely library where I spend my every Friday morning :)

Blues

My posts are becoming quite sparodic as I weave in and out of the blues.  Some days are great and I am on top of the world!  Other days (many other) I spend overworking my tear ducts, continual pyjama days (they are soo warm and comfy), wearing out my bed and feeling sorry for myself!     Yesterday was another 'crap' day!   Managed to send the boys to school and got halfwalf way through my dishes when another tidal wave appeared!  The rest of my day was spent in bed and I got dressed just before it was school pick up time!  (Just in case another mum comes for a chitchat to my car...)
Hubby spoiled me and took us all out to dinner to my fav restaurant so we all had a healthy! feed.  (The flower shop he drove by didn't take card on the way home from work :) ).

Today was a better day, with the prospect of having someone pop in for coffee maybe.  So I got dressed...and tidied up here and there.  Despite my possible visitor not being able to pop around I found some motivation and completed! another sewing project.   I did have a surprise pop in by my mum who brought a lovely cake to cheer me up!  Thanks mum :).  More on my project another time...

Tote

Remember that post from last week, where I mentioned I had bought some gorgeous fabric from Stampin' Up?   Well of course I couldn't wait to use it!  So when it arrived, I spend the evening throwing together this tote for MYSELF :)

Did I use a tutorial?  Nope!  I have seen enough of tote tutorials to suck this one out of my thumb :)

A number of pockets are inside.....  I used a very thick interfacing/webbing so the tote doesn't collapse :)

Floor Cushion

Recently we rearranged furniture in our home.  Our lounge room has somewhat become our library now.  I made this cushion for the kids to sit on whilst reading.  Its the perfect size for little ones and big ones alike and if it's not enjoyed for sitting on, there is always that occasional 'pillow' fight going on.  I chose to fill it with beanbag filling.

tutorial from here, minus the piping.

Nappies

My little girl is always changing dolls nappies.  I am totally fine with that, its part of role play...   But what I am not happy with is is that nappies are constantly disappearing, and wet wipes are found all over the house!    I knew I had to do something about it, the wet wipes all over the house bothered me the most.  I still had a scrap of an white towel floating around, so I cut it into squares and used the overlocker to give it a quick edge.   I made four wipes, as I figured I didn't want too many of those floating around the house either :)    I then found an unused nappy box and placed them in there.

 Then the nappy, a quick search on the World Wide Web gave me this simple pattern from Cindy at Skip To My Lou

 and here you have it, a very domesticated daughter, changing her dolls nappy :)

Stampin' Up Fabric

I attend a craft class every week... we make cards, we chatter away, we have drinks made for us and plenty of nibblies to eat....  Great fun!!  On top of it is that my little girl attends creche at the same facility! 

Anyway, our 'boss' is a stampin'up demonstrator, and by and by  I found out that Stampin' up sells fabric!!!    "Woohoo" I shouted!  Fabrics - pre-matched - is what I need!  I am useless at matching colours together...  (the cards we make are kit form so all we do is stamp away and stick things together and basically copying a sample).

So here is a swatch of colours for your taste buds.  Soon you can expect to see a project containing these fabrics! 
.

a Facelift

about three months ago now I had some work done on my face.  You see...there is this deep groove between my eyes and the more I frown (I tend to do that a lot! :) the deeper it gets!  It became a constant frown, and there was some type of pressure between my eyes to keep on frowning!    I found it was time to do something about it!!

 So I had a visit to our local beautician who have a Dr that comes out every now and then and performs botox......Yes, I had botox!  It took two shots of botox and a filler to start lifting this groove out!

  Here I am just after the treatment.   It was a tad tender for a few days, like a massive bruise on my forehead.  I am just glad that it didn't go purple as the Dr suggested it could happen.

 anyways, here I am.......with a whole lot of a happier face...  The crease will never totally go away  (see it as a sharp paperfold which is very difficult to get out), but it has definately lessened.  Now there is less frowning and less pressure between my eyes!! 

Passport Cover

Remember the suitcase tags I made a while ago for one of my boys teachers?    Here is its matching passport cover! 

and here is the pattern from Sew Mama Sew.

Stilts

Here is our little girl joining in all the fun :)

 and here Oma and Aunty A arrive, dressed up as cowboys...

 aunty A made her own cowboy hat!

 opa couldn't make it, but he handcrafted our boy some stilts!! 

now its time for lots of balancing to get the right walking in motion!

Lasooing

I made some lasoos of ropes, and whilst some of the boys rode the horses, the others tried to lasoo them.  Anything with running and catching for boys is always fun!!

This wild brumby was especially wild...check out his ears, flat back with an angry look!

 even this little one was a tad worried about the wild cowboys around!

Digging for Gold

The first game we played was.....digging for Gold!  I had spray painted a heap of small stones gold, punched small holes in aluminium pie trays, dear hubby made a mud bath in a clamp, and the boys went right ahead digging for gold

 They had a blast........seriously........we had trouble getting them out of the mud!

 even my little one joined in........a great time was had by all the boys......   But what else do you expect, you throw boys together with mud, and water... and they are content!!

my apologies to all the mums for the muddy clothes!!

the idea came from here

the bday boy

Here is the bday boy, when his friends sang happy birthday!  The only time my boys may stand on the table!  Having a blast and enjoying all the attention!

 and here is one of his mates dressing up as a cowboy...

Cowboy Party Bags

Recently our eldest boy turned 8!  I can't believe how fast these past 8 years have gone!  He is growing into a handsome lad, mostly quiet, sometimes noisy and a very gentle boy.

I host birthday partys with the kids every second year, and this year I chose the theme Cowboy for his party.  It matches is big bday present to the tee (more on that in another post).

I never took a photo of the invitations...but here are some photos of the party bags...

I printed this on brown paper bags, which can go through your normal printer.  I found a tonne of chocolate coins and filled up the party bags with these...

 then with some twine, here are some 'Reward' bags

 and here is a whole lot more.... 

  They totally completed the party :)

Horses

A cowboy party is no good without some horses...I have had this tutorial bookmarked for quite some time already, the pants had been laying ready...and finally I found the courage to give it a shot...

 

Here is horse number 1......

The pattern is from ikatbag......one of my favourite blogs/websites to explore...

The pattern is very simple to follow and I had a blast whipping up one horse in an evening...

now this one is a real wild horse....look at its eyes, looking mean, or almost scared...

and here is the smaller horse.....a tad more gentle looking

and adored by my little girl..

These horses haven't yet had their sticks added to them.   The pants are courtesy of my sister A. 

 

Party goodies

I recently had a great find in the new Reject Store in Kwinana. Cowboy gear for $2 each!

The packs contained a sherriffs badge 

 two spurs...

 and a gun complete with a belt and some bullets...

I bought enough so all the boys at the party could dress up as cowboys...
The checkered tablecloth is courtesy of my mother.