Matching Pegs

Health Update: Amelia and Rory - Good as New.  Luke - Has dodged the virus completely.  Claire and Michaela - On the mend, but still a bit droopy.  Life is starting to return to normal.  I still owe a lot of people an email, and the house looks like a bomb has hit it though.

Here is a look at the logos that I made for the kinder to consider, but firstly a look at the current logo…..

It took me a year or two to diplomatically find out that this was designed by someone long gone from the Preschool.  I really hate it.  A teacher from long ago drew the stick-figures, and the play equipment they are on, not to mention the lovely hand drawn wording.  The burgundy is such a lovely, youthful touch don’t you think?

 I presented all the logos in Black and White, because the place that they are most visible, is on the kid’s T-shirts and Windcheaters.  On these, they are printed in one colour to keep costs down for families.  So here is the first one of mine - a very straight logo.  The Preschool has a very large tree in the playground, and the kids all like to collect the leaves, which look like this…

The next two are based on children’s drawings, which is what most Preschools tend to do.  I used drawings that I had from when the older two were at Preschool.  They needed a little bit of modification - they have to be legible when they are very small on letterhead, as well as large, on the Preschool building.

I call this the Jumping Man Logo, and the one below is known as the Spotty Creature Logo.

Finally I presented a logo that represented growing, singing and playing.  I presented this one both in B&W as well as colour, to give the committee an idea of how I might use colour, once they chose one of the options.  Here is the Birdie logo, in colour, but not necessarily the colour it would end up as.

So I will find out in a month which one they like best.  I am not a graphic designer, I sure a professional could do better, but I did it for free, and I had fun, so hopefully it is a win-win situation.  Anything has to be better than what the preschool currently has!  Which one do you like?

I guess it was inevitable. Michaela and I have succumbed to the dreaded virus.

This weekend was full of family related birthday activities for Amelia’s birthday (Going out to a Chinese lunch being one of them), which I managed to make it through, but completely crashed on Sunday.  Here is a shot of Amelia with her candles, wearing the scarf I secretly made her about a month ago.

The cake is a pretty run of the mill (but yummy) chocolate cake.  Amelia has put in an order for a castle for next weekend’s birthday party with her friends.  At this stage I am not sure if I am up for it.

Mickey Moo and I were packed off to bed on Sunday afternoon, and apart from sleeping for a couple of hours, I also made a little start on this.

One silver lining, from Rory’s horrible ear infection (a secondary infection from the virus I now have) is the little bottle from his medicine.  The glass bottle with the childproof lid was perfect to keep tiny buttons in, that I purchased for this project.  Now a certain little person can look safely.

Tonight I am going to stagger off to a Preschool Committee meeting, to present 4 alternatives to the current (appalling) logo.  I will give you all a peek when I am well enough to think straight again.  I will leave you with a look at the last candle standing, I am quite pleased with the photo.

Happy 8th Birthday our wonderful, talented, big girl.

You are our super-imaginative, creative girl, who eight years ago turned a couple into a family.

You were the youngest of our three to smile, at 11 days old.  Here you are on that day giving Daddy one of your best!  Even from those early days, you would follow conversations with your eyes, always curious about what was going on.  These days you like to think deeply about the things you hear, and often ask us questions, ages after we have forgotten the conversation.

You walked earlier than you brother or sister (11 months and one week) and people used to stop and stare at this tiny girl walking by herself.  You are not such a “little dot” now :-).

Here you are with Rory (when you were 4 and 3/4 and he was almost 3) and we can see you holding Michaela when she was only 3 days old (You were just 5).  You are a fantastic big sister, always making up wonderful games that you can all play together.  In fact, most people who know you talk about your wonderful imagination, as well as your fantastic drawing.  We are proud of you, our clever girl, who tries so hard to do things perfectly; just don’t forget that mistakes are part of life, and remember to always make new ones.

Here is one of my favourite photos of you, when you were 21 months old, just before Rory was born.

No matter what, remember that we love you, always. We are so lucky to be your Mum and Dad.

Yesterday, after an invitation from Debbie and Noah, Michaela and I (along with Leigh and Madison) ventured across to the other side of town to visit “Scienceworks“.  The three of us Mums have each got a son in Prep this year, and a younger sibling of around 3 years old (I’m the only one with a third child).  The three littlies had a wonderful time in the Nitty Gritty Super City, which is designed for 3 - 8 year olds.  Michaela looks particularly tiny perched on the top of the Penny Farthing bike, with her two little friends in the background.

I was extremely pleased to get out, after having a sick child at home for days (thanks Ladies).  Today I had another sick child at home, Amelia.  She lay on the couch and watched “The Princess Bride” this morning (a wonderful movie for the whole family) followed by her first viewing of “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”.  I had not seen it, and thought it was a good opportunity for her to watch it without younger siblings in case it was a bit scary.  I loved every one of the Narnia Chronicles as a kid, which she is yet to read ( I purchased a thick volume of them all recently)  but found the movie a bit slow.  She has not been as sick as Rory, and we are hoping she will be back to normal tomorrow for her birthday - please send healthy thoughts our way.

Last night the finishing touches were added to the farewell present for “Ms Superteacher*”.

I dressed the little dolly, and added her hair.  Amelia did a fair bit of the Thank-you embroidery on the apron.  We are both pretty pleased with how she turned out.  Her dress is made of the same fabric as Amelia’s reader bag that she uses daily at school, so hopefully she will remind Ms Superteacher* of Amelia.

Yesterday morning, after returning from the school drop off, I heard a knock at the door.  A package! I won a giveaway from the lovely Lily at “Block A Day“.  Here is a look at the contents.

This fabric was a special find of Lily’s, in a funny little shop, and she calls the print “Our Lady of the Many Talents” because of what the Lovely Mexican “Our Ladys” are doing.  On the selvage it is called Tree of Life by Kathy Hall, (Museum of new Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, under licence to Andover Fabrics).  It is amazing fabric and Lily has very generously sent me a whole metre of it.  Also in the package was a few photo/cards of Lily’s work, if you have not seen her site “Block a Day” then you really must.

Not only is Lily super talented, but she is extremely prolific, her sewing output is amazing.  She is also so warm and positive, and when we discovered each others sites, I quickly found I had made a new friend, (of course I suspect Lily has that talent of making everyone she corresponds with online feel like they are her instant friend - pretty tricky to accomplish when you have not met in “Real Life”).  As Amelia put it yesterday afternoon, “If you comment on her blog, and she comments on yours, she is like a pen-friend Mum”.   Anyhow, my favourite of the little cards is her Easter Table Runner, which Amelia loved as well, “Look Mum, Yo-Yo’s!”.   Michaela loves them all, and they keep disappearing with her.

So back to the Tree of Life Fabric.  Because Lily has been so generous, I think I have enough to make a new apron.  I’m a one apron kind of gal, I always wear the same one, unless it is in the wash.  My current apron is a canvas one with botanical illustrations on it, that I gave my Grandmother.  I was given it back when she passed away.  Because I wear an apron every time I cook the evening meal, it is getting grubby and worn in an unwashable type of way.  I think it is time for a new one.  Now all I have to do is find a co-ordinating fabric or two, and this project can join the queue :-).

What is in your project queue?

*not her real name

Our weekend has been very much an “at-home” one.  Since midweek, Rory has had the flu, with all it’s fevers and aches (there have been between 8 and 10 kids away in his class all week).  On Friday he developed a double ear infection, loads of fun.  Thankfully he is well and truly on the mend, and has been well enough to play with his sisters and eat a proper dinner.

Here is a cushion that I made yesterday afternoon (once Rory was starting to feel better).  I made it with Lara’s lovely houses fabric.  I was in love with this fabric back when it was just a sketch, and have had a bundle of co-ordinating fabrics put together for weeks.  It looks almost as good as I imagined, that is, except for the binding.

Now that it is finished, Luke and I both think it would have looked better with dark brown binding, with just that little pop of colour on the front.  Can I be bothered unpicking all the binding to change it?  Perhaps I will wait and see if it grows on me.  The rest of it is exactly as I imagined.

Here is a piccy of one of the Currawongs currently frequenting our backyard.  Perhaps it is even the culprit who targeted my peg basket.

I think I have established that I am a little funny and a little precious about my pegs.  Not only do I like them to match when I am hanging out the washing, but I also house them in style (see banner picture) and I never leave them out in the weather.  Once I have pegged out the washing, I bring the basket of remaining pegs back into the house, so neither the pegs, nor the basket fade (or get wet) anymore than they will through use.  Not yesterday. 

I have a sick little boy at home at the moment, and he called out to me while I was hanging out the washing so I abandoned the peg basket to it’s fate (after all people are more important than pegs you know).  Later I discovered that a large bird (Probably a Pied Currawong - there are lots about at the moment) had been using my basket for target practice.

The mess the bird left may be more than a wash in the machine can fix, as the bird had clearly been enjoying the berries you see at the top of this post.  Redecoration may be in order.

That little guy you see in the picture is a little brass Wombat, who is actually a sprinkler.  I have never used him (we are not allowed to use sprinklers, unless they are watering with tank water) but he makes a nice ornament if you ignore the nozzle fitting coming out his left side.

On Monday, Amelia found out that her class teacher will be taking a position at an exclusive Catholic boys school, and will be finishing up next Friday, on Amelia’s birthday.  We are all very sad about this as she is an excellent teacher and a lovely person.  To show our gratitude for the time she has spent as Amelia’s teacher, the two of us have embarked on a project together.  Here is our WIP.

Amelia is going to embroider “Thank You Ms Superteacher*” on the little apron.  I just have to assemble this little lady, and add some hair.  This is a pattern I have making up for years, either as Christmas Angels, or cloth dolls.  I usually make Christmas Angels for the classroom teachers, as the school year in Australia finishes at Christmas time.

So what do you all make for Teacher presents?

* not her real name, but Amelia will be embroidering her real name. 

While I had my folder of patterns out, I found another that I thought I would show you for The Friday Archive.  These are more Christmas ornaments, in the shape of stars.  One for each member of the family.  We have five, that feature our First and Middle names on one side, and our birth dates on the other. 

Several years ago I made 12 for my Mother-in-Law, one for each of her Grandchildren.  I have since added 2 more, and will need to make another this November.  That page on the right hand side is a page of swatches of fabrics that I have used, so that I can choose fabric for new stars, that fit in with the others.

On the weekend, Luke and I actually shared a little home improvement project, that we managed to start and finish in a day.  We were trying to eek out some more storage space in our bedroom.

Our bedroom has an old fashioned built in robe, that has 2 narrow full length hanging cupboards (one at either end) with a big gap in the middle for a mirrored “dressing table” with drawers below.  This gives Luke and I a grand total of 71 cm width of hanging space each.  We were sick of our clothes being crushed, so decided to make use of the mirrored cavity in the middle.

Luke added a hanging rail, and I made a cute little curtain, which we hung on one of those stretchy covered spring things attached inside the top of the space.  Now we have a place (75 more cm to share) to hang some of our shirts, that don’t need the full length space to hang.

I am quite pleased with how this project turned out, not only because of the extra space, but because I like the fabric.  It also makes me smile, because it looks like we have a little puppet theatre in our bedroom.  Does that make us weird?

After a few weekends off due to bad weather, construction resumed this weekend on our fort/cubby/space station (Rory is absolutely Lego-Star-Wars Mad, and has decided that we have a space station in our backyard).  First the frame for the roof was completed.

And then, an exciting trip to the hardware store to select a roofing material.  Luke settled on wide fence palings, as the cheapest, aesthetically pleasing option.  He put these up in spite of a rain shower that sent the kids inside.

We plan to paint the whole structure when the weather improves.  Meanwhile inside I made yet another Log Cabin cushion - the final one.  Here is the before shot.

and here is the after…

And for those that are interested, here is a view of the backs of the cushions, which are all made from fabrics that I purchased at Purl Patchwork in NYC.

The Matroyshka fabric backed cushion was the first one I made, and I put the zip where I usually do.  Once I started making the others, I made the decision to use two different fabrics on the back, and because I bought such small amounts in NYC, I had to place the zips lower down, so the backs are all different.

The fabric makes me happy every time I look at it.

Finally here is a link to a site that made me more than happy.  It made me laugh so hard that, (like every cliche), tears streamed down my cheeks, and my stomach was sore.  It is a site about Cake Wrecks, cakes that are just wrong, and it was the post titled “Get Me Holly Hobbie’s Head on a Platter” that really had me in hysterics.

I found this site via a link on, Emmzeegee’s website.  Emmzeegee was a friend that I worked with back when I was childless (and so was she) and I have only reconnected with her recently.  She has triplets who are now 7 years old, who I last saw when they were about 6 months old.  Two of the triplets share first names in common with my twin brother and I, which is kind of cool (but a complete coincidence).  Anyway, check out the cakes, they are great for a laugh!

My Friday Archive post spent most of Friday half written and it is only now that I have gotten to it.  Instead of finishing it, here are some of the things I did….Played with play-dough, Built Lego “castles”, supervised the 2 year old painting (don’t put that brush in there until you wash off that blue first), nipped up to the shops, washed 12 sink loads of dishes, and finally did some sewing.  There were lots more boring things I did of course.

So here is my dip into the archive.

This is a page of sketches taken from my Industrial Design Honours Project in 1997.

My basic idea was that mobile phones are like watches.  They are functional objects we have with us all the time, that should allow us to express our personality through more than just different coloured covers (coloured covers were a pretty new thing back in 97).

Essentially, 11 years ago I came up with, and explored the idea that the phone handset would just be a touch screen with only a couple of buttons, and there would be a separate interactive part (think blue-tooth) that would function as the hearing/speaking unit (back then we did not have blue-tooth).  This separate wearable unit could come in a myriad of different designs, ranging from expensive pieces of jewellery, down to kid friendly plastic pieces - much in the way watches range from expensive gold and platinum through to “Dorothy the Dinosaur” kids watches.  The wearable unit was based on hearing aid technology, and could communicate wirelessly with the hand piece, and, like hearing aids, didn’t need to be very big.  The microphone did not have to be held adjacent to the mouth, etc.

Somewhere I have a bunch of models of different “jewellery” interactive units (which is what this page of sketches is of). Some were to be worn like necklaces, others were brooches, tie-pins, and I also had a couple which were to fit onto the side of eye glasses.  The point was that once you designed the technology, you could commission artists and jewellery makers to come up with new designs, to allow people true self expression.

For the past 11 years I have watched phones come closer to my idea, but no one has run with the jewellery thing. It is only a matter of time - but remember, you read my garbled account of it here first!

Here is the sewing I did yesterday afternoon. I took these…

Added some Needle turn applique, and created these for my friend Carolyn’s new home.

Quite a satisfying little project.

This morning the kids have had swimming lessons, so this afternoon I am heading to my parent’s house to wash the chlorine out of the towels and bathers.  Hopefully this is the last load of washing I will have to do off site.  Then it is Roast Lamb for dinner, yum.

Have a great weekend everyone.