how do you find the time???????

If there is one question I get asked a lot...other than are my boy/girl twins identical..and especially in the queue at spotlight...its how do I get anything done with these three beautiful children of mine. I can honestly say I don't know because each day just flies by and I grab precious moments to myself when I can.


I have also become very efficient at washing, cleaning, changing and feeding. I love that the babies love to entertain each other on their playmats and roll toys to each other.....honestly thats when two is better than one. Craft time generally happens on the weekend when the babies have a long afternoon nap and keira is with her daddy and night times when I have the energy


some nights I just want to lie on the couch and do absolutely nothing and other nights I want to sew, knit or crochet till midnight


and I couldn't resist a picture of keira's present that perhaps ummm mummy really wanted...I mean its the barbie campervan and its pink with a pool too!

retrolicious

if its all quiet on my blog then it means its been a crazy day with the babies or I've been making something....and yesterday it was the latter as I spent australia day watching project runway australia (great series by the way but after 8 episodes in a row retro daddy wasn't as impressed) and started this dress


the pattern is an old simplicity one for a girls size 4 top which I made longer and sleeveless....once it was modelled I realised it needed a belt so I quickly grabbed some bias binding and tonight will do a little belt. Keira loves it and keeps telling me ' I love it, I just love it'...fabric is from Spotlight and a bit of a find

dress inspiration

Thank you for your lovely suggestions and this morning the sunday paper confirmed what I was thinking (and you were suggesting)


Now I'm no size 0 and I'm not married to Tom (probably a good thing.....well no I'd like his bank balance but he's got some issues and I'm not ready to convert to scientology) but the ribbons on Katie's dress are just too cute. The dress is by escada.....you know, just in case you're racing off to the shops to get it!

help me turn this into a pretty dress

I was thrilled to get a wedding invitation yesterday for a dear sweet friend...we met in an aqua class while I was pregnant with Keira and would get into trouble for talking too much....we haven't stopped talking since!


I'm happy to report that I'm back into a size 10 and my pre twins weight but the dresses I would love to wear are at least $300 or $400 (and retro daddy isn't going to let that happen as we recover from all the expenses of our new house) so I remembered this lovely piece of fabric in my stash and thought it could possibly be turned into a dress! So my question is what would you do to make this a dress for a summer wedding starting at 5pm at a yacht club with a black and silver theme.


I'm thinking of making a black cotton slip to go under it that is a few inches shorter to show off the detail on the overlay with a cute fabric belt tied in a bow on the side.....would you do that? would you add straps? what would you do????? heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!!

water painting

when its hot outside and mummy doesn't want paint inside there is only one thing to do to keep a toddler happy


and my little miss really does think she is painting so everyone is happy! Try it.......it also works really well on outside walls and concrete...thank you Aunty Debbie for the suggestion

vintage fisher price

This morning I nearly knocked Keira over in my excitement to take this off my mum's hands. It turns out she had given all of our fisher price to someone in our family (now divorced from our family) but after all these years this was returned to her...


sadly this was all that we can expect but oh what memories and keira is just loving it......


its over 25 years old and still works.....they don't make fisher price like this anymore


there was some confusion that it might be Phoebe's (my sister) but I put an end to that myth and it will be living at our house!



(oh excuse miss keira's smudge on the camera...I've just realised it after uploading)

retro mummy store - last offerings

Well I think I am enjoying my craft time too much to run a store in any shape or form, so this week am selling off what I have including new books I just had to share with you...


I mean who wouldn't want to make bambi! you can find them all here on madeit....some books, some fabric, some patterns and more coming during the week....pay by direct deposit and you'll get some fabric thrown in too! Sorry about the book prices...current exchange rates are a PITA.

$3.99 pillowcase project

I love Saturday afternoons when Keira goes to her little swimming lesson and I get some time at home with sleeping babies......today I took some $3.99 white pillowcases from Spotlight, some trims and in an hour whipped these up!


I just love them!!!!! the red and pink ric rac is from my stash, red gingham bias binding for 65c a metre at spotlight and the blue ribbon white lace trim was a find from a garage sale ages ago when I had time on a saturday morning to go to garage sales!

dancing queen

gosh this girl makes me laugh....I was having my coffee while keira was modelling her new top


a few minutes later she's ripped off her pants, accessorised her outfit and is yelling 'shake your booty'!


thankfully the camera was on hand to snap the moment...and retro daddy (since he occassionally reads the blog) the shirt was 60% off at the sale today so don't get cranky that I was out shopping!

hibernating hexagons

these hexagons have been hibernating at the bottom of my knitting basket for a few months but I'm ready to get back to them...and I've also decided to keep the red!


and we breed crafters young in this house....miss keira is loving her new scissors and told me she is making a quilt for her bed...it was all going so well until she told me she wanted to cut her hair!!!!!

ok last photos of the quilt I promise

Ok well the chance of me getting this ironed this week are pretty slim so lets just say I've gone for the rustic look....to recap the pattern is Candy Shop from the Material Obsession book (great book by the way for any level of quilter) and I've used a mixture of Amy Butler and some Farmers Market fabric for the quilt top..


and the backing fabric was a cute Japanese quilting cotton from Spotlight called Cherry Tree that worked perfectly and had been sitting there in the stash with nothing to do. And lastly the binding is Freshcut and I just love this fabric for binding as its so perfect!


Thank you for all your lovely comments on my quilt......I'm such a beginner but its so nice to hear you like it....I really recommend this quilt to a beginner because its so easy to follow!

all partied out after Dan Zanes

phew, its time to put our feet up after a concert with Dan Zanes inside the Spiegeltent this morning....


It seems the only concerts I go to these days are aimed at under 5's but we had a lot of fun inside that very warm tent


but the heat didn't stop Dan from putting on a great show


the show was fantastic....interactive for the kids, educational, fun, multicultural and a great alternative to the highly commercialised stuff that keira normally sings along too (and I'll admit goes to the overpriced concerts )......we are really hoping he comes back to Australia some time soon......


and we were lucky enough to find one of the 30 pianos currently scattered throughout the city for anyone to play as part of Sydney festival


all in all it was a great mummy daughter day and grandmummy survived with the babies on her own!

drying off....

almost there...its just drying off after a bath to remove the water soluble pen (and an almost heart attack moment when Julie told me last night she doesn't use those pens after she's heard horror stories....let me tell you I raced to finish the binding so I could get those blue lines off)...and thankfully the pen is all off


this is quality control checking my work to make sure its acceptable for her room


and I will give it a nice press tonight and take some proper piccies when its looking more presentable.


ps if you want some more info on using water soluble pens be sure to look here and here

still hand quilting

yep still going....a bit more to do tomorrow and then I'll be ready for the binding. I needed some sustenance this afternoon to keep going....after a month of no carbs I'm back on them and life is good again!


and Finn had a quiet word to me that he wanted a cute photo up on the blog just like his sister.....so here you go Finn.

progress has been slow

two teething babies has definitely slowed progress on the quilt.....I also have to break up their fights every now and then....


but I'm getting there with only 3 squares left to stitch...its been very enjoyable except when Keira finds a ball of perle cotton and decides to walk it around the house like a dog on a leash leaving mummy to rewind it and put it in another keira proof spot!


and while I was writing this post little miss decided to do this......perhaps another reason why progress has been slow! I was so busy laughing I forgot to remind her not to pull all the toilet paper off the roll!

gone quilting

while the babies have been sleeping peacefully like this......


I've been quilting....2 nights (I fell into bed at 12.30 this morning) and 1 morning have produced this quilt top which is the Candy Shop quilt from this book....I've used Midwest Modern and Farmers Market fabric in lovely shades of pink, red, green and yellow and white quilters muslin which will be stitched with cute flowers, cherries, dragonflies and butterflies....



I'm taking a break from it this afternoon to catch up on the housework which has been somewhat neglected over the past few days and to give me some time to find the perfect backing and binding fabric since this is my first 'big' quilting project....


more progress to come during the week.

I hate to be an enabler....but

yes it may be better to look away now if you're supposed to be on a fabric diet like me......I hadn't seen this fabric range until today......its called Feathered Friends by Wendy Slotboom and I just couldn't resist buying the entire range in fat quarters..


I'm thinking of a lovely quilt....maybe my first single bed quilt if I'm brave enough. I got mine here

Dolls quilt in a day

My little miss loves nothing more than cuddling up on the couch with her pink pillow and her blankie, but lately all her blankies have been used for the babies to play on so I took a packet of charm squares, some $2 homespun from spotlight (I bought 5m at that price) and whipped this up.....


the best thing about making a quilt for a 2 year old is that they don't care if mummy's lines aren't straight....there was lots of oh its so pretty and thank you mummy so I think a few more might be on the cards for her dolls and the twins!


Hope you had a good new years eve....we had a glass of veuve clicquot and some berry tiramisu I'd made (since all the best diets start tomorrow) and were asleep before midnight....uh oh