red riding hood costume

Tomorrow is the book parade. A day I both look forward to and dread. You see, I love watching my happy princess parade in a gorgeous costume,... but dread the fact that it is I that has to see that costume come to fruition.

Last year, we did the butterfly from the Hungry caterpillar and I spent forever on it, only to watch her try to hide the wings because in actual fact shes really shy and 5 foot wings dont really do so well on a shy child.

This year, with more confidence and more ideas, she came to me and asked to be Little Red Riding Hood. Seemed simple enough. A hooded cape, white shirt, cute skirt... simple yes??

And so last weekend ( yup I work well under pressure) I began my project. After spending over two hours on the net trying to find a simple enough pattern, I gave up and decided I could wing it myself.

I bought red fabric for the cape and a white with red pattern fabric for a skirt.

And so it began.

Already, with laying the red fabric out, I realised I really didnt have enough. *sigh*

So I changed the idea a bit and began to measure a hula hoop to use as the cape part.

Cutting a hole in the centre using a plate I had the beginnings of a cape.

For the hood, I planned to have it look similar to the one in the movie "Red" ( a scary version of little red riding hood) that was quite a billowy hood and looked great.
I cut two semi circles out, and sewed along the curved part, thinking that the straight part would be the part that connected to the neck of the cape. Along the curved stitched line, I snipped for easy turning and a nice edge.

Once turned right way out, it became totally clear that this was NOT how to make a hood. It barely covered her head, and where it did cover, it flopped over one eye.
Somehow, and I still dont know how, at this point I folded it so the seam went down the middle of her head, and all of a sudden, I had a cape hood :) I then made a hem for it, and stitched half of the semi circle the to neck of the cape.
Really, these instructions wont get you anywhere but seriously lost. But Im sharing my pain because it turned out in the end :)

The skirt was the most brilliant part and I will make HEAPS of this style for both girls for summer. Using the hull hoop again, trace a circle and then cut it out. Using the plate ( again) cut a circle in the centre of the fabric. ( see the photos above) Now from the centre, cut one straight line to the edge of the fabric.
I then made a seperate casing for an elastic waist as the skirt was going to be a bit short for Jumeirah, made the casing and attached it to the inner circle. Stitch a hem and stitch the side seam together and its done! It sits beautiful and twirls even better :)

So this is Little Red Riding Hood. Done :) Its too short for her liking ( and mine too actually., it doesnt quite sit the way it did in my head) although because daddy said it was awesome, she now thinks it is too.

Im pleased with the final result, and I have a happy little girl who will no doubt hide in her costume tomorrow but she'll look fantastic anyway :)

lunch box love notes

I remember as a kid my mum used to sometimes put a note in my lunch box... a word of encouragement if I had an exam, a helpful reminder if I had to do something different in the afternoon.

I remember when I was dating a guy he left a message written in the condensation of my car window so Id get it when I left for work ( I married this one, I wish I still got those messages in the window ;) they kinda stopped once he had worked hard enough to marry me hehehe )

And so, with Jumeirah gone for so much of each day for so many days of the week I wanted her to know I was thinking of her whilst she was gone. I searched through the Net, trying to find a printable that I could send with her in her lunch box but couldnt find what I was looking for. So I made my own! And you can do it too :)

I bought some clip art from a site I get my other bits and pieces from to make cards and things, Lettering Delights. This way Im not going to breach any copyright issues by using clip art that doesnt belong to me. The sets I bought I got in a sale for about $1 the set ( amazingly cheap but even full price for $3 is such a great buy) and I got to work finding little clip art pictures and printed them off.

Once printed I got out my trusty laminator ( so they will last longer), wrote a personal message on it and laminated them.

The whole process took me less than an hour and now I have a little stash of love notes for my lovely girl :)

And whilst she didnt commented on finding it at lunch time, I asked her how her lunch was and I got the cutest little secret grin from her. I know she loved it :)

Tomorrow my little guy starts preschool and he'll get one too.
Little ways to let them know they are thought about when they arent with me.....

How do you let your kids know??

Christmas wrap up

Im done :)

No, dont be silly this isnt for me!! Its rudolphs and Santas ;)

Its 10pm Christmas Eve, and I only have one layer of jelly left to make!

Oh yes, there are tonnes of things I shoulda/coulda/woulda, but I am content to let them be for another year.
Today we:
Made Gingerbread trees to decorate for our family tomorrow ( of what was left of the mixture after two cheeky cherubs found it)

Decorate those gorgeous trees (again, finding Amahli with her stash of stolen smarties meant some trees are a little less decorated)

Made a traditional Australian dessert, The Pavlova ( and yet again, I spent more time chasing children from stealing the decorations. Jared was hell bent on eating a whole punnet of strawberries before I got to them, Jumeirah took a liking to blackberries and Amahli just kept eating the cream...)

Had some last minute playtime in some water with frozen coloured stars I made weeks ago and forgot about... Amahli loved it!


And tonight, watching Elf with my littles and hubbin, I took a moment to be thankful for the huge blessing that each of them is to me.

Thankyou, for reading and sticking with my little blog. I have been challenged and inspired by so many of you to keep going, and I thank those of you who have gone on to do some of these activities with your own kids. I love hearing about it!
Im signing off for a week to give this little brain of mine a break but I'll be back on Monday the 3rd NEXT YEAR!!!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy new year :)




Love,

Karina

Christmas dresses

One of our gorgeous Christmas Baubles we made last week :)


I blame my mother for tonights Christmas disasters.. hopefully they will look better on than they do right now.... Growing up, my mum made my sister and I matching dresses every year for Christmas. Sometimes the fabric was different colours, but we always matched in style. I thought it would be fun to carry on this tradition with my own two girls by doing to same thing.
So, about a month ago, I trotted off to Spotlight and found the most gorgeous fabrics, one in green and one in red. Similar, but different.

About three weeks ago, I found a great pattern online,(Indietutes) printed it out, and had it all ready to go. (go check out this tute, its really easy to follow)
Last night, with now only 4 days to go, I decided to begin this project.

Didnt have enough fabric to cut a front and a back in the right size for Jumeirah. Spent 2 hours trying in vain to make it work. Somehow, at 11pm, I did something sort of right and then cut it. Went to bed, freaking out about how I just ruined such gorgeous material.....

Tonight I have:
Become best friends with my Quick Unpick

Taught myself to make bias binding my own style. i.e. not by cutting the fabric on the bias. That would be too sensible.

I taught myself this after I completely failed at Amahli's straps for her dress. And no, Im not changing it now!

Swore at fabric that really did nothing wrong. Was very tempted to wake them both up at almost midnight to try them on :) ( I didnt, but it was close) And finally, finished two dresses that may or may not have worked and will have to see in the morning... These are the final results.

Really, the pattern and tutorial was really easy and clear. Im just incredibly hopeless at sewing :)

Here too, is the little buddy doll I made for Jared. Hes really cute, you just have to ignore what looks like two bad scars from mole removals on his face... his eyes were so low I had to redo them. Twice :)

Hes currently still pantless, because I cant find a saftey pin the thread his elastic in. It will be fixed tomorrow!!

And here is the eclipse in Australia... nothing too spectacular as we had sea mist to contend with but I was pretty awed by the fact that my American buddies we check it out too :) One of those " we see the same moon" moments :)

Anybody else crafting RIGHT before christmas???

Cake Toppers with FIMO

Nothing fixes my crabby baby than cuddling up with her big sister :)

Today, my biggest angel turned 6. SIX! Thats just crazy... Today was also her school Christmas Concert so I got to sit and watch 12 million littles do some cool dancing and singing and generally have a wonderful time on a stage :)


Jumeirah, loves birthday time for many reasons. But one of the main reasons is she likes to challenge me. Anyone who knows me knows I cant really cook that well. But what I lack in flavour and decent taste, I can make up with how it looks. And when it comes to cakes, I am a master. Actually no, thats pretty untrue, I just cant resist a challenge.
It all started a way back when Jumeirah turned 3 and she requested a Snow White cake. Sure! I said. No worries! And the promptly panicked.
I had a crack at making it all out of fondant, you know that sugar icing stuff. But I am incredibly warm blooded and it kept melting, and annoying the crap out of me so I ate that. I then had another thought, why not fimo??? I could make it waaay before the party, have it sitting in the shelf, then just place it all together on the day!! And so I went to Spotlight, bought a truck load of the stuff and got to work.

A few hours in front of the tv, I had Snow White and 7 dwarves.

Last years fairy cake



For todays school cakes she asked for little girls and butterflies... and so a few days ago, in the space of a a couple of hours, I made these little beauties. And its really easy!



First, I rolled the FIMO into an egg shape and flattened the top and bottom for the body. Long snake shapes for legs and arms, flattened slightly at the ends for hands and feet. the head is rolled as a ball, also slightly flattened at the face, and then placed on top pf the body. I made two tiny eyes with black fimo and stuck them on. The hair ( my main attraction and probably the part I was stressing about most) I warmed up yellow FIMO and pushed it through a playdough toy.




You could use a garlic press if you dont have anything else. I then curled each strand of yellow hair around a thin stick and then stuck each curl onto a girls head. 2 hours and 6 girls later, they are happily enjoying a sauna experience and then they were done. Cupcakes I did at stupid O'clock last night, the butterflies are edible and came in a packet. So I was able to just put the whole thing together so quickly at the end and she ABSOLUTELY love it :)








I totally recommend using FIMO for cake decorating. Its easy, you can do it ages ahead and best of all, you can keep your creations for play later!

superhero capes and masks

So Im sitting at the breakfast table this morning, half awake wishing I was more than half asleep, when Jumeirah hands me a note from the depths of her school bag.
It tells me tomorrow is "S" say at school. And she needs a costume. And did I mention its TOMORROW? So she decides to be the Star she wore at the beginning of the year ( so long ago, shes such a different school girl now, thank goodness!) but I dont think that will work for a full day. So she starts throwing ideas at me: "A snake? or how about a Sea horse? OR I KNOW! ..." which is where I interrupted and said " How about a super hero?" And she agreed. :) Phew!

I had used a great pattern before and had great results in making a cape for my nephew and I knew it wouldn't take long.. its a pattern from Puking Pastilles ( its really cheap too!) and so I got to work making a supergirl cape. Fabric I got for about $9 at a local fabric shop down town that I whizzed to with two children after dropping Child number 1 at school and before I fell in a heap of crappy mum mess.. twasnt a great day. BUT! nevertheless, I WAS going to make a cape.

And sew I did ;)





Its reversible which I love, she can be two different people from the one outfit, and truly, its SO simple to make. She didnt want a letter on the back of it so its fairly plain, but its such a gorgeous colour that she will look great in it anyway.
Its also a touch shorter than I would have liked but she was happy cos she can sit down in it.
I also constructed a felt mask ( also reversible) using a simple mask outline and eye holes. Its done but cutting two layers and stitching the elastic between them. Again, not exactly as I would have liked but I am extremely time short so it will do!!





And it works well too!!



Its something really simple but fun to make. Why not whip up one for your little superhero??