World Book Day Part 1

You'd think that having had World Book Day last year (and sending Max to school in a hastily purchased knight's costume - "lots of books have knights in them Max") that I might have been a tad more organised this year.  Well you'd be wrong - which will come as a surprise to most of my friends as I am officially "the organised one".  Hmmpphh....

So here I am sitting trying to thing I something that I can rustle up in about a week, from scratch.  Hmmpphh again.

I asked Max what he wanted to be.  Various Mr Men books were produced.  I countered with Burglar Bill - "I don't want to - everyone will laugh at me".  So we have settled* on "Max" from "Where the Wild Things Are" - partly because of the whole "Max" thing and mainly because I thought it would be quite easy to find a cheap plain onesie and then make a crown and a tail.  After 30 minutes of scouring the interweb I am realising I may have to make a onesie from scratch.  Double, possibly triple, hmmpphh!!  I feel a trip to the local fabric shop coming on along with the realisation that separate trousers and top may be the way to go.

Let's face it, it needs to top this hat that I made for him last year

Please come back to find out whether I gave up on this as a bad job and sent him to school as a knight again!!

* For "settled" read "Max this is what you are having"

Dressmaking

OK so I've been a bit absent - life has a tendency to just get in the way sometimes!  So what have I been up to?  Not all that much really but I have taken up dressmaking.

Inspired by Jo's gift with fabrics and having read this blog where Manda's love of fabric is all too evident, I thought I would see about making Penelope some clothes - girls' clothing being a bit more, well, interesting than boys'...

I was looking on Pinterest for a bit on inspiration and a link to a pattern on Etsy led to me buying two dress patterns.  Paper patterns seem to be very expensive these days and the joy of Etsy means that you can get a pattern for about a fiver or less and have it delivered to your inbox.  OK so you've got to factor in the cost of printing it out but I think they represent excellent value.  One of the patterns I bought was one that I thought I could adapt to being a top as well as a dress. 

So after picking Jo's brains for good fabric websites, I ordered some fabric on Saints and Pinners and Seamstar.  I realised I needed some matching cotton and, not being one to hang about, I colour matched from memory whilst in John Lewis.  Now I wouldn't recommend trying to colour match thread without the actual material but, surprisingly, all my matches worked out.

I started off simply and made this top for Penelope

Then because Jo had mentioned reversible trousers for Rowan, I made these trousers for Rowan using this pattern for the trousers and this tutorial to make them reversible.  Once I had worked out what needed to be done to make them reversible it was surprisingly easy.

Finally I made this dress using one of the Etsy patterns

To be honest this was a bit of a trial, partly because of the pattern (bubble skirts are NOT easy), partly because of the material (cotton voile, however pretty, is a bit of a b*gger to sew) and partly because I didn't read the pattern instructions properly which meant I had to remake the bodice - ho hum. 

I've made a few other bits and pieces for P but unfortunately haven't photographed them - ah well.

I also decided to make myself a dress.  Every year we have a girls' xmas night out and this year I haven't been able to find a dress that either a) I liked or b) didn't cost the earth.  So I thought I'd see what patterns for adult sized dresses there were on Etsy and came across this one.  The dress was finally finished about 30 minutes before we went out.  I was fairly pleased with it but I wouldn't say I loved it.  I think it was more to do with the choice of material than anything else.  I think I should have gone a bit simpler and made it in black.  I can't get over the fact that I think I look a bit like an Xmas turkey wrapped in foil....

Mind you I was extremely pleased with the fact that I managed how to use the blind stitch on my sewing machine (which had previously eluded me) and also put in a zip.  Although I did have to email my Mum a picture and ask if it was a zipper foot.

My next project is a mini quilt - mainly because I ordered some fabric and it wasn't quite what I intended.  And then I am going to try a scrappy trip around the world quilt which Jo has talked about on her blog here - as she says resistance is futile.

Oh and Max has requested that I make a miniature Happy Meal for one of his bears - that could be interesting!

Breadsticks

Here's something for a fun snack - maybe even get the kids to do them.  Great for a party as well I should imagine

Take a packet of breadsticks (the thinner ones work best), melt some chocolate in a bowl, cover about three-quarters of the breadsticks in the melted chocolate and then lay them down on a baking tray covered with baking paper, sprinkle with hundreds and thousands, allow to cool and then allow hoards of children to decimate them in the manner of a swarm of locusts.

Here's a pic

And whilst I would like to claim credit for this idea, it must go to my sis-in-law H who had purchased one single breadstick prepared in this style for 50p from a soft play centre!  By my reckoning if you prepare them yourself you'll save a packet :)

Clothing rescue

I have this nice top

That I managed to put a hole in - oops!

Thankfully the hole wasn't in too awkward a place so I decided that I could probably patch it.  I remembered that Jo had posted about embellishing her cardi here.  I mentioned this to her over tea (at playgroup naturally) and she offered the use of her Cath Kidston "Make" book - note to self: must now return book.

Having had a browse through I decided that one patch might look a bit odd but there was a t-shirt in the book embellished with stars.  So I purchased these items

Some white felt, fusible web and some grey embroidery thread.

I then traced some of the stars onto the fusible web

And then cut them out, pinned them to the felt and cut the felt stars out

I cut out one large star (to cover the hole), two medium stars and four small stars - I do like things to be even, random is definitely not my forte!  I then pinned them onto my top to make sure I got the layout right

Ironed them in place (about 10 seconds with a steam iron), having placed a tea towel on the top of the stars to make sure the felt didn't distort with the heat.  To make sure they stayed in place (although the fusible web did a great job) I then blanket stitched round each star

If you're not sure how to do a blanket stitch then it's worth searching Youtube, as there's bound to be a video showing you how to do it - I learnt how to ladder stitch the same way.

So here's the finished article

One top rescued from the rubbish bin :)

Fruit Kebabs

I am always trying to get Max to eat more fruit and veg, Penelope on the other hand can't get enough of the stuff - to the extent that she will happily eat the peel along with the orange....

It isn't an easy task persuading Max that fruit is nice so when Penelope made some fruit kebabs at nursery I decided to try it at home.  I assembled these ingredients

You can use any fruit you like, but obviously fruits like banana and apple will need eating quickly before they go brown. I also used some mini marshmallows as an added enticement for Max.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave - do it in small short bursts and stir in between otherwise you risk burning the chocolate and making it unusable. Then put the fruit etc on the wooden sticks

Then drizzle with the melted chocolate.  Children will need to be supervised as the chocolate and bowl will be hot.

Put in the fridge to set the chocolate and you're all done.

You will note that Max doesn't appear in these photos as he wasn't feeling well when we did this but he did at least eat the results - that's a success in my book!!

Try it - it's fun and healthy- if you ignore the chocolate part :)

Olympic/Lego Fever

I don't know about you but the Olympics have been a fixture in our lives for the last two weeks.  Even if we've not been watching it, it's been on in the background.  Max has witnessed me shouting at the rowers, swimmers, cyclists and athletes.  He was very disappointed when we only won silver in one of the rowing events and I had to spend some time telling him about "taking part" and "trying your best" and the fact that silver meant you were the second best in the whole world!!  Somehow though I don't think he was quite convinced.

Of course for Max no event would be complete without some Lego and we have been collecting the Team GB Lego minifigures.  After some loitering in two well known supermarkets feeling all the packets for giveaway parts ("Ooo Max that's a tennis racket, we need the tennis player"), we completed the set.  To be honest I think I was more excited about completing the set than Max was....

Here are the little fellas (and the girls) in all their glory

I'm hoping that in 20 years time a full set will be worth something (!) and this got me to thinking about how we could keep them safe from the children display them and I remembered this from Pinterest so I got to work and got this frame from Ikea

And assembled these items and some superglue

As I didn't actually read the blog post before commencing on my project (as opposed to now when I am writing this post - oops!), I opted to take the glass out (although this is possibly a safer option for the kids) and painted the backing board white, although you could paint it whatever colour you wanted to fit in with your theme.

I then reassembled the frame (minus the glass) and then glued 9 pieces of 2x2 Lego blocks to the backing board.  Obviously the Lego bricks had to be red, white and blue to keep in with the Team GB theme.

The minifigures were then placed on each of the bricks and look like this

The obvious advantage is that the minifigures can still be taken off the bricks and still played with, although if Max loses any bits there will be trouble!!

Having reviewed several posts I am wondering whether this blog should be more aptly entitled "Musings from a Lego Mum"......

I DON'T believe it

How, just HOW, is it possible that my boy has already done a whole year at school??? AND that we're already three weeks into the summer holidays???

Here he is on the last day of reception

Although the tie was his own addition....

Of course the end of his first school year meant the pressure of getting some presents for his teachers.  Thankfully the mum of one his friends, L, suggested that we all chip into a big present.  So we duly chipped in but I also wanted to give his teachers something a bit more personal from Max.  Inspired by this post from my friend's blog, we made some noteblocks

As there are two reception classes and the teachers work across the two classes, I wanted to do something not just for Max's teacher and teaching assistant but also the teachers and teaching assistants in the other class.  So inspired by something I saw somewhere on Pinterest, I made some cookies using this recipe and then put them in bags with a tag

Well done Max for such a great first year - we're so proud of you!