Rainy Day Activity - Make a Table Playhouse!

Hello my sweets! Well, as promised today I have a guest post from a new blogger on the block - her name Emily and her blog is The Beetle Shack. Emily contacted me out of the blue on a day I received an 'anonomous' scathing remark from a reader about my noticeable lack of parenting skills (remember this post) and was considering throwing it all in (my blog, that is!) when a lovely email came in telling me how refreshing my blog was with its lack of sugar coating motherhood and thanking me for providing an entertaining read! Emily was just starting her blog but upon visiting her I was immediately inspired. She's from the Central Coast like me, she's crafty, shes into decorating, she's got little kids and - AND - coincidentally, her rainy day activity comes from a book I mentioned a while ago on my blog, called Cool Spaces for Kids! I love what Emily has done here, and I'm inspired to make one for Fern and Elliott... just as soon as I finish the other 47 billion sewing projects I currently have on the go.

Emily's project? A table cubby house! I'm loving the retro inspired fabrics; the cut-out windows, the little string of bunting across the doorway... love love love!

Check it out:





Wouldn't YOUR kids go spare for one of these? I know mine would.

Inspired? Why not give it a whirl yourself! The following instructions are sourced from Cool Spaces for Kids, which you can buy here. And I recommend you do -  it is full of ideas for creating fun and stylish spaces and projects for kids; I reread mine all the time! Have fun!

Materials:
Large sheet of sheeting fabrice to fit over your table
Tape measure
Tailor's chalk
Scissors
Fabric scraps
Pinking shears
Sewing machine and matching thread
Plastic sheeting
Dressmaker's pins.

Instructions:
1 Decide on the height and width of the door and windows needed. Measure and mark up on your sheet with tailor's chalk and cut out.

2 Cut a door 'curtain' from a scrap of fabric using pinking shears and making it 2cm wider than the doorway. Stitch it to the top of the doorway.

3 Measure and cut out plastic 'windows'. They should be about 4 cm bigger than the window opening. Pin these in place behind the openings and stitch down.

4 Measure and cut four curtains from matching scraps of fabric, using pinking shears. Attach thse to the 'outside' of the sheet, carefully stitching them to the house along the top of the window, and taking care to conceal the plastic window seam beneath. Make two fabric tie backs per curtain and stitch in place.

5 Cut out window box flowers from floral fabric and hand stitch to the 'house' just beneath the window. Or collect beautifully made silk flowers and glue into place.

Source: Cool Spaces for Kids (2009), Sam Scarborough, Octopus Publishing Group




Have YOU got an inspiring rainy day activity that you'd like to share via my blog? I'd love to feature you! Email me!

6 Months & Nursery Update

Six Months!!
I can't believe I'm at this point in my pregnancy already! I get more and more excited each day. 


Nursery News
Her nursery is coming along so well! First click here to see the before photos!

Here are the during pictures...
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And here is what is looks like now!

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We still have to add decorations, blinds, and well more baby stuff, but I'm loving it so far!



Momma & Baby Update
Overall, I'm feeling good! According to my anatomy scan I had a low lying placenta at 19 weeks. They say it's pretty normal and will likely move up but doc is sending me for another ultrasound so we can take another look at it in three weeks. So I will get to see my baby girl again! Thinking positive that everything will be in normal position! As for littles..she is now weighing over a pound and almost a foot long, she will begin to put on baby fat. As of a few days ago her heartbeat is at 150. My 24 week check up went well. At my 20 week appointment I was at my starting weight. Since then I have packed on a whopping six pounds. Eek! But my doctor is happy and so am I. I needed to gain a little weight for my little bug.

24 weeks

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(I promise the mirror isn't dirty, it was all the sun glare!)

wordless wednesday


Playing along here with the lovely Sarah.

wordless Wednesday : all shopped out




welcome to another week
please make sure your blog posts are wordless
just an image is all you need
& please link back to here so others can join in too

thank you for playing along


Bohemia

Bohemia
Wall Stickers, Oiseau Sur Branche by Bohemia



Trophy Deer and Glass Paperweight, 'Paris is always a good idea' by Bohemia



Wall Stickers, Printemps by Bohemia



La Tennis Liberty, Vert by Bohemia


This week for my 'shops i love' page, I bring you my lovely sponsor Bohemia. An award- winning lifestyle boutique selling bohemian clothing, accessories, bath and beauty products, gorgeous home furnishings, stationery, babywear, children's clothing, toys and gifts. Bohemia opened their first lifestyle store in 2006 in their home city of Edinburgh in Scotland. They source products that are exquisitely decorated or beautifully simple. Only one rule applies; they must love it!

I am loving the pretty Summery wall stickers, Miss Etoile bird weights and decorative bird cages. On my wish list is the ever so cute floral tennis shoes to wear on my Summer bike rides and a Trophy Deer head for my dining room. I am also lucky enough to own one of their Morrocon pouffes in white with silver grey embroidery, which adds glamour to my living room!

Have a sweet day!

More on being a bit weird


Almost a year ago I wrote a post about what an odd person I am and it turned out that I wasn't really so odd after all. We all do weird things.

Like, I've come to terms with the fact that every time I wash the dishes I get an excruciatingly itchy nose but I can't scratch it because my hands are wet because I'm washing the dishes. A little bit of torture each and every day.

And I'm okay that the few times I've managed to get my act together to go on twitter, my conversations are remarkably brief for a talker like me because every single time I'm suddenly busting for the loo. Once I've been, I forget I was ever twittering in the first place.

The other day I nearly gagged when I realised that I'd started to eat my steak before I'd finished all my vegetables.

There is no way I could fall asleep in a room with a cupboard door open.

If I kill an ant, I worry for days that millions of ants are coming to get me. This actually happened to me just this week as my pantry is full of ants and I'm pretty sure I stepped on one last Monday. I can hardly sleep because they've infiltrated the house and they are obviously coming to get me.

Before the ants can get me, I will probably get myself. I can't drink more than three glasses of alcohol without fretting that I'm going to wake up in the morning and wonder what happened the night before. This comes from experience, sadly, but at the age of almost forty and after a mere three glasses over an entire evening, you think I would have gotten over my paranoia. But I am coming to get me.

Finally, I will leave you with this random oddity. I can't sit with my back to the door. What am I, Vito Corleone? The Feds are after me? It's particularly embarrassing at work because they just move you anywhere they want you and I fret that my new desk will be the one where my back is to the door. I made my colleague swap once (thank you, Johnny), but so far no one else has noticed this odd little habit of mine. If anyone caught on, it may go some way to explaining my amazing punctuality at meetings. Every meeting you go to, there I am, the chirpy early bird facing the door ready to brightly welcome you to the room.

Like I said, I'm odd. But we all do weird things, right? Right?

[For my image we've been paid a long overdue visit by the lovely Suse Bauer from Revoluzza]
local charm and produce . . .


 . . . sunday . . .
 just the 2 of us and of course the "big belly" slowly exploring and negotiating our way around our
local organic markets.
our recent farm visit has inspired our little family to enjoy more of the 
fresh produce at our city farm. 

a basket or oranges, banana's and a bunch of kale purchased.
 herbs and fruit trees inspected and of course chickens to visit and chat with.




home to bake apple and cinnamon muffins . . . 
snuggled in for books and we slept the afternoon away . . . just what we needed really!




we made these with our fresh kale. you can't just stop at one, two or three. yum!


a Melbourne lane way

this was one of the first stops I had planned for my photographic walk around Melbourne last weekend
 it was full of colour passion devotion & artistic flair
& even more exciting was
 the opportunity for me to
 capture this artist at work
 as he worked on his little space
& made his mark in this eclectic piece of town