Second haircut

Before:


After:


Her curls disappeared when I cut off all that hair. I hope they come back.

eeuughh and aaahhh

Eeuughh because I'm full of flu plus a bonus bout of mild conjunctivitis, hopefully excusing the lack of action around here lately.
Aaaahhh because it's the first day of Spring and there was some glorious sunshine earlier today and warmer weather is just around the corner!

Projects this past week or so have been mainly small and uncomplicated. Sewing on buttons, reattaching ribbons to doll hats, hemming curtains, a tiny doona ...

One thing that I managed to finish last week was a circular sack to house our Fabuland. Does anyone remember Fabuland? Born in the late 70's, I grew up in the 80's and spent many hours playing with these animal-headed lego critters. Now it's my girls' turn (thanks Ma), and I get to relive my childhood all over again.


Above is the opened sack, complete with Fabuland and a pair of busy builders. The sack is made from a large circle cut from a thrifted Ikea sheet, four narrow curved strips sewn on as casings and a single drawstring. It was quite simple to make, but took me longer than expected due to some design revisions. Initially I had envisioned two strings pulled from opposite sides, but then realised that said strings would be extremely long. Certainly longer than the little arms that will be using it. What I ended up with is a single cord and four openings in the casing for pulling up the drawstring which seems to work well.


And the girls can open the sack quite easily. So long as I don't tie knots in the cords and then pick up the sack by the cords thus tightening the knots then go to work and leave it for their Dad to open. According to Hannah, 'Dad forgot you just pull the string'.

Demise of the almost-words

I've slowly come to the conclusion that at three-and-a-half Miss H is outgrowing her almost-words. That makes me sad.


Cupacumba sounds so much more delightful than cucumber.
And I would much rather eat a sulnatana than a sultana.
Our other favourites are beechine (machine), beeputer (computer), microcove/microcane (microwave), girappa (giraffe), shlocate (chocolate) and the sadly short-lived begruggins (instructions).


At least we still have dvdv.

Shopping bag for Hannah

I love my wiggly three-year-old. Unfortunately wiggly doesn't photograph very well:



If you look hard enough you'll see a tote I made for Hannah recently with some of her beloved dog fabric and an old promotional apron. It was intended as a smaller prototype for a compact tote. This one completely inverts into the front pocket and is a palm-sized ball when not in use. Step 2 will be to make it adult sized.


I won't mention that this was a project aimed at Mother's Day gifts. Maybe next year ...

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Eric Carle

How many times have I read this book? At least 50, probably more. "Brown Bear" is one of Audrey's first phrases. Since receiving this book for her 1st birthday eight months ago she would have gladly listened to it every night. So do I groan inwardly at her eager requests? Strangely no. Such is the sign of a great children's book.




I like the simple, rhythmic, repetitive story. The length of the story feels just right, unlike some authors who take the repetition too far and have me wishing for the end. And how could you not love the large, bright animals that Eric Carle created for the book?

Even Hannah enjoys Brown Bear and was making up her own version on a car trip a short while ago involving trees, cars, fences and whatever else she could see.