Fluffy-tailed Bunny Singlets (sew or no sew)

This year for the first time ever we are breaking with tradition (eeek) and are going away for Easter with a group of friends.  Traditionally, we spend the weekend with family and on Easter Sunday we all gather at either our house or my parents house and have an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids.  Although we won't be home, we will still most definitely be having an egg hunt on Easter Sunday and because there are four little girls going, I thought it might be nice to make them a little "Egg Hunting" singlet, similar to one I saw recently in an Etsy shop - and despite searching for it again so I could include the link here, I came up with absolutely nothing.  Sorry.

Now, if you cannot sew or do not have a machine, then this little fluffy bunny is just for you.  It can be a competely no-sew project if you want it to be and it's perfect for using up your scrap material, which is exactly what I did.

Here's the scoop ... 

• Find a bunny template on Google (I am lucky enough to have a Silhouette Cameo machine so I chose a bunny template and cut it out on my machine - I know, cool huh?)
• Trace the bunny onto your fabric.
• Iron on some vliesofix (available from Spotlight) to the wrong side of your fabric.
• Cut out your bunny.
• Peel the vliesofix backing off your bunny.
• Iron him/her onto your singlet using a hot iron.
• Cut out a circle for his fluffy tail from fluffy fabric.  I actually don't know the name of the fabric I used.  You could also use a crocheted flower or a button etc for the tail. 
• Use Fabric Craft glue to adhere the tail to your bunny.
• If you're happy to sew, then a top stitch around the edge of the bunny finishes it off nicely.

And that's it.  Ta da!  Fluffy Bunny Singlet. C-U-T-E-N-E-S-S.  So cute in fact that when my son saw what I was sewing he requested one in "boy" colours, and because I'm all for equality I guess it's back to the sewing table!

Have a happy Easter everyone and enjoy time with your family ... and friends!

Sweeeeet Chocolate Spoons

 

I wasn't going to bother with Easter treats for my son's class this year (too much going on, not enough time, they get enough already yadda yadda yadda) but when I came across these Chocolate Spoons on the Sweetapolita blog, I immediately changed my mind.  They were so sweet, simple and I only needed three things - chocolate, sprinkles and spoons - and I could enlist my son's help (mention chocolate and he's there in a millisecond).  The perfect, tiny treat.

 

Here's what you need:

300g good quality chocolate (I ended up with 34 spoons)
Sprinkles (or anything sweet, cute & sparkley)
Plastic spoons

Instructions

Place your plastic spoons on a baking tray lined with baking paper, resting the spoon handles

on a spatula, book or tea-towel, to level them out while filling.
Temper your chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave (or in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water on the stove), by warming for 20 second intervals and stirring in between.

When the chocolate is almost (80%) completely melted, remove from the microwave and keep stirring until the last few pieces are completely melted and the chocolate is smooth.
Spoon melted chocolate into your plastic spoons, about 80% full (the sprinkles will fill the rest).
Add your sprinkles. Place in the freezer or refrigerator for about 20 minutes to set.

 

 

I found it easier to use a small glass jug to pour the chocolate onto the spoon rather than spooning it on, and because I needed to send these to school with my son, I popped each spoon into its own plastic bag and added a Happy Easter label, which I downloaded free from I Heart Naptime (gotta love free labels!).

 

 

 

 

 

Sweetapolita was spot on when they said this is a very quick and rewarding little Easter treat for the kids and because there is just a mouthful of chocolate, they won't be climbing the walls afterwards.  Now, there's a win-win.  Try them for yourself ... go on, it's only a mouthful!!

 

 

Writing Cards {Printable}

My son started Pre-Primary this year and the two main things the teachers are concentrating on at the moment are reading and writing.  He has reading and flash-card homework so the reading bit is covered but to help his writing along (and this is really mainly for when we are out and about not as an add-on to his nightly homework), I made him up some really simple writing cards. 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice the third hand creeping into the pic?  Little sis always has to get in on the action!

I used Victorian Modern Cursive, which is the font of choice by WA schools - not sure if it's Australia wide - because I wanted him to be practising exactly what he uses at his school.  I kept the phrases simple and asked him for some input on what he wanted to practise writing.  His first response was "Ben 10 rocks" (of course it was) and I expected his second response to be "My Mum is great" (of course it wasn't!).  I added it anyway.  I then printed and laminated the cards and have them held together with a curtain ring which I had in my sewing box.  The laminate lets him write and erase as often as he wants.

 

 

 

 

If you have little ones in Pre-Primary, or Kindy, and you would like them to have a little extra writing practise, feel free to download the writing cards.

Fun with Fimo

Today was one of those quiet home days - the husband was out fishing, the three of us couldn't really be bothered going out anywhere and so we just pottered, did some chores and hung out at home.  Eventually the 5 year old got bored, the 2 year old got grumpy and I knew my time was up.  Out came the Fimo.  Have you ever used it before?  I think I have but it was so long ago I really can't remember.  It's fantastic stuff - a bit like play dough, although harder and it takes a bit more work to soften it up, and it comes in beautiful, bright colours.  I'm sure there is so much you can do with it but today we just kept it very simple and made beads, a snake and a man.  Once you've finished creating it gets baked in the oven for 30 minutes at 110C and then you've got yourself some resin-like beads to play with.  What's not to love? 

It was the perfect anecdote for boredom today.  Although, in saying that, 3 minutes in little Miss-grumpy-pants 2 year old had had enough so took herself off to play with her Ladybug Game, and then 2 minutes after that it was onto something else ... and then 2 minutes after that ...

What have your experiences been with Fimo? I'd love to hear about them, or even better post a pic to my Facebook page.  We could probably tackle something a little more creative and challenging than beads next time so feel free to share the Fimo goodness!

Easter Egg Pot Holders

 

I made these quirky little Easter Egg Pot Holders last year for my son's teachers.  They are very easy to make and would suit a beginner sewer.  I made them using a pattern and tutorial designed by Kelly at Miss Mary Sews - which you can see here (she also does fabulous sewing classes if you live in the Perth area).  The only thing I added to Kelly's pattern was a loop at the top of each pot holder so they could be hung up.  Her tutorial is very clear and is really easy to follow.  It's a great little project for all those fabric scraps you have laying around and really is a nice alternative to giving chocolate.

 

What am I doing this year?  I have absolutely no idea.  It's not looking good for his new teachers this year! :(

 

Happy Easter everyone, stay safe, eat well and enjoy your break!  Oh, and don't forget to post me a pic if you happen to get into crazy Easter sewing and whip up some of these little lovelies.

Digital Photo Clean-up

Things have been very, very quiet on the blog lately and for those of you who follow me on Facebook you will no doubt know why but for those of you who don't (and you know you totally should!), I will tell you - embarrassing as it is.
 

A few weeks ago I finally had an hour to myself to begin a long-overdue clean up of my Photos folder on my PC, transferring one folder at a time from my hard-drive to a CD.  As I transferred each folder across I checked it had copied and then I deleted the folder from the hard-drive, which was the whole point, to get the stuff off my hard-drive, free up some much needed space and have my photos elsewhere but still easily accessible.  This is where I came absolutely, revoltingly unstuck and I still cannot fathom how it happened.
   

Everything was going perfectly and not taking much time at all and then a question popped up, "this folder is too big for the recycle bin, do you want to permanently delete it?".  Well, yes, of course - I had a rhythm going and it was working for me.  W-R-O-N-G.  Hugely W-R-O-N-G.  I realised immediately what I had done.  I stared at the screen.  I wanted to be sick.  I am fairly computer literate - I wouldn't have been that dumb.  I couldn't have been that dumb.  Well, turns out I was.  My entire photos folder containing every photo I had taken since 2004 had been swiped - in an instant. And, no, I had never, ever backed up my computer.  I know, dumber than Dumb & Dumber.  Pathetic. Total ding-a-ling.  At this point I was still staring at the screen thinking the folder would reappear anytime soon.  It didn't, and I knew I was in trouble - BIG trouble.
 

I raced my hard-drive off to the local IT specialists but after almost two weeks of attempting a recovery they admitted defeat and recommended another company who had "forensic level" IT expertise.  If they couldn't retrieve my data then I would probably have to accept I wouldn't be seeing my photos ever again. I felt sick all over again but thankfully, and I mean THANKFULLY, they worked away and were able to retrieve around 90% of my photos.  I was so very happy and so very grateful that they had been able to work their special IT magic and drag back my precious memories from a very close, permanent grave. 

So, on the weekend I was finally able to continue with my project and copied over all of the recovered photos to CD's.  I have checked, double-checked and triple-checked the CD's and I am happy that everything has worked this time so now I will delete the folders from my PC to free up some space.  I still want the photos to be easily accessible so they are on CD's in chronological Event order, which is my preference for photo organisation.  And because I had a CD Stomper in my box of tricks (it was given to me at a Kris Kringle about 10 years ago and I totally forgot about it until recently but now I love it), I labelled each CD with its list of contents to make finding a particular photo very simple.  I used the Marbig CD/DVD Pockets which hold 3 CD's per sleeve and then just popped them in a binder.  It's an easy system and I am ecstatic that my photos are now safe in their new little home.  Phew.  What a massive relief.

 

Sorry about the quality of the above two photos.  My "big girl" was charging so I used my i-Phone and it does annoying things like putting ugly blue lines through my photos! :(

Now I've gotta dash and get myself an external hard-drive and start a backing-up schedule. Lesson well and truly LEARNT!