Obedience

I have a 3 year old. She's having trouble with obedience, particularly in obeying me. Any of you reading this who have or have had a 3 year old will understand that it's not been fun lately. The terrible twos are NOTHING compared with what happens when your child turns 3.

This is an example of a typical 'discussion':
ME "Miss 3 please go to the toilet before we go out."
MISS 3 "I don't want to."
ME "Please go to the toilet - we can't go until you do."
MISS 3 "No I don't want to."
ME "Miss 3 go to the toilet now! Otherwise you won't be coming."
MISS 3 [silence, she continues playing]
ME [voice raised] "I am going without you unless you go now!"
MISS 3 "But I don't need to."
ME "I don't care!"

At this point I'm really cranky, she is upset, I'm yelling as I walk to the car that I'm leaving without her, she's screaming that she doesn't want to be left behind, and THEN she does what she's told. Considering how often this scenario repeats itself during a typical day [sometimes it repeats in the same hour], I'm probably not dealing with it in the best way.

It's so frustrating, and as I took deep breaths trying to cool down after this scenario repeated for the third time today it suddenly occurred to me: just as Miss 3 disobeys me when she wants to exercise her will, I disobey the Lord when I choose to exercise my will, and not submit to His plan for my life. I do this a lot... disobey God, that is.

The first thing I did when I realised this was pray, and ask for forgiveness. The next thing I did was obey something He'd asked me to do a week ago. Tomorrow I'm going to remember my disobedience when I have to deal with Miss 3's. Hopefully this new perspective on the situation will help me deal with her and I will be able to teach her obedience, rather than react to her disobedience.

Fat quarter bag

Miss 7's best friend is having a birthday tomorrow, which I found out about today! How wonderful to be able to slip into my sewing room tonight and make a gift for her. This bag is made from two fat quarters, one for the lining/straps and the other for the outer and pockets [one internal, one external]. It came together quite quickly, in fact I think I took more time planning how to go about it than I did actually sewing.

I have a few eco shopping bags cut out ready to sew together, and my MIL's birthday gift to finish off this week, then I think I'll tackle a zippered bag, so if I need to 'whip' one up again in a hurry I will be confident to do so. I couldn't get my head into gear tonight to work out a zip in the top of this bag.

I'm starting to understand my friend CraftyMummy's obsession with bags last year... it is a quick and satisfying project that is SO useful. I love making useful things, there's not enough sewing hours in my life to make things that are impractical!

School uniforms

Over the past week I've been making school uniforms. Skorts, to be precise. They have to be woven, and the style of skort where you have a pair of shorts with a flap across the front to look like a wrap skirt. I have a toddler pattern which I've re-drafted to fit Miss 5 and Miss 7. So far I've made three pairs. They fit better than the ones I purchased at the start of the year. I guess this means I'll be sewing uniforms each year now too...

CARDS

Here are the two cards I'm teaching at my card day tomorrow. I'm really enjoying finally using the stamps I've been collecting over the past year or two. I discovered Stampin Up about two years ago and have found it very satisfying to start and finish a papercraft project in one sitting [unlike my scrapbooking which is unending].

The first card is stamped then coloured with watercolour pencils and an aquawash pen. The second is stamped in two different colours.

WINTER WRAP SKIRT

I have been working on a long wrap winter skirt for myself over the past week. It's been on my to do list since Autumn, so finishing by mid-July isn't too bad, I reckon. There was enough fabric left over to make a bias cut skirt for Miss 7 with an elastic waist. She wanted a long skirt "like yours". Tomorrow morning at church we'll match!! I've never made 'Mummy and Me' matching clothing before...

The wrap skirt is a pattern from the 70's that belonged to my Mum. I absolutely love it - the last skirt I made with this pattern I LIVE in. It's an A-line, very flattering, and I plan to wear it with long boots to keep my legs warm!

I'm really enjoying sewing clothing for myself again.

BIBS, BIBS, AND MORE BIBS

It's funny how I had heaps of bibs for my first three children, but now fourth time around I struggle to find a clean bib at meal times! So inspired by LiER on her blog here I decided to make some new bibs for Miss 0. Here are tonight's efforts:

I printed LiER's pattern, and compared it to my favourite bib that fits Miss 0 really well. Then I altered the pattern to match our bib, and started cutting. I really enjoyed using some of the lovely fat quarters and other remnants I've accumulated in the past few months and had no idea how to use. I still need to topstitch most of these and attach the velcro, which I'll do tomorrow.
I think this bib-making could become addictive...

PS: No, this is NOT one of my projects on my To Do list on the right. I know, I know, I need to focus on them. But this was such FUN!

Our new babies

Here are our new babies: 5 days old, and already almost twice as big as when we got them last Tuesday. We're planning a chicken coop to house laying hens, but couldn't resist buying them at one day old!

The kids think they're fantastic, and the chicks are getting used to being handled by us all. Problem is, it's winter here in Oz and too cold to put them outside while they're so little. So I have six little chicks living in my dining room in a box. When we get them out for a little run they poop EVERYWHERE so I'm glad I have a steam cleaner to disinfect my floor tiles!

FINISHED: character skirt

Tonight I finally finished off Miss 7's ballet character skirt. I've been putting it off because it's a full circle, and the hemline is just over 4 metres around! I had to hem it, and sew 4 rows of ribbon around the hem. I sewed a LONG way tonight!!

It's a great feeling to get that monkey off my back!! If I keep my sewing momentum going like this and keep fuelling myself with chocolate I might get all my UFO's finished by the end of August!!

my first twirly skirt for this year

I made this skirt tonight for a friend's grand-daughter. It's so difficult to find pretty 'little girl' clothes in the shops, and this is a little girl who loves to twirl. Although it's winter, she'll get lots of use out of it cause she wears leggings a lot. I'll make some new tiered skirts for my girls soon - so easy and so much fun to throw together!

Check out this previous post for my tutorial on how to make your own tiered twirly skirt.

Sewing fat quarter bags WITH the kids

Today Miss 7 and Miss 5 wanted to do some sewing. They both wanted to design, sew, and finish a dress in an hour. I talked them into a bag each. I let them search through my fat quarters and find a fabric they loved, and another for lining. Then I got them to draw what they wanted while I frantically drafted a pattern in my head and cut out the pieces. Miss 7 started sewing her seams while Miss 5 and I decided on her bag design. It was frantic, interspersed with Miss 0 having filled her nappy and Miss 3 asking if she could use my scissors, my machine, my tailor's chalk, pretty much everything in sight. Poor thing heard 'no' a lot.

I think they did a great job. The photo doesn't do them justice. Miss 5's bag is the blue one, it has a curved gusset and a snap close hidden behind the big button. Miss 7's bag is upside down [oops] it is a rectangular bag with a flap closure [you can't see the flap cause I didn't notice till now I'm a very poor photographer]. Both bags are fully lined. While they were in the shower I fixed up a couple of Miss 5's wonky seams so it sat straight and put her lining in. Miss 7 did all hers by herself [I just told her where to sew and I did all the ironing].

The best part is, they feel they succeeded as the whole project was finished the same day we began [unlike many of my sewing projects]. They are planning to take them to church tomorrow morning. I just hope tomorrow afternoon they don't ask to sew again... I'm exhausted!!

How to buy fabric with young children

I stumbled across this post from IKAT BAG and had a big giggle. If you've ever tried to buy fabric [or anything] with young children you should read this.

Everything Liah says is absolutely true. And I learnt the hard way to do all these things.