La Mammina

Birthday bag rip off

I had a four year old's birthday party to go to yesterday. And, not suprisingly where I am concerned, I had no present. I'd like to say I whipped this up in an hour - but that is simply not true. It took me until 1am in the morning. I started after the kids had gone to bed, but true to form, they kept on waking up. So perhaps it could have taken me an hour to do if I didn't have kids. But, if I didn't have kids, I wouldn't have any need to make a four year old's birthday present.

So this is a real rip off. I stole the idea to make a last minute bag gift from here. And then I completely copied the style of the bag from here.

The idea to puy a monogram on it was my own though. The gift is for a girl with two sisters, so I thought a little differentiation was in order.

Just the beginning

Andrew and I have been married for four years today.

It seems like longer. We've crammed a lot of life into that short time.

I've got to admit, sometimes I find marriage very hard. But at the end of the day there is something so big holding us together.

At times I just get so caught up in the children, and yet here is this person that started it all. Thank you baby, I love you.

Back into the garden

When I first started this blog, I didn't really know what I was going to include in it. All I knew was that I had found this wonderful world of craft blogs that gave me so many ideas and such an insight into other ways of doing things. And I wanted to play too! It didn't matter that my sewing skills were below average I just felt that it wasn't fair to just read the blogs, I had to contribute too.

So I started making things and posting up pictures of them, thinking that that is what people wanted to see (after all, that is what I liked seeing in other blogs - preferably with step by step instructions on how to make my own!!!). But, while I still like to make things and post pictures, I think this blog is turning into more of a journal. Not a terribly in depth one, but still a pictorial documentaion of the things I get up to while Tilly and now Frankie are growing up. I suppose it beats a hastily scribbled note of the date and location on the back of a photo and then shoving it into a box.

I've realised that I now enjoy seeing glimpses of other people's lives through their blogs and not just the craft, so I'll probably post a little more along those lines. Not really for anyone else's benefit, just for my own. And if it interests other people they'll read on, if not then there is always the next listing on Bloglines.

So we spent a lovely day in the garden yesterday. It was well overdue, but now things are looking good again. It proceeded to pour with rain afterwards, so that is all good. Tilly had such a great time with Andrew and Marco. She's really clingy with Andrew at the moment - it's like he is her special friend seeing as Frankie appears to be mine. Poor mite, she's coping so well, but who knows what is going on in that head of hers? She does hide things well. On the day I was giving birth to Frankie she spent the afternoon at a friends house, she appeared to be perfectly happy and played as normal, but at the end of the day my friend found Tilly's cup and there were deep indents where she had been nervously gnawing on the spout all day. So stoic, but she still gets affected.

Sticky tape craft

Tilly and I made these dolls from toilet paper rolls very quickly this morning. Best of all we used Tilly's favourite craft medium - sticky tape. She loves the stuff!! These don't really show off her enormous face drawing talent of which she has become very skilled recently. Instead she opted for scarface princess.

This was truly a joint effort with Tilly doing the sticking down and suggesting the ribbon, being most specific that it had to go around their waists.

And all of this was really just so I had something to pose in front of my brand new sewing machine!!! I didn't have a whole heap to spend and this one fit all my criteria and was heavily marked down to boot. I've had a little play with it and it is sooooooo smooth compared to the old clunker that I had. The one step button hole is a real treat!!!

Oh and wish me luck. My Mum, who has been staying since 2 weeks before Frankie's birth, is going home today. There's going to be chaos at my place!!

Love

One word says it all.

A little chocolate

This was my contribution to Easter. Of course the grandmothers couldn't help themselves and there were chocolate bunnies hopping around. After polishing off one bunny (we promptly hid the other) Tilly exclaimed "My tummy's big, I feel sick!"

P.S Thanks for the idea Megan. I have that book too!

Building Zoe's House

On Good Friday we went to this little installation at the Power House Museum. It's basically an interactive playground for kids to build a house together. There were huge foam bricks, conveyer belts, cranes, boom gates, trolleys and wheel barrows. The basic idea was to collect bricks, transport them around the place and rebuild the house. We went with another family and the kids all had a great time. Afterwards we went for an early dinner in Chinatown which was oh so easy. A great way to spend the day really. Andrew has had time off over Easter, so we've been able to do a lot of fun, family oriented stuff, including a trip to the zoo.

The pictures were taken on Andrew's phone, so aren't spectacular.

Speaking of unspectacular...my rseponse to comments has been just that. I just wanted to put a general apology out there. I'm going to make a big effort to reply to all comments from now on. I do love reading them, and you have all been so encouraging lately, please know that I really appreciate everything you have to say.

Oh, and also, I have made a step to restore some of the old Allison. Before getting married and having children, I spent six years in Italy. I worked in film there and spoke Italian fluently. I've been back in Australia for nearly five years now, and while I can still understand it and can bumble my way through a conversation with an Italian Mum at playgroup, it is not up to the same standard that it once was. I think that is a big shame. So I'm on a bit of a mission to maintain it. So, a trip to the library today saw me bringing home books and toys for Tilly and an Italian film on DVD and book for me. Now all I have to do is find time to watch and read!

Hot Cross Buns

Mmmmmm... I made hot cross buns yesterday. They were pretty good and didn't leave that heavy weighed down feeling afterwards (or does that just come from eating too many).

While they were pretty easy to make, they were very time consuming with lots of different rising times. Tilly likes apricot, so I just put currants and chopped dried apricot in them which was a nice variation. Yum!

Happy Easter!

Sorry, can't help it...

... but I am going to try.

What I mean is, lately I have been feeling very defined by my role as a mother and less of an individual. Not altogether a bad thing when you have only recently given birth, but not 100% great either.

I'm pretty happy with how parenthood has treated me so far, and I am constantly harping on about how great it is to other people. Yet, I am increasingly looking back at my life pre-children with nostalgia. I'd like to see a little more of that Allison in my day to day life. I'm not sure how I'm going to achieve it, but articulating that desire here might just be a start.

By the way. The sling is working great and he is just so cute in it!!!