17/52

The 52 Project: a portrait of my children, once a week, each week in 2014

Linking up with Practicing Simplicity.

We've had a beautiful weekend spending time with family and friends this weekend.

 Mimsy's most favourite place in the world - the Waterfront Carousel. We managed to convince her that she only needed two turns this time.

 JuJu Man just can't stop rolling!

16/52

The 52 Project - a portrait of my children, once a week, each week in 2014

Linking up with Practicing Simplicity.

 Mimsy loved her Easter egg hunt in the backyard!

 Ju Ju Man learnt to roll over a couple of weeks ago. He loves the freedom it gives him and I'm sure he can't wait to be able to sit up so that he can move his book in the perfect eating position.

The Wedding Collection

I blogged about some of the sewing I had been doing for my sister's wedding here.

Here it all is in action. Thanks to Tom and Dom Keating for the photographs.

First up is the quilted table runner. Ok, so I probably should have taken a photo of the gift table that featured the table runner, but I hardly picked up my camera or phone for the whole day, and this photo of us getting ready is the only one I can find of it! The table is in the top left corner. Along with the table runner, it featured some vintage glassware, a vintage suitcase for people to place cards in, the guest book and vintage wedding photos of the bride and groom's parents and grandparents. It was a table of old world charm and once the middle table in this photo was tidied up it was a real feature in the room.

I just love the idea of the wedding photos of past generations. I even based my bridesmaid speech on them!

The flower girls looked stunning all dressed up. The headbands I made had just the right amount of sparkle and added to the art deco elements of the wedding theme. The embellished lace belt matched the details on the bride's and bridesmaids' dresses. All in all, they were both adorable.

 In the end it was quite a warm day, so the cropped jackets made only a brief appearance much later in the evening. I still love these jackets, made using Amelie and Henri Beatrice Cropped Jacket pattern. It is such a pretty little addition to gorgeous outfits.

A couple of days before the wedding I decided that I needed to make Ju Ju Man an outfit as well, so out came the pinstripe fabric I picked up earlier in the week from Rathdowne Fabrics and the very cute Vintie Overalls pattern by Fresh Designs. He looked utterly adorable! The Vintie Overalls are available through Lil Pip Designs (By the way, how pretty is my mum? She was mid talking, not pulling a duck face!)

And lastly, I had nothing to do with making anything in this photo. But I love it! Congratulations Tim and Elly on your marriage and stunning wedding day. We had the best time!

15/52

The 52 Project - a portrait of my children, once a week, each week, in 2014

Linking up with Practicing Simplicity.

This week our family participated in the Run for the Kids, a fun run in Melbourne that raises money for the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal. We signed up as part of a team of 30 called Team Lexie. Our team was inspired by my cousin's little girl who has Larsen's Syndrome and spends a lot of time being treated at the hospital. We were so happy that Lexie came to Melbourne especially for the day.

Photo by Eloise Keating

While I was off busy completing my first ever fun run (or should I say fun jog!) Ju Ju Man was busted taking a nap mid walk! He was also mistaken for a girl multiple times care of the team headband I put on him. I think he still looks boyish!

Mimsy insisted on walking some of the way and even ran the last little bit over the finish line. She tells me that she is the winner. I agree.

I had fun making a few things for our team.

My new badge making machine got a little bit of a work out. I used a combination of water colour paints, patterned papers and some shape cutters. I've got to admit, these are a little bit addictive to make, and are a nice little memento of the day.

I also used some iron on transfer printer paper to make some t-shirts. These are the two that JuJu and Mimsy wore. This is a quick and easy method of adding slogans to t-shirts, but they are not particularly durable - fine for a once off use such as the fun run.

A word of warning though, do make sure that you put the paper in your inkjet printer and not your laser printer. The results are not so good when you mess up this step!

Thank you so much to everyone who supported and encouraged us in our run and walk. Along with the rest of Team Lexie, we raised over $2000 to go towards the Good Friday Appeal.

14/52

A portrait of my children, one a week, each week in 2014

Linking up with Practicing Simplicty.

We have had the best week! It was my sister's wedding on Saturday. While I had great intentions of taking beautiful photos, I got far to carried away having fun and only managed a couple of instagram photos!! They'll have to do for 14/52.

Miss Mimsy loved getting ready with the girls. We had a spectacular setting to get ready in as well - The Euroa Butter Factory provided us with not only a beautiful location for the ceremony and reception, but also gorgeous bedrooms up stairs where the bride's family stayed.

JuJu Man had such a fabulous time that he refused to go to sleep, at all! Never mind, a brilliant wedding is not time to get hung up about these things. Here he is (looking sleepy!) with my husband and I, towards the end of the night.

Photo by Dominic Keating

And finally, one last photo that sums up Mimsy's time at the wedding well. Immediately after the ceremony, when most families and friends are focused on congratulating the bride and groom, Mimsy stopped the show with a performance of Mamma Mia, microphone and all. She spent most of the reception mesmerised by the singer in the band. Something tells me she might be a performer when she grows up.

I'll spend the next little while tracking down photos of the things I made for the wedding.

Until then,

One crafty morning I did some sewing for my sister's wedding - The Tilda Wedding Collection

Actually it was multiple mornings, and afternoons and evenings, but I am finally finished the Tilda Wedding collection for my sister's wedding this weekend.

It consists of a quilted table runner (1/3 shown here), two flower girl jackets, two lace sashes with sparkles, two headbands and four alligator hair clips in case the flower girls (aged 2 and 3!) decide they do not want to hear headbands. All made using gorgeous Tilda cotton fabric.

The quilted table runner is 46.5" x 17.5". It is quilted using cotton batting and a stitch in the ditch design.

For the jackets I used an Amelie and Henri pattern. It is made from quilters weight cotton and lined in a co-ordinating cotton. It features ribbon ties and fabric covered buttons.

The sash that will go on the flower girl dresses is made from lace ribbon and features a pretty diamonte applique that I hand stitched on.

Lastly, I decided to give the flower girls two hair accessory choices. Given that one of the flower girls is my Mimsy it is highly likely that there will be somewhat of a costume change between the ceremony and reception and both options will be used.

Photos of these creations in action, as well as the cake stand I made a few weeks ago, will be posted next week. Have a lovely week and weekend - I know I will!

13/52

The 52 Project - a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

Linking up with Practicing Simplicity.

Today is my 30th birthday. Today I am counting my blessings.

Photo by Tom Keating

I know I posted a photo of all of us last week, but here is another, in one of our favourite places, just because they make me so happy.

No matter which park we go to, Mimsy always finds the swings. Just in this tiny moment she looks a bit like my dad's family - these moments are rare! She usually looks just like her aunty Bianca (on her dad's side).

This one wasn't the greatest composition, and isn't all that sharp, but the pose is just so typical of Juju Man. He constantly has his hands on his head and often looks exasperated. I love it.