She's gone (MCN) crazy!!

MCN = Modern Cloth Nappies... and yep, I've gone a bit crazy and obsessed...

Been sewing up a storm (well when I can get a chance to!)...

Here's what I've made so far - 5 nappies and 2 covers. Been trying out a few different patterns, seeing what I like.
For any of you out there doing the same, the back left is the Mama Bird in little size... don't like the leg elastic in this one.. the blue one is a side-snap pocket I made for Eli (he's worn it twice but I'm not too keen on it really.... for now I'm concentrating on making the rest of Lani's and then will try a different front-fastening pocket pattern for Eli again)... the two at the front are the Weeweka one-size pattern which I like the best so far!

This is the inside of the Weekeka (for Katie mainly coz you asked to see). They have a microfleece inner layer, and a fold-out soaker for quicker drying!

Here is the little doll modelling her new nappy - the weeweka above (and my favourite one). this one is a nice trim fit and will fit her until she's toilet trained hopefully - its a one-size-fits-all...

Here's another pattern I tried - the Ottobre... I made this one with a PUL cover so its waterproof and doesn't need a cover on top. Not much liking this pattern too, so probably won't do this one again - bit gapey at the legs...

This is the MiaLa cover I made this morning.. I also made one the same in a pale green last night... coz her covers are WAY too small for her now (newbie sized!). It looks a bit bulky on her but that's coz she's got one of the old fat fluffies fitted nappies under - they're really bulky. Good to know that this cover covers even them though...

Next mission is applique and embroidery... I'm hoping to do a few for gifts like this, so want to practice one for Lani first, to make sure I don't totally SUCK at it!! lol

Ordered some more fleece yesterday - coloured yay! Bit sick of white inners.... fleece will ALWAYS get used!!

Anyway, better feed these babies, just wanted to share :)

My beautiful sister....

Just look at this beautiful blooming bud of a pregnant woman!! My sister Alissa is 30 weeks pregnant - due 27th December.





I hadnot seen her in 6 weeks, and to say her belly had grown significantly is an understatement. I think I almost cried when I saw her today... isn't she just gorgeous!!!

I find it quite surreal looking at my sister with that little belly. Like its just not meant to be there! Oh, I'm so excited about her baby coming in only 10 weeks time now!! How exciting!!

Oh, and I've been busy busy and have so much I really need to catch up in the world of blog... hopefully I'll find some time this week to update! Bye for now xxx

Where we left off - weekend with Lus, #2

OK, so where were we? Saturday right? Well, yep, we had a great morning catching up with new and old friends from online at Mt Cootha... on the way home, I took Lus up to the lookout on the Mt to see what Brisbane looks like in whole... I just love it up there (where Greg proposed too!)...

My poor Lusi was sick on and off throughout the weekend. She'd come down with some tonsilitis late in the week before she came... and by Saturday afternoon was feeling pretty rotten (which is NOT good for Lus as she has no spleen and therefore not too many natural antibodies to fight diseases) So we had a really easy night saturday night, a little practice for worship Sunday morning (however Lus had lost her voice, so I was to sing on my own!).... and then she quietly asked me to do her a 'favour' and take her to the hospital... I freaked a little to say the least... but really it was more precautionary than anything... so off we went to Emergency, with Lani sleeping peacefully in her capsule the whole time... they took Lus off and I think I saw her an hour later... however , I was quite amused enough, as I'd never been into ER before, so was watching people coming and going (mostly of the drunken disorderly variety!)... and prayed for each person as they came and left too, so that was nice. They finally said I could go in with Lus while they put a drip of anti-biotics through her and we had a nice chat with the nurses (probably a nice change for them who are used to drunks most of the time!). I realised as I went in that the hallway was the same hallway I'd been wheeled up when I had Lani in the car, so then of course I had to tell the nurses that story too! So we came home at 1.30am, armed with a script for more antibiotics to get her better! And crashed into bed! (well I did)

Sunday:

I'd been looking forward to leading worship at my church with Lus for months! But the enemy had his little way there (the only foothold he could get!) and Lus still had no voice to sing, so I did it on my own, and she accompanied me with guitar and piano. It was still SUCH a blessing to have her there with me, and she really taught me so much about having a heart of worship. Was a great service even if she couldn't sing with me. I also enjoyed introducing her to my 'family' at church and my pastor in particular. Everyone said to her 'see you again soon'... lol, I hope!!

We were supposed to go to a cell BBQ but Lus was pretty written off so we stayed home and she slept for 3 hours! After that she felt pretty good though, so it was really great that she got that rest.

At night, we took on the boys (Greg and BIL Jeremy) at Pictionary. We started oout kicking butt... but at the last picture, we were both on the last square and the boys came through and won. Lus had a funny case of the giggles throughout! It was great fun though - I *heart* playing board games!

Monday:

Once we finally got out of bed and worked out we were going to do something for the day... we took the kids into the city. Jai wanted to go to the museum again (seriously he could probably go every day and not get bored!) and we also decided to show Lus a bit of the city via a ride on the CityCat.... well this ride turned out to be a LOT longer than anticipated (note to self - the round trip takes over an hour!), but oh well!! Lus took LOTS of pics to show her fam when she got back :)

Monday night we headed back up Mt Cootha to meet her friends Lu and Cass for a coffee. Was nice to meet these girls and have a proper chat without 10 other ladies around! I must admit I was a bit tired, and didn't really have much to say - as they girls talked a lot about scrapping stuff, the 'who's of who' and the like that I'm not really 'up' with, lol... but it was great to just hang out! And great to go out at night too - something that doesn't happen around here much! Lani slept through the whole lot again - don't know how though, as her capsule sat right in the middle of the 4 of us gas-bagging (loudly) away! I think Lus will probably have a few pics to share from this on her blog when she gets around to it...

Tuesday:

Photoshoot!! I've been wanting a photoshoot of our family ever since Lani was born, and hadn't got one of the 5 of us yet.. but oh-my! I didn't really anticipate how difficult it would be to get a decent photo when there are 2 babies!! We did get one half-decent family shot though, and lots of other fun ones too, so it was semi-successful! (despite a rather unco-operative 16 month old!)Here's the collage of the family shots:

And then Lus and I let loose with the posing too! Sooooo much fun!! I cherish these pics sooo much and can't wait to scrap some!! (hopefully in the next few weeks you'll see a few pages!)

Here's a couple of collections of us:

Love love LOVE these ones!!!

Well, I think that's about it!! Was so sad to see my Lusi go home :( It totally sucks that we live so far away from each other... but I hope its not too long (6 months maybe?) till we see each other again!!

Love you girl xxx

Weekend with Lusi.. part 1

OMGosh, I have sooooo much to update its not funny!! And that's not JUST my weekend with Lusi.... now just to find some time to do it all!!

I've decided I'm going to have to do this in segments because in my crazy life, I just don't seem to find a good chunk of time to sit down and do up the whole story and pics from the whole weekend.... so hopefully 2 parts will do it....

Last weekend was one of the best of my life I think! As most of you know, I had my beautiful best friend Lusi come and stay for 4 nights. We’ve been friends since July last year, when we met through Roz’s blog. I was initially drawn to Lusi’s amazing passion for God, and life in general. We started chatting on the phone, and since then it’s hardly been a week or two between chatting to each other (and that’s usually an hour or two!) So you can just imagine how much we’ve longed to meet each other IRL! And the wonderful Lord provided it to us - after being patient, non-impulsive… OK, and maybe a little obsessive too (just ask our husbands!).

The enemy (Satan!) did NOT want us to meet! He tried so many times over the weekend to steal our joy, but we did not let him. The Bible tells us in part of Nehemiah 8:10 that ‘the joy of the Lord is my strength!’ So we tried to hold fast to that (and Lusi did a lot better than I did on occasions…) Anyway, here’s a run-down, and I hope it doesn’t bore you, but I want to get this ALL down for my own records and when I find time to scrap it!

Friday:
Lus was meant to come at 10am... but the problems started before we even got going! There was more traffic than normal on the commute from Lusi’s house to Sydney, and she MISSED the place! Talk about GGGrrrrrrrr… but it was OK. We were very thankful that she was able to get another in the afternoon, and she spent a lovely day in the city with her family instead, and took the kids to the movies, which they’ve never done altogether before, so I reckon that was good time spent together anyway! (Although it meant we didn’t get to go to the Paper Arts show (or whatever it was called) and meet a few of Lusi’s girls from EMM, cluding Ruthie :(.)
So I just pottered around here for the day, danced around with Eli to the Wiggles a lot, and well, I can’t really remember what else! Lol… but I was soooo excited when 4.45pm came around and I popped the babies in the car (Jai went away with his grandparents for the weekend) and headed to the airport!! Was SOOOO excited to see my Lusi IN THE FLESH!! Wow… we spent a bit of time pinching each other and saying ‘You’re Real!’ lol…. and of course Lus had the camera in her hand for that first snap of us together!! And we took a few more in the car too.. and some video footage… lol…. we got home and had a lovely evening just chatting, eating, exchanging a few pressies and then finally got the scrap stuff out. Lusi used my photos and a bit of my product and hers and made these two gorgeous masterpieces. I, on the other hand, played around with stuff but it just wasn’t working so I chucked a little ‘narna’ and put it all away! LOL… was still great to scrap with you honey!! Here's her work :)

And this one I challenged Lus to use pastel colours and flowers.... not her usual style huh! Our styles are soooo different its not funny! It was so AWESOME to watch her just put things together so quickly though! Reminds me I need to stop being such a perfectionist!!

Saturday:
We left Eli home with his Daddy (woohoo, kid-free for once!) and headed into town to Mt Coot-tha gardens to have a lovely picnic with some other girls we’ve met on the Net. Most were from SOF (Sal, Karen [& Karen], Sarah, Kerryn), but there was also Lu Griffith and Jill G-G. And some husbands and lots of kids too. Had a GREAT time! Was great to meet some girls I hadn’t before (Lu, Jill, Kerryn, Karen) and I had plenty of babysitters for Miss Lani who made everyone goo-goo I think! (yeah, she’s so cute!) And of course, there was about 10 cameras around, so we posed… and posed.. and posed!! Here’s a collection:

Oops, and I'll have to finish this later as the baby's just woken up! The joys of 3 kids!

I'll be back (said in my best Terminator voice)...

Miss you xxx

Just looking through my pics from our weekend together... and I'm totally missing this beautiful face (and soul!) right now..... :(

Wish we lived much closer honey.

I'm going to try to get down there as soon as I can!!