Holidays.

Next week is the last week of school holidays here. Steve will go into work on Thursday and Friday and the children will go back to school on the following Tuesday. 

I feel a little bit sad that the holidays are so close to finishing but it will be good to have a routine again. 

diabetes care becomes harder when the children are on holidays. They sit around a lot eating irregularly and much more than they usually would. BSL checks also tend to be on the lower side so getting back into our school routine will help manage them better. 

These holidays Steve and I have spent a lot of time looking for a unit to buy. We have made a couple of offers on two that we have liked but so far no success in buying one. Hopefully soon we will buy one. Our plan is to rent it out till Steve retires and then go and live in Adelaide. 

I have also been getting ready for Daniel and Ange's wedding. I have made Christopher a vest to wear and a dress and bolero for me. 

This is the pattern I used for the dress and bolero. 

These are the vests the boys will wear:

I made Joseph's for Musical Theatre Concert. 

Here he is in his costume: 

For the wedding, they will wear long pants, a shirt and tie with it. 

;Thanks for visiting. 

Therese. 

New shorts.

When it comes to sewing, I always want to sew more than I have the time for. I have so much fabric from times that I have bought a whole heap and never got around to sewing. This year, I have decided I am going to work on all this fabric and what is left at the end of the year will go. The reality is, I just have too much clutter. I could keep it all till I have sewn it all but really, I need to have less clutter in my life.

To help me along with this, I have decided to post once a week, something sewn from my stash.

So here is this weeks shorts. I have a pair for Tom and a pair for Christopher. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I will also have a pair for Joseph.

Sewing.

We have a couple of very hot weeks so since we need to stay indoors, I have been doing a lot of sewing.  These dresses
I have made for me. I don't think i have done so much sewing for me before.


I also made a couple of stretch knit tops but it doesnt look like I have taken any photos of them yet.


Next week will be the last week of the school holidays so I really should try and get some shorts sewn for them all to wear to kindy and school.

These

Christopher's new wallet

This is my third design attempt. I found a tutorial and thought the wallet looked just like I wanted.
http://www.noodle-head.com/2012/06/open-wide-zippered-pouch-diy-tutorial.html
This is the link for the tutorial. Really easy to follow.

Tom's new backpack.

I made this tonight. It only took me just over a hour and I am really pleased with it. Tom will take his diabetes things everywhere in this bag.

Seven Quick Takes.

-1-

This week has been a bit quieter for Steve and I. Madeline has been in Sydney at Campion College and Brigette in Adelaide with my girlfriend. Tomorrow they come back. It has been nice to have just the younger 4 and Sam home. I have more petrol in my car and haven't been taxi driving nearly as much. 

-2-

On Sunday Steve and I are going away for a weekend alone. The following weekend is our 22nd wedding anniversary and we wanted to have a getaway for it. 

In October, we went to Endilloe Lodge for one night. It was a great getaway and we thought it would have been even better to get away for two so this time we are going back there for 2. It is close enough that if there are any emergencies at home, we can get back quickly. 

-3-

I have started making little bags for Tom, Amelia and Christopher I started with the glucose monitor bag yesterday. This is my first attempt:

It is okay but it only fits glucose meter, strips and finger pricker. 

I really wanted them to fit the ketone meter in as well. The ketone meter can check blood sugar levels as well but the meter here, communicates with the boys pumps so we have two meters. I have a few ideas in my head to make them bigger and also a bit more attractive so will draw up patterns this weekend while Steve and I are away. 

-4-

Steve and I have been car hunting for a while now because we are not driving around as much as a whole family. We thought it would be good to get a bit of a smaller car so have been looking around at a few different SUV's. 

We looked at Holden Captiva, Nissan Dualis and Ford Territory. At the start of the month, we approached a couple of car dealers and told them what our price range was and what we are interested in. 

On Wednesday we put in an offer for a Nissan Duallis and it was accepted. It has to be ordered in and delivered but hopefully in a couple of weeks, we will have a new car. I am pretty excited about getting it. 

-5-

Having three diabetic children does have some advantages. This week we were helping pack up the crib at church and Christopher dropped his ketone meter out of it's box. We didn't realise till later that afternoon that we didn't have it when his bsl was on the higher side. Fortunately, I had two other ketone meters to choose from until we could get back and pick it up. 

-6-

One other thing I need to do is get some kind of wallet organiser for the children's cards and prescriptions. They all have 3 prescriptions each, a ndss card, health care card, medic alert card and wch appointment card with their url number. We also have a family member's card for Diabetes SA. It can be hard to keep track of who needs what and where I have each child's card so I thought I would get something that keeps them all together. 

I was looking around for an organiser like a passport one. I found a couple online but was a bit hesitant to buy online and find it wasn't suitable. 

I decided to look around for a tutorial for a card holder/wallet. I came across this one: 

Bi-fold Wallet. 

I will need to make it a bit bigger to fit their scripts in but I think it is just what we need. 

-7-

Tomorrow is 2 weeks with 3 diabetic children. I am getting into routine and maintaining most things. I hope it will continue once school goes back. 

For more 7 quick takes visit Jen at Conversion Diary. 

The new normal.

Yesterday it was a week since we found out Amelia had diabetes too. It has been quite a week but we are all getting use to the new normal. 

I have made a few changes to things to keep up with everything I need too. 

I have labeled all their bsl meters, ketone meters and finger prickers. I am also going to label a penmate for each of them and get different coloured medic alert bracelets. 

We can now get sports bands with different themes. It will be easy to tell which one belongs to each child this way. 

I have been intending to make the boys some bags to carry all their supplies in but hadn't got around to it before Amelia's diagnosis. I bought the pattern for this little purse

I am going to make one for each of them to carry their bsl meter, bsl strips, finger prickers, ketone meters and ketone strips. I am also going to make them a draw string bag to keep their pump supplies in and hopefully a back pack for the boys each to keep both their purse and drawstring bag in along with hypo treatment.  Amelia was given a backpack from JDRF so she won't need one. 

We have two weeks of holidays left so hopefully I will get a purse each and drawstring bag each done before school goes back. I also want to make a few other things. 

Last week I finished this top:

I have some white fabric with pink flowers that I also want to make the same top with. I also got my bebe dress pattern and want to get it done before school goes back. 

If I have time once these are all finished, the boys could do with some new shorts too but at this stage, I think I will just buy them a few pairs each from Big W. We will see how much time I have and how we go with all the things I have on. 

Let the clearing begin.

Today is the first official day of holidays (when you don't include the weekend).

We had an early start but not as early as we hoped. Madeline, Brigette and I have joined Curves. We had our first workout this morning. We were suppose to meet the trainer there at 7.30 but I slept in and woke up at 7.40. We got there at 8.00 and went around the circuit. It usually takes about 30 minutes but we took a bit longer today because we were been shown how to use the machines. We will go back tomorrow and Wednesday but won't be able to on Thursday due to other commitments. Friday we will go for the last time this year because they shut down for the Christmas new year break. After that, I am going to try and go every Monday - Friday.

As I mentioned last week, we are in the process of changing rooms. Steve and I decided we would go through the entire house and have a complete clean out. We rang a mini skip company today and we are going to have one delivered here on Friday. We started our cleaning today and have a nice pile ready to put in the skip when it gets here on Friday. It will be here for 3 days and we are pretty sure we will be able to go through everything by then and have a clutter free home.

Once my house is had it's clean out and we have finished our Christmas celebrations, I am going to do a heap of sewing.

Source: blog.sewserendipity.com via Therese on Pinterest

I have been looking for a dress pattern to wear to mass for a while and haven't really come across one that I am really  happy with. Yesterday, I came across Bebe.

Source: blog.sewserendipity.com via Therese on Pinterest

 It is just the kind of pattern I have been looking for so bought it last night. Because it is coming for Texas, I will have to be patient. I have the cleaning out this week and lots of sewing I need to do for the boys too.

Enjoy the last week before Christmas. We are getting excited about Christmas here now.

Holidays.

We are having a great holiday. We have caught up with family and had lots of time together. We have about a week and a half left and I have lots of plans for them. 

I have a few sewing projects. 

- finish our curtains for our bedroom. 

- sew a couple of pairs of leggings for me. 

- Do a couple more overalls for Joseph.

I am going to get our  term 3 home school program all written up. Last holidays I didn't really prepare for the term and it made home school much more difficult. It wasn't a good term to be so disorganised with all the extra therapies we had happening. 

Next week, I am going to be getting a heap of main meals and snacks cooked and in the freezer. 

I hope everyone else that is on  holidays is having fun. 

Therese. 

Nearly Wordless Wednesday; show and tell.

Since I am so busy getting ready for Tom's confirmation, I have to do a few quick posts this week. These are the fabrics I have for Tom's outfit and my press.

Weekend Wrap up.

We have had a busy weekend here. Friday night, the children were invited to a birthday party so since they were gone from 6.00 till 8.00, Steve and I went out for tea. We went to the Golden Pearl Chinese Restaurant. I had garlic prawn, Steve had beef curry and we shared a large special fried rice. The food was great and we enjoyed our time alone. 

Saturday, I took Madeline, Brigette and Tom to Whyalla to get fabric for Tom's confirmation. I will post photos when all the sewing is done. For now, I have the patterns to share that I will be making for Tom and I. 

Tom's shirt: Kwik sew 2974. I have a red, white and black check and we will do the long sleeve one. 

Tom's pants: Kwik sew 2544. I have black corduroy for this. I will do view b. 

Tom's jacket: Kwik sew 3136. This will also be done in black corduroy. 

My dress: kwik sew 3559. I will make it a bit longer than they have it in this though. I have white velvet for it :

Today I have been busy getting patterns traced ready for cutting out. I have two weeks to get these all done. 

I also bought fabric to make Christopher and Joseph shirts but I really doubt I will be able to get them done by Tom's confirmation.  Maybe by the end of June I can have theirs done. 

I hope you all had a great weekend. 

Therese. 

Smart Martha Monday.

On my list last week, I had to pray the Stations of the Cross each day and to trace some patterns for winter.

I prayed the Stations of the Cross every morning up till Friday

I have traced this kwik sew pattern for Joseph. Going to make him a few denim pairs and if I get the time, may try to get one sewn in corduroy for mass.

I want to get this pattern for him too to go under the corduroy overalls:

 On my list this week, I am going to prepare Christopher's home school program for term two and cut out Joseph's denim overalls. I really hope I will be able to get them sewn too but I don't want to put it on my list incase I run out of time.

I hope you all have a great week.

Therese.

Smart Martha Monday.

Once again, it is a whole week since I posted on my blog.

I did everything on my list but I changed my mind. I sewed this top instead of a dress. I will hopefully get a dress done this week.

On my list this week is to prepare for school next week. I have all of Christopher's curriculum worked out but need to go through and fine tune some things.

I also want to get to mass each day. It may be a challenge once Steve is back at work. He starts work on Wednesday.

I hope you all have a great week.

Amelia's new outfit.

Finish today. Now all 4 younger children have something sewn by me for summer. I just need to do a bigger shirt for Christopher since his is a bit too small. He must have had a growth spurt.

Thrifty Thursday.

Last year, I got two metres of this fabric to make Joseph some overalls. The plan was to make 2 or 3 winter ones.
I didn't get around to making them so decided on a summer pair and some pajamas. For a total of $7.00, I have one pair of overalls and a pair of pajamas with a spare pair of pants.
I use to think that sewing didn't save me much money but this project has saved me quite a few $.

Wordless Wednesday: Joseph's new pajamas.

Joseph's new shirt.

Even though I have done many of these kind of shirts for the boys, I haven't ever done such a small one. It was slow going to get it finished but overall, I am really happy with the way it looks.

Jane Elizabeth.

Jane Elizabeth was the name Steve and I choose for Joseph just in case the ultrasound tech had his sex wrong.

It is also the name I haven given to this doll. I won her on The Handmaden's blog.

She is just gorgeous. Amelia asked me if she could have her and I said no. Jane is going to sit right on my sewing table and keep me company while I sit sewing.

Thanks so much Kelly for this lovely doll and your blog giveaway.

Pop over and see Kelly and all her beautiful home made goods. Also visit her Etsy Shop.

Therese

Weekend Wrap up.

The warm weather is here in Port Augusta so we went to the pool both yesterday and today.

Steve worked hard and started putting an extension onto our carport. We want to have a carport for two cars for when we get the new one.

 I was going to sew yesterday but decided instead to have a clean out of my sewing area. I still need to go through my fabrics and work out what I am going to use this summer and if we need to give any away.

One end of my sewing table is used by everyone in this house as a dumping spot. This is what fly lady would call a fire spot. It gets out of control pretty quickly and ends up spilling along the entire table. I really hope this sign at least makes them stop and think before they put something there.

Oh and if you cannot read what I have written on this it says:

This space is NOT a dumping spot for your things.

Please put clothes or music away in the cupboards they belong in.

If there is something you want to put here because you don't know where it goes please ask Mum/Therese where it does go.

I hope you all had a good weekend too.

Weekend Wrap up.

 Another big weekend here in our household.


Steve and I started the day yesterday driving to Whyalla to help Daniel pack up his gear to move. Steve dropped me off at Spotlight and I did some shopping then walked back to Daniel's place I actually took a wrong turn and ended up taking 1 hour to walk what should have taken me 15 minutes. The exercise must have been needed.

At Spotlight I bought some fabric and patterns for me. I am going to make myself a couple of summer tunic tops and a dress for church. Here is a picture of the fabric and patterns.

In the afternoon, I did a lot of preparation for our party today. We went to mass last night.

Today we got up early and did more party prep. The party started at 1.00. We had a great time with our family and friends.

Tonight I was finally able to get onto skype and speak with my sister in Singapore. It was great to catch up with her. Steve has fixed the microphone and camera on our laptop so hopefully we will be able to use skype a lot with many of you.

I hope you all had a good weekend too.
Therese.