The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Well, no actual arrows, but here are the slings in our life. Cherub is back at school although yesterday he only lasted half a day. Fair enough. At first he thought the sling was a nuisance and asked if he had to wear it. The doctor said it was a good idea, if only to let other people know to be gentle near him. By the end of that first day Cherub was really feeling the weight of his splinted arm, and both mornings since I've been awoken by Cherub standing next to my bed asking me to help him get the sling on. The poor kid is starting to realise the ramifications of being maimed. No swimming, soccer, tennis, trampoline, running or climbing. No two-handed games on the computer either. Even lego is difficult. I suggested he could read books but apparently that was boring too.



As for the kitty, he still really, really wants cuddles. He limps around after me sometimes, looking up at me pathetically. But I can't always be sitting in a chair, there is dinner to cook and stuff to do. So yesterday I tied the ends of a pashmina together and he snuggled in.



He was pretty happy with the arrangement.

A Small Break

It was the first day back at school this morning and guess what? Poor Cherub fell off the play equipment before the bell rang and [a] winded himself (very frightening for him) and [b] broke his wrist.



Ten and a bit years parenting and we've got our first broken child! And, as Astrid so rightly put it, we all thought it would be The Climber, what with his innate urge to leave the ground far behind him. But when you think about it, it makes sense that it was the smaller, less-co-ordinated brother; the boy who always tries to keep up with Master Anti-Gravity was actually the one who fell to earth.



Anyway. I took him to the Childrens Hospital where they gave him some pain relief and an x-ray, which revealed a buckle fracture in the radius (the larger arm-bone). So they put on a fibreglass splint and we were free to go. No manipulation of broken bones required, thank goodness. Slight possibility of a proper cast if the pain gets worse. He's fine. He ought to be back at school tomorrow and learning to do stuff right-handedly.

Making and making do.

More Easter baskets!

Even though you know that a bit of disappointment is not going to kill your children - and might possibly teach them a bit of fortitude - it can sometimes make you feel mean or sad when you have to tell your kids No. As in: No Climber, you can't do an extra day of tennis clinic this holiday even though you really want to come back tomorrow and do the Easter Egg Hunt and the Tournament With Prizes because we spent all our money on saving the cat.  It is even worse when your kid tries to be really brave about it in front of you, quickly wiping away tears so you won't see how much he minds.  It's not that my kids can't take a No.  I am absolutely not scared to say it, and they are mostly complaisant about taking it.  I just think that there is some pre-programmed section in a parental brain which inclines you to give your little darlings everything they want.  Madness.  Nobody should have everything they want.    

Still.  You have spent all your money on saving the cat, so how can you make this less sad for your trying-to-be-brave 10 year old?  I suppose you could just tell them to get over it, be thankful for what they already have, think of the kids in poor countries, tell them the privations you endured back in your day etc etc.  But although that sort of talk can help them with perspective, it doesn't really deal with their disappointment.  What you want is a softer option, an alternative, a compromise.  Like say, buying a $3 bag of chocolate eggs and taking them to Astrid's house the next day for a little playdate egg hunt.  Seemed to do the trick.

On Easter morning we received a phone call saying that Grandma Fixit had maybe broken her toe and that Fixit and Climber would not be able to go stay at the Fixit's holiday cabin in the hills as planned, something that Climber had been very excited about.  Of course, he was disappointed, but Easter Sunday is a pretty fun day so he didn't seem too devastated.  After all, my Dad came to visit, we made pink lemonade, we had a fun Easter Egg hunt with clues ...

... and later on in the afternoon we drove over to visit poor Grandma Fixit to cheer her up.  She was feeling pretty terrible about letting him down too, poor soul, but we said we'd try again later in the year.

However.  In the same spirit of solving the tennis disappointment by secreting $3 worth of chocolate eggs round a friend's loungeroom, Fixit and I decided to bring the mountain to Climber anyway. Well, not so much the mountain as the campfire, which had been, we think, on top of Climber's To Do list for the getaway. So to top off a lovely Easter Sunday, we made a camp-fire in our old Weber and let the boys eat their dinner outside. There was also marshmallow toasting.



Nobody went to bed disappointed.

Getting Ready For Easter

On Good Friday I made some Choc-mint Slices and some Mini Lemon Meringue Tarts for the family gathering that afternoon.



(The gathering was lots of fun and my sweet offerings were a smash)

On Easter Saturday I made some Easter baskets.  One each for the boys so they can, as requested, have another Easter Egg Hunt.



(We had the inaugural Egg Hunt last Easter and it was a smash.  PS If you follow that link, check out the amateur baskets I cobbled together last year. I am so on my Sewing P-plates now.)

As for Easter Sunday, well, unfortunately I think once the search for chocolate is over and we farewell Fixit and Climber for their little jaunt to the hills I will have to spend the rest of the day dealing with the mess all my creativity created.



Yikes!  Lucky there'll be plenty of chocolate to sustain me.



Wishing you a Happy Easter.

Trampolining

At various times of the day, Climber will disappear to the trampoline, armed with two plastic wickets from a beach cricket set. He will then proceed to have a lengthy battle, using the plastic wickets as light-sabres, with an Unseen Opponent who is clearly highly skilled in the use of The Force. (That is a Star Wars reference just in case you were wondering. Surely no-one was wondering though.) This Unseen Opponent chucks my poor child around ferociously, although I gather, via the many sound effects emanating from the trampoline, that Climber gives him/her/it as good as he gets.  I went out with the camera yesterday to capture Climber in motion. He is not, in this instance, in full Jedi mode, rather he is appearing just as himself, demonstrating for the camera his Magnificent High Back-Bounce.   (Recently Astrid and I were privy to Climber trying to teach Astrid's girls how to effect the Magnificent High Back-Bounce. The younger, more fearless girl got it, but the Pea could only manage a bit of a back sit-down and I really don't blame her.  It is quite terrifying.)  Anyway, I liked the photos so much I put them in a slideshow.



Also, here is the Cherub having a little go with just the single light-sabre. Check the trampoline hair! Seconds after I took that last photo, all the static electricity in his hair was transferred into my left shoulder. Zap! Ow.

What I Learned On My Holiday

My latest Sewjourn sojourn was shared with Jenny & Astrid (aka the Mothers Group Girls), Nell, and some other lovely friends (including Ali-who-used-to-live-next-door); a most excellent group to spend 4 days of crafting, eating and relaxing with.

Every craft camp I learn new stuff. I was talking to someone recently who asked if we had someone who "led" the retreats but it's really not like that. We all know different stuff, even if it's just that the sleeves look better this length instead of that length. What you do is, you hold up your thing you don't know about and say I want to create/change/improve this but I don't really know? and someone always comes up with a great suggestion. It is awesome and organic and much nicer (I think) than having a bossy scout leader telling you what to do all the time.

So here today, I shall present to you the things I learned at my most recent craft camp.

1. How to use the gathering setting on Jenny's overlocker/serger. Voyez la jupe twirly pour moi:



Unfortunately I ran out of time. Or maybe steam. There's a LOT of sewing in a tiered skirt. What you save on the cutting you lose on the gathering, sewing and topstitching. Also, I'm not sure if the overlocker gathering is actually the best way to go, although it is a much quicker way to do it. Pulling the gathers in to the correct size was really tricky and mostly why I put the skirt aside at the last frill and took up hand-sewing Easter chicks.

2. The setting of decorative pockets on fleece pants by eye.



Cherub's are okay, Climber's are like a teenage boy's jeans-line, bizarrely low. Fortunately I think Climber can carry this look off and you may see low-rider pockets as the next trend in boyswear. You saw it here first.

3. How to use the twin needle setting on my sewing machine.



I bought a Goodies t-shirt for myself a while back which had a man's neckline, too high and harsh and horrid for me. So, at Justine's suggestion, I just cut the nasty rib collar off and turned the edges. The twin needle not only gives you a pretty line of double-stitching, it also overcasts on the wrong side. It's just a shame my cutting was not ezackly perfect but shh! We'll just keep the messy bit our little secret.

4. How to copy a bag panel using the original as my guide.



I bought my handbag from the lovely Glorydaze and wore it to death. It was mostly the detachable panel that had karked it, so I contacted Megan about buying a replacement, but she has just had a baby and a renovation and won't be sewing until July. And I love the bag so much I really didn't want a new one, so I decided to have a crack at sewing the panel myself. I will definitely know to do the velcro first if I ever try it again but on the whole I am pretty pleased with it. Oh and ps, I have discovered that drill tape is very splitty and fray-ey.

The thing that I already knew about a Ladies Crafting Retreat at Sewjourn was once more reinforced: It is really, really great to go away with a bunch of like-minded women and make stuff and chat and eat well and laugh and relax. Even if you do come home to a Very Bad Pile of Laundry.

Carnevale and Chickies

Aaaargh. I'm soooo behind on my blogging. First there was craft camp, then when I came back there's been school holidays/cat care and plus I was a little bit sick for a day or two. I really want to do a post about the gorgeous craft camp, but I need photos of some stuff I made, and two of the items -fleece pants for the boys that they wanted to wear straight away - are now malingering in the festering mound of dirty clothing in my laundry waiting for it NOT to be raining in Melbourne so they can be washed, dried and photographed.

So in the meantime, here are the disguises the children wore to last Friday's Carnevale Parade at their school. Climber opted for a simple mask and cloak, and looks, I think, rather like a golden child.



Cherub, currently obsessed with the Plants vs Zombies game, chose to go as a Zombie and when he walked slowly at you mumbling Brains it was quite terrifying.



I much preferred it when he removed the mask.



Elsewhere, Basil has started to act like a well cat, albeit a gimpy-legged one. I took him to have his stitches removed, except it was really more of a check-up seeing as he'd already ripped every single stitch out by himself: disgusting! He still really, really wants to be with people as much as possible. If you sit down he will limp over and look up at your lap and you have to pick him up before he attempts to jump up there. He also managed, by dint of enormous perseverance and sheer bloody-mindedness, to break out of the battened down suitcase that he is supposed to sleep in overnight. What else could we do in the face of such determination but let him sleep on the bed with us? Fixit constructed a pillow-y ramp so he could wonk his way up there, and we were rewarded with happy purrs as soon as he reached the doona. It seemed like his whole journey since he dragged himself home to us had been leading to that point really.

And a little craft camp sneak-peek: I made Myrtle & Eunice's gorgeous Easter chickies. Pattern works fine, Tania, although I might need some advice on how to do neat blanket stitching on the beak... I hope you approve of the very free-form and relaxed feet, I really tried to stay true to the spirit of your instructions.