DIY Feltboard!

I have been working on this for a few weeks now, and  had the idea and desire to do it for a fair few weeks before this. I really want Lily and Hartley to have toys that are homemade, battery free and good clean fun in their lives, that I also can be involved with.

So, I made a felt board. 

And may I just say, being a bit short in the cash department on only one income at the moment, this project was super cheap money wise for the amount of time that it has already been used for. 

Though time consuming, Lily and I have both really enjoyed the felt board. Lily requests all the pieces herself, hence the fact so far we have a tiger, polar bear, horse, house, wolf/dog, 3 butterflies and 3 pigs. 

Apologies for the terrible photography here. A) I have a terrible camera, that I dream of one day replacing. B) Felt is fluffy, and seems to be almost impossible to make it look quite right with a cheap digital camera. 

I made the felt board itself out of an old memo board I had lying around the house for the last 3 years, and bought felt off the roll from Kutwell Fabrics in the central city (only $6 a metre)! After that, I just stocked up on cheap sheets off felt, and let Lily and I's imagination run wild. 

The tiger joined the family first of all, and he was a real learning curve for me. I have cut these out with my little scissors and it is a bit of a mission, but so worth it. 

I sketch all my designs out on paper first, cut them out and either lightly draw around them onto the felt or pin the paper to the felt and cut around from there. 

Butterflies have since been added, which I am quite a fan of! 

And yes, I am completely aware I am living vicariously through my daughter!

And over the last few days, I have been working on Lily's current favourite story "The 3 Little Pigs"
2 more houses to go, but they are quite time consuming, so they are slowly getting there.

I would highly recommend this as an easy and cheap DIY project , easily interchangeable to suit your child's personality and age group. 

I have heaps more plans with this felt board. Lots more stories and characters are on the way, and I would love to make her a cupcake decorating set, maybe an ice cream one too, before we start doing numbers and letters on here too.

For anyone wanting to give this a go, I have simply sewed the 2 colours of felt together to depict sky and grass, and then used my staple gun to attach it tightly at the back of the board. 

Give it a go!

Talk soon
Lou Lou xoxo

Selena Singer the Sewing Machine & Bandanna Bib Pattern Link

Yesterday, an amazing thing happened to me. 

Yesterday I bought my first ever sewing machine. 

On my vendetta to feel more creative, productive and just plain crafty, I decided a sewing machine was an absolute must-have. 

Lately I have been going crochet crazy, which I will post some photos sometime soon I promise.

Anyway, my local Lincraft store had an amazing deal on a Singer sewing machine yesterday, which I very quickly scooped up, as a birthday present for myself, from Josh (don't judge, we have been discussing getting me a sewing machine for like a month now). 

When I got home I realised a terrifying thing. I haven't even threaded a sewing machine or actually sewed anything since I was in my first year of high school, so 12 years old... But I am proud to say after a fair bit mucking around and reading the manual a lot, I have a fully threaded machine, and I am pretty sure I could do it again in MUCH less time the next time. 

And the rest, as they say, is history!

Now it was time to create. I grabbed a couple of fat quarters and a pack of cheap flannels while I was at Lincraft, and set to making Hartley a bandanna bib, as he has become quite the drooler lately, and they are ridiculously expensive for a bib when bought in store.

If you want to give it a go yourself, I used this fantastic free tutorial over on "Sew Love It". 
http://sewloveit.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/tutorial-bandanna-drool-bib.html

The bib is fantastic, though I am more than happy to admit that the first attempt looked great, but was way too small. The sewing isn't overly tidy, and I may have to redo the fasteners on the back, as they are a wee bit wiggly. But I am very proud of my first sewing machine creation. 

Helps that I have such a darn cute son. 

Onward and upward from here! Hopefully...

Talk soon, 

Lou xoxo

The Lack of Baking in my Life

I seem to struggle with the concept and consistency of having a baking/cooking blog.
I couldn't figure out why.
Then Lily had a vicious bleeding nose last night, and I clicked.
I have 2 kids. 2 kids who need food, baths, toilet trips, nappy changes, bleeding noses (not as often as the rest of course) and almost constant supervision and attention.
Although I am pretty sure I will always bake, at the moment I am also enjoying the trials and tribulations of being a mum, of learning new crafts and growing my friendships.
But I can blog about that! Just because I made a blog to write about baking and cooking, doesn't mean I have any shame about admitting that it is totally not working, and that perhaps I just need to write about my day to day life.
There's something so comforting about writing it all down and putting it together.
So, watch this space.
Today is strictly a housework day (after this post), but tomorrow I will show you my new and exciting DIY felt board activity for the kids (well, mainly just Lily right now), which so far is being with various animals.
Over and out,
Talk soon
LouLou xoxo
x