Amanda's Musings

Archive for March 31, 2010

Dolls House Renovations – Furniture

March 31, 2010 / Molly / One comment

Today I got the doll’s house out for the girls to play with. They are meant to share of course but according to Miss K, Little L ‘ruins it’. Ah well. As we started to fill it up with things I decided to try and jazz up the ugly furniture that she has. This was given to us and I think it will make a good base for what I’m aiming at. I’m seeing these bits of furniture as armature really.

Not wanting to get the paints out today, and having no nice foam to put inside of any fabric layers I decided to get the sewing machine out and try to make bedding. After having a little think I decided to use those foam dishcloths for mattresses and got going.

The original bed

Miss K helping

I sewed a little cover for the ‘mattresses’, using two dishcloths for height.

I cut one dishcloth in half and folded it length-ways to make a pillow. I then sewed two pillow covers.

I pinched and hand stitched the corners to make it look more genuine.

I then sewed a little sheet and cut out a bedspread (the black and white dots).

She loved it!

I’m fairly sure there is another one of these beds around somewhere but until then we put the second mattress and pillow on the floor of another bedroom and I made a little quilt for it. I’ve never done this sort of sandwiching before but it was fun!

Finished bed

The rough Kitchen table.

Now with tablecloth. I sewed the corners a bit so the tablecloth would stay on.

And so, it was a hit. Miss K played with it for a while after this but when Little L kept ‘getting in the way and putting her feet through the windows’ she asked to put it in her room.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Darling Daughters, Family, Tutorials / Tags: Darling Daughters, dolls house, furniture, play

Photo of the Day – March 31

March 31, 2010 / Molly / No comments

Its the end of March already! I can’t believe how quickly this year is seeming to go. My photo of the day today is the pile of stamps I have carved so far (except for the three more yellow coloured stamps, those were carved by the wonderful Suki of tamptation.etsy.com a while ago – thanks again Suki). The pile is growing now that I’m thinking more about how I can produce paper products for KeLu. I have purchased some nice paper to print up some A4 prints and hope to get on to doing those shortly. What fun!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Art, KeLu, Photo a day / Tags: photo of the day, stamps

The Battle of the Birds

March 30, 2010 / Molly / 2 comments

You might remember our battle with the local rainbow lorikeets this year as I mentioned it a month or so ago. We are determined to get at least one crop of fruit from our trees this season without the birds eating them. I couldn’t believe it when I discovered today that not only did they strip our grape vine over summer but they also ate all the figs! there weren’t a lot as this is our tree’s first season but still, so annoying. There is one fig left and I’m sure they’ll get it.

After realising the figs were gone I went over to our two olive trees to see how they were coming along and the fruit that’s turning black (ready to pick I think) has already been attacked by the birds! So, we decided they weren’t going to win this time. Here’s what we did as an attempt to keep them out. We have no idea whatsoever whether this will work and will research options for olives in the meantime.

Here’s farmer Michael trying to get the chooks back in their pen

Next we are going to cover our banana tree which is starting to produce more fruit. I think we are meant to chop off the flower once all the bananas have appeared.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Family, garden / Tags: banana, birds, fruit trees, garden, olive

Photo of the Day – March 29

March 30, 2010 / Molly / 2 comments

Look, Cinderella came for a little wander in our garden. Isn’t she sweet!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Darling Daughters, Family, garden, Photo a day / Tags: cinderella, daughter, fairy tale, play

Weekly What List

March 29, 2010 / Molly / No comments

Weekly What List time again so first my review of last week:

Weekly What List for the 22-28 March.

Physical
- Follow up the Naturopath – no, finding other ways to deal with stress

Spiritual
- Continue to memorise this verse but also get to know its meaning more: Ecclesiastes 7:8
The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. – Yes, looked at it here in this post.
- Also look deeper into verses applying to anxiety. – yes, I was particularly looking at Philippians 4.

Creative
- Get out oil paints and continue with portrait image. – no, got a bit carried away with the stamp carving!
- FINISH pendant for C – sadly no, again.
- List cards in KeLu Etsy shop – yes.

Family
- Take L to the park or on a train ride at least once. – no but we did go outside a few times.
- Continue Doll’s House with K – last bit of carpeting and more walls. – yes

Friends
- Send birthday cards – no, bought the cards then decided to send facebook messages instead.
- Finally send off parcel #2 – yes

http://blogs.oddsocks.net/ahunt/2010/03/27/dolls-house-renovations-the-final-carpeting/

So, now for this week’s plan. Here goes:

Weekly What List for the 29 March – 4 April.

Physical
- Make sure I take my vitamins each day

Spiritual
- Continue to look into verses applying to anxiety.

Creative
- Get out oil paints and continue with portrait image.
- FINISH pendant for C

Family
- Easter egg hunt
- Continue Doll’s House with K – finish the walls

Friends
- Book up some more morning teas
- Birthdays

Category: All Sorts of Things, Darling Daughters, Family, Weekly What List / Tags: dolls house, kids, paint, Weekly What List

Muffin Tin Monday

March 29, 2010 / Molly / 10 comments

MTM125Button

So, we did our muffin tin last Friday and this time it was a bigger hit than last week’s green theme. No theme this time so I just put together what I had.

We had bird shaped cheese, orange pieces, sultanas, yogurt, corn and house shaped sandwiches with cheese and vegemite. They both gobbled up nearly everything on the tray!

mtm4

mtm2

mtm1

Category: All Sorts of Things / Tags: food, kids, lunch, muffin tin Monday

Photo of the Day – March 29

March 29, 2010 / Molly / One comment

astamp

Yet another rubber stamp. This means that the little boys I’ve drawn now have big sisters to boss them around!! Can’t wait to pair them up with the boys in a print. I’m hoping to carve these girls too:

drawing

Category: All Sorts of Things, Art, Photo a day / Tags: draw, photo of the day, sketch, stamp

Photo of the Day – March 28

March 28, 2010 / Molly / 2 comments

lazy

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do this on a regular basis!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Darling Daughters, Family, Photo a day / Tags: daughter, photo of the day

Patience and Pride

March 27, 2010 / Molly / 4 comments

As I sat outside this week while the kids played in the front yard I had a few minutes to think through the verse I have been trying to get to over the last few weeks. This is it:

Ecclesiastes 7:8
The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.

At first I thought, ‘well there isn’t much to it, the meaning is fairly obvious’, but I decided I needed to stop and think it through a bit. The first thing I realised was that ‘patience’ and ‘pride’ were a strange pairing. They aren’t opposites really…or are they? This is the way I thought it through;

‘if you aren’t patient you are impatient. People who are impatient appear annoying, arrogant and this is a prideful attitude. Pride says ‘I can do this by myself’ or ‘I know better than you do’. In this context the ‘you’ is God. So, if we are patient when things are tough we are saying ‘I can’t do this by myself’ and ‘You know best (God)’.

It really is quite simple but what a lesson to learn. Its something I seem to never learn. If I learnt it then I would NEVER get impatient with God would I, but I do. How can any of us know better than God? We can’t see the big picture of what’s coming in the next minute let along the whole of life itself. He does. He knows what he’s doing and trusting him is really really hard at times.

So, yes I want to get to the ‘end of a matter’ (an argument, an injustice, a bone I might have to pick with someone, a lengthy sickness or even a very long night up with kids). Yes it does feel good to arrive at the other end BUT if I can just be patient and not give in to my prideful ‘I know better’ attitude then I am likely to come out the other end much calmer. Easier said than done but for my own sanity I need to give it a go, something good to pray for I think.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Deeper Thoughts / Tags: Bible, patience, pride, verse

Dolls House Renovations – the final carpeting

March 27, 2010 / Molly / No comments

There has been a fair bit of sickness in our house over the last week and a half but I was determined to get the last bit of carpeting done with Miss K for the doll’s house. After all, its been on my Weekly What List for a few weeks now (and I really love to cross things off a list). We finally got it done and I think she is quite pleased with it. She’s really wanting to play with it so I’d love to get the last bit of wallpapering done this coming week so we can work on the furniture.

Seeing as this process was the same as the last time we carpeted, I won’t bore you with photos except for a couple. Its so nice to see it nearing completion!

dolls
First the template was drawn before cutting out a cardboard base (thanks Narelle!) and glueing the ‘carpet’ to it.