WE HAVE LIFT OFF

Yay Sami took his first steps today. I was sitting downstairs having a whinge to Ali about the fact that new part time cleaner called to say she was sick but when I probed a little more she said the travel was too much and she did not want to continue ... SO OVER IT! and then the little man just got up in front of me and with a big smil took three steps. Suddenly life was perfect again and phaff to those maids because MY SON JUST WALKED!

This afternoon we went for a swim. The kids loved it. That's Lulu having a ball. We are all very tired tonight.

Raggy Quilt

It's done and I love it. This was an easy quilt to make and I know I will do many more.

I started this one in the class I took at Patches Quilting (Christine was a great instructor) shop in Indooroopilly when I was on holidays and then finished it last night. When I was buying the fabric I opted for Spotlight fat Quarters at $2 a piece as opposed to other fat quarters from a quilting shop for $6.50 a piece in case I made a mess of it but all in all I am happy with the outcome. I would not use stripes as a backing again. I am thinking to make one for one of Sami's friends 1st birthday coming up.

The New Weekend

My week has suddenly changed as my darling husband now has Friday and Saturday's off since the Central Bank changed the banking sectors week last month. However my children will still have Thursday and Friday as their weekend so suddenly I have a long weekend every week.

Now I will be honest and say that initially I was not thrilled about the thought of not having Ali here with the kids ALL day ... ALONE .... on Thursday however I then began to see it an opportunity for us to have some chill out connection time. This was the first week and it was fun. During the week there is always so much to do and I have been unpacking for 2 weeks so the kids have not had a huge amount of "quality mum" time IYKWIM.

I have yet to see how the Saturday rhythm will fall into place but lets not be resistant to change heh!

So here is a snap shot of my Thursday ...

It started with us creating a wildlife safari of all our animals including the dinosaurs who we made vegetarian for the day so they would not eat the rest of the crew.It was hot so we played indoors and converted the small majilis / TV room into a gymnastics / obstacle course for the kids. Oh and i figured out that I can no longer do handstands or cartwheels ... ;-(Then while Sami was nappingthe kids and I made milo cookies, a little bit evil, but i put weet-bix in them to balance out the healthy / unhealthy factor (can you hear me justifying them in my mind still!)
and I got in a load of laundry yikes it is never ending in this house LOL
and while they cooked (trying to use my convection microwave more these days) Sami woke up
and we all sat down to a "lunch" of cookies and milk, it was just one of those days.
After lunch we headed outside for some water play time.
Later we sat and played puzzles (lots and lots of them) until Daddy came home.
I was exhausted by the time Ali walked in!

Gosh don't I have an exciting life ... LOL!

Today was very low key. We all went out for breakfast and then did the grocery shopping so I could have some special foods in the house for Ramadhan which will , inshaallah, start this week. Then home for a late lunch and some play time in the garden, a light dinner and then bed.

As I type this blog my raggy quilt is in the washing machine, I can't wait to see it all fluffed up.

Tipnut and Thumbcushion

I subscribe to a daily email from Tipnut, which is a great little site that has already gathered together all those links for common subjects like "how to sew a reusable shopping tote", or how to make the most out of left overs, homemade soaps, cleaning products, sewing , cooking, etc etc.

Today there was a quick tutorial on how to make a Thumbcushion which I think is a fabulous idea so thought I would give it a go while Sami was sleeping. Thanks Annie! This little cushion was so easy to make in less than 15 minutes and a great way to use up off cuts of fabric. (sorry the photo quality was not that great and pplllleeeeeeeeeease don't look at my unmanicured fingers LOL!)


I highly recommend sunscribing. Each day I open the email and see the two subjects for the day, if I am interested I store them in my Tipnut inbox and then get back to them later. If not just hit delete.

Recently there was a great tip on not wasting food. This lovefoodhatewaste has some great stuff on it that I would never think of in a million years and you feel good about not throwing out all those items about to expire in your fridge.

I was very happy to have a little run on my machine today as she has been laying idle for 2 and a half months. Last night I cut out the remaining squares and batting for my raggy quilt so hopefully I can get that finished soon. I am also about to cut out a few pairs fo shorts for the kids. We seem to go through a phenomenal amount of washing and I swear there is a shorts monster lurking in a cupboard somewhere.

catch again you soon...

Another new desire

... to quilt! Yes I have been reading quilters blogs for months now and looking at everyone's fantastic quilts. My friend Laila got me started on this. She suggested we do a quilt together which sounded like a good idea except that I was crazy busy and maidless before leaving for the summer so i got nothing done. Laila on the other hand has her finished and I love it so of course I am now even more keen.

When I was Brisbane I thought about quilting too late and by the time I went to our local shop I was too late for some of the beginners classes so I signed up for a one night class for making a raggy quilt. I LOVED it. Ok I only achieved 3 rows in 3 hours but it is started and I am keen to get it finished so I can show you, that is if I can clear the sewing table (covered in all the goodies I bought back from Oz that I have to find a home for ... hmmmm do you think Ali would consider building another level?). There is one lady who is doing a quilt a day at the moment, WHAT ... I wish I knew her secret to time management. I love reading her blog (Crazy Mom Quilts) but I seriously think she needs to change her name to supermom quilts!

I also caught the knitting bug too. The only problem is that what take me two weeks of night time knitting my mother does in one episode of Spooks ... I have a long way to go. Tracy over at Mad Quilter is another of my favourite ladies. She does amazing things with wool in no time and not to mention her quitling, and I have to say her 6 lovely children are not looking one bit neglected so again Tracy spill the beans on how you manage so well (and I hear there are new editions about the join family too - congrats! ... the ducks I mean).

I am keen to do an I SPY quilt, here is one I saw while on holidays
it was just so nice to wall into a store filled with sewing goodies, ching ching ...
gosh my list just grows and grows. I have so many dresses etc to sew for Lujayne, gifts to prepare etc. Ah well one day at a time.

The great news is that we should have a new maid starting with us in October. She was Ali's mother's carer but sadly his mother passed away two days after I left for Australia so now she is taking a holiday at home with her family and we hope to see her soon. OK it is about 6 long weeks away and we have the month of Ramadhan in between which requires lots of cooking in the afternoon for "breakfast" when the sun sets but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Better get back to my "to-do" list ... if only I could find it.

My Baby turned 1

Last week Sami turned 1.

I can't believe it was a year ago that he joined our family with such a dramatic entrance.(Sami 5 days old)

For all my life I will never forget being rolled back into my hospital room after my c-sect only to find my mum and Ali looking anxious, my heart stopped when I did not see my little newborn ... and I am truly grateful to God for allowing Sami to recover so well. 5 days later he was in my arms and now 365 days later he is crawling around with mummbles of dada, bye bye and whatever else my simple mind can not decipher, getting into all kinds of michief ... awwwww.
Sami's birthday was the day after we arrived back from Australia on what had to be one of the worst jounreys I have ever had (a whole other blog believe me) so I have to say that I feel some guilt over his shop bought cake and lack of imagination over his party food but judging by the looks on the kids faces they were happy enough. I might add that I made a special birthday breakfast for him but he feel asleep 10 minutes before it was ready. Then we went out for lunch and he slept through it all. So this was last effort to give him a party albeit almost 6 o'clock at night!


MISSING IN ACTION
I have so much to blog about. We had such a wonderful couple of months in Australia and it finished on a high note as Ali came to join us for the last week. My Mum, Sister and Brother were great and I do miss them so much now. I had planned on blogging while in Oz but initially my Mum had internet issues and then when it was all sorted I was just so dog tired by the evenings that blogging was the last thing on my mind. So stay tuned and I will try and fill in the gaps.