Children's Apron: A Step by Step Guide

Well it's offical, my oldest bear is now 6 years old! Last weekend we hosted a gingerbread house decorating party and each little guest received one of these cute aprons to use at the party and take home. These would be perfect to make and give along with a set of baking utensils for birthday presents or to make for your little kitchen helper(s) this holiday season. For a downloadable FREE PDF pattern and a step by step guide with lots of photos, click below.

Start your engines...

So a five month long blog hiatus was not planned, but life got busy, really busy and the blog got put on the back burner. I have been thinking about posts I wanted to do and have taken loads of pictures but have just not had the time, or head space to post. Now that my hospital placement is over for the semester and my uni classes are under control, I have a bit more time at night to devote to the bears four. 

Recently my littlest bear had his fourth birthday and he is hot wheel OBSESSED. So of course the party theme had to be hot wheels. Click below to see photos from the party with ideas, tips, free downloads and recipes that will insure you throw a super duper hot wheels party. 

DIY Easter Treat Bags

I haven't been able to post recently since our camera keeps giving out on us, but I was able to snap a few photos of these cute bunny treat bags I made for the kids friends at school for Easter this year before the camera really died. 

Easter is extra early this year and with exams, papers and hospital clinical rotations, it's lucky the little bears are getting to take anything to school! When I was trying to come up with ideas, I wanted to make something original but also easy and inexpensive. With most of the supplies already on hand, it was virtually free (other than my time). Click below for a a step by step tutorial and photos.  

Teaching Kids to Sew

My little bears see me sewing all the time and they always want to have a go. They love to take turns crawling under the table and pressing the foot. On a gloomy day not too long ago, Isla came to me and asked to sew a doll herself. Oh man was I excited! The day had finally arrived where I could share something I love to do with my little bear without boring her. I think five is a great age to start to teach the basics of sewing, kids are better at staying focused, eye-hand coordination is there and they can listen to directions well. My mother in law gave me the book, Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy, which was a prefect starting point for Isla's, hopefully, life long interest. Read on for more pictures and review.

Old Made New Again

I love Ikea as you can probably tell from all the Ikea mentions I've had on the blog, but we rarely keep our Ikea furniture as Ikea intended them to be. We pretty much hack everything we purchase from there but one thing I never got around to making my own, was an Ikea Ektorp Jennylund armchair that we bought in the as is section about seven years ago. It hadn't come with a slipcover but it needed one, so we just bought the plainest and cheapest one. I've been wanting to buy a light grey linen slipcover for awhile now and found ones here and here, but we really couldn't afford the price tag. So when Ikea came out with an affordable linen fabric, I decided I'd take the leap and make my own slipcover. For a step by step and before and after pictures, click below. 

Advent Calendar

I loved advent calendars as a kid, especially the ones with chocolates behind each door, though I often couldn't wait to open each one, so they never lasted until Christmas day. I wanted to make the little bears an advent calendar that could be used over and over again each year, something they would remember from their childhood and look forward to. To make this sweet vintage advent calendar, click below for step by step directions.

DIY Superhero Mask

The long gap in posts was not intentional but with uni exams, assignments and a week of being sick, the blog had to take a back seat. Exams over, assignments petering out, and antibiotics taking affect, the blog is finally getting some attention again. Just because I've taken a little break from posting doesn't mean I haven't been creating up a storm, I just haven't had the time to sit and write about it. I promised to post a few more details from Charlie's birthday party, so here's a fun little craft that the kids got to do. Click below for directions and more pics.

Free Boat Neck Top Pattern + Tutorial

I definitely wouldn't describe myself as trendy or even someone who notices trends. However, I do love a good floral print and I have been noticing floral prints everywhere lately. I even did a quick little online search here, here, here, here, and here and found that this does indeed seem to be a current trend and one I was happy to follow. Now as much as I love some of those pretty floral tops that are out there, I CANNOT spend over $100 for one! Lucky for me, I happened upon this really sweet Ikea fabric and the best part was it's only $8 per metre. Score! So every floral lover can hop on the trend band wagon with me, I've provided a free downloadable PDF pattern that I created. Perfect timing too with today being the first day of spring. Click below for the pattern and step by step tutorial. 

Stick Horse Pattern

We're trying to get back to simple pleasures with the kids, which means board games, puzzles, make believe, stories and timeless toys. Stick horses used to be a staple in any child's toy treasury and our kids do really love pretending to gallop around our apartment on their "horses". So when a friend's little boy was having a birthday and I knew he loved horses, I thought a stick horse would be the prefect gift. To find out how to make your very own stick horse with my free pattern and directions, click below.

Dress to Skirt Refashion

There is just something about yellow that cheers me up. I love the colour and I seem to gravitate towards it not only when choosing clothing but also when decorating. We painted the kids room yellow when we first bought our apartment five years ago and I still love the colour and I will admit to sitting in there when I need a pick me up. So when I spotted a cute pale yellow dress in a thrift store a while ago for $7 I snapped it up. Sadly it really didn't fit me in the bust and I was constantly having to pull it up, plus the tie at the waist felt a bit dated, so I decided to turn it into a skirt! Click below for step by step instructions on how to refashion a dress into a skirt. 

Mother's Day Market Tote

Why not surprise mum this Mother's Day with fresh bread, fruit and flowers from the local farmers market in her very own market tote bag that you've made her! You can even make her brunch from your selection of market goodies. 

Bunny Bags

I was recently asked by the amazingly talented Sharon Wee of Sharon Wee Creations to be a guest contributor on her blog. So over the next few months you'll be able to catch some new and fun crafts, recipes and sewing projects of mine on her blog. 

First up...Bunny Bags. These are so sweet and quick to make plus they give a really nice personal touch to your Easter treats. 

For step by step instructions and photos head over to Sharon's blog here. 

Happy Sewing!

How to Make Reusable Sandwich Wraps and Snack Bags

Ok so this isn't an original idea here, you can buy eco friendly reusable sandwich wraps and snack bags at health food stores and eco stores, which I did do during my pre-children pre-uni, working days when we actually had money, but really at this point in time I cannot justify paying $11 for one when I know I could make them for far less. I already had two for the kids that I bought from Todae, which is a great eco store but I really wanted to have one for myself and Jeremy. This is the simple way that I came up with to make them and they really took no time at all.

Kids Art Placemats + Delicious Black Bean Taco Recipe

I don't know about you, but keeping the kids busy while cooking dinner is a challenge pretty much every night! We try to use the television very sparingly and I have to admit that the time of day when they are most likely to get a "yes" when they ask for TV is right about the time I start chopping. Well, no more! Here is a tutorial on how to make fun placemats that the kids can colour and personalise every night while you're cooking and what's even better is that they can admire their work while they eat!

DIY Superhero Cape

It's a bird...

It's a plane...

It's Super Charlie and Super Isla!

Most little ones go through a superhero phase at some point and what better way to make their imagination come alive than with their very own personalised superhero cape! It's super simple to make and takes no time at all. 

Day 4: Heart Felt Garland

Instead of sending a traditional valentine, why not send this cute heart felt (pun intended) garland. It's simple to make but it also has huge impact and can be appreciated long after Valentine's day. 

Flutter Sleeve Dress Tutorial and Free Pattern

Isla had her mind made up that she wanted a cute teddy bear with pretty rainbow pyjamas for Christmas and nothing else would do, this was six days before Christmas! I quickly got onto ebay and purchased said fabric and tracked down the cutest teddy I could find that would get here in time. Isla loves the Jellycat little rabbits she's had since she was a baby so when I found the Jellycat teddy bear I thought it would be a hit. I spent ages scouring the internet trying to find a free pattern for some cute pyjamas for the teddy, but didn't find exactly what I was looking for so I ended up making my own pattern and it turned out to be really simple and quick to make and luckily Isla was super excited on Christmas day to receive exactly what she asked Santa for. I promised a free pattern and tutorial for the teddy pyjamas, the pattern can be downloaded by clicking here and below is the step by step tutorial. This is the first time I've done a sewing tutorial so if I've missed anything or something needs clarification please feel free to leave a comment.

Happy sewing!