Henry Update

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:48:05 +1000

So a Henry update it probably overdue! I should do a quick post of where my (checks date) almost 18 month old is at.

Henry can walk and has done since 14 months. My back cheered that he walked a whole 4 months earlier than Oliver did. He's very steady on his feet (unless he's completely shattered with tiredness, then he staggers) and he still loves to climb up on anything he can. He prefers to watch TV standing on the coffee table mostly. Being reminded to "sit on your bottom" doesn't do much.

He can say mum-mum, bub-bub, ba! which is both ball and bubbles, uh oh, no-no-no (with head shake), and yeah! (usually said when he's 'playing' Angry Birds on my phone). There's also a certain sound he makes when he's playing with cars which we assume is his version of "vroom". Its been a bit slow coming but his speech is finally starting to emerge. I know Oliver didn't say a ton of words before 18m either and had a huge explosion around 2 so I'm not overly concerned at this point.

He has 8 front teeth and 3 molars, #4 is not far off. Henry doesn't take teething particularly well and will wake up more often then usual before they cut. His sleep in general is still quite woeful, he wakes up at least once a night, though he did sleep through for the first time ever the other night so we live in hope. The little blowy heater in the boys room seems to help - I'm not sure if its the temperature (I only have it on low but Henry is terrible at keeping the blankets on and hates sleeping bags) or the white noise but whatever, its staying on.

I'm in the process of trying to wean him, he's proving more resistant to the idea than Oliver was but we are slowly getting there.

Henry likes cars/toys with wheels, kicking and throwing balls, climbing, being chased by Oliver, slippery dips, grapes, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Playschool. He also likes music, kisses (both blowing them and the big slobbery kind) and cuddles. He's such a different child to Oliver, he's much more physical and boisterous than Oliver was at this age. He's super cute though, our cheeky little chicken.

Leon

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 09:44:03 +1000

Congratulations to Flea and Ken on the birth of little Leon. They knew they were having a boy so I emailed them a bunch of fabric options while Flea was still pregnant and they were super keen on the Cogsmo - I don't blame them, I bought it when Oliver was tiny and have been hording it ever since because its lovely!

I found the panels at Spotlight on clearance a few months ago and was stoked since the whole line is discontinued now. But I don't really like whole-panel quilts, I don't know, it seems a bit... boring? It might also be that I'm hopeless at doing fussy quilting - Sam made Henry a gorgeous panel quilt for his birthday and outlined all the details with stitching which gives it a real dimensionality, but there's no way I can do it as accurately as she has done! So I decided to hack up the panel and use the pieces in a different design. Did a bit of fiddling and came up with this:

In retrospect I should have done a skinny column in the middle and a big one on either side and left it because its quite wide, but oh well, Leon will get lots of use out of it as he grows. I'm super happy with how it came out in general, I think hacking the panel up has worked really well. I'm not so happy with the misalignment at the bottom but the big panel images obviously weren't square. If I'd realised earlier I'd have compensated on each rectangle slightly but I didn't so it is what it is. I figure it'll be tucked in at the bottom anyway.

Its stippled with white and backed with pale green minky - pale green was the best colour match I could find locally and looked heaps better than pale blue. No pillowcase as I've completely run out of steam lol. I have a heap more fabric and another panel so there will be another one for sale at some point.

Next up is the Safari Tots unisex quilt for the store, it'll have a hacked up panel too. Its pre dominatnly yellow with brown, blue and green. I've got yellow embroidered fleece for the back which is yellow with zebras - I originally bought that to make nappies with when Oliver was tiny and it never happened. I bought zebra print to bind it with which should be cute. I did a design for it but have decided I don't like it and need to revise it. Maybe on Monday if I'm not too tired after Easter weekend - we are hosting on Sunday and I need to clean and bake tomorrow.

Sugar

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 09:30:46 +1000

This has been up on FB for at least a fortnight but I've been too busy to blog until now. Sugar & Spice I, using Riley Blake Sugar & Spice fabric plus some Michael Miller prints and Spotlight quilters cotton basics. The blocks were meant to be square but as I have an inability to do maths properly they ended up slightly rectangle. Which worked out ok anyway in the end.

I had a big internal debate on the backing as I have red minky here too, posted it in my sewing group, polled a bunch of people, and decided to go with the turquoise. Its not the perfect colour - I think it needs to be 2 or 3 shades lighter to match the front properly - but I think the red would be too much.

No pillowcase this time, I've been thinking I might do some regular size pillowcases with the quilts rather than the cot size ones as people seem to prefer to use the quilts on toddler beds and by then the kids have full size pillows. There are matching cushions available to these by Sharon at Lil Moo & Mee which are really well priced so I figured I'd just direct people there rather than make one.

I've had a request for a single bed quilt in the same fabric and since I have a ton leftover I probably will have a crack. I'm thinking smaller squares bordering white squares alternating with large white squares... does that make sense? Clear as mud? Sort of like this one but not such small squares or I'll go insane.

Ebay

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 18:01:50 +1100

We also now have an Ebay store: http://stores.ebay.com.au/Minkie-Baby

I have a new quilt, photos from Kym & Joe's wedding, I need to update my Project 366, and there's general news from the House of Jurd but it's going to have to wait because I need to make dinner.

www.minkiebaby.com.au

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 08:32:54 +1100

www.minkiebaby.com.au is LIVE!

Go forth and buy nappies, mummy needs new shoes.

Caucus

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:15:51 +1100

I'm running seriously late for a playdate with Alison, Benjamin and Matthew so I don't really have time to go on about it, but I'm loving the Labor Party drama right now. Its like Days of our Caucus, and you, dear readers (all 5 of you, hi mum!) know how much I love a good soap opera.

Hmm, it appears I need a Politics tag. Will get on to that when I get home this afternoon.

Speaking of soap operas, my latest is watching old General Hospital eps on YouTube. I'm following Carly's babydaddy drama from 97 - back then Foxtel still had a soap opera channel and I used to watch it occasionally for this storyline. I only really know the characters in this and don't care about the rest so watching it on YouTube suits me perfectly. I set it up next to the sewing machine and watch while I'm sewing.

Right, more later.

Free Octonauts Party Printables

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:51:55 +1100

I'm sharing the love - below are the links to the PDF files for the Octonauts-theme prinatables I made for Oliver's party.

You are only limited by your imagination by what you do with them. The character circles can be used to decorate, as stickers, as cupcake toppers. The cupcake toppers can be used to decorate (I scattered them on the food table as we had cake, not cupcakes). The food tags can be used as name tags.

They are set for A4 paper size but I'm sure you can work out how to print them on US paper sizes using your printer settings. The circles are designed for a 2" circle punch because that's what I own, but you can cut them out by hand as circles or squares if you don't own one.

The bunting is 4 to a page, simply print, cut and either punch holes and thread on string or (my preference, because its easier) staple it to ribbon.

All I ask is that you credit me if you share these around, and if you use them please comment with a link so I can see what you've done!

The links:

Captain Barnacles 2" party circles
Dashi 2" party circles
Inkling 2" party circles
Kwazii 2" party circles
Peso 2" party circles
Tweak 2" party circles
Octoalert 2" party circles

Cupcake toppers
Party Bag Thank You tags
Tented Food Label cards

Happy Birthday Bunting - part 1
Happy Birthday Bunting - part 2
Happy Birthday Bunting - part 3
Happy Birthday Bunting - part 4

Enjoy!

Four

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:16:49 +1100

Oliver is four! He tells me now he likes all sorts of foods he didn't like last week, because he is four now. I'm not going to argue with that logic if it means he eats more vegetables!

His party went very well. We were incredibly lucky that the weather was glorious - there had been storms and rain predicted which is why we hosted it at home rather than Pirate Park like we originally wanted. I was quite concerned that there would be 28 adults + 28 kids in my tiny house if it was pouring but figured as long as it wasn't they could spill onto the deck. But we got lucky and the sun was shining so we managed to get the kids outside to play.

Some photos of the day:

The birthday boy:

My Octonauts printables - there's bunting, character circles, party bag tags, and party circles. There's also tented food label cards but I didn't get around to having those printed. I'll post in a minute the links to download the files:

The food - cookie-cutter shark and decorator crab cookies; ocean zone jellies (3 layers - purple, dark blue, light blue with fish-shaped sprinkles); whale-shaped cheesy pastry thingies; Captain Barnacles mashmallow pops:

The watermelon shark:

The birthday cake - I'm very pleased with how this came out, I just wish I'd used yellow icing for the beak instead of the writing icing tubes because it ran:

In terms of decorating I had the bunting pinned up; I sewed together the 2" character circles to make stings of 'pearls' which I hung from the beams; I made some pompoms which I hope looked a bit like coral; and I put up some streamers I twisted to make look like seaweed. I wish I'd had time to make more of the seaweed as it looked really effective. We also had the bubble blower on which the kids all loved - such good value, the machine was a Christmas present for Henry and was only around $20. Big W have the big bottles of bubble solution for around $3 which is cheap too, I need to pick up a few more next time I'm there.

I had "Pin the Eyepatch on Kwazii" which I downloaded online (there's a link on my Pinterest) but we didn't end up doing it as the kids were happy just to run around and play. I also had planned "Captain Barnacles Says" and "Dashi Says Cheese!" (aka Statues) for if it rained as backup.

We did do "Kwazii's Treasure Hunt" - I bought some chocolate coins, freddo frogs, bouncy balls, little bubble blowers and some stickers and threw them all around the back yard then told the kids to go mad. It was a good way to get everyone outside and they loved it.

So all up a success, Oliver loved it and I think his little friends did too. Elliot and I were shattered though, absolutely exhausted. I'm definitely going back to having parties on Sundays, I spent most of the party in the kitchen because I didn't have the extra day to prepare and Elliot ran around like a madman doing the gardening before everyone go there, which is why we were so tired after.

Octonauts

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:22:40 +1100

Finally am getting my rear into gear regarding Oliver's birthday party - invites went out yesterday by mail, the hand delivered ones will go out today and Thursday.

I've bought the decorations but they require assembly. I'll start baking cake this week to freeze, and I need to do some batches of sugar cookie dough too.

Sailing

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:43:12 +1100

I finally finished Oliver's quilt, aka Sail Away I. You'll recognise the fabric from Matthew's quilt - that was going to be for Henry initially which is why I cut two quilts from the same fabric, but then Henry's godmother Sam made him a gorgeous quilt for his birthday so I used the fabric for Matthhew instead.

I'm not totally convinced - I love the binding, but I think I preferred the coin layout on Matthew's. Oliver adores it though, so that's all that really matters. It was a complete pain in the bum to stipple, I planned to do irregularly spaced straight lines (like I did on 2d Zoo I the other week) but broke my walking foot when I went to start sewing it. Using the regular foot was not an option as its backed with cotton and the back would pucker like mad. So I had to stipple it. Its way too big for my little machine too, I ended up doing it in two halves, but it was a battle.

In retrospect I should have made it 5" wider and 5" shorter but it was my first single bed quilt and I was winging it. As I said, Oliver loves it, so that's all that really matters at the end of the day anyway.

Pear

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:56:49 +1100

So 3 odd years ago I blogged a recipe I was trying. I never bothered to come back and tell you how delicious it is! Its such an easy thing to make, its a little bit time consuming because its baked twice, but the actual time spend beating/mixing etc is short.

I've made a few changes since then - I've tried it with walnuts instead of pecans, which was nice but the walnuts were very strong. I'm not sure if I needed to reduce the quantity, or if my walnuts were a bit past their prime. I've since replaced the walnuts but I haven't tried making it again. I've also made it with almond meal which is delicious.

So here it is with my (subtle) modifications.

Pear Tart v2.

Base:

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar (I used white, caster would be nicer no doubt but don't have any)

3/4 cup flour

2/3 cup almond meal OR same amount chopped walnuts

Melt butter, mix everything together. Press into greased medium size tart tin. Prick with fork. Bake for 40min at 180c.

Filling:

250g cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon vanilla paste (or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped)

1 egg

1 tin pear halves, drained and sliced

Cinnamon sugar, to dust

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanillas and egg together until smooth. Spread evenly over cooked base. Arrange sliced pears on top and dust with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 60 min at 180c.

Allow to cool before serving.

Tastes so good, looks like you've spent hours in the kitchen cooking (as opposed to hours doing other things while you can smell it cooking!), its a winner IMO. I made one today for tomorrow as we are expecting visitors - poor Henry will have to have something else because there's egg in the filling.

Spokesmodels

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:46:29 +1100

Meet the new Minkie Baby spokesmodels: from left to right we have Noah wearing Apple, Isabella in Pink and Henry in Turquoise.

Aren't they adorable? Squee!

(Another) Logo

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:37:06 +1100

It hasn't even been a month and I've changed the Sakurako logo already. I went to order the promotional and packaging material for it and decided I vastly preferred the ready-made options than my own attempt. Its not that my own was bad exactly, it was just a lot more cluttered than I'd have liked. Plus, the soft pink looks better than the reds I used, and I like the new font better.

I have postcards with washing instructions, business cards, and round stickers (for sealing up the tissue paper the quilts get wrapped in) on order. I also ordered Minkie Baby washing instruction cards, return address labels, fluffy mail stickers and promotional postcards with the new logo on them. And because it was only $2, I also got myself a Minkie Baby mug for my tea.

(Another) Zoo

nospam@example.com (Leigh Davenport Jurd) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:06:55 +1100

2D Zoo I is finally finished. After the amount of piecing involved with 2D Zoo II I was a bit sick of looking at the fabric so this one sat fully pieced and pinned to the batting on Elliot's desk for a while. Since its such a minimalist design I thought the meandering stipple might be too much and decided to do some irregularly spaced straight lines instead. I really like how that worked out and will definitely do it again.

No pillowcase because I didn't have enough fabric left of the zoo print or stripe to make one. Its priced accordingly and is on sale via the Sakurako FB page.

I definitely won't be doing a meandering stipple on a big quilt ever again - I broke my walking foot somehow when I put it on the machine to do Oliver's single bed quilt so didn't have much other choice but the stipple it and it was such a pain. My little machine isn't built to do it on something so big. Its done now though, it just needs binding then it'll be another thing off the UFO list.

I also finished my labour dress from Oliver finally, thank God that's done (almost 4 years later) and out of my cupboard where it was in pieces.

Other than clearing up UFOs I'm also trying to use up/get rid of random fabric. I'll have some ruffled lightweight scarves for sale in the Kat & Bee Ozhandmade store shortly made out of chiffon, organza and silk. I've got some PJ/lounge pants cut out of the leftover nappy flannel for the boys and some fabric dry to dip-dye them in for an ombre effect. Once I've cleared off those two projects I have a number of other quilts in the planning stages, in no particular order:

1. Cogsmo x 2 - Robots, rockets, and cogs (one for Sakurako, one for Felicity's baby)

2. Summer Picnic x 2 - ladybeetles and gingham, red/green/pink (one for Sakurako, one for Leanne's baby)

3. Something for Stephanie's baby (no idea what)

4. Sugar & Spice cot quilt - red/aqua/pink, flowers, dots, paisley, argyle

5. Peter Pan Kokka pram quilt - red/navy/cream, Peter Pan

6. Happier pram quilt - pink/green, trees and birds

7. Safari Tots unisex cot quilt - yellow, brown, blue, green, safari animals

8. 2D Zoo single bed strip quilt (last of this fabric!)

9. Grey & yellow single bed square/rectangle quilt

10. Grey & yellow cot strip quilt

11. Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow quilt for our bed

I'm itching to start them but need to finish the other things first and clear out some old fabric I'm never going to use which is taking up room.

In other news, I'm the guest blogger at The Sewing Sisterhood each Wednesday, managing the Photo Challenge. I'll probably also contribute some other posts during the year, not sure what yet.

Anyway, time to wind up, Oliver is bugging me for my (Andrew's) laptop so he can do Reading Eggs. He's obsessed with it at the moment.