Keeping the sewing machine ticking over

I always find that I am constantly trying to get a perfect balance of lots of things and whilst I am nearly always succeeding at some of these things I am nearly always failing at something else. 

These things being:

- doing meaningful, stimulating and educational activities with the kids,

-keeping on top of the housework,

-spending time on my faith,

-feeding the family with nutrional, home cooked unprocessed foods,

-being and kind and attentive wife,

-doing enough exercise, 

-doing things for myself to make me happy and fulfilled. 

Of course there are a million other things that could go on this list and some are important than others but I do sound a little like a 1950's housewife. 

Especially considering I have myself a sticker chart for housework (I honestly kid you not...) 

This week i have managed to take the children out lots, and have done lots of sewing and score half points on most other things. 

I have made some things I can't show you yet but am particularly proud of yesterday's achievement. I managed to source some jersey material cheaply on the Internet (though it took a while to arrive from Germany) and yesterday I managed to make my own pattern for Nemo and Pebble leggings by looking at a pair of leggings they already had. 

(Pebble's pair were my first so they are a bit wonky!)

Nemo not wanting to model them. They aren't as tight as they look here but I still make make the next pair a little bigger for future growth. Shortly after this photo was taken he weed in them....I love potty training....

Definately made room for growth in Pebble's! She has been in a much better mood for modelling today!

The weather has been glorious here in Northumberland and we have been going for nice long walks. We've been visiting Ross Sands quite a bit but have been shocked to find up to 20 cars parked. It's usually very quiet as you have about 1 mile walk to get to the beach so you will always find it deserted but this years appears to have been discovered :( 

Nemo and Pebble love the sea so much it's crazy. Pebble will just walk straight into the sea up to her tummy without even seeming to notice the temperature. Nemo loves running in and out chasing the waves. 

Nemos potty training seems to be stalling a bit, he's struggling with number 2's and at times he's reluctant to go to the potty even though we know he needs to go. I rang up the health visitor who seemed very sensible and practical p for some tips. Of course she's on annual leave so I ended up talking to another lady who told us to (and I quote) "bin it" to go back to pull ups/ nappies and try again in 3 months. 

I really do wonder sometimes why I bother asking for advice sometimes, we've been doing this almost a month and have made a lot of progress I really think it would confuse Nemo putting him back in nappies now. 

This morning I received a very exciting package, this is my material my Mum kindly sourced for me for my apron. 

My mum has made one and the idea is that you make the apron and then use embroidery to make it all pretty. (The plain fabric goes on the outside the pretty one is the lining.)

This will make me even more housewifey then before-eek I'm only 27! It will also mean some more evenings sewing!

Luckily with the luxury of having a craft room (which my husband calls a study...) I can do some sewing whilst my hubby works on his laptop or plays on his Xbox. This actually means we've been spending some lovely time together chatting away in here 

Well I'm off now but just in case you didn't believe me here is my sticker chart (it's my third I've been doing this 3-4 months now!)

Nemo's 3rd birthday

This year we invaded my parents for Nemo's birthday (again!) the difference this year is that my brother and sister in law also came with their twin girls. 

My poor parents were bombarded, I think we were only in the door a few minutes before we start slipping items of clothing into their washing machine! 

To get the stressful things over a done with after that awful night of cake making I spoke about last night I managed to get the cake from this 

To this 

I had frozen the cake to help it keep fresher for longer and this helped decorate it the next day as it was solid. I felt really pleased with the outcome considering how frustrated I had felt the night before so I packed in up for the journey to Leicester  which took about 5 hours. 

Of course obvious as it sounds now as the cake was defrosting in the car the decorations kind of  "sunk" the cake went back to looking a bit messy. 

After more agonising then I care to go into I eventually managed to patch the cake back up again and here's the final result

Overall I was happy with it although it's perhaps one of those cake that looks better standing a meter or 2 away!

Mum actually pointed out the the wobbliness of the cake made it look like the boat was sailing! 

Treasure island made with left over cake and brown sugar! 

The sea is made from buttercream icing and I used some fondant icing to make the shark fins sticking out!

Mr Shark and barrels made from two rolos and a button stuck on top- I have to give credit to Nemo for the idea of the button on top! 

Usually I feel a reluctance to cut cakes I've spent hours (in this case days...) on. This time I cut the boat up with joy. I was so fed up with it!!

So anyway onto Nemo's birthday. He opened some of his presents in the morning and opened different presents over next two days! 

Here is Nemo with his pirate quilt

Nemo has been doing so well with his potty training- he's very rarely having accidents anymore. However his success has meant we have stopped giving him a chocolate coin for every wee and poo in the potty and now he just gets a sticker. (Nemo was so reluctant initially he needed a lot of encouragement). Nemo definately feels the injustice of this change and doesn't take the offer of a couple of grapes instead well! 

There was a definite pirate theme this year. Me, my Mum and Sister all made pirate themed items! 

We headed to soft play in the morning to tire the children out, this meant they had a lovely long nap in the afternoon!

The twins arrived and as usual their favourite family member appears to be Poppy!

The children all loved eating the pirate cake and I scream for pudding!

The next day saw us heading for Wickstead Park. It such a hot and sunny day- two layers of sun cream and I still got a little red on my face! Thankfully I managed to apply the children's sun more effectively!

I think Nemo looks like a King with his cousins as his court in this photo!

There was this amazing water and sand area in the park. It had this great interactive water features for the children to play in. I think we spent hours here. 

Having spent all day awake no nap Pebble eventually fell asleep on Grandma! 

The twins were not far behind!

Now this was probably one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen- S on the right was falling asleep but had an ice cream. She literally fell asleep licking it then would wake a few seconds later and try to lick it again!! 

The next day I went fabric guiding with mum to get me topped up for some upcoming projects then we headed to the park.

Nemo got the chance to try out his new scooter and dinosaur helmet. 

I had wondered if I really needed a helmet considering I see so many children on scooters without them but am so glad I did. On Facebook there's been a campaign - Georgia on my mind encouraging people to use helmets after their daughter fell, hit her head and has had a life threatening head injury. It's definately affirmed to me how important it is 

We left in the early afternoon (after ensuring we were fed up on BBQ food!) the children did really well both ways and we managed a 5 hour door to door journey with one stop without Nemo wetting himself both ways! 

Can't believe my little boy is 3 - how can it be that the little baby I carried for 9 months is now a little person. He's such a lovely and fun little boy. To indulge myself in a soppy moment Here are three photos of me and Nemo all taken on his birthday the forth was taken a couple of weeks ago. 

I am so lucky to have my beautiful boy :) 

Why oh why do I do this to myself?!?

Well I will start of by telling you of my successes. I have managed to complete 2 more dresses for Pebble with the fabric I bought last year it's mentioned in this blog 

http://themumthedogandthebaby.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/invasion-of-llanberis-day-5-and-6.html

Anyway despite the pattern saying I needed 2.5 yards for one dress and having 1 meter each of this fabric I actually got two dresses out of it and had material spare (I did use a cheep material for lining though). 

So here they are dress number one:

Dress number 2:

Feel pretty pleased with them, struggling to get the neckline to have no tiny gathers at the corners still but can't really notice unless you're looking!

So that's the week's successes. Now for the less successful. The last two nights I have been staying up late working on Nemo's birthday cake. I have set a certain standard for myself with Nemo and Pebbles cakes so far 

Finding Nemo cake (Nemo's 1st birthday)

Dinosaur cake (Nemo's 2nd birthday)

Totoro cake (Pebble's 1st birthday cake) 

Castle with moat cake (Hubby's birthday cake!- although a little bit cheeky as I used some toys instead of fondant icing for the animals and people!) 

So building up a certain degree of confidence I decided to try and do a pirate cake this year... Not only a pirate cake with a fondant pirate but also a pirate boat shaped cake. 

Big mistake

The fondant part has gone..... Ok ish 

Pretty happy with Mr Pirate although he keeps on getting shorter and fatter and needs reshaping! 

Mr Shark is ok, but sure it will do

Same story for Mrs Parrot

Pretty pleased with my treasure chest which I modelled around a rubbish bin Nemo has for his toy rubbish truck. 

So last night I was up until 12 attempting to make a pirate shaped cake. 

What a nightmare!!! 

I found myself spending most the night cursing as my cake collapsed, then just looked rubbish with butter cream icing on and then I just totally failed to do any decent job at putting fondant icing on it. I think I just stayed up too late doing it and out of complete frustration just made it worse and worse! 

I told myself over and over again that from now on I would just be buying birthday cakes, even though Hubby (admittedly rightly so) told me that I would always make the children cakes despite the stress!

So here it is

It's wonky, messy and I had to compromise on the shape a lot to get it stable enough. 

Having spent hours yesterday cleaning and tidying the entire house I woke up this morning, with a baking hang over. This is how I left the kitchen (being midnight I had to just leave the carnage as it was)

I now have the unenviable task of cleaning up this mess and trying to somehow make this pirate ship look alright!! 

I couldn't sleep last night trying to think about how to rescue this cake so am going to try out a few different ideas today-wish me luck. 

Oh actually one more success, Nemo only wet himself once yesterday hurray!!!!!!!