Geometric Tribal Baby Quilt... Maybe?

My cousin Cheryl had her little bub Samantha in May, and I'd been so busy that I forgot to ask her what she wanted for a quilt! She told me to make whatever I wanted, as long as it wasn't too girly and pink. I studied her Pinterest board for the baby's room, and this is what I came up with! I almost don't want to send it off to Australia!!! 

I think it came out really nicely, if I do say so myself! I just hope she likes it!

I used mainly solids (she's not a very busy, patterny sort of person) and threw in a little yellow tone-on-tone action just to break it up a little.

And the backing... ah the backing. My cousin asked for geometric tribal. I do not know what that is, but I believe this backing comes close. And if it doesn't, then... well... tough :)

It'll be off to Australia shortly for little Samantha Rose to snuggle in. The roundest baby in the world :)

Photo Strip Love

This photo strip sent me on an emotional roller coaster ride! My sisters and I piled into a photo booth in Northampton, MA a few years ago, and I can't tell you how much I love this photo strip. I even made my sisters little wall hangings with the photos printed on fabric :)

When we started hanging pictures, I'd gotten it in my head that I need to put the photo strip into a wall frame so I can enjoy the silliness on a daily basis. Then a sudden dread filled me... I didn't know where it was! My guess was that I'd put it somewhere safe when we moved, and it was safe even from me. Sigh. Such an idiot. So I tore through the entire house searching for the stupid thing to no avail :(

I woke up the next morning and moaned about it to the hubs... about how I couldn't even remember where I'd had it before we moved, let alone where I might've put it during the move. He then reminded me that I'd stuck the photo strip in a ribbon noticeboard in our old bedroom.

HOW DID HE REMEMBER THAT AND I DIDN'T?! This is a man who introduces himself to people several times over! The man who can't remember what he ate for lunch by dinnertime! The man who forgets to buy milk on the way home from work when I'd just told him before he started driving home. (Seriously, why do I put up with this?!)

I was filled with glee, then back to dread when I realised I still had no clue where it was lol! The hubs kept reminding me that I had to get my bum to work because I was in the midst of a rush custom job, but I was just so obsessed with finding the bloody thing.

Aaaaaand I finally found it. In a big plastic bin in the built-in cupboard where the cable box lives. A cupboard I look into every day when I turn on the TV and cable box. What in the world was it doing in there?!?! How'd I not see it?? Good lord. You'd think I'd take better care of something that's so precious to me!

Anyway, all's well that ends well :) It now sits pretty in its frame on my side of the bed, and I can see their silly faces every day :)

Robin's Nest

We spotted a nest in the tree right off the side of our front porch. Well, when I say we, I mean the hubs since I can't actually see the nest. The stupid nest is higher than my eyes will go :/ I jumped as much as I could but jumping + photo-taking = nope.

But do you see it? I don't know how the hubs saw it through the branches because the dude can't see things that are right in front of him hehe

So I handed the hubs my iPhone and had him take the picture of the nest and eggs! (Dude needs to do some focusing!!! LOL!) There's apparently another one that's hidden, so six altogether! She's been a busy little momma bird because a few days ago, she only had one! How pretty does that look!!

You'll have to excuse my excitement because having grown up in the city, I don't really see things like that. Especially not beautiful robin's eggs that are a gorgeous pale blue. We did see a nest with one egg at our old house but for some reason, that momma bird pushed her nest over and the poor egg tipped right onto the ground :( 

I'm going to have the hubs take proper pictures with my camera because he told me he spied a little crack in one of the eggs, so perhaps they're starting to hatch!! We're trying not to poke around too much because we don't want to scare momma bird and make her think we're up to no good. Just want to make sure the little birdies are doing alright! 

And speaking of mommas, I hope my Mum had a lovely Mother's Day :) My sisters and I divided up responsibilities... they got her pressies and I got her flowers. Divide and conquer! Brownie points for life! I got her this colourful bouquet, and according to my sister it was so giant she almost dropped it. Oops. But Mum was thrilled, so we're happy girls :) Happy Mother's Day, Mum... we love you much! xo

Cross Baby Quilt

Please help Peter Rabbit (yes, I'm 36 and I have my Peter Rabbit, and no, I'm not giving it to the baby because it's mine!) and I welcome my cousin's little bub Jayden!!! My cousin Carrie was meant to have a little Christmas baby, but she didn't want to inflict that on her son (no offence to Christmas babies, but you have to admit it's a bit of a poo), so she decided to have him a little earlier. I love how that's something you can decide to do hehe

I'd asked Carrie what she wanted, and in her usual fashion, she said, "Oh make whatever... but umm, maybe if there's some blue even though it's boring but it IS a boy haha". I wrote that, and then realised you don't know Carrie. Dorkus.

I decided to make the little man a cross quilt out of DS fabrics and I think it's not particularly boyish, but at least it doesn't scream girl. I call that a win. The colours are always so cheery, and I love that for babies. Beautiful, saturated colours. Yum.

I used a grey dot for the binding and Kona Aqua for the backing. It's blue... ish? It's just a little baby quilt, and I really hope she likes it. My sister received the quilt a few days ago, so hopefully she'll take it to them when she visits soon! Utterly dying for pictures! :)

On a tangent, here's the view from the hub's study. I love the birch trees around the house. LOVE.

I hope Carrie and the little one are doing well, and his big sister Sophie gets to meet him soon :)

Bunting!

Look! I made bunting! Super cute, no?! My sister, Averil asked me to make it for her friend's little girl who's turning one in October. We discussed colours and how it should look for ages (it probably wasn't ages, but it felt like it! haha!!) and then I finally decided she's not allowed to weigh in anymore. That's really the only way to go when I have to make things for her heehee!

The bunting is fairly simple and definitely fun to make... the only thing that took a while were the letters I had to applique. I don't mind applique... I just don't think I do it very well. And it took forever to find my stupid pressing sheet. It was buried under a rubble of quilty things. Ahem. Anyhow, I used Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 (mostly because that's all I had on hand...) and then stitched around the edges. It's supposed to be permanent, but I find that the edges seem to pop up just a bit.

So tada! A super bright and colourful bunting for an almost one-year-old. So excited for them to receive this! :)

Randomness

- We were flicking through channels over the weekend and I landed on the Miss USA pageant. 

Hubs: "You can leave the room now."

Me: *Ignoring* "I bet this would be more awesome to watch with the sound off, huh?"

Hubs: "You got it."

(I didn't realise till yesterday that Miss Connecticut won. Yay?)

- I can't stop making courthouse steps. I've got a problem, you guys. First the cream quilt, now this one out of DS prints, and I'm contemplating a new bed quilt for us... Help? No, don't help, they're awesome and fun to make.

- People need to stop using the word 'literally' wrongly. It figuratively makes my head explode.

- There's a disgusting haze cloaking my homeland Singapore right now. I told my dad to stay indoors or wear a mask (I told if him if he did, please take pictures heehee!) if he had to go outside. It's really horrid... all my friends back home are complaining about the haze and I feel like a jerk complaining about all the rain we've been getting.

- Also, when we visited Singapore, I brought my dad some chocolate almonds because I thought he might like them. He texted me to ask how many bottles of it I'd brought because he was convinced my sister stole one! Hahaha! Had I known he'd love it that much, I'd have brought an entire case!

- I can't stop watching the train wreck that is Tattoo Nightmares. The clients are SO dumb. Seriously, they should be sterilised.

- Oh please please please let there be a Neverwhere movie with Benedict Cumberbatch in it. Oh PLEASE!!!

Australia: Part Three

Hah! The sisters three! It's very rare for us to all be together (well okay, not suuuuuper rare, but rare for us!) so we always insist on taking pictures together whenever we can. Love my girls :)

Yup. We take one normal picture... followed by ten idiotic ones. Well, more than ten... but yeah... Mum is so proud. 

Ahhhh Melbourne :) We walked around Brunswick Street in Fitzroy almost all day because that's one of our favourite areas. It's all grungy with interesting little shops, and the graffiti art everywhere is mind-blowing. SO amazing.

The hubs was so gleeful in the first record shop we found that I had to pretend to be David Attenborough, finding a music lover in the wild. We're not for everyone...

DO YOU SEE ALL THOSE SEWING MACHINES?!?! Ahhhh it hurt so much to have to leave them all behind! There was this cute little hand cranked toy one at another shop that I so wanted, but it was too much money. Bah.

Love Brunswick Street. Definitely go when you visit Melbourne :)

Australia: Part Two

We took a little drive to Swan Valley... the food there is wonderful, but mostly I wanted to show the hubs the vineyards while there were grapes on there. He's only ever visited during the winter months, so everything looked so dead and grey. 

My family is incapable of taking pictures without making faces. You'll see. Also, the hubs looks to be questioning his decision to be part of my family.

Holy ham hock, Batman!

We visited a vineyard after to walk around and have some coffee and desserts. And hopscotch.

The chocolate factory is seriously ridiculous. Whenever I walk in, I want to grab everything and go nuts. Some of the yummiest chocolate I've ever had.

And their hot chocolate will make you forget your own name momentarily. It's so simple... their chocolate + hot milk. Stir, and try not to spill too much of it.

We checked out a little restaurant in Nedlands with beautiful food and even more beautiful views. I missed seeing all those boats bobbing around, and jellyfish in the water. Silly little jellyfish. 

We ate so much and often while we were there... I'm so not used to eating out that much, so by the first week, I'd kind of hit my limit hehe But the food is amazing... both the old favourites and the new places my sisters have found since I left years ago.

More pictures to come!

Australia: Part One

Oh Australia, how I'd missed you. I hadn't been back since I left in 2007 and I almost forgot just how beautiful is it. The people, the food, the sky... oh the sky... the sky is amazing and wonderful. Most of all, I missed my family. My cousins had kids while I was gone and I finally got to meet them. I have to admit that it made me quite clucky. The hubs is thrilled at this, of course hehe 

One of our favourite places for seafood is Cicerello's in Fremantle, and a bunch of us met up to share some food and catch up.

SO. GOOD.

This is Dylan, my cousin's little boy. He's insanely adorable and giggles at EVERYTHING. I want to steal him and his mum seems to be quite okay with it hehe

My dad and Dylan are firm friends... they walk hand in hand all the time :) Made me even more clucky!

That sky. Seriously, best sky ever. And not just because I'm biased :)

There's many more pictures to come. You have been warned.