Wrap Skirt

So I made this skirt today as I am hoping that skirts will be my summer staple this year.

The skirt is the Reversible Wrap Skirt and once you read the instructions it is embarrassing to think that I actually purchased a pattern this simple. It really is.

I used Amy Butler for the outside and just some cheap spotlight stuff for the inside. I was going to use 2 different AB fabrics but didn't want to risk a dud and waste 2 lots of fabric. Still not sure if I love this skirt yet but am going to wear it to our Father's Day lunch at Kacy's. I get the feeling when I wear it that I should be asking "Does my bum look big in this?" When I don't normally worry about things like that but maybe because I dont wear a lot of skirts it feels a bit funny.

Tag Blanket

I think that is what they are called but that is what I think I made anyway for a dear friend whose little boy is fascinated with tags.

I hope it holds up to some tough boy play.

On our plate tonight

will be baby carrots, baby beets and spinach. The spinach is a hybrid cross of silverbeet and english spinach and it is goooooood. ( I am a huge spinach lover)

The beets will be roasted in alfoil with some garlic, white wine, olive oil and thyme (Jamie Oliver recipe) and it is gorgeous. A good way to try beetroot if you are a novice.

Have a lovely zucchini slice in the oven with some nice aged cheddar waiting to go on in the last 5 minutes and some brownies baking.

This zucchini has been nibbled on by the mouse in our house she does this every time a zucchini is left on the kitchen bench.


Now if the cleaning fairy is nearby feel free to drop by and wave your magic wand.

Did you know

that four ladybeetles were sent into space in 1999 on NASA's space shuttle to participate in anti-gravity experiments.

Now if I did not partake in a snack size box of smarties for breakfast today I would never have known that.

Flipsy Skirt

Finally finished. A lovely easy pattern to follow and cut. The fabric is just el cheapo stuff from Spotlight but lovely for a first go. Will definitely be making a few of these I think.

Chutney Club

Over at SadieandLance they are starting a chutney club which sadly excites me greatly.

If you love making and eating chutneys, relishes etc come join in.

I am about a week away from harvesting our beetroot so am going to make some lovely beetroot relish. Am also wanting to make some mint and rosemary jelly to store for some lovely winter roasts next year.

Still need to find one of those jelly stands.

Ellie the Elephant

Here she is relaxing on the front porch.

I deviated slightly from the pattern and used googly eyes as my hand sewing abilities are really bad so thought it best to hide as best as possible.

Also if I made this one again I would make the dress a bit long and the head a bit fatter.

She can't see

and she can't touch. Mainly because she has no eyes and no arms and she is also naked.

But this is my latest little WIP it's called Ellie the Elephant and it is from the Melly & Me design team.

Will hopefully have it finished tonight as I want to give it to a little girl at Jnr 's school who touched my heart the other week.

No one ever blogs the dud stuff

Well I am here today today to do just that.

The grand plan was to turn some of our organic home grown rocket and basil into some amazing pesto to give away to family and friends and have them all in a taste sensation telling us how wonderful our pesto was.

We failed...

It tastes like crap and we are blaming our variety of rocket for this failure.

So I had planned a lovely blog post of how we turned this



into this



It looks pretty though, shame about the taste.

Snr Hillbilly asked if we had any enemies to load it off to. So if you get a jar of pesto from us this week. Big smoochies to you from us.

Come on peoples dont leave me hanging here all by myself on disaster lane come join me. Make me feel a bit better and blog your recent disaster.

A GREAT Giveaway

Emma over at Sampaguita Quilts is celebrating her first year of blogging her quilts with a giveaway. We are fortunate enough at Chez Clampett to have 3 of Emma's creations. So I thought I would give Emma a plug and share the love of her quilty goodness.

She is an amazing artist and very very generous.

Happy 1st Birthday Emma's blog.

Love Ellie

That is my new label which I had made here by MommieMadeIt at Etsy. I love the label very much and cant wait to point it out to people who receive my 'gifts'. The flower on the label is the same flower I have as a stamp so I can coordinate cards and simple wrapping papers.

I have, with still over one month up my sleeve, finished my niece's 3rd birthday present. The whole gift except for the dolls bed (partly made by us and partly by Ikea) is all made by me.

I have made the dolls bedding, a shirred dress, Pj set, the obligatory crayon roll and a tote bag to put it all in.



THE TOTE BAG





The pj set - am really happy with the pants just need to keep practicing my applique skills.


Crayon Roll and Shirred Dress


Dolls Quilt and Bedding with a little pillow.

How to mend a broken heart

This is not a sewing tutorial but love advice from Jnr Hillbilly.

Conversation verbatim:

"...Mum if you have a girlfriend and she doesn't love you anymore it can break your heart. So if you have a broken heart just get a glue stick and put it back together..."

Gosh I love that kid.

FINALLY....A post for Jo

She is ever so patient.

The little one in her bumbo for the first time today.


She thought she was pretty clever sitting up like that. I can see we are going to get a lot of use out of this lovely gift very very soon.


Have a nice holiday Jo.

4 months old

Almost to the minute as I type 4 months ago The Little One made her entrance into the world.

4 months of pure bliss what a delight she is.

Groovy Green Bag

I have so many things on my to do list this was one of them but with a plastic coat. I wasn't brave enough to do a coat this time but will try later.

The bag probably cost less than $3.50 to make as it was sale fabric ($1/m) so far more glamorous than those 99cent green ones.


I am going to attempt to make some more of these but a little smaller as gift bags.

Granny Clampett Celebrates

Her birthday at Chez Clampett.

We started the meal with an avocado and prawn salad on a bed of rocket with coriander dressing with lemon segments served in my lovely new stemless wine glasses how gorgeous are they.

Mains was Oysters Moscavitch (creme fraiche, smoked salmon and salmon roe), Oysters Kilpatrick (made with love by Baby Hillbilly with the help of her gorgeous mother), prawn & avocado platter, Sweetlip (emperor grass I think) and chips with a salad of rocket and parmesan.






All washed down with a lovely Grant Burge Merlot and finished off with the cupcakes sprinkled with fairy dust.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA

Chelsea Handbag

This evening I am the proud new owner of a beautiful (if I do say so myself) Amy Butler Chelsea bag which was made using beautiful Amy Butler Fabric from the Midwest Modern range.




I just did a little each night and found after each step I was totally enraptured with the process.



Tonight I finished it off and I am like a giddy teenager experiencing her first love (okay highly dramatic but I do love a good handbag)and I can't wait to make a red one.



Edited to add that my photography is almost as crap as my sewing so the photo's really do not do it justice (believe me when I say it is unreal ;-p)

6 Random Things

I have been tagged by my sewing buddy Lisa to write six random things about myself.

Here are the rules ...
1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Okay so here we go - and I apologise for being so boring.

1. I have never ever watched a Bond film.

2. I have never eaten crumbed steak either.

3. Snr HB and I honeymooned in Greece and on the Greek Islands and would rate it as one of our most memorable/favourite places in the world.

4. I have two birthmarks - yep 2. One on my right ankle and one on my left shin. The one on my ankle is a port wine stain one and the one on my shin is just your average everyday looking generic kind of birthmark.

5. I have now lived in Qld for most of my life (23 years so far v 11yrs in NSW) but at State of Origin time I will always back NSW - mainly just to piss Snr HB off who is a staunch Qld/Bronco fan.

6. I have a cousin who has the same name as an island and to be honest I have never ever heard of another girl with this name. Her name is Martinique.


Okay who shall I tag...I dont think I have 6 friends but here goes.

Shannon
Mothership
Judge Superbonus - this could be the nudge to get him out of semi retirement.
Nina
Emma (over at Sampaguita Quilts)
Leah

Tooth Fairy Duties

Well tonight I have to play tooth fairy for the second time. However this time we actually have a real life tooth to deal with (last time he accidentally spat it down the drain when brushing his teeth).

What do I do with the tooth?

Do I keep it or throw it?

Things I ponder

Why are elephants always called Ellie?

I am starting to get a real complex about this one.

PAY IT FORWARD

I read about the "Pay-it-Forward" gift exchange from my fellow sewing buddy Lisa

How does it work?
The first three people who comment on this post will get a handmade gift from me sometime in the next 365 days. All you need to do is "Pay-it-Forward" to 3 people on your blog in exchange. Just leave me an e-mail address or blog link so I can contact you for your address to post your gift, as well as a few tips on likes/dislikes kids/no kids etc (No responsibility is taken for the shoddy-craftmanship of the handmade gift you may receive. Remember I'm a newbie sewer :-)).

Visit here if you would like a bit more information about the ideas behind Paying-It-Forward.

Comfort Food

It is actually cold here today, I was starting to wonder if we were going to get any real winter weather at all.

So in honour of our first real cold, windy, rainy day the day you dream of when you are in your cold heartless air conditioned office that you were at home snuggled under a doona watching a dvd or reading... Suckers... I made some yummy cream of cauliflower soup with a splash of brocolli thrown in for good measure. It is so warm and yummy.

I hope where ever you are, that you are snuggled up and your belly is full of yummy warm foods.

Round Neck Dress

Well I finally finished it last night minus the buttons and buttonholes. I tried it on the girl this morning sans the buttons etc so still not sure if it will fit around the neck properly but it is a gorgeous style and once you have one up your sleeve a relatively easy dress or top to make.

Oh and Jo this is not the post I promised you either...

This is NOT a post for Jo ;-p

Sorry Jo I know you have been waiting patiently but this is not the post I promised you. It is coming though.

Instead I have been making Cranberry Chilli Jam (which incidentally last time I made I used Jo's homegrown chilli's) I actually got the recipe from the 2007 Christmas Edition Family Circle magazine and received rave reviews over Christmas - especially from my vego cousin who loved it with his cheese platters etc. Check out my new stamp I bought from the dollar shop - isn't it groovy.



My other little project was to finish Jnr's Blanket bag to take to school. This was a rather last minute holy crap school starts tomorrow I should have finished this weeks ago project so therefore I am not 100% happy with it but it will do. If you dont look too closely it is not too bad looking but if you are someone who can sew please dont sacrifice me to the sewing gods or goddesses for bad craftmanship..


And the last one is of the two gorgy girls - well just because I can.

Old Red Barn Quilt

This quilt over at Old Red Barn is going to go to a new home.

The fabric in this quilt is just beautiful. My fabric obsession is going to send me to the poor house. At least my cardboard box home will have lovely fabric lining if nothing else.

A productive evening

It is amazing what one can get done when they take a few steps away from the computer.

This evening I either started or finished a few of my 'in progress' projects.

I sewed all 30 squares for Jnr's dino patchwork bag. (I really need to finish that one before school starts next week.)

I finished sewing the doll's quilt for my nieces dolly bed birthday gift (now just need to do sheets and pillows) also will make one of the green shirred dresses with the leftovers and a summmer pj set.



I also finally finished the second pj set for Baby Hillbilly. I tried something a bit different this time and 'appliqued' (well I think that is what I did - not very well mind you but not bad for a first timer)a ladybug on the el cheapo skivvy. I really really love this combo of fabric.


I now need to finish the second pair of offcut pj's for Jnr, his dino bag a couple of surprise gifts that I can't mention on here and a round neck dress that I cut out yesterday as well as my Chelsea Bag. I am hoping that the Chelsea bag turns out well as I really love the style/design and would love to be able to make them as gifts.

Okay best go to bed as no doubt the Little One will wake very soon - who by the way has started rolling so I suppose I can not leave her on the edge of cliffs anymore...

Crafty Goodness

It is a nice feeling to be able to give someone a gift that you have made all by yourself.

This gift is for a little girl who has just entered the world.


Some polka dotted bassinette sheets, a bib and a crayon roll for the new big sister.

Fingers crossed the new mum is so tired and worn out from the new baby girl that she doesn't notice how bad my sewing is.

I haven't actually even posted them yet but lets assume the new mum is also too busy to browse the net.

The Washing Fairy Does Exist

Its true I captured evidence today ala David Attenborough style. However the drawback of having the washing fairy visit means it would also appear that the washing fairy is also acting in the capacity of "use all the toilet paper fairy".

Summer Dress

I just love this style of dress on little girls in summer. Took me about an hour but that included rethreading my overlocker. Plus lots of fiddly ironing with the straps. I am scared of ironing so probably took longer than the average joe. Will attempt a matching headband or 'scrunchie' to match. Also have enough left over to make one for the Little One - even though I swore I would never do the matching outfit thing this fabric is just way too cute to waste. Might even have to attempt matching bloomers as I hate seeing a nappy uncovered.

Okay edited to add a picture with Baby Hillbilly wearing her dress (excuse the singlet underneath but it is winter you know).

Worlds Worst Googler

My friend Mothership has just confirmed for me that I truly am the worlds worst person to use google. I truly do suck at it. That is why from time to time I will ask inane questions that people will say why didn't you just google it - well because basically I suck at it.

I need your help Blog Reader

This my dear reader is what is called a jelly stand/bag and I need one but do you think I can find one....NO.

Have you seen one in your travels or know where I can purchase one?

I am desperate...please help me.

The Tooth Fairy

Will no doubt be making her debut appearance at Chez Clampett very very soon Jnr has 2 loose teeth.

My baby boy is growing up way too fast.

We have constant wiggling and he is deigning to tell us what foods can and can not be eaten due to aforementioned teeth. We then discussed the rituals of the tooth fairy. Jnr has since learnt at school that the tooth fairy may not be real, I told Jnr that the tooth fairy only comes to those who believe. Jnr's quick reply was "Oh but I believe...."

3 Months Old

It is that time of the month again this really is going way to fast and I feel like I am already thinking about Christmas (I know crazy) and returning to work.

Everything plodding along just dandy we are getting heaps of smiles and Heidi now gives me big giggles when we are getting ready to hop into the bath. She is just pure delight even if she is starting to take advantage of all the cuddles. The scary thing is that she just loves to watch us eat, how ever will I hold out until she is 6 mths to introduce solids.

No surprise really...

Stating the bleeding obvious really but I am a sucker for an online test.

4 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Cool Parenting Must Do's

Okay so yesterday we learnt the Bus Stop, today The Robot. I am thinking tomorrow we will have a go at The Sprinkler.

Every kid must have at least some of these moves in their dance reportoire.

Procrastination

I truly am the queen of procrastination. I like the pressure of leaving things to the last minute.

However my procrastination comes at a price...

I have the hairiest legs ever seen on a woman. Even Snr Hillbilly gasps when bare legs are spied at present. Some of the hairs are 3cm long (yes I measured with a ruler...it is state of origin and I am bored). It has been roughly 13 weeks since my last waxing appt. I don't know what I do with my days but generally at about 5pm each day I go "oh shit I haven't rung to make an appointment".

Maybe when the ponytails under my jeans really start to poke out and look odd will I make an appointment.

Water Cooler Conversations

Imagine the riveting conversations I can have with myself now...

The life and times of a stay at home mum.