A new bag

While holidaying in Australia over Christmas I bought a gorgeous new bag - Olga Berg - I am always drawn to Olga Berg bags, before I even look at the label. 

So anyway, this is me, moving on from a mummy bag - wanting a grown-up "me-bag" again. The downside of this, is that there are no compartments for nappies, wipes and the other necessary paraphenalia when one has kidlets.

So, out of necessity, I made the following "nappy clutch" and covered a Huggies wipes case to coordinate. The clutch holds 2 nappies, wipes, change mat and some nappy disposal bags. (Incidentally, after 20-something years, I am now finally over my aversion to all things yellow!)

 I am thinking these are going to make great baby shower presents! If you are wanting to cover a wipes box, I used this tutorial at this and that.

Zoo

 
Max got some animals in his Christmas Calendar, so we made a zoo where he could play with them. (I took the photo before we painted the sky later that day.) Of course all good play scenarios also involve cars - in this case the "Zookeeper's wife's car", from Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman.

Car seat covers

I'm pretty relaxed about a lot of things - a bit of a "yeah, whatever, it'll be fine" girl. I am happy to "make do" with most things, happy to use, adapt and refashion what I already have. When it comes to car seats, however, I am not willing to give an inch. I spent a LOT of time researching our current car seats, and have just spent just as much time finding the right booster for Max. I know that rear-facing kids and harnessing them for as long as possible is the safest thing to do, so that's what I do. My husband tells me I am risk-averse - and in this case, I'd agree. 

I LOVE our car seats.  We always take them when we travel - I'm not so keen on hiring seats from a rental car company. The trouble of travelling with 2 car seats (and a stroller, suitcases and hand luggage) is, despite the obvious difficulty of wrangling so much luggage, protecting them. I had difficulty finding covers for our seats, so decided to make some, and am pretty happy with how they turned out. They are thick canvas outside with a waterproof lining and two handles on the back. They were roadtested over Christmas and held up well to the rigours of the conveyor belts and baggage handling!

January already

End of January already! I have been busy busy busy. Since my last post in December I have, in no particular order:

-had a lovely Christmas and holiday in Sydney and Melbourne
-made 2 carseat covers (to take our carseat with us to Aus)
-sewn a quilted lap blanket for an adorable new baby of some friends
-visited said adorable baby
-sewn a nappy and wipes clutch and covered a wipes case
-been doing lots of research on boosters and have decided on the Britax Frontier 85, which, as it isn't available here in NZ, I will need to find someone to bring it over from the US
-read lots of books
-bought lots of deliciously colourful fabric (I know! Me and colourful! Who would've thought?) and planned lots of projects, which I am looking forward to starting
-fallen in love with Pinterest
-made some Xmas stars

...just some of the things that have filled my days since December.

Photos of the above in separate posts.