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.

Fabric Star Ornaments

Pretty fabric Christmas stars - tutorial by Betz White.

Christmas goose

Because we are going away this Christmas, we didn't think there was much point getting a real tree. So we bought a little artificial one and Max and I had fun decorating it all the same. His favourite decoration was the "goose" at the top! Nevermind that the tree didn't smell like Christmas.

Busy Fingers box

We pulled out the Busy Fingers box this morning. It contains an assortment of bulldog clips, carabiners, bolts with nuts, and locks. Anything I come across that I no longer need and that is a wee bit fiddly gets added - an old buckle today. Max's favourite activity is to link everything together into the longest chain he can make.

Dec 1st = Christmas Calendar

In our house when we were little, we always eagerly awaited December 1st, as that was when our Christmas Calendars were hung up next to our beds - advent calendars with presents not just little window or door flaps to open or even worse those with icky cheap chocolates. Now that I am having to make them, I can actually appreciate how much time goes into selecting appropriate little gifts and assembling it. 

Here is Max's for this year (so what if I reused last year's board? - He's not old enough to realise yet!)

A Christmas present for Max

On cold mornings Max loves snuggling on the couch under a blanket - Andy and I have our own, but Max always uses one of ours, so I thought I'd make him his own. This was actually super quick and easy to make, using this great tutorial from Cat Taylor Design. I love the Michael Miller fabric I chose, and I know Max is going to LOVE having his very own little quilt! I can't wait to give it to him at Christmas!