KoboGloKoboGloKoboGlo

Oh how I love my Kobo Glo. Not because it's a Kobo, in particular, but because it enables my reading addiction. I read all the time. I don't need to turn on the light. I don't need to find or bookmark a page. I don't need to get up and get another book from the bookshelf. I read and read and read. In fact, since I bought it 20 months ago I have read more than 800 hours, which is, on average, approximately an hour twenty a day. Every day. For approximately 600 days. Which is quite a lot. I have devoured books, series, all genres. I have read genres I used to scoff at: historical fiction and fantasy, for example. I have read 58 books on it. Which doesn't really sound as much as it is, when you consider that the majority of those books were longer than 900 pages (Diana Gabaldon, I'm looking at you).

I really enjoyed so many of the books and series I read - books I didn't necessarily expect to enjoy so much: The Goldfinch, The Luminaries, The Miniaturist, The Other Boelyn Girl, Outlander series, Kvothe series, Magician series, Eragon series. Some were re-reads from teenage years (LOTR, Clan of the Cave Bear), others were just refreshing reads, after a particularly long and somewhat arduous (in a good way) book (Diana Gabaldon, again, looking at you). In fact there has been only one book I didn't enjoy and didn't actually finish - the cringe-worthy and extremely poorly-written 50 Shades. Yeuuck.

So, I sewed my Kobo Glo a cover. And then I sewed one for my sister's. They have magnets in them, making them turn on and off automatically upon opening/closing. They worked out pretty well. Mine used a cover from an old hardback, which was better than the stiff card I used for my sister's.

 

Max turns 6!

Oh. My. Gosh.  Where DOES the time go? How can my wee boy, my first born, the child who turned me into a mother, possibly be turning six already.

Max LOVES Lego, so it seemed only natural to have a Lego party. Cue the hours on Pinterest hunting down the best activities and decorations. (Whatever did we do without Pinterest?)





A Lego cake with Lego lollies and construction workers. A first attempt at fondant, somewhat easier than I had anticipated, and I definitely learned what NOT to do next time.

A copied invitation idea:

Lego banners:

 Lego-themed food:

 

  Lego activities:

Goody bags:



And yes, those are indeed homemade minifigure crayons. Super easy and fun with a minifigure mould!

Of Wings

Did I ever tell you how much I LOVE Pinterest? And did I ever tell you how much I HATE Pinterest? Oh. My. Gosh. I don't even know where to start. There is so much inspiration there, that I could pin and pin and pin all these things that I want to do and yet never ever get around to doing them, probably because I'm too busy pinning. I could dream my whole life away. And then feel so guilty that I have spent so much time looking for things to make, to do, and have never done any of them. Ok. So it's not really that bad - I have made a concentrated effort to reduce Pinterest use -put the iPad down slowly and back away- and have actually also played some things with the wee lads and made some stuff. Like these wings. Super ultra cool bird wings.

(We later made a mask to go with them, here.)

Coffeeeee

It's no secret how much I love coffee, and how, over the past five years, I have come to depend on coffee - (who would have thought those two lovely wee lads would be such terrible sleepers?). I drink flat whites. From my espresso machine with the built-in grinder. I *love* my coffee machine. No, really I do. We take it away on holiday with us!
But all that was just to set the scene, to let you know how much I value coffee. My sister-in-law drinks plunger coffee and I drew her name in the Christmas Present draw (well, that's not strictly true, my husband did, but somehow I ended up organising her present too...). So anyway, I like to give personal presents, different presents, homemade presents, ones that are difficult to put a price on.
Two days before the posting cut-off date I was still trying to come up with something for her, when it came to me in the middle of the night - she uses a tea cosy, so why not one for her French Press? And I even had some insulated batting to hand (a well-intentioned purchase which was never actually made into an oven mitt).

So here we have it, a coffee cosy!

The Magic of Christmas

Remember how magical Christmas was when you were little? The lights, the beautiful tree with its star or fairy or angel perched atop, the treats, the presents and Father Christmas (or Santa or Santa Claus or whatever you called that jolly fat man who travelled around the world faster than the speed of light pulled by nine flying reindeer).

Magic.

Creating that magic for my wee lads is important to me. I make Christmas Calendars (as my mum did for me) and bake Christmas biscuits (Vanillekipferl). We have a tree and add plenty of sparkles around the house. We visit The Enchanted Forest with its beautiful mechanical Christmas displays. We leave biscuits and beer out for Santa (my boys have a different name for him than we did - different era, more influence from American media) and carrots and water outside for the reindeer.

I wonder how much longer this will last. Max is already 5. Won't he find out from friends at school soon? And what about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy? Other magic I encourage whole-heartedly.

                      

 

Presents for a 3 Year Old

Can't believe my wee baby is turning 3 already! Some presents for a busy lad: a swim bag (or gumboot bag) with waterproof lining and a cape. What little boy doesn't need a cape?

 

A Real Quilt for Max

It's finished! My first ever full-sized quilt. Full of imperfections, but I love it, and I hope Max does too. I'm looking forward to giving it to him on his 5th birthday.

Now that was a journey - not at all like doing his lap quilt. It took about 7 months, 5 of which it was sitting idly while I decided what to do about the less-than-perfect stitching from my not realising that my sewing machine tension actually went higher than 5 (in my defence, the marks between the numbers abruptly stop and the wheel becomes quite stiff to turn. I thought that 5 was all it went up to). After deciding to and then working myself up to unpicking a quarter of the quilting, I plunged into it and managed to finish that and the whole thing quite quickly, well in time for his birthday.

I spent so long making the quilt top perfect - the squares were lovely and uniform, pieced in perfect straight lines, the quilt sandwich was lovely and flat and I used tons of pins, but it all turned to custard when quilting. Although it turned out much better with the tension set on 8 (not 5!), I still had troubles with uneven stitches and bunching at the ends of each square - I used a walking foot, but it was a super cheap one from a Chinese Ebay merchant, and to be honest, it didn't really look like it was doing anything, so I'm thinking the quality was a bit shonky, that and my machine is only an entry-level model, not made for such big projects (and is in desperate need of a service). The binding was an interesting affair - I have never bound anything before - I had a very limited amount of fabric left over for it, so the strips were only 2in wide - I would have preferred them to be at least 2.5in, but it worked out anyway. After reading a gazillion posts on binding, I decided to use a cross grain binding and to do the entire thing on the machine - none of this hand stitching for me - I'm far too impatient!

I'm so thankful to the person who advised that I should perhaps start with a single quilt, before throwing myself into a king!