Archive for December, 2011

T-shirt from scratch


31 Dec

Posted in Sewing | 2 Comments »

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I made Nathan a T-shirt! Ok, so I have made t-shirts before, so you may ask….what is the big deal?

This time I didn’t start off with a pattern. Instead, I started off with a little bit of knowledge acquired from the pattern making course I did in July and instructions for a basic, close-fitting t-shirt from Winifred Aldrich’s book ‘metric pattern making for children’s wear and babywear’.

I made a few little adjustments to the pattern after following the instructions, and I probably have a couple more to do before I am completely happy. I made the t-shirt out of 100% cotton jersey (fabric made in Australia). I generally make Nathan’s t-shirts out of stretchy jersey (cotton with 10% lycra) so they will be as comfortable as possible, but this time I wanted to see how the garment would fit without the stretch (stretchy fabrics are more forgiving with respect to fit). I was a little concerned that the neck opening would be too small, even though I made it bigger than instructed, but it fits over Nathan’s big head without a problem. I was nervous about drafting a sleeve even with instructions, but I really like how the sleeves turned out (and I even made a slight adjustment to the curve).

All-in-all, I am really happy with the t-shirt, and I have just a little more confidence that I will be able to come up with some clothing patterns for Wispy Threads. Most packaged patterns cannot be used for commercial purposes and, anyway, I wanted to have a go at making the pattern as well as the clothing.

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The instructions in the book look like this.

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A little bit of ribbon to make a plain t-shirt slightly more interesting

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I’m slowly getter better at using the Coverstitch machine

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Charlotte Pass


22 Dec

Posted in Nathan the preschooler, NSW, Toby's third year, Travel | No Comments »

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Today we decided to drive to Charlotte Pass and walk the circuit track as far as the Snowy River crossing. When we got to Charlotte Pass the sky was looking quite ominous in the distance, and though there was an almost constant rumble of thunder we decided to do the short walk. It may have been short, but it was quite steep. Toby walked down but was carried up, Nathan walked both ways, and Andrew took our food, water and rain coats. It was a lovely spot, and we found some rocks to eat lunch on. The sky and thunder prompted us to return to the car park.

We went on the short walk to the lookout, and Nathan climbed on the rocks around the start of the lookout walk. We then went to Jindabyne for a few items, and then came back to the campground. It started raining quite heavily in Jindabyne, and it was very wet at the campground when we got back. I think we were quite lucky to not get a drop of rain at Charlotte Pass.

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Happy Birthday Toby


21 Dec

Posted in NSW, Toby's second year, Travel | 2 Comments »

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Toby turned two years old today, and he was very excited about his birthday. We gave him a card with a steam train on it, and he spent the next 20 minutes playing with his card and totally ignoring his present. Finally he unwrapped his book, called ‘Again’, and of course he wanted it read again and again! His other present was Nathan’s old balance bike, which he has been practicing on since we have been in the mountains, and he is starting to be quite confident on it now.

The other thing Toby was really excited about was having cake, and he was quite upset when we told him we would make it in the afternoon and not straight away. We had breakfast and decided to go to the pool at Thredbo. Our plan had been to go up in the chairlift to Thredbo top station and go for a walk, but the mountain tops were in the clouds all morning, so we changed to going to the pool. Toby had a ball at the pool. There was a very fast water slide and Toby couldn’t get enough of it. He had to go on it with Andrew or me, and as soon as we got to the end he would get out of the pool and start up the steps again, so one of us would have to run after him. It was actually quite exhausting for us, and even Toby had slowed down a little by the end.

Toby fell asleep in the car on the way back to the tent, but didn’t transfer well and I was trying to get him back to sleep in the tent when Nathan mentioned cake. Well, that was the end of Toby’s sleep because he wanted cake! So we made the cake and put it in the Weber, then Nathan and Andrew went for a drive to get some ice and milk for Jindabyne while I tried to get Toby to have some quiet time.

We iced the cake, and when Nathan and Andrew got back we took the cake up to the people we met the other day who were nice and gave the kids some biscuits. We asked them of they’d like to have some cake with us, sang Happy Birthday to Toby, and ate most of the cake.

We had another flat chicken for dinner with veggies. Andrew lit the fire so we could have toasted marshmellows, which we had also promised the kids. Luckily the rain stayed away until marshmellows were eaten, the kids were in bed, and everything packed up. I think Toby had a great day.

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At the end of this video Toby says “do it again”.

Another lazy day


21 Dec

Posted in Nathan the preschooler, NSW, Toby's second year, Travel | No Comments »

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The morning started with a bath for Toby because he wet the bed last night. He doesn’t often do that, but I forgot to put him on the potty before bed so it is probably partly my fault. I was just lucky that the weather was fine all day and I managed to get most things dry after washing.

We did some more splashing in the river, and we saw a water rat quite close up. I now suspect that the ‘platypus’ we saw swimming in the river yesterday morning was, in fact, a water rat. Andrew and Nathan walked across the river to the other side of the river. Nathan really enjoyed it, despite the waist-deep cold water.

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Rain…..


19 Dec

Posted in Food, NSW, Travel | 2 Comments »

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…and rain, and more rain.

The rain was pretty heavy last night and continued as showers throughout the day. We went for a drive to Lake Eucumbene. There wasn’t much there, but it was a nice drive anyway. Back to the tent site via Jindabyne and the shops for a few supplies, and we tried it the aluminum foil theory by cooking a cake in the Weber…all this effort to work out baking in the Weber is because I want to make Toby a cake for his birthday. Toby is into the whole birthday thing….he keeps pointing to things and saying “I want that for my birthday”. The cake worked perfectly, even though it was in the BBQ for over an hour. Seems like the foil made a huge difference. We gave half the cake to a family camping near us (Nathan visits them a lot), and they were very appreciative.

Since I don’t have any other photos for the day, here are the ones of our baking efforts in the Weber.

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No foil in the BBQ and all the biscuit bases burned, making them all but inedible.

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Perfect!

Thredbo River


18 Dec

Posted in Nathan the preschooler, NSW, Toby's second year, Travel | No Comments »

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We spent a lot of time at the campground today, loathe to be too busy when we can finally relax after a busy week. A lot of the day seemed to include the river. This morning we watched a platypus swimming in the river while the kids threw stones into the water. Toby had a very early day sleep, and while he was sleeping Nathan and Andrew walked/rode the Bullocks Track loop, some 4 km or so. The kids did a lot of bike riding, though Nathan managed to get his bike confiscated until at least tomorrow. There was also a lot of paddling in the river, by not just the kids and myself, but we also saw a couple of emus cross the river. We did make a trip to Thredbo to find ice and have a jack play in the playground, but then it was back to the campsite for dinner and more paddling.

Talking about dinner, so far the Weber has revolutionized our camping meals. Last night we had a whole BBQ chicken, flattened and marinated by a butcher at Chadstone with potato salad (made at home) and a tossed salad. Tonight it was sausages, roasted potato and carrot mixed together, haloumi cheese cooked on the BBQ and grilled mushrooms. We also tried to cook biscuits in the BBQ today, but I think we need to make some simple modifications to (hopefully) stop the bottom of them burning next time.

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Nathan riding Toby’s bike

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Toby wishing he could ride Nathan’s bike

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Finally Toby gets to ride his bike

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Mummy, I’m up to my knees now! He wasn’t allowed to go deeper than his knees.

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Back in the Mountains


17 Dec

Posted in NSW, Travel | No Comments »

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I love the mountains! Andrew and I have spent the last few days debating where to go for our holiday. The weather forecast for the mountains included a substantial amount of rain, and camping in the rain isn’t much fun but camping in the rain with kids is worse. We really didn’t want to spend our holidays holed up in a tent with two stir-crazy kids.

We finally decided to brave the weather and set off yesterday for Albury, arriving today at Thredbo Diggings campground in the Snowy Mountains near Thredbo. Although rain was forecast for this afternoon, so far there is no sign of it and we have enjoyed a mostly sunny day. There were five tents in the tent area when we arrived, but two of them packed up and left after we arrived.

The big downer of the trip was that Toby was very upset in the car today. He slept most of the way from Albury to Corryong, but from Khankoban he was pretty unhappy. We couldn’t work out what the problem was until I asked him if his tummy felt sore and he started screaming even louder. I thought he might be motion sick, and we had to stop a couple of times because he was just too unhappy. The issue became blatantly clear when the crying increased and then Toby vomited. Several times. And Nathan, the sympathetic vomiter that he is, joined in.

Anyway, we are here now, the tent is set up, and this year we decided to bring our WeberQ so that we don’t have to put as much effort into cooking as we usually do..hopefully. I’ll report back on that.

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Tent site set up

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Toby riding his balance bike, new for his birthday

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The ducks are here, as always

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Dinner cooking on the WeberQ

Ear plugs


10 Dec

Posted in Funny things, Nathan the preschooler, Toby's second year | No Comments »

Nathan came to me yesterday all excited about ear plugs. “I have ear plugs” he excitedly told me. I glanced in his direction and saw a kind of grey material in his ears. A couple of days ago he found some small, squishy, bright green ear plugs, but it certainly wasn’t those he had in his ears. On closer inspection I found he had squashed a hamburger patty (cooked and left over from last night’s dinner) into his ear. He and Toby had taken the leftovers out of the fridge, and both were trying to squash meat into their ears. What are those two going to get up to next?

Calming walk in the sun


06 Dec

Posted in Nathan the preschooler, Toby's second year | No Comments »

There is nothing better than not having a pressing matter and being able to take our time. We decided to go to the city today by train, and the walk to the station took us a very, very long time. The kids were sidetracked by the normal things…walking on the stones along the front of a certain house, collecting big gum nuts from the gum trees alone the way, looking through the paper tube of letterboxes, etc.. In addition, though, today it was nice to sit in the sun and pick the flowers growing in unkempt nature strips. By the end of the walk Nathan had his hands full with a bunch of yellow flowers in one hand, and a stick in his other. Toby had to inspect every flower we went past. It was a nice walk to the train…well, with a short sprint at the end to catch one.

It was also a nice way to calm down after getting angry with Nathan for giving Toby another hair cut.

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