I am the twinkle in my fathers eye

Some song words that spoke to me today in church...

I am the twinkle in my father's eye I am the reason behind his smile I am the one his arms are open for I am the one he is calling for

Beautiful. We are so loved.

It's a girl!

On the 29th of March we welcomed our newest addition, a baby sister for Josiah, miss Layla!!
8lb2oz, chubby and healthy!
My labour was great, drug free and uncomplicated. Story to come :)

We are in love!

Sewing an easy baby dress

Today I made a cute little dress for this mystery baby in my womb who is due in 9 days :)

We dont know if it's a boy or a girl, but I really wanted to make a dress as I've never tried before.
Sorry baby, if you're a boy! I guess I will give it to someone else's precious girly if so!
It was a fun project either way :)

I found a basic tutorial here (although unless I am completely blind, a cutting pattern was lacking, so I freehand drew my own). It has really simple easy instructions. I appreciate those kinds of tutorials!

Also made a matching headband with elastic and sewed on the fabric flower tutorial found here.

I just love the pretty 'daintiness' of it. I wonder if I will have a little lady to put in it?! Totally fine if not, boy or girl makes no difference to us. I have a hunch its a girl though ;) We shall see! So exciting, not knowing! LOVE IT!!!

My porcelain dolly as the model :)

Love and tears

Watching these 2 play together this week has had me in tears every day! Just the sweetest thing. The love these two share is so beautiful to watch. I have been overcome with gratitude and joy!
Grey is such a good daddy. These two boys are just wonderful. So much joy in every day :)

Photo post

Photos can do most of the talking today :)

I have....

Celebrated Australia day like so.

Showed Josiah his baby photos, which totally captivated him!

Made a cool baby mobile with felt :)

Quilted the quilt top on my first ever quilt for Josiah's new room :)

Got bigger! Now 34 weeks pregnant :)

Thankful, thoughtful

A lot has happened. Far too much to capture in words on a blog. Here is a snippet:

I have been satisfied- by home grown veggies, crafting, laughter and summer nights...all gifts from above.

I have been lonely- my hubby went hiking for 2 weeks in the Tasmanian wilderness with 5 others... We had no phone contact. I have never had a busier 2 weeks in my life, had to keep my kind off missing him so badly!!

I have had fun- the wives/girlfriends of the other hiking boys and I went on a girls getaway to Tasmania, where we enjoyed shopping, eating laughter and a cute b&b before picking up our our manly hairy stinky bushmen from their hike. Lots of fun.

I have been weary- 35c+ heat and being 32 weeks pregnant = weary me.
But no complaints, other than the 2 weeks when hubby was away, I have kept things pretty quiet to cope and it's working :)

I have been thankful-
For wonderful friends. New friends, friendships developed in the last year or so. I have some beautiful people around me whom I just click with so well, and who nourish me just by being themselves. Love it.

I have been thoughtful-
About new business ventures, baby coming soon, and life.
One random thought was about clutter and god. Yep! Stay with me...
I have a new understanding of why clutter bothers us and controls us so much. It can make us feel so overwhelmed even as it looms in the background of our life.
We crave 'the simple life' and talk of moving to the country or travelling the nation in naught but a caravan, no attachments.
I hear it all the time. 'Ooh to pack up and go, be free of all the business and clutter of life!'

Every now and then I just get so 'boxed in' in my mind by all the stuff we have and stuff we don't need, stuff that needs sorting, stuff that needs burning, stuff that needs repurposing, stuff stuff stuff!!!
Stuff everywhere!!! Its so distracting and demotivating. It sucks life.
I just want to throw EVERYTHING out some days, except the bare essentials.
I already do an op-shop run about once a month. And as a family, we don't even buy that much stuff compared to other families in our society. We're quite careful. Actually It surprises me how much people talk about their new 'this' and their new 'that' on Facebook. Like its the greatest thing to ever happen to them.

I think this dislike of clutter, it affects us so much because we were created for relationship with God.
Our souls crave the 'simple life', whatever that means.
I think the root of the issue is that we're actually craving the pure undistracted life of close relationship with God. Adam and Eve had nothing but each other, God, the animals and the garden. How appealing that seems!

We are drawn in every direction! Our culture demands we have hobbies, houses, cars, entertainment, lifestyle. Clothes, DVDs, takeaway food, holidays, books, and about 100 accessories for each of these too. Oh, and don't forget to choose everything in your individual style!!! Or you won't feel like yourself!!
No wonder we feel soul sapped and weary at the thought of maintaining yet another aspect of our lives, relationship with our God, often left by the way side.
We forget that HE brings life to our weary souls. He is there, amongst the craziness, patient, loving, kind. He doesn't push himself on us, he is not marketed to us cleverly, or plastered on eye catching billboards. There is no convincing.
He presents himself in the intricate design of each blade of grass I tread on on my way out the door. He is the summer breeze that soothes me. He is the comfort of sinking into bed at the end of the day. He is the power in a lightning bolt. He gives me breath, and He is more real than any of life's distractions.

So to sum it up...
I think I hate clutter because my soul craves HIM, rather than all of the 'security stuff' we have surrounded ourselves in.
My soul knows it is false comfort, all of my stuff. It's not what I need. I need my King!

So how do we live in western culture and be satisfied in Him alone?

I think it's what you value.
Think about yourself... If your house burnt down tonight... Would you be ok without your stuff in the morning? Could you look at those ashes and be happy amongst the nothingness?

And, when you go to buy something, consider its eternal value. Zilch. It takes the addictiveness out of shopping.
Nice things are indeed nice to have, but won't make you happy. Don't replace God with stuff.

The Quiet Book Revealed!

So a few of you have been asking about this quiet book. On Christmas eve, I finally got it done! Lots of photos ahead...
I made two of these, one for my niece and one for my son (What was I thinking making 2?!). It was fabulously fun, but time consuming. Far more than I thought!
They were basically the same, except my niece's one had a girlier cover and a few different pages that I forgot to photograph. I generally just made 2 of everything as I went. Here is the cover on hers:, using one of my fav Cath Kidston fabrics! (and crappy phone camera).

The process:

• Has excited me.
• Hogged my time.
• Cost me (lots) of money (mainly because I bought tools I didn't yet have, like an eyelet punch and snap punch etc).
• Bored me.
• Frazzled me
• Expanded my skills
• Satisfied me.

But its done and I am very pleased with it. Josiah loves it! And it works! (The keeping him quiet bit!).
It definitely needs supervision at this age though (20 months). The pieces go flying lost all over the room if you're not there to guide and coach :)

For those of you that like templates and tutorials, sorry but I don't have any. I have mentioned a few links along the way to some templates I used... but mainly I just made it up and cut out pieces as I went, or printed a clip-art template on paper and traced around it and cut. Its pretty easy.

Materials:

• Felt (a tonne! Maybe 40 sheets of colour?)
• Stiff felt for page base.
• Velcro
• Snap studs
• Eyelets
• giant Scrapbooking rings
• Hot glue
• Goggle eyes
• Sewing machine and thread
• Printable fabric
• Zipper
• Other random bits and bobs, fabric scraps :)

I got a lot of inspiration by compiling a Pinterest board. Here is mine if you want to look: http://pinterest.com/jaclynlk/qb/
Also, this blog is a good one! How to Make a Quiet Book

And now for photos...

 The cover. Fabric from a local quilting store... cotton ...not sure who by but so cool!
I couldn't decide what to do for the cover for ages. I originally thought a title would be nice, "Josiah's quiet book', but then the thought of making each of my consecutive children a quiet book each daunted me so much so that I thought I'd rather keep it multi-child user friendly! Hence the fabric being fairly gender neutral as well.

 The button closure is a fake! Button is for cuteness, but Velcro is easier for little hands.

 Noah's ark Page. My zipper was too long really, but didn't have any more in my craft stash and was impatient to get the pages finished NOW (how unusual of me ;p)
Rainbow and portholes made on printable fabric. Dolphins are iron on appliqués I had lying around in my stash from when I was about 14. Hence their dorkiness. I don't love them, I'll be honest. But now they're ironed on securely :( !

 Finger puppets inside the ark, bought from eBay for a few dollars delivered. Pack of 10.

 Token mailbox page. You gotta do it. Its so cute! Paper and pen on opposite page for writing their own letters to 'post' (perhaps in a few years!).
Think I used a template from Serving Pink Lemonade for my basic layout.

 Fabric envelopes addressed to my boy.

 Fabric letter written to him.

 This is one of his favourites. I made this up because he loves fish so much and does this cute little fish 'noise' all the time... melts me.
The fish and ducks snap on and off the page with snap studs.  The baby ducks are supposed to be going for their first swim in the lake with mama duck.You can also just twirl them around without taking them off.

 This was fun, but I had seen so many tutorials and blogs with shoe pages and templates that seemed too hard or too tacky. I just cut the sole off a real baby shoe and sewed it right onto the page. Easiest page by far!

 The dress up doll is great. Love his little Velcro undies as seen below! I decided to make a washing machine to play with too, and it doubles as a place to store the extra clothing in. I used clear plastic tablecloth material for the window in the machine. Mini pegs for hanging the washing to dry. I got lazy and used white thread for the brown poles...

The fridge page is one of my favourites. After I made the fridge though, I was looking at it thinking it looks so boring! What can I do to jazz it up? What do fridges actually have on them? Magnets... photos... :)
So I printed some very mini family photos onto the printable fabric I had. Bingo! Cute and personalised fridge.

Build a sandwich on the plate page opposite .The cutlery is removable to spread the butter etc on the bread.
  It is at this point some of you may notice that we are located in Australia.... Vegemite = yum!
Printable fabric used for Vegemite and butter.

 There is supposed to be a nice piece of cheese in the mix too. But It's lost, already! Must make a new slice!

 This page took the longest. Love it though. So many fun details. Street names, detachable fire trucks and police cars, garages and street signs. Joey loves it!

 The petrol pump I made with the end of a shoelace.

 Garage where the cars 'park' and Velcro in so as not to get lost.

 Potentially my favourite page. I found these cute strawberries on eBay for so cheap. pack off 100!
My great friend Rachel also decided to make a quiet book for her son at the same time as me. She owns a "Cricut" machine and she figured out you can put stiff felt in it to cut out shapes (it is meant mainly for paper)! So the apples and fawn were done using that. So nice and neat :)

Josiah loves picking all the apples and strawberries and storing them in the basket on the opposite page:

Note the owl peeping out of his hollow! Special thanks to Rachel for the Cricut borrow and the rattan table runner she stole from her lounge room and hacked up to use for my basket!

 The token Barn page. Cute. My doors don't close... oh well.
Template based on  one I saw at  Homemade By Jill

Finger puppets :)

So that sums it up really.
Fun project. Took me 2 1/2 months... of working a couple hours a week.
Very pleased with it. I hope he enjoys it for many years to come. it has already proven very useful on our family holidays when he wakes up earlier than everyone else wants to get up. Kept him quiet for an extra 1/2 hour each morning!


Happy to answer any questions!