The end and the beginning...

 It has been very very quiet for quite some time now around here as it has been far too difficult for me to keep up with website, social media, sewing, blogging, working, mothering and life so I have let it go unmanned and unposted on for quite sometime. 

For me this has been hard, because I love to blog, I love to look back at what I have done and have a bit of a record of my sewing progress, and back at the things that I was doing say, 12mths ago etc. I also love the blogging community, and the friends I've started to make through it and the blessing that has been through the last few years has been amazing.

So… after a good hard think about blogging, consistency, and of course, general web geography, I have made the decision to make the move over to wordpress and combine my blog with my website.

My new blog is called making, markets, mothering (& the meandering inbetween), and I'd love it if you could check it out.There are a few bugs that I am still working out (such as a subscribe button) and I'd love to see you over there so I can continue to be involved with the crafty blog community and keep in touch with the friends I have made within it.

So for "sew miss amy" this is the end, but for my new blog, it is just the beginning and I really hope you will share the journey with me.

Amy

Freebie Friday Winner!

This morning, the little miss put her hand in the bowl...



And then pulled out a name...

And the winner is...



Amy Fussell!

Congrats Amy, I hope to hear from you soon about your lovely lush new minky nappy.

Hope you are all enjoying your Saturday.

posted from Bloggeroid

This Friday's Freebies!!

Hello Hello!

Just so we are all informed... This week's Freebie will be as follows :)

For every All In Two Nappy purchased, you will receive a free snap in booster pad. (it already comes with one too, so you will have an extra one on hand for when the shell is dry before the booster!) That's for every nappy purchased too, so buy 1 AI2 and get 1 extra booster, buy 15 AI2's, get 15 extra boosters, you get the idea. (The offer DOES NOT apply to bulk packs though) This is on top of your already existing Nappy Hunt Discount of 20% Good reason to register if you haven't already. 

PS, something I never realized about the nappy hunt before I actually registered the first time... ITS FREE GUYS!!! 

And don't forget that for every purchase from the shop this week and also every newsletter subscription you will get an entry into the lucky draw. (this week the lucky draw will be drawn on Saturday Morning as I am working night shift on Friday night, the cut off for entries will still be Friday though!!)

For more info and all the T's and C's head to this post and have a read, any Questions send me an email :D

Some Info for Friday...

September is usually a big month for us. There's a few reasons, such as the nappy hunt, the cloth nappy expo in Casey, we come out of general hibernation as springtime hits and its more inviting to head to markets, and usually reusable nappy week is on during the month also. So in light of all of this, I thought, what a better time to celebrate and have decided to run a promotion for the month called Freebie Friday!

The basic idea of Freebie Friday is that you guys get free stuff! Not rocket science, but there are a few details to Freebie Friday that I thought I would outline...

On Freebie Friday, customers of WeePantz can get Free Stuff in 2 ways...

1. For every purchase on Fridays during September customers will receive a FREE GIFT! 

The gift will change each week, and will be limited to one per customer, per week. You may need to purchase a particular item to redeem your gift (e.g. buy a, AI2 nappy and receive a free extra booster etc)

2. I will also be giving away a FREE GIFT every Friday during the month of September also. 

The gift will change each week, and the winner will be drawn by my little miss 6yo out of a hat on Friday evenings at 6pm. To get an entry you simply have to buy something from WeePantz during that week or Sign up to our Newsletter during that week.

I'll announce on Wednesdays and then remind on Thursdays what the free gift will be and also what the giveaway will be.

All the Conditions:

Each week, the free gift and also the giveaway prize will be decided upon by Amy (that'd be me).

The free gift will only be redeemable on Fridays from 12.01am until 11.59pm.

The free gift will only be able to be redeemed once per week per customer ( no cheating guys! ) and will be automatically added to your order (you wont need to click a button etc)

The free gift draw will be conducted on Fridays at 6pm via being drawn from a hat and will be filmed and the video uploaded for viewing with the winner announcement.

The free gift draw can only be entered via the ways above. The free gift draw can be won by someone who has already purchased and redeemed a free gift from the store on that day.

I reserve the right to change the rules of the competition at any time during the month.

The free gift cannot be claimed by a known retailer of WeePantz products and cannot be resold at retail price for personal profit or gain.

It's that Time Again..

That's right, it is nappy hunt time again! Be sure to head over to their site and register to hunt so that you can have a chance of winning some of the awesome prizes!

We are sponsoring the hunt again, and having a huge 20% off at the website (excluding bulk packs) and also running a promotion called Freebie Friday! 

(More info on freebie friday will be on our facebook page and then again on here later in the week)

Those Little Cheesecakes

As I said last week, I had some lovely time off and actually ended up doing some baking.




These little cheesecakes were really yummy and I was aided very much when making them by a new pan I bought from the general trader.













How awesome is that? The bottom just pops up and your little cake doesn't get ruined from turning it out. ( I have smashed many a cake this way! ) The pan also holds 12, which I think made this so much easier cos I didn't have to do it in batches.

Anyway, I'm going to stop sounding like an infomercial and go do some housework, today is my last day off!

posted from Bloggeroid

Fab Friday...

Today I am finalizing a mending job for a lovely lady I met through the Australian Nappy Network.

It's okay Katrina I haven't forgotten you, the elastic in your nappies is nearly finished!!

I am also working on some of those things I said I would do for my week off.

I bought this pattern a couple of years ago at the op-shop, its an old spotlight "get creative" pattern. 

Its a very basic pant, and once I've tested it out and know that it fits well, I will add pockets, belt loops and other lovely pants essentials that aren't included in the pattern paper. I have enough fabric here for 3 pairs of pants and have one pair cut, interfaced and ready to sew up later today.

I also have to re-make a batch of mini cheesecakes. I decided (and mentioned on facebook) that I would make some mini cheesecakes for calisthenics morning tea (for the mums) on Saturday. The Mr stole 3 from the batch for himself and the guys at work yesterday and today took the rest of the batch cos they all wanted more! So I'm looking forward to making a bunch of little cheesecakes today too. I also bought an awesome tool to help me when I am baking them (trust me, when I tell you about this, you will be excited and want one!)

What are you guys up to this lovely Friday? Are you mending? Baking? Sewing? Painting? Relaxing? I'd love to hear what you are up to!

Market Wrap - Up...

A few photos from the market in Bulleen on Sunday. It was a great day out and I was so pleased to have been involved with a gorgeous market day at Fairy Floss.

Thanks again to Kirsty and her family for another fantastic day!

Sewing...

Yeah there is a little of that going on around here... 

The Sew-jo is returning very very slowly, but returning just the same. Hopefully some nice new products will be on their way soon!

Stay tuned tomorrow for some market wrap - up!

Bidding....

I am the highest bidder... hopefully it stays that way for the next 8 hours!!

Please please please!! (sending out those vibes to a greater being!)

A Bit of Catch - Up

Catching up on some of my latest projects...

I said the other day that I haven't really done much sewing lately. Mostly because its calisthenics season, meaning that all I get time to sew is costumes. This year's costume challenge for me was a hippo.

It was a big challenge, but certainly not as difficult as last year's alien! Miss Ruth thinks its pretty awesome and she looks very cute on the stage in it!

I'm Playing my guitar tonight. There's something exhilarating about singing along to a song for me. It releases everything inside and I truly express myself. It's like riding a roller coaster! If I am ever sad, my guitar and singing will help. 

Car is 100% packed for the market tomorrow, can't wait! Master 2yo has had gastro for 2 weeks and Miss 6yo came out with red spots / blisters last night (chicken pox?? other random virus??). Cant wait for a day out, not worrying about who's nose I have to wipe for a few hours :) 

DO come visit me in Bulleen I will be at the WeePantz Stall!

SLACK

Yeah I'm sure a lot of you guys have lately been thinking this of me! I have actually been the opposite, VERY VERY BUSY. Which is my current excuse for not blogging, not sewing, and not being social in general. 

I recently moved on from my job at a great little coffee shop at one of the Universities and took on another "full time" job which I thought was going to help me out in the $$ department, but realized it just wasn't for me. So today I quit... yeah not in an absent minded moment, I do have another job to go to, which doesn't start for a couple of weeks so I will be spending next week being a house wife.

I am slightly excited about being a housewife for a week (not that I am a wife btw, yes, a dig at the Mr there!) I will hopefully get my cleaning, washing and folding finished and get to bake something at some point in time. 

Life at this point in time is exciting, scary and oh so empowering for me as I have said NO to one thing and welcomed a new chapter of life, which is lovely as I spend lots of my time going with the flow. I may even get some time to sew. I did buy the fabric for 2 new pairs of pants yesterday so I hope to get onto that once I have all of my orders up to date as I tried buying pants the other day and my LEGS ARE JUST WAY TOO DAMN LONG! I apologize for the offence but DAMN YOU SHORT PEOPLE!!

And so hence the new chapter begins, I am praying it is a happy one, with less stress and a lot more time for the things I love doing.

Happy, empowered and ready for whatever comes next!!

3 Grey Elephants...

Two Grey Elephants Balancing. 

Step by Step on a piece of String...

They thought it was such a wonderful stunt, that they called for another Elephant...

Three Grey Elephants Balancing... 

We all know I have 2 small and exceedingly gorgeous children. What you don't know is that when I sat down to think of ideas for what I would do for the Hottie Challenge is that I couldn't think of a thing to make that was the slightest bit interesting to me.

My kids LOVE this song. 

We sit watching playschool and we sing it... 

We sit at the table eating dinner and we sing it... 

We are changing Mr 2yo's nappy, and we sing it...

So what better than to use the inspiration of both my childrens' playschool addiction (okay I watched this song when I was a kid too, but apparently the Mr has never heard it before...) and make a gorgeous hottie cover for the Hottie Challenge?!?! 

I must say, THAT DID interest me!

So for the front I appliqued 3 Grey Elephants Balancing on their piece of string... 

For the back I made a circus inspired patched panel, as well as using the piece of card sent from Open Drawer. 

(I just have to fix up the top again so that it opens properly to be displayed...)

My Hottie will be on display at Open Drawer from the 1st of July along with the others sent by Miss Curly Pops :)

Now off to finish the other things on my to do list today :)

Inspiration

I am fairly sure that I have pretty much come to a decision as to what I will be doing for the hottie challenge. 

I was talking to a customer at work the other day about how I watch more kids tv than soap operas and when I was musing such things I decided what I will be doing for my hottie!

I have a couple of days off work so I'm hoping to get it completed by the end of the week :)

Hope you have a lovely Monday!!

Product Feature - Wetbags

I have been busy working on a wetbag design for a while now. It's taken me a while to pull my finger out on this one but at the beginning of the year I made one for Master 2yo to take with him to daycare so that they could put a whole days' worth of nappies in there to go home to be washed. 

I have always designed my products on things that I cannot live without. 

My nappies were designed to hold more wee than the other nappies I had tried with my son as he simply outwet EVERYTHING. They were also designed to be really simple to use and importantly, DAD FRIENDLY. I followed this with an All In Two design coming onto my site late last year to assist with the drying time of cloth nappies in Melbourne Winters. 

My bibs were my son's clothing's saviour during the beginning of the self-feeding stage. As they covered so much more surface area than any other bib I had tried using!

Now back to the wetbags.... I LOVE THESE WETBAGS!! I seriously would be lost without them and definitely would be using far too many plastic shopping bags for my dirty nappies (very smelly as plastic shopping bags don't seal very well!).

The wetbag design works wonderfully and importantly, can be used whether I am out for 1 nappy change or for an entire day. I think that maybe they might be the most practically sized wetbag on the market (but then again I am very very biased!)

I send these off to daycare and they hang it on a hook next to the toilet in the nappy change area ready for the staff to put my son's dirty nappies in ready to be taken home to be washed at the end of each day and being a basic plain PUL fabric, the wetbag dries really quickly, so I can hang it out on the line, clothes horse, or even over the back of a chair to dry and in the morning it is always ready to go. I also have a cotton panel sewn on the front of my wetbag that I write my son's name on so that when the childcare is overrun with cloth  nappy users, they can tell who's is who's. (Enter the cloth nappy revolution I am ready!)

They are really easy to fold up and pop into your handbag as well which for me is always important, as I never take a nappy bag with me ANYWHERE anymore unless we are going out all day.

And speaking of all day...

I can go out for an entire day and the wetbag is always big enough. In the images above there are 7 small sized nappies inside the bag with enough room to fit one or two more in at a squeeze. So with nappy size being relative to how many nappies generally are used in a day (you go through more newborn nappies in a day as your newborn goes through more nappies than a toddler who might be wearing the large size) they are most definitely a must have for every cloth nappy user.

So now that the website is all stocked up, and ready to go be sure to head over and grab your essential weepantz wetbag and never carry around lots of little plastic bags again!

Wordle

I discovered Wordle today... Basically, it creates funky looking word clouds for a piece of text that you input, isolating key words and such.

I decided to see what it would look like using the WeePantz Homepage text, see if Im getting the point across. Apparently Nappies is my most dominant word... this is a good thing! 

You can play with the colours and fonts and shapes and make your word cloud however you would like it :)

Here It Is!

That thing I have been stitching away on for the last week is finally complete, and it is just too darn cute!

Take a look at the gorgeous custom named nappy I made for my little man!

Its got gorgeous designer fabric from the front, beautiful dark charcoal minky through the body of the nappy, and a gorgeous embellished back panel.

Yep! All of those letters are hand stitched with blanket stitch for something extra special for my little man.

And there's two little elephants, also hand stitched onto the wings.

This is also just so cute, the I is dotted with a hand embroidered elephant.

I have taken some beautiful photos of Mr 2yo wearing his new nappy, and I hope to upload them soon for you all to see.

Keen on getting a custom embellished nappy for your little one?? Send me an e-mail and we can organize getting one made up for you!

Stitch - Stitch - Stitch

This is nearly finished now and is complete with some very cute embroidery to go with this appliqué. 

I hope to finish off the gorgeous item tomorrow with its final finishing touches and get a pic up for you all to see!!

The Hottie Challenge

A delivery not from the postie was dropped on my doorstep this afternoon.

Ms Curly Pops herself dropped this off for the hottie challenge which has been organised by open drawer to raise money for Margaret Pratt Foundation (research for heart and lung transplants).

For more info on the hottie challenge, pop over to one of these websites...

Curly Pops

Open Drawer

P.S. now cam knows how messy my front yard is **how embarassing!!**

posted from Bloggeroid

Lazy Day

Today I have lots of things I should be doing but I can't be bothered. I would much prefer to laze around watching tv, surf the net, cuddle my kids and drink hot drinks...




Miss 6yo is proactive enough to be doing her homework. I've done 2 loads of washing and I am sitting looking at fabric from across the room.










I'm also starting to read Martha Stewart's book called "The Martha Rules" I figure I can learn a lot from her!

So maybe I'm not so lazy for not sewing or doing my book work!

posted from Bloggeroid

A Few Sizes Smaller Means...

A DESPERATE NEED FOR NEW CLOTHES!!

As I mentioned the other day, I have been on a diet since November. I didn't tell anyone about going on a diet, I just decided it was time to lose weight.

I have always been overweight. I had serious spinal surgery at the age of 12 so I wasn't really allowed to do sport as a teenager, and the love of chocolate, lollies and cake along with lack of exercise made me very overweight. When I was 16, I decided to lose weight and lost 30kg on the weight watchers program. Over the next few years, due to changing my lifestyle, I then lost another 10kg but when I had my son a couple of years ago, I put a lot of weight on.

So long story short, after seeing a photo of myself in November I made the decision that I didn't want to be as big as I had been when I was a teenager and made the decision to lose the weight once and for all. I was imparting a very unhealthy lifestyle on my kids, and although I was going to the gym I was eating a lot of the wrong foods and had put on 10kg last year.

I did some research on healthy eating and looked at some popular diets and also spoke to my health care professionals and decided that I would go on the CSIRO diet as it seemed to be something that would work for me as I need rules. If I am told I can have chocolate sometimes, I will make that sometimes every few days...

I have since lost close to 20kg and have a couple of kg to go and I feel great. But there is one thing that I am lacking at the moment... CLOTHES!!!!! All of my clothes are a size 16 and I am now a size 10 - 12 so I have been searching for patterns to sew and clothes to buy that I might enjoy wearing and that will look good on me. I have lived most of my life in jeans and t-shirts but now I feel like embracing my lovely feminine body and wearing dresses and even skirts!!

I am thinking of using this tutorial that I found last night... and maybe even making a few more of these...

What is your favorite girly, wintery patterns for this year? I am thinking things I can wear with my tights and either flats, boots or heels :)

p.s. I recommend speaking to your doctor if you are considering a weightloss expedition like I did xo

Mothers Day

Today, as I mentioned yesterday, I am being lazy and enjoying my beautiful kids.

I got to sleep in until midday!! 

I never sleep in, and when I do I am usually up by 9, but I am so refreshed and grateful that I got a lovely rest. In fact I am still in my pyjamas.

I got presents as well which was nice.

So when I rose from my beauty sleep, I received 2 beautiful cards made by the kids while I was sleeping and a few little things that Miss 6yo got me from the mothers day stall at school.

I have also made muffins.

I was sitting on twitter earlier and there was the mention of baking and I thought... mmm cold, rainy, horrible day. I can either sit here underneath the heater vent or make muffins and stand next to the oven for a bit, making muffins with the kids won. They are a bit extra brown as mummy was distracted. They have just gotten out of the oven now and I am currently deciding whether I will eat one as I have been on a diet since November. Surely Mothers Day is a day to eat a muffin right??

Now I am just sitting down to eat my muffin, watch Harry Potter movies with the kids, and attempt to stay in my PJs for the rest of the day. Hope your Mothers Day is wonderful.

Amy xo

This Weekend...

This weekend is going to be a lazy one with Mothers Day being tomorrow, I intend to spend the day playing silly games with my babies and relaxing with them. This is if they play along, I did mention to Miss 6yo that I wanted breakfast in bed, and she promptly looked at me with a screwed up face and said; 

"Mummy... why would you want to eat breakfast in your bed??!!??!!"...

My answer...

"I'm not sure sweetheart, but make sure you talk to daddy about it, make sure theres pancakes"

Not sure if that conversation has taken place yet, but she is very excited by Mothers Day this year, she has been to the mothers day stall at school and has come home with something that has been hiding underneath her pillow since Wednesday. I'm sure that whatever it is, it is squished... but apparently this is the only place in the house that I don't look.

Anyway, so today I am spending my time sorting through instructions for Calisthenics costumes for the little miss and also for one of the other girls who I am sewing for this year. I have no markets this month, so I am spending my spare time this weekend and maybe some time during the week making costumes.

The first that I have almost completed is a chicken. It is going to be absolutely gorgeous when it is finished, and I cannot wait to see the stage full of cute fluffy chickens doing their item.

I wont show the whole costume until later in the year when the girls have been to a competition as I don't like to reveal before then. It's not completed yet though as I have run out of those lovely feathers and there are more parts to the costume that I haven't even pulled out to attempt to assemble yet.

When I read the instructions for this outfit I was excited about making it, when I saw the photos of a completed outfit I was excited about contributing and then I sat down to make it and thought... 

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?!?!"

I will say that once I sat down to just do it, I've actually really enjoyed making it. It is very basic stitching of gathered tiers and best of all there is no lycra involved AT ALL. 

I will mention that I have enjoyed the gathering stitch on my overlocker for this costume, as there is a lot of ruffles to make those feathers all fluffy! I will possibly have to go through and cut off all of the overlocker threads yet, I'm unsure as to whether you can see them when the outfit is completed, on the child and you are standing a fair way away. 

I must remember to use my gathering stitch more often now that I have figured out how it works because I am dreaming of lots of gorgeous fluffy things.

I am also spending some time making a Hippo costume for Miss 6yo to wear for one of the other items they do. I have a pattern this year, which is a step up from that alien I had to make last year which really did make me cry numerous times.

I am a big fan of being organised, so I am sitting with my sewing journal, the pattern instructions and the picture I am working from, and writing myself a good, comprehensive set of instructions from start to finish. 

I have written the jumpsuit instructions so far and will get onto the hood instructions soon. once I have a good look at the hood I have to copy from another hippo outfit that belongs to a girl from a different class that she used years ago. Then it will be on to the tracing and adjusting of patterns and the fun part... sewing!!

What are you up to this weekend? I hope that whatever it is, it is putting a smile on your face.