The BIG 2!

Wow!
My little Rouge has just turned 2.
Were did that time go??

Only feels like yesterday we were welcoming the little red haired wonder into our clan, and now we are wrapping pressies, making cakes and celebrating TWO years!! (kinda makes me feel a little clucky I think!)

We celebrated with an afternoon tea for the most special people in her life thus far. It was small and special, just like her.

Cake, fairy bread, fruit and fun.......thats all they needed! (and a few too many pressies of course!)

                                                                      
Happy Birthday beautiful girl, can't wait for another fun year ahead xx

The dreaded Itch!

                              (image from weheartit)
                                                               
Been a little busy this week.....................
Currently our house is plagued by the dreaded head lice........I loath these buggers. (I ask you what their purpose on the planet is, cause as far as I can tell it's only to anoy every parent of a school aged child!)

Originally brough home from school and thoughtfully shared amoungst siblings, and kindly onto me too......
We have been donning the green cap, washing and rewashing EVERYTHING, and tenderly combing our hair everynight to ensure there are no more!

Problem is, once you start talking about them or thinking about them, you just start to feel itchy (like now!!)
Taking comfort from the knowledge that they like clean hair!

How has your week been?? Any hints on keeping nits at bay??

Savour Sundays.........

                                                     
                                                                 Bongani xx

Man down .....

Poor Stooge has the worst case of croup he's ever had, and I tell you at aged 4 it's a shocker!

Last night was a VERY long night for all. He had a temp for the entire night with it reaching a top of 42 degrees (and according to the emergency department of our local hospital, this doesn't warrant a trip to emergency provided he has panadol and nurofen on board!) so between sweating it out, shivering it up or coughing it up ALL night.......we are now feeling wrecked!

His throat is sooo sore and dry from all the coughing, so I get out the humidifier to add some relief, only it appears to make it worse.......
I just hate when we have 'one man down', because most of the time you can't make them any better any quicker, and they simply don't understand why they feel so crap.

So as you may have guessed, I have a wonderful day planned of sitting on the couch and catching up on cuddles, books, a movie or two and hopefully some well earned rest!!

Our beautiful neighbour heard of our  'man down' and brought over some lovely dominoes she thought we might like to borrow . He has  really enjoyed playing with these (while the medicine appears to have 'kicked in')  and it has added a nice relief to what could feel like a day of cabin fever for the little Rouge.

Hang in there Stooge, the house is just not the same when you aren't firing with all cannons x

Cushions of love!

I have a somewhat growing pile of clothes that no longer work as the were intended, but are too precious to place in the rag bag.
You know the ones that the kids have outgrown but you love, or the shirt bought whilst honeymooning in Tahiti!! Well I've found a use for them and wanted to share!

I've been turning them into cushions!
It's so so easy, you don't even need zips!

Here's how I did ours:
1. Do up all the buttons in the front of the shirt and turn your desired shirt inside out and lay flat. Place your pillow on top with the buttons in the center, to create the right size cushion and cut to size.

2. Pin the two pieces together and sew up all four sides of the shirt (it will look like below)

3. Simply undo the buttons and turn in the right way and place your cushion inside. Once in, you can the do up the buttons again and woohoo.....your done!

I like the buttons to be at the front because you get the shirt pocket detail too, plus it adds to the story I think! This was actually a shirt of Pips that he no longer wears but we both love and are reminded of younger days!!

If you have something you want to turn into a cushion that isn't a shirt you can still use the no zip idea, but use instead the envelope method of closing (where the two layer overlap each other). Like the picture below.....it's an old sarong of my aunts that I've always loved and she was about to turf!

                                        (back view, inside out to show you envelope method)

                                                   (front of cushion showing pattern)

The idea is that I'll create a usable picture if you like, of our years through life. Each cushion will tell its own story and mean something to us as a family. Currently I'm sewing up Bibs first school uniform (that she managed to rip whilst scaling the school fence!)  to add to the pillow pile (I know I could have patched it, but i wanted one to keep anyway!)

Perhaps you have a few garments worth conversion?? Or have you got a way of keeping special pieces you can't manage to depart with you could share??

Peace maker???

Question.........
Why do we always put such unnecessary pressure on ourselves?

Constantly we're thinking and quietly beating ourselves up over silly things like, what we are eating, how much exercise we're getting, are we being eco enough, have we made the right choice for our kids etc etc.

I popped over to my mums this morning for a quick cuppa and to let Rouge have a cuddle and a general 'say hi' without the older two getting all the attention, when I get hit with all these questions that are on her mind/conscience.

If I am bad at putting pressure on myself, I got it from her I think.....she is the worst. Poor mum is constantly trying to make sure the waters are kept calm, make sure every ones noses are 'siting right' and unfortunately this is her down fall.

It's my sisters 21st coming up and a big party is being planned, so of course the worry right now is who to invite. You know how it goes......'if we invite him but not her will that be a problem, or if we invite 'them', then shouldn't we invite 'them' cause we've known them longer......blah blah blah.
{She is the 'peace maker' in our house, but unfortunately she also internalises a lot of this 'pressure' to which her body then throws back her in the form of fatigue or illness.}

I say who cares! If you don't want someone at your party for whatever reason then surely you have the right to make that decision without having to give it too much more thought, let alone loose night sleep over it?

If someone is going to get hurt by a decision you make then that's different, but if we are making our decisions based on keeping someone else 'happy' then surely you've lost the point??
I truly believe we have enough issues within ourselves to be worrying about without the need to add the extra pressure about someones else??

Perhaps, I'm being selfish?? What are your thoughts? Are you a 'peace maker'?

Savour Sundays.........

                                                            Bongani x