Terror and Joy

Not the actual coin.

If you read the side of my blog, you'll see that I describe having children as 'bringing joy and terror' to my life.  I meant this in a "not knowing what is going on with my life" kind of way, rather than a "choking on a small coin" kind of way.  Unfortunately this week I got to experience the latter with J.

It was an incredibly frightening experience.  J came running over to me and then started the most awful choking.  I picked her up and struck her on the back between the shoulder blades a few times.  Nothing happened, she just kept choking.  And in that terrible instant, I remembered that children die from choking, and that I might not be able to save her.  I was terrified.  I picked her up and ran towards the phone to call an ambulance.  As I was running the coin dislodged and flew out of her mouth.  Once she recovered from the shock she was fine - I needed to sit down with a cup of tea and some chocolate before I felt okay.

About 4 years ago I did a first aid course.  That's how I knew to strike her on  the back with my hand, and it helped me not to panic.  I can't credit it with saving J because it was a large degree of luck, but it certainly helped.

The moral of this story is twofold.
1) Don't assume your child won't choke, because it really can happen to anyone.
2) Do a first aid course, and if they don't go through what to do with a choking child, ask! St Johns and Red Cross both do first aid courses in NZ

Summery Christmas presents

 Check out the sunhat! Isn't it awesome?*

Well, I'm not entirely happy with it, but I am pleased.  The pattern comes from the Australian Woman's weekly craft book.  You have to upscale the pattern, and I think my version is not quite right.  The instructions also left a little to be desired, so I had to improvise when it came to piecing the lining and crown together - which is probably why it doesn't sit quite right.  Next time I will also add some interfacing to the crown section as well.

 The pattern called for there to be two brim pieces with two pieces of interfacing.  I only had enough interfacing to do one piece, so I cut another piece of heavy fabric, interfaced that and then sandwiched it in between the two brim pieces.  I really like that it is a bit sturdier that way.

 The most time consuming bit was sewing the lines around the brim.  Fortunately I completed most of this while taking a rugby sewing break.  For those of you who aren't from around here, the Rugby World Cup final was on this weekend just gone.  NZ has hosted the tournament, and the All Blacks (our team) were in the final against France.

It was an incredibly nerve wracking game, so I had to take a break during the second half and go and sew in the kitchen because I just couldn't bear to watch.  In the end we won! It was worth all the stress to win the Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1987.  And New Zealand went wild for our win.  So all I accomplished this week was the sunhat.  I was a little pre occupied otherwise.

Check out more creativity at Natural Suburbia

*Modelled by the very accommodating Kiki.

The best of the Australian Women's weekly craft book

 This book has belonged to my Mum for quite some time, and for the last couple of years I have been 'borrowing' it.  This was published in 1989 and if you can get hold of a copy I seriously recommend it.  It has all sorts of patterns and ideas in it.  The knitting patterns are great, and the sewing is also really interesting.

 Although I do have to note that the sewing instructions are a little sparse - when it came to sewing P's sunhat, I couldn't work out what to do with the lining on the crown section at all.

 But for a variety of interesting crafts and ideas, this book is fabulous.  One of the patterns for a blanket actually dates to the 19th century.  Its one of the ones I'm really keen to try.

Of course there are also some interesting '80's ideas - crochet tablecloth anyone?

Cultural Swap saga

This is hopefully my last week doing this project.  It was supposed to be sent out at the end of September, but I seriously underestimated the amount of time needed to complete this project.  I finally have all the bits together, now it is simply a matter of assembling each parcel and sending it off.  I know I will feel a huge weight off my shoulders once it is finally finished.  Although getting the credit card bill after I have posted everything out will be a little concerning as well.

Hopefully by the end of this week there will only be the one project that I have to finish.  More on that when its done.

Do you have anything that you just can't seem to finish? How do you deal with it?

Roar!

 One of the knitted toys for P's birthday

I'm hoping to knit another big one and some little baby ones for P to have a family of dinosaurs.  The pattern is Stegosaurus by Cassidy Clark.  You can find it on Ravelry here.  

More Creativity over at Natural Suburbia.  If you're interested in knitted toys, Linda's blog is definitely worth browsing through, her patterns are delicious.

Yet more Christmas presents

My project this week is to complete yet more of P and J's Christmas presents.  I'm nearly done with the 'making' ones, and have started to collect a few of the bought items.

This week I'm going to make P a sunhat, and hopefully some small dress ups for J.  I also bought some Christmas fabric for $3 a metre to use as wrapping paper as well.

A wonderful weekend

My weekend away was just great.  I worked on Friday, which was no hardship at all with the people I met.  And then on Saturday and Sunday I spent time with my wonderful friends and family.  Some highlights from the weekend.

I went to Te Papa specifically to see the Toi Te Papa exhibition, and got distracted on the way by this little gallery about Vogue magazine in New Zealand.

I love the colour of  this 1960's dress, featured in Vogue

This dress was made by a young woman in the 1960's using a Vogue pattern from the magazine.  You could even get labels to sew into your finished outfit.

I love the detail on the bodice, its just so beautiful.

After I was finished looking at art (for as long as I wanted, without small people asking questions every five seconds or running up and down the gallery), I wandered through to Cuba Mall with my friends, and we had an iced chocolate at the Mr Bun there.

As I walked further up Cuba Street, I stopped into a little shop that sold hand made clothing, on the off chance that they might have some vintage patterns.  Boy was I right.  I bought two patterns for $2 each.

The first was Simplicity 7226, which appears to never have been used.

The second was Vogue 1354  Its from the early 1960s, I'm so excited to have such a great vintage pattern in my collection to work with.  I think there were some patterns there that were even older, all for $2.  I'll definitely be visiting there again.