A Portrait a Week: 17/52 -Second sewing project

Oops and again I'm late with Isabella's portrait of the week. I did start this blog post yesterday evening but then never got to finish it. Here it is now with a 'double' portrait of her in one photo below!

Saturday night I completed a little dress for Isabella. It started out like this:

an old top of mine, which I converted into a dress for her.

I kept the original neck of the top, just making it smaller to fit her and also used the original hems of the sleeves so didn't have to re-do those either. I used one of her  long sleeve tops which fit her comfortably to cut around for the size of the neck, body and sleeves and the only sewing I then had to do was attaching the sleeves to the body and sewing up the sleeves and down the body sides and then hemming the bottom of the dress. 

I then used this:

to make a flower and cut off some of the lace to add to the bottom of the dress. So again didn't cost me anything to make and another fun challenge making something for Isabella using something I no longer wear. 

This one was a practice run. I've got more old t-shirts I'll be cutting up in more interesting patterns to make into dresses for her but next I really want to read up about making curtains. The curtains in her room are really too small for her window and it frustrates me when I can't close them properly to keep the light out when she goes to sleep. So that will be my next project hopefully as well as making her a play mat to use in the garden.

Spring

I've been taking spring pictures since the beginning of March which is almost two months ago now. I thought I better post these photos before spring is over! Spring here is so beautiful, so many blossom trees and colour in the garden.

Not our house, but wouldn't mind a blossom tree like that.

The weekend after taking the above pictures
(beginning March) there was still lots of
flooding around. 

This daffodil was so pretty, a different kind to what we had
in our garden.

Lots of green everywhere now.

This past Easter weekend André took these photos of the canola fields.  So very bright yellow.

Isabella now tolerates playing in our garden for short periods of time. She doesn't give me much time for gardening. And I'm sure once she starts crawling I'll get even less done as I'll be running after her!

Our lovely tulips! My favourite!

Girl, with me as your mamma you have got
many days of wearing a hat ahead of you so
don't bother trying to take it off.

My first sewing project!

I'm so proud of my first little bit of sewing I did for Isabella. I made her a little circle skirt. And I made it from an old t-shirt I no longer wear. I wasn't able to cut a full circle from the fabric I had so I cut two halves instead. And the elastic came from elastic I removed from some of her leggings which were too tight and which I replaced with other elastic so she has more breathing room when wearing those leggings. So it didn't cost me anything. Besides buying the sewing machine!

I think this was a nice little practice project. I'll make her more circle skirts in other fabrics, it was so easy to make. Next time I'll make it a little longer though, she's tall! And I'm going to make her a double layer skirt too. 

Before...

...and after!

Last week's Portrait a Week: 16/52 Easter

With it being a long weekend I lost track of time and suddenly realised today that I missed posting Isabella's portrait of the week yesterday. We've had such a lovely long weekend at home. Isabella's aunt Simóne sent her her first Easter outfits which you'll see below, so we had to have a little photo shoot. Luckily Isabella enjoys posing for the camera. For a short while at least and as long as you do it right after a nap and not when it's time for her bottle! Lots of photos below, I couldn't choose!

-All photos taken by André

Showing off her full Easter bunny suit

"But I don't understand. What do you mean I won't be getting
any chocolate Easter eggs this year?"

The Easter bunny and her little helper bunny.

Fingers are constantly in her mouth. Those teeth are bothering her!

And showing off her pretty Easter dress.

Cats in boxes

This one's for you Meg!

And a blog post not about a baby or a garden for a change!

I was just reading a friend's blog about her cats and how cats like to get into boxes and I just had to dig out these old photos of our cat Shiva. Ah I do miss her and all her grumpy-ness! She was still a very loveable cat.

While none of these are in boxes, she also enjoyed getting into things resembling a boxed in space. I guess I never had many boxes around so she had to make do with what there was!

Meg note the CPUT homework!!

In my gym bag.

desk drawer...

And this is a small window. She's on the outside on the windowsill!

I'm looking forward to introducing Isabella to our part-time cat. As the weather is warming up a bit now we'll be able to leave the door to the garden open more often for the cat to come over for visits.

A portrait a week: 15/52 and Isabella's first swim

Isabella's portrait for this week will have to be of her first swim! 

We went to the pool in Tadley this morning which is 15 minutes from our house. I've heard from several mums here that it's such a lovely pool for little ones and now that we've been there we can agree. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays they have what they call Jellly Babies which is for children under 5 and their parents to enjoy the pool. They raise the bottom of the pool so it's like walking into the sea from the beach. As you can see where we're sitting at the one end it's raised all the way and really really shallow and then it gradually gets deeper. The water was nice and warm and I'm a good one test that because I don't like swimming in cold water and even I enjoyed lying around in the shallow water here! 

They also have loads of water toys for the children in the pool and Isabella enjoyed playing with a  ball, watering can and chewing on a red teddy float which the life guard brought over for her. While there were enough other parents and children it didn't feel crowded at all while we were there. It might get busier later. On a Sunday the Jelly babies session is from 9am-12. We probably spent about 20 minutes in the pool and Isabella would have happily stayed in a bit longer, but I knew she'd be getting hungry soon and while she's having fun she'll forget to give us any warning of being hungry!

We'll definitely be going again. I wanted to test the first round with Andre there to help out, but now that I know she likes it I'll be taking her during the week too.

Isabella first checked out the scene before
starting to splash about.

Had an accidental dive under water but she was fine.

Isabella clearly already loves shoes!!

Isabella's Pappy and Gogs sent her a parcel which we received today. She loved it and especially the flip flops. They are adorable! We also LOVE her very own Madiba vest and a Billabong "Billie Girls" vest. So cute! And ready for summer! We'll be trying the vests in the pool hopefully this weekend. Will have to decide which to try first... I think if Isabella could have her way she'd be wearing the flip-flops to the pool too! And thank you to the Cordery's for sending on the parcel from the UK. :-)

Very excited about all her presents!

Thank you very much Pappy and Gogs!

But the shoes! "Mommy let me see the shoes!!"

Ooooh... so pretty...

And they taste good too!