Life after the holidays

So the kids started back at school last Wednesday. After 12 weeks of holidays I think we were all ready to get back to school and settle back into some routines. I spent my first few days to myself catching up on some of the many jobs that need doing around here (still oh so many to go though!), catching up with the school mums for coffee, and then doing some shopping for a new bike! I did my first triathlon almost 2 years ago, and have done a handful each year since then. I only do sprint distance ones, but really enjoy them - well, I don't enjoy the 5am starts on race day, but after that it's mostly all good!! Anyway, I really needed a new bike, so in the weekend I bought myself a lovely new one, and she's called Ruby! And here she is:

She the nicest bike I've ever had, and will probably ever have, and she's gorgeous. Took her for a spin yesterday and it's incredible the difference she makes to my riding. Bring on my next triathlon in October!!

Sewing-wise I've been a bit quiet lately. In my quest for the perfect fabric shop, I recently went to High Fashion Fabrics in Houston with my daughter, Elyse. Well it's huge and has some fantastic fabric, but as is the way in most fabric stores, not many knits which is what I was specifically looking for, for my Knappy Knickers. Anyway, Elyse and I both saw this gorgeous fabric which I thought would look fantastic on her. It's a Robert Kaufman Organic cotton print, Pick a Bunch Posies, and I made it into the easiest quickest thing I could think of, a basic elasticated skirt.

I love it. Elyse - not so much. Thinks it's too puffy!!! So I might take out some of the bulk of the fabric to make it less puffy. Then she said she didn't like the elastic waist and wanted (what I got from her convoluted description) a ribbed band instead of elastic. So, I've now got the ribbing, stay tuned for the new, updated version of the skirt! 

The other thing I had promised for Elyse was a swim robe, similar to the one I made for Ollie, here. I had bought the towel for it from Ikea ages ago, and had a pattern from here but it was only to size 4 and I didn't have the time to upsize the pattern. So I got another pattern but then had only just enough towel to fit the pattern (I had one bath towel and one bath sheet.) So after a bit of playing around with the pattern layout I got it to fit, and ended up with the band from the edge of the towels down the front of the robe, and on the sleeves. I think it looks quite good, will see what Elyse thinks! Here it is, work in progress. 

Of course I forgot that I hadn't bought all the bias binding for the edging, so will have to make another trip to Joann's for the rest. But for now, on with those jobs....!

After the holiday

Well, all good things come to an end as they say, and this is what happened to our holiday. We had a fantastic time, Salt Lake City onto Jackson and then Yellowstone. Loved the beautiful country up there, and the gorgeous weather. A couple of days of rain showers, but nothing that stopped us getting out and about to explore the Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. They were both spectacular, and after being in Houston for a couple of years seeing hills again is fantastic. I'm from Wellington in New Zealand, which is really hilly, so I'm used to the hills and miss them in flat old Houston. It was also great to escape the Houston heat, to some lovely cooler weather.

So here are some snaps of our trip:

 The elk horn gates to the square in Jackson, WY. 

 At the top of Jackson Hole Ski Resort - stunning views, and quite a bit of snow still around.

 Views of the Tetons, spectacular.

 Artists Point in Yellowstone.

 Old Faithful doing it's stuff!

 Some of the locals we met along the way.

So now it's back to reality, and all the back to school jobs. We've been to the doctor, the dentist, bought new school shoes, got the uniforms ready and dropped all the forms into school. We start back on Wednesday of next week, so a girls lunch out will be called for that day I think once the kids are safely dropped off at school. Twelve weeks of holidays are just tooooo many, the kids are at each others throats and are so ready to go back to school. And so am I. I'm ready to get into all those jobs I've been putting off until school goes back! Next week I'll have no excuse for not getting them done though.

I will also have to get serious about my training again. I have been very slack over the holidays, doing the minimum of exercise. Since I've been in Houston I have found a love for running (if you knew me in the past you will realise what a quantum change that is!!!) and have done two half marathons and some other shorter races. I have also started doing triathlons, and have another couple in October - just sprint ones, but still training is needed! Then I have also entered the Houston Half Marathon again, in January, so will have to seriously dust off my running shoes again if I want to have any chance of getting sub 2 hours in that.

Then there is etsy to focus on, and all those jobs I've been putting off. Hmmm, maybe holidays ending isn't so good after all.....?!

KK on holiday

It's school holidays so we're on our big summer trip. This year we're going to Yellowstone and the Tetons for some fresh air and wildlife - although hoping the wildlife doesn't include a close encounter with a bear! We are currently in Salt Lake City then will drive up to Jackson, WY for a few days before heading to Yellowstone.

I love exploring new places and we always end up walking for miles and miles, mostly the kids are OK but there is the usual dose of moaning, bad behavior and sibling fights!! Fortunately SLC has lots of open spaces for them to race around in and makes lots of noise without annoying too many people!!

I've given myself time off from Knappy Knickers but I still did an on-line search for fabric stores here - couldn't help myself!!

Will try to post some photos of the scenery when we get to the Tetons and Yellowstone, but may not post again til we are home.

Moo-ing with joy!

I'm a bit of a stationery freak, I am always buying new note pads, folders, labels etc, that often just sit in my drawer unused because they are just too nice to use. Back in the days when I used to work in an office, a trip to the stationery cupboard was something to be lingered over. Sad, I know - but that's just me. Actually, it's not just me - I know lots of people who are secretly the same!! Maybe we should start a Stationery Tragics Club!! Anyway, the reason I share my little secret is that recently I came across Moo.com, and it was love at first sight!!

Moo make business cards and stickers that you can design yourself, and you can put different photos on each card - fabulous. Fortunately when I was back in Perth I had a logo designed for me and had some photos done by a studio in exchange for some Knickers. So I could use these to create some business cards, which I received the other day and LOVE!!

So here are the finished products, I've just scanned them in here so this doesn't really do them justice. But these are the mini business cards. There are actually 4 cards here, 3 of the backs with different photos, and one of the front of the cards.

And these are the round stickers, four to a sheet. 

So my stationery fix is sated. Sigh....!!

By the way, this is just my opinion, I was not paid by Moo for this, and I paid normal prices for these products. I just loved them....!!

Photo dilemmas...!

I've been trying to work on taking new photos for etsy. You wouldn't think it was hard to take a photo of some Knickers or leggings, but it is! Now I don't have a live model that fits into my Knickers, dresses or leggings I have to rely on my very old and sad dummy, Daisy - she with no head, who doesn't stand up properly. Or I have to try and arrange them somehow to try and make them look good. Very hard.

I don't have much empty wall space to line Daisy up against, so I've tried to rig up a black sheet against the kids toy shelf. Then, to put the clothes on Daisy, lie them flat or to hang them? What looks good when I set it up, somehow looks so flat, dull, and well, blah when I look at it on the computer. See my poor Daisy and temporary photo studio here. Leggings yet to be listed on etsy.

So I did some other sewing instead. I made this swim robe for Ollie.

I bought the pattern from Dana Made It one of my favourite sewing/craft/mum blogs at the moment. I made it from an Ikea towel, which was a bit hard to overlock as it was so thick. I think it is actually a bit small for Ollie, but he loves it - so next time we are in the pool we'll be trying it out. I think we will probably use it for after bath time too.

I've been finding so many fantastic blogs out there of amazing women doing fantastic sewing/craft/home organising things. I'll list them another day, but I'm sure I'm spending far too much time reading, and not enough doing at the moment...! Talking of which, off to do...!

School holidays

It's the school holidays, which means that I have my two kids at home with me full time. Which means less time for me to focus on my etsy shop and to get things done. Which means that I have to grab short bursts of time to do things and mostly never get things finished.

I have so many ideas of things I want to do with my etsy shop www.knappyknickers.etsy.com but right now I am trying to get time to take photos of the leggings I have in stock and to start sewing the other new product I want to put up - more later! I am also desperately searching for fabric. I had some blue and white, and red and white striped fabric which I made into leggings when we were in Australia. The red ones are modeled below on my son, Ollie. He must have been about 18 months old then, and funnily enough he is still wearing these pants. I have made them into shorts now, by cutting them off and hemming them, but otherwise they still fit him perfectly and he is now four and a half!

These sold really well and I want to re-launch them on etsy. However I have run out of the fabric, and cannot find it anywhere. I have spent so many hours trawling on-line fabric stores and visiting the stores I can find in Houston - with no luck. Of course, I actually really enjoy doing this, so no complaints really - just wish I could find what I want!

I love sewing with knit fabrics, in some ways I find them much easier than sewing woven cotton, but finding the right patterns on knits is difficult. I keep thinking I should just change products and use all those gorgeous cotton fabrics out there, but I will persist!

Brave new world!

I have finally taken the plunge, got myself organised and listed my Knickers and dresses on Etsy. I had been wanting to do this ever since we got to Houston really, but kids school and sports activities, chores, running and triathlon training, and life really, got in the way. So I finally did it - and it was a bit nerve wracking actually. There seems so much to do initially on etsy, that it took some time to get my shop ready, but it's done now. Phew!

I've got some of my most popular Knappy Knickers and dresses up so far, but I do have other ideas for things I want to do too. I'll give it some time first and see how these first things go.

So you can check out my shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/knappyknickers

Have a look and if you like what you see, heart me or an item, or even buy something - that'd make my day!