Wildlife

 The wildlife around here are enjoying the hot weather and the rain we've finally had!

There's the usual birds, frogs, wallabies, possums and hares. But we've also been lucky enough to see echidnas and bearded dragons! In the mornings when I let the chickens out I've been seeing lots of cicadas shedding, which is pretty cool to watch - I don't think I've ever seen a cicada, just their shells. And we've unluckily had a few brown snakes around the house, makes me rather nervous when I'm gardening as they're pretty hard to see unless they're moving.

Santa sacks

 I've finally made Santa sacks out of the Australian animal fabric panels I bought a couple of years ago - they match the panel I bought for this bunting.

I originally bought two of the panels because I wanted the red on both sides, but after washing the fabric it warped so I had to do the blue on one side and red on the other. And then I just had to deal with the wonkiness and the fact that they aren't actually nice even rectangles. Now I have two exactly the same... handy for Santa to quickly swap the empty sack for a full one!

Lily loves the empty sack, so I'm sure she'll love it even more when she wakes up to it full of presents on Christmas morning! So far she is excited for all things Christmas - except the train we attempted to put under the tree (it's just as scary as the robot vacuum).

Paint, Xmas stamps and paper bags

 We get groceries delivered and with Woolies no longer using plastic bags we have a ridiculous number of paper bags! So with a little creativity, a 3D printer, a little paint and a 2 year old, I now have some cute Christmas great gift bags!

The green paint definitely covers the green logo better so I'll have to remember that for next year.

These stamps (there are lots, so I've just linked the creators bio for you) are actually meant for cookies but I added this handle to turn them into stamps suitable for a toddler. If you want to print your own, I scaled the stamps up to 110% and the handle down to 80%.

Definitely my go to wrapping for gifts from now on - easier for me, and a fun activity for Lily.  We just wrote the recipients names using a white crayon, but I think next year I'll make name stamps or use a paint pen.

Christmas furoshiki

 Well I've finally made some fabric wrapping paper so I could do Furoshiki for our Christmas gifts this year. I actually completely forgot about this plan until I had already wrapped a few presents. 

I still need a lot of practice but I'm really enjoying using the fabric and not wasting so much paper! I've just been using everyone's intial in marker on all the paper wrapped presents, for fabric ones I used the 3D printer to make reusable tags.

If you're wondering, I used 1/4" hem and mitered the corners. If you have a 1/4" seam foot it makes things so much easier - especially when there is a toddler sitting on your lap while you sew!

I didn't prewash like I normally do, simply to make it easier cut, fold, etc.

Deciding on what sizes was the hardest part so I've just been making a few at a time then trying them out before making more. So far I have found 50cm a pretty good size and 70cm is a little big for most of our presents so far.

I still have another 2m of reindeer fabric so I might try some 60 or 65cm ones next.