Last minute stuff and a whole lot of panic

I kept meaning to share the other stuff I made for the kids with you but one thing or another got in the way and in 2 hours time I am heading off with kids in tow to the airport to get on a plane heading towards South East Asia. We're going to Malaysia to visit my family. I have not been back in 7 years!! Very excited!

Here is the last of the jersey dresses for Missy Moo. as usual, she is thrilled with it.



Typical of my kid, she demands to wear it to school on the next non-uniform day and when she gets home from school that day, tells me that there is a hole in the back of her dress!!



It's a small hole but still a hole. No idea how she did it - probably caught it on something in the playground. So I sewed a small patch to it and it's fine now.

The boy has a new top too but I can't find the photos! I'll have to show you it when I get back from malaysia. I will have very limited internet access whilst I am there so I apologise if I don't reply to your comments. I have to go finish packing now and get the kids out of bed.

See you in a few weeks, friends. x

The forest friends vest top

I bought a 1 metre cut of this gorgeous fabric and from this I made a dress for Missy Moo and also managed to cut this vest top for my 8-year-old niece.



This fabric makes me very happy - the colours are bright and the pattern is beyond cute. I'm glad I stuck to the red jersey bands for the neckline and the arms. I think black ribbing might have been too heavy. I hope she will like it as much as I do.

The kids and I are going away for 3 weeks to Malaysia to visit our famiy there. We fly a week today. I have so much to do before then. I'm working almost to the end. I've not even thought about packing yet - I'll probably be madly lobbing stuff into my cases the night before.

My kids and I have not done much long-distance travelling together. I used to travel loads before the kids came along. As a matter of fact, this will be Missy moo's very first flight ever. She is very excited about the trip. Dino-boy and I have flown out to the Far East before - we went twice before he was 4, both times to attend my brothers' weddings. The kids have had their jabs (Dino-boy felt a bare tickle apparently and Missy Moo screamed blue-murder at Nursey and cried tons) and are making their packing lists for stuff to take onto the plane. The first leg is 7 hours and we then have a 3 hour transit before another 7 hours to our destination.

Since my two are 5 and 10 respectively, I'm thinking of packing some sugar-free lollipops for them to suck as we take off and land. Have you traveled long-distances with your kids? What are your top tips for flying long-distances?

Hope you're having a great weekend, friends.

A brief interruption to our normal programming

There was a bit of excitement this morning. Quite unusually, all four of us were up at 6.00 am and out of the house some 25 minutes later. "Why?" I hear you ask. Well, it started a couple of weeks ago with this map.



It was about this thing.



Oh yes. The Olympic torch was making its way to our capital city and on the 44th day of its 70-day journey, it would be passing pretty close to the street we live on. The kids were delighted and immediately insisted they had to be there to watch. Then last week, the local council chaps hung a whole bunch of these up.



The kids were beside themselves with excitement. They even went to bed early last night. The weather was lovely this morning. We live just 5 minutes stroll from the main road along which the torch would be carried. Mr CraftyAdy and I had agreed upon a good spot from which we'd stand to watch the torch go by. The roads were quiet and there were some people about ... not many but there were some. I cleverly employ the use of arrows in the picture below to show you where these 'some people' are just in case you think that no-one would be as crazy as us to go stand beside the road at 6.30 in the morning.



We waited for about 25 minutes. Missy Moo was getting bored and lamenting about the wait. When told that she ought to be a bit patient, she declared "Patience takes too long!" Despite Dinoboy's efforts to entertain her, the moaning continued.



Soon more people turned up, including this chap in his pyjamas and dressing gown.



Then the first convoy arrived. These were mostly open-top buses advertising the sponsors (eg the banks, Coca Cola)



Here is Wenlock, the Olympics mascot for the London 2012 Olympics, hanging out of a car. Apparently Wenlock is based on a short story by children's author Michael Morpurgo that tells how it and it's partner, Mandeville, were fashioned from droplets of the steel used to build the Olympic stadium.



The first convoy passed us by with some fanfare and we had to wait another 5 minutes before the torch finally turned up.



We got a pretty good view and up to now I have no idea who this chap was! But he did a good job, smiling and waving as he jogged along to the next point where the next torch bearer was waiting.



We waited 25 minutes and watched the torch go by in about 30 seconds. Then it was home for breakfast and a warming cup of tea. The kids enjoyed the experience and no doubt it will be a major talking point in the playground at school tomorrow morning.

We will shortly return to topics related to sewing for small people.