Easter - sit back and relax

It's been a busy week. Shane, Alex and Eve slept here last night. Jamie is here now, Shane is at work and soon they'll go over to Kerry and Sunny's to have a sleepover with Jamie. He even cleaned his room for the big event!  It's surprising how much you forget about normal life at various points in time.  It's only when we have the grandkids here that I remember looking after my own sons and the feeding, drinks, colouring in, playing, arguments, broken sleep, walking on small pieces of Lego 🙄 and the pure joy of looking after little people. And just how relentless it is.

Starting work on the rabbit while I watched Gardeners World.

In the couple of days before the gang arrived, I worked on the ballerina rabbit birthday present for Eve who turns four on Sunday. I struggled for a while with the shoes and then realised the answer was to hand-stitch them and then cut the felt slightly outside the stitch lines.  Eureka!  By the time Eve arrived, I'd sewn and re-sewn the shoes, and for days had thought about what to make for her top.  I finally settled on a knitted shawl, tied at the back the way I've seen some ballerinas wear their shawls.  She liked it but I think she preferred playing with the Peppa Pig car and passengers. Oh well, she might be next week's favourite.

Here she is.  I decided to make a short net skirt under a longer one so it would puff out more.  It worked really well, although Eve didn't like the longer one and only wanted her to wear the short skirt. She has both skirts on above.  One of her ballet slippers fell off so I decided to sew them on to her legs and then added some seed pearls for extra pizzazz.  The slippers are organic wool felt and embroidery cotton.

Just after lunch yesterday I created a new Instagram page for our sewing bee apron gallery.  If we have any more sewing bees in the future, we'll use the same gallery for whatever our sewing projects happen to be. If you want to look at the gallery, you don't have to be a member of Instagram to look, but I think you have to join if you want to comment on the photos. Click here to go to the gallery.  What a great bunch of aprons we have so far! There are a growing number of aprons in the gallery so I hope they inspire you to make an apron or to learn how to sew.  Making a basic apron is the ideal first sewing project.  I'll be adding more photos later tonight and tomorrow as they arrive in my email. I'll add all the photos I receive, whether you're on the sewing bee list or not.

Sunny just arrived to take all the kids to her place, via Jamie's Taekwondo session. Now the house is quiet again and Gracie is relaxing near the front door. I've decided to make the beds and tidy up tomorrow morning when I'll have more energy. Everything has been picked up so we won't trip and break our necks overnight.  

Above and below are just some of the delicious choices available at Kerry's Mooloolaba shop. 

If you're holidaying on the Sunshine Coast this Easter, my son Kerry's shop will be open every day over Easter.  The shop, Be Happy Sushi, is right across the road from Mooloolaba Beach, near the Surf Club. Kerry serves high quality food which is made fresh every day. His takeaway and Uber menu include a wide variety of fresh sushi, hot meal rice bowls, Japanese curry and Poke bowls. If you call in, make sure you say hello to Kerry and his wonderful staff.

I hope you have a lovely Easter break and have a chance to sit back and relax. That's what I'll be doing. I have books to read, knitting waiting and I'll spend some time in the garden.  And now I'm going outside to water the vegetables and breathe in the clean air. ❣️🐝❣️