Another Pencil Case

I have been trotting off to WW for 3 years now and along with the 35kg I have lost I have made some great friends, 2 girls in particular, and their kids. We have 7 kids between us... And I have watched these friends kids (and in one case family) grow. We were invited to the 7th birthday party of one of these little friends yesterday. Sarah is a lovely little girl, she loves music and dancing and like most 7 year olds, drawing and colour.


She has a few learning difficulties so it is sometimes difficult to 'get the gift right' but Amelia assured me a pencil case like hers would be a perfect gift. Stuffed with some of my favourite triangle BIC colouring pencils and some smelly gel ink pens, a double CD of music and a colour and copy Tinkerbell book, I figured it was a great gift too!

I chose the music fabric for Sarah's love of music and the bright colourful circles because of all the interesting pictures in the circles, I though there was a lot to look at and talk about.

We had such a good time, despite the weather which was WET and COLD. Such a shame as it was a mermaid party! The kids didn't care though, all got thoroughly wet but lots of squeals of excitement! Most of the kids that were there were from Sarah's special needs school and they were all delightful kids. Really well behaved and really caring towards each other. Amelia was a little unsure at first and took a while to understand why one particular little boy didn't know how to share or take turns but it wasn't long and her caring side took over and she had a great time. Until the water fight, she didn't really get the water fight and there were tears but once explained if she was goign to shoot someone she had to be prepared to get shot!

I really do take my hat off to the parents with special needs kids, they are a special breed of parent... Some of the stories I overheard we really rather amusing! But I guess like any parent, you do what you need to for your child and if they have special needs you adapt. We are all blessed and lucky in different ways.

Getting Organised...

We have had a hiccup with settling on our new house and I really need to focus my (rather angry) energy somewhere so decided a bit of heavy cutting and theraputic winding was in order!

I saw this on Mel's blog ages ago and have always been SO jealous of how pretty her fabric looked, spurred on by someone asking how people stored their fabric I was prompted to revist the post and the idea. A quick google on foam board showed me Art Riot stocked it, and as it happened I had to go to our local shopping centre where there is an Art Riot store, funny that...

 It took me a while to work out the size to cut the boards but the basic size is that of an A4 sheet of paper, I bought A2 sheets of foam boards and got 4 from each. The first lot I cut were really too small but they will do for smaller lots of fabric, waste not want not!

Then I had to roud up (and admit to) my fabric stash... Oh my, a lot more than I thought!

 This is the box, the box that I know about, has some recent purchases in it and some older ones too, the one Stef knows about...

 Then there is a wee stack of Christmas fabric in the drawers in the office....

 And let's not talk about the toy box...

 That has no bottom... it is a cavernous fabric storage spot!

See it just keeps going!!

With an hour and a bit to myself, I put last nights Brothers & Sisters on the telly and set about folding and winding...

Tahdah!

I did the masses of flanelette I have and the whopping 3 yards of knit but think they are too bulky, I might remove them and fold them, it isn't like they are going to go un noticed!

Then I will have 6 more cards to wind some more fabric around... good idea I think! I didn't do the felt or the polar fleece... or the Cinderella or Snow White dress up fabrics...

 This is the 'study' in the new house with a MASSIVE cupboard in it. I had initially thought this would be the office/craft room/spare room but think the shelves in the cupboard will become the linen press but the drawers will be perfect for my fat quarters (yes there is more!!) and reels of cotton that Babcia left behind as well as all her other bits housed in various locations in the house.

This is the linen press but I can see the top shelp being used for bathroom stuff (no vanity) and the next 2 shelves for fabric and the vaccum cleaner down the bottom. Can't wait to get in to this house and get it all organised. The fabric might end up in the 'toy box' aka the cavernouse fabric storage box... all depends on space.

Thanks Mel for the inspiring blog post and for forcing me to face the stash and make it work better. No more purchasing for a wee while, I think I have enough to keep me going for a wee while on projects!